Volume 1: Stranger in a Strange Land Chapter 21 Mine Tunnel No. 7
William smiled and did not answer Sigmund's question. Instead, he asked him another unrelated question.
“How do you feel about your life now?”
"What do you mean?"
Sigmund asked cautiously. If he had only suspected before, now he was almost certain that the man in front of him was definitely not a transferred miner.
He asked about the previous blockade of the mine, and tried to get close to him by asking about his living conditions. Even if he was an idiot, he should have seen that something was wrong.
Was it a spy sent by the Duke? Or was it a spy from the royal faction at court?
Judging from the fact that the other party kept asking about the mine being blocked not long ago, it seems that the latter possibility is more likely.
Back then, the Duke incited the miners to riot, and naturally took the actual ownership of the Silver Stream Mine from the Royal Faction. Now, the Royal Faction wants to take advantage of the accident some time ago and give them a taste of their own medicine?
"Or let me ask more directly, are you willing to live like this?"
Seeing that Sigmunds didn't seem to be planning to answer, William asked again.
This sentence made Sigmund believe that the other party was a member of the royal faction.
"At least I can survive and not get involved in some inexplicable dispute and die in obscurity."
Sigmund replied.
Although he had not experienced the Silver Stream Mine riot twenty years ago, he had heard from old miners who had experienced it and understood how tragic it was.
Those miners took the lead in charging into battle and made great sacrifices to regain the ownership of the mine for the Duke. However, the Duke betrayed his original promise and exploited them even more severely.
Never trust the promises made to them by those in a higher position.
The old miner who taught him the ropes once said this to him before he died in a mining accident.
"You can only have a life if you can survive. If you want us to fight for a promise that we don't know whether it can be fulfilled in the future, I advise you not to ask any more questions. We are just here to make a living and don't want to cause ourselves too much trouble."
Sigmons continued.
"No wonder the supervisor outside calls you 'the good guy'. Did you become the boss here by not causing trouble and taking the punishment for others?"
William looked at him and said in a mocking tone.
"You don't have to provoke me. I won't be fooled."
At this moment, they were walking into the mine tunnel, and the sound of shovels hitting ore kept coming from the front.
As Sigmunds spoke, he took off the shovel hanging from his waist.
"Times have changed. It's completely different from 20 years ago. Back then, the people here could use shovels and explosives to attack the supervisors and guards here, and they could seal off this mine with their own strength, but what about now?"
Sigmunds said, pointing upwards.
"The Duke made his fortune from this. Do you think he will let this happen again? You saw it when you came in earlier. The guards here are elite Black Thorn Guards, and the overseers are magic casters with the title of experts. What do you expect us to do? To die?"
"No, I didn't mean to ask you that."
William replied.
"From the beginning to the end, I have been asking you whether you can accept the current situation."
Sigmunds was silent.
After turning a few more bends in the mine tunnel, he spoke.
"You asked me if I could accept it. We were driven around like dogs. We were whipped for not adding the word 'adult' to a sentence. If we died in there, we couldn't even bury . Of course I couldn't accept it, but what can I do? Can this damn reality be changed?"
His tone was calm.
The other party's next words almost choked him.
"If the entire Silver Stream Mine was given to you to manage, are you confident that you can manage it well?"
"What?"
Sigmunds thought he must have heard it wrong.
"I said, if I hand over the entire mine to you, would you think it's okay?"
"Why?"
"Because you have no experience in managing a source silver refinery."
William gave a reasonable answer, but it was obvious that this was not what he wanted to ask.
"So you really are a member of the royal faction, and you want to incite the miners to riot again here?"
Sigmunds also made his point clear.
"I just want the ownership of this mine. There's no need for you to riot. I'm asking these questions because I need a capable person to help me manage this place."
William said lightly.
"Is this what your superiors meant?"
"I have no one above me, this is my will."
Sigmunds was confused and asked after a long time.
"So it comes back to the previous question, who are you?"
"My real name is not old enough to be spoken directly, but you can call me Judge."
"Then, Your Excellency the Chief Judge , I would like to ask, where do you get the confidence that the Duke can hand over this mine and even the source silver refinery to you?"
Now Sigmund began to think that the man who called himself the presiding judge was a madman.
“You’ve all been deceived.”
The man suddenly said.
"What was cheated?"
Sigmund asked.
"Didn't you say earlier that Mine No. 7 was sealed off two months ago because a skull temple from the Black Water Kingdom era was unearthed?"
William spoke in a higher voice so that his voice would still be clear amid the sounds of mining.
"So we are now digging the ninth tunnel. Is there anything wrong?"
At this moment they just turned a corner and walked into a wide area.
William looked at everything in front of him and said in a cold tone.
"But when I came in, I clearly saw the sign saying it was Mine Tunnel No. 7."
At this moment, they were outside the door of an open hall. All the miners who had gathered outside earlier walked into the hall from different branch roads. Each of them was digging the rock wall here mechanically with lifeless eyes.
In the middle of the hall were piled countless skulls that had long since turned into fossils. Dozens of phosphorescent spirits floated in the air, with glowing threads extending from their bodies and connecting to the heads of each miner.
“Ding, ding, ding, ding…”
The sound of shovels hitting the rock wall continued to be heard.
Sigmunds first looked at the strange scene in front of him as if it was a matter of course, and then looked at William beside him strangely.
"Isn't this the No. 9 Mine? Is there something wrong?"
“Puff…”
An ordinary straight sword appeared in William's hand at some point, and before Sigmund could react, the sword sank deep into the throat of the boy named Colter, whom he had been holding.
"you……"
Things happened so fast that Sigmund didn't even understand for a moment whether he should rush over to fight the man in front of him, or try to save the boy first.
"You don't even know that you were sold to the Moon Realm monster."
After William finished speaking , he drew out the straight sword, and Colter fell down.
