“This slave is very special. Just take a look at her status and you can see why,” the host explained while pointing to the projection above her. A silence fell in the audience when the slave’s status was shown.

STATUS
————————
Name: Elaina
Race: High Elf
Gender: Female
Class: Mage
Rank: E-
————————
[Attributes]
Strength: 8
Endurance: 15
Finesse: 16
Intelligence: 60
Wisdom: 64
Charisma: 15
————————
Skills:
[Light Magic] - Level 4
[Water Magic] - Level 3
[Plant Magic] - Level 3
[Stealth] - Level 1
————————
Perks:
[Child of Asteria] - Intelligence x2, Wisdom x2, Increased leveling speed for magic-related skills
[Persistent] - Endurance +5
[Iron Will] - Wisdom +10, -20% chance in being persuaded or threatened
[Sharp Eyes] - Ability to see further away
————————

It seemed this elf was actually pretty weak. She was only the same rank as me, someone who was technically born ten days ago. I could see I was not the only one surprised, even my mistress seemed a little startled.

“Its a high elf!”

“No wonder Eclipse was making such a big deal for this 150th anniversary.”

“A high elf, how interesting, No wonder they insisted that I come this time,” my mistress murmured behind me.

“High elf?” What was so special about a high elf?

My mistress looked down at me like I was a child. “They are an incredibly rare sub-race of elves. In fact, they are so rare that I had thought them extinct. Not only that, they were one of the strongest races in existence, only below dragons.”

So this girl was such a big deal! I hadn’t even seen a normal elf yet, but this slave was actually such a rare high elf. Maybe that was the reason for my attraction to her…

“The reason for their immense strength is for two reasons. The first is that they do not age at all. While the other elven subraces age much slower compared to humans or beastkin, they will still die eventually. However, high elves do not age at all, which is a trait unique to just a few races like vampires and dragons.”

“The second reason is their unique perk. All high elves are direct children of the holy goddess Asteria, who granted her offspring a powerful boon, the perk [Child of Asteria], to cement their status in the world. One single perk is the reason that high elves are the best race at magic in the entire world. Despite this, they’re highly xenophobic in nature which has caused the decline of their people in the world. Most believe they are extinct, including me. I have not seen a high elf in a couple centuries.” I couldn’t help but think my mistress was sure good at explaining.

The girl on stage was truly incredible. Perhaps it was due to her race that this girl was so unyielding. I wish I could be a high elf. Magic had always interested me when I arrived in the world but instead I ended up as a catgirl with barely any affinity towards magic. I only had five points in my intelligence and wisdom attribute, which meant I could basically not even cast the weakest spells.

“Bidding will start at ten platinum. Bidding increments must be at least one platinum as well.”

I sucked in a cold breath. In this world, the base currency was one silver. A hundred silver was one gold and a hundred gold was one platinum. I didn’t know much about how merchandise was priced in this world, but none of the slaves from before had gone for more than a few hundred gold. This one elf’s base price was already a few times higher that the most expensive slave sold today.

“One Platinum!”

“I’ll bid three platinum!”

“Ten Platinum!”

Bids were shouted from everywhere as the audience went into a frenzy. It seemed everyone wanted a high elf as their slave. The girl on the stage had no reaction to the people buying her, her face remaining cold and expressionless, as if she was not the person being sold.

“Fifty platinum.”

I looked up surprised at the source of the bid. It seemed my mistress was finally bidding. She hadn’t moved before for any of the other slaves, no matter how beautiful they were or what skills they had.

Her perverted smile frightened me a little. Poor little elf, I knew exactly what that smile meant considering I had been at its mercy for the past week. But I was the one being replaced so maybe I should be pitying myself instead.

The building went silent as stone. The frenzy from before vanished with two words from my mistress. So this was the power of a demon lord, to be able to silence in entire crowd.

“Hahaha since its Miss Lilith there's no need for me to bid.”

“As expected of a demon lord, so domineering.”

A few seconds passed, yet the room was filled with silence. The current price was already way above most of the people in the audience, no one wanted to spend so much on a low-ranked slave, even if the slave’s race was so rare. The people that could afford the price did not want to offend a demon lord over a mere slave either. Much better to just get in their good books by not bidding when they had no chance of winning.

The host hesitated to stop the bid as she didn’t want to stop at such a low price, after all this was their best slave in decades. Unfortunately for her, no one spoke up.

“Fifty platinum going once! Going twice! S—”

“One hundred platinum!”

A cold, feminine voice came from the room besides us. The building fell into a stunned silence once again. Even the host had a shocked expression on her face.

The temperature of the room seemed to fall to subzero. I felt my mistress’ embrace tighten around me as I struggled to breathe. Did she forget that I was living person and not some doll?

“Invidia! Why is that bitch here?” Lilith said through gritted teeth. I didn’t even have to look at her face to know that she was angry from the tone of her voice. This person could only be on a similar standing as my mistress to make her so angry.

“Big Sis, just let me have this trivial girl. You already have so many playthings, you won’t be angry if I take this one from you, will you?” The voice responded. She must have had good ears to hear my mistress’ words.

“I bid a hundred and twenty platinum.” My mistress quickly sent out a counteroffer.

“A mere hundred and twenty? Come on, Lilith, I know you’re the poorest of us seven but surely you have some honour as a demon lord. Maybe you could spend a little less on your other girls,” the other woman mocked with a little giggle. “Put me down for two hundred.”

On her lap, I could feel my mistress tremble in anger beneath me as she suppressed her hatred. Mistress Lilith and this unknown rich woman must have a very long history together. Who knows, maybe they were once a couple.

All of a sudden, my mistress lifted me off her lap and stood up. “We’re leaving,” she said, her face as dark as night. Before I could comprehend her words, she had already began storming out.

As I looked one last time at the elf and hesitated to leave, the leash attached to my neck gave me no choice as it tugged me along. I wanted to tell my mistress to keep bidding, but considering how angry she was, I felt it was a waste of breath.

I reluctantly followed behind my mistress. Even though I could not meet her today, I felt that I would certainly have another chance in the future.

“That ugly bitch, she’s always stealing my woman. She’s not even attracted to girls, could she be anymore jealous of me?”

“M-mistress, you must have a lot of money as a demon lord. Why not keep bidding?” I asked.

“I have a lot of money? I’m by far the poorest of the demon lords. I spend all of it on my women.”

I choked. I guess having such a large harem would likely cost a fortune, but couldn’t she just spend less on her harem?