“Hmm……”
Whether my words were somewhat contradictory, Ruth momentarily let out a sigh.
Then, as if lost in thought, he gently lowered his eyelids while touching his chin, and broke the silence with a calm tone.
“So, first of all, your saying means the Grand Knight Commander wants to join hands with us.”
“Yes. That’s correct.”
“And the reason he wants to join hands with us is because he has come to know the secrets of the Duke of Dright.”
“Not exactly, but yes.”
“What do you mean by not exactly? Does it mean the secret the Grand Knight Commander knows is different from what we know?”
“It’s similar. Sir Cedrics said he knows the secrets that the Duke of Dright is hiding. So, as His Majesty guessed, that means he knows another secret, or secrets, of the Duke of Dright that we are not aware of.”
I drew a faint smile with my lips and nodded.
At my answer, Ruth frowned slightly again, as if pondering.
“Secrets, huh……”
Then he murmured softly, trailing off meaningfully, and eventually let out a sigh.
In the brightly twinkling purple iris, there was an air of enlightenment.
“Ah! Could it be that you know about the slave auctions?”
“Slave auction?”
I suddenly looked at Ruth, mentioning the slave auction, with curiosity.
The system of slavery had been abolished long ago.
Yet, despite this, there were still those who conspired to evade the eyes of the law and traffic slaves. And the public referred to them as ‘slave traders’.
The methods used by slave traders to sell slaves were numerous, but the most well-known was this: they illegally captured those of the subjugated class, branded them to make them slaves, and then put these enslaved individuals up for auction.
Then, the unnamed nobles who participated in the auction would buy these slaves. This was because the only people who could afford to buy such exorbitantly priced slaves were the nobles, who were sufficiently wealthy.
However, the reason slave auctions still existed, as well known as they were, was because of the mysterious backers supporting them.
Thus, no matter how much effort was put into eradicating slave auctions, they would emerge elsewhere again and again. Like a weed that does not die no matter how many times it’s stomped on.
Due to this, it was said that the emperor who first discovered the slave auctions eventually started to turn a blind eye and stopped clamping down on them. Implicitly condoning the illegality.
“Just a moment. If I remember correctly, it was the 18th Emperor who first discovered the slave auctions. And the 18th Emperor is Ruth’s father.”
“…”
In the midst of my thoughts, I suddenly remembered this fact and my mouth closed automatically. I didn’t want to say in front of Ruth that his father had been irresponsible.
Ruth, unaware of my conflicted feelings, hesitated for a moment before breaking the ice.
“You know that there are still people who buy and sell slaves illegally, that is, slave traders, don’t you?”
“Yes, I’m aware.”
“Then this conversation should be easier. As you know, there are various methods these slave traders use to smuggle slaves, and slave auctions are one of the most well-known methods among them.”
This was all information I was already well acquainted with. So, the crucial part would start from here.
Seeing that I was all ears for his story, Ruth suddenly changed the topic.
“Um… Do you remember when I had to leave for a few days for the drought situation in the southern region before our engagement ceremony?”
“Ah, I remember.”
As soon as I heard Ruth’s question, I immediately responded. That day’s memory was always kept in my heart, so there was no need to look back on what had happened since then.
“Yes. Anyway, the reason I went down there at the time was not because of the drought in the southern region but because there happened to be a slave auction taking place in the southern region.”
“What?”
A moment of perplexity washed over me.
There were two main points that surprised me considerably.
One was the fact that Ruth, the emperor, had personally participated in a slave auction, and the other was his use of the phrase ‘happened to be a slave auction taking place in the southern region’.
The phrase ‘happened to be a slave auction taking place in the southern region’ essentially meant that slave auctions were held in other places as well.
But hadn’t I heard that slave auctions settled in one place until they were discovered by outsiders?
I was wondering about the discrepancy between the information I had already perceived as fact and the new information I had just encountered, when Ruth, as if he could see right through what was going on in my mind, added.
“You might not know, but contrary to rumors, slave auctions do not settle in just one place but constantly move around. That makes them all the more difficult to find.”
“How can that be? Then why is the rumor like that…”
“Rumors tend to get distorted, don’t they? Don’t trust the rumors circulating too blindly, my lady. Half of them are nonsense.”
“…I’ll keep that in mind.”
I refrained from arguing back against Ruth, who was advising me in a scolding tone.
I had to tell him that I learned about the world from newspapers full of rumors and books filled with bias.
And revealing that would naturally lead to explaining why I had no choice but to be in seclusion. That absolutely couldn’t happen.
I repeated the vow I had always made to myself instead of arguing with him and returned to the main topic.
“When did Your Majesty start following the slave auctions?”
“About half a year ago. I happened to see a slave trader kidnapping a child while I was out for a break at a temple.”
“…”
“The child looked about nine years old and was this tall.”
Ruth gestured near his thigh with a distant look in his eyes, as if dredging up a blurry past event.
Just hearing the description made me want to close my eyes tightly, overwhelmed by the urge to unsee the vision of a small child being kidnapped by a slave trader. As I consciously suppressed the rising impulse, he continued.
“Anyway, after rescuing that child, I started investigating slave trading and luckily received an invitation to a slave auction. Pretending to be a decadent noble interested in slaves, I let some words slip, and they approached me on their own.”
Fools obsessed with the smell of money.
I quietly let out a silly laugh as I watched Ruth murmuring harsh words in a low voice.
“But then, why did you think the other secret Viscount Dright was hiding had to do with the slave auction? From what I see, there doesn’t seem to be any connection.”
“It may seem that way on the surface, but think deeper, my lady. How is Viscount Dright conducting his charity work?”
“I understand he’s creating and running facilities for the children of the slums.”
“Exactly. So, here arises a question, doesn’t it?” “A question, you say…?”
“As you are aware, Viscount Dright has been pretending to conduct charity work for the children of the slums. This means, in reality, he isn’t sponsoring the children. So, what happened to the children at the facility Viscount Dright created?”
“You don’t mean…”
Feeling my throat dry up, I could only utter that much and bit my lower lip. Considering all the circumstances, there was only one conclusion to be drawn.
And simultaneously, it was the worst conclusion that I wished to deny not being the truth. There definitely are children at the facility established by Viscount Dright.
If there were no children, Viscount Dright’s lies would have been exposed soon enough.
However, the Duke of Dright does not sponsor the children in that facility.
This means that the children in that facility are being raised for purposes other than sponsorship, such as for slave trading.
The thought made my stomach turn. Still, without conclusive evidence and only circumstantial evidence at hand, it’s not right to jump to conclusions.
So, let’s just leave it as a hypothesis for now. I struggled to suppress the instinct welling up inside me with reason and covered my mouth with my hand.
If my lips parted even slightly, it seemed as though the foul smell filling my body would leak out and reach Ruth.
Catching a glimpse of me, Ruth let out a shallow breath and spread the coat he was wearing on the ground, gesturing with his chin for me to sit.
“It looks like we’re in for a long conversation. Will you sit?”
After hesitating for a moment, I sat down on the coat, which was without a single wrinkle. Perhaps because Ruth had just been wearing it, I could feel a pleasant warmth from the coat.
After confirming that I had sat down, Ruth, who had followed suit, swept his hair back and spoke in a cool tone.
“After speaking with you last time, I followed the tracks of the children the Duke of Dright sponsors and discovered an interesting fact.”
“What is it?”
“The ages of the children known to have left the facility for society were all different. There was even a child who left at the age of ten.”
…Ten years old?
I barely managed to compose my face, which was about to contort in dismay.
By the standards of most orphanages, it was a rule that children were not discharged until they were eighteen unless they were adopted.
Of course, there were those who left later, but there were none who left earlier.
Children under the age of eighteen were required to be under adult supervision as stipulated by imperial law.
Therefore, discharging a child who is merely ten years old, which is akin to asking a sprout to bear fruit, seemed utterly inconceivable.
A child has the rightful opportunity to envision a bright future within the protection of adults until they are fully grown. They have the right to break free from the oppression of reality and enjoy the purity of dreams.
Hence, even that child who left at the age of ten should have had these rights. The right to envision a future and the privilege to enjoy dreams.
Regardless of whether the children were sold off at slave auctions or not, just sending them out into society at the age of ten is a brutal trampling on these rights by the Duke of Dright.
I found myself floundering in a marsh-like depth of negative emotions, clutching at my dress.
Is this anger directed at the Duke of Dright for stealing the future from a child, or is it guilt stemming from not being able to protect the children as an adult should?
A shadow that I couldn’t even define has eaten away at me.
Slowly.
