Chapter 584: A Dangerous Voyage

Time passed by slowly. Somehow, it was already the cold winter season. After a few cold currents, many places on the Green Leaf Mainland had been covered with snow. Even the wind in the ocean had become bitingly cold.

The cold wind was still a trivial matter, with the polar ice ocean as the starting point, the small glaciers drifting around was the biggest danger in winter navigation.

No ships would be willing to sail at this time unless it was absolutely necessary. For this reason, a fleet of hundreds of wooden merchant ships of varying sizes that was sailing in the bone-chilling cold west wind on the sea, formerly known as Hellfire Sea but was currently renamed to the Wizard Li Sea, after avoiding a iceberg that only revealed three to five meters of its crystal clear sharp tip could be considered as a rare sight as well.

At this moment, on the ship’s huge flagship bow, a beautiful woman dressed in a sailor suit filled with goose down whose hair was covered in plain silk was extending a monocular to look at the sharp tip of the iceberg. It looked almost transparent under the sun and was hundreds of meters away at the left rear. With lingering fear in her heart, she sighed a relief, “Captain Duyev, I’m afraid our ship would have started to sink by now had you not noticed that iceberg just now. I’ll report your merit to the Chamber of Commerce when we returned to Sea Haines City and will definitely give you a satisfactory reward. ”

“Thank you for your kindness, Miss Yaj,” A tall and sturdy forthright middle-aged man with short beard wearing a captain’s cap next to the girl was also looking through a monocular at the surrounding as he muttered straightforwardly, “However, even if we can avoid the iceberg ten times, or even 100 times, it would only take one oversight for all of us to perish. This is by no means the season and the weather for us to set for a voyage. Even though I’ve said this repeatedly ten times, and even 100 times already, I’ll still continue to say the same thing. In the winter, especially in such a cold winter, it’s still acceptable if a fleet sails in the coastal waters…”

The girl did not interrupt the middle-aged man’s complaint despite her higher status. After he had finished grumbling, she finally said with a wry smile, “But we have no choice but to set sail. As the most outstanding captain in Golden Velvet Flower Trading, you should also know that the dilemma that the company is facing now. After the Yassen Kingdom won the century-old battle against the Fran Kingdom, she has already started to secretly point her finger to Kattaman. We have no choice but to use wealth to trade for peace in order to avoid war. I’m afraid that even Duke Opu must have taken off his crown too and started to impose ‘peace tax’ on businesses at the scale of trading companies in the city-state. It just so happened that our biggest source of income, the Nado Tribe at Nutao Sea has been wiped out of the blue, so right now, the only hope for the Golden Velvet Flower Trading not to go bankrupt is this Scorpion Island…”

“Stop covering up, Miss Yaj. If it wasn’t for Master Roman who secretly used the bank reserve to buy the war bonds of Fran Kingdom, the Golden Velvet Flower Trading wouldn’t have fallen into such a dilemma in the first place…”

“Captain Duyev, no matter what Roman has done, he still my brother,” this time, without waiting for the middle-aged man to finish his words, the girl already cut in sharply.

“What I’m trying to say is that since it’s Master Roman who created this disaster, it should have been him to take up this responsibility.” Duyev was stunned for a while before muttering in a low voice.

“In that case, the Golden Velvet Flower Trading would be doomed forever, isn’t it?” Yaj did not allow other people to talk badly about her brother but she had no scruples in doing so herself as she said in sarcasm. The instant her words left her mouth, a sudden cry of pleasant surprise resonated above her, “It’s land! It’s land! I can see land! We’ve reached Scorpion Island… We’ve reached Scorpion Island…”

Looking up at the sailor who was jumping with glee on the watchtower, Duvey’s expression turned solemn as he said in a whisper, “Miss Yaj, we’ve reached Scorpion Island. Is there any preparation to be done?”

“There’s no need for that, Captain Duyev. If the trade this time is successful, we’d be completely poor too. Even if we run back to the Sea Haines City. In that case, my collateral branch will definitely be abandoned by the family, while you, even in the best scenario, would be demoted to become a slave to continue sailing. What difference there is with death?” Yaj smiled faintly and said with a dry voice.

“As you like, Miss Yaj. Even though I feel that living a poor life is better than death, but since a little girl like you is not afraid at all, I certainly am not as well,” The captain replied as he hung the monocular back onto his waist before turning around to walk to the sailing pit to prepare to disembark.

Yaj watched his receding figure and quietly clenched his fists and made a prayer gesture. Looking at the island’s huge outline that was gradually revealing itself at the horizon, she muttered, “Great Ocean Goddess Tiinaros, please protect us to land safely and successfully complete the transaction…”

Under the accompaniment of the girl’s endless prayers, the fleet accelerated to the distant island that looked like a huge poisonous scorpion lying quietly in the sea. Perhaps it was her devout believer that had somehow worked, the caravan never encountered any accident again throughout their journey. At dusk, they finally docked safely in a harbor built from solid wood at the tail of the Scorpion Island.

The moment the fleet docked at the berth, a weird question resonated from the shore, “Who is the leader of the caravan, Miss Yaj or Mr. Dupre?”

“The fleet this time is led by me, Sir Aruki. As usual, I brought you your favorite mainland slaves.” Even though Yaj already knew from the native fisherman, who sailed an old wooden boat to guide them to dock that the other party of the transaction was safe and sound, Yaj still sighed with relief when she heard this familiar voice, prompting her to reply politely.

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“We don’t need any more mainland slaves, for all of you lowly mainlanders would soon become Wizard Li’s slaves…” A fat native with three feathers on his head wearing a beautifully crafted hide riding on a huge purple hairy spider on the harbor whispered to himself.

Then, he raised his torch and raised his head, showing a sincere smile. “That’s great, Miss Yaj. I’ll summon the warriors to unload the ‘goods’.”

“Thank you so much, Sir Aruki.” Yaj who was standing on the bow and looking down motioned to the servant beside her to throw a bundle of fluffy tobacco down. “This is the best Monoya Tobacco that you asked the caravan to bring last time. I’m throwing it down for you first.”

“Tobacco? Even though it can’t fill my tummy, it’s so beautiful that it can make my soul float in the sky when I take a puff,” The fat native took hold of his bribery and smiled happily. With an even more amiable voice, he continued, “Thank you, Miss Yaj. I’ll ask the warriors to work overnight to unload all of the slaves that you have brought us tonight. Fresh goods can get easily damaged on board.”

Then, he drove the giant millispider underneath him to gallop away.

Looking at the native’s receding figure, Duyev who walked up the flagship bow once again whispered in the darkness, “Even the most greedy administrative officer will not collect money so openly after just three to four times of meeting, but these so-called barbarian and cruel Hellfire people have immediately learned how to fall…”

“Alright, Captain Duyev. Don’t forget, even if he has accepted our ‘gifts’, barbarians are still barbarians. You better stop talking for the sake of your own life.” Yaj interrupted the captain in a whisper.

When the two of them were talking to each other, thousands of swaying torches were lit up in the distance. Not long after, the indigenous warriors holding torches had already scattered all over the harbor. At the same time, the native chores men also lit up huge braziers everywhere, soon illuminating the coastline to be as bright as day time.

In the bright fire, wooden stairs began to be laid down one by one on the deck of the merchant ships that were docked at the port. The crews who had the experience of selling slaves opened the iron gate of the bottom warehouse and began to shout at groups of unkempt mainlanders for them to climb up of the warehouses with great difficulty.

Most of those slaves had already been tortured by the long journey and the harsh living environment of the bottom of the ship so they were more dead than alive now, with unpleasant smells emitting off them. The moment they walked up to the deck, their hands were immediately tied with a tie rope as thick as a thumb. Then, with their feet staggering, they walked side by side and held the wooden ladder as they walked numbly down the ship in slow steps.

By the time they reached the beach and saw the thousands of Wizard Li warriors holding torches riding on giant spiders with sabers at their waist, just like all the previous slaves that had been traded to Scorpion Island, they let out heartbreaking shrill cries of terror.

However, these shrill cries soon stopped abruptly under the intimidating killing of the native warriors and the stiff warning, “Those who make any sound will die! Those who make any sound will die!”

A large-scale slave trades would often take a long time so it was already midnight by the time they finished unloading all slaves.

Following behind the last batch of those pitiful people, Yaj disembarked from the merchant ship and watched them disappearing into the jungle under the escort of the indigenous warriors. She took a deep breath of the salty cold air and looked up at Aruki who was riding on the giant spider before saying with a smile, “18,772 slaves. This is our count, do you agree with it, Sir?”

“Just round it off as 19,000, easier to remember.” The fat native smiled kindly. “Miss Yaj, the residence for you and your trading partners are ready. You can go pick your goods tomorrow morning. By the way, Lord Pundit is happy that you have come to the Red Mountain Harbor. You can go visit him and I believe that there will be a satisfactory gain for you.” Aruki lowered his voice when he said the last sentence.

“Pundit…” Yaj did not react immediately. A few seconds later, an image of a black-haired young man whom she thought had already long died in Nutao Sea suddenly flashed across her mind, causing her to blurt out, “H-He has returned to Scorpion Island?”

“Yes! Lord Pundit has already returned more than 20 days ago and has brought a kind of easily bred, delicious meat worm back to the tribe. And with this meat worm, we can have more tribesmen and slaves now…” The fat native laughed and only when he had escorted the merchants back to the bark house to rest that he finally continued to jabber on and finish his dream of the tribe’s beautiful future.

A night soon passed by in the blink of an eye. The next morning, even though the long sea voyage made the Kattaman merchants felt extremely exhausted, they still woke up early and unable to hold themselves back to go pick the Hellfire local specialties. It was apparent that they cared more about their wealth than their own health.

However, Yaj had already left her companion at dawn and was walking under the sun behind two Wizard Li chores men, heading towards a large house adjacent to the coast.