Chereads / The Epoch of Magic / Chapter 11 - Slavery

Chapter 11 - Slavery

The objective was clear. He was going to strike the warehouse of a rather small and insignificant food merchant, who was incredibly arrogant. A while ago, Joanne had tried to bargain with him for the price of the food, like she usually does with all the sellers, who normally reduce the price a little bit, taking it as though they are paying the church for their blessings.

Naturally, Joanne did not bother the same seller more than once a month so as not to burden them, which all the merchants also agreed to.

However, this particular one not only did not agree to reduce the price, he even got angry at Joanne and shooed her off. Since he was new here and had taken the spot of the previous seller, Joanne wanted to buy from him to take up the spot of the previous seller, since the marketplace was an alley which could only fit about 32 sellers.

Since she did not wish to bother another seller twice, she tried once more to bargain, at which point the man had tried to slap her away, but was stopped by the other sellers just before.

He was a fool, and Daron would come in as God's divine punishment and take away some of his stuff. 'Two birds with one Daron!' He thought in his mind, while moving along the silent road, avoiding the moonlight, torches and lamps, and only moving from shadow to shadow, blending in with the darkness.

Soon, he arrived outside the merchant's warehouse, and told Sirious to search the area with its 5m all-seeing eye.

[There is no one around, and most of the inside is void of life, just full of grains and other foods.]

'Alright. Scan the lock and tell me how to open it.'

After following the instructions of Sirious to the letter, and using a hair-pin he had found from Joanne's belongings, he successfully opened the lock. Without forgetting to pull out the hair-pin from the lock and put it away, Daron walked in before closing the door of the warehouse behind him to prevent suspicion among the night patrol of the city.

'Where are the Tomatoes, Salt, Grains, Onions, Garlic, and Butter, and Eggs?'

[Master Daron, instead of the grains, this merchant had flour in the warehouse as well, why not take that directly?]

After Sirious pointed them out in his mind, creating a screen that seemed to be floating in front of his eyes, Daron took out the cloth bag he had found in the basement, and started silently opening the sacks of flour, and putting them by the handful in the bag. This was a unique bag he had found which not only was strong enough to hold quite some weight, but also could store powdered materials without spilling too much. This was all pointed out by Sirious while cleaning.

Without wasting time, Daron scooped up roughly the correct amount of flour he had planned and put in in the bag. This was the only ingredient he needed this bag for, since all of the other ingredients were packed in smaller bags, which could fit on the palm of his hand.

With all the ingredients in his possession, and all put on top of the flour in his main bag, Daron was preparing to leave.

[Master Daron, there seems to be a hidden passage at the back of the warehouse.]

'Hmm?'

Daron's interest was piqued by this, as he put down the bag on the ground and closed up all the sacs he had opened, and walked towards the location of the secret passage. Moving the few sacs of grains piled up above the location, Daron found an wooden door on the floor, without any kind of lock.

'Let us enter!'

Daron slowly opened the door and found a bunch of steeps leading around 12 meters underground. As he made his way down, a stench of something really gross began come increase around him, and so Daron decided to go only far enough underground for Sirious to scan everything and figure out what was there.

When they reached that point, Sirious finally spoke up.

[There seem to be humans in prison cells. Based on their appearance, and the fact that a merchant cannot sentence people to jail, this place is either a hidden jail cell for the authorities, or the merchant is holding slaves.]

'Slaves…'

Over the past 4 years, the church had had school for regular citizens every weekend in order to educate them. This was not to educate them in a particular field, but primary school for general knowledge. In this, he and the other 4 kids also participated, mainly as helpers of Joanne, but they were also learning. He understood that slavery was banned within the kingdom of Pierre.

So, this fellow was not only seeking punishment from god, but also from the more tangible and effective military of the kingdom!