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Avan sat upright, Anna beside him chuckling slightly with her now much improved but still raspy voice, and stared out over the landscape before him.
Haipu was, at least by Avan's standards, the largest and most expansive city he had ever seen so openly before him. Would there be a similar view to this one anywhere on earth in one of the world's metropolises? He wondered, slowly shaking his head at the sheer size and built-up area. In contrast to the earth, one has here no high-rise buildings around place efficiently inhabitants to accommodate. Except for the isolated towers, in which the various mages guilds and associations lived perhaps...
The caravan had slowed its speed since reaching the hill a few kilometers from the city and had lined up behind other traveling wagons and carriages, all of which wanted to be admitted through the gigantic gate into the interior of the first ring.
If Avan correctly remembered Anna's stories and all the historical books from Cyntha and the Order of Healers, Haipu was known to despise everything non-human on principle and enslaved all beastmen and women alike, as well as criminals. At the mere thought of all the innocent souls and especially children and women, he almost puked inside, so disgusted was he by such a society and culture.
The city, no matter how beautiful it seemed, was also a place of endless torment and oppression, an ideal image of the richer and well-fed population ruling over the poorer and more different creatures.
Haipu was divided into several rings, as far as Avan could see from the top of the hill, which ended in a huge circle around the palace of rulers in the middle, and the richer ones around it. In the outermost ring, Anna had explained, lived the poor and the poorest, although these rings were also divided into sections, and the poorest of the poor could only be found in a single section of the outer ring. In the rest of the ring lived lower artisans, peasant families or servants.
In the second ring lived the merchants and already wealthier inhabitants, and all crowned the third and last ring, before going to the center to the king's square. There lived the nobles, the politicians, the schemers and all those who pulled the strings. Anna had also talked about the rumor that the current ruler was still underage and that in reality the advisors had the power and kept it no matter what.
Further to the north of the city, and in the second ring in one of the northern sections, Avan could see a massive colloseum, at the edge of which a huge black tower shot up into the sky and was taller than any other structure in the city, towering even higher than the tallest towers of the palace or mage towers, which were scattered throughout the second and third rings and seemed to glow in their respective elements.
The magicians, according to Anna's tales, were the strangest of all the inhabitants and had little to do with them, except for the appointed court magician of his majesty, who was chosen from the best of the city's magicians and only appointed a new one upon his death.
While he let all these impressions sink in, the wagons full of slaves rolled leisurely down the hill, and it was only a few hours before his wagon and spaced black guards were also waved through the gate.
When Avan glanced at the city guards on his left and right, he could see something like fear in one of them, while the other shook his head in disgust. Whether it was because of the dirty slaves or because he didn't think the slave business was good, Avan couldn't see for himself.
So Avan rolled through the gates of Haipu as a slave and entered what was, according to the books, the largest and most overpopulated city on Eos not on his own two feet, but as a possession.
It took almost a minute to get through the ten-carriage-wide tunnel leading through the wall and finally emerge into daylight on the other side. The torches on the sides of the tunnel walls were probably only used in exceptional cases or perhaps at night, Avan thought as he looked around in the darkness.
When the long caravan emerged from the tunnel on the other side, Avan blinked a few times to get used to the light and took a closer look at the surroundings. More huts cobbled together than solid structures lined the wide street leading into the second ring, and the inhabitants of the first ring looked interestedly at the slaves, whispering to each other and going about their simple tasks. Clotheslines hung between the buildings, a few shady characters loitered in the alleys and stared at the procession, while parents with their children scurried quickly by, making themselves as inconspicuous as possible.
A few of the black guards shouted orders to each other, and the wagons jerked as the pack horses were driven once more and the procession continued at a slightly faster pace.
No matter where Avan looked in the first ring, the poverty pissed him off, and just like on Earth, he hated the people responsible for all that he saw before him. Power-hungry people, who lived on the backs and at the expense of others, and did not want to give anything.
Even Annabelle at his side seemed thoughtful as she watched the mothers and families scurry by, and Avan remembered with relief that at least she would hopefully get a good position as a maid or midwife somewhere, just as she had told Avan.
As he approached the second gate, which was only half as wide as the one in the far wall, Avan also saw much more alert and better equipped city guards inspecting each wagon and its occupants with eagle eyes as the wagons rolled by.
One guard in particular wrinkled his nose in disgust as he appraised the filthy slaves and whispered with a sneer to his city guard buddy, who also looked disgusted.
When Avan's turn came and the first disgusted guard's gaze fell on him, he took a step back as he perceived the promise of violence and death in Avan's seething eyes.
Not a second later, Avan had already passed and his wagon was rolling through a much shorter tunnel into a typical medieval town, very reminiscent of Cyntha with all the half-timbered houses to the left and right. Stores and apartment buildings lined the much cleaner streets and the caravan turned into a street to the right, which probably wound through the sections of the second ring, if he guessed correctly, and passed by the colloseum and their presumed destination.
Another hour and a few annoyed shooed away passersby later, the wagons came to a stop on a huge and busy forecourt in front of the massive arena.
The square was huge and, according to Avan's estimation, certainly several hundred meters long and hundreds of meters wide, while it ended directly at the road leading along it, which led through the second ring.
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The slaves were quickly and stoically shooed out of the wagons by several new guards and slave traders, and Avan quickly found himself in iron handcuffs, which further hampered his wrists and legs, and he followed in line with the other prisoners under threat of the heavily armed slave drivers.
What a friendly welcome committee. Avan thought to himself, as he saw the first people, who let their eyes wander over the new goods and rubbed their hands joyfully, or sometimes even eyed some younger men and women lustfully. Disgusted by the sheer repulsiveness of these people, Avan stared straight ahead and stumbled along until the procession ended on a large platform and all the slaves had to line up in several rows, with hundreds of people waiting in front to look at the new slaves. Not a single non-human to be seen in this crowd... Simply disgusting...
The whole event was more like an auction, and the new slaves were sold either individually or in groups to the highest bidders. When Anna's turn came, right in front of him, Avan breathed a sigh of relief as an at least friendly looking older lady bought her for two hundred gold pieces and Anna was led away without a chance to say goodbye.
Then it was Avan's turn, and, as he had seen all along, a barker and the person in charge of the auction loudly praised his notable strengths.
"And here, my noble ladies and gentlemen, a bear of a man! He broke the necks of two guards on the way here with one hand THROUGH the bars, as if they were nothing more than dry twigs! He stood by another slave, and took revenge on another person! Isn't he heroic?" The praiser chuckled at his last words, and some in the audience laughed out loud as if he had just cracked an exceptionally good joke.
"He can haul a lot, he can certainly give more than a little pleasure with his strong hands, or he can fight and bring in vast sums of money! Which will it be, noble ladies and gentlemen?" The seller sweet-talked loudly and the first bids came in, starting with ten gold, which brought a laugh from the crowd. Within a minute, however, the price offered had multiplied, and the bids became fewer and fewer, until it stalled at a price of ten platinum coins, given by a gloatingly grinning obese man with countless shiny jewelry.
The crowd gasped as the price rose from seven platinum to the ten just offered, and even the market crier on stage faltered briefly until he immediately reverted to his role and praised the man for his oh-so-great eye for good merchandise.
Avan already had a goose bump running down his spine as he imagined himself in possession of this man, when another voice, accustomed to command, rang out from the audience and made everyone freeze.
"Twelve platinum coins, and I will tolerate no more bids!" another bid rang out, and the people, even the jeweled ones present, hurriedly made way for the last bidder. A man, barely conceivable because even taller than the one who had rendered Avan unconscious, stood at the right edge of the crowd, his shining silver gladiatorial armor leaving enough room for his unnatural but well-proportioned muscles to stand out.
The salesman on the stage suddenly rubbing his hands and casting an apologetic glance at the contrite angry looking fat man, turned towards the last bidder. "Arena Master Maxim, what an honor! We accept the offer with the greatest pleasure, of course! Another gladiator in our ranks, my noble ladies and gentlemen!" He finished his short speech with a gesture pointing at me and the audience applauded enthusiastically. Apparently quite rare, and an ho nor... Hmph.
The transaction took place just as quickly as with Anna and the payment seemingly in the background, when Avan was roughly led away by two people also dressed like gladiators and was almost rather dragged behind between the two instead of being able to walk himself.
Without any warning, Avan found himself standing in front of the considerably tall man, who was eyeing him critically at a side entrance to the massive colloseum.
"Hmm... We'll see if you were really worth the money. Put him with the others." And with these words he turned around and disappeared with brisk steps through the door.
His two guards pulled him along in commentary and also through the door, which was closed by one of them inside with a glow from his hand and clicked several times with a loud audible click. Inside, torches were placed at regular intervals on the right side of a long dark stone corridor and the two dragged him at a fast pace through the corridors, around to the right, around to the left, and downstairs. Avan, although he had an extremely good sense of direction, lost his bearings after a short time and he thought to himself secretly that this was certainly the purpose of the whole thing, because he could have sworn that he had seen some corridors twice. So that escape attempts become even more difficult...
After ten minutes of crisscrossing the corridors, they arrived in a cellar vault that stretched fifty meters in diameter and was secured by glowing blue steel bars.
Once again, one of the two gladiators silently raised his arm and a glow hummed between his forward-facing palm and the magically reinforced door until it seemed to open on its own.
Unlike before, the other pushed him roughly forward into the vault and the door clicked shut behind Avan's back, the familiar hum of activated magic clearly audible again, flowing through the steel.
Perplexed and speechless, Avan turned around and saw only the two of them walking back up the stairs and disappearing at the turn at the top.
He stepped around again, and for the first time took a closer look at the interior of the vault and finally recognized the shapes, which were located in the semi-darkness at the sides left and right in the stone carved protrusions, which had a damn resemblance to uncomfortable-looking beds.
"Oh, look at that! We've got another new addition, folks! Fresh meat!" Sounded a spiteful voice from the back of the large room and Avan knew immediately that he found the owner of this voice more than just unsympathetic and would have some problems with him in the future.
"Shut up, Timo." Came a female voice from his left, much closer to the exit.
When he saw the two meter tall man stepping dangerously out of the dark back part of the vault towards the woman on his left who was addressing him, another voice spoke up.
"Please, please. You know what happens when you incapacitate a fighter, and how pissed Maxim will be. You were pretty lucky last time, Timo. Leave it at that this time." Spoke an older man from the right side, also closer to the exit and relatively close to Avan. The older man slowly rose from his seat and stretched his back once with a groan before taking a few steps towards Avan and holding out his hand. "Hello, my name is Nick, and I'm sort of the voice of reason around here. The noisy woman is Lea. And who are you?"
Avan took the outstretched hand of the bald man, who looked at him with interest and a slight smile, and shook it. "Avan, nice to meet you. Though it might be under different circumstances."
The silent laughter on the face of the almost seventy-year-old man deepened a little more. "Then, welcome to the colloseum of Haipu! Where we compete for glory against each other, against convicted criminals and against monsters from the local dungeon. All for the wonderful pleasure of the rich and noble of this filthy city!" He also shook Avan's hand and laughed cynically as he came to the end of his welcome speech.
"And if you manage to become the first place winner in the annual tournament, our oh so gracious ruler will give you freedom and grant you a wish of your choice!" Laughing as if he were telling a fairy tale, the man patted Avan on the shoulder and retreated back to his presumed sleeping place.
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