Another Autumn had come to pass, the fertile fields nearing harvest time.
The human towns of the duchy were tense, for another group of dark elves would be visiting them below the surface for tribute, the price of peace.
Already singing could be heard from the cave exit as a trail of happy, cute, beautiful young dark elves, all female to a fault (and ever since two centuries) kept marching semi-orderly, bringing a caravan full of cages, armed to the teeth to exact their tribute from the human duchy submitting to them above.
Human tribute. They had come to collect slaves.
More white-haired, black-skinned dark elves, those monster women, beautiful, ebon-skinned, white-haired elves would come out to the surface, choosing some of the healthiest, most attractive sons and hardworking daughters and picking them away from their families to slavery, taking them to be sold to their underground cities. For most, it was a sad separation with a distant hope of returning depending on the Dark Elf Queen's mercy and hard work. For some, it was a dark desire come true, particularly for young and eager men who were enamored by the exotic dark-elven beauty, particularly young men in poverty who could have the quiet pride of fathering children, even non-human children in well-off families: dark elves would love (at least treat decently) the fathers of their children as husbands (as long as they knew their place). For others (particularly the poorest and smart- and mostly female humans), it was just an opportunity to become something else in a society where the race barrier was less abrasive than a human feudal structure bordering on a caste system; therefore, talented, healthy peasant girls with low pride were the prized merchandise to work below the earth, feet shackled and naked at worst, dressed in soft, revealing clothes at best: on top of that, all slaves had magical healthcare beyond the primitive human methods of the duchy.
And it was an unspoken truth that the demon energy of monstergirls made humans around them live longer and age slower...
More than a few poor families with talented, intelligent, and skilled children who could calculate and work smart gave them up, hoping in time their mistresses would allow them to buy freedom and return with education and money from the dark elves' underground metropolis. Their dark queen, as dark and domineering species as she belonged to, technically allowed it.
Such was fate when the small human duchy was situated away from other human lands, unable to protect itself from monstergirl raiders around it, as well as the detritus of the Third Demon War: Shadow demons, whose touch corrupted all human flesh and left monstergirls intact(of course, a shadow demon would still kill and eat said monstergirl, but mamono can fight back without permanent injuries.)
At least she had enough mercy to set up rules against picking too many at once. One boy and girl each in every fortieth household per year would suffice. The girls would toil as slaves in the dark elves' undercities in a variety of jobs, and the boys would be the consorts of a species that needed the humans they once detested.
To many, it would sound ironic that the dark elves' survival depended on the humans just as well.
*-*-*-*
TWO DAYS AGO:
The palace of the Dark Elven Queen was situated amid the circular metropolis designed with an obsessive need for order and control, hewn from obsidian, and basalt and reinforced with purple-and-black bricks iconic of dark elves. Below the palace, dark-elven citizens went about their business with their slaves in tow. Those accompanying the beautiful, sinister dark elves on leashes were mostly human and female. Traditionally, men belonged to the dark elven bedroom and kitchen, tending to their children during the day. Those slave girls were often busy following their owners on leashes as porters, or as secretaries taking notes, and reminding them of daily schedules. Seniority could be seen from their faces: red and shy if they were new, docile and neutral if experienced. Dark elves kept their human slaves naked in public to teach them vulnerability and helplessness, as well as breaking them of their notions of prudishness for nudity was nothing to be ashamed of. Senior slaves could be recognized by their casual approach to nudity after wearing nothing for years, working and happily chatting with their mistresses while carrying their items wearing only a backpack at most, and being gifted small articles of clothing such as skirts, loincloths, and vests.
Inside the palace, the court had assembled for the monthly decisions in the throne room, more naked human women continuously cleaning the palace floors and furniture, wearing only slave collars and shackles on their feet, seen but not heard.
The throne room was a wonder of engineering and architecture, with one door leading inside, a single block of obsidian inlaid with gold linings. Flanking the door were four armored dark-elven women with spears, whose plate mails and armament were more an erotic artwork than for protection, looking like silvery thongs hiding almost nothing.
Relaxing on her throne with two naked human women at her side with their hands clasped before them in servitude, the dark-elven queen, now pregnant again, listened to her advisors as they presented their pre-Tribute reports. Her feet were being rubbed and washed by another human slave girl in a ceramic basin with hot water: pregnancy had its burdens on the body. Yet the queen had to serve her people just as the humans served her race, for leadership came with its counter duties to the subjects...
The first report came from a bespectacled, bookish dark elf with a naked, bald, black-skinned human slave girl behind her, holding her papers and folders in her arms.
"Majordomo Thaalvi, speak." The pregnant dark-elven queen smiled kindly. The nameless slave girl, head bowed, handed the first folder to the majordomo.
"Your Grace," Thaalvi began, kissing her girl's bald head as thanks. "Our yearly treasury..."
*-*-*-*
The dreary task of ruling the kingdom was paused when Melasa dismissed the council with a wave of her hand for half an hour.
The queen was a bit soft at heart, something she didn't dare confide in others. She did not want her people to focus on an outdated, necessary evil for gathering human men. Tearing children away from their families to support her people's hunger for servants, slave labor, exotic luxuries (rubber-coated human girls made into living furniture was an expensive luxury) and sex was not a pleasant thing to think of. When alone, she felt often uneasy, even slightly guilty when she heard some human mothers wept: humans, as lowly as they were, had feelings too.
Still...
Superior beings used the lower beings as servants and cattle, it was the unspoken law of the world. The best thing she could do was outlaw abuse and permanent maiming, ensuring the human slaves were fed well, housed, and taken care of.
Perhaps in the future, arrangements could be made with the human empire. Migration with indentured servitude in return for open sexuality, healthcare, and free housing was one idea... Perhaps spies could seduce lonely, underachieving men in Lescatian society and snatch them, as well as any "un-feminine" tomboys, outcasts, lewd submissives, and single women for a society that doesn't care how they act and whom they love as long as they work.
"The tax-free sale of human men as sex slaves to single dark elf citizens has been a boon, allowing us to recoup what we pay our citizens and much more from private merchants. Years of conservation also paid off: the first captive-born generation of our pale cousins, High Elves, matured, and on their eighteenth birthday; the slave schools' graduates were sent en masse to Schwarzelfstadt, the surface. Every year we expect to export High Elf slave girls everywhere to replenish their numbers and a past wrong corrected. Lescatie buys and frees them, settling them in their lands and forests. Other smaller kingdoms also buy and free, or marry them. The slaves are happy to give birth and be pampered, we export High Elf mothers together with their children if they want it. However, this has murdered our food production: we are now a net importer, though this shouldn't be an issue as our surface citizens' slave farms report record harvests, so we can import as much as we want. Our mushroom caves and fisheries just won't do."
Thaalvi flipped to the next page.
"Our dwarven slave workforce also increased in number, though pregnant slaves drive down our digging efforts, as we cannot force them to use contraceptives all the time. We need to expand creches for new slave children born in captivity, dwarves, High Elf, or humans. Or we can sell slaves that aren't worth keeping, human charity Fraterni Caritas is willing to repatriate some taken humans whose families can pay."
"Assign educational zoning to reclaimed caverns immediately, and tell the human Fraterni to send a representative, as well as our dear Dwarven queen. I remember we harvested quite capable slave girls in infrastructure construction, they had restored most of the roads on the surface, correct?"
"Yes," Thaalvi nodded. "A selfless slave girl of some importance, Laura, or Lora, directed her slave battalion quite well. I think she was taken from a small town."
The queen replied with satisfaction. "Assign her and her slave builders, give her freedom and citizenship at the end of a five-year grace period, and a generous house to discourage return. Do not force her to stay: We can try to be kind and generous to hard-working humans." Then she munched on a peach before continuing. "And you shall prepare long-term plans for a High Elf reservation. It will be built in a forest, where the white elves will be left unmolested, not even by us."
