Taylor asked Martha while saying to everyone, "With this magic contract I am pretty sure he doesn't have any ulterior motives and it is still better than nothing and it can give us a new start, what do you think Martha?"
Martha said to everyone seriously, "That's true if only our children can get freedom in the future that was worth it not to mention everyone. All of us have to work harder so that we can become free earlier and earn his trust. Any objections?"
No one objected while Jake was still in his own thoughts.
After his speech was finished, John rang a bell and called Jacob and asked Tom to make a contract for everyone.
Meanwhile, Eva and others came inside after he finished dealing with the slaves.
Joseph was the first one to react after watching the contract Tom was making,
"John, are you sure about making this contract? won't you be losing if you make this contract? you can still get their loyalty by normal means you know."
John firmly said to him, "Think about it carefully Joseph, with that, I would only get their loyalty as they are my slaves and not their trust. In the future I would need people who I can trust and as you have seen many slaves even die in the span of 5 years because of many physical and mental reasons."
"With this, I will be pretty much profiting from this deal. However, this deal needs to be under wraps from certain people."
Joseph sighed and agreed, "Since you have made your firm stance and decision, I can't do anything but support you since you are my friend and our interests are intermixed now. Well, I will respect your decision on this choice of yours. As for Baron Mendez, he won't get a whiff about this contract to make any trouble among the noble circles. As for Tom, he is the main man of Marquis who deals in the slave trade in Pearl city so you shouldn't be worried about him and he might have already known about our deal with Marquis Ray. We only have to make sure to include this in the contract that the slaves cant reveal about this contract to others so everything will be solved."
'Maybe he has past related to slavery and that's why he abhors slavery or maybe a slave could have saved his life in crucial moments and so his disgust when it comes to slavery. Anyways I should respect his decision.'
Under John's influence, even Joseph's thinking on slaves was changing day by day.
Even Eva and others after hearing this from Joseph were shocked about this development but thought it was anyways John's way of dealing with his slaves. While Sally looked at him with very astonished and curious eyes, the thing was people very rarely treated slaves this good and it was only after a long period of time that they were treated fairly and may be given freedom.
Meanwhile, it was also because of this magic contract and John's speech that Tornwall trusted John and decided to make his machines with utmost secrecy. Tornwall was the man who always upheld his words seriously and that was also the reason why he had declined to make any of the machines and weapons of Dwarven tech which he swore would never reveal in the past.
Of all the Slaves it was only Jake which interested Jay, Eva, and her team. They also thought maybe this guy could be one of the reasons why John is using so much of his resources.
After this whole ordeal, all of them signed a contract with John and all of the slaves were quite reassured about their future and understood that they should never reveal about this contract until they are free again,
This time even Tornwall didn't make all the fuss like he used to make so that he won't be bought in the past. Watching this most of the slaves and dwarves understood that this deal was most likely true since even Tornwall accepted it and thought of following his lead.
Sally approached John and gave him a piece of advice, "You know if you were a big noble then it would have created big political waves after this decision because Many Noble interests are interlinked with the slave trade. You must be cautious and make yourself stronger since this would be revealed sooner or later."
Meanwhile, Joseph approached Tom and told him not to reveal this contract to anyone apart from Marquis and his Father. When Tom was making this contract, he already understood that it needs to be hidden or else there would be problems and implications later on and he was just wondering if he should talk to Joseph or not.
As Tornwall had guessed, John was changing the perceptions of his friends towards slaves slowly but definitely and it was his abilities and his sense of values which were attracting people.
Meanwhile at a certain castle nearby Pearl City,
Bard was currently meeting with Prince Hector and waiting for him,
Prince Hector's butler reported to the prince in a certain hall, "Prince, Bard has come and he wants to meet with you as he wants to pass on certain information about the events which took place in Pearl City. As you might know, Princess Diana was currently in Pearl City so Bard had gone out to represent you at the auction unofficially meanwhile Princess Diana was able to buy the longevity potion but we encountered certain trouble when Bard was trying to buy Bluesea Family's Longthorn sword. It was actually a merchant who bought it at a very steep price. What do you think about this situation Lord?"
Prince Hector thought for a while and gave his answer to him.
"Okay, bring him over and treat him well. We would anyway need more support from nobles if we want to achieve something in the next war and the best way is to socialize and intermix our interests with these nobles. As for the merchant, we will see and act according to the situation I don't want any political implications right now if that merchant has a big duke as his backer. Its a good thing that I wasn't present there but if he had offended me then he would have certainly been made to apologize to me. Maybe that wouldn't have happened if I was present."
Butler laughed and gave his answer, "As you wish Prince, I think the same as more nobles supporting us would be beneficial to us in future, plus your eldest brother already has a lot of grasp in Military matters so we would anyways need more chips against him in future so it would be better to make more connections and fewer confrontations in upper noble class for now."
Butler then proceeded to invite Bart.