Micheal looked at the hole for a bit and smirked before finally leaving with his men.

Of course, he kept 4 people in the room to keep an eye on things before he left.

He walked down the stairs and stepped onto the last floor below deck.

The entire floor had no rooms and looked very similar to that of a church instead.

There were several backless-benches on each side of the wall.

And between them was a massive space for people to move to and fro the floor.

Additionally, right at the forefront of the floor... there was another massive space there that was supposed to be used by these Teriquen warriors to control or lead the slaves in the right paddling direction.

One could look at it like a music conductor that had to make sure that everyone followed the right note, tune and flow of the musical performance.

The slaves who had their legs chained to the bottom of these benches, all had dirty dusty faces.

In fact, it was clear that since their voyage, they hadn't even been given water to wash their faces.

Of course for them, water was precious since these Teriquen men didn't even give them enough to begin with.

Their clothes were ragged, their hair was messy, their lips had long cracked and their skin looked like it had aged quite a bit.

In short, the slaves all looked weak and destitute.

And the moment they made eye-contact with Micheal and his team, they all covered their heads in fear and shivered uncontrollably.

Some of the marines still had their gas masks on, so for sure...they looked like aliens to the slaves at this point.

Micheal who had long removed his gas mask calmly walked forward instead.

And as he walked, he continuously observed all the shivering slaves before him.

There was no doubt about it.

The enemy Commander and a few others were probably hiding amongst these men.

Micheal whispered into the ears of some of his men before walking forward to the forefront with a slight smile on his face.

And very soon, all his men lined up along the middle path while facing each bench within the floor.

Now, it was time to smoke out some Teriquen rats!

.

"Everyone, please raise your heads." He said calmly.

And soon enough, everyone did as they were told for fear of angering their new capturers.

But not surprisingly, some hesitated for a bit and even tried to avoid eye contact with Micheal and were all duly noted by the marines standing alongside them.

For sure... this didn't mean that they were actually guilty, as they might have been slaves who were too afraid.

Still, it was very likely that they were also lower-level Teriquen warriors that felt frightened for a bit.

Of course, Micheal knew that this wasn't enough to catch the culprits.

So he decided to play a little game.

For one, even if he got a Teriquen prisoner above deck to identify their Commander... given the situation, they might not want to again.

Why?

Because now that their commander had disguised himself as a slave, didn't it mean that the Commander's chances of escaping were great?

If the Commander had been caught after battling, then that was that.

But their Commander had used his brains and had found a way that guaranteed his escape.

One should know that Baymard was all about freeing slaves and whatnot.

So for sure, if their Commander succeeded, then he would be able to go back to terique, bring more reinforcements and save them in the nearest future.

And since they had surrendered and were so that these Baymardians wouldn't kill them... then they could just wait for their Commander's return, no?

Thinking like this, one could say that Baymard's kindness was also its weakness.

Anyway, after Micheal analyzed everything, even if it were him... he wouldn't identify his Commander too.

So the best way to tackle this is by governing the oppressed a chance to speak.

That's right!

The slaves would be the ones to point out the rats.

.

"Everyone, listen up!

We are men from Baymard who only attacked the sh.i.p.s to protect our empire.

So since you aren't our enemy, then we will naturally let you all go."

(0^0)

Everyone heard them and felt excitement fill their veins like crazy.

Finally, they would be free!

From the moment they had been dragged into this war, they had never expected that Baymard would fully win.

And now that they did, they couldn't help but feel like the heavens he sent these Baymardians to free them up.

Many of them have been slaves for over 17 years now and had been taken away as a slave when they were just little kids.

They were known as Paddle-slaves, and had been trained to row the sh.i.p.s whenever Nopline's men needed to leave for missions.

This was all they had been taught to paddle in various formations or patterns, depending on where the ship had to go.

And while on sea, every week... at least 10 of them would die from their ill-treatment on board.

But now after years and years of being abused, they had finally been saved.

Of course, they knew about Baymard since it was the talk of almost everyone within the entire Pyno continent.

Baymard was like a beacon of hope to all slices out there... reminding them that one day, they might be saved.

They heard that the place treated their kind like humans and even forbade anyone from calling themselves 'slaves' within its empire.

Such a place would definitely be a paradise for all slaves within the Pyno continent.

Everyone bowed several times in thanks, as their legs were still chained.

"Thank you kind saviours!"

"Thank you kind saviours!" They said with tears in their eyes, as they looked at Micheal in gratitude.

Micheal just smiled and waved his hands nonchalantly.

Now that they felt like this, then the next step should be fairly easy, no?