Isekai Walking - Vol. 8 Ch. 70 - Slave Contract

[theShear]

May I get link for those mangas though? I can't help but be curious about them, if you don't mind of course

Honestly I would need to search them up since I removed most of my "reading" list but I bet you know most of them anyway. You know like the Skilltaker one.

 

[T-sama]

Honestly I would need to search them up since I removed most of my "reading" list but I bet you know most of them anyway. You know like the Skilltaker one.

Yeah I should have expected you don't follow them anymore lol, and honestly? 50/50 chance I probably follow at least half of what you had in mind.

Reading isekai is like eating junk food, you know it's pure garbage and bad for your health, but it can be so entertaining, sometimes it's good exactly because it's pure garbage even, no wonder the genre got so big.

After hentai, isekai is probably the most "turn your brain off" genre

 

[Beregorn]

Even if we want to ignore all the moral implications of slavery, he just walked in there asking to make a child his slave, without a scrap of documents proving their identity and relationship...

 

[T-sama]

Even if we want to ignore all the moral implications of slavery, he just walked in there asking to make a child his slave, without a scrap of documents proving their identity and relationship...

Isn't japanese writing a wonderful thing?

 

[tekkenshu7]

@tekkenshu7 I believe he is underage and couldn't adopt her.

He is already considered an adult in that world (like in other fantasy/isekai series, they only allow 'adults' to become adventurers and usually people ages 13 and above are already considered as such.
But I get your point, I forgot he's also a john doe now, since he is technically no longer identified even as an adventurer, adoption doesn't even come as an option anymore.

 

[TheLetterJ]

I have no idea how you got that from my comment, since it doesn't say that.

I don't want to hear anyone complain about a lack of creativity in isekai stories while simultaneously not being able to fathom [that slavery is actually a good thing in this world].

I don't see how it's possible to interpret what you said in any way that doesn't amount to "making slavery good is actually very creative, since it's different than in our world." And maybe you would have a point if that wasn't a very common trope in isekai stories.

 

[sanctuary]

Slavery bros we up

 

[Grye]

We're not trying to justify slavery here, right?

 

[Guromi95]

Honestly yeah, the whole slavery thing feels really forced, especially since Sora became an adventurer super easily without any questions asked (he literally just put a drop of blood in a card which doesn't say his age, and that was it)

Imo, it would've been much better to simply make her an adventurer too, with Sora becoming her senpai and teach her stuff, which could've also reminded him of his early times with the two girls

Just being like "Oh, it's a child without papers? Then she have to become a slave" is just stupid, since if any child lose their paper or is stolen by someone, they would instantaneously become a slave, and that may or may not include nobility since they can't prove their identity, same if they get kidnapped/menaced by someone

It's also stupid because the whole point of the loli was that she was now free of her chains of being a slave assassin, and that she has to learn to not simply take orders, and what does she becomes right after 3 chapters? A slave

But of course, if we do that, we wouldn't have a loli slave, and we can't not have that

I feel like ever since Sora was stalked by the loli, the story became darker and forced for no reason when it was mostly chill adventures and stuff

 

[Dennis-aka-Denji]

Are all isekai mangakas closet confederates or something?

It's mostly about the fetish of having someone be completely subservient to you. A lot of isekai (this one included) are based on web novels writen by amateurs. I'll let you guess what kind of person fantasizes about being taken to a different world so much that they end up writing a cringy novel about it.

Isekai is basically neckbeard fantasy.

 

[Dennis-aka-Denji]

People can accept complete fantasy elements like magic or dragons, but not that a system of slavery in a fictional world isn't as bad as real-life slavery; it's so tiring. I don't want to hear anyone complain about a lack of creativity in isekai stories while simultaneously not being able to fathom things being different from our own world.

How in the hell is this creative? Literally none of this is new. Absolutely every single thing about this bland "don't worry bro the slaves like the slaving" bullshit has been rehashed countless times in other isekai.

 

[Dennis-aka-Denji]

Oh god. I think I read about that one. I think they even arrested the older one?

This is totally a thing that happened and not a MAGA circlejerk.

 

[Sollertia_]

The slave agrees to the slave contract? They make it sound like employment. What alternative does the debt slave, criminal slave, or war slave have- execution or starvation or homelessness? That's not much of a choice, is it?

Besides the execution part, that does sound familiar...

 

[FNZero]

Man, sucks to be so late.

Slavery is inherently bad, is what I would like to say if the slavery in these stories tracked the perversion of personhood the word carries in modern times. In most of these stories it's a lot more like the employee version of military service prior to the 21st century. A lot more wiggle room for what's considered acceptable risks, duties and punishment (as well as room for abuse from those above), but it's not no man's land. There's still the expectation of loyalty and willingness to endure suffering and death for what's deemed reasonable.

As for this particular scenario, Sora is incredibly suspicious. A young adult (in that world) wandering in with no papers, no one who can vouch for him inside or out of the city, and who wants as little questions about his past as possible wanders in with a minor girl he's unrelated to, and cannot/does not provide even the most basic of informations such as her name and age.

What should've happened is Sora gets thanked for maybe being a good samaritan, is sent to get checked for his identity and priors and the girl is sent to an orphanage. There's no world in which they stay together for the foreseeable future, maybe after Sora reestablishes an identity and public image he can be allowed to adopt her.

This rigmarole is a plot contrivance to let them stay together without having to skulk around organized cities, or really any settlement where people will ask questions, because Sora is a goody-two-shoes and the author doesn't want him to live that grey life I guess.

What shocks me is that so far no one mentioned that why yes, of course the slave dealer praises slavery, it's his job! Both Sora and the guard looked pretty uncomfortable with it, with the latter taking a "either take full responsibility and make this your problem or I'll make it my problem" approach from my read.

 

[T-sama]

What shocks me is that so far no one mentioned that why yes, of course the slave dealer praises slavery, it's his job! Both Sora and the guard looked pretty uncomfortable with it, with the latter taking a "either take full responsibility and make this your problem or I'll make it my problem" approach from my read.

I'm offended by your insinuation that the slave dealer has biased opinions about slavery

 

[outinthegardener]

Honestly yeah, the whole slavery thing feels really forced, especially since Sora became an adventurer super easily without any questions asked (he literally just put a drop of blood in a card which doesn't say his age, and that was it)

Yeah, this is really the point. The way they wrote this bit of "ethical slavery" is incredibly stupid. Even by the internal logic of the worldbuilding. People can shut their brains off and enjoy other parts of the story (myself included) but let's not pretend the writer didn't shit a brick into their own mouth.

 

[T-sama]

Yeah, this is really the point. The way they wrote this bit of "ethical slavery" is incredibly stupid. Even by the internal logic of the worldbuilding. People can shut their brains off and enjoy other parts of the story (myself included) but let's not pretend the writer didn't shit a brick into their own mouth.

As you and multiple people mentioned and explained on how poorly this plot is done, in my opinion it only reinforces the idea that it was only included because it's a isekai, there's no other explanation really.

Being generous, I can only think of one possible explanation really, Hikari is too young to be an adventurer, they know for a fact they're not siblings, she doesn't want to go to a orphanage, so even if she gets sent to one she could just escape, and following Sora around probably would cause issues, and she can't stay hidden forever while following him either.

The alternative would be Sora becoming her guardian, he's technically considered an adult by their standards, but right now he's on the run and without any documents, so even if he could legally become her guardian, he's simply too much of a unidentified nobody for them to allow that.

So the only legal option is she voluntary becoming a slave, which seems to be something normal for their world independent of person age.

It's still pretty stupid, but I can only imagine this is more or less the logic behind it, which makes me wonder if manga makes it look even stupider due to missing details from the light novel.

Either way at the end it's still "gotta have slavery in isekai".

 

[beway]

It's a bit like "two-party consent" states for audio recording. It's interesting that the slaver needs permission from the future slave and the master to perform the contract, according to the standards of his profession. I don't think I've ever seen that.

 

[PoDH]

God why some stories just had to do weird justification for slavery. Why not just do a normal contract, or adoption

 

[Maiorem]

It's a bit like "two-party consent" states for audio recording. It's interesting that the slaver needs permission from the future slave and the master to perform the contract, according to the standards of his profession. I don't think I've ever seen that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voluntary_slavery