"Kept you waiting, captain?! Took me a bit to clear out some rotten bastards!"
With Scott's boisterous voice, certain beings revealed themselves. From the sugarcane fields near the clubhouse, undead pushed through and appeared.
Undead armed with sickles for harvesting sugarcane and all sorts of farming tools surged out, and the adventurers were taken aback. They couldn't even handle a single member of the Herald Clan right now, and yet—undead?!
"Hiik?!"
They were the farm owners already wounded by the blunderbuss grenades. The blood mage had stuck by them to treat their wounds, but in truth, they should have taken the risk of worsening their injuries and fled while they still could.
"…Ah."
Now the farm owners finally understood they had no way of overcoming this situation.
From the start, this man had prepared troops and entered the clubhouse alone on purpose. To persuade the farm owners? If so, then perhaps there was still room for negotiation.
"Wa, wait."
"Ah, I see, I see."
"We've lost!"
"Admirable, truly admirable. You are a man of great martial skill!"
"M, money then? Should we pay? How much do you want?"
The farm owners panicked as Azadin approached them. But Azadin only sneered.
"Now you want to negotiate? But if I release you now, won't you just think of hiring S-rank adventurers to try again, or unleashing your private soldiers in waves?"
"N, no, no."
"We'll accept your terms. We've already thought that playing soldier with private armies is meaningless."
"Think about it—before a dragon, a rabble no matter how large will scatter in terror at a single roar. A flock of chickens, no matter how many, can't stand against a dragon!"
The farm owners then realized that Azadin, even without magic compulsion, had deliberately let them go. Just to show off his power. He knew that would make negotiations smoother, so he staged it this way.
But how arrogant was that? To hide his comrades, come alone on purpose, hand the farm owners over to adventurers, then take them back again.
Yet arrogance is the privilege of the strong. Azadin was strong enough to claim that privilege.
***
Once the farm owners and adventurers were utterly overwhelmed, Azadin smiled.
"Hm. Now you seem ready to listen to me. Truly, it's sad when people must appeal to violence. We have this tool called language, so why beg each other's understanding with barbaric means? Words suffice."
Azadin's words were almost mockery, yet the farm owners nodded along as if hearing sacred wisdom.
"Y, yes indeed. I, I agree!"
"We made a mistake. A very grave mistake."
But Azadin played the clown, looking at them.
"Still, abolishing slavery isn't such a simple thing. Even if you declare it abolished, wasn't slavery already illegal under both the Emperor's law and the laws of the Clan of the Eight Divine Kings, yet you continued in secret? Do you think such a thing can be uprooted in a single day? What matters is the will to keep changing, right?"
"Y, yes, right."
"You think I believe you'll just relapse in three days?"
"We are men of high status. We don't make such empty promises."
"Don't underestimate the Bell Hoda Sugar Business Association. We are men of honor."
The farm owners pounded their chests, insisting on their honor. But Azadin ignored them and beckoned those wearing bird masks.
"Second Herald… sir."
"We came at your call. Forgive our delay."
Bowing their heads to Azadin, they were the subordinates of this district's Herald Clan, summoned by Azadin leveraging his status as the Second Herald.
"Well done. I called in a rush, yet you came so quickly. Even if you are our kin, aren't you a bit too elusive? Hahaha."
Azadin chuckled and pointed at the farm owners.
"These gentlemen, while managing their farms, forcibly took people and conscripted them into labor. Isn't that quite a talent?"
"Eh?"
"And I'm sure they also know how to make delicious sugar. Don't you think?"
"Y, yes, perhaps."
The Herald Clan's attendants answered cautiously, not knowing Azadin's true intent.
'What's he plotting?'
'We used to dismiss him as Azadin the Eyeless, but now he's risen to Second Herald…'
'Is he scheming against us?'
Those in the Herald Clan who had things to fear from Azadin could only watch every move of his with wary eyes. Thus, they simply echoed him, waiting to see what he would say next.
"Our tribe, if we can seek knowledge, we invite and welcome anyone, don't we?"
When Azadin asked, the Herald Clan's attendants nodded. Now understanding, they sighed with relief and patted their chests.
"Yes, that is right. Exactly so."
"When we find one with skills we need, we recruit them so their talents may serve our tribe."
"Or else, we have them teach us."
"Some refuse our proposal, but with a little persuasion, they all gladly become members of our tribe."
What the Herald Clan's attendants said applied directly to the man-hunters of Bell Hoda.
Just as Bell Hoda's sugarcane farms kidnapped people to supply laborers, the Herald Clan's attendants kidnapped those with skills they needed.
The farm owners weren't fools; they understood perfectly what Azadin and the Herald Clan attendants meant.
"Hiik?!"
"Un, unbelievable!"
"You mean to enslave us?! Madman! If you do that…"
"If I do that, your heirs will suddenly feel very persuaded. For if you fail to push for abolition of slavery, their fathers will come back to them, won't they?"
"..."
"And once you too experience enforced labor enthusiasm, ah, excuse me, I mean, 'inspiration to labor by compulsion,' you might come to a new understanding of life."
"N, nonsense. You think our children will like that?"
"Then you think they'll dislike it? You really believe you've been such good parents? So devoted to pleasure, with multiple wives and multiple children, right?"
"..."
Azadin's words struck their sorest spots with uncanny precision. Like jamming a twig up the nose, then smashing it with a giant wooden mallet.
"Now then, let's give these gentlemen a chance to experience what inspiration to labor by compulsion feels like. There's an old saying, that suffering in youth is worth buying, isn't there…?"
"Uwaa! We're not that young!"
"But then again, when you think you're old, isn't that still the youngest you'll ever be for the rest of your life? And they say learning never ends. A whole lifetime of learning and realization still isn't enough—that is life."
"..."
The farm owners despaired at Azadin's deliberate nonsense. This bastard truly intended to drag them off as slaves.
They had hunted countless others, enslaved them, worked them without proper wages, never once feeling guilty, but now that they themselves faced such a fate, terror struck them cold.
"Take them."
"Yes, sir."
"We shall escort them."
The Herald Clan's attendants, wearing masks, seized the farm owners at Azadin's command.
"N, no! You bastards!"
"What are you doing?! Stop them at once!"
"We've given you so much money over the years! Useless scum!"
"If you're short on numbers, call the soldiers, summon the farm's private soldiers!"
"If you save us now—no, if you save me, I'll give you my weight in gold! I mean it! Uwaaa!"
The adventurers could only watch in silence, dumb as bees with honeyed mouths.
Even when Azadin alone had fought, they were no match. And afterward, undead troops and the Herald Clan appeared. Against such numbers, there was no point even trying to fight.
'This bastard. He had troops ambushed nearby from the start?'
'He fought alone on purpose, to break our spirit….'
'And to send a warning to the farm owners' heirs. If he had just quietly infiltrated, kidnapped the owners, then demanded a deal with the heirs, would they have listened?'
The adventurers realized Azadin had fought them deliberately to display his power, and held their tongues.
"Uwaaa! You bastards!"
"This is too much! We were not born to be slaves!"
"And now to be dragged off as slaves! We'll die! We'll die of heart failure!"
The farm owners, unable to believe their fate, struggled, but the Herald Clan's attendants gagged them and silenced their mouths.
The farm owners of the Bell Hoda sugarcane plantations now had to march forward, into the new life awaiting them.
***
"When I made the petition, I never thought… things would end like this."
Randa Banema sighed as she sat in the guild office.
Unlike the clubhouse, the guild office was a proper stone building.
The clubhouse was a private space built by the farm owners to compete in indulgence, but the guild office was an official building for conducting business.
"But never did I think I'd become the guildmaster."
Randa Banema was still dazed. Just two days ago, her business had been on the brink of collapse. She had believed there was no way to escape the shackles tormenting her.
And yet….
This outsider had solved the incident so easily, and made her the guildmaster of Bell Hoda. The position of guildmaster of the Bell Hoda Sugar Industry Association, once held by farm owner Salco, was now Randa's.
"Congratulations on ascending to guildmaster."
Azadin congratulated Randa Banema as he chewed a stalk of sugarcane.
"Wow, truly sweet. Unlike the canes floating downriver, this is fresh, with no worm-eaten bits."
"You ate cane drifting downriver? That's something only beggars eat."
"..."
"Ah, no, I mean, here in Bell Hoda, of course."
"In other words, even beggars in Bell Hoda know the taste of sugarcane, eh? That's impressive. Hm. Well, enough about sugarcane. How was the petition? Are you satisfied?"
"Rather than satisfied… is this really all right?"
Azadin had kidnapped the farm owners of Bell Hoda by force.
Of course, if told so directly, Azadin would flare up, spouting all manner of nonsense—calling it 'job placement,' or a 'resocialization process,' denying the abduction with every excuse.
"For now, I suppose I should say I'm satisfied with the petition? This wasn't the outcome I expected, but between my ruin and this ending, which do you think I prefer? Naturally this one. I can't ignore your effort."
"Hm. Sounds like you're not really satisfied. On a scale of one to ten, what would you give it?"
"I acknowledge your effort and skill. If it's ten points max, I'd give you eleven."
"Haha. That much, huh."
Azadin looked pleased with the generous score.
"But if you're already overshooting ten with eleven, why not just give me eleven thousand?"
"I wasn't that satisfied."
Randa Banema firmly drew the line.
[Thank you for supporting my translations! I've launched a new website to host all my novels in one place. I will continue posting chapters here.
✨ Enjoy a smoother, enhanced reading experience at our new website!
👉 Visit: https://revengernovel.com/ and enjoy 5 extra chapters for free!
📖 Buy and read all available chapters here: https://payhip.com/revengerscans ]