Ranier walked into the large mercenary guild hall in Manora.

Although the border city was a temporary stop before crossing the Mordi Desert, he had wanted to at least register his mercenary group and make his presence known before going over the desert to Farland. 

As they entered the guild, the crowded place quietened down as the handsome prince with his many gorgeous consorts entered the place. 

And as Manora was not a quiet orderly city to begin with, filled with bandits and lawless men, the place began to get noisy with catcalls and lewd comments. 

"How can I help you?" a gruff looking elf answered from behind the counter. 

"I would like to register as a mercenary together with my... er... team" Ranier said

The dwarf grunted and handed Ranier several forms to fill. 

"... White Phoenix Group... Rain...Esdeath.....Rei...Violet...Teresa.. Charlotte... Mary Sue... Nightingale...there seems to be an extra person here" the dwarf said

"Oh? Maybe Nightingale must have slipped into the crowd" Ranier said, knowing that she preferred to stay invisible and scout around anywhere new in case of danger. 

"Then I guess everything is in order. Come back in an hour and I will give you your registration tokens after which you can take missions for your levels. My name is Sagnus" the dwarf said

"Thank you and pleasure to meet you Sagnus" Ranier said. 

As he turned around, he saw his girls were being surrounded by leering men. 

".... why follow that pretty boy. He might be a rich noble, but there is no way you'll survive as a mercenary.."

"...safer with my group..."

"....would treat you like a princess.."

Several mercenaries were already trying to recruit his companions, more likely based on their looks than their battle abilities. The girls looked too beautiful and too pristine pure to be capable mercenaries. 

"Come on girls. Lets go" Ranier said and walked towards the door. 

The girls walked towards him to follow him from behind when a large mercenary blocked the door, standing one head taller than Ranier.

"I think not. A pretty boy like you have no place as a mercenary and will only get your girlfriends killed. Maybe you should leave them with us, real mercenaries. We will take good care of them and make sure they don't get killed" he said and his group that had gathered around him laughed. 

Ranier put our his hand to stop his girls from attacking

"Oh? I have no place as a mercenary? What makes you think that?" Ranier asked

"Do you think you can take me on? " the man grinned, looking for a fight

"I don't see why not" Ranier said, itching to test out what his mana manipulation skills were about

The large man swung at him with a large punch. 

Ranier tried to block with his mana, but to his surprise, although he could "feel" the punch, he could not stop it, only slow it down. 

It was enough that Ranier could dodge it and he started attacking back with his fists. 

He only had Lvl 1 unarmed combat skills, but together with his mana manipulation, he managed to slow down all the man's attacks and make it difficult for the man to fight back as he attacked. 

Although his mana could not block anything, nor move anything like telekinesis, it seemed to be able to at least manipulate things to a lesser degree. So if telekinesis could not block a punch, it could slow down the punch and the large man felt like he was punching through water. 

And like being underwater, the mana held him in place as Ranier had his way with him, forcing him to fight handicapped. 

Ranier placed his final punch onto the man's jaw, and letting him collapse on the floor. 

The hall was silent. The fight indeed looked strange as if the large man, named Arsene was throwing the fight by pulling his slower than normal punches. 

Ranier walked out victorious with his girls behind him. 

"That Arsene...that bastard probably was paid to throw the fight to look good in front of his girls."

"Yeah... there's no way Arsene would loose if it was a real fight..."

"...when they get killed in a real mission. Serves them right.."

the crowd murmured as Arsene's companions helped him up. He looked dazed and confused as to what happened in his fight. Emberrased, he brushed off his companions and stormed out of the hall. 

"What was that about?" Rei asked as she walked behind Ranier

"I was testing my new ability... mana manipulation. It didn't work as I expected. Perhaps I need to get to a higher level before I can use it properly" Ranier said. 

"It is a strange ability. Anyway, where to next?" Violet asked

"I want to go see the slave market again. Perhaps we can find more visitors from other dimensions" he said as he led them to the slave market. 

"Ah.. you again. Welcome sir. I apologize for the incident the other day... they are not related to this establishment" the familiar slave trader said as he greeted Ranier and his girls. 

"Sure they aren't. Anyway, it doesn't matter. Do you have any interesting new slaves?" Ranier asked

"Oh! Sure... we restock regularly" he said

They were led to a room when several naked women were brought out in groups. 

As before, Ranier scanned them if anyone looked familiar, from another dimension from his memories. 

But there were none. 

Finally, he told the slave trader "I don't see anyone I like. But I will buy 3 women from the earlier groups"

Ranier chose 3 women that looked quite fit and strong. And as he was walking out with his girls and his 3 new slaves, he saw another man walking into the slave shop.

He was dressed in impressive looking armor and he strode fearlessly and arrogantly.

He was followed by 4 naked girls by collars on their neck. The collars connected to a chain to either nipple which was pierced with nipple rings and from there it joined to a chain from either nipple to a clitoris ring, forming a diamond shape in front of their bodies.

They also had black shrouds covering their heads, but Ranier could see through the gauze black cloth that they would be very pretty.

"Who is that?" Ranier asked the trader

"He's Count Archilles de Midas, who has the most powerful mercenary guild here. His slaves are powerful fighters" he answered

"Why don't they escape if they are so powerful?" Ranier asked

"He's using the new slave collars. They produce a powerful electric shock to their genitals causing excruciating pain to them if they disobey him." he explained 

Ranier felt something from the slaves. And Nightingale's whisper in his ear confirmed it. He would keep an eye out for this Archilles de Midas

He knew he had to rescue these girls, but he doubted that he would sell the girls to him.