S*ave Harem in the Labyrinth of the Other World - Volume 4

At this rate, I do not know if we are going to have enough of it to last us for another serving for all of us.

At times like these, I really do pity that this world does not have yakisoba like the one you could by and make in Japan, because some sizzling hot yakisoba with teriyaki sauce would have gone amazingly well with that grilled Goat Meat. Unless. . . . . . . . . . . if I remember correctly, then I think I saw something that looked like pasta noodles in one of the shops that sold food and cooking ingredients, so if I were to buy such pasta noodles and experiment a little with grilling them and with the ways of replicating the taste of the sauce, then I think I might have been able to pull such a makeshift yakisoba off. . . . . .  . .  although thinking about making plans for it and actually preparing it are two entirely different things, and no one can guarantee me that a dish like that could really be prepared with the ingredients this world has to offer. At best, I could have made something that could only be classified as poor imitation of yakisoba, and at worst, I would have wasted the ingredients only to receive a tasteless mess of a dish for all my troubles and expenses.

However, I do not know if the fish sauce they sell in this world, like the one I bought in the Imperial City from that old lady at he stand could make a good yakisoba at all, and the prospect of failure and having to eat something that might not even be edible in the first place is too scary for me at the current moment, so instead of trying to make something like yakisoba, maybe I should start with something much simpler and safer to make, like a garnish, for example.

Okay. . . . . . .  that is it. . . . . . I am not going to eat another bite. I am completely and utterly filled to the brim.

「Phew. . . . . . thank you for the meal, it was great, if I do say so myself. By the way, I wanted to ask this before, but I could never find a good moment to do so: how do you find your lives with me? Do you have any complaints with the lifestyle of the Explorers of the Labyrinths we have been living?」

I asked them about the thing that I was interested in ever since I have bought Roxanne way back when.She has already said a few times that she enjoys her life with me, but a small part of me could not help but to wonder if that was actually true, or was she simply saying that because she knew that this was what I wanted to hear her say? After all, one of my responsibilities as the master of my slaves was to make sure that they are going to be provided with food, clothing and the appropriate living conditions, so I wanted them to tell me if their lives have been lacking in any of those areas so far, because what I might think of as good living conditions might actually not be like that at all in their eyes.

「Uhm. . . . . . . .Can I really say that? Because I do not know if I should be saying that.」

「It is okay. I am your master, after all, so you can tell me anything.」

Roxanne, who is usually supportive of me to a fault, was now hesitating. Is it something difficult to say? Or maybe something that she would feel bad for saying because of how good I have been treating her and Sherry so far?

「Living with you so far has been a pleasure filled with positive surprises, completely unlike the usual three ways in which slaves are treated by their masters.」

「Three ways of how slaves are treated? What are those? Care to elaborate on that?」

「The first one is when you, the slave, have been bought by a rich man who took a liking to you for some reason or other. Generally speaking, for us slaves, everything depends on how wealthy of a client decides to take us in. The wealthier the client, the better our treatment and environment are going to be, at least theoretically. Also, in case of ending up in a place that has a lot of slaves, the thing that decides who is going to be in the higher and who in the lower social position is almost always the principle of seniority, and the slaves with the most seniority in the group is considered to be the leader who gets to call the shots among the entire group.」

Ahh, so I guess that in places and households that accommodate a lot of slaves, it could be said that the first slave to be bought, the one with the highest position and authority among all the other slaves could be said to be someone akin to a slave manager. And once a slave achieves the position of the manager of all the other slaves, then of course his or her treatment is going to change for the better, because they will no longer be at the bottom of the hierarchy, but a step above all the others. To draw a parallel to the modern world, it would be like a difference between working as a bottom-dwelling pencil pusher for a company and working as the chief of the entire section of it, who does not have to do the mundane work that all the others do and has the power to do literally whatever the hell he wants with everyone who works under their command. And to continue along that train of thought, if you had the option to choose between working for a small upstart company and the big megacorporation with a firm position on the market, which of these two would you choose? Heh, the answer to that question should be pretty obvious, am I right? Bigger ones are always better, if only for their prestige and the potential benefits of working in such corporations, hands-down. However, all of the above only applies to the houses and environments where there is a greater number of slaves, so I have no idea at all if any of what I just stated would apply to the households where there are only two slaves.

「Ohhh, I have heard that too!」

「You also knew about that, Miss Roxanne?」

Since both Roxanne and Sherry were being kept in the same Slave Shop, it is no wonder that they have heard the same kind of story.

「I have also heard that even if the female slaves do not have a good position in the regular hierarchy of their new master’s household, they can still have a good life if they become his concubines. Based on what I have been told, if you become a concubine of a rich or powerful man, you could enjoy a comfortable life in luxury that you have never even known existed! Back at the Slave Shop, before master bought me, Alan-san told me that I could have become one if I worked hard enough for it!」

Yeah, that is. . . . . . . . . . . .  certainly one way to look at it, and at the same time that is a way of life that could also be possible for the women back in my old world. Go find yourself a rich, older guy and live comfortably as his concubine while simoultaneaosly sucking him off of all of his money. It is a sad thing to say, but in modern day Japan and in the rest of the well-developed countries, being a concubine of the rich guys was one of the more valid ways for the women of the twenty first century to live a comfortable, easy-going life. All they had to do was to make sure that the guy they have set their sights on would be wrapped around their little finger and does not get bored with them and voila, here is your recipe for a life void of worries and responsibilities. Also, Roxanne, about that last bit. . . . . I am honestly not sure if I should be happy or concerned for you. But at least that puts into perspective why Roxanne is as well mannered as she is at all times: it is all because being well-mannered is one of the most important prerequisites to being a good concubine, and I am sure that at some point or another Alan the Slave Merchant must have considered selling Roxanne as not just any ordinary slave, but as a concubine to some wealthy client.