# Chapter 17
The capital and nearby domains where slave traders operated were unimaginably wealthy. There were so many slaves being bought and sold that they filled the underground areas of each city, and the management was surprisingly efficient.
In contrast, outside the capital and its surrounding domains, there were only impoverished villages. Among them, Shuranue was one of the three largest slums in the Kingdom of Narkisa.
It wasn’t surprising that suspicious outsiders would set foot in the slum. The man before her must also know this, yet he still insisted on reporting it, which meant these suspicious newcomers must be holding some important clues.
The very clues she was most desperate for right now.
“Continue,” said Ensha, listening to the man’s words with interest as she leaned her backside against the table. With her arms crossed, a faint smile had already formed at the corners of her mouth.
“There are 21 of them, a mix of all ages and genders. Judging by appearances, they don’t seem to have any signs of injuries or hardship.”
“That’s certainly strange. If they’re desperate enough to enter a slum, they should be pretty roughed up. How could they possibly look clean?”
“Yes. That’s why I had my men keep watch on them. All they had were some crude potatoes and a bit of cabbage to stave off hunger, along with a few worn utensils.”
“How much money did they have?”
“I saw them asking at the general store if they could trade utensils for goods instead of using money. They even desperately bartered a few dry potatoes for an apple that a child was crying for. It seems they don’t have any currency at all.”
The more she heard, the stranger it sounded, though it wasn’t entirely implausible. After all, slums were where various destitute people gathered.
“From what you’ve told me so far, they just sound like people who would fit right in at a slum, arriving in a group.”
Ensha smiled and twirled her finger, as if telling him to hurry up with the rest of the story. The man obligingly told her what she wanted to hear.
“They were smiling no matter what they did. Despite having set foot in one of the ‘worst slums of Narkisa’ on the continent and having no means of survival there.”
“Hmm…”
Ensha’s smile deepened.
“Are you suggesting they came from somewhere even worse?”
“Yes.”
The tips of Ensha’s fingers, still crossed over her arms, tapped lightly against her own arm instead of the table.
Somewhere worse than a slum. Where could that be?
If they were former slaves, such a diverse age group couldn’t have been freed all at once. There had been cases where one or two slaves were released out of disgust or on a whim, but she had never heard of a case where such a diverse group of men, women, and children were all released together. Above all, her close aide wouldn’t have failed to notice the slave brand that would be visible on exposed parts of their bodies.
Yet the man had said their appearances were clean, which didn’t fit the profile of manual laborers either. The fact that people suited for slum life showed no signs of injury or hardship was beyond strange—it was suspicious.
“Was there any report of them coming from another country?”
“No, there wasn’t.”
“Then it’s even more strange…”
If such a number of people had moved to the slum from another country, there should have been a report. The continent didn’t have its ‘worst’ label for nothing; reports were necessary to prepare for trouble that might arise as soon as they crossed the border.
The absence of a report meant these newcomers didn’t belong anywhere—they were outsiders.
‘Moreover, to move directly to Shuranue without passing through other places, they must have come from the westernmost region, where there’s nothing but the Delos Empire…’
As Ensha was thinking this far, something seemed to dawn on her and she asked:
“Isn’t there a Black Forest between Shuranue and the border of the Delos Empire?”
“Yes, that’s correct. Near that Black Forest, there’s an abandoned village where the Delos Empire gathered and exiled Numinel disease patients.”
She was well aware of the infamous Numinel disease.
An infectious disease where the skin throughout the body dries up and splits hideously, causing necrotic pain from even the smallest wound, leading to death within days. No cure has been discovered to date.
“That area has been completely isolated due to the contagious nature of Numinel disease. Even when we organized a search team to pursue the prime specimen, we didn’t even consider that place—the only area not belonging to any country—as a possibility. Since the disease is highly contagious, if the prime specimen had been hiding there, they wouldn’t have survived either. And if we went near and got infected, our losses would be too great.”
At the man’s words, Ensha’s lips curved into a definite smile.
A large group suddenly entering the slum without being reported. The only place such a group could have stayed without belonging to any country was the village of Numinel patients.
“That prime specimen, you said they possessed extraordinary healing power, correct?”
“Yes.”
When the prime specimen escaped, unfortunately, most of the research materials were burned by his mother before she died, so there weren’t many reports left. Even the slave traders who had been conducting research while moving had joined the pursuit team and went missing.
So all they knew was that the young prime specimen had a formidable ability to instantly heal any wound simply by touching it.
Ensha moved away from the table she had been leaning on and, unable to contain herself any longer, took out some tobacco leaves from a drawer.
“Capture one of the children and try intimidating them. There’s bound to be at least one weak-hearted one who will spill everything.”
“Understood.”
“Have the men ready to depart as soon as you confirm. I’ll send them immediately.”
The man bowed deeply to Ensha and left the room.
Left alone, Ensha deeply inhaled the smoke from her lit tobacco and exhaled slowly.
“A prime specimen capable of healing not just wounds but also incurable diseases… I could ask for the value of a small country.”
Ensha’s eyes glistened with thrilling interest and greed.
❖ ❖ ❖
Recently, Levi’s condition had become strange.
“Levi, are you sleeping again?”
While Ion was bringing an armful of flowers from the pond for Levi to taste, Levi had fallen asleep in front of the bonfire, cleverly balanced without any support. Ion gently placed the bouquet on Levi’s thigh and examined him with his eyes.
‘I thought he didn’t get sick and poison had no effect on him…’
Levi’s black eyelashes trembled slightly, and soon his eyelids slowly lifted. Ion, who happened to be staring right into his eyes, felt as if something was tickling somewhere inside his body.
‘There it goes again.’
It seemed to happen when Levi woke up from sleep, but Ion couldn’t understand what relationship this ticklish feeling had with anything.
After waking up, Levi just blinked his eyes for a moment, then stretched out his hand and lightly patted Ion’s head. In the past, he didn’t seem to know how to do it properly and would just make a perfunctory gesture, but now he knew how to give a proper pat.
Ion smiled broadly at the pleasant feeling and picked up a yellow flower from Levi’s thigh. Various flowers grew near the pond, but the one Levi liked best was this small yellow flower.
When Ion held out the flower, Levi ate the head off it as if it were the most natural thing.
“You’ve been napping during the day lately. Are you very sleepy?”
Levi, who had been eating the flower heads one after another like a baby bird, nodded silently.
He would fall asleep before Ion at night, and often wouldn’t wake up unless Ion roused him, having trouble emerging from sleep.
Just a few days ago, he had been a light sleeper, waking up immediately and patting Ion if he tossed and turned even slightly. Ion, who saw Levi as a large child, always grumbled that this treatment made him feel like a child, though he didn’t mind it. But recently, Levi had been sleeping so deeply that he wouldn’t notice even if Ion deliberately moved around restlessly.
He was sleeping more deeply and taking frequent naps, so Ion couldn’t help but find it strange.
He glared fiercely at the yellow flower he had been feeding Levi.
‘Could this flower have a sleep-inducing effect? But it shouldn’t have any effect on Levi.’
Feeling silly for glaring, Ion scratched the back of his head slightly and placed the flowers that had been piled on Levi’s thigh against the tent. Next to it was a colorful flower bed with a circular stone border creating a defined area. The flowers growing vigorously stood like pretty gatekeepers beside the entrance to the tent house.
“Let’s take a walk to help you wake up.”
Ion grabbed Levi’s arm to help him up and pulled him toward the pond. Recently, Levi had been so preoccupied with the growth of the tent house’s flower bed that he hadn’t shown any interest in the pond area.
Upon reaching the pond, Levi looked at the body of water filled with bright flowers and grass. Ion smiled brightly and walked lightly around the pond.
“It’s grown a lot here, hasn’t it?”
Ion stretched out his hand, pointing to the nearby thorny trees. The black thorny trees that once had not a single leaf were now full of vibrant green leaves. Even the trunk was no longer a rotting black but a sturdy dark brown. If it weren’t for the sharp thorns scattered along the stem, one might have thought it was an entirely different tree.
