Empire of Sybaris,
Emperor Jung Yunho’s 7th year of ruling,

The slave hunters were not as smart as they though they were, Jaejoong thought.  Fat lot of good he would do to them if he were to die from dehydration or exhaustion (which ever came first).  After all, a dead slave was worth even less than a dead mice, because at least, (when push came to a shove) they could actually eat said mice.  Dead slaves meant money lost and time squandered because if they were feeling kind that day, they would actually try and find him a burial spot.  Most of the time though, the lives lost would simply get left at the edge of the forest to get mauled by beasts. 

He heaved heavily as he walked along the ragged line of the sorry bunch.  Most of them, including him were bound with ropes.  The womenfolk and the children were treated better and were allowed to walk freely as long as they did not try to venture out of the line.  

The slave hunters themselves; large, brawny, and with thick wild beards straggling from their faces, were riding on horseback, cracking whips to force them to walk faster.  They fashioned themselves as slave hunters, but the truth was, they dealt more with raiding and kidnapping than hunting runaway slaves.  Sybarites could be pretty cruel, especially to those who were not Sybarites themselves.

They were currently nearing the entrance gate to Delphi, the capital of the empire, where he was sure they would get distributed like commodities.  This one goes here for this price, that one and that one goes there and so on and so forth.

The sun slowly sloped downwards, and soon, it was time to camp out for the night.  

There were two small tents for the slave hunters, while the rest of them could do suffice by huddling close to the bonfires.  The nights in here were cold, and any hopes of running away would die when you hear the sound of wolves howling from the distance (or when you could see a pair of glowing eyes staring at you from the bushes, which happened once).  Despite so, three of the seven slave hunters kept guard anyway.  They would do it in turn, like every other night.  

The ones in this shift were the friendlier ones; well, as friendly as a kidnapper could get anyway.  One of them, the nicest of the three, looked like he was in his late thirties or early forties.  There were crow’s feet at the corner of his eyes, from either smiling too much, or squinting too much.  He chortled loudly as he chatted with one of his friends.  Won Gaek, his name was.

Jaejoong braced himself, this must be the night.  They would reach Delphi tomorrow and things would get from bad to worse for him, if that was even possible anymore.  

The harem of the Palace of Han accepted only children of nobility, to keep the purity of blood of the imperial clan.  Sybaris on the other hand, preferred slaves.  Slaves with no political background.  Slaves with no noble families for support.  Slaves who would not get too big for their shoes and wield their powers around.  And slaves, who could not interfere with the line of succession as it often happened in other kingdoms.

Those were what these slave hunters aimed for.  To sell someone to the Palace; they usually fetched a pretty handsome price, usually twice the price of those sold to the House of Nobilities.    

Won Gaek chugged on his cheap, nasty smelling mead and handed the water skin to his friend when he saw Jaejoong’s eyes on him.  “What are you looking at, pretty one?”

Jaejoong blanched at that term, but quickly composed a half smile (that looked more like a half-grimace), “I have never been to Delphi before, I heard the buildings there have domes made of pure gold.”

Won Gaek laughed, “Not all buildings, only the Palace!  But, the city itself is beautiful in it’s own right.   The rivers, the sea, the people.  Everything is beautiful.  Much better than your Han’s Zhong Jing.  Never mind that, you will be able to see it yourself very very soon.”

“We are very close to Delphi?” Jaejoong asked in what he hoped was an innocent way.

“Yes.  We will get there before noon, tomorrow, I reckon!” replied Won Gaek good-naturedly.

Something twisted inside Jaejoong’s stomach at that.  He was so stupid.  It took them over two months to get from the border to here.  If he only took his chance instead of waiting until they were here.  He kept hoping throughout the journey, as they camped at cities after cities, that one Governor (or at least a checkpoint officer) would question the hunters over such huge group of bedraggled slaves; that at least one person of authority would get suspicious because which slave hunters could catch so many slaves and many were foreign-looking too, but no, none bothered to check on them. Perhaps, those officials colluded with these people, or perhaps, they simply did not care as long as it did not affect them.  Either way, Jaejoong had waited for his chance, and none had come.  Seems like he would have to create that chance himself, after all.  If he had heard this himself 6 months ago, he would have laughed himself to sleep.

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