Eric was completely unaware of Sunflower’s thoughts, assuming these big tigers simply couldn’t sit still.
If it were up to him, these tigers should have arrived earlier, preferably during the land clearing.
With so many Tiger warriors helping, they would have saved so much energy back then. Eric remembered how exhausted the tribe members were, including the Dwarves in charge of cooking...
At worst, they could have waited until the harvest season to come; they could have helped harvest the wheat.
Yet, they arrived when the tribe was freest... Eric the exploiter felt extremely dissatisfied.
He looked regretfully at the other tigers left behind by Sunflower in the tribe. Look at them, these big hulking tigers were so bored some were picking their toenails.
Passing by the Tiger tribe’s tent area, he didn’t stop but went straight to the tents of the small beastmen.
He wasn’t very familiar with the other beastmen, so he decided to find the Rabbit tribe people who had arrived at the tribe first.
"Hieu, luckily you’re here."
Following his memory, he found one of the tents and lifted the curtain to check. Sure enough, the Rabbit people were inside, along with some Rat people.
Searching through the group of rabbits, Eric found the exact rabbit girl named Hieu and called out with a smile.
Suddenly having her name called, Hieu jumped. The pretty and cute girl almost immediately teared up: "I... we weren’t being lazy, we were just about to go to work..."
The other Rabbit people dared not say anything either, looking at Eric with teary eyes together.
"No, I’m looking for everyone because there’s work to do. Right, you guys too, follow me!"
After a day of torment, Eric was used to the Rabbit tribe’s timidity. The smile on his lips didn’t change as he called them, and the Cat people in the tent were also called out by him.
The Rabbit people in the tent walked out trembling. The Cat people looked at each other for a moment, then also followed out of the tent.
Eric stood at the door counting heads, waiting until all the beastmen in the tent had come out - exactly sixty-two people, enough.
"Let’s go." He waved his hand, like a tour guide, leading the group of beastmen away.
The beastmen’s tents were all pitched close together, not far apart, so the other beastmen also heard the commotion.
"What is the little chief of the Snow Wolves planning to do?"
"Not sure. Sunflower ordered us not to care, just to be careful not to let the small beastmen run away."
The Tiger warriors lazing in the sun stood up one after another, pointing and discussing Eric.
Other small beastmen nearby also carefully poked their heads out of their tents to see the situation, then shrank back in, looking at each other inside without speaking, but their eyes showed clear worry.
In a nearby tent, a small black cat with its fur standing on end bared its teeth and arched its back, looking vigilantly at the movement outside.
A slightly chubby middle-aged man transformed from a calico cat sighed, bent down, and hugged the black cat:
"Alright Mun, don’t be like that."
Mun widened his alert eyes, his whole body exuding unease:
"Tam, are they planning to sell those beastmen too? So will it be our turn in a few days?"
The atmosphere in the tent fell silent. After a while, a dry voice spoke up:
"Child, don’t talk nonsense. The Snow Wolves aren’t people of the Golden Kingdom; they won’t sell us."
"But the ones who want to sell us aren’t they beastmen too? Who knows if this tribe trades with humans? If not, why is he calling so many beastmen out to work?" Mun retorted unconvinced.
"This child..." The middle-aged cat man’s face darkened as he shook his head: "Don’t say such things anymore, be careful not to make the Snow Wolves angry. If not for them, we would be sold to humans as slaves before long."
The kitten Mun looked around uneasily. He had been terrified when he was in the Golden Kingdom. The knife raised by his own kind against him made Mun lose all trust in any beastman.
He was silent for a moment, then suddenly kicked his hind legs, jumping down from the middle-aged cat man’s arms, then immediately chased quickly in the direction the group of beastmen had left.
"Hey, hey, Mun!" The middle-aged cat man chased anxiously for two steps, lifted the curtain to look, but the little black cat had disappeared.
"It’s fine. There are so many Tiger and Snow Wolf people here; Mun can’t run away. Don’t worry, Tam. Just let him go; the child feels terrible inside, going out to look is good too."
A Rat person walked over, looking at a group of Tigers not far outside the door, sighed silently, and patted the middle-aged cat man’s shoulder to comfort him.
The middle-aged cat man stared blankly at the unfamiliar scenery: "Sigh, I’m afraid he’ll cause trouble. This isn’t the Cat tribe’s territory. If..."
"We haven’t had a territory for a long time; now even our own selves have become goods," the Rat person said sadly.
A few sobs were vaguely heard in the tent, and the atmosphere became increasingly heavy.
Eric led a group of beastmen towards the cave where the seeds were stored. These people were new and had just experienced the shock of being captured, so they were all panicked and couldn’t live normally for the time being.
He planned to take them to do some work that wasn’t too tiring. When these small beastmen labored for the tribe and sweated, they would gradually understand that the Hadu tribe had no intention of selling or enslaving them, and thus a sense of belonging would slowly arise.
If the Hadu tribe wanted to expand its population, it had to let these new members stay voluntarily. Those forced to stay would eventually be a source of trouble. There was already a traitorous Black Wolf tribe among the Wolves; Eric didn’t want them to experience the feeling of betrayal again.
These small beastmen had just gone through being treated as slaves, being traded, and being captured. Let alone the timidest Rabbit tribe, even the other beastmen were scared out of their wits, likely filled with sorrow.
Like the Cat tribe - not falling ill from stress was already good enough.
While thinking, Eric’s eyes suddenly caught a glimpse of a small shadow.
He turned his head to look carefully. In the grass not far away, a small black cat was sneaking behind, occasionally poking its furry head out to peek around...
It’s over; his health bar was running low. Eric thought calmly to himself.
When he was still working, he had always wanted to raise a cat!
He was a certified cat lover!
From the very beginning, when he saw that large group of cats, he almost couldn’t hold back from rushing over to pet them. If he hadn’t worried that the large ones among them might be frightened into attacking people, he would have made his move long ago.
Now that there was a little black cat peeking and sneaking like that, Eric really couldn’t withstand this test!