The leader's left eyebrow went up a little, he wasn't completely surprised. Any fool could've seen such a proposal coming. He knew that the boy liked the girl and besides, his family had the money. Any man would fall for such a pretty and beautiful girl, her intelligence was far above average. The leader stood still for a moment and thought about something:

How could she even know what was going on? She was six years of age, her self-awareness and her understanding of her surroundings were unusually high.

The only explanation he could think of were her parents.

Did they teach her such vulgar subject at the mere, tender age of six?

His thoughts slowly wandered off, looking like an ancient Greek philosopher, but his session of self-thought was soon interrupted by the voice of a young man who had blue-blood was running through his veins.

"Don't just slack off! What do you think about my proposal?" He said with an irritated expression. "What do you want for her exchange? Gold? My family has plenty."

The leader's attention was immediately back on Daryl when the word gold was spoken of.

"How much are you willing to pay for a girl like her?"

Daryl wasn't really familiar with the prices slaves were usually sold for, but he knew that typical female slave went for around 150 silver coins. If they were virgin the price could go as high as 2500 silver, which was roughly 25 gold coins. The average household earned around 400 silver coins a year. Most lonely men bought themself a female slave and turned them into their wives. It wasn't uncommon for the average man to have multiple wives.

The coins system worked like this:

1. Copper was the lowest coin of value. You could exchange 100 copper coins for a silver one.
2. 100 silver coins were worth one gold coin.
3. 100 gold coins were worth a platinum coin.
4. And finally, 100 platinum coins were worth one royal golden coin. This coin was really rare to come by and only the richest and powerful men on the continent had them. Gold was still the most used currency, so everyone spoke in terms of gold when talking about prices.

The von Bassewitz family was the richest House in the kingdom. They were even richer than the royal family. Even the king often borrowed money from them so he could fund his wars and pay his soldiers.

Children went for even higher than 25 gold coins. Most kids were usually virgin, so their average price went up quite a bit. The prettier the slave, the more it was worth. One of the prettiest girls was once sold to the crown prince for an astonishing amount of 500.000 gold coins! She became one of his concubines. But even her beauty was pale compared to Lena's. He was sure that Lena would grow up and turn into a stunning girl where even the goddess of beauty couldn't compare to. He was sure going to make her his wife, he didn't care about the approval of his father. He didn't care that she was a 'peasant'. All he cared about was her personality and looks. He took all of the above factors into consideration and thought about a price.

"How about... ten million gold coins?" He said. "I can deliver them in platinum or even golden royal coins if you want?"

The leader was stunned for a moment. He couldn't believe his ear when the young man said the astronomically high amount.

This boy throws money around like it's nothing! He thought to himself.

He wanted to speak again, but he was (once again) interrupted by the young man.

"I see you're not responding. Was my offer not great enough?" He put his hand under his chin and started thinking

"How about 50 million gold coins?"

The leader didn't hesitate for a moment and instantly replied.

"Deal," he said.

Daryl looked at me when the deal was made. He had a smug look on his face. I became frustrated. He was bargaining about me as if I were an object! I approached him and started yelling, "Why don't you take into consideration how I feel?"

Daryl wanted to say something, but I didn't let him, "I'm now your personal slave for the rest of my life! I could never become my own person. I could never live a normal life. You just took that away from me like it's nothing!"

He became silent. He looked at the ground and responded with a serious tone, "Your chance for a normal life was taken away the moment you got captured. If I didn't buy you, another man would have... And I'm not sure if he would look as good as me."

He came even closer and lifted my chin up. Forcing me to look him straight in the eyes.

"Who said I was going to make you my personal slave? What said that you could never become your own person? I won't force you to do anything. I'll wait until you're all grown up and even then I wouldn't touch you without permission."

I became silent for a moment. His sweet words...They meant nothing to me. I pushed his hand away and started screaming, "But that doesn't change the fact that you're one of them! Even if you treated me well and made me happy, you always be one of the reasons my mother died! I'll never forgive you!"

I ran away crying as hard as I could. Everyone's sight was fixed at me. Looking like me as if I was pathetic. I ignored them and hid inside the leader's tent.

The leader saw what happened and approached Daryl. He lay his hand on his shoulder and said, "She'll change her mind, it just takes time."

Daryl became furious and slapped the leader's hand away and said, "Shut up! You don't know shit, you even tried to kill me a few minutes ago. She's right you know, why couldn't we just live a normal life? You know how many lives I helped you to ruin?"

He couldn't hide his guilt anymore and walked away. The leader just looked at him and didn't say anything.

Daryl ran as fast as he could. He ran as fast as he could to the leader's tent, hoping that he would find Lena so he could apologize. But to his surprise, she was gone...