CHAPTER 1021: CHAPTER 1021: MAKING EVERYONE AWARE

He paused to let the people process his words.

Murmurs started in the silent crowd. There were those who knew and those who didn’t.

Raymond had to say all these things because they needed to make the people here understand that Valeria did not attack simply to show how powerful they were or due to some flimsy impulse.

They had their reasons to attack, and they must make it clear that it was Crux who refused to listen to peaceful negotiations.

"In all of Valeria, slavery is prohibited and heavily condemned," Ferdinand said, and there was a lot of gasp and disbelief among the crowd.

They simply could not get the idea that in other places, slavery did not exist.

The slaves themselves were the ones who were most shocked by it because, their whole lives, they were made to believe that some of them were simply born as slaves. That it was their purpose and function in life.

It was quite the horrible sight, and Arabella felt a lump in her throat as their thoughts flowed into her mind.

Every second was becoming more difficult to listen to their thoughts, so she had to hold onto Ferdinand’s arm to steady herself.

{Are you alright?} Ferdinand asked.

{Yes.} Arabella forced a smile.

Ferdinand glanced at her.

[She’s clearly not alright. Yet she still looks so determined to see this through. She is so stubborn sometimes. But I don’t dislike it.]

Ferdinand wrapped an arm around her waist to steady her. Thanks to the cape that was part of her formal attire, it was not visible to the crowd. They simply looked like they were standing close to each other.

They then listened as Raymond continued to explain.

"Your monarch and the nobles of Crux, who had Prudencians with them, refused to return them to us even when we offered to pay them twice the amount they had paid for them.

I believe a lot of you have seen the notices that His Imperial Majesty had asked His Eminence to display for everyone to know we are serious in asking for our people to be returned.

Letters had also been repeatedly sent to your monarchs.

However, our requests seemed to have fallen on deaf ears.

I believe you do recall that His Imperial Majesty even visited Crux in person.

However, instead of listening to our requests, there were countless assassination attempts upon His Imperial Majesty’s arrival and departure.

Further, even as we finally demanded the return of our people and set a deadline, most of your royalty and nobles refused to return our people.

Some had agreed, but there were more who refused, even as we warned that we would take arms to take back our people to their home.

They chose to go to war with us.

We were determined to take our people back, and we were denied it.

Thus, we took up arms.

And this was the result."

Raymond paused once again to let the people process it.

There were a lot of nobles who glared with resentment, but they did not dare speak against them since the heads of households of those who had Prudencian slaves were still imprisoned, awaiting their verdict.

"Further, members of Crux’s royal family and the pro-slavery faction of the nobles had also committed crimes against humanity.

The Queen of Crux, the Ruella Household, and various houses allied with them used human slaves in the war against us by using slaves untrained for battle as foot soldiers stationed on the front lines.

They even devised to use our own people, the Prudencians they had refused to allow to go home.

They planned to make them wear Crux armor and lower the morale of our knights and soldiers by making them kill someone of their own.

If not for the intel we have gathered, our knights and soldiers would have killed their own people and slayed Crux slaves who had been forced to join the war.

Thanks to His Eminence and our reliable magicians, we were able to save our people and safely remove those who had no will to fight from the battlefield without harming them.

They are these people you see in front of you right now," Raymond gestured to one side of the raised platform where the Crux they saved, clothed, healed, and freed were.

The knights who had been standing in front in a straight line that hid them at first parted to show them.

They were asked to show themselves today as witnesses.

The nobles who sent them to war gasped as they recognized their slaves. They thought their slaves had died in the battle.

The saved slaves visibly turned pale at the gazes they received from their former masters, but the sight of the Imperial Knights, who had been by far so kind to them, gave them some reassurance.

They did not understand what it meant to be free, but as they had been allowed to recover and eat well ever since they were rescued, they were slowly beginning to have a clue and truly understand what it meant to be treated as a normal human being.

"Further, these are not the only crimes against humanity that Crux has committed.

As you can see, His Holiness is here with us today because Crux had done something even worse.

I will let His Holiness tell you about it," Raymond stepped back.

Pope Elsevier rose and went to the podium.

"The Great Temple also heavily condemns and prohibits slavery.

Over the years, we have done what we can to discourage it and encourage nations to abolish slavery.

However, we understood that change cannot happen in an instant, especially in territories like Crux that had been practicing it for so long.

We have overlooked slavery in Crux and the neighboring territories so far because, over the past years, there had already been talks of diminishing slavery and gradually abolishing it.

And this year, in the Yearly Assembly in Medius, most nations agreed to abolish slavery, and thus, finally, it was agreed upon that slavery would be completely abolished on the continent within ten years.

Crux included.

We were elated to hear this news.

Yet, before this vision finally happens, Crux committed something we cannot simply forgive and overlook.

Necromancy."

Those who knew it paled. Meanwhile, those who didn’t glanced around in confusion.