## Chapter 882 – Illegal Slave Traders

That’s how the story ended.

The lord said he would blockade Sangulla and capture the remnants, but that wouldn’t happen. As Sangulla disappeared, other criminals would surely come in, eyeing the profits. Maybe the lord would confiscate the Sangulla building and start a slave trade business himself.

How can you eliminate crime, really?

Destroy one, and another pops up.

That’s the doctrine of the Brass Celestial Knights. Evil doesn’t disappear; it multiplies infinitely, so you must always strive to eliminate it. If you fail to do so and the scales tip completely towards evil, the world will eventually be unable to handle it and will be utterly ruined.

Anyway, I killed a lot this time.

Let’s be satisfied with that.

More than anything, I gained spiritual enlightenment, which is invaluable. And I got the vault. That was the most satisfying thing.

* * *

Even after returning to the inn, I relentlessly went in and out of the prison, interrogating the Sangulla remnants. I stayed in Reitas and learned a few new things, but nothing significant.

Still, let’s summarize.

I proved that Sangulla committed illegal slave trading, destroyed everything, and confiscated their assets. I also proved that the New World Advent Society secured funds and corpses through Sangulla. And I found out that these bastards were running a human hunter unit.

This human hunter unit, operating under the name Cyclone Company, travels around the kingdom, conducting disguised merchant activities while kidnapping people.

The land of Karga is so vast.

As long as they disguise themselves well, they won’t get caught.

Thinking about it, human trafficking was rampant in Korea in the 70s and 80s, so it’s not impossible in this world.

Until the 70s, if 500 first-graders entered elementary school, only 400 made it to the sixth grade.

The other 100 were kidnapped by human traffickers, had their limbs cut off, and were forced to beg, or if they were girls, they were all sold to brothels. Of course, they were also sold to fishermen to work as unpaid sailors for life, or sold to salt farms to make salt until they died.

The Korean human traffickers of that time made a lot of money by imitating what the Belgians did when they tortured and killed Congolese people. They were all sons of bitches who should be quartered and boiled alive.

Anyway, this Cyclone Company.

Their method is to collude with city criminals, using money as bait to kidnap people, and when they collect the targets, they commit mass murder and run away. That’s what they do.

There are several of these units, and they regularly come to Sangulla to supply humans. They sometimes use names other than Cyclone, but it’s all different, so I couldn’t find out exactly.

“So, Tutan, you really don’t know about the manager.”

Today, I interrogated Tutan again.

“Ugh… Uuuugh… I, I don’t know… I don’t know… I don’t know the details… Our senior preacher… he might know… Hiccup. The last time I met the preacher was a year ago… I don’t even know that anymore…”

Tutan, tortured by me, spewed out everything he knew, but in the end, I couldn’t find out anything about the manager.

The manager’s whereabouts are unknown.

He goes by the name Palterman and is very famous in Reitas, but there are no current sightings, and he hasn’t been arrested.

He must have run away quickly.
It would have been easy with his connections.

“You useless heretic.”
“Kuhk…!”

Tutan seemed to genuinely believe that the innocent people sold into slavery would one day be able to go to the New World. Of course, he believed that he himself had contributed greatly and would go to the New World, but he was helpless in the face of pain.

“If you die today, are you going to that New World?”
“No… Not right now… Until the New World descends… I’ll wander the heavens as a soul… Heuk!”

In other words, he can’t go there yet because the New World hasn’t descended. But he believes that the New World will surely descend someday, and then he will be able to go.

Because he believes in this kind of thing, he has been diligently committing human trafficking. All the Sangulla armed guards believed in this religion. That’s why they fought so hard.

Dying in battle was said to be a great achievement.

But some Sangulla employees believed it, and some didn’t.

Heretics must all be killed.

“Anyway, if you’re going to the New World, it doesn’t matter if you die now, right? I’ll kill you now?”
“N, no! If I die now, I can’t contribute more to the church… I won’t receive a high position even if I go to the New World… Th, that’s our doctrine! You have to make more contributions to get a higher position in the New World!”
“That’s amazing.”

Seeing that you have to spend money to receive a high position in the New World, it seems that it’s not much different from this world. It seems exactly the same because I think that even the guys who do evil things without hesitation will live better.

I don’t know what they’re aiming for by believing in this kind of religion, but people are weak to this kind of thing in the first place. Surprisingly, there are a lot of people who fall for these bizarre religions. I don’t know why, but even if they make up nonsense doctrines, if it feels plausible, many people enthusiastically give up all their wealth and the lives of their families.

Anyway, it’s almost over.

I’ll go back and report on this situation and have the local church catch all the Cyclone Company guys. If I catch a few, I can find out information about the others. Or I can investigate all the merchant groups coming into Reitas.

It’s not something I can do right now.

Still, one thing I regret is that I missed the manager. And I’m very sorry that I didn’t find the guy who came to buy corpses in the underground cave.

I took the time to go to that secret harbor and waited every day, but nothing came.

Tutan replied that the manager would have told the corpse buyers if he had run away. I thought similarly, but because I was very disappointed, I sat there for a few days waiting for him, but he didn’t come, so I had no choice but to give up.

* * *

Reitas didn’t really have any gates.

Reitas, a port city, was located at the southernmost tip, so it was a kind of `small peninsula`, with a long mountain range running through the peninsula and villages scattered nearby.

It’s kind of like a small Italy.

Anyway, because there are no gates, merchants and outsiders can enter and leave very easily. Because the land is managed so badly, all sorts of things are happening.

There seems to be no will to stop criminals, illegal slaves, and drug dealers from outside. The absence of gates means that.

The lord must have built his wealth with this.

Instead of giving up tolls or taxes on goods brought in by merchants, he must have increased criminal funds and made money with them.

But it’s not a problem I can argue about. It’s just speculation.

Anyway, I bought another wagon and tied up the main criminals of this case and put them inside.

Karin is driving it behind me now.

“It was a shitty neighborhood.”

I’ve already left Reitas.
I have to go home soon.

Even though it’s far, I’ll get there quickly if I go a little faster.
I’ve already seen the road while coming here.

ㅡKrrng.
ㅡGrrrrrrr.

As always, the two bastards were indifferent to the human world. I kept driving them on. I wish I had a car.

ㅡCreak.

As I went north along the road, I carefully examined the merchants I encountered. If they were a merchant group of some size, I would stop them and ask for their names. The slave hunters might be among them. I don’t really expect it, but I’m going to keep doing it on the way home. It’s only a little annoying. I want to kill human traffickers, and if innocent people have been kidnapped and enslaved, I want to save them.

It was the third day since I left Reitas.

As I was blankly passing through the prairie road, a fairly large merchant group was coming from the opposite side. I immediately stopped the wagon, got off, ran to the merchant group coming from the opposite side, and stopped them.

“Stop for a moment. Stop!”
“What…?”

ㅡUproar.

When the merchant group stopped, the merchant group guards who had been walking on both sides slowly approached me and drew their weapons. They all looked like ferocious bastards who would chew up ordinary murderers and robbers alive.

ㅡCheok.

Karin got out of the wagon and came to my side. Karin came right away because I stopped every merchant group I met on the way here.

“Hey, why are you blocking the road? We’re busy. If you don’t have a good reason, you’ll have to compensate us for this loss of time.”

As we confronted each other, a man who appeared to be the head of the merchant group appeared. He was a middle-aged blond man with a white turban-like hat and a long beard. But he seemed to have trained for quite a while, and his body line was quite firm and sleek. His eyes were sharp, and he had a very evil impression.

More than anything, he was accompanied by two strong-looking bodyguards.

ㅡ…
ㅡ…

The bodyguards looked like they had chopped up and boiled their mothers and fathers and spent their childhoods eating them. Their indifferent eyes and swollen arm muscles prove it. Only serial killers who ate their parents for fun can have that kind of face.

Even the energy of mana was felt.

They seem much stronger than the merchant group guards next to them. But… it’s a bit much to say this, but it doesn’t work on me.

“Why are you keeping your mouth shut? Time is passing even as we speak. I want to get rid of you guys and move on.”

The head said very arrogantly and aggressively. It was truly an attitude that could be called the epitome of a merchant. Because there are so many murderers and robbers in this world, only those with the guts and courage to chew up those murderers and robbers can make a living as merchants.

Pretense and warnings have become commonplace.

“It’s not a big reason. I wanted to ask the name of the merchant group.”
“What? Name? You stopped our merchant group for such a reason? Guys, these bastards want to die. Surround them.”

ㅡSlowly.

At his command, the merchant group guards began to move slowly. These guys, armed with swords and shields, were professional infantrymen who had been trained no matter how I looked at them. More than anything, they were trying to surround us skillfully.

Karin chuckled behind me as if it was funny.

“No, why are you being so violent? I’m just looking for a merchant group.”
“Time is money to a merchant, barbarian friend. If you give me 50 silver, I’ll just let you pass.”
“Are you perhaps the Abnel Merchant Group?”

I ignored his words and threw out a random word.

Even if this bastard is an innocent merchant, I can’t go out well if he picks a fight like this.

“Can’t you understand?”
“I think you’re the one who can’t understand… You guys are the Abnel Merchant Group, right? You’re very suspicious because you’re deliberately hiding it.”
“That’s absurd. I don’t know what happened with those bastards, but we’re the Cyclone Merchant Group.”

Wow.

It was worth stopping all the merchant groups I met while walking down the road.

ㅡCyclone Merchant Group.

He said it himself.

I found them.

“I’ve never even heard of the Abnel Merchant Group… No. Did I hear about it when I went to the east?”
“Cyclone Merchant Group? I don’t know. Can you prove it? Are you actually the Abnel Merchant Group and just making something up?”
“There’s no reason to make something up, and there’s no reason to get out of the situation with a lie when we’re in a more advantageous situation. I’ve been annoyed since earlier, but I can’t stand it anymore. Who are you guys? You’d better disguise your identity as much as you thought just now. If you’re guys I can step on, you’ll pay the price for taking my time.”

As expected of a human hunter unit member, his threats and intimidation are just flowing out.

ㅡSreung.
ㅡClang.

The merchant group guards also began to emit killing intent, and the two bodyguards wearing purple clothes and carrying long swords also looked at me while spreading a quiet killing intent. Those weak bastards are acting up.

“Oh, those guys are a bit strong? As expected of Cyclone. You can’t emit that kind of killing intent just by killing one or two people.”

Karin, who was standing next to me, elbowed my side and chuckled.

“We have nothing to hide about our identity. Because we’re a very dignified group.”
“Tell me before I step on you.”
“I’m a paladin directly under the Saintess of the Brass Celestial Knights.”
“What? The Brass Celestial Knights?”

When he heard my words, he tilted his head.

“Kekeke, you’re telling an interesting lie. There’s no church nearby, and more than anything, the Brass Celestial Knights wear that shining armor. How dare you impersonate the Brass Celestial Knights in front of me, who has deep faith? This is blasphemy. I will personally punish you.”

He laughed and gestured.

Hwanung-nim. Please allow me to become a righteous serial killer today.