As Silas walked out of the girls dormitory, his thoughts continued to race, making assumptions and predictions.

‘Kiyah probably already knows of my familial situation, and has spread word to my classroom already. I can’t be sure of her situation yet… Because her family deals more with information than military strength like mine. I can’t be sure her territory wasn’t also affected by the attack. But had she been the one to spread the news, I’m sure she wouldn’t do so if she was really affected by it. She’s not stupid’

His mind continued to race on his way out the gate, the guards didn’t stop him from leaving into the streets, but the gate to the outside world would be a different story. No student was allowed out there by themselves, unless they had a group of five. And there were a few ways to achieve that other than being forced to have volunteers in the form of willing friends.

Yet there were workarounds to going outside. One method was to pay for hireables, but the other was a more permanent solution that few others knew about. While he would have considered it unethical in the past, his current mentality had changed in part, and the experience he had led with one of his halves made him consider it to be more natural. Either way it didn't seem like morality was going to stop him.

As he thought, he continued to fill in the blanks on the current predicaments of his bullies and situations, those that he assumed could be affected by the demon invasion, but couldn’t be sure of due to his unreliable memories.

In this manner he arrived at the merchant district. Where market stalls were adorned on each side of the road, and strings zigzagged across the building tops, glowing stones attached to them to illuminate by night. But as it wasn’t night yet, they simply didn’t glow. It had something to do with the mana in the air being different at certain times, such that the most similar invention he could equate it to were solar panelled lights.

‘Though it may be better to call them lunar panelled lights’, he considered, tilting his head.

Yet he wasn’t here to peruse the various market stands, delve into the mysteries of mere lights, or the buildings with radiant displays over them. No, he was heading into the deepest depths, so as he walked further, the idle shopper and student walking around the streets, as well as market stalls and knight patrols started to cease, replaced by pubs and bars, with few in attendance due to the time of day.

He would occasionally smell the opium emitted from the pipes of females in sleazy attire, sitting around outside awaiting a lonely customer despite the low traction. He even witnessed a brothel, he had assumed there would be more than one with the amount of girls he walked by, but he saw only one.

As he continued to walk even further down the rabbit hole, the strings of light stopped appearing, as if the residents didn’t need it. The path he followed started to fall off, dirt replacing the track, as he witnessed few people sleeping in the grubby soil down alleyways, despite the time of day.

‘Thieves’, he thought, with a hint of disdain, ‘probably stalked for prey all during the night. On those heavy spenders at pubs, clubs, casinos and brothels, further up the trail’

But even still he proceeded down, knowing he was nearing his goal. There was only one place with an essence of importance hidden within the rejects of society. Or two places, but the other he didn’t need right now.

It was outside a shack of rudimentary design that he stopped. The only difference making it stand out from other buildings near it, was due to the decrepit and unkempt look it had. The old brown wood seemed to decay, squeaking as he stepped on the porch. He glanced over the windows barred by iron pipes. The place was a living shit show. But he knew the outside only served to deter those that were easily repulsed. Because the inside housed a plethora of goods, kept in the most unethical of ways.

How did he know of such a place? It was kept amongst the hazy ones, a fragmented memory he managed to witness. He wasn’t privy to all information about it, but he knew enough to know it was just the place he needed to be.

As he walked in, a bell above the door jingled, alerting his presence to anyone inside, but no one came to greet him. The interior looked empty, the inside no better than out, and the roof showered him with dust, looking as if it would cave in on him at any second; the creaking of the floorboards no better.

He walked past a bench, the place a receptionist would be, had this place been an active site, and not looking so abandoned. He entered the backrooms, looking around remembering the position, before he kneeled down and started tapping at a particular floorboard.

He gave it 5 taps, a pause before another knock, and another pause before the final 2 taps. After this oddly specific sequence was carried out, he stepped back, taking a second for the floor to give out underneath him, a staircase revealing itself. As he walked down, each step creaking no less loudly than the floorboards from before, he met with a large bald headed, tough looking tanned human, who stood outside a door as large as him, a lever dangling by a string beside him. He stood before him sizing Silas up, and with a low guttural grunt, the man nodded, knocking on the door behind him, opening it up.

Silas walked into the doorway, the man pulling on the lever causing a ruckus and the staircase behind him rotated upwards, slowly enveloping the man in darkness as Silas walked past, the door closing behind him.

‘All this security is such a waste of time’, he couldn’t help but think as he waltzed down another staircase, this one spiraling down.

‘While the professors may not be in the know, the headmaster surely must, or at least the head of guards. Whatever he’s called. Otherwise the few people seen entering this supposedly abandoned place would surely seem suspicious. Not to mention the merchandise being smuggled in. Someone’s being bribed here, and if that’s working, running a fake legitimate business on top would surely be easier than… This’, but his thoughts came to an end.

So would the sound of his footsteps, as he walked down a dark corridor with men standing by the sides, illuminated sparsely by torches along the walls, reaching his final destination.

He stood before a large fat man seated behind a counter, his large meaty hands clasped together on top of it. His rounded face sagged with many chins, yet what was more concerning was the wide toothy grin he wore, exposing his oddly positioned golden teeth, and his repugnant breath. The counter wasn’t necessary for his trade, but for thematics, it worked like a charm.

The man leaned forward, taking an eyeful of the boy standing before him. The counter creaked due to his shift in weight.

“Oho, say. Your’s, is a face… ever so plump”, he spoke in a nasal voice, jarring to listen to.

“I’m sure…. That I’ve seeeeen it. Maybe, I tasted it before… Perhaps the boy who shat himself, hiding at my estate…”, he recounted.

But Silas only glared at him, ignoring how his hairs tensened to the sound of the man's voice.

“Noh? Then the one plucked from the streets, plowed until ripened? Oho, ho, noh. I remembered that one. I always remember those. Oh! You weren’t hiding under a hood last time we met were you? One of those…”

Silas didn’t care to listen to him go on. His charming introduction didn’t give him the best of impressions, so he interrupted him.

“You won’t remember me”, he beckoned, a shiver involuntarily running down his spine.

He probably did, as his memories indicated he’d been here before, hopefully not as any of his prior examples. But he didn’t want one of such unsavory character to remember him.

“I’m a first time customer, recommended by… well we all have our secrets don’t we?”, he lied through his teeth, distracting the man with the pouch he had on him, and the jiggle that indicated his wealth.

“Hoho”, he exclaimed, his snaky green eyes glued to his wealth.

“Well it doesn’t matter… who you are. For I suspect you are here, for only one thing”

He leaned back slowly, turning and with a thud, the ground trembled beneath his feet. At a snail's pace he emerged, gripping onto something behind the counter.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Tut. Tut. Tut.

The sound of an object hitting the floor, as he moved around the counter, revealing his large mass of fat jiggling in front of him. A thick brown cane held firmly in his hands, the handle adorned with an expensive golden dragon's head. It was a surprise that it seemingly had no troubles supporting his weight as he moved.

His other hand opened wide, as he motioned at the air before him, his head turning with that same grin, staring deep into Silas’s soul.

“Will you not be coming?”

Silas resolved himself to move, his question forcing him forward. As he walked past the large man, his hand stroked his back.

Silas winced, and held back the urge to curse. He could feel his nauseating breath tickle the hair on his back. The thought of the man's greasy hands, enveloping him irked him to no end. And while he tried to remain cool headed, he couldn’t help but turn his body to the side and swat the hand away.

“Oho?”

But Silas didn’t say another word. He caught himself in the act of glaring, and instead decided to put on a poker face and walk ahead. He was accompanied only by the ceaseless tapping of the man's cane that resounded beside him.

The corridor eventually opened up to a large expanse, his sight illuminated by light, as he witnessed walls and cages, holding torches by the mile.

The room was filled by cages of varying sizes, from big to small alike. The bars that aligned them of different thickness, seemingly decided by the strength of their resident’s. Those that were inside them, only sentient beings.

‘This is so much bigger than I imagined’, Silas thought to himself, ‘but of course such a business would thrive under a city of nobles, for I am the very example of why’.

Most students at the academy were of the highest class found throughout the realm. The congregation of capital here was greater than an emperor's treasury. Because who could put a price on the heirs of kingdoms! Of the future owners to large distributions of land, amongst powerful men and women alike?

‘This guy right here’, Silas thought. He didn’t need to point at the man to elaborate.

Ting, ting, ting.

As they walked by pathways in between the mass of cages, the fat man held his cane to the prison bars, rattling and clunking as he walked by. The residents of cages all crawled backwards in fear.

“Do you like what you see?”, he asked with glee, “whether woman, man, or child, or me. Ohoho”, he gave a boisterous laugh at his attempt to rhyme.

‘Revolting’, Silas thought, but chose to wander instead in silence, glancing over at the many prisoners all dressed in rags, who each cowered in their cages, some hiding from his gaze.

While all appeared humanoid, very few were human. He noticed some with different skin colours, ear types, some with tails, and others with scales. Age, race, gender, didn’t seem to matter here. Only the prices, but that was something he had to speak to the man about, since there was no visible value placed on the cage.

“Oh, I’ll take that as a noh”, the man mumbled to himself, but continued to expose Silas to the many wonders he sheltered.

They strolled for a while, Silas glancing and only occasionally asking for prices. He encountered all the races he could think of, whether it be humans, elves, dwarfs, or beastkin, commonly known as therians. Therians being half human variants, with lofts of fur or scales placed only around their appendages, sometimes even on their cheeks. Some of them had tails, and others stretched ears, or other strange anomalies, but for the most part they looked human. Only, if his memory from history served correct, they sure weren’t treated as such.

“Do you have any beasts?”, Silas suddenly asked.

“Do you mean beastmen? Therian?”

“Proper beasts, demonkind”

“Noh”, he spat. Speaking quite frankly, “we can’t expand to that business, too dangerous to capture, too big to transport. Too much attention, frankly. For too little reward”

“Hm”, Silas replied, disappointed but understanding.

His was a question he should have asked earlier, but he tried to keep conversation to a minimum. This was the first time he felt such bias for another since coming to this world. He didn’t like how he invaded his space, or how he spat upon articulating every word. While he wished for his time here to be over and done with already, he needed to make sure he spent his money the right way.

But there were very few products that demanded his attention. One slave he found staring at a wall, another seemed to be kept in a cage amongst many, protecting them with her arms as they trembled when they passed. Another muttered to himself as he rocked back and forth.

All were scrawny, but his observative eyes could see through the tiny details, the miniscule factors of muscle that remained with some of their forms. The rare instance of fighting spirit that gleamed from their eyes, one amongst hundreds, as most were filled with fear and dread of the uncertainty that could consume their lives. Only a pessimistic anxiousness clouded their hearts, as their eyes perceived him as a threat to their very being.

Though this judgment was not unwarranted, as he glimpsed past a few bound in shackles, others nailed to pillars. The bowls in their cages contained grub. And others contained the deceased remains from those not yet extracted. There was no humanity in their treatment, their lives worth less than an insect. Unless he applied value to them.

“Disciplinary action, don’t mind them. Not quite ready for sale”

Silas felt overwhelmed and nauseated at first. But he slowly became accustomed to the display, shrugging and preparing to move onwards. Only to stop before a cage guarded by a tough looking man.

It was a big one, with thick bars, holding a single girl, who sat there in a disheveled mess. Her long white hair covered half her face, all but a soulless crimson red eye remained revealed. She reminded him of someone, of Freija, without the flawless figure.

‘No’, he thought, focusing his attention on her eye.

‘Those eyes vacant of life… She reminds me of myself, before the deed’, he concluded.

Remembering how he saw the world with Leo about. He gritted his teeth at the memory, but quickly calmed himself.

“What about her?”, he enquired.

“Ohh, fancy yourself a man of exquisite taste, hey?”, the man spoke up after Silas first expressed an explicit interest in something. “You’ve a keen eye my friend”.

“It doesn’t take a keen eye, to observe something with such obvious importance placed upon it”, he immediately retorted, finding any chance to disagree with him.

“But, yes. This one intrigues me”

“Oho”, the man smirked, motioning to the guard in front of the cage.

The guard nodded, and reached for his belt, taking his keys and opening the cage. He walked inside it with a swagger of confidence as if he had done so many times before.

“Stand”, the man commented, but the girl sat there unmoving.

The man gritted his teeth at being ignored, grabbing her by the hair and lifting her up. Still receiving no response from her, he threw a punch at her gut, making her cough out blood, and sending her flying all while screaming, “I said stand! You fucking monster!”, a vein emerging on his bald forehead.

‘Why must all guards appear as bald muscular men?’, Silas couldn’t help but contemplate, wondering if it served as a form of intimidation tactic for both clientele and merchandise.

She landed with a thud, sliding upon impact, yet she still didn’t move from her new position.

“Ohoho”, the fat man laughed at the spectacle, shedding more light on the situation, “that man had his family slaughtered by demons, please excuse him”.

“Hm”, Silas continued to watch.

The fat man seemed to find this humerus, and tapped his cane a few times causing the man inside to stop his beatings.

“Stand”, the fat man spoke, a glowing red light emerged from the neck of the girl.

She seemed to obey his orders, standing up immediately, but her hollow eyes remained the same. His cane moved through the bars, pointing in front of the swole man inside.

“Go”, he commanded, and her feet moved towards him.

She stood there standing before the man, appearing like a broken doll.

“Stay still”, he spoke once more to her, her neck glowing in response.

“Show him”, he turned his head to speak to the man.

The man took this as a sign to slap the girl's face so that it tilted towards Silas. He then used both hands to grip at her lusciously red lips, opening up her mouth to reveal her 2 short fangs.

“Hoho, apologies for the wait”, he finally turned his attention back to Silas, “do not be deceived by her docile state, she has a tendency to bite”.

Silas ignored his attempt at a joke, his eyes only focused on her fangs, identifying her race.

“This here’s a half-blooded vampire, one of a kind. Special goods, but unfortunately it’s a prize that’s already been promised to some of our VIPs”

“That’s… Unfortunate”, he muttered, wondering how compatible his blood powers may be with a vampire’s.

Vampire’s were a demonic race with great pride that used to treat humans like cattle due to their most balanced blood of all the other races. Yet it was these said humans that pushed them back during the initial demonic invasion held many many centuries ago, ensuring that demons hadn’t a prevailing presence since centuries past. So it was rare to see a crossbreed between the two, given amenity was shared between both kinds. Especially now that a new demonic invasion had been initiated.

“Do you have any others of such… Quality?”, he questioned, wondering if there was a reason to have waited in suspense, if the reveal was only that she’d already been bought out.

“Ohohohoho”, he laughed but suddenly stopped, turning to give a grim stare at Silas, declaring, “time’s been rough”.

Silas gave out a long hearty sigh, “this has been a waste of time”.

“Do none of the other goods interest you?”

“No, just my times been wasted here, as you grandiose exclusive property”

“Hoh?”

“I’ve selected a few already, come”, he sighed in disappointment.

“I need you to identify if these individuals don’t originate from the Grismere kingdom”