Chapter 7 – Reaching Civilization

The sun was setting, just dipping down past the horizon, when we finally reached the village. We were all getting pretty tired, even Ash. I decided to get down and walk the last stretch of the journey to make it easier on him.

The village was located at the edge of the forest, bordering a wide area of sprawling grassy fields and low hills. There were a handful of farmers’ plots, growing vegetables within view of the wall, but most of the structures were safely defended. On one edge of the town was the river, forming a natural barrier. Docks and small watercraft littered the shoreline. On the other side of the village, there was a fifteen foot wooden palisade in a large C shape, protecting the rest of the buildings from what I presumed to be random rape monster attacks from outside.

It was a smallish place by modern standards, maybe a few hundred houses, a town hall, a church, some shops and stables and things, and a few other large buildings I couldn’t recognize. It probably had a couple thousand or so residents altogether. Not big, but not super tiny either.

It seemed safe enough. We hadn’t seen any wandering rape monsters for a while at least.

There was a convenient bridge allowing us to cross the river, and then a wooden gatehouse built into the wall that would allow us passage inside the town. A pair of braziers were lit at the top, and some human shapes stood over the wall, watching the road.

Not wanting to get left out in the dark, we kept moving.

“So… I’d hate to state the obvious, but we’re conspicuously naked and have no money…” I said.

“Maddie, you’re on seduction duty,” Ash said.

“Kay…?” she said, confused. “What am I supposed to tell them? Oh hi! We’re visitors from another universe, can I give you a blowie in exchange for a room at the inn?”

“What about travelers fallen on hard times, lost our clothes and money in the forest for… obvious reasons?” Lysander suggested.

“Don’t people who get raped by monsters get Tainted and turn into monsters themselves? Do we really want to use that as our story?” I asked. “They might lock us up, or put us in quarantine.”

“Might as well just tell them we’re magical chosen ones immune to corruption,” Emi suggested. “Isekai protagonists always try to hide their origin like it’s this big secret, but like… why the fuck would anyone care about some random low-level noobs? We’re hardly important to the big picture.”

“We have no idea what the social norms are here, I don’t think we have a way to plan around that,” Lysander added. “It might be best to just improvise and try not to say anything to piss them off. That’s, of course, assuming we even speak their language.”

“Yeah,” Emi giggled, “What if they all speak Mandarin? You’d all be fucked.”

“I speak Mandarin,” Lysander said. “Also, French, German, Japanese, Russian, Latin-”

“So, everything basically?” Maddie snorted, cutting Lysander off.

“Not everything…” Lysander grumbled, annoyed at being interrupted.

“Hail travellers! Who goes there?” one of the guards called out from above the gatehouse.

We were getting close now, close enough for me to see the guards on the wall. They were your typical fantasy fare, wearing thick cloth armour of a dark blue with some sort of official crest patterned onto it in white. It was a skinny six-pointed star inscribed inside a circle.

The guards were both male and Caucasian. Apparently, this was a western fantasy themed world. Despite the warm greeting, they stared down at us with obvious suspicion.

We were pretty suspicious, I had to admit. A big scary man, dick swinging in the wind, surrounded by a harem of equally naked women, all of which had messy sex hair from being ravished by various woodland creatures during our journey. At least I’d Purified the cum away.

Not only that, but we had Emi, a Japanese-looking girl with us too. If this was fantasy medieval Europe these guys might have never seen a non-white person before. Hopefully they didn’t just declare her a monster or an alien and loose their arrows as us.

“Hail,” Lysander said, holding up a hand. “As you said, we’re travellers, we come in peace, looking to barter for a place to spend the night.”

“Travelers from the corrupted forest?” The guard asked skeptically, focusing his attention on Ash.

“Never said we were smart travellers,” I muttered with a quiet chuckle.

“Erm… yes?” Lysander answered. “As you can see, we’ve run into a spot of misfortune during our travels.”

The guard gave her an annoyed glance when she spoke up, and ignored her comment. He turned his focus back to Ash.

“You’re lucky you weren’t ripped apart, walking around with five naked sluts and no protection like that, they’ll lure in half the forest,” the guard grumbled. “You must be pretty damn confident of yourself.”

Well that sounded pretty sexist. I felt sorry for my female friends, it took me a moment longer to realize that I was one of those females now too. I was one of the apparently-useless naked sluts he was talking about.

It was a strange feeling… I wasn’t used to being dismissed because of my gender. I wasn’t outraged though. Blatant sexual discrimination was a strangely new and interesting experience. I was sure I’d get tired of it quickly though.

The guard did say something interesting, however. We lured in the monsters? We, as in women? If that was true, then it was no wonder the wildlife was being so aggressive. Did they have a magical slut radar? Could they smell us or something?

Ash picked up on the sexist undercurrents of the conversation, cleared his throat, and stepped forward to replace Lysander as our designated leader. “I’m fairly confident in myself, yes.”

“And what of the uncollared elf? She seems too docile for a fresh capture…” the guard asked, looking down at Chloe with disgust, and glaring at Ash accusingly. There was a coldness to his eyes that told me he didn’t see Chloe as a person. It set off warning sirens in my brain.

Ash blinked and hesitated, not sure how to respond to that. Lysander stared at the ground, thinking hard. She pursed her lips, and muttered to herself silently.

“She a fresh capture,” Lysander whispered, picking up the slack, “Naturally obedient. She’s your toy and we intend to keep her.”

“Yeah, we caught her a little while ago, but haven’t had the chance to put a collar on her yet,” Ash replied confidently. “She needs a spanking now and then, but she’s been a very good girl for us.”

The guard remained skeptical, “That may be so, but you’re going to have to register her properly if you want to pass through our gate. We can’t have wild critters like that running loose around town.”

I heard the faintest little moan from Chloe behind me, betraying how excited she was by us casually degrading her as we talked about her like she was just some worthless animal we happened to possess.

Ash looked to Lysander, and got a subtle nod back, “Sure,” he replied. “We can register her or whatever, but we still plan on keeping her.”

The guard stared at the rest of us appraisingly. I felt his eyes wander to my breasts, looking at me like I was just a piece of meat. For the first time since I came to this world and woke up naked, I nervously covered myself with my arm. Ash had checked me out a few times as well, but this strange man’s hungry gaze felt different. It was deeply unsettling. I wasn’t used to being looked at like that.

“Don’t know why you’d want a nasty pet elf if you’ve got three human sluts in your harem and… whatever that little one is…” the guard stared hard at Emi.

“She a demi-goblin or something? I didn’t think goblins could breed with humans… She doesn’t have a collar either, does she?” he asked. “There’s no way she’s Pure.”

“I-I’m a human!” Emi squeaked.

“Hah!” the guard snorted derisively, “There’s no way you’re not some kind of demi. We have a [Priest] here that can do [Status Appraisal], you know… lying’s gonna get you punished.”

Emi twitched in outrage, and was about to retort and say something stupid, when Maddie crept up behind her and covered her mouth.

“We’re all pure human here, ‘cept the elf. You can do your check or whatever if you need to,” Ash said. “Now, if you’re done insulting my bitches, wanna let us in? We’re tired from the road.”

The guard glanced at his partner. They shared a private moment, looking at each other with uncertainty and skepticism.

“Ask Father Jordan to check them?” The partner suggested.

“Yeah,” the first guard agreed. “Run and get him.”

The second guard ducked away, climbing down a ladder.

“Sorry,” the guard said. “You guys are… a bit unusual. We’re going to ask the town’s [High Priest] to check your status and Taint contamination, see if you’re safe. Then, we’ll let you in.”

“No problem,” Ash replied. He turned to Lysander and whispered, “it is no problem, right?”

Lysander nodded.

We stood around awkwardly, waiting for the priest to arrive. I turned around to face the rest of the group.

“So… elves are considered slaves, or pets, I guess? At least in this country… kingdom, whatever it is. That’s the impression I got from that conversation,” I said quietly.

“Seems so,” Lysander agreed.

I looked an extremely nervous Chloe in the eye, “I get the impression they won’t let us inside the town unless we register you as some sort of slave.”

“Well um… I know I’m a bit submissive,” Chloe mumbled nervously, “but actual slavery… that’s a lot to ask, you know…”

“Yeah, you’re right, sorry,” I replied awkwardly. “Maybe we can let you hide outside, bring you some food later. We might have to make a run for it if that pisses these guys off.”

“No, no, it’s…” Chloe sighed. “You guys … I want to belong to you all, I really do… It’s been a fantasy of mine since I joined the tabletop club and met you all. I genuinely want to be your slave, your healbitch, your foot licker, and maybe even your sex toy if you deem me worthy of that honor…”

Chloe closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and looked each of us directly in the eye, one after another. There was an unusual firmness to her stare, a deadly seriousness. This was probably the first time I’d actually seen her properly assert herself and it was actually a little bit intimidating, coming from her.

“You can have me. All of me. But… maybe I want you to appreciate it? Like, appreciate exactly what you’re asking me? It’s sort of a big deal, surrendering myself completely to you all. Real slaves don’t get any limits or safewords. You could do anything you wanted to me. I would literally be putting my life in your hands, totally vulnerable and at your mercy.”

“Yeah, if you put it that way, it sounds pretty scary…” I said. “Kinky roleplay is one thing… real life is another.”

Lysander spoke up, “We could simply register you and then treat you like normal. You would be a slave only on the paperwork, and perhaps during the odd roleplay session if you and your fellow degenerates want to play that way.”

“It wouldn’t change the fact that as my owners, you could stop treating me like normal at any time…” Chloe said, shaking her head.

“There’s also the slave collars,” Emi said quietly. “They’re featured as plot devices in a lot of trashy Isekai stories. If they’re enchanted magic items, then who knows what they could do? Compel obedience with mind magic? Explode if Chloe wanders too far away from us? Torture Chloe with electricity if we say a certain magic word? The amount of fucked up possibilities are staggering.”

“Um… No mind control please…” Chloe whispered nervously. “If I can request one thing, it’s that. I can’t really be a good girl if I don’t decide to obey. If I literally can’t disobey, then my obedience doesn’t mean anything anymore and I’m just a robot.”

“Yeah, I’d agree to that, of course, but…” I sighed, “Guys… this is starting to stray out of sexy territory and into scary territory. Enslaving Chloe is starting to sound like a really bad idea.”

I heard the town gate creak open, I turned to look over my shoulder, and saw an older man wearing a white robe walking towards us with a warm smile. Shit! We were out of time.

“We decide anything?” Ash asked nervously.

“Fuck…” I grumbled under my breath.

“Do it, enslave me, but protect me please, I’ll be in your care,” Chloe whispered.

“Kay,” Ash muttered, and took a step forward, offering the priest a friendly smile.

I stepped next to Chloe, and put my hand on her neck possessively, to help sell the story that she was an obedient prisoner, rather than an equal. I grasped her hair firmly by the roots on the back of her head, hard enough to control her, but not enough to hurt unless I squeezed my hand. Chloe let out a faint squeak, and relaxed her body, relinquishing her control to me and leaning back against my bare chest ever so slightly.

“Hail stranger,” the priest said, walking up to greet Ash.

Unlike the guards, he didn’t seem suspicious or nervous of us at all. He had a friendly smile. That made me nervous. Ash would normally be an intimidating looking guy, even if he wasn’t naked. Was this priest super high level or something? or did he know something we didn’t?

“Hello,” Ash said. “You wanted to do some kinda scan thing?”

“Yes, due to the…” the priest glanced down at Ash’s shameless lack of pants. “…circumstances surrounding your visit, we naturally need to make sure you’re not some sort of monster in disguise.”

“Do those exist?” I gasped. Doppelganger rape monsters, spooky.

The priest ignored me and continued, “I’m going to use an ability called [Status Appraisal], and then another one called [Sense Taint], is that agreeable?”

“Sure, do what you gotta do…” Ash shrugged.

The priest’s eyes flickered with the white-gold colour I recognized as belonging to holy magic. His eyes widened in surprise.

“Greater blessing of Vyreth?” he whispered nervously.

The priest looked at the rest of us. His eyes flickered with gold again whenever his gaze settled on one of us. When it was my turn, I felt a chill come over my body. It was uncomfortable, a deeply invasive feeling of being watched.

The priest turned back to Ash, “You all… came here together?”

“Uh… yeah?” Ash replied, a bit confused by what exactly the priest meant. “You know something about that, I guess?”

“I am a [High Priest] serving many gods, and Vyreth is one of them. I’m sure I don’t know everything, but my Patron has given his most loyal followers some knowledge of your circumstances. Specifically, I know you are from Elsewhere, and you’ve been brought here through Lord Vyreth’s miracles to help fight against the Taint.”

“Ah, that’s good to hear, you’re absolutely right about that,” Ash sighed in relief. “Say, can you Patron lend us some pants? We woke up in the woods this morning, butt naked.”

“That is no problem, Trindon the Merciful teaches us to provide succor to those in need,” he replied. “I can offer you some basic necessities to get you started, though I hope you won’t take advantage of that generosity too much. This town, and my temple, has limited resources.”

“Well, I’m planning to go hunt monsters as soon as I can find some pants and weapon. Is there any money in that? I’m sure the girls are planning the same…”

“Your aid is welcome, but the girls? Uuh…” the priest looked at us awkwardly. “You do know why there aren’t any female adventurers, right?”

“You mean the forest full of rape monsters?” I asked with a wry smirk. “Not a very female friendly place.”

“Well, yes… but that is not what I’m talking about. Many male adventurers meet that specific type of inglorious end as well. Monsters merely prefer females. No, the real issue is your scent. Monsters are able to smell female Untainted from miles away, and are inevitably drawn towards them in a rutting frenzy. An adventuring party allowing female member to join would be incredibly foolish. Men are the protectors; women are the protected. Caravans containing females must travel under very heavy guard.”

“Sounds like an efficient way to kill monsters, actually. Bait that can fight back,” I said.

“You’re really not from this world are you?” The priest gave me a pitying glance. “Power greed is the second most common cause of corruption and death for adventurers, right after the monsters themselves. Those who kill too many, too quickly, in a lust for power, will find the Taint taking root in their hearts. Though, I suppose with your greater blessings, Vyreth’s teachings on power greed don’t apply to you directly. But the rest of us don’t have that luxury. You won’t find any culling expeditions willing to take on a female adventurer.”

“This is all wonderful information,” Lysander said. “But perhaps we could continue this conversation somewhere indoors? While I dare not assume the others’ opinions regarding casual nudism, I personally, would be much more comfortable wearing clothes in your presence.”

“Yes of course, but ah… there is just one problem we need to solve first before I can invite you in,” the Priest said, looking awkwardly at Chloe. “The elf.”

“Yeah, what’s the deal with the whole enslaving elves thing, anyway?” Maddie asked.

“I guess you wouldn’t know this, perhaps elves are thought of differently in your world? In our world, elves are one of many species of what we call, demihumans. They are, by definition, something between monster and human. There are many types, some more monstrous than others, but their kind are all Tainted by their very nature, too wild and destructive to be left to their own devices in a civilized society. But unlike full monsters, they need not be killed. They can instead be domesticated and put to good use.”

“I don’t think that applies to Chloe, given where she came from,” I pointed out. “There’s no Taint in our land, and she’s as civilized as the rest of us.”

“I understand your reluctance, and you’re of course welcome to your own beliefs. Slavery is commonly accepted in our society, but it is still a contentious issue in certain circles. Elves in particular are sometimes seen as ‘too human’ to enslave by those with more compassion than sense. I can tell you’re not convinced, and I won’t even bother to argue the merits of our system to you. Just know that the law of our land dictates all wild demis must be killed or enslaved on sight and that’s not going to change anytime soon.”

“I should also warn you, I am a church official, sworn to protect all Untainted from corruption and keep the peace.” The priest gestured to Chloe. “Now that I’ve seen her, I can’t just let her go. It would be a failure of my duty to protect and a violation of my Oath.”

The priest looked me in the eye, with a cold stare, an unspoken threat implying I was absolutely fucked if I tried to run away with Chloe now. Shit, there was no backing out of this now! I held her a little bit tighter, pulling her back against me possessively.

“Normally, a wild elf such as this, captured by a church official such as myself, would enter a public auction and be sold to the highest bidder. In your case, we can declare that you captured her. You would have the option of putting her up for auction, or registering her to yourselves as your personal slave. I presume you’d want to do the latter, yes?”

We nodded nervously.

“I’m afraid that’s the best I can do for you,” The priest bowed his head regretfully at Chloe, obviously expecting her to panic upon learning she was doomed to a lifetime of slavery.

Instead of panicking, she asked, “Can you register me to multiple masters?”

The priest blinked, a bit surprised by her completely unfazed response, “Um, yes, it can be done, for an additional fee. There would be only one primary master, though your masters can designate as many secondaries as they like. Secondaries have the same authority over the slave in most situations, except the primary has power of veto, with the final say on any decisions where one or more masters disagree.”

“Oh… that works…. But who’s going to be my primary Mistress or Master then?” Chloe looked around at us, a nervous smile on her face.

I wanted to say I should do it, since I’d been the one who had the crush on her before and still kinda liked her. Maybe I felt a little bit possessive. I wasn’t sure that was a good enough reason, though. Maybe Lysander would be better? She was the logical one who would make the best decisions with her veto power…

“Tyler should obviously be primary,” Lysander said, as if there wasn’t any question.

“What? Why?” Maddie asked, slightly jealous.

“Tyler obviously desires to possess her. Likewise, while Chloe desires to serve us all sexually, she has a much stronger emotional attachment to Tyler. I believe she would feel most secure with Tyler holding ultimate power over her,” Lysander blurted out.

What? Really? I thought back to her behaviour before. Yeah, with how much she enjoyed kissing me, I supposed it was sort of obvious in hindsight that she liked me.

Chloe looked over her shoulder at me, blushed, and smiled warmly, “D-do you want to be my Primary owner, Miss Tyler?” she asked me nervously.

I blinked in surprise. I most definitely did. I thought I’d have to argue and coax the others into it.

“Yes, I’d like that,” I said with a nod.

Chloe offered me a relieved smile, and cuddled back against my chest again. Clearly this meant a lot to her, and I wasn’t completely sure I understood the relationship dynamics involved with whatever weird arrangement I’d just agreed to.

“Just don’t hog her too much, Tyler,” Maddie said. “We’ll be mistresses too, she belongs to all of us, right? I definitely want a turn with her.”

I looked at Chloe, who nodded at Maddie demurely, and then met my eyes to make sure it was okay with me too. Part of me wanted to keep her to myself, but that would be pretty hypocritical of me considering I was a wanton slut who’d just made out with literally everybody in our friend group and ate Lysander’s pussy earlier today.

“Of course,” I said. “She’ll be ours to share.”

“I suppose that’s settled?” the priest asked, turning to Ash. “Are you sure you want to give your woman the reins? In my experience, women don’t make the best slave owners. They’re far too soft.”

“Nah,” Ash replied. “Tyler’s a stone cold bitch, aren’t you sweetheart?”

Sweetheart? I gave Ash a cold glare.

“See?” he replied.

“Right… well whatever. I’ll warn you there will be a considerable fee for registering a slave, though I will defer that fee for now. Just know that once you have the means, I’ll expect you to pay it. Now that that’s decided, let’s get you set up for the night. The temple rectory has a guest room you can borrow for now.”

The priest called out to the guard who’d been sent to fetch him earlier. “Grab us some blankets from the barracks, would you? And a set of a manacles for the elf.”

“Sir!” The guard bowed and jogged away.

“We’ll get you some proper clothing at the church. The blankets should hopefully cover your modesty for now.”

The guard didn’t take long to return. The five of us humans were given scratchy brown woolen blankets to wear around our shoulders. Chloe was bound, hands in front, with a pair of heavy steel cuffs locked around her wrists, connected with a short chain.

I noticed there were only five blankets, “Does she get a blanket?” I asked, nodding to Chloe.

The priest looked at me with confusion for a moment, I realized he’d already stopped seeing Chloe as a person. “I… suppose we could grab another one for her too…” he said awkwardly, with a hint of reluctance.

“It’s alright Mistress,” Chloe said quietly, with a shy smile, “Modesty is for people, not slaves. Walking through town, with my body naked and exposed should help us all get used to my new position.”

“Right then,” I said a bit uncomfortably. “Guess we don’t need another blanket.”

“Shall we go then?” The priest asked.

He led us into the village.