"Misha? What do you mean by that?"
Misha put a finger in her mouth, asking them to be quiet, and the girls immediately pursed their lips.
Although they were in the bedroom, the insulation here was horrible. Heaving a deep breath, Misha took some items from her space.
One of the loopholes of slavery was that their spaces were unaffected. This was why Sarah managed to keep much of her money, because she transformed it into its physical form before the war ended.
This knowledge was not a secret, but not exactly widespread either. Those who figured it out tended to hide it, lest their ’masters’ would order them to give what they saved.
Another was that the default mode of a slave was really just to follow the explicit orders of citizens. That was to say, as long as they didn’t sign a detailed oath of non-betrayal or things like that, they wouldn’t be bound by it.
It was just that in most cases, the slaves were either too scared, too tired, or too hopeless to do anything about their situation. Further, they were usually ordered around at all times. They simply didn’t have the time nor the energy to have intelligent rebellious thoughts that could actually work.
This was understandable, especially when anyone around them could order them to stab themselves in the neck.
In the same vein, one could see that Alterra’s requirement for slaves to sign oaths (because they were, technically, freed in a sense) had an unintended consequence to counter this loophole.
The girls looked at the item Misha took out. It was a green-brown bar that looked like frozen vomit.
The girls gazed at it weirdly. "What is it?"
"It’s medicine that will make it seem like you have a horrid allergic reaction. It would temporarily affect the skin, causing redness, and even the formation of some pus.
"We need to get this to everyone," she told them.
"You only have one?"
"It’s like a soap, and it can work on whoever uses it."
This item actually came from Silvia. As for why Silvia even had such a thing in her space, it was related to a woman’s foresight.
Althea made it herself, in fact. However, since it was a bit...unpalatable and could be considered a hidden weapon, she only sent it to women on her side entering aborigine territories.
Silvia bought a box-worth of the item on top of what Althea gave for free.
Although she was crossdressing now, she might be found out to be a woman eventually. No woman without status was safe in this world, and it was best to assume that she’d encounter people who’d want to take her away.
Rowan—bless his soul—was unfortunately not strong enough to handle every problem they’d encounter in a Town.
At the same time, although she didn’t say anything, the amount of preparation she made Rowan both relieved and sad.
Rowan thought: If he was strong enough, how could she be so insecure?
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