Castle of Black Iron
Page 346Chapter 346: Paradise Lost
Translator: WQL Editor: Millman97
At this moment, Zhang Tie absolutely looked like some rich young master. He was wearing T-shirt and a pair of sunglasses with one arm on the door of the cab while driving the brand new car with one hand in a casual way.
That girl was also bizarre. Although looking beautiful with smoky eyes, she was wearing a blue cowboy jacket which indicated that she was a tomboy. Additionally, on her ear closest to Zhang Tie, there were more than 5 ear piercings of different colors. Obviously, she was tricky.
Raising her eyebrows, she threw an aggressive glance at Zhang Tie while pressing down the accelerator, surging ahead of Zhang Tie.
Zhang Tie then replied with a smiled as he also pressed down on his accelerator; in a split second, the steam-driven valve of the Faerie Dragon T9 opened to release the super powerful torque of 670 Nm from the turbine steam-driven, external combustion engine. In the blink of an eye, he had long passed ahead of that Red Rabbit...
...
When Zhang Tie arrived at Stars Viewing City, he could not even see the shadow of the Red Rabbit that had been chasing after him. Zhang Tie then took a look at the oil gauge and found that he had consumed more than 90 liters of alcohol, leaving less than 1/5 in the oil tank...
Looking around, he was impressed by the size of the city's population as all the avenues were crowed with people. 2/3 of them were Chinese while 1/3 of them were of other nationalities.
On both sides of the streets were various entertainment venues, such as "Fragrances House", "Beauties Department", "Flowers Valley", "Magical Women Palace", and "Paradise". Zhang Tie saw all sorts of brothels with branded beauties in different levels.
The whole city was so boisterous; yet, the streets were clean and in good order, which formed a sharp contrast to Zhang Tie's imagination.
When Zhang Tie caught sight of that "Paradise Lost", it was almost 2 pm.
That building complex was like a huge playground or a theme park in the city; at least the brand "Paradise Lost" on the tallest building of that building complex would cause such an association. However, this was neither a playground nor a theme park, but the well-know, biggest slave trade center.
There were some more slave trade markets like this one; but "Paradise Lost" was the most famous and biggest one; therefore, Zhang Tie chose to have a look here first.
Seeing Zhang Tie walking towards the entrance of Paradise Lost the moment he parked his car, a number of men who were waiting outside Paradise Lost instantly surrounded Zhang Tie. With a casual look, my god! Zhang Tie saw at least 5 different nationalities based on the color of their skin, hair, and eyes.
After surrounding Zhang Tie, they started to introduce their own businesses.
"Sir, our business group has a large amount of beauties and virgins; some of them are docile, some are feisty, do you want a look?"
...
"Sir, our Heaven Stars Business Group has just purchased a large batch of conquered people, male or female, young or old. We can definitely meet your demands!
"Professional slave trafficking manager Marques is willing to serve you, sir"
...
...
"Sir, I'm the Agela Kingdom's population affairs commissioner in Jinyun Country; if you want a noble and satisfactory status for your slaves, come for me. Our princess is the cheapest!"
'What Agela Kingdom?' Zhang Tie had not heard it before; but this guy's words reminded Zhang Tie of the Holy Golden Orchid Empire. He remembered that the Holy Golden Orchid Empire was good at doing such business.
Zhang Tie thought that nobody would sell statuses in Jinhai City since Holy Golden Orchid Empire moved out of the business. He had not imagined that this business would be picked up; what was more, they even improved the business by selling the status of princess. It seemed that such a trick was really profitable here.
"Can I buy the status of queen?" Zhang Tie joked.
It was really unexpected that that guy became really excited after hearing this question.
"Of course, you can, sir, Agela Kingdom is a free and romantic kingdom. Our king can make any women a queen. To tell you the truth, as of now, we have more than 20 queens. It only takes you 1200 gold coins to complete the queen coronation ceremony for the one you like. Queen of Agela Kingdom has her own jade chip and gold broach; she will wear phoenix coronet and robes of rank. Besides, she will receive the guidance of our court etiquette tutor. It only takes you 1200 gold coins to have a queen as your slave and enjoy a king's treatment!"
Hearing this answer, Zhang Tie was really startled. 'F*ck! These people really can do whatever they want. They can even coronate a queen. What the f*ck...'
"Sir, if you really need a mature and noble queen as your slave, I know where she is. She's a real queen, not that kind that you could buy!"
With such a voice, a 50-odd half-baldheaded man with swollen brown eyes in brown hair pushed away the crowd and walked towards Zhang Tie. He looked nasty and a bit shrewd. Firstly, he made a slight bow to Zhang Tie; then, he stood straight and said, "Please allow me to introduce myself. I'm Davinci, the slave trafficking agent of Stars Viewing City. It's my great pleasure to serve you!"
At the sight of this guy, Zhang Tie was really stunned, "You mean I could buy a real queen here?"
"Of course, sir, 2 months ago, a war broke out on Mianoki Peninsula while the Tadon Alliance defeated the Misa kingdom and broke through the capital of the latter. This is a war of clan vengeance that had been brewing for over 100 years. According to the rule of Clan vengeance war on Mianoki Peninsula, all the members of imperial household of Misa Kingdom would be sold as slaves by Excellency Belli, the chairman of Tadon Alliance. The former queen of Misa Kingdom is in Stars Viewing City. If you want to buy a real queen, I can arrange an exclusive auction for you!" Davinci said in a confident tone, which formed a sharp contrast with his weird look.
Zhang Tie glanced over this guy carefully. Since this guy seized the opportunity to step up and attracted his attention, Zhang Tie knew that this guy was sharper than the others.
"Davinci, I like this name. Show the way, please; I want to take a look in Paradise Lost first!"
Hearing Zhang Tie's request, Davinci instantly showed a smile as he bowed to the others elegantly, "Sorry, this sir has decided to employ me as his slave trade agent, I know what kind of services you can provide; if this sir has any demand that is suitable to you, I will bring him for you!"
Hearing Davinci's words, all the rest left.
"Sir, I will guide you in Paradise Lost first, please!"
Davinci made a gesture as he slightly bowed with a flattering smile. He then guided Zhang Tie into Paradise Lost.
"What's happening in Agela Kingdom? How could they even sell the status of queen?" Zhang Tie asked Davinci.
Before talking, Davinci looked back at that guy who called himself the Agela Kingdom's population affairs manager in Jinyun Country. After confirming that that guy could not hear their conversation, Davinci lowered his voice, "Sir, they are liars. Previously, they made and sold various fake certificates in Stars Viewing City. After making a bit money, they bought a remote tiny island which was only 1-2 sq km on the sea 1000 km away from the land and built a kingdom, Agela, on the tiny island!
"There were only several hundreds of people in Agela Kingdom. They are all liars and liars' family members and apprentices!
"The imperial palace over there is only a small castle. With a brand, a thatched house would be Agela National University or Military Department of Agela Kingdom. They have even described a canoe as the naval army of Agela Kingdom, and 2 dogs as Special Operations Command of Agela Kingdom. The military rank of the commander of the Special Operations Command is admiral, which could be bought with 10 gold coins, excluding the uniform. They can fabricate any position and status for you over there."
'Two dogs? Special Operations Command?' Zhang Tie was so dumbfounded that even his eyes and mouth became tilted. What a wonder!
After a short while, Davinci had guided Zhang Tie into Paradise Lost. The entrance of Paradise Lost was like a hotel lobby as many people were accessing it.
Zhang Tie presumed that Davinci must have been here often as a female worker directly greeted Zhang Tie when they entered while ignoring Davinci.
"Sir, if you want to enter Paradise Lost, you need to present your ID certificate and the purchase ability proof of 500 gold coins at the minimum!"
Saying nothing, Zhang Tie directly pulled out his Clan ID plate and that notepaper of 20,000 gold coins.
Seeing Zhang Tie taking out the 2 items, the worker immediately revealed a big smile and became much more enthusiastic, "Sir, do you need us to arrange a professional purchase guide for you?"
"No need, I've already got an agent!"
Being a bit amazed at Zhang Tie's two items, Davinci made a deep bow to Zhang Tie once again, "Please forgive me for my rudeness, I couldn't have imagined that Mr. Zhang is from Huaiyuan Palace. Huaiyuan Palace is a great clan. It's my great honor to serve you!"
This was also Zhang Tie's first time experiencing the influence of Huaiyuan Palace's clan ID plate in Huaiyuan Prefecture. When he was on Hidden Dragon Island, which was full of members of Huaiyuan Palace, this status was average; however, across Huaiyuan Prefecture, the ruling status of Huaiyuan Palace became obviously higher than commoners. With this plate, Zhang Tie seemed like a relative of a royal family in Huaiyuan Prefecture.
After Zhang Tie's status and purchase ability were confirmed, Zhang Tie and Davinci entered Paradise Lost.
There was an old saying in Stars Viewing City — if you've not been to Paradise Lost, you've not been to Stars Viewing City. After entering Paradise Lost, Zhang Tie realized that this saying was pretty true.
Before coming here, Zhang Tie's impression of slaves were those wounded ones in shabby clothes and restless expressions standing in places like a stable. After entering Paradise Lost, Zhang Tie knew that his impression was ungrounded.
In front of Zhang Tie was a festive town. People on the streets were so happy.
Among those happy people were clowns in cosmetics, walking on stilts and riding monocycles. They were performing various shows...
Bands were playing festive tunes on the roadsides...
Girls in beautiful clothes were playing on the streets...
Soldiers were patrolling on the streets in a square matrix.
Wagoners were driving carriages...
A beautiful female waiter was walking out of the door with a cup of coffee and placed it onto the table outside the coffee shop while her hand was seized by a guest...
Blacksmiths and watchmakers were working inside their stores, causing clatters...
Tough men were playing a 100 pound broadsword on the streets...
Kids were rolling iron rings on the roadsides...
The small town contained people of different ethnicities, from all walks of life, male or female, old or young...
This was Zhang Tie's first impression of Paradise Lost.
Zhang Tie was a bit puzzled as he looked at Davinci, "Don't you say this is the biggest slaves trade center? Where are the slaves?"
Davinci then pointed at those people, "All of them that you can see are slaves, including those beautiful girls, clowns, soldiers, wagoners, blacksmiths, musicians, the female waiter in that coffee shop, even those bosses who were checking account books inside stores and tailors. Have you seen those small badges made of enamel on their chests and breasts? The number on the badge is their price!"
Zhang Tie then took a careful look and truly found everybody had a enamel badge except for that female waiter whose hand had been grabbed by that old man.
The number on the enamel badge of that clown who was performing on tilts was 65!
"Slaves are commodities which need to be packed. These are their looks in front of their buyers after being packed!" Davinci explained, "In this age, slaves trade has been a huge industrial chain. After thousands of years' of slaves trading, those business groups have already figured out how to exploit those slaves to the utmost!
"Look at that clown!" Davinci pointed at that clown whom Zhang Tie had noticed, "That is a young man without no special talent. His original value was 50 gold coins; after being strictly managed and trained, he mastered some clown skills; then, his value became 65 gold coins!
"For that female waiter in the coffee shop, if she were in a brothel, that man might only spend dozens of gold coins for her; however, here, that man might spend hundreds of gold coins for a beautiful female waiter of a coffee shop! The same commodities have different values in different packaging; the same principle applies to slaves!"
Watching this scene, Zhang Tie was really shocked, 'This is anything but slave trade! This is selling the most mysterious and evil desire in people's heart. As long as one has money, one can buy anything here.'
In other places, no matter how rich you were, you would not be able to buy whatever you wanted. For instance, you could not buy those beautiful girls in other places as you wanted; but here, everything was different as you could buy beautiful girls on streets as you wished.
This stimulating feeling of buying girls or female waiters on streets was definitely unparalleled. It was far cooler than the slave trade in his mind.
Paradise Lost was a supermarket for slave trade!
Watching those slaves, Zhang Tie then felt a bit sad; however, after thinking for a short while, he recovered his composure.
No matter what, even though not every slave trade center was like this, it was much better than choosing slaves in gloomy and dirty stables.
"If you want to buy women, you can take a casual look on streets; if you are not satisifed with those on streets, you can check private residences. Some women like to stay at home, which caters to the exploring desire of some guests; some talented women perform dances and sing songs in operas of the small town..." As he spoke about the women, Davinci's presented truly wretched expression.
"How much is a woman here?" Zhang Tie asked.
"An average one only costs you 50-70 gold coins; those with a better look or some talents would be a bit more expensive; some special ones would be more expensive; the highest ever price of an unrivalled beauty here was over 60,000 gold coins!"
"I don't need unrivalled beauty. I don't care about their looks. I need loyalty; they need to do some daily jobs" Zhang Tie then calculated based on the size of his castle on Hidden Dragon Island, "I need about 30 women like this."