Chapter 1184 Burn it all to ashes!
"Hassan the Flame Fist..."
Aiwass murmured the name.
He had more than just heard of it.
Judging from the order in which events occurred, one could even say that they were chasing after Hassan the Flame Fist—or more precisely, they were chasing after the [Fire Tetrahedron] in his hand.
Although Aiwas no longer planned to get the fragment of the geometric Tiansi... after all, the water-attributed fragment was obviously more valuable, and Aiwas had already figured out where to get the Tiansi fragment that Leah was going to use.
"From what you're saying," Aiwass said, showing some interest, "is he the leader of the rebel army you sponsored?"
To be remembered by a businessman of Grandet's stature, to be talked about with such enthusiasm by someone of Aiwass's rank... he must be no small figure. Even if he were a small figure, it must be his "masterpiece," the fulcrum that could move a huge rock.
"He is a legend in this desert."
Grandet's voice was low and gentle: "You must know that he is a Parthian, and he was born a slave..."
"Yes," Aiwass nodded. "It is said that he is a snake-man with dark skin and a skinny body."
According to the characteristics of snake people, if they do not eat enough or even overeat before adulthood, they will become quite ugly after adulthood. They will also be thin and short, and their status in the snake people society will also decline.
As a slave, he naturally couldn't enjoy any nutritious food. Therefore, Aiwass could imagine his general appearance.
Grandet hummed, then continued, "In Parthia... even those born as slaves have a chance to ascend to higher social status. As long as they develop into young snakemen with good looks and figures through their 'overeating' trait before reaching adulthood, they can be chosen as priests by the snakeman temple that worships beauty. The snakemen will pay a sum of money to buy them from the benevolent master."
"According to Parthian law, children born to slaves were also the property of their masters, just as the offspring of cattle and sheep in a herdsman's household belonged to the herdsman. All slaves without an indentured master belonged to the Benevolent Master. Even slaves in the hands of indentured masters still belonged to the Benevolent Master in terms of ownership; the indentured master merely had a 'secondary ownership', and their consent or disapproval had no final say.
"Therefore, the Serpent People don't need to purchase them from their original Contract Masters. From this perspective, if a slave is taken away by the Temple, it's essentially like the Contract Master losing a slave who could be passed down to their descendants. Therefore, Contract Masters will strive to keep their Serpent People slaves underfed... so they can keep their descendants for a long time."
"...So, does that mean Hassan the Flame Fist is just such a snake-man slave who's not allowed to have a full meal?"
Aiwass asked.
Grandet sighed. This cunning and careless businessman now seemed to have a hint of genuine sympathy. "His situation is even more special. Their mother wanted her children to escape slavery in the future... but under the control and supervision of their master, this is difficult to achieve.
"So she had an idea—
"She gave up four of her five children to support the most talented one.
"Because of the master's restraint, the children's food intake was reduced. Each child could only eat half full. In a state of constant hunger, the snake-man's transcendent instinct would devour their flesh and blood, prioritizing the strengthening of their brains, intestines, and nervous systems. This maximized the success rate of the 'gamble before death' at the lowest cost."
"And this mother forced each of her children to eat only half full, and then vomited two-thirds of the food. She gave priority to feeding the most beautiful female snake people. Snake people value beauty, and women's beauty often surpasses that of men. Therefore, the cost of training a qualified female priest is much lower than that of a male priest.
"There's another problem here. Female slaves' jobs primarily involve laundry, cooking, housework, and providing their masters with bedding. Male slaves, on the other hand, are assigned to mining, hunting, patrolling, protecting their masters on their travels, or serving as militia guards, among other more dangerous tasks. Therefore, they are more likely to develop disabilities or scars, which affect their level of beauty. For example, Hassan the Flaming Fist's arm... he lost it in an accident due to excessive hunger and overwork.
"Most of his brothers and sisters also paid a price. His youngest sister was so skinny and ugly that the master got tired of her and sold her directly. Later, her scales were found in the ritual shop. His eldest brother died of starvation during a hunt. His second-oldest sister, out of weakness, dumped scalding food on the young master, and had her arm chopped off. She then died of infection. He was the only survivor.
"The decision that mother made was cruel, powerless, and correct—it was indeed the only plan that could possibly help her family escape the shackles of slavery."
“…I see.”
After hearing this, Aiwass understood.
It’s like a child from a poor family has no money to go to school, so he asks his brothers and sisters to work to provide tuition.
But in Rest, this kind of offering is much more cruel.
If Aiwass guessed correctly... this kind of offering comes at the cost of life.
Regardless, it's unlikely that anything could go wrong while working. But in this damned desert, slaves actually had to do tiring and dangerous work, with no medical care at all... even when they were starving and barely able to maintain their vital signs.
If you can eat half a meal but then vomit two-thirds of it, then you're basically lucky if you don't starve to death.
But in the Parthian Empire, the death of slaves was a very normal thing - unless they did not send slaves out to work, but instead did some business themselves, opened a hotel, etc. Otherwise, if they died outside while working, no one would suspect it.
"Did they succeed?"
Aiwass asked.
“It was a success.”
Grandet replied, "She did indeed raise one—a female snakeman named Nia. At the age of fourteen, she already possessed considerable beauty, meeting the standards of the Snakeman Temple. With abundant nutrition, she was more than three times taller than her brothers and sisters, and had skin as white as jade and soft, scales that glowed purple in the sun."
"But precisely because of this... her contract master became even more unwilling to let her go. After assaulting her, he even attempted to scratch her face. However, the snake person, having completed the overeating process, already possessed the power equivalent to a second-level transcendent. She didn't resist the assault, but when he disfigured her, she fought back, breaking bones in the contract master's wounds.
"Although the Serpent Temple had purchased the slave, as usual—the contract owner received no compensation from the Benevolent Master. This contract owner went to the Benevolent Master to complain, claiming his slave had injured him and requesting punishment. However, his poor verbal organization annoyed the Benevolent Master... so the Benevolent Master punished both parties simultaneously.
"He had the indenture master, who had become so noisy and annoying, hung out to dry, and had the slave who had dared to hurt her master tortured by having her snake skin peeled off.
"The Snakeman Temple didn't want to risk offending the Good Lord by sheltering a new priest who hadn't even begun worshipping the Ring Sky Master, so she was captured and skinned before she arrived at the Snakeman Temple.
"After the indenture master was hanged, his wife and son were about to be enslaved because they would lose their income and the ability to pay the water tax. They went mad and brutally killed Hassan's mother before they were enslaved.
"So, Hassan lost all his relatives."
"...Where is his father?" Aiwass asked with a frown.
"It's the Contract Master himself."
Grandet sighed: "Yes... a father, when his illegitimate daughter was about to gain freedom and hope, out of jealousy and greed, paid the price of his life by reporting her and letting her die with him.
"——Hassan felt that this matter was too cruel, too absurd, and too unreasonable. These people and this torn country together were like a joke that could not be laughed at."
At this point, Grandet bared his teeth: "So he escaped and joined the rebels. He vowed to burn all these people to ashes."
That extremely ugly and ferocious smile made Aiwas seem to see through him the appearance of the "Snake Man Hassan" whom he had never met before.
(End of this chapter)
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