The Vastness of Magical Destiny
Chapter 387: Volume 7: Spring Thunder Awakens the Hibernating Creatures, - 11: Fisherman_2

Chapter 387: Volume 7: Spring Thunder Awakens the Hibernating Creatures, Chapter 11: Fisherman_2

Within the Leon Region, there are no more than 350,000 people, of whom over 300,000 are slaves, with more than 250,000 being Half-Beastmen slaves. Hundreds of mines are scattered throughout the entire Leon Region. To extract the maximum value from the slaves, the Nobles have adopted various methods to increase labor intensity. The slaves work for over twelve hours every day, and to save expenses, the terrible working conditions in the mines leave the safety and health of slaves with no guarantees. Each month, the number of slaves who die from mine collapses and water leaks surpasses a hundred, and even the robust Half-Beastmen slaves can only work in such conditions for three to five years before becoming extremely weak, while it is rare for Mortals to last more than three years.

The harsh living conditions have led the slaves to continually rise up in resistance, but their disorganized strikes never amounted to much. Faced with the slaves’ revolts, the Nobles’ only solution was repression. The long-term resistance eventually led the slaves to change their approach, with uprisings and escapes becoming two main methods. Moreover, with each occurrence, the scale grew larger, eventually evolving into organized collective action.

While every Noble raised a substantial private army to guard against slave revolts, uprisings and escapes still occurred frequently, escalating both in frequency and scope. Once an uprising faltered, the slaves would flee to the Volt Mountain Range to the south and hide. Although the Nobles tried everything to prevent and suppress them, their measures failed to address the root of the problem. As the frequency of Northern Beastmen invasions increased and many mines in the North closed, the demand for the Leon Region’s mineral deposits further surged. This situation caused the Nobles to forget their past lessons, intensifying the slaves’ labor once again, which led to increasingly frequent slave uprisings in turn.

The number of escaped slaves hiding in the Volt Mountain Range was also on the rise, with some crossing over into the Caucasus and gaining citizen rights by submitting to Komer when he took over the Caucasus Territory, a significant number of which became soldiers in Komer’s Lord’s Guard. The remaining escapees, hiding in the Volt Mountain Range, turned into bandits, continuously attacking mines in the Leon Region and coordinating with revolting slaves. Despite multiple joint efforts by the Nobles of the Leon Region to eradicate them, the complex terrain and dense forests of the Volt Mountain Range made it difficult to completely eliminate this group of riotous bandits.

These issues had been ongoing since Komer’s arrival in the Caucasus. And now, since Puber specifically brought up this problem, there must be a complication.

"The problem is this, over the past month, more than three thousand escaped slaves have entered Our Caucasus Territory, the vast majority being Half-Beastmen. They contacted us through previous relationships, asking for citizen rights in exchange for their loyalty, with part of them already working as miners in our coal mine at the southern foothills of the Volt Mountain Range, and this trend looks to continue growing," Puber said, smacking his lips.

"That’s great news," exclaimed Komer, slapping the stone table. "Process them like before—as long as they swear loyalty to me and don’t engage in any activities against Kingdom Law, they can gain citizen rights. It’s like receiving help amidst a snowstorm. Haven’t those Coal Mine Owners always been clamoring about labor shortages? And Bahomon too, they’re lacking skilled miners, perfect, send a batch over to Bahomon as reinforcement. The more the merrier. Free labor force, we welcome with open arms."

"Boss, where are there such good things? An emissary from Count Boninski has already been to Ugru, representing Count Boninski in lodging a protest against us. He demands that we arrest and repatriate those slaves who have fled to our territory; otherwise, he will accuse us before Grand Duke Philip and the Kingdom, alleging that we illegally harbor fugitive slaves and possess others’ property," Puber said, managing a bitter smile as he downed another glass of wine. The Boss was being too simplistic in his thinking. Illegally possessing other people’s property, especially slaves, was a grave crime in the Kingdom. Merely harboring slaves could be enough to keep a Noble from recovering his position, let alone offending so many Nobles at once—and Count Boninski’s favor with Grand Duke Philip need not be said. This was necessary to protect the legal rights of the Noble slaveholders from infringement.

"Oh? Do they have any evidence? Those escaped slaves have become Free Citizens upon arriving in Our Caucasus, so who could claim they are still slaves? To feel safer, send them all to Bahomon if needed. Count Boninski? Hmph, tell him we will do everything we can to help. But as rumor has it, those escaped slaves are hiding in the Volt Mountain Range, and even they are powerless to do anything about it, so how could I, a mere Caucasian Baron, have a better solution?" Komer’s sinister smile was tinged with craftiness. "As for his accusations before Homer or bringing charges in the Kingdom, we welcome it. A straight person isn’t afraid of a crooked shadow. If they want to convict me, the final decision will still be made by the Kingdom Star Chamber Court. Puber, do you think the Kingdom will convict me now? I fear that even if I wanted to confess and be punished, the Kingdom wouldn’t agree, hahaha!"