Dungeon of Niflheim

Frost was silent as he thought long and hard, luckily the young girl and boy were very patient. Occasionally Frost would look over at Maya and Sebastian, but they’d always reply with their eyes saying ‘this is on you’ refusing to help him. Maya’s gaze however was a little different, it also continued a warning that the names also had to be good. Frost felt pressured and, on the spot, but eventually he decided.

‘Hopefully they like them,’ he looked over to the young boy first. He was weaker, young, and less bold than his sister yet when it truly counted, he would rush in to protect her.

“....Loki....your name from now on will be Loki.” Frost smiled, happy with his choice before turning the face the girl. The one who called out to him without knowing if he was good or evil. The one who also placed herself in front of her younger brother, boldly facing against any threat.

“Yours shall be Nanna,” Frost placed his hand upon their heads and tussled their hair, he felt proud. He turned around to Maya and Sebastian who were nodding their heads and smiling, they too were happy with the names.

“....Loki”

“....Nanna” Loki and Nanna looked at one another, saying each other’s names. They were happy and proud, these names felt different than the ones they had before, they felt special.

“Loki greets you master.”

“Nanna greets you master.” Loki and Nanna both greeted Frost once again while bowing, using their newly acquired names, completing the ceremony.

.....

“Perfect, great names young Frost.” Sebastian nodded at the side before removing a parchment from his spatial ring.

“Technically in regards to binding the three of you, the ceremony is already competed due to the slave tattoos overriding the need for any written contract but it’s best we follow protocol.” A slave contract would normally be written on special parchment by a slave merchant. It would contain the rights and responsibilities of the concerned parties as well as details about the extent of the contract i.e., if the slave needed to pay off a certain amount of debt to regain citizen status or be a slave for a certain period of time. It would also serve as a form of legal ID for the slave and clearly state who was the master. Slaves have of course been known to flee from their masters, this would help authorities return them to their owners as well as increase their debt as punishment.

In regards to the slave contract between Frost, Loki, and Nanna this would only identify Frost as their assigned master as well as a few personal details.

Sebastian placed the parchment on one of the nearby tables before summoning a special pen.

“I’ve already finished writing the basics, all you need to do is sign it.” After a few flourishes the parchment gave of a slight golden glow. Sebastian then passed the pen over to Frost.

Frost took the pen and looked over the contract. It really was bare bones, there was an area at the bottom right where he had to sign. One section for the master and another for the slaves.

Without hesitation Frost signed his name as well as Loki’s and Nanna’s. Once finished the slave contract glowed even brighter before turning into mana particles and flowing into Loki’s and Nanna’s collars, bringing this matter to a close. The slave contract was finished, Nanna and Loki now officially belonged to Frost for all intents and purposes. The deed was done and hopefully the royal family of Northrend would agree to not purse this issue.

Nanna and Loki smiled at one another before jumping up in joy, this brought a smile to Frost and Maya’s faces.

With the dangerous and legally risky task now over, it was finally time to enjoy the spoils. It’d be a couple days or so before they could receive their major reward from Leo, so they needed to spend that time somehow.

“May I suggest a little shopping?” Sebastian spoke up from the side, as a merchant that was always his go to. Frost still had some money leftover plus there was the many jewels and other nick knacks he pilfered from Adam’s vault. They also had a couple more days paid up for Kathy’s inn, it’d be a shame to waste those delectable meals.

“Are you treating?” Frost smirked; Sebastian was probably the richest man in the viscounty given how easily he downed a high level mana potion.

“Hahaha I’ve already treated you pretty well with my services here, if anything you should be treating me ahahahaa” Sebastian laughed without restraint causing Frost to wince slightly, someone with Sebastian’s tastes would be anything but cheap.

“Hahaha relax kid I was only joking, I can recommend a nice clothing store that I own, Nanna and Loki could probably do with some new attire.” Sebastian looked over Nanna and Loki who still had the torn rags that they were found in.

Before Frost could reply, his choice was already made for him.

“That would be lovely Sebastian, we’ll take you up on that offer.” Maya chimed in while taking hold of Loki’s and Nanna’s hands, her eyes sparkled with the idea of clothes shopping. And Frost felt another headache coming on.

‘Doesn’t she have enough dresses?’ Frost then looked over Loki and Nanna and his gaze softened.

“I agree....lets go shopping.” He smiled towards the kids.

Leo and Luna were out working in the central district and Douglas was currently resting with Cassandra by his side having her first good rest in months.

The servants although young and inexperienced were full of enthusiasm, working hard, cleaning up the entire manor to the best of their abilities. It was time for the Furano mansion to once more become a beacon of the territories’ prosperity. It would take time and hard work, but the servants were determined to restore the mansion to the glory it once had.

Frost, Maya, and the kids were then left to their own devices and heading out for some shopping was a great suggestion. Frost let some of the servants know that they were heading out, so Leo wouldn’t panic when he returned.

“We can take my carriage, it’s pretty fast.” Sebastian offered to guide them and take them to his store. He wouldn’t join them in shopping since he was incredibly tired and needed to return home and sleep. Luckily his store was right below his penthouse suite, killing two birds with one stone.

The group entered the carriage and set off towards the eastern shopping district where Sebastian’s store was. Sebastian actually had multiple stores all selling different things, he was a very accomplished merchant after all but the one he recommended could be considered his flagship store. It was pretty much an entire mall in itself. It sold not only clothes but produce, armour, weapons, magic devices, pretty much everything. Nothing specialised but with great variety, perfect for the regular hustle and bustle.

The carriage pulled up in front of the main entrance to this massive store that stood at four floors high plus a basement. It was busy even at this time of the morning, Sebastian said that they were mainly here for grocery shopping and or visiting the café he had built on the second floor that does a spectacular breakfast.

“My grandson’s in charge of this store as well as many others, I’m grooming him to be my successor.” Sebastian nodded with pride as he mentioned his grandson. His sons and daughters as well as nephews and nieces were either incapable or greedy money grubbers without care for the customers. He refused to hand his empire over to such ingrates, so he had to remain in power until the next generation reached maturity. Finally, his 4th grandson showed great promise as did a few others, so he planned on splitting up his empire between them with his 4th grandson taking care of the majority. So far, he’d been performing above expectations as had his siblings and cousins, it brought Sebastian joy every time he saw them thrive, but it wasn’t enough. They needed to stabilise their positions before he could officially retire or die whichever came first.

“I’ll have him come and say hi as well as ask him to give you a little discount on behalf of the little cuties here.” Sebastian had already emptied his pockets of all his candy reserves, addicted to the bright and happy expressions the kids would show as they munched on them.

‘It’d do good for Calder to be in contact with Frost.’ Sebastian had a very high opinion of Frost and Maya and felt they’d become incredibly important. Best to have his successor form a bond while they were still rather unknown.

Once they alighted from the carriage Sebastian waved goodbye, reluctance in his eyes as his gaze wandered over Loki and Nanna but eventually, he had to go, his eyes were starting to droop.

The four of them were thus standing outside this busy shop looking a little out of place, occasionally receiving a few untoward looks due to the collars of Loki and Nanna as well as their poor attire.

“First off let’s get you guys some clothes.” Frost ushered them into the store, the judging looks from passing people was quite uncomfortable. Luckily, they were seen to be travelling with Sebastian otherwise they would have been reported to the local guards.

There was a few areas that sold clothes but thanks to the signs hanging above they were able to quickly find the children’s section. Due to their poor treatments and malnourishment Loki and Nanna were a lot smaller than they should be.

Maya quickly walked up to shop clerk asking for some assistance in gathering a plethora of clothes for the two to try on. The clerk was more than happy to help, the poor attire and cute faces of Loki and Nanna inspired a strong desire to dress them up and take care of them.

Frost was pretty useless here, only his hard earned money was any good and under Maya’s urging he handed over all he had left in his coin purse, a little over 1 gold coin.

‘That should be more than enough.’ Frost sighed internally but wasn’t to adverse to the entire gold coin possibly being spent on clothes, since he was due a fairly substantial reward in a couple days plus the items stored in his storage ring or rings now.

“Young master you go off and get us some more money and take care of things non-clothing related. I’ll take care of little Loki and Nanna here. We’ll be a while so come and check every so often so we can show off their new looks.” Maya shooed him away before ushering Loki and Nanna towards the changing rooms along with the excited store clerk who at some point roped in another female colleague. Thankfully Loki and Nanna were both overjoyed with all the fussing over them and looked forward to new clothes.

With that Frost was left behind with a few mothers also shopping, giggling in the distance.

“Haaaaaa oh well might as well look around.” Frost left the children’s clothing area and looked for an area to sit down, undisturbed. It was time for him to calculate exactly what he gained from his pilfering, including the storage rings held by Shadow that he yet to fully examine.

He quickly found what looked to be some kind of artistic fountain that had a multiple seats around it for people to take a break from their shopping and admire the scenery. He sat down and fiddled with Shadow’s storage ring.

“Now let’s see what kind of things you stored away; money would nice.” Frost didn’t have to much hope in that regard since his brother Alex only held around 20 silver in his coin purse. Then again that was probably to reduce the chances of being linked solidly to Adam, plus he most likely kept his fortune in the bank like most well off people. However, when he searched the space, he was more than pleasantly surprised.