Chapter 35: The respectable black market merchant
That was the reality of buying slaves in a low-level black market.
No one, as in no one, could be trusted with the quality of their products.
If someone was foolish enough to trust a merchant's words in this place, then they have no one else to blame but themselves for not being cautious and thorough enough once they found the product they had bought was of poor quality.
Honestly, this fact would only slightly improve the higher the level of the black market one would visit.
This is the difference between a black market and a surface market that is open to the public.
One follows a certain principle and law, while the other is akin to a lawless jungle where the strong eat the weak, and only those with the darkest shadow can survive.
As they continued exploring, Lawrence and Jayem couldn't help but notice that not a single slave dealer was selling an elf slave.
"Why is there no elf slave being sold?" Lawrence wanted to know.
"The Royal Family of the Sylvaris Kingdom strictly forbade the selling of elven slaves in their territory," Kael explained. "This is only natural since the Sylvaris Kingdom is a territory of the Elven race. Any merchant caught selling a member of their race would face immediate persecution. Some would even be killed on the spot just to make an example."
"Oh," Lawrence instantly understood. He was no longer wondering why Kael knew all of this or where his source of information was. At this point in time, he and Jayem would just come to naturally accept that Kael just happens to know.
"That's why in the future if you visit another kingdom, don't ever bring a slave that belonged to their race if you don't want to bring trouble to yourself." Kael seriously reminded.
Every kingdom in Avalon was more or less the same in this regard. Their respective black markets would never dare to sell a member of the kingdom's ruling race. Doing so would be no different from provoking the Royal Families and their citizens, as if declaring openly that they were enslaving their own kind within their own territory.
After more than ten minutes of searching around and still not finding any slaves that came close to their standard, Kael finally had enough and decided to lead his group to a slave dealer he was familiar with in his first life.
"How about we go there?" Kael pointed at a podium in a corner of the black market.
In his first life, he was lucky enough to be acquainted with countless merchants all throughout Avalon and learned about their respective stories of how they succeeded in life. As someone who aspired to become one, he was always interested in reading about that kind of information.
Coincidentally, one of those people whose story he had read was here in this place.
"But it seems like nobody visits that slave dealer?" Lawrence hesitated. The slave dealer Kael had pointed out has no customer like the others. He had already noticed the slave dealer earlier, but he chose not to approach since nobody else had visited their podium until now.
"That's the point. If nobody came to them, that means none of their good-quality products would be sold yet." Kael made up a rational excuse.
Along the way, he noticed that Lawrence and Jayem were only drawn to slave dealers who had large crowds around them. While there was nothing inherently wrong with that, it could cause them to overlook slaves of better quality that the other slave dealers were selling.
"Well…" Lawrence was still hesitant, even though Kael's point made a lot of sense.
"Let's just go! We have not seen any slaves that meet our standard here anyway," Jayem interrupted. In his opinion, the more slave dealers they visit, the more options they could choose. And so far, they've only been seeing bad-quality slaves. There was even a slave dealer earlier who was selling a slave with no feet as if it were gold.
"Let's go!" Kael smiled and no longer bothered to persuade further. If they won't come, he'd just buy a slave by himself and show it to them to prove his point.
Jayem followed closely behind.
Lawrence could only sigh in resignation before following the duo.
As they started walking toward the podium at the corner, they soon noticed that a few people suddenly started following closely behind them. It was a group made up of humans and elves. A total of five people.
"That might be the reason why nobody visited their podium," Jayem whispered to Kael.
"Can you take care of them?" Kael wasn't worried about sending Jayem since he couldn't feel any strong fluctuation of mana from those men. Meaning, they are simply ordinary people.
"I told you this was a bad idea!" Lawrence protested. It doesn't take a genius to notice that there's something wrong with why there was no one who visited that certain slave dealer. With how busy and packed this black market was with customers, it's impossible for one certain spot to have no visitors all this time at all.
"If we always stop every time someone blocks our way, then we will never reach our goal in the future!" Kael shook his head at Lawrence.
"But we still haven't finished establishing our foundation yet in this new world!" Lawrence clarified. "It would be huge trouble for us if we unnecessarily offended anyone without having the proper means to defend ourselves and attack our opponent. Also, these people here always scream danger!"
"If we can't even handle a group from a low-level black market, then we might as well forget about everything and give up!" Kael was dissatisfied with Lawrence's excuse. Also, just because one is a member of a black market doesn't necessarily mean they have powerful backers and are dangerous. Sometimes, they are just individuals who don't want to sell their products through proper channels, especially if they're selling publicly unacceptable items.
And more importantly, what the duo didn't know was that he was very familiar with the person they were approaching right now. The man might be having some trouble at this moment, but in the future, he would become one of the most influential and powerful people in Avalon's entire black market. Meaning, he'll eventually get passed this stage and rise to the top.
If someone asked him when the best time was to ride on that man's coattails? He'd instantly answer, right this moment!
"You two don't have to worry, I'll take care of them!" Jayem interrupted before it became an argument. "Let's meet at that slave dealer's podium in a bit."
"Alright!" Kael patted Jayem's shoulder.
"Take care of yourself, okay?" Lawrence could only express his worry.
"Just go with him if you are so worried," Kael said as advice.
"I already told you, this is our own way of growing," Lawrence rejected.
"In that case, you should be more trusting in Jayem." Kael shrugged his shoulders before walking ahead.
"Well…" Lawrence realized his mistake.
As they were walking, Lawrence couldn't help but glance at their back from time to time just to make sure that Jayem was safe. But it seems like his worry was for nothing as he spotted the latter easily subduing the men pursuing them.
"Told you!" Kael rolled his eyes at Lawrence. "We're here!"
Finally, they've reached the podium of the slave trader that nobody dared to visit.
"Welcome! Welcome!"
A male elf in his mid-thirties dressed in a slightly ragged merchant attire immediately greeted them with a bright smile on his face.
The man was wiping some sweat from his forehead while his eyes would occasionally glance behind the duo.
It was quite evident that the man had been watching them approach his spot all this time. Probably with a mix of feelings of hope and worry. He was hopeful that they would reach his spot, and worried that they might change his mind and no longer continue.
Fortunately for the man, those people looking for trouble for him weren't that difficult to handle.
"I apologize about that!" The man bowed his head in remorse.
"If it's okay to know, why are they causing you trouble?" Kael couldn't help but ask. He had indeed known about this man in his first life, but the story he read didn't mention the latter's entire life. It only talked a bit about the process. The majority were about his achievements and success.
"That's right! We didn't come here expecting we'd have to face trouble just to look for items we want!" Lawrence expressed his frustration.
"First, let me introduce myself." The man slightly bowed his head once more. "The name is Edward!"
"I've been a merchant for over half of my entire life, but it hasn't been that long yet since I dipped my fingers in the black market of the Sylvaris Kingdom." Edward's face turned dark. "On my first day here, I immediately attracted trouble because of my strong principle of selling only quality products to my customers."
Kael unconsciously smiled upon hearing Edward's reason.
He might have strongly detested slave dealers in his first life, but that doesn't mean he hated everyone who had a taint of ever selling slaves during their entire career as a merchant. Edward was one of the few exceptions, because this man was one of the few most respectable merchants he ever got to know, despite his background.