Chapter 571: Chapter 225 He ns to Give Money_1
On the outskirts of Rnd City, at Riverside Town, dawn was just breaking. Desperate ves were driven forth, lining both sides of the road. Each ve bore an expression of sorrow, yet even more sorrowful were the ve traders’ faces.
Ange walked along the road, curious about the scene unfolding before him, with the equally curious Luther trailing behind him.
very has been in existence from time immemorial, Rnd City has a ve market filled with contract ves who have sold themselves and captured individuals from different races, such as dwarves and elves.
Of course, elves cannot be openly sold in the market; they can only be covertly traded in the ck market, as the elves fiercely suppress such sales.
But the audacious and unscrupulous ve-traders who dared to defy even the Pope wouldn’t care about the elves, would they?
The very act of suppression only pushed the trade of elves from the open to the hidden, consequently raising the price of elves and making their trade even more profitable, causing an influx of desperate ve merchants willing to risk capturing more elf ves.
Small mercenary groups now and then would seize the lucrative opportunity, given that one elf could fetch tens of thousands of Demon Crystals – enough for retirement.
The elves once negotiated with the Pope to send their own task forces into human territories to eliminate the ve traders dealing in elves.
However, they often found their intelligence to be wed and unreliable, leading them to mistakenly attack legitimate businesses. In addition, thesew-enforcing elves would be targets for ve traders themselves. Even trips to the necessary room were risky.
In the end, the elves were left with no choice but to minimize contact with human territories. Any necessary dealings were handled through intermediaries like mercenaries.
Contrastingly, dwarves hardly cared if their kin became ves. As long as they weren’t brutalized or harmed, they couldn’t care less.
Moreover, some dwarves who had grown tired of dwelling in the mountains would descend to an inn for a drink, passionately pat their empty pockets and dere, “I have no money. I would sell myself for a drink each day even if it means bing a ve.”
Impressively, these self=selling dwarves made demands that exceeded those of contract ves.
Given the enormous food and drink consumption of these dwarf ves, fewmoners could provide for them, and their selling price was quite low.
As they were rarely requested, they were seldom captured. In bad times, they were turned away, freeing the traders of the burden of their sustenance.
Elves couldn’t resort to such tactics as the dwarves, simply because elves, even male ones, were too alluring. Anyone purchasing elves did so for purposes other thanbor.
Elf trading was driven into the ck market, and Riverside Town was one such ck market.
However, ofte, not just illicit goods were sold in Riverside Town. Due to a sharp spike in bankruptcies, a horde of individuals were turning into contract ves or ves.
Contract ves were bound by a contract that once fulfilled, would release them from the status of ‘ve’ to freedmen ormoners.
On the other hand, ves had no human rights left. They were nothing more than possessions, with the distinction between the two being that one is human and the other an object.
But when faced with starvations, few cared whether they were being sold as humans or objects. Being sold to a ve trader at least ensured a meal.
However, as more and more people fell into very, ve prices drastically declined and hence impacted the profit margins of ve traders.
Famine also led to ntation owners and nobles turning their tenant farmers and serfs directly into ves, cutting out the need for ve traders and thus eliminating the brokers’ fees.
The traders benefited less and less from the trade of ves, yet the ves still needed food. Unseble ves meant potential loss and even more worry for the traders.
In the past, ve traders with conscience would tear up the contracts and set the ves free at this stage, but the ones with conscience were few and far between. A man with conscience wouldn’t be a ve trader in the first ce, would he?
The more ruthless traders would ‘dispose of the merchandise’.
However, they did not dare to do so this time around. Word had been secretly spread by envoy sent by Anthony, substitute Pope of the Eastern Diocese, stating that anyone who dared ‘dispose of the merchandise’ would have their entire family murdered. If the ves could not be sold, they were to be sent to refugee camps by the border.
Anthony’s quiet threats of ‘murdering entire families’ were far more effective in terrifying the traders than the threats of the Elf Queen. If Anthony dared to cause a schism in the church, was there anything he wouldn’t dare to do?
If the traderscked a conscience, Anthony would simply ‘impose’ one on them. Hence, many ve traders seemed to have developed a conscience overnight, reluctantlym selling ves with the gloomiest of expressions and sending those unseble to the border once the contracts were torn.
Riverside Town, a ck market turned ve market, was on the brink of bing a regr marketce due to the influx of ves. With more sellers than buyers, both ves and traders watched Ange and Luther with anticipation as they entered.
Some slightly attractive ve women coyly fluttered their eyshes and postured enticingly to catch Ange and Luther’s attention.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om
It was, however, a bridge too far.
Upon seeing Ange, Negris and Durken struck up a conversation. “We should buy some dwarf brewers and have them brew the ale that dwarves love.”
“Are you daft?” Durken asked.
“Huh?” Negris froze in confusion.
“Why do we brew ale? We do so to watch the recorded games of dwarf chess, a holy ce to dwarves where outsiders are typically unwee unless offered an irresistible enticement. Let me ask you this, if the ale were brewed by dwarf brewers, why would the dwarves refuse? They could easily brew it themselves,” Durken questioned.