Chapter 302 Buy One Get One Free
The owner of the manor seemed surprised by the Adler people who came to his door, and quickly ordered people to open the gate and let the small convoy in.
As requested by the butler sent by the owner of the manor, the slave trader Ball parked the carriage in a secluded corner, temporarily settled himself and the orcs in the guest house provided by the owner of the manor, and then, at the constant urging of the butler, went to the flower hall to visit the owner.
"Why are you here? Didn't we already agree on a meeting place?" The host of the place was not very happy to see Bauer. Instead, he seemed a little unhappy.
Bauer bowed and smiled apologetically, "I'm so sorry, dear young master, but we really don't dare to wait there any longer... You may not know that many... uh, Tarantan Undead came to Everlook Town today. We really don't dare to run into those guys."
"The undead ran to Everlook Town? When did it happen?" The owner of the place was a little surprised and looked at the other gentleman present.
"Who knows?" The gentleman looked unhappy. It was unclear whether he was dissatisfied with Bauer or those Tarantan ghosts. "Those ghosts are always running around."
"Okay." The owner of this place probably doesn't like the Tarantan Undead either. "Since those undead have fled to Everlook, it would be a wise choice not to meet there. Where is the 'special orc' you want me to see?"
After entering the flower hall, Bauer, who did not dare to sit down, became more humble: "I have to ask you to move, respected young master. You know, the 'special orcs' are very difficult to deal with. We really don't dare to let him stand to see you."
The host nodded in understanding, and said to the gentleman present: "Then let's go."
The so-called... "special orcs" refer to professional-level strongmen who are different from ordinary orcs.
Because Orc civilians have quasi-professional strength that exceeds that of ordinary humans when they reach adulthood, the combat effectiveness of professional-level Orcs is also better than that of the strong humans - if it were not for such a powerful racial talent, the former Silas Alliance would not have been able to humiliate the Kenyan Empire.
Precisely because the professional level of the Orcs is far superior to their peers, it has attracted fanatical pursuit from some special enthusiasts - the spiritual enjoyment that can be obtained by playing with the strong is incomparable to ordinary toys.
In other words...it's a valuable item!
When Ossirian King fell into slavery, he was so weak due to years of malnutrition and shattered ideals that he seemed like he could fall down at the slightest gust of wind, but he was still able to kill strong club thugs by attacking them.
After being rescued by the undead, Yang Qiu fed the orc well and fed him for several months, and gave him new pursuits in life. Ossirian gradually recovered, and although he was still not as strong as he was in the period of complete victory, he had at least recovered 70% to 80%.
When such an Osrian King appeared in the most rampant underground population black market gathering place in the Adler territory, there were countless slave traders secretly weighing his price... If he did not have the identity of a "Kenya Orc Citizen" and was generous, as if he had a deep background, he would have met with an accident long ago.
The slave trader Ball was a notoriously bold and greedy madman, even in the slave trade. He wanted to make money from the huge sum of money that Osirion King spent to find his relatives, and he also wanted to make money from Osirion King himself, an orc warrior with a human-like appearance and powerful strength.
Before he had swindled all of Osrian King's money, Bauer was already contacting a buyer for the orc warrior.
The owner of the manor and the guest gentleman followed Ball out of the hall in a relaxed manner, crossed the garden, and came to the courtyard where the guests were accommodated.
When the visiting gentleman saw the carriage parked outside from the corridor, he suddenly stopped and said "Huh".
"What's wrong?" The owner of the manor said casually, "Marcus."
Baron Marcus looked at the four carriages parked outside the guest house repeatedly with doubt and muttered, "Strange, these carriages look familiar?"
Bauer turned his head suddenly and looked at Baron Marcus in astonishment - he couldn't be so unlucky, could he? The good stuff in his hand turned out to be an acquaintance of the noble Innadri? !
The owner of the manor was also surprised: "When did you have orc friends?"
"Impossible." Baron Marcus denied decisively.
How could he have any orc friends? All the orcs that passed through his hands were just commodities.
The owner of the manor obviously knew Marcus, and he also knew that Marcus would not talk nonsense, so he stopped and cast an inquiring look at Bauer.
Bauer broke out in a cold sweat and hurriedly explained, "This orc is really from Kenya. He calls himself Osrian King. I have tried to test him many times when he was not prepared. He is indeed called this name. Master, Baron, you both know that the descendants of slaves who have been passed on countless times do not have surnames."
"This name is indeed unfamiliar." The owner of the manor frowned.
"I've never heard of this name." Baron Marcus also shook his head.
Marcus, the former Lord of Westram, certainly couldn't possibly know the name of a not-so-remarkable, haggard and skinny orc male prostitute in the club in his former territory.
As nobles of high status, the manor owner and Baron Marcus would not put themselves in any situation with the slightest risk, even though Bauer emphasized that he had subdued the most dangerous "special orc" and assured that the other orcs were also under his control.
The owner of the manor called the butler and mobilized the private soldiers in the manor to surround the guest house where the guests entered.
The orcs in the guest house didn't realize something was wrong until this happened. They tried to break out, but it was too late. Before they could even get out of the door, they were pinned down one after another by the well-trained private soldiers.
After eliminating all possible hidden dangers, the manor owner and Baron Marcus entered the guest house.
In the small guest house, five orcs were slightly injured, tied up with ropes, and kneeling together dejectedly.
The owner of the manor and Baron Marcus had no interest in these "cheap goods" and looked at Bauer at the same time: "Where is the orc?"
Before Ball, who was sweating profusely, could lead two big customers to inspect the goods... everyone in the entire courtyard felt the ground shaking.
At first there was a slight tremor, as if there were a group of horses running nearby; when people looked around in surprise, confused as where the groups of horses came from, the ground trembled more violently, as if a heavy mechanical object was passing by the wall of the courtyard.
"Earthquake?" The owner of the manor said in surprise. There had never been an earthquake in the Rhine Kingdom. Only in the southernmost part of the Sorensen Mountains, even further south than the Southern Empire of Sokri, would there be news of earthquakes every few years or even more than ten years.
Then, the ground began to shake noticeably, and even the buildings began to tremble. The servants who had hidden in the house when the orcs tried to resist screamed and ran out of the house in panic...
Not an earthquake.
As the people in the guest house were standing unsteadily and swaying with the shaking of the ground, everyone saw it - outside the courtyard wall and behind the house, thick black thorns were popping up in unison!
Amid screams, these black thorns quickly extended, intertwined and surrounded the entire guest house at an extremely fast speed. Some of the hideous huge barbs even pierced through the courtyard wall.
The owner of the manor, Baron Marcus, the slave trader Bauer, the private soldiers and servants in the manor, the controlled orcs, and Bauer's brothers, all looked at this strange scene with horror and gaping eyes.
"What's going on? What happened?!" Baron Marcus screamed and looked at the owner of this room in panic.
The owner of this place was even more frightened than Marcus. He seemed to have heard of such a scene somewhere before.
With a creaky sound, the door of Osrian King's guest room was pushed open from the inside.
An orc who was not considered tall among orcs but was considered tall among humans walked out of the guest room.
This orc was slightly thin, but his bravery and ability were even stronger than those of the manor's private soldiers who were stronger than him.
He has cyan skin, full, strong and lean muscles, pointed ears and a thin tail, and handsome facial features. The two exposed upper canine teeth add a bit of wildness to him, but there is a hint of vicissitudes between his eyebrows, and it can be seen that he is of a certain age.
If it were a safe situation, if the orc had a collar around his neck and his hands and feet that were too dangerous could be tied up, this would indeed be a high-quality item that could be sold at a good price.
And now... no matter whether it is the greedy Adler slave trader or the discerning buyer Innadli, they all seem to have seen some horrible monster, their legs are weak and they can't stand steadily.
Osrian King walked out of the room and stood aside. Then, another man came out from the room where he was locked up!
The presence of this man, who was dressed in a formal suit with a vertical collar and a cloak with a ring collar, had disappeared from the sight of the Rhine people for decades. However, since last year, he has again attracted the attention of various forces in the Rhine Kingdom, either overtly or covertly - Nightmare Butcher Yang!
Baron Marcus stared at Yang Qiu as if he was stupid, his whole body shaking uncontrollably. He staggered back two steps, and then two more steps.
Baron Marcus still couldn't remember Ossirian King's face. After all, when Ossirian fell into his territory, he was already in a state of disgrace and unrecognizable.
Baron Marcus didn't remember the appearance of the other five orcs... He only liked women, had no interest in men, and even less interest in orc male prostitutes.
But Baron Marcus remembered the familiar carriages outside the guest house - two of them belonged to the former mayor of Westham, and he had ridden in one of them!
The old mayor's carriage, orcs, Yang... connecting these key words together, Baron Marcus could guess with his knees that it was definitely not a good thing - especially since he and Yang already had a grudge!
When the owner of the manor saw Yang Qiu appear, the color on his face quickly faded.
He also instinctively felt that something was wrong...but this master performed better than Marcus because he quickly thought of an excuse to get away with it!
"It turns out to be Lord Tarantan." The owner of the manor was indeed a character. In such an embarrassing situation, he actually forced a smile. "Are these orc friends your people? It seems that there are some misunderstandings between us..."
Yang Qiu smiled at him.
Before the manor owner could misunderstand the meaning of this smile, Yang Qiu smiled and looked at the trembling Baron Marcus.
Finally, the black magician stopped his sight on the Adler slave trader Bauer and said happily, "You can buy one and get one free. How can I thank you?"
Ball fell to the ground.
Even if he didn't understand how big the conspiracy was, the fact that Osrian King's backer was a high-level black magician was enough for this guy to offer his own head.
Yang Qiu raised his chin, signaling Osrian to free the five stupid orcs who were crying bitterly. Without casting any spells, the stone bricks under his feet were shattered by smooth black vines that emerged silently; these smooth vines, which were spawned by black magic, intertwined and entangled, forming the shape of a chair, which was just enough for him to sit on.
"I'm not surprised that Baron Marcus is secretly engaged in human trafficking. After all, this is the Marcus family's old business."
Yang Qiu sat down leisurely, no longer paying attention to Marcus who had lost the courage to look him in the face, and only fixed his eyes on the owner of the manor: "As for you, I am really a little surprised... It turns out that the Frank family, who have always been able to challenge Viscount Darcy, is so shameless inside?"
The manor owner, who was much younger than Baron Marcus, instantly flushed red.
Dennis Frank, the first heir to the Baron Frank family, once helped the City Hall to reclaim the coal mine. Since then, he has taken the initiative to show goodwill to the City Hall on behalf of the Frank family and has become very close to Charles Rex.
After the Darcy family was tragically wiped out, Dennis Frank no longer had any enemies who could match his strength. Everyone believed that the vacant mayoral position had fallen into the hands of the first heir to the Frank family - at least the nobles all took it for granted.
Who would have thought that the Frank family, which seemed to have always been competing with the Darcy family, actually relied on the slave business to survive!
"...What a pity." Yang Qiu said sincerely. He once thought that this young man could become a role model for Innad's new regime to transform the old aristocracy.
All local nobles, including some middle-class people with a little wealth, kept more or less slaves.
But raising slaves does not necessarily intersect with the underground human black market. For example, Baroness Virgil, who lost her territory for attempting to kidnap Ms. Shirley, had more than a thousand slaves on her estate and tobacco farm, one-tenth of which were orcs. But it was unknown how many hands these orcs had passed through before they landed in her hands. Even Mrs. Virgil's housekeeper could not explain the source of these slaves.
The same situation happened to the Darcy family. After inheriting the title, Viscount China Darcy's control over the family business was far inferior to that of the old Viscount, which gave the City Hall an opportunity to investigate.
The result of the investigation was that the tens of thousands of serfs kept by the Darcy family were either "hereditary slaves" who had been raised by the family for generations, or "voluntary" dependent free people "developed" by the manor manager himself. They would only temporarily recruit from N-way traffickers when they were short of manpower, or obtain labor when they annexed other people's industries.
Who is the leader of the underground black market in Innadli and who is the person who has direct say over the Adler slave trader? When Yang Qiu took over Westram and learned about the experience of Osrian King being resold, he had the idea of finding out.
Osrian King also wanted to save his fellow fallen people, and the two hit it off immediately.
Dennis Frank wanted to defend himself and the Frank family, but when he saw the Adler people who followed Bauer in the yard and the slave trader Bauer collapsed on the ground, he could only sigh in despair.
The industry of the Rhine Kingdom is not developed and it is still an agricultural country.
Agricultural countries are characterized by being relatively closed, xenophobic and conservative.
Even though the farmers employed serfs, on the surface, everyone still had to maintain a decent identity - those who worked in our family were clearly hereditary servants, commoners who had been supported and protected by our family for generations, so how could they be called slaves?
The Gold Coin Church and the Kingdom Constitution both expressly prohibit the slave trade. No respectable person would get involved in such a thing. Only the northern barbarians would shamelessly do such a thing!
The Frank family did not place the base for their shady business in their own fiefdom, but placed it on someone else's territory. It was obvious that they had planned to shift the blame to others in case it was exposed.
Unfortunately, when Yang Qiu was playing the long game to hook a big fish, it was the young master of the Frank family who took the bait himself, and appeared in front of Yang Qiu shoulder to shoulder with the slave trader... Dennis Frank, who once left the experienced old Viscount Darcy speechless in person, could not clear himself of this matter no matter how eloquent he was!
Yang Qiu waited patiently for a while. Dennis was so distraught that he didn't have the courage to open his mouth to defend himself, which made him feel a little regretful... This guy just gave up resistance like that, and he always felt like something was missing.
He ordered the orcs to tie up all the Adlers, and also to capture Baron Marcus, who had run into his gun for the second time. Towards the silent young master of the Frank family, Yang Qiu was a little more polite: "I didn't close the manor. Some of your loyal servants should remember to rush to the city to inform the Frank family."
Dennis Frank couldn't help but shudder.
Yang Qiu smiled slightly and said, "If they escape, as long as they never return to Innadeli and don't fall into my hands, I won't care . If they are lucky enough... then I don't need to say anything."
Master Frank closed his eyes in pain.
If you abandon the Frank family's inheritance and flee, your family will be allowed to survive.
If you fight to the bitter end, then you and your foundation will be left behind.
"As for you." Yang Qiu paused and said, "As the heir, this should not be the first time you have presided over a 'transaction'. Explain the inside story and try not to be hanged. Save your life and go to Tarantan to build roads."
Master Frank, who was still barely standing, suddenly shrank to the ground like Marcus and Ball.
Being hanged immediately or being exiled to Tarantine to build roads until death... no one can calmly weigh the pros and cons of these two options.
But even if living was extremely painful, not many people were willing to die heroically. As the people around him were taken down one by one and there were few people left standing in the guest house, Dennis Frank's psychological defenses collapsed, and he tremblingly told Yang Qiu everything he wanted to know.
The Frank family was engaged in the slave trade before the former lord Bartles family came to Innadri.
However, at that time, the impoverished Innadri did not have much of a market, and the Frank family was more engaged in the brokerage business - acting as a matchmaker for business between the territories of Odysseus and Adler.
The Bartles family wiped out more than 90% of the bandits entrenched in Innadri, and drove the horse bandits to the other side of the Sorenson Mountains. Innadri's population and economy became increasingly prosperous, and they even established a North City factory area in the city that focused on the grain industry. A large amount of land was reclaimed, and the gap in manpower needed by farmers became larger and larger, so the Frank family's business also grew bigger and bigger.
At its peak, the Franks handled thousands of slaves each year.
The Bartles family naturally knew about the Frank family's business. Not only did they know about it, they also made things convenient for the Frank family - after all, Innadri also needed population and labor.
Not only did the Bartles family know about it, but the Marcus family, which had a close relationship with the Bartles family, also knew about it... Forty years ago, when Baron Marcus's father was thinking of getting into the flesh trade, it was the Frank family that supplied him with the goods.
Unfortunately, both families had deep hatred for the Tarantan family, so the City Hall didn't get any wind of the situation.
The Frank family knew very well that this kind of business was not to be made public. If it were known to outsiders, the Frank family would be even more ostracized by the nobles than the Bartles family who started out as bandits. They developed many "downstream distributors", and except for relatively large transactions, the Frank family would not easily show up.
Yang Qiu listened to Dennis Frank's confession , and asked the literate Osrian to write down the names and hideouts disclosed by the young master Frank.
"So, if someone kidnapped a group of semi-professional teenagers, you wouldn't know about it?" Yang Qiu said.
"Among human males, only professional-level adults and boys are valuable." Dennis Frank replied with a blank look in his eyes. "Even if there are professional-level adults and boys, if there are not many of them or they are not particularly outstanding, they will not be reported to me. Maybe someone somewhere has digested them on their own."
Osrian's eyes blazed with anger. He couldn't stand such talk that classified living people into commodities for sale.
Yang Qiu beckoned to the orcs beside him to pick up the limp Bauer and asked, "After you attacked Osrian, a boy about fourteen or fifteen years old came to visit him. Do you still remember him?"
Bauer said nothing, but just looked at Yang Qiu eagerly.
"Okay - if you cooperate honestly, I promise not to hang you. I will only arrange for you and your brothers to be sent to a remote place to do some hard labor. How about that?" Yang Qiu raised his eyebrows.
Bauer nodded vigorously. No matter what, he had to save his life before he could talk about other things. "I say, I say! The little boy who ran to the coach house to visit must have been taken away by the Daniel family."
Yang Qiu first glanced at Dennis Frank. He had not mentioned this name when he gave the instructions just now.
"The Darnells seem to be working at Madam Virgil's estate, as servants or stewards, and they also help our family with some things, but they don't show up often, so I have forgotten a little." Dennis Frank shuddered when he was looked at, and hurriedly tried to show off. "They are locals in Everlook Town, living in a village not far from the town, and running a small farm of about a hundred acres of land... That's all I remember."
Yang Qiu nodded and turned his gaze to Bauer.
"That's exactly what Master Dennis said. The Darnell family did work at a baroness's estate before."
For the time being, Ball didn't dare to believe that Innadri would really let a young nobleman build roads. He thought it was just a means of intimidation by the Nightmare Butcher. He was afraid that Dennis Frank would bear grudge against him again. He said in panic: "After we arrived in Everlook Town, Daniel came to me and said that he had lost his job at the manor and his family couldn't even afford to hire part-time workers for the spring ploughing. He wanted me to share some of the goods with him..."
With a "click", Osrian King, who was silently recording nearby, accidentally broke his pen, and his hands were covered with ink.
Yang Qiu raised his hand and patted the orc brother on the shoulder, then took out a pen from his space ring and handed it to him... These Hero brand pens only cost a few dollars, so breaking a few of them is not a big deal.
Bower had never expected that the legendary Nightmare Butcher would treat this orc so courteously, and he wanted to go back in time and strangle himself to death for blindly plotting against Ossirian...
When Ball tremblingly told the young boy Brooke where to go, it was already dusk and the sky was gradually getting darker.
The three nurse players, Entropy Bu Zeng, Runaway Goldfish, and Sunfish, and their relatives and friends who accompanied them on professional tasks, had just come out of a small village on the eastern outskirts of Yongwang Town.
It is very annoying to look for an NPC with no clear coordinates on such a large map, and players' patience is almost exhausted; when walking on the dirt road in the countryside, even the girls playing breasts look around eagerly, wishing that a monster would jump out from somewhere to kill and vent their emotions.
"Hmm? Is there a building over there?" Tang Jia, who was running in the front, suddenly pointed at a small farm at the foot of the mountain and shouted.
