Ares sighs:

*SIGH* “I was afraid that would happen.”

The frog-man looks stunned:

“I euuhh, I guess we’re gonna have to sell ya.”

What the fuck just happened?

Immediately, the frog-man orders us to strip our clothes and after we do, he hands us both a robe. During the entire process, the frog-man doesn’t take his eyes off us for even a second. I guess he’s inspecting us for weapons… I hope…

Suddenly, a slimy hand grabs my wrist:

“Why do ya have this fresh wound on yer palm?”

“T-That’s from when you cut that hole in our hull, I was sitting right behind that wall you cut through.”

“O-Oh… Right, well, ya guys are all good then.”

After letting go of my hand, the frog-man commands some of the Chogids to put us in a cage. It’s a damn small one too, I can’t even stand up. It certainly doesn’t help that Ares is in here with me.

“Why did your dad hang up? He’s not seriously going to let you become a slave right?... Can’t you try calling him again? Maybe he just lost connection?”

*SIGH* “Shut up, your questions are getting annoying…”

“Oi, I’m not sure if you noticed it already, but I’m also going to get sold if your dad doesn’t bail us out!”

“Welp, guess you’re going to get sold then… My dad doesn’t give a shit about me…”

Urgh, looks like this guy has already given up…

“And you’re fine with becoming a slave?! Why don’t we try and break out?”

“Becoming a slave actually doesn’t sound all that different from my life at the Lurker estate. It might actually be nicer… Plus even if we break out, are you going to fight those Chogids on your own? You probably think all Lunarians are super powerful or whatever, but I don’t even have a flux-guide installed. “

Urgh he’s right… We wouldn’t be able to open this energy-field cage in the first place, and even if we somehow managed to, we still have to fight all those Chogid…

*SIGH* Let’s just pray that my future master is a beauty…

After the rest of the Lunarians contacted their families, the Chogids transported all those that couldn’t pay to their own ship. looks like Ares is the only Lunarian that couldn’t pay his ransom, other than us, only a few Zoan bodyguards and servants were put in cages to be sold.

Once on the ship, the queen suddenly starts walking by all the cages, presumably to inspect the goods… Let’s try out a final, rather bold, strategy to escape…

“D-Dear queen, I humbly suggest letting me go back to the shuttle, as a useless Sapien, I’m probably not even worth the cost of this cage. It would save your highness a lot of hassle.”

The queen turns and looks at me.

“Hmmm, quite the glib tong you have there. But don’t worry, if that was truly the case I would have already killed you, Sapiens are known for their potential, plus your face isn’t all that bad either. Don’t be so hard on yourself, I’m sure you’ll sell for a decent price.”

“T-Thanks?”

With that, the queen walks away along with my hope of escaping this situation… Next to me Ares is holding in his laughter:

“You heard it, don’t be so hard on yourself mud-crawler. I’m sure if you begged her, she’ll let you join those Chogids in serving her every night… Pfftt!! Hahaha.”

Urgh, I’m still stuck with this asshole…

“I bet you’re just jealous that she saw so much potential in me. Wouldn’t it be embarrassing for the o so superior Lunarian race to be sold for less than a lowly Sapien~”

“In your dreams, If I’m sold for less UC than you, I’ll call you big brother.”

“Oh it’s on!”

The rest of our trip was uneventful, only some bickering between me and Ares… After a couple of hours we finally landed.

A couple of Chogids came down from the upper deck and deactivated our cages, they then put heavy electromagnetic-cuffs around our wrists before leading us outside.

Wow, I’ve never seen scenery such as this… It’s hot, there’s sand all around us and different kinds of alien-races are walking around that I’ve only ever seen in textbooks. Here and there are a couple of street stalls set up, there’s a lot of hustle and bustle. Right in front of us is a big arena with the words: ‘SLAVE AUCTION’ on it.

All slaves were told to form a line, and I’m right behind Ares. Suddenly the queen appears again and warns us:

“This is the planet Rothgard, while still situated in the GTC’s territory, It’s a colony of the Greater Planetary Union. This means that slave-trade is legal and pretty common here. Begging anyone around you for help is useless. You’ll get sold one by one in that big arena over there. You have 10 minutes or less to show off your appeal before getting sold. The higher the price, the more likely your new master will treat you well. So make sure to show off your strengths.”

After that speech, she led us to the arena. The streets we walked through were full of gazes ranging from pity to disgust. Reminds me of school…

When we finally arrived at the arena, one of the Zoan bodyguards was pushed onto the big podium in the middle, around him were all kinds of weapons and tools.

Seemingly not quite sure what to do, the Ox-based Zoan scratched the back of his head before grabbing one of the energy-axes lying around and cleaving straight through a set of special combat-armor that was hung up on a mannikin.

The crowd started to cheer and the bidding began.

Niku20

-Explanations-

Energy-field cage: A cage made to trap beasts, instead of having metal bars that could rust or be chewed through, this cage traps its inhabitant with an energy-field.

Slave trade: Although selling slaves is outlawed within the GTC, owning slaves isn't. The slave trade is quite common in other alliances and a great source of income for the Greater Planetary Union in particular. Although not a law, it is common sense that slaves can be freed after paying their owner back double what they were bought for or after accomplishing a great feat.