I felt like I was standing at the back of a mini music concert field. Because in front of me, there are already people clustered. They focus on looking ahead.
But instead of a cheer of joy that sounded in the air, instead, the silence of the impending storm filled the air.
They silently stared ahead.
In front of the crowd of people, there was a wooden stage applied to it. The wooden stage was neither wide nor high, maybe only about 30 meters wide and 1 meter high.
Think of it as a stage play that you usually see.
However, the wooden stage was a very suitable place for making announcements, not for staging plays.
I followed everyone's gazes, where they were focused on looking ahead.
Not the wooden stage, but the existence of the poor soldiers on the wooden stage that made me and the others focus on the future.
There are about 30 soldiers up there.
Their appearance is the same as the two poor soldiers who led me here.
Even though their appearance was still above the standards of the slum area residents, they all looked very shabby for Warrior soldiers.
In a faint way, I could see that the clothes beneath their plate armor were very wrinkled. Chest armor plates, leg, shoulder, and hand plates, all of them in their body have many dents and look very old.
Not to mention their weapons, some spears in their hands that I can see, all of their weapons are very old. Perhaps they were never given weapons by Marquess Stronghold.
I'm worried that their weapons will break if they collide with rocks or even just hard ground.
Having a shabby appearance, their faces looked very dark. It wasn't dark because of the light in here or because of their dark skin, but because neither of them smiled.
Not long after, there was one person who walked up to the wooden stage. He stood at the very front of the line of soldiers on the wooden stage.
I knew who he was when I looked at him.
From his body size and face, I absolutely remembered him.
He was Bubble, the man who insisted on making a scene with me in the Adventurer's Association.
He seemed to be trying really hard to act like a boss.
Only he himself was wearing shining chest armor plates, leg, shoulder, and hand plates. The clothes beneath his plate armor were also very sleek and classy.
Even though his body is very wide, his appearance is successfully complemented by everything he wears.
Suddenly, he drew his sword.
He plunged his sword into the wooden stage and started acting impudent.
His face was very bright compared to the other soldiers behind him who wore dark faces. Moreover, he suddenly raised his lips and showed a disgusting smile.
I'm a little curious about how he got here. But I immediately made a guess that he was sent here by the old butler.
I remembered that he had previously tried to lick the old butler's feet really hard, so it was natural for him to become one of the old butler's errands and be ordered here.
I don't want to go negative thinking that his being sent here had anything to do with me. It would make more sense if the old butler just wanted to get rid of a loathsome sycophant like him here.
Only, he didn't seem to realize that having him sent here would cause him much suffering later.
He probably thought that this place was a soldier's paradise. It became clear when I heard him mutter,
"Hehe. I heard that this place was a super-secret place belonging to Marquess Stronghold. If I perform well here, perhaps I will become an exclusive Warrior belonging to the Stronghold family, xixixixi."
He covered his mouth with his left hand which wasn't holding the sword as he finished muttering.
His eyes focused on the group of people in front of him.
He didn't realize that the soldiers standing and lined up behind him were talking about him.
"Is he new here?"
"Yes. He was sent by Winston's butler to be our leader here."
"But why does he look so happy like that?"
"Maybe he doesn't know that this place is like a prison. We used to think that too, didn't we? We thought that if we were here, we could become confidants of Marquss Stronghold. But, it's not like that."
"Okay. Let's let him be our leader here and see how he will feel the suffering that we've been through too."
They make a deal among themselves. Their eyes on Bubble were full of pity. Their eyes narrowed and they exhaled small air from their mouths.
Suddenly Bubble received a whisper from the two poor soldiers who had led me here earlier. The two of them had stepped onto the stage. They whispered into Bubble's ear that everyone was here.
With everyone present, Bubble started to speak.
"It seems that everyone is already here. Alright, I'll give you an explanation of the reason why you guys were sent here and explain what kind of place this is."
A wave of question marks started popping up over people's heads.
Without waiting for a long time, Bubble began to spit out words that became bombs in the heads of people who had put out question marks.
"Firstly, I want to congratulate you guys for being slaves from now on!"
That brief explanation prompted the crowd to attack Bubble with a question.
Questions started flowing from the mouths of the people who heard Bubble's words.
In fact, they have been asking questions. But I bet they didn't dare pop the question in their head.
They could only be confused while looking right and left like people who were lost. However, once the bomb had been thrown by Bubble, the crowd responded with an onslaught of questions.
"What do you mean by saying that?"
"Quickly explain to us?"
"Arkh, ptooey~ Are you crazy? How can we stay silent when you want to make us slaves? I'd rather die here than be a slave and be tormented for the rest of our lives, shit! Don't you think so too?!"
One of them threw out a very exaggerated protest. He was also spitting out spit as he headed toward Bubble. It just doesn't arrive.
Bubble, who seemed to want to speak up to explain further, suddenly stopped. He glanced at the person who had asked impudently. his eyes narrowed for a moment, then he smiled.
Bubble turned his gaze to one of the soldiers behind him. He gave a wink and said, "Finish that person."
Coming down from the wooden gate, the soldier holding the spear immediately approached the person. Rotating the spear in his hand, he pointed his spear at that person's head.
In a very fast movement, he threw his spear toward that person's head.
Shuut!
It wasn't too fast for a trained warrior who used Mana, but the soldiers' attacks strangely succeeded in piercing that person's head very smoothly.
Crock!
The sound of a spear ripping into a human's head was extremely crisp.
As a result, that person's blood and head contents were scattered on the ground. The sight of brains, eyes, and other head insides were strewn across the ground was beyond disgusting.
The spear managed to hit its target although not too quickly because that person was handcuffed.
I'm sure the handcuffs were also the handcuffs that prevented Mana usage. That's why that person failed to avoid the soldiers' attacks.
By the way, that person was a human male.
I'm sure, if he was from the beastmen race, he wouldn't be killed right away. In fact, there were several people from the beastmen race who also shouted for explanations while cursing.
But not noticed by Bubble. Bubble instead chose a human male whose price quality was below that of the beastmen race.
It was clear that he had been given instructions to kill one of the male humans from the start so that people would be afraid to argue again.
As expected, after the people saw the bloody scene in front of them, they became silent. They were silent with the darkness covering the tops of their heads.
Looking at the people who had become calm again. Bubble returned to continue his explanation.
"You don't need to worry. I will also give you good news. The good news is, you won't be killed. Hahaha."
Hearing Bubble's perfunctory remark, everyone muttered in unison, "A bad dark joke. Whether he's stupid, we know that too. Isn't that why we're going to make you slaves!"
"Akhem. Before I explain about where you are right now, you have to do something."
There were several soldiers who suddenly came carrying lots of papers.
The papers turned out to be Agreement Papers.
I know where this is headed.
"As you can probably guess, you must agree from the bottom of your heart to become slaves. Otherwise, we will kill you on the spot in a painful manner."