Published: March 12, 2025
CHAPTER 496: The Slave Market (Seeking Subscription)
Although merchants have only been officially entering Golden Island for about a month, the business there can only be described as booming. Pirates, merchants, various families—everyone is here.
A month was just enough time for Golden Island to begin establishing its scale, but this booming trend has been continuing, and surprisingly, it has been growing stronger over time.
However, Zhao Hai is currently not on Golden Island; he has returned to Karsen City because he has a big task ahead—one that concerns the budah family.
Previously, Laura and the others discussed building a castle on a small mountain outside Karsen City. This would solidify the budah family's status within Karsen City. After their discussions, they have been busy with matters on Golden Island, temporarily putting this plan aside.
Nonetheless, they couldn't consider it completely set aside. They asked Prince Charlie and Jason for help in identifying which small mountains around Karsen City were available. Once they have confirmed the locations, they would take action.
Charlie was naturally willing to help. However, after all these years, there were almost no idle small mountains around Karsen City left; even if there were, they were either too steep or too low. Not to mention Zhao Hai, even Charlie and the others wouldn't find these mountains appealing and certainly couldn't give them to Zhao Hai.
Originally, Laura and the others even wanted Zhao Hai to live on that small mountain belonging to the robert family. However, Zhao Hai ultimately did not agree. He felt it was a bit strange to destroy the Robert family and then live in their castle.
Charlie and the others would naturally not agree either, but for a long time, they couldn't find a suitable small mountain for Zhao Hai. This made Charlie and Jason feel quite guilty toward Zhao Hai, as they couldn't even manage to handle such a small task for him.
In the end, Charlie thought of a solution: since there were no suitable uninhabited mountains, they could check to see if any inhabited ones were up for sale.
After several days of searching, Charlie found no inhabited mountains for sale, which left him in a difficult position. Jason was even more concerned than Charlie, but there was nothing they could do. The inhabited mountains usually belonged to great nobles, all of whom had their own interests, and their families were doing well. Charlie and Jason couldn't ask them to give up their territory for Zhao Hai—that was impossible. Those who lived near Karsen City were not easy to deal with.
Zhao Hai was not in a hurry. It had been nearly two months since Divine Grace Day, and Golden Island was developing very well. Spring had also arrived in the Aksu Empire, and the grassland was about to blossom. Once spring came, he would have to go see the grassland, and it would be too late to find a mountain to build a castle.
Just as Charlie and the others were about to give up, news suddenly arrived that the castle belonging to the former ryan family in the Ryan Continent was now available for sale.
The Ryan Continent was Zhao Hai's first enemy upon arriving in the Roson Empire. He had colluded with the church of light and was later killed by Zhao Hai. The castle belonging to his family had been taken over by a noble from the Roson Empire.
It was not an exaggeration to say that it was taken over because everyone was dividing up the Ryan family's possessions at that time, and naturally, the castle was included in the division. That noble bought the castle for a very low price—it was more of an occupation than a purchase.
However, due to the issues concerning the robert family and the boat carver, the atmosphere in Karsen City was extremely tense. Everyone was diligently investigating matters related to the robert family, and to their astonishment, they indeed uncovered that the noble who bought the Duke Ryan's castle was a second-class duke. He did not yet have the strength to establish his own principality, but his territory was not small. However, this person had very secretive dealings with the robert family, and his family emblem was a furious bull with one missing horn.