"This… shouldn't have happened," Father Jordan said, apologetically.
Yeah no shit! I grumbled internally. I shouldn't have needed a god to save me, I shouldn't have been kidnapped, and this brothel shouldn't even exist in the first place.
I gave him a dirty glare, "Yeah, makes me wonder how those guys managed to get Chloe's old slave collar off, or put a fresh one on me without officially registering me. Any idea which priest Lord Volda bought?"
Father Jordan looked guilty, "We're… investigating."
That sounded like bullshit to me, but I guess there was a chance that he might have been telling the truth about wanting to seriously investigate the brothel's illegal slaves. Not wanting to piss him off, I decided to let the matter drop for now.
"Does your church worship Nyar'Shiggurath too?" I asked, curiously.
"Erm… no, the elder gods are best… left to their own devices, but none of the other gods seem at all displeased by his actions. That alone is quite significant. This was the first time one of the three Elders has manifested an Avatar in the mortal realm since Nyar'Loaketer first Tainted the world. Yet this was not seen as an act of aggression, none of the pantheon are raising alarm about it. They… approve of this destruction. It seems the gods value you and your friends quite highly, even going so far as to allow the summoning of an Elder's Avatar to progress uninterrupted."
"Ah, well I guess I should be flattered," I said.
Father Jordan sighed, and held his head, "I'll be honest. This is a world-shaking event, and I have no idea what to do with you. I'll be sending word to Baltour, to the main temple, for advice on how to progress from here. The Archbishop will surely want to speak with those who motivated the direct intervention of a deity."
"Technically, I motivated three… Vyreth brought me here in the first place then Trindon blessed me, changing my species to Aasimar, a sort of divinely blessed human," I said.
"Ah yes… I heard about that from your peers," Father Jordan narrowed his eyes, and looked at my neck uncomfortably.
I sighed, "Yes, I suppose I'm technically a demihuman now, but there isn't a trace of Taint on or in my body. I'm part angel… I'm like, the opposite of Tainted. Also, remember a literal god just removed my collar, and made a very deliberate decision not to put a new one on me. With that in mind, I think maybe it might be wise to make an exception regarding enslaving me on sight?"
"It is not for us to know the gods' wills," Father Jordan said cautiously. "Perhaps you were merely meant to wear a different collar. We can of course register you to your friends, as you did with Chloe."
I led Father Jordan over to the edge of the pit, "Let me show you something."
I gestured to… I quickly counted them… twenty four collared slaves, and two collared monsters. Every one of them was wearing a black collar, patterned with ornately carved tentacles, each collar an artifact of divine manufacture.
"They all got shiny new collars, yet my neck is bare." I explained.
Father Jordan swallowed nervously, "I see."
"Maybe we should try to summon Nyar'Shiggurath again? Then you can ask him whether he just forgot about me. He's pretty old right? Maybe you're suggesting he's going senile?" I said innocently.
"N-no, that won't be necessary." Father Jordan stammered.
I grinned. That was a win for me. I'd like to see him try to enslave me now, knowing that a literal god just disintegrated a building to free me from the last asshole that tried to do that.
"Oh, speaking of collars, are you able to tell who they're registered to? I've got a feeling they might be mine," I said.
"Yes, I can do that," he said.
"Perfect." I waved at the slaves, "Hey guys! Come on up. The scary people are… mostly squished. I have a feeling that the few survivors left behind were the less evil ones. We can analyze your collars and figure out what to do with you now. You probably don't want to stay here, right?"
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There was murmured agreement, and a few seconds of nervous hesitation, before the slaves climbed to their feet and started shuffling through the narrow door and up the stairs. Interestingly, not only did the two monsters not molest anyone while my back was turned, but they remained behind, still kneeling obediently in their original positions. Pinky still hadn't even raised her head from the dirt.
"We have records of mana signatures at the town hall," Father Jordan explained. "If these do not match you or the late Lord Volda, then it might take a while to find out who they now belong to."
"Late Lord Volda?" I asked, grinning shamelessly.
"Err… yes. We found his… pieces spread all over his former mansion." The priest explained uncomfortably.
"Glad to hear it." I said, staring the priest in the eye.
"This is… not a good thing," He grumbled. "He was… a rather prominent member of the community."
"Remind me to tell you what, exactly, he did to one of his maids… I'm sure by the end of my story, you'll agree that the bastard needed to be stopped. I seriously doubt he restricted himself to only torturing slaves. The man was sick."
"I… wouldn't know," Father Jordan said awkwardly.
I glared at the man bitterly. Was he complicit, or just incompetent? Was he in on it? Or was he just willfully blind to the evil in his society? Even the monsters weren't as fucked up as that so-called Untainted human. There was no way this priest didn't know what sort of shit happened in this brothel.
Whatever, I could chew this guy out later, once I was no longer naked beneath a blanket and relying on his help to identify my slave collars.
"But yes, the collars, sure, I'm mostly just curious to know whether they're mine or not anyway," I said.
Father Jordan nodded, eager to be free of my glare, walked over and analyzed the first slave to make it up the stairs, Beatrice the wolfgirl. He closed his eyes and held his palm up to the collar.
"The enchantment is so… alien… like nothing I've ever seen before…" he muttered. "But it's… letting me read it… Let's see. Shared ownership, you, Ash, Emi, Lysander, Maddie and Chloe. Equal authority. No primary or secondaries designated."
"Slaves can own other slaves?" I asked.
"No… not legally, but that's the way the collar is registered and… I can't exactly change it. The collar reacts to my church authority, letting me see what information it wants me to see, but it specifically blocks me from removing it or making changes."
"Read only permissions?"
"Uhm… yes I suppose that's a succinct way of describing it." the priest replied.
One by one, the priest inspected every slave. Sure enough, every single one of them now belonged to me and my fellows from the tabletop gaming club. Or at least their collars seemed to think so.
Chloe was only slightly different. She had the same permissions as before. Unlike with the others, where all six of us were equals, for Chloe I was, once again, the primary owner, while the others were secondaries. Chloe gave me a relieved smile when she found out.
It took a good twenty minutes for Father Jordan to check everybody, but soon enough all the slaves were standing around in a big huddle, looking around at the carnage nervously, and watching the other priests and guards help the fallen humans who survived the mansion's demolition. Unlike me, they weren't given any modesty blankets.
"What about the monsters?" I asked. The two monster girls were still kneeling inside the pit.
"They have divine collars too?" he asked.
I just gestured towards them, the black metal collars were plainly visible, even from our view from the pit's side above them.
"The keeping of captive monsters is legal with special permission, if their masters can demonstrate they have a noble bearing and have the resources and proper facilities to keep them safely confined. In this case, the entirety of House Volda has that permission. If these monsters are yours… and you want to… keep them? This is… going to be bureaucratically complicated."