FSTE 03

Chapter 03

Rian thought carefully about where things had gone wrong.

It seemed the biggest mistake was expecting a sense of ethics from a criminal right from the start.

It had been three days since he boarded the fishing boat with a one-legged smuggler and crossed the sea.
He had only been sleeping lightly, and when he finally fell into a deep sleep, he woke up with his entire body tightly bound.

Of course, all of his belongings had been taken.

“Ugh! Ugh!”

Rian wanted to curse, but with a gag in his mouth, he couldn’t even do that.

If only the damn hallucination had warned him a little earlier.
It had whispered just before he fell asleep, overwhelmed by the currents, making the warning completely useless.

“Hehe. Don’t look at me with such resentful eyes, kid. I’ll get you to the destination safely.”

Though he said that, the boat’s bow was heading toward a remote island.
It looked like an uninhabited island with no buildings.

As they approached, the smuggler steered not toward the shore, but toward a coastal cliff.
From afar, it was impossible to see, but hidden behind the towering rocks was a coastal cave.

“Now that I think about it, I wonder if everyone’s still doing well.”

The coastal cave connected to a large cavern hidden inside the island.
Sunlight poured in through the cavern’s vertical ceiling.

And beneath it, a small settlement had formed.

“Hey, friends! How have you been?”

The smuggler waved cheerfully at the rough-looking men on the dock.
However, they only looked back indifferently, not returning the greeting.

Judging by their appearance, they seemed like pirates or some similar type.

“Kid, see those rough guys? You’d better follow quietly.”
“Ugh!”

The boat reached the dock, and Rian was dragged by the smuggler to a building in the center of the settlement.

“Hey there. Boss! Long time no see!”

Inside, a burly man was carving wood with a knife to pass the time.

“Who’s this? I thought you were dead when I heard you were caught, but you’re still alive?”
“Heh heh heh. But I’ve got this one instead.”

The smuggler held up a wooden prosthetic leg, grinning cheekily.
Whether it was Rian’s imagination or not, the boss’s gaze at the smuggler seemed unusually sharp.

“And your brother? Is he dead?”
“Brother lost only a hand, but managed to keep his head. Now he’s back home selling sour beer.”
“I see.”

Then the boss’s menacing gaze turned to Rian.

“So, this is the only merchandise you brought this time?”
“Times are tough these days. It’s been a while since we had anything like this.”
“Well, let’s take a look.”

Click. Click.

With the boss’s fingers snapping, the smuggler dragged Rian before him.

But when the boss noticed the bandages and scabbed wounds under them, he scowled.

“What’s this, a leper? Why bring an unsellable cripple?”
“Come on. You’re making wild accusations without even looking properly.”

The smuggler smirked as he removed Rian’s bandages.

At that moment, the boss’s eyes sparkled, as if discovering a treasure chest.

“Oh… this is quite…”

Rian’s delicate features had returned to normal.
The swelling from the poison had subsided on the first day.
Moreover, once the bandages were removed, his skin didn’t look too bad.

“What do you think? This is top-grade material, isn’t it?”
“Rough-looking, but is he some noble brat? Well, you managed to get this.”
“Well, I was lucky. My brother said not to bother with unnecessary things, but letting this one go is actually more efficient than not.”

It seemed the older brother had some conscience.
But because of that, the hallucination’s warning had come a moment too late.

Meanwhile, the younger brother, having lost a hand and still not learned, had no choice but to lose his head.

“Hehe. So, how much will you pay me this time?”
“Ah, before that…”

The atmosphere suddenly grew heavy.
The smuggler’s constantly grinning expression stiffened.

“Not long after your brothers were caught, those Bordian barbarians turned our island upside down with their navy.”

The boss spoke as if he himself wasn’t Bordian.

The one-legged smuggler had said he’d get him to the destination safely, and he hadn’t lied.

“R-Really?”
“Luckily, we weren’t discovered. But we couldn’t move for a couple of months.”
“Heh, heheh… that’s serious… ugh…”

A pig-like choking sound.

Rian turned his head and saw the knife in the boss’s hand deeply embedded in the smuggler’s stomach.

“So, how did they even notice this island?”

The boss pulled out the knife and sliced the smuggler’s neck.
The smuggler flailed briefly before collapsing limply like a puppet with cut strings.

To think he returned on his own after betraying them.
What an absurd fool.

“Oh, look at this. The kid watches someone die and doesn’t even blink.”

Rian calmly observed the scene, and the boss chuckled, bending down to meet his eye level.

“You’ve got guts I like, kid.”

Tap, tap.

The bloody knife lightly tapped Rian’s cheek.

“But what can I do? Selling you is profitable. Why were you born with such an expensive face?”

Of course, just because the boss liked him didn’t mean anything would change.
He was trying to escape from serfdom, only to risk falling into slavery.

Clearly, fate disliked him.

On the island where Rian was taken, there were several children of his age.
Of course, they were in the same predicament.

Well, strictly speaking, they weren’t exactly like Rian.

“Hey! Food’s here!”

Bang, bang, bang!

The sound of the iron bars being struck accompanied by a long trough filled with thin grain porridge.

Starving children rushed to it, burying their noses in the food like livestock.

“Here, this is yours. Eat.”

Rian, locked in a separate cell, received a tray of food placed in front of him.

Some slightly hardened bread, pickled fish, and turnip soup with pieces of sausage.
Simple, but even slightly better than what he had at home.

“Should I be glad to get special treatment like this…?”
“Ugh… uugh…”

Meanwhile, the jealous gazes of the other children were piercing.
But it wasn’t Rian’s fault for receiving special treatment as a premium product.

Rian ignored their stares and shoveled food into his mouth.

As the uncomfortable meal ended, the boss visited the warehouse where Rian and the children were confined.

“Hey, my precious merchandise, are they eating well?”

The children licking the trough stopped immediately and lined up properly.

Well-trained behavior.
The fearful eyes of the children revealed the process it took to get them to act that way.

“Top-grade kid. How’s the food?”
“I think it’s a bit salty.”
“Cheeky, but you emptied your tray clean.”
“I usually eat a bit saltier, anyway.”

Rian’s boldness made the boss chuckle.
Meanwhile, the children across the bars looked extremely resentful at the boss’s reaction.

“Eat well. You need some fat to sell at the right price instead of being skinny.”

Indeed, lying around in the cell all day and eating, he felt a bit plump.

Would it be useful to starve to delay shipping?
After several thoughts, the answer was no.
Staying here had no advantages.

Even if he escaped, planning for being sold on the mainland was far more rational than being stuck on this remote island.

“So, where exactly am I being sold?”

He couldn’t help but focus on his face as the main selling point, which made him uneasy.

“Do you really want to know?”
“Of course! It’s not someone else’s business—it’s mine.”

The conversation seemed like it could drag on.
The boss leaned casually against Rian’s cell with his arms crossed.

“You’ll be sold at the market on Madella Island. It’s one of the few ports that doesn’t question the origin of slaves.”
“Really? Madella, you say?”

Rian’s eyes sparkled at the rare name he knew.

Madella was a large territory, slightly detached from Castel’s mainland.
It had been big enough to be an independent country in the past.

It was also Rian’s intended final destination.

Of course, the distance was too far for a small smuggler’s boat.

“How much will I sell for?”
“Hmm… maybe a hundred dwarf gold coins? If you get lucky, maybe twenty more.”

A dwarf craftsman working nonstop for two weeks earned one gold coin.
So a hundred coins was a staggering sum.

Knowing the value of his face felt… strange.

“How much for a slave who can read and do arithmetic?”
“Why do you care?”
“Because I can!”

But Rian knew his value wasn’t just his face.

“It depends on age and other conditions, but normally thirty gold coins. Selling you for a hundred is obviously more profitable.”

The boss seemed increasingly annoyed, answering with a sleepy expression.

“You really don’t know business.”
“What?”
“No matter how expensive the exterior, are you planning to sell the inside at a loss?”
“Hm… that’s true.”

People’s minds are petty.
They’d profit regardless of Rian’s price.
But like selling stocks before they rise, realizing there’s more money to get makes them restless.

“And you’d just display a high-grade product like me at the market? Are you selling dried fish?”

He would refuse to be sold as a plaything to satisfy a rich pervert.

Above all, Rian still had a dream—on Madella Island.

“Just trust me once. I’ll easily get you at least two hundred gold coins.”

Turning a crisis into an opportunity is the surest path to success.
Rian smiled confidently as he spoke.

Castel, just south of Rian’s hometown Bordia, felt culturally different.

If Bordia evoked Northern Europe, Castel felt like the Mediterranean or Greece.
Even the weather seemed warmer further south.

“Are you really confident?”

In front of a mansion on Madella Island,
Rian, covered in pure white cloth from head to toe, stood at the entrance with the boss.

“You won’t lose anything if it doesn’t work out, right?”

Rian’s hidden face looked resolute.

If things went wrong, the loss would be his, not the boss’s.
To his knowledge, this was the most ideal place to be sold as a slave.
Everything else was essentially worthless.

“The master has permitted you to enter.”
“Good, let’s go in.”
“Yes.”

After waiting at the entrance for a few minutes, Rian and the boss followed soldiers inside.

The mansion felt like a luxurious resort.

The garden had plants Rian had never seen, both forest and meadow varieties.
Fountains, marble sculptures, colorful tapestries, fine porcelain—everything screamed expensive luxury.

“The master is waiting inside.”

After passing through the long corridor, they arrived at the reception room where the mansion’s owner waited.

“I’ll handle the negotiation alone, so just watch.”
“You make sure you get the promised price.”
“Just trust me.”

Rian took a small deep breath and entered the room with the boss.

A long sofa sat in the center.
On it, a woman in a seductive outfit buried in scrolls awaited them.

Her dress was daringly cut deep to the navel, leaving nowhere to rest his gaze.

“Are you the merchants wanting to sell me something?”

She glanced at Rian and the boss with indifferent eyes.
Seeing the boss’s filthy appearance, she looked slightly disappointed.

“So, the merchandise?”
“Here it is.”

Answering her, Rian removed the white cloth covering his head.

“Oh my!”

The woman’s cheeks flushed slightly at his bare face.
Fortunately, the first impression passed.

The scars from the poison were completely gone.
Thanks to a few days of proper rest and meals, his beauty seemed even brighter than before.

“I’ve come to sell myself to the richest woman in the world.”

Rian recalled an idol’s smile from his past life and exuded a fresh, youthful charm.

Today, he intended to pitch himself to the wealthy widow he had dreamed of meeting.