The Slave Caravan from Gryutus
I stared straight ahead, seated at the desk in the office that rightfully belonged to the vice-captain. Serin stood at perfect attention, delivering her report, while Chloe stood beside me.
…If I grabbed Chloe’s ass right now, would I get in trouble?
A sharp glare seemed to pierce me from the side. I ignored the sensation and focused on the report.
“There have been no major issues so far.”
The checkpoint’s role was simple: verify the identities of travelers, check for wanted criminals among them, inspect luggage for contraband, and confirm whether taxes needed to be collected on certain goods. In most cases, simply checking the issued travel permit was enough. Personal belongings weren’t examined in great detail unless they involved magic stones or similar regulated items.
Merchants, on the other hand, required thorough inspection of their cargo. After all, taxes had to be levied. For nobles, it was usually just a matter of verifying their documents and reporting their passage to the castle. As for adventurers, their guild-issued papers were reviewed to check for criminal records or any incidents in other territories.
“The wanted notices are updated daily, and we’ve confirmed the documents received from the adventurers’ guild. Nothing unusual has appeared until now.”
“I figured as much. Even so, it’s not like Father’s only been gone a day and enemy spies would already be slipping in.”
Still, just in case, I had assigned extra personnel.
“As for any other special matters…”
Serin’s words suddenly trailed off. When she remained silent, I glanced over and saw her wearing an expression that said, Should I mention this or not?
“Is something wrong?”
“Um… It’s not particularly unusual, but… a slave caravan has arrived.”
“A slave caravan?”
Slaves. Human trafficking. The words alone sounded ominous at first glance. But it wasn’t anything particularly special. Unlike modern times, this wasn’t considered a crime here. Becoming a slave could even be a reasonable choice.
One could report to the authorities, relinquish their commoner status, and become a slave. In exchange, they would be exempt from taxes until they regained commoner status. The owner paid those taxes in their place, of course. The owner’s responsibilities were also quite substantial—they had to provide food, living expenses, and even a salary. The slave would save up that salary to eventually buy back their commoner rank.
If they were lucky enough to find a good master, they could regain their freedom relatively quickly. If not? Well, that’s what happens when you don’t pay your taxes properly.
Of course, just like in modern times, there were criminal aspects as well. While the slave had to register their status, the owner was responsible for paying taxes on their behalf. Although the amount was lower than a commoner’s tax, some tried to evade even that by failing to register or forging documents claiming the registration had been done in another territory.
Additionally, illegal kidnappings and forced enslavement obviously occurred, and in those cases, it was considered a serious crime not only here but in other countries as well. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a dystopian Korea where fingerprints and resident registration numbers were assigned at birth, so there was no way to track someone kidnapped from far away and turned into a slave.
Because it was a profession that involved buying and selling people, it was known to generate quite a bit of money. However, becoming a slave trader wasn’t as simple as it sounded. The required procedures were far more numerous than for ordinary merchants, and the taxes were correspondingly high. Moreover, if even a single illegal activity was discovered, the penalties were significantly harsher than for merchants dealing in other goods.
If the crime was clear, the head of the caravan would almost certainly lose their life. As a result, few people actively wanted to become slave traders, and even those who did needed substantial capital. Therefore, slave traders themselves were relatively rare.
That said, they weren’t so uncommon as to be considered a rarity. I knew this particular group had visited several times before.
“You checked all the documents?”
“Yes. There were no irregularities.”
“Then there shouldn’t be any problem, right?”
“Y-yes, that’s correct. I only mentioned it just in case.”
It was unusual enough to be noteworthy, but not exactly rare. A slave caravan. I wasn’t uninterested, but there were many other tasks to handle… I was about to take the next document from Chloe and skim through it when I suddenly paused.
I looked at my current situation. After finishing important duties to sleep with my sister-in-law, I had lounged around a bit in the morning, but I had continued working ever since.
Just what… how had it come to this?
It was all because of slaves. This was another world, a fantasy realm. Especially in dungeon stories, the protagonist would buy slaves, turn them into party members, steal their labor, claim all the treasure for themselves, and if the slave was a woman, seduce her into becoming a sexual partner. That kind of slave?
I was a noble, and many people served me, but that was one thing. This was another. And yet, even though slave caravans had visited Franz before, I had never once seen the famous slave traders because I was too busy with work?
What had happened to my lifelong motto?
My life of living comfortably and at ease…
“L-Lord Leoric?”
When I grew sullen, Serin’s voice snapped me back to reality.
That’s right! It wasn’t too late!
“This is no time to be like this!”
“Pardon?”
“…What exactly are you planning to do now?”
I looked at the documents in front of me. Was any of this truly important right now!
Bang!
I slammed my fist on the desk. I had been working far too diligently lately. Sure, I had burned with passion with my sister-in-law yesterday, but that was that. This was this. I used to play every day and only study, but hadn’t I been working way too hard recently?
“I-I’m sorry…!”
“Where did they come from?”
For some reason, Serin’s face had turned deathly pale while Chloe covered her face with her hands. Where the slave caravan had come from! That was the important question.
“Where did that slave caravan arrive from? There should be a document for it.”
“Y-yes! Right here!”
Serin immediately rummaged through a drawer in her rigid posture and pulled out a single sheet of paper. Her movements were quick and efficient even though there was no urgent rush. Quite commendable.
“Here… Here it is! It says they came from the coastal city of Gryutus in the southwestern region.”
“Gryutus!”
Wasn’t that the city famous for its pearls? There was a gem similar to a pearl. Its appearance and the way it was formed were both very similar… Wait, pearls do form inside clams, right? I wasn’t very interested in gems, so I wasn’t entirely sure.
Anyway, it was something contained within a clam-like monster that possessed magic power. That monster’s magic power was quite considerable. Considerable, yes, but… according to the classification, its magic power was barely at the medium level, so it was categorized as a medium-sized monster and was quite dangerous. The problem was that once pulled out of the water, it would close its mouth, stop moving, and not attack.
If one were to catch one and haul it up, the method was to smash the shell until it died to obtain the pearl inside. That pearl was quite useful. It was beautiful too, but that was beside the point—it had the property of storing magic power, much like a magic stone.
The city was famous for such gems and various seafood… or so I knew. Since it was in a completely different region, I didn’t have detailed information. Pearls weren’t produced only there, but because of its strong brand value, the Gryutus pearls were particularly famous on our side, below the Great Mountain Range.
The issue was that Gryutus was not a city of the Brahms Kingdom.
…Yes. It was a different country. Different nationality. They had crossed the border. That was what it meant.
I paused for a moment. When I looked up, Serin wore a puzzled expression while Chloe tilted her head.
“…No. Why would they come all the way here from there?”
“I-I’m not sure?”
“Now that you mention it, it is strange.”
I had gotten a little excited, but this information helped me calm down slightly. Gryutus was a city in the Bachn Kingdom, a small maritime nation located across the enormous Rainia River that flowed from the Great Mountain Range beyond Muller all the way to the sea. It was like a long, narrow island-like territory along the coastline.
“They brought slaves all the way here? The taxes must be no joke.”
Whether slaves or anything else, they were human resources. In this era, the number of people—population—was crucial. Even ordinary commoners without magic power could provide simple labor.
“It appears to be a caravan that originally traded between Bachn and Brahms.”
“And they came all the way here?”
There was a massive river between Bachn and Brahms. That was why invading Bachn had always been difficult. The river was simply too wide. It was hard to lead an army across, and it was equally difficult for them to cross over. Moreover, even if one were to conquer it, Bachn wasn’t particularly worth the effort.
Still, the river’s width wasn’t so great as to hinder trade, so there had been a fair amount of exchange between the two nations for a long time. But even so, bringing slaves all the way here? Transporting people as cargo this far? The food costs alone during the journey would be enormous, not to mention all the other expenses.
“It’s suspicious.”
“They are currently waiting at the holding area. Should we detain them?”
At my words, both Serin and Chloe turned serious. With a single order, detaining the entire caravan would be simple, but… hmm.
“I see. Let’s go take a look first.”
“You intend to go personally, my lord?”
It was something that could be handled with a simple command. But honestly, I was curious. Slave caravans had visited Franz several times before, but it wasn’t our business to mind, and none of them had been involved in kidnapping.
“Yeah. It’s my first time seeing a slave caravan. I’m curious, aren’t I?”
“I-is that so?”
Seeing Serin’s doubtful expression, I smiled and stood up from my seat. Anyway, while it was suspicious, the fact that people from the southwestern region had come meant…
“They say there are so many beautiful women in the southwestern region.”
“…Sigh.”
Uwooooooh! A beauty from the nation of the sea!