After our trip to the tailor, we headed for the next and only place on our itinerary that I really didn’t want to go.

                The Apothecary’s shop seemed to loom over us in its spot in the backend of the Merchant’s District. Nothing had changed other than the area being brighter than it was last time we were here due to the time. Though, I suppose it did also lack that distinctly disgusting scent we’d suffered through last time, but that wasn’t enough to make me want to be here. With these scant differences likely to appear on everyone else’s list of improvements for the location, I couldn’t help but feel as though the stairs leading up to the shop had become infinitely longer. Without meaning to, I froze not when I set foot on the first step, but when Yua did.

                I knew the reason for this apprehension, of course. It’s because I managed to piss off the owner yesterday. I spent most of my life either bullshitting my way through problematic conversations, avoiding them, or taking them much more seriously than the situation required, according to those around me anyways, but it was exceedingly rare for me to have actually pissed someone off.

                What I didn’t know was how to deal with the Apothecary now that I had. I wasn’t any good at dealing with people that were already pissed off at me. And frankly, I didn’t know how anyone could be. I noticed early on in our conversation yesterday that her love for her job was a bit out there, but I still went ahead and accidentally insulted her hard work by comparing it to a similar product that was apparently garbage. We parted on what seemed like good terms, but that could have been because she was too tired to deal with me any more than she already had. She certainly looked the part, anyways.

                Now how was I supposed to deal with her? We needed to buy more potions, but what if she turned us down because of what happened?  She’s the only Apothecary in the city, right? Yua said she was. And because my memory of the row of potions available at the general store was oddly clear, I knew they didn’t have any Health Potions available.

                The image of Yua getting hurt in the boss fight yesterday made me clench my fist and…

                “Master,” Yua said. “Is something wrong?”

                Having already made it up a few steps while I lingered on the sidewalk, my foot still only half-way on the first, Yua stopped and turned back to me. There was not a trace of concern on her face, as if she had forgotten what happened yesterday, which seemed unlikely since she went out of her way to complain about it at the time.

                How could she not be worried that…

                No. No. Stop worrying. Stop always worrying about everything. Just go. If the tiny witch is still upset, I’ll just apologize again.

                Yea. Stop being stupid for five seconds and just go talk to her. Debating the issue with myself is only wasting time we don’t have.

                Goddess… Why do I even have to tell myself this when it seems so obvious?

                “I’m fine. Just… hungry, I guess.”

                “Hmm. Do you want to get breakfast first, then?”

                Yua took a step down, towards me, as if she’d already decided that I’d answered in the affirmative.

                “No, not yet. The potions are more important right now. She didn’t seem to have too many in stock yesterday, so I want to get them before they sell out.”

                “Well, if Master says so. But I’ve never seen them sell out before.”

                With a shrug, Yua turned back and grabbed the door for me. Again, without my asking her to. Considering how I used to be the one to go out of my way to hold the door for random people to try and be pointlessly nice, only to get rebuffed or ignored for my efforts, this was going to take some getting used to.

                After I decided to just deal with my fate, I raced up the stairs, but Yua still got to the door first. Smiling again with that same, gentle and confusing smile, Yua pulled the door open and stepped aside as I walked past her. And, I am very slightly proud of myself to admit, but I did not stop to inhale a year’s worth of air to reassure myself before I did so.

                “Ah, it’s you two again. Welcome back.”

                At first, I thought the shop was empty and that the Apothecary was stuck in her backroom again, dealing with some potion or another, but when the bell on her door jingled, the tip of a witch’s hat shot up from behind the counter. Revealed beneath it was the extra-petite Witch Madame Turquesse. She had a smudge of something blue-ish on her cheek, mussing up her cute, but sleepy face. I was surprised to see that her expression was mostly placid and that she didn’t cringe when she saw us standing in her doorway. Instead, she pulled herself onto her stool and faced us directly, looking more like she wanted to pretend that we hadn’t just seen her struggling to climb the thing, than she looked bothered by us.

                As if she never went to sleep last night, she was still wearing the same, alluringly tight black dress that showed off exactly how minuscule her breasts were. I guessed at once, by how the bags under her eyes seemed to have doubled in weight, that the reason why she didn’t change wasn’t because she didn’t have other sets of clothes like Yua and myself, but because her fatigue didn’t let her.

                I pinched my thigh when she took the great effort to tilt her head at me, I realized I had been staring and forced my mouth to move.

                “I-I’d like to sell some things I, we, found in the dungeon.”

                “Oh? Okay then.”

                Madame Turquesse slouched slightly, but I didn’t get the impression it was because she was angry with me. Maybe the sleepless night I assume she had caused her to forget it even happened? Or maybe she was just hoping we’d come to buy something, instead coming to sell. But if we were to give potion ingredients to a potion fanatic like her…

                No. Stop overthinking. Just take the fact that she doesn’t seem to be upset in stride and sell your shit!

                Exactly like I did at the tailor; I pulled the wolf fangs and all but one of the living slime goos out of Yua’s backpack and set all of what we had on the tiny witch’s counter. Clearly recognizing the goods, she eagerly checked them over with twice the zeal as Gideon had the pelts, which I assumed to be a good thing. Though she didn’t appear to have a monocle.

                “Okay,” she said after a lengthy review of our loot. “Looks like you brought me 4 Living Slime Goo and 1 Proud Wolf Fang. That was nice of you.”

                She spoke with a yawn that gave me the honest impression that she could pass out at any minute. 

                “Er, how much can you give us for it?”

                “Oh, right. Sorry. I didn’t get to sleep last night… *Yawn*… Brewing horse medicine is such a hassle… I can give you 7 silvers for all of what you brought. That sound okay?”

                Seeing once again that the prices lined up with what their item boxes showed, I nodded.

                “That’s fine. Actually, speaking of brewing potions, can you tell me what is needed to do that? Besides the Apothecary class and the ingredients, of course.”

                “Ahh. How to brew potions? Interested in becoming an Apothecary, are you?”

                I nodded and smiled my best I’m not forcing a smile -smile. She returned it with one of her own, but hers looked to be much more genuine.

                Even if Yua now believed in my multiple classes, or pretended to at least, and even though I didn’t actually have to prove to her that I could brew a potion, I still figured it would be of great financial benefit to us if I could make all the potions we’d need going forwards myself. And better yet, the ingredients seem to be in the dungeon, so making use of my Apothecary class in this way would be a win-win for us.

                Madame Turquesse, however, seemed to have completely ignored the potential loss of a paying customer as her eyes suddenly filled with life once the topic changed to her pasison. In less time it would have taken me to say the word “potion,” she looked like she was about to go into all the fine details of potion making, just like she did last night when she raised a teacherly finger to begin her instruction, but I hurried to stop her before she could start.

                “S-Sorry, but could you give us the short version? We need to head to the dungeon as soon as possible.”

                “Eh? Well, if all you want to know is the basics of the basics. All you need is a cauldron and something to stir with. And water, if the recipe calls for it. Most do, but some…”

                “That’s it? Couldn’t I just use a pot?”

                Madame Turquesse sneered disapprovingly at me, as if I made a blunder on the same level as saying her health potion tasted like literal shit. Not that I knew what either option actually tasted like, as Yua was the only one of us to taste a health potion so far.

                I thought she was gearing to blow up on me just like last night and tried to prevent her meltdown by quickly apologizing, but she beat me to it with a sigh. Then a yawn. Seems like she truly didn’t have the energy this time around.

                “No, you cannot use a simple pot to achieve the great art that is potion making,” she said, making an ‘X’ with her index fingers for emphasis. “Nope. Not at all. The only apparatus an Apothecary needs is a cauldron.”

                “Okay… Can you tell me why a cauldron differs from a pot?”

                Comparing your average cooking pot to your average Halloween witch’s cauldron didn’t really make any sort of difference all that apparent to me. They were both large, metal bowls essentially that you fill with water and other ingredients. The main difference I could think up was that, being that they were possibly made of different metals and that cauldrons were probably thicker, which didn’t seem all that important. Although, I was smart enough not to make this point aloud.

                Madame Turquesse shook her head, the small, arrogant smile on her lips that of an older sister telling her little brother what a fool he was for thinking he’d ever get the upper hand on her in any subject, while towering over him with her arms crossed in apparent triumph.

                I don’t know why, considering how I’d asked her to share her knowledge, not denied its existence. Also, she looked like she’d only come up about as high as my chest if we stood side-by-side. Stature wasn’t exactly something she of all people should be lauding over someone.

                “You see,” she started. “A cauldron is actually a magic item. Similar enough to how one might use a magic candle, you need but to mix a bit of your mana into the potion through the cauldron itself. Obviously, you cannot do this with a regular pot. It is quite literally impossible. If you were to try, you would just bring about the same disastrous results as someone without the Apothecary class trying to use a real cauldron. Meaning you’d just make a pile of sludge and waste your ingredients. Furthermore, using a cauldron properly requires the hidden knowledge only those with the Apothecary class are privy to.”

                Hidden knowledge? Is that similar to how my Swordsman class seems to have given me a basic fighter’s senses on top of the knowledge of how to actually swing the damn thing without lopping off my own arm?

                But if that’s the case, how does someone, who isn’t me, become an Apothecary if they aren’t born into the class and if they can’t even attempt to make a potion without being guaranteed to fail?

                “Then what kinds of cauldrons do you have? I want to try making some small health potions.”

                “Hmm? If small health potions are all you’re after, then I recommend this medium-sized one. Anything bigger would be a waste and anything smaller wouldn’t be enough.”

                I grew a little concerned for her health when it took the support of both her arms to raise a single finger towards a large black pot, er cauldron, lined up with a few others on a table facing the store’s side window. It looked like it should easily hold around five gallons of water, though its thick metal sides made me concerned about its weight. But comparing it to the larger one next to it, which looked like it needed an entire team of body builders to carry, I couldn’t complain. My item box would do all the heavy lifting anyways.

                “How much is the medium one?”

                “10 gold pieces.”

                Yea… It would be.

                I just got it and it’s all the gold I have left. But if I was successful, we could gather enough ingredients to make all the potions we’ll need for the foreseeable future just by exploring the dungeon. The problem was, clearing the dungeons as we have been now, we weren’t likely to make the goal of 25,000 gold pieces in the next two days unless the enemies on the next floors started dropping diamonds instead of pelts and goo. And I don’t want to put too much faith in the ring selling, either, so buying the cauldron now would be a gamble.

                But making my own potions and selling them would bring us more money on top of the loot. Plus, on a side note, if I were to sell her pre-made potions, Madame Turquesse might not have to make her own and should be able to get some proper rest. Assuming she doesn’t refer to them as sewage simply because she didn’t make them herself.

                I looked to Yua for her opinion on the risk and she just smiled sympathetically and shrugged as if this gamble didn’t concern her in the slightest. I guess it was up to me as her master to decide for her. Not that I liked that she might have felt that way.

                “I’ll take it.”

                “Alrighty then. I wish you great success in your endeavors. Assuming you even have the Apothecary class, anyways. If you don’t, have fun wasting your ingredients.”

                Wow, no mercy with this one.

                I took out the gold coins, set them on the silver tray and took the leftover silvers from the leftover profit our loot made us after buying some empty potion bottles. While Yua stuffed the bottles into her backpack, the frail-looking Madam Turquesse jumped off her stool and hefted the cauldron up herself before setting it on the counter like it was nothing. Thinking that the “magic” in the magic item she mentioned a minute ago actually made it lighter than it looked I picked the cauldron off counter just like how the magic candle didn’t burn anything once lit, but I nearly dropped it on the spot before shoving my knee beneath it to force my legs to help out with its massive weight.

                Of course, the damn thing was heavy. It’s basically a giant hunk of metal at least half an inch thick all the way around. Was it her love of potions that allowed this tiny witch to lift this thing so easily, or was it just because her level was so high?

Seeing me struggling, Yua offered to help and we each took hold of one of its handles.

                “Thanks,” I said. “About how long does it take to brew health potions?”

                “Hmm, about an hour for the small ones,” the tiny witch answered happily, still looking quite tired despite her quick burst of energy a moment ago. “Is there anything else?”

                After a quick thought, I realized that our health wasn’t the only issue we’d face in the dungeon.

                “Do you have any potions that can recover stamina?”

                Regardless of whether or not the ring might sell, we were going to be in the dungeon all day. Thinking back to last night when we were both exhausted after clearing what may have only been half the normal amount of monsters on the first floor before tackling the boss, I figured we might need a pick-me-up to keep us going. Plus, since energy drinks didn’t seem to be a thing in this world in the more modern sense, and because health potions exist, I figure she must have something that could help us.

                Madam Turquesse looked from me to Yua, then back to me and covered her mouth to giggle.

                “Oh my~… Shouldn’t you two wait until bedtime before you start talking about stamina potions? Young people these days have no shame.”

                “Eh?!” Yua shouted, turning red and nearly dropping her half of the cauldron.

                “Th-They're for the dungeon!”

                I didn’t even know they could be used for that! I never even considered it! Honest!

                “I know. I know,” the tiny bitch said, waving her had dismissively. “I was just joking. Small stamina potions are 2 silvers each. Same as the small health potions.”

                I slammed the money for two each on the counter, took what she handed me and we stormed off.

                “Good luck with your potion! If you need help, feel free to stop by anytime. If it’s talking about potions, I can go all night long! Just like you with those stamina potions!”

 

                It took a while for Yua to recover from Madam Turquesse’s little “joke,” but by the time we got back to the inn to drop off the cauldron, the redness in her cheeks had receded. Hopefully she would just forget that ever happened and wouldn’t start trembling the moment I got closer to her again. It was already bad enough she assumed I’d try something pervy the moment I got the chance, I don’t need that little witch putting more of those ideas in her head.

                I suppose I should just take her playful barbs at my embarrassment as the true payback for insulting her potions yesterday.

                We set it in our room, put the bottles in my item box and divided up the stamina potions between us, so we’d each have our own at the ready. I’d have to wait until we were done fighting for the day to start brewing potions myself when I had more freedom to be around the cauldron. We didn’t have time to waste doing it now.

                “All that’s left is the ring,” I said. “Then we can hit the dungeons.”

                “Finally,” Yua said, pumping herself up to get in there and fight again.

                Given that selling things directly to the stores that would actually make use of them should net us more coin, I wanted to try and sell the regeneration ring to a store that specifically sold enchanted items, but according to Yua, no such place existed anywhere in this city. So, there was only one place I could imagine that would be willing to take it off our hands.

                By the time we got to the General Store, they seemed to be at their peak working hours as there was a small crowd of people rummaging about the inside. When I got there around the middle of the day yesterday, the place was almost entirely empty, so I had to do a double-take of the signboard to see if we were in the right place. Watching what little the shop had to offer fly off the shelves and into the hands of the greedy customers, I had to guess that most people in the city do their shopping early in the morning because supplies weren’t as abundant as they were in my old world. Everything here is man-made or grown locally in a finite quantity, so it’s always going to be first come, first served from now on. I suppose the age of abundance I once lived in was now gone. Fantastic.

                While waiting for my turn at the counter, various housewives, teens, Adventurers and more all perused the various kinds of odds and ends on the shelves, their voices filling the shop with a breath of life that it lacked in my last visit, which made the place feel more welcoming, oddly enough. For whatever reason, being surrounded by so many people now didn’t bother me as much as it used to. I guess I had too much on my mind to care at the moment. It was almost a shame that I couldn’t just stay here a while and enjoy this feeling.

                There were several items I either hadn’t noticed last time I was here or were outright new sitting on the tables attracting attention to themselves, but none of it was all that worth noticing, so I, as a man with tight purse strings, didn’t bother joining the people in their search for seemingly useless trinkets. I was only here for one thing, then it was right back to work.

                A few things seemed to catch Yua’s eye as we made our way through the crowd, though. Namely, things any girl would need to bring along with them when moving into a new home, such as hair brushes, tooth brushes and other beauty tools, as well as things a proper servant might need, such as a cheap apron with the picture of a duck sewn into its front pocket and various cooking implements. None of which she was allowed to own herself as a slave, apparently. Unfortunately, she’d have to wait on all of that until we had more coin to spare.

                I let her look around without a word, taking a mental note of all the things she might want and need just in case. While I did this, what looked like a mother-daughter pair completed their purchase of some random jarred foods and left the shop and our turn to step up to the counter finally arrived.

                To my surprise, the shopkeeper seemed to recognize me the moment my face appeared from within the crowd.

                “Good morning, dear customer and…” Albert suddenly stopped when he noticed I wasn’t alone this time and turned a pair of openly lascivious eyes directly onto Yua’s body, without a hint of remorse despite his own slave bunny-girl standing right next to him. “Heh. I see you took my advice. That’s a fine one you got there.”

                Only because I didn’t want to piss him off again by punching him square in his big fat bald dome, I bit down my anger at the way he eye-humped Yua to the point of her becoming so uncomfortable, she actually resorted to hiding behind me.

                Right now, we needed his money. I can yell at him all I want later. Hell, I might even let Yua punch him a few times. I bet she might like that. Besides, his bunny-girl seemed like she’d have something to say later on when they were alone, as she crossed her arms and glared at him from behind his back.

                “Yea, I did,” I said honestly, for it was my only choice in the matter for multiple reasons. “But I’m not here to talk about that. I’d like to sell this, please.”

                I slammed the ring on the counter a bit more forcefully than I meant to and the bunny-girl’s ears twitched.

                Seemingly completely unaware of my not-so-well-hidden anger, he eyed the ring suspiciously without touching it, as if worried something so obviously valuable had been stolen and that I was trying to launder it to him, but his caution didn’t last long. Since we weren’t here to buy, he looked like he wanted to hurry and be done with this trade as soon as possible. Yua’s obvious beauty couldn’t hold the man’s attention for long, not when even more customers entered the shop after we did and were waiting for his attention.

                He cast his Appraisal skill and after a second or two of watching his eyes run across a window full of text only he could see, his eyes grew wide and his mouth fell open with enough shock in his expression, that you’d think we just handed him a diamond the size of a basketball. He reached behind himself and snatched the towel the bunny-girl had hanging from her pants pocket and used it to dab at his now sweaty forehead.

                I knew the ring was expensive, but that was a bit much.

                After a moment, he blinked as if coming out of a trance and slid the ring back over to me, clearly wanting to have nothing to do with it.

                “Sir, I can’t buy this…”

                “What? Why not?”

                His outright denial was a big fat slap across the face. I pushed the ring back towards him, wanting to try my hand at bartering again.

                “Please? I know what it’s worth and I’ll go as low as 25,000 gold for it.”

                “The price isn’t the problem,” he said, pushing it back a second time before removing his hands from the counter entirely. “I don’t keep anywhere near that much gold in my shop and even if I did, I still wouldn’t buy it from you. If I tried, I’d have no money to buy from anyone else and I wouldn’t be able to make change for my customers until I manage to resell it. And that is only if I could find someone to buy it.”

                “But…”

                His reasoning made so much sense that I couldn’t complain. I don’t know why I expected a small shop like this to be able to put up that much money. This shop may exist in a large, bustling city, but a general store in this world seemed to be somewhere between a small supermarket and a convenience store, due to the types of good he sold here. I had to beat a dungeon floor boss just to get 10 gold and I was expecting him to pay me three-thousand times that much. I understood the math, but I had no real idea what it took to actually earn that kind of coin.

                Plus, for all I knew, he had already used what money he had on hand to purchase the loot of other Adventurers capable on fighting on the lower floors. What I sold him yesterday was probably just scraps compared to that.

                “I’m sorry, dear customer. It’s a nice find, but I really can’t take it,” Albert said and put on a sympathetic smile. He eyed the ring again. It was easy for even a beginner Merchant like myself to see that he wanted it, but he knew full well that it was out of his grasp.

                I shook my head before the strength needed to keep it upright failed me and I ended up staring at my feet for an answer that was clearly not there. I knew relying on the sale of this ring was ridiculous, but it was our best bet at seeing this through. Even if I’m extra generous to myself and assumed that the number of each floor multiplied the gold we got on the first floor, and we swept the whole place clean ourselves, we’d still come up short. We were basically making pennies and nickels when we needed several stacks of hundred-dollar bills.

                We planned on heading to the dungeon anyways, so maybe we should just use the ring like Yua suggested. At least that way, we can keep trying and hope we find another enchanted item to sell, but one that is actually cheap enough to sell here in the city. If such a thing even existed.

                “Master...” Yua clenched the back of my shirt.

                Her voice sounded weak, full of just as much pain and disappointment as mine surely had. In the face of this most recent failure of mine, I couldn’t even muster up the brain power to consider if this was due to her wanting to steal whatever coin I got from its sale or if she too was saddened by this turn of events.

                I honestly hated Albert for it. I don’t care if he had the money or not, or if he was just being logical in how he dealt with the ridiculous request of a customer. His refusal was going to get Yua taken away from me and most likely killed! All that time I spent together with her, trying to get her not to hate me may have only lasted a single day, but aside from all the worry, it was the most eventful day I’d had in years. Probably my entire previous life.

                I just wanted to save her, to make up for the evil act of buying her in the first place. To give her a better life. One she likely deserved. The act she may have been putting up since this morning could be just a bluff, but it was good enough for it to at least feal real on the surface. Just that and that warm smile of hers was enough for me. She was enough as she is now or how she was yesterday. Even if things between us didn’t end the way I wanted, I was sure we could at least be friends on some level. That may be all I deserved from her in the first place.

                We were going to fight in the dungeon, most likely fail to find the coin we needed and she’d be taken from me before any of that could become reality. If only there was…

                Yua’s grip on my shirt tightened and pulled me back from the brink of falling into the same rut of negative thoughts that kept me rooted in the life I hated back on Earth. Just like this morning, the droop to her ears and the non-existent enthusiasm of her tail displayed the sadness that was already plain enough on her face to say that it was nothing like the semi-permanent snark she fought me off with yesterday. The downward twist to her peachy lips looked almost as genuine as my own, as if she had been worrying about all of this the whole time I was.

                No! I refuse to let things go on like this!

                The bad thoughts keep coming for me, trying to weaken, trying to break me like they had in the past, but I have to keep fighting them. Letting them win out is why I ended up in this mess to begin with. If not for my own sake, then for hers. I had my chance at an easy life and screwed it up and ended up dying in a really embarrassing way just to get this second shot. She, however, was still on her first and only try at life and she’s already had it leagues rougher than I did.

                Maybe I could just improve her circumstances. That’d be enough for me.

                “Isn’t there something else we can do?” I said finally. “Do you know of anyone else in the city that might be able to buy it?”

                He drew in a deep breath and sighed.

                “I don’t know anyone specific, but maybe you could try auctioning it off. There’s still no guarantee that anybody will bid for it, but if you really need the coin, that’s probably your best bet. But you’d be gambling at it then. Hoping someone with very deep pockets takes a liking to it.”

                An auction? I never even considered that kind of system existed in this world. I’d never gone to one back on Earth, either. I always enjoyed the concept of an auction as a passing fancy while watching others try their hand at it on television, but it was impossible for me. I knew I wouldn’t have been able to open my mouth and proclaim, with the power of my own hard-earned money backing my words, that I wanted whatever happened to be for sale. So, I never bothered to put any real thought into going. But now forcing myself to go was just going to have to be the next step in trying harder to make this life worth living. And more importantly, it may well save Yua.

                Quickly, I pressed him for more information.

                “I’ll try that then. Where is it?”

                “The auction house is in the east quarter of the city.”

                Surprisingly enough, the answer came from Yua, not Albert. I turned to her, ready to ask why she knew that and didn’t say anything, but her ears were drooping even more than before. Her brow was furrowed, bringing out more lines in her face that someone of her apparent youth shouldn’t have had to worry about for at least another couple decades. I could tell at once that she must have been thinking about something deeply depressing, but I had no idea what that could be. An auction still wasn’t a guarantee, but I was ready to jump at any idea of hope that could be offered to us.

                Albert must have noticed my confusion, because he answered for her.

                “Dear customer, I get that you aren’t from around here, but you ought to know that slaves are the auctioneers’ biggest money-makers. That’s where the best of the best slaves go to be sold off to the highest bidder.”

                Yua bowed her head and shrank further behind me, like she didn’t want me to look at her, and I think I might have understood why.

                She had to have been a slave for a long while before I met her. She probably made several friends amongst her fellow slaves as they were the only people on the planet who could properly understand what she was going through at the time and who could truly sympathize with her. And she probably had to watch many of them get sold off to a new master. Be it from some asshole like me showing up to buy them out of the blue or having to watch them get carted off to an auction house, likely never to be seen again.

                Just the thought of going to a place like that herself must be bringing back painful memories, ones on the same level as living in the slave house itself.

                “But they don’t just sell slaves,” Albert said. “They often have various kinds of enchanted equipment up for sale. I’m sure that, if you wanted to sell that ring in this city, the auction house is your best bet.”

                “… Thank you for the advice.”

                Torn between making Yua relive some past trauma or saving her life by selling the ring, the solution I found was easy enough. So, I stashed the ring back into my item box via my pouch, grabbed her by the hand and ran out of the store, pushing past the various customers blocking our way.

                We stopped on the sidewalk in front of the store and I checked my HUD to confirm the direction I needed to go, even though I somehow memorized the route to the slave house after only going there once. If it and the auction house were both in the east district, then I just had to make my way back there to start searching for it.

                This was my chance. Our chance. I just had to go, sell this damn ring and give the proceeds to Alphonse. I wouldn’t even waste my time basking in the look of bewilderment he’d no doubt show when I handed him a fat sack of coins. I’d just take Yua and we’d run. We’d leave this city for good, for all the trouble it caused us.

                “Yua, please go back to the inn and wait for me.”

                “Eh? But Master…”

                She tried to protest, but I grabbed her by the shoulders to make her look at me. The following words spilled out before my self-consciousness could stop them.

                “I want us to stay together, Yua. I don’t want to lose you. And right now, that means I have to sell this ring. But I don’t want to make you go if it’s only going to end up hurting you.”

                Yua took a step back at the mention of needing to go to the auction house, almost like she was expecting it. But she rebounded quickly enough and, with a red tinge to her cheeks, she took my hand. Her strong, but somehow frail hand wrapped around mine with a pleading look in her big emerald eyes. I felt my cheeks heat up again as she was about to protest, but I cut her off.

                “Please Yua, let me go. Just wait for me at the inn. I have the general idea of where it is, so I can find it myself. If I’m lucky, and if I get there fast enough, someone might buy it early on instead of whatever else they were looking at.”

                Naturally, I had no idea how the auction house would work. This was just wishful thinking on my part, but it wasn’t impossible. A ring that literally restored your life and cured wounds had to catch someone’s attention.

                I started to leave, thinking she understood my reasoning, but she stopped me almost immediately. Grabbing my clenched fist again, Yua pleaded.

                “I’ll go with you.”

                “You don’t…”

                “It’s true that I have a lot of bad memories surrounding that place, but that’s why I want to go. I know what to expect and I don’t want Master to go alone. I want to be able to protect you the way you protected me.”

                “Protect me? You do remember that I’ve been to that part of the city before, right? I just bought you there yesterday…”

                The moment the words left my mouth, I felt every muscle in my body clench up, ready for her to condemn me. I didn’t mean to remind her of how we came to know each other, even though that only just happened yesterday. It was most definitely still fresh in her mind.

                I thought she would have been upset at the reminder of her position in life, but she seemed to take it in stride as if it didn’t matter and thumped a hand over her chest.

                “I know,” she said. “But you were lucky. At the time, you didn’t have much coin on you, right? Well now you having that ring will draw out the Thieves hiding in the shadows.”

                “But it’s…” I checked over my shoulders to make sure nobody was listening. Found nothing, but whispered anyway in case there was a beast-kin lying in wait somewhere. “It’s in my item box. How would they even know?”

                “Because they’ll be able to smell it on you.”

                “You mean… Like a beast-kin could smell the ring?”

                “No. I mean that people carrying valuable items always act differently when in public. They do things that unconsciously draw attention to themselves. Such as walk with a hunch even when you look otherwise healthy, subconsciously grabbing for your hidden coin purse whenever a stranger passes you on the street and so on, or how you might keep looking over your shoulder for no reason. This draws attention. The ring may or may not be safe where it is, I don’t really understand your ability, but I have noticed the way you’ve been carrying yourself this morning was rather odd. It’s going to put a target on your back and most Thieves in the city hang out in the eastern district because they know that’s where people with large purses like to spend their time. For various reasons.”

                I listened to her explanation, half in awe over the details she went into and half in worry. How does she know all of that? Why does she know what sorts of things Thieves would look for? Is this proof that she herself is a convicted criminal?

                Isn’t this my best chance to find out once and for all?

                “That’s why I don’t want Master to go alone.”

                “Okay, um, but… How exactly do you know all of that?”

                She tilted her head and her ear gave a twitch. I would have thought it was from annoyance given how she responded with such all of yesterday, but instead she just raised an eyebrow with the same sort of look she held on her face every time I asked something that should have been obvious.

                “I learned it all from the other slaves at DeGrave Imports,” she said flatly. “Outside of our training and meeting with our potential buyers, we had nothing else to do but talk. Some of the Thieves that got themselves caught told me what to look out for and in return, I taught them how to fight.”

                Despite myself, I let out a breath of relief.

                Of course, her answer didn’t immediately dispel the possibility, but at least she didn’t know any of that from firsthand experience.

                “I see. Then… I’ve been acting strange?”

                “Yes.”

                Again, a very blunt response. And also, a very hypocritical one. I feel I’ve been mostly the same, but she’s the one that changed her entire attitude overnight. And how do I know she isn’t asking to go to help in order to corner me with a bunch of her thief friends in some back alley somewhere out of sight?

                A group of laughing children ran past us, distracting me. As my eyes unintentionally followed them in their play, I happened to notice the time on my HUD and shook my head.

                It wasn’t what you’d call late, it wasn’t even noon yet, but we didn’t have time to screw around with my indecisiveness. Two more days may seem like a lot of time to complete a project, but when said project consisted of earning enough money to say you’d need at least a couple decades of scrimping and saving to do it normally, then it was almost as laughable as it was depressing.

                “Fine… I could use some help finding the auction house anyways.”

                If she decided to use this opportunity to try and escape our bond, then so be it. At least I’d finally have my answer.

                “You can count on me, Master!”

                With another fist pump, she smiled confidently at me. As beautiful as she was whenever I looked at her, the strong front she put up now was alone enough to cement the fact that I needed her by my side at all costs. Although, it would be nice if she could share some of that confidence she had, even if it was just for the possibility of us walking into trouble.

                “Alright,” I said. “Let’s go together, then. We’ll hurry up with our business and be done with that place for good.”

                “Right!”

                Unwilling and unable to turn her down after she showed me that brave face, I accepted her offer, much to her delight. I unclenched my fist, took hold of her hand and we took off for the eastern district.

 

                We entered the eastern section of Amoranth unmolested and slowed to a stop to avoid unwanted attention. Of course, this was assuming we didn’t already have eyes on us from how we sped through the city.

                About half way on the way to De Grave Imports where we planned to start our search, or straight up ask directions if the need arose, we were pushed off the street by a group of six heavily armored men armed with swords and spears. Following their lead was a well-decorated cart pulled by no less than four horses. The driver, a fat man whose complexion looked to be permanently greasy, shot us a pompous sneer and didn’t stop for even a second to complain at us like I was sure he would.

                Behind his cart were three more full of various boxed and unknown goods, all covered by a large white sheet, clearly meant to hide the contents, unlike that spice salesmen that helped me into the city. I knew almost at once that whatever they were carrying had to be meant for the auction, if not because of how much they were carrying and how far from the merchant district we were, but because those six guards in front weren’t the only ones protecting the things inside the carts. But these things were not all there was.

                At the tail end of this procession of greed were a couple carriages whose out-of-place elegance made them appear about as expensive as what I assumed one of the smaller houses I’d seen in the city might cost. Following further behind this was another small group of guards.

                Their no-doubt overly detailed exterior aside, it was obvious from a glance that it wasn’t without reason for the back was filled with people. Not rich merchants or well-off nobles on their way into the city for some sightseeing, but slaves. The windows on the sides of the carts were left open on purpose to display the goods these merchants carried through the city and those goods were clearly people. The carriages they road in on were just the decorative wrapping they came in, which was in stark contrast with how they were dressed. Or should I say barely dressed for they wore only tattered rags to hide their shame, assuming they had even that much to cover themselves as I could only see their upper halves.

                One of the women inside, unlike the others, looked to be riding topless with a look of sheer despondency on her face. I thought she ought to have been worried for other reasons, given how she was crammed into the carriage with around six burly men, but each of them wore the same look on their faces, as if they hadn’t noticed the half-naked beauty sitting next to them.

                Our eyes met as the carriage passed, but she showed no signs of caring that I had noticed her state of undress. She just returned her gaze to the floor, as if even looking up was utterly pointless for her now. She knew what was in store for her wherever the procession meant to take her as they pushed towards the northern part of the district.

                Yua’s grim expression at the sight of the slaves almost looked to overshadow her desire to help me. Her fists clenched where they shook at her sides as she watched them pass and I felt a pit in my stomach gnawing at me when I thought of what their fates had waiting for them. It felt only worse when I realized that there was nothing I could do for them.

                I feel that, given the number of stories I’ve read on the subject of otherworldly heroes and slaves, my first thought should have been that I needed to fight off all the guards, beat the merchants into submission and rescue these slaves, these people from the injustices they’ve suffered, but all that I came up with was that I needed to protect Yua from having to go back to living that way in the event I failed. My only combat experience involved one-shotting slimes in the dungeon and killing a few wolves. And even if Yua helped, I doubted we’d be able to stand up to the sheer number of guards hired to protect these carriages. And I didn’t need to see their higher levels to know that it’d be a losing effort.

                This wasn’t a video game where I could stage a daring rescue, fail and reset over and over until I managed to eke out a victory by the skin of my teeth. Not only were they likely chained to the carriage somehow, if they were already bound by the effects of the slave spell and if they tried to run away, their master would always be able to track them down the same way I could Yua after we fell into that trap in the dungeon.

                It was a cruel reality and one that I’d let myself become a part of because of my years of loneliness and only a moment of weakness mixed with opportunity. Seeing these people now, I can say that I do not regret my decision. I’ll just have to do my best as Yua’s master and make sure I make her happy. As happy as I can, anyways.

                And in order to do that, I had to look away from the slaves and content myself the best I could by wishing there was another choice. Yua nodded to me, and it was like she came to this same decision.

                Keeping our distance so we didn’t look suspect to them, we followed the train of carts through the city. Thankfully, my assumption that they were headed for the auction house proved correct as they brought us to a two-story building made primarily of carved stone that looked oddly modern compared to all the other architecture in the city, just like DeGrave Imports. And like the slave house, it looked much nicer than most of what the city had to offer. The only real difference between the two was that this place was larger and actually had a sign detailing the name “Amoranth Auction House” waiting for us out front.

                The carts pulled into a small, fenced off area just off to the side of the building and the workers waiting there immediately began unloading all the cargo without having to be asked.

                An arrogantly-dressed nobleman climbed down from his carriage. His high-class shirt and coat slipped over his bulging stomach when he stepped off of the short ladder leading up to the driver’s perch much less gracefully than he likely intended and he quickly scrambled to right himself before barking orders at the driver of the carriage holding the slaves.

                Disgusted by him, we watched as he entered the building with his nose held high in the air, as if he refused to even breathe the same air as us lowly commoners. He wasn’t so much as checked for weapons by the guards posted outside the building and was allowed in without any fuss. I guessed that he must have been am well-known man of some sort, since none even stopped to ask for his name.

                Stopping to catch our breaths so we looked more natural and much less desperate, Yua and I followed the fat man inside.

                Again, much like De Grave Imports, the inside of the auction house was well-furnished with couches and chairs of such quality make, that it made my bed at the Lazy Cat Inn look like it was a sheet of cardboard. No less than six women dressed as maids and labeled as such in their info boxes, were walking the grounds, either sweeping floors or polishing the fine oak tables that adorned the waiting room. If I didn’t know any better, I’d believe it if I were told I had accidentally walked into a nobleman’s house.

                The fat noble we followed was greeted by an older man dressed like a butler and, unlike the maids, actually held the level 61 Auctioneer class. Because that is apparently a class all its own here. After listening to the noble give a brief rundown of what he brought to sell today, he was waved into the back, where he was accompanied by a maid that looked to be trying to hide her discomfort. We saw the reason why when she and the noble left the lobby and headed into the backrooms and the noble slipped his hand up the back of her skirt as if it were entirely natural. Apparently, this place had no human resources department she could complain to, as she did her best not to comment on it.

                Yua and I looked to each other, but the auctioneer called out to us before we could have any sort of unspoken conversation with each other.

                “How may I help you today?”

                His choice of words as he greeted us sounded as inviting as any other shop owner in the city, but he spoke with an emotionless timbre that put me on edge. It felt like he somehow noticed the clear difference of our levels and wouldn’t hesitate to crush me for wasting his time.

                I cleared my throat.

                “Hi. M-My name is Alex. An adventurer. I wanted to try and auction off a rare item I found in the dungeons.”

                The man stared at me blankly and I almost got the impression that my earlier prediction was about to come true until he spoke again.

                “And, what is it? Show it to me already.”

                “But that… Right, sorry.”

                I was about to complain that the noble before us didn’t actually have to show that he was carrying what he said he was, but I held my tongue and told myself not to cause any problems as I reached into my pouch. This might as well be our only chance to actually sell off the ring. I can’t mess this up.

                The moment I set it on the counter, he picked it up and cast his own Appraisal ability. I had no doubt that he saw the same price tag I and Albert saw, but unlike Albert, he didn’t so much as bat an eye when he looked into its details. He set the ring back down and looked me in the eye.

                “Hmm. Silver Ring of Regeneration. This isn’t a bad find. How much were you looking to get for it?”

                “Well, I already had it appraised at 30,000 gold pieces. So…”

                The man frowned slightly and shook his head.

                “That may be what it’s worth to buy it outright, but this is an auction house. If we start the bidding that high, we likely won’t be able to sell it.”

                Shit, I forgot about that. The final price would be determined by how many people bid against each other starting from the listed price, meaning the price needed to start lower than its actual value, as starting too high might actually prevent people from bidding.

                That alone was a gamble too, because if I started too low and only one person bid for it, then they’d basically win it for much less than its actual worth. Conversely, if several people really wanted it and continued to push their bids higher to defeat the other prospective buyers, then the price might even end up exceeding its original value. My Merchant class was telling me that starting low to let the buyers get amped up seeing the price continually increase would have both the effects of showing them how valuable the item truly was and that it would make them want join the bidding themselves. So, in a way, it was like we’d be advertising the ring while selling it at the same time. This might be a good start, but unlike my class, I myself didn’t think it was worth the risk.

                I wasn’t looking to become rich, so I already had my answer.

                “Then set the starting price at 25,000 gold pieces, please. I can’t go any lower than that.”

                Returning the man’s unwavering, stern gaze, we met each other in a silent battle of wills to see who’d back down. He needed to make a profit off of this too. His level may have outclassed mine by a mile and my confidence boosting skill was nowhere to be seen as I felt my knees trembling in place, but I had all the support I needed when Yua gripped the back of my shirt.

                I don’t know if she was just trying to tell me not to be so stubborn, but she had at least enough faith in me not to speak out about it. Assuming, of course, that her caution was born from faith and not distrust. And thanks to that, the auctioneer buckled first with a sigh.

                “If that is what you wish, we can accommodate. However, you must be aware that it may not sell at that price. Now…”

                He took out a piece of paper that looked like one section of those user agreement prompts nobody ever actually reads, but it was accompanied by an arcane-looking patterned circle at the top that caught my eye. He slid it over the counter towards me before turning it so that I could read it. He then pressed his right index finger on the page where a line was left blank and a small spark of light erupted from the paper. When he removed his finger, the line now read: Silver Ring of Regeneration. Alex. Starting bid: 25,000 gold pieces.

                He looked to me for a response.

                Not wanting to make the same mistake I did with Alphonse, I braved his annoyed look and picked up what I now knew to be a contract of sorts to read it carefully. To my surprise, the very second I was able to see every word on the page, I somehow knew exactly what it detailed. Without seeing the paper for more than a heartbeat or two, I was able to recite it word for word from memory.

                Was this the Memorization ability that the Goddess gave me at work? If it improved my memory to the point where I could instantly remember every word on a page I didn’t actively read, then that explained a great deal. From memorizing the random potions at the General Store to remembering all the details of my old memories I thought had been long since forgotten. I just never put much stock into how that particular ability worked, since the only things I’ve read since coming here were status pages and shop names.

                Confused and intrigued by this, since speed-reading wasn’t one of my abilities or traits or something I was capable of before all of this, I re-read the contract to make sure, but found that it did line up exactly with my memory. It read:

                By accepting this contract, you are accepting that the auction house takes ten percent of the final bid as payment for our services and that you will be transferring possession of the item or items you are trying to auction over to us until such time as the auction starts. Ownership of the item or items still belongs to you, so if you wish to break this contract before the auction starts, you may do so and your item shall be returned to you at no cost. However, you have until midday the day of the auction to decide. If you decide to follow through with the auction and your item does not sell, you may retrieve it at no cost to yourself or you may ask we keep hold of it and try again at the next auction.

                Ten percent? No wonder this place is so well kept. They are making a fortune off of just selling other people’s crap. But that means that if the ring goes for the base price of 25,000 gold, they will skim 2,500 off of the top. That would leave us that much below what we needed. That meant the ring had to sell for around 27,800 just for us to barely make it. That was almost 3,000 gold more than what we actually needed. Talk about a gamble.

                I could still feel Yua holding onto me, her forehead pressed against my back, silently waiting for my decision. I had no idea if she knew the math and the risk that backed it up, but her silence was as good as leaving her fate in my hands. Because she effectively was.

                “I accept those conditions.”

                Yua’s grip on my shirt tightened and I hoped I was making the right decision.

                “Then accept the seal,” the auctioneer said. “Then we will handle the rest.”

                “Okay…” I looked at the paper and couldn’t see a spot to sign or a pen to sign it with. “Um, how do I…”

                “Just place your left hand on the paper, raise your right and say ‘I accept this contract as it is written,’ and your part in this will be done.”

                “It will? Don’t I have to be here during the auction?”

                “You may attend the auction as a guest or as a customer if you intend to buy, but you do not need to be present if all you wish to do is sell. In the event your item sells, you may come to collect your coin yourself after, have a slave come to collect it for you or we could deliver it to wherever you may be staying, if you so wish. However, we are not responsible if the coin is stolen before or after it gets to you.”

                …That just sounds like they are intentionally leaving in a loophole to steal the money if I don’t show up to collect it myself. I could easily imagine them claiming they tried to bring the gold to my room at the inn, but that their couriers were attacked by some fictional bandits along the way.

                “We’ll just stop by before the auction finishes. When is it and how long does it usually last?”

                “The next auction starts tomorrow at one hour after midday. They usually last a few hours, but that depends entirely on how many items are up for auction that day.”

                Tomorrow?! That’s the day we need the money by!

                Now we’re not just gambling that the ring will sell for enough to cover Yua’s contract, but that it sells in time for us to make it back to Alphonse before the deadline.

                Biting back the urge to yell, I asked, “If it sells earlier on in the auction, can we collect the money right after or do we have to wait until the auction is over?”

                “That is dependent entirely on if the buyer is done bidding for the day. Once they pay, you may speak to the money changer here and show them this contract and you will be given what is owed you.”

                At least that might be good news. Unless the buyer has bottomless pockets, they might not have that much money on them. So, just buying the ring may cause them to tap out of the rest of the auction. Although, that could all change if they are allowed to write some kind of check or an I.O.U. Who knows how long we’d have to wait then?

                Jumbling all these ifs about in my head, I realized I only really had the one option to begin with. So, I raised my right hand and put my left on the paper. The auctioneer did the same on the other side of the counter and waited for me.

                “I accept this contract as it is written.”

                I spoke as clearly as I could, expecting the magic contained in the contract to not allow for errors in pronunciation. The moment I finished speaking, the arcane circle on the page glowed a shade of blue bright enough to make me wince in pain. The light slowly faded into nothingness and both my name and the auctioneer’s name appeared at the bottom of the page in blood red ink.

                The auctioneer, apparently named Bradley since I never bothered to check, picked up the paper and rolled it into a tube before wrapping a bow around it stamped with the symbol of a gavel, probably the auction house’s seal. He then handed it back to me, pulled out a large lockbox he had hidden somewhere behind the counter and looked to me as though he expected his expression alone to say that the deal was done. But I still had a question.

                “Hey, why didn’t that guy that came in here before us have to make a contract like this?”

                Bradley looked about as annoyed by the question as I thought he’d be, but answered anyway. Like the only thing making him do so was the respect his job demanded he give to customers.

                “That was Lord Robert Barrily. He is a regular here and is a trusted trading partner who often uses our services to sell off his slaves.”

                “Slaves? Then does that mean he works for Alphonse DeGrave?”

                “We do not offer details of our other customer’s personal lives.”

                He stared dead-eyed at me, but that was all the answer I needed to know I hit the nail on the head. So, Alphonse has the backing of a noble as well? This day just keeps getting better.

                “If this concludes your business with us…”

                “It does. Thanks. I’ll be back tomorrow.”

                As soon as we had confirmation that everything was taken care of and I declared loud and clear that I wouldn’t fall for any potential bullshittery they may have been trying to get sneaky with, I once more grabbed Yua’s hand and hurried for the exit. We rushed past the maids bowing and politely offering to help us find our way, as if we couldn’t find the exit we’d only just come through a few minutes ago and thrust ourselves back into Amoranth proper.

                We didn’t stop there, though. We bulldozed past the workers still unloading Lord Barrily’s carts and all the others that were only now arriving. Seems the auction house was pretty popular, as the line of carts and wagons lining up down the street seemed to go on and on without end. Seeing this, I quickened my pace. Having more people coming to sell their goods could only mean that the chances of our ring selling were going to plummet. We needed to prepare.

                “M-Master,” Yua said, struggling to keep up, though that was probably just due to how I held her. “What are we doing?”

                “We need to head to the dungeon.”

                “But why? I thought selling the ring was going to be good enough.”

                “It might be, but we can’t just assume it will actually sell. And, because the auction house takes a cut for themselves, we need to hurry and do our best to make up that difference while we still have time. Just in case. Otherwise, we won’t have enough to pay off your contract.”

                I chose to leave out the option of it not selling at all, so that I can maintain that small amount of hope that it won’t come to that. I just needed to keep hoping.

                On the brighter side, even if it did sell at the starting bid, then the amount we’d need to make up for would be much, much lower. But we’d still need to work our butts off in the meantime.

                “Okay…”

                Yua sounded almost as worried as I was once I told her this. For one that loved fighting so much, I found it a little odd that she wasn’t excited to hear we were going back to the dungeon. Did she not know how auctions actually worked? I mean, I’m no expert either, but if she had some sort of trauma regarding them stealing her old friends away, I figured she’d know at least a little.

                We continued down the line of carts, ignoring the drivers and passengers that looked at us in confusion and especially those that held enough contempt in their expressions to mar their faces. Be it our poor state of dress compared to theirs or maybe they just thought I had somehow smuggled one of the slaves for sale out of the auction house they were about to grace with their presence, it really didn’t matter. Their opinions didn’t matter. We would be an eyesore for the brief moment it would take for us to pass them. So, they can shove their opinions up their collective asses.

                This felt so incredibly odd. Being so close from paying off Yua’s contract and at the same time, being so far away. The entirety of our future together, or whether or not there would even be one, now rided on what happens tomorrow. 

                Yua and I could settle our differences and if she willed it, we’d go our separate ways. I may hate it, but I’d take her loss as my punishment for buying her in the first place. As long as she was safe, I could live with that.

                But, for whatever reason, if the side of her that smiled to me this morning was the side that greeted me when all this was done, then…

                “Master…”

                “We have to hurry, Yua,” I said, cutting her off as we ran. “If you need to, we’ll take a short break once we get there. I don’t want to have to wait in line too long.”

                I say so, but it was me that was breathing heavily. This new body of mine could keep pace with her no problem in the short term, but my heart was beating so fast while thinking of all the possible outcomes for tomorrow that I couldn’t breathe. She seemed to have picked up on this as her brow furrowed with what looked like concern.

                “Master, I think you need to calm down.”

                “I’m fine. I’m just a little… excited, I guess.”

                “No, Master. Your heart is… You really need to calm down.”

                “I agree,” said a third voice that stopped us in our tracks. One that I didn’t need to be a beast-kin to recognize and one that neither of us wanted to hear.

                We skidded to a stop on the street, my mind for some reason briefly thanking myself for stopping to buy Yua her boots for this exact occasion. Once my legs stopped moving, my lungs finally caught up to me and, against my better judgment, I sucked in a deep breath just as the owner of the voice that only Yua could hate more than me climbed down from his carriage.

                Alphonse DeGrave had been waiting in the same line that flowed towards the auction house. From the looks of it, it was only him in his carriage and none of the ones behind or in front of him were the sort used to ferry people through the city, so he didn’t seem to be heading out to sell off more of his slaves. Nor did he seem to be hauling anything else along with him.

                If he was connected to Lord Barrily in some way like I thought he was, then he might actually just be heading that way to say hello to an old friend once he received word he arrived in the city. My terrible luck must have just reared its head and forced me to run into him here.

                Once he set his neatly polished loafers on the cobblestone road, the thug holding the reigns of the carriage moved to disembark and join him, likely meaning to act as his bodyguard, but Alphonse just smirked at me and held up a hand to stay him. The thug shrugged and used the opportunity Alphonse gave him by facing us to slouch lazily in his seat. Though, he did eye me wearily and thump a hand on the hilt of his sword. An obvious threat if I ever saw one.

                Alphonse smoothed his slick hair back and, wearing what looked to be the same half-hearted attempt at a merchant’s smile he neglected to show me back when we first met, he looked from me to Yua, then without even fully turning his smug face back to me, he laughed through his teeth.

                “What’s so funny?”

                “Hahaha. Nothing, I suppose. It’s just, I see you’ve managed to grow enough of a backbone not to run from Amoranth.”

                Backbone? Did he really see through me so thoroughly that even my lack of confidence was obvious? I swear, I remember handling our negotiations at least fairly well. Sure, he got the jump on me on multiple occasions, but that was only because he pinpointed bits and pieces of the things I said and stretched them out until he found the truth. For all I was worth, I thought I had at least put up a façade worthy of being called confidence, right up until I found out how he tricked me. I guess my confidence boost failed me there, too.

                I clenched my teeth.

                “We both know that it wouldn’t have mattered if I did.”

                “True. But seeing you so desperate to buy this one, I figured you would have tried to run away with her the second I let you out of my house. Honestly, I was hoping for a chance to chase you down.”

                Despite Alphonse’s blustering remarks, I could hear Yua muttering under her breath. I couldn’t quite make out anything she said, but from the utterly unrefined anger in her burning expression, I didn’t need to ask to know that if she spoke any louder, the thug waiting in the driver’s perch would have jumped down with his sword drawn.

                It was almost strange seeing her like this. The last time the three of us were together, she looked so despondent over her attempts to avoid being sold had failed that she couldn’t even pull her gaze away from her feet, but now she looked like she was honestly trying to set him ablaze with just her eyes.

                After learning what little about her life in the slave house, primarily how he dressed and fed her, I could easily say that his name took up so much of my shit list that it came before the title and took up the whole first three pages by itself.

                But still, Yua looked to be biting back every urge welling up in her to slam her most powerful Iron Fist right into his jaw, shattering his teeth like they were nothing more than bits of brittle chalk. Seems like the single day of freedom she’s had from him was enough to make her forget any sort of need to be respectful. And, were it not for his continued smirk, I would have thought he still feared her as much as he did when I watched her toss around his men.

                “Because if you ran, I’d be well within my rights to end our contract on the spot,” he clarified, not that anyone asked.

                “Sorry to disappoint,” I said, my own anger unwilling to let him get the better of me again. “But we’re doing everything we can to…”

                “Oh, yes, I’ve heard,” he interrupted with a flippant wave of his hand. “You’ve been running around in the dungeons. It’s more proactive than begging for coin on the streets, I’ll give you that, but I’m sure you’ve noticed by now.”

                The provocative twist to his lips no doubt meant that he was well aware that the more conventional method of looting the monsters in the dungeon couldn’t possibly pan out the way we wanted. I was so aware of that fact that it practically gave me heartburn.

                However, despite the fact that he was apparently keeping tabs on us, he seemed unawares of the ring we just put up for auction. Obviously. I stuffed the thing straight into my item box almost as soon as we found it and it’s been there ever since. The only other time we’d taken the thing out was to try and sell it to Albert at the General Store. And even if his little birds managed to catch wind of this without us noticing, I still felt it fairly reasonable to say that he shouldn’t know about it yet.

                Which means he’s still expecting us to fail.

                I thought to use this moment to bluster and puff myself up, but I wasn’t sure I could pull it off properly. Not after realizing how I failed last time. And not when the issue of the ring not actually being sold yet would inevitably come up. In fact, telling him about it might be dangerous. If he’s friends with that Lord Barrily, he or they may have some amount of sway within the auction house. Bragging about it now might cause the auction to drop the sale of the ring altogether.

                It wasn’t worth the risk. I had to take his laughter on the chin this time around.

                Then, as if only just noticing where we’d come from, despite the line of carts heading straight to it, he looked to the auction house and back to me.

                “My, my. Whatever are you doing here at Amoranth’s Auction House? Let me guess…” he put a hand to his chin and pondered, though he didn’t look even half serious. “I see what it is. Yes. You thought that having another slave to help you in the dungeons would help you earn coin faster, right? But since you no doubt hate me now, you couldn’t bring it upon yourself to drag your feet back into my house, so you came here, only to find out that the next auction isn’t until tomorrow. When it would be well-too-late.”

                The all-around refined merchant’s air he held himself up with seemed to be the only thing stopping him from breaking into a shit-eating grin. And, I had to say, aside from him being completely wrong this time around, he had a point. He himself brought up the concept of me buying cheap slaves specifically to earn money in the dungeon, so him coming to that conclusion was understandable. But understandable was all it was.

                Without knowing it, all he was doing now was telling me that he didn’t know about the ring. And this time, I was positive I was right about his intentions.

                Seeing Yua continue to seethe, I put a hand out in front of her. I didn’t think she’d actually risk hurting him since it would only cause us trouble. She didn’t even get violent with me when I accidentally groped her, so her actually threatening Alphonse with a broken nose would only end up hurting her right back due to the slave spell, since he effectively owns half of her contract as we speak. Matter of fact, unless he truly gave up his rights to her in our trade, that meant that Yua was showing an absurd amount of self-restraint, if even her thoughts were somehow still free of blood. Which I doubted, considering how pissed she looked.

                I resisted the urge to bite my lip, but not so much so that he couldn’t think his words hurt me. Maybe if I played along, I could get some answers out of him.

                “Why are you doing this to us?”

                “Pardon?” he said with a barely restrained laugh. “Are you seriously asking me that now? A bit late, don’t you think?”

                “If all you wanted out of this was money, we could have worked something else out. You didn’t need to go this far to ruin our lives.”

                “Please. It’s almost literally my job to ruin lives. What sort of fool expects kindness from a Slave Master?”
                The more he spoke, the harder it was to keep myself calm. And it most definitely didn’t help to have him point out the fact that it was incredibly stupid of me to trust him in the first place, but also that I myself didn’t deserve to be trusted. Regardless of whether or not I had the Slave Master class, I do own Yua. A person. I’m no more deserving of trust than he is. I’m no better than he is, even if my hatred for him wants me to think so.

                Still, unlike him, I was at least trying to be kind to her. He put up a front and faked a smile until he successfully screwed me over, but at least my smiles for her were the truth. Weak, but true. That’s where we differed. And that, at least where I was concerned, was all that mattered.

                Seeing his smirk run its course and as he was about to turn to leave, no doubt thinking he’d won yet again, I noticed a slight twinge to his eye. Almost as if he’d said something he himself found vaguely distasteful and elected to run away from it instead of correct it. The tough front he put up immediately after was no doubt more resilient than mine, but after having to use one all the time myself, I was sure that the weakening of his smile signaled the end of whatever it was he found humorous. But the same way he plucked my true intentions from the things I told him yesterday, I knew there was something there for me to grab.

                I pressed for more. I wracked my brain for random things to talk to Yua about, but this one came up so easily that my lips barely had time to filter my question out into something coherent before it reached his ears.

                “How did you become a Slave Master, anyways?”

                The way he suddenly stopped as he was about to lift his foot onto the step ladder back up to the driver’s perch looked so close to a flinch that I needed to suppress a smile. Not that I was wearing one, as the topic was dangerous.

                If you were to put aside the fact that him owning and selling slaves obviously made him a slave master by trade, it’d be easy to guess how he got the class of the same name. But it wasn’t his first class. His first was Merchant. It was more or less speculation on my part, but after taking into consideration Yua and all the others I’ve met in this city so far, I had a pretty good feeling that the first class listed on any given person’s info box was the class they were born with. Meaning that he had to do something to earn the class itself.

                Naturally, nobody else should have been able to tell this by just looking at him, but my info box didn’t lie. It was this secret that put me in danger, as what I meant to sound like speculation was already a fact set in stone. In his info box that only I could see, but that he confirmed himself in his attempts to belittle my already self-aware incompetence.

                It’s the same as how I’ve earned my classes so far. He may not have a trait that makes it easier to gain new classes and I may not be able to pinpoint exactly what I did to earn some of them, but I know I did something that made sense in the context of the class title. Using magic to become a Mage. Buying and selling items to become a Merchant. The Slave Master title suggested that the requirements should have been obvious, to buy or sell a person, but maybe it wasn’t that simple.

                He did something to earn that class and, from the stiff look in his shoulders, that reminder of that something seemed to touch a nerve. Call it petty, call it justified, but I wanted to find that nerve and kick it in the dick. If you can gain classes and jobs by working hard at them, I had to know why he worked to earn the Slave Master title. Maybe I could use the information to my favor somehow.

                However, when he turned back to us, his expression was a picture-perfect example of calm. He’d wiped that smirk off his lips and he was no longer laughing, but if my question wounded him, he definitely wasn’t going to let it show.

                “How I became a Slave Master? What has you so interested, hmm? Think you can become like me and sell Yua here off to someone else to make up what you owe me? Because you can’t. Her contract is still mine until the appointed date in which… Ha. I suppose she will still be mine.”

                “I wouldn’t sell her even if my life depended on it.”

                This time, I answered without hesitation. There was no stuttering, no mumbling, no skirting around the issue or pretending at falsehoods to hide my feelings. Nobody short of Yua herself was going to separate us. If the ring didn’t sell, I’d find some other way to end this in a way that would keep her smiling.

                Thief or not, after what she’s been through, she deserves that much.

                Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed some of the heat in Yua’s expression die down as she opened her mouth to wordlessly comment on what I said.

                “Then why are you so interested?” Alphonse said, apparently unimpressed with my response.

                I put my hands in my pockets, feigning a calmness to match his own, but I was actually pinching my thigh to spur myself on.

                “Call it professional curiosity.”

                I couldn’t pin down which of my classes it was, but one of them was on to something. Whether or not learning his reasons helped us in the end was irrelevant. Just like in the video games I wasted my life on, I felt as though I’d stumbled upon a hidden dialogue option that needed to be explored in detail.

                Alphonse looked to Yua again, possibly noticing that her anger had slackened a bit, because his smirk returned as he faced the long line of cart intended for the auction house. He shrugged.

                “Fine. I suppose I have some time to play along. It’s not exactly a secret at this point anyways.”

                Feeling some of the momentum I felt building dissipate with the ease in which he gave in, I waited quietly for him to continue. As did Yua. From the look of confusion on her face, I guessed she hadn’t heard, or maybe hadn’t been interested in, his reasons for being what he was.

                “Back when I was around your age, I was betrothed to a woman by the name of Alicent Greyloch. She was so beautiful and so far beyond my means that I was left dumb and speechless when she actually accepted my proposal. After a mere handful of months’ worth of me visiting her parent’s pottery shop just to make small talk. I was just a fruit vendor myself at the time, after my mother retired and gave me her cart and, honestly, I have no idea what I said to earn her favor. Even now,” Alphonse’s expression almost turned into that of an older man thinking back fondly on old memories, but he quickly righted it. “We were a mere two months from the altar when she was being fitted for her wedding dress. Everything went fine and the dress fit perfectly. However, when she took it off, she’d forgotten to remove the garter belt before leaving the store. Of course, being the kind soul she was, she hurried back to return it, but by then it was too late. She’d become a Thief.

                “We hid it well enough. Or at least, we thought we did. The next two months of impatience and continued promises that I’d take her secret to the grave, we found ourselves at the altar and, when she showed up in that gorgeous wedding dress of hers and she took my hand, you’d never have thought that she’d spent the last few months panicking by the way she smiled at me.

                “We said our vows, kissed and everyone cheered. Unfortunately for us, when I brought her back home and into the bedroom we were now going to share, we found a pair of disgusting Adventurers waiting for us.

                “You see, Alicent’s father was a little too good at his job. He’d apparently come up with some technique or other that allowed him to make his pots noticeably more durable, so that they wouldn’t shatter like glass when dropped. He, however, refused to give or even sell his secrets to his competitors. One such competitor, who’s shop I’ve since metaphorically burned to the ground, hired a couple of men to come and take in the Thief known now as Alicent DeGrave. On her wedding night, no less.”

                In the brief lull in his story that Alphonse took, no doubt remembering that night, I posed a simple question.

                “But if they broke into your house, wouldn’t they themselves have been marked as Thieves?”

                Alphonse snapped himself out of his melancholy jaunt through memory lane to roll his eyes.

                “No, fool. Just breaking into someone’s house doesn’t make you a Thief, stealing does. And even if it did, it wouldn’t have mattered. I’d just bought the place a few days prior and the paperwork wasn’t done yet. The bastard that sent those men thought everything through perfectly. They knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that we’d be alone on our wedding night because we were going to… well, I suppose you already know.”

                Alphonse’s eyes darted quickly to Yua, but he didn’t give either of us time to question why.

                “They came. They took her. I fought back to the very best of my abilities, only to wind up with a broken nose for interfering with their apprehension of a criminal. They were entirely indifferent to the fact that she was still wearing her wedding dress as they hefted her over their shoulders and carried her away. I crawled after them as fast as my beaten and broken limbs would allow, but my vision was already growing feint.

                “I thought we hid the fact that she’d become a thief perfectly, but when I woke the next day to the worst headache I’d ever had, I found out just how eerily fast rumors spread in the city. By the time I found out myself, the whole city knew of her accidental crime. So, nobody cared when I went to them for help, because they already knew there was nothing they could do. Not even her father, could do a thing to help. He ended up falling so deep into the bottle when I told him what happened that he ended up closing his shop for good.”

                He paused again, this time an anger I’d never seen on him causing several strands of his once perfectly combed hair to fall over his face.

                “… I’m sorry to hear all of this,” I said honestly. “But I don’t see what any of this has to do with my question.”

                “Right,” Alphonse said, pushing his hair back into its rightful place. “In short, I found out that she’d been forced into slavery. Honestly, it’s what we all thought would happen. She was too pretty, too valuable to be executed. So, I grabbed every coin I had to my name and bullied what I could out of her father and brought it all to the slave house she’d been given to. Only, I didn’t have nearly enough… She was sold to someone else not even a week later.”

                I felt more of Yua’s tension slip, but not all of it. Never all of it. She still very clearly hated the man despite this, and so did I. It was hard to argue that he didn’t have it rough, but if despite all of this, he still intentionally screwed people over the same way that had been done to him...

                He continued.

                “It was when I went to that slave house and saw just how much she was worth to me, that I realized my way of making money simply couldn’t compare. So, I used what money I had to play the market. I bought myself a couple weaker, less attractive slaves. Prettied them up, got them into shape and when there was no more improvements to be made, I brought them to auction. As luck would have it, they sold for several times what I paid for them.”

                “But why go that far? If it’s the slave house that sold your wife, why fund them further by buying from them?”

                “To get my beloved Alicent back, obviously,” he snarled, then composed himself as if that little slip were an honest accident. “One thing I learned during my time as a Merchant is that everyone has a price. So, I thought that if I built up my purse well enough, I’d be able to buy her back from her master and we could continue the life together we were denied.”

                “And did you?” Yua asked through her teeth, no doubt thinking on all the slaves Alphonse must have toyed with just to try and win his wife back.

                “Oh, yes, I did. And then some. A year later, when I showed up to that man’s doorstep with a bag full of gold, he was more than happy to sell her back to me. See, he’d fallen on rough times himself. Seems that a horde of demons attacked a caravan he’d hired to ferry some very expensive works of art to another city. Everything was very much destroyed and he was very much desperate to recoup on his losses. So, he practically threw her at me the moment I walked in the door. She, of course, was elated to see me and jumped into my arms. I was so… happy, that I dropped the bag of coins on his table, which was worth well over what he was asking for, and finally brought my Alicent back home. However, our happy ending was never to be.

                I felt something ominous well up in my gut, but I couldn’t bring myself to question its meaning. Whatever it was he was about to say, I knew I wasn’t going to like it.

                “You see, when I brought her back home and finally brought her to bed, I found that she was so utterly used up by that man that she disgusted me. My beautiful, loving Alicent was so… loose, so worn that I couldn’t bring myself to look at her anymore. In my stupor upon realizing this, she tried all sorts of things to try and usher me back to the marital bed, but I wouldn’t have it. I couldn’t have her anymore.”

                “So….”

                “So, I sold her off,” he said, utterly unconcerned with the shocked gasp that stole the rest of Yua’s anger.

                “You did what?!”

                “How could you?!”

                In the face of our combined uproar, all Alphonse did was shrug.

                How in the hell could he work that hard for the woman he loved for an entire year, only to get rid of her the moment he realized he didn’t like what she became. It’s not like it was her choice. And from the sound of things, her love for him never died out despite what happened to her. What kind of heartless bastard would just turn a woman like that away? I mean, I most definitely can’t get behind the methods he used to get her back, but how?!

                “Why would you willingly trade away the woman you love after trying so hard for her sake?”

                “Why? Don’t be stupid. She was no longer the woman I loved. She was something else entirely. An unknown entity that was wearing her face to mock me. And, thankfully, she was still very much beautiful, so when a new buyer came to me and liked what he saw, it was a done deal. The price he offered for her was too much to ignore. And, as if the universe were laughing at me, it was her sale that finally earned me my Slave Master class.”

                Where did that twinge go? What part of the greedy smile he was wearing now was it that made me feel as though he had some lingering regrets over what happened?

                “Don’t be so surprised. When you deal in slaves, there is one thing you quickly come to understand,” he said, leaning in to us like he was letting us in on a secret. “There is nearly nothing else in this world that is anywhere near as valuable as another living being. I made so much off of her sale that I was able to open my shop. Here in The Great City of Amoranth, no less. Sure, I had to start over, buying for cheap, selling for high, but it got me to where I am today.”

                The man was almost cartoonishly evil, yet the confident smile he wore now showed no signs of breaking character. That twinge that suggested he regretted his decision must just have been another ploy of his to mess with me. He must have baited me into asking because he knows that Yua and I were in a nearly similar situation.

                Like his wife, she was going to be taken from me. And, even if with all my cheat abilities, I was able to save up enough money to somehow magically win her back, it’d be too late in various meanings.

                I wanted his reasoning and I think I got it. I don’t know if it was because I was an Adventurer like the men that beat him and stole his wife, or if it was because he realized exactly how hard I fell for Yua when I first met her and decided to spite any potential relationship between us because his own happiness was denied.

                “You sold your wife just to make a quick buck?”

                “Buck? I told you, she wasn’t my wife anymore. But yes. You see, beauties like her and like this one here are my biggest money makers.”

                He pinched and tugged Yua’s cheek with the same sort of out of place smile that a parent might have when doing the same to their child when calling them cute. At the same time, the utter hellfire in her eyes did nothing short of prove that, while he still owned her in some aspect, she was not bound by the same slave spell she was with me, because I was sure that, had he pushed her a second longer, she’d have ignored the threat of his hired thugs and snapped his neck. But she didn’t.

                Unprompted, he let go and looked back to me.

                “So, there you have it. Did you get what you wanted?”

                Despite my efforts to remain composed, my mouth fell agape. The grin he turned on me was not one of a man that just proudly told the story of how he started his own business. It was that of a trickster. A liar. Someone whose very existence could have been a falsehood had he not been standing right in front of me as living proof.

                Was everything he just told us a lie? Some sob story meant to make me feel for him, only to then break that sympathy over his knee to slap me across the face with it?

                Or was it all just meant to make me put myself in his fabricated shoes? To tell me that, if I beat him and completed her contract, that I would somehow end up like him? All to dishearten me from even trying.

                Without even knowing it, he actually suggested a really smart, but really evil plan. I could buy a cheap slave, but instead of prettying them up like he claims he did, I could use my experience boosting abilities to make them level up absurdly fast, therefore raising their value as battle slaves.

                Is that the sort of man I would have become if I’d dragged Yua to bed the moment I bought her instead of the dungeons?

                No. That absolutely would not be the case. Given the continuing deepening of the pit in my stomach ever since I bought Yua, I could never do that to another person. I could feel myself sweating at the thought, but I knew two very good reasons as to why this could never be the case.

                Yua had been enslaved for years, but in all that time she never lost herself. She still put up a fight whenever she could and even after someone bought her, she still put up an attitude that suggested she’d never bow to her master. Not fully, anyway. She’d never break completely.

                And then there was me. I would never sell her off like that. Not to make up what I owed him and not because I didn’t like what I saw once I had her. Hell, I can’t tell if she’s really a Thief at heart. One waiting for me to let my guard down, but I can still say that I love her. I may be a fool for saying so, but I can’t help it. It’s true. It’s so very true that it hurts just seeing her so furious.

                I am not him. That much, more than anything else in this world, in my life, I can say with confidence. If any of his story was to be held as truth, then he just lost his way long ago. Maybe that beating from those adventurers just broke his mind as well as his body, but it didn’t matter anymore. His past, real or not, was irrelevant.

                I won’t play his games anymore and I won’t let myself slip into despair at the thought of maybe sharing a few characteristics with him.

                As if sensing this determination in me and deciding that it was hilarious, he let out a bellowing laugh that might as well have disproved everything he just told us. He looked to the still glaring Yua and grinned.

                “I suspect that her value’s likely declined by now, but….”

                “Let’s go, Yua.”

                Cutting him off, fully regretting having fooled myself into thinking I could outsmart him again, I took Yua’s hand and left Alphonse to shrug to himself, unawares that even the thug in the driver’s perch of his carriage was looking at him with disgust written plainly on his face.

                “Yua…” I said, once we were far enough away from him that he couldn’t hear. “For future reference, would I be labeled a Thief or anything of the sort if I were to punch him in the face?”

                “No, Master… You would not. So long as you don’t kill him.”

                “… Good.”

                Regretting having stayed to listen to him, but using his little story as yet more kindling to fuel my want to pay off Yua’s contract, we hurried to the dungeon without any more delays.