“Fifteen gold”

“Sixteen gold. Brat, you better give up quickly!”

“Twenty gold!”

‘At this rate, there won’t be any money left for my own slave, though…’

“You have galls lad! Twenty-five!”

Meanwhile, the clerk looked at Gero and the old man with stupified eyes. The money they were spending right now was already enough to buy a slave that had Awakened.

In a world where might was the most important thing, a strong slave was better than a beautiful one.

“Old man, let the younger generation have some space! Thirty gold!”

‘What the hell. If only I could use my name here… Too bad the Von Sideria historically avoid dealing with slaves.’

“Fine, you shall have your way! I’ll give up on her! Do enjoy her to her fullest! I’ll take six instead with the same amount of money.”

‘I thought this would end way worse. Gero had already steeled himself to spend every penny for her…’

Going to the cage, Vince looked at the girl whose eyes were still red.

“Rejoice! You were bought by that young master. And for thirty gold at that. You better serve him well, considering how much you cost him.”

“Th-thirty? Gold?!”

“You heard me right. Three times ten, three zero, six times your price. Thus, try to work hard from now on. From your answers, I could tell you are a lazy one. But if you ever try to slack off, rest assured I’ll have you given to that old man instead.”

Hearing the threat, the girl trembled, looking at the demon in front of her eyes. His childish looks made him look innocent, but it was just a wolf in sheep’s clothes!

“Don’t say that, Vince! I wouldn’t abandon her after all of this!”

“I never said I would ask your permission to give her away. Do you really think you can oppose me taking her away?”

Hearing him speak, Gero trembled as well. He knew the demon all too well. He was probably more ruthless than any monster he had ever faced.

“Anyway, store clerk, stow her away. We’re also buying a soul contract for her, but we aren’t done shopping! I still have a lot of window shopping to do!”

“That will cost you an additional two gold, sir.”

“Does it look like money is a problem for us? We just threw twenty-five gold down a drain.”

“…”

Thus, Vince resumed his stroll in the slave market as if nothing had happened.

A few cages later, he gave out a test again. This slave failed as well. He then moved on to the next one that picked his eye.

***

After a few hours of the process repeating itself, Vince finally found someone worth his time. It was a black-haired teenager. His cheeks were slightly swollen. It was clear he hadn’t had a proper meal in a good while.

Slave traders gave proper meals only to good looking girls to keep their looks decent. They were also the only ones allowed to bathe. The rest were all dirty and poorly fed.

‘Not bad. Even though his education is trash, he has an excellent mentality, and his potential is roughly what I was looking for. And on top of that, he is even very young. I doubt there’s another slave as good as this one in the entirety of this market.’

Looking at the tag, he inspected the boy’s information.

Name: Sebastian
Age: 14
Found on the edges of the Eastern Wall. He probably comes from the other side. His survival skills are incredible.
Price: 8 gold

‘8 gold for this little one? They are giving him away pretty much!’

“Gero, come here! I found the one I want!”

Gero, whose pockets were almost empty by now, came running.

‘With all the weight in gold he gave away in deposits to contend the slaves to that old man, he can now run at least fifteen per cent faster!’

“I want this one!”

“Wait! If you want to buy me, you have to buy my sister as well! I’ll kill myself if you do otherwise!”

‘He wants the little sister as well, huh. I think it might be worth it to buy her as well just to satisfy him. Plus, I need some attendants anyway. My room feels lonely, and I won’t accept any attendants from the school.’

“Who is your little sister?”

“She’s the cage right above mine.”

Vince looked at the cage above his. With some incredibly agile moves, he climbed the bottom cage and went looking at the one above.

“Are you Sebastian’s little sister?”

A little girl came into view from the back of the cage. With her hair being black, she was hardly visible in the poorly lit cage.

“Y-yes. A-re you by chance buying me? If you want me to serve you, you b-b-etter buy my brother as well!”

“Awww, how adorable, you said the same phrase as your brother. Just kidding. Here, take the test as well. If you don’t do too poorly, I’ll consider buying you as well.”

Giving her pen and paper, Vince looked at her.

But soon, the girl started crying.

“What’s the matter?”

“I-I don’t know how to either read or write…”

“Mmmh. Just go on to the visual exercises. There are a few that don’t require you to do either of them.”

“Y-yes!”

While the girl did the test, Vince read her tag as well.

Name: Alice
Age: 9
Found near the Eastern wall together with her brother. She doesn’t have anything worthy of notice besides her cute face.
Virgin
Price: 3 gold

‘She’s at a discount because of her age, huh. But to not know how to read and write at nine years old… Poor me.’

After a few minutes, Vince received the pen and paper back.

‘She isn’t as good as her brother… but she shouldn’t be wasted money at all… I guess it’s fine.’

Any other person would probably faint knowing Vince’s standards of evaluation. But it was also true not many could raise those slaves properly.

“Fine, I’ll buy you as well.”

“Gero! Tell the clerk I want this girl as well!”

“How much is she?”

“Just three gold”

“Three gold… I think we are within the budget still. It should be fine.”

‘To think the one who boasted about the depth of his pockets would be the one saying this.’

“Do you have enough for the soul contracts as well?”

“I think I do… Yeah, I definitely do!”

‘Oh my… this guy is going to have a lot of trouble in life being the softie that he is. But that’s not my problem.’

***

Roughly one hour later, after all the soul contracts were made, Vince and Gero made their way to the carriage.

While Vince had only bought two slaves, Gero found himself with four girls, all aged between twelve and sixteen, following him.

The guards both had a frown on their faces, but they had been clearly told not to interfere with Gero’s business by his parents.

Once they all boarded the carriage, they found themselves pretty tight.

“Ah, whatever. I’ll just walk.”

Vince, not wanting to stay in that cramped space with a bunch of stinky kids, used the tightness as an excuse to get out of there.

The kids looked at him as if he was a saint, thinking he had left the carriage to leave them with more space.

The girls, who all knew how ruthless Vince was, were shocked. In their heads, Vince had probably just been demoted from demon to human scum.

The carriage then departed, with Vince walking with the guards.

“So, guards from the Harlow family, how is it going?”

“I’d say fine, sir. I was surprised that you got out of the carriage to let the slaves sit instead of you.”

“Ah, that don’t mention it. I felt like walking anyway.”

‘Yes, yes, don’t worry. It was totally out of worry that I walked out of that stinky box.’

“I must say your contorted faces as Gero bought overpriced goods were a masterpiece of their own, though. Anyway, it looks like we have company.”

As the carriage was going through a pretty sketchy alley, a few horses rushed and blocked the road on the two sides.

The old man who had four products stolen under his sight came out. With a bright smile on his face, he signalled for his men to get closer to the carriage.

“Brat, you might have the galls, but I doubt you have the skills to hold onto all those goods.”

“Old man, I must say you are pretty foolish. If you wanted to steal the goods anyway after we left the market, you shouldn’t have kept on bidding. That way, you wouldn’t have stolen just the slaves, but you would have gotten the kid’s fat pockets as well.”

Hearing the sound logic coming from Vince, the old man trembled in anger and couldn’t retort anything but threats.

“Ooh, I didn’t know there was a smartass as well. I’ll have a lot of fun seeing your face contort as well. While I torture you, that is.”

‘This guy is a total idiot. He is attacking a bunch of kids who may as well be nobles!’

As the men approached the carriage, the guards readied their stance. They were about to fight outnumbered. Luckily, the narrow alley gave them an easier time fighting in such conditions, but that wasn’t enough to relieve them.

“Give me the lance.”

“What?!”

Without bothering to repeat himself, Vince took the spear from the guard he had been talking to.

“Gero, look. I’ll now show you how you properly fight with a spear.”

‘It’s a tad bit too long for me, but it should do if I break it.’

Splitting the lance in half with his knee, he got himself a spear now fit for his size.

Vince thus charged towards the front.

“You guards, hold the guys in the back. I’ll take care of the front.”

As he reached the fighting range of the first guy, Vince started to crazily spin the lance.

“So, aren’t you coming at me? I’m just a kid, what do you have to fear?”

‘Damn, I usually wouldn’t act this way… I must be pretty annoyed today. I feel like slaughtering a few guys. Especially if they are the ones causing me a nuisance.’

Even though it was such an obvious taunt, the guy in front of him got pretty upset. Maybe it was the obviousness itself making him rage.

As soon as he took one step forward, he heard a metallic clang.

Extending his right leg slightly, Vince had reduced the distance between the two. With his spinning spear, he had perfectly hit the hilt of the sword the guy was holding. But it didn’t end there.

After the sword was gone, he found himself without clothes as well! Only the underwear remained.

“Pfft. This is all you got? I feel bad killing you. But whatever, I don’t want any witnesses.”

Making the spear rotate once more, a clear cut appeared on the guy’s neck.

There was a total of five more remaining on Vince’s side. The road was just big enough for them to be able to fight him all at once.

“All at once, huh. Let’s see. If you manage to put even just a scratch on me, I’ll give you a title. ‘Worth as much as a fifth of a kid’. Great title, no?”

“You sure are relaxed, being even able to joke while in a one versus five.”

“Of course! You guys are small fries, after all.”

“We have all awakened, yet you say those things? You’re clearly conceited after just killing one of us by luck.”

“Well, enough chit chat. You guys aren’t even worth my time. I could be doing so many better things right now.”

The five men then charged at Vince.

‘Hmm, decent timing. Too bad that won’t be enough against anyone with a little experience.’

With a single spin of his spear, three metallic sounds were heard.

Ding. Clang. Sding.

Starting from the left, the first guy was stabbing him. After the spear made a little contact with the sword, the guy found himself slightly out of balance. He was forced to take one step more, but that was enough for Vince to trip him.

The second guy was slashing from top to bottom. Vince’s spear hit his sword slightly harder, making the trajectory deviate. Where to? Onto the stabbing sword of the third guy from the left. Thus, both of their attacks had been rendered useless.

The fourth guy had done a feint, but seeing through it, Vince hadn’t even taken him into account. As for the last guy, he took the remaining force in Vince’s spear. Where? On the right side of his torso.

‘I didn’t quite have enough power for the last one, huh. It was just a superficial cut. Whatever, I already won anyway.’

Vince spun his spear one more time, and this time no metallic sound came. Only blood flowed from three necks.

As the last guy standing was frightened, Vince took the opportunity to spin the spear once more. Doing so, he chopped the tripped guy’s head off, who was standing back up just behind Vince.

Making one final run, he charged at the last guy. He spun his spear once again. It looked like he was going for a disarm, but the spear suddenly changed trajectory at the last moment, cutting the last guy’s stomach apart.

As the guy reflexively tried to cover his stomach with his arms, Vince spun one last time his spear.

Splat.

The sound of a head falling onto the ground was heard, then silence.

‘Ahh, how refreshing. My mood suddenly lifted!’

The old man, seeing the little demon slaying those five men, got scared. Being still on the horse, he tried to run away as fast as he could.

Holding the bloodied spear in his hand, Vince prepared to throw it.

Shuck.