Chapter 65: Unexpected Encounter
Alvin took him around the underground lair where all the exotic and powerful slaves were kept, there were even a fair bit of humans in there, probably powerful people who had fallen through one means or another and ended up here.
Most of these slaves looked a little malnourished, just a little bit, but their eyes were quite different from those of a normal person, as though their minds were being suppressed. \'This will most likely be the work of a witch, they should be the only ones with such magic.\' Aldritch concluded. Either them or those from the red gate order.
\'Humans are more compatible with turning into vampires, from my hypothesis.\'
"I\'ll take all the humans in here."
"A-all?"
"All… and her." Aldritch said, pointing to a red skinned girl who wore a solemn expression, sitting at the corner of her cage and paying no attention to anything happening outside.
"As you wish, I\'ll arrange for that right away. Is there any other one you\'d like?"
"No, that\'s all." He said.
"Very well then."
Aldritch returned outside above ground and waited in a VIP waiting room for everything to be arranged for him.
Ten minutes later, Aldritch was presented with the slaves he got from the underground lair, they numbered 20 in total, including the red skinned girl.
Just these 20 costed him 50 gold coins. It was absurd, but he believed their worth to be just that much.
\'You all better turn into fine vampires for me.\' He thought to himself, shaking off the possibility of all of them turning into ghouls and becoming useless.
After some time, within a few short minutes, Aldritch was done with the contracting process. It was a bit different with these slaves as it had more of a magical aspect to it, having to drip his blood on their slave collars and such, but it wasn\'t a cumbersome process.
This new slaves were brought to him inside the VIP section. Looking at them, he could still see the docile look in their eyes.
"Why do they look like that?" He asked, concerned he had just paid for defective products.
"It is a spell casted on them to make them more, passive. It has been taken off already, the effect will wear off gradually within a few minutes." Alvin answered.
"And those?" Aldritch pointed at one of the slaves who had a metallic collar around their neck and a buckle on each wrist and another pair on their ankles.
"I would suggest you keep them on, sir. With those, the slaves will be forced to do whatever you tell them to and follow your every command. Also, as long as they have that on, they won\'t be able to harm you."
"I see… and why don\'t you have these on every slave? It surely will make things easier."
"These are not easy to make or get, sir. Besides, they also play an important part in the reason why these ones are more expensive, by at least half a gold coin. There\'s also the fact that these can\'t just be made on demand, resources are limited, so is manpower."
Aldritch didn\'t ask further questions. In a proper fantasy world, perhaps, there would be such reality defying black smiths and artificers, making things a bit easier.
"Give us some privacy, will you? And please, ask the one listening in to leave as well." Aldritch said to Alvin with a mild smile on his face, a friendly type.
This smile sent chills down Alvin\'s spine, the main reason being his shock that Aldritch knew they were listening in on his conversation in secret. Seeing him smile like that, his instincts warned him that it wasn\'t at all a friendly one as it seemed.
Without even trying to give an excuse or apologise, Alvin bowed deeply, "AS YOU WISH, SIR," he then left.
Alvin suddenly came to a stop before he exited the room, causing Aldritch to raise an eyebrow. He turned and walked back to Aldritch, "I believe this will be of great assistance, sir." After saying that he left immediately.
\'He\'s definitely not ordinary at all!\' Alvin almost ran out of the room, but he maintained composure and walked himself out. As for those listening in, they didn\'t need Aldritch to tell them anything, they could feel the animosity that emanated briefly from Aldritch, that wasn\'t trouble worth beckoning.
Aldritch waited for a bit more until most of the slaves\' minds cleared up.
Inspecting the book he had been given, he found it to contain some commands and other things for interacting with the slaves, or more accurately, their collars. "Not bad, a guide manual."
After a minute or so more, the slaves started regaining themselves fully. Now that they were fully alert, most of them seemed angrier than normal, or at least not happy. Aldritch could even feel a bit of pressure coming from a few of them that he couldn\'t feel before.
\'I have some powerful ones with me it seems.\'
"Wide awake everyone, my name is Aldritch Mondragon Hellsing, your new master."
Contrary to what he felt the reaction would be, they all looked relatively calm even after hearing him say that. \'Have they been desensitized to that extent?\'
It was certainly a good thing that they remained calm and he didn\'t have to deal with any annoying situation, but the uniformity in it was quite unsettling.
He looked at one slave to his right who looked like he wanted to say something but couldn\'t bring out the words.
"Do these collars perhaps have some way of restricting speech as well?" He thought to himself, moving closer to inspect it more. Even after looking at it for some time, Aldritch couldn\'t figure it out.
Instead of wasting more of his time, he just referred to the book he had been given, "let\'s see… oh, it\'s right here." Aldritch spoke the command and the slave was now able to speak, and the first thing that came out of his mouth…
"Dragons dump Wyvern shit on your tombstone, bastard."
"…"
\'Is that supposed to be an insult?\'
"Wyvern?" Ingrid muttered. She had been sitting quietly just watching all that was happening, but the word wyvern did catch her off guard, more like it was new to her.
"Hmph, I would burn you alive with my dragon if I wasn\'t in these chains." The man said. He looked to be around his early forties, but that could have also been caused by the full beard covering most of his face.
"Dragon? You have a dragon?" Aldritch asked, a little surprised.
"Fools who know nothing about power, you think cleaving a boulder is strength? No, splitting a mountain top is." The man gritted his teeth as he spoke with much anger that Aldritch couldn\'t figure out the origin of.
"And yet, you\'re the one wearing a slave collar." Aldritch said.
"Hmph… I had no choice." The man uttered under his breath. Well, Aldritch heard him loud and clear.
"I take it you\'re not originally from this world then? Who else amongst you shares a similar story? move to my right, the others, move to my left." Aldritch said.
Out of the 20 slaves, only four stood on the right side, including the girl with red skin. Even now, her expression remained the same as before, in fact, she didn\'t even look to have been affected by the spell they were said to have been put under.
Aldritch had them introduce themselves, but before that, he removed most of the limitations from the slave, giving them back their speech, freedom of movement, and some other things.
To his right stood two men and two women.
"So, tell me about your world and why we know nothing about power here." Aldritch said while walking back to his seat.
Hearing what the man said before, he came to just one conclusion. If he currently wasn\'t in warworld, then the other world he had been hearing about was definitely it. He had this thought before, and even though he lacked concrete proof, he still strongly believed that to be true. Depending on what he was going to hear, it would confirm his theories.
It took about thirty minutes for Aldritch to listen to what the man had to say, starting from his name. At the end of it all, it turned out that the world wasn\'t warworld, or at least the man never mentioned anything of sorts.
"I see, what a world indeed. Then, have you heard of warworld?" Aldritch asked, his tone a bit more serious.
"…"
"How does someone from a lower world know of warworld?" The other man who had remained silent throughout suddenly spoke, furrowing his brows slightly while speaking in a deeper tone.