Under Avian’s order and a bit of persuasion with his fist, Cornelia had no other choice but to enter the tent together with Avian as the opened the heavy flaps and went in.

Immediately an extremely heavy and musky smell that was a mix of sweat and body odor enveloped them the moment they entered, Cornelia was in the brink of retching out her breakfast when she smelled the horrible smell while Avian simply frowned with his eyebrows pointed downwards before looking around as the world inside the tent looked far different then it was outside as a lot of noise was present.

Over hundreds of people were already inside the tent, all inspecting and buying slaves from all kinds of different merchants, the slave merchant Delton truly wasn’t kidding when he said they had all kinds of variety, human slaves by far were the most numerous, but beastmen, elven and other races could also be seen being sold as slaves.

Way at the back of the tent, there seemed to be another section as well, which was wholly focused on selling monsters, the popularity of monsters didn’t lose out to the actual slaves, but Avian could see that the real money was on the slaves rather than the monsters.

If Avian had to describe this place, he would think about a bazaar from ancient times, the layout was at least identical following a browse and shop model.

-Why…do you need a slave?

Cornelia asked, recovering a bit from the retched smell as she spoke with a bit of difficulty trying to understand their purpose of being here, Avian took no mind of her as he calmly went around looking at the slaves before answering just as calmly.

-Why not buy a slave? A slave represents flee labor and close to no funds needed for upkeep, you don’t need to worry about loyalty since they can’t go against anything you say and you can do with them as you see fit at any time, what is there not to like?

-Even so, aren’t all slaves’ criminals? Don’t you feel uncomfortable with someone like that? What if they are a thief or a murderer? Wouldn’t be hiring a person be safer than getting a slave?

Again Cornelia asked, recently asking a lot more questions as her previous curious personality started to resurface, Avian didn’t per say dislike that about her as he understood that explaining things to her wouldn’t be lost since she never asked the same question again, which is why he humored her by really explaining why he preferred slaves over hiring someone.

-Let’s see, I guess in a sense you are right, but at the same time just because you are right it doesn’t mean it is true, hiring a person with a good reputation would likely be more effective in certain tasks, but Cornelia I am not looking to hire people and make a company, I haven’t talked about my goals to you and for now you don’t need know more, but what I want is to first create an adventurer party and raise our strength, to do that we or rather I need party members to fill our party, these future party members are all going to be my slaves, for one, because I do not want to deal with interpersonal relationships and for 2 because I also don’t won’t anyone’s but my voice to be heard, plus there is another reason that I can’t just form a party with other adventurers, in fact 2 reasons if I had to include you.

-Heh? What do you…oh right! Our blessings…

Exactly, Avian’s current blessing which he was using publicly was the [Monster Tamer] blessing, even though it was a blessing that was on the blacklist like Cornelia’s [Thief] blessing, it was still notorious enough for people not want to associate with him or avoid him at all cost, with those kinds of blessings the chances of Avian being able to get into or form a party by myself was close to zero as no one would want a [Monster Tamer] in their party even if they had no other choice.

Cornelia couldn’t even use the adventurer guilds facilities as she was automatically banned because she had the blessing of the [Thief] which was a blessing on the blacklist, which is the reason why Avian talked in a way that didn’t include her in his party when in reality she was going to stick along as a. unofficial member.

Slaves in fact couldn’t be put as official party members either as they were on the same level as people who had blessings from the blacklist, ultimately making it so that it was really only Avian who was officially considered the “party”, but parties didn’t work like that, you couldn’t be a 1 man party, at the bare minimum you needed 2 people to form a party in the adventurers guild, but forming a party wasn’t really what Avian was after, what he really wanted was the identity of an adventurer as there were certain perks for being an adventurer that he wanted.

Of course these were not things Avian would tell Cornelia, at the very least she was finally a bit more satisfied with Avian’s answer and stopped asking as she followed him step by step looking at the slaves while frowning.

Cornelia didn’t actually feel bad for these slaves or think this was cruel, having been born in a society that viewed slavery as the norm she didn’t really think anything here was out of place and merely frowned because she thought this place was disgusting.

Her house also used to employ slaves in fact, but those slaves were always assigned extremely peripheral jobs that were mostly labor intensive like gardening and taking care of the animals, Cornelia also rarely ever saw them as the slaves weren’t allowed to be in the same presences as Cornelia or anyone else from the house as they were considered so lowly that their mere presence in front of a noble was an insult.

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Of course this was only for slaves who did things such as dirty labor, while Cornelia didn’t explicitly see anything, she did hear from one of her maid’s gossip that her father held a personal sex slave in his quarters which he never left out, Cornelia could never verify this rumor herself, but looking at the slaves here and the lecherous men that were scanning their eyes all over some busty naked women or children of different races not just humans, Cornelia started to think that the rumor might have been true after all.

-(Wait…what if Lukas is also buying a sex slave?)

A sudden thought entered her mind the moment she thought about her past, looking at Avian bellow her, she watched him as he carefully looked over every single slave they passed, not just females, but also males, looking at all their body parts not just their chests or nether regions but also their hands and feet.

His eyes were cold as ice as he looked at these people not as people but as products to be inspected, Cornelia always thought that Avian was cold and calculative and upon seeing him like this she immediately realized that her silly notion was completely wrong as this was Avian or rather Lukas she was thinking about.

Then again, Lukas or Avian too was a man, he in fact was younger than her as he had stated so himself, at times Cornelia would always stop herself whenever she finished talking with Avian to remind herself that he was younger than, but she would always forget as Avian always acted in a way that made him seem far more senior than her just like her deceased butler Marco, but Avian wasn’t as gentle or as patient as Marco as Avian would immediately respond with force if Cornelia didn’t go back in line or followed his words.

Getting beaten by a man who didn’t even reach his twenties yet while she was about to turn twenty herself always gave Cornelia a complicated feeling inside as she still had a bit of childish pride in her left even after getting beaten a lot.

Though not as if she could do anything about it as she recognized that she was indeed not fit for this kind of life and would need Avian’s help if she wanted to survive.

-Huh?

Stopping abruptly, Cornelia looked at Avian as she tried to see what happened as he suddenly stopped, looking at him she also spotted a man wearing a shady suit and a top hat with a cane, the appearance of this man was extremely familiar to Cornelia as she had only just seen him near the tent’s entrance or rather the podium where he was selling the wolf beastman, but how could he be here when he was just at the entrance a few minutes ago?

Avian too wondered about this as he also recognized this man, but quickly he realized some subtle differences as he spoke.

-Are you perhaps mister Delton’s twin brother?

-Ahahah, yes, yes, you are right, I indeed am his brother my name is Hilton, I am part of the Doulos Company here trading slaves in Alimdal, it’s nice to meet you…sir…

-Lukas.

Avian replied giving his fake name while grasping Hilton the slave merchant’s hand.

His eyes exuded an extremely eerie light as he made a toothy smile that went through the entirety of his cheek almost seeming inhuman giving Cornelia the creeps as she couldn’t help but fear him.

Avian too recognized this eeriness, but he was not disturbed by it at all, as a businessmen Avian actually met these kinds of people a lot, people who loved what they did within the world of business that is, it was also not a coincidence that this man had approached them as Avian felt he too must have recognized him when he was inspecting the slaves around here.

Talking with him here and getting what he wanted as fast as possible was not something Avian would say no to, in fact Avian was hoping for exactly this to happen as he wanted a more private exchange instead of a public one shaking Hilton’s hand.

And in that exchange both Avian and Hilton pretty much understood each other as Hilton turned around and spoke to Avian while leading the way as Avian followed him.

-It’s been some time since I met an excellent customer such as yourself, if I may be presumptuous, may I ask what kind of business you run?

-I like dealing with physical goods and land, but I am not averse to slaves, in fact I am looking for slaves to do some work for me, I am planning on making an adventurers party with only slaves you see.

-Oh Really? I had customers who were adventurers buying slaves to aid their party, but I never had heard of someone like you wanting to buy slaves to form an entire party! Truly wonderful I say! Your eyes especially, I knew you were a good customer the moment I saw your eyes!

Hilton said mysteriously turning his head as he stared at Avian.

Cornelia completely not understanding what was going on felt confused as the exchange completely baffled her.

Next Avian even started doing something she rarely saw.

He laughed, making Cornelia feel even colder as she listened to Avian laugh.

-I know right? I don’t understand why most don’t do the same.

-Yes! Yes! Products are meant to be bought and used! You truly understand sir Lukas! I am truly glad to have met you! As a merchant I cannot overlook and excellent customer such as yourself! Please follow me in here, I believe everything you want will be there and we will also be having a bit more private space to discuss the details.

And with that Hilton lead them to a separate area of the tent which wasn’t in the main bazaar like alley road, Cornelia felt more unsure about this shady exchange the more she listened as her skin crawled, but Avian seemed to be completely immune as he casually just followed along without even flinching.

Cornelia ultimately lagged as she couldn’t bring herself to follow Avian into the dark and scary area, but seeing that she was now all alone, Cornelia instantly noticed that a lot of people had suddenly turned their eyes on her.

Cornelia instantly paled as she realized that this wasn’t just her seeing things as those people really were observing her as if they were looking at a piece of meat on the chopping block.

The fear she experienced from those stares that were mostly men but also a few women made her get extreme chills.

Not able to take anymore, Cornelia immediately ran after Avian as she shouted at him in a desperate and pleading tone.

-Lukas! Please wait for me!

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