There are three main roads that lead both inside and outside of the city of Citrine. Those three roads also consist of many separate parts that may go to perhaps a village, town, another city, or anything in the latter.
The kingdom is really just a large country that comprises of many areas where humans and other races can live, and Citrine is one of the biggest cities it has.
But Citrine is also considered a very different city than the others; mainly because it is rich and people can live easily in it. Citrine's personal economy, the one that separates from the whole country, is rich and easy to get by; taxes are low compared to the other cities and the prices of the products are mostly cheap, especially the ones that are made inside the city itself.
Additionally, Citrine has its own adventurers guild in which many people, particularly the less fortunate ones can easily earn money from, either by hunting down monsters or by doing odd jobs people inside the city requests.
But not all cities are perfect - like the capital, which can compete with Citrine, it also has many problems. And Citrine, in particular, are the slums and the increasing number of slave merchants living in it.
The lord of this city, Arthur Brunhild, already considered to try and fix that problem, but he was never able to do anything about it. No matter how much he works to improve his city, he won't be able to fix the problems regarding the slums and the slaves, which process always goes parallel to each other: if his city continues to get rich, the more unfortunate people suddenly exist and the number of slaves will also increase.
The people in the slums never really tries to get out of their current situation, maybe because they can't in the first place, but nevertheless, they are already satisfied with what little they have. The slaves, on the other hand, can't really do anything about themselves. So in the end, Arthur just accepted their existence as one natural part of his own city.
And as of now, slave trading is one of the biggest business there is in his city like of any others, that's why most of the richest figures in the city are the slave merchants, only second to the nobles themselves. And like the nobles, they have many privileges only for themselves, and two of their many is their protection and prioritized entrance in any cities.
~~~
[ Stop! ]
Inside the large gates of Citrine, three large wagons paused on their tracks as a guard shouted at their coaches. And the coach that rides the first wagon made an antagonizing sneer on him, the guard that's now in front of him.
[ What is this about? We're in a hurry! ] he shouted back. And with the guard turning his eyes on him, he replies with a very apologetic tone -
[ I'm sorry, but we need to inspect the wagons first... It's just the rules... ]
Slave merchants can past the waiting lines in the gates, but stopping them to investigate their products is still something that is a must and cannot be avoided, so the guard is really only doing his job. Either way, he still needed to apologize as these slave merchants have a higher position than him, who is merely a guard.
And the merchant, knowing that he will cross the law if he does not accept the guard's inspection, he has no choice but to hesitatingly allow them to.
[ Tsk! Fine, just make it fast, we can't miss our auction! ]
[ Of course, we'll make it fast! ]
Just as said, the guard started. Together with two other guards, they inspected the wagons and opened them up.
Each of the wagons is very large: enough to fit at least 20 people freely with enough space - but opening the curtains that hide what inside them, the guards saw a number of figures that exceeds that number. At least 30 figures are inside each of them, barely being able to fit themselves.
And all of them are sorted into three groups: the first wagon being the high-class slaves, the second one, being fixed together with both demi-humans and humans, and the last one which consists only of demi-humans with less resemblance to humans, they're the lowest class.
[ Just as expected... ] one of the guards whispers to himself as he took a look.
There aren't really any problems that he saw. The treatment looks bad for the slaves, but they're still not at the stage in which he would be concerned, their count is also considered normal despite the wagons already being filled to the brim. That's just how it really works when it comes to treating them - another wagon would be unnecessary for slaves such as them.
Either way, there is no particular problem that the guards saw, so when they finish, they immediately closed the curtains that are hiding the slaves inside.
[ Okay, you're free to go. ] the guard that checked the first wagon shouted, giving them the permission to continue.
After - the coach in front finally relaxes his facial expression and continues with an annoyed gesture of spitting into the ground. He is clearly not happy about being interrupted. After, their wagons rode again, together with screeching and bumping sounds as they did, leaving the guards standing to stare at their backs.
[ That's just how it is... ] one of the guards mutters as he looks at the wagons that are now passing, informing the other guards that what they have seen is the usual scene.
[ What do you think about it? Not being treated fairly, right? ]
[ Well... that's why they're called slaves, aren't they? ]
[ That's right, they're just slaves. ]
[ Some of them are humans though... I feel a bit pitiful towards them... Haah... some of them were a bunch of beauties too... ]
They converse with different opinions and emotions to what they just witnessed, each of them just has different views on slavery and it leaves them in a bit of conflict of acknowledging each other - but if there's one thing that they all agree about, is that it's normal and they won't be able to do anything about it, in fact, a large part of them is happy to see that they dominate other species, other than that, they still care about the human slaves even for a little.
A few minutes have passed and they went back to their positions, like their usual job, they will inspect again everyone that comes in and out of the city. But before they could position themselves, they were interrupted by a call from an important figure that suddenly came out of nowhere.
[ You guys take your rest now, it's now our group's turn. ] the important person said, and almost instantly, they needed to respond to it.
[ It's fine! We don't mind if we take a longer turn. ] one of the guards nervously responds, but to it, he only receives a sigh.
[ I've been assign by the lord of this city himself, it would be a shame if I won't do this easy task myself. Just let me do it already; it's not like I'll be here forever, this is probably the only time I'll do this job. ]
[ Ri-Right! Umm... Brunhild-sama himself... I'm sorry! I didn't mean to take this job from you. ]
[ It's yours in the first place... anyway, take your rests already. ]
[ Okay. Thank you very much! ] he bows, and gestures after to the other guards that they should follow.
And with his group of three people, they prepare to leave - just as what their superior had told them. But before they can completely leave the place, they were called again for the last time.
[ By the way... those large wagons... what are those? ]
[ Those? Those are the slave merchants, Ainzach-sama... Are there any problems? ] he replies as he takes a looks at the rather complex expression he was showing, staring at the end of the last wagon where a bit of its curtain is still open, revealing the sight of a peculiar demi-human.
[ No, I was just curious... So those are the slave merchants, huh? Tell me, how usual they transport slaves here? ]
[ About once a month, their best would be twice the same month, but it rarely happens... ] there was a bit of curiosity in his response, particularly, he's asking himself why this person would concern himself to the consistency of how usual these slaves are being transported.
Is he really only curious about it? He asks himself.
[ Hmm... Is that so? That many slaves in a month, huh? What a mess... ]
[ Ainzach-sama? ]
He barely hears what was the last phrase he whispers, but he's sure that he sounded downcast about it. It's as if he's worried about something.
[ Anyway... thank you very much, you can take your leave now. ]