Ezekiel woke up, feeling quite refreshed for once. Who knew that soap would help this much, thought Ezekiel, realizing just how much he took soap for granted. Then, as if the thought popped into his head, he remembered that Bear had told him that he would come to get him in the morning in order to go over the plan for freeing the demi-human slaves. Seeing as Bear had not done that yet, he thought that he might still have a little bit of time to himself before committing what many people consider as stealing property in this world. To Ezekiel, since he thought of slaves as actual people, it may be considered kidnapping at worst, but other people may not see it that way. But what happened if they were caught? Ezekiel realized that he had no sense of the justice system that this world had, so it could be possible that freeing slaves could, in fact, be a death sentence. Ezekiel was now visibly worried about the outcome of today. However, Ezekiel then took a few deep breaths to calm himself down, knowing that nothing good ever came from worrying about possibilities that may never even occur. Ezekiel realized that he was overthinking this whole situation, furiously scratched his head, sat down on his bed, and sighed. Ezekiel, pondering to himself, realized that he has never actually committed any kind of crime, not even something that wouldn't be counted as important enough to be recognized as a misdemeanor. Wanting to get his mind off of the situation he realized that he got himself into, he stared out the window of his room for a moment. He realized that it was still dark outside, so, as usual, he decided to get his day started early by reading a little bit of his Book of Knowledge, flipping to the section about slaves. If I'm gonna free slaves, I may as well figure out how slaves operate in this world. The more you know, the more you know, I guess, thought Ezekiel. In that section, Ezekiel discovered that slavery was the same in this world as it was for his world back when slavery was prominent in the United States. Slaves, be it demi-human, human, or another race, were typically forced to do hard labor and were commanded by a master or a group of masters depending on how many slaves were owned. If any slaves escaped, they sent out a search party in order to catch and return the slaves, and the escaped slaves were normally caught and punished in a way the master or masters saw fit.
Ezekiel took a moment to digest the information, setting down the book in disgust at the fact that slavery in this world was oddly similar to his world. The fact that slavery existed in this world wasn't too surprising to him, but the idea of it just made him feel disgusted. After a moment, he picked up the book and continued reading. He skimmed the parts that were similar to his world, but then stopped on an interesting bit. The book read: Slaves can be identified by the magic-sealing collars they wear around their neck. These collars are locked by a simple magic spell and are engraved with a symbol that resembles the master of the slaves. When a slave is transferred to another owner, such as if a slave was bought from a slave trader, through the help of a mage, the collar will recognize the new master and engrave a new symbol overtop the old symbol on the collar. In order to do this, however, a mage has to be present in order to engrave the new symbol onto the collar. Mages also have the power to lock and unlock the collars at the request of the master, since slave owners are usually incapable of using magic. This helps to prevent any slaves from being able to take their collars off, due to the fact that the collars suppress any magic that the wearer has. For reference to the spells, please take a look below.
Ezekiel then looked down at the bottom of the page and read the spells needed in order to transfer ownership of the slaves to another master, as well as lock and unlock the collars of the slaves. Ezekiel felt more knowledgeable about slaves in this world and would use these spells depending on how the slaves responded to him recruiting them to his "nation of science," as he just now decided to temporarily dub his soon-to-be humongous kingdom revolving around science.
Ezekiel began to daydream about his kingdom becoming a modernized city at some point in the future when there were suddenly three loud and heavy knocks at Ezekiel's door. Bear's voice then came from behind the door, asking, "Aye, little bro, you awake?" Ezekiel replied, "No." Bear then sighed loudly, saying, "Well, that's a damn shame. Let me know when you wake up," and his heavy footsteps sounded like they were getting quieter and more distant as if he was walking away. Ezekiel quickly rushed to the door, opened it, and said, "It's just a prank, bro! Don't leave!" What Ezekiel expected was for Bear to be down the hallways a bit, but instead, he was staring at Bear's large chest. When Ezekiel looked up, he saw Bear's mischievous grin, who then said, "Gotcha bitch!" Ezekiel just chuckled, then said, "It seems like I was the one actually getting pranked, huh?" Bear put his arm around Ezekiel, grinned, then said, "Damn right, little bro." Bear then took his arm off of Ezekiel, and Bear stepped into Ezekiel's room. Ezekiel closed the door and was sort of surprised to see a serious-looking Bear staring at him. Bear then said, "Today's the day, little bro. Time to get down to business," and sat down on top of Ezekiel's bed. Bear pulled out a lock, a small dagger, and a stone that was shaped like a needle and had an upwards curve at the end. Bear then asked, "Have you ever picked a lock before?" Ezekiel replied, "No," although he did have a good understanding as to how locks in his world worked. However, Ezekiel noticed that these locks were slightly different than the ones that he had seen, and he had never seen anyone pick a lock with the tools that Bear brought with him. Bear, handing the lock to Ezekiel, said, "These are the locks that are on almost any cage these days. It's a simple lock that only needs a skeleton key to open it. However, seeing as I can't get ahold of the specific skeleton key that unlocks these cages, we'll have to make do with the lockpicking tools we have here." Ezekiel handed the lock back to Bear, who then said, "I'll demonstrate how to pick the lock." Bear picked up the dagger and needle-shaped stone, saying, "The dagger goes into the bottom, and the stone goes on the top. Once you've inserted both of them, you want to move the stone left and right, then gently twist the lock as if you were turning a key inside of it." Bear did just that, but instead of opening the lock right away, he was met with some resistance and was unable to open the lock. Bear then said, "If this happens, try to move the stone more to the left or right, and see if you make any more progress with it." Bear tried picking the lock a couple of more times and then was able to successfully pick the lock. "One more thing," said Bear, before handing Ezekiel the lock and lockpicking tools, "You need to go slow when you're doing this, as attempting to force the lock open will make the stone break. It's like snapping a twig due to bending it too much." Ezekiel nodded and began attempting to pick the lock.
After about 30 minutes of picking the lock over and over and getting faster at it each time, Ezekiel felt as if he had it down. Silently chuckling to himself, he imagined his lockpicking skill increasing to max right about now if this was a video game. Bear smiled proudly, saying, "This job will get done quicker with two people who know how to lockpick." Bear stood up off of the bed, then said, "That's one step of the plan down. Now, onto the plan itself." Bear then looked over at Ezekiel, then said, "I want this to be a quick in-and-out mission. Our goal is to free the slaves held by the slave traders. Based on my information, there's a 30-minute window around lunchtime where we can pick the locks and get the slaves out of there before anyone notices. Now, since I'm a demi-human, demi-humans aren't allowed inside of the actual slave trader store. Only humans are. This is where I need your help." Ezekiel put two and two together, asking, "You want me to get a layout of the slave trader shop?" Bear responded, "Correct, little bro. And they should be opening soon, so you can go give it a look for me." Ezekiel nodded in reply. Bear then continued explaining his plan, saying, "For the slaves, I've got a place where they can hide and lay low for a couple of days, as well as get someone to watch over them. I've also prepared clothing that hides their collars from any search parties looking for the missing slaves." Bear then took a moment to think to himself, then said, "We also just need to be ready for the unexpected. If we're found out and our faces are seen, wanted posters will go up quickly and our faces will be known through the town. In order to prevent that, I've got some black cloth we can hide our heads with." Bear then pulled out two black scarves which were made using a thick fabric and long enough to wrap around the head a couple of times. Ezekiel grabbed one and set it to the side for now. Bear then said, "Well, I think the slave trader shop is about to open, so we should probably start heading down there. When you get outside, take a left, go down a bit, take a right, and the shop will be on your right. I'll let you go first, then I'll follow behind a little bit." With that, Ezekiel opened his bedroom door, stepped out into the hallway, and made his way to the outside of The Crimson Tankard Inn.
Following the directions of Bear, he soon found himself in front of a sketchy-looking shop. It didn't have a sign on it, but Ezekiel assumed that this was where the slave trader shop was. Just in case, Ezekiel looked around since he didn't want to give people the wrong idea, then entered the shop after confirming no one was looking at him. Inside, he found that there was one tough-looking middle-aged man standing inside at the counter. He was smoking a small wooden pipe, and Ezekiel could smell the tobacco from the front entrance. The man then emptied out the pipe into a small wooden ashtray, then said, "Welcome! You interested in buying some slaves?" Ezekiel was surprised at how forward they were with it, but then said, "Yeah. This is my first time buying slaves, actually." The man smiled, then said, "Well, you came to the right place, my friend. We sell great slaves for less than what other slave traders would sell them for. Come! I'll show you what we've got!" With that, the man pulled back a red curtain behind him and motioned for Ezekiel to follow him, and Ezekiel followed the man. Once past the curtain, the man then said, "Oh, by the way, call me Dixon Cider, so if you have questions about any of the slaves you see, just let me know." Dixon Cider, thought Ezekiel, and a smile began to form on his face. Ezekiel suppressed a laugh, as he had seen that name be used by many people as a joke. I don't think Dixon realizes just how stupid of a name he has, thought Ezekiel, who suppressed yet another laugh. Once Ezekiel calmed himself down, he realized that he was inside of a medium-sized room that was filled with cages stacked on top of one another. He noticed that there were, in fact, slaves in each one of these cages. To his surprise, it was eerily quiet, despite the number of slaves there were in this room. Ezekiel did a quick look around and spotted a door in the very back of the shop, which looked like it led to the outside. Ezekiel made a mental note of that and would let Bear know about it. Dixon then asked, "Why do you need slaves?" Ezekiel thought for a moment, thinking that he did need people to make soap for him to sell, then answered, "I really just need a labor force that can mass-produce goods for no cost." Dixon nodded, then said, "If that's the case, one more question should narrow what kind of slaves you're looking for. Do the slaves need to move heavy items?" Ezekiel said, "Not at the moment, no." Dixon thought for a moment, then said, "I know just the slaves you need then." Dixon led Ezekiel to a cage that had two slaves inside of them. Upon inspecting them more, Ezekiel saw that they were two demi-humans that had wolf ears. One appeared to be older than the other, and both girls had green eyes. The only difference between the two was that the older one had brown hair and the younger one had blonde hair. Ezekiel then noticed that they had on collars with two engravings on them, but couldn't tell what the engravings were. Dixon said, "These girls here are sisters who refuse to be separated from one another. We've tried to sell them individually, but the people who buy them individually want a refund since they can't operate without one another. However, they're pretty loyal to their master when we don't separate them for whatever reason." Dixon leaned in closer, then quietly said, "They're also quite the lookers, too. I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to do things with them. They're pretty good with their hands if you need them to do things for you, in more ways than one if you catch my meaning." Dixon just cracked a dirty smile, but Ezekiel felt disgusted and angered at that comment. However, he kept his composure for the sake of not blowing his cover, and instead silently wished that Dixon would suffer in the lowest level of Hell. Dixon leaned back from Ezekiel, then continued, saying, "Since it's your first time buying slaves, I'll make you an offer. These girls here are being sold as a special package deal. You can buy these two for the price of one of our regularly priced slaves, which is only 20 silver coins." Ezekiel knew this was quite a shady business, and that was on top of the fact that he didn't even want to buy slaves in the first place. Ezekiel then said, "Sounds like a good offer, but how do I know that you're not trying to stiff me?" Dixon laughed, then said, "I'm not that ruthless, my friend. Tell you what: there's another shop that sells slaves in this town. It's down the road from here, about a 3-minute walk I'd say. Check their prices, and if they're higher than 20 silver coins for one slave, then you can say that I was scamming you. However, I'm pretty confident in my low prices, my friend, so that's why I'm recommending another shop for you and not forcing you to buy your slaves here." That's honestly a pretty convincing suggestion, thought Ezekiel. Using that suggestion as a way to leave the shop, Ezekiel said, "I'll go take a look at the other shop then and come back if your prices are better." "Fair enough," responded Dixon. With that, Ezekiel left the shop.
Ezekiel, after walking out of the shop, saw Bear standing on the opposite side of the street. Bear started walking away from the shop, and Ezekiel followed him until he caught up to Bear. Bear and Ezekiel then ducked in between some shops where no one would see them, and Ezekiel explained the layout of the shop, as well as the backdoor the shop had. Bear pondered over this for a bit, then said, "We'll go through the back door once the slave trader leaves, giving us that 30-minute window to do what we have to do. Until then, we'll just shop around this area to kill time." So, Ezekiel and Bear then began walking around and looking at all of the different shops this area of town had.
After what felt like forever, Bear caught a glimpse of someone leaving the slave trader shop, asking Ezekiel, "Is that the guy you saw in the shop?" Ezekiel looked at the man leaving the shop, saying, "Yep, that's him." Bear then said, "We gotta get a move on then. Let's do this quick and clean." Bear and Ezekiel then snuck around to the back of the shop, put on their black scarves to cover their heads, and Bear quickly picked the lock to the back door. They both stepped inside, and they were inside the room full of cages. The slaves gave both Bear and Ezekiel looks that showed fear of these unknown masked men entering the shop from behind, but Bear then said, "We're gonna get you all out of here. We don't have much time, so please stay quiet and do as I tell you to do." Bear began picking the lock to the nearest cage and quickly freed the slave inside of it. Bear then proceeded to free the other slaves inside the cages nearest to him. Ezekiel did the same, fiddling with the locks a bit longer than Bear since Ezekiel was a little nervous about getting caught. After about 5 minutes, a good majority of the slaves were freed and were now getting dressed in the clothing that Bear provided for them. Suddenly, a loud voice from the front of the shop could be heard, saying, "Shit, I can't believe I forgot it. Where is it?" Ezekiel's eyes went wide, and he looked at Bear with fear, to which Bear then quickly hurried the freed slaves outside of the shop. Ezekiel quickly hurried to unlock a locked cage, but his nervousness made him slip up. With a loud snap, Ezekiel's needle-shaped stone broke as he put too much pressure onto the stone. The voice then asked, "What was that?" Ezekiel grabbed the broken stone off of the floor and proceeded to hide in the darker part of the room. From there, he could see Bear doing the same, attempting to hide himself in the darkness. The red curtain came open, and Ezekiel saw Dixon step into the room. Dixon looked around for a bit, then noticed that a large number of slaves were missing. Angry, Dixon looked at a nearby cage, and that cage held the two wolf girls that Dixon had shown Ezekiel. Dixon angrily asked, "What the fuck happened to the slaves?" Both girls stayed quiet. Dixon, getting visibly angrier, kicked the cage and startled the wolf girls. Dixon said, "Answer me, you stupid bitches! What happened to MY DAMN SLAVES?!" Both girls, despite being filled with fear, refused to say anything. Dixon said, "If you don't wanna talk, I'll just fucking beat the answer out of you!" Dixon grabbed a key from his pocket, unlocked the cage, and grabbed the smaller wolf girl. The smaller wolf girl desperately fought back, but Dixon was clearly much stronger than she was. The older wolf girl screamed, "No! Not my sister!" The older wolf girl struggled to pull her sister back into the cage, but she was punched by Dixon, forcing the older wolf girl to let go of her sister. Anger suddenly boiled to the surface of Ezekiel's face upon seeing this. Pissed off and not wanting to see any more of Dixon's cruelty, Ezekiel began creeping forward with the small dagger used for lockpicking in hand. Pricks like him don't deserve to live, thought Ezekiel, although it was as if it wasn't his own thoughts that were speaking to him, but rather as if something evil was planting thoughts in his head. Rage began to fill Ezekiel when Dixon pulled the younger wolf girl out of the cage and threw her on the ground. Ezekiel crept ever more closer, ready to stab and kill Dixon without a second thought, but before Dixon could deliver a punch to the younger wolf girl, Bear acted before Ezekiel could, punching Dixon from behind, and Dixon's face slammed into the ground due to the force of the punch. A loud crack could be heard from the contact of Bear's fist and Dixon's face, and an even louder crack could be heard when Dixon's face smashed into the ground. Bear, wasting no time, put Dixon in a tight chokehold before Dixon could understand what was happening. Dixon attempted to free himself, but Bear's powerful punch and hitting his face on the ground leave him too dazed to put enough energy into fighting back. After about 30 seconds, Dixon passed out.
Bear, with a sigh of relief, let go of Dixon and let his unconscious body hit the floor. He then turned to the wolf girls, smiled, and said, "You're free now. You don't gotta worry about this scum of the earth anymore." Bear reached out with one hand to the younger wolf girl on the floor, who hesitantly took it, and Bear helped her up off the ground. Ezekiel got control of himself, realizing just how tightly he was gripping his dagger. What was that feeling? Those thoughts weren't my own, and it felt like something was trying to take me over for a second, thought Ezekiel. Ezekiel, remembering that they were on a timer, shook himself out of the thought, then walked over and glanced at Dixon's unconscious body, and the rage from earlier seemed to dissolve on its own. Ezekiel glanced back at the cage and saw that the older wolf girl was still inside. Ezekiel reached out a hand to her, and she hesitantly took it. Once the older wolf girl was out of the cage, she said, "You're the man from earlier this morning, aren't you?" Ezekiel, shocked that she guessed right, tried to hide it by saying, "I-I don't know who you're talking about!" The older wolf girl suddenly leaned in close, staring at Ezekiel's eyes. The older wolf girl then said, "I'm sure of it now. They're the same eyes that I saw today, bright green eyes that looked like they despised what these people were up to. Eyes that looked like they wanted to help us. Maybe there are still some good humans left in this world, after all." Ezekiel then nervously looked away, but then something caught his eye on her collar. Ezekiel took a closer look at it and saw that it was actually the outline of a penis and a jar of apple cider. As if releasing all the stress and fear he had bottled in him, Ezekiel fell to the floor, laughing hysterically, saying, "They really engraved your collar with a dick and a jar of cider, huh? Dixon Cider! Dick's-in Side-her!" The older wolf girl looked embarrassed, saying, "Is that bad?" Ezekiel, still laughing his ass off, said, "N-No! That's actually perfect for a meme!" The older wolf girl stared in confusion, asking, "What is a 'meme?'" Bear then interrupted, saying, "I hate to do this, but we really need to hurry up before this guy wakes up," gesturing to Dixon's unconscious body. Ezekiel slowly stopped laughing and eventually composed himself, then said, "Alright. Now we just need to free the other slaves and we'll be on our way." With that, Bear and Ezekiel freed the rest of the slaves and stepped outside behind the shop. Bear then said, "I'll go with the slaves to the safe house that I've got. Your job is basically done here, little bro." Ezekiel replied, "Alright. Good luck, Bear." Bear then began leading the slaves into the less-traveled parts of the shops in this area, and Ezekiel headed back to The Crimson Tankard Inn.
Ezekiel made it back to The Crimson Tankard Inn, exhausted and still a bit stressed from today's mission. He decided to go calm himself down in the public hot springs and brought the bar of soap with him. However, since it was the middle of the day, he found that he wasn't the only one who wanted to take a dip in the hot springs. It was quite crowded today, so Ezekiel decided not to stay too long. He soaked in the hot springs for about 5 minutes before using the bar of soap to clean himself off. Soap bubbles began forming in the water, and to his surprise, some of the people in the hot springs were actually afraid of the bubbles in the water, as they started to get out of the water when a bubble got near them. Soon, the hot spring was free from people, as Ezekiel was used to seeing. However, in the steam of the hot spring, he could make out the outline of one man still in here. Soon, the steam cleared, and he could see that this was one younger-looking middle-aged man who didn't seem to have a care in the world about these bubbles forming. The middle-aged man was characterized by black hair that was similar to Ezekiel's, brown eyes that had the color of chocolate and a smile on his face that was so dumb you couldn't help but laugh at the sight of it. It seemed as though he was having a good time by himself, drinking alcohol and clearly drunk. The man noticed Ezekiel staring at him with curiosity, saying in a drunk manner, "L-Listen kid, I-I, uh, don't s-swing that way." Ezekiel, a little pissed at that comment, said, "I'm not gay, you idiot! I'm just wondering why you're at the bathhouse drunk in the middle of the day." The man smiled, saying, "I-It's a secret that y-you'll learn when you get older, kid," who then hiccupped and only smiled wider. Ezekiel just laughed, then tossed the man the bar of soap. The man caught it after almost losing his grip on it due to how slippery the bar of soap now was. Ezekiel said, "Use that on your body, and you'll feel much cleaner." The man inspected the soap, then asked, "Can you eat it?" Ezekiel then said, "Are you fucking stupid? I literally just said you wash your body with it." The man, with a completely blank face, then said, "I know, but can you eat it?" Ezekiel sighed, then said, "No, and please don't try to eat it. I'm the one who made the damn thing so I would know." The man laughed, then said, "I-If you say so," then proceeded to wash his body with the soap. After a few minutes, the man then said, "Damn, this 'soap' or whatever works extremely well!" Ezekiel laughed, then said, "Glad you like it." The man then said, "As a reward, I shall tell you the secret of why I'm here!" The man suddenly got out of the water, and Ezekiel could see that his upper body had a tattoo of a giant red dragon breathing fire. The man motioned for Ezekiel to follow him, and Ezekiel just followed him. The man then stood next to the wall that divided the hot spring by men and women, and then said, "Y-You see, I try to take just the smallest of p-peeks at the other side of this wall. Beyond this wall is a special place called B-Boobie Heaven! It's e-every man's dream to be able to fondle a soft p-pair of supple boobs that they c-can call their own!" Ezekiel sighed in disappointment, sort of predicting that this was his secret. The man then said, "As a bonus s-special reward, I'll show you my special little peephole!" With that, the man then leaned in close to the wall, and to Ezekiel's surprise, he actually blew a small bit of fire from his mouth, burning away a little hole in the wooden wall. He then peered through, getting a little bit of a bloody nose from looking through the hole. The man then stepped back and asked, "W-Wanna take a peek?" Ezekiel shook his head, then said, "I'm good." The man gasped in surprise, then asked, "C-Could it be that you worship the power of a d-dick instead of being filled with power by looking at b-boobies?" Ezekiel then angrily said, "Goddammit I'm not gay, you dumbass! I just don't think it's right to be peeping on unsuspecting women. Plus, that's creepy as shit dude!" The man just chuckled, then said, "You're still a kid, kid. I'm gonna g-go take a better look. Just w-wait here." The man started climbing the wall, and after about 30 seconds of climbing and stumbling, since he was still quite drunk, he finally reached the top of the wall. He peered over, and his bloody nose was further worsened at the sight of many boobies filling the man's vision. However, he wasn't subtle enough, as he started to laugh in a drunk manner, and all the women in the hot spring noticed him peeping over the wall and started to scream. Ezekiel assumed the worst, so he walked back into the hot spring with his bar of soap and pretended not to associate with the man. Suddenly, the man was blasted in the face by a magic spell, sending him flying into the hot spring and landed about 5 feet in front of Ezekiel. After a few seconds, the man then surfaced above the water, grinning stupidly with a bloody nose. Ezekiel couldn't help but laugh at how stupid this man looked. The man then said, "My name is S-Suko Ryuu, but I'm more commonly known as the Drunk Dragon. Can't believe I forgot to introduce myself, b-but maybe you've heard of me through that nickname." Ezekiel unfortunately hadn't, but introduced himself anyway, saying, "I'm Ezekiel Clark." "Nice to meet you, Ezekiel, my new peeping partner," said Suko with a laugh. Ezekiel then said, "Listen, man, I won't go peeping with you, but you seem like an interesting person. I work at The Crimson Tankard Inn, and I'm the one who makes the Lad Steaks. If you wanna drop by to get some, I'll be working later tonight." Suko then said, "The Lad Steaks are some k-kickass steaks! Can't believe you're the one making them!" Suko then thought for a moment, then said "Wait, asking me on a d-date, are we? I t-thought I told you that I don't swing that way, kid!" Ezekiel sighed, not even bothering to reply to that. "If you want free food, swing by tonight and I'll cook you up a Lad Steak, and please be sober." Suko then happily grinned, saying, "No promises!" With that, Ezekiel got out of the hot springs and headed back to The Crimson Tankard Inn.
Ezekiel made his way to the front entrance of The Crimson Tankard Inn when he spotted Bear, who was waiting outside for Ezekiel. Ezekiel walked up to Bear and asked, "What are you doing here?" Bear pulled him to the side, saying in a low voice, "The slaves are safe now and they're in hiding. You wanna come with me to give your offer to the slaves?" Ezekiel had admittedly forgotten about that due to the stress of the situation he found himself in when freeing the slaves, but he replied, "Sure." Bear and Ezekiel then began to walk off, with Ezekiel following behind Bear. Soon, they reached the outskirts of town, which was a slightly poorer area than the rest of the town. Bear and Ezekiel approached a wooden shack, and Bear knocked on the door in a pattern that was most likely a code to signal the person inside that it was Bear knocking. The door opened, and a rather small and old elf opened the door. The old elf asked, "What are you doing here, Bear?" Bear stepped to the side, revealing Ezekiel, and the old elf gave Ezekiel a strange look, asking, "Who is this young man?" Bear then replied, "He's the one I was telling you about earlier. He's Ezekiel, my little bro and partner in crime with this scheme!" The old elf simply smiled, then said, "Ah, Ezekiel! Nice to meet you! I'm Neldor, the one Bear asked to watch over the slaves for the time being. Please, come in!" Bear and Ezekiel both entered the wooden shack, and at first glance, it appeared that it was a normal shack. However, Neldor then pulled back a rug, revealing a wooden trapdoor. Neldor chanted a few strange words, to which Bear then said to Ezekiel, "It's the language elves use for elf magic." Then, once Neldor was done chanting his spell, the trapdoor opened, and inside the trapdoor was a hole that was dimly lit by a single torch. Neldor then grabbed a small ladder, hammered one side of it into the ground, and tossed the ladder down into the hole. Neldor motioned down the hole, saying, "After you." Bear went down the hole first, then Ezekiel, then Neldor who followed closely behind them.
The bottom of the hole led to a long dirt hallway, and at the end of that long hallway, there was a wooden door. Once Ezekiel, Bear, and Neldor reached the wooden door, Neldor chanted strange words again, and the door opened to reveal a large room, filled with many of the slaves that Ezekiel and Bear had freed. The slaves, who were busy talking to one another or performing various tasks, suddenly went quiet as they noticed that the door had been opened. Neldor entered the room and took a stand on a wooden crate, saying, "Everyone, I've brought along the second savior. He will now introduce himself." Neldor then motioned to Ezekiel, who took Neldor's place on the wooden box. Ezekiel then said, "Hello, everyone. My name is Ezekiel Clark, the 'second savior' as Neldor put it. First of all, it's great to see that everyone we rescued seems to be doing quite fine. However, we are not out of the woods just yet. I hope that we can work together to get through this, and soon, I hope that all of you can lead a life of your own free will instead of being bent to another's will." The slaves cheered to that, thanked Ezekiel, and Ezekiel smiled. Ezekiel then continued, saying, "Speaking of choosing what to do of your own free will, I would like to offer this to you all not as slaves, but as free people who now have the power to make their own choices." Ezekiel cleared his throat, then said, "I have a very profitable item that I wish to be mass-produced. Of course, I won't ask you do to this for free. I'll provide you with housing, warm meals every day, and pay you accordingly. To those interested in helping me advance my nation of science, I promise to treat you right, and I promise to show you the wonders of the world hidden by science that no one here has ever seen before." Ezekiel then asked, "Is there anyone who would like to join me on the hard and long road ahead of us to developing my nation of science?"
Ezekiel was expecting a lot of members to immediately raise their hands or start cheering, but instead, a lot of the slaves were mumbling to themselves and each other. Some of the slaves asked the others, "He's our savior for right now, but how do we know he won't just become a slave master like the others?" One slave even said, "Can we really trust this guy?" Ezekiel had prepared for this, saying, "Of course, as I stated, this is your choice as to whether or not you'd like to join. Whatever you decide to do is up to you, and I have to respect it." More murmuring among the slaves began, until a familiar female voice said, "We'll join." Ezekiel looked in the direction of the voice and found the two wolf girls he had saved from Dixon raising their hands. The older wolf girl then said, "If you'll have my sister and me in your 'nation of science,' we would be of service to you at any time." Ezekiel was quite surprised at that, but then he said, "If that's the case, then welcome aboard to the nation of science!" The two wolf girls then walked up to where Ezekiel was standing and stood side by side with Ezekiel. Ezekiel then asked, "Are there any others wishing to volunteer themselves to the nation of science?" The older wolf girl then said to the other slaves, "Will you not repay the kindness of our saviors? They risked their lives in order to free us, yet you stand here with an obvious answer as to what you should do!" One slave spoke up, saying, "My answer is obvious. I've got a family that I need to reunite with, considering I haven't seen them in years." Another slave spoke up, saying, "I had previous ambitions before becoming a slave. Now that I'm free, I'm determined to fulfill my own ambitions." Soon, the other slaves began agreeing with the slaves that spoke up. Ezekiel, just happy at the fact that he was able to at least get two new members to help him out, said, "I understand your circumstances, and it would be impossible for me to assume that I could convince everyone in this room right now to join me. I am glad you state your own opinions and ambitions, and being able to finally act on them is how you know that you are truly free. As I stated before, what you do is up to you. However, if you do decide to join my nation of science later, feel free to let me know."
With that, Ezekiel stepped off of the wooden box, and the crowd of slaves then dispersed to go back to what they were originally doing. Bear then walked up to Ezekiel, then said, "Nice speech, little bro. I couldn't have done it better myself." Ezekiel simply nodded, then turned towards the wolf girls, saying, "There are two things that I can do. As I am a mage who knows the spells for both, I can either take off the collars for you, or I can engrave the symbol of the nation of science into your collars to solidify that you are, in fact, a part of the nation of science. Please let me know what you would like to do." The wolf girls then turned towards each other and quietly discussed among themselves. After about a minute of discussing, they turned towards Ezekiel, and the older wolf girl then said, "Please engrave the symbol into our collars. We figured it might be safer to keep the collars on so we aren't forced to be slaves again." Ezekiel agreed with that logic, and he erased the previous symbols and engraved the symbol of the nation of science into both of their collars: a shape that resembled a glass flask. Ezekiel then said, "I'd like to officially welcome you to the nation of science!" Ezekiel then pulled out a piece of paper with the directions of how to make soap and the items needed for it, handed it to the older wolf girl, then said, "This is the first task that I'd like you to accomplish once you've been in hiding for long enough." Ezekiel then gave the younger wolf girl a leather pouch filled with a good amount of silver and copper coins, saying, "That money will be for buying the items that you'll need. Please get the soap to me as soon as you can!" The older wolf girl looked over the list, saw the word, "soap," then asked, "What is this 'soap' you speak of?" Ezekiel remembered that he still had the bar of soap on him when he left the public hot springs and pulled it out. "This is soap," said Ezekiel. Ezekiel magically summoned a little bit of water onto the older wolf girl's hands. Then, Ezekiel gave the older wolf girl the bar of soap and told her to begin scrubbing. To the older wolf girl's surprise, bubbles began to form on her hands, and she appeared delighted by the feeling of it. Ezekiel then washed off the soap from her hands, and the older wolf girl realized just how clean her hands felt. "Soap will make anyone feel much cleaner after washing their hands. You can even wash your body with it while taking a bath," explained Ezekiel. The younger wolf girl wanted to try it too, so the same process was repeated with her. The younger wolf girl appeared very delighted as well by the feeling the soap gave her. Ezekiel then said, "This is what we'll be making, and I want to make a lot of it, too." The older wolf girl nodded in agreement, thinking of how this could benefit many people. Ezekiel asked, "Since we're partners in the nation of science now, can I get your names?" The older wolf girl responded with, "I'm Luna." The younger wolf girl responded, "Layla," in a somewhat shy manner. Ezekiel then said, "Luna and Layla. They're nice names! Just call me Ezekiel, as I said earlier." Luna and Layla looked at Ezekiel with determination, then Luna said, "Ezekiel, you can count on us. We'll get this done as soon as possible." Luna then got close to Ezekiel, asking, "Do you also happen to have any more soap on you? The slaves might change their minds when they see something as amazing as soap." Ezekiel just chuckled, then said, "I unfortunately don't but I'm willing to half this bar of soap with you." The bar of soap wasn't too strong, but it wasn't too brittle either, so Ezekiel broke the bar of soap in half after applying a good amount of force onto it. He then gave one half to Luna and Layla to share and kept the other half for himself. Luna and Layla then exclaimed, "Thank you!" Ezekiel just laughed, said, "Don't worry about it," then walked to where Bear and Neldor were. Bear then asked, "You ready to head back, little bro?" Ezekiel nodded, and Ezekiel, Bear, and Neldor then left the room and headed back up to the surface.
Once outside, Bear and Ezekiel said their goodbyes to Neldor, and both of them started walking off. Bear then asked, "You got anything else to do?" Ezekiel thought for a moment, putting his hands behind his head, then remembered his promise to Suko, so he said, "Yeah, I actually need to be back at The Crimson Tankard Inn soon since I promised an interesting fellow some Lad Steaks." Bear stared at Ezekiel with curiosity, saying, "If that's the case, I might just swing by later tonight to see who this dude is." Ezekiel simply said, "You can do what you want to, Bear. I'm just thinking that if all goes well, I might be able to get this guy recruited into my nation of science." Bear then had a realization, stopped in his tracks, and asked, "Damn, little bro, where the fuck is my invite to the nation of science?" Ezekiel stopped walking, turned around to face Bear, and with a smile, said, "What do you mean? You were already part of the nation of science since day one." Bear smiled, then chuckled, saying, "Of course I was! You wouldn't get very far without your big bro, now, would you?" Ezekiel just smiled, then said, "I guess not, big bro." With that, both of them headed back to The Crimson Tankard Inn, laughing with each other along the way.121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyjjMzzwRB7
