“Did everyone cover their mouths and noses? Since patients with weak immune systems have been left unattended, an epidemic may be spreading. Be careful to rescue the patients while avoiding contact with bodily fluids as much as possible!”

“The doctor has arrived! We can immediately classify patients according to their level of risk!”

“Emergency equipment has been brought!”

“Alright, I’m opening the door!”

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

“Wh-who…?”

“Don’t open your eyes. If you suddenly see sunlight after being accustomed to darkness for a long time, you may damage your eyes.”

“Mother!”

Aaron recognized his mother leaning weakly against the wall and ran to her.

“Rigolus, that wretched man. He always said there was no slave trader like him and told us not to be prejudiced that all slave traders are the same kind…”

Lord Lucian gritted his teeth.

Darius said nothing. He just stared with bloodshot eyes, as if engraving this scene in his memory.

If he hadn’t made a decision now, this sight would have continued for a while longer.

“Fortunately, there don’t seem to be any patients in immediate danger!”

Schmidt reported.

“Cough, cough!”

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

“Sylph.”

As I directed fresh air toward the coughing woman, her cough 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 after my simple treatment.”

“Thank you!”

“H-holy maiden! Please bestow your miracle upon me as well…”

When Aaron’s mother’s cough immediately stopped at my simple gesture, the slaves who had been waiting only for the day of their death approached me with wide eyes.

‘Ah, well. This isn’t even a difficult task.’

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

“Ah, thanks to the holy maiden’s grace, I feel my body becoming lighter!”

“To think we could feel the air of a deep forest in this death-like dungeon…”

These people, if I showed them water pouring from my bare hands using Undine, they’d probably worship it as holy water.

I hope this provides some comfort to those weak in body and mind… As I turned to look at our knights.

“This is the wind of spirits… Breathing it in, I feel energy rising within me.”

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

“I feel my body strengthening as well.”

I should have recognized it from the first time I saw Sir Dwayne, who believed in the quack healer saying that if you apply medicine to a sword, the sword and wound are linked and heal. These people are pseudo-science believers.

“Everyone, if someone who looks pure of spirit asks you to have a chat and offer a prayer, absolutely do not follow them.”

“We are people serving Lady Anette. We will absolutely not be scouted elsewhere!”

“Right, rather believe in me.”

I’ll take from you at a conscientious level. Whatever that may be.

* * *

I dealt with the slave market issue conscientiously. I listened carefully to the voices of the slaves and investigated the environment in which slave trade had been conducted over the past 10 years.

I knew there would be many fishy things, but when I dug into it, there really were a lot of problems.

I also punished the slave trade inspectors who had reported that slave trade was being conducted normally in Inkhart without any legal issues.

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

The gates of the Northern Inkhart slave market, Inkhart’s disgrace and the hidden delicacy of the capital’s nobles, were closed.

It was confiscation.

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

“How dare you arbitrarily seize others’ private property! Is this the result of our dedication to Inkhart’s development over the past 10 years!”

“Don’t underestimate us as mere merchants! If our connections come together, Inkhart will have to pay enormous compensation for its current actions!”

“That’s right, our guild is favored by Count Fairy in the capital!”

“Are you really favored?”

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

Count Fairy probably doesn’t want to be associated with you right now.

Despite their crimes being so evident, the slave traders showed no signs of remorse. Instead, they were crowding into Inkhart Castle, demanding the return of their slaves.

“Alright. I’ll return the slaves.”

“Ahem, you should have said so from the beginning!”

Rumble. As soon as I finished speaking, a door on one side of the conference room opened, and menacing men entered, dragging chains. Each one had tattoos on their thick forearms, which was frightening.

“We investigated their identities, and these people turned out to be criminals. Since it’s certain they became slaves for committing crimes, in this case, it’s right to return them.”

Inkhart doesn’t need criminals.

“However, we can’t return those who became slaves unjustly after thorough investigation. Inkhart has already erased their slave status.”

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

“You’ve been running the slave market terribly all this time. So we took over the operating rights, handled the administrative work instead, and paid fines, so you should be very grateful.”

As I looked at the bewildered faces of the slave traders, the former criminal slaves stretched their bodies, cracking their knuckles.

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

But I wonder if there are people left to handle these rough fellows now that the slave market has collapsed?

The eyes of the slave traders wavered. They seemed to be thinking the same thing. Having lost all their slaves, they needed to take what was being handed over, but the risk factors they had to bear were too great to accept readily.

“Hey. Once we’re outside of Inkhart, you won’t interfere no matter what we do, right?”

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

In the eyes of the slave traders, they saw their future with their necks twisted as soon as they left Inkhart Castle. If such a thing were to actually happen, the lord and lady would certainly turn a blind eye.

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

Hurriedly, the slave traders withdrew.

“It’s a shame, they don’t want to take you with them. I guess you innocent citizens with nowhere to go will have to stay here in Inkhart.”

I said earlier, didn’t I? That no matter how few people there are in Inkhart, we don’t want criminals.

“Knights, you did load the real criminal slaves onto each slave trader’s carriage, right?”

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

Snicker, I laughed along with today’s accomplices.

Those people are going to have a tough time on their way back. I don’t want the slave traders who have been ruining Inkhart all this time to return comfortably.

* * *

“Eat slowly. Don’t eat in a hurry. Your stomach is weakened, so you might get sick.”

I raised the patient in the sickbed and fed them rice porridge. There were so many patients discovered in the process of cleaning up the slave market that they filled the sickbeds to capacity.

“You’re eating well. If you keep eating like this, you’ll be able to regain your strength soon.”

“Ah, holy maiden…”

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

“If thinking of me that way comforts you, I’m glad, but I’m not a holy maiden.”

“But you saved us. Until now, no one had ever looked at us.”

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

Behind me, I felt a new volunteer clumsily bringing curtains to block the window. I approached him and gave him a kind smile.

“Let me take 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. Who might you be?”

“Me?”

I answered as if it were obvious to that question.

“I’m just one of the volunteers. Just like all of you.”

At my words, I saw the patient who had been talking to me until just now cover their mouth.

“Not revealing your identity, as expected of…”

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

It’s true.

These people need to become citizens quickly so they can farm, increase production, and get the economy moving.

I have high expectations for population influx.

“From now on, you won’t be slaves sold to someone, but you’ll be able to spend new days as citizens of Inkhart.”

“My lady! How can such a person…!”

Unable to contain their emotion any longer, the patient who had been listening to my story finally dropped a hint about my true identity.

“My lady? Are you a noble person?”

“Indeed, from that refined behavior, she didn’t seem like an ordinary person.”

“But how could a precious person like that personally tend to the illnesses of slaves like us?”

Patients in the neighboring beds whispered curiously.

I had to cut it off appropriately here.

Let the curiosity about my true identity naturally heat up.

‘I must show a diligent work ethic without uttering a word about my true identity.’

This person shouldn’t be doing this kind of work here, and let the praise for my true identity spread through the mouths of others who can’t bear the frustration.