Among these slaves, Zong Shen discovered three particularly interesting individuals.

One of them was a middle-aged man with a stubbled face, looking dull and dazed, only able to give a naive smile upon seeing Zong Shen, yet he was a Heroic Level talent with excellent qualifications.

Thanks to the strategy hints, Zong Shen saw through his disguise and learned about his background and how he ended up as a slave.

His name was Hoy, hailing from the adjacent Nord Kingdom, under the jurisdiction of Gothic Castle in Wabelle Giant City. He was originally a confidant under Viscount Hector, responsible for managing the taxes and tenant farmers of seven villages near Gothic Castle, serving Viscount Hector safely and without error for over a decade.

The villager taxes were one of the most important income sources for Gothic Castle, besides trade. The miscellaneous taxes and tenant dues from the seven villages amounted to over 200,000 Mainland Continent Universal Dinar annually, and the accounts he managed were always precise. This lucrative role naturally attracted the attention of other confidants under the viscount.

But he handled matters smoothly for many years without a single mistake, leaving others with no fault to find.

Viscount Hector had three children—one son, one daughter, and a twelve-year-old younger daughter. Besides managing the tenant taxes for the villages under Gothic Castle, Hoy was also responsible for tutoring Viscount Hector's children, akin to a private tutor.

The viscount's three children were mainly taught by Hoy, and upon reaching the age of fourteen, they were sent to study at the academy in Wabelle Giant City.

The older son and daughter were fine, but the issue arose with the younger daughter. In this world, people matured early, with many becoming parents by sixteen. The young daughter, at twelve years old, was already awakening to romance, with her affection directed towards her teacher, Hoy, who often taught her reading and writing by her side.

The viscount's young daughter privately arranged a meeting with Hoy, agreeing to meet in the small woods near the castle. As for Hoy, he didn't agree to the meeting out of feelings for the viscount's daughter but rather to clarify matters.

Hoy was well aware that such matters often required sacrificing one's life. The offspring of minor nobles would only marry other nobles to expand family influence and increase their aristocratic social circle.

This continent was vast, and similar melodramatic incidents were numerous. The nobles were not as noble as the commoners imagined; they could be foolish and make mistakes, even more so than commoners, indulging in absurdity.

Hoy naturally understood this, striving to avoid it, yet unexpectedly fell into the trap. This issue was reported to Viscount Hector's chief confidant by the young daughter's personal maid.

Hence, seizing the opportunity during their rendezvous, the castle's private forces captured Hoy.

Presented before Viscount Hector, the young daughter's naïve thoughts were easily extracted, causing Viscount Hector, despite valuing Hoy, to no longer keep him.

After much turmoil, under the chief confidant's covert maneuvering, Hoy was sold to a slave merchant.

Enduring much hardship in that year, traveling across several giant cities and traversing tens of thousands of miles, Hoy finally arrived in the Avalon Kingdom, feigning madness and foolishness all along to select an appropriate master for himself.

Those lords and large landlords with extensive slave-rearing experience were not among his choices, for those experienced in slave keeping posed an inescapable bond, imprisoning Hoy without any chance of escape until death.

His feigned foolishness made him a troublesome fixture among the slaves.

He couldn't be killed, nor sold, and keeping him indefinitely incurred expenses. Despite slaves' low status, they still required basic sustenance, which was a considerable expense over time.

While the original slave merchant pondered whether to directly dispose of Hoy, a turning point appeared when a fellow merchant in need of stock offered to take Hoy off his hands at a low price, and this business partner happened to be Bamogo.

The story was convoluted and melodramatic, yet it couldn't obscure the fact that Hoy was a brilliant, excellent-level hero.

This guy was smart and self-disciplined, with a remarkably subdued desire for personal gain.

Managing over a decade of complex tenant taxes for Viscount Hector, he not only performed his tasks meticulously but also indulged in no corruption or malpractice, leaving no blemish for his rivals to exploit over the years.

If not for the viscount's young daughter's romantic inclinations, this fellow would have continued serving in Gothic Castle.

At this moment, watching Zong Shen scrutinizing him, Hoy internally lamented that all might be lost.

From the cage, he observed Zong Shen's territory, viewing it as a very basic armed settlement, requiring immense effort even to form a village, let alone advance to the level of Bang City or a castle.

The primary accumulation of population was a process demanding time, and without the outbreak of a massive kingdom war, gathering sufficient population wasn't easy.

The true opportunity for development often emerged during war, when vast populations could be acquired at once, and the migration of refugees would significantly increase.

Therefore, he determined that such a territory severely lacked basic labor force, a conclusion he drew from basic assessments.

Unexpectedly, Zong Shen seemed to have taken a special interest in him at a glance, causing Hoy some hesitation and doubt.

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