The next day, when Xiro invited several partners to inspect the goods, Xiao Chen and Luo Ling took Kalanda to the slave market. Suero's slave market was naturally not in the inner city, but about one kilometer east of the outer city.
The slave market was different from other markets. It was separated by a tall and heavy fence, with only two gates on the east and west sides, each guarded by a team of fully armed mercenaries. There were many towers around the market, with mercenaries holding bows and arrows, vigilantly observing the surroundings. This place was more like a fortress than a market.
When they entered the door, the mercenary on duty obviously knew Kalanda. He nodded and greeted her, then looked at Xiao Chen and the other person carefully before making way for them and letting them in.
"The slave market is strictly inspected. If the person is not brought by an acquaintance or is of noble status, he or she will sometimes be searched. Those greedy and timid slave traders are afraid of slave riots." said Kalanda. She has lived here for many years and is naturally familiar with some of the stories.
"Has this happened before?" Xiao Chen carefully looked at the mercenaries coming and going at the door. He saw that they were wearing scale armor, with long swords on their waists and crossbows on their backs. They were more elite than the warriors he had hired before.
"Some people can accept their fate of being slaves, but some people would rather die to fight for a chance at freedom." Kalanda led the two people inside and lowered his voice. "Ten years ago, someone organized a riot with the help of others. All the slaves in the slave market escaped. The guards and merchants in the market were killed, and the outer city of Suero was also looted. Even the inner city was almost taken down. The father of the current city defender Baron Gregory died in battle at that time."
"What happened next?" Seeing Kalanda's serious expression, Luo Ling secretly guessed that this matter would not have a good outcome.
Kalanda forgot to glance at the tall tower on the hillside of the inner city in the distance. "Master Ikasa of the Spirit Eye Tower took action and killed the leader of the slaves, so that the slaves could not rush into the inner city. It is said that those people suddenly attacked each other under the influence of magic, and were later surrounded by the private armies of nobles from surrounding cities, and they all died miserably."
"Do you feel some sympathy for those slaves?" Luo Ling asked.
Kalanda hesitated. "I can't say I sympathize with them... They did a lot of terrible things after the uprising. If I were there, I would definitely fight them. But if it weren't for those slave traders, they wouldn't have faced such a fate."
"The battle between two classes is always the most brutal. Compared to it, the war between nobles is like a game." Luo Ling sighed.
"What did you say?" Karanda asked puzzled.
"They are on a life-and-death standpoint with each other, and there are no so-called 'rules of war'. So once slaves break free from their shackles, the slave owners will not have an easy time," Luo Ling explained.
"Okay, why are we still talking about the same old stuff now? We are not slave owners. Don't forget, we also have modern management techniques." Xiao Chen interrupted the conversation.
Luo Ling raised her chin slightly and smiled at Xiao Chen. That smile was provocative but without any words of defense. Instead, she asked Kalanda, "What happened to those slaves later?"
"Disperse. Those people have marks on their faces. They can't go inside the kingdom. Some became horse thieves, some crossed the border and joined the empire, and some... I heard they entered the temple of the false god."
"False God? I've only heard that people here believe in the God of Nature." Xiao Chen said in surprise.
"Fake..." Kalanda was about to explain, but suddenly looked ahead and changed his words, "I made a slip of the tongue. Let's talk about something else."
Xiao Chen followed her gaze and saw three people in green robes walking towards them. The robes were very strange, as if woven with vines and leaves. Although they looked crude, they looked very harmonious on these people.
"People from the Temple of Nature?" Xiao Chen asked in a low voice.
Karanda nodded silently.
Xiao Chen had never dealt with people from the Temple of Nature, and was looking at their clothes with great interest. But he did not expect that the three of them would come over to greet him when they saw them.
"Nature has blessed us with abundance, Miss Luo. I didn't expect to see you here." The middle-aged man in the lead was about fifty years old, a little fat, with a round head, thick eyebrows, and a constant smile on his face. He looked like a businessman. He stretched his arms diagonally downward, spread his palms flat, palms facing up, and performed the etiquette of the Temple of Nature.
"May Heaven and Earth protect the world. Priest Roland, what a coincidence, how come you are here?" Luo Ling showed just the right amount of surprise, touched his forehead lightly with her hand, and returned the wizard's salute to the other party.
"Naturally, servants always have endless things to do. There are too many people in the slave market, and there has been an epidemic in the north recently, so we have to come and take a look." Roland explained while looking at Luo Ling's companion, "Ah, I know this person, he is the leader of the Blue Flame Mercenary Group, Kalanda. Who is this handsome young man?"
"He is the Mage Xiao Chen that I mentioned."
"Ah, I'm sorry. I've heard your name mentioned by many people." Priest Roland nodded to him and said, "Suero needs some fresh blood. Otherwise, even if people come and go, it's still full of stale air."
"Do you think Suero needs some changes?" Xiao Chen felt that there was something behind the priest's words.
"River water will not stay in the riverbed forever, and mountain wind will not linger in the valley. The wise words of the ancient philosophers tell us that change is the way of nature." After saying these words, Priest Roland did not explain, but said to Luo Ling, "I heard that Miss Luo treats the slaves who were bought back very well. This is really a good thing. It is rare to see such a master in Suero."
"I just don't like facing people with sad faces every day." Luo Ling said with a smile.
"Anyway, I hope to see more people like you," Roland praised.
"Perhaps you can do better, for example, don't come here to buy slaves and don't give slave traders a chance to make a fortune! Tigers and leopards hunt lambs, and owls and eagles catch flying crows. The law of the jungle has always been the way of nature, but I have never seen animals enslaving their own kind! Slavery is not the way of nature, it is a sin." The young man next to Priest Roland suddenly said.
"Gano, you shouldn't say that. You should apologize to Miss Luo." Roland said dissatisfiedly.
"Lord Roland, wouldn't it be better if there were fewer transactions? We came here..." the young man argued.
"Shut up. You didn't say this to the people in the slave market, but only to Miss Luo, who did the best. Are you trying to take advantage of her?" Roland seemed really angry. "Think about your father and don't embarrass him. Apologize to Miss Luo."
The young man's face flushed. He looked around and saw that no one was there to help him out. He could only bow to Luo Ling and said, "I'm sorry."
Luo Ling nodded, with the dignity that a wizard should have.
"Gano, remember: a quiet tree has a long life, while a gorgeous flower only blooms for one season. It's time for us to go." Priest Roland greeted the few people again and left with them.
Xiao Chen watched them leave and asked Luo Ling: "How do you know these people?"
"Roland is the Silver Leaf Priest of Suero City. His status in the Temple of Nature is second only to the Golden Branch Priests of the Elders. We have had some dealings before."
"Why are they talking so strangely?"
Luo Ling chuckled, "You just like to show off your knowledge. The priests of the Temple of Nature are considered rare intellectuals in this world. Why don't you allow others to be more literary?"
"These words, when translated into Chinese, sound somewhat like poetry," Xiao Chen pondered, "but when placed in a normal conversation, it feels like eating rice mixed with pebbles, which makes me feel uncomfortable."
"The Temple of Nature doesn't have any classics. Many of the so-called 'quotes' are just fragments of words passed down by the previous priests. In our place, we call it quoting from the classics."
"Ha, so they are some nerds."
"Don't say that. Mr. Roland is my big client. My fertilizer business depends on him."
"You're still in the fertilizer business? It's not on the report!"
"All the high-end industries have been left to the school. It's really boring that you still haggle over the little money people make from cosmetics..."
Just as the two were running away from the train, Karanda reminded: "Miss Luo, it's strange that they are here."
"What do you mean?"
"The young man named Ganuo seems to be the son of another Silver Leaf Priest. When he was an apprentice priest here, I heard that he caused a lot of trouble and seemed to have had a conflict with slave traders." Kalanda recalled.
"You mean... they shouldn't be here?"
"Maybe I'm overthinking it, but I've never heard of priests from the Temple of Nature being willing to help slave traders."
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This was an overly luxurious reception room, and all the furnishings seemed to be able to drop gold coins if you shook them. The windows were facing the street, and the hustle and bustle of traffic and the sound of bargaining outside came into the room, adding a bit of commercialism to the owner of the house.
"Well, Roland and his men are here to check for the epidemic. They've been to all the places where slaves are kept around." The fat and bloated slave trader Inda slumped in his armchair, fiddling with the ruby ring on his thick fingers, with a hint of sarcasm in his smile. "But, this has never happened before. If there was, it was during the time of my dead father. There was really a big epidemic, and many slaves died. Several slave traders were so poor that they couldn't even make ends meet, so they sold themselves into slavery." Inda pounded the armrest without any image and laughed, "Haha. Some of them were sold by my father."
Xiao Chen and Luo Ling sat opposite Inda, while Kalanda stood beside them vigilantly, observing the four fully armed, tall warriors behind Inda.
"Captain Kalanda, don't be nervous. We are always hated for no reason, so we are used to being careful. But I can be trusted by you all." Dain turned around and waved his hand, letting the four soldiers walk out of the door. "In fact, we are also giving people a chance to live, right? Who were these slaves? Captured soldiers, famine refugees, without us, these people would not survive for more than three days. My father said a lot of nonsense in his life, but one thing he said was really right: we are doing a good thing to save people!"
Luo Ling looked at Dain and said such nonsense without blushing or beating her heart. She admired him a little. However, she didn't want to waste time on the kindness of the slave trader, so she asked: "Did Priest Roland do an examination?"
"They also distributed medicine to everyone, including me. It is said that the epidemic came from the Empire. Although not many people will die, those who get sick will have diarrhea for several days and lie down for half a month. No one wants a soft, stinking ghost."
"Then why don't they check the merchants in the city first?" Xiao Chen asked puzzledly.
"They are leaving now. Master Xiao, who is this in Suero City?" Dain gave a thumbs up. "It depends on us. The guys in the Temple of Nature have finally learned to distinguish the important from the unimportant. Poor old Roland, if he had been so sensible last year, he would have lived a comfortable life a long time ago."
Dain laughed again. After a while, he knocked the coffee table with his knuckles in a smug manner and emphasized, "The slave business is not something that everyone can do. It's very troublesome! If an ordinary person dares to touch it, he will probably become a slave in less than a month."
"Mr. Dain seems to be someone who can solve the problem." Luo Ling said with a faint smile.
"Of course, although it is troublesome, once this kind of business is established, any other business will be meaningless."
This nasty face really satisfied all my imaginations of a slave trader, Xiao Chen thought to himself.
Dain yawned, seeming a little tired. He snapped his fingers, and a thin and serious middle-aged man walked in from the door. "Let's not talk about that old guy. The two wizards came at the right time today. A batch of slaves have just been brought in from the border. You all know what kind of good stuff those who can survive the battlefield are. Apart from other things, if they are not strong enough, they would have turned into ashes long ago. Let Manager Cohen take you around. If you see someone you like, take him back."