Cloud Thinking

Entering the noisy and messy tavern again, she walked to her usual throne by the window. After a while, a waiter brought five large glasses of beer. The waiter was already very familiar with Helia, and smiled and patted her shoulder: "Hey, why are you dressed up like a human being today?"

Helia picked up one of the cups and took a gulp. Then she wiped her mouth, burped loudly at the waiter, and said with a smile, "Something good is going to happen today!"

"What good news? Did you find a woman?" the waiter joked. Helia was already famous in this tavern, and whenever he was talked about, the word "woman" would definitely come up.

Helia quickly raised her index finger to her lips and rolled her eyes around. After making sure no one was eavesdropping, she mysteriously put her arm around the waiter's neck, pressed him down, and whispered in his ear, "Someone said they could find a woman who looks very similar to my late wife."

After hearing this, the waiter thought that he was drunk and crazy. This man came every night, crying and shouting about his dead wife every night, saying how soft her long chestnut brown hair was, how smooth her delicate skin was, and how bright her gray-brown pupils were, filled with only himself.

She would say this every time she came. Everyone would enjoy listening to her at first, but later on they would get annoyed and would scold her and tell her to go to the corner and drink.

"Yes, yes, yes! Be careful not to fall to your death on the side of the road and reunite with your wife in heaven!" The waiter was too lazy to pay attention to her anymore. He shook off her hand and turned away. It seemed that he did not believe what Helia said at all.

"Hey! What I said is true! There really is..." She turned her head and shouted at the waiter's back, but before she finished, she heard a voice neither loud nor soft coming from the other side of the table. She looked with dazed eyes and found that it was the guy who said he could help her find a woman who looked very similar to her wife.

He was short, but he had two scars on his face and a dagger hanging from his waist. He looked like a bad guy and no one would mess with him. He slammed the wine glass on the table in displeasure and looked at Helia, who was already a little drunk, and cursed, "Boss, didn't I tell you not to talk nonsense?"

Helia was frightened by him and suddenly shrank her shoulders. She burped again and said with a big tongue, "But I'm happy! My wife is coming back! I'm happy! I'm happy so I told others a few words! What's wrong!"

Helia did it on purpose. According to her established character, she would tell everyone about this matter because she couldn't hide her joy. After all, she had been a man who couldn't control her mouth and boasted about her family's wealth everywhere. Even private matters like her sex life with his wife were revealed because of everyone's instigation.

If she didn't tell anyone about this "happy event" tonight, it might arouse the suspicion and vigilance of the human traffickers.

"Tsk! If you still want to do this business, shut up!" The dagger man glared at Helia, his eyes were filled with an unconcealable coldness that made people feel scared.

Helia then shut up, but was obviously unhappy with the other party's behavior. She muttered a few words under her breath and continued to drink.

The two of them sat there until two o'clock in the morning. Helia was so drunk that she lay on the table. The dagger man pulled her up and said, "It's time. I'll take you to see the goods."

"Hmm...? Are you looking at my wife...?" Helia held her head and shook it, trying to make herself more awake. The dagger man didn't reply to him and walked straight out. Helia had to stagger to follow him.

On the way to where the girls were being held, Helia noticed that they had been walking around in one place for a long time, going in circles, but the man walking in front did not show any abnormality, apparently to prevent the guests from remembering the route.

When passing a corner of an alley where goods were piled up, Helia paused for a moment, then returned to normal. There was a magic circle in that place just now. The specific function was unclear, but it was probably used to hide the base and confuse outsiders.

Helia had no intention of destroying it, for she was afraid that if she took action, someone in the base camp would notice it. Facing these guys who were as slippery as loaches, she couldn't alert them.

She didn't know how many times she turned, how long she walked, or how many alleys she went through. Helia felt that she had already lost track of the route. Fortunately, not long after, the dagger man who led the way stopped in front of a warehouse. He turned around and waved at Helia, motioning her to follow quickly.

When the two of them entered, Helia quickly glanced around and found that the warehouse was empty and there was no goods piled up. Where were those girls imprisoned?

Just as Helia was distracted by her thoughts, the dagger man did something. The center of the warehouse floor suddenly lit up, and the light path formed a magic circle. In the blink of an eye, the place where they were changed drastically.

Space transfer?! Teleportation array?!

Helia didn't expect these people to be so cautious. Their headquarters was not set up in the bazaar at all. They were just looking for customers in the bazaar, but the transaction location was somewhere else!

No wonder Hawke didn't take care of it for so many years. The transaction was not done in his territory at all. He had no solid evidence and no time to take care of it. Not to mention that these people were as cunning as foxes, and it would take a lot of effort to catch them.

Because Helia was not used to the teleportation array, she knelt on the ground and began to vomit violently. She had just drunk some wine and her head was already dizzy. Her stomach began to churn.

The dagger man tutted his words, not too heavy or too light, and seemed not to want to clean up Helia's mess, but after all, she was his client, and he couldn't just leave her there. So he waited for Helia to finish vomiting, then he took her arm and helped her up.

"I'll take you to see the goods first." The dagger man took out a piece of cloth from somewhere and wiped it on Helia's mouth casually. His movements were very rough, rubbing the lower half of her face red, but it also made her sober up a little.

"Go check out the goods." Helia spat to the other side to get rid of the hair stuck on her mouth. She didn't know what the person used to wipe her mouth, but she wiped her mouth full of hair.

Seeing that she was more awake and able to stand on her own, the dagger man let go of her hand and let her follow.

The place they were transferred to was an extremely empty and desolate plain. The wild grass growing randomly was as high as her waist. Looking around, there was almost no human habitation. Only the stars in the sky illuminated them. It felt a little different from being in the city of Bellman.

"Where is this? How did we get here?" Helia hugged herself pretending to be scared, took two quick steps, and walked side by side with the dagger man.

"You don't need to worry about this or ask too many questions. We just exchange money for goods. That's all you need to know." The man with the dagger replied.

He was short, and the weeds had already blocked his vision. He pulled out a dagger from his waist and cut off the grass as he walked. Helia stepped back for fear of being accidentally injured.

There were only two of them here for the time being, and it was dark, with so much wild grass as cover... Helia put her hands behind her back, and the miniature magic wand hidden in her sleeves slipped into her palm with her small movement. She took advantage of the strong wind and whispered a spell. A light spot lit up on the top of the magic wand, and then disappeared into the wild grass with the wind.

The man in front did not notice anything unusual. The two of them shuttled through the grass in the wilderness for nearly ten minutes before they arrived at the entrance to a basement.

Two strong men were guarding the door. When they saw the dagger man and Helia, their hands holding the swords moved slightly, and she heard the sound of swords being unsheathed.

"Come and see the goods." The dagger man took something out of his pocket and showed it to the other party. Because of the darkness, Helia couldn't see clearly what it was. After the two guards saw it, they put away their swords and stepped aside to make way for them.

It was actually built underground? Helia walked in the tunnel, worried in her heart, no wonder she couldn't find it, who would have thought that there would be a human traffickers' den in this deserted plain?

When she entered, Helia couldn't believe her eyes. The only words left in her mind were "fuck".

Holy shit! Did these guys build a castle underground?

Holy shit! Is this going to be the underground emperor?

There are magnificent palaces, solemn meeting halls, an arena that can accommodate thousands of people, a parade ground for guards to rehearse, lush small gardens, and even large fountains, stone sculptures of many gods, and churches.

Damn! Even the imperial palace is not as luxurious as yours! You human traffickers enjoy life better than a princess like me!

The more Helia watched, the more she felt the blood rushing to her head. No, she was too angry. Seeing bad guys living better than herself, she was really too angry!

"You guys here are quite..." Helia retracted her scanning gaze, and before she could finish her words, she turned her head and bumped into the dagger man in front of her who had stopped for some reason.

"If you want to complete the transaction safely, I advise you not to look around and don't ask. The less you know, the safer you are." The dagger man advised. Since he came down, his expression was no longer as arrogant as when he was on the ground. Now he could hardly hide the uneasiness and fear in his heart, and he walked much more cautiously.

It seems that he is just a low-level worker and has no power in this underground palace...

From this, we can also see that this underground palace is definitely not just a place to store abducted goods, nor is it just a place engaged in human trafficking. There must be other dirty things going on, and there must be a huge force behind it that is rich and powerful, with a lot of illegal businesses under its control, and has been running them for a long time, otherwise it would be impossible to have such a large-scale base.

After hearing what the dagger man said, Helia didn't ask any more questions, nor did she look around again. She was thinking, if she wiped out this den of thieves and confiscated all the money, would Claude look at her with a higher opinion when he knew about it?

Anyway, the national treasury will definitely be enriched, and with money, it will be able to deal with the natural disasters and man-made disasters that appeared later in the original work...

We have to find a way to get this place...

The abducted women were locked up in dark and damp cells. The environment here was completely different from what they saw when they first came in. Rats and cockroaches were rampant, moss was everywhere, the paving stones were bumpy, and from time to time one could hear the screams and wails of the Hittites. It was like a completely different world from the magnificent palace they had seen before.

She followed the man with the dagger for a long time and stopped in front of a cell near the end of the corridor. The man with the dagger took out the key and opened the door. The dim candlelight outside the corridor leaked in and shone on the woman whose hands and feet were tied with iron chains. She was wearing dirty and tattered clothes, which were not only covered with mud, but also with spots of blood. Her exposed skin was also covered with scars. It was obvious that she had experienced inhuman abuse.

Hearing the sound of unlocking, she raised her head with messy hair, her gray-brown eyes were almost full of despair, and her dry and cracked lips were slightly open. She looked at the dagger man and Helia warily, and curled up like a kitten, taking a defensive posture.

"Go in and take a look. I guarantee that there is no one else in this world who looks more like your deceased wife than she does." said the man with the dagger.

Helia took a few steps forward, trying to get closer to Rebel, but she retreated again and again in fear until her back was against the wall, with nowhere to go.

Helia squatted down and reached out to touch Rebel's face, but she resisted and even wanted to bite Helia. In the end, Helia covered her mouth, pressed her against the wall, and whispered in her ear, "Rebel."

Rebelle's eyes suddenly widened, but the dagger man was still guarding the door, and she quickly returned to normal, struggling constantly. It seemed as if Helia was forcing her.

Rebel knew that Helia came to save her because she had been using a pseudonym since she came here, and no one knew her real name except her sister Fesimia.

Seeing that she no longer had any intention of attacking, Helia changed the hand that was covering her mouth to pinching. Helia pinched Rebelle's cheeks and moved them left and right, pretending that she was looking at the goods.