These burlap-wrapped underpants were not unique to Jenisar. They merely used them to distinguish friend from foe on the battlefield, washing and dyeing them with blood-red tree sap to display their resolve to reform Calimshan.
Outside Calimport, Ponte Slave Exchange.
XIII was the leader of this slave guard army. As for why he was not Number I, it was because most of those whose code names came before his had already died, while he was the earliest-numbered and most obedient one left.
At that moment, he too held a spear and an iron-rimmed round shield, dressed in a pair of black linen underpants.
In truth, linen like this should have been pale yellow. But after going unwashed for too long, it became a grimy blackish gray.
Across all of Calimshan, there were only two major sources of water: the Karin River and the Ice River. Yet their waters were often infested with large carnivorous beasts resembling crocodiles and lion prides. Sometimes, there were even multi-headed lizards that swam upstream from the sea into freshwater regions to lay their eggs. As such, obtaining fresh water was perilous and costly for ordinary people.
Most people at the bottom of Calimshan's society only bathed three times in their lives.
At birth, at marriage, and at burial.
Slaves like XIII did not even know whether they had ever had a proper bath. Their bodies often gave off a sour, stale stench. In the mouths of the nobles, this was the smell of "slaves and lowborn trash."
XIII could not smell it himself. He only knew that whenever Master arrived with guests, he would always cover his nose and mouth, his eyes filled with disgust.
XIII had once heard from people who had become slaves halfway through their lives that Master must have invested too