Free The Rising of the Shield Hero Volume 01 by Aneko Yusagi

can’t hunt stronger monsters.”
    Everything he said annoyed me.
    “I’m not sure what that has to do with you.”
    “If I helped with recruitment, you might still stand a chance.”
    I didn’t have the funds, or the desire, to hire a greedy capitalist.
    “Party members? Ahaha, no. I will provide you with something far more useful.”
    “For example?”
    The man slid over in my direction.
    “Interested?”
    “Don’t stand so close, you creep.”
    “Ahaha. I like you, kid. Fine then, I’ll tell you.”
    The gentleman puffed out his chest, looking very important-like, spun his walking stick, and pontificated, “A SLAVE!”
    “A slave?”
    “Yes, a slave.”
    A slave… what was that again? I hear they used to exist in the real world, but now they showed up from time to time in games and manga (like the kind where someone gets summoned to another world).
    To put it bluntly, it meant that you could own other people, much like someone might own furniture, and you could force them to do physical labor for you. I sort of pictured them as being whipped.
    Anyway, slaves were living things.
    Did this mean that slaves were bought and sold here?
    “They do not lie, and they do not betray their masters.”
    Hmm…
    “Slaves are under a powerful curse. If they contradict or betray their masters, they must pay with their very lives.”
    “Hmmm…”
    Now the story was getting interesting.
    If they disobey, they die. In some ways, that was exactly what I was looking for: someone who wouldn’t use me, and someone that didn’t have any funny ideas.
    My attack was too weak. I needed someone to help me. But people betray you, so I couldn’t afford to pay them. I couldn’t get anyone to help me. But a slave wouldn’t betray me because betrayal meant death.
    “What do you think?”
    “I’ll hear you out.”
    He smiled. “Right this way, sir.”

    He led me down a back alley, and pretty soon I noticed an alarming number of scruffy, dangerous-looking people. The air was filled with aggressive shouts and the sound of fragile things breaking. More than anything, it smelled terrible.
    Apparently this world had a bad side too.
    It was sometime around noon, but there was no light where we were. We turned a corner, and there, at the end of the alley, was something like a circus tent.
    “Right this way, sir.”
    “Uh huh…”
    The slave trader walked with a creepy air about him. It was something like skipping, but he spent more time in the air. He led me towards the tent, and pulled back the flap.
    “Let’s get this out of the way up front. If you’re tricking me…”
    “Ah, yes… your balloon punishments are quite infamous around town. You’ll cause a ruckus and then run off, eh?”
    So people were starting to talk about me. Fine. It was a good way to punish groups of bad people, and I shouldn’t be surprised that it made me famous.
    “To be fair, there were those that wanted a Hero, like yourself, as a slave for themselves. I had originally approached you with that goal in mind, but since then I’ve had a change of heart.”
    “Excuse me?”
    “Well, you have all the qualifications of an excellent client. ALL the qualifications: both good and bad.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I wonder. What DO I mean?”
    The guy was slippery. What did he want from me?
    There was a metallic clank, and then a very heavy-looking door swung open.
    “Woah…”
    The interior was dim, and the smell of rot hung faintly in the air. I also smelled animals. It didn’t seem to be a very nice place.
    There were a number of cages in the room, and human-like shapes moved within them.
    “Now then, this one, right over here, I can recommend very highly to you.”
    I moved closer to the cage he indicated and looked inside.”
    “Guoooow… Gah!”
    “That’s not a human!”
    Inside was something… something covered in thick hair, with sharp fangs and claws. To sum it up simply, it looked something like a werewolf, and it was howling