With the cold Hiems wind and rolling oceanic waves as their companion, Arthur and Cal began making their way to shore.

After a few minutes, they reached, and along with everyone else watched as Henry's crew anchored the ships.

Each ship had six levels and could carry around 500 tonnes of goods. With this amount of goods, Henry's fleet was a pile of treasures ready for the taking. However, Henry was quite skilled at what did, and rarely did he ever encounter pirates. And when he did, courtesy of his' luck,' he'd make it out of every encounter relatively safely.

As for why Henry carried this many goods? There were a few other continents within this continental area, and trade between them, though lucrative, took a significant amount of time. Hence, to make each trip worth it, Henry practically stuffed his ships full, in hopes of great returns. Because that, to properly utilize his space, each of Henry's ships carried a designated good: seeds/crops, another livestock, and the last slaves.

Nevertheless, after waiting for Henry's crew to wrap up anchoring the ships, Arthur wrapped himself in a gale of wind flying towards Henry.

"Henry!!"

"Arthur!!!"

"A man of your word, I see."

Henry smiled. "Of course, of course, what's a merchant without his word."

Arthur laughed.

"Thank you for taking care of those pirates, by the way, we got a bit careless near the end."

"It's all good, I was able to help and even got five ships out of it."

With a laugh, Henry nodded. "Since you are already here, would you like to take a good at my goods?"

"Of course."

Following this, another gale wrapped Arthur along with Henry as the floated towards the ship containing crops and seeds.

With Henry as a guide, Arthur explored the ship's multiple levels, taking a look at each of the goods. In the end, he decided to buy both the crops and seeds of 5 types of rice, 2 types of yams, 5 kinds of potatoes, 3 types of soybeans, 3 types of wheat, and 3 types of maize. However, those were only for crops. Next were fruits: 10 varieties of apples, 5 types of grapes, a strange fruit called a cantaloupe, 10 different kinds of berries, and 4 different types of citric fruits. After the fruits came to the herbs, to which Arthur took a batch of each, along with their rearing manuscripts for a high price.

For the next ship, the livestock, Arthur decided to buy 20 of each type of animal, ten males, and females. 3 kinds of Caprines (goats), 4 types of ovines (sheep), 2 types of porcine (swine), 3 types of poultry (chicken, duck, geese), and 3 types of bovines (cattle). Of the bovines, Henry made sure to recommend the Wagyu Cattle. According to him, their meat was amongst one of most succulents of meats he'd ever come across. Hearing this, Arthur's curiosity was piqued as he added them to his purchase. Other than those animals, Arthur also purchased some hares, rabbits, and fish eggs for rearing.

Following the livestock ship, was the slave ships. As they moved down the ship, Henry began to explain how slavery worked in this area. From his words, most slaves were either prisoners of war or those unfortunate enough to be sold by their families in order to survive. And of the latter, children were often the victims.

Hearing the latter part, Arthur understood that though on the surface, selling one's own child seemed quite cruel. It was in its own away from an escape for the sold. Though he couldn't justify all of them to be as such, it was more or less the thought process of those less fortunate.

Regardless, continuing his explanation, Henry described how slavery contracts worked. Each slave was marked with a crest, with their corresponding crest matching one in the slave directory. Once a slave is sold, the crest is then transferred to parchment and given to the buyer. The crest also forbid slaves from harming their masters or rebel. They could try, but they would find themselves at the mercy of an intense burning sensation rampaging throughout their bodies.

Regardless, walking down a flight of stairs, Arthur arrived at the first level of the ship. Along with Henry, they made their way to Henry's office, where Henry pulled out a thick book containing all his current slaves their skills.

Just like the other ships, this ship had six levels, the top for Henry's crew, with the remaining levels housing the slaves. In totals, Henry had around ten thousand slaves aboard, and of those around 200 were children. And among the slaves, there were also a few races, humans, elves, wind elves, dark elves, dwarfs, and halflings (having two or more races).

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Looking through the book, he slowly made a list of the slaves he wanted. Due to the sheer volume of slaves, this process took a few hours. However, this was mostly due to the fact that Arthur was only buying around 500 slaves. As to why? It was simply unadvisable to have a slave population drastically outnumber the free population.

Nevertheless, after those few hours, Arthur had chosen the slaves he wanted.

Perhaps it was pity, sympathy, or empathy, but Arthur had decided to buy all 200 of the children. Of course, it could also be his genius at work. By buying the children, he was, saving them from potential harm in the future. And if raised right, these children would be the most loyal of his people. But more than likely, it was just Arthur's vision of having sovereignty of talents and hard workers, and what better age to instill those ideals than when a person is a child.

Nonetheless, of Arthur's remain 300 slots, he went with 100 elves, 50 wind elves, 50 dark elves, 75 dwarfs, and 25 halflings. As for the main factor in deciding the members of each race, he purposely chose people skilled in things like brewing, milling, baking, weaving, tanning, woodworking, smithying, etc. He went with no humans primarily to increase the diversity of Avalon, and secondarily because the elves could perform those same skilled tasks but slightly better. However, for the others, the elves, because they were many of them, were skilled in delicate works like wood woodworking, tailoring, and farming. The dwarves because of their great talents in smithying and brewery. The wind and dark elves, because wind elves had great agility and stamina, whereas dark elves were incredibly well suited for stealth tasks. Though he didn't expect them all to make the cut to join either Phantoms or Spectres, there was still a good chance that a good portion of them could. As for the halflings, curtesy of their mixed heritage, they tended to be talented in multiple things.

Finishing his list, Arthur handed the slip to Henry, who then called some on over to move the selected to shore.

"I remember you mentioned that you were interested in some uniquely skilled individuals. On the sixth level of, there might be a few people that might interest you."

Hearing this, Arthur's curiosity peaked. "Sure, let's go."

As they made their way down flights of stairs, Arthur cast precursory glances around each level, grasping a better understanding of how slaves were treated. For the most part, they were simply given bunk beds that were sectioned into small cells. Sanitation was well taken care of along with a few other daily necessities. Their lives weren't the best, but they weren't hell, either.

Nevertheless, after making as they made their away down to the sixth level. Henry clapped his hands, five doors opened as five individuals came out. From their energy, Arthur could tell that they were all Celests. 'it would seems that Celests are treated better.'

Watching the five individuals standing in order, Henry nodded. "Due to personal circumstances, they decided to sell themselves into servitude. Unlike normal slave contracts where you completely own them, all of their contracts have a stipulation. As long as those stipulations are fulfilled, they will serve you for as long you wish. However, those stipulations have time to be fulfilled, or their contracts become null and void. But because they all have abilities, they are quite, these contracts are still expensive despite those conditions."

Arthur nodded. "That's fine. Let me take a look at their profiles."

"Sure thing." Replied Henry as five parchments of paper appeared in his hands.

Of the five people present, two of them were twin dark elves, an elve and wind elves, and a middle-aged man who appeared to be human. Glancing through their profiles, Arthur smiled. "I will take them all."

Hearing this, a smile appeared on Henry's face. "Excellent, everything will be set up."

Following this, Arthur followed Henry back to his office to finalize their payment.

Due to the rapid surge of preparation for the coming chaos, once Hiems ends, there was a high demand for natural resources, particularly metals. And thus there were at an all-time premium. Hence, Arthur concluded the trade buy trading some of Avalon's excess iron while making up the difference with 10,000 gold spars (currency, there are copper, silver, and gold).

After everything was concluded, Arthur and Henry made their way to Avalon.

…With everything already taken care of by their people, by the time Arthur and Henry walked out of Henry's office. The beach was completely empty, with various footprints decorating the once even sand.

After walking for a while, the duo finally made it to Avalon. "Allow me to be the first to welcome you to the village of Avalon. We've only been here for a month, so there is much work to do, but I am sure you will be well received."

It was a comical sight to behold as Henry's eyes laid on the budding settlement of Avalon.

Due to the now dark sky, Avalon's street lights had already turned on, bathing the small village in soft light. This heightened the appearance of the various structures that had been built.

As for Henry's reaction, his jaw was left hanging as his eyes widened like saucers. 'How the hell is this a village? This is practically a mini-city, in terms of infrastructure quality and buildings. And it has only been under construction for only a month....'

Nevertheless, swallowing his shock, Henry silently swore to strengthen his relations with Avalon.

After walking for a bit, a soft voice whispered behind Henry. "Look who finally decided to visit. I thought you would never come back."

Turning around, Henry shivered for a moment, "sister Orias!"

"Oho, you do remember."

"Of course, how could I forget." Replied henry as a box appeared in his hand." And I even brought you a gift, it took me a while to find the perfect one."

Squinting her eyes, Orias received the box nonetheless and opening it, her eyes flashed a happy light. "Indeed, it is perfect." Smiled Orias as she closed the box. "Alrighty, now that you guys are here, lets head to the banquet."

And with that, Orias began to guide them towards the Village Hall.

…

It was a night of laughter and food as everyone enjoyed themselves. Henry and Orias seemed to be the best of friends, despite what Arthur would have thought. And it also seemed that Cisse and Siegfried had become true brothers in arms.