The Vastness of Magical Destiny-Chapter 185 - 11 Fisher_2

Chapter 185: Chapter 11 Fisher_2

Chapter 185 -11 Fisher_2

The Leon Region had less than 350,000 people, of which more than 300,000 were slaves, and among them, the number of Half-Beastman slaves exceeded 250,000.

Hundreds of mines were scattered throughout the Leon Region. To squeeze the utmost value out of the slaves, the Nobles employed various methods to increase the intensity of labor, with slaves working over twelve hours each day.

Furthermore, to cut costs, the dreadful working conditions in the mines provided no guarantee for the slaves’ safety or health. On average, more than a hundred slaves died from cave-ins or water inundations each month. Even the robust Half-Beastman slaves could only work in such conditions for three to five years before they became extremely weak, while it was even rarer for Mortals to last more than three years.

Such harsh living conditions led the slaves to continually rise up in protest, but loosely organized strikes had no effect whatsoever. In response to the slaves’ rebellions, the Nobles’ only solution was repression. Over time, the slaves gradually changed their tactics, and uprisings and escapes became the two main forms of resistance, growing in scale each time and eventually evolving into organized actions.

Although every Noble bred a large number of Private soldiers to defend against slave revolts, uprisings, and escapes were still frequent occurrences, with both the frequency and scale on the rise. Once a revolt turned unfavorable, the slaves would flee to the Volt Mountain Range to the south to hide.

Even though the Nobles had tried everything to prevent and suppress these incidents, their later attempts to ease the tension still failed to address the root cause.

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As the frequency of invasions by the Northern Beastmen increased, many mines in the North were closed, and thus the demand for the Leon Region’s mineral deposits further increased. This situation caused the Nobles to forget past lessons and again intensify the slaves’ labor, resulting in even more frequent slave uprisings.

The number of escaped slaves hiding in the Volt Mountain Range kept growing, and a portion of them crossed the Volt Mountains into Caucasus, obtaining citizen rights in exchange for their allegiance when Komer took over the Caucasus Territory. A considerable number of them became soldiers in Komer’s current Lord’s Guard.

The rest remained hidden in the Volt Mountains and became bandits, continuously attacking mines in the Leon Region and coordinating with the rebelling slaves. Although the Nobles of the Leon Region had joined forces multiple times to route them out, the complicated terrain and dense forests of the Volt Mountains made it exceedingly difficult to completely eradicate these rebel bandits.

These issues had persisted since Komer’s arrival in Caucasus, and now that Puber had specifically brought up the topic, there must be a problem.

“The problem is this, in the past month alone, over three thousand escaped slaves have entered Our Caucasus Territory, most of whom are Half-Beastmen. They’ve contacted us through their previous connections, requesting citizen rights in exchange for loyalty. A portion of them has already started working as miners in our coal mine at the southern foothills of the Volt Mountain Range, and this trend seems to be growing,” Puber described, smacking his lips.

“That’s a good thing. Just do as we always do, as long as they swear allegiance to me and don’t engage in activities against Kingdom Law, they can obtain citizen rights. It’s like sending coal in snowy weather, aren’t those Coal Mine Owners always complaining about a shortage of labor? And Bahomon, they’re in desperate need of skilled miners too, perfect, send a batch to Bahomon,” Komer exclaimed enthusiastically, slapping the Stone table, “The more, the better. We welcome free labor with open arms.”

“Boss, when does that ever happen? An envoy from Count Boninski has already come to Ugru, representing Count Boninski and demanding that we arrest and extradite those escaped slaves who seek refuge in our territory. Otherwise, he’ll file a complaint with Grand Duke Philip and the Kingdom, accusing us of illegally harboring escaped slaves and possessing someone else’s property,” Puber said with a wry smile.

Downing another glass of wine, Puber bitterly noted that the Boss was oversimplifying things. Illegally owning someone else’s property, especially slaves, was a serious offense in the Kingdom, and just harboring slaves was enough to ruin a Noble for good. And this time, they’d managed to anger so many Nobles at once. Besides, Count Boninski’s favor with Grand Duke Philip was not something to be taken lightly, and such measures were essential for the Kingdom to protect the legal interests of Noble slave owners.

“Oh? Do they have any evidence? Those escaped slaves came to Our Caucasus and transformed into Free Citizens; who can say they were slaves? If they feel unsafe at the foothills of Volt Mountain, then send them all to Bahomon. Count Boninski? Hmph, tell him we’ll do our utmost to assist him. However, rumors say those escaped slaves are hiding in the Volt Mountains, and even they are powerless to find them. How could I, a mere Caucasian Baron, have a better way?” Komer scoffed with a sly smile.

His sinister grin was tinged with cunning, “As for his desire to complain to Homer or bring the issue to the Kingdom Court, we welcome it. A straight man does not fear a crooked shadow. If they want to convict me of a crime, it will ultimately be up to the Kingdom Star Chamber Court to decide, Puber. Do you think the Kingdom would convict me now? I bet even if I wanted to plead guilty, the Kingdom would not agree, haha!”