Chapter 503 Confrontation

"Fishmen?"

Xia Nan's heart stirred, a gleam of realization flashing in his eyes.

It was exactly as he had guessed.

When Xia Nan had first set foot on the island of Wild Berry Cliff, he had sensed a faint, familiar aura in the air.

Without concrete proof, he hadn't been entirely certain, merely raising his guard in secret.

Now, hearing the battered young villager's words, he immediately connected it to the Sahuagin he had encountered before.

But why would they be here?

Out of caution—perhaps the "fishmen" the man mentioned were a different species—and curious as to why these intelligent, alien creatures would come to Wild Berry Cliff, Xia Nan reached out. He steadied the young villager, whose weak body was on the verge of collapse from his agitation, and helped him sit back against the iron bars.

"Where did you see these fishmen, and what did they look like?" he asked.

"Right here in this dungeon, my lord!"

"They were covered in blue-green scales."

"About as tall as a man, and some of them had four arms."

"Those pirates brought them down here a few days ago. They were incredibly vicious!"

Xia Nan breaking open the iron bars seemed to give the villagers trapped in the dungeon a glimmer of hope. Even though their minds were sluggish from prolonged abuse and captivity, they finally reacted.

Before the young villager could say more, the others around him who still had the strength to speak began to chime in one after another.

Adult human size, blue-green scales, and some with two pairs of arms. The villagers' descriptions of their appearance allowed Xia Nan to confirm that the "fishmen" they spoke of were indeed the Sahuagin he had encountered before.

But "brought them down here"...

Did that mean the pirates of the Ebb Tide Gang were mixed up with the Sahuagin?

That was highly unusual.

After all, Sahuagin were naturally hostile to other races. They viewed islanders as invaders encroaching on their territory, and they frequently slaughtered and plundered any merchant ships and villages they came across.

Meanwhile, the Ebb Tide Gang was just a mid-to-small-sized gang in Barracuda Bay.

Under normal circumstances, these two factions should never have crossed paths.

Xia Nan pondered this inwardly.

Beside him, the members of the Shield of Iron Rock Squad were equally surprised by the presence of Sahuagin, but they didn't seem to care at all about the villagers trapped in the dungeon.

Acutely aware of this, Xia Nan turned his head and casually asked Seli about it. Her response, however, made his heart skip a beat.

"You're saying they were kidnapped to be sold as slaves?"

"It's probably a new revenue stream the Ebb Tide Gang is developing." The female ranger nodded, entirely unfazed. "These pirates are quite bold, daring to lock these people up so close to Barracuda Bay. They aren't even afraid of being discovered by the naval patrols from the Governor's Mansion."

In the Servia Kingdom, slavery had been abolished for many years.

The trading and selling of slaves was strictly prohibited, and any citizen who violated this law would face the harshest of criminal penalties.

Of course, that was only on the surface.

In the shadows, to maintain their exploitation, the nobility had spent the countless years since the law's enactment developing various legal loopholes. These clever methods allowed de facto slavery to continue.

They bound the peasants to the land. Though these serfs might have families and meager possessions, they were forced to perform unpaid corvée labor for their lords and hand over almost all of their income.

They manipulated debts, using usury traps and territorial jurisdiction to saddle freemen with crushing, unpayable loans, leaving them with no choice but to work their entire lives to pay them off.

On top of that, there were apprenticeship contracts that easily lasted twenty or thirty years, the "adoption" of orphans to force them into lifelong hard labor, and false accusations of heresy...

Some went even further, transporting vagrants and debtors from within the Servia Kingdom to neighboring countries where slavery still existed. There, they would be officially enslaved before being shipped back and used as "foreign servants," forcefully exploiting legal loopholes to bypass the kingdom's laws.

Power, wealth, and strength. As long as one possessed any of these three things to a sufficient degree, the so-called ban on slavery was nothing more than a scrap of wastepaper.

The abolished slaves merely changed their titles and continued to exist.

Barracuda Bay was the core town of the Southern Archipelagos. As an important port city for the kingdom, it drew a motley mix of people, and foreigners from other regions could frequently be seen.

The moment one left the port, they would face the vast, boundless, and completely unregulated ocean.

Under such circumstances, it was natural that greedy individuals, driven by profit, would kidnap kingdom citizens from remote areas and sell them abroad as slaves.

The Ebb Tide Gang's expansion within Barracuda Bay was limited, and they were in desperate need of funding. Since they already acted as "black gloves" under the guise of pirates, it made sense that they had set their sights on this lucrative path.

Having spent so much time in the Servia Kingdom since his transmigration, Xia Nan had a rough understanding of the country's social climate and its unspoken rules. Hearing Seli's explanation, he immediately understood why the Ebb Tide Gang had locked these villagers up here.

It was just... the appearance of the Sahuagin inevitably caused his rather meticulous mind to draw some connections.

From his previous encounters with these alien sea creatures, Xia Nan had a general idea that the fishmen were plotting something. They were gathering in large-scale groups, massacring islanders in droves, and holding Sacrificial Rituals.

And now, they were inexplicably mixed up with the Ebb Tide Gang.

Combined with what he was seeing now, he couldn't help but suspect that the buyers for these forcefully abducted islanders—these people about to be branded as "slaves"—were the Sahuagin themselves.

And the purpose was exactly to use them as sacrifices.

His mind unconsciously recalled those ferocious, physically imposing Shark Beasts with their absurd combat power, and Xia Nan inwardly felt that this was going to be a hassle.

After considering it for a brief moment, he concisely relayed his previous encounters with the Sahuagin, along with his current speculations, to his teammates.

Hearing that there might be dangerous monsters capable of troubling even an Adventurer party on the level of the Blade of Vengeance Squad, the members of the Shield of Iron Rock Squad no longer looked as apathetic as before.

Of course, they still didn't care about the innocent, abused civilians destined for sacrifice. They only cared about their own lives.

As long as they weren't the ones on the chopping block, it didn't matter how many people died—especially since these were ordinary people they wouldn't normally give a second glance.

They had absolutely no intention of getting involved. Even the original mission objective of teaching the Ebb Tide Gang a lesson was tossed to the back of their minds. Now, they only wanted to quickly find the collector's stolen goods and head back to turn in the quest.

Adventurers were always like this—cowardly yet greedy.

The truly cautious ones would have prepared to retreat and abandon the mission the moment they learned of the Sahuagin's existence. The truly brave ones wouldn't spare the fishmen on the island, choosing to wipe them out alongside the Ebb Tide Gang pirates.

The Shield of Iron Rock Squad, however, was stuck right in the middle. They couldn't bear to part with the mission's reward, yet they were terrified of the potential risks.

"If there really is a large number of Sahuagin on this island, and even those Shark Beasts you mentioned... I think our top priority is to find the location of Auriel's collection and leave immediately," the squad leader, Habik, suggested. "We should try to avoid any direct confrontation with those water rats."

"What about these people, Captain?" Hearing the dwarf's words, the half-orc, Hogk, suddenly spoke up from the side.

His fierce, round eyes were brimming with killing intent as he stared at the ordinary islanders inside the cage.

"How should we deal with them?"

Time was tight. Turning back the way they came to hail the merchant ship parked out at sea for pickup was no longer realistic. And if they just let these imprisoned civilians out of the cage, it would undoubtedly attract the attention of the fishmen and pirates on the island.

When that happened, the Adventurers who had snuck into the camp would be exposed as well.

They might end up facing a siege from a massive number of enemies before they even found their target collection.

Although Hogk had asked a question, his underlying meaning was actually very clear.

The half-orc wanted to silence these humans permanently.

Though he didn't know how the usually dull and reckless Hogk had thought of this, Habik realized the truth of the matter upon hearing it.

He fell into a heavy silence, seemingly actually considering the feasibility of silencing the islanders in the room.

But right at that moment, Xia Nan suddenly spoke out, asking the frail young villager in front of him, "Do you know when the guards at the dungeon entrance change shifts?"

"No one will come until dawn, my lord," the young man replied weakly.

This meant their group still had the entire second half of the night to complete the mission.

At least from the perspective of time remaining, this was more than enough.

"I came here with a different mission to complete, but if it's along the way, I don't mind lending you a hand."

"The situation on the island is complicated right now. I can't guarantee that I'll definitely be able to get you out."

"If I encounter enemies that are too dangerous and difficult to handle, I will choose to retreat on my own, and I won't have the capacity to take you with me."

With an attitude of equality that was virtually nonexistent among ordinary Adventurers in this world, Xia Nan frankly explained the current situation to this utterly ordinary, bottom-rung civilian in front of him.

"You must understand clearly that even if you left the dungeon right now, you wouldn't be rescued at all. You would only be recaptured—or even killed outright—by the pirates once they noticed the commotion."

"Therefore, if you want to survive, you need to wait."

"Just like before, don't make a sound. Just stay here and wait for me to finish and return."

"Do you understand?"

The situation was now extremely clear. For these civilians locked in the dungeon, leaving Wild Berry Cliff without being discovered by the Ebb Tide Gang pirates was practically impossible.

And once they were discovered, they would in all likelihood face death.

Their only hope was the few Adventurers standing in front of them.

Having figured this out, the villagers in the dungeon who still retained some capacity for thought nodded one after another in promise.

Xia Nan hadn't been lying.

He wasn't some saint. How could he possibly risk his life for a group of entirely unrelated strangers?

If he really encountered dangerous enemies he couldn't handle, running away—or making a tactical retreat—was nothing to be ashamed of.

Under those circumstances, he naturally wouldn't be able to look out for anyone else.

But if the enemies' strength was within a manageable range, then after resolving the danger, he truly didn't mind bringing these civilians along as he left.

To be honest, if he were to act purely out of rational self-preservation, doing exactly what the half-orc Hogk had planned—silencing these villagers—would be the easiest and safest approach.

That way, they wouldn't have to worry about them blindly running out and exposing the group's presence.

But Xia Nan still possessed the normal conscience of a human being.

He might be selfish, occasionally paranoid, and arguably brutal toward alien races, but at the very least, right now, he couldn't bring himself to slaughter innocent members of his own kind just to avoid a few possible, non-fatal risks.

"What do you guys think?" Xia Nan turned around and asked for his teammates' opinions.

His deep, pitch-black eyes were completely tranquil as his gaze swept over the members of the Shield of Iron Rock Squad, pausing briefly on the restless half-orc, Hogk.

The air instantly stagnated. The already tense atmosphere grew quietly oppressive in the dead silence.

Silence.

One could see the half-orc's chest rising and falling at an increasingly rapid pace, as well as the gnome in the shadows tightening his grip and silently adjusting the angle of his Short Dagger.

"Hahaha, of course there's no problem." The dwarf Habik's laughter shattered the explosive tension in the room.

Having heard of Xia Nan's reputation and combat record in Barracuda Bay, he had no desire to make an enemy out of the Blade of Vengeance Squad.

Pushing this young Adventurer to the opposing side—and adding yet another unstable element to an already increasingly dangerous mission—just for the lives of a few lowly civilians simply wasn't worth it.

In a matter of seconds, Habik had made his choice.

"I was just afraid they would expose our presence."

"Since they can guarantee they won't make a sound and will stay put in the dungeon, there's nothing to worry about."

He said this for Xia Nan to hear, and also to clarify his stance to his own team members.

Sure enough, the moment Habik said this...

The dagger of the Rogue in the shadows returned to his waist once more. Hogk's muscles, which had bulged as he tightened his grip on his axe handle, also quietly relaxed. He merely gave Xia Nan an undisguised glare before turning his head away with a heavy snort, no longer looking at him.

Beside them, Seli had no excess expression on her face. Whether Xia Nan was questioning the villagers or her surrounding teammates were displaying hostility, she had maintained an aloof demeanor, looking as though none of it concerned her.

But Xia Nan had keenly caught it: in the instant the atmosphere had frozen, the muscles in her arms had quietly tensed, and her hand had subtly rotated backward, pointing her palm toward the longbow on her back.

Clearly, as the only other human in the squad besides Xia Nan, she completely didn't care about the lives of her own kind in the surrounding dungeon.

Her identity as an Adventurer and the Transcendent Tier power she wielded had long ago caused her to subconsciously view herself as a higher lifeform—one who was meant to trample the lower-class civilians beneath her feet.

She might not strike them down herself, but if the half-orc and the Rogue were to slaughter the human civilians in front of her, she probably wouldn't bat an eye.

"Let's drop this," Habik smoothly changed the subject.

"Let's discuss our next plan of action."

"Perhaps we should find a few more pirates and see if we can interrogate them for the location of Auriel's collection?"