On the river bank in the early morning, the mist has not dissipated, but many people on the dock have already started their day's work, either carrying goods or asking caravans and merchants if they need to hire people. These people include old people, young people, and even some boys in their early teens. Their young shoulders already bear the burden of the whole family's livelihood.
A carriage creaked by and stopped in front of a big house. Several people had already run to open the door of the car very respectfully and diligently, and welcomed out a man in gorgeous clothes and a small felt hat. He was holding a cane with an ebony handle and a gold plate. He looked like an aristocrat, but the cunning look in his triangular eyes revealed the fact that he was more likely a businessman.
"Where are the new products?" He spoke in a cold tone, but there was a hint of urgency.
The person who came to greet him nodded and said, "It's in the house. Please go in and take a look. It's definitely top-quality goods."
The man straightened his hair and seemed not in a hurry. At this moment, a voice came from the carriage behind him: "Hurry up, stop pretending here!"
The man snorted coldly and walked into the room. Someone had already brought a pair of boys and girls.
The girl was about fourteen or fifteen years old, with blond hair and blue eyes, as beautiful as a flower. She had tears in her eyes and was trembling, looking particularly charming. The man took a few extra glances at her plump breasts and straight and slender legs, nodded with satisfaction, and then moved his eyes to the boy next to him.
The young man looks to be no more than sixteen years old. He has fair skin, a slender and well-proportioned figure, a delicate appearance, and an elegant manner. Although he is young, his demeanor is quite extraordinary. When facing a room full of strangers with ill intentions, he does not lose his composure and uses his words. The scrutinizing eyes looked at the man in turn. From the latter's point of view, this boy's background is probably better than that of the girl.
"Very good." He looked at his men with admiration, "Are you a noble?"
Someone immediately came forward and said: "Absolutely. And they are the nobles of East! They were guests at the home of a declining noble on the eastern border. We saw the girl taking the boy to a remote place, and then brought him back unconscious. Absolutely no trace left. If you want to know where their last names came from, I can ask the person who did it."
"I don't need to know that kind of thing." The man said coldly, "That's not important. You did a good job this time. Go to the accountant to collect the reward later." "Thank you, boss."
The boy suddenly spoke: "Who are you? Why did you bring us here?!"
The man raised his lips: "Who do you think we are? My young master?"
"It's a human trafficker." The young man narrowed his eyes and said in a very determined tone, "Aren't you afraid that our family will track him down?"
The man sneered: "My dear young master, don't scare me. We have done this kind of thing many times. We know how to eliminate the traces." He walked over and gently touched the girl's pretty face like a flower, causing her to take a breath. Cold air, he stepped back again and again, and then raised the young man's hand with a malicious smile. I noticed that his fingers were slender and his skin was soft. He really didn't look like a young master from a declining noble family.
A trace of anger flashed between the young man's brows, and he withdrew his hand vigorously: "What do you want to do?!"
The man chuckled: "It's just for inspection. Put down your arrogance and be obedient, otherwise I will let you know what regret means." His eyes caught a glimpse of the clothes on the two people. They should be the ones they originally wore, and they were made of luxurious materials. But they are a bit old. The girl's clothes still didn't fit well, but she actually believed her subordinate's statement that "they are all fallen nobles."
But seeing these luxurious but dirty clothes. But he was very unhappy in his heart. He called his subordinates with hooked fingers and slapped them: "Why don't you change their clothes?! Are you afraid that their families won't know that they were taken away by you?!"
The subordinate's face was so swollen that he hurriedly said, "I'm sorry, boss, I just thought they looked more like nobles dressed like this, so the price could be higher."
"Then they should change first!" The man waved his hand, "Take them down and change their clothes! We've searched carefully, don't miss dangerous things like last time!"
The men hurriedly responded and ordered a few thugs to escort the young girl down to change clothes. The girl looked at the lust in the eyes of the big men and screamed, refusing to let them get close. The two big men twisted their arms tightly and kept struggling. The young man broke away to catch him, rushed forward and said to the man: "You can't do this, let her go quickly! We can change it ourselves!"
The man winked at the big men, and the girl regained her freedom. She immediately threw herself into the boy's arms and cried, her whole body almost collapsed.
The man said softly: "I have always been very aristocratic. You can change it yourself, but don't try to do anything. Be obedient, my young masters and ladies, otherwise... I have many strong men here."
The young man shuddered and said calmly: "We know what to do." Then he helped the girl and went down with the big men.
The man watched them leave, feeling very good. He likes to kidnap and sell such "goods" of noble origins. He feels very happy when he sees those pretentious boys and girls succumbing to his feet, watching them abandon their original pride and be humiliated.
"Isn't this bad?" A dark word suddenly came from behind him, which startled him. When he looked back, it turned out that the man in the carriage had come in at some time and saw what happened just now. The man frowned. He didn't like this person. Although the other person was "that" messenger, this guy with a blue face, who kept his head down and wore a black cloak and a black hat all day long and refused to face anyone, No matter how you look at it, it doesn’t please your eyes. He said: "What's wrong? I was praised by the master just last month. Are you jealous?"
The man tilted his head slightly: "I mean, the master only asks you to collect young men and women who are good-looking and not vulgar in their words and deeds. Such people can be found casually in Shaonan, but you want to target the noble children. Although you They are all looking for fallen nobles, but no one can guarantee that no one will come looking for them, not to mention that now they have even brought nobles from neighboring countries, aren’t you afraid of being discovered by the official people?”
"What are you afraid of?!" The man looked disapproving, "My people have clean hands and feet and never leave any traces. If a boy and girl like this disappear together, others will just think that they elope, even if they find something wrong. You can’t find me here. The master has always been very discerning. At least he must be a descendant of a noble family to be worthy of the master.”
The man snorted coldly: "I know what you are thinking, but I remind you. Don't go too far. If you delay the master's important event because of your stubbornness, I will never let you go!"
A trace of anger flashed across the man's face, and he was about to get angry when he heard a knock on the door by his subordinates. He suppressed his anger and called in. Then I saw him taking out two pieces of small jewelry: "Boss, these are the things those two children have. They seem to be worth some money. What do you think we should do?"
The man took it and took a look. It turned out to be a necklace with a gold ivory pendant and an old gold-plated ring. The former pendant has a gold pattern drawn in the middle, which looks a bit like a horizontal shovel, but shorter and fatter. He didn't take it to heart and threw the things back to his men: "I'll reward you."
Without waiting for the subordinate to thank him, the black cloaked messenger asked: "Can you show me?" He took the necklace and looked at it carefully, and he thought thoughtfully: "I'm afraid this product has some origins, so don't feed it to them yet. Medicine, wait until I ask the owner what he wants."
The man was a little surprised: "What? Is there any problem?"
"It's very possible that the person we know belongs to the same family." The messenger looked at the pendant again, "What if the person is really drugged and sent up. I only found out about this. We will no longer be able to cooperate in the future. You first find Something else."
The man cursed secretly and agreed. Wait until the boys and girls have changed into ordinary coarse cloth clothes. He ordered people to burn the original robes, locked them in the room, and left with the envoy.
Walking along the pier, avoiding several porters, he bumped into a dark-skinned young man. The man grabbed him and said, "Don't run! I don't think I've seen you before. Where did you come from?!" The young man shrank in fear. Shrinking his neck: "I've only been here two days... John on crutches brought me here..."
Crippled John is a well-known employment agency on the dock. The man lost his suspicion and reached out to touch his body. After making sure that nothing was missing, he let go and said, "Get out of here!"
The young man rubbed his nose and was about to run away, but was stopped by the messenger. He looked up and down and said, "I think this looks good. Although it's a little darker and a little thinner, the features are delicate and the skin is shiny and elastic."
The man sneered: "Are you kidding? He's just a coolie. There are a lot of boys like this on the pier, and I can't give them away!" He stretched out his crutch to chase the young man away: "Go away, I don't have yours." What's going on!" The young man secretly glanced at the messenger, then at the people following them, especially the gold necklace that the man's subordinate was shaking in his hand, and then ran away.
The small dispute between the man and the black-cloaked messenger about the girl's origin continued. The latter saw the dark-skinned boy passing by them several times carrying goods, and kept using him as an example until after dinner. The man said impatiently, "Have you fallen in love with that child? How about I ask someone to clean it and send it to your room?" Then the messenger threw up his sleeves and left in anger.
In the middle of the night, the man suddenly knocked on his door. He changed his original arrogance and said in panic: "The list is missing! What should I do?"
"What?!" The messenger's face sank, "Are you talking about the list of names of nobles and businessmen who are willing to cooperate with us?! How come it's missing?!"
"I kept it in the secret compartment. I checked it before going to bed. I heard a noise just now. I didn't find anyone when I got up. Suddenly I felt something was wrong. I looked at the secret compartment and found that it was empty!" The man was worried. Uneasy, "What should I do? Who could steal it?"
"Could he be an ordinary thief?"
"Local thieves will not come. Foreigners will be discovered as soon as they enter the town. They cannot be ordinary thieves."
The messenger pondered for a moment: "That's because there is a purpose. No matter which country you are from, if you want to leave with something..."
The man woke up with a start and hurriedly asked someone to check if any boats or horses had left tonight. Half an hour later, his subordinates reported that a boat had just left the pier, which was very suspicious. The man and the envoy looked at each other and quickly led their men to catch up. Because they heard that the other party was large in number, they specially called most of their men.
There was a lot of commotion in the house, but the place where the boy and girl were detained was silent, and the girl's sobs could only be heard faintly. The two big men in charge of guarding, one yawned and the other hummed a tune boredly, suddenly smelled a fragrance, but before they could smell it clearly, they both fell asleep.
A nimble black figure walked up to them, took out the key from his waist, and opened the door. The boys and girls in the room were startled. Through the dim oil lamp in the corner of the room, I realized that the person coming was a dark-skinned young man, also about fourteen or fifteen years old. Flax hair, black eyes. He waved to them: "Daphne Roya, Elben... Heda?"
The aristocratic boy in the room said calmly: "I am, who are you?" The girl changed her previous decadence and rushed over excitedly: "Are you here to save us?!"
The boy frowned and turned away from the girl: "Keep your voice down, don't let anyone hear you." But the girl was still excited. She kept saying "Take me away quickly", but her companion asked hesitantly: "Are you from the Security Agency?"
The dark-skinned boy raised his eyebrows: "How about it? Do you want to come with me?"
"Of course." The noble boy stretched out his hand, "I am Alben and she is Daphne. What should we do?"
The dark-skinned boy shook his hand casually. Then he motioned for them to follow: "Keep your voice down. Most of them were led to the dock by my companions. The guards were also stunned by me. Let's leave now."
"Is your companion not in danger?" Alban asked.
The young man looked at him deeply: "It's okay, they are just pretending to be suspicious, but in fact there is no problem at all."
While talking, she had already walked out of the house. When the girl Daphne passed by the two guards, she suddenly kicked one of them several times, causing pain to the man. I'm about to wake up in a daze. Seeing that the situation was not good, the young man quickly knocked him out with a knife. Then he stared at Daphne fiercely: "Don't mess around!"
The girl flattened her mouth in grievance, and Alben hurriedly pulled her to follow the boy's footsteps. Not to mention how much he regretted it now, why was he bewitched by this girl's beauty? He didn't notice her stupidity. He had a chance to escape on the way, but he was ruined by this girl. Once he escapes from danger, he will never have any contact with her again!
The three young men carefully walked through several buildings and arrived near the stable. Alben hesitated and asked, "Would it be too dangerous to ride those people's horses?"
The young man smiled and shot a white object out with his hand, hitting the haystack near the stable. Alben was still thinking about the use of it, but he heard a few "whooshing" sounds in the air. It seemed that Something hit the horses, causing them to neigh in pain and run rampant in the stables. The horses ran out of the house without even having time to put on their clothes. Just in time to see all the horses jumping out of the stables and running away in all directions, He hurriedly called for people to stop the horse.
But at this time, the young man made a gesture, telling Alben and the two of them to escape from the other side with him, and they didn't meet anyone until they reached the wall. Alben couldn't help but admire him, but when he saw the high wall, he felt a little worried.
The young man took out a rope hook from nowhere, threw it and hooked it on the wall. With a slight jump, he had already gone up. He turned around and whispered: "Climb up carefully, I will be here to take care of you." Alben understood, and then Let Daphne go first.
Finally, she was half pulled and half dragged to the top of the wall, but the girl suddenly became timid and did not dare to jump down. The boy asked her to pull the rope and slide down. She only slipped less than two feet before he screamed and tightened his grip. Rope, dare not continue. Alben was so anxious that he looked back at the commotion in the distance. All the horses had been stopped. It seemed that someone had heard the sound here, so he urged Daphne: "Hurry up, we are running for our lives! Do you want to be caught?" Take it back?!"
Daphne kept shaking her head, and when the rope swung, she screamed again.
The young man frowned, jumped off the wall, pulled the rope, and when Daphne screamed again, he grabbed her waist and jumped down together. Daphne was so shocked that she suddenly lost her voice. The young man didn't care. He called Alben back, but he had already slipped off the rope. He quickly retracted the rope hook, pulled up Daphne and said, "Run quickly. I have prepared horses outside the town. Just run there."
"Didn't we leave by boat? Is there a land route here?" Alben asked in surprise. But the boy found it funny: "Where do you think this is? This is Faradis! If we move faster, we can reach the Magic City at dawn. Let's go."
The three of them hurried on. There were several times when Daphne couldn't hold on any longer. Alben could hardly maintain his gentlemanly demeanor. As a result, the dark-skinned boy carried the girl on his back without saying a word, and then they rushed out of the town smoothly. Sure enough, I saw two horses tied to a tree on the side of the road.
He motioned for the two of them to ride the horse together, while he rode the shaggy horse. As a result, Alben and Daphne looked at each other and hesitated. The young man was confused: "You don't know how to ride? I remember this is Is it a required course for nobles?"
Alben said: "Who doesn't know that Daphne of the Roya family is a riding idiot? She never rides a horse without incident." Daphne got angry: "What you said is really outrageous! Do you think your riding skills are very good? ?!”
The young man's face darkened: "I don't have time to wait for you to quarrel!" After saying that, he threw Daphne onto the horse and rode on it himself. Alben rode the miscellaneous horse very cooperatively, and the three of them set off towards the south in pairs. Chi.
The girl was held in the arms of the opposite sex, her face was red and her heart was surging, but she heard a sentence behind her ear: "Don't think about it, there can be no romance between you and me." Her heart was poured out. A basin of cold water, he became angry and twisted his body in a tantrum, clamoring to get off his horse. The young man said coldly: "Be honest with me, otherwise I won't mind letting you drive in a coma." Daphne shuddered before she became honest. Alben snickered on the side, feeling that although this young man of the same age was from the Security Bureau, he was so pleasing to the eye. He wanted to ask his name, but was worried that he would misunderstand him. As he looked around, he accidentally caught a glimpse of the young man hanging with a black rope around his neck. I bought a ring, which shone silver in the moonlight, and secretly remembered this.
Another early morning, when they saw the Magic City in the morning light, they were exhausted. The young man took the exhausted noble young lady to an inn outside the Magic City. He said hello to the boss and walked to the back of the shop.
Alben was confused and was about to call him out when he heard someone calling his name. When he turned around, he found that his housekeeper and Daphne's parents were actually sitting in the corner of the hotel hall, waiting for a long time.
Daphne rushed over and cried loudly, and he suppressed his excitement and accepted the steward's caring examination. When he looked back, he could no longer see the boy, so he had to ask the innkeeper: "Where is the person who sent us back?"
"He has already left." The boss said with a smile, "Is the guest very tired? Do you want to rest for a while or take a shower first? Or eat something first?"
"I want to take a bath first." Alben replied lightly, feeling a little regretful in his heart. He didn't know when he would be able to see his benefactor again.
He didn't notice that a beautiful girl of fourteen or fifteen years old came out from the back of the store. She had brown hair and green eyes. She was wearing an ordinary floral skirt and her skin was a little dark. She nodded to the boss and walked out of the store. On the other hand, Alben's housekeeper looked at her suspiciously.
Alben noticed: "What's wrong?"
"It's nothing." The butler smiled, "I was wrong."
The girl walked through the streets and alleys and came to a small building near Willow Street. She took out the key and walked in. She smiled and said to the people inside: "Mom, good morning, I'm back. How is dad today?"
(Time has flashed forward three years...our Minna has grown into a slim girl, thank you