The barman nodded then went outside, and called one of the people waiting on the streets.
Ars thought about what the barman said and realized that these people were most likely waiting for the barman to throw out some leftovers.
The man approached the barman, awkwardly. Then the barman said something to him, and that made the man open his eyes wide and he looked at Ars, and finally left running as fast as he could, Ars could see he went to other people that were probably waiting for the same thing as the man, then they all broke running in different directions.
The barman returned and said to Ars.
"It won't be long until we get a number, They will spread the info to their families and friends, and then those families and friends will keep spreading the news, in one or two hours, this entire island will know of it."
Ars nodded and ordered another beer while he waited.
After a while a small group of people arrived. One of them approached and started to ask Ars a few questions.
"Is it true that you intend to take some people with you? And how do we know you aren't a slaver disguised as a good person? Finally what kinda jobs are you searching for? Something like guards? Farmers? Or something else!?"
Ars interrupted, laughed and explained with a relaxed smile.
"First, there are too many questions in the air already, let me answer those first and then you can make a few more, if you still have them. Second, if I really were a slaver do you think I would say it? And third, yes it's true I intend to take people with me, as for the jobs, they don't really matter, the kingdom I'm taking those people to is in quick expansion, so we need all kinds of professionals."
At that moment a female asked another two questions.
"Is there any way you can prove to us that you are not a slaver? And where is your kingdom located?"
First Ars thought about it, he could show where his kingdom was, but that may put the kingdom on the map sooner than expected. He considered the questions, and the best way to answer them, at the end he decided to return a question and answer the other.
"First i would like to know, how can i prove to you that i'm not a slaver, second i can say where my kingdom is at, and even show it on the map, but if i give that information you need to come to my kingdom after all I don't want to bring unnecessary attention to it, at least yet. And when I say you, I mean anyone who gets that information."
They all nodded, accepting that condition, then Ars showed them on the map where his kingdom was, and with this he had increased his chances to at least secure the people here as civilians for his kingdom, he knew it was a bit risky but sometimes you simply need to take a risk to proceed with your plans thought if given the choice he would chose to play it safe. Ars also thought to himself.
'I should start bringing contracts prepared for such situations. I thought about getting them now but it would be strange to get a magical contract out of nowhere…'
Finally a young man proposed an idea to prove Ars wasn't a slaver.
"I think I have a method to prove you are not a slaver, you will show us your ship, normally ships from slavers have a lot of cells and chains."
Ars nodded, it was plausible, so he nodded and led the group to his ships. On the way there he remembered and explained something to them.
"By the way, I only have a very limited number of ships with me, one that might have been stolen from enemies, so the number of people I can bring this time is decently low. Depending on the number of people that would like to leave I may bring more ships next time."
When they arrived at the docks, Ars let them see his ships and confirm there were no large amounts of cells in them. Yes there were 2 cells in the original ship, but those were to make sure if they captured someone who caused trouble and needed to be kept alive.
After a while the group nodded to each other after confirming that Ars was probably saying the truth.
Then they left to inform their families and friends. Ars then remembered he could use this time to go buy a few more den den mushis.
After asking around a bit, he was lucky, he could indeed buy them on the island today, so he went to get them.
He arrived at the store and looked at the clerk. Then he quickly started explaining what he wanted.
"Hello, i would like to know the price of the den den mushi."
The clerk pointed at the price list, Ars looked at it and after calculations he could buy about 70 of them with the money he had now, this amount already included the previous bounties he collected on this trip, and he could buy about 50 with just the bounties.
"I would like to purchase 50, and food for them."
The clerk nodded and went to get them.
When he came back, he just put them in front of Ars along with their food. The clerk noticed that Ars face was a bit unusual, so he took out a board and wrote on it much to the surprise of Ars.
'Is everything alright?'
Ars nodded and then asked the clerk directly. Ars was just feeling a bit weirded out about the fact the clerk hadn't said one single word all this time… And now he was writing.
"Are you mute?"
The clerk nodded, and pointed at a scar on his throat. Ars understood that he lost the ability to talk thanks to the injury.
Ars was feeling awkward, he was just a bit curious and feeling weird, and in the end his curiosity got the better of him, but now he was feeling sorry and just stood there in silence not knowing what to say.
The clerk noticed Ars' awkwardness and wrote a little bit more.
'It's fine, I'm used to it.'
Ars nodded feeling a little bit better, but the moment he paid he left, leaving behind a bit extra as a tip.
Ars then took his den den mushis and their food back to his ship, when he arrived he noticed that the news bird was there waiting for him.
Ars smiled and approached, and smiled, and then asked.
"Can you carry a letter to your boss?"
The bird nodded, and Ars quickly went to write the letter.
In it, he wrote:
'While I didn't verify this information, I did find a group of marines slaughtering a ship full of civilians…'
Then he explained what he heard from Sas, about the events that happened in the kingdom, finally he wrote a few pleasant words and gave the letter to the bird.
When he looked around he noticed that there were a bunch of soldiers surrounding the den den mushis, he smiled at them and then took the den den mushis to his cabin.
Once done he started going back to the tavern. When he arrived a few people were waiting for him, one of them was sitting at a table, with an empty chair in front of him.
Ars realized that the unused chair was probably meant for him, so he went there and sat down. The man who was also sitting asked Ars straight away.
"Are you the one that wants to take people to a new location?"
Ars nodded relaxedly. And the man asked one more question.
"How many people can you take with you?"
Ars thought about it and replied calmly.
"This time only about 60 people comfortably, but next time I can bring more ships if there are still people that wish to leave with me!"
The man nodded and made a signal to someone in the crowd.
And shortly after a group of 60 people appeared, and like previously agreed, the previous group was included. The man finally spoke to Ars again.
"We have at least 1500 people that would like to leave, is it possible to take them all??"
Those words didn't only surprise Ars but also the barman. Neither of them expected the number that the man said.
The barman looked at the man sitting and asked.
"Why would so many want to leave?"
The man looked back at the barman and calmly said.
"Yeah there were a lot of undecided people if they wanted to leave, but after thinking about it, they decided to go, because we are barely surviving, some of us still can make ends meet for now, but it's getting harder and harder to reach that point, and some of us are actually already below that, there are also some, who you probably predicted that would be going, that have been below that for years, most people here just want to have a new start so they can survive better."
Ars was happy about getting more people, but he was still confused about the why, so he asked.
"For what i understand, this kingdom is not that bad to live in, so why are people getting in more difficulties as time goes on?"
The man looked at Ars and explained.
"Yes, this kingdom is not bad to live in, and because of this the population grew, the royals and nobles even built a new city, but that is also exactly the problem. The kingdom's revenue didn't increase enough and people's wages stayed the same. Now the heavenly tribute has increased and the people that were already having difficulties are slowly sinking, without being able to do anything about it."
Ars nodded, that made sense, the more area and by default more citizens you had the more heavenly tribute you needed to pay, that was one of the reasons Ars was trying hard not to be noticed by the world government, that way life could go on for longer without problems.
Because unlike most of the kingdoms around, in a few years his kingdom would be powerful enough to protect itself, but for now if the world government discovered how rich in resources his kingdom was, he would most definitely be attacked by them.
In the case he was discovered by them, he would need to hide his resources and pay the stupid tribute just to live peacefully. He wasn't too afraid of a random uranos attack, the island had counter measures to handle that, his fear was the world government attacking with admirals and a bunch of their agents, so for now he would do his best to make sure his kingdom looked useless and poor from the outside. How he intended to do that once merchants started to come? He wasn't sure yet.
But he would figure it out if needed…
For now it was time to go back home, the group of 60 followed him to the ship, and quickly embarked on it.
Ars started giving orders to sail. And shortly after they started sailing. One young child approached, called for his attention, and then asked nervously.
"Can we explore the ship?"
Ars smiled and nodded, their mothers got scared when they saw them approach Ars, but when they saw them leaving to play they relaxed and approached Ars themselves, they were slightly afraid but decided to thank Ars.
"Thank you for being kind to the children, we never learned what we should call you. Are you the captain of the ship? Or something else?"
Ars was going to answer, but one of his soldiers answered first.
"In the ship, he is the captain alright… But in our kingdom, his actual title is, his majesty."
The women and the men went pale, they were scared now, they did not expect Ars to be nobility, much less the King.
Ars laughed at their reactions and tried to calm them down.
"Don't worry, I don't really care about formalities.".
They all relaxed a bit, but now they were all more respectful and careful around Ars.
After navigating for a while, they arrived back home, Olivia was there unexpectedly, and asked quite fast.
"Do you have more people to go pick up?"
He nodded confused, then she continued.
"Then go already!"
Ars suddenly felt unwelcome on his own island, and then explained a little bit depressed.
"I need to bring most of the ships, i will only leave two behind, and even then i will need more trips to get everyone, the number of people this time will be around 1500 if you include the ones we bought today… And am I not welcome at home anymore?"