Chapter 28
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 28
Chapter Title: How Shall You Live?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Time had passed since liberating Dreihart.
In the meantime, I'd been insanely busy with postwar cleanup.
Rebuilding the war-torn Dreihart,
explaining to the Platinum Council that slave emancipation was my governance policy while sending bribes to key members,
reluctantly sending gifts to the Lion Family (I really didn't want to) and the Silla Family to save face—my head felt like it was going to explode.
I mostly just grasped the essentials and stamped approvals, leaving the actual work to Hart and Noah, but even that gave me a headache.
I was once again struck by how truly brilliant those two were.
Once we'd tackled that mountain of tasks, the biggest problem loomed right in front of us.
The biggest issue? What jobs to give the newly freed citizens!
Jobs were a massive problem.
Even in history books from my past life, there were plenty of cases where slaves were emancipated without proper plans, leading to bloodshed.
They'd starve without work or even sell themselves back into slavery, spawning all sorts of tragedies.
To avoid that, we had to provide jobs where Dreihart's freed citizens could work and earn money.
I offered to use my personal funds, but Noah and Hart shot it down.
I swear, it would've been fine...
Brushing aside my minor disappointment, Noah seemed to have already prepared countermeasures for this. She led me to a flower field on the outskirts of Dreihart.
There bloomed slender white flowers with an incredible fragrance.
This scent... it felt familiar. Where had I smelled it before? Definitely somewhere...
"Noah, what are these flowers?"
"They're called 'cumin' flowers. Processing their seeds turns them into the spice cumin."
"Ah!"
Noah's words jogged my memory.
This aroma... it was the scent from Indian-style curry in my past life.
"Rare spices like these grow abundantly around Dreihart. We can turn this into a major revenue source for the territory."
According to Noah, slaves had already been doing some spice production here, but it got overshadowed by other slave industries, and the former lord hadn't recognized its value, leaving it half-abandoned.
Fostering it could sustain Dreihart's people, she proposed—and it sounded solid to me.
In my past world, the Age of Exploration had been sparked by demand for pepper.
I didn't know about this world, but there had to be demand. It should be enough to feed Dreihart's citizens.
I tasked Noah with pushing this venture forward.
Noah had prepared various other jobs too.
She selected freed slave soldiers who wanted to keep serving and turned them into Dreihart's regular troops. Some were even assigned to the Cron Knight Order to bolster Cron Territory's defenses.
She also reformed the existing mercenary business in Dreihart.
Basically, it had been little more than a temp agency.
Requests came in under the lord's name, and they'd just dispatch slaves accordingly to handle them. That's how veteran monster hunters ended up dying horribly on the battlefield, while green rookies got sent to hunt slimes and became slime food.
She restructured it into a guild system: mercenaries review requests, pick missions they can handle, and get deployed.
This way, former slave mercenaries could choose jobs within their capabilities and earn fair pay for their labor.
As we discussed jobs while passing through Dreihart, Rana spoke up.
"So, does that mean the 'slave gladiator tournament' is gone now?"
Slave Gladiator Tournament
Colosseum (Slave Fight Pit)—Dreihart's symbol and the root of all its tragedies—was now fully shuttered.
"Probably. There aren't slaves left to fight anyway, and even if we brought them in from elsewhere, the people here wouldn't stand for it."
The now-freed locals wouldn't tolerate watching slaves risk their lives in front of them anymore.
Rana's expression was blankly disappointed at Noah's words.
"I see. That's a shame. I really wanted to see it once..."
Rana must've wanted to witness a slave gladiator tournament.
Well, morally dubious as they were, they were undeniably thrilling spectacles.
In my past life, I'd watched a movie about slave gladiators and gripped my seat during the fight scenes, palms sweating.
As I reminisced about that, a sudden idea hit me.
Wait... this could work!
"Banning slave gladiator tournaments is right. But what if we do something else instead?"
"Something else?"
Back in the office in Dreihart, I explained my idea to everyone.
They all looked stunned, and Noah especially didn't hide her admiration.
"That does seem like a way to repurpose the Colosseum."
"But will it be okay? It seems like it'll be less exciting than before."
Rana tilted her head with a question mark practically floating above it.
Her point wasn't invalid.
What I proposed could be seen as a tamer, downgraded version of the slave fights.
But drawing from countless matches I'd seen in my past life, I said,
"Rana, want to bet? I'll put 10 gold on it being fun."
I proposed the wager to Rana with full confidence.
She pondered blankly for a moment before replying.
"I'll bet it's boring—and wager a kiss from me."
"What!?"
"Not allowed?"
A grown woman wagering something like that in a bet? No way!
As my inner Confucian dragon reared up to protest, Rana continued.
"My first kiss. It should be worth at least 10 gold."
"No, that's not what I—"
"Me too! I'll join!"
"Noah?"
As I tried to defuse things, Noah—face flushed—jumped in, declaring she'd participate too.
Noah! You too!?
With Noah piling on, the atmosphere was beyond salvaging, so I grudgingly accepted the bet.
Is this kind of bet even okay...? My inner Confucian dragon was in turmoil.
Anyway, renovations on the Colosseum began to fit my idea.
The bloodstained arena was thoroughly cleaned, and the dingy slave fighter waiting rooms were gutted and remade into clean, comfy setups like pro soccer locker rooms.
In the Colosseum's center rose an octagon arena: soft magic-treated lambskin, steel, and ropes from scura spider silk.
This was my idea.
A safe fighting tournament with rules: UFC (Ultra Fighting Championship)!
The rules matched my past life's event exactly.
No weapons, no groin strikes, no killing, gloves required, punches okay, kicks okay, grappling okay, and so on.
I implemented every rule I could recall.
While prepping the arena, we recruited fighters.
Mainly from locals who'd been slave gladiators before.
They freaked at first, thinking it was life-or-death fights again, but lit up upon hearing the rules.
"You mean you'll pay us for something like that—a game?"
Apparently, bare-knuckle brawls were like pre-meal warmups they did for fun among themselves.
A few bit at the promise of big payouts for play-fighting, and thus the world's first UFC kicked off.
The reaction? Explosive.
"Woooaaahhhh!!!!"
Two warriors clashed atop the octagon.
Fighter Kasha swung a fist the size of a man's thigh.
His usual weapon was a flail, but it didn't matter.
His punches, honed over years, hit just as hard—and he unleashed them mercilessly at his friend.
Uron dodged lightly and countered with his signature heart stab—no, a right straight!
"Raaahhh!!!!"
Thwack-!
"Guh!!"
Uron's right straight slammed into Kasha's gut.
The impact sent the muscled brute flying back; Kasha couldn't even recover.
Uron charged with his hefty frame and tackled him.
Boom-!!
"Gaaahhh!!!"
Kasha crashed into the mat and went limp. The ref checked and declared Uron the winner.
"The first UFC champion is born! The champion: Gaius's Black Gorilla, Uron Gaius!!!"
"Woooaaarrrghhh!!!"
Uron pounded his chest like a gorilla atop the ring in victory, and the crowd went wild.
No blood flew, but the sweat-spraying punch exchanges enthralled them with a fresh thrill.
From the VIP seats, I watched with everyone, munching popcorn.
No one could tear their eyes from the matches. I'd already claimed victory in the bet before the finals.
"See? I win the—"
I glanced at them.
But Rana was suddenly right in front of me.
Blank-faced as ever, she grabbed my cheeks.
And...
Mwah-!
"I lost, my lord."
She leaned in and kissed me.
My first kiss in this life tasted like Rana's popcorn.
As my brain froze from her sudden assault, Noah rushed over.
"Me too! I want to!"
Noah hugged me with a super aggrieved look.
Her eyes grew misty, and she drew closer.
And... smooched.
Mwah-!
Hydrangea fragrance tickled my nose.
Ah, I could die happy today.
As that thought crossed my mind, an unexpected strike whooshed in!
Mwah!
Sharen had slipped up front with a cute smile and planted one on me.
She smelled like pleasant roses.
Sharen's surprise kiss snapped me back to reality.
Wait—the other two were from the bet, but Sharen? Why!?
As I stared at her in confusion, Sharen smiled like a big sis doting on a cute little brother.
"Everyone was doing it. Or... did you hate my kiss, my lord?"
I couldn't speak, just shook my head side to side.
Dreihart's night slipped away in a haze I couldn't shake.