Chess Mage of Faerûn

Chapter 281 The Strange Slave
The True Sight spell was undeniably effective, but its duration was limited. Once the effect ended, the Kusapari group, seeing the calm return of the water, breathed a sigh of relief. Of course, the alert status remained. Aside from the armed guards at the berth, Howard had also cast Sharp Eyes on himself, scanning the surroundings with a scroll in hand.

After discovering the spy's identity, he suddenly realized what was happening and rummaged through his scroll collection, pulling out the scroll for identifying the disguise and holding it in his hand.

He kept squeezing the sea all evening, until they finished the handover process with their trading partners on Luskan's side. There was nothing unusual about the sea, and his intuition did not respond in any way.

“It should be fine, we can begin,” Howard said to Lennon beside him.

"Hmm." The middle-aged man, who was also the fleet commander, nodded, then turned to look at a rather sleazy old man with a weasel-like face.

"Your Excellency Oberhausen, I think we can start loading, unloading, and delivery now. Also, how is the preparation status of the shipment we ordered earlier?"

Upon hearing this, the lecherous old man remained unhurried, speaking with great affected tone:
"Guests from afar, please be patient. As you know, some of the goods in that shipment are not easy to preserve. You have two days to come and experience the charm of Luscany."

Leaving aside Lennon's forced smile and banter with Oberhausen, Howard behind them turned his head to the side, subtly curling his lip, a hint of disdain in his eyes.

This wretched little city, a desolate place without even an ice-free port, a fringes of civilization, what charm does it have?
HE TUI~
When this insincere and polite small talk finally came to an end, the afterglow of the setting sun had already disappeared below the distant horizon.

Draped in a silver veil woven from the light of the stars and moon, busy sailors and gang members scurried between the ship's hold and the dock warehouses like busy ants, bringing crates containing weapons and armor, leather armor, exquisite silverware, expensive ivory, fish bones and other luxury goods into the treasury.

And all of this was observed by a certain guy.

Spells are not omnipotent, and neither are intuition and perception.

As a fellow spellcaster, Zhang Yuan, who also possessed extraordinary perception, quickly grasped the opponent's methods after a moment's thought.

Realizing the spell's range was limited, he had the water elemental carry a telescope to observe from a greater distance. Since the young mage was perceptive, he simply ignored him and instead monitored the others.

"Tsk tsk, there are slaves too? They came all this way."

Zhang Yuan was much more relaxed at this point. Firstly, no one noticed him as he lurked nearby and spied on the situation; secondly...
"These rat gang guys are involved in the slave trade too? It's a hot pot of soup, everyone wants a spoonful."

The slaves brought by these Karinshan people were mostly humanoid races, including various races as well as elves, dwarves, and even Tyflins.

They were like livestock, bound and pulled forward, heading blankly and numbly toward their unknown and dark fate.

While lamenting this tragicomedy of human life, one is also somewhat concerned about the Karinshan caravan's journey across the ocean.

But he could only observe from afar, and what appeared to be just an ordinary slave trade did not lead him to any further discoveries. Things did not change until two days later.

"Finally, I can leave this place. Ever since I left Port Carlin, I have never stopped missing its warm climate."

Howard muttered another complaint under his breath, while Lennon shook his head with a wry smile.
"A long voyage isn't like your mage master's comfortable study. Without those temperature-controlled magic arrays and long benches and reclining chairs, you might encounter all sorts of terrible weather." "I'm just saying."

Seeing that the young monk clearly didn't take it to heart, Lennon promptly shut his mouth.

Some people seem to be born mature, while many others need time and experience to hone their skills.

The fleet from Karinsan, loaded with local specialties, will set sail again as the sun sets, just as it did when it arrived.

Besides the leader of the rat gang responsible for negotiating trade with them, another person who witnessed this scene was a certain sneaky spy.

"It really is a back-and-forth exchange. What's this? Is it some kind of racial exchange?"

Over the past two days, Zhang Yuan has maintained surveillance of the North District docks, sending his morph sprites to lurk and patrol the waters whenever he has free time. Meanwhile, he occasionally peers into the sprites' field of vision to investigate while he is studying and cultivating.

Therefore, they did not miss the scene of the Kusapari leaving. Apart from some supplies and specialties from the North, there was also a group of slaves being loaded onto the ship and transported to Karinshan in the far south.

Compared to the previous batch, this time the slaves were of a much wider variety of races, ranging from the largest half-giants and ogres to the smallest dwarves, and even strange creatures like frost trolls.

Zhang Yuan, who witnessed this trade activity, felt that something was amiss; there was something wrong with the composition of these slaves.

A cursory glance reveals that this group of slaves consists mainly of ogres, trolls, and even beastmen—chaotic and evil species. Yes, they are fundamentally unsuitable to be sold as slaves.

These creatures, naturally irritable and brutal, occasionally appear in slave markets, but they are almost always destined for the arena. The effort and cost required to train these monsters, whose nature is filled with bloodlust and evil, into qualified slaves is simply too great, so great that doing so is not worth the effort.

Moreover, they were being transported thousands of miles away to Karinsan. Putting aside everything else, just the feeding and management during the voyage would be a huge problem.

Are slave gladiators or arena bosses in Karinsan's place really that scarce?

Zhang Yuan wasn't the only one with the same question. After Howard poured out his doubts, he only heard Lennon's somewhat dismissive reply:

“What’s so strange about that? Where there’s demand, there’s supply and demand, and there’s business. This order was arranged by some other families in advance with Luscan. We’re just here to transport some goods. Besides, I’ve seen all sorts of strange requests over the years. You still need to learn some more life experience.”

Howard looked somewhat embarrassed and kept quiet about the matter. When he looked at the group of slaves, he felt that these guys were really strange, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it, which made him feel even more depressed.

"These guys are a bit too well-behaved," he muttered to himself, lowering his head.

Thank you, Alukard, for your monthly pass!

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(End of this chapter)