Chapter 234: Rome Restores Slavery (4k)

On the ocean ferry, Moon was sitting on the bed, looking at his pocket watch seriously.

It had been three days since he left the Seven Hills, and he was definitely away from the Goddess.

But the pocket watch showed no sign of anything.

As usual, the pocket watch would usually bring itself back to the human world at this time.

But there has been no response until now.

This made Moen a little uneasy.

He didn't know whether the pocket watch was reminding him that things on his side were not over yet, or whether after the previous flashbacks the pocket watch itself had broken down to the point where it could no longer take him back to the Human Alliance.

Neither of these was something Moen wanted to happen.

But the pocket watch remained silent, even though it had clearly helped itself.

The only thing that comforted Moon was that the pocket watch would still automatically return to him, and just like before, if it went a little beyond the normal distance, it would reappear in one of his pockets.

This at least shows that the pocket watch is not completely broken.

After sighing, Moon carefully put the pocket watch away again.

This time, it was still placed on the heart, together with Ansha's hair ring.

But the reason is no longer to use it to block bullets at critical moments.

After putting away the pocket watch, Moon looked at the two rings in his hands with a headache.

There's nothing wrong with the ring, just carry it with you all the time.

But he had no idea how to place Selene's hair ring.

Now I can keep her in my hands all the time, but what if I meet another goddess?
You can't wear it openly on your hand at that time, right?
But when that time really comes, where should I put Selene's hair ring?
Ansha’s hair ring is already placed on her chest!

How about taking off the ring as well and putting it there as a secret item?
Or should I wear more clothes and put them in separate places for inside and outside?
Moon thought this was theoretically possible.

At the same time, Moon also thought of another point, that is, he was thinking about taking out Ansha's hair ring.

After stroking the ring, he put it on his hand.

Just like that, Moon had three rings on his hands.

Moon also tried to sense the changes around him.

Nothing has changed, I was right.

If you stay away from the goddess and don't put the two rings together, there will be no problem with the protection of the magic ring.

There is no other way.

You can usually wear the goddess' hair ring on your hand, so that the goddess won't wonder why you have never worn a ring. When you meet other goddesses, take off their hair rings and put them on your heart together with the magic ring!
Very doable, but a bit sloppy.
After wiping the non-existent cold sweat guiltily, Moon took out the menu at the door and outlined the meal he wanted.

Then I put it at the door and waited for the waiter to take it away.

This is how meals are served on this airship. Passengers can go to the restaurant or have their meals delivered directly by the airship.

Of course, Moon's experience is only available to passengers in second class and above.

After all, the operators of ocean-going airships are not doing charity.

Soon, the red heart borscht, landrace and white bread that Moon ordered were brought by the waiter.

Looking at the delicious food in front of him, Moon couldn't help but think.

Red heart borscht, Landa vegetables, um. It seems there is no Ansa. Never mind, it's just food, nothing special.

After shaking his head slightly, Moon began to eat happily.

In contrast, Ansha, who had already sent away two goddesses, became more and more irritated.

She always felt like she had been losing somewhere these days?
After looking around suspiciously, Ansha could only shake her head and bite her fingertips, becoming more suspicious.
-
After a ten-day long voyage, the airship Moon was on finally arrived at Capua, the current capital of the Eastern Roman Empire in the Old World.

Of course, this was because the Eastern Roman emperors had always insisted that Constantinople, their real capital, had only fallen temporarily.

Soon the Eastern Roman generals and soldiers would retake the capital and avenge their defeat.

Therefore, Capua, which has replaced Constantinople as the capital of Eastern Roman Empire for thousands of years, is still not officially called the capital.

Even for this purpose they appointed a consul and magistrate to Capua.

Of course, their positions were always sinecures, as the real rulers of Capua were the emperor and the Senate.

The existence of these two people is just to show that Capua is not the capital, but Constantinople is the capital.

Even if everyone has always used it as the capital, it is not called the capital!
And this point is so serious that if anyone dares to say it publicly, he will be deprived of his freedom and become a pariah.

Therefore, every time a foreign airship enters Capua, the crew will never tire of conveying this point to every passenger.

After confirming that they knew this, they told the passengers that their airship would rest in Capua for a day before setting off for the New World.

The New World is also the destination of Moon's trip.

There is no airship that goes directly to the Holy City of Storm Church in Qiqiu, so you can only go to the New World where Storm Church is located to transfer.

After learning the latest boarding time from the crew, Moon also left the dock.

Get ready to take a serious look at this capital that is not a capital.

At the beginning it was fine, a very standard prosperous capital city.

There was a constant stream of people, vendors everywhere but not chaotic, and Roman soldiers in pairs that could be seen from time to time.

Although it looks similar to what Moon remembered, for the extraordinary world, it might be very good if it could remain unchanged.

However, as Moon moved forward, he discovered some places that did not match his memory.

It's not that the scene is different. Capua was not the city built during Moon's reign, and Moon had never been to Capua before.

Instead, a concept that did not exist in Moon's memory appeared - slaves!
They all wore collars that symbolized their slavery, and they looked pale and thin, with numb expressions and a terrible stench.

They were locked in iron cages where they could only curl up, like animals waiting to be slaughtered, and then randomly piled up on the roadside.

There was a more or less broken wooden bowl in each cage. It was empty inside and dirty outside. I guess that was where their food used to be piled.

Moon didn't know what that food was, but he estimated it was worse than pig food.

And they appeared directly in front of Moon without any preparation.

It was just like when Moon went to the farmers' market as a child, he suddenly squeezed through the bustling crowd and saw cages of chickens and ducks in the slaughter area.

The difference is that chickens and ducks are just livestock. They have no souls, cannot speak, and are just domesticated animals.

And here, there is a large group of living people.

But the two are so similar.

Their situation is even worse than that of the chickens and ducks that are well raised by farmers.

It was just a pile of garbage piled together randomly.

If they weren't worried about them causing trouble, they probably wouldn't even have prepared an iron cage. The people coming and going didn't pay any attention to them.

They just covered their noses and stayed away from this smelly place.

Because everyone knew very well that these were slaves of low status, and the least valuable of all slaves - those who were sick, old and weak.

In short, these things cannot be sold at a high price and waste food.

Get rid of the waste and keep the eyesore.

Both the owners who sell them and passers-by look at each of them in this way.

Even Moen saw a sign and a money bag next to their iron cage.

It says: Buy one get two free, each for only thirty copper coins, you can take them away, just leave the money. The key is on the wall.

This made Moon look at the group of ducks under his feet.

They were carefully kept in a large cage, with plenty of fine grain and clean water as food, and the price was forty copper coins each, with slaughter and bleeding free of charge, and plucking was charged extra.

Humans are not even as good as a duck?!
Moon had seen and heard such things many times in games and books.

However, this was the first time he had seen this with his own eyes.

This was even different from those girls, who were precious goods, rare goods worth the great nobles traveling across the world to buy.

Each of them will be carefully maintained to keep them in excellent condition.

As for the slaves here, they might all be killed that night because they couldn't be sold, in order to save the food which was not much at all!

Also, why did Rome have slavery?

During the Republic period, Roman slavery was abolished!

Moon looked at the vendor nearby.

Pointing at the pile of iron cages, he asked very seriously:
"Sir, are those slaves?"

The duck vendor said as if he was used to it:

"Ah, you are also a guest from another continent, right? Well, that's slaves. I heard that there are no slaves in other continents. It's hard to imagine."

"But if you want to return to your country, I suggest you ask those merchants carefully whether your country allows you to take slaves back."

"Don't worry, they have been buying and selling slaves for many years, and many of them are even their ancestral property. They know which countries they directly allow, which countries they can bypass the law, and which countries they don't even need to think about."

After that, the vendor also seriously suggested:
"Also, sir, if you really want to buy a good slave, I suggest you pick one from those cages first. Then you can experience what a slave is like."

"Don't worry. Although they are like this, they are qualified slaves. They will not attack their masters and will obey their masters. And they are very cheap. Outsiders like you can just spend some money to experience it."

"After the experience, if you think it's good, go buy a real good slave."

"Experience? What if you think it's not possible, or what about the slave himself?"

Moen was a little surprised.

The vendor smiled as if nothing had happened and said:

"You are the first person to ask this question. Outsiders like you are really easy to identify. Well, as for your question? It's too simple. Kill it, throw it away, or sell it again. Isn't it up to you?"

"It's just a few dozen copper coins anyway."

The other party's answer made Moon couldn't help but look at the passers-by on both sides.

Each of them heard these speeches, but none of them thought there was anything wrong with it.

Slavery has been deeply rooted in people's minds and has even become a part of their lives.

It can be said that if some of them unfortunately became slaves, they would never curse the ignorant and backward slavery system, but would hate why they were made into slaves.

After taking another look at the iron cages that looked like they held livestock, Moon asked:
"How long has this system lasted? I remember that slavery was abolished long ago in the time of Augustus."

The vendor also showed a look of surprise for the first time:
"What? When have we ever stopped the buying and selling of slaves?"

"The Age of Augustus."

"That Augustus?"

Moon went on to explain:
"The Age of Augustus Julius, the Second Age."

"Well, we've had many Augustus Julius the Great. Ah, you mean the first one?"

"Yes, the Augustus before the division of Rome."

The merchant finally understood and said:

"I don't know the details, but it seems that after he died, this is what happened."

"What? After Augustus died? Immediately?"

The emergence of Rome and the archive of Augustus were all started by Moon for one thing - to clean up the mess of the War of Apocalypse.

After finishing all this and barely patching up the broken world, Moon ended the save.

Moon knew that even if Rome succeeded in integrating the world, it would not be able to maintain everything under the circumstances at the time.

The divine power is gradually recovering, and the major races are recovering more and more.

Everything is destined to make the world fall apart.

All he could do was to maintain Rome while he, a mortal, lived.

But if he were dead, or if he were no longer mortal, Rome would surely fall apart immediately.

Because of him, the tacit understanding between him and many forces and the new gods - the necessity of mending the broken world has been solved by him personally!
Therefore, Rome's glory was destined to be short-lived, and before the glory reached its peak, Moon arranged a tribute farewell for himself - the death of Caesar.

Although the core purpose of establishing Rome was just to mend the world, Moon really did not expect that everything he left behind would be overturned in an instant after his death.

Did we leave too hastily?
But if we are not in a hurry, how can we mend this broken world that has been nearly destroyed by the eldest sons in a short period of time?
The merchant shrugged and said:
"I don't know, sir. I'm just a duck seller. You should probably ask the scholars. They know more about this than I do."

The vendor said, pointing to the luxurious buildings next to the iron cages:

"You're in luck. That house is the largest slave trade house here. Well, although I heard that the best one is not theirs, but if you just want to ask about the history of slaves, they are definitely enough."

After looking in the direction of the other person's finger.

Moon took out a vampire silver coin and gave it to the other party as a thank you.

Then, in the face of the other party's happy smile, Moon asked seriously:
"Sir, can you imagine a life without slaves?"

The businessman scratched his head and said:

"Honestly, sir, I can't imagine having no one to help me keep an eye on the ducks day and night."

"Well, can you imagine being a slave?"

The businessman was stunned for a moment and then said:

"It seems impossible, sir."

(End of this chapter)