Hoping to exhaust the entire power of the Kingdom, completely disregarding everything else, halting all developments of the nation, ignoring the lives of common folk in a frantic attempt to amass wealth — it would still take twenty years to gather just the basic financial resources…

Not to mention, many of the required materials are rare commodities that money can't buy.

More important than financial power is always strength.

Without strength and only financial power, one is like a child carrying a gold brick through a bustling market, like a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.

And for the current Elda Territory, the strength is now slightly adequate, with plenty of high-end combat power, but financial strength is still somewhat lacking.

Therefore, Herbert had no choice but to make a painful decision and opt for a cheaper alternative.

"We need to find some cheap labor… Hmm, volunteers who are willing to come here and join us in building a beautiful home!"

"Haha, then casually sign a contract with them when the time comes, I'll decide the specific clauses… I'm so familiar with this!"

Without deliberately deceiving, a small little trick in the wording can trap them.

Just like the promises made by some unscrupulous web novel authors — daily updates of four to six thousand words.

But in the end, they only updated a thousand words.

"I said 'four to six thousand words,' who told you it was 'four thousand to six thousand words'?"

Can you say he's wrong?

It's written in black and white, and he hasn't breached the contract.

But can such a person be forgiven?

Absolutely not!

But the problem is, all the interpretative power lies in the hands of the boss; the humble workers simply are not a match.

As long as it's handled properly, such things can be effortlessly replicated.

Her-Lantern Ornament-Beautiful Vision-Bert, thought as such.

Unconsciously revealing a smile of anticipation.

"Heh heh, heh heh heh…"

"What we need to do now is find these lucky individuals and successfully persuade them!"

After listening to Herbert's twisted logic, Harmonious God provided a summary:

["In other words, you need slaves, lots of slaves, right now."]

"Hey, hey, hey, I already said volunteers, don't say it so bluntly, or they'll be hurt when they hear it."

Herbert always considered himself a very soft-hearted person, unwilling to easily hurt anyone's self-esteem or crush their dreams.

"They're our future residents! They're our good brothers working together to build a home!"

["Heh, fine, I understand they're residents, alright?"]

Nenasha couldn't argue against Herbert and had to accept the meaningless phrase and continued:

["But where are you going to find the residents? Aren't you supposed to keep Elda's matters secret? Where do you plan to find so many residents?"]

["Purchase slaves from the outside? Speaking of which, aren't you planning to use that little Demon to find an appropriate slave trade route in those nobles' minds?"]

Herbert intended to hand over the souls of those nobles to Kreti for two reasons.

One aspect was to gather more clues about the Witch Association, preparing for a destined encounter with enemies.

On the other hand, it was also to accept the dark wealth behind those nobles.

Farms, caravans, mineral resources, and… some secret slave trades.

After the reshuffling of the upper powers of the Kingdom, a new batch of power divisions is bound to occur.

Herbert, while not able to openly reveal himself, would inevitably expose his role if he did.

But he wouldn't just sit back and allow those who neither contributed nor worked, who survived purely through hiding, to take away benefits that belonged to him.

That's what belongs to him.

Herbert could share with them some scraps he couldn't finish, but they can't actively rob, much less reach for what's his meat!

And the most important link within is the slave trade.

Just as Herbert had planned before — once the old major clients die, those slave merchants are bound to look for new customers.

In this era where most Divine Spirits support slavery, slave trade will never disappear.

It's even continuously the biggest source of profit!

Not only nobles purchase slaves to satisfy their dark desires, but some Divine Spirit Churches covertly collaborate with slaves merchants.

The Divine Spirit Church purchases a batch of slaves in advance from the slave merchants, then dispatches a team to raid the slave traders midway to heroically 'rescue' the slaves.

Performing a heroic act of saving the beauty.

Ultimately, they smoothly absorb those grateful slaves as their followers — ending perfectly!

From the result alone, it seems like a win-win situation with no losers.

The slaves gain freedom, the slave merchants earn wealth, and the Divine Spirit Church gains followers.

Win!

Everyone wins, wins, wins!

But in reality, this assumption entirely ignores the thoughts of the slaves.

Completely disregarding their views as individuals being treated as equals, thoroughly ignoring their will.

This is the extreme form of objectification.

In the eyes of the slave merchants, slaves are just merchandise capable of creating value, subject to arbitrary abuse.

In the perspective of the Divine Spirit Church, the value of slaves is merely to provide Power of Faith for the deities they serve. After death, they become mere expendables in the Divine Kingdom.

No one cares about the slaves' thoughts nor their life and death.

In exchange for the high profits of slave trade, is tens of thousands, and even hundreds of thousands, of poor souls perishing within the trade.

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