Law of the Devil

With his swift reflexes, Sandy immediately caught it in midair – his hand gesture indicated he was extremely skilled at such a motion like it was routine practice for him. However, unlike his usual reaction, Sandy’s eye widen in disbelief the moment he opened his palm and took a look at the heavy coin!

Unable to believe his eyes, Sandy quickly coughed up a spit and tried rubbing it against the coin. Yet, no matter how hard he tried, the color remained the same. Then an idea hit him. Holding the coin against his teeth, he bit as hard as he can….

OWW!!!!!!

Is this actually gold?!

Then it finally dawned on him, the figure before him today is definitely of great importance!

Usually, the people he serviced around this place would at best throw him a couple of copper coins after the job was done. And if the customer is a bit bolder, then he might even receive a silver coin like that time a while back.

But this is actually a gold!

A gold coin is enough for his family of three to live for more than a month! In addition, he can also afford to let his father drink a glass of cheap ale every night. More importantly, he can also buy himself a pair of old boots like he always wanted!

Rushing to put the coin away into his pocket, Sandy struggled a bit before finally catching up to Du Wei’s side, thus, starting his work day.

“You are familiar with this place? Then I ask you, if I’m going to buy a few slaves today, where should I go?” Du Wei questioned.

“It depends on what you want for the individual.” Now that Sandy has received his payment, the kid would absolutely not withhold anything back. As he moved around in the crowd, his thin body was extremely flexible like there was no indication he could possibly bump into anyone – if anything, the kid was like a loach constantly slithering around. As he moved his mouth, his voice was fast and clear: “If you are intending to buy several maids, then my recommendation is for you to take a look at the ‘official’s slave’ shop. Those slaves are all from big households before ending up here – well trained and familiar with proper etiquette. If you bring such people home, then you won’t have to worry about losing face. However, if you only want someone to do hard labor, then I got a few places. From your accent, you’re not a local right?” As he mentioned the last point, Sandy sounded very cunning.

But this time, the clever little boy was wrong.

Du Wei’s accent is indeed a little different from the capital. The reason for this is because he came from Rowling Household. According to tradition, anyone inside the mansion must only speak with the accent of the Rowling Plains – this included Earl Raymond. On top of this, Du Wei also spent a year in the Rowling Plains, so his accent will naturally carry more weight in his speech.

Seeing Du Wei is only smiling without saying a word, Sandy immediately lowered his voice: “What I want to remind you is this. Though all sales here are protected by imperial decree, but you’re still an outsider, so there are some rules you must pay attention to. This is especially true for those with influence…… Just last month, there were several foreign merchants that wanted to purchase two beautiful slaves for themselves. In the process of bidding, those people had a falling out with a steward belonging to some noble house. In the end, the foreigners were taught a lesson and thrown into a moat outside the city!”

Despite his effort, Sandy was beginning to doubt his abilities when the little fortune god in front of him remained indifferent as ever. Pushing on, he raised his tempo to work even harder: “In General, the slaves here are divided into several types. The first type is the ‘official slaves’, of course, they are also the most expensive. Due to their family’s fall into ruin and their citizenship revoked for some reason, these slaves are usually the most sought after. Only just recently, I heard the daughters of some convicted noblemen’s in the previous coup were auctioned off. At the bidding day, the amount of people fighting for these girls were hitting the roof! Aigh, who wouldn’t want a nobleman’s daughter in their home to be used as a slave? Just the prestige of owning such a girl would make the owner look good.”

Du Wei’s brow slightly wrinkled because he is very well aware of what this little boy is going on about. To be more accurate, his Rowling Household had also recently fallen into ruin. If not for his existence, then the tragic fate of becoming a slave would definitely have befallen on his family.

Sandy continues to speak, “aside from the ‘official slaves’, the secondary type are the barbarians from the Northwest. Those guys are strong, very strong. When working, they are definitely not slouches. However, if you buy such a guy back to only do menial work, then it would be a total waste.”

“Why is that?” Du Wei finally opens up to question. Relieved by this, Sandy quickly follows up, “because the value in those barbarians lies not in their physical labor, rather, it is their ability to care for horses. If you have a pasture, then buy a couple of these Northwestern barbarians home. I assure you, once you’ve done that, the harvest in the following year will increase exponentially!”

Du Wei nods in understanding.

“However, you do need to pay special attention to them. Though these barbarians are good slaves, but their temper is particularly wild and difficult to discipline. This is especially true in their habit of constantly wanting to escape. If you do not send guards to monitor their actions, then the likelihood of them fleeing is a likely chance. After all, their life is that of an outlaw, fighting to death are not uncommon in their culture.”

“And what else?”

“There is also the third type of slaves. These people are originally the citizens of the empire. Due to being impoverished and unable to support themselves, such people would sell themselves to a good master. As long as you are willing to feed them and house them, these honest individuals would always be loyal to their master. Most importantly, they would never run way.”

Upon touching this point, Sandy actually whispered something inconsistent with his age group: “Aigh, in such times, who would want to sell themselves into slavery if not for the fact that they couldn’t make it through.”

When Du Wei heard the last part, he was somewhat surprised and gave the kid an extra glance.

“The last is the guys from the Southeastern Sea. Those indigenous people are the cheapest and the most numerous around here. If you intend to go for these slaves, then you must be careful in your choice because good and bad are always mixed together. In order to maximize profit, those black hearted slavers would always put several weak and old souls together with the strong and sell them in groups. Aside from this, this bracket of slaves is also separated into two groups. The former is the type that has lived in the empire for many years or is even a second generation slave. Even if they can’t speak our language, they can at least understand us. Such a person is called a ‘mature slave’. The latter is the freshly caught slaves brought in by the army in the recent expeditions. These people are called ‘raw slaves’ due to their unwillingness to accept their fate. Normally, these people like to flee and are unable to communicate with us. As such, their pricing is the lowest. Of course, there are exceptions if the slave is a natural beauty.”

Explaining up to here, Sandy suddenly turned around to face the three dirty looking boys drawing close to Du Wei: “get lost, Dick! This is my guest! Can’t you see me here! If you want to do business, go somewhere else!”

The shifty looking boys were only 3-5 feet from Du Wei when Sandy shouted. Seeing things weren’t going to play out, the leader of the group stepped forward and uttered some scolding words: “Sandy little liar! You’re always bad for my business!”

With that, the dirty kid gave both Du Wei and Rolynn an unwilling gaze before turning around to mix back into the crowd.

Sandy lets out a sigh before smiling: “don’t worry about those guys. They are the gold fingers roaming this street. But don’t worry, since I’m here, they won’t bother you. Nonetheless, you still have to be careful because their numbers are quite numerous here.”

Du Wei gave Rolynn a look because he was never worried about these little thieves. Though Roylnn’s strength isn’t that of someone standing at the summit of the martial world, but with her abilities, dealing with a few thieves is not a problem.

Rather, he was more interested in the kids: “Just now, all those guys were thieves?”

“Hush!” Sandy facial expression change, quickly whispering:

“You mustn’t ever say so! If those guys heard you saying the word ‘Thieves’, then they will come seeking trouble for you. This is the rule of the road, you understand?”

Du Wei inwardly laughed as he said, “But you ruined their plan. Wouldn’t they bother you instead?”

“Humph.” Sandy curls his mouth: “all of us grew up together in this street, brawling here and there is normal for us. Even we bullies would only bully those from the outside, never against our own. Also, my brother was once a boss in this place. Considering my brother’s name, those guys won’t make trouble for me. Sure, we might brawl once a while if things don’t work out, but wouldn’t really hate each other…. And have a look around us, there are so many outsiders, business is everywhere.”

The truth is his words were only half true. When doing this business, its unavoidable that he would incur the wrath of some gold fingers. Nonetheless, all of them did grow up on the same street, so they won’t really have a falling out over something like this. Though a few bruises is bound to happen, but it’s all worth it if he can take home a few copper coins by the end of the day.

And today he earned a gold coin. Even if takes a few punches when he goes back tonight, it is still more than worth it!