Chap 43-A Trivial Task from the Past

 

Master, perhaps?

“I have heard that there are subversive forces.”

“The Thieves’ Guild also has a role in catching those communes, didn’t they catch them?”

“Only monitored them.”

Only monitored them?

Is that something to say now?

In the first place, anti-imperialists should have their roots pulled out, but instead, leaving them alone might put Bathory in danger.

But since it’s Master, she probably has something in mind.

“No, just monitoring them is…”

“How else would we catch anti-imperialists faster than anyone else? We need to do that much to get information flowing.”

“Ah, so you deliberately induced them to leak information?”

“Something like that. In the first place, if we delve into the communes, you wouldn’t be free either.”

Master pointed directly at me.

She’s saying she’ll keep me alive because of that and use me too.

“Me? I’m not in a commune? I actually hate them.”

Not being free means that I’m somehow related to the commune, right?

What did I do to be associated with the commune?

If anything, I’d be rejected by the commune.

“Indirectly, Sien has quite a close relationship with the commune.”

“Yes?”

Sien? So not the current me, but the Sien from back then?

Did Sien ever do something with the commune? No. At least, I don’t remember anything like that.

I don’t even intend to.

“Don’t you remember? You were the one who instilled such ideologies in the poor.”

“Me?”

Did I give a speech in front of those guys or something?

I don’t remember doing that.

“You really just did it without thinking, didn’t you? Do you remember the third job?”

“I was definitely trying to steal a vault from someone who was acting as a slave trader.”

That must have been it.

What does that have to do with anything?

“Right. But the slaves were more brainwashed by the merchant than expected, or they were trapped in fear and helplessness.”

“It was a bit difficult because we needed the slaves’ cooperation. Even the soldiers guarding the vault were considerable.”

“So what did you do?”

Master asked me that, looking at me very kindly and warmly.

As if to say it’s all because of you.

As a Master who was busy cleaning up after you, answer with your own mouth.

Try to remember.

she’s sending me a look that’s demanding responsibility, so I racked my brain to recall the past me.

“Let’s start a revolt among the slaves to divert attention and steal the vault in the meantime.”

“You came up with such an uncharacteristic plan so well. So what did you do to incite the slaves to revolt?”

“Ah.”

Right. That’s what happened.

I definitely did all sorts of things back then to incite the slaves to revolt.

It’s like taking out a hidden object from the past, something is coming back to me.

It was before I joined the hero party.

I was going to pull off a big heist to learn as Master taught me, so I decided to steal the vault of Zheneropski, a slave trader who owned a mine in the northern part of the kingdom.

Zheneropski’s mine, as well as the area called his territory, was full of slaves.

So much so that he was called the Slave King of the North.

Besides, he had as many soldiers as any noble.

“A slave revolt? Do you think that’s possible?”

“This is all good for each other. The slaves are freed, and we also get to rob the property of a wealthy, wicked slave owner. Don’t you think?”

We don’t have to report it directly to the kingdom’s army. We can make money and do good deeds, isn’t it good for each other?

It’s definitely not because we can’t safely steal the vault without inciting those slaves to revolt.

It’s just my personal mercy. Um. That’s all.

“It makes sense. What are you going to do?”

“Humans naturally want to rely on something when they’re having a hard time. Even if it’s the wrong path.”

“Are you going to arrange a cult or something? That’s great. The ruined Demon God Church will be revived with those slaves again.”

Master was a funny person.

she draws the board big for theft, but she’s picky about this and that.

Of course, I learned that, so I am who I am now. I waved my hand at such a Master.

“No. I just want to say that humans grab at anything, even straws, when they’re desperate.”

“Is it?”

“We need to motivate the slaves to rise up on their own.”

“Do you have anything prepared? If you’re thinking of setting slave liberation as a pledge, the kingdom has already abolished slavery on the surface.”

Abolition of slavery.

The kingdom had already abolished slavery decades ago to expand manpower and quell domestic discontent due to the war with the Demon King.

Of course, the slave owners and nobles who had slaves protested. But the kingdom treated them as corrupt villains who sided with the Demon King, saying, “Huh? We’re at war with the Demon King, and you’re opposing this? You’re a traitor!” so the nobles swallowed their tears and accepted the abolition of slavery.

That’s what I learned from Master when I didn’t know anything.

So.

For now, Zheneropski has incorporated the slaves as workers to avoid being caught with slaves on paper.

This absurd theory worked because the slaves were from the Latin region of the empire.

“They’re slaves for now, but on paper, aren’t they ‘workers’?”

“Oh, right?”

“So. How about we incite them by shouting, ‘Pay fair wages to the workers!’”

Anyway, they’re workers.

To be exact, they were tricked by Zheneropski’s words that it would be better to come to the kingdom to work to make a living due to the famine in the Latin region.

“Zheneropski’s soldiers are standing there with spears and swords?”

“Workers have sickles, hammers, pickaxes, and various other things. And above all, there are many of them.”

There’s no way the slave trader’s soldiers are stronger than the regular army.

At best, they’re just thieves.

Just looking at the soldiers guarding the slaves, they look fierce, and just looking at them talking in front of the mine, they’re just trash.

“They’re very scared?”

“If we bring up workers all over the world by saying, ‘Workers of all countries, unite!’ wouldn’t they unite somehow?”

“This guy is crazy.”

Master pointed at me, laughing. But seeing her laugh, she didn’t seem to be denying it.

If Master allows it, this is definitely possible.

“Isn’t it possible?”

“It’s going to be fun. Hmm. Then keep talking. You’re telling me to make a plan.”

“Of course, let’s not give them weapons from the beginning. We’re protesting peacefully. We’re going on strike. Yes. Holding these candles. With a sincere heart, many slaves are protesting in front of Zheneropski.”

It’s not good to hold weapons from the beginning.

Until now, dissatisfaction has been piling up, but we’re taking a peaceful approach like this.

That’s what we’re showing.

“Hoo. Anyway, that guy can’t kill the slaves recklessly because they’re his labor force, right.”

“That’s right. He’ll catch and kill one or two as an example.”

“And then we rise up with the things we’ve prepared?”

Master listened to me seriously, leaning her ear.

“Yes.”

“How could such a guy have been rolling around in the gutter? If you were born as a noble’s child, you would have ruined the country.”

“Not just the country.”

“Okay, then start.”

That’s how the slave liberation. No, the worker liberation operation began.

Okay, let’s give it a try.

What I chose was to disguise myself as a slave and directly incite the workers.

“Everyone! We are not slaves! We came all the way here from the distant Latin region to earn money!”

“That’s right!”

I thought I would have to work for a long time.

Unexpectedly, the accumulated dissatisfaction so far was great, and the workers welcomed this.

“Now let’s go, everyone, hold up the candles. By showing our peaceful protest. May the wicked Zheneropski come to his senses! Let’s go!”

As expected, this protest did not look good at all.

Zheneropski quickly released soldiers to suppress them.

“I’ll just catch the ringleaders as an example.”

“Everyone, never. Never bow your heads! We tried to resolve it peacefully! But what can we do since this violent Zheneropski is treating us like slaves? Everyone, rise up! Keheok!”

A worker who led this incident was martyred.

Of course, Zheneropski thought that this was enough, and they would go back to work on their own, but the situation turned out to be the opposite.

Because I started inciting among the protesters.

“Everyone! A true employer does not wield weapons against workers! They are the enemy! Everyone! Don’t be afraid! We are several times more numerous than them! The soldiers under Zheneropski are of poor quality thieves! Workers of all countries! Unite and take up arms!”

The man’s voice had some kind of brainwashing effect, and the workers (slaves) who had been holding candles until just now picked up all the weapons they could, such as sickles, pickaxes, and various other things.

“You bastards!”

Zheneropski felt a threat to his life.

If he stays still, those workers will rise up.

It’s better to kill them then. If he kills half of them as an example first, they’ll fall on their own.

But Zheneropski overlooked something.

The days of living as slaves, virtually unpaid, had become a ‘grudge’ in the hearts of the workers.

When Sien set a small fire behind this and it exploded belatedly, it was like a volcano erupting.

“Workers! Let’s kill that man! Let’s kill the wicked owner! Let’s reclaim our legitimate rights!”

Master, who was disguised as one of the workers, also fueled the fire here. Eventually, the incident broke out.

In the end, a revolt broke out.

The workers trying to find freedom and Zheneropski and his soldiers trying to stop this.

At first, the soldiers seemed to be superior, but gradually the gap began to narrow.

Although they were not spears and swords, farming tools such as pickaxes and hammers could also kill people, and there were also people with strong muscles from long mine work, even if they were hungry, so they were not pushed back in terms of strength.

Above all, it was the number of people.

There was no way that Zheneropski’s soldiers, who were not elite troops, could win against enemies several times their number in combat power. As the soldiers died one by one, the workers who took their weapons armed themselves with those weapons, narrowing the gap in combat power.

“Darn it. Everyone will die like this! No one will come in the vault anyway, so don’t guard the vault and kill those guys!”

Of course, the soldiers guarding the vault also left.

Of course, this was useless.

The workers who had gone mad beat the soldiers even when a knife came into their bodies. The soldiers, who were originally hired with money without loyalty, began to run away without fighting for long.

I, who seemed to have been martyred by a disguised death at first, robbed the vault around the time the battle broke out.

Anyway, I had all kinds of knowledge I learned from Master, so I easily found the vault, even if it was just the vault of a wicked merchant like Zheneropski.

“Ahaha. I can’t resist gold bars.”