Feicui Long finds the proportions of the 14 races quite decent, with 50 out of the 250 being human, 36 adults and 14 children, 20 are elves, 14 adults and 6 children, 15 are dwarves, 10 adults and 5 children, 15 are from the greater beastman race, 10 adults and 5 children, 10 are from the lesser beastman race, 5 adults and 5 children. From this point on, the ratio of children and adults is the same in the other races: 10 are halflings, 10 are gnomes, 10 are lesser giants, 10 are onis, 10 are kijins, 10 are goblins, 10 are hobgoblins, 10 are orcs, 10 are kobolds. Curiously, this last one, despite having the same adult-child ratio as the others, is divided in half between reptilian-type kobolds and canine-type kobolds.
Of course, those proportions would change with the extra 10 he ends up acquiring. In any case, it is not a bad proportion, and Feicui Long does not want to continue perpetuating the same discrimination that some of the mentioned races feel within the Habsburg Empire. Although the 14 mortal races always work together at all times and usually live in harmony even without the external threat of the Superior Races, this can vary from nation to nation, from society to society, or from culture to culture, and it is not always the case.
That is why, when Glover asks him what specific race he wants them to be, he replies with a question that is not a question: "What do you mean what race do I want them to be?" He does not believe that Glover or this inherently shady union is part of racial discrimination. In fact, he probably only cares about the money. The reason Glover asks that is simply because he assumes he would be like the others who ask for a specific race.
Because even if the Habsburg Empire tries to hide it, especially because it does not want trouble with the union of mortal races that promotes racial integration and cooperation, which is why the 14 races always work together, as they need each other to survive against the Superior Races, it is obvious that it exists.
When he first arrives on this continent, landing in this empire after traveling through two others following his exile from the sanctuary of all races from his self of this life before awakening his memories, he remembers how he faced his first cultural shock. In the sanctuary of all races, a force inherently despotic and tyrannical, and he knows this better than anyone as a former heir, slavery is absolutely forbidden in the normal sense.
It is only used as punishment for traitors and sinners, and is practically a death sentence, since it means either fighting to the death or working to the death, no middle ground. Beyond that, slaves are absolutely forbidden, whether due to debt, conflict, or anything else. It is even forbidden to purchase or bring them in. In fact, the guilds union of slave merchants is banned. But not only them, even the force to which the sanctuary is a vassal, one of the 10 Supreme Forces, their imperial family cannot bring in slaves.
But in the Habsburg Empire, they are allowed. The problem is that the Habsburg Empire was mostly founded by humans, elves, dwarves, and greater beastmen. Therefore, those are the ones with better positions, which causes certain races to be more discriminated against. In fact, when he disembarks at the port of Vigo in the Duchy of Galicia, what he sees are mostly orc, goblin, hobgoblin, oni, and kobold slaves. And on the way to Vienna, it is more of the same. That alone makes it clear which races are most affected by this discrimination.
As for the others, lesser beastmen, kijins, halflings, gnomes, lesser giants, they may not be as oppressed, but it is still noticeable that they are discriminated against. You only have to look at Vienna. Why could he only find other races that were not humans, elves, dwarves, and greater beastmen when he went to the northwestern sector of Vienna, despite it being a massive city? Why were they only in those districts? It is almost as if there is a wall built between the rest of the city and that area. And while it is true there are nobles from all races, to be honest, the only high-ranking and very high-ranking nobles, counts, marquises, and dukes, are all humans, elves, dwarves, and greater beastmen.
Shaking his head to clear his mind, Feicui Long and the others arrive at an opulent room. Here they are to negotiate the formal price for all the slaves. Glover quickly does the math and then hands him a sheet of paper with all the totals. On the paper, it says each child costs 5 silver coins, the most common and cheapest professions like farmers, miners, stonemasons, woodcutters, laborers, and others cost 10 silver each, the more technical professions like tailors, blacksmiths, carpenters, masons, and others cost 15 silver.
As for the especially skilled ones, such as master builders, blacksmiths, carpenters, or those with administrative and bureaucratic experience, 25 silver. Those with combat potential, such as former adventurers, mercenaries, hunters, etc., are worth 20 silver. In total, 29 gold coins. Along with those he bought earlier, it adds up to 15 gold coins, since the cursed girl was bought for 10 gold coins and the three sisters, being educated, were worth 3 gold coins. The five family members of the elf and the muscular guy's sister together barely amount to 2 gold coins.
Glover then speaks and says: "Would you like to negotiate the price? If you buy 40 more, we can offer a 25% discount or, if you prefer, we can sell you more clothes for your slaves. We have fine linen products from the lands of the guilds union of slave merchants. Of course, the high-quality clothing they're wearing is a gift for purchasing so many, young man."
Feicui Long raises his hand and says: "No, I don't want to buy more, although I am interested in that last thing, I didn't know you sold clothes. Do you only sell linen fabric?"
Glover smiles happily: "That's fine, I understand. And yes, of course we have more types of fabric. In our lands we cultivate everything from food to cotton, we raise sheep, llamas, and alpacas, as well as other things like mining operations. We can't rely only on something that doesn't sell in large quantities normally, like slaves."
Feicui Long then nods: "Then give me 4 sets of clothes, 2 cotton sets for summer and 2 wool ones for winter, for all 260."
Glover nods and says: "That would be one gold coin. Would you like me to give you the improved artifacts for the slaves to replace those chains?"
Feicui Long shakes his head and says: "No, it's not necessary. Just transfer the slavery contracts to me."
Glover nods and takes out a special artifact. Feicui Long is astonished. It is a slavery scroll, an artifact in which slavery contracts can be stored without exerting greater pressure on the soul of the contractor. Feicui Long already knows that the union makes all slaves sign the contracts. In fact, those chains are not to protect them, thanks to the slavery contracts, but to avoid inconvenience for the buyers. What he does not expect is that they have developed a version of this sinister type of artifact.
Feicui Long then takes the artifact and, with a drop of blood, becomes its owner. But instead of storing the contracts there, he absorbs them directly. Glover is not surprised. Many prefer to do that since it decreases the chance of someone stealing it to free them. Although Feicui Long does it so he can later modify the contents of the contracts. Besides, this number does not even come close to filling the limit of contracts for each of his skills, especially because that limit is increased by the Sovereign's Quartet.
When Feicui Long stores the dark artifact to study it and is about to leave, Glover asks him: "Young man, I would like to ask you two things. What do you want to do with so many people? And could you help us establish a branch in the barony?"
Feicui Long, who is already really at the limit of his patience and wants to leave this disgusting place, knows he can't lie or tell the truth, since this kind of dark merchant can read lies very well. So he tells a half-truth: "I want to establish a new village within the barony, and the other answer is no, I can't, since those are rules established by the founder of the Skylion family. That does not concern me."
Glover then asks again: "I understand, but then, where will these people live?"
Feicui Long answers calmly: "We already have a camp established for them at the Skylion family palace. They will live there while we wait for the conditions to build the new village. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to leave."
Feicui Long and his group go outside. On one side, the slaves are waiting for them, and on the other side a carriage loaded with clothes. They all head to the Skylion family mansion to gather the troops and the rest of the carriages to depart from Feldbach.
...
At the mansion, Mylene orders the 300 troops of the Skylion family to pack everything. Since there are so many carriages to carry, part of the soldiers have to drive them, while the other part organizes around to protect the slaves, who look quite confused because not only are they not bound by chains, but their children are going in carriages destined for them, and in the case of the youngest children, they are even allowed to go accompanied by their mothers or fathers.
This procession continues while attracting the attention of Feldbach's citizens until they leave the city. Then the journey is quite calm. Although they encounter some groups of bandits, most flee when they realize the large number of soldiers. Thus, the three days of travel pass, arriving at Skylion village in the afternoon. Here, they stop at a temporarily established camp that is already set up for them.
This time, Feicui Long does have to stop here, since he has to leave the 300 borrowed troops, but also because he has to pick up 10 more people. Feicui Long needs a main and personal merchant who acts as the representative merchant both of the village and of himself, and also an architect and engineer. In his life in the techno-energy society, Feicui Long was an engineer and has advanced knowledge of construction, but he can't do everything. Right now, he has many things to do and needs to delegate tasks.
That's why Freja and Caroline recommend two people to him. Caroline recommends her aunt, an elf of 35 years old. And although it may seem strange, Caroline's elven clan, which was once a noble family and lost its territory and title for not being able to defend it against an invasion of superior races, was taken in by the Skylion family and became a vassal family, to whom even a small plot of land was gifted, where the clan now lives, in exchange for signing a servitude contract with the Skylion family. Therefore, they now have to be loyal to the family.
Since it's a servitude contract, they cannot rebel. But even without the contract, Caroline's clan would be absolutely loyal, since the Skylion family was the only one who took them in. Others rejected them, and some even tried to sell them as slaves. Besides, serving the family is not that bad. In fact, they have obtained many benefits, currently being the main architects and engineers of the barony, where 33.33% serve as such, another 33.33% as bureaucratic staff, and the last 33.33% as soldiers. That is where Caroline's aunt comes from.
A peculiar person, not to say that she is a bit weird and eccentric. According to Caroline's grandmother, she has the potential to be the best of all the family, and despite not being able to inherit the clan, since the current leader is Carolina's mother and the heiress is Caroline's sister, she is still someone who stands out. Well, being elves a matriarchal race, she would stand out anyway, but in this case, it is because of her abilities, which unfortunately are overshadowed by her personality. She doesn't like going out or interacting much with people, she only likes drawing blueprints or making models. Lots of models. Too many.
Freja's family, on the other hand, went through something similar. They were also nobles and signed the servitude contract with the Skylion family, only that they became the main merchants and the family is split a bit differently in terms of professions, being one third merchants, one third part of the priests of the Supreme God of Beasts, and one third military. This family is matriarchal, since the major beastman species Freja descends from, silver moon wolf major beastman, is a matriarchal species.
But at the same time, it is a system in which the firstborn daughter or son inherits the family, similar to Caroline's clan, but with certain differences. Here, men do have a chance to inherit if they are born more than 3 years before, less than 3 years or exactly 3 years apart from a woman. Otherwise, the woman always inherits. Just like Caroline, Freja is not the heiress because she has older sisters, and the same applies to her uncle, who, although he is not the person Feicui Long expects, is the middle daughter of that uncle.
That uncle, despite being a man and not being able to inherit the family thanks to Freja's mother who is his older sister, managed with the money his mother gave him to start a big business of his own. He started with a fur shop, which currently sells a large number of products and even has branches all over the barony and several outside of it. He has another business, a bit less successful, a quality furniture business that is present throughout the barony, and a third one, even less successful, with only 7 branches in the barony, which is a tavern business.
That uncle was very rebellious when he was young, but he fell in love with a common woman from the Skylion town, someone with no roots, nothing behind her. The problem is that the Silfvermåne family had already arranged his marriage with another woman. His uncle, upset, accepted to marry her only out of obligation but they had to let him marry his beloved one, and although with time he also started loving his first wife, who was in love with him, the first one was always the second wife. Unfortunately, while having the first daughter with his second wife, the delivery got complicated and although both the second wife and the daughter survived...
The damage suffered by the second wife made it so she could never have children again. This made his middle daughter, Freja's cousin, his favorite daughter. According to her uncle, a genius in business. His middle daughter is a greater genius than he is, if it wasn't because she also has a weird and eccentric personality, but curiously totally opposite to Caroline's aunt, being extremely extroverted and loving to seduce men, although curiously everyone rejects her, probably for being too direct, even though she is very pretty.
This personality makes her spend most of her time wasting money and chasing after men with no success. It's not like she doesn't want to work, but her dream is to become one of the main merchants of the Skylion family, something difficult because that position is for the family leader or someone who has proven to be talented.
These two people are vital for his plans, they are part of the reason why they have to stay and wait for Freja and Caroline to visit their homes to invite them to come. Besides, they will bring their maids who in turn serve as bodyguards, a total of 8 more people. But Feicui Long didn't stop there, because he also needed to collect the money from the things he left to sell some time ago, mostly furs and materials from energetic beings, the same ones that were hunted for the great workshop he built, along with the medicines produced by Mariane and the twins while he worked this month on the construction of the house.
He also needed to buy more materials, some for construction and several for food. He needed to buy 3 months of food for everyone, since although the new farmland can produce 4 to 5 times the food for everyone he is bringing to the town, there are still 19 days left before it can be harvested. He also needs food for the animals because winter is coming, and he also had a request for Isabella's mother. It almost seemed like his work never ends...