Chapter 63: Rubber Tree Village and the Slave Collection Team

It's a pity that such happiness didn't last long for the children who came to beg for water, because the next day, Broly's group spent money at several times the outside price to replenish water and other food in this not-so-large town, and then departed again.

In the group, four children whose homes were in this region, their homes were all in the Kaxisi Central Region.

"Boss, we're not making a move?"

On the mountaintop, watching the small caravan gradually passing by, one of the men who had come to the inn yesterday intending to rob Broly and the others couldn't help but ask the burly man beside him.

"Was it that your kid didn't drink their water yesterday, or didn't eat their bread, or didn't gnaw on the jerky they gave?

We've encountered all sorts of characters, but a guy who lets even the kids begging for water eat their fill and return — we can rob anyone, but we can't rob them."

A group that was both townspeople and part-time bandits lay on the mountaintop, doing nothing, seeing off Broly's group's small caravan as it went far away.

Forced by livelihood, falling into banditry, they are both commoners and bandits; this can be considered the general appearance of the people in the Western Territory's harsh regions.

"Another day with no good people coming to the door."

In the caravan, Broly felt some nostalgia for the days before, when he randomly encountered bandits blocking the road.

Just now he sensed some extremely faint auras on the mountaintop, and thought that finally some new good people were coming to the door.

As a result, passing by that mountaintop, nothing happened at all, which was quite disappointing.

The deeper one goes into the central Kathisi Region, the more expensive water and goods become.

By the time they reached the central region, one liter of water was already worth 21 Imperial Currency.

Along the way, Broly and the others also encountered some traveling merchants transporting juice-rich fruits, but the good thing of others delivering supplies to them did not happen.

Broly and the others did some business with these traveling merchants, using money to buy some fruits from them. Among them was a fruit with ample juice, but a comparatively raw and astringent taste; eating too much would cause diarrhea, but its low price and easy storage made it still the first choice for most of the bottom-level masses in the Kathisi Region to replenish moisture.

As for the taste, Broly could only say it was slightly better than aged Wanpa Star rainwater; conversely, if not for the Crystal Palace, he might have lived even worse than the bottom-level people here.

Upon reaching the Kaxisi Central Region, among the four children wanting to return home, the village of a boy named Damu was quickly located. It was a village that planted natural rubber trees and made a living collecting tree sap, also known as Rubber Tree Village.

"Has the rubber tree forest in the south withered?"

The Village Elder asked.

"Rainfall in the rainy season was too little; those are still young trees of only a few years, unable to absorb water from deeper in the ground."

The middle-aged Clan Chief answered.

"How much surplus money does the village have left?"

"Not much. This year the village's tree sap production is poor; the merchant caravans that came offered very low prices."

"Then what do you plan to do?"

"Village Elder, can't we leave Kathisi and go live somewhere else?"

"You want to move the village?"

"If we don't move the village, the village will die."

"Have you thought about the price of moving the village?"

"We can cut down the old rubber trees and sell them for money, use the money to hire guards to escort us to another place, and the remaining money will serve as startup funds to re-establish the village."

"Can we find trustworthy hired guards? What if they turn into bandits and plunder us halfway? And even if we find reputable ones, when the village reaches a new place, what will we live on? We Rubber Tree Village villagers have planted rubber trees and collected tree sap for generations; leaving our accustomed survival environment carries too great a risk — one careless moment and we could fall apart."

People are cheap away from home; the young people who could leave the village to venture out already left years ago. Those left behind are all people who find it hard to leave their native soil.

They are like rubber trees — once they leave the soil, they easily die.

But if they don't leave, as water prices rise year by year, various living costs also climb continuously.

That is like a noose around the neck gradually tightening; once it tightens to a certain degree, the person will be strangled to death.

And this is the reason the middle-aged Clan Chief seeks change.

"But we can't just stay here waiting to die, right?"

"Just wait until the Oasis God's anger passes."

"Wait until when?"

"I don't know either."

"How do we get through this year then?"

"Notify the slave traders, have them come to the village to pick children."

"Selling children again; if we keep selling children like this, does our village still have a future?"

"If we don't sell children, what else can we sell? Sell you or sell me? I'd like to sell this old bone of mine, but nobody wants it either."

"So we can only sell children?"

"The children sold aren't dead; although they'll be sold to others as servants, they've still left this ghost place — in any case, they have a chance to survive."

The Rubber Tree Village's Village Elder and Clan Chief argued, ending with the middle-aged Clan Chief's compromise; soon clansmen went to contact the slave traders in the city.

"Children with rubber-tapping skills like these fetch the best price in the Western Kingdom; that side has sizable rubber tree forests and is in need of enough rubber-tapping slaves."

"Master, should we give a higher price for the goods this time? I heard this year's water price rose again..."

"Give what high price? Same as before is fine. The less they can survive, the more Rubber Tree Village people will teach rubber-tapping skills to those children, hoping to sell them for a high price when selling children; and when the goods' quality improves, we can also earn more on the Western Kingdom side."

This is the dialogue between the slave trader and his subordinate; he does the human trafficking business, not the charity business.

"Sigh, back then I didn't expect the well water business on this Kathisi side to be so good to do; if I had bribed the lord back then to secure the drawing rights to a deep well, I'd really be making money lying down now."

"Then Master, why don't we secretly dig a deep well?"

"Digging a deep well isn't hard, but wanting to take the water out to sell carries too much risk; I'll still do my human trafficking business."

In the Great Western Territory, businesses that make big money are always controlled by those with strength; take the Kathisi Region for example — who wouldn't think that digging a well deeper might strike water?

But those who dare to dig, can dig, dig it out and still take the water out to sell — if they don't bribe a large sum to the top, they can just wait to die.

The slave trader had no intention of challenging the Kathisi Region's rules; he only wanted to rely on the destitute situation of the people here to do some high-quality human transport business.

"Tieniu, you stay here and collect some goods; I'll head to Borsil City first to present the rare wares this western journey brought to Marquis Bosier. Once you've finished gathering the goods here, hurry and catch up."

The slave trader went on ahead to the Western Territory's famed transit city for the human-trafficking trade, but left his loyal servant behind to collect people in Rubber Tree Village.

The slave trader departed that very day, and the servant called Tieniu also led the slave-buying team to Rubber Tree Village that same day; halfway there, this slave-buying team ran into a small caravan of children.

The quality of the children in that caravan was extremely good — just like choice goods that had been meticulously picked out by another slave caravan with seasoned experience — making Tieniu exclaim at his luck.

(Chapter End)