Help, I'm in Another World and All the Men Are So Hot! [BL]-Chapter 256: Shadows of the Past

"Wait, what?" Damien blinked in surprise.

"That alone might not have led to the complete dissolution of his holdings," the slave merchant explained. "However, in what I can only describe as a moment of madness, he attempted to sell the mining rights within his domain as collateral to a political rival of his original patron. This act of desperation sealed his fate, and his lands were confiscated."

"Uh..." Damien struggled to process the sheer audacity of it all.

"And the former Viscount’s name was...?"

"He was known as Viscount Castellani."

Damien froze.

Oh.

This was about Theo’s family.

It made sense now why Isaac had said, "If you will allow us."

"I-I see... so that’s the ’issue,’ then?" Damien asked.

"Precisely," the slave merchant replied. "The scandal resulted in the Viscount’s downfall and the dissolution of his house. What’s worse, the dissolution was so sudden and severe that it left no time to settle the estate, further incurring the wrath of their patron. The anger from their patron was so great that not only did the other subordinate families avoid extending any aid, but even unrelated nobles feared the repercussions and kept their distance."

Damien nodded slowly, realizing the weight of it.

That reaction was understandable, though it felt extreme.

Theo hadn’t seemed particularly angry when Damien had spoken with him, but perhaps he’d just been keeping his emotions in check, concealing the turmoil for the sake of his responsibilities.

At least, that was a possibility.

"Moreover," the slave merchant continued, "the patron in question is one of the most influential nobles in the kingdom. As such, the stigma extends beyond the former Viscount himself to his family, relatives, and even his key retainers."

"That feels... a little bit excessive," Damien muttered.

Talthough it seemed harsh, Damien could understand why others might want to sever ties with anyone connected to such a scandal.

The fear of unforeseen consequences was very real.

"Indeed, the Castellani family was formally disowned by all their relatives and formerly allied houses," the slave merchant said.

"What about the political rival they were trying to curry favor with? What became of them?" Damien asked.

Specifically, he wondered if Caius’s mother’s family—known to be connected to the rival faction—had offered any assistance.

The slave merchant simply shook his head.

Once the benefits had dried up, they’d abandoned the Castellani family altogether.

Damien sighed.

The world of nobility was ruthless.

"The backlash wasn’t limited to the family itself," the slave merchant added. "Even their servants faced hostility. Many who worked for the Castellani household are now trying to conceal their past associations while seeking employment. However, prominent figures like the steward or other high-ranking servants struggle to escape the stigma."

Damien frowned.

The situation sounded unbearably bleak for everyone involved.

Damien couldn’t help but make an expression that was hard to describe. The slave merchant, noticing this, took a sip of tea and changed the subject.

"Speaking of which, do you know how the price of an economic slave, particularly one who has become a slave due to unpaid debt, is determined?"

The price of someone who is a slave because of debt?

Damien wondered how it was decided.

Debt as a price?

Not knowing, Damien shook his head in response.

"When we acquire someone who has fallen into debt and become a slave, we take on the debt they owe. We then sell them at a price that includes the amount of debt we’ve shouldered, plus our profit."

I see, Damien thought. Of course, the slave merchant’s profit would be included.

"...Wait. Does that mean the combined debt of those two is less than fifty gold coins?"

To put it another way, since the merchant’s profit was added on top of the debt, the actual debt should be far less than fifty gold coins.

"That’s a technique we use in our business," the slave merchant replied, taking another dramatic sip of tea.

Ah, so it’s a trade secret, Damien thought.

It made sense—such information about the price of slaves was something a merchant wouldn’t want to share too easily with a customer.

"Their purchase price was ten gold coins," the slave merchant said.

"Eh? You’re telling me?"

"There’s nothing I need to hide from you, Mr. Crowell."

"Then what was with that dramatic pause earlier...?"

"It must have been just your imagination; I was merely thirsty," the slave merchant said with a straight face.

Damien felt like he was being teased...

He couldn’t help but give the merchant a flat stare, but there was something else that was bothering him.

"Ten gold coins for their purchase price seems too low, doesn’t it? They became slaves because they couldn’t pay off their debt, right?"

Damien recalled that the average annual income for a commoner was around thirty gold coins. Even a commoner could manage to pay that off with some effort.

Even if interest had increased, surely it wouldn’t have taken that long to pay off, even in installments?

"As I mentioned earlier, this is where the skill of us slave merchants comes into play," the merchant explained. "The total amount of debt they owed was about one thousand gold coins for the two of them."

One thousand gold coins?!

"Unfortunately, they happened to be in the middle of a large transaction at that time," the slave merchant continued.

"Ugh... that’s unlucky."

"But... how did one thousand gold coins turn into just ten?" Damien asked, still shocked.

That was a drastic reduction—one hundredth of the original amount. What could have happened to cause that?

"When we take on someone’s debt, we don’t just take it at face value," the slave merchant explained. "If someone is sold to us because they can’t pay off their debt, it means that the value of the person is not equivalent to the debt they owe."

Ah, that made sense. Damien could see the logic in that.

"Wait, does this mean that Isaac and the others are worth only ten gold coins?" Damien asked, still in disbelief.

That couldn’t be right.