The Greatest Sinner

Evan wasn't surprised by Zak's words. He understood that most likely the Whitehead Family had such a bad reputation for certain reasons. They were vile and cruel people, but not unique. Their methods were no different from those who were so full of themselves.

The young man took a sip and said quietly: "Commander, does all their wealth come from selling slaves?"

Evan understood that the slave trade was very lucrative, though immoral for many people. He thought it was what brought the Whitehead Family most of its income, but that wasn't quite true.

"Sure, they get a lot of money for selling slaves, but that's not their main profit. They do something worse than that. I told you before that the Whitehead Family makes people in the villages work in the mines. But one of the mines is rather special."

Evan didn't interrupt and listened intently. He wondered what was in this mine if it brought in so much money.

"This mine produces an extremely rare and useful mineral for magicians, namely, the 'Stone of Split'. In fact, the "Stone of Split" consists of two layers, and the outer layer is completely useless. However, the outer layer emits a poison that poisons everything around it. You have to break the outer layer and take out the inner layer -- this is what they call cleansing the "Stone of Split".

"I take it the poison is deadly." Evan said slowly.

In that moment he realized that on one hand he was still lucky to have been reborn in the body of a slave in prison. If he had woken up in a mine filled with poison, he would have died in a couple of days. In that case, he would have had no future.

Zak nodded confidently: "Yes, but it doesn't kill immediately. If you inhale those poisonous fumes once, all you have to do is just waiting for your death. Every day you'll get worse and worse. Eventually, you`ll just die in agony and that's it. None of the inhabitants even live to be thirty years old."

"Isn't there any cure?"

"Of course there is, the poison, though dangerous, is not the strongest in the world. If you can get certain components, it shouldn't be too hard to neutralize the poison. But how can people, who even have no money for grain have an antidote?" Zak said slowly, finishing another glass of ale.

Evan nodded. He understood the deplorable situation these people were in and it was incredibly difficult to fix.

"Commander, why can't you just destroy the Whitehead Family? No one likes them and that way you can save the people and get a mine of precious material into your possession."

Evan didn't understand why no one had done that until now.

"Well, boy...it won`t be that easy...Well, okay, suppose some powerful Family attacked the Whitehead Family, you do realize that they wouldn't just give up their territories and base."

Zak ordered another glass of ale and continued.

"First, the Whitehead Family will put up stiff resistance and so there will be a fierce battle between the two Families, and that's already a huge loss for both. Second, even if the Whitehead Family were to be defeated and give up all their possessions, would that be beneficial? The victorious Family will lose a great number of their people and resources, and in return, they will get thousands of hungry and unskilled people. Zak said calmly.

Evan nodded, Zak's words were pure truth. Even if another Family wanted to save the oppressed people, they still couldn't do it. There was no point in sacrificing their own people for others.

"What about the cave with the "Stone of Split"? Wouldn't it be enough to make a huge profit and recover quickly? Some of the money can be given to maintain the acquired territories, and some of it can be kept." Evan asked thoughtfully.

Zak shook his head in response, "I don't know, but it just doesn't make sense. If you want to mine the Stone of Split, you have to buy medicine for people so they don't die. In this case, it will bring too little profit or it will not be profitable. You could also buy protective suits, but that's a very big expense, too."

Zak took a sip and continued: "Only if a few Families equal in power to the Erden Family and the Cross Family attack the Whitehead Family will they have enough resources and strength to take care of the people and put the territories in order."

Evan nodded, he didn't know it was so hard to mine the "Stone of Split" and that the overall situation was so bad.

<It turns out that even if someone saves them, there's practically no change. The world really is cruel... they don't even have a chance to achieve anything just because they were born in such a rotten place.> Evan thought to himself.

Just like his last world, this one was just as completely unfair. He had no intention of saving these people, he just wanted to know more about the situation. He couldn't put his own life in danger because of simple pity for others. As cynical as it sounded, this was reality.

"Evan, I don't want to keep you any longer, I think you should get ready for the tournament, but before you go I wanted to tell you something. Marcel told me there's a rumor going around that there's a very talented girl in the Whitehead Family. What's interesting, she's not their offspring and that fact became known around the time you killed Abigail Whitehead." Zak said slowly as he drained his glass of ale.

"The ale is really good, I'll see you tomorrow." Evan said with a slight smile on his face and walked out of the "Falling Drop".

He headed towards his house thinking about Zak's last words. He had an inkling of who this girl was and it was curious.

<I wonder if all of Abigail's powers had been passed on to her... or maybe they were just the impetus to unlock her potential. We'll have to check that out sometime.>

...

Evan didn't make any special preparations for the tournament. He did a little training and that was it. The young man felt that he was ready for any opponent and any situation.

The next morning Evan got up and took his time heading to the tournament. To his surprise, when he left the house, a carriage with a coachman was already waiting outside.

The man bowed and said respectfully: "Mr. Evan, Mr. Marcel has ordered to escort you to the tournament."

Then he opened the door of the carriage.

Evan nodded and was about to go inside when suddenly he heard the loud clatter of hoof beats and saw a horse galloping towards him.

The black horse stopped and Zak shouted loudly: " Hey, guy, get in, I'll give you a ride!"

Evan smiled and quickly climbed onto the horse, and then they quickly rode away.