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The Villainous Noble Who Kept Rewinding After Death: The Story Somehow Changed When I Committed Suicide

Chapter 221: Harmless

“Hey! We’ve arrived! Get off quickly!”

As the carriage stopped in front of a large building, Naguraia, who had been different earlier, swung the door open with enthusiasm.

“Stop dragging your feet! Anyone sluggish will get whipped!”

The former members of the Poisonous Snake claw team, former knights from the town of Carirro, and ex-employees of the Adventurers’ Guild, all shackled by their arms and legs, descended from the carriage.

It seemed that after two weeks of hardship, most of them were so worn out and demoralized that they looked haggard, with some of the Poisonous Snake members drooling with vacant stares from sheer mental breakdown.

Just as we made our way off the carriage last, a fat man adorned with gold rings and necklaces emerged from the building, flanked by several women, approaching Naguraia with a creepy smile.

“Hey, Naguraia. Long time no see!”

“Uh? Oh, it’s Jeriem. What a surprise to see an executive from the ‘Harmless’ Slave Union here to greet me. What’s up today?”

The man named Jeriem seemed to be familiar with Naguraia and spoke to him quite amicably.

However, what intrigued me even more was the name of the slave union—”Harmless”—which sells illegal slaves but has a name that makes me want to applaud its ironic sense of humor.

“Well, since the carriage I gave you earlier is parked out front, I just came to check it out.”

“I see. Executive must have quite a bit of free time, huh?”

“Bwahaha! As long as the underlings are working, it’s all good. Basic tasks are what those at the bottom are for. Speaking of which, there are a lot of them this time.”

“About fifty or so, I’d say. Didn’t you say the more, the better?”

“Yeah. But at least they have to be decent quality. Those over there look like their minds are shot—walking all shaky and unfocused. They’re practically useless!”

“Hmph. What you do with them is up to you. I only brought them because I was told to.”

“Is that so? Well, since we’re done picking them up, you’re heading back?”

“No. I plan to stay a bit longer this time.”

“Oh? That’s unusual. You usually can’t stand staying in a dirty place like this.”

“Well, I thought it might be nice for a change.”

“I see.”

Jeriem gave Naguraia a scrutinizing look for a moment but quickly returned to his previous smile, clapping his hands to summon a nearby woman.

He received paper and a pen from her, scribbled something down, and handed the paper to Naguraia.

“There aren’t any good inns in this town, but this place is relatively decent. I signed it under my name, so even if there are no rooms available, you can kick someone else out to stay.”

“Sounds great! I was just wondering where to stay. I’ll gladly accept it.”

“Bwahaha! No worries! We’re like family, after all. I’ll be counting on you from now on!”

“Leave it to me. Now, I’m off. I’ll pick up the carriage on the way back, so just leave it somewhere.”

“Got it.”

Saying that, Naguraia took the paper, waved it around, and vanished from the spot.

“Alright, I’ll leave the rest to you all. As I mentioned before, feel free to dispose of anyone whose mind is broken or seems useless. Just take care of it.”

Jeriem then directed his nearby subordinates and returned to the building with a cigar in his mouth.

Afterward, we were sorted into usable and unusable groups by the remaining subordinates, and those of us deemed useful were led to the underground facility.

The underground facility was massive—so vast that it could be a second nation beneath ours—housing countless adventurers and villagers collected along with us.

(Hmm. All these people must have been kidnapped from somewhere. They really put in a lot of effort.)

From my perception, around two thousand people had been gathered here, and as expected, adventurers made up the majority.

“I can’t believe this many people have been snatched up.”

I didn’t feel anything particularly while looking at the kidnapped individuals, but Sharueina next to me seemed affected, realizing how many of her countrymen had been taken, expressing considerable shock.

“Well, it’s natural that Narsha wouldn’t know. Most here are adventurers, and very few are villagers. Besides, even if they brought those who were once slaves, it would be even less noticeable.”

“Even so, given my original position, I should have been aware. Yet, I knew nothing…”

Sharueina looked regretful, but from my perspective, it was understandable that she hadn’t noticed before seeing this situation.

Most of those gathered in the underground facility were adventurers who traveled far and wide, and even if they suddenly disappeared, it wouldn’t be cared about right after it happened; after a few days, no one would notice their absence.

Because adventurers live on the edge, it’s normal for anyone to die anywhere, and they wouldn’t seek out the reasons for their disappearances.

Furthermore, due to similar reasons, even if slaves went missing, no one would notice.

In that regard, if ordinary villagers disappeared, someone might worry and search for them, but given that the Ruzenia Empire is a significant country, news of disappearance incidents from a small village wouldn’t even reach royalty.

(Considering that, gathering people mainly from adventurers and slaves is quite rational.)

Even though there were about two thousand people in the underground facility, no one looked extremely emaciated or on the verge of starvation, indicating that at least they were being fed adequately.

(Well, since they’re going to be used as instruments of war, it’d be pointless if they starved to death first.)

I didn’t know how they provided food for such a number, but it was likely being supplied through agreements with other countries.

“You’ve arrived. Please wait here until further instructions. If anyone tries to escape, we have orders to kill them without mercy, so I recommend not resisting if you want to stay alive a bit longer. You can ask the others here for anything else. That is all.”

With that, the subordinate who led us here left, leaving about thirty-five of us behind.

By the way, the remaining fifteen were discarded due to having their minds broken by Miria’s poison and were taken elsewhere.

“Damn it!! How did a knight like me end up in a place like this?!”

“I didn’t do anything wrong. Why, why, why…?”

Once the subordinate left, the former knights began to scream like children throwing tantrums, while the former guild members wore expressions of despair as if the end of the world had arrived, mumbling to themselves.

The other adventurers and villagers around them looked on at this scene with annoyance, though a few were glaring at them with hatred.

“Those are some really resentful glares, huh? They’re probably the adventurers who were brought here by that knight and guild staff.”

“Yeah. They might have been adventurers from the Carirro Guild or townsfolk from the slums. This seems like it’s going to stir up some trouble.”

Unlike Sharueina, who still couldn’t grasp the situation, Miria and Iris observed the surroundings calmly and sensed the heated glares directed at the nearby knights.

“Runa, should we move to another location? If we stay here too long, we might get dragged into this.”

“You’re right. Let’s take a high-ground view of things.”

Feeling the murderous intent aimed at me, I was reluctant to get involved in any troubles, so I decided to follow Iris’s suggestion and left the spot.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

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