Chapter 198 Chapter 173 Slave

He took Seth back to his residence. Although this big-headed guy was still full of curiosity about Du Wei, Deacon Clark had already sternly reminded Seth before he left, telling him to start today and everything from now on. Follow the orders of this Master Du Wei. "It's like treating your teacher." Clarke described it like this. Of course, it turned out that Seth had a teacher, and his teacher had a pretty good status in the magic union.It was the guy who once entered the Frozen Forest with Gargamel, but after meeting Medusa, he tricked Gargamel and ran away first—Master Az.

But Seth didn't have any status under Aziz, otherwise he wouldn't have been assigned to sell wands.As an eighth-level magician of the Magic Union, Az has many magic apprentices, including Seth. Therefore, from now on, Saite has changed his family and officially joined Du Wei's family. "What's the matter, Seth." Du Wei saw that the guy with the big head looked weird, and asked gently, "What are you thinking?" "No, no, it's nothing, Du Wei...Teacher Du Wei." Seth honestly called Du Wei "teacher" according to the tradition in the magic union.But this name made Du Wei frown a little.

"Seth." Du Wei stopped in his tracks, looking at the genius in magic research whom he had abducted back: "I don't need you to call me teacher." "But this is a tradition..." Seth defended in a low voice: "In the magic union, all magic apprentices must address the magician they are loyal to as 'teacher'." "But I'm not your teacher." Du Wei shook his head: "You are not my student, and I have nothing to teach you. I asked you to come here because I need your brains. I need you to teach me something. Hehe..." Seth panicked.

Du Wei patted this wooden guy, looked at his big head, and said with a smile: "Okay, you will understand in the future, what I like is your talent, I hope you can use your talent to help I get a lot done." Then, regardless of Seth's expression, Du Wei pointed to the front of the street: "Look, my residence is here." In front is Du Wei's current temporary residence.This courtyard originally belonged to the First Prince, it is said that it used to be the place where the First Prince used to hide his beauty.Of course, this is a rumor, and no one knows if it is true.Du Wei didn't care either, he was leaving the imperial capital anyway.

This house is not too small. When Du Wei moved in, all the servants and the people who guarded the house had been dismissed following the downfall of the First Prince.Du Wei didn't bother to find someone anymore. Now there is only one old servant Ma De living in the house, and two former servants of the Luo Lin family. After the Luo Lin family moved back to the Luo Lin Plain, they were unwilling to leave the imperial capital, so He stayed under Du Wei's hands for the time being. In addition, there are Vivienne, Gargamel the Mouse, and Master QQ in the current family.However, the existence of the mouse Gargamel and QQ is still a secret to everyone, and only Du Wei knows the existence of these two guys.

When he came back, Du Wei accidentally saw this little girl Vivienne standing at the door of the house, sitting so quietly on the steps of the door, with her chin in her hands, looking pitifully at the end of the street, probably Because she stayed for too long, the little silly girl was in a daze, and didn't even notice Du Wei's approach. "Why are you here?" Du Wei smiled, looking at Vivian who was sitting on the steps in a daze. In fact, he was quite happy to see Vivienne going out.Ever since I brought Vivienne back from "Brokeback Mountain" that day, this weak-tempered little girl suddenly learned of the news of her teacher's death. After she came back, she locked herself in her room and was depressed every day.

Du Wei went to see her several times a day, but every time he went, the little girl was silent and looked sad. Du Wei also tried to tease her, but every time he talked, the little girl suddenly I burst into tears.In the end, Du Wei had no choice but to let her rest quietly in the room alone.I want to wait for time to pass day by day, the pain in my heart will always dissipate. Sure enough, seeing Vivienne finally going out today and sitting at the gate of the house, Du Wei walked up, reached out and tapped her on the head lightly, squinting his eyes and smiling: "Hey! Are you here?" Are you in a daze? Didn't you hear me?"

Vivienne raised her eyelids, blinked her eyes twice, looked at Du Wei, gradually came to her senses, then stood up, rubbed her sore knees, and said in a low voice, "You, have you passed the exam? ?” Xiao Nizi still had a weak look on her face, but the pain in her eyes faded a lot, and her concern for Du Wei was still in her tone. Du Wei smiled, and his tone softened a lot: "Are you just sitting here waiting for me?" "I...I'm worried about you." Vivienne blushed and lowered her head: "The magic test, the assessment, is difficult, I'm worried..."

Du Wei patted his chest hard, and there was a badge of a magic pharmacist on it, and said with a smile: "Don't worry, look, this is my badge, and the person standing in front of you is already a qualified magician." Master!" Vivian stared wide-eyed at the Potion Master badge on Du Wei's chest, but before the little girl could speak, Du Wei had already strode towards the house with Vivian in one hand.After taking two steps, he turned his head and looked at Seth: "What are you doing in a daze? Come in!" Made also ran out from inside quickly, and Du Wei told Made to take Seth in: "Let him choose a room by himself, anyway, there are so many rooms here, alas, it's deserted at night, like a haunted house .”

Made nodded, and was about to go down when he suddenly remembered something, turned around and said: "Master, Miss Ruolin has been here, she said that there are some things in our shop, the business is good recently, but the manpower is not enough, if If possible, she would like you to visit the store, and she seems to be dissatisfied with the two craftsmen we have in the store now... Also, the four quadruplets you sent to the store seem to be like Ruolin Miss is not very satisfied with them either." Du Wei nodded: "Made, I see... well, and, remember one thing, don't say 'Miss Ruolin' again, remember, she is a knight, no matter where she is On any occasion, when you mention her, you must say 'Your Majesty Ruolin', remember? This is very important."

... Ruolin is indeed worried about something. Although she is following the right boss now, and judging from the trend, Du Wei, the boss, is rising step by step, and the future is bright.Moreover, Du Wei also trusts Ruolin very much, and has decided to hand over the management of such a thriving business in the imperial capital to Ruolin. However, Ruolin doesn't like this job. Essentially speaking, she prefers to manage those pirates, at least to lead the fleet to gallop on the sea, experience wind and rain, that kind of adventure career full of novelty and excitement, makes Ruolin's heart move even more—rather than wearing a suit every day now The ridiculously gorgeous armor surrounded a group of hypocritical nobles. However, Ruolin still obeyed Du Wei's arrangement. She was a smart woman, and she saw the difficulty of Du Wei's lack of manpower.Although this little young master has risen to the top very quickly, starting a business too fast, with a weak foundation and lack of available people is a fatal injury to Du Wei at present. Development caused a lot of trouble. Therefore, Ruolin still obeyed. She manages the business with all her heart and soul, she fully demonstrates her abilities, and spends day and day dealing with batch after batch of nobles, she doesn't need to sacrifice a little bit of color once in a while like when she was walking the rivers and lakes... ...Thanks to Du Wei for packaging her image. In fact, as long as Ruolin deliberately maintains a ruthless look, those nobles will surround her like flies. Ruolin felt that she was too busy.Although I know that today is the day when Master Du Wei goes to the Magic Union for assessment.But this smart female knight has great confidence in Du Wei... Just kidding, she knows all kinds of methods of this young master too well. Isn't the assessment a piece of cake for this young master?Therefore, in the morning, she didn't even make a gesture of concern to care about Du Wei's assessment results. Instead, she stayed in the shop and took care of some things. At present, the business is very good. In just a few days, Du Wei has brought more than 1.5 million gold coins in income. Cost, just in these three days, Du Wei has made a net worth of millions of gold coins. Without the exploitation of black-hearted merchants in the middle, Du Wei's fleet can continuously transport the goods hunted by the mercenary adventure group from the frozen forest to the imperial capital continuously from the north.The freshest goods, coupled with a slightly lower price, and Du Wei's current reputation in the aristocratic circle, made it possible that in just three days, the entire cargo that Ruolin brought last time was almost sold out. Mostly. In the morning, she had already sent someone back to send a letter to the ship anchored in Walker Harbor as quickly as possible, so that people could continue to go north to purchase and deliver the goods to the imperial capital. And then, she finally waited for Du Wei. Du Wei brought Vivienne with him.Now that this little girl is finally willing to go out of the room, then she can't be allowed to stay at home alone, and taking her out for a walk will also be of great benefit to ease the mood. Vivian is very interested in the various goods from the northern frozen forest in the industry run by Du Wei. From the perspective of a magician, Vivian thinks many things are very useful. Leaving Vivian to choose slowly, Du Wei and Ruolin went to the upstairs room and talked carefully for a while. Ruolin first talked about the difficulties she was facing at present. First, there are understaffed.Since it is a business for the aristocrats, the shop needs some strictly trained waiters... Those nobles are not ordinary people. If they go to the slave market and buy a few people, they will not go through strict etiquette training, which will make people discuss behind their backs. , It will also lose Du Wei's face.The nobles are still very particular about these. Second, the issue of artisans.Most of the goods transported from the north are raw materials, although Du Wei had hired several good craftsmen in the imperial capital at a high price before opening, including blacksmiths, tailors, carpenters, and several engravers.But still not enough. The furs of those monsters are to be made into exquisite costumes and fur coats. It is not enough to just sew and mend them casually. While the nobles pay attention to the materials, they also pay great attention to the novelty of the style, and this aspect is obviously insufficient. And those precious magic cores, although most of them have been ordered by the magic union, some rich and noble families will also come to purchase them to please the magicians recruited by their own families.And some weapons... When it comes to weapons, this is what gives Ruolin the most headache. At present, the materials stored in the warehouse are all high-quality goods, but the two blacksmiths under him are too ordinary.And there are too few people.Just last night, when these two mediocre blacksmiths were forging a set of equipment, they damaged two scales of the earth dragon. When they were quenching, they accidentally designed one handle as the most popular one because of insufficient heat. The slender rapier sword used by the nobles was destroyed - because of the problem of the fire control, the long sword designed to be thin like chopsticks was easily destroyed by a blacksmith's tongs during the trial. It broke. The two blacksmiths have actually worked very hard, but their talents are really insufficient.And even though they had made weapons before, they had never been exposed to so many high-quality materials. These are just the current problems, and the one that makes Ruolin angry the most... is the quadruplets of female magic apprentices from Du Weissey! Those four beautiful quadruplet girls were originally pets of a man worth millions of gold coins, but Du Wei didn't seem to be interested in these four girls at all. The woman was thrown into Ruo Lin's hands. Du Wei's idea is very simple. He hopes to continue to develop his business. In the future, he can make some magic props!The group of mages is not short of money. On the one hand, a large number of nobles fawn on them and give them countless wealth. On the other hand, mages have all kinds of precious gems.Such a group is what Du Wei considers the best consumers. The magical cores of these magical beasts transported from the north can produce many things that attract magicians. Du Wei is also very clear that selling raw materials is far inferior to selling finished products!The profit will also be multiplied several times.However, the manufacture of magic props is not something ordinary craftsmen are capable of. In Roland Continent, there is a special profession called "magician". This professional group is very small and the number of people is not large. Magic auxiliary props, and some people can even create magic scrolls! But the group of this profession is also very strange. Some magicians are excellent magicians themselves. The magic props they create are mainly for their own use, and occasionally they will create some props to spread on the market.Of course, there are very few magicians like this, and only those who are both magicians and magicians can make magic scrolls. And most of the magic makers are magic apprentices, but they don't have the talent to become magicians. In the end, they have to become magic makers, using the magic knowledge they have mastered to create all kinds of things that magicians need. thing. But no matter it is any magician, it is currently impossible for Du Wei to recruit.Because almost all magicians belong to the magic union.And those magicians who were originally magicians would not be recruited by someone casually. Therefore, Du Wei placed high hopes on the quadruplets, hoping that the four girls could use their knowledge of magic and eventually become money-making machines in their hands. Obviously, Du Wei's understanding of the value of these four girls is different from most men. If it was any other nobleman, I am afraid that this rare quadruplet beauty would have been taken into the house as a confinement. "Your Excellency, with all due respect, I'd better ask you to take these four 'Misses' back!" Ruolin said very bluntly: "They are not here to help me with work at all! Every day I have to allocate Staff will serve them! Hmph..." Du Wei frowned: "Is there such a thing?" Next, Ruolin told Du Wei what happened in the past few days. It turned out that not only Ruolin was depressed, but the quadruplets were also depressed.They have been quadruplet beauties since they were young. After being bought back by Count Villa, they have undergone strict training and learned some magic knowledge.But Count Villa's expectations for them, frankly: all the training they have received is to please men in the future. Even in the days when they were trained in the Earl's Mansion of Villa, the quadruplets were served by others. Apart from the training, their lives were almost comparable to those of the ladies of some small noble families. After they were originally given to Du Wei, the four girls were very satisfied at first. After all, Du Wei was young, handsome, and famous, and recently became a popular Grand Duke. The four girls thought that if they could please the Duke in the future and get his favor, they would fly up the branches and become phoenixes. It's a pity, but who would have thought that Du Wei didn't even bother to touch them with a finger.He even threw them under Ruolin's hands to work as errands! The most exasperating thing is, Ruolin!This rude woman, this cruel woman, dares to ask her delicate self to work! ... After listening to Ruolin's narration, Du Wei's face was gloomy, and he glanced at Ruolin: "Don't you have nothing to do with them? Knight Ruolin, I'm very disappointed in you! Back then you were able to clean up a bunch of unruly pirates." Come down, but now even the four little girls can’t do anything?” Ruolin looked a little embarrassed: "My lord...these four ladies were sent from your side after all, I..." Du Wei immediately understood Ruolin's concern, and he smiled: "Don't worry, they are not my women, and I don't intend to let them be my women! Now you can rest assured? I assigned them to you , it is under your control! If they are disobedient, then you can dispose of them as you like!" Ruolin breathed a sigh of relief, and felt relieved. Looking at the expression on the female knight's face, Du Wei secretly smiled: Now, the quadruplets may suffer in the next few days. After pondering for a while, Du Wei said: "The problem of manpower can't be rushed, we can only look for it slowly. Especially craftsmen, it is difficult to find good craftsmen now. In this place of the imperial capital, no one is willing to give up good craftsmen. Give it to us. It is easy to offend people if you grab it openly, especially since I will leave the imperial capital in a few months. When I am here, even if I offend people, I don’t have to be afraid of people daring to retaliate, but after I leave, it will not work So, try not to do things that offend people." "But all good craftsmen have owners, where can we find them?" Ruolin sighed. "It's really not possible. The only stupid way is to cultivate it yourself." Du Wei also shook his head: "But this is too expensive, and it takes a long time to achieve full results. Put aside the work of craftsmen first, and I will slowly find a way... Well, it’s still early, let’s go to the slave market in the city together, maybe we can buy some suitable people.” ... The slavery system in the Roland Continent has always been firmly opposed by the Temple, which has been the case for hundreds of years. Of course, in Du Wei's view, this is not because the temple is noble, but because the temple is dissatisfied with the huge benefits generated by slavery, but he cannot get a share of it. For hundreds of years, although the mainland has been peaceful in general, the expeditions in Nanyang and the occasional small rebellion broke out in the northwest. After the conquest of the imperial army, there will always be many captives... especially those in Nanyang. Every time the expeditionary fleet comes back from an expedition, it will bring back a large amount of spoils... many of them are natives captured from large tracts of islands in Southeast Asia. It's not that the empire's army likes to plunder people... To be honest, who doesn't like to plunder some real gold and silver for those generals who lead the expedition? It's a pity that with the frequent expeditions to the South Seas, the harvest from each expedition is getting less and less.Things are really out of reach, so in order to get some gains to supplement military expenditures, plundering the population has accounted for the largest proportion of the spoils in recent expeditions! And the aborigines from Southeast Asia that followed became the mainstream in the slave market.Du Wei has read a statistic from the military. Now in the imperial capital, according to estimates, there may be more than 8,000 aborigines from Nanyang, most of whom have been plundered to the imperial capital for many years, or even the previous generation. After returning, they have lived in the mainland of the empire for many years, and many of them are the second generation. In addition, there are many slaves who were originally free people, because they were poor and unable to live, so they could only sell themselves as slaves.And several small-scale rebellions in the northwest will also spawn some slaves. In addition, there is a kind of existence called "official slaves", which mainly come from some declining wealthy families.For example, after this coup, several wealthy families were completely wiped out, and many members of the family were convicted. After being tried, they lost their status as free citizens and became slaves. Most of them were sold in the slave market. Interestingly, the largest slave trader in the imperial capital was none other than an industry directly under the imperial central finance department!That place was set up in the slave market in the southwest of the imperial capital, where many "official slaves" gathered. It can be said that the empire's finances rely on the slave trade every year, and it also grabs a lot of fiscal revenue. The reason why the temple is dissatisfied is because the temple is unable to formally step in to get a piece of such a big piece of cake every year. ... Most of the slave trade in the imperial capital was concentrated in the west and south of the city. There was originally a wide avenue under the city wall in the southwest.On this avenue, the most prosperous slave market in the entire continent was born. The southwest of the imperial capital has always been close to the slums. The southwest of the entire city has a population of more than 900,000 residents, accounting for almost half of the population of the imperial capital. On this kilometer-long street, apart from slave trade, there are many places where ordinary poor people and strange people of all kinds are looking for jobs. In other words, this is a "labor market" similar to what Du Wei had seen in his previous life. At the end of the long street, there is a square.The original statues and pools in the center of the square were demolished decades ago. Now there are several high platforms built on the square. Several famous large slave trade groups in the imperial capital are on top of these high platforms, carrying out bustling activities. slave trade. On the square, with several high platforms as the center, a large number of people gathered to watch, many of them were business groups from other places, and some wealthy and noble families in the imperial capital.Those slave traders standing on the high platform were holding whips in their hands, and behind them stood a few bodyguards with big arms and round waists. On the platform next to them, there were many big iron cages. In the cages, people were locked up like animals— ——Most of the people locked in the cages were "newcomers" who had just become slaves. Only these captives who had just returned from the Northwest or Southeast Asia were unwilling to accept the fate of slaves and would resist, so they had to be locked up. And on the other high platforms, some slaves with wooden faces had empty eyes, and there were no ferocious slave trader bodyguards around them. There were often dozens of them, tied by a thin rope, standing there blankly, He obediently remained motionless, despite all kinds of eyes from around him.That is the old slave who has become numb. Even the slave traders kept walking up to the slaves, pinching one's face, knocking on that's chest, or pulling their lips for everyone to see their teeth... just like animals.These people are also indifferent, already numb to their fate. Du Wei and Ruolin walked in the crowd. They were both dressed in casual clothes. Ruolin didn't wear that overly gorgeous armor, so Du Wei naturally wouldn't wear the eye-catching magician's robe. Wearing an ordinary coat, Du Wei followed Ruo Lin and squeezed through the crowd with difficulty. On both sides of the road, in addition to the slave trading platform, there are some indifferent people, male or female, old or young, standing quietly at the corner of the street, looking back and forth among the crowd sweep.Without exception, these people all wore a piece of cloth on their body or arm. These are not slaves, but free citizens of the empire. However, many people have to sell themselves as slaves because of their difficult life and in order to survive.As long as you stop at the slave market and put a black cloth on your arm, it means that you are willing to sell yourself. Of course, there are also some who are not willing to be slaves. Standing here with a white cloth on their arms means that they are willing to find a loyal master, but they are not slaves. There are many such people, and most of them are people with special skills.Some craftsmen, grooms, or some are down-and-out warriors. Du Wei looked all the way, and found a few people wearing almost shabby shabby clothes, holding a long sword that was almost rusted, standing in the corner with a dignified expression, white shoulders The cloth is unusually dazzling. In the imperial capital, samurai survival is not easy.As the center of the empire, the imperial capital has gathered too many masters. Basically, a mid-level warrior is just a bodyguard for the nobles. It is too difficult for low-level warriors to make a living. There are still many low-level warriors that nobles don't bother to recruit, so they can only work hard in some chariot dealers. Work as a bodyguard in the transport team. And those warriors with low martial skills, only one or two levels, can't find anything to eat. The prosperity of magic but the decline of warriors is just the epitome of the whole continent. "Master, look!" Du Wei was looking at the warriors in the corner when he suddenly heard Ruolin call out to him.Looking ahead, one could see crowds of people rushing towards the end of the street.It is the largest slave trading center in the entire empire - the official slave trading site of the empire! Official slaves are generally much higher than ordinary slaves in terms of quality and price. Most of the slaves from wealthy families who have been raided have undergone some training and can be used immediately after buying, so although the price A little higher, but still favored by many buyers. "Go and have a look." Du Wei nodded. It seems that he came at the right time. It seems that there is a batch of "new goods" for sale at the trading point of official slaves.