The God of Jesters
Chapter 366 - 6.08.2 Unexpected turn for me.

Chapter 366: 6.08.2 Unexpected turn for me.

In this world, the value of flesh was cheap.

Families, diseases, and wars were the source of such cheap flesh. Driven by survival or hunger, some families end up selling their children, and some willfully go under the slave owners, as that is the only way for them to eat for free.

And some without any backing fall for scams or are forced into slavery where their will never is considered.

All for cheap from the slaver’s perspective.

And most of the flesh was cheap, the men sold the cheapest with women coming second. The most expensive were always the kids, as they were the easiest to control and train. Not to mention the inhuman pervs that do exist in this world, all desiring the forbidden fruit, which they soon deal with after tasting it.

But how much money can one make in Cynark, to begin with? The slavery here was on its last legs, with the only reason it still being somewhat alive is due to how the mages regularly burned through their slaves during their research, hence the need for fresh ones regularly.

It’s due to their nature of work that mages generally don’t care about the gender or age of their slaves. They are more concerned over their health and how much their slaves can endure their experiments.

This is the reason why the slave traders only saw Cynark as a good resource point and never a good market.

In Azhad, the value of slaves from the Brihma continent multiplied fourfold, and depending on the beauty of a slave, it might go over 10 times the sale price in Cynark just due to them being exotic in the new land.

"They will be coming from the south, as usual, but what path they use, I only have an approximate," Sheva answered me. Who already had some idea in mind.

"We are not going to babysit the fools who fell for slave traders, it’s better to eliminate them before they reach here. This way, our position won’t be exposed, and we will also capture one of the managers. Isn’t this perfect?"

Sheva easily agreed to my suggestion.

Yes, we might be bad guys who spread diseases and cause countless deaths indirectly. But we still have some conscious. Not to mention, the slaves would be a burden to us if we were to save them after they reach this place.

We can’t kick them out as it might expose our location, nor can we kill them, as that would be too cruel even for me.

Meaning, that the best-case scenario would be if the slavers died before they reached here.

"I will handle it, and I mean all of them." I enjoyed going behind enemy lines. Mixing within them and learning their secrets over how they operate.

It was much less efficient than letting my rats do the work when it came to information gathering. But where it exceeded was the hands-on approach and the freedom to do whatever those hands wished to do.

I wonder if I will be capable of taking them all out from the inside, killing them one by one until only the last one remains.

A request that Sheva initially considered inefficient and a kind of time waste. But after a bit of begging and some promise, she finally relented with the condition that I would have to take them out in under two days.

Which limited the enjoyment time for a bit, but it was good enough I suppose. "Don’t worry, my subordinates will follow me and keep watch over them at the border, so none of them leaves there alive."

Sheva had never ever imagined that she would converse with me about killing someone in such a natural way. But this was her situation. She needs to eliminate her father under Jester’s order. As that is the only way she can save Jara.

While for me, I am someone who was made for this life, or so she thinks.

"Between the mountains, unless they have a hidden path through it." Sheva showed me the map and potential path the slavers might be moving from.

"Considering the cargo they will be carrying, the path shouldn’t be too harsh. They can even use the sea in small boats. No one can say for certain."

Sheva can’t say for certain, but I can. The rats under me were already at work since last night, as I had planned this little game of mine beforehand.

And by now, I know the path they will be coming from. "I can only leave it to luck," I said, before leaving the hideout and moving toward the location without a single pause.

First, I went to the wrong place and left a sign for my subordinates, so they knew I had already been there, which was a sign that they needed to go to the second chosen location.

And it was the second day that I finally came across the men.

’An entourage of over 12 men handling over 50 slaves... less than I had anticipated.’ the one thing I had expected was the beauty of these slaves. Even in all that dirt and grime, whether they be men or women, it’s harder for them to hide the beauty hidden beneath.

As for the children at the very end. All of them had hollowed yes, uncertain of their future, with the only certainty being food as long as they didn’t struggle.

With two exceptions.

Two children at that, who were filled with a rebellious spirit and hence were starved, unlike others.

’Weak and filled with potential.’ Their anger can be a good driving force for them. They would make perfect enemies of Cynark if I mold them properly. Young minds are impressionable and hence easier to manipulate.

’Should I?’

’Hah, first I should kill these fools.’ The enemies comprised a total of 13 men, with 10 of them being simple mortals and two apprentice-level Knights.

While the last one, who also seemed to be leading this slave caravan in the middle of the fields was a curse wielder of adept level.

’Unexpectedly, I got a big fish at my hand.’

******

Born in a prestigious Knight family, Kareem’s life was set for success as long as he followed the path that was tailor-made for him by his family.

If he had listened to his parents and teachers, by now, he would have been a Lieutenant in the Cynark army. But Kareem gave that all up by touching his sister inappropriately, which didn’t go unnoticed in his family.

Their reaction was much worse than Kareem had expected. As the first thing they did when his sister exposed his actions to their parents was to break every piece of bone in his body, before throwing him into jail.

Which was followed by a fake execution where he was finally let go in the dark. But he could never even speak of his family name or his true identity to anyone.

And his silence was ensured under the Knight’s oath and some contracts. Making it virtually impossible for him to ever tell his story to anyone. Nor could he ever go back to what was his birthright.

’But what of it?’

Now Kareem, going under the name of Jed walked among trash like him. Each one was much worse than him, so he almost felt like a saint among these bastards.

"Mister, for how long are we going..."

"Shut up, or I will rip your tongue out like I did with that boy before."

"Don’t be so cruel Reni." Kareem’s words simmered down his fellow apprentice Knight’s mood before he turned to the slave in the cage and said. "Just two days of journey left. Just hold on till then."

He treated slaves with kindness unlike his fellow slavers as well as Knight. The reason being, that he liked feeling the look of dependency these slaves showed him.

’I am their only hope.’ He thought that he was doing a good deed by giving these slaves some hope. He acted as the good guy who understood reason, unlike other slavers. Making it easier for him to manage the slaves, much to the appreciation of his boss. The old man who went by the name of Paradi.

’A good act to keep slaves in line.’ I was not surprised that slaves would fall for such an obvious act. Most of them were never smart to begin with, while those who were smart and still ended up becoming slaves were treated lower than humans and treated as examples of what happens if a slave went out of line.

’A curse user should have a way to identify the people in his group. It’s making it harder for him me to infiltrate their group... unless.’ I looked at the old Curse Wilder that sat in his truck which slowly moved across the rocky terrain of the mountains. ’Unless I capture him, it will be harder to deal with others.’

Two days, as the man named Jed said was on point, that is if they included resting around night, otherwise, this whole journey would be over in 26 hours.

’So rest, they should relieve themselves and as they are slavers, they won’t create any big fire.’

A perfect plan was forming in my head and a plan where there was no need to infiltrate this group, as it wouldn’t work anyway.

’I should just hone my combat experience.’

It was at this moment, something odd happened.

"Halt, there might be enemies nearby."

".... ?? What?"

What just happened? How did it happen?

How did this old man notice I was here?