Saijaku Tamer wa Gomi Hiroi no Tabi wo Hajimemashita - Vol. 8 Ch. 29.5 - Bonus chapter

[HirunaSachiro]

Does Ivy even need a slave, what with her magic cat?

Unfortunately, in the context of this world, she absolutely does.

It doesn't seem to be mentioned in the manga as explicitly, but in the LN and WN, Ciel gives off a very powerful magical aura of "big monster, village-destroying threat levels, send in all able-bodied soldiers/adventurers to drive off." Ivy needs someone who can be her adult support in human towns where Ciel cannot be in.

Remember, her common sense is skewed between her memories from her past (adult) life and being a literal 9 year old. Reconciling the two halves of her knowledge is an ongoing concern.

Spoiler: It won't be until later when...

Ciel gets the ability to turn into an adorably cute slime (albeit with adandara markings) so they can accompany Ivy and Druid into towns without being noticed, as they also learn how to cloak the murder aura. You can see it on the cover of LN4.

For anyone concerned about usagi issues, I can confidently and 100% say that it never happens, and I've read through chapter... I think I lost track around chapter 970 or so of the WN before getting distracted by other stories. It's just a wholesome story of societal outcasts traveling together and resolving issues as they pass by.

If you think the slavery issue (which is more of indentured servitude) is a problem, just you wait...

 

[Superpeanut]

yeah, I agree with you on the fact so many stories are trying to justify slavery being quite vexing.

My thinking was that I don't see often is them trying to step away from it and the issues it would cause unwrapping it from being so ingrained in the system.
Why people might argue for it remaining for reasons that aren’t strictly abhorrent. such as magical binds securing the safety of a VIP as is referred to in this chapter. And of course ways to maintain that security while maintaining a person's freedom.

Magical contracts, would be a logical alternative to create as the magic would have to exist to create the slave contract that can bind in the first place.

I'm probably over thinking it but delving into what something implies must exist by it existing I find rather interesting thought exercise.

But that's some of the fun! That's what's cool about really well written stories, they make you interested in diving deeper into the world.

As much as I like simple, trashy stories... It's also nice to get something that rewards the reader for being invested.

 

[panchan68]

regarding the slavery in this title, so the debt slaves are common in adventurers so that it can help the adventurers to have their finances in check and take the requests seriously. basically teaches them to be responsible. most of the debt slaves goes from 3-5yrs. while its another story for none adventurers.

Also rattloore himself became a debt slave before but lucky for him his friend bought his contract and he paid it off for x number of years (i forgot the specific year)

----

i also seen somewhere here that says something about contract like NDA right? so here they do exist but the consequence is also either monetary compensation or slavery

 

[Beregorn]

Japan and their raging boner for slavery...

 

[Pokari]

Damn, the moment I said it... here we go, now that we're out of the "fear of being made a slave" arc, straight into the "would you like to own a slave?" arc?

Oh dear.

there's a funny correlation between people who just read a bunch of manga and see some portion make mentions to slavery regardless of whether it's touted as good/bad in the context of the story going "damn, the japanese love slavery huh". As if the similarly sized portion of western writers in various genres don't have a similar fondness for writing about it...

I'm willing to give this series enough rope to hang itself with. I can see ways this could go in this series that would be okay. But the signs right now are bad: It's really pushing this idea that she should have a debtor stripped of their free will and bound to her to defend her with their life. For not being able to pay their bills. That is deeply fucked up. And for the moment, it's seemingly glossing over how fucked up it is.

And while it is possible to nonchalantly push something deeply fucked up like this into a series and then later go back and address it, on this particular topic in manga that's been... pretty rare, to date. Personally I cannot but suspect it'll either relieve me by resolving to something like, "yeah okay this whole slavery thing is awful from top to bottom" in a couple chapters, or it simply won't. Ever.

(Regarding cultural stuff... I've always interpreted in most manga that have it as implicitly just another flavour of non-con fetish, varying from subtle to blatant, rather than a sincere pro-slavery stance in particular. Which is... I mean, is that better? Is that worse? I feel sick when people try to whitewash slavery regardless whether of it's a mangaka's devised in-universe statement's in service of a manga's ecchi subtext, or whether it's by """independent thinkers""" saying stupid shit in the west, honestly. Of course, both cultures have some of both. Regardless of which it is, there are a simultaneously infuriating-and-terrifying number of people who will accept the pro-slavery arguments uncritically. Some are here in these comments already...)