The first caravan of slaves had arrived at Altrai, and continued to his manor. A group of 45 wagons carrying a few hundred slaves.

  Kyle had had a huge paved area built for the prospective unloading of slaves. Later on, it would be repurposed to a market or something.

  At one end stood the podium that he would make announcements from. The plan was to break the slaves into groups of 300, and to give each one the speech and settle them in.

  The whole operation would work flawlessly. In the beginning, they would be fed and would be split up based on skills. Any with farming skills would be freed and sent to the fields. The craftsmen would start their trades back up, and join his assembly lines.

  The vast majority would become factory workers. Kyle had looms, several Bessemer process foundries, and industrial carpentry jobs he needed filled.

  While the mages were building the empty factories and apartments, he’d been educating 400 overseers using projectors on his armor and even some basic brain chemistry alteration.

  BCA was a technology as old as the league itself. It could directly implant a general understanding of a topic in someone’s subconscious-something that had kickstarted scientific advancement.

  While Kyle didn’t have a neuroscience laboratory on hand, his medical nanites could do it at about one-quarter efficiency. More than enough for some factory overseers who had a week of teaching anyways.

  Kyle took a moment to reflect on what he was doing. Slavery was bad-even the morally callous Kyle knew that. He truly hated not because it was bad, but because of wasted potential. Every enslaved person could have been the next Raj Parpali, the next Albert Einstein, the next Grayson Wei. The greatest minds could arise from any conditions.

  The first group of wagons paused on the road connecting to the plaza. Groups of his employees and villagers, backed by the mercs, prepared to receive the….product.

  At the command of the grizzled caravan leader, a few armored men unlocked the huge cage-wagons that held the slaves. After a while of this, the leader yelled again, and the men got back on the covered transport wagons. One of the mercs handed the leader a sack of gold, and that was that.

  Kyle inspected the slaves. All of them were emaciated, and covered in signs of abuse. They all wore rags. A wide range of races was represented. Mostly humans, of course, but many members of the Folk could be seen.

  The Folk were the beastmen of the world. There were many tribes and many subspecies, but all were demi-humans. They were widely enslaved by Veskaya, as they were often physically stronger than humans.

  A few other races had single people, but the other large group were the Golemites. 8 foot tall rock beings, they were strong but incredibly slow.

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  After Kyle had the first group organised, they all stood around rather dejectedly.

  Kyle clapped, which was incredibly loud when in his armor. They all looked at him like deer in headlights. The guards standing around him slapped whatever weapon they had against a shield or the ground.

  “Attention! I have an offer for you all. Starting at this moment, you are all free! In return for this freedom, I expect nothing but your honest labor. You will be paid in food enough to truly fulfill your needs, you will receive decent room and board, and you will be kept in good health! You will receive a real wage of 10 imperials weekly as well! After three years of work, you will become full citizens!”

  Most of the slaves looked like deer in headlights at that news. They probably expected some intimidating speech about not rebelling, but instead received their freedom.

  “Over the next two weeks, my overseers will instruct you on how to do the work required! Follow their commands, and all this and more will be yours! If you have family, please let your organizer know. I will not stop you from leaving now-but I don’t fancy your chances against the slave catchers probably flooding the region.”

  Teams of volunteers took the newly freed slaves to their buildings. Kyle could already see the next caravan train coming up the road from Altrai, this one nearly twice the size of the previous one.

  They walked away with stunned or fearful looks. It was clear some didn’t trust him. That would change once they received real food, and a little money. It was easier to follow orders when you were fed, let alone actually paid.

  Kyle could just replay the recording of this first speech over and over for every new group.

  ————

  Another week came and went. Since his arrival, about 4 weeks had now passed. The slaves slowly learned how to work a basic production line, how to safely operate a basic steam engine, how to use fertilizers, and how to use a machine loom.

  It was not without problems. A few thieves were caught, but they were in the minority. Most problems kind of melted away once the people had warm food and money to spend on the few merchants of things like cookware and furniture who had already visited the fresh town.

  Their conditions helped smooth over problems as well. Despite being utilitarian, ugly, and a little cramped, their stone apartments were miles better than the barracks most of them had once slept in.

  There had been no ventilation of any kind, someone would die from exposure nightly, and they slept stacked like nutribars in a league small-outline shipping container.

  With such a huge jump in conditions, most of the slaves had been placated and hadn’t needed anything else.

  The fires of industry started small and guttering. Kyle had to inspect factory by factory, work group by work group. The mages had just built huge empty stone buildings with a lot of fire exits, so a lot of the industry Kyle had the few carpenters construct had to be specially laid out to fit.

  Kyle was going to start industries one at a time. First, the textile industry, as that had started first on earth back in the 19th century. And then the agricultural sector so he could hemorrhage less money on buying staple crops. He expected the main earner to be the steel industry, which he needed to set up for other industries anyways.

  Hmm, wonder when I’ll start seeing tropes… maybe I already have? Something to consider for certa-oh yeah! The “Demon King”. I wonder if I’ll have to deal with him at some point.

  Kyle blinked. I probably just jinxed myself…