What exactly is immortality?
This was actually a question for Roa as well.
Humans often pursue perfection relentlessly throughout their lives. In old age, they yearn for the vigor of youth and desire an extended lifespan. Yet, if they were to live for thousands of years, they might find it all meaningless, perceiving immortality as a curse.
Roxy's words hold wisdom: a long life isn't necessarily a blessing, and perpetual existence may not be something to celebrate.
However, if one doesn't seek longevity or continuous existence, what is the purpose of being born into this world?
Seeing Roa's furrowed brow, Roxy added, "Ahem, my opinion doesn't matter. I will support whatever you choose to do, Roa."
Roa softly hummed in response, embracing her delicate form as they drifted to sleep.
The next morning, Roa bid farewell to Roxy and began systematically investigating the locations of the remaining three Dragon Generals.
Their final positions pointed to various corners of the map.
Even with Roa's spatial teleportation magic, he frowned at the distances involved.
The world map of Mushoku Tensei is vast. The Human World is a flat, non-spherical world consisting of the Central Continent, the Demon Continent, the Millis Continent, the Begarittoo Continent, the Heaven Continent, and the Ringus Sea in the center. They were originally a huge landmass connected to each other, but in the late Second Human-Demon War, the very center of the huge land was bombarded by huge magic power, forming the Ringus Sea.
The Central Continent is a triangular continent composed of the northern, northwestern, and southern ends of the map, and is the largest continent in the human world.
The main area inhabited by the human race, with human language as the circulating language.
To gather these individuals, he would have to travel the world alone, searching for them one by one.
This task was immensely challenging, even for Roa, and he began to understand why Dragon God had been traveling the world – this was likely part of the reason.
Finding people was troublesome, but necessary.
Fortunately, he possessed the "Traveler's Fantasy," allowing him to teleport to any location in this world.
Setting a coordinate back to his home using the Traveler's Fantasy, Roa began his search in earnest.
His first destination was the northern part of the Central Continent.
The northern part of the Central Continent, also known as the Northern Land, has low temperatures and is covered by heavy snow all year round, making it difficult to grow crops.
Compared with the western and southern parts of the Central Continent, there are more forests, and in terms of the number and strength of monsters, it is the harshest land in the entire Central Continent.
Different from the southern part of the Central Continent and the Millis Continent, the Northern Land is a region where the slave trade is rampant, and there are villages that sell children into slavery in order to seek warmth and food. The west is the territory of the three major magic countries, and the east is a small country with frequent wars. The easternmost part is the Biheiril Kingdom and Ogre Island, which are adjacent to the Heaven Continent. The eastern sea is blocked by the sea tribe, so it is impossible to cross the sea, and transportation to the Demon Continent is very difficult.
Life in the north was harsh, with bandits and the starving common sights along the roads.
Initially, he intended a simple search, but he stumbled upon a town and was struck by its grim reality.
Because it was not long after the winter solstice, the land was barren, making it impossible to live off the mountains. Winter food was also insufficient. At this time, a group of merchants would offer a certain amount of food for each child, coming to buy the children of poor families.
Most of the boys were trained to become death warriors, and those who were clean and handsome were sold directly to dignitaries with homosexual tendencies.
If the girls were lucky, they would be selected by big shots to be maids or lovers, but if they were unlucky, they could become prostitutes.
Of course, generally speaking, children who are born beautiful and good-looking, like pink jade carvings, actually have some at home. Most of these are middle class. If you say they have no money, they have enough to let their family have a bite to eat.
But if you say they have money, they don't even have the qualifications to withstand any natural or man-made disasters, and their families will be destroyed directly.
This has also led some merchants who see profit to have some evil thoughts. If they see that a family's girl is indeed beautiful, they collude and arrange a series of accidents to directly bankrupt the original middle-class family, and then lend them usury, forcing them to sell their children.
This is considered basic operation. If you play some tricks with you, if you encounter some robbers, just grab them directly, put on a hood, and take the people away in a package.
As Roa passed through, the town was in such a state, appearing lifeless, with hawkers shouting everywhere along the streets.
Seeing Roa dressed in luxurious clothes and with an extraordinary demeanor, many merchants rubbed their hands and approached Roa, speaking non-stop in the local language.
When Roa didn't understand, they switched to the language of the Asura Kingdom, introducing him to their newly acquired goods.
The caravan was not very large, but the leader was a superior swordsman, extremely skilled in the Northern God Style, wielding a good scimitar. This type of complex terrain was even more suitable for his skills. Ordinary experts were no match for him.
The slaves for sale were simply dressed in thin clothing, placed in cages, and displayed outside like pigs and dogs.
There were no laws of the Asura Kingdom here, nor any decent country. Trafficking in human beings was almost openly displayed.
Seven or eight out of ten of them were girls, the youngest being seven years old and the oldest being about fourteen.
Fourteen years old is considered an adult in this world.
There were all types of races. Roa even saw a furry cat girl. She was lowering her head, not saying a word. Her eyes were swollen from crying, her eyes were dim, and she was hugging her legs, sitting on the cage, shivering.
She was also not very old, about ten years old, and looked very pitiful, like a stray cat wandering on the roadside, about to be frozen to death.
The north is still the north, and this world is still very cold. A cold wind blows, and a bone-chilling chill comes from the body.
Seeing Roa take a second look at the wildcat, the merchant introduced himself with great insight.
"I spent a lot of effort to catch this one from the beast tribe. You also know that the beast tribe is fierce in combat. It is very troublesome for ordinary people to catch their offspring. For this cat, I lost several brothers. I originally wanted to transport it to the Asura Kingdom to give it to a big shot, but I didn't expect that there was a coup there last year. It is said that the entire high-level of the Royal capital was wiped out, and even the king was replaced."
When he said this, he suddenly stopped and looked at Roa with a suspicious expression. He said, "Speaking of which, judging from your accent, you should be from the Asura Kingdom, right?"
The people he was referring to were naturally the upper-class nobles.
Roa did not hide it and nodded slightly.
Seeing Roa nod, his strong desire to introduce himself instantly decreased a lot. He waved his hand and said speechlessly, "I have also heard about what happened there. Can you buy slaves? The investigation there has been particularly strict recently. If you don't buy them, don't join in the fun here."
After Roa came to power, the first thing he cracked down on was the buying and selling of people. In Roa's opinion, a peaceful country should never have human traffickers.
Especially the abduction of children, which he really couldn't stand.
However, he did not take action himself, but said a few words to the princess, emphasizing it.
The other party had no objection to this and issued a series of decrees. Roa took a walk later and found that there were indeed fewer cases of human trafficking, so he did not continue to take care of it and left it entirely to Ariel to be responsible for.
He didn't expect that the laws promulgated at the beginning would have such a large impact.
Seeing that the person in front of him was too lazy to pay attention to him, Roa didn't say anything and left silently.
Of course, he didn't really leave, but planned to turn around again to see what the situation was like in this town.
As for this merchant, he would naturally find a time to kill him later.
Just as he said before, he has zero tolerance for human traffickers.
It's just that during the previous period of time, he was either on the road of time travel or being time traveled.
Because of the oppression of the Human God and the Dragon God, he had to become stronger, and he forgot to deal with this matter for a while. Now that he occasionally encounters it, Roa thought about it and decided that it would be better to deal with it.
It just so happens that he will be traveling around the world during this period of time to see what the situation is like in various places.
This town has a population of about 200 households, which is not very large. There is naturally a village chief-like position in the town, which is held by a middle-aged man.
The other party also has some martial arts skills, but not as high as that merchant, probably at the level of an intermediate swordsman, which is at the level of a small fry.
The place is not very big, and if you walk a distance further, you will reach the forest.
Roa wandered around a few times and found that only this caravan was staying here, so he remained silent and approached the village chief, chatting with him for a few words.
Saying it was a chat, it was actually just to find out the other party's background.
The other party was a somewhat cunning person, and also somewhat clever. When he saw Roa mentioning the matter of human trafficking, he did not explicitly refuse. After hesitating slightly, he explained his difficulties, explaining that this area was actually doing this, and that there was an even larger force behind the traffickers, and even a Saint-level master was in charge.
It was like pouring out all the bitterness, all grievances.
In fact, this village chief was more disdainful of the young man in front of him.
After all, he was too young. He didn't know which aristocratic family he had run out of. Young people were always like this. They thought that they had learned swordsmanship for a few years and read a few novels, and thought that they were heroes who could punish evil and promote good. They couldn't see the darkness of this world. Living in this world, how could it be so simple?
Everyone has their own way of survival.
Although the other party looked sad, he actually didn't take him seriously. He just wanted to get rid of him quickly. Roa naturally saw this in his eyes.
He was not angry. After asking a few more questions, he suddenly asked, "You don't have your own country here, right?"
Hearing this, the village chief's contempt for the person in front of him was even greater. He didn't even understand what this aristocratic son was doing here. Didn't he even bother to find out such simple information?
However, although he thought so, he still squeezed out a smile and explained very honestly, "Where are there any countries around here? Saying it's a village is actually the same as those tribes. This place is considered good. At least the surrounding monsters are not too strong. Although we sometimes face a very serious food crisis, fortunately there are merchants passing through here, so we can at least exchange for some food."
Roa interrupted the other party and asked somewhat strangely, "The merchants you are talking about, wouldn't they be those human traffickers?"
The old village chief smiled without saying a word, but judging from the other party's meaning, he also defaulted to it.
"Tsk." Roa could see it. It turned out that this group of people actually had some contact.
But thinking about it, if there was no contact, how could a normal town allow the other party to traffic in people in their village?
Even if trafficking in people is a very common thing in this world, the lower class is still the lower class, and it will not change its dirty nature just because it is common.
Roa thought for a while, looking at the other party and wondering whether to take him with him when he solved the merchant.
But after careful consideration, he gave up the idea.
The reason is also very simple.
The main reason is that he doesn't know what the situation is here. If he rashly kills the other party, it may not be a good thing. He needs more reference points to judge.
Roa's eyes moved slightly. He did not continue to communicate, but asked, "How long will that merchant stay?"
The village chief shuddered subconsciously just now, feeling a chill all over his body. He tightened the cotton-padded jacket on his body and complained about the damn weather. Hearing Roa asking him a question, he slowly replied, "Probably three days."
The village chief was not aware that he had just walked through the gates of hell.
Roa nodded and left the town, heading to the next village again.
Because he had magic to explore the way, Roa's speed was very fast. This was just a small map. In just half the time, he found three or four similar villages.
The locations chosen by these villages were not very good, but in this very barren place, they were already rare places suitable for human survival.
Among them, there are strong and weak, and there is also a population density difference between the villages.
However, no matter which place it was, there were merchants in their villages.
Roa frowned and looked very unhappy.
He randomly selected a lucky person to search his soul, and then he learned that they were actually on the same line.
It is a caravan that goes from north to south, with 30% being human traffickers and 30% being thugs.