A Gunslinger’s System in a World of Magic

That\'s besides all the slaves he forces to fight for him. As would have been your fates had you all not gotten free. The slaves have no choice but to fight in his Army. From what I\'ve seen, they\'d welcome death as an alternative. But they\'re really all dead inside."

Henry understood what she meant. He had seen it while he was at the Estate. The lack of drive to even try to get away. Their drive to live independently had been completely fried out of their brains.

Louis had developed a Tolerance —or so he\'d said at the time—, but Andor had been as much a pseudo-mindless drone as the rest of them and the cuff falling off his Wrist was the bit of stimuli that pulled him back. That pulled all of them back.

And then, as Henry looked away from Andor, a part of Eloise\'s words caught his attention,

"Hold on, you said \'from what you\'ve seen\'?"

Eloise nodded slowly,

"I\'m —we\'re— forced to work with them on some affairs in the City. What Ralph Gribbo is doing is doing is not illegal. If anything, it\'s encouraged. The Slave enterprise is a thriving business in Alvareen. Ralph Gribbo has more of a stake in it but he\'s certainly not the only one to dabble in it. Even the Mayor has a bunch of slaves that serve his interests.

And we…"

Eloise gripped handfuls of her gown now and spoke through gritted teeth,

"… We Knights are supposed to protect the innocent and yet, we must stand aside and watch. Sometimes, we must even legitimize the practice. Yes, I know not everyone that gets a cuff slapped onto their wrist is entirely innocent, but— I mean look at you three!"

That caused Henry to blink a bit hard at how her tone had quickly pulled from a somber monotone to a more active voice.

"What about us?"

"You\'re innocent," Eloise said with a small smile, "Ripped from your homes against your will and forced to serve. That\'s just not right."

"Yeah," Louis agreed in a level tone. Henry remembered Louis had told him he had been tricked into putting on a cuff so Eloise\'s words about innocence would not be wrong in his case.

For Henry, however. Well, he had done quite a bit to deserve some punishment. He had killed, conspired, and attempted to steal from someone and this was what he got in return.

Now, of course, Henry was hardly an advocate for him getting what he deserved. He had gotten what he deserved in his past life and it had sucked but considering the alternative could have been death, well…

Anyway, his time with the Cuff hadn\'t been pleasant and the System had turned his attention toward Ralph Gribbo and Henry was only too ready to comply.

"Henry?" Eloise called gently and Henry blinked a few times as he realized he had blanked out for a few seconds.

"Hmm?" Was the best he was able to come up with to catch up with whatever he had missed in the conversation.

"So, as I was saying, I have a lot against the practice but my hands are tied.

The best I can do is appeal to the moral code of the people involved but no one cares. And sometimes— Well, sometimes I get so passionate about it, and now I\'m under watch even within the Citadel. Any more outbursts and attempts to interfere and I could be stripped of my oath."

"Is that why Aurelius kept keeping you from attacking Doherty?" Henry asked.

Eloise sighed looking at the ground,

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"He was trying to protect my Oath. But he also doesn\'t believe in my fight —well, as much of a fight as I can call it— against the Slave Enterprise. He says it\'s a way of life or just how things are and I\'m just being difficult trying to stop it.

He says I can\'t. It has been a thing, especially here in the North, for Centuries. And of course, there are other manners of slavery that precede even command/control cuffs."

Eloise\'s eyes tightened as she said the last part and it was clear that it wasn\'t only Henry who caught it because Louis asked,

"What other manners are those?"

"Wizards and Witches with their occult rituals to bind pure people to them in eternal servitude. It\'s just sick.

Vyker Awakenings being accepted and praised is what started a free fall to the type of slavers that exist now. And the common people continue to be used for their selfish ends!"

The more Eloise spoke, the tighter she gripped the fabric of her gown and the brighter her grey eyes became. There was something about the way she spoke now… Her tone made the issue almost personal.

\'Is that it?\' Henry wondered, \'Is that the root of her hatred for slavery? Did someone she cared about get turned into a Vyker?\'

Although he speculated away in his mind, Henry didn\'t say anything about it. It seemed personal and he didn\'t want to pry. He felt he didn\'t know Eloise enough to try and get into that.

That said, he also understood that she needed to work through whatever it was that had gotten her riled up and she needed to work on it alone. When Louis tried to speak, he cautioned him with a look and they just let Eloise calm down on her own.

"Sorry," She said when the mood passed.

"There\'s nothing to apologize for," Henry assured her.

Eloise nodded and then continued,

"So Ralph Gribbo is a powerful man backed by the law as well as friends in powerful places. Already he has commissioned assistance to defend a slave caravan of his as he brings in what he calls \'shipment\' of slaves."

As usual and as it was whenever she spoke of this sort of thing, Eloise looked disgusted.

Henry, however, looked inspired,

"He\'s expecting more Slaves?" He asked.

Eloise hadn\'t caught his tone and she nodded,

"In two to three days," she said, "The biggest he\'s ever gotten. Spoils from a recent village raid that \'had nothing to do with him\'."

Eloise said used air quotes to show her disbelief in that last statement. As far as she was concerned, the raid had been just to give Ralph Gribbo and his cohorts of slave traders their pickings.

"Do you know where this caravan will pass through?" Henry asked and this time, Eloise caught his tone.

She looked at him and eyed his expression for a while before she furrowed her brows,

"It could be through a few channels into Alvareen. They\'re coming from the east through the Brieme Mountains so they have a few choices of terrain.

Why do you ask?"

Henry acted like he hadn\'t heard her question as he stroked his jaw,

"I don\'t know Alvareen or its environs very well," he mumbled and then glanced at Eloise with a gentle smile, "Do you have a map on you."

Eloise\'s eyes narrowed even further and with a flick of her wrist, she suddenly had a rolled-up parchment in her hand. She unrolled it on the table in the middle of the chairs in the Common area and began to point to areas. She called their names and Henry looked on attentively.

\'It\'ll take some preemptive scouting but we can certainly lay an ambush,\' he thought and was already making plans.

Eloise noticed his expression and paused pointing out terrains to ask,

"Henry, you\'re not planning anything dangerous, are you?"

Henry smiled then. Not because her question was funny but because an alert had arrived that sealed a plan that was only just taking shape in his head;

[You have triggered a Sub-Quest in the ongoing Main Quest: The Gunslinger\'s Revenge…]

[Sub-Quest: Intercept the Slave Caravan]