Ballroom
The banquet table was filled with fruits, barbecue, desserts and fine wine, which made the businessmen smile, which showed that Prince Paris valued them.
Everyone sat down and Pei Ziyun said: "Everyone, I can provide some convenience for your business in Troy, but I hope that you can introduce the local dignitaries and commodity prices in as much detail as possible."
"Of course, you have to provide some convenience when my ship docks in your area."
"That's natural." Businessmen all agree.
"Come, let's drink to celebrate our first cooperation." Pei Ziyun raised his glass and drank it down in one gulp.
"Do it." The businessmen also drank the wine in one gulp.
Our cooperation has officially begun.
When the banquet was over, Pei Ziyun sent these businessmen out of the mansion. Now he had to deal with the trivial matters of sending them away. He had to do it himself every time. It would be nice to have a competent person to help him do things.
"There is really a shortage of people now." Pei Ziyun couldn't help but muttered to himself when he returned to the garden.
Along the way, he bought a lot of slaves, but none of them developed into subordinates who could take advantage of him. He only had one real subordinate, Gesni, and he was still in the Amazon and had not come back, so it felt like there was no one available to him all of a sudden.
Just thinking about it, the ten new slave girls who came in were cleaning the banquet hall. One of them heard Pei Ziyun's soliloquy and plucked up the courage to stand up: "Prince Paris, I am Coselia, and my father is an Athenian." Scholar, I know three languages, I know arithmetic, and I want to do something for you, Prince Paris.”
"Huh?" Pei Ziyun was slightly startled and looked at her.
I searched for this girl named Coselia in my mind, and remembered that there was simple information when the palace was handed over, saying that she was only fourteen years old.
"I know so many skills at a very young age. I must have received a good education in this era. Why did I become a slave?" Pei Ziyun frowned secretly.
"Prince Paris, Coselia is not sensible. I hope she has not offended you." At this time, the two servants saw Coselia's behavior and turned pale with fright. They were afraid that Coselia's actions would offend Prince Paris. Come over quickly and drag her down by force.
"Oh, it doesn't matter. You go down and leave Coselia here." Pei Ziyun stopped the two servants.
"Yes, my dear prince." The two servants stepped back, not forgetting to glare at Coselia and warning her not to talk nonsense, so as not to offend Prince Paris.
Pei Ziyun turned to Keselia: "Keselia, your courage has given you a chance. I hope you cherish it. Tell me, why did you become a slave?"
She is a cute girl with delicate skin, black curly hair, a pair of brown almond eyes, and her limbs are as slender as a deer.
Coselia took courage: "Prince Paris, although my father is a respected scholar, he is still a foreigner in Athens."
"You should know that this is the rule of most city-states."
"Gentiles are allowed to live in Athens for generations, but they have no citizenship rights, nor can they be naturalized as citizens. They are not allowed to purchase land. Marriage with local women cannot be regarded as a legal marriage. They also have to pay a poll tax that Athenian citizens do not pay, etc."
"How unfair all this is to us foreigners. Land is the most important thing. Without land, there is no stable income and we can only rely entirely on work."
"My father used to have a job, but then he got sick and lost his job. He also owed a lot of expenses, and the whole family went bankrupt."
Pei Ziyun knew that Coselia was right. Athens did have this rule, and all foreigners were not allowed to purchase land locally.
In other words, reproducible assets are not allowed to be owned by foreigners.
All city-states have the instinct to monopolize reproducible assets, so that even foreigners who are free people can become slaves at any time, because human labor is so unreliable.
When you are young, you have little knowledge and skills, you can’t make money, and you have to pay tuition fees—whether it’s social or academic tuition.
In old age, physical strength declines and we are unable to do what we do, let alone diseases and disasters, so people cannot rely on work to survive.
Work is the most beautiful thing, but if it is just work, it is a hidden slave.
This is actually a way for city-states to exploit foreigners.
"My father passed away in the end. I really had no choice, so I became a slave. Later, I was sold to Troy, and I gave it to you, Prince Paris."
Coselia sadly recounted these unbearable past events, which were indeed unbearable for a fourteen-year-old girl.
Pei Ziyun listened to her story silently, thoughtfully.
Coselia's experience is not unique. She became a slave due to illness or accident, which is very common among slaves.
Of course, the biggest source of slaves in this era was war.
It's just that Coselia's appearance was too much of a coincidence. Although everything she said is correct when considered, she should still be careful. After all, her plan has now reached a critical stage.
Thinking of this, Pei Ziyun said in his heart: "The feeling of a priest."
After carefully observing with the priest's method, I found that the girl in front of me had a natural aura, and there were not many traces of the gods. It did not seem to be a deliberate arrangement by the gods.
"Not a chess piece of the gods?" Pei Ziyun was a little surprised. When he saw the coincidence in Keselia, and the events that happened one after another, he couldn't help but think about the worst.
"That's right. The gods are so high up there that they really don't bother to use such methods on me." Pei Ziyun laughed at himself: "Besides, if the gods already knew my plan, they wouldn't play with me at all and would just descend to kill me."
Thinking of this, he said to Coselia: "Follow me."
When there was a shortage of people, if Coselia had no problem, he might as well give her a chance.
After crossing the garden and arriving at the room, Pei Ziyun sat down and asked solemnly: "Coselia, what do you want from me?"
"I want to be free," Coselia said firmly.
"What a simple and simple pursuit!" Pei Ziyun sighed secretly, shook his head and said lightly: "But this is not an easy task."
"Coselia, you have to understand that even a diligent and loyal servant needs twenty years to redeem himself."
"I can use twenty years to achieve this goal." Coselia said firmly.
To be honest, Pei Ziyun has seen so many slaves, and no slave has ever left a more profound impression on him than Keselia.
This girl gave him the feeling that she had an unyielding quality, and he admired her spirit of never giving up until she reached her goal.
He sighed and said, "What I want is someone who can do things for me. Tell me what you can do?"
"I can do anything you want me to do." Coselia's answer was still so concise, without any mince.
"That's it." Pei Ziyun sighed repeatedly, looked at Coselia in front of him carefully, smiled suddenly, and said: "Coselia, I have something you can do now, but I'm not too relieved, or It depends on how well you do to decide whether you are suitable or not.”
"Prince Paris, my respected master, tell me, as long as I am capable, I will do my best."
"Okay, I have three ships now, and there will be more in the future. I need a clerk who can record the cargo and be responsible for correspondence."
"Clerical?" Kaselia's eyes widened. She really didn't expect that Prince Paris would ask her to do such a thing. This was an important task in a noble family.
"Dear master, I am willing to give it a try." Coselia said.
If it were the real Prince Paris, he would not comfort her at all, but Pei Ziyun saw her uneasiness and gave her some advice: "You can speak three languages, which will allow you to communicate well with the outside world. The most important thing is that you master it." Arithmetic, this is the minimum requirement for paperwork. If you don’t know how to do arithmetic, then I won’t choose you.”
"Thank you, Master, for giving me this opportunity. I will definitely work hard." Coselia said.
"Well, there's nothing going on down there. You can go down."
"Okay, respected master." Coselia slowly withdrew.
The room fell into silence, and Pei Ziyun felt a little happy, but even if Coselia was suitable, he would not tell her the secret—in fact, he didn't have to.
There were merchants all over Greece, goods and letters coming and going, paperwork to deal with it, it was more than enough.
"The most important thing next is that when I set off as an envoy to Greece, I can visit the city-states I pass one by one along the sea route, so I can finalize the route and contacts."
Thinking of this, Pei Ziyun suddenly had an idea and shouted: "System!"
Following the call, a plum appeared in front of me, and it quickly enlarged into a translucent data frame, floating in the field of vision with a faint sense of light, and the data appeared in front of my eyes.
"Heroic Bloodline: Second Level (85.3%)"
Looking at the space again, I saw two iron statues standing in the space between the two colonnades. Although there was still a trace of power stripped out, there was not much left.
"One monster is no longer enough for the third level of power required."
"Going there to find new monsters? They have to be monsters that are relatively close to the bloodline of the gods!"
"It seems that we have to seek strength in reputation."
"And with reputation, there is an opportunity."
"I can tell the king that when he goes to Greece as an envoy, he will visit various city-states along the way. Even if he cannot win allies, he can still strive for neutrality. Although I know it is useless, the king does not know what will happen in the future. He will think this can be implemented. "
"In this case, I can use the king's gold to spread all over Greece. Although the reputation improvement is relatively slow, I can at least be promoted to the third level by the time I arrive in Sparta!"
"The process can also be laid out. It really kills three birds with one stone."
"I will propose this idea next time I go to see the king, and the king will agree." Thinking of this, Pei Ziyun felt his whole body relax, and the weight of the boulder that was originally pressing on his body seemed to be lighter.
(End of chapter)