“Just out of curiosity, what happens if I refuse to pay?”
“Tsk…” The small man made an irritated noise. “Officially, we aren’t able to hold you personally responsible. Any loan a slave takes out is technically made using their own body a collateral. Therefore, the most we can do is repossess and enslave Carmine and sell her to recoup our losses.”
“No!” Carmine cried out, grabbing my shirt.
“I see…” I reach out and patted Carmine’s hand reassuringly. “It’s okay, I’ll settle this.”
She let go of my shirt and I walked up to the men. The two guards on either side flexed, ready to step in if I tried anything dangerous. Instead, I reached out and clasped his hand, shaking it.
“What is this?” He asked, a confused look on his face.
“I can’t say it’s been a pleasure dealing with you, but thankfully this was able to be resolved amicably,” I responded.
“Wait, what? When did we resolve this?”
“Eh? Didn’t you say you’ll repossess Carmine? It’s truly unfortunate, but I’m sure you can find her a good home. Are you by chance interested in sisters?”
“W-w-w-wait a second here!” The guy’s eyes flashed in shock.
“M-m-master! What are you saying?” Carmine looked about ready to cry.
“Ah, here’s a gold coin, it should cover the slave removal fee.” I pulled out the coin and pressed it in his palm and then turned to Carmine. “I apologize I wasn’t able to be a better Master. You keep trying. Come on girls.”
I turned and walked away, the other five girls in tow. When Carmine and the three men realized I was already almost to the gate that led back into my house, the realization of what was happening finally set in.
“Master! You can’t leave me!” Carmine collapsed, crying out as she reached in my direction.
“W-w-w-wait! Don’t be so hasty?” The guy ran to me so fast that he even abandoned his protection as he went to stop me from entering my mansion. “We can always negotiate! That was just an introductory rate, we can definitely work with people to help them settle their debts!”
“Not interested.” I tried to walk past him, but he grew even more desperate trying to block me.
“W-wait! I can bring it down to 2000 gold! No, 1500! That’s my best offer!”
Of course, I wasn’t an idiot. The entire thing sounded suspicious from the get-go. Even if these people were backed by some kind of money loaning guild, they were clearly acting outside of the proper regulations.
From the moment Carmine had started talking, I had predicted a lot of what she said was nonsense. A reputable person from the Loan Guild wouldn’t lend money out to a slave without a token of authority. I knew this because I had to get one for Faeyna. There were various settings and permissions as to what she was and wasn’t allowed to do. It was the only way a slave could legitimately do business. Never mind the extreme interest rate, or their attempt to recover it only weeks later.
It was likely that they knew about me becoming a lord recently, and knew about Carmine’s condition, and then went out of their way to try to ensnare her with the hopes of getting a cut of my lord’s salary. He’s some country lord bumpkin who doesn’t know anything, and Carmine is a pretty girl in trouble. They could keep an impressionable and gullible lord paying them some coins for the next twenty years.
When Mary said Carmine was troublesome, she wasn’t exaggerating at all! However, it also seemed like she was preyed upon by these guys, so it probably wasn’t all her fault. I bet even the people she purchased goods from were set up by these men to quickly cause her to lose the coins she borrowed, so she always came back quickly and they didn’t lose a single copper.
It’s too bad they tried to catch me up in their scheme. My mother was a single parent without an education and a low income. She was the perfect prey for these kinds of scams. In truth, my mom had fallen for a few and we struggled as a result. But by the time I was a teenager, I had seen them all, and regularly had to send these scam artists on their way before they could exploit my gullible mother. The question now became what was I going to do with these guys?