CH.316 Returning the Illegal Slaves Ho
Today was the day. The day we return the illegal slaves ho.
It has been 15 days since we discovered that operation and freed the slaves, but because of diplomatic problems, I couldn’t just imdiately return all of them to where they live.
… and because we needed mapping for where they live and so forth. And I’m decently sure Duke Burch sent so sort of letters to the countries the slaves originated from, apologizing for the situation and saying that the slaves would be returned at this ti.
Out of the seventeen slaves, of course four were now with , working at HoBase. Another three were hired by Duke Burch and three more are trying their luck working independently as adventurers/sothing else. The last seven were the ones we were going to return ho today. That included the three elves, two foxfolk, a horsefolk and a dogfolk. All of them were female, as Karl was the only male of all of the illegal slaves.
Now for their return address, yes that does sound like they are mail, what of it? The elves were all from the sa elf village, so that was going to be an easy return. One of the foxfolk and the dogfolk were also from the sa town, so that was another stop. And then the horsefolk and the other foxfolk were from places of their own, so that was two more stops, for a total of four.
And I know you might think that is a one day job, and you would be correct. If we used my speedrunning style of getting stuff done. But because diplomatic relationships were involved in this operation, Duke Burch was making sure we did everything correctly. Especially as so United States faction has been gaining control of the small countries to the north, unifying them under one power. While not all of the small countries to the north had joined, a lot of them already had. And Duke Burch saw it only as a matter of ti until the rest would join, either willingly, or by force, so he didn’t want to get into diplomatic trouble with the countries.
On day one of the operation, we were taking the elves ho. There were three of them, so they were seen as a priority.
I was of course in charge of transport, but I was also seen as an agent of the System/the Goddess, due to having the System Support. From my crew, other than , I had both Alice and Lua with , and I also took Einar and Eline with us. I thought about bringing Ria, but I decided to leave her to be in charge of HoBase with Agunan instead. And I do want to start bringing the others to cool places, even if Ria is the OG. And yes, Lua did have to take a break from her teaching job, but having a few days off is a good thing.
Also, the Duke ca with us, and he had with him his own crew of people. I did tell him to keep it small, as there was a limited amount of space on my airship, so he only had four people with him, matching the size of my crew. Those four people consisted of two civil officers and two guards.
Mariina was also with us, as she was soone capable of representing the Sage’s tower. And as the tower was a part of the Hero’s country, it was respected even in the northern countries, so she decided to co along.
So all of us, with the three elves, we had a total of fourteen people on board.
As for our ride, we were in B.E.S. Covered Core. I picked Covered Core, as it has the largest inside space out of all of my B.E.S. monsters.
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Getting everyone on board Covered Core was of course no problem. Their reactions… well, they were a small problem, but we dealt with that. No, we didn’t knock them out, though that is an option. Have Alice put them all to sleep with her magic. It would be easy and hassle free. Maybe we will do that with criminals in the future?
But no. Instead we just let them gawk at the wonder that is Covered Core. Sure it takes a bit of ti, but as we only are taking one group today, we have all the ti we need. It is better to just corrupt people to accept my norm than … well, than not doing it. This costs nothing, except a bit of ti which I was already going to use for this job.
Alice was taking charge of answering everyone’s questions. Well, so of the answers were lies, but still. I was flying and I let Lua control the screens that showed the outside to our passengers. Einar and Eline were alternating between being seated in the gunner seats and serving our guests. Also, I don’t know if I ever ntioned it, but I did make a tuxedo for Einar, so he would look more like a butler. At least my vision of a butler.
After just under an hour of flight ti, we reached the area where the elves said they were from. It was a forested area, with a small village built along the trees in a way where it would minimize the amount of trees that had to be cut down. It was also under so sort of a barrier spell, but the B.E.S. sensors were still able to pick up on it, so it was probably a weak barrier.
By the instructions of both the elves, as well as one of the civil officers who ca with Duke Burch, I bead us down a bit away from the village from where we would be approaching on foot the rest of the way. No point in spooking out the locals by teleporting into the middle of town.
I was a little hesitant on making a literal Duke walk, but this was his idea, so I’m not going to say no. Sure I could get my carriage out of Storage, or even summon sothing for him to ride, but I’m not going to. If he asks for it, maybe, but as a free favor, not happening. I’m not selfish, I just don’t want to do too many free favors for high ranked nobles or they might think I just do anything for free, just because the recipient is a high ranking noble.
Duke Burch sent two of his n, well one of them was a female, to hurry towards the village to announce our arrival and we followed soon after them.
As we got to the outer edge of the village, we passed through a barrier. At least that is what I think it is. Again, I’m not the best at detecting magic like that, but I’m learning. Lua and Alice both picked up on it as well. It didn’t seem to be any sort of defensive barrier, as we could pass right through, and it wasn’t great at hiding this place either because the B.E.S. sensors saw through it, so maybe it is so sort of a monster repelling barrier. I wonder if the villagers will answer if I ask about it.
As we got even closer, we saw the two people Duke Burch sent to announce our arrival, and a group of seven ard people, who I assu are so sort of guards. Out of the seven, five were elves, one was so sort of fox or wolf-folk, and the last was a birdfolk.
As the guards saw us, one of them quickly moved towards us. At first, I thought he was a threat, but as soon as one of the elves we brought here stepped up et with him, I realized what was going on.
“Umi!” The male guard called out the girl's na as they embraced each other. Her full na was actually Umithra, but that isn’t really important at this mont.
I just watched as the two had a heartfelt reunion. The man she was embracing was her lover, Morishin. This was sothing I had learned while we were assisting in the … clean-up operation. The elves actually shared quite a bit of information about themselves, so it would be easier for us to find their ho and return them there.
After a while, and a few more tear-jerked reunions, we were brought to et up with the village leader/elder, whichever you prefer to call this old guy. He was an elf, and looked to be around 70. By the way, elves of this world do live a lot longer than regular people. For most humans, they live around 70 years, but can live up to 100. Being higher leveled and of course being a master or a founder of a dungeon helps to live longer. Elves, and actually dwarves as well, generally lived about 2.5 tis that, so from about 180 years to 250 years. So for soone that looked to be in their 70s, the elder was probably more like 180.
As for , well, it is complicated. Not just because of my race, but also because I was the founder of a Chaos God Dungeon. And that could easily screw up my lifespan, so I really didn’t know what to expect for myself. I guess wait and see.
“I extend my gratitude to you.” The elder ended his statent.
“Of course. It was my fault that the border guards weren’t able to catch the slave traders, so I must also thank you for your leniency.” Duke Burch replied. He was acting very humble for soone with the rank of Duke.
“Yes. I just hope this will be the last trouble those girls will face. They might just have a difficult life ahead of them.” The elder sighed, almost like in resignation.
“Has sothing been troubling you?” Duke Burch asked. “If it is in my power, as an apology, I can assist you in that matter.”
“No. This isn’t sothing where another country can simply step in to help.” The elder said. “The United States has been bothering our small kingdom to join. I am just afraid they will do so by force if our leaders don’t agree.”
… really? What the heck, states? You are putting a bad na on the United States, even if they aren’t the United States I know.
“Yes. That would be the case. I would offer our protection, but I cannot bring our Kingdom to a potential war.” Duke Burch said. “However, I am willing to offer citizenship to anyone that wishes to leave this country and move to the Ruiso Kingdom.”
“And for a small fee, we are willing to add transport in the form of my airships.” I added, even if it wasn’t my place to cut in. I was expecting the Duke to say sothing, but he kept it in, so maybe he approves of my offer.
“I thank you. I really do.” The elder answered. “But we simply cannot abandon what we have. No. Not we, I cannot. I shall extend your offer to the villagers, giving those that are afraid a chance to run away. But I will not. This is my ho. This is where I was born and this is where I will die.”
“You do seem convicted in your ideals.” Duke Burch said. “But you are a good man. Being able to put aside your ideologies for the younger generation is admirable.”
“Do not say it like that. We elves have grown a lot from what we were in the tis of the Demon Lord.” The elder joked. I wonder what that was about?
“There is nothing wrong with hiding from the greatest evil in history.” The Duke said.
After a bit longer of a chat, during which Alice was subtly asking about any information the village elder might have about the illegal slave traders, our group left the elder’s house and then the village. For our return trip, I used B.E.S. Tetran. Like Covered Core, Tetran had a single large inside area that extended to the bridge. Covered Core’s inside area was a bit bigger, so technically it was better for transport. But I do want to use a variety of monsters when possible, so that is why I used Tetran this ti. And if soone asks, I’ll say mana reasons or sothing.
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