"Allow me to introduce myself."
As the laborers regained their composure and numbness and unease crept back onto their faces, Little Smo stepped forward. "We are the Blade of Freedom. We are Freemen. We are Adele."
"The Mine controls you. We free you."
The laborers stared blankly. The endless sound of picks striking stone had long since robbed them of the ability to think, and they had yet to grasp what freedom meant.
Rofi returned with a battered soul floating behind her.
"Well?" Little Smo asked about the interrogation.
"This place is like a fishing net."
It looked impossible to escape, but in truth, there were holes everywhere.
Even the strictest rules were enforced to the letter only when they were first made.
But Little Smo had forgotten to ask where they kept the food.
"I have some here."
Rofi produced two sacks of bread and chunks of meat.
They did not ask what the food had been stored with. Instead, they had the Freemen who remained there distribute it to the laborers.
Two sacks were plainly not enough for everyone, but the laborers visibly came alive. Anxiety and longing filled their eyes as they watched the Freemen drag the sacks toward them.
Little Smo could not understand.
How cheap did a slave have to be for the mine owner to treat the laborers as expendable, without caring whether they lived or died?
Even Ratfolk Artisans would not be treated like this!
He recalled what Lord Annan had once told him: this world needed them.
Faced with overwhelming force, the other seven Mine Tunnels fell to them in rapid succession. They did not even alert Shack Row at the foot of the mountain.
The trouble with moving so fast was that they had nowhere near enough people. Little Smo selected