Actually, the Viking Blade Society doesn’t cheat every year. Plus, not everyone who signed the contract became a slave, and Slav didn’t threaten Loki to give up the competition. But this person is determined to besmear the name of the Viking Blade Society even further than what Bloodhound did.
So they mixed up truth with a lot of lies to paint Skarg and Slav in a bad light. Soon, everyone started speaking up in accusation of the behavior of the father and son duo.
Some of them used the opportunity to clamor for justice and order. But most of the people speaking used the opportunity to make fun of Skarg and sabotage the mission of his society to recruit more cultivators.
Throughout this process, Serge and Simon didn’t say anything or interfere in the argument. As powerful as they were, they behaved just like Slav and kept their mouth shut.
They might be nobles, but they also know when they can throw their weight around and when they should eliminate their existence and not draw attention to themselves. This moment is one of those moments when they should keep their mouth shut, so they didn’t say anything, no matter how dissatisfied they were with what everyone was saying.
Muni also didn’t say anything, which wasn’t surprising. If these high and mighty people that he had to respect were keeping mum, then it was in his best interest not to appear to have any thoughts.
Only Sophia, Skarg’s first child, had the right to speak, even though she wasn’t a leader of the society.
She said with impatience, "OK, OK. You want justice. But shouting is just a waste of time. What exactly do you want? Let’s start from there."
Her words were crass and direct, but no one took offense at them. After all, what matters the most is power, not words. No matter how pleasant words are, any person can take offense and do something angry about it as long as the speaker is too weak to bear the anger.
Besides, what she said made sense. Shouting won’t get them anywhere. So they began making their demands.
Someone said, "Aside from the slaves that you’ve managed to trick this year, you should not recruit anymore."
Skarg heard this demand and said, "Fine. We will give up this year of recruitment."
Another leader said, "You should also give up recruiting for the next five years."
Skarg immediately said, "You can forget about it. I won’t give up next year, so don’t ask me to give up five years again."
A third leader said, "Since that’s the case, you should pay Bloodhound’s fine."
This time, Skarg hesitated. He hesitated because he wasn’t sure what decision to make about this demand.
He doesn’t want to pay for Bloodhound’s interference in the competition. But paying for it will be the first real demand that they’ve made of him.
The first demand for him to give up recruiting this year wasn’t a real demand, as there was no way he could still recruit this year even if he refused the demand.
The demand was more of a way to embarrass him. He was quick to agree with it because it wouldn’t cost him anything.
As for the second demand for him to give up recruiting for the next five years, that’s just a bogus, unserious demand. It is a demand that shouldn’t be taken seriously at all.
He gave up recruiting this year because he couldn’t recruit anymore, and because Slav has succeeded in enslaving a few. So he can swallow his loss.
But to ask him to give up recruiting for the next couple of years is to cut off the lifeblood of the society. He would rather go to war and fight than accept such a demand. So he denied that demand quickly.
However, now that they have asked a reasonable demand, he has to accept it. So he said, "Fine. I’ll pay for Bloodhound’s mistake."
Then he asked them with a grumpy voice, "Anything else? Make sure it is reasonable, or I will reject it. If you’re not satisfied, then we should just fight."
The zombie leader who led the charge against him early spoke up at this time for his true goal.
He said, "I think that boy should be given another chance. Look at his body. It is clear that he is very strong. There is no way that he will lose easily to your son. So I believe that his forfeiture was unfair."
Skarg asked with a frown, "And exactly how do you want me to make it up to him?"
The zombie replied with its characteristic stiff face, "Let’s have a rematch between him and your son. If your son wins fair and square, then all is fine. But if he wins, he gets to take the final reward and your son gets nothing."
Bloodhound interjected with a chuckle, "Not that your son needs that amount of money. With the way he has been throwing your money around, some little reward money won’t make a dent in his allowance. So you should have no problem with this demand."
Inwardly, Skarg thought to himself in anger, "I see. They still want to humiliate me even further."
Outwardly, he smiled and said, "Fine. They can fight. You lot can wait to be disappointed."
So the zombie leader called out to Loki, saying, "Hey, iron body boy. Today’s your lucky day."
Then it pointed at Slav and said, "This is your chance to prove yourself. Fight and defeat that pampered boy. Don’t worry about angering Skarg. I’ll protect you and let you join my society if you win."
"I doubt you will lose to him. But if you lose, not only will Skarg be angry with you for being used as a tool to embarrass him, but I will also become angry with you for making me waste my time and reputation standing up for you."
"You don’t want to know what I do to people who make me angry. So make sure to win."