I'm going to have to buy a slave soon.

　Suddenly, I had an idea.

　Then Julia, Tetra and Alice tilted their heads in wonder.

　'Why?'
　That's a lot of guys.
　What do you mean by that?

　They pointed to a slave who had just walked in.
　Originally a slave owned by the previous King Rosais. Currently, it is my property.

　He is one of my servants.

　''Uh ... can I help you?''

　The slave woman tilted her head.
　A sudden finger pointing at the master's two wives and his concubine would have confused anyone.

　'It's nothing, I'm sorry for interrupting your work.

　Then the slave woman bowed and then returned to her duties.

　'I was thinking of buying a slave for both Anx and Fiona.

　Slaves are very commonplace in the Kingdom of Romalia, or rather the Adelian Peninsula.
　Ten percent of our country's population are slaves.

　Slaves are an essential part of the Adelian society.

　If the horse is like a Porsche or Ferrari in Japan, then slaves are like rice planters.
　In a country where more than 90% of the population are farmers and where agriculture and animal husbandry are the main industries, slaves are indispensable.

　Basically, every family above the middle class has at least one or two slaves.

　Slaves are also absolutely essential for large farms (latifundium) run by aristocrats who own a lot of land.
　On average, the nobles have about a hundred slaves.

　By the way, in the Kingdom of Romalia right now........or rather, the one with the most slaves in the Adelnian Peninsula is the Julius family, that is, me.

　I inherited slaves owned by the Rosais family and slaves owned by the As family, plus the land that has increased enormously through the course of the war (since all of the land in the Kingdom of Romalia is state-owned land, and it's my land, it's very profitable, since I don't have to pay taxes on the amount I run my own agriculture. By the way, what I'm growing is the flowers that are used to make medicinal herbs, perfumed oils, and perfumes that don't put pressure on the people's lives), I buy slaves to cultivate........

　And so on and so forth, I have about 8,000 slaves, for what it's worth.
　So out of the slaves in our entire country, about 80,000, 10 percent of them are slaves I own.

　And slaves aren't just active in agriculture.　
　The mines, for example.
　Working in the mines, where they could die at any time, is mainly a slave's job.

　In addition, housework and cooking are also the work of slaves.
　Slaves who can cook particularly delicious food are traded at a high price and treated accordingly.

　In fact, the Julius family's resident cook is a slave.
　By the way, if you convert the salary (gold, silver and grain) paid to them into Japanese yen, it can be the same as a manager of a large company.

　In addition, slaves serve as bodyguards and secretaries to the nobility and royalty.
　Slaves also serve as governesses, doctors, sorcerers, artists, dancers, etc... Slaves with a variety of specialized skills are traded at extremely high prices.

　The reason why slaves are so popular in our country is that slaves will never betray their masters.
　It is true that slaves are treated by their masters as property and sometimes subjected to unreasonable abuse. (Well, for the most part, they don't hurt valuable property unprovoked, but it's not uncommon for people to be hit with property.)

　But a slave does not rebel against his master.
　But a slave does not rebel against his master, for if he rebels, he will instantly die.

　And even if the master's enemies ask him to turn to them, most slaves will rebel against it.
　No matter how much money is piled up, how much money is offered to free them from slavery or rise to nobility, and how much their masters mistreat them.

　Because it is obvious that a slave who has once betrayed his master will be disposed of.

　A slave is a thing, but it is a thing with a mind of its own.　
　If they are willing, they can harm their masters.

　Therefore, slaves are required to have absolute loyalty to their masters more than their abilities and efforts.
　The word "absolute" here really means absolute.

　If a slave is asked to commit a crime by his master, he must do it without complaining.
　And even if the order is to the detriment of the master, or even if it threatens his life, he can admonish or advise him against it, but in the end he must absolutely obey it.

　Well, to put it plainly....

　What would you do if you saw a knife that slipped off the shelf without permission and started slicing cabbage into strips?
　That's what you do.

　Even if you originally had pork cutlets for tonight's dinner, and even if you needed to shred cabbage....
　A knife that shreds cabbage when you haven't given any orders to do so is obviously dangerous.

　It's good because it's the cabbage that's being shredded.
　However, one day it will surely start shredding people.

　Such a dangerous knife, no matter how clever and sharp it may be, has to be smashed and disposed of.

　So the slave is aware that if he disobeys his master's orders, death awaits him.
　So basically, they don't betray each other.
　Rather than plotting betrayal, they flatter and flatter their masters and try to gain profits.

　........However, common sense is just a story.
　Slave rebellions are not uncommon, and there are many slaves who betray their masters.

　For example, Alice, for example.
　Well, I've already freed Alice, and to begin with, the ownership of her was transferred to me when I captured her in the war, so it's a slightly different story.

　And, well, the bottom line is, basically, slaves do not betray their masters.

　That's why.........

　'Buying slaves for Anx and Fiona.'
　I'm not sure.
　I don't know what you're talking about. What do you mean?
　How is that connected to the purchase of slaves?

　I'm just saying that....

　'I'm going to buy both Anx and Fiona slave children of about the same age, of the same surname, and I'm going to buy them both. So they'll be playmates, and they'll study at the same desk, and they'll learn martial arts and horsemanship from the same master. By doing so, they will make a first friend and vassal for both of them. That is.

　I don't mind it so much, but I think it's important for royalty to have friends and vassals that they can be sure will never betray them.
　When I think of a certain Liu Bang and a certain Hongwu Emperor, I think more and more.
　I think a big part of it is that they were both from peasant backgrounds and were complex.

　It doesn't seem to have much to do with Anx and Fiona...
　Well, it's a good thing I'm not here.

　Huh?
　Come to think of it, I was from a commoner too.

　Am I going to become a tyrant in my later years?
　Well, there's Ron and the others.
　I'm not afraid of Bartolo or Ial, though, so I'm not worried about them at all at the moment.

　I mean, those two are older than me, so they'll die before me.
　If I lose in life expectancy to that liver-heavy Bartolo, I'm going to be dented.

　Quiet.

　"...I think it's good, not bad.
　'Yeah, I get what you're trying to do. It sounds interesting and it's good, right?

　Julia and Tetra seemed to view it favorably and there seemed to be no opposition.
　Well, in the Adelnian peninsula, it's common for slaves to take care of their master's children.

　Julia has been raised by a servant who has worked as a slave for the Rosais family for generations, so she probably has no qualms at all about having a slave be her child's friend and vassal.
　And Tetra would have been raised by slaves as well as Julia until she lost her home for a time.

　To the royal aristocratic and wealthy families of the Adelnian peninsula, slaves are even closer to them than commoners.

　On the other hand, Alice, on the other hand, didn't seem to think too well of it and frowned.

　''........Isn't that not very good for education?　Well, I know it would be impolite for me, being a concubine, to interfere, but, well, that's exactly what my former master and I had, so...

　Come to think of it, Alice was enslaved by the Prince of Domorgal when she was a child.
　Well the prince's name I can't remember. What does it matter?

　That's unique. If we don't want that to happen, we need to make sure that people are treated fairly. And since I'm the one who buys them, I'll be the master until I die.

　It is customary for a tutor slave to beat his master's children for education.
　This is because the job of a tutor slave is to educate his master's children, and because the master of a tutor slave is a parent, not a child.

　The master's child is not the master.
　That's why I can't be charged with a crime for beating them.

　Therefore, it can be said that Anx and Fiona's assault and injury to the slaves that belong to me is a form of defiance to me.

　Patriarchy is very strong in the Adelian peninsula.
　The same is true for wives, children, grandchildren, and slaves in terms of being under the power of the patriarchy.

　In such cases, you can scold Anx and Fiona and tell the slave children to resist by punching them if they are beaten.

　'I see, I get it. I'm sorry for saying that I was out of line. I'm sorry.

　Alice said that and easily withdrew.
　She doesn't seem too convinced, but she doesn't seem to be opposed to it.

　'So what kind of kid are you buying?'
　'I suppose it's a prerequisite that he's a clever kid. On top of that, the kid I'm going to put on Anx should be as big as possible and able to escort him. The kid I'm going to put on Fiona should be the kind of kid who can do spells with her.

　It's often said that the soul of a triplets is up to a hundred souls, but it seems to me that basically the quality of the human brain is clearly evident by the age of six.
　A child who takes the words "Be the equal friend of your son's daughter (a child of royalty) to the child of a slave.
　The child would not be fit to take the words "I'm not going to take the word

　(But remember, you are a slave and they are royalty).

　The child must be able to read and understand the unspoken words of "You're a slave," or else he can't be trusted with the job.

　'Is the problem with your looks?　Well, Anx and Fiona are both so well-adjusted like you two that I think the slave children should be able to match them.

　It seems to me that when the difference in appearance opens up between masters and slaves, it becomes a moderate problem.

　Especially when it's between women.

　'You still buy the Adelnians?'
　''No, Cilician I'm going to buy a Cilician from the mainland of Cilicia, not from the Adelian Peninsula. You see ... if you're from the Adelian Peninsula, I'm going to be involved in the factors that made me a slave.

　I'm proud to say that I'm safer and more prosperous before and after the invasion.
　But ... well, as long as it's an invasion, we're still killing people, and I'm pretty sure the resentment is somewhere in there.

　That's why we think it's best to avoid buying the children of the Adelian peninsula.

　'On that note, we're almost never hostile to the Cilician, well, we're almost never hostile to them. Besides, the common language of the Teutonic Sea is Cilician.

　We have a friendly relationship with Pofenia now, but we're still holding a knife in one hand.
　On that note, there's almost no conflict with the Cilician, and since the country was destroyed in the first place, there's no need to worry about it.

　''That's why. We'll call the Cilician slavers and buy them. You can learn Adelian after you buy it.

　Thus, I bought a clever, strong child, one male and one female, and taught him Adelian before bringing him to them.
　I hope it's for the better.


________.


　No tyrant ever killed his long-time companion's slave. No tyrant ever listened to the advice of a slave he had been with for many years. No matter how mentally ill he was, no matter how much he doubted people, no matter how much he couldn't trust not only his vassals, but also his children and his wife, the emperor never doubted his long-time companion's slave until the end.
　And no matter how tyrannical or dark the emperor was, his slaves were the only ones who understood him.

　-A politician.


　The Light and Darkness of Slavery in the Romanian Empire

　The history of the Romali Empire is inseparable from slavery.
　Slavery was deeply intertwined with the land and political system, as well as the economic system and culture of the Romali Empire.
　Slaves were essential to the management of the vast agricultural lands.
　Another quick way to gain political support was through emancipation, and many aristocrats purchased slaves in order to eventually free them.
　It was customary for emancipated slaves to receive their clan names from their masters, which is why so many of the clan names in the Romarian Empire were Julius, Pompeius, Cornelius, Cladius, Aemilius, Fabius, and Calpurnius.

　In the central city of the Romarian Empire, Julius!　If you called out, "I'm not a Roman Catholic," men and women, young and old, black and yellow, walking down the street, would turn in unison.

　The Romalian emperor also feared that bureaucrats (from the nobility and knightly class) would be too involved and influential in the government of the country.
　For this reason, they relied heavily on slaves who had been with them since childhood and who had served them since their fathers' generation.

　They were called slave bureaucrats, and they effectively dominated the politics of the Romali Empire for hundreds of years.

　Some slaves also formed the Slave Kingsguard as the emperor's private army.
　They formed a powerful force at the heart of the emperor's power, sometimes in conflict with the slave bureaucracy.

　Slavery, which was supposed to be an obstacle to vested interests, became a vested interest itself.

　Their glory days, however, did not end until the Middle Ages.
　Early modern times, or late medieval times.
　Many of them were thoroughly purged and disposed of by the Emperor of Romalia, who sought to establish imperial power and reunify the Romarian Empire through a modern bureaucratic and military organization under the leadership of the aliens.
　It is said that at this time the palace of Romalia was drenched in ankle-deep blood.

　Slavery had already begun to die out at the beginning of the modern era.

　Even before the modern industrial revolution, capitalist factory and farm management had already begun in the Romarian Empire, and the capitalists needed peasants and laborers who were willing to work and could be used up as much as they wanted, far more than slaves who were inefficient and unused.

　Also, with the popularity of monotheism, which preached equality before God, slavery was beginning to come under criticism.
　But nevertheless, slavery continued to persist.

　Slavery was still efficient on large farms, and there was a demand for slaves, such as for dangerous jobs such as mining.

　Also, slaves were beginning to become a status symbol of the owner's financial power.
　It was fashionable for Romany politicians to walk around the court with rare peoples such as desert and snow people, beastmen (the children and descendants of human beings whose blessings of change had run amok), as well as men and women with unusual hair colors and beautiful looks.

　Slaves were more important than appearances, however, as secretaries who would never betray any information to others.

　He would never betray them.
　The greatest value of slaves, "the greatest value of slaves," did not change through the ages.

　In fact, although the power of the slave bureaucracy and the slave corps had been wiped out, there were still slaves at the emperor's side at all times, and there were slaves who rose to the rank of minister.

　In the early modern period, at its peak, the House of Julius had more than a million slaves in all the court houses combined.
　Farming with slaves and the growth of the Julian clan through emancipation were very important to the Julius family.

　In the modern era, slaves continued to support the Romali Empire as the lowest stratum of Romali society until slavery was abolished.

　-History of Slavery in the Romali Empire, illustrated by.


　'I trust you more than my wife, more than my children, more than my brothers, more than my father's vassals, more than the ones I've recruited directly from them. You are the only one I can talk to, my friend.
　It's ironic that the Emperor, the most powerful man in the country, the only one he can really trust is you, the lowest-ranking slave in the country.

　-The Second Emperor of the Romali Empire.
　　Marcus Julius Rosais Caesar Augustus -