Chapter 378 – The Cotton Field
Often say
‘I feel unfair,’ he said. I haven’t counted it separately, but I think it’s the word that people who commit crimes and get caught say the most.
And then they say ‘Why are you doing this to me? Everyone else is doing it, so why do I have to be arrested?” You can tell what they are thinking.
It doesn’t matter much whether they have committed a crime or not. Rather, they think it would be foolish not to commit a crime if they could get even a small advantage.
That’s why you don’t have to listen to what criminals say. In the end, what they say is nothing but disorganized excuses and sophistry. The mind of the listener is polluted.
He looked at the slave who claimed to have been unfairly enslaved with a sad expression.
“If not? What? You committed a crime and became a slave for that crime. He said that the chief gave him a house, gave him a job, and allowed him to become a free man if he paid for it. Is it really that hard to get out of slavery through legitimate labor?”
Of course I hate work. However, if everyone in this world hates labor, the world will not turn. So other people except me need to work hard, and they shouldn’t hate labor.
“I never committed any crime! You were originally a resident of this village! The village chief and the guards framed him and arrested him! It’s not just me! Most of the slaves held in this village are villagers like me!”
“…”
I kept my mouth shut on the claims of slaves. Is this guy’s statement true? Or the mindless bullshit of a psychotic criminal?
If it’s just words, you can say anything. Aren’t I also asking for incarnation right now?
However, it seems that the sense of incongruity felt while wandering around the village insists that the slave’s words should not be ignored.
I looked at Natalia and Roin on either side. The two of them nodded as if to listen to the story.
Yes, there is nothing to lose by listening to the story itself.
“Hmm… Talk in detail What do you mean the village chief and the guards arrested him on false charges? Is it in one piece?”
The slave nodded at my question.
“Yes. The guards are taking bribes from the village chief. The guards accept the money, and in return, they falsely frame those who disobey the village chief, arrest them, and transport them to the city.”
“Against the village chief… ? No, aside from that, if you’ve committed no crime and you’re arrested and taken to the city, do the city guards accept it without question?”
The slave frowned at my question.
“Do you think the city guards will listen to the words of a person branded as a criminal by the town guards?”
“Ah…”
That too. Right now, I don’t have much confidence in this guy’s words either. If the city guards add up, it will be more, not less. Because it’s common for criminals to talk about their unfairness. I’m sure you’ll just ignore it.
Besides, there seems to be no such thing as a proper trial in this world.
“Try to sort it out. You were a resident of this village, but because you disobeyed the village chief, you were arrested by the guards, transported to the city, and then sold back to this village as a slave? Not just you, but most of the slaves in this town went through that process?”
“Yes! It’s real! Trust me!”
He stroked his chin at the slave’s words and fell into thought.
If the slaves were originally villagers, the question of the private house that the village chief gave to the slaves is resolved.
Since slaves were the people who lived in the house in the first place, there was no shortage of houses.
However, the question that arose from the slave’s answer and the sense of incongruity felt while wandering around the village remain.
“What do you mean by going against the village chief? Didn’t you follow the village chief’s instructions? And the number of you captured as slaves must outnumber the guards, did you not think of resisting?”
“It’s not just the guards who cooperate with the village chief. Villagers who were not captured as slaves do not refuse to obey the village chief’s instructions for some reason. And my children are being held hostage, so I can’t resist.”
“Children as hostages? Where are the children being held?”
“I do not know. By the time I returned to the village, it had already disappeared. If the village chief wants the children back, follow the instructions…”
“The numbers are boiling, and the children are held hostage, so they can’t resist…”
I roughly understood the flow of the story. In such a situation, it will be difficult to resist. But the question still remains.
“What is the benefit of the village chief doing such a thing?”
“Yes?”
The slave gave me a dumbfounded look at my question.
“I hear the village chief is bribing the guards, buying you enslaved people, and even kidnapping children and locking them up somewhere? Then you will have to pay for the food to feed them. No matter how much money the village chief has, why does he continue to do this while enduring such a large expenditure?”
“Uh, that, that…”
The slave fell silent on my question. He seemed perplexed, as if he hadn’t even thought about it.
Even if I talk to this guy more than this, I don’t think anything more will come out. For now, let’s make it quiet.
“For now, let’s keep in mind what we talked about today and investigate the surroundings of the village chief. Go on as usual for a while.”
“Mi, do you believe me?”
“Didn’t you say you were going to investigate? I believe only what I see with my own two eyes. Stop going back.”
“All right. Please take good care of me.”
After confirming that the slave was returning, she looked at Natalya and the old man next to her. The two of them also felt like they were thinking about something because of the story they had heard from the slave.
“What do you think?”
“I don’t think you’re lying. It matches the sense of incongruity I felt in the village.”
For some reason, private houses were able to supply slaves. A far fewer number of children than the number of residents. The security guards have a strangely high arrest rate despite their negligence. When all those senses of incongruity are brought together with the explanation he just heard from the slave, they fit together like filling in the blanks of a puzzle.
“But, why would the village chief do such a thing?”
Even if he does not do such a thing, the village chief is a wealthy being who has no problems making a living.
Why would such a village chief waste money by bribing the guards, handing villagers over to the guards, enslaving them, and buying them back?
“Is that why the guards were chasing us?”
“Huh?”
“The guards, strangely enough, hung up on our escort. Was it to prevent contact with the slaves and to hear the truth about the village?”
“Hmm…”
There is a point in what Natalia said. The Ten Commander, oddly enough, wanted to escort us.
At the time, I thought it was because he wanted to look good to me, but if that wasn’t the case, it would be understandable if the purpose was to prevent us from coming into contact with the slaves.
Even after I instructed them not to escort them, they secretly followed them, and when a slave accidentally approached them, they showed up and chased them away.
Wasn’t the reason we met the slave now because we sneaked out of the mansion to avoid the guards?
Regardless of the purpose of taking such damage, various circumstances prove that the village chief and the guards did what the slaves said.
The original purpose was to come to this village under the guise of a sheriff to set fire to a cotton wool warehouse, but somehow, it seems that something really stupid is going on.
You can’t pretend you don’t know as long as you know. If there is a problem later, the disguised identity may be exposed, so you must be faithful to the role of the disguised identity in your own way.
“I need to talk to the village chief.”
The next morning, the village chief looked at me with his characteristic friendly smile.
“How was the atmosphere of the town you visited?”
“Well, that wasn’t bad.”
“Did I tell you? It would be a nice town to live in if there were no thieves sneaking in from time to time.”
The village chief’s words, as if everything he said were right, and that I was doing something useless, offended me. On the subject of being a guy with a bad back.
“Are you catching those thieves who sometimes sneak in and transporting them to the city?”
“Yes. The village vigilante is helping with that. Perhaps since he is a petty thief, he will be enslaved rather than sentenced to death.”
And the villagers who became slaves would buy them themselves. This guy is more shameless than I thought.
“Come to think of it, the private houses in the village are quite old.”
“Oh, is it? Since it is a rural village, there is no new immigrant young population. Houses and people grow old together.”
“You say we grow old together? Didn’t you say you were giving out empty houses to slaves?”
“Yes?”
The village headman’s face strangely stiffened as he smiled sadly at my question.
“It’s an empty house. Empty house. They said they would buy slaves from the city, give them a place to live, and let them live like residents.”
“Ah, yes. Yes. It was.”
“Why are those houses given to slaves empty? There is no way people would have built a house when there were no people living in it. Where do the original inhabitants go, and there are slaves in their place?”
“…”
At my question, the village chief coughed and drank water.
