Chapitre 68: Plague
"Are we getting involved in this?" Frieren recalled her teacher's words; indeed, following Damian would not let her fade into history.
Damian nodded and said, "But not yet. I can grant freedom to these people in my territory, which I haven't used all this time."
"Do these contracted slaves bring their families with them?" Damian turned to the merchant and asked a question.
Luther, who was the merchant, nodded. "Yes, they were all bought along with their families, who are exempt from the contract, but I'm sure they'll work if offered something along with the contracted slave."
"Of course, no one else is interested except for you, the northern nobles; common buyers aren't as interested in taking an entire family. Slaves with their families can't be sold for a high price. If you're willing to buy them as a package, I'll give them all to you without paying for the relatives."
"How many young and middle-aged slaves do you have here?"
"About 150 men and women in total."
"What's the total price?"
"2,300 gold coins."
"How about 2,000 gold coins?"
"If you agree, I'll take them all today." Damian wasn't hesitating with these words; he had methods to move people in large numbers, so there was no problem with transportation.
"My Lord Damian, your price is too low. The slave trade is extremely risky, and there are no such high profits. Right now, 2,300 gold coins are already the lowest price I can offer, considering I've been feeding all these people for months."
"I'm not interested in that, Mr. Luther. Not all your slaves are healthy; some are sick, and others are injured. If I pay a high price, I'll only take the strongest young ones. The slaves and the sick ones I'll leave here, and they'll eventually die."
Frieren didn't know why Damian was so interested in these people; she knew they would all be better off dead given the current state of their desires.
Ignoring Frieren's indifference, Damian said, "As you said, you must have held onto this group of slaves in this place for some time, right? If I give you one thousand gold coins right now, that's the best price you'll get for all these people."
"It also depends on how many slaves you have and how many slaves you'll deal with in the future."
Luther saw that, although Damian was young, he wasn't easy to deceive, which meant he actually had the age he claimed. All Luther could do now was continue making excuses, boasting about the merits of the slaves, and hoping to sell them for a higher price.
As the two negotiated, a noble named Dante also arrived at the slave market with his capable mercenaries and groups of slaves.
Dante had been to Aldarion many times and had some acquaintances in the slave market.
Seeing that Damian was very experienced and familiar with prices in the slave market, Luther couldn't increase the price, so he had no choice but to accept the deal.
Soon, Damian accepted all the interested parties and reached agreements with five or six slave traders, spending 5,600 gold coins to buy approximately 1,053 slaves.
The quality of this batch of slaves isn't very high; half of them are elderly and children. There are also a dozen permanently disabled and injured people.
The reason Damian was willing to buy disabled and permanently injured people was, first, to stabilize the slaves' morale. With family burdens, slaves generally wouldn't escape even if set free.
Secondly, the wounded and disabled don't need to escape, plus some of them are very experienced. From now on, they would all see Damian as their lord, someone who would give hope to the helpless and extend his influence throughout the north.
Damian led the purchased slaves out of the city. He bought many tents and built a simple camp at the foot of the mountain, thirty kilometers north of the city of Aldarion, for the slaves to live temporarily in the camp.
The camp's security was left in the hands of his marionettes, and Damian returned to the slave market, ready to buy one or two cheap contracted slaves.
The remaining gold coins couldn't be used to buy common slaves at the moment.
To develop the territory, over 1,000 slaves weren't enough. Besides slaves, Damian also needed to buy cereals and livestock, and production tools were also costly.
Food, clothing, housing, transportation, seeds, livestock, food, and medicines cost money. Additionally, some slaves needed to be armed to defend the territory.
Just as Damian was about to leave the slave market, he suddenly saw seven or eight large men carrying two terrified people and quickly leaving the slave market.
The strong man quickly piled up a stack of firewood, regardless of the struggles of the slaves, and then tied the two weak slaves to wooden stakes, preparing to burn them to death.
Almost all nobles have the custom of burying or burning people alive as a severe form of torture.
Only nobles would use this method to kill people tempted by the devil.
Furthermore, people possessed by evil spirits will also be burned at the stake if they cannot expel the evil spirits through exorcism.
The Church of the Goddess has divine protection. Although it is believed that the goddess is not currently nearby, everyone has been influenced by her and will continue to be for a long time.
Relying on the power of artifacts, the priests of the church can use specific spells through prayer.
The charges for healing and exorcism in the church are not too high.
A magical ring for treating minor wounds costs approximately one gold coin. Exorcism is a second-level magic, and the price is about two gold coins.
When Damian was on the front lines, the priests healed him of every wound on his body.
"What's happening? Are they being cursed? Why don't you ask the church pastor to purify their bodies?"
"Since there is magic in this world, there are also curses from magical objects of darkness. Of course, humans won't find the difference between someone being affected by dark magic or a cursed object." Frieren thought indifferently as she watched this; she had no plans to intervene as she didn't want to attract attention.
Demons also create plagues, which only harm humans and make their performance in war increasingly ineffective, giving the advantage to the demons.
"These humans were cursed by a demon; the plague will fall upon all the slaves and us if we're not careful."
As soon as they learned about the plague, everyone present couldn't help but step back a few paces. Even the slaves in the market heard the news and began to panic and flee.
The slave market administrator reacted quickly and immediately notified the pastor of the nearby church.
The priest arrived and immediately shouted, "Although the slaves have lost their freedom in life, they are also believers in the goddess and cannot be lynched and burned to death just because they are cursed."
"Priest Legolas, are these two slaves suffering from some plague disease?"
Seeing someone familiar with him, the slave trader spoke, and Pastor Legolas explained further. "It seems to be an ordinary plague, and no magical power has been found. If they use the purification method on them, they can recover."
Upon hearing this, the slave owner's face changed, and he immediately brought some strong men along with the two weak captured slaves.
Since Pastor Legolas didn't allow the sick slaves to be burned to death, the slave traders didn't dare to make the decision in private.
The Church of the Goddess is so powerful that it doesn't allow slaves suffering from the plague to be lynched and burned. Even if there is noble backing behind the slave trader, he won't openly oppose Pastor Legolas's decision.
But spending gold coins to find a church that will use healing techniques with slaves was not at all his consideration.
Overall, patients suffering from the plague need to use four to six treatment techniques. Each time they use the treatment technique, they should pay a gold coin to the church.
If the patient is weak, they may need to use more sophisticated methods, increasing the number of gold coins used for payment.
"If they are free, they will receive treatment for free, but the church has found ways to charge those exploiters who profit from money with human life." Damian thought, watching all this from the audience.
They knew that slave traders simply weren't willing to invest money in curing their slaves and usually released them.
Seeing a sudden outbreak of the plague in the slave market, Damian eagerly returned to the slave camp on the outskirts of the city, without the chance to buy slaves.
After returning to the slave camp, Damian immediately established a strict isolation system.
The slaves in the camp are prohibited from moving freely, and the mercenaries escorting them cannot leave.
He also bought a batch of thick cotton fabric in the market, had slaves make masks, and distributed them among themselves.
The purchasing staff will be put into isolation and observed every time they enter the camp. They will be able to leave quarantine and regain their freedom after five days.
"Do you have healing magic?" Damian looked at Frieren, who was reading a book he had recently purchased.
Frieren nodded and said, "Yes, but I'm not very good at it... The goddess's magic is different from what we know."
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