Chapter 138 – The Slave Market

“How expensive are the slaves?”

Calron inquired while taking a big bite out of the grilled meat.

“It depends… the younger ones are usually cheaper, especially the female children, and the adult male slaves are usually the most expensive as you can make them work more. Additionally, if they have a high cultivation, then their prices can reach over hundreds of gold squares. Since you are opening a store, you should get a young slave so they can take care of the shop when you’re busy.”

Jolt answered, scratching his beard in contemplation.

“Isn’t it risky to hand over the store to a newly-bought slave?” Calron raised his question to Jolt, and waved to Roran at the back when he saw him descending down the stairs in a hurry.

“Not really. After you purchase a slave, you are given their soul stamp so you can punish them and find their location in case they run away. The soul stamp allows the owner to force severe mental pain onto the slave, so most slaves are obedient regardless of their own free will. If they ever decide to break their shackles and run away, they won’t even get past the city wall as the guards can detect the soul stamp within their bodies and immediately arrest them.”

Jolt talked calmly, as he waved at a nearby maid to bring Roran some food as well.

Soul stamp… I’ll need to research more about this technique later.

Calron thought inwardly, and replied back to Jolt after thinking for a few seconds. “Where is the slave market, Jolt?”

“It should be a few districts away and close to the merchant guild. I’ll go write down the directions for you.”

The innkeeper stated warmly as he got up and left the table.

“What was all that about, big brother?”

Roran asked while stealing a piece of fruit from Calron’s tray and chomping down on it.

“Jolt was telling me about slaves and how we can purchase them.”

Calron ignored Roran’s sneaky theft of his food and finished the remains on his tray.

“Eh? Slaves… isn’t that immoral?”

Roran looked deeply into Calron’s eyes, his gaze trying to bore into Calron’s soul.

“Don’t look at me like that, idiot. I have other plans for the slaves, so they won’t be treated like animals. I would rather not buy them if possible, but we in desperate need of some manpower if we are to survive within this city. Also, finish up your food quickly, we need to leave soon.”

Calron said with a gentle pat on Roran’s shoulder when the maid arrived with the tray, and got up from his seat.

“Hehe, just wanted to make sure. Don’t worry, give me two minutes and I’ll be ready!”

Roran flashed a grin to his brother and swiftly dove into the food in front of him. The maid stifled a giggle seeing Roran’s antics and turned around to serve another table.

Teacher, are you here? Can you sense any of the Raizel clan nearby?

Teacher?

Calron let out a sigh and walked towards the bar. 

………………………….

“Have they found out anything about the boy yet?”

A deep voice resounded in a lavish and ornate room.

“No, father. We found several traces of our family’s signature lightning around the outskirts of the Desolate Mountains, but once we got closer to the city wall, the lingering lightning essence abruptly disappeared. We even entered the insides of the Beast city, but we could not find anyone with our bloodline.”

The eldest son, Kail Raizel, answered softly with his hands behind his back.

“Do you think the boy has been captured by someone else?”

The patriarch’s moustache flared, as golden lightning flickered within his ice-blue eyes.

“That might be a possibility, but I do not think so. I observed the remaining traces of the boy’s lightning essence and they were mostly used for a single quick attack – probably just hunting a beast.”

Kail replied while he glanced at his father’s back and walked next to him.

A few seconds pa.s.sed in silence until Kail finally broke it.

“Is he the scion?”

Kail asked in a whisper as he stared down the gla.s.s window.

“He is…”

The patriarch slowly closed his eyes and replied in an emotional tone.

……………………………

“Hmm, it should be around this corner.”

Calron mumbled while looking down at the roughly sketched map within his hands.

Jolt had drawn him a quick map and handed it to him when he was leaving the inn, along with confirming that his friend had accepted his proposal of lending his shop to Calron starting tomorrow.  

“Big brother, I think it’s that street.”

Roran suddenly cried out while pointing towards Calron’s left.

“Huh? Ah… you might be right! Let’s go.”

Calron exclaimed, noticing a large metallic cage being pushed by four laborers into a crowded street. It was the handcuffed people inside the cage that confirmed that Calron was going the correct way.

Roran ran after Calron, and both the teens pushed past the crowd and finally entered  ‘Slaver’s Street’, the place where the slaves were sold and auctioned off.

“Fifty-seven gold… going once…going twice… sixty gold!... going once… going twice…. sold!”

Excited shouts reverberated the street as various slave-traders sold their new slaves, and while the rare combatant slaves were auctioned to rich customers.

“Most of the slaves here will be expensive, so we need to go to the corner of the street.” Calron quietly whispered into Roran’s ear and asking him to follow his lead. 

The slave traders pay an exorbitant amount of money for renting shops near the entrance, so the prices of their slaves were generally higher. Therefore, unless one had a collection of high-in-demand slaves, they would not choose to rent a shop near the entrance.

As the two teens were walking around, Calron noticed several slaves that caught his eye, but the sky-high prices on them simply scared him away. Factoring in the costs of the inn, and the shop rent for tomorrow, he would only have around ten gold squares leftover, so anything over that amount was simply risking his livelihood.

Another thing that Calron had observed was that both beasts and humans were enslaved, but the demand for younger beasts was much higher, as they could be used as pets or trained as house guards.

Roran kept sighing at the pitiful conditions of the slaves, but even he knew that there was nothing that he could do to stop slavery.

“Please… buy me! I pro… mise… to be help… full…”

A young child’s voice rang out from below Calron’s feet, just as he pa.s.sed a small metal cage.

Author Note:

The t.i.tle of the Third Book is finally decided to be the "Scion of Raizel". If you are a Patron, then check out the cover art for the third book here!