I Became The Pope, Now What?-Chapter 294: 294. The Bad And The Ugly!

By the time everyone was freed, they were crying while holding their palms together, praying to Sylvester for his heavenly grace.

Yes, Sylvester knew he had the best cheat that always worked, especially on the poor and underprivileged. And he had no shame in using it. After all, the world was already scamming each other, so why shouldn't he?

"Stand behind me, children of Solis. I shall protect you from vile raiders. Today, they shall not take any of you." Sylvester roared and created two long shining light blades on his fists.

With that, he walked out of the lower deck. All the slavers were dead on the deck, and around their dead bodies were a few men draped in black cotton clothes. They even hid their faces with cloth.

The few inquisitors Sylvester had brought were also fighting them but not hurting them enough to kill them.

"Heathens who sin near the land of God! Die, for that's what wills the lord!" Sylvester didn't give the enemies a chance and lunged towards them.

Woosh!

With a single swing of his arm, he beheaded one of the raiders. The light blade was an excellent tool as it was not just sharp but scorching as well. To chop flesh was like cutting butter. As for the bones, well, Sylvester had decent strength.

"You shan't run from the wrath of the god!" Sylvester presented a great show to all the liberated slaves as he also used magic on the fleeing raiders.

Spears made of solid light launched towards all the runners and pierced their chests, planting them onto the ground like skewers.

It was an absolute one-sided massacre as Sylvester killed all ten raiders. As for the crowd of buyers, they had run away long ago.

Sylvester then looked back at the slaves. "You can go now since you have no slave collars. As long as you don't reveal you were a slave, no one will try to catch you. Where to go? That I don't know, perhaps go west towards the northern duchies of Gracia, or maybe into Riveria."

Of course, they were all scared and didn't waste a moment to make a run for it. They took the horses that were left behind, and others who didn't know how to ride simply ran. A minority of them also headed to the Holy Land—mostly the old ones.

That left only the young children, the two women and the fourteen-year-old girl he had decided to keep. Why was he keeping women? Well, that was because two of them had children who could be leveraged, and the girl was young enough to be easily brainwashed. He didn't keep any single men, or any men to say, as they were wild stallions with no guaranteed leash attached to them.

"Sylvester!"

Just then, Felix arrived with a dozen more soldiers. He stopped near the ship and climbed over to him. "Ah, I see you've killed these fools."

Sylvester shook his head softly, telling him not to reveal anything yet. He didn't want the slaves to know everything that he was doing.

"Felix, get the soldiers to bring the horses onboard. We shall take the whole ship to the Holy Land." He ordered.

The men Felix had brought were precisely the men needed to sail a large ship. So, after throwing away the bodies of the slavers and the raiders, they headed downstream towards the open sea.

During the same time, Sylvester was busy removing the slave collars from the kids. He also checked each kid using a testing orb to see how talented each of them was. Even if one had the lowest level of talent in wizardry or knightly magic, they would be taken in by the church. As for the normal ones, there were normal orphanages to go too.

All the while, Isabella spoke with the two mothers and the fourteen-year-old who Sylvester was going to keep in his house/shop.

"That's so horrible! Why would they do such a thing?" Isabella was listening to their sad stories.

Apparently, the fourteen-year-old girl was sold by her own parents to a noble lord in return for food. Under the Lord's ownership, she lived for one week and finally ran away after being unable to tolerate the pain every single night. But she was caught by slavers instead and waited to face the same fate again.

"Please tell me the name of that lord. I will have his house razed to the ground." Isabella angrily asked.

Sylvester sighed as he walked beside her. "How many houses will you raze to the ground, Isabella? Even your own family owns thousands of slaves, even a few Dwarves if the rumours are correct."

"..."

"What?!"

She appeared to be disgusted by the revelation. "Why? I never saw… Wait! Were those female servants slaves all along? But they were so happy and friendly."

Sylvester decided to give her a crash course on slavery. He didn't know much about the system or how it was operated, but he knew what slaves were used for. "Hmm, your family servants may have had a decent life, I guess. But usually, it's for money. You don't have to pay slaves; they don't eat much. So you get infinite cheap labour to increase productivity and get rich. Or, in the case of dwarves, you get free master weapon smiths. In the case of Orcs, you get monsters with unimaginable strength—best for mindless tasks. With elven women, you get forever young, beautiful bed-slaves that will last not just the lord but his great-grandsons too.

"This is the truth of the world we live in, dear princess. But, this is nothing compared to the Tower of Godless that lies adjacent to the Duchy of Normani."

"Tower of what? When did that happen? I've seen countless maps of Sol and never noticed such a thing in them." She did not know anything.

"Of course, you didn't. They are the openly kept secret that all just ignore. Run by Slave Imperia Council, made of five self-proclaimed Slave-Gods—Three being Grand Wizards and two being Diamond Knights. It's the largest slave market in the world, divided into a hundred floors, each varying in slave variety.

"Consider it like the Holy Land of Slavery. It's the centre of all slave trade, where you can obtain anything you can imagine. There, at the right price, you can buy anything, from a human to Dwarves, Giants, Trolls, Elves, Beastkins, Merkins, Vampires, Goblins, Centaurs or perhaps even a Dragon."

Hearing Sylvester, Isabella's jaw was left hung wide open. She was never told about this by any teacher ever. "If… If we do such an evil thing to them, then why do we call them the heathens? Isn't it us who are on the bad side?"

Sylvester warned her quickly. "Now you're entering dangerous territory, Isabella. When did I say they are good? You'll be surprised to learn that various raiding groups of Beastaria regularly capture humans. Heck, even human pirates raid coastal villages and towns to sell the people to Beastaria—Anything goes for a bit of gold."

"What? Why? What can us short-lived humans be of use? They have so many more powerful species." She asked.

Sylvester was unsure about this one but still explained it in detail. "I'm not sure, but I've recently read this in a book. Apparently, Interspecies non-human slavery is banned in Beastaria by the agreement of all major species. So, they only enslave goblins because nobody likes them, and they breed like rabbits—not to mention, dumb. Then there are trolls, even dumber than goblins, only useful for hard labour. But trolls are not high in numbers.

"Then enter humans. Dragons consider us as fine cuisine and eat us at celebrations. Goblins are fond of human women for breeding. Giants use us in tasks their giant fingers can't reach. Vampires love our blood. Orcs use us in varying ways—sometimes for sex and sometimes for entertainment by torture. Merkins don't care about us, just like Dwarves, who are happy doing digging and forging—seriously, the most decent folks in Beastaria.

"And Elves… Although Elves loath us on a deep level, they keep the highest number of human slaves in their Kingdom in all of Beastaria. This is because there are not many Elves since breeding is very hard among them. Due to their low number, each Elf is entitled to a life of great luxury.

"They don't use each other for menial tasks. They need slaves to serve them for everything, from cooking, cleaning, entertainment, fighting pits, farming and such. Since we look somewhat like them, we are slightly pleasing to their eyes. The only forbidden thing among them is sex with non-elves. Though humans are forced to breed and keep growing in number—to have more servants."

By the time Sylvester finished giving his short crash course in slavery, the three slaves he had purchased were sitting on the floor, somewhat thankful they were not sent to Beastaria.

Meanwhile, Isabella was shivering in frustration and anger, a rare emotion for her. "T-This is so evil… I can't imagine what all the slaves must feel each day—the hopelessness. There must be millions of them around the world right now, crying somewhere, pleading, or being eaten."

Felix, who was standing nearby, shrugged. "It's evil, but we're too small to make a difference. Even if Max becomes a Supreme Wizard one day, he can still be killed if all of Beastaria's elders unite."

Isabella looked Sylvester in his eyes at that moment. There was a raging confidence oozing from her being. "Sylvester… When I become the queen, I will abolish slavery in my Kingdom."

'Talking so much today yielded a great result. The Holy Father will be happy to hear this as well.' He thought inside.

"They won't allow you—your vassals," Sylvester argued, already knowing what she would ask.

"Can you help me 'convince' them?'

Sylvester bellowed in laughter. "Hahaha, do I like to beat nobles? Absolutely! Do I hate slavery? Thoroughly! Am I going to help you? Certainly!"

Bam!

"Thank you!"

Suddenly, Isabella jumped in to hug Sylvester, wrapping her arms around his neck. "You're the best friend I could ever hope for!"

"What about me?" Felix asked from the side.

This time, Isabella extended one arm toward Felix and caught his neck too. "Both of you! All of you! Thank you for being my friends."

Felix chuckled and patted the back of her head. "Well, considering I'm the son of a Count of Gracia, I'm lawfully obliged to help you. Ah, by the way, Max, give me a hundred gold graces later—hiring those fool assassins to act as raiders was expensive."

"..."

Isabella left the hug and looked at their scheming faces. "Y-You were behind it all?"

Sylvester shrugged. "We secured everyone for free this way. And Felix, I took the gold you gave them after killing them. So don't worry."

"Excuse me…"

All three looked down at the three female and two child slaves. The women were crying, as their slave collars had not been removed yet. Hence, they were still slaves.

"W-What will happen to us, m-master?" Asked the mother of a five-year-old.

Woosh!

Sylvester moved abruptly as the light blade appeared in his hand. He moved so fast that the three women could only yelp and close their eyes.

"P-Please don't kil–"

Sylvester stepped back. "You're free."

"..."

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