A.I 1021 - A road on the Eastern coast of Yetland
A carriage trundled along a coastal path placed on cliffs set dozens of meters above the turbulent sea frothing under the freezing winds of an incoming storm.
“We’re almost there boss.”
The carriage driver, a bearlike middle-aged man with a weather-beaten face and black hair, alerted his superior to the fact that they were arriving at their destination.
“Good. I’m feeling good about our merchandise this time.”
The cloaked man, Khrom, chuckled sinisterly before looking back at the cage behind him, filled with various beings ranging from frosted sheep, which provided some of the best insulating wool within Yetland to young human children, huddled in the corner.
The slaver paid special attention to his most recent addition, a young seemingly human child of around 7 years of age with pitch black hair and light brown eyes but with noticeably larger canines and pointed ears that barely poked out from the boy’s tangled mass of hair.
Khrom felt so lucky that he had been able to seize the opportunity to buy him from his poor mother, who worked by harvesting magical herbs for the neighbouring town, that had been keeping him in a cage due to his pointed ears since his birth because of her prejudices against elves and daemons.
Khrom had, on a whim, decided to test him on his mana channeling affinity and the boy had come up as having an affinity for channeling that was too high to be ranked by Khrom’s mortal ranked appraising ability which he had never seen before; and as if the gods themselves were telling him to buy the boy, the mother agreed to sell him for the price of 3 bronze coins, which was around the same price as one of Khrom’s popular yet cheap frosted sheep.
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Khrom’s merchant sense was tingling; he just knew that when he arrived at the coastal city of Georgios he would make a fortune over the skinny, malnourished boy.
A few minutes went by and the carriage made the final turn along the coastal route and Khrom smiled. They had arrived.
A gargantuan city that stretched like a majestic tumour on the coastline welcomed them with a smog of dark smoke and the cries of seagulls. You could see the hundreds of boats, galleons and the occasional skyship anchored on the ports and pontoons that stretched out into the sheltered bay. A large enchanted metal gate flickered as the malfunctioning runes that had weathered with age tried to keep the defences up as a queue of dozens of wagons stretched out from the city, waiting to enter.
Khrom and his assistant, Jonan, smiled with schadenfreude as they took in the sight of the various carriages waiting in the queue. As slave traders, they had the right to skip the line as their type of merchandise was welcomed happily in Georgios, which was currently suffering a labour shortage due to the invasion of the Diseased that had only ended a few years before.
Jonan drove their carriage down another lane that led them straight to the gate where Khrom greeted the armored guards and showed them his slaver mark, a brand that he would burn onto his slaves that could never be hidden or healed again in order to identify them. As the guard waved their carriage in, Khrom took a deep breath and told Jonan to lead them to the central marketplace of Georgios.
“The central marketplace? Not the one we usually go to?” Jonan questioned.
“No. I’ve got a feeling some random rich fuck will be interested in our young lad over here.”
Jonan shrugged, proceeding to lead the cage-bearing wagon to the port, where the market was located and the highest quality goods were sold.
Around an hour later, they arrived at the central marketplace, which was located next to the port with the highest concentration of luxurious galleons and skyships. The carriage rolled along the large cobblestone road, looking for a place to set up before the rush hour arrived, which was in a few hours. Various stalls of all sizes and colours sold everything you could think of; from the most mundane tooth brusher crystals to the rare and famously expensive runic enchantments.
Soon enough, Jonan spotted a relatively empty area in a large square that already had a stage set up for the sale of livestock. A large smile cut across Khrom’s hooded face as he quietly said,
“The gods are favouring me today.”
As Jonan parked the wagon, Khrom leaped off the vehicle and went to reserve a spot on the stage.
A few minutes later, Khrom came back to Jonan, who had removed the cage from the wagon with the aid of the nifty enchantment, weightlessness, applied on the cage.
“Get the new kid out.” Khrom ordered.
Jonan took out a sturdy steel sword from his scabbard and entered the cage, waving it around to intimidate the slaves and animals. He spotted the skinny child and dragged him out, the boy surprisingly not making a noise as he was being roughly dragged out under the helpless gaze of the two other children with him.