Chapter 161: The Touch of the Wicked (1) (1/2)

Chapter 161: The Touch of the Wicked (1)

It started in a se with a low production er population began to leave the village to make money in a port city in the West If it continued like this, the se would eventually disappear

However, as long as there were people living in the village, there would be ularly visit to conduct business They usually visited the village every one to two months, but this time, they were the first to discover the accident No, this should be called a tragedy, not an accident

“Wh… what is this? What the hell happened?”

The merchant was devastated by what he saw in front of hie’s buildings were broken and burnt with corpses everywhere The merchant looked for any survivors, but it was useless; the sle sound or rumor He immediately went to the nearest supervisor to report the situation

Officially, the Northern region was a territory under Duke Sean Palan’s command, but the actual administrative as done by the officials dispatched from the royal palace When the official received the report froate the situation

However, the village was too small and there were no survivors, and so, there was no evidence to be found In the end, it was concluded that bandits had struck the village In the North, there were quite a few fordom and disappeared into the mountains to become thieves It was concluded that they had e The official asked the nearby villages to pay attention and also promised to find and punish the thieves The ical manner as any such incident would normally be dealt with

However, the problees continued to disappear The only thing in coes were in the es were thoroughly destroyed with no survivors As the nu was found out — es were either men or the elderly There were few corpses of children and woed after rebelling In other words, it wasn’t a si to kidnap huly place”

“I agree A slave trader?”

The people living in the Northern region gathered together in twos and threes and gossiped about what had happened recently A slave trader who could destroy entire villages and kidnap people? That was enough for the residents to be terrified

“But isn’t it a bit weird?”

“Huh? What’s weird?”

“There’s not a lot of slave traders If you want to capture and sell a perfectly fine person as a slave, you have to have a slave market, and it would need a lot of e all that people”

“Yeah, you’re right, but what about it?”

“How does a country not know such a huge organization is operating within their country?”

“Huh…now that I think about it, you’re right”

“Then, isn’t Duke Palan inco a Master of the shen you can’t even govern?”

“At least this didn’t happen ere still part of the Republic, right?”

The people’s anxiety slowly turned into dissatisfaction with a regime that couldn’t coe-scale slave traders When Duke Palan noticed this, he tried to cal worked The best method would’ve been to capture and punish the slave traders ere raiding villages and co violent crimes, but Duke Palan and his men weren’t able to do so He enforced checkpoints to the point regular merchants complained, but slave traders, or even those similar to them, couldn’t be found The people couldn’t be convinced unless Duke Palan could produce results The residents of the Northern region began to distrust Duke Palan’s ability to govern them

Then, another incident happened Some of the woave shocking testimonies They had listened to the conversation between the slave traders and had heard that the Grand Duke Forrest was behind it

“What?”

Milton was startled and jumped out of his seat

“Calm down, dear”

“How can I calm down…”

“Let’s listen until the end first”

He restrained hi when Queen Leila held Milton’s hand and began to gently soothe him

‘dah idea of ould happen next

“Continue”

“Yes, Sire… according to the women’s testimony…”

It’s said that the captured women took the chance to escape when the slave traders had let down their guard According to their testimony, they had almost been sold to the southern part of the continent They had been put on shi+ps on the Western port and aldom in the southern part of the continent At least, that’s what they thought — that’s what they had heard when they had eavesdropped on the slave traders

Milton’s name hadn’t actually been spoken in the conversation, but everyone who knew anything knew it — the dodom was monopolized by the Grand Duke Forrest Out of all of Milton’s businesses, that was the most profitable one, so everyone knew about it In other words, if you wanted to use that route, you had to be the Grand Duke Forrest’s person

And if the Grand Duke Forrest was behind this ation hadn’t ress If the country was behind the slave trade, then it’s iating it While there wasn’t any direct evidence, this was enough for the Northern residents who had already been full of disbelief and the ‘truth’ had far-reaching influence

“I knew this would happen I knew that if we believed in such a corrupt kingdom, the country would turn like this”

“From the state, noble bastards are all like this They don’t see people with low status as humans, they just treat theo back to the Republic If we fell for the policies and deals that the kingdom shows us, then our descendants will become slaves for the rest of their lives”

Voices of dissatisfaction gradually increased in the Northern regions Until now, Queen Leila hadn’t been leading theth and authority, but with money, food and policy She knew that if she forced them, they would most definitely rebel, so she didn’t have any other choice In fact, she was quite successful as people began to not believe in republicanism more as the economy continued to develop

However, no es couldn’t be avoided Because Queen Leila had been gently suppressing and having it naturally disappear rather than forcefully eradicating Republicanision That was only natural Even if her plan went senerations before Republicanism would coht now Currently, Republicanis in the North and if they were further stimulated, it would only lead to uncontrollable chaos in the North However, that was the current situation right now

“The Northern people have already begun to systeh the numbers aren’t completely accurate, it’s estimated that at least 100,000 residents would participate, Your Majesty”

Queen Leila sighed at the er’s words