Mr. Duba went off to inspect the "cargo" with great anticipation. Judging by his eager expression, he might as well have been going to look at livestock.
But to be honest, once those raiders were being used as "currency" to trade for the supplies Yu Lian needed, they really weren't much different from livestock.
"At least you gave them a chance to live," Feifei consoled Yu Lian. "If the Empire captured them in the Modan System, not one of them would survive three years. But if the Toss Merchant Group sold them to the Alliance side of the galaxy, they might even last five."
Yu Lian couldn't shake the feeling that Feifei was mocking him, but he had no proof.
"And besides, there's no slavery in Alliance territory, at least not officially. They call it penal labor, so there's at least a time limit. There are plenty of cases where raiders captured by the Alliance served twenty years of hard labor, received pardons, became citizens, and started living normal lives. You gave them hope without handing out mercy indiscriminately, and you also helped us obtain urgently needed supplies and useful manpower," she added.
Well, that was true. From that angle, the raiders who were about to enter sweatshops, plantations, mines, and even gladiatorial arenas and laboratories ought, in theory, to thank me. At the thought, Yu Lian immediately felt he was standing on the moral high ground.
Just then, Feifei said, "Still, I thought you'd stirred those raiders into killing their own leader because you planned to reform them and have them join us."
"Bandits aren't ordinary oppressed workers. Once they've spilled blood and done evil, they're not easy to reform. But they aren't ordinary bandits, either. They're a systematic, organized, disciplined raider group. I had them kill their own