The City of Aldarion

The time had passed very quickly.

Damian didn't know how long he had been immersed in his inventions, but now that he had significant items in his inventory, he planned to create an organization to sell his products at an affordable price.

He was certain that many nobles could access many of his innovative inventions in advance, while the commoners could obtain those items after the large-scale sale had begun.

"We're approaching a great city."

As he entered through the gates of Aldarion City, Damian displayed his noble coat of arms for the first time to the city's defense officer.

Seeing an active soldier from the northern ranks of nobility, the city's defense officer was very polite. After carefully inspecting Damian and Frieren's luggage, he handed Damian a city access document.

"Aren't I something incredible? Thirty years of service with great achievements on the battlefield are not taken lightly, and I even have lands not far from the north," Damian said, boasting his accomplishments to Frieren, who witnessed this.

"Very impressive; I didn't expect anything less." Frieren stood beside the giant pig.

Upon arriving in Aldarion City, Damian first found a large hotel to park his giant pig, which had attracted a lot of attention to the point that several soldiers had to stand guard. He then discovered the location of the slave market, thanks to the innkeeper.

The slave market was located on the outskirts of the southern city. It was large but disorderly, given the current conditions of humans. Therefore, thinking that slavery did not exist was to misjudge all the atrocities in the world.

Of course, the planning of this business was not very good, and the sanitary conditions were visibly very poor. The stench in this place was overwhelming, with human and horse excrement everywhere.

Many slaves behaved very insensitively and seemed to have no shame in situations where others could not live.

Damian and Frieren saw some slaves defecating everywhere, not caring about the eyes of others, and even exposing their private parts.

The strong slaves were exhibited in the most visible places, and some guests even opened their mouths to check their health.

Damian frowned and walked, holding his breath, to roughly determine the price of a slave.

A young and strong male slave cost about twenty gold coins.

The price of a young and strong female slave was about twelve gold coins.

Slaves over thirty years old would have some health problems, and their price would be halved, much cheaper. Elderly slaves over forty years old were like underage children, and their price ranged from one to two gold coins.

The prices of warriors, doctors, blacksmiths, carpenters, barbers, and other craftsmen were higher than those of slaves at their peak.

Beautiful female slaves basically did not appear on the slave market. These precious slaves would basically appear in high-level places like auctions and trade fairs.

Professional contracted servants were also provided in the slave market.

Contracted servants were different from ordinary slaves. To buy such a contracted servant, it was necessary to discuss the treatment of the servant in advance and then sign a contract, which was more similar to hiring services.

Upon the expiration of the service period, the contracted servant would be freed.

These contracted slaves were basically captured officials, caravan guards, mercenaries from mercenary groups, hunters, adventurers, soldiers who had sold their time for money, etc. Without enough money to pay for medicines and migrations, they voluntarily went to the slave market and became contracted servants.

In the slave market, all contracted servants were in high demand, and the price was very high. A ten-year contract for a third-class mage could even reach three hundred gold coins.

Such a high price made Damian feel a little dizzy.

Wherever he went, Damian carried his valuables.

When he learned that there were slave traders, he did his best to eliminate them, but no matter how many he killed, they kept reproducing even under the government's ignorance.

"How do they allow this?" Frieren didn't understand; humans were at war, and something like this should not exist.

Damian looked at the slaves, creating a magical barrier to avoid smelling the horrible odors in the air, then said, "Many villages are attacked, many of them destroyed, so many humans cannot be fed. The slave traders give them the opportunity to serve someone else who can take care of them; at least that would give them a chance to survive and hopefully become free again."

This was the reality of war; the government would not take care of this until the war ended. Even sending children to the front lines of battle was normal, so letting this pass was not a big deal at all.

"Do you still want to kill the Demon King?" Frieren asked this question while looking at the sorry state of these people.

Damian frowned; obviously, this was not something that could be easily overlooked elsewhere. "I'm thinking of developing a territory; having influence is the only thing that will really make a difference. Killing the Demon King would be secondary."

In the world, there is a stark difference between nobles and common people.

The kingdom's laws expressly stipulated that judges, prosecutors, auditors, and senior officials of counties and cities could only be selected from the nobility.

Once you became a noble, you were legally considered the master and ruler of this world. Only when you held important positions could you have a bright future in life, which everyone had to invest in.

Even mages could be judged by nobles; they were untouchable beings regardless of their power; they just needed to be nobles to be at the top of the world.

For common people who want to become nobles, there is currently only one path: obtaining military titles through war and changing their families' destinies.

Even so, if nobility cannot be obtained, many will amass a good amount of money if they manage to survive.

This time, Damian was alone with Frieren, and he had certain plans, so he took out a bag with two thousand gold coins, which was insignificant in his eyes.

In addition to the money accumulated in the war, Damian had obtained unimaginable wealth by killing bandits and slave traders. Some of his minerals were obtained from destroyed cities.

This time, when Damian arrived in this city, he brought all his money with him, something that many nobles could never dream of matching.

Damian found one of the largest slave traders and gave him his seal.

The seal is a symbol of nobility, with Damian's name engraved on the front and the coat of arms of his military rank, as well as being a second-class mage now.

After becoming a hereditary noble, you must have a noble insignia.

The coat of arms of the family Damian represents has its own history, which is nothing more than a rose with thorns.

The appearance of roses with thorns may sound very simple, but for Damian, this had a much deeper meaning.

Damian's family, now named Williams, was ennobled some thirty years ago. Except for scholars specializing in emblem and history studies, most common people on the continent are not familiar with this emblem.

"Is the family of a new noble from the north? Do you come from territory directly under the royal family or from Baron Harden?"

"I have been on the battlefield for more than thirty years; of course, I come from the north since my achievements could never be achieved in the south."

Upon discovering that Damian is a hereditary noble, the slave trader Luther was very polite and warmly greeted Damian. However, he still wanted to use clichés in his words and wanted to know the details.

During this time of the demon invasion, the north only granted four hereditary noble ranks.

One is an ordinary military noble, the other is the famous Baron Harden, and the other two are the sons of Duke Jonathan, which can be considered a branch of Duke Jonathan.

The influence of these three families is almost completely different from how families in the south act. Although Damian, in the eyes of others, is young, he is over a hundred years old.

Wanting to question his identity was a crime punishable by death, and Luther had no intention of bothering a second-class mage who had survived waves of war in the north.

"My name is Damian, and I have made sure to create my own last name; despite looking young, I am over fifty years old. Magic works wonders, sir; do not doubt that I am telling you the truth. I heard that you are the largest slave trader in the South, and because I want to expand my lands, I need good servants."

"I am not the largest slave trader in the South. The biggest slave trader here is the military department. The great nobles have slave-trading caravans; their scale is much larger than mine. As you can see, there are no more than 300 slaves here, and they are rescued slaves who were about to die while migrating."

"Of course, no one knows that nobles are behind slavery. If you are interested, you can go southwest of this city, near the border with the north. You should know better than anyone what the situation is like in the north; many are more than crazy. To tell you the truth, as a child, I would prefer to be a slave than to die at the hands of demons."

Damian nodded upon hearing this.

The size of the market is large, and the profits will certainly not be small. Citizens within the kingdom cannot be arrested, and slave traders can only go to the borders to capture people who have lost the will to live.

Of course, not everything is roses, and many times, people who have not yet given up their will to live are captured.

Although the war on the southwest border is not as intense or large-scale as the war on the northern border, there have always been fierce conflicts.

The capture of slaves has become a very important source of income for the nobles involved in this.

Damian would first end this before it became bigger; that means he would have to exterminate some families and take their power as his own.