Book 9, His Fame Shakes the World – Chapter 44, Enslaved
“Fourth Bro didn’t die?” Stunned, Linley blurted these words out, but then he immediately came to himself. “Did you just say that Reynolds didn’t die?”
Right now, Linley’s heart was thumping madly. Shock, joy, worry, disbelief, excitement, fear...all sorts of emotions were intermixed in Linley’s chest. Right now, the only thing Linley could do was to stare expectantly at this military officer of the Rohault Empire in front of him.
Holding his throat, Hugh frantically said in fear, “It is true. He didn’t die. He really didn’t die.”
“Hugh, when you reported your military success, didn’t you say that the senior captain you captured had died already?” The nearby legion commander, Chastre, was frowning.
Lying to a Saint was extremely foolish. Chastre thought that Hugh was perhaps concocting a lie out of fear.
Linley stared at Hugh as well. He truly hoped that Hugh wasn’t lying.
“Speak, now.” Linley stared at Hugh. Every single person in the now-chaotic army camp was staring at Hugh. Hugh straightened his body, then hurriedly explained, “Master Linley, I truly am not lying. Back then, when I recovered that senior captain’s corpse, that is, Reynolds’ corpse, I carried the body myself. But afterwards, I discovered that this ‘corpse’ suddenly moved. Only then did I realize that he hadn’t died!”
Linley’s heart tightened.
An awkward look appeared on Hugh’s face. “Master Linley, this Reynolds was extremely handsome, and he was a noble, valuable magus. Based on the magic he used when my comrades and I were chasing him, he should most likely be a magus of the seventh rank. A handsome young magus of the seventh rank is extremely valuable on the slave market.”
Hearing this, Linley instantly understood.
The surrounding military officers all understood as well. In times of war, there would often be large numbers of slaves sold to slave trading organizations. The army was often on good terms with these organizations, and a handsome young magus of the seventh rank would definitely be a valuable commodity.
A magus of the seventh rank was a high and mighty figure.
To cause a magus like this to become a slave was something which some noble ladies truly liked. They would be willing to pay enormous sums of money to purchase such a slave. The price one would get from selling such a magus of the seventh rank would probably be far greater than any reward money which Hugh would have received from the army.
“Are you saying...that you sold Reynolds to a slave trading organization?” Linley asked.
“Right.” Hugh said in terror. He now knew that Reynolds was Master Linley’s bosom friend.
“How badly was Reynolds injured?” Linley said with concern. From the reports he had heard, Reynolds had suffered life-threatening wounds. Linley was worried about him.
Hugh said with absolute certainty, “Master Linley, don’t worry. When I took Reynolds back, I immediately invited healers to come treat him. And then, after he was sold to the slave trading organization, those slave traders definitely wouldn’t let such a valuable commodity die.”
Valuable commodity?
In his heart, Linley was worried about his friend. Reynolds had fallen to the point of becoming a slave?
“Let’s go. You will come with me to find that slave trading organization. You should know where it is, right?” Linley grabbed Hugh by his clothes, and Hugh hurriedly said, “Yes, this humble one remembers it very clearly.”
The nearby Chastre snapped, “Hugh, from today onwards, you are to accompany Master Linley. Whatever Master Linley wishes you to do, you must obey.” Chastre looked at Linley and said apologetically, “Master Linley, our deepest apologies. I hope you won’t be too upset with us.”
Chastre truly didn’t have any other options.
Generally speaking, in times of war, both sides wouldn’t dare to get the family and friends of Saints involved. After all, if a Saint was to go berserk, that would be quite terrifying.
In the annals of history, there had been more than a few cases of a Saint going berserk and killing tens of thousands of soldiers.
However, generally speaking, Saints were high and mighty people who stood above the fray. So long as you didn’t offend them, they wouldn’t stoop to causing troubles with ordinary people.
Linley glanced at Chastre, then snatched Hugh up. “Let’s go.” He suddenly rose into the air, and then flew alongside Bebe towards the south...
Watching Linley fly away, the entire military camp let out a collective sigh of relief. Facing such a powerful Saint, all of the warriors present truly didn’t have anything they could do.
“Commanders, go now and manage your subordinates. I’m worried that the Golden Flame Legion will seize this opportunity to launch a sneak attack.” Seeing how disorderly and dispirited the army camp was, Chastre couldn’t help but feel worried. After all, their army was already in a state of disorder, and the spirit of the army had already been suppressed by Linley.
Chastre’s prediction was correct. Not too long afterwards, the Golden Flame Legion once more began their ferocious assault.
Within a border city within the Rohault Empire. Hugh in hand, Linley descended upon a seemingly unremarkable estate, which had a number of exquisitely dressed guards within.
“Whoosh!” A sudden gust of wind came out of nowhere. Linley, now in human form again, appeared on the ground with Hugh in his clutches. Linley was no longer as grief-stricken and furious as he had been at the beginning, when he was preparing to avenge his brother’s death. He was much calmer, now.
No matter what, at least his Fourth Bro was still alive.
“Old White [Huai’te]! Old White!” Hugh immediately began to yell at the top of his lungs as soon as he landed.
“Who are you guys?” Old White didn’t come out, but quickly, over ten guards appeared in a circle around them, all of whom had their weapons at the ready, prepared to attack at any moment. Only then did a silver-haired old man in a gentleman’s suit appear from a side door. Seeing Hugh, the silver-haired old man laughed loudly. “Oh, so it is my dear Hugh. Why are you in such a rush, to the point of charging straight in?”
“Hugh, who is this?” The old gentleman named ‘White’ had very sharp eyes. He instantly could tell that this man dressed in a black robe was quite extraordinary. After returning to human form, Linley hadn’t changed his clothes, and so his pants were ripped and torn.
Linley frowned, glancing coldly at this Old White.
“Old White, this is Master Linley!” Hugh said hurriedly.
“Master Linley?” Old White was startled, and then a look of shock appeared on his face. “Could it be that this is the Dragonblood Warrior of the O’Brien Empire, Master Linley?”
Hugh hurriedly nodded. “I was flown over here by Master Linley.”
Old White didn’t dare to believe it. He was nothing more than a local supervisor for his slave trading organization. How could he be worth Master Linley, one of the towering figures of the Yulan continent, to come and visit him?
“Old White...” Linley looked at Old White.
“Master Linley.” Old White was extremely humble.
Linley went straight to the point. “Old White, roughly a month ago, Hugh brought a young magus of the seventh rank and sold him to you, I believe.”
Old White glanced at Hugh, then nodded towards Linley. “That is correct.”
“That magus of the seventh rank, his name is Reynolds! He is the bosom friend of me, Linley!” Linley’s voice was very calm, but his eyes stared coldly at Old White.
Old White’s eyes instantly turned as round as an ox’s. “Mas...Master Linley’s bosom friend?!” Old White’s eyes were filled with shock, terror, and disbelief.
Although these slave trading organizations were quite powerful and had some connections to the four major assassin’s guilds, no matter how powerful they were, they wouldn’t dare offend a Saint, much less a peak-stage Saint such as Linley!
“Hugh, you...” Old White stared furiously at Hugh.
It was Hugh who had sold that Reynolds to their organization. Their organization dared to sell almost anyone, even the disciples of major clans, but why had Hugh sold them the close friend of a Saint?
A bitter smile was on Hugh’s face.
He didn’t know either. If he knew, would he have dared to offend Reynolds? Now, Hugh’s life was in Linley’s hands.
“Old White.” Linley spoke.
Old White’s reaction speed was extremely fast. He hurriedly said to Linley, “Master Linley, don’t worry. Since this Mr. Reynolds is your friend, Master Linley, our organization definitely will not do anything to Mr. Reynolds. I will immediately send someone to inform our headquarters...”
“What’s the matter? Where is Reynolds?” Linley asked.
“This...this...” A hint of terror was on Old White’s face. After all, Reynolds had been sold off as a slave almost a month ago.
Linley could sense that something was wrong, and he immediately barked, “Speak!”
Old White had a feeling of terror in his heart. If a Saint such as Linley were to grow angry with him, it was totally possible that their entire organization would be wiped off the map. He hurriedly said, “Master Linley, when Mr. Reynolds was brought here, we first arranged for his wounds to be treated, and then roughly ten days later, we sent him off with a large group of slaves in one shipment. From my understanding, Mr. Reynolds should probably already have arrived at our headquarters.”
“Headquarters?” Linley frowned.
Hugh was puzzled as well. “Old White, what’s this all about? Doesn’t your organization usually sell off slaves directly at the slave markets? Why would you send Mr. Reynolds to your headquarters?”
Old White hurriedly said, “We do sell off ordinary slaves at the slave markets, yes, but Mr. Reynolds was different. He is a magus of the seventh rank! He poses an extremely great risk. If we were to sell Mr. Reynolds to a customer, and then Mr. Reynolds was to use a magic spell and kill the customer, then our organization would have to pay a huge fine.”
Linley stared at Old White.
“Therefore, for powerful people such as Mr. Reynolds and other dangerous, top-quality slaves, they all are sent off to the headquarters, where they will be trained for three months. They will be trained and taught to never dare to disobey a command and obediently obey their masters. Only then would we deliver them to customers.” Old White explained.
Linley’s face changed.
Train them so they wouldn’t dare to disobey? Obediently obey their masters’ orders? The person being trained was an expert like Reynolds...Linley could totally imagine how sinister and terrifying this ‘training’ was.
“Where is your headquarters? Take me there.” Linley’s face changed and he immediately shouted.
Old White hesitated for a moment, but seeing the terrifying look in Linley’s eyes, he immediately nodded. “Yes, Master Linley, I will immediately guide you to our headquarters.”
“Our headquarters is deep within the Rohault Empire and is far from the borders. Given the winding roads, it is a journey of three thousand kilometers from here.” Old White said.
“My Boss can just fly you over there.” The nearby Bebe said unhappily. Bebe was worried for Reynolds as well. After all, when they were at the Ernst Institute, Bebe would often have fun alongside and play around alongside Reynolds.
Old White hurriedly nodded. He didn’t dare to say a word.
“Master Linley, there’s no need for me to go with you, right?” The nearby Hugh was filled with terror.
Linley turned to stare at Hugh. Currently, Reynolds was probably being tormented by those people in the slave trading organization’s headquarters. Thinking of this, Linley couldn’t help but feel a hint of fury.
“Slash!” A blurred claw swiped out. Hugh clutched his throat with terror, but fresh blood still flowed out of his throat. A few moments later, Hugh toppled to the floor.
Floating in mid-air, Bebe cast a dissatisfied glance at Hugh. “You bastard, you thought you would be able to save your worthless skin? Are you damn stupid or what? When you were killing the soldiers of Reynolds’ corps, you thought it was quite enjoyable, right? Well, today, when I, Bebe, killed you, I felt it was very enjoyable as well.”
Seeing this scene play out, Old White’s body was trembling slightly.
“Old fellow, don’t be afraid. As long as you obediently follow my Boss’s orders, I, Bebe, definitely won’t mistreat you.” Bebe smiled widely, revealing his sharp fangs.
Old White had heard of how, during Linley’s duel with Haydson, Linley’s two Saint-level magical beasts had appeared, one of which seemed to be a mouse-type magical beast and which had easily trampled Haydson. Staring at the hovering Bebe, Old White was beginning to suspect that this Bebe was most likely that very terrifying magical beast.
Terrified, Old White could only force himself to smile at Bebe.
Linley snatched Old White then soared into the air, flying towards the southeast. “Old White, lead the way for me!” The terrified Old White cleared his throat a few times, stared at the ground below, then began to direct Linley towards their headquarters.