A gold coin spun in the air and landed on Luluka’s hand. She then flicked it into the air again as it spun round and round until it landed on her hand once more.

 

“This is so boring…,” Luluka said, resting her cheek on her left hand. Her right hand flicked the coin into the air.

 

Yesterday, her father had her grounded in the house as a punishment for going against his order. 

 

She couldn’t go outside and explore the world anymore. She could only be stuck in her room doing nothing and rot in there for the rest of her life… poor girl….

 

*ahem* That was exaggerated. She only got grounded for a week, so it wasn’t that big of a deal considering the mistake she made. 

 

The coin landed on her hand as she thought about what happened yesterday….

 

————-

 

Arthur’s eyes turned crimson red and shone dangerously. The look in his eyes sent shivers down Luluka’s spine.

 

A bad premonition crept into her mind as she understood what her father was about to do.

 

‘No way… He wouldn’t…’

 

An oppressing aura began oozing out of his body. The entire room was shrouded in heavy feeling!

 

“Let’s just ki-“

 

“No, dad! You can’t kill Ruby!” Luluka interrupted. “What I said just now was just an assumption! I’m not even sure if she really saw me. I was just assuming that because she’s been acting strange all of a sudden.”

 

She knew that this sounded like an excuse. She knew that her assumption was most likely the case. But even so, she didn’t want her father to kill Ruby.

 

She doubted Ruby before because Ruby was a human, and all humans were taught to hate on demonic races. That’s why she wasn’t sure if she could trust Ruby or not.

 

And to be honest, even right now, she was still not sure about that. 

 

But one thing for certain—She didn’t want Ruby to die. 

 

Ruby was like an older sister to her and she loved her so much. That’s why she tried to convince her father not to do it.

 

Arthur saw his daughter's desperate look and started to calm down. His oppressing aura subsided as the crimson light in his eyes slowly disappeared.

 

He sighed and shook his head. “Alright, fine…. I will let her live for now, considering she is so close to you.”

 

Hearing this, Luluka sighed in relief. 

 

“Thank you, dad.” A faint smile appeared on her face.

 

“But… I can’t just let her go like that. If she really knows our secret, she could potentially bring doom to us. So for the time being, I’m going to keep an eye on her. Though, be warned, if she starts to do something suspicious, I'm going to kill her instantly.”  

 

Luluka nodded her head in understanding. Although her father's warning scared her a little, it was still better than killing her right away.

 

Arthur slowly extended his hand forward. 

 

A magic circle suddenly appeared on the ground followed by a black smoke. It began to form itself into a lump of black matter with two shining white dots on it. 

 

It looked just like a ghost but its body kept changing form constantly.

 

Luluka knew this creature. It was a dark spirit named Noir, her father’s summon. 

 

Its ability was like that of a ghost. No, not the scaring people part, but the ability to hide their presence, pass through walls, or peeping on a gir.. *ahem* You got the idea.

 

To put it simply, this little creature was perfect for a spy. 

 

Arthur looked at Noir for a moment. Then, as if it understood something, it nodded its head and disappeared into thin air.

 

The summoned creature could communicate with its master via telepathy. So there was no need for Arthur to say his order out loud.

 

Arthur sighed again as he turned to look at his smiling daughter. “What are you smiling about? You haven’t forgotten about your punishment right?”

 

Luluka’s smile cramped. Seeing her reaction, Arthur began to chuckle.

 

“Alright then, your punishment will be….”

 

————

 

And just like that, she was now stuck in her room. 

 

Luluka sighed again. Her boredom began to grow as each second passed by. She wanted to go outside. She wanted to go on an adventure. 

 

The coin spun in the air and landed on her hand. Then, she flicked it into the air again while she was lost in thought.

 

Suddenly, a light bulb lit up in her head!

 

She swiftly caught the spinning gold coin and looked at it deeply. She then turned to look at the opened window on the wall.

 

She kept looking back and forth between a coin and a window for a while, until a mischievous smile crept on her face…

 

————

————

 

In the capital city’s streets bustling with people and activities, a gaudy old man was strolling around leisurely. Behind him followed two muscular men standing tall looking intimidating.

 

The gaudy old man bit down on a meat skewer in his hand and stopped by a small stall.

 

“I want ten of these.” He pointed at the fluffy-looking dessert on the stall.

 

“Right away, sir.” A girly voice answered.

 

The gaudy old man looked up at the vendor and his eyes lit up!

 

The vendor was a cute girl who looked to be around 18. She had short brown hair and brown eyes with an innocent look on her face.

 

“Here we go. That would be 100 val, sir.” The vendor handed a bag of desserts to her customer.

 

The gaudy old man paid the money and received the bag. He caught the vendor's hands and began rubbing them creepily.

 

“Hey, little girl. You are very pretty. Do you want to come work at my place? The payment is really good. Just ditch this old stall and come with me. Heh? How about it?” The old man said with a creepy smile as he kept rubbing the girl’s hands.

 

A sense of disgust and fear slowly crept into the vendor girl. She yanked her hands out of the old man’s grasp.

 

“I-I’m good, sir. T-Thanks for the offer.” She said with a forced smile on her face.

 

Tsk! The gaudy old man clicked his tongue in annoyance as he stomped off. 

 

‘What an annoying little girl. Just because she’s a little pretty, she dares to refuse my generosity? Hah! Screw her!’ The old man kept walking in frustration. 

 

This gaudy old man was Marko, a slave merchant from Logoria City. He came to the capital city to find additional slaves to his stock.

 

In this world, slavery was very common. People who were in debt and couldn’t afford to pay would fall into slavery, so did the criminals and prisoners of war.

 

These types of slaves were approved by law and the general public. But—there was one more type of slave that was considered illegal.

 

The underground slave.

 

These were people who were captured and forcefully put into slavery. They were all people with beautiful appearance or powerful ability. 

 

The slave merchant would secretly sell them in the underground auction and they would be sold at ridiculously high prices! 

 

But, to find the one suitable for this type of slave was quite difficult, especially with the powerful one. This was why Marko would aim for a beautiful young woman instead, and the capital city was supposed to be full of them, or so he heard.

 

Though, to his disappointment, it seemed that he had no luck today. 

 

Sure, there were a lot of cute girls in this city just like that vendor girl earlier, but they weren’t that pretty to the point of costing a very high price.

 

Sometimes, he would find a suitable one only to find out that she was a noble lady. Even though Marko was greedy, there was still a limit to his greediness.

 

No one in their right mind would want to mess with the nobles. They were high-class people who were protected by the kingdom, and if one were to mess with them, they could only count the days until their head would separate from their shoulder.

 

Marko kept walking for a while until he decided that he had no luck for today and was about to go to the inn he’d registered at, but It was at that moment—

 

His radar for beautiful girls suddenly rang out as a hooded figure walked past him. Swiftly, he turned around to look at the figure with his eyes wide open.

 

His mouth slowly arced upward. 

 

‘Well, look at that… Looks like my luck still hasn’t run out after all.’

 

Thinking so, the old man began to chuckle and licked his lip creepily.