Solam neither approved nor disapproved of the plan, letting Unos and the others do as they pleased. But he had not expected things to exceed his imagination. These slaves had actually played a major role. The result left Solam somewhat speechless, and more importantly, their sacrifices had been far too tragic.
A full two hundred thousand people—only a tiny fraction had survived.
So whether out of guilt or recognition of their contribution, Solam stopped the gnoll adjutant's slaughter order. As for what to do afterward, Solam had not figured that out yet.
But now, Solam thought of these people. He felt they should be able to offer him some help.
"Help? Them? They've completely lost their minds. It's true that they hate the gnolls, but they don't think much better of us. We should be thanking the heavens that they haven't rebelled already. Help us? Impossible!"
The gnoll adjutant thought Lord Solam was good in every way, except that he could be a little too stubborn. These people had already lost their value and had even become a potential threat. Was there any point in keeping them? Just because of some promise of returning home those people kept talking about?
The gnoll adjutant thought those people were insane. When had they ever made such a promise? It was just a rumor, all right? And those rumors had not even been spread by the Unos Fleet. The slaves had simply imagined it themselves and passed it around by word of mouth. It had absolutely nothing to do with them!
In the adjutant's view, even the uprising had no direct connection to them. They had merely told the slaves that they had arrived. Everything that followed had been the slaves' own choice. Why should they pay for these people's immature decisions?
Even