Voluntary Slaves

Lilim, that Female Imp, was still easy to handle. A few kind words from Lynn were enough to coax her over. Mainly because Lilim was a Cat demi-human, making her moods easy to read.

All he had to do was watch the sway of her tail.

Unlike humans, where you never knew whether they were being tsundere, genuinely disliked you, or merely acting reserved.

Lilim's tail kept swaying—not too slowly, nor too vigorously. Overall, she was in a happy mood.

Lynn suddenly wondered if he should make Lilim do a little more work.

This Lilim often went on strike after working only a few hours. She was practically a lazybones, which meant there was still plenty of surplus value to squeeze out of her.

For example, teaching that group of illiterates to recognize characters and write.

He had decided. She would teach from morning until night, eradicate his illiteracy, and build up a reserve of talent for the future.

Chinese in the morning, mathematics in the afternoon.

With that in mind, Lynn immediately decided to launch an accelerated development push. He went back to find Eckley, then headed to the Slave District to purchase a large number of slaves.

Now that he needed development, not only could he not abolish slavery, he had to maintain it. Otherwise, where would the population come from?

Without people, how was he supposed to farm?

And if he could not farm, how would he abolish slavery in the future?

Therefore, the more slaves he bought, the faster Slavery would be eliminated.

The Slave District was covered in dust, its people penned up like livestock.

Humans, demi-humans, orcs, the Demon Race, elves—anything you wanted could be found here. After all, this was the slave market of an important fortress.

The moment Lynn entered, he drew the attention of the slave owners. It could not be helped. Nobles were their customers; a Noble's arrival meant business.

Because of where they were, Lilim was not wearing a Maid Outfit. Lynn had her wear Noble clothing with a hood, hiding her Cat ears and tail.

"Sir, would you like to buy an Elf?"

"My lord, I have an exceptionally strong Ice wolf person here. Would you care to take a look?"

Lynn wandered around. He was no saint; he had a moral conscience, but as the National Ideology, for the sake of efficiency and development, he had to choose a large, well-fed group of slaves—and they had to be useful.

Lilim, on the other hand, felt pity for them. Even Eckley did.

One saw her own kind, while the other seemed to be seeing his former self.

Lynn continued walking around before finally stopping at the entrance of a Small Slave Owner's establishment.

Gold coins, Silver coins, Copper coins. Under a precious-metal currency system, the market was bound to experience huge fluctuations.

For example, in ancient times, one Gold coin equaled one hundred Silver coins, which equaled one thousand Copper coins.

Due to the overmining of the Copper Mine, massive amounts of copper had been extracted. Coupled with the fact that copper was no longer used to forge weapons, the price of copper had fallen again and again. Now, one thousand Copper coins could only be exchanged for ten Silver coins.

Gold coins had remained as reliable as ever. Gold prices had barely ever fallen and could even rise during wartime. They were hard currency.

Silver coins were now the Mainstream currency for commercial transactions. Their exchange rate with Gold coins also fluctuated, so no precise figure could be given.

Still, one Gold coin was definitely enough for a family of five in the Imperial Capital to live for five years.

Lynn had considered converting everything according to Blue Star's Prices, but he had crossed over more than a decade ago, and prices in this world were a complete mess. The price of every item changed every month, making it difficult to calculate.

Lynn had not investigated people in other rural regions. He only knew that in the Imperial Capital, a common family of five needed 132 Silver coins to survive for a year.

In the Imperial Capital, ordinary workers earned five to ten Silver coins a month, while even an academy professor only earned 300 Silver coins.

Lynn stopped in front of this Small Slave Owner and looked around.

Others sold a slave for ten to twenty Silver coins, yet this fellow was selling them for only five to ten. With these hundred-plus slaves, Lynn could buy them all out.

Were the slaves here mostly humans and demi-humans?

The other slave owners were all fat and greasy, so why was this slave owner somewhat skinny?

The slave owner cautiously approached Lynn and asked, "My lord, what kind of slave are you looking to buy?"

"If you are looking for playthings, I do not have any here." This slave owner clearly lacked the confidence of the others.

Lynn was not looking for playthings to begin with, but he did have some doubts. The slaves here were strange: all of them were boys and girls, each one sallow and emaciated from hunger, and extremely small. They could barely work, but there were many of them and they were cheap.

"I'll take all of these people. Can you make it cheaper?" Lynn stroked his chin, looking troubled. "After buying them, I'll still have to feed them well. That costs a lot of money."

The Small Slave Owner kept crossing his thumbs over each other. After thinking for a long time, he said, "My lord, these children are already being sold cheaply enough."

"Please rest assured, my lord. They may look like this, but I guarantee they will be obedient."

Lynn frowned and began Playing themselves as a spoiled young master. Standing in a slouched, carefree posture with his hands on his hips, he cursed with a look of disdain and disgust, "I'm buying so many at once, and you won't even do me this favor?"

"No, my lord. It's just that I still need to earn enough money to get through the winter. If the price goes any lower, then..."