68. The Saintess of the North

“Everyone has their mouths and noses covered, right? There might be a plague spreading since the patients with weak immunity have been left unattended. Rescue the patients but be careful not to let bodily fluids touch your skin!”

“The doctor has arrived! Patients can be immediately classified according to risk level!”

“Emergency tools brought!”

“Good, I’m opening the door!”

In front of the room where sick slaves were gathered and abandoned. When the door opened, slaves everywhere coughed at the fresh air they hadn’t breathed in a long time.

“W-who……”

“Don’t open your eyes. If you’ve been accustomed to darkness for a long time and suddenly see sunlight, your eyes could be damaged.”

“Mom!”

Aaron ran to his mother, who was leaning weakly against the wall.

“Rigolus, that terrible bastard. He always said there was no slave trader like him and told us not to have prejudice that all slave traders are the same kind……”

Sir Lucion gritted his teeth.

Darius said nothing. He just watched with bloodshot eyes as if to engrave this scene in his memory.

This was a sight that would have continued for some time if he hadn’t made a decision now.

“Fortunately, there don’t seem to be any critical patients at the moment!”

Schmidt reported.

“Cough, cough!”

“Mom! Doctor, please look at my mother!”

“Sylph.”

When she directed fresh air toward the coughing woman, her coughing soon subsided.

“Aaron, it’s not a serious illness, so your mother will get better soon if she eats well and rests. See, she’s already feeling better with my simple treatment.”

“Thank you!”

“S-Saintess! Please grant me your miracle too……”

When Aaron’s mother’s coughing stopped immediately at my seemingly simple gesture, slaves who had been waiting only for death approached me with wide eyes.

‘Well, this isn’t even difficult.’

Whoosh, the sylph I summoned quickly ventilated the air in the room.

“Ahhh, thanks to the Saintess’s grace, I feel lighter!”

“To think we could feel forest air in this death-like cell……”

These people would probably worship water as holy water if I showed them how I pour water from my bare hands using Undine.

I hope this provides some comfort to people with weak bodies and minds…… I turned to look at our knights.

“This is the spirit’s wind…… I feel energy rising as I breathe it in.”

“Of course. It’s a miracle created by our lady. It can’t be compared to ordinary wind.”

“I feel my body strengthening too.”

I should have recognized it when I first met Sir Dwaine, who believed in quack healers claiming that applying medicine to a sword would heal wounds connected to it. These people are pseudo-science believers.

“Everyone, if someone who seems spiritually clear asks you to talk for a bit and offer a prayer, absolutely do not follow them.”

“We serve you, Lady Anette. We will never be scouted elsewhere!”

“Yes, better believe in me instead.”

I’ll take only what’s conscientious. Whatever that is.

* * *

I handled the slave market issue conscientiously. I carefully listened to the slaves’ voices and investigated what environment slave trading had taken place in for the past 10 years.

I knew there would be many shady activities, but when I dug into it, there were truly many problems.

I also punished the slave trade inspectors who had reported that slave trading in Inkheart was taking place normally without any legal issues.

Thus, based on my conscience and after such thorough and sufficient investigation.

The doors of Inkheart’s disgrace, the Northern Inkheart slave market—a hidden gem for capital nobles—closed.

It was confiscation.

Without paying a single penny, I closed the doors of the slave market.

“How dare you take away others’ private property! Is this the result of our dedication to Inkheart’s development for the past 10 years!”

“Don’t look down on us as mere merchants! When our connections come together, Inkheart will have to pay enormous compensation for this action!”

“That’s right, our trading company is favored by Count Fairy from the capital!”

“Is he really favoring you?”

Count Fairy was recently caught secretly buying illegal slaves in Inkheart and is still detained, yet they’re trying to use his name without knowing.

I doubt Count Fairy wants to be associated with you right now.

Despite their obvious guilt, the slave traders showed no remorse. Instead, they gathered at Castle Inkheart, demanding their slaves back.

“Alright. I’ll return the slaves.”

“Ahem, you should have done this from the beginning!”

Rumble, as soon as my words fell, a side door of the conference room opened, and rough-looking men entered dragging chains. They all had tattoos on their thick forearms, which was intimidating.

“We investigated their backgrounds, and these people are criminals. Since they definitely became slaves for committing crimes, it’s right to return them in this case.”

Inkheart doesn’t need criminals.

“But after thorough investigation, I cannot return those who became slaves unjustly. We have already erased their slave status.”

These people brought from the slave market will become Inkheart’s new population.

“You’ve been running the slave market terribly. So we’ve taken over the operating rights, handled the administrative processing, and paid the fines for you, so please be grateful.”

The criminal-origin slaves cracked their knuckles, looking at the bewildered faces of the slave traders.

“Please take these people away. You prefer strong, powerful slaves who work well, don’t you?”

But I wonder if anyone is left to handle these rough fellows since the slave market has collapsed?

The slave traders’ eyes wavered. They seemed to be thinking the same thing. Having lost all their slaves, they should take what’s being offered, but the risk factors they’d have to bear were too great.

“Hey. Once I leave Inkheart, you won’t interfere with whatever I do outside, right?”

“Your slave status disappears if you kill everyone who knows about it…… Kyaa, ptui. Ah, I remained a slave even when others were freed just because I committed one crime. Damn it.”

The slave traders envisioned their futures with twisted necks as soon as they left Castle Inkheart. If such a thing were to happen, the lord and his wife would surely turn a blind eye.

“L-later! We’ll clearly hold you accountable later! Know that us retreating now doesn’t mean we’re retreating completely!”

Scurry. The slave traders withdrew.

“That’s too bad, they don’t want to take you. I guess you good citizens with nowhere to go will have to stay here in Inkheart.”

I said earlier, Inkheart doesn’t want criminals no matter how short of people we are.

“Knights, did you properly load the real criminal-origin slaves into each slave trader’s carriage?”

“Of course, my lady. We tied them up tightly with ropes and left them as gifts on the back seats of the carriages.”

Pfft, I laughed along with today’s accomplices.

Those people will have a hard time on their way back. I don’t want the slave traders who have been ruining Inkheart all this time to return comfortably.

* * *

“Eat slowly. Don’t eat too quickly. Your stomach is weakened, so you might get sick.”

She raised a patient from the sickbed and fed them rice porridge. The patients discovered during the cleanup of the slave market filled the hospital beds.

“You’re eating well. If you continue eating like this, you’ll regain your strength soon.”

“Ah, Saintess……”

She smiled and wiped the patient’s mouth. It had been over a week since she put everything aside to care for the patients. Nursing had become familiar now.

“I’m happy if thinking of me that way comforts you, but I’m not a saintess.”

“But you saved us. No one else has ever looked at us before.”

“That was our lord’s will. The lord of Inkheart is an extremely just person.”

She sensed a new volunteer clumsily bringing curtains to cover the window behind her. She approached him with a kind smile.

“Let me have that. You’re not familiar with the ward yet, right? I’ll do it.”

“Th-thank you. But I don’t know the people in the ward well yet. May I ask who you are?”

“Me?”

To that question, she answered as if it were obvious.

“I’m just a volunteer like all of you.”

At her words, the patient who had been talking with her until just now could be seen covering their mouth.

“Not revealing her identity, she truly is…!”

“What does my identity matter? What’s important is that you all get better quickly. I’m waiting for you all to become residents of our Inkheart.”

It’s true.

These people need to become residents quickly so they can farm, increase production, and keep the economy going.

She has high expectations for population influx.

“From now on, you won’t be slaves sold to someone, but can spend new days as residents of Inkheart.”

“My lady! How can such a person!”

The patient listening to her story finally couldn’t contain their emotion and dropped a hint about her true identity.

“My lady? Are you a noble person?”

“Indeed, from her proper conduct, she didn’t seem like an ordinary person.”

“But a precious person wouldn’t personally nurse the illnesses of slaves like us.”

Patients in nearby beds whispered with curiosity.

She needed to cut this off appropriately.

Let curiosity about her identity naturally rise.

‘I need to show that I’m just working hard without saying a word about my true identity.’

This person shouldn’t be doing this kind of work here, and praise about her true identity should spread through the mouths of others who can’t stand the frustration.