In this world, unicorns are hunted for their meat which is said to keep people youthful.

Miko woke up to find himself stuck in a cell, along with a few other people. Some he recognized from before and others he had never seen before. Although he wasn’t sure if he had actually seen those he thought he had never seen before, or those he thought he had seen were actually completely new.

Regardless, wherever he was, it probably had something to do with an auction. Was he in an auction? Some had tried to sell him before, sometimes directly, but mostly indirectly. It never ended well for them. But now he had to be different, he couldn’t kill just anyone. Reese had said that he trusted his judgment, so his judgment must be like Reese. Who would he be allowed to kill in this situation? Maybe he wasn’t allowed to kill at all, after all, his enemies were not killing. Even though he was being sold, it was not anything he couldn’t handle. So, he sat still with determination.

Hours passed, and it seemed the auction was finally starting. Miko could make out the sound of the idle chatter of those in the audience, which slowly began to quiet as the show began. Workers began to file in, unlocking cages, grabbing people, and dragging them to the stage. He could barely hear the wacky and performative auction announcer over the terrified screams of the auctionee. Regardless, he waited for his turn patiently.

A worker came by to unlock his cage and grabbed the man sitting beside him. The man tried to kick and scream, but his limbs were bound and his mouth was gagged. The worker had a slight smile as the man in his arms wriggled desperately. Finally, it was his turn, as the same worker violently grabbed him, lifting and putting him over his shoulder. The worker seemed confused and almost disappointed, but Miko didn’t realize.

Miko was placed on stage, and his clothes were ripped off, revealing his scrawny physique. The room was deathly quiet. There were no terrified screams, nor was there a wacky auction voice. Miko wasn’t sure how an auction worked but was confused as to why he still couldn’t hear any performance from the well-dressed man standing next to him. A couple more seconds passed before he was grabbed again and taken back to his cage where he was locked up once more.

Canton waded through the boisterous crowd, looking for his assigned seat near the back. Finding his place and taking a seat, he flipped through some papers in his hand.

Given to him was a list of names and faces of those who had gone missing from Grenard’s county. Looking at those who were lost, he noticed that most were women. As the auction started, his goal was to match any people on sale with those on his list. However, he felt it would be unlikely that they would show up. After all, the border of Grenard’s territory was highly militarized, it would be next to impossible for a slave trader to make it across to where this auction takes place. Nor would there be any reason to try something so foolish. But Grenard was paranoid, and he might as well put any fears to bed.

However, Canton quickly began to realize that those fears were not unfounded. Many of the men and women taken to the stage were on the list he was given. Among those he recognized was a group of elvish women, who were purchased at very high prices.

It seemed odd that Grenard counted these women as citizens of his territory, but he dared not question it. He also attempted to note down the identities of their buyers, however, this proved difficult. Not only were the vast majority of those in attendance heavily disguised, but many slaves, especially the young women, had astronomically high pre-auction bids, such that no bids were made and were eventually claimed by the anonymous pre-auction bidder. More effort would need to be expended in order to track these people as they are delivered to their buyers.

However, that wasn’t part of his job description, although he would do as much as possible to help the cause. One notable buyer seemed to be a young child with pitch-black hair, similar to the man he had killed days prior. It seemed they were buying up mostly women, and it could be that they were responsible for many of the pre-auction bids. Given the incredible amount of money they were spending, it seemed reasonable that they had a very powerful and wealthy backer.

Aside from the elvish women, there were no other notable people on sale. As the auction drew to a close, he remained seated, observing as the crowd gradually dispersed towards the exit.

Spotting the black-haired young man leaving the room, he got out of his seat and followed close behind. Stepping out into the lobby, the large crowd was now marching towards the building's exit. However, the young man diverged from the crowd, proceeding down the left-side hallway. Canton followed behind, making sure to be hidden as the lighting grew dimmer.

Along the corridor, numerous rooms lined the walls, and the young man disappeared into one of them. Canton dared not follow, as he could not reliably hide in a confined room. Instead, he stood by the doorway, relying on his keen ears to decipher the conversations on the inside.

“Our deal is finalized, yes?”

“Of course, young master. All of your successful bids will be transferred at your earliest convenience.”

“Excellent. And what of the deal with those who had no bids?”

“The merchandise will be transferred to you at the agreed-upon price.”

“Very well… My butler will meet with you later to decide upon the method of transfer. In the meantime, treat my merchandise with care. We wouldn’t want something horrible to happen to those pure souls before they belong to me.”

The other man sounded disquieted.

“O-Of course, young master.

Canton began to hear footsteps inside. It seemed like the conversation was already over. Before the door was opened, Canton slipped away into the shadows.

After only a few seconds of standing on the stage, Miko found himself right back in the cage with the others. It seemed like the auction was over, as no more people were being removed from their cages. Instead, the workers were now shuffling around the prisoners, probably grouping those who were bought by the same buyer.

Once organized, the people were loaded onto carts and moved back into a storage area. After some time, the workers began to re-enter the storage area, loading a cart with a few cages at a time, and moving them elsewhere.

Miko waited for his cage to be loaded, but that time never came. Before long, he was one of only two people left in the room.

He looked over at the other cage. Inside was a man, whose eyes were wide open and his mouth agape. He was slouched over in an awkward position, and wouldn’t move a muscle. Miko wondered what was wrong with the man, but didn’t think much more of it. Instead, he waited.

Finally, a few workers entered the room and loaded both him and the other guy onto the cart. It seemed he was going somewhere after all.

Miko was surprised as his journey ended almost as soon as it began. The cart stopped somewhere within the auction house, presumably in a separate storage room. Soon after, his cage was unloaded from the cart, and placed among the many other cages in the room.

They were all filled with people, mostly women from what he could tell. He looked towards the person in the cage next to him. Her face was swollen like it had been beaten, and she looked towards the ground motionless.

He felt bad for her and was tempted to free her. However, he remembered that she was now owned by someone, and was paid for with money. If he were to release her now, that would hurt the person who owned her. That wasn’t a decision he could make, so he looked away.

After a couple of hours, they were taken outside, loaded onto a carriage, and transported out into the surrounding woods. All surrounding Miko were looks of defeat, as they sat curled motionless, not even reacting to the bumps from the beaten down path.

In this sea of despair, he found an unlikely object. It seemed to be some sort of necklace charm. It was the face of a smiling girl, in the style of a doll. Her eyes were made of buttons and her mouth was stitched on. Her smile seemed so uncanny, yet still true.