He took Seth back to his residence. Although this big-headed guy was still full of curiosity about Duwei, before leaving, Deacon Clark had sternly reminded Seth that starting from today, everything in the future would be done.
Follow the orders of Master Duwei.
"It's like treating your teacher." That's how Clark described it.
Of course, it turns out that Seth has a teacher, and his teacher has a pretty good status in the Magic Guild. He was the same teacher who once entered the frozen forest with Gargamel, but after meeting Medusa, he tricked Gargamel.
A handful, Master Aziz, the guy who ran away first.
However, Seth had no status under Az, otherwise he would not have been assigned to sell wands. As an eighth-level magician in the Magic Guild, Az had many magic apprentices, and Seth was not lacking.
Such a one.
Therefore, from now on, Seth has changed his family and officially joined Du Wei's family.
"What's wrong, Seth?" Du Wei saw that this big-headed guy looked a little strange, and Wen Yan asked, "What are you thinking about?"
"No, no, it's nothing, Du Wei...Teacher Du Wei." Seth honestly called Du Wei "teacher" according to the tradition of the magic union. However, Du Wei frowned a little when he heard this title.
"Set." Duwei stopped and looked at the genius in magic research who he abducted: "I don't need you to call me teacher."
"But this is tradition..." Seth defended in a low voice: "In the magic union, all magic apprentices must call the magicians they are loyal to as 'teacher'."
"But I'm not your teacher." Du Wei shook his head: "You're not my student either, and I have nothing to teach you. I brought you here because I need your brains. To exaggerate, I
I need you to teach me something. Haha..."
Seth was terrified.
Du Wei patted this stupid guy, looked at his big head, and said with a smile: "Okay, you will understand in the future. What I like is your talent. I hope you can use your talent to help
I accomplished a lot."
Then, regardless of Seth's expression, Du Wei pointed to the front of the street: "Look, my residence has arrived."
In front is Du Wei's current temporary residence. This courtyard originally belonged to the eldest prince. It is said that it was the place where the eldest prince used to hide his beauty in the golden house. Of course, this is a rumor, and no one knows whether it is true. Du Wei doesn't know either.
Concern, he is leaving the imperial capital anyway.
This house is not small. When Du Wei moved in, the servants inside and the people who used to guard the house had all been dismissed with the fall of the eldest prince. Du Wei didn't bother to find anyone anymore. Now
The only people living in the house were an old servant, Ma De, and two former servants of the Luo Lin family. After the Luo Lin family moved back to Luo Lin Plain, they were unwilling to leave the imperial capital, so they stayed and remained under Du Wei for the time being.
In addition, the current family members include Vivian, the mouse Gargamel, and the mythical beast QQ. However, the existence of the mouse Gargamel and QQ is still a secret to everyone. Only Du Wei knows about these two guys.
exist.
When he came back, Du Wei was surprised to see this little girl Vivian standing at the door of the house, sitting so quietly on the steps of the door, holding her chin in her hands. She looked pitifully at the end of the street, probably
Because she stayed too long, the little silly girl was in a daze and didn't even notice Du Wei approaching.
"Why are you here?" Du Wei smiled and looked at Vivian who was sitting on the steps in a daze.
In fact, he was quite happy to see Vivian coming out. Ever since he brought Vivian back from "Brokeback Mountain" that day, this little girl who was already weak-tempered suddenly learned the news that her teacher had passed away. She came back.
After that, I kept myself locked in my room and felt depressed every day.
Du Wei went to see her several times every day, but every time he went, the little girl was silent and looked sad. Du Wei also tried to talk to tease her, but every time he talked, the little girl suddenly became confused.
She burst into tears. In the end, Du Wei had no choice but to let herself rest quietly in the room. I think as time passes day by day, the pain in her heart will eventually dissipate.
Sure enough, today he saw Vivian finally coming out and sitting at the door of the house. Du Wei walked up, reached out and tapped her head lightly, squinted his eyes and smiled: "Hey! Are you there?
Are you in a daze? Didn't you hear me?"
Vivian raised her eyelids, blinked twice, looked at Du Wei, and gradually came back to her senses. Then she stood up, rubbed her sore knees, and whispered: "You, have you passed the exam?
?”
Xiao Nizi still looked weak, but the pain in her eyes was much lighter, and her tone still contained concern for Du Wei.
Du Wei smiled and his tone became much softer: "Are you sitting here specifically to wait for me?"
"I...I'm worried about you." Vivian blushed and lowered her head: "The magic test is very difficult. I'm worried..."
Du Wei patted his chest hard, with a magic pharmacist's badge hanging on it, and said with a smile: "Don't worry, look, this is my badge. The person standing in front of you now is already a qualified magician."
Master!"
Vivian stared at the Potion Master badge on Du Wei's chest with wide eyes, but before the little girl could say anything, Du Wei had already taken Vivian by the hand and strode towards the house. After taking two steps, he turned around.
He looked at Seth: "What are you doing standing still? Come in!"
Mud also quickly ran out of it. Duwei ordered Mud to take Seth in: "Let him choose a room by himself. There are so many rooms here anyway. Alas, it becomes deserted at night, like a ghost house."
.”
Mad nodded and was about to go down when he suddenly remembered something and turned around and said: "Master, Miss Ruolin has been here. She said that there is something going on in our shop and the business has been good recently. But there is not enough manpower. If
If possible, she hopes you will go to the shop to have a look. Moreover, she seems to be dissatisfied with the two craftsmen in our shop now... Also, the four quadruplets you sent to the shop seem to be Ruolin.
The lady is not very satisfied with them either."
Du Wei nodded: "Mader, I understand... um. Also, please remember one thing. Don't say 'Miss Ruolin' again in the future. Remember, she is a knight. No matter where you are in the future,
On any occasion, when you have to mention her, you must say 'Your Excellency, Knight Ruolin'. Remember? This is very important."
Ruolin is indeed worried about something.
Although she has the right boss now, and judging from the trend, this boss Du Wei is rising step by step, and his future is bright. Moreover, Du Wei also trusts Ruolin very much, and has decided to take down such a rising star in the imperial capital.
Jin's business was completely left to Ruolin to manage.
However, Ruolin didn't like this job.
In essence, she prefers to manage the pirates, or at least lead the fleet to sail on the sea and experience the wind and rain. That kind of adventurous life full of novelty and excitement makes Ruolin's heart move more than wearing a gorgeous outfit every day.
The almost ridiculous armor is surrounded by a group of hypocritical nobles.
However, Ruolin still obeyed Du Wei's arrangement. She was a smart woman, and she saw the difficulty of Du Wei's current shortage of manpower. Although this young master rose to greatness very quickly, he started too quickly and had no foundation at all.
The lack of available people is currently a fatal flaw for Du Wei. If this problem is not solved, it will cause great trouble for Du Wei's development.
Therefore, Ruolin still obeyed.
She managed the business in her hands with all her heart, and she fully demonstrated her abilities. She was surrounded by groups of nobles every day. She didn't need to sacrifice a little bit of lust occasionally like she did when she was walking around the world...
...Thanks to Du Wei for packaging her image, in fact, as long as Ruolin deliberately maintains a cold look, the nobles will surround her like flies.
Ruolin felt that she was almost too busy. Although she knew that today was the day when Master Du Wei went to the Magic Guild to take the exam, this smart female knight had great confidence in Du Wei... Just kidding, she knew all about this young master too well.
The test was a piece of cake for this young master? So, in the morning, she didn't even show concern for Du Wei's test results. Instead, she stayed in the shop and dealt with it.
Issues.
The current business is very good. In just a few days, it has brought Du Wei more than 1.5 million gold coins in income, deducting the initial investment cost, the cost of buying the store, personnel expenses, and the location of goods.
The cost is just that in these three days, Du Wei has made a net profit of one million gold coins.
Without the exploitation of the black-hearted merchants in the middle, Du Wei's fleet can continuously transport the goods hunted by the mercenary adventure groups from the frozen forest from the north directly to the imperial capital. The freshest goods, plus slightly lower prices
The price of a little bit, and Du Wei's current reputation in the aristocratic circle, made it possible that in just three days, almost half of the entire shipload of goods that Ruolin brought last time had been sold.
In the morning, she had already sent people back as quickly as possible to deliver messages to the ship anchored in Walker Port, and asked people to continue purchasing in the north and transport the goods to the imperial capital.
And then, she finally waited for Du Wei.
Du Wei brought Vivian with him. Now that this little girl is finally willing to leave the room, she can no longer be bored at home alone. Taking her out for a walk will also be of great benefit to ease her mood.
of.
Vivian is very interested in the various goods from the northern frozen forest in the industry run by Du Wei. From a magician's perspective, Vivian feels that many things are very useful.
Leaving Vivian there to slowly choose, Du Wei and Ruolin went to the room upstairs to talk carefully for a while.
Ruolin first talked about some of the problems she is currently facing.
First of all, there is a shortage of manpower. Since it is a business for the aristocratic group, the store also needs some strictly trained waiters... Those aristocrats are not ordinary people. If you just go to the slave market and buy a few people back, they have not gone through strict etiquette training.
It will make people talk behind his back, and it will also lose Du Wei's face. The nobles are very particular about these things.
Secondly, there is the problem of craftsmen. Most of the goods shipped from the north are raw materials, although Du Wei had hired several good craftsmen in the imperial capital at high prices before opening the business. There were blacksmiths, tailors, carpenters, and several others.
A carver. But it's still not enough.
To make the furs of those monsters into exquisite clothes and fur coats, you can't just sew and mend them casually. While the nobles pay attention to the materials, they also pay great attention to the novelty of the styles. In this regard, it is obviously insufficient.
Although most of those precious magic cores have been ordered by the magic union, some wealthy and noble families will also come to purchase them to please the magicians they recruit in their families. There are also some weapons...
Speaking of weapons, this is what gives Ruolin the biggest headache.
The materials currently stored in the warehouse are all high-quality goods, but the two blacksmiths under them are too mediocre. And the manpower is too few. Just last night, these two mediocre blacksmiths were forging a set of equipment.
At that time, I damaged two earth dragon scales, and accidentally destroyed a slender stabbing sword designed for the most popular nobles at present due to insufficient heat during quenching. Due to the problem of controlling the heat,
The sword was designed to be as thin as a chopstick. When it was tried, it was easily broken by a blacksmith's tongs.
The two blacksmiths have actually worked very hard, but their talent is really insufficient. And although they have made weapons before, they have never been exposed to so many high-quality materials.
These are just the current problems. But what makes Ruolin most angry...are the quadruplets of female magic apprentices coming from Duweise!
Those four beautiful quadruplets were originally the pets of a man worth millions of gold coins, but Du Wei didn't seem to have any interest in these four girls. After the store opened, he just took them away.
A woman was thrown into Ruolin's hand.
Duweidi's idea is very simple. He hopes to continue to develop his business and produce some magic props in the future! Magicians are not short of money. On the one hand, they also have the favor of a large number of nobles and give away countless wealth.
, On the one hand, magicians own all kinds of precious gems. Such a group is what Du Wei considers to be the best consumers.
The magic cores of these magical beasts transported from the north can produce many things that attract magicians, and Du Wei also knows very well. Selling raw materials is far inferior to selling finished products! The profit will also increase several times. However, the manufacturing of magic props.
It is not something that ordinary craftsmen can do.
In Roland Continent, there is a special profession called "Magic Maker". This professional group is very small and the number of people is not large. It mainly specializes in making various props that magicians need, such as wands, crystal balls, etc.
Magic auxiliary props, there are even people who can create magic scrolls!
However, this professional group is also very weird. Some magicians are excellent magicians themselves. The magic props they create are mainly for their own use. Occasionally, they will also create some props and spread them on the market. Of course, such magic tools
There are very few magicians, and only those who are both magicians and magicians can create magic scrolls.
Most of the magicians are magic apprentices, but they do not have the talent to become magicians. In the end, they have to become magicians, using their own magic knowledge to specially create all kinds of things that magicians need.
thing.
But no matter what magic maker they are, they are currently unable to be recruited by Du Wei. This is because almost all magic makers belong to the magic union. And those magic makers who are originally magicians will not be casually recruited by someone.
Personal solicitation.
Therefore, Du Wei has high hopes for the quadruplets, hoping that these four girls can use their magic knowledge to eventually become money-making machines in their hands.
Obviously, Du Wei's understanding of the value of these four girls is different from that of most men.
If it had been any other noble, I'm afraid they would have taken these precious quadruplets into their house and kept them as a concubine.
"Your Majesty the Duke, with all due respect, I'd better ask you to take these four 'eldest ladies' back!" Ruolin said rudely: "They are not here to help me at all! I have to divide my time every day
Manpower to serve them! Huh..."
Du Wei frowned: "Is there such a thing?"
Next, Ruolin told Du Wei what she had experienced in the past few days.
It turned out that not only Ruolin was depressed, but the quadruplets were also depressed. They had been four beauties since childhood. After being bought back by Count Villa, they had undergone rigorous training and learned some magic knowledge. But compared to
Count Leah's expectations for them. Frankly speaking: they receive all the training to please men in the future.
Even during the days when they were being trained at the Earl of Villa's Palace, the quadruplets were being cared for. Apart from the training, their lives were almost comparable to those of young ladies from small aristocratic families.
After being given to Du Wei, the four girls were very satisfied at first. After all, Du Wei was young, powerful, handsome, and had a distinguished family background. He had recently become a popular Grand Duke.
These four girls only thought that if they could please the Duke in the future and gain his favor, they would fly up the branches and become phoenixes.
It's a pity that Du Wei didn't even think of laying a finger on them. He even threw them into Ruolin's hands as errands!
The most annoying thing is Ruolin! This rude woman, this cold woman. She actually dares to ask her delicate self to do work!
…
After listening to Ruolin's narration, Du Wei's face turned gloomy. He glanced at Ruolin and said, "Is there nothing you can do against them? Knight Ruolin, I'm very disappointed in you! You were able to clean up a bunch of unruly pirates back then.
Come down, but now you can’t even do anything to the four little girls?”
Ruolin looked a little embarrassed: "Sir... these four ladies are sent from you after all, I..."
Du Wei immediately understood Ruolin's concern and smiled: "Don't worry, they are not my women. I have no intention of letting them be my women! Are you relieved now? I sent them to you.
, they are under your control! If they are disobedient, you can do whatever you want!"
Ruolin breathed a sigh of relief and felt relieved.
Looking at the female knight's face, Du Wei secretly smiled inwardly: Now, the quadruplets will probably suffer a lot in the next few days.
After pondering for a while, Du Wei said: "The problem of manpower cannot be rushed. We can only look for it slowly. Especially craftsmen. It is difficult to find good craftsmen now. In the imperial capital, no one is willing to give up good craftsmen."
Give it to us. It is easy to offend people if we rob land, especially since I will leave the imperial capital in a few months. When I am here, even if I offend people, I don’t have to worry about people daring to retaliate. But after I leave, it will not be possible.
Okay. So, try not to do anything that offends others."
"But good craftsmen all have owners, where can we find them?" Ruolin sighed.
"It really doesn't work. The only stupid way is to cultivate it yourself." Du Wei also shook his head: "But this cost is too high, and it takes a long time, and the results are full. Let the craftsman's matter be put aside for now, and I will slowly think of a way...
Well, it's still early now, let's go to the slave market in the city together, maybe we can buy some suitable manpower."
The slavery system in Roland Continent has always been firmly opposed by the temple, and this has been the case for hundreds of years.
Of course, in Du Wei's view, this is not because the temple is noble, but because the temple is dissatisfied with the huge benefits generated by slavery, but he cannot get a share of it.
For hundreds of years, although the mainland has been generally peaceful, expeditions to the Southeast Asia and small rebellions often broke out in the northwest. After the imperial army's conquests, many prisoners would always appear...especially those in the Southeast Asia.
The expedition fleet, every time it returns from an expedition, will bring back a large amount of loot... many of which are natives captured from large islands in the Southeast Asia.
It's not that the empire's army likes to plunder the population... To be honest, among the generals who lead the army on expeditions, who doesn't like to plunder more real money and silver?
Unfortunately, as the Nanyang expedition became too frequent, the harvest from each expedition became less and less. Things were really hard to grab, so in order to get some harvest to supplement military expenses, they plundered the population and occupied the most recent expeditions.
The largest proportion of loot!
The natives from Southeast Asia who were brought with them became the mainstream in the slave market. Du Wei read a statistics from the military. Now in the imperial capital, according to estimates, there are probably more than 8,000 natives from Southeast Asia.
, most of them have been plundered and came to the imperial capital for many years. They have even lived in the empire for many years after the previous generation was plundered. Many of them are the second generation.
In addition, there are many slaves who were originally free people who had no choice but to be sold into slavery because of poverty. Several small-scale rebellions in the northwest will also produce some slaves.
Others. There is also a kind of existence called "official slaves", which mainly come from some declining wealthy families. For example, after this coup, several wealthy families were completely eradicated, and many people in the family were convicted and lost after being tried.
They became free people and became slaves, and most of them were sold in the slave market.
Interestingly, the largest slave trader in the imperial capital is none other than an industry directly under the central finance department of the empire! That place is located in the slave market southwest of the imperial capital, where many "official slaves" are concentrated.
It can be said that the imperial finance also rakes in a large amount of fiscal revenue every year from the slave trade.
The reason why the temple is dissatisfied is because the temple is unable to officially step in to get a piece of such a huge cake every year.
Most of the slave trade in the imperial capital was concentrated from the west to the south of the city. Backing against the southwest city wall, there was originally a wide avenue. On this avenue, the most prosperous slave market in the entire continent was derived.
The southwest of the imperial capital has always been close to the slums. The entire southwest of the city is home to more than 900,000 people, accounting for almost half of the imperial capital's population.
On this thousand-meter-long street, in addition to the slave trade, there are many places where ordinary poor people and strange people of all kinds find jobs.
In other words, this is a "labor market" similar to what Du Wei saw in his previous life.
At the end of the long street, there is a square. The original statues and pools in the center of the square were demolished decades ago. Now, several high platforms have been erected on the square. Several famous slave traders in the imperial capital
The group, on this high platform, was conducting a lively slave trade.
On the square, with several high platforms as the center, a large number of people gathered to watch, many of them were business groups from other places. There were also people from some wealthy and noble families in the imperial capital. Those slaves standing on the high platforms
The dealer, holding a whip in his hand, had several muscular bodyguards standing behind him. On the table next to him, there were many large iron cages. In the cages, most of the people locked in the cages were imprisoned like animals.
They are all "newcomers" who have just become slaves. Only these captives who have just returned from plundering from the northwest or Southeast Asia will resist if they are unwilling to accept the fate of slaves, so they must be locked up.
On the other high platforms, there were slaves with dull faces and empty eyes. There were no ferocious bodyguards of slave traders around them. There were often dozens of them, only tied with a thin rope, and they stood there with a blank look on their faces.
He remained obediently motionless, despite all kinds of looks from around him. He was an old slave who was already numb.
Even the slave traders kept walking up to the slaves, squeezing this one's face, knocking that one's chest, or opening their lips to let everyone see their teeth... just like animals. These people were indifferent and had become numb.
own destiny.
Du Wei and Ruo Lin were walking in the crowd. Both of them were dressed in casual clothes. Ruo Lin didn't wear the overly gorgeous armor, and Du Wei naturally didn't wear the eye-catching magician's robe.
Wearing an ordinary coat, Du Wei followed Ruolin and pushed his way through the crowd with difficulty.
On both sides of the road, in addition to the slave trading stands, there are also some indifferent people in some corners, male or female, old or young, who will stand quietly at the corner of the street, looking back and forth in the crowd.
Scanning. All these people, without exception, had a piece of cloth draped around their bodies or arms.
These are not slaves, but free citizens of the empire. However, many people have to sell themselves as slaves because of the difficult life and in order to survive. Just stop at the slave market and put a black cloth on your arm to express your willingness to sell yourself.
the meaning of.
Of course, there are also some who do not want to be slaves. They stand here with a piece of white cloth on their arms, which means that they are willing to find a loyal master, but not as a slave.
There are many such people, and most of them are people with special skills. Some are craftsmen, horsemen, or some are down-and-out warriors.
Du Wei looked along the way and found several people dressed as warriors, wearing almost shabby and shabby clothes, holding almost rusty swords in their hands, standing in the corner with solemn expressions, white robes on their shoulders.
The cloth is extremely eye-catching.
In the Imperial City, the survival of a samurai is not easy. As the center of the empire, the Imperial City has too many masters gathered here. Basically, a mid-level samurai is just a bodyguard for the nobles.
It is too difficult for low-level warriors to earn a living. There are many low-level warriors that nobles do not bother to recruit. They can only work hard in some carriage and horse shops. The better ones can also work in carriage and horse shops.
Work as a bodyguard in the transportation team.
And those warriors with low martial arts skills, only one or two levels, will not be able to find food.
The strength of magic but the decline of warriors is a microcosm of the entire continent.
"Master, look!" Du Wei was looking at the few warriors in the corner when he suddenly heard Ruolin calling him. Looking forward, he saw a crowd of people surging towards the end of the street. There was the largest shopping mall in the entire imperial capital.
The slave center is the official official slave trafficking place of the empire!
In terms of quality and price, official slaves are generally much higher than ordinary slaves. Most of the slaves from wealthy families whose homes were confiscated have undergone some training and can be used immediately after they are bought, so although the price
It's a bit higher, but it's still favored by many buyers.
"Go over and take a look." Du Wei nodded.
It seemed that he arrived at the right time. It seemed that a batch of "new goods" was being sold at the official slave trafficking point.