Chapter 381 – The Cotton Field
“That’s right…”
The slave’s words make a little more sense. Come to the conclusion that
Persuaded by Natalya’s words, he nodded, but this time Roin intervened.
“No, no, wait a minute. If you put it like that, the testimony of a slave is also strange. What do the villagers like about following the chief’s instructions? Isn’t it strange that half of the villagers are laughing and working without any alarm when their neighbors are being taken as slaves? The number of strange behaviors Natalya mentioned seems to be the same for both.”
“Oh, is that so… ?”
After hearing the old man’s story, I stopped nodding my head thinking that it might happen again.
“You can’t even prove that person was really falsely accused and enslaved. I think it’s more likely that the slave is lying. You can’t just trust what a criminal says.”
“But the slave’s testimony explains all the discomfort we felt while walking around town.”
“The explanation the village chief gave isn’t that strange either.”
The opinions of Natalya and Roin are at odds.
Chiefs and slaves. Both sides of the argument are plausible, but at the same time, it hurts my head that there are questions one by one.
The question in the village headman’s argument was ‘why do the villagers abandon the village?’ However, the question can be explained by the claim of the slave.
‘Actually, the villagers didn’t leave, but the village chief enslaved them. Then the chief was a crazy bastard pretending to patronize the slaves.’
Actually I like this one more.
Because the village chief is unlucky to pretend to be nice.
However, the sad thing about the reality is that things in the world don’t go my way, and I can’t choose anything to my liking.
Unfortunately, even in the claim of slaves, a blind spot arises, saying, ‘Why the village head takes such a risk’.
“I don’t know why the village chief would take the risk and enslave the villagers.”
“Do we have to find missing children to find out?”
As Natalya said, in the current situation where we cannot guess why the village chief enslaved the villagers, the surest way is to find the missing children, who are strong evidence of the slaves’ testimony.
“But you’ve never seen a facility where children could be confined, have you?”
In the past few days after arriving in the village, I have been wandering around the village to find a way to set fire to the warehouse, but I have never seen such a suspicious building.
Maybe the slave really lied to us? Trying to use us to escape enslavement?
However, to lie for that purpose, I am concerned that the suspicious circumstances we discovered while touring the village and the testimony of the slave fit together like pieces of a puzzle.
Is it possible to read our thoughts and tell such lies?
He shook his head. It’s not possible.
The slave’s remarks are highly credible. But still, I can’t believe it blindly.
Am I missing something? Let’s think slowly.
Everything has a reason. Let’s take a closer look at the number of cases.
Question.
“What is the profit the village chief gains by enslaving the villagers… ?”
No matter how much I frown and think about it, this is it! And nothing clearly comes to mind.
It is cheaper to hire a slave than the wages paid to the villagers, but that is only from a long-term perspective.
The ransom of slaves is not that cheap, and at the point of abducting children to make them obey without resisting, you have to support one person, so if you lose money in terms of cost, you lose money, but there is no benefit at all.
There is no benefit to be gained by taking this action.
If there is no benefit, it is said to avoid loss, but what is the loss you want to avoid even if you turn half of the villagers into enemies?
“Damn it, for what purpose?”
No matter how you think about it, it’s a dodol mark. The only conclusion is that there is no benefit to be gained by the village chief committing such a thing.
Roin, who was next to me, untied his arms and slid down on the bed.
“Even assuming the slave’s words were true. Doesn’t it make sense that the villagers follow the chief’s instructions well? After all, the slave must have lied.”
“Um… That’s it too. Even if the villagers listened to the village chief, there was nothing to gain from it, and if they cooperated with other villagers against the village chief, they would oppose it, there is no reason to follow them. Unless the village chief has the ability to make the villagers obey…”
Having said that, I kept my mouth shut.
Assuming that the slave’s statement that at some point the villagers followed the village chief’s instructions is true.
Does it mean that the village chief had some kind of ability to manipulate the villagers?
“Assuming the village chief has that ability?”
“Eh?”
At my murmur, the old man put on a face that said, “What kind of nonsense are you talking about?”
However, the rotation of thoughts does not stop even with the old man’s distraction.
Those who follow the directions of the village chief and those who do not.
Those who followed remained villagers, and those who did not became slaves.
Could it be that the village chief enslaved the villagers who did not have the ability to do so… ?
No, why did you enslave them in the first place? If they don’t listen to you, isn’t it easier to just kill or kick them out?
“Hmm… Wait, is something strange?”
“Is it strange? A slave’s word?”
“No. Hmm… I think I was thinking too much in one direction. It wasn’t that the village chief was trying to make a profit by enslaving the villagers. If there was no choice but to make her a slave… ? “
“What do you mean?”
Roin tilted his head as if he didn’t know what I was talking about.
“That slave did it. For some reason, the villagers began to follow the village chief’s instructions without hesitation, and those who did not follow the instructions were framed and branded as criminals and arrested.”
“Huh.”
“From the point of view of the village head, villagers who do not follow his instructions are a blind eye. Even if you make them slaves and buy them, you don’t know when they will rebel, so it’s like hiding a fire in a pile of straw.”
“So you abducted the children so they wouldn’t resist? But Han Seong-ah, from your own words, the financial loss the village chief gains is too great.”
“Yeah, that’s weird. If it’s the guys who don’t listen to you, you can just kill them or drive them out, so why did they buy them back?”
“Are you assuming that the testimony of the slave is the truth… ?”
“Old man, it is true that the motive is unclear, as they say, ‘There is no benefit to be gained by the village chief doing this,’ or ‘There is no reason for the villagers to follow the village chief’s instructions.'”
“But why do you believe the words of a slave more… ?”
“The strange phenomenon of ‘residents leaving their homes and workplaces and disappearing from the village’ is ‘actually’ happening. And the slave’s speech is fueled by what actually happened. It goes without saying that a testimony based on certain phenomena is a little more persuasive than a defense of lack of motive.”
Besides, there was still time for the village chief and his son to leave the mansion for work. Until then, it’s not a bad thing to think carefully about this situation.
Above all, the village chief is too unlucky to pretend to be nice. Even if you make up a reason that doesn’t exist, even if it’s forced! I want to send it to the prisoner’s dew.
“Anyway, let’s finish talking about what we were talking about earlier.”
“Yes, yes.”
Roin shook his head slightly and made a gesture to listen to the story.
“The village chief cooperated with the guards, framed the villagers who did not listen to him, made them slaves and kicked them out of the village. And he bought it back.”
“Why?”
Why did you buy it Why did they buy it back after kicking the thorns out of the village?
*****
“What are you going to do with this situation!”
The tens captain could not hide his disapproval at the anger of the village headman who stormed into the guards barracks.
“What, what do you mean?”
“You mean sheriff bastard! After wandering around the town for a few days, he must have smelled it. Did you keep an eye on it properly?!”
“How can we, as subordinates, stop him from going for a walk? We are suspicious, so all we do is secretly follow them!”
“In the first place, because of your greed for performance, my village was marked as a high-crime area, and the sheriff came here! We didn’t have to turn them into criminals and send them to the city, we could just lock them up in the village!”
“It wasn’t because I had to switch to another team in the city if I didn’t have a decent performance! Even if the village chief says you like it too!”
At the words of the Ten Commander, the village chief cleared his throat as if he had nothing to say.
“Kuhm! Anyway, that sheriff’s ass isn’t usually sharp. If he digs out more secrets, I can’t stand still.”
“Are you sure you want to use that monster to kill and kill?”
The village chief blinked at the word monster.
“A monster? A gift from our god?”
