Jorey thought about Kali's words profoundly and felt that they were right. 'Humans are a high-intelligence species. Although most of them are used as property, they are not stupid enough to treat all of this as natural. Most of them, even when reared since they are a child, are resistant to being in such a lowly position.'
She gave it more thought as she saw Andrea, Angel, Tatyana, and Evelyn obediently standing behind Kali without any restraints around them. 'If we increase their comfort levels to become worthwhile living, compared with other slave trade companies, humans will basically flock to us. Then, if we increase our policies to give them basic rights, we can control them and make them submit much easier.'
Her eyes focused on Andrea. 'Look how obedient the beautiful and tall human is even after reaching such a terrifying strength. She even has more loyalty for her owner than those of her race pleading for salvation. '
Jorey was an intelligent merchant, so she also saw the risks. 'Of course, buyers would not be happy not to be able to do whatever they want with our slaves, but in the long run, it can create a healthier business method to sell them. We could create a new term, [Luxury Slaves].'
Jorey smiled cunningly, feeling the potential profits and movement this could create. Then, she thought. 'Between humans, some will try to rebel even then, but any intelligent species would do so if given a chance. We just have to keep a tighter leash by not allowing them to cultivate and check their personal strength from time to time.'
With those thoughts in mind, Jorey could see the profits and also the potential dangers.
It won't give tangible benefits for maybe a decade or two. Still, after building up their reputation, they could price their slaves much higher because of their health, obedience, and other characteristics, which would not be even comparable to other slaves in the market.
Jorey wanted to confirm some things, so she asked Kali with curiosity. "How strong are you?"
To be able to control someone like Andrea, her own strength should also not be inadequate.
Cecile and Kali smiled but didn't answer. The implications were obvious.
Even then, Yasenia more or less could guess Jorey's thoughts with a simple deduction of their conversation trajectory and the looks she was giving Andrea and the others. She trotted in front of Jorey with a raised chin, as if a super proud child, and said. "Master is super strong~. Not even all the humans combined can beat master!"
Jorey's eyes flashed with understanding. 'Of course, the reason she can control them is not just the good living conditions. A suitable strength is also required. I should create a cultivation method that allows slaves to gain strength, but not enough to become out of control.'
Kali, Cecile, and Jorey, with Yasenia's timely interventions, spoke for almost half an hour more. With new revolutionary ideas, Jorey felt she had gained a lot. Therefore, she gave Kali a card. "Here, miss. This card will give you a twenty percent discount on any merchandise sold by our [Mountain Travelers] merchant group. Also, we are going to start an auction in the near future together with another merchant group, so feel free to participate. I'll send you the details later when you contact me again."
Kali's eyes flashed with understanding. 'It is like saying: "I can give you more benefits, but only if you contact us again." She is not stupid.'
Kali smiled and said. "We'll contact you as soon as we manage to settle in the Koran City. We have to get used to everything here, after all."
Jorey nodded and raised her hand, grabbing the air. The gesture was very abrupt, so Kali was confused. Andrea sent her a transmission after Ebirah communicated with her. 'That's the same as bowing in our continent. Just copy her gesture.'
Kali raised her right hand and grabbed the air.
Jorey smiled and said. "Farewell!" Then, she turned around and dragged her slaves away with her.
Andrea and the others saw the four slaves looking back at them with longing as if pleading for their salvation. However, none of our girls moved an inch.
After they disappeared into the crowd, Yasenia communicated with the others. 'Let's sell half of our trash items to shops around the city. We should be able to gain enough to live comfortably for a while. We can also become familiar with prices in this World by selling them in different shops.'
They began walking toward one of the shops, and Evelyn asked. 'What do you take as a trash item?'
Yasenia pondered and commented. 'For us, items of magic grade and below are basically useless. We should keep twenty percent of them, just in case, but I think we can sell the rest.'
Andrea commented. 'Try not to sell crude materials. Let's focus on selling all the weapons and completed items of magic grade.'
Yasenia nodded in understadning. Some of the low-level materials could still be used as foundations to create complicated structures, pills, or even formations. Moreover, the price will probably be meager, and since Yasenia had more than enough space in the giant [Five Realm Spatial Ring], she didn't have any hast to get rid of those.
Yasenia decided to ask Tatyana. 'Mom, what quality is my spatial ring?'
Tatyana smirked and said. 'Why should I tell you?'
Yasenia felt her teeth itching. 'I'll bite you if you don't tell me!'
Tatyana burst into laughter, 'You are adorable when you are like this, so I refuse!'
Yasenia moved her mouth and bit Tatyana's arm playfully. Tatyana exaggerated a pained reaction, and soon, both of them began playing around as they walked the streets.
The others shook their heads with smiles.
The way to sell their merchandise was not complicated at all. They went to a shop, spoke with the shopkeeper, and after pouring out some treasures, they sold them. Yasenia sold three weapons, two armors, a cauldron, a smithing hammer, a smithing furnace, and a formation pen at each shop they visited.
All of them were between the middle and high-grade magical-ranked.
They understood that magical rank items could be sold between ten to five hundred low-level Parus. It was very little, but they also understood that these shops then resell them to the public for at least twice the price.
They also guessed that those they sold at such a low price were the owners of the shops scamming them. However, they didn't mind because while they were in their shops, they could see the actual costs of the items.
It varied a lot for each product. For example, a sword and an alchemy cauldron of the same level would not be priced similarly. The alchemy cauldron would be much more expensive.
However, they could guess that low-level Parus was used for magic-ranked materials, middle and High-level Parus for earth-ranked materials, and peak or flawless Parus for Heaven-ranked treasures and above.
It was not entirely accurate, but it was a giant leap in understanding for the girls.
Thinking about the thousands of tons in Heaven-ranked material and the hundreds of items of the Heaven ranked they had; one thought crossed their minds. 'We are filthy rich.'
After visiting different human-sized shops for hours, their money piled up and amounted to almost three hundred middle-level Parus. It was more than enough to stay in the fanciest inn in the town for at least a week.
Angel chuckled and said. "We only sold like one or two percent of our magic-ranked treasures. We have a lot of money."
Yasenia chuckled. "We've hunted demons and other creatures in the Secret Realm for months. Not only that, we had Valeria to help us with Spirit Plants and little Ebirah to help us with minerals. It is quite normal that we have this much. Not counting all the spending we made in the Lost Town."
Cecile said with a smile, "Do not underestimate yourself, our little greedy dragoness. Your scent for treasures is not weaker than Ebirah and Valeria, and it works for everything. Not just plants or minerals."
The others nodded. Yasenia's treasure sense was frankly unfair.
The times Yasenia made almost ninety-degree turns as she sniffed the air in the Secret Realm were not low at all.
Weapons, spatial rings, armors, cultivation resources, professional treasures, and many more couldn't escape our dragoness's sharp olfactory sense.
Yasenia smirked triumphantly. "Of course, I'm a dragon, after all."
Did they just call her greedy? Why is she acting so cutely and proudly!? They really wanted to drown her in kisses for being so adorable.
Anyway, leaving aside the constant fight against Yasenia's cuteness they had to face, our girls had quite a relaxing experience while walking the city.
They expertly avoided people with strange intentions, so there weren't any "Young Master" events... Yet.
You can't underestimate our girls' experience dealing with these after walking with Yasenia everywhere. She was like a magnet for all these beauty-seeking individuals with egos more enormous than the World.
They went directly to the inn Jorey recommended with their new relatively low funds. Although they thought about going to the one the Minotaurs recommended, they trusted Jorey more in understanding the high-quality places.
To their surprise, it was not an inn but a mansion when reaching the place. With large metal gates and a frontal garden, they could see a three-story building one hundred meters away.
Furthermore, looking behind the mansion, it had a large garden. Evelyn asked, doubtful. "Did that woman send us to the correct location?"
The others were also confused. Although they'd seen properties like this one lying all over the gigantic city, they thought they were private properties, not something they could rent.
They looked around and soon saw a dog-woman running in their direction with an anxious face. Once she arrived, she extended her hand solemnly and grabbed the air below her waist as a formal greeting. With a ragged breath, she apologized. "I'm sorry for reaching late; I didn't expect customers to appear here directly."
Ebirah explained that the lower the air grabbing, the more serious the greeting was. If someone was in a higher position, it was common for that person to grab the air higher than someone with lower prestige. To be treated as equals, grabbing the air after raising one hand was the most common.
Kali smiled and sent a healing mist to the dog woman. "Don't worry; we were told to come here since we are new to the Koran city. We didn't expect to be a mansion but an inn."
The dog woman felt a refreshing and earthly scent covering her body, dissipating her fatigue at once. Her eyes looked at Kali with awe, and she smiled widely. "Thank you, senior. It is not a problem even if you come here directly since we have a human slave waiting in each residence. Sadly, the human guarding this mansion died of illness, making our precious guests wait."
They couldn't help but feel surprised. The disregard for humans was such that even this innocent and obedient-looking woman thought of them as nothing but tools. Of course, this didn't mean that the dog woman was evil. It was just that their education in this matter was radically different.
Even Angel and the others have lived surrounded by slavery since they were children. Therefore, not only did they not find it disturbing but only strange because the roles were reversed.
Tatyana thought to herself. 'Moral views are most of the time subjective. Killing should indeed be universally seen as wrong, but don't predators catch their prey for food? Don't herbivores kill sentient plants for food? Treating humans as slaves may come as horrific because you are also a human, so you relate to it, but if you look at it with a broader perspective, things can become messy.'
(Author Note: Miss Tatyana, can you stop trying to brainwash my readers? Don't try to apply the twisted moral views of a Cultivation World in a civilized one!)
Tatyana snorted.
Yasenia saw her mother sneering and asked her as Kali spoke with the dog woman about the price. 'What's wrong, mom?'
Tatyana said with disdain. 'A pedantic person is trying to interrupt my ramblings with mortal logic. Moreover, there already exist plenty of "young masters" in mortal worlds. It's just that the general populace doesn't get in contact with them often! If they opened their eyes and looked around with a more scrutinizing eye, they would realize how self-entitled many people are!'
Yasenia felt that her mother was in the middle of a crazy episode, so she just nodded and patted her head with her tail. 'You are right, mom. You are the smartest, after all.'
Tatyana smiled like a flower and forgot about continuing her tirade, leaving behind a cold-sweating author.
Meanwhile, Kali finally reached an agreement with the dog woman to pay one hundred middle-level Parus each week for living in the mansion. This mansion was just a common one compared with the really luxurious ones, so it wasn't too cheap or expensive.
Ebirah also approved this pricing.
After getting the contract done and paying a third of their current money capital, they all walked inside their new home.
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Author Note: Although I've uploaded more than one chapter sometimes in the past, this officially marks my one-year anniversary with the Novel! I've wanted to prepare something special, but worry not, although it has been delayed, I'm working on it!
I think it should be done by the end of the next month or so. Thank you all for supporting me until now and in the future~.
Much love, dears, and let's hope we can have another full year of HEM!