The Uncle and the Slave Merchant (part 1)
Allow me to recount what went down yesterday.
“Okay! In order to protect everyone, I will become stronger!”
But how do I become stronger?
I thought.
In my original world, people who wanted to train their muscles ordinarily would choose to do push-ups or sit-ups.
So in order to become stronger, should I do fifty sit-ups everyday?
Huff, huff.
A minute later.
I rubbed the sweat off my forehead and displayed a happy smile.
Something’s not right, not right.
That’s what I was thinking as I patted my body. But as expected, there wasn’t any feeling. My body had not changed in the slightest, and I didn’t feel the aches after working out, and I also didn’t have any satisfied feeling! This cannot be!
Then should I do another fifty?
Hu.
I rubbed my abs, and yet there still wasn’t any change.
As expected, although one hundred sit ups would have already made me so tired I’d be panting for breath in my original world, this much is very easy for this body? If it’s like this, I need to understand my limitations.
Another one hundred.
That’s still no good, another two hundred!
I didn’t feel anything again, so I did another three hundred.
Huuuhuuu, I feel, I’ve worked, a lot.
But I haven’t reached my limits!
……
After today.
“He ge, get out of bed!”
“Okay, I’m getting up now, get-get-get-get-get-ah it hurts——”
In summary, I am now lying down in the cart, unable to budge an inch.
I didn’t actually think that I’d lose to myself. It is really too shameful.
Little Elan was at my side, looking at me worriedly.
“I’m fine, Little Elan. This is the effects of old age, that’s all.”
Mademoiselle Phantom stuck out half of her head from my chest, like she was swimming in a lake.
“No, I don’t think this has anything to do with advanced age. No matter who it is, it’s a normal thing to feel muscle aches after such high intensity exercising.”
Mademoiselle Phantom pushed back her gla.s.ses as she gave her extremely professional explanation.
“Even Master is already at such a high level, he still continues to advance forward. I also must work hard.”
Right now, Ka Luona, who was driving the cart, raised the horsewhip high, added:
“Starting today, I would like Master to teach me things I don’t know about every night.
This kind of speech really has some unintended subtleties.
“Ka Luona, where are we going next?”
“Meifeng Town. It should only take a day’s journey to get there.”
“This time we aren’t taking a shortcut?”
“There is no shortcut.”
Ka Luona did not seem like she was lying. And she also was never the kind of person who was afraid to advance forward. Though I had initially thought that she just didn’t dare to go on a dangerous shortcut, it seems like that’s not it. Ai, a missed opportunity for Ka Luona to train herself. Really, what a pity.
On this big road, everything was peaceful. There wasn’t any sort of oppressive atmosphere, just the amiable sunlight. The trees, lining the sides of the road, made faint rustling sounds. Occasionally, a fawn would poke out its head from the forest on the side of the road, curiously looking at us. Little Elan’s eyes glittered as she stared in rapt attention at the fawn. Both parties looked at each other like this, until they disappeared into the horizon.
A mountain stood in the distance. The mountain was sprinkled with leftover snow, and was hazy in the midst of the far away clouds. Evergreen trees and a small quant.i.ty of deciduous trees interweaved together in the background. It was like the paint from an oil painting and newly added colors had been mixed together. On one of the trees on the side, an owl-like bird was tilting its head and looking us.
Little Hairball followed us from behind. It was occasionally nibbling on the wildflowers or directing a scowl at the winter shepherd’s sheep herds. But before long, it would catch up. LIttle Hairball was pretty smart; it would definitely not fall behind.
Approaching from far away, a horse cart came galloping towards us. A black cloth covered the goods in the back. A fifty-year-old, fierce-looking man was driving the cart.
When he brushed shoulders with us, I felt that there was something off.
Based on the shape, the cloth was covering something angular. That was probably a box. But a box would already be opaque, so there was no need to cover it. The other possibility was that there was cage underneath. But that also doesn’t seem to realistic. At Duofa, we saw many travelling merchants who were peddling beasts of burden, and they never hid things like this.
“Ka Luona, do you know that kind of salesman who covers the goods in the back?”
Ka Luona spoke without turning her head.
“Oh that, that is for peddling slaves. Because n.o.blemen thought that having people inside cages as they travelled around was unseemly, they required them to be covered with a black cloth.
So this world has slaves.
This is a given, seeing as the government here is a centralized one under a single ruler.
“What do you think about them, Ka Luona?”
“What?”
“That kind of thing…..don’t you feel that selling slaves is cruel?”
Ka Luona tilted her head to the side.
“Why? The laws of the country state that that it’s free to buy and sell slaves. But smuggling is illegal.”
“What sort of actions are considered smuggling?”
“Slave merchants need to obtain the permission of the country. Any unlicensed buying or selling is included under smuggling. They are more commonly seen in cities, but of course there is some buying and selling in the other villages. Those kind are typically serfs.”
I stared at the vehicle that was going far away, and my heart was still uncomfortable.
In this world, slaves were quite an ordinary thing. Even Ka Luona was used to it.
Although I, from the general knowledge, I had before I was reincarnated, felt unhappy, this was not something within the sphere I could control.
I reclined back on the cart, watching the azure sky.
Suddenly, I felt something move in the goods pile.
I directed my gaze over there.
Over there was still the pile of hay and the weapons, also the pile of food stuff. There wasn’t any abnormalities.
It should just be me hallucinating. That small area was not big enough to hide anything.