Dragon Ball: Saiyan's Gourmet Journey

Chapter 63 Rubber Tree Village and the Slave Collection Team

Unfortunately, such a happy thing did not last long for the children who came to ask for water, because the next day, Broly's team spent several times more money than outside, replenished water and other food in this small town, and then set off again.

In the team, there are four children whose homes are in this area, and their homes are all in the central part of Katisi.

"Boss, aren't we going to take action?"

On the top of the hill, looking at the small convoy gradually approaching, one of the people who came to the inn yesterday intending to rob Broly and others couldn't help but ask the burly man next to him.

"Did your child not drink the water, eat the bread, or chew the jerky given by others yesterday?

We have encountered many different kinds of guys, but we cannot rob the guys like these who feed the children who begged for water."

A team of townspeople who were also guest bandits lay on the top of the hill, doing nothing, watching Broly's team's convoy go away.

Forced by life, they become bandits and are both civilians and bandits. This is the common feature of the people in the harsh areas of the western border.

"Another day when no good people come to the door."

In the convoy, Broly missed the days when he randomly encountered highway robbers.

I just felt some very faint breath on the top of the mountain, and I thought that a new good guy was finally coming.

As a result, nothing happened when we walked past that hill, which was very disappointing.

. . .

The further you go to the central part of the Katisi region, the more expensive water and commodity prices become.

By the time we reached the central part, a liter of water was worth 21 imperial coins.

On the way, Broly and his companions met some merchants who were transporting juicy fruits, but no good thing happened that others sent them supplies.

Broly and his companions did some business with these traveling merchants and used money to buy some fruits from them. Among them, there was a kind of fruit that was juicy but tasted rather astringent. Eating too much would cause diarrhea. However, its low price and easy storage made it the first choice for most of the lower-class people in the Katisi region to replenish water.

As for the taste, Broly could only say that it was slightly better than the long-stored rainwater from Vampa. On the other hand, if there was no Crystal Palace, he might be living a life worse than the lower-class people here.

After arriving in the central area of ​​Katisi, the four children who wanted to go home quickly found the location of one of them, named Damu Boy. It was a village where people planted natural rubber trees and made a living by collecting rubber, also known as the Gum Tree Village.

. . . .

"Have the gum trees in the south died?"

The village elder asked.

"There is too little rainfall during the rainy season, and the trees there are only a few years old and cannot absorb water from deeper in the ground."

The middle-aged patriarch answered.

“How much spare money is there in the village?”

"There's not much left. The rubber produced in the village is not good this year. The caravans that came here offered very low prices."

"What are you going to do?"

"Village elder, can't we leave Katisi and live somewhere else?"

"You want to relocate the village?"

“If we don’t relocate the village, it will die.”

"Have you ever thought about the price of moving the village?"

“We can cut down the old rubber trees and sell them for money. We can use the money to hire guards to escort us to other places. The remaining money can be used as start-up capital to rebuild the village.”

“Can we find trustworthy hired guards? What if they turn into bandits and rob us? Even if we can find trustworthy ones, how will we make a living if the village moves to a new place?
The villagers of our Rubber Tree Village have been planting and collecting rubber trees for generations. If we leave our accustomed living environment, the risk is too great. If we are not careful, it may fall apart."

People are despised when they leave their hometowns. Young people who can leave the village to venture out have already left a few years ago. Those who stay are those who find it difficult to leave their hometowns.

They are like gum trees, which will die easily once they leave the soil.

But if we don't leave, as water prices continue to rise every year, various living costs will also continue to rise.

It's like a noose around the neck that gradually tightens. Once it tightens to a certain degree, the person will be strangled to death.

And this is also the reason why the middle-aged patriarch seeks change.

"But we can't just stay here and wait to die, right?"

"Just wait until the wrath of the God of Oasis passes."

"Then how long should we wait?"

"I do not know either."

“How are we going to get through this year?”

"Notify the slave traders and ask them to come to the village to pick the children."

"Selling children again. If we continue to sell children like this, will our village still have a future?"

"If I don't sell my child, what else can I sell? Should I sell you or me? I would like to sell my old bones, but no one else wants them."

"So, we can only sell the child?"

"The children who are sold are not dead. Although they will be sold to others as slaves, they have left this hellhole and will have a chance to survive."

The village elders and the clan leader of Jiaoshu Village had an argument, which ended with the middle-aged clan leader's compromise. Soon, some clan members contacted the slave traders in the city.

. . . .

"Children like this who have the skill of tapping rubber can be sold for the most money in the Western Kingdom. There are quite a few rubber forests over there, and they need enough rubber tapping slaves."

"Master, can you please give me a higher price for the goods this time? I heard that the water price has increased again this year..."

"Why give a high price? Just keep it the same as before. The worse it gets, the more people in the rubber village will teach the rubber-picking skills to the children, hoping to get a high price when they sell the children. And if the quality of the goods improves, we can also make more money in the Western Kingdom."

This is a conversation between a slave trader and his men. He is in the human population business, not charity business.

"Ah, I didn't expect that the well water business in Katisi would be so easy to do. If I had bribed the lord to obtain the right to draw buckets from a deep well, I would be making money right now without doing anything."

"Then Master, why don't we secretly dig a deep well?"

"It's not difficult to dig deep water, but it's too risky to take the water out and sell it. I'd rather focus on my population business."

In the Great Western Territory, businesses that can make big money are always controlled by powerful people. For example, in the Katisi area, no one would have thought that water could be dug out by digging a deeper well.

But those who dare to dig and are able to dig, and dig out the water to sell, will only die if they don’t bribe the higher-ups with a large sum of money.

The slave traders had no intention of challenging the rules of the Katisi region. They just wanted to take advantage of the dire situation of the people here to do some high-quality population transportation business.

"Iron Slave, you collect some goods here. I will go to Bossier City first to present the precious goods brought from this trip to the West to Marquis Bossier. I will catch up with you when you have collected most of the goods here."

The slave trader went ahead and headed for a famous population transportation transit station city in the West, but he left his loyal servants to go to the Rubber Tree Village to collect people.

The slave trader left that day, and the servant called Tie Nu also led the slave-collecting team to Jiaoshu Village that day. On the way, the slave-collecting team met a caravan of children.

The children in that caravan were of very good quality, just like goods carefully selected by another experienced slave caravan, which made the Iron Slave feel lucky.

(End of this chapter)