“What right do you have to claim she is yours?” I demanded.
“Hmph! Naturally, I previously owned her.” Lord Tibult responded.
“You sold her, and she was then purchased by me,” I responded.
He frowned. “I’ve seen her battle in the competition! Naturally, her talent was far greater than I was led to believe. According to her slave paperwork, she is registered a rare tigerkin, instead of the catkin I was lead to believe. I was clearly bamboozled by that slave trader and this man! They conspired to cheat me out of the proper value of my slave to net a profit. Witnesses found them colluding together, as such, repossession of this slave is only correct.”
“You abandoned her in a dungeon!” I responded angrily. “How would you say I made a profit?”
“Hmph… I have my resources and I’ve made sure to check up on you. Although this slave clearly has a value of 500 or more gold, you bought it for a mere 100. You end up getting a 500 gold slave for 100, and he ended up getting 100 gold without having to work at it. How is that not dishonest?”
After finding us in the competition, he must have sent someone to the slavers guild to look up our transactions. Figuro was an honest man, and all of his transactions would have been placed there. Naturally, a catkin being purchased for a couple of gold coins suddenly turning a few days later into a tigerkin being sold for 100 gold coins looked incredibly suspicious. He actually had some room to make this argument.
However, it was clear that he really didn’t care at all about such things. Although he spoke of treachery, his attitude was less angry and more smug. It was abundantly clear he didn’t believe in his own words. Rather, he was simply looking for a way to punish me. He had lied initially with the plan that I would go to the capitol only to find her already sold. Fortunately, Figuro revealed the man’s deception and I was able to buy Lydia back anyway.
“That’s not true!” Lydia yelled out. “Figuro didn’t know I was a tigerkin until he had me examined!”
“Figuro didn’t, but did your owner Deek?” He demanded.
Unfortunately, he had accurately predicted that I had known about Lydia’s race. Lydia was unused to lying and was caught completely off guard by this question. She could only shut her mouth and turn her head. However, she had already accidentally revealed the truth of things by the expression on her face. I had known that Lydia was a tigerkin. At the time, I had no clue what that meant when it came to slave value or anything. It wasn’t like I could have predicted that things would have turned out this way.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if these other slaves were acquired through such means as well. Although there is paperwork available, I have confirmation that the 9-tail fox was never officially purchased. Perhaps the slave trader gave her as a gift? As for the other two, you have no official claim on them!”
My face started to turn white. He was right when it came to the other two girls. I hadn’t even considered it, but one was taken from a fairy queen, and the other was acquired through a magical control rod. Both girls had no official paperwork. As slaves, I technically had no right to them! Lord Tibult’s grin started to grow as I felt slightly nauseous.