And so the thoughts returned once more.

The place Ryuto and the others had now arrived at was the "slave factory" of this country, as the name suggests, a factory with slaves.

Of course, the slaves here were different from those in the auction houses.

So where exactly was the difference?

It was in what happened after the auction houses, that would be a more appropriate way to put it.

As mentioned earlier, once a person was declared a 'slave,' pressured by the vast social environment, and with no other options left, they would eventually sell themselves.

There were roughly two ways of selling oneself—auctioning through the auction houses to find buyers, where the auction house's responsible party would find buyers, and the other was directly finding someone who might buy them, meaning they wouldn't go through the auction house.

But in the end, there was no real difference because once a slave sold themselves to someone, that person then had the right to buy and sell slaves. When they grew tired of the slave, they would still sell them off through the auction house. While there were private transactions between buyers, they were few in number, making the auction house route more convenient.

Thus, slaves would essentially keep changing owners, leading to a common problem.

When a slave was put up for auction by their owner and no buyers were found, meaning no one wanted the slave, what would happen to that slave? After being sold multiple times, this problem would eventually arise.

To address this issue, the "slave factory" was established.

Yes, the "slave factory" was specifically for slaves that no one wanted, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that only the "slave factory" could bring out the true value of these unwanted slaves.

In short, when a slave couldn't be sold and no one wanted them, the owner could choose to sell the slave to the "slave factory" at a low price. The purpose of the "slave factory" in acquiring slaves was different from that of the auction house buyers; they didn't have high demands and were quite lenient. As long as the slave wasn't disabled and didn't have any specific issues, they would accept them—it was quite charitable...

Of course, the actual purchase price would be based on the individual situation, considering factors like the age and gender of the slave. Despite this, the purchase price was much lower than that of the auction house.

For the sellers, although they might incur some losses, it was better than having no options and holding onto the slave. They generally accepted the offer willingly as they had already prepared themselves mentally to sell for as much as they could when they arrived there.

Selling off a worthless item for an acceptable price and purchasing it at a considerably low price was beneficial for both sides. Could this be the legendary win-win situation?

The "slave factory" didn't acquire slaves to repackage and resell them; after all...

Although its name was indeed "slave factory," it didn't quite mean what it seemed on the surface. To clarify, it wasn't a factory producing slaves; the name was just a misnomer that should be emphasized.

The purpose of the "slave factory" was actually quite straightforward. No matter how unwanted a slave was, as long as they weren't disabled, they could still do physical labor of some kind. Following this business philosophy, they fully utilized the labor of slaves, allowing them to engage in various types of work.

Well done! Liberating and developing the productive forces!