Chapter 101: Business 

 

The man seemed to hold himself high within society. At least, judging by the way he confidently strode into the black dragon son's makeshift palace. 

 

Luxurious colorful clothing, pompous subconscious mannerisms, and the way he looked down on everyone and everything he saw— his attitude flaunted both his pride, and unfortunately his ignorance. 

 

The dragon sisters were quick to assess the man. Their magical glowing eyes hid under a thin veil, scrutinizing him to no end.

 

Of course, they did so not because they were women and inherently critical of others, or because high nobility were often judgemental, but because the competent dragon children often made it a habit to assess every individual and situation.

 

And although they had varying opinions, there was one shared assessment between all of them: This bunch must have no idea about who was really in front of them. 

 

If they had learned of the draconic daughters and sons in great detail, they would all be groveling on the same dirty stone floor that their eyes had dared to look down on. 

 

…But that was not the case. 

 

The pompous and colorfully dressed man also began scrutinizing everything that he saw. 

 

When he first exited the tunnel, he was actually quite surprised to see how massive the space around him was. 

 

In regards to open space, what he saw was not that different from the throne rooms of some small kingdoms; a tall ceiling, an extra wide berth of open space to accommodate the king’s audience, and of course an elevated throne sitting smack dab in the middle. 

 

The only thing the space was missing were luxurious decorations, to which of course, Dais as the son of a merchant lord, brought with him. 

 

“Huh…” His eyes lazily idled towards the rough uneven walls, and the concaved ceiling. 

 

There were…a few unusual details in this makeshift stone palace. Apart from the filthy floor that was perfectly flat, the walls and the high ceiling displayed large craters on their uneven surface. 

 

Dais analyzed them thoroughly. His earlier display of arrogance was not unfound, for he was in fact perceptive and shrewd. 

 

As the son of a merchant lord, he was accustomed to also selling war weapons to conflicting kingdoms, so he had seen their effects. The craters on the wall and the ceiling were not formed from some heavy projectile crashing into the stone, but they more closely resembled a battering ram of untold massive force crashing into the hard stone over and over. 

 

Supporting that observation, were the piles of gigantic debris that were swept to the sides of the large room, along with a confusing amount of wooden logs. 

 

Though…that was odd too. The point of impact for the craters was not the size of the aforementioned wooden logs. In fact, it seemed the diameter of the impact was much smaller; just a few inches wider than his own fist. 

 

As he looked in the middle of each large crater, there could be found the deeper grooves of that same small object. 

 

…This was even more odd. Such a device was more likely to penetrate the stone rather than somehow spread that force outwards. 

 

The intention to spread the area of destruction was clear to see, but the ordinary methods to create such a massive underground palace were nowhere to be seen. 

 

The man’s eyes fluttered towards Balon and his men. He noted first that there were no traces of any such device that could have smashed and broke open the surrounding stone, especially so into such a massive area. 

 

‘Maybe it was done long ago? No. This was done recently.’

 

The small pieces of broken stone that fell from the subsequent cracks in the walls was evidence enough. 

 

‘Did he disassemble the device and move it out before our eyes? But he would still need more men to handle such a contraption. Maybe he had them leave too? But why would he do this? Manpower is often used to display wealth and power.’ 

 

Dais went over a mental list of various possibilities, but he still held on to the belief that whatever made this massive underground space, it had to be some sort of machine or tool. 

 

‘Did he want me to believe he did all this himself? Hah!’ Dais thought to himself in confusion mixed with disdain.

 

Briefly, he considered the idea that Balon and his men had done the work, but he ruled out that possibility as soon as it came to him. From his knowledge, all those figures were veteran monsters, and all of them either had white hair, or were growing them. 

 

Balon’s veil was in effect, so instead of a gigantic meat fridge, the man sitting on the stone throne appeared as a tall but skinny pretty boy, who was bursting with immature youth. His height did not help him either, as it made him look more lanky rather than robust. 

 

Looking at his gentle appearance, any notion of Balon being a powerful warrior capable of caving out a massive underground enclosure was thrown out the window, and Dais was too low on the social ladder to be aware of the much greater forces that lorded above him. 

 

His brief assessment of the circumstances bore no fruit, so Dais’s gaze floated over from the men, to the sufficient golden bars at Balon’s feet. He was indeed the son of a merchant lord, for in the next moment he calculated their exact weight using only his eyes, and then their precise worth according to the next month’s forecasted market value. 

 

After calculating the threat of business, and then business itself, his eyes finally landed onto the women. 

 

‘Young. Fresh. Just newly ripe.’

 

A flash of something disgusting passed through his eyes as he glanced at Yela, before they made their way towards the three sisters.

 

‘Ugly. And what is that attitude? These three common whores show no respect!’ 

 

He briefly met eyes with the three girls, without disgusting any hint of his dissatisfaction. 

 

‘Not even worth a couple silvers— and they've yet to be trained either!’

 

The longer he met their eyes, the more his anger festered. 

 

No commoner woman dared to display anything but absolute obedience or coquettish whoring in front of him, but all three of these girls met him with the exact opposite.

 

The three sisters were looking at Dais with their heads raised high, their eyes arrogantly looked down on him as if it was normal of common-status girls to do so. 

 

The sister’s veils were also still in effect, so of course their nation-toppling beauty was hidden. Though while the veil hid their appearances, it could not hide their temperament. And each princess naturally had extreme arrogance flowing in that pure dragon blood of theirs. 

 

“You three fucking—” 

 

“What do you know of us?” A deep booming voice rang out from the gentle looking man on the throne, interrupting Dais’s outburst. A bit of surprise came across his face because of the odd contrast, but he quickly reorganized himself. 

 

‘Us? He means himself and his servants?’ 

 

“...My father says that your status is above even the kings and queens around this area.” 

 

“So…I thought to myself that we must be alike!” 

 

“Oh?” Balon answered while his sisters silently snickered.

 

“Or at the very least your status should not be too below mine.”

 

Dais looked at the three girls again.

 

‘Is this why father forbade me from engaging in business with this man? I thought this would be something interesting since he had done so, but instead it was just the other party’s lack of standards.’ 

 

“Indeed, I was wrong. At least, judging by the quality of your whor—” 

 

“Where are the things we agreed upon?” 

 

A tinge of annoyance shot across Dais’s face from being interrupted once again, but now that he wanted this transaction to end as soon as possible, he chose not to nitpick. Little did he know that Balon’s impatience had just saved his life once again. 

 

The three sisters were still calm, albeit, one of them was disappointed that Dais didn’t finish his sentence. 

 

Aela’s claws receded back into nails, and the bursting veins that crawled all over the skin of her hands faded from view. 

 

This scene did not go unnoticed by one of the mercenaries however, as beading sweat trickled down from his forehead. 

 

From the moment he entered the underground enclosure he had been feeling anxious. The uneasy feeling in his gut, sharpened by numerous life-and-death encounters, had only intensified. 

 

“Most of the goods are outside, waiting for my signal to enter. That narrow cave entrance meant for lowly slaves blocked most of our trade beasts.”

 

“I’ve brought a few portions from the overall stock for you to examine the quality. Do it quickly, I wish to return to delicious wine, and just as intoxicatingly pleasing women.” 

 

From the tunnel entrance, the sound of wheels rolling and hitting the rough stone could be heard. With them, a new series of footsteps sounded out. 

 

A new band of servants and mercenaries brought with them rugs, carpets, silks, furniture and other such decorations. Along with them were dried foods, fruits and other living staples. 

 

Dais looked at Balon as he grabbed the buttocks of a beautiful Rank 8 Warrior. The silent language implicated was resoundingly clear: this was the kind of women he should surround himself with. 

 

A tinge of extreme irritation flashed across the female mercenary's face, but it was gone too quickly for Dais— or anyone for that matter, to notice. 

 

This female warrior was leading the most important and eye-catching of the goods.

 

The most eye-catching of the goods of course, were those people who had chains and metal cuffs on their wrists and ankles. They walked forward along in single lines, and most of their faces seemed to still carry hope and defiance. 

 

Balon did think about simply abducting the surrounding slaves near the area, but he did not for three reasons. One, was that the black dragon was simply too lazy to round them up himself. Though he could order his men to do it, that brought about the second reason. Which was, the invisible waves and changes going on. 

 

He noticed that the rebellion on the slave town would occur soon, and although it wasn’t difficult, Balon would rather not have to deal with the army of ants storming his underground palace. And although previously he gave them plenty of reason to fear him, there were undoubtedly many fearless fools out there willing to give their lives for those intangible things called freedom and righteousness. Just the sheer number of dead bodies that would litter his floor would amount to hundreds or thousands. 

 

Besides…the third reason was that he also wanted to see the rebellion succeed. The struggle would be an entertaining show.

 

“Properly fed and not malnourished. Along the ages of twelve to twenty-eight.” 

 

“Preferably unruly and disobedient.”

 

“Combat experience wanted but not required.” 

 

“Mm, sufficient.” A low booming voice sounded out from the man on the stone throne. 

 

“Hmph. Of course. These products are one of our largest sources of income, naturally this trade is one which we excel in.” 

 

“Disciple, come.” Balon ordered. 

 

“H– Huh?!” 

 

“Release one of them.”

 

“Ohh?” Sparkly eyes and a forming grin finally came on to Dais’s face. He knew that his boredom was soon going to be alleviated, and he was eager to see what was going to happen next.