Published: January 4, 2026
After the commotion with the black slave traders had settled, I invited my older brother back to the mansion to have dinner together.
In the great dining hall, we sat facing each other across a long table, with quite a distance between us.
Though I didn’t really need to be so formal with Brother Henry, this was also part of proper etiquette.
As the maids served the meal and we were about to start on the main dish, the butler Dylan entered the dining hall.
Dylan first bowed to Brother Henry, then whispered in my ear.
“...Understood, you may step back.”
“Very well.”
“What’s the matter, Noah? What happened?”
“The people from the household of the first imperial prince—Brother Gilbert.”
“Oh? What did they say?”
Brother Henry stopped eating and his eyes gleamed sharply as he asked.
“Thank you for capturing them. Upon interrogating the insolent ones, they indeed were conducting business under my name. We planned to bring them to court tomorrow, but they committed suicide when we weren’t watching.”
“...I see.”
Brother Henry sighed, and I sighed as well.
Truly, people are treasures...
We exchanged glances and nodded slightly to each other, as if acknowledging the same thought.
We both understood—it was probably the same words running through our minds.
Cutting off the lizard’s tail.
Dead men tell no tales; that’s true in every age and place.
And to go so far as to silence them...
“The black slave trading was something Brother Henry ordered, wasn’t it?”
“Yes.”
Brother Henry nodded.
“Gilbert has always been like that. He was obsessed with business—owning shops, buying estates. Anyway, he threw himself into those things.”
“Can’t be helped, Brother.”
“What?”
Brother Henry looked surprised, furrowing his brows as he stared at me.
“Brother Gilbert is the first imperial prince but a concubine’s son, so he couldn’t become crown prince. Maybe to vent his frustration, or because he couldn’t inherit the empire itself, he sought a substitute. Business and estates—those are his replacements, his territories.”
“...”
After I said that straight out, Brother Henry kept looking at me silently for some reason.
“What’s wrong, Brother?”
“No... You understand that too? Truly impressive, you are.”
“Really? It’s just something you can figure out if you think about it a little.”
“Not everyone can, though.”
Brother Henry smiled slightly and began to eat the main dish the maids brought.
Because I had just heard such a disgusting thing (cutting off the lizard’s tail), the meal didn’t taste very good.
☆
After Brother Henry left, I was in the mansion’s living room.
I was there with my bodyguard Shirley and several boys and girls, all in the same room.
Under the lantern’s light, the children who had been about to be sold knelt before me.
There were five in total: three boys and two girls.
They were about my age; if only their encounters and origins had been slightly different, we could have been playing hide-and-seek together.
I asked them:
“I’ve managed to pull some strings for now. You are all free. You won’t be sold this time.”
“...”
Although I declared their release from slavery, the five neither looked particularly happy nor sad; rather, they looked at each other in confusion.
Is this... that?
“Feel free to go anywhere. Do you have anywhere to go?”
“No...”
One of the girls, the one who had stopped my carriage first and was in the middle, answered in a barely audible voice.
“You don’t have anywhere?”
“Yes... I was sold to pay for this year’s seed rice.”
“I was sold to pay for my mother’s funeral.”
“...To reduce mouths to feed.”
Each of the boys and girls told me their story.
All of them had nowhere to go home to, or if they did, they would probably be sold again.
Incidentally, it’s actually more profitable to sell to black slave traders.
There’s no trick; black slave traders don’t pay taxes, so they can afford to pay more.
Parents who once sold their children to black slave traders will likely do so again, even if their children come back.