Chapter 53 – Tomato Run
Soon they were pulling into a field of some kind, a bit different than the manor that Devon just came from.
"Excuse me, driver," Devon began. "Is the tomato run supposed to be outside? Like just in the middle of the countryside?"
The carriage drive just laughed. "Yes, it is outside, but the baron that owns this particular property has such a large estate that covers hundreds of acres when you combine all his properties, so it might seem like a place in the middle of the countryside. But it is not, it's actually within the estate grounds."
The sheer amount of land that one noble owned just blew his mind. How could this world possibly be fair? Devon saw beggar children starving and fighting over pieces of bread on the streets earlier this week, and now they were telling him that certain nobles owned entire football fields worth of land to themselves?
"Mmm…." Devon hummed while looking out the window. He saw rows upon rows of beast-slaves and human slaves working on growing crops, and several foremen overseeing the work with whips and chains.
All the slaves were male, but they ranged in age and race to encompass young male beastkin to elderly human men with hunched backs.
Devon didn't feel much empathy for the slaves. It sucked to be them, and they led a rather miserable life, but such was the natural state of the world. Humans sometimes exploited and destroyed for their own benefit if they could get away with it. That was the natural state of power dynamics. And one day, a generation of slaves might rise and overthrow their rulers, and simply take their place and begin owning slaves of their own.
Or they might establish a more fair rule of law, which could persist for hundreds of years before being thrown out for the old system again. Maybe they'd accumulate so much negative karma in this life that they would go on a rampage after their rebirth. There was no knowing how things would go.
Devon didn't feel bad for the workers because he knew that he too could be on the other side of that whip, if the circumstances unfolded that way. Sometimes, you just got unlucky.
And plus, they could always just kill themselves. What a luxurious option to have available.
Devon sighed, shaking his head as he felt the carriage rock back and forth on the bumpy road.
A while later, they made it to a field near a smaller country house, and a gaggle of noble girls in their teens and twenties were waiting there, looking excited as his carriage approached.
"Oh, looks like our rabbit has arrived~" a blonde haired noble in her twenties said, licking the corner of her mouth seductively while she adjusted her white floral sundress. She had a strange look in her eyes. "I wonder how long he will survive this time~"
"Hey, let's not break him too fast this time Ella," another female noble with long brown hair responded. "Let's keep our little rabbit nice and mentally healthy for longer this time, so we can play with him longer okay~"
Devon nearly burst out laughing when he heard what these stuck up noble girls were saying. He almost considered messing with them for a moment, but thought about it again. It was probably better to just play along, earn some gold, and work towards his dreams of a slave harem and a big living space in a city somewhere.
Out of all the types of abuse that they could subject him to, temporary verbal abuse for an afternoon with some tomatoes splatting against his body was something that he could totally deal with. He'd been humiliated way more in his previous life, so this was a piece of cake to him.
"We've arrived, master Hall," the carriage driver said gravely. "I wish you the best of luck out there. Stay strong."
"Don't worry about me," Devon replied.
The carriage driver nodded. "I will be back around midnight. Stay safe."
Reigning in the horses, the moustached carriage driver with a monocle took out his cane and opened the door for Devon courteously, and gestured for him to step out.
"Oh, he's kinda handsome~" the blonde noble in the white sundress said with a hint of coyness in her voice.
"Yes, my father paid a lot of gold to the guild backrooms to get a good rabbit for today~" a short black haired girl said, proud to show off her father's connections.