Chapter 744: The Tongue-less Coachman and the Underground Tavern

The carriage began to move following the pull of the lanyard by Mr. Scott earlier.

It first moved forward a short distance, seemingly arriving at the back door, then there was the sound of a door opening, and the carriage continued to move afterward.

Sitting inside the cramped carriage, Jier did not know where it would stop after exiting the back door of the 'Burning Furnace' Merchant Guild and circling Duoen Town a few times. But he did not care about that either.

The air in the carriage felt stifling for a while, at least that was how Jier felt.

He spoke up: "That force managing the Underground Black Market, do you know which one it is?"

Hearing Jier ask this question, Mr. Scott, who was sitting and resting, chuckled: "Why do you ask this? Think those people are being too cruel?"

"Isn't it cruel? Cutting out the tongue, only able to swallow boiled-down porridge for a lifetime. Large pieces of food are inconvenient to chew and swallow, is there anything more inconvenient than this?"

Jier sighed; he felt the other world was already cruel enough, but he had not expected that in such minor matters, there could be such a cruel side.

Mr. Scott, however, had a different view.

"If, Knight Jier. If this coachman was originally raised like this from childhood? You know, many children don't even live to grow up. The farmers and their wives in the fields always give birth to too many; those children either starve to death in some winter lacking food, or they come down with a serious illness, causing those farmer households to set up one more small wooden carving."

"Small carving?"

"It seems you don't understand these things. Many children die young; there are no graves or stone tablets for burying ashes. In most cases, there is only a small wooden carving that doesn't even have a name, crudely carved to look like them."

Jier fell silent.

"So, there are always these or those people walking in remote villages, asking the farmer parents of children who are dying or whom they cannot afford to raise for those who are seriously ill or unraisable."

Jier snorted coldly: "And then cutting out their tongues after saving them? Doesn't the Kingdom follow the Empire's laws, prohibiting human trafficking and the slave trade?"

Mr. Scott reached out and pressed down, signaling Jier to relax: "Young Knight, look, in the story just now, did the shadow of an Iron Coin appear? No, right?"

He waved his hand heavily: "No money, no buying and selling, naturally there is no trade. This is adoption, it is giving for adoption."

"Just sophistry. Although there is no money, the logic behind it is the same. Human favors, permissions, support, recommendations—similar non-material transactions are still a transaction. The organization or force that obtains the child will always 'repay' the farmers who gave the child away in another way."

Jier was not stupid either; he would not be persuaded so easily.

"Perhaps that is so, but such things are always hard to avoid, they will always happen. Children will always die young for one reason or another, and many powerful organizations always need people trained from childhood."

"Not just that, who can guarantee those children were trained from childhood? Instead of being sacrificed to some evil thing."

Jier retorted: "As long as such things happen repeatedly, Mr. Scott, do you think the kind of thing I mentioned won't happen? Evil always spreads from various cracks, and the topic we are discussing is no longer a crack; it is practically %￥% actively opening the door for evil."

Mr. Scott gave a bitter smile: "And isn't this the time for you Knights to show your skills? Besides, we are sitting in a carriage talking, those things won't disappear on their own, and they are even happening elsewhere. Does that mean everyone should be troubled by this, to the point of not eating or working?"

The words are what they are, the logic is what it is, but words shouldn't be said like that, and logic shouldn't be interpreted that way.

Jier knew he had a pile of things on his plate, and he couldn't manage this bit in front of him either. So, he had to ask: "So, back to the beginning. Which force or organization is managing your Underground Black Market?"

Facing this question, Mr. Scott indicated he had no answer, or rather, he had a guess, but dared not say that name.

It was a very terrifying name for merchants. People and Merchant Guilds that annoyed that organization often found that when they woke up from a sleep, they couldn't even keep the clothes on their backs. And that was the light version; some had heard that those who annoyed that organization would even be manipulated into selling themselves.

Seeing Mr. Scott's hesitant appearance, Jier understood.

"Is it that one?"

"Which one?"

"Just that one."

Jier made a gesture of pulling out a money bag; it was this action that startled Mr. Scott, who shivered: "It's that one. You just need to understand which one it is."

"Don't you all manage it? And, dealing with that bunch, don't you feel the Iron Coins in your pockets secretly getting fewer without you knowing?"

Hearing Jier's ridiculous statement, Mr. Scott was between laughter and tears: "It's not that scary. After all, they are all people. For the sake of some interests, everyone can still cooperate in some places. At least the Underground Black Market in Duoen Town is like this."

He explained: "Before Duoen Town was confirmed to be established, there were some places in the wild nearby similar to black markets, all consisting of Bandits wanting to sell stolen goods and bold Merchants wanting to exchange for expensive goods at low prices. But it was too chaotic back then, at least that's what I heard. At that time, Bandits worried about being caught by Bounty Hunters while heading to the wild black market with goods, while greedy Merchants worried about taking money there and ending up delivering both themselves and the money to the mouth of a bear."

"The older generation of the Merchant Guild saw the advantages and business opportunities of this place. After all, you know, the border of two provinces, the mountains blocking the north and south, the Baishi Chengqiang Guanka on the opposite side, and the prosperous Montoka City. There's no reason why the other side can be so prosperous and the place under our feet cannot."

"Later, several major Merchant Guilds joined forces to persuade the local Noble Lord to entrust this piece of wilderness land on the east side of the mountains—the area near the current Duoen Town—to the Merchant Union. It wasn't the current Merchant Union back then; I heard only the 'Golden Sickle' and the 'Treasure House' first planned to get it started. Only later did other large Merchant Guilds gradually join in."

"Everything else is fine, but the Merchant Union has always wanted to keep the black market in their own hands. Tsk tsk, but they tried several times, and all ended in miserable failure."

"How so?"

"How else? Murder incidents happening every day were just simple, minor matters. The most troublesome thing was that as long as it was set up for a short while, once the black market became prosperous, it actually greatly affected the normal trade of Duoen Town."

"No one was doing business properly, right?"

Jier guessed.

His words earned a roll of the eyes from Mr. Scott, whose hood on his Cloak could just reveal his eyes: "Everyone was thinking of grabbing a cheap, low-priced item in the black market to earn the price difference, so everyone tried hard to sabotage the Merchant Guilds and Caravans doing business normally. Everyone in the town could be an informant for a rival Merchant Guild or a secret plant for Bandits. Every time a Caravan set out, before the horse hooves even left the town, the Bandits outside the town would know the goods the Caravan was transporting and the number of guards. They would even know if the person leading the team had an illegitimate child."

Mr. Scott shook his head: "Even worse, some Bandits grew large and were changing into Merchant Guilds. And some small Merchant Guilds were changing into Bandit Groups. The Bandits calculated the input and output of every raid, and even borrowed money from others for high-risk operations, using the harvest of the operation as collateral to borrow money to buy weapons, equipment, and manpower."

"Uh."

Jier didn't know what to say.

"And some small Merchant Guilds turned into Bandit Groups disguised as merchants. They organized Caravans to follow behind other Caravans; originally, this was a measure for everyone to gather together to resist attacks from outside Bandits, but as soon as a dark night with no clouds arrived, they bared their fangs. Hiss hiss hiss, poisoning the dinner, setting fires to attack while people were asleep, actively taking on the duty of keeping watch, only to end up joining the Bandits to raid the Caravan."

Jier was speechless; this was truly chaotic.

In the final analysis, it was because the goods from raiding Caravans could be traded in the black market without rules or quantity limits. The more you do, the greater the harvest, and the risk isn't high, so who the ￥% wouldn't do it?

And the Merchant Union couldn't control the Underground Black Market at that time.

"So, you invited that organization?"

Jier asked with a sly smile.

Mr. Scott leaned powerlessly against the back of the chair and waved his hand: "Sigh, I heard the other party came looking for us. Such a big piece of meat naturally truly attracted a carnivorous beast."

"Aren't you afraid it will eat both the Underground Black Market and Duoen Town? After all, a beast's appetite is usually very good."

"Humph humph, this is the difference between some ancient organizations and ordinary organizational forces. Those old-school organizations are just like our Merchant Union, large Merchant Guilds, large organizations; we are the ones who know how to maximize benefits—cooperation and long-term operation."

"Eating a big meal can certainly fill you up, but to be full every meal, you need patience and restraint."

As he said this, with a jingle of bells, the carriage stopped.

Jier knew they had arrived.

Opening the carriage door and stepping out, Jier felt a bit dazed, because the scene outside was exactly the same as the building he was in before getting on the carriage. It was an indoor space where carriages could drive directly in, with walls hung with black cloaks, and small tables with extra Linen Cloth gloves placed on them.

At the same time, the lighting here relied entirely on indoor lamps, rather than natural light from the outside.

"Did the carriage go in a circle and come back?"

Jier asked Mr. Scott.

This left Mr. Scott not knowing how to answer: "Uh, how is that possible? You might not be familiar with Duoen Town, but I can guarantee that, based on the turns just now and the time the carriage traveled, it is impossible to have circled back to my place."

"Haha, just a joke."

Jier's words earned him an eye-roll.

Walking a few steps inside this building and taking a closer look, Jier realized he had overthought it just now.

At this moment, this building was much larger than the previous one; the building where the back door of the Burning Furnace Merchant Guild led to the Underground Black Market could only accommodate one carriage. But here, whether it was underground or not, there were a total of eleven carriages parked in their respective spots, and there were still many empty spaces; it seems not everyone comes to the Underground Black Market to trade every day.

"Remember the location of our carriage."

Mr. Scott said in a low voice. Jier looked left and right, confirmed the location of their carriage from the position of the walls and the pillars built of stone bricks, and then followed behind Mr. Scott, walking toward one end of the building.

It was actually still following a downward staircase into the underground.

"The Underground Black Market is really underground."

Jier sighed like this.

"Nonsense, Jier, think about it, which building on the surface can be this big while also being this cost-effective? Compared to building a tall stone structure on the ground, digging underground is much simpler. Usually, you only need to hire one or two Dwarf Architects, or if the scale is smaller, even a Dwarf Craftsman will do. They are most skilled at digging down into the earth, or digging horizontally into great mountains."

"You say, what if we take the wrong carriage when we go back and end up in another place?"

Jier earned another eye-roll.

Mr. Scott was speechless: "There is no 'what if.' Which back door of the Merchant Union doesn't lead to the Underground Black Market? They all do. And in other parts of the town, some medium-sized merchant guilds have their own carriages, while smaller ones are behind inns or taverns, all places with high foot traffic. Hmph, even the place that manages affairs in town has a place to park carriages in the back."

"Outsiders don't understand, but insiders know. The so-called Underground Black Market is just like that. It is a place for people to come and trade; although there is a threshold to enter, that is all there is to it. It does not reject those who want to come here. But one must also be careful; 'that' organization that manages the Underground Black Market is watching every person who comes here from the darkness."

Mr. Scott said a lot in one breath, and it looked like he often said this to people who were new to this place.

Jier looked left and right, not feeling that anyone was tailing them in the dark on the spiraling downward staircase.

This spiraling downward staircase was very long and very quiet.

Providing lighting here were glowing plants. They were quietly planted in flowerpots without patterns, and these flowerpots were placed in the recessed spaces on the outer edge of the right side of the spiraling staircase.

Glowing plants are not expensive, but they are not cheap either; they had gone down at least thirty meters in height, and this quantity of plants must have cost quite a bit.

But this was also a cheaper solution compared to using Magic for lighting.

When the two of them reached the bottom, the quiet environment was finally broken, and the thing that appeared before their eyes surprised Jier extremely.

It was actually a tavern.

Yes, it was a tavern. Located at least thirty meters deep underground.

Jier quietly said to Mr. Scott: "What is the meaning of arranging a tavern here?"

"To let us have a drink before we come? Or a place for accompanying personnel to wait?" Mr. Scott clearly hadn't paid attention to this before, so he didn't know.

But Jier felt it wasn't that.

The tavern was semi-circular, like a bowl turned upside down underground. One end connected to the spiraling staircase for entry and exit, and the other end was a half-open wooden door, from which brighter light and noisy sounds emerged. It gave the black-cloaked figures drinking in silence in this strange tavern a bit more of the aura of the living.

Yes, the patrons drinking in the tavern, and even the servers serving drinks, were all dressed in black cloaks.

The difference was that the servers pouring and serving drinks all wore a Mask made of wood; not only could their faces not be seen, but even whether they were male or female was hidden by the wide black cloaks.

It is estimated that only by the voice when they open their mouths to report the amount to be paid at checkout can one judge whether the server serving you is male or female.

Neither of them had any intention of drinking in this strange place, so they walked directly past the dozen or so small round tables. Jier carefully observed the people around him as he walked through.

Although they were all in black cloaks and covered tightly, Jier simply judged the identities of these people from the sitting postures and seating positions of the few patrons.

People who can come to such a strange place to drink early in the morning are certainly unlikely to be black-market merchants or businessmen coming to the Underground Black Market to trade. If he wasn't mistaken, these people should be the management and maintenance personnel arranged here by 'that' organization, the Thieves Guild.

Considering the result of Jier's last fight with a formal Thief from the Thieves Guild, Jier felt it was better not to provoke them.

This is a bunch of daring guys who actually dared to fight a fully armed Knight. Jier still doesn't feel he could last long under the hands of the Grass Rat Town lord, Knight Anweina, let alone defeat the opponent.

And that Thief at the time actually dared to fight the Knight for several rounds by relying on a Potion that obscured a large field of vision; although he was defeated later, he at least retreated alive.

And the means that Thief used to perish together before dying still makes Jier's scalp tingle even now.

If the guys sitting and drinking in this tavern were Thieves of the same level, that would be really troublesome. Of course, Jier didn't think everyone present had the level of that Thief at the time.

After all, elite personnel sent out to expand the sphere of influence are clearly far stronger than the idle personnel arranged in prosperous but underground places with nothing to do.

Among these people, if one could have the level of the Thief he met at that time, it would already indicate the degree of importance the Thieves Guild attaches to this place.

Scott casually pushed open the half-closed wooden door, then turned sideways and said to Jier in a specially altered voice: "Welcome, welcome to the Underground Black Market of Duoen Town. Please feel free to choose what you want later. Small items are traded on the spot; once the transaction is completed, there is no going back. Large items will be notarized by the manager of the black market to ensure the safety of both parties and the normal completion of the transaction."

Jier smiled: "You've said this many times, right? To different people?"

Mr. Scott also laughed, still speaking in a specially altered voice: "But everyone who comes here leaves satisfied. I believe you are no exception."

Jier raised his eyebrows: "Oh, then let me take a look."

Then the two walked through the wooden door and came to a relatively open underground area.

At first glance, this was a long, strip-shaped space that could accommodate two heavy-duty carriages driving side by side, but upon closer inspection, one could see that there was actually another space to the left and right every little distance.

Overall, it was a place shaped like the character 【Feng】.

Jier estimated the straight-line distance of the main road, which was roughly less than fifty meters long; counting the other six extending passages on the left and right, the total length would not exceed one hundred and twenty meters.

And those selling things here were individual wooden stalls; the small items for sale were placed on the slanted wooden stalls, and the owners of the stalls sat on the side or behind, looking at the books in their hands in boredom.

By the light of lit Oil Lamps, or one or two specially cultivated bright glowing plants.

Considering that each stall was several meters long, the total number of stalls in the entire Underground Black Market was only a few dozen.

However, quantity is not a problem, as long as the quality is passable. But what made Jier curious was that, except for some large items or living things that were replaced by wooden boards with patterns drawn on them, other small goods were just placed directly on the slanted wooden stalls.

"No, the things are just placed like this, aren't you afraid of being stolen?"

Jier asked Mr. Scott.

And Mr. Scott looked at Jier with a strange expression, as if Knight Jier had asked a silly question.