NOVEL NEXT Chapter 131: Dark Chamber
With Leonard's adamant order, Mirelle tried to leave the area with Irene.
However, Irene was still reluctant to leave. It appeared that she suffered a clear traumatic event where stepping outside meant irreconcilable punishment.
Seeing that she was on the verge of collapsing from fright, Leonard was able to convince her with some more beef jerky.
"If you want these beef jerky, then leave with Mirelle. I'll come to meet up with you later on." He said convincingly.
Having been granted more meat, Irene hurriedly nodded her head.
She accepted the meat and once again, her old habit kicked in. Her eyes soon trailed toward Leonard's pants with the intent of pleasing him for being so nice to her.
Thankfully, Mirelle noticed something was amiss and hurriedly dragged her away.
While Irene was dragged away gently, her subtle action had only caused the anger within Leonard's heart to rise even further.
He wasn't angry at her, but at the people who caused her to behave in such a manner.
"Shirley, is everyone at level 1 like her?" Leonard asked her once Irene's silhouette could no longer be seen.
"Yes," Shirley responded with a desolate expression.
"Every woman starts at level 2, and depending on the weekly performance, they could either be the same, demoted, or promoted. Those who were demoted realized the true horror began when becoming level 1, whereas those who remained as level 2 or promoted to level 3 sighed in relief."
"I see…" Nodding in understanding, Leonard understood these people deserved zero mercy.
These women who were brought over to the Slave Coop weren't some captives or prisoners of war.
Instead, they were all captured and kidnapped!
And the general gist was their exclusive status or beauty to the men's desire.
Just like those high up in power.
They were drunk in them. The feeling of controlling someone to do whatever their deepest and darkest desire was like drugs to them.
To summarize, the Slave Coop was where the wealthy could commit all sorts of disgusting things in their mind without the need to fear any repercussions.
As for the beauties who held exclusive or astonishing status, it was even more enticing to them to ravage them.
So what if the woman was of high noble status? Once they entered the City of Velastra, all sorts of powers from outside became useless.
After all, Velastra promoted free trade and was nearly lawless for all. It could be lawless because not even outside influences were allowed to intervene.
However, all of that was about to be changed!
Lawless?
Free Trade?
Sure, Leonard didn't mind the free trade aspect, but the lawless aspect could be rid of.
He just wanted to see who would dare to impede his objective in enforcing true laws in the city!
"Shirley, bring me to the Dark Chamber!" Leonard ordered. He knew what was going on with the Dark Chamber and could visualize the scenery, but he wanted to witness it personally.
Only by engraving the scene vividly in his mind could he maintain his enthusiasm to eradicate these atrocities.
He knew slavery couldn't be ended; granted, there were many prisoners of war and captives everywhere.
However, at the very least, he refused to allow any slavery to occur through the kidnapping of wealthy or poor women.
Women who weren't categorized as prisoners of war or captives from other places.
If anyone were found to commit such an act and kidnapped innocent women as slaves to be trained. Then they shall be immediately executed, alongside all involved parties.
This included those who purchased such women without verifying whether it was the proper channel!
It was the buyer's responsibility to confirm that the women they purchased were indeed captive or prisoners of war.
'This is the best optimal solution.' Leonard could only achieve that kind of result with his capacity as the Crown Prince.
Any more and he would actually be offending everyone else.
By then, not to mention trying to rescue the innocent women, his own House Lawson would be implicated.
Sometime later, Shirley guided him to a very dark and discreet alley.
"The Dark Chamber is located here, Master." She said and pointed at a door that led to the basement.
Leonard nodded and noticed the door was locked up in some magic chains.
His eyebrows furrowed as he held the magic chains. With a single glance, he could tell these magic chains were of high quality, almost as if they were afraid of anyone being capable of breaking the chains.
Out of everything he had seen in the Slave Coop, only the chains and other punishment tools were of high quality.
"Allow me, Master." Amidst his silent dazedness, Shirley suddenly offered to unlock the chains.
"You have the keys for it?" Leonard asked.
"I don't," she shook her head. "I only know how to trigger the emergency unlock function."
Having said that, Shirley tapped her fingers on the magic chains, opening up a set of complex runes. Her eyes narrowed after seeing these familiar runes.
Back then, she despised these chains the most and vowed to study them extensively. Through the secret learning, she had come to understand a lot of runes and the ways to trigger specific built-in functions.
In the blink of an eye, she triggered the emergency unlock function.
Clank!
The magic chains were unlocked and dropped to the ground.
"It's unlocked, Master." Shirley promptly returned to his side and reported.
"Good work," Leonard didn't bother asking how or why she knew the way to trigger the emergency lock. Some things were better off kept quiet and not prying about.
Shirley also seemed to be appreciative that the Crown Prince didn't intend to question her ability.
'Rumors really cannot be trusted.' Even though her situation wasn't so great, she had heard about the Fifth Prince's reputation and the countless negative rumors about him.
A few minutes later, as they walked down the stairs, the Dark Chamber revealed itself. It was a wide underground hall with rows of iron cages stacked like livestock pens.
There were many ragged women huddled inside, their eyes hollow, their spirits long broken. Above them, hooks and whips hung like decorations, the tools of this place displayed openly, almost proudly.
It felt less like a prison and more like the belly of some great beast, one that had swallowed hope whole and left only despair behind.
When these women heard the sound of footsteps, their bodies trembled in fear almost instinctively.