Chapter 51: Ch 51: Kinsek Village

Once again, Aiden was reminded of how comfortable his village was with all the new innovations because the journey outside made his back hurt due to constantly being jolted around.

After half a day’s travel, they finally arrived at Kinsek Village. But it was only possible because the paved road cut their travel time in half.

"We are finally back home. Please allow me to welcome you..."

Caelion presented Aiden with the village...or rather, what was supposed to be a village but was nothing more than a cluster of wrecked houses stuck between a few large and solid ones.

"Allow me to give you a brief summary of this place. Kinsek Village has a population of 150 people, with 4 major ruling families and the rest are slaves. The ruling families have a total of 30 people, while everyone else here are their slaves."

The situation did sound dire from what Aiden heard, but somehow he was not surprised.

He did avert his goddess’s eyes from the dreadfully barren scene in front of her, though. There was no need to show her such an ugly side of humanity.

Caelion continued once he allowed Aiden some time to absorb what he had said until now.

"As you would expect from such a situation—the more slaves you have, the more power you have. Under these circumstances, you would expect all families to have similar numbers of slaves, right?"

"That would be the natural assumption. But from how you speak, it does not seem to be the case?"

Aiden asked, looking at the village again.

"That’s right. Right now, there is a huge imbalance in this village, and one of these families is about to give birth to a god that will swallow the other three. So they are preparing to stop the River family from rising too much."

Caelion pointed out.

So far, things were easy to make sense of. Moreover, it clarified how a slave had been able to run away from the village and come to Aiden for help.

The family Caelion belonged to must have deliberately allowed him to escape so that he could help.

"Caelion, I came here in order to help out, but make no mistake. This village is not my priority, and neither should it be yours from now on. Whatever life you lived before, forget about it. This is not advice but a warning."

The look on Caelion’s face was sour.

As a human, Aiden did understand that it was hard for Caelion to throw away everything he had held valuable until now and shift his priorities. But at the same time...

’It is not something I need to bother with understanding. Whatever reason led Caelion to us, it does not change the fact that his life now belongs to Goddess Apophis. And I will not allow him to betray us.’

Aiden turned toward the ex-slave and walked toward him until he stood right in front of him. He could see Caelion’s cautious look and allowed him to take a step back.

"Caelion, since you are now part of us, we will protect you. But if you betray us, then there will be no going back."

Aiden’s hand rested on Caelion’s shoulder to reinforce his words.

He watched as the ex-slave tensed, waiting for additional punishment to come. But that was all Aiden did before he pulled back.

This was to show that he was not a threat, but he was not a pushover at the same time. He was willing to give Caelion the time that he needed, but only if he was ready to fulfil his duty.

He gave Caelion some time to calm down, and once the ex-slave was ready, they headed toward his former owner’s home.

...

Aiden quickly noticed what Caelion meant when he said that all the power in this village belonged to one family.

While on the surface, it seemed like the village was divided into four segments, walking inside told a different story.

The slaves from different families wore different clothes. The ones from the Septa family wore yellow, those from the Trinity family wore blue, those from the Kensen family wore red, while those from the River family wore white.

And so far, all Aiden had seen were white clothes.

He could count slaves wearing another color on one hand.

"We never had an official count, but it is said that out of 120 slaves, 100 are owned by the River family. They have eyes and ears everywhere, even in other households. It is hard to keep information private from them. I am sure they must already be aware of your arrival."

Caelion pointed out as he knocked at the door of the Kensen family.

The door was opened by a slave wearing red, and her eyes widened in shock as soon as she saw Caelion.

"Y-You are back alive? H-How did you...? No, it doesn’t matter! Hurry up and come inside. We have a mountain of work to do. Master is angry that you disappeared—"

The slave in red reached toward Caelion to grab his wrist, but Aiden was faster and grabbed her wrist instead.

His sudden action made the slave in red flinch and step back.

"Please do not touch my fellow priest so carelessly. He is under Goddess Apophis’s care, so any rudeness shown toward him will be taken as rudeness shown toward her."

Aiden warned the female slave, and she looked hesitant to follow his words. Her eyes kept looking at Caelion, but he looked unbothered.

But before he could make any declaration, loud footsteps were heard from the inside, and the female slave quickly went down on her knees.

Caelion looked like he was about to follow, so Aiden grabbed him before he could embarrass himself and their goddess.

The large inner door of the house snapped open, and an obese man stepped out. He looked like he had not worked a single day, and his eyes shined as soon as he saw Caelion.

"My slave, you are finally back! Did you do what I ordered you to? If you did, then stop standing around and go back to work...and who is that behind you? He’s a new face? Is he a slave as well? Let me see—"

The obese lord stepped toward Aiden, only to be knocked out by Goddess Apophis.

She kept herself hidden under Aiden’s robes, but the way she moved told Aiden that she was happy to have taught this rude man a lesson.

Unfortunately, a few people mistook the obese man being unconscious as being dead.

"L-Lord River is dead! Someone, go and get the house head! The young lord has died!"