Every pirate's expression stiffened up the very next moment. That lean pirate was the only guy with third-tier warrior strength, but he was killed by a simple slash, which made their bodies tremble in fear.
"Helena, kill whoever starts to resist. Hang their heads on the town square." Abium's cold voice echoed at the entrance, causing all the pirates to take a few steps backward.
At that moment, a reckless pirate suddenly pulled out his dagger and dashed towards Abium while roaring angrily.
Meanwhile, Abium calmly unsheathed his sword, thrust it directly towards his neck, and killed him mercilessly.
"Do you still want to continue?" He asked while giving everyone a sharp look.
Meanwhile, the other pirates started to become restless and backed away but didn't let their grip loose.
"If we surrender now, what will happen to us? Will we be enslaved?" A slim woman with strawberry blonde hair color glared at him and asked with a silvery voice. She knew that battling against this elf would be like seeking death and thought of talking this out. Moreover, she also looked at the surrounding veteran soldiers and shivered a little.
'They are all third and fourth-tier warriors!' She understood their position and panicked inside.
After pondering for a moment, she threw her Cutlass and signaled others to throw their weapons. Some instantly followed her actions, but a few others didn't listen to her words and dashed forward to attack Abium. But they were mercilessly slain by Abium's group.
Ten corpses lay motionlessly on the ground a minute later and stained the mud road with a pool of blood.
"Good! You have two choices now. First, if you want to live inside this Alastall territory, you must obey my words. Second, I won't stop you from migrating to other territories so you can go somewhere and continue your pirating." He stopped for a second and continued.
"You have one hour to make your decision. Those who want to continue pirating, you must be out of my territory before dawn." He finished his speech and turned back. Then, he moved towards Viper and whispered something in his ear. He also noticed that the necromancer Murius was standing a few ten meters away from their group and watching him quietly.
'I can ask for his help.'
"Mr. Viper, ask the necromancer to help you with the job."
Upon hearing those words, Viper pondered for a moment and nodded.
Meanwhile, a serious discussion happened in the pirate group. It didn't take long for the pirates to choose their decision. Out of 60+ pirates, only 30 decided to stay while others packed their belongings and moved out of the town using a few boats.
Abium also confiscated many of the pirate ships and boats. He only allowed them to take the older ones and completely took control of the town in two hours. By the time everything was finished, it was almost nine in the evening.
The following day, Abium informed one of the servants who accompanied Claude to gather everyone at the town square.
Thirty minutes later, Abium walked out of the two-storied house and moved towards the town square while others followed after him in silence.
Within a few minutes, around 1000 people gathered at the center, and most appeared puzzled by the sudden orders. Out of 1000, 700 people wore iron collars around their necks and had slave rune markings on their body parts. Abium had expected that there would be around 300 to 400 slaves. But the number in front of him had exceeded his expectations.
"Abium, how are you going to remove their slave markings?" Helena had some horrible experience with those slave trades and asked with a frown.
"Wait and see." He said calmly and shifted his gaze towards Viper. Upon sensing his gaze, Viper nodded at him and smiled as if he had been waiting for his orders. Then, he dragged a fat guy in a black mask towards Abium and pushed him to kneel on the ground before removing his face mask. Anyone could tell that he was a wealthy merchant with a simple glance.
"Who is this guy?" Helena frowned when she saw his appearance. He had fair skin, round hazel eyes, low arched eyebrows, and a triangular nose.
"He is the slave merchant. I asked Mr. Viper to capture him yesterday before he could escape from this port town." Abium paused and slowly shifted his gaze towards the slave merchant.
He then squatted down a bit and asked coldly.
"What is your name?"
"I'm Davy, my lord." The slave merchant spoke in a flat tone. There was no fear in his eyes; instead, he kept his poker face all the time!
After all, slavery wasn't an illegal thing in the Peral Kingdom. As long as the slave trader didn't capture the normal citizen and turn them into slaves, he wouldn't be punished by the kingdom in any way.
Abium was also well aware of this kingdom's laws and spoke coldly.
"Although selling slaves to commoners, knights, and nobles is legal in the Peral Kingdom, the Royals forbade the slave traders from dealing with bandits and pirates, Mr. Dave. Not only did you collude with the pirates, but you even supplied them with hundreds of slaves from Keris… Did you use the civil war as an opportunity and capture them? It's a capital offense and could lead to life imprisonment." He paused for a moment before curling his lips upward and continued with a sly smile.
"As long as you remove the slave runes on these 700 slaves and free them, I will let you live. How is it?" Abium stared back at the fat merchant and waited for his reply.
Meanwhile, the slave merchant made a forced smile, nodded his head repeatedly, and bowed before replying.
"I seek forgiveness from Lord Baron. I will release everyone now."
"Good." Abium was pleased by his response, turned his gaze towards Viper, and added.
"Release him."
Meanwhile, Viper nodded his head and untied the ropes.
After that, Davy moved toward the slaves and started erasing the slave runes on their foreheads using strange chanting. Abium also saw him using a green-gem-embedded bracelet to release the slaves and nodded in understanding.
'It must be an artifact.'
After an hour of hard work, Davy finally released the final slave and walked in Abium's direction.
"My lord, do you want to buy slaves from our organization? We can sell them to you in bulk with a 10 percent discount." As he walked closer to Abium, he gave him another bow and suggested with a flattering tone.
'Oh? He wants to keep a good relationship with me even though I apprehended him, huh? He didn't mind the danger and asked me straightforwardly.'
"Which organization are you working for?" Abium knitted his eyebrows and asked in a cold tone.
"It's Eagle Eye, my lord." Davy's answer surprised Abium.
'I didn't expect that he is from the eagle eye.' As he was about to decline, a thought appeared in his mind.
'My territory needs many people, preferably talented young warriors. He might be a good partner.' With a heavy sigh, he nodded.
"Although I had some unpleasant relations with your organizations before, I will make an exception for you," Abium continued. "I want another 1000 slaves within the next three months. Can you able to arrange it?"
Davy almost fell when he heard the bulk order and felt that his hands started to become sweaty due to nervousness.
"I can arrange them, my lord. Do you want debt slaves, war slaves, or criminal slaves?" Davy asked with a stiff smile.
"I don't want any more criminals in my territory. War slaves and debt slaves are good." Abium replied with a weary sigh and looked at the surroundings.
"My lord, do you need mortals or warriors? We sell them based on their warrior strength." Davy also understood his thinking, so he asked curiously.
"You can even sell warriors?" Helena suddenly interjected as she was listening to their conversation.
"Yes, my lady. We have warriors who have strength up to 3rd-tiers. As for above-tier warriors, you have to attend the auction to purchase them." Without minding Helena's rude behavior, Dave answered her with a polite smile on his face.
"Hmm, we don't want any warriors now. This town needs laborers. So, we need healthy mortals first." Abium said,
"So, what is the average rate for a healthy mortal? I don't care about the gender."
Dave nodded his head and started talking.
"Mortals slaves are cheaper, and the rates range from 1 gold coin to 3 gold coins, My Lord." Abium was surprised when he heard about the rate and nodded in agreement.
'In truth, the mortal slaves will have no worth in the future. Unfortunately, I need them urgently to develop this land.' After he made up his mind, Abium took a deep breath and spoke solemnly,
"Go back to your organization and arrange them quickly. If I'm not here, you can talk to Helena." Abium said as he turned his gaze towards his left and pointed his finger at Helena.
"She will be the one managing this territory while I'm not here."
Meanwhile, Davy stole a glance at her and nodded repeatedly.
At that moment, Abium thought of something, took a few sealed letters from his space ring, and passed them to Davy.
"You can go back now. Also, send these letters to the Merchants and Adventurers guild in the Dewsummit capital. Tell them that the Baron of Alastall has already taken control of his territory and expects them to come and open their branch here."
A look of astonishment appeared on Davy's face as he heard those words. He carefully caught those letters and bid his farewell to Abium. Then, he hurriedly walked away from the group of people and moved towards the port with a tensed face.
'This territory is going to change soon.' Dave knew about this territory's wealth and sighed bitterly.
'The goddess of luck seems to be in his favor.'
He didn't expect this Baron to entirely occupy this Alastall territory in a single day and felt a fearful little inside.
'I didn't expect that those two famous pirate groups would go and annoy a necromancer.' Davy shook those thoughts away from his head and arrived in front of the Eagle-flagged merchant ship.
"We are returning to Wadel kingdom's Mermaid port city, so get ready. We got a bulk order today." Davy shouted towards the crew members and climbed up to the deck.
A few minutes later, a large merchant ship moved in the northern direction, making a loud horn sound. At the same time, Murius also sneaked into the merchant ship and looked back at the pirate town with a complicated expression on his face.