Night gradually fell over the southern seas, deepening by the minute. Meanwhile, distant West Sail Port had only just welcomed dusk, the scorching crimson glow seeming ready to bake the seawater dry.
There was no such thing as winter near the equator. Watching that vicious sun about to sink into the sea, the dockworkers finally breathed a sigh of relief.
The sun had finally set!
After the rush of the past few days, the docks had been empty for several days, without a single ship in sight.
With no work to do, everyone finally got a taste of what it meant for prosperity and ruin to be shared alike.
If West Sail Port truly went bankrupt, they would all have to sell themselves back to the nobles' plantations.
Though Brahma Province had one advantage—people could survive by eating dirt—no one could live on dirt forever.
That stuff put no flesh on your bones. The more you ate, the weaker you became; the weaker you became, the less work you could do. In the end, the vicious cycle would bury the entire family in the ground.
Eating it for two or three days a week was safe enough, and three or four days was bearable, but five or six days in a row was troublesome. Unless there was a famine, no one ate like that.
Fortunately, shipping had recently resumed somewhat, and people who had been idle for so long finally had work again.
Thinking of Master Naji's promise to raise their wages, everyone threw themselves into their work.
Their thinking was simple, perhaps even a little "honest."
The boss had paid them, so they could not let him lose out by working even slower than those slaves who dragged their feet.
However—
Not everyone had benefited.
For example, the fellows