“So this must be ‘fate’!”, the elegantly dressed vampire came out from the shadows, his red eyes beamed from the shadows and his black vest made him seem of great importance and his hat on top of his pitch black hair made him look like a noble or even a lawyer.

I was speechless by his self monologue or maybe he was actually talking to me, I was not just perplexed by the way he spoke but I was also quite uncertain of what to say in a situation like this.

“Ahem, I apologize for my rudeness dear, customer.”, the vampire smiled showing his fangs, despite his very appearance you could tell that as of right now he was showing absolute no hostility.

“I came here searching for a certain slave.”, I was able to mutter a word, the whole way here I wanted to make sure of what to say since I was simply letting myself get led over here. “Yes, certainly right this way please.”, he showed me the way.

“First off let me introduce myself, my name is… actually that it unimportant, most people just know me as the ‘Slave Trader’ or ‘Vampire’ you are free to call me whatever.”, the vampire introduced himself in a weird manner.

This place had the stench of death, you could hear sounds coming from the cages. Every sound differentiated from coughs to growls to eventually  screams of pain and suffering.

“Haha, don’t be frightened sir. Once you get used to it the feeling of guilt will disappear.”, the vampire said as if it was the most commonplace thing to say. “That’s a morbid way of thinking.”, I muttered but he still heard it in the end.

“I know, but that’s the sad reality that I can’t change.”, he shrugged his shoulders slightly.

No matter where I looked, I found cages with ‘something’ inside of them. What mostly surprised me was that there were humans in cages as well as monsters.

“Why is it that there are humans in cages as well?”, I asked the slave trader who was also checking over some of the cages. “Oh-ho, yes indeed it isn’t very normal especially if you come from ‘Dawnwell’.”, the slave trader looked inside of one of the cages, there was a small child curling up in a ball.

“My rule is that whatever is usable we use, you know there are some nobles and or customers who wish for a human slave for various tasks, one example would be being a ‘Maid’ for a noble.”, he explained closing back the small cover over the cage.

“This kingdom is indeed similar to ‘Dawnwell’ in some expects, one of them is in the ‘legal’ slave handling. Here it is the same thing as in Dawnwell if one doesn’t do their job as a ‘citizen’ like paying bills or depths, eventually they fall into the category of slaves. However, it isn’t as bad as here, as a ‘legal’ slave you just have to work for a set amount of time depending on how severe your circumstances were.”

The vampire lead me across some sort of labyrinth, the very walls were made from cages with slaves inside. “What slave are you specifically looking for?”, he asked.

“Two elves, possibly twins.”, I answered. “Quite specific just like I asked you, I like that.”, the vampire walked in a specific pattern.

“Why did you point out that you’re a vampire, if you don’t mind me asking?”, his whole appearance gave it off, though I myself didn’t look any different. “I could say the same thing of you, dear customer. Most people see me as a vampire you— see, since I’m always inside a dark room people assume.”

The most known characteristics about vampires are that they burn in plain sunlight and they’re weak to silver and holy stakes.

“Yes, yes, yes asking a question like yours is nothing to be ashamed of, after all me showing my true appearance is just a way of telling people that they have my trust.”

In the circumstances where someone leaks out his location or existence, then all he has to do is bring in the victim (you) into the game as well. That is why once you’ve been acquainted to him, if he goes down then you’re coming with him that is why he gives you his ‘trust’.

“Here we are, we just got a recent shipment of new ‘goods’ so I think these should be exactly within your requisites.”, the vampire uncovered the cage.

In there I saw two small girls holding each other in fear, both had ruby red eyes and pure white hair of different style and height. Their clothes were nothing but rags that could barely hide their body’s. At first look they seemed fine, but if one looked closely they could tell there were some whip marks, cuts and bruises as well.

“BIG BROTHER!.””, the moment the two of them saw me they started crying and tried to reach out to me in an instant.

I hugged them from the outside, even though all I could do is reach out my hand and embrace them with my hands.

“Big brother fit was so scary!”, Luna's voice trembled out of fear. “Yeah, our of nowhere big scary people came and then big sister….!”

“It’s alright now.”, I reassured them in my usual emotionless voice.

I felt my fingers digging into my soul form, small drops of blood fell out despite not having shape? ‘Don’t let it get to you, you can’t go out berserk especially now.’, I tried calming myself down.

Yes, I could’ve simply barged in into the place and freed them, it wouldn’t be a crime since ‘his’ act in itself is a crime on a far huger scale. However….

“Is anything wrong customer—.”, his long pronunciation of made my body tremble slightly, something was telling me that getting on his bad side is the worst idea in the world.

“Seriously, how haven’t you been caught by the kingdom yet.”, I joked but he took it sort of seriously and answered. “Indeed it is to wonder, the main reason it’s because this kingdom itself has made some ‘deals’ with me.”

He took a look at the twins, his mouth twisted slightly upwards. “The only threat to my business is the four heroes church, they’re the only ones who ‘truly’ don’t approve of my work.”

“Four heroes church? weren’t there supposed to be six?”, form the story I heard it was six heroes not four. “It seems you know your history quite well. Most people nowadays believe there were only four.”

“Religion spreads in many ways, from my sources the teachings are all the same but the story keeps on changing endlessly, but yes the four heroes church are against my business more than the kingdom itself.”, he explained it to me even further in detail.

The four heroes church is a religion where people worship the four heroes who defeated the demon king, common knowledge is that six heroes were summoned but four heroes were the actual ones who defeated the demon king.

The reason why Dawnwell isn’t a religious country is because she only came to be after the defeat of the demon king, it was raised by one person only if, this the only possible religious figure they could have would be the founder.

The summoning of the heroes was carried out by the kingdom together with the cooperation of the church who once only worshipped the existence known as ‘God’, but after the defeat of the demon king they changed their religion to the four heroes and ‘God’.

“The teachings were further carried out by the heroes themselves, there’s a whole book about it. As for what happened to the remaining two… one of them disappeared a couple of months after his summoning and the other betrayed the world and joined the demon king.”, the vampire finished his explanation.

“Why are you telling me all that? What is it you want?”, I asked him. I’ve been having my suspicions as to why he had been telling me so much information, it came to the point whether I was asking myself if he was going to put me in trouble.

“Hahaha! Amusing, amusing, amusing indeed! As expected of my dear customer, though there is no ulterior motive after all….”, the slave slave looked at me into my eyes. “… you’re my ‘friend’.”

I was confused by his remark. “What do you mean ‘friend’?”

“No need to worry about it, just know that I really have no ulterior motive whatsoever.”, his answer made it seem even more suspicious but it didn’t seem like he was going to tell me the truth anyway.

“How much are they worth?”, I asked. “It seems like we’re finally going down to business… thirty-seven thousand Zelts.”

I felt my body twitch to his answer. ‘What the hell, this is over expensive. Even a magic item would be cheaper.’

“Fufufu, I can see as to why you would be surprised by such a high price. You may not know this but ‘Elves’ are quite high in demand around here so obviously their price would be high, and not just that if they’re virgins they’ll sell for even more.”

‘I feel like punching him…’, I wasn’t lying I really wanted to, but I want to deal with this as peacefully as possible. “Do not fret, dear customer. There is another way of paying them.”

The slave trader reached over to me and suddenly caressed my cheek as if I was a precious jewel. “If you want, you can exchange them for something of the same worth instead.”

My body twitched as a reaction to his words, my body was heating up and my mind was getting sort of hazy to the point where I could barely think or even process a single thought. I was looking at him straight in the eyes, the blood red eyes that reflected upon mine were only showing one intent.

Desire

“So? What about it?”, the slave trader asked in a alluring manner. I couldn’t really lock my eyes off of him but that didn’t mean I couldn’t answer. “Unfortunately, I’m not for sale.”

The slave trader unhanded me and smiled. “If that is so, then what about a deal?”, he made another offer. “In nine days there’s going to be an auction, and all of our slaves will be at display for sale, our deal is that you’ll have to get the money required for the slaves in set period of time, in exchange I’ll make sure that in the meanwhile nothing happens to them.”

“Nobody will be able buy the slaves no matter under what circumstances, in exchange you’ll have to pay ten thousand more Zelts.”, the slave trader offered a deal that appealed to me greatly.

‘Fighting against him is out of the question, my Skill ‘Intuition’ is telling me that he’s trouble. Even if I reported it to the kingdoms authorities, I have a feeling it won’t go well.’, I made arguments in my mind, it came to the point where I was just trying to refuse his offer.

“I’ve made countless of deals, even with the kingdom higher ups themselves. So, there is no reason refuse now, is there?”, the slave trader tried to appeal to me even further.

 “Fine, deal.”, the slave trader extended his hand to seal the deal. “Let’s seal the deal.”, I felt like I was making a deal with the devil.

I shook his hand and then I came back to the Lara and Luna. “Don’t worry, I’ll get you two out of here. No matter what, I promise.”, I reassured them as they clung to each other.

“Unfortunately, I cant give them VIP treatment. The best I can do is what I told you.”, the slave trader made sign for me to follow him.

We reached the same door that had been used for me to enter. “Now then, I should probably not keep you here any longer. Your friends or family must be waiting for you.”

He opened the door and from the other side came a different scenery. It wasn’t the back alley looking scene but instead I was in the middle of the street.

“Where am I? Is this an Inn?!.”, I found myself looking towards the building with a huge wooden sign with the word Inn at the end.

“Remember Shiro, it was no pure coincidence that we met, may it be a god or a demon who says otherwise, It will always be ‘fate’.”, the door that was connected to the slave traders tent closed leaving behind a normal door.

‘How… did he know my name?’

<< The levels of ‘Distorted Mind’ have increased. >>

YeetusFeetus

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, since I've got Artoria Pendragon, now I can rest in gacha... just kidding there's a new gacha game coming out and I'm hyped. And since there were no questions in my Q&A, I won't be answering anything.