The boy opened his eyes.
He saw a blue sky.
He himself was lying ... the wagon was rattling and rolling.
A wooden grate could be seen through the shaky eyes.
Where am I?
The boy was very thirsty. It felt like his throat was burning.
The words "Water..." barely leaked through the boy's parched lips.
Then someone put a damp cloth over the boy's lips.
The boy restlessly held the water from the cloth in his mouth.
He seemed to be quenching his thirst a little.
And the boy lost consciousness again.
When time passed and the boy regained consciousness, his carriage was still.
He could tell it was evening as the sky was getting dark.
A few bonfires were visible through the wooden grates, and steam was slowly rising from the large pot for cooking.
He looked around and saw that there were about 10 people sitting in the carriage.
It was dark, so it was hard to see their faces, but in terms of their size, most of them were children around the age of 10.
"Are you okay?"
Someone spoke to the boy.
"Yeah... But where are we?"
After a moment of silence, someone answered in the dark.
"We are in the wagon of the slave traders."
The boy said in a trembling voice.
"In a slave trader's wagon? Why am I here?"
The boy seemed to have bleached his head white.
"Ah... I don't remember anything. I don't even know who I am."
The boy in the dark said with pity.
"A few days ago, a village in the mountains had been destroyed by a monster attack, so it was completely ruined. Slave traders wandered around and found you lost and collapsed and loaded you onto the wagon. They said you were the only one alive."
The boy was staring into the air with blank eyes.
"Anyway, consider yourself lucky that you survived the chaos without any major injuries."
The boy was confused.
Because he had no memory of who he was.
"I'm Jamal. What's your name?"
The person he was talking to a while ago asked him.
Jamal was a large black boy. Jamal's eyes gleamed white in the darkness.
My Name?
The boy tried to remember what his name was.
But he didn't remember anything.
"I can't remember what my name was."
Jamal looked at the boy with pity.
"Then I'll call you Tahoe until you remember your name. Tahoe is the word we use to mean lucky person in our town."
"Were you the one who gave me water earlier?" Tahoe asked.
"Yeah. You were unconscious, so I wet my clothes and gave them to you."
"Thank you. But do you have anything to eat?"
Tahoe was very hungry.
"You've been starving for a few days, so you must be very hungry. I don't have anything to eat right now. They'll give you some food tomorrow morning. Just enough so that you won't die of hunger. That's what they left behind..."
As the two of them were talking, suddenly someone knocked on the wooden bar.
And a man looked into them with cold eyes and said,
"Be quiet. Seeing that you talk a lot, you seem to have a lot of energy left over. If you keep talking, I will starve you for tomorrow."
The children had no choice but to keep their mouths shut and be quiet. It was annoying because it was a loss if they starved themselves.
The bonfire was a little far away and the meat was being grilled and the soup was boiling, so it smelled delicious, but the children had no choice but to hold on to their hungry stomachs.
After a while, Tahoe asked in a low voice.
"Jamal. How did you get here?"
"My parents sold me to a slave trader. It's been a famine for several years, so we didn't have anything to eat at home..."
Tahoe couldn't say anything. He just looked at Jamal with sad eyes.
Looking around, there were 5 wagons with wooden grates and 3 wagons with awnings, and 20 mercenaries and 10 slave traders were eating food with a bonfire in the middle.
The place where the party stayed was a relatively large open space in the middle of a mountain road that crossed the forest.
Two moons were illuminating the vacant lot amid the sound of unknown insects.
There were two moons.
Tahoe felt unfamiliar with the fact that there were two moons.
There were several stone fire pits that seemed to be a place where carriages coming and going often had a rest, and there was a small creek behind the vacant lot.
It was a beautiful and peaceful landscape if it hadn't been for being locked in a wooden grate.
*
Jacob, the slave trader leading the top, was a bald, fat man with greedily ripped eyes.
He was humming to see if he was in a good mood today, pouring his drink.
This time, he saved 50 pretty good young slaves.
Some slaves were bought from their parents by throwing pennies, but there were also quite a few slaves who were taken free of charge from the streets (wandering orphans) or from villages destroyed by monster damage.
Children in good condition could worth close to 10 gold, so even after deducting the mercenaries' labor costs and expenses, there would be a lot of profit.
Just outside this mountain road, the Tvilas estate, where the slave market is held, is just a short walk away.
If only I could earn this kind of money every month, I would soon be able to become very rich and live a wealthy life...
The mercenary wizard Guillaume approached Jacob, who was grinning while thinking about various things.
His impression of an old but relatively clean gray robe covered up to his head looked rather pale. He had a good impression, but the tiredness of the world hung over his face.
He said, "I have installed an alarm magic around. There are no large monsters in this area, so you won't have to worry too much tonight."
"Good job. Wizard Guillaume. Eat and rest well."
Guillaume nodded his head without saying a word to Jacob and went back to his seat.
Wizards should pay 10 times more than normal mercenaries. He is necessary when there is a battle with a monster, but it feels like a waste of money when there is no battle like this trip.
Jacob looked at Guillaume walking back with a dissatisfied expression on his face. No matter how expensive he is, he can't hope for monsters to come in to see what's worth the money.
It would be a great loss if the slaves they had worked hard to get died.
Jacob spit on the floor and spit it out.
**
Guillaume found a quiet place among the wagons where the slaves were imprisoned and made a bed. It's not cold yet, so it's enough to rake the leaves, lay them on the floor, cover them with a blanket, and lie down on them.
After making his bed, Guillaume leaned against the wheel of the wagon and began to eat the food he had been given for dinner.
The soup cooked with jerky and miscellaneous vegetables such as potatoes was not a delicacy, but it was edible.
As he rested, drinking soup and eatng bread slices, he heard the quiet sobbing from the wagon where the slaves were imprisoned.
Children taken into slavery ... poor children.
However, considering the reality that many people die of starvation or were eaten by monsters, those children may be fortunate to be able to save their lives.
After severe drought, close to 50% of heavy taxes were taken from the lord, many people died of starvation, and if they ran away to the mountains to avoid taxes, they were likely to become prey for monsters.
It was a world in which it was difficult to escape from the pain of life, if he was not an aristocrat.
He suddenly felt a gaze and turned his head to see a child staring at him.
He was a very pretty boy with blonde hair and white skin.
If he wiped the dirt off his face and put on nice clothes, his appearance was neat and cute enough to be called a nobleman.
It must have been that child was taken from a mountain village that had been ruined a while ago.
There is no hasty sympathy, but he was a child who looked too good to be a slave.
After his meal, Guillaume took out a magic pouch from his arms.
His magic pouch has a subspace function, which can hold the equivalent of a small wagon.
Subspace pockets are expensive, but they are a must for wizards.
To use magic, various reagents and tools are required, and carrying such items in a bag is very inconvenient because it is bulky and heavy. It is even more so now that he was a mercenary.
Counting the gold in his pocket, he thought the amount of money he'd collected so far was a little over 900 gold if he get paid for this mission.
When Guillaume collects his goal of 1,000 gold, he intends to quit his mercenary life and focus on his magic training to challenge the 3rd circle.
When he reaches 3rd circle, he can become a wizard of the territory and lead a comfortable life, or he can enter the Magic Tower and concentrate on his research comfortably.
He just needs a little more effort.
If you have a lot of money at home or if you can get support for your talent, you can just train hard, but if you are poor like yourself or your talent is mediocre, you have to earn money and learn magic on your own.
It takes a lot of money to learn magic, but if you succeed, you can be compensated for your hard work.
Guillaume bit his teeth tightly.
***
The night was getting deeper.
When everyone was asleep except for the night watch, there was a sudden roar.
"Alarm magic has sounded."
"It's a monster!"
"Everyone get up! Raise your weapon!"
A monster has attacked.
Jacob frowned and stood up.
He said there were no monsters around here and he wondered what was going on. Oh he said there were no large monsters. So is it a small monster?
"Everyone, turn your back on the wagon and prepare yourself for the defense!" The mercenary captain shouted.
"It's a kobold!"
Someone saw the monster appearing in the dark and shouted.
Kobolds are small canines.
Although it is not a large monster, it appears in groups of 20 to 30, so it is a considerable threat to small travelers.
However, those were not much of a threat to the slave traders who have up to 20 mercenaries and even wizards. They'd say it's just a nuisance.
The kobolds, startled by the roar of the alarm magic, were growling from a distance of about 10 meters from the top.
"I'll use flash magic. Everyone's eyes closed."
Guillaume exclaimed loudly.
"FL@SH B@NG"
With the spell, people closed their eyes, and a bright light like the sun exploded forward with a 'pop' sound. The light was bright enough to cause blindness for a while if you had your eyes open.
As the kobolds all covered their eyes and began to roll on the ground, the mercenaries each took up their weapons and ran through the kobolds and began to slaughter relentlessly, either by stabbing them in the throat or stabbing them with a knife.
It only took a few minutes for the mercenaries to kill all the kobolds, and the situation was quickly over.
"Things that don't matter wake me for nothing!"
The mercenaries returned grumbling.
"Damn, I can't sleep with that bood smell."
Someone spit and said
Because of the bloody smell from the kobold corpses, the cozy space disappeared somewhere, and a battlefield-like chaos unfolded.