Meeting the Slaves Part I.

John signaled to Jacob and he left the room. He was first worried about his safety after looking at his physique but he still remembered Tom's reminder that he was a strong man himself so he shouldn't worry and hence he left the room immediately. Additionally, there were runes engraved on all the slaves so there was not much need to be worried about.

"Now you guys might be wondering why am I being so much generous to the slaves? So I will be honest with you guys, what I need is loyal slaves who have meaning and life in their eyes. I don't want slaves who don't have determination and will to live in their eyes, if you can promise me this then I can promise all of you guys that all of you guys can be free after 5 years of servitude under me without any conditions.

I have seen that a lot of you guys have different feelings which can be seen from your eyes, some want revenge, some have regrets over their actions, some show determination which will mean you will try to leave your status as a slave by any means possible, some show self-mockery over their misfortune.

Personally, I find the very idea of the slave trade very abhorring but circumstances lead me to go for slave trade since I lack manpower. I just wanted to let you guys know of my true intentions before you started any work for me. you might not believe me now, but I am sure you will believe me later on."

Hearing this, many of the slaves were surprised, this included Jake and his family however Tornwall was still skeptical but he still thought this was still a better situation, unlike the one where he would die as a slave.

Jake was the first to ask him a question,

"Why do you think we should believe or trust you? How can you guarantee that you will free us from our slavery after 5 years, what if you kill us in the name of freeing us?"

Everyone here listening to him thought that Jake was right since why would a slave owner be so generous to slaves.

John gave it a thought and replied to him, "Everyone one of you may have noticed that I didn't buy any criminal slaves, right? So you can see my sincerity from this action. As for the guarantee of you guys getting freed after 5 years, we can write that on a magic contract if you guys don't believe me. Perhaps you guys might be freed even before 5 years but that will depend on your performance. As for my sincerity, I will pay you all the same as normal men which you can spend however you want."

Later John smiled and said to them, "If you become one of my close confidantes then maybe I can even help you in your revenge or regrets later on, how is that as an offer for you guys?"

A lot of people here didn't know about the magic contract but Tornwall and Jake knew about it, it was specially made for people dealing in slaves so that neither parties get scammed. Even John only got to know about it after he heard it from Tom when he was dealing with the slaves.

"We can make that contract here?" Jake asked John.

Usually, magic contracts were made when dealing with Warriors and Magicians or between two nobles who dealt in a large number of slaves.

People not following the contract would anyway lose their rights over their slaves and hence people gave money without any hesitance when it came to dealing with slaves, the only thing they needed to do was confirm the actual slaves and their numbers.

"Yes, we can, we will get it done right away." John then turned to other slaves who were confused and explained to them about the use of magic contracts which would be helpful in the current situation. So if John didn't follow the contract he would anyways lose his control over the slaves after 5 years. Jake also nodded in acceptance about the explanation which more or less convinced them about magic contracts and this also gave them more hope.

All the slaves were quite astonished about this development and thought their new owner was quite interesting and sincere in his offer.

Every slave was discussing after they saw all of this

It was only now that Tornwall spoke to John, "Tell me, kid, what are you planning?". Tornwall even thought John found out his identity and hence he wanted to use his ability and hence all this drama taking place right now.

John smiled and asked Tornwall, "Well, what I want is Loyal slaves so I thought this would be the best and most effective measure to gain their trust, what do you think?"

"Maybe, you have already known my identity as an elite blacksmith but I still wouldn't make you weapons of our country," Tornwall told John with very firm and serious eyes.

John was quite shocked but kept a calm face and said to him, "Well, I don't want you making weapons or machines of the dwarven country, what I want is, you make equipment according to my designs and not leak it to anyone, what do you say?

Tornwall thought and replied, "Hmm... that won't be a problem since it is only making machines you want and not to be leaked. Looking at you I see that you are still a naive and honest child but you are still cautious enough to buy slaves so that your secrets don't get leaked. Usually, I wouldn't have even tried to risk and expose my identity but your behavior told me I should trust you. Maybe it is your sense of values which will attract people."

Meanwhile, Tornwall sighed and thought of his past that it has already been 3 years.

'Maybe I should trust this kid for once and he has already made a magic contract so it's better anyways plus he doesn't seem like those cunning old guys while from his eyes I can see that he doesn't discriminate people based on their race.' Tornwall made his opinion on John after conversing with him.

This was quite an unexpected turn of events for both John and Tornwall.

Meanwhile Jake and his family had their own thoughts about this situation. Taylor and others weren't bothered about their revenge and thought that they should make a new start under John while Jake still had the idea of getting revenge from the noble.

Taylor asked Martha while saying to everyone, "With this magic contract I am pretty sure he doesn't have any ulterior motives and it is still better than nothing and it can give us a new start, what do you think Martha?"