What Do You Mean There Are Other Transmigrators In My Harem Fantasy?

Putting the Monster Girl situation on hold for now, we're going back to what we were supposed to be doing before we got sucked into dealing with the Dungeon.

I was talking about, of course, the touring around the Kingdom with Mother and Katsuki.

Mother had called off the construction of the fort around the Dungeon since we no longer need to worry about Monsters escaping the Dungeons anymore.

Instead, they simply set up an outpost which would eventually attract merchants, Adventurers and Dungeoneers to join this small settlement in order to take full advantage of this specific Dungeon.

Who knows? This might even turn into a village, then a town and maybe even a city one day.

But that would probably only happen after a few years or decades and it's none of my business anyway.

For now, all I had to do was follow Mother as we continued Mother's inspection of the Kingdom in Justinia's stead.

Incidentally, our next stop was at Asttol City which was the main city near the border between Shendhala and Lehcarouc Kingdom.

I was in the same carriage as Mother as our procession rolled into the city.

There was a large crowd cheering for us and the entire street leading up to the large building in the centre, which I assumed was the residence for the lord of this city, was packed full of people.

Well, I guess that's to be expected when the King herself comes to visit.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Sure, the King isn't actually here now but they don't know that, especially since our carriage windows were completely covered by curtains to hide the interior from view.

I let the curtain drop back in place and leaned back, noticing something odd about the people I saw.

"Mommy? Is it just me or are there a lot more slaves out there than non-slaves?" I asked, looking up at Mother while I sat on her lap.

Mother giggled as she continued to caress my head, "Ufufufu~ You are correct my little one~ Asttol City is also known by another name. While Crown Capital City is the capital of the Kingdom. Asttol City is the slave's capital city because there are more slaves here than non-slaves~"

Huh… I'm guessing that's because of this city's proximity to Shendhala where all the slaves would arrive from before they are sold throughout the kingdom.

Thus, this place basically gets first picks of the slaves.

"If there are more slaves than their masters… Is there no threat of rebellion or something?" I asked.

Mother smiled at me, "Why would there be a rebellion? This city was built by the slaves and for the slaves. Aside from going to Modgnik yourself, this is the best place to source for high quality, well trained slaves. Back then, the idea was to have this be a slave trading hub for the Kingdom for slaves to be distributed to the rest of the Kingdom. But there was a period of time where the Kingdom was stuck in a small civil war so there were fewer buyers coming here and a lot of slaves ended up being unsold."

"So the city bought them instead?"

"Quite right~ The lord at that time chose to stay neutral in the conflict and bought the slaves to work on the city to improve the conditions of it. They even set up amenities and positions primarily for the slaves and over time, the slave population grew and grew to what it is today. Those people that you see that aren't slaves out there? There's a very high chance that they were former slaves that had served their time in this city and chose to remain here."

"Is there a reason why they chose to remain here?"

"Ufufufu~ To continue working for the city of course~ If one is simply a debt slave or a voluntary slave, this city is one of the places where you might be able to live like a free person despite being a slave. Naturally, that does not apply to criminal slaves~"

Hmm… If I remember correctly, debt slaves are those who have been sold into slavery to clear their debts while voluntary slaves are people who sold themselves into slavery for money to pay off something that they need money desperately for.

"So what happens to criminal slaves here?" I asked.

"Fufufu~ Nothing too bad of course, though that also depends on the crime. They would be assigned the harshest and riskiest work around the city~"

I suppose that's fair…

"One thing I don't understand though…" I continued, peeking through the curtains again. "Why are they so happy to receive the King?"

"Ufufufu~ That's simple, my little one~ It's because of the King that the city is like how it is today~"

"Wait… You mean the King was the lord who did all this?"

"Fufufu~ Not quite~ More like Justinia's ancestors~ It happened quite a while ago and incidentally, one of her relatives was also the instigator of the civil war which then elevated their family to Royal status after they won the throne~"

Huh… That's interesting to know.

"What about our Family?"

"Ufufufu~ We have always stayed neutral in these kinds of conflicts my little one~"

Mother gave me a knowing wink which suggested that what she said was definitely a lie.

I'm going to guess that we actually supported Justinia's family and helped them overthrow the previous Royal Family from the shadows. Heck… Maybe it's only possible because of our Family's support in the first place.

Deciding that it would be better for me not to dig too deep into it, I tried to change the topic.

"So what are we going to do here? We're meeting with the current lord of the city, right?"

"Ufufufu~ That's right~ We have to see if they are doing their job properly~ And if they aren't, we give them a tiny little reminder on who they should be serving~"

"Err… What exactly would we do in the latter case?"

"Ara, ara? Is my little one interested in knowing? Ufufufu~ If this lord is misbehaving, my little one would be able to see it for yourself~"

"Err… Shouldn't we be hoping that they are actually doing their job instead of the other option?"

Mother said nothing and simply pulled me closer to her so that my head was now trapped in between her boobs as she nuzzled my head with her chin.

As the carriage got closer and closer to the lord's manor, the cheering got even louder as there seemed to be more people gathered here as compared to the gates of the city.

I was a little concerned that the people might be disappointed to know that the King wasn't actually in this carriage once we got off, but that seemed to be a non-issue as the lord's manor had its own set of walls where the public was kept outside of.

The manor was built on top of a small hill that overlooked the city and it had a lush, well kept lawn outside of it, no doubt maintained by the slaves that were under the employ of the local lord.

The carriage stopped at the front doors of the manor and there was a woman with her hair tied up in a bun dressed in what looked like a secretary's outfit standing at the front porch.

Beside her was a really well dressed lady with striking blonde hair where her gown reached her ankles and gold and silver pieces were used to decorate the hem of the skirt.

The chest area of her dress was also cut low enough that you could see her cleavage without trying to. I think they might just be a little bit smaller than Mother's and that's already pretty big…

For some reason… She looked rather familiar but I don't know why…

I was first to exit the carriage and I noticed that the woman tensing up, clearly being cautious of me.

But the way she tensed up and how her right arm twitched made me believe that she almost wanted to reach for a sword that wasn't there.

I had almost thought that perhaps the well dressed lady was the bodyguard or the slave and the secretary looking woman to be the actual lord of this city when Mother exited the carriage right behind me.

Almost immediately, the blonde haired lady relaxed and even stepped forward excitedly to stand in front of us.

"Madam Nilm!! It has been so long! You've finally come to visit!"

Mother merely nodded in greeting, "Good day, little Unerolia, it has indeed been a while."

"Fufufu~ It really has, hasn't it? But… Forgive me if I'm wrong… It seems that my cousin is missing?"

"I'm afraid little Justi has been recalled back to the capital to deal with some things and isn't here."

Woah, woah… So this is Justinia's cousin? Ok, now I realise why she looked so familiar! I just didn't realise it because Justinia usually has her hair tied up in a ponytail while this lady has hers in a bun instead.

You didn't tell me you had a cousin, Justinia!