Granny Unleashed

I decided to buy the old witch for ten minutes, paying one large gold coin (one hundred thousand gort) so she could negotiate the slave’s price for me.

The witch opened her cloudy eyes wide and stared at me, her mouth hanging open.

Then, all at once, her wrinkled face scrunched up even further and she burst into laughter.

She clutched her belly and cackled.

“Hyah-hyah-hyah! What a fellow you are! Hiring me to handle the negotiation! And the hourly rate works out to about the going market price! I thought you were useless, but your head works surprisingly well! I like you!”

“You’ll take the job then?”

“Very well! It’s been a long time since I laughed this much! Hyah-hyah-hyah!”

The slave merchant started to panic.

“H-hey, Cordelia! That would be a problem for me.”

“What problem? I’m a conditional slave agreeing to these terms, so there’s nothing wrong with it, is there? Or are you trying to stop me from making money? That’d be illegal, you know?”

“Ghh…! F-fine, I understand!”

The slave merchant agreed, sounding half desperate.

The witch glinted her cloudy eyes and leaned toward him.

“Then listen well, slave merchant Simon! No need for fiddly contract sigils and such—we’ll do this as is! Prepare yourself!”

“That’s… But Cordelia, this slave’s conditions are very good, and I took on all of her debt myself. I can’t discount her that much.”

“Even so, this woman is not worth ten million! At best, five hundred!”

The witch declared this in a ringing voice.

The merchant leaned forward, protesting.

“That is outrageous!”

“Oh? Even though you misled Alec with your sales pitch?”

“Misled? I didn’t lie.”

“Then let me ask. You said that if he wanted to live as an adventurer, this woman was essential because she’s a healer, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I did. A recovery class is essential.”

The slave merchant answered boldly, but his mouth twisted with discomfort.

—Why? That sounds right to me…

The witch curled her lips in a wicked grin.

“In that case, this woman must already be registered as an adventurer, correct?”

“Uhh… that is…”

—Ah! That’s it! I didn’t realize!

I couldn’t help shouting.

“Right! A healer is essential for an adventurer party, but she’s never actually worked as an adventurer!”

“Exactly! She was running an orphanage—she had no time to be an adventurer! Yet this man talked as if he were handing you someone ready to be taken straight into a dungeon, making you misunderstand!”

The slave merchant scrambled to defend himself.

“B-but she’s still a healer! That doesn’t change! Given time, she’ll become useful!”

“In a normal party, perhaps! But what did this man Alec say? He asked for a slave with common sense. He’s a man who’s spent his whole life as a hero and can only survive as an adventurer now. And yet you recommended a woman who has no idea how adventuring works! How is that not profiteering? Since she’s never adventured, he’ll also have to pay separately for her registration, weapons, armor—more expense on top of the purchase price!”

“Ghhh…! I understand. Eight hundred fifty, then. Fifty for equipment, and the remaining hundred so he can hire the elf lady, Cheryl.”

“Too generous! How do you know this woman is suited to being an adventurer? She might scream just from seeing a spider or a frog. If she could earn big money as an adventurer, she’d have gone into the dungeon herself to support the orphanage! Healers are in demand for every party! He has to consider the possibility she can’t become an adventurer at all—no, that possibility is quite high! Eight hundred fifty is far too much!”

“Gnn…! Th-then seven hundred…!”

“One more cut. Unless you want rumors that this shop sells useless slaves to its customers.”

“That… that’s just blackmail…”

“Oh? You resist? Then should I spread the word that you stripped a homeless, jobless man of every coin he needed to live through today and planned to leave him and the slave you sold him to die in the gutter? —And before you object, that is a fact, you know? There’s even a chance you’re violating the Slave Trade Law.”

With a fearless smile, the witch lobbed her final bomb: the word “illegal.”

The slave merchant’s pale face twisted in agony.

“Gnnnn…! Fine… six hundred! I can’t go any lower!”

“Well, judging from your reaction when I said five hundred, I guessed about how much debt is involved—this is likely the limit. …Will that do, Alec?”

The witch thrust out her chest a little and looked at me proudly.

—Honestly, I was impressed.

She pinned him down with his own words, exposed contradictions and half-truths, mixed hypotheses and firm statements, and forced the price down.

And in the end, finished with a decisive threat.

Even from the sidelines, it was an incredible display of negotiation.

I shrugged and held out the large gold coin.

“Yeah, you really helped. No wonder you laughed so hard.”

“Fufun. I haven’t lived longer than elves for nothing.”

Looking pleased with herself, the witch snapped up the coin and tucked it into her robes.

The elf beauty let out an admiring sigh.

“To think you would hire a shrewd witch on the spot… As expected of you, Hero.”

“I’m nothing special. Ex-hero, anyway.”

The slave merchant prepared tools and documents, grumbling as he worked.

“If you’re going to hire Cordelia, I really have no chance against you…”

“This quick thinking is exactly what I’d expect from a former hero. He got the maximum effect out of just ten minutes! I haven’t had this much fun in ages.”

The witch chuckled darkly to herself.

After that, we proceeded with the slave contract. They took some of my blood for it.

Just before the subjugation sigil was inscribed, the healer in the nun’s habit looked up at me with apologetic eyes.

She was a head shorter than I was.

“Are you truly sure about choosing me? As Cordelia said, I have never worked as an adventurer. I’m not certain I’ll be of any use…”

“Other roles can probably be found through the guild. It’s the recovery classes that are hardest to recruit.”

“Thank you so much… My name is Liricia. I will work as hard as I can for you, Master.”

“I’m counting on you, Liricia.”

A subjugation sigil made of circles and triangles was then carved into the back of Liricia’s hand.

It felt a bit of a shame to see a tattoo appear on such smooth, pale skin.

But at least it seemed like she could hide it with gloves.

The elf beauty spoke to me.

“Will you be hiring me as well?”

“I’ll wait and see for now. If I run into trouble adventuring, I’ll hire you then.”

“I understand… Then, what will you do once you become an adventurer, Hero?”

“What do you mean?”

“Will you slay the Demon King or defeat evil dragons?”

“Let Marius handle things like that. I plan to live however I like from now on.”

“I see… That is a shame.”

For some reason, the elf beauty lowered her head, looking lonely.

The witch, Cordelia, grinned at me.

“Do come entertain me again. I’ll be waiting.”

“You’re too expensive to hire all the time.”

“Which is exactly why you’ll feel motivated to earn more money, no? Heh-heh-heh.”

The slave merchant added:

“By the way, Cordelia can also make rejuvenation potions and elixirs of agelessness.”

“What! Even things like that…?”

“The only thing I cannot make is immortality. Even resurrection is possible if the conditions are met. From time to time, the rich hire me for short periods.”

The slave merchant clarified:

“Even then, the minimum contract is a week or a month.”

“Being bought for only ten minutes is a first for me! Ten minutes! Ten minutes! —Hyah-hyah-hyah!”

The witch narrowed her eyes and laughed with genuine delight.

It seemed my actions had hit her sense of humor perfectly.

—Well, she didn’t seem to be an evil witch, at least.

Still, rejuvenation, huh… I might want to use that someday.

No, if I can, I’d really like to.

Most of my life had gone to waste—I wanted another chance.

I had kept slaying monsters, believing I was doing good for everyone.

But in the end, the world never became peaceful, and no Demon King or evil god appeared for me to defeat and prove my worth.

…What were those thirty years of my life even for?

As that thought crossed my mind, I found myself asking the witch:

“Hey, how much would it cost to have you make me a rejuvenation potion?”

The witch looked me up and down and smirked.

“How old are you now?”

“Thirty-nine.”

“I see. To make a potion that turns back fifteen years would cost two hundred twenty-five million gort in materials alone. Add my hiring fee, and… about two hundred fifty million total.”

“T-that’s way too much…”

“Of course it is. It’s a highly advanced forbidden art that fuses holy power, dark power, and curses. Still, so long as we have the materials, I could brew it in one or two weeks.”

“…”

I fell silent.

Two hundred fifty million.

Two hundred fifty million gort to return to age twenty-four.

It was so far beyond my current reality that I couldn’t even grasp the scale.

I didn’t even know if I could manage my day-to-day life from here on, and somehow I had to earn hundreds of millions just to get my life back.

Could I really do that?

—But then.

As I was lost in thought, Liricia gently took my hand. Her palm was soft and warm.

Her violet eyes looked up at me, filled with concern.

“What troubles you, Master?”

Her lashes framed the eyes that gazed straight into mine, long and thick.

Her well-formed features were beautiful; just looking at her made my heart feel lighter.

—That’s right.

I already had Liricia.

In that case, survival came first.

Right now, building an environment where we could simply live had to be the top priority.

I could think about the rest after our lives had stabilized.

And the witch had said earlier, “Adventurers can earn big money.”

Maybe things really could work out.

Feeling a spark of hope welling up inside me, I smiled and said:

“No, it’s nothing. Come on, let’s go to the weapon shop.”

“Yes!”

Still holding hands, we headed for the exit.

Right now, I didn’t want to let go of her hand.

“We look forward to serving you again.”

Leaving the slave merchant, who bowed deeply, we stepped out into the city.

I had thirty-nine large gold coins left—three million nine hundred thousand gort.