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At this moment Lucy’s face displayed a serene expression as she listened to the whistling wind and observed the nearby white clouds.

 

Every now and then the huge bat-like wings jutting from her shoulder blades powerfully and expertly beat the air, rocketing her flying figure forward.

 

Her destination was the nearby town of Grimsby, located about 100 miles north of Port Blackwood.

 

  This small and lawless town was frequented for it’s rare and illegal wares that sold for numerous gold coins as well as for it’s mercenary trade union that advertised missions and dispatched interested mercenaries all over the continent.

 

Ordinarily Lucy would be coming here to handle some official business or to buy some rare blood that had caught her eye; today however today she was in search of slaves.

 

 Similar to her home world of Morgana, Aleria was a land where enslaving your enemies was legal. However, in the Hale kingdom at least it was illegal to sell slaves within official city limits.

 

As such slave markets located in inconspicuous towns  such as Grimsby were aplenty. Most of the slaves that were bought from these small towns were either used as  servants and butlers or soldiers and extra manpower, which is exactly what Lucy needed.

 

Now that she had her funds and ships secured Lucy could focus on finally building her kingdom and army.

 

WHOOSH

 

Suddenly with a muffled flapping sound, Lucy stealthily glided under a small patch of trees just outside the small town’s walls and withdrew her wings before walking in.

 

Hidden behind the town’s gates there was a bustling marketplace filled with many people and little stalls to the sides.

 

 In the far center of the small and busy marketplace taking up more than 50 meters of space was the Mercenary Trade Union, and to its far right was a discrete line of stalls that were easy to miss if one didn’t know to look for them.

 

After quickly flipping most of the goods she’d stolen to various stalls for some spending money, Lucy walked deeper through the streets of Grimsby and immediately made her way to an alley of inconspicuous and shady stalls that were better known as “Slave Street”.

 

 Just as their name implied, this street was where rich patrons would go to discretely buy indentured servants of their choice.

 

Lucy knew from prior window shopping here that the stalls at the very entrance of slave street sold the lowest quality stock like the sick and elderly.

 

The further in you went the quality as well as the prices of the slaves went up though, and while most people would be satisfied at stopping midway through slave street and just picking up a mid-quality slave, Lucy was not so easily satisfied. Or cheap.

 

She wanted the best her gold could buy. And she had a lot of it.

 

As she walked down the slightly busy and shaded street, Lucy noticed the usual sights of shopkeepers and patrons bartering over rare fighter slaves and the sounds of various bids being thrown out.

 

Some curiosities such as mage slaves and the few stalls selling magic beasts briefly caught Lucy’s eye, but she was looking for one place in particular.

 

“Where is i- Ah! Here we are” she exclaimed as she noticed the deep purple tent at the end of the street.

 

Upon immediately entering Lucy face to chest with a 6’1 burly and mean looking guard. But just as she looked up to give the guard a piece of her mind his voice beat her to it,

 

“This is no place for pretty little girls!” the mean looking guard all but shouted down at Lucy

 

“Excuse You!”? Lucy exclaimed before whipping out the bag gold coins Mars just gave her, “Perhaps I should take my business elsewhere then…”

 

“Wait!”

 

Just as Lucy had turned on her heels and began to jingle away with her bag of gold coins in hand, a panicked voice suddenly rang out.

 

“Move out of the way you big buffoon! Can’t you see our esteemed visitor is looking to buy!”

 

With big awkward steps the stupid guard hobbled away, revealing a grey haired and eccentric looking man standing before Lucy’s kneecaps.

 

“Come in, come in! How can I help you miss? What type of help are you looking to buy today?”  said the elderly shopkeep as he boldly grabbed Lucy’s finger and led her inside the tent.

 

 

‘I wonder how old he is?’ Lucy wondered to herself, ‘By the looks of those roots and those wrinkles on his skin he’s gotta be 100 years old…’

 

 

“We have big slaves, small slaves, short slaves, tall slaves. Slaves that can sing, slaves that can dance, slaves that can fight, slaves that can fuc-“

 

“Here’s what I need” Lucy interrupted before jerking her hand from the eccentric shopkeeper and handing him a small note, “Can you supply that?”

 

The shopkeeper’s little face was an unreadable mask while he read the note before suddenly it broke out into a wide grin as he crumbled up the small paper.

 

“80 healthy and athletic human young men or boys, 80 healthy human virgin young women or girls, 20 strong and healthy adult human men, and 20 strong healthy childless adult women for a grand total of 200 slaves? That all?” he asked without missing a beat

 

Lucy was a taken aback for a moment at his efficiency before stuttering,

 

“Y-yeah. Can you handle that order or-“

 

“Of course!” said the old shopkeeper as he stared and all but drooled at the bag of gold coins still in Lucy’s hand, “You came to the right place! In fact, you came at the perfect time too, I was just about to auction off an exclusive batch of slaves  I’ve been saving.”

 

Lucy raised an eyebrow at the uncanny convenience of the shopkeeper’s suggestion.

 

She didn’t need to use her mind reading to see that this shopkeeper was focused on making a profit, but the establishment seemed reputable enough and she was curious as to what was so exclusive about these slaves. So, with a sigh Lucy relented and asked,

 

“What makes them so exclusive?”

 

The slave trader didn’t miss a beat and replied in turn, “Well these exclusive slaves of mine just so happen to be descendants of the mighty Giant race!

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