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âYuutoâ\n
The next day, in the early afternoon, a womanâs voice called out to me as I was walking down the hallway.\n
When I turned around, there was a woman of about forty years old, who had recently started to gain a bit of width.\n
The woman, in her nobility dress, coupled with her width and the dress, looked like an opera singer.\n
âMomâ\n
Her name was Maia.\n
She was the birth mother of the transmigrated me.\n
âWhatâs the matter?â\n
âHave you seen my older sister?â\n
âAida-san? No, I havenât seen herâ\n
âIs that so? I wonder where she went⌠If you happen to see her, tell her Iâm looking for her, okayâ\n
âGot itâ\n
I nodded, and Maia left.\n
Maia and Aida were sisters.\n
In other words, Dimon was having the so-called threesome with two women who were sisters<sup>1</sup>.\n
When I was freshly transmigrated, I was surprised when I found out about this. Though apparently, from the point of view of nobles, it seemed that it was not that unusual for all sisters to marry the same man.\n
There was also a story that had a link with the coming of age ceremony.\n
Nobles who valued their bloodline often had political marriages based solely on ancestry.\n
And in the case of such a political marriage, you had to give birth to a boy who was the heir.\n
However, this was obvious, but there was no guaranteed way to give birth to a boy. And there was also the possibility that âyou canât give birthâ in the first place.\n
In such a case, the legal wife, who couldnât give birth to an heir, would sometimes lead her younger sister to marry the husband.\n
With sisters, there would be no issue with whichever one gave birth.\n
The interesting part started here.\n
Such things werenât limited to political marriages.\n
Such a thing often happened in a love marriage, too.\n
In particular, the Romeo and Juliet type of love, with different social standing.\n
If the woman was poor, often her sisters would also marry into the family from the beginning as a set.\n
From the womanâs point of view, it was money and social statues gained by marrying a rich man. And it was the idea that her sisters could also be happier if they married together into a family where their lives could be improved.\n
In very rare cases, there was also a pattern of marrying as a concubine and then bringing in her sisters in order to expand the faction among the women.\n
In response to that, the legal wife sometimes would also bring in her younger sister as a concubine â was completely off topic.\n
Well, that was how it was.\n
As a former Japanese, that was something I still didnât understand well, but apparently, that was how the nobles were, and sisters as wifes were something natural.\n
By the way, both Nanos, Janus, and myself were children born to Maia.\n
Aida couldnât give birth to a child, so she brought in her younger sister â the usual pattern.\n
Well, it happened all the time in this world.\n
I split up from Maia and came to the living room.\n
There, I rang the bell and had my afternoon tea prepared.\n
Then Auxo came and served me.\n
Auxo, the maid whom I had my coming of age ceremony with.\n
She went on to be the one to attend to me â which was fine.\n
However, Auxo looked depressed for some reason.\n
She was serving me flawlessly, but it was obvious she was making a depressed face.\n
âAuxoâ\n
âYes, how can I help?â\n
âYouâre worrying about somethingâ\n
âEh?â\n
âYouâre worrying about something, right?â\n
âI-Iâm sorry, masterâ\n
âIâm not telling you to apologize. Whatâs wrong, did something happen?â\n
âThatâs⌠Iâm sorryâ\n
âYou donât have to apologize, just tell me if something happenedâ\n
âYesâŚâ\n
Auxo paused. After a bit of hesitation, she timidly began to talk while reading my mood.\n
âThe truth is⌠My younger sister has been soldâ\n
âSold?â\n
âYes, for reducing the mouths to feedâ\n
âI seeâ\n
I nodded my head a little.\n
This one as well was something I heard often since my transmigration.\n
There was a lot of such a story. It was a story that had established a pattern that was as common as being hit by a truck and being transmigrated into another world.\n
âYour parents were working the fields, were they? Is it a bad harvest? This yearâ\n
âYes⌠It isnât that bad, but at this rate, theyâre not sure if they are able to pay back the money for seed rice they borrowed this yearâs springâ\n
âAah⌠If I recall, you borrow money in the beginning of spring to buy seed, and pay it back from there after the harvest, is itâ\n
âYesâ\n
Auxo feebly nodded.\n
Borrowing money for seeds in the beginning of spring and paying it back after the harvest.\n
That was also something common, even in the farming family of my former world.\n
In my former world, if there was a bad harvest, the government would give aid or something, so it wouldnât immediately hurt you. However, a single typhoon was all it would take to start selling your child in this world.\n
Through that connection, human trafficking and slavery became commonplace.\n
âI remember you were also a slave, werenât youâ\n
âYesâ\n
âIf thatâs the case, then the same thing happened to your younger sister. Thatâs just all this is about, isnât it?â\n
âThatâs true⌠But, I heard from my parents that the person who bought my younger sister was someone named GalamothâŚâ\n
âGalamoth⌠Was there any slave trader with that name?â\n
I held my chin with my fingers, digging through my memory.\n
Although I was good at remembering peopleâs names, I had never heard that name before.\n
âYes⌠I also, since Iâve been taken into this residence, have heard various peopleâs names, especially names of slave traders. But itâs my first time hearing that nameâ\n
âI see, so thatâs whatâs making you worried, huh. Because you also donât know where she was boughtâ\n
âYesâ\n
I pondered as I held my chin with my fingers.\n
âOh, spending your early afternoon here?â\n
Janus came in.\n
He walked into the room, made a straight line towards me, and sat down across from me.\n
âJanus, huh. Good timing. Do you know a man named Galamoth?â\n
âGalamoth? The intermediary?â\n
âRather than the mediator, the slave trader oneâ\n
âAhâŚâ\n
Janus gave a small nod.\n
He knitted his brows and was making a very difficult face.\n
âWhatâs wrong?â\n
âYeah, well. Itâs justâ\n
âWhat are you on about? Tell meâ\n
âYouâre right⌠I guess Iâll tell you just the facts. Iâve never heard of a girl who truly became a slave through Galamothâ\n
âWhat did you say? What does that mean?â\n
âYuuto, you know how different people have varying hobbies, right?â\n
âWhat, whatâs with that weird way of putting itâ\n
âThere are truly all kinds of hobbies out there. And among them, thereâs one âto break,â you seeâ\n
âTo break?â\n
âYeah, to break. Well, putting it in a wholesome way, wood-chopping?,â so said Janus.\n
Usually, this would be the part where I would say, âOh, I see,â but not in this conversation.\n
Undoubtedly, the main issue was the ânextâ one.\n
ââŚAnd in an unwholesome way?â\n
ââŚâ\n
âHumans, huhâ\n
Janus didnât answer, and I guessed from the flow of the conversation.\n
I let out a small sigh.\n
âIntermediary, huh. Is that the guy whoâs doing intermediary work?â\n
âThatâs right. On the surface, though, heâs doing pretty wellâ\n
âI seeâ\n
âU-umm⌠Wha-what does that mean?â\n
Auxo asked in a feverish state.\n
Janus tilted his head.\n
âIt seems that her younger sister was bought by that Galamothâ\n
âMy goodnessâ\n
Janus made a pitying face.\n
Just the face.\n
Well, yeah, of course.\n
One was a noble, the other was a slave maidâs younger sister, to add further.\n
Because it was Janus, he would have given at least a slight pitying look, but normally, the difference in status and relationship would be more like giving a âHmm,â response.\n
âUmm⌠Yuuto-samaâŚ?â\n
âIf that Galamoth bought her, what would happen to her younger sister?â\n
âLetâs see. In the cases I know of, I guess itâs either to break quickly or to break slowlyâ\n
âEhâŚâ\n
Auxoâs expression gradually began to change.\n
âIs that right?â\n
âThe customers who came to him are all those kinds of people. That world is small after allâ\n
âI seeâ\n
ââŚâ\n
Immediately after.\n
Slowly understanding what Janus was saying, Auxo turned pale, opened her eyes wide, and ended up fainting due to too much shock.\n