[Episode 70003] [Episode 70003]Nabiki had been about to make her choice when she was rudely awakened. She groggily found herself once again wrapped in her uncomfortable blanket on the hard floor. She was shortly startled into a more wakeful condition by the angry mob outside brandishing torches and weapons outside. Her owner was soon beside her. He said, "Come.", and took her arm with an absent-minded grip Nabiki found disturbingly painful. She realized he didn’t mean to hurt her, but that made her feel all the more powerless and vulnerable.
Her owner led her to the apparent leader of the mob. In the following ultimatum, the mob leader pointed at her and insisted that she had to go, or they would burn down the store. Her owner tried to pacify the mob leader and just barely succeeded. The promise that Nabiki would not be involved with the store any more was about the only thing that made any dent in the determination of the mob leader to burn the place down right then and there.
A tense Nabiki and her very concerned owner went back inside. The mob marched in a torchlight parade around the shop once more and dispersed.
When the mob had dispersed, Nabiki’s owner lit a lamp and they sat at a small table and discussed her future.
"You heard them. If you work here any longer, they’ll burn me out of my store. You’ve been really pulling in the customers and money at an astounding rate, but I still can’t afford that. You’ve made a lot of enemies that can’t be ignored."
"What about the police - the city guard, won’t they protect you?", Nabiki asked.
"What universe are you from?", her owner asked. "No, they won’t protect me. In fact, the leader of the mob was the brother of the town magistrate. You noticed their disguises were pretty shoddy. All they needed was plausible deniability. No, I’m afraid I can’t let you sell for me any more, enormously profitable though it has been. When I recognized how hard a bargain you drove with me, I knew you’d make a great salesperson. I never dreamed you’d be able to attract so many customers. You just need to work on somehow getting along with your neighbors at the same time. I’ve come out well ahead, but it’s time to sell you."
"But I was going to buy my freedom!", protested Nabiki.
"You certainly made a good start at it.", agreed the shopkeeper. "However, with enemies like that, you’re not going to succeed. I don’t think you’re really ready for freedom quite yet anyway. If you don’t grow a bit before you reach freedom, you’ll be sorry. You need to learn the ropes around here a bit better." He paused and let that sink in a bit.
"I keep my bargains. I owe you your commissions, but there will be little way for you to keep them when I sell you. Hmmm." Another pause.
"You’re a beginning healer aren’t you?", he asked.
Nabiki affirmed that she was.
"I’m going to enroll you at the local hospital for more advanced healer training.", her owner announced. "A couple weeks of healer training will about use up the money you’ve earned as commissions. I think you’re ready for more training anyway. If you’re not ready, you just won’t quite learn the skills in that time."
Nabiki tried to discuss things with her owner a bit longer, but he cut her off. "Go back to bed. We’re both tired, and you’ve been working your pretty tail off lately. We’ll take you to the hospital in the morning."
Her owner turned and started back upstairs. Halfway up, he paused and turned back towards Nabiki. "We agreed I couldn’t demand your sexual favors. But I’m inviting you. My bed is a lot more comfortable than the floor too." He smirked at her and turned back upstairs.
Between fighting her newly exagerrated lusts and apprehension over the future, Nabiki had trouble getting back to sleep on the uncomfortable floor.
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(Posted Fri, 26 Sep 2003 18:32)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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