Isekai Walking - Vol. 8 Ch. 69 - Special Slave

[banjomarx]

unregulated guardianship slavery… why did it have to be slavery??? Why is it always slavery???

And once again slavery has solved all of my problems with absolutely 0 negative repercussions - some isekai protag probably

 

[Lotharu]

how BITCH, HOW? you can see they have devices to prove if they're relatives, and explaining their circumstances will bring unwarranted attention considering they didn't report their encounter with the demon to a city he can no longer return to.

Adoption? Guardianship? Not even being stopped at the gate? Author literally is creating this world, and has near infinite ways out of a scenario such a this without resorting to the tired and frustrating trope of slavery. Especially after the previous chapters' comments against it

 

[Selfisch]

They could have named it literally anything else but slave, because what they described wasn't even slavery. Jesus christ I hate these fucking isekai tropes that always seem to come into play one way or another

 

[Perfurator]

Isekai John Brown disapproves.

 

[koga88]

They really did just write themselves into this one. Yeah the guy can't use any official documents himself but that doesn't mean he couldn't have come up with a better idea on her backstory than "found in woods"? And they just so happen to have a device that checks blood relation? How odd is that.

Hell, he could have just snuck into town somehow rather than go through the front gate if they wanted, I doubt they even check past the gate. But nope, have to get the child slave.

 

[nidaime]

Okay




Guys, GUYS. Okay, I hate to be devil's advocate here, but this time the "special slaves" system seemed familiar to me as an actual historical system. And it was: the medieval apprenticeship.

Long story short, a 10-15 y.o. child could go to a medieval trade guild and ask for an apprenticeship, then with the guardians' permission they could go to the workshop of a crafter and work and learn under them, sometimes living-in in the crafter's household. These things were usually contracted through an indenture (a kind of "slavery"). After seven years or so, the apprentice could go their way as a journeyman crafter or continue in the workshop until become a master of the craft.

There is a manga which deal with something like this: Arte. In here you can see how this worked more-or-less historically.

So this time there was some actual basis. But you guys are right: Japan's fixation with slavery in fantasy is VERY worrying, specially taking into account Japan's history, even the comparatively recent (WW2) events.

You know what else was common back then? Dysentery. How many light novels do we have where people are shitting themselves to death?

 

[Doenyon]

Oh yeah, let's use slavery binds on the girl that had a slavery bind just removed with the king.
For f's sake, call it adoption !

 

[darkrap19]

Okay




Guys, GUYS. Okay, I hate to be devil's advocate here, but this time the "special slaves" system seemed familiar to me as an actual historical system. And it was: the medieval apprenticeship.

Long story short, a 10-15 y.o. child could go to a medieval trade guild and ask for an apprenticeship, then with the guardians' permission they could go to the workshop of a crafter and work and learn under them, sometimes living-in in the crafter's household. These things were usually contracted through an indenture (a kind of "slavery"). After seven years or so, the apprentice could go their way as a journeyman crafter or continue in the workshop until become a master of the craft.

There is a manga which deal with something like this: Arte. In here you can see how this worked more-or-less historically.

So this time there was some actual basis. But you guys are right: Japan's fixation with slavery in fantasy is VERY worrying, specially taking into account Japan's history, even the comparatively recent (WW2) events.

Apprenticeship is not even remotely the same as slavery. Apprenticeship is a contract, in exchange for work the kid is educated and gets their basic needs fulfilled, slavery is a situation in which one person gets to own someone else.

 

[Nick86]

Well, call it contract if is just a name issue. Indeed is a trope, like the hero that save the heroine 3 seconds before die (Mushoku Tensei today episode). As much as i hate tropes, is a thing of the japanese narrative, move on.

 

[Salfaro]

lmfao, of course. There's simply no other system that can be used to have an adult look after a child in an official capacity.

Slavery is the only way.

 

[ciera]

Thank you for the scanlation

 

[BladeGrip]

I gotta wonder why it feels like the anti-slavery voices are much louder here than in other isekai stories where slavery is also present in the worldbuilding.

 

[Hikineet]

Thanks for the chapter.

 

[kaylani]

1) avoid unnecessary worldbuilding, because this doesn't seem the type of drama to care much about the legal aspects of its fictional empires/states/whatever
2) grant a way for both of them to have an unalienable (for the time being) bond


how BITCH, HOW? you can see they have devices to prove if they're relatives, and explaining their circumstances will bring unwarranted attention considering they didn't report their encounter with the demon to a city he can no longer return to.

You say this like the world of the manga is it’s own independent existence. You know the author could just not have made them traveling together as an issue right? They could say “we’re traveling adventurers” and the guard can say “ok👍” because this as you said is a medival-esque world surely young people making their own way is not strange.
And why do they need an excuse for a bond? They’re fictional. She’s not going to run away out of nowhere if the author doesn't want her to, not even mentioning she already felt very strongly about him in the first place.
Nothing slavery could bring to the table is unsolvable here. It’s just weird.

 

[MeteorCat07]

"Adoption" - Wouldn't work, because he'd need to fill out extra paperwork for that. Go through extra processes that'd register them both.

"Guardianship" - Literally the exact same problems as above.

I mean come on, was reading the freaking text presented to you in the chapter that fucking hard? Or did the brains of most of the people in here, get blindsided by the word 'slavery' and go full-tilt without even giving it some thought?

Swear to god, some of you are so drunk on the feeling of "how right you are" whilst being unable to simply comprehend and piece together a few simple sentences.

They didn't have identification documents, and they needed that to freaking. You can even see dude saying he left his GUILD CARD back in the forest with his old bag. You know, to make it clear he was fucking dead?

I don't know about how many of you have dealt with legal processes, but paperwork gets backed up and kept around, often a copy for you, and for the person you're signing it for. Meaning that, if those copies get around, he'd have to deal with an even bigger pain in the ass than he already has. The Special Slave thing allows him to not have to deal with paperwork, which means it's extremely unlikely that it'll be reported back to the king.

Also, a little tid-bit of knowledge, slavery is fucking ancient, and has apparently been documented to have been in practice since - 3500BC. Some of the most prominent slave traders dating back to a couple of hundred years ago, weren't even the fucking Europeans/early American settlers that y'all are losing your shit over. It was the Arabs. Even very recently, about only 100 to 150 (not exactly sure cuz I couldn't care less) years ago, the Arabs were still trading slaves. Talk shit when you actually know shit.

Another thing? If you're gonna get up in arms about something simple like this, then I hope y'all will be prepared when you read an isekai with truly, truly different moral values from our own world.

Sorry but I'm tired of seeing a bunch of y'all acting like children, not even having any decently valid criticisms for the most part. That one guy who was talking about raging teenage hormones, tho? He had a point with that statement. Try and be more like that.

Peace.

 

[Primalmoon]

Given how much of a fire this topic caused, should there be a tag for mangas that have "slavery" as a content warning?

edit: added that as a suggestion to this new tag suggestions thread

 

[MeteorCat07]

Given how much of a fire this topic caused, should there be a tag for mangas that have "slavery" as a content warning?

Probably for the best tbh. At least it'd keep the people who are too up their own A from massively blowing things out of proportion instead of just enjoying the manga for what it is.

 

[IsaacBai]

Aaand dropped and 1 starred. Idk what the Japanese Manga author population's obsession with slavery is but its fucking gross and it fucking sucks

 

[sichka]

isekai and slavery

 

[MarsVoltaire]

Ah yes. Love me some good ol' fashioned slavery. Now I just need a sprinkle of racism agaisnt everyone who's not human and were good to go.