For the first time in my life, I was heading to the Ember Sanctum, a small location at the center of Obsidian Isle where the major markets conjugated. Normally I’d never be able to come here as only merchants and the wealthy were able to afford a ship all the way there and back, but having inherited my father’s wealth (Which wasn’t an exorbitant amount), I was able to sneak a single round trip to buy what I was looking for.

And what I was looking for wasn’t something you wanted to buy from your average market. You had to go directly to the source for this kind of thing.

“We’ll be getting there in 20 clicks, Mr. Starlin,” The man driving the ship said. In the distance, tall buildings could already be seen. A massive metal ring floated high above the landscape as if looking over the city.

The water rocked the ship back and forth, but I kept my stance steady as I felt my heartbeat run wilder with every meter we crossed.

 

Upon arriving at Obsidian Isle, I decided to cut down on costs by walking to Ember Sanctum. I’d probably take a carriage back, but for now, I could make do with this.

The wide streets were reminiscent of the normal large cities across the country, but the high-quality materials and clean streets and buildings were unlike anything I’d ever seen before. They looked like they were made of marble, smooth and polished. And the people walking around or riding in carriages were about what you’d expect of a place like this. Extremely nice outfits with embroidered lettering, golden buttons, and the like.

In comparison, I wore simple clothes and a plain robe.

I felt entirely out of place here.

Avoiding all the stares, I eventually made it to Ember Sanctum. It was shaped like a colosseum with a diameter of 213 meters. The red tinge from the many crystal-based lamps was probably what gave the place its name.

It was a place separated from the rest of the city. Where some of the shadier things were sold.

I traversed the massive place until stopping at a single building named, “Isolde’s Hut”. Contrary to what the name might imply, the building was massive, spanning six stories and two side buildings on either side.

“Welcome to Isolde’s Hut,” A woman’s voice called out as soon as I stepped inside. “Please sign in here and we will be with you momentarily.” She tapped the clipboard on the counter and placed a pen next to it.

After writing my name down, I went to sit down at one of the tables nearby. A few other people sat there in wait, all for (most likely) very different reasons than my own. As a shop with a vast number of items from portions, crystals, and weapons, many types of people wandered these parts to get their hands on things they normally couldn’t in the regular market.

“Mr. Starlin!” My name was eventually called. I was motioned towards the back, where I passed a red curtain and entered a dark room.

“Mr. Starlin, it is a pleasure meeting you,” the smooth voice of a woman reached my ears. As a light flickered to life nearby, I came face to face with a cat woman. Her long luxurious red hair reached her lower back. Those pointy ears being the iconic image of a cat woman were just as bright red. A small little fang stuck out of her mouth, and sharp claws were attached to the ends of her fingers.

“Isolde, I presume?” I asked.

She simply nodded.

Isolde wore a nice black dress. Although her breasts weren’t large, she did push against the fabric. The small window on her chest made her cleavage easily visible to any who looked.

Licking her lips, she said, “Many come here to obtain goods, but very few times do we get new customers. Do you mind explaining the reason for your visit?” Her long red tail wrapped around herself.

“I’ll cut to the chase then. I recently got my hands on a large sum of money.” I pulled a large sack of coins from my belt. “And I thought it wouldn’t help to spend some of it on something I usually can’t get a hold of…”

“Hm…” Isolde smiled bewitchingly. “I see. So you’re in the market for some slaves. Heh-Heh, then you’ve come to the right place.” Clapping once, she turned her back towards me. “Follow me.”

I put the sack back on my belt before following her deeper into the building.

 

When the atmosphere changed, I knew that we were getting close. It felt much more suffocating. Like the walls were constantly closing in on me. Yet that couldn’t be. The halls here were no different than they had been up till now. The only difference was the heavy dread that was coming over me.

“We’re here,” Isolde said.

It was pitch black, so I didn’t know where “here” was. But just as I thought that, a light right above us snapped to life. That was followed by another a few meters away, followed by another, and another. Eventually, the entire hallway was lit up with yellow light, letting me see the area around me.

Cages.

Nice cages to be fair, but cages, nonetheless.

The silver bars still held their shine, and the inside was almost spotless. Not the same could be said for the slaves though. On their bodies were nothing but rags, cuts and bruises painted their skin, and metal chains were wrapped around their necks and limbs.

“Here is our collection. If you have any questions about any of them, don’t hesitate to ask.” She tapped on the cages before saying, “Their prices are on the plaques next to the cages. If you’re looking for something specific, I can arrange that too.”

“Thank you,” I nodded before looking around.

The slaves here were of all races and ages. Some looked at the brink of death while others still held a glimmer of hope in their eyes. There were some guys here and there, but for the most part, they were girls.

I wasn’t entirely sure what I was looking for or how many I wanted to get, so I quickly scanned them before thinking it over my head.

I probably shouldn’t go overboard for now, so no more than three. Preferably I’d want them to be younger than me too. Maybe at a later point I could get someone older, but I’d save that for another time.

As I looked around, I locked eyes with a girl in one of the cells. Looking inside, I found a pair of girls looking back at me. They had cat ears on their heads, pale skin, and most importantly, looked younger than me, or at least around my age. They looked almost identical, the only difference being the color of their eyes and hair.

One girl was blonde the other had black hair.

“Have the twins caught your eye?” Isolde asked. “May I mention that these two may be a little pricier. You see, when we got them, they were a part of a church. Part of their doctrine was that they couldn’t have sexual intercourse. Nothing new there. But you see—”

“Many would pay a pretty penny for a virgin, never mind two virgins.”

“You get it.” She put her hand on my shoulder. “May you be the lucky guy to take em home?”

I couldn’t lie and say that the proposal wasn’t intriguing, but there were still many options to see. Looking at the price tag, they were pricy, but nothing out of my price range. So…

“Yeah…I think I will.”

“Great!” She said as she stuck a piece of paper in front of the plate. The paper read, “Sold”. Licking her lips again, she asked, “Will that be all for today?”

“No, I’m thinking of getting ano—” I stopped myself. I did say that I should only get a max of three, but since these were twins, could I count them as one? I mean, it’s not like I can’t afford another girl. So… “I’m thinking of getting two more girls.”

“I see, a big buyer, huh.” She clapped. “That being the case, I will throw in a special item from my ‘work in progress’ selection. As a little thank you for your patronage.”

“Oh, really? Thanks.” I mumbled.

Right away, I started looking around once more.

Humans, Elves, Ogres, and many other races were available. I wasn’t necessarily picky, but I’d preferred to choose some that were closer to what I was, a human.

Soon enough, I stopped in front of a cage that almost looked empty. If it wasn’t for the shining blue hair, they’d almost blend into the background. But in the very corner of the cage, where it was the darkest, a girl cowered away. She had long pointy ears and eyes like the ocean. Her fragile body trembled as she hugged her legs close to her chest.

Her gaze felt empty. I couldn’t even figure out her expression. It was like she’d become hollow.

“You seem to have some expensive tastes,” Isolde said, noticing where I’d stopped. “That right there is royalty—or at least she was. She was one of the thirteen princesses of the kingdom of Aelorinara, have you heard of it?”

“Yes, I’ve visited there once.”

Aelorinara was one of the six major kingdoms. It was a highly popular location. Although it was named an elven kingdom, any type of race was allowed both to visit and live. The king and queen were really the public faces of the kingdom, but the three eldest daughters were closely behind. Any of the other princesses were rarely if ever seen. But they were still royalty, how could someone like that end up here?

“She’s been passed around by some nobles for a time before ending up here. She was sold to us under the label of a sex slave. Honestly, the fact that she’s still here is a miracle. But she has been bought before. For one reason or another, she keeps getting returned. Seems she isn’t what many people expect her to be. Apparently, she’s not very reactive while doing it. So, what do you say?” She tapped the cage a few times. “I’m guessing my story of her being returned isn’t the most convincing argument to buy her, but I am always honest with my customers. You know what, I’m even willing to toss a discount your way if you take her off my hands.”

Royalty, huh. I mean she was quite expensive, about as much as the cost of the twins, but that was to be expected. Her body, even looking past its battered state, was really well-defined. She almost looked like a doll.

“Is…something wrong with her?” I asked, looking into the girl’s empty eyes.

“Not in any physical way. I’m sure that whatever those pervert nobles did with her was less than pleasant though. She’s been like this since we first got her.”

Makes sense. I could only imagine what the poor girl had been through. That’s not even considering the political aspects of it all. Surely not all those nobles agreed with the political actions of the king of Aelorinara, especially with how anti-noblesse he was. It wasn’t unthinkable that the nobles let out their frustrations with the king through this girl, their daughter.

Even if for that reason alone, I felt compelled to take her home.

“I’ll take her.”

“You will not regret your purchase.” She placed a “sold” paper over the plaque. “But if you do, you can return any slave you buy within thirty days and you will get half your money back.”

I wasn’t planning to bring any of the girls I bought today back here, but even if I did, that half my money back wasn’t the best incentive to do so either.

“And who will be the last lucky girl?” Isolde asked.

I resumed browsing.

Up till now, I’d taken two cat girls and one elf. If I could, I wanted to at least get one human girl. The other two were practically identical to humans, but there was still a veil of separation from not being from the same culture. At least if we were both humans, we’d have more relatability.

“Do you have any human ones?” I decided to ask.

“Of course, of course. Knowing your tastes, I think I have just the thing.”

I followed Isolde down the long corridor. After eight meters, we turned right to another long hallway with cages. Passing by cage after cage, we finally stopped at one, and the only one up till now, that was not as clean as the rest.

On the metal bars and floors were stains of red. The girl inside was sitting in the center of the square room, her clothes undone and exposing her lower half and half of her chest. Gashes ran down some of her exposed skin, most of them scars while a few were still bright red with blood.

Her body was far from delicate. Instead, it looked like it was well-honed in combat. Her expression was filled with a volatile hatred. The hair running down to near her shoulders was as scarlet as the dried blood on the bars.

“This here is a…fresher one. Just brought in this week, but she has been in other slave sellers across the world. Many weren’t able to handle her more violent nature, but we were more than prepared for that.” She reached into the small breast pocket and held a small metal device. As soon as she pressed down on it—

“Aagh!” the girl let out as she collapsed on the ground.

“What…what was that?”

“It’s what we use with slaves that are...less than agreeable. Of course, you’d have nothing to worry about since slaves can’t attack their masters, but it’s still nice to have—just in case she gets violent with anyone else.”

I’d never heard of a device like that one. I questioned how that even worked, but with so many products that were sold here that weren’t sold anywhere else, that was bound to happen.

“And what’s special about this one?” I asked, realizing that all the ones up till now weren’t just your average run-of-the-mill slaves. And since she had been the one recommending her, I doubted she’d just pick a random human slave and call it a day.

“Ohh, get ready for this one.” She grabbed my shoulder. “This right here was one of the sixth generation Celestias…”

My eyes shot open.

The Celestias were an organized group formed by every major power in the world. Together they are supposed to be the beacons for peace across the globe. They were all relegated as legends. Each one of their members was quite well known by the populace, so the fact I couldn’t remember her was more than surprising.

“How is that possible? Aren’t they—”

“She was one of the younger members. When Generation Six was being formed, there was a lot of turmoil between its members, her being the center of it all. Eventually, she was elected to be kicked out of the group, and she lashed out. That’s about as much as I know. Her name was never made public as a final member, but behind the scenes, she was one for almost a year.” Isolde crossed her arms. “We have no idea if she’s a virgin or not, which is why we don’t market her as such, but she is still endowed with the gift of Eldorin, so due to that alone, we have a higher asking price.”

The Gift of Eldorin was supposedly certain abilities given to the Celestias. Among them was an unbelievable amount of mana, especially enhanced strength, higher durability, and many more.

Taking another look at the girl, she had a clear defeated look on her face. Angry, but defeated. From what I could see, she was definitely a human, so it fit within my parameters. I had no reason to refuse.

“Okay, I’ll take her too.”

“I knew I’d like you.” She slapped the last “sold” paper on the plaque then clapped. “So that’d be it, correct?”

“Yes, that would be it.”

She smiled. “Okay, please head to the end of this corridor. Go through the door and wait at one of the seats. I shall bring your girls shortly.”

With a nod, I did as I was told.

 

The waiting room was a large open area. It was empty. I sat at one of the chairs, tapping my foot as I waited.

This was the first time I’d done something like this. There was something odd about being able to buy people like this, but now that I was in the process of it, I was more elated than anything. I had no idea what I was about to do with them, this whole thing was more of an on-a-whim decision than anything, but I’d figure it out later.

Within fifteen minutes, the doors finally swung open.

Isolde walked out first, followed by the four girls, each with a guard behind them. All of the girls were chained up, their hands cuffed behind their backs. Now that they were out, I also noticed everyone’s heights. The twins were quite short, probably a head smaller than myself, while the human and the elf were taller than the twins but noticeably shorter than me.

“Thanks for waiting,” she said as she approached me. After stopping, she held out her hand. “First things first, payment.”

Having counted the money already, I put the sack of coins (which was only 2/3 of what I had brought with me) into her hand. She counted it before nodding in satisfaction.

She then pulled out a vial and held out her hand once more. “Can you give me your hand for a bit?”

Confused, I placed my hand in hers.

Immediately, she opened her mouth and stuck my index finger inside. She used her small teeth to position my finger a certain way, using her tongue to hold it in place. Then—she bit down.

‘Ow!” I let out as her fang stabbed into my skin. As soon as it did, she pulled out my finger and put the wound on the entrance of the vile. While it poured down without stopping, I looked at Isolde, waiting for her to give an explanation.

“My saliva has special properties that make the master/servant pact possible. It was something I accidentally pulled off in one of my experiments. I tried finding out different ways to do it so I don’t have to go around biting all my customers, but it seems they enjoy it more when I do bite them, so I didn’t go further with that.”

Once she collected a decent bit of blood from me, she walked over to the girls. Using a tool, she sucked up a bit of my blood into a transparent tube. I thought she’d then place it in one of the girls’ mouths, but instead, she put it in her own. Immediately, she went up to one of the twins and kissed her on the mouth.

The black-haired girl’s eyes snapped open as her throat moved and she swallowed down a mixture of my blood and Isolde’s saliva. The girl’s eyes glittered a bright red once then turned back to their normal hue. Isolde proceeded to do the same with the next two girls, running into no issues, but then came the last one.

Even before the red-haired girl was kissed, she was already pulling back, gritting her teeth. Isolde, without hesitation, dropped the last remaining drops of my blood into her mouth and kissed her anyway. They struggled for a moment, the red-haired girl clearly refusing to gulp it down, but I noticed Isolde’s tongue force her teeth open and the girl eventually swallowed down the blood and saliva mixture.

Her eyes shined a brighter red.

“Haa…now, they are under your servitude.” She handed me a scroll. “Here’s a bit of information regarding the whole process and whatnot, but apart from that, they’re yours now Mr. Starlin.”

I took the scroll and then looked at the girls. The twin looked directly back at me. The elf stared into space. And the human girl stared at the ground with her usual angry expression.

From now on, these girls were mine. I really hadn’t planned out this far, but I really had done it. There was still so much preparation to be done back in my house. I lived alone in a house meant for a while family, so space wasn’t a problem, but I also had to think about everything else.

Why did I even do this in the first place? I wondered, but the answer was pretty simple. With my family gone, I had nobody left. Not family, not friends, not even a girlfriend. I had no idea how to meet people, and this was a much easier alternative, but…

…now what?

“Thank you so much for visiting us,” Isolde interrupted my thoughts. Bowing, she smiled and said, “…have fun.”