After stopping by the inn’s front desk to pay for another night’s stay in our room just in case, we stepped out into the early afternoon fair. As I’ve come to expect from the Great City of Amoranth’s daylight hours, the place was already abuzz with life and commerce. Only, today it didn’t seem so claustrophobic.

The constant noise was calmer, less intrusive. Almost relaxing in a way my old life never could have been, trapped behind that desk as I was. For the first time since coming here, the white noise and everything that I once tried to shut out became clear, became merchants singing the praises of their own wares with joyous smiles as they shoved their goods in the faces of everyone that passed them by, young house wives openly gossiping in the street from behind the hands they hid their pleasant expressions with before they said their goodbyes and left to tend to their families, children laughing an arguing about the rules for the games they were playing, carpenters and brick layers sawing and hammering away as they toiled away in the construction area of a soon-to-be new building nearby that I never even noticed, there was even the rhythmic clop-clopping of the near endless stream of horse hooves as they pulled their carriages into and out of the city.

I noticed all of these before, naturally. This level of noise couldn’t be avoided regardless of whether or not I had ears as sensitive as Yua’s, but somehow it all felt more real, more animated. Almost like I had only been imagining it all until now to pick up the slack for the earbuds that once kept my attention off of all this.

Yua, used to seeing, hearing, the world this way, nudged my elbow. I’d probably been staring a little too much.

“Should we head straight to the auction?”

After quickly consulting my HUD for the time, I shook my head.

“We still have about an hour. So, we have a little time to spare.”

While the auction clerk Bradley said the whole thing would start one hour after midday, I’m positive that he meant 1:00PM. It was only 12:06. It was fairly late, at least where late starts were concerned, but the city wasn’t so large that it would take us fifty minutes to get to the auction house. Especially not if we ran. And because of how uptight Bradley came off as when we spoke, I doubted they would start at any other time than what he dictated.

Come to think of it, most everyone I’ve met here took their jobs very seriously. If anything, they were too serious. That was something I just couldn’t bring myself to do when I was stuck with that boring desk job. At least, not to the same degree as that fanatic of a potion maker.

“Then what’ll we do in the meantime?”

“How about we have us a quick breakfast?”

I still felt guilty over accidentally skipping yesterday’s breakfast and lunch, only to top it off with some kind of mystery meat and a bunch of sweets. Not exactly healthy living. If you’d asked me, someone that was used to having three meals a day, I’d say that was an egregious sin that needed to be corrected, but Yua’s eyes sparkled for another reason entirely.

“M-Mas… You’re going to let me eat breakfast as well?!”

Her eyes lit up the same way they did when I brought out the sweets last night. As despicable as it sounded, and if their choice in foods was anything to go by, I guessed most masters didn’t feed their slaves more than once a day. The ability to pay for their slaves’ necessities may be a requirement, but they probably didn’t need more than that, as the bare minimum.

That was probably why Yua didn’t mention my slip up in forgetting to eat when I had brought up the idea myself.

Seeing her so giddy with expectation, I laughed despite myself, for this girl was no longer a slave in my book. Because of this, and because I felt I owed her just a little bit of teasing to pay back hers from earlier, I smirked.

“Careful, if you keep acting so cute, I might have to kiss you again.”

Her ears jumping to attention, she quickly pressed her lips shut and blushed. Her eyebrows then turned up, as if she just thought of something sad, but the expression didn’t reach the ears standing at attention.

“A-Alex, would it be alright if I ask that you don’t do that too much in public?”

Oh, wow, my first attempt at being the bold boyfriend-type failed instantly. Must have been too big a step for a newbie like me.

“Was that too much?” I asked, feeling just a little panicked, but she shook her head vigorously to reject the idea.

“It’s not that at all. I’m truly grateful you feel that way, but if you show too much affection to your slave and other masters see it, they’d think less of you and might even try to use me to hurt you.”

Supposing her concerns were a tad more serious than her insisting on fixing my hair before we left the room, I wiped the stupid smile off my face.

“I’m grateful to know you’re worried about how others see me, but I really don’t want to care what they think.” I wasn’t at all interested in making a name for myself here or getting in the way of anyone’s business. I doubted I’d ever find myself in enough of a spotlight that the higher-ups in the city would feel threatened by my actions. “Besides, how would they use you to hurt me in the first place?”

“Because someone could threaten to harm me in order to get to you, or to force you to do what they want.”

“What? Wouldn’t that be breaking the law?”

If just accidentally stealing something was enough to have your freedom ripped out of your hands, then how could extortion like that not do the same?

“No. They would be branded as a Thief if they kidnapped me, but there is no rule against just hurting another master’s slave. Slaves are seen as objects, remember? You can’t hurt an object. As long as the slave doesn’t die, it doesn’t matter.”

“So, they’d threaten to hurt you to make me do what they want? If that’s ever the case, you have my permission to beat them up, assuming I’m not in a position to do so myself.”

Yua smiled sympathetically, but I got the idea she only meant in the sense that I didn’t know what I was talking about.

“I can’t do that. If a slave damages another person’s property, their master is held responsible. If a slave hurts another person, their master is also responsible. The only way I could act would be if they were trying to harm you in some way.”

“Then, you hitting someone would be just as bad as hitting them myself?”

“Exactly. The slave spell would activate if I tried and I’d get hurt.”

So, in the event that she was somehow prevented from returning to my side, they could threaten to hurt her in order to extort me for money or other valuable items I may come to own sometime in the future. And she’d be expected to just let that happen? Someone as strong as her? Absurd.

Even though the laws governing this world were so abhorrently strict, was there really a loophole so big and unprotected that would actually allow for something like that to happen? How could this hypothetical extortionist even keep her from me without it actually being considered theft in the first place? Moreover, wouldn’t actually hurting her be thought of as destruction of my property? Or would the slave’s body being able to heal away the damage over time or by potion render such concerns pointless? Regardless, it had to be a huge risk to them and their potential new Thief tag.

Then again, if these were people wealthy enough to buy slaves in the first place, then they could likely just hire a known Thief to handle their dirty work, if anything, to keep themselves safe.

“But yesterday you said I wouldn’t get in trouble for just hitting someone.”

“I did, but… would you be able to hold back and keep it at just that?” she said, tapping the back of her hand against mine as we walked. “You’re stronger than you think. If you used your magic, it’d be impossible to end things so easily.”

“Right… If you say so, then I’ll just keep my hands to myself.”

“Thanks, but you don’t need to hold back completely. Slave masters usually do what they want to their slaves, anyway. I’m only telling you this because you might want to hide your true feelings when in public.”

My face grew hotter the more she spoke. Hearing her mention the love I just confessed to her so easily was several times more embarrassing than I could have expected.

Still, thinking back to rabbit-girl at the general store and how Albert slapped her ass right in front of me, I knew she was probably right on this one. I know Albert meant the slap in a sexual way, rather than as a punishment, but that didn’t necessarily mean he had any real feelings for her. If I, however, put too much passion into how I treated Yua, people might see right through us. But if her, the same girl that basically offered herself up on a silver platter to me just a few minutes ago, claimed that giving in to such wants was a serious issue, then I had no choice but to be aware of the potential dangers.

“I will take that into consideration, but how do you know all of that? Is it more of what you learned from the slave house?”

“Some of it is. We weren’t just taught to fulfil all of our master’s orders the best we could, but the knowledge we’d need not to endanger them through our actions. The rest, though, is just what everyone is taught when they are young. Like with hitting someone. How could we spar when training if something like that was enough to turn us into a Thief, or something similar?”

“True.”

Setting aside the innate knowledge she might have gotten from her classes, Yua’s skill demanded practice. If she travelled here just to fight in the dungeons, I had little doubt in the fact that she’d spent a good amount of her youth learning how to throw a punch. And she was damn good at it.

I shook my head.

“How about we stop talking about that for now? Where did you want to eat?”

I didn’t know of any places here that would sell a more traditional sort of westerner’s breakfast of eggs, bacon and the like, so I thought it best to let her pick out something she’d like. She’d spent a number of years in this city, so I was sure she had somewhere she’d like to revisit after all this time.

As usual when it came to offering her food, her eyes lit up all over again.

“C-Can I really pick?”

“Sure. You know this city better than I do, so find something you like. Or maybe something you’ve been wanting to try.”

Her tail swishing about in an unrestrained excitement, Yua quickly lifted her nose into the bright blue sky and got to looking for pleasant scents. Usually when she did this, there was a tension about her as she searched for enemies that could cause us harm, but seeing her now, she was beautiful and nothing more. There was a heaping helping of her cuter side peeking out by how she stood on the tips of her toes to sniff the air, as if the slight shift in elevation would actually aid in her search. But that was all. Just that and an understanding that I had to accept that restraining myself around her was probably just going to be more difficult going forward.

Her ears perked up and she lowered her chin, smiling and swishing her tail like a helicopter’s blades. Apparently, she found something good.

“Could we, um… If it’s not too much to ask,” she suddenly looked a little downcast, as if wracking her brain to try and forget her status just so she could ask. “C-Could we… Could you…”

“It’s alright,” I said, resisting the urge to pat her head, and whispered back so only she could hear. “You’re not a slave to me, remember? I'm sorry I didn't make that clear before. Just tell me where you want to go. Like I said last night, we have some extra coin, so anything is fine.”

Given how an expensive slice of cake only cost 1 silver and that I still had a little more than 3 gold pieces to spare, this wasn’t exactly a bluff. Barring some ridiculously rare food that I didn’t even know existed, I was sure I could buy us a seat at just about any restaurant in the city.

“Then… Can we get some grilled pork?”

“Sure thing. Could you...”

Before I could ask where this grilled pork was, why she wanted something like that for breakfast or to just ask her to guide us to it, Yua leapt straight into my arms. She squeezed me so tight that I probably should have been concerned that her insane strength might snap my spine if she wasn’t perfectly careful, but because of how firmly she pressed her chest against mine, I truly couldn’t complain.

“So much for not showing you any affection,” I said with a chuckle and Yua quickly jumped to let go. A shade of embarrassment that felt new on her colored her cheeks.

I understood her worries, but she shouldn’t have needed to hide. It’s not like slaves were forced to wear a collar to show that they were someone’s property. In fact, the only slave I’d seen in the entire city wearing such a thing was Albert’s bunny girl. The only real distinguishing feature Yua had to mark herself as a slave, that I knew of, were the raggedy clothes she wore. Save for maybe those down on their luck or born into relative poverty, nobody but a slave would dress the way she did willingly.

Yua did say that the slaves she lived with were only given relatively nice clothes, such as she wore now, when they were about to be presented to a prospective buyer. That in mind, it was likely that she’d spent the rest of her time wearing nothing but that rag she wears to bed to keep from exposing herself completely to the elements. Though, for a multitude of reasons, I’d rather not think too hard on that fact.

Maybe getting her some better clothes would help her to ease up on her self-imposed restrictions and help her to feel more comfortable.

“S-Sorry,” Yua said, clutching her tail in hand like she meant to quiet it down so I couldn’t tell she was still excited about breakfast.

“Haha. You don’t ever need to apologize for hugging me.”

Honestly, I was still too happy myself that she would even want to, to care about how she instantly contradicted herself.

“But I just said…”

“I know what you said and I’m sure we’re fine.”

To try and alleviate some of her worries, I pointed to the crowd. Not a single person in sight looked the sort she warned me we’d need to be weary of. She was just too focused on her empty belly to have noticed.

“Now, how about you lead us to this grilled pork you want?”

“Okay!”

Yua locked her hands together behind her back, a bright playful smile spreading across her lips, and started through the crowd. The thought of the tasty meal she had in mind probably made her the happiest person walking the streets of Amoranth in that moment. Even the kids playing their games and chasing each other around couldn’t compare.

She led us by her nose, but it was a while before I smelled anything at all and, by the time my own nostrils picked up any of the various delicious scents floating about in the air, we were well within the limits of the merchant’s district. There were so many other food stalls already well under way with the day’s cooking that I was instantly grateful for Yua picking, as I wouldn’t have known where to try first. The city was so thick with flavor, with so many foods that I wanted to try, that I couldn’t distinguish between any of them. Even the ones I could actually name.

Yua, however, was undeterred as she headed straight for her goal. It didn’t take long at all before we found said goal in what was likely the “meat” corner of the food stalls, where a particularly mouth-watering smoke rose from above the short row of wood-burning grills, each of which were lined with meats that sizzled where the fire licked at their bubbling fats, or that sat away from the flame to keep warm and ready for buying. Luckily, there was no line we’d need to wait in.

It may have been an odd choice for our first meal of the day, but it was past noon. I was ready to say screw it and claim I’d skipped breakfast again for lunch.

“Well, don’t you two look hungry,” the grill master greeted. As soon as we approached his stall, he leaned over the large grill to get a better look at us through the smoke, but not so far that he needed to worry about the long beard he sported catching fire. Whatever he saw in us, or rather in Yua, made him grin.

Possibly showing us all a side of herself that had remained dormant these last few years, Yua wasn’t paying the man any attention at all. Behind her, her tail was in the middle of brutally assaulting the air as it wagged about almost violently, as if stretching to pull her backwards and to keep her from falling face first into the metal lattice covering the grill. As she practically drooled over the food still cooking right in front of us, instead of the ones that were already done for whatever reason, I could easily imagine a droplet of saliva dripping down from her lip, only to bubble and burst once it hit the burning coals. But she closed her mouth to favor drawing in a long breath through her nose.

“Yua, maybe you should take a step back.”

“S-Sorry. It’s um… It’s been a while, so I guess I let the smell get to my head a bit.”

“Hahaha! Nonsense!” The grill master laughed heartily, pointing his well-used spatula toward her. “I love it when you beast-kin stop by. Y’all always make me feel like my cooking’s the best in the world!”

As he laughed, a woman that looked to be his wife smiled herself as she sliced up another freshly-butchered pig and set aside pieces of it for him to grill.

While the butchering process was slightly visually alarming to someone like myself who hadn’t seen it before, I did find it intriguing. Not because they did all of this out in the open instead of somewhere nice and sanitary, but because all the animals I’d seen die since coming to this world burst into nothing, their bodies disappearing without a trace, save for their pelts. I may have eaten meat here a few times already, but after actually seeing proof that this sort of profession was indeed possible, I checked her info box and found that she had actually been born into the Butcher class.

Wondering if that class had something to do with her being able to do her job the way she was, or if she just bought the pig from someone else to prep for cooking, I felt that she and the bearded man were perfect as a couple. She cut, he cooked. That level of synergy was something to aspire to.

“Good afternoon,” I said in place of Yua since she couldn’t tear her eyes off the grill. “Could we get two servings of pork, please?”

“Of course. That’ll be 6 coppers per set of skewers.”

He pointed towards a gleaming silver tray left to sit out on the only table that didn’t have meat on it, cooked or otherwise, as if he meant to keep it as clean as possible despite his messy job. Fully aware of what this meant by now, I set a few coins on the tray while he skewered a few of the cuts of pork keeping warm on the side of the grill with a thin wooden stick and then repeated the process three more times for the rest of the order. Only when he handed them to me, did Yua manage to pull her eyes away from the grill. Staring now with rapt attention at the food I held in my hands, her tail still moving wildly through the air, she followed me without a word after I thanked the man and left his stall.

I was happy to see her so excited instead of being worried that I might not be planning to share any of it with her this time around. Likewise, I was ever happier to see that she as a cat-folk exhibited her feline counterpart’s love of meat.

There was hardly anywhere for customers to sit, save for a few stools set out by the vendors, carpets or rugs spread out picnic-style, a single bench sat under the shade of nearby building and a couple of fallen tree logs that looked to be old, brittle and ready to collapse, as if they had been cut down when the city was first built and left to sit there for who knows how many centuries.

A couple dozen or so people were spread about the area, enjoying their meals as they took up most of the more comfortable seating options, but this was fine. I wasn’t so picky that I’d find this set up to be at all bothersome. Not when this medieval-themed food court had Yua so hot and bothered and when I was still flying high on her wake-up call. So, we took to one of the logs that had enough room for us to sit together.

I handed Yua her half of the skewers and watched with a smirk as she tried with all her might not to let her excitement win out and rip them out of my hands. Holding the meat up close enough to her face to almost dip her nose in the melted fat that glinted in the sunlight, she took a long whiff of the meat and sighed so happily I thought she might actually pass out. Before I could question if she only asked for these to smell them though, she greedily bit off the first chunk and quickly clamped a hand over her mouth to hide a squeal of delight. Much as she had been the last couple nights, she slowly and deliberately chewed each and every bite. The meat’s juices dribbled down her chin, but she quickly licked them back up, never wasteful.

As content as I was to watch her enjoy herself so, I took a bite of my own, mainly so I didn’t have to worry about her trying to steal my half once she polished hers off. Though watching her slowly descend into a gleeful food coma, I might not have minded giving it up.

The pork was good. Probably the best I’d ever had, without the advent of some sort of sauce or seasoning. My family had never really done much grilling, since my parents weren’t the type to barbeque with any sort of frequency, and because I never bothered once I moved out on my own, but I could easily see why she enjoyed it so much and why out of everything available to us, she’d pick this stall for breakfast. I was still of the opinion that bacon was the best part of the pig, but this was a close second.

By the time we finished and Yua quite literally licked her skewers clean before throwing them away, she looked like she desperately wanted to hug me in thanks, instead of just telling me. To keep with her own assumption that it was best we keep the PDA to a minimum, I let my hand brush against hers and started back down the street. If I didn’t stop her from looking at me like that, I’d have been the one to give in. She practically skipped to catch up.

After our quick lunch, and because we still had time to spare, we took a walk around the other stalls to check out some of what we missed last night. We’d stopped by a good many stalls, but most were wiped of their inventory after a long day of selling, so I wanted to see what all they had to offer during the day.

Not too long into our search, and far away enough from the various grills and outdoor ovens so that the produce wouldn’t be ruined by the heat, we found a stall selling a few different kinds of colorful, familiar fruits. Familiar visually, anyways. Round, almost spherical and with a pleasant blend of reds and yellows, they looked plenty sweet and juicy. When I pointed to them, the woman running the stand said the fruits were called “Affles,” but they were clearly just apples in my eyes. One of likely many odd naming conventions that separate this world from my own.

I went ahead and bought a few of the affles, figuring they’d would make a good snack later. Also, since fruit ripened and went bad rather fast after being picked, I thought it was a good opportunity to test if the foods I put in my item box were able to keep fresh without losing too much money in the process. This may end up being an incredibly important test.

“Do you like affles?”

Yua questioned me when I put the ten I bought into her backpack, hiding my hand so I could stash them discretely into my item box. I figured that at only 2 coppers a piece, they were relatively cheap, so buying a few to have something sweet whenever we were hungry would be nice.

“I used to eat them pretty often back home. How about you?”

“Yup. My tribe I belonged to ate lots of fruits. We ate mainly whatever the forest could provide, what travelers carried with them on their way through or what we brought back from trips outside the forest.”

“But you preferred meat, didn’t you?”

“Hehehe.”

Before I could turn the topic to her homeland to learn more about her, I checked the time on my HUD and saw that it was about time we started towards the auction. We might have had a few minutes to spare had we just walked there, but to be on the safe side, I had us break into a light jog.

Now that the time had come, my chest felt tight, like I couldn’t breathe properly. Our future together depended on what was about to happen. We either get to stay together, or become fugitives on the run for the rest of our lives. Yua said she was happy to follow me no matter how things turned out, but she, too, looked a little worried despite being the one to insist I have some faith in my own luck.

The Goddess herself said that my Luck stat really did have an effect on the world, so I chose to have a little faith in all the points I sunk into it, rather than just the stat itself. I already risked it all by leveling that instead of something more combat oriented when fighting in the dungeon, so why not lean on it once more?

When Yua noticed me looking at her, I sucked it up and gave her a firm nod. She smiled bravely, clenched her fist and nodded back.

The auction house was already brimming with people. Rows and rows of expensive-looking carriages and carts were lined up along the front and side of the building and even along the streets nearby. It was the first time since coming to this world that I had seen something resembling a parking lot, but I was not surprised to see it full today. My guess was that only nobles and well-off merchants were here to join in the auction, since the most expensive items in the city were collected to be sold here today, but I might have been way off the mark. Many of those we saw entering the building looked like your stereotypical Adventurers decked out in armor, weapons and a few looking as though they just finished a round or two in the dungeon. All of them were probably out to see if the auction would have anything useful for fighting, but since it was my first time here, I couldn’t be sure of all they’d have for sale. Unsurprisingly, these sorts were requested to hand their weapons over to the staff before they were let in. So, the line was moving slowly.

Once we found our way inside, we flagged down one of the auction house’s maids that had looked lightly panicked at how many people there were and she quickly led us through the crowd of fancily dressed rich folk and comparably rustic Adventurers as they sipped their complimentary wines and as they forced me to wonder if they only came for the free drink.

I paid them no further mind however, same as how I ignored the feeling of not belonging there to follow the maid to where the auction would be held. Since we weren’t going to be bidding on anything, we were separated from the main group and were funneled into a smaller room upstairs that overlooked the auction grounds to wait with all the others there to observe the auction as they waited for their items to sell.

The room she brought us to was surprisingly well-furnished, with enough furniture set out for at least fifty people, though only about half of it was occupied. There was even a mini buffet set up behind us with its own maid attending it. And, judging by the smells emanating from the small row of steaming gilded pots, they even pre-prepared tea and coffee for their guests.

It was surprise after surprise setting foot back in here after their poor reception last time, but with how much coin this place brought in, I was sure they could afford to pull out all the stops to keep their guests happy and wanting to come back.

I thought Yua might have wanted to sample some of what was available to us, but once we sat down, she only had eyes for the area below.

We took to a secluded seat, a fancy-looking couch that was notably softer than the bed back at the inn, over on the far side of the room to keep our privacy and to let the others have theirs. With Yua on my right, we watched as more and more people gathered into the crowd below whose collective purses were burning holes in their pockets in a rowdy, possibly slightly drunk anticipation for things to get going.

There was already a man standing behind the podium on the stage in front of the crowd, but instead of addressing and trying to calm them, he almost looked to be scanning the crowd, like he were counting the number of people attending the day’s event. Though, he did show some a small amount of courtesy when he nodded towards those that bothered to greet him. It didn’t take me long to realize that the man I was staring at was none other than Bradley himself, the same man that helped me put up the ring to auction.

The stage was empty save for him. They must be waiting for each individual item to be announced before showing it off. My guess was that this was to prevent people from withholding their bids for the better items slated to be auctioned at a later time.

I tried to keep myself calm as we waited, eyeing my HUD’s clock every other second, much like I did whenever my parents made the mistake of buying me a wristwatch. It wasn’t until a few minutes before the time set for the auction to begin, that I realized I’d yet to see a single clock in this world, analog or otherwise. So, I had no idea how they were going to know when to start until Bradley finished his counting and looked up, up through the building’s wide-open dome and, this is just a guess, checked the Sun’s position in the sky.

Apparently satisfied with what he saw, he cleared his throat and addressed the crowd.

“Thank you all for gathering today at the Amoranth Auction House.”

He spoke loud enough for his voice to boom over all others to draw their attention. Apparently, most if not all of those bidding today were regulars, because none complained about the wait and they all in attendance quickly fell silent. Were it not for the greedy and expectant smiles adorning their expressions, I would have thought that they looked like a bunch of trained monkeys.

Only once he had complete silence did Bradley continue, his voice calmer now.

“Today we have several great items for you to bid on, from top-tier slaves to enchanted weapons, armors and accessories. Please keep in mind that winning your bid is as good as signing a contract and that you must pay what you promised or you will be branded a Thief. If you find that you cannot afford the item on auction, do not foolishly risk your life by bidding for it. Otherwise, you may bid as many times and on as many items as you wish. Fighting over items you failed to win is strictly prohibited. You will be removed from the building and banned permanently if you start violence of any kind. Now, if there are no questions, let us begin.”

While I had several questions floating around my head, I couldn’t exactly ask them. In part because I doubted the non-beast-kin down there could hear me unless I started yelling, but also because I just wanted to let the auction get underway. Learning more about the process can come later once we’re in the clear and only if I ever need to come back.

“First,” Bradley said. “Let us start the bidding on today’s slaves.”

Yua’s breath caught in her throat. She’d said she’d lost a fair few friends to this place and that she normally would have preferred avoiding it, but she came today of her own choice. I was of half a mind to see if she wanted to wait outside until this part of the auction was done with, but she took my hand in hers before I could. Disgusted and feeling very hypocritical, I tried to give Yua as much comfort as I could by keeping my mouth shut.

I already decided when I saw the train of people driving towards the auction house yesterday that attempting to save them would be a pointlessly stupid risk to our lives. So, I had to sit on my hands.

Following behind one of the auction house’s maids, the first slave brought out onto the stage was a tall, tanned and heavily muscular man that earned a few oohs from the crowd. I checked his info box out of curiosity and saw that, despite his bestial appearance, he was actually a human and that he was indeed marked as a slave, just like Yua. While I didn’t want to be one to judge someone based on their appearance, the multiple scars cut across the man’s body and the deep glare in his eye did not exactly suggest that he was a good person at heart.

“This man here was enslaved because he stole some very valuable golden jewelry from the house of his village’s chief.”

As if noticing the way I looked at him, Bradley outright told everyone the reason why the man was enslaved in the first place, but he most likely only did so to allow his customers to better know what they were buying. Something I wished Alphonse had done during my visit. If anything, it would have saved me the mental fatigue of jumping to conclusions the way I did with Yua. And unlike her, judging by the sneer the slave man gave when reminded of his crimes, I guessed he wasn’t all too apologetic anyway.

As much as I hated sitting here, shifting uncomfortably in my seat knowing that I was effectively the world’s largest hypocrite for hating the fact that I was watching slaves be sold like cattle after buying one myself, I had to force myself to remember that most of them were criminals to begin with. Yua’s misunderstanding that led to her enslavement might just be an outlier.

“He is quite strong and skilled with an axe,” Bradley continued. “So, he may be put to good use in the dungeons or just chopping firewood, if you wish. The bidding starts at 10,000 gold.”

Ten thousand right off the bat? I was told that the stronger and more attractive a slave was, the higher a price they would catch, but I wasn’t expecting for that to be the starting price. I checked his info box again, but I couldn’t see his stats. So, I was forced to assume the price was based entirely on his level and that he was probably of middling fighting ability, since I couldn’t exactly call him good looking.

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The bidding took a long moment to begin as the crowd looked him over. But once it did, one bid after another, the price didn’t stop increasing until it reached 15,000 gold and Bradley banged his gavel on the podium, signaling the end of the sale. Regardless of his looks, the slave man must have been stronger than was suggested, as I had a hard time understanding why someone would buy a man like this, knowing that he was unrepentant for his crimes. I figured he was going to be put to work in the dungeons for the rest of his life to try and make up for it by making his new master a good profit, so I guess his strength was all that was really needed of him.

“Next item up for sale is a female slave.”

He gestured towards the right-hand side of the stage again where a woman wearing a loose shirt cut similar to Yua’s nightwear, with seemingly nothing more beneath it, walked onto the stage. I had to admit, she was pretty attractive, but it quickly became clear that what caught the audience’s attention the most were the giant breasts hidden beneath her shirt. However, in the face of all their ogling, the woman only looked annoyed.

Surprised by this, I waited for the auctioneer to mention that she not only tried to steal from her last boss, but that she stabbed with a dagger and nearly killed him when he caught her in the act.

“Take her shirt off!” yelled one of the attendees.

Again, Yua flinched, but held my hand firmly. She knew this was likely to be the fate for most female slaves, even if she clearly didn’t agree with it. So, there was nothing we could do. I would have liked to jump down there and save her, but after hearing what she did, I sure as hell wasn’t going to risk Yua’s future on trying to help her escape the system the world itself seemed to rule over.

Bradley, unperturbed by the obviously perverted request from the crowd, simply nodded once and turned to the maid that brought the slave woman to the stage. She bowed politely to him and walked over to the slave, looking like he’d done nothing more significant than ask her to fetch him some tea. The slave, however, openly sneered at everyone in attendance with her cheeks flushed pink, but when the maid gestured with hers, she raised her hands over her head without further complaint. After doing so, the maid quietly lifted the scrap of shirt up over the slave’s head, revealing to the crowd that my assumption that she wore nothing underneath to be correct.

I tried not to look, more for Yua’s sake than the slave’s, especially since the latter just continued to sneer at the crowd, even when forced to stand in front of them fully naked. The thought that it could have been Yua up there made me pull her closer.

“It’s okay,” Yua said, letting me hold her. “This doesn’t bother me. I don’t know that woman and from the sound of things, she deserves whatever happens to her.”

“This is still a bit much…”

“… Alex, most of the female slaves at DeGrave Imports had to go through this, even when they weren’t sold. Most of the time males come asking for a female slave, it’s to be expected that they will have to show themselves like this.”

“Did… Did you ever have to?”

Yua pulled her gaze away from the woman on the stage and looked me dead in the eye. There was a seriousness in the way she looked at me, but it felt almost more sympathetic than resentful.

“No, I did not. Like I and Alphonse told you, I always started a fight before anyone could ask me to.”

“Good… That’s good.”

It was probably an inappropriate question, but I’m glad to hear that she wasn’t essentially forced to perform a secluded strip show every time someone showed some interest in buying her.

Just as they did with the last one, the crowd took a couple minutes to look the slave woman over and, when the bidding started, she started at 15,000 gold. Presumably because of her looks and because of her bust, that shot right up to 25,000 gold by the time the auction ended. I didn’t try to see who in the crowd won the auction, but the last voice I heard shout a number belonged to a man.

Despite myself and what she did, I said a silent prayer to my Goddess that the slave woman’s first night wouldn’t be too rough. If the man that bought her had the gall to do so in a public setting like this, I doubted he’d have a change of heart once his moral code kicked in and that he’d start treating her right.

The next two slaves were men, followed by three women and it ended with another four men. All of the women were requested to strip on the stage, their prospective buyers showing no qualms in outing their true intentions. However, the same did happen to a couple of the men as well, so at least it wasn’t a completely one-sided perversion. Not sure if I could call that a silver lining, though. Every single one of them sold.

I didn’t want to sit there and say I was okay with this, but each slave they brought out, pretty or not, had all stolen, bribed or killed their way to be here. Unless Bradley was telling the audience lies, and since none of the slaves protested, I couldn’t say for certain if he was, all of them were true blood criminals. So, I wasn’t sure if I should sympathize with them or not.

Seeing this, even Yua relaxed a bit. She may have felt sorry for her fellow slaves, knowing that she had been spared the kind of lives they were likely going to be suffering from now on, but she seemed to find a semblance of contentment in understanding that they brought their fate upon themselves.

“Up next we have some jewelry.”

I got my hopes up thinking that he meant our ring, but one by one, everything they brought out looked to be regular, everyday earrings, necklaces and the like that you’d easily find stuffed away in your mother’s jewelry box or, more likely, worn by a movie star on the red carpet. While they definitely looked to be obnoxiously expensive, I couldn’t use my Appraisal skill from all the way up here, so I couldn’t tell if the final asking prices the bidders brought them up to were fair or not. But my guess was that most weren’t. I had to sit there and hope that they didn’t spend all their money before our ring went up for auction as the day progressed.

After the jewelry went some fancy clothes. Then a few highly-trained horses which their handlers and the maids had no trouble bringing up onto the small stage. Then a few books, including a spell book or two. Some apparently exotic plants and powdered seasonings. There was even a couple of bidding options for the rights to a few construction jobs that I definitely wasn’t expecting to see here.

In short, it felt like the plan for this auction was to have their priciest items both start off and end the show. Naturally, this meant the enchanted goods were sitting on the backburner, waiting to end the auction with a bang as, even with the spell books they offered sounding interesting, I was sure the enchanted goods were going to be the favorites of many in the crowd.

Once I noticed this may be the case, I kept myself on the edge of my seat hoping that the bidders wouldn’t wipe out their stores of coin before our ring made its debut.

“Our last round of items up for auction today are all enchanted. Each item has been appraised by a professional to ensure both the quality of the enchantment as well as their make. I will be showing you what they can do before the bidding starts. So, please do pay attention, as all sales are final.”

Finally, the group of items our ring was in had their chance. I felt myself start to sweat as I watched the first item be brought up onto the stage. The box it was in was clearly too big for a ring, but if a small enchanted ring could go for 30,000 gold, then something bigger or something with a better effect might go for an even higher price. Because of this, every piece of armor or accessory that went before our ring would effectively lower the ring’s chances of being sold, as they threatened to wipe out the gold the bidder had brought with them. And from what I could see of the crowd, not all that many of the people left looked to be carrying anywhere near enough to buy.

I just had to hope they left their money in their carriages.

A few of the bidders were already leaving, either due to lack of funds or because they weren’t interested in buying enchanted items. Bradley looked to be waiting to reveal the item, until those leaving could clear the room. As they did, and as my impatience was skyrocketing, I noticed that there were more Adventurers waiting for the reveal than my initial assessment led me to believe.

Right, Yua did say that there is no place in the city to buy enchanted gear, so maybe whatever the auction house happened to collect from traveling merchants was all they could hope for without leaving the city. So, without a car, buying something like this wasn’t going to be as simple as hitting up your local mall for a TV.

Once the room returned to silence, Bradley continued.

“First up is a Steel Sword of Flame. While it may be only made of steel, a highly skilled Enchanter worked on its enchantment, so it can burn, sear and set ablaze anything it cuts.”

This time, instead of letting the crowd decide if the item was actually as described, his assistant, yet another of the maids, set a small log of wood that looked like it rightfully belonged in a fireplace onto a metal table next to the podium. Bradley himself then flicked open the clasps sealing the box the maid brought him and carefully pulled a long straight sword out of the case and then out of its scabbard. Looking to be handling the blade with the upmost care, he then held it over the log and, without even really putting any effort into his swing, he dropped the blade onto the wood without any sort of fanfare. The moment they touched, both the sword and the wood instantly caught fire, as if the wood had been soaked in gasoline beforehand and the blade had a hidden lighter in its tip.

This brought about a few ooh’s and awes from the crowd as the maid worked to put out the fire, but most of the Adventurers didn’t look too impressed. Was it because it was made of steel? I was pretty sure there would be some sort of fantasy metals in this world, but steel should have at least been a good starting point. Due more to the lack-luster way Bradley described the thing with an “it may be made of steel, but…,” rather than any sort of video game knowledge, I had to guess that I was right. Fire enchantments like that could easily carry you to late game if the strength of their fire damage was high enough.

Regardless of how I felt, though, whoever was selling it clearly didn’t expect too much, as the starting bid announced after the blade was set back in its box was only 9,000 gold.

An enchanted sword that could burn whatever it touched started at a lower price than a one-time Thief turned slave. To me, it was almost baffling. Yes, we were talking about a person here, but that was only to me. By the standards of this world, an sword like that should have been worth way more. The price was eventually pushed up to 12,000 gold by some Merchant that seemed to have thought of a good use for it, but that still felt cheap to me.

I shook my head. In the end, it didn’t’ matter. People not understanding how awesome enchanted gear like this could be wasn’t my problem. They’d surely prefer the benefits of a ring that could cure all wounds to a sword that can only burn anyways.

When the next item came out in a small box that looked a perfect fit for jewelry, I held my breath. Unfortunately, it was just a copper necklace. While the enchantment given to it gave its user a small boost of Vigor, it too started low. This time, the Adventurers were the ones to battle over it, eventually racking the price up to 15,000. Apparently, in the dungeons, any boost to your stats, no matter how small, was a worthy buy if it could help you stay alive.

Next was a battle axe made of something called “parundum,” likely one of those fantasy metals I was considering, whose enchantment lessened its weight so much that the skinny, level 3 Maid was able to lift it with ease. That one started at only 10,000 gold, but its auction ended at the high price of 20,000 thanks to one of the now very happy Adventurers that bid for it.

It was easy to assume that the axe being lighter meant that he would be able to swing it faster, but I couldn’t guess if its enchantment affected its durability any.

Regardless, given how unwieldy battle axes looked, I was sure that it was actually a fantastic find for someone with the Axe Warrior class. Though, it and the preceding items did fill me with worry when I remembered how Bradley tried to get me to lower the starting bid of our ring.

Maybe they really just started at such low prices because that would make them easier to sell. It may have nothing to do with their actual worth.

Hoping I didn’t price it too high, we watched as several more items came and went, each with various magical enchantments, more than one of which I’d never even heard of, inside of a game or not. And with each, we had some fine entertainment in watching Bradley display the items effects when possible. Watching him hold an entire glass of water in his mouth while his maid pinched his nose shut to show off the effect of a necklace that let you hold your breath for an extended period of time was a treat I wasn’t expecting. Almost every one of the enchanted items sold and sold well.

The only one that didn’t sell was a breastplate that changed color based on your surroundings. It sounded nice at first, since it might’ve been good for camouflage, but when the maid helped Bradley put it on over his suit, it instantly changed to a bright red color, instead of a pattern resembling that of the wood stage or the stone walls around him. Apparently, it wasn’t a very effective chameleon-type enchantment, as it changed the color of the metal into that of a seemingly random object within range of the wearer.

I realized that this must be the case, as it took me and the crowd a minute or two to realize that it had changed to the same color of the bright red ribbon the maid tied her hair with. Given the insane prices these things were going for, I had to wonder if the Enchanter had messed up in a way similar to my first failed teleportation and only semi-succeeded with what they wanted to make, or if they straight up wasted valuable enchanting equipment on something so ridiculously useless.

We watched as they repeatedly switched between enchanted weapons and wearable items, as if teasing us. I was curious about all of the effects put on display, but I tensed up when the next item came out. The maid handed him a white towel and a small black box that he accepted in a reverse proposal and opened to reveal a familiar silver ring.

“Next item for sale is a Silver Ring of Regeneration found right here in the Amoranth Dungeon.”

Yua ears shot to attention, ready to hear every syllable that came next as she covered my hand with both of hers and squeezed. Where she had been mostly silent up until now, I could clearly see the worry in her eyes making her lip quiver. I knew as much now, but she really did want this as much as I did.

“As you can tell by its name, it is made of pure silver, but it also has four polished rubies embedded in its band. Believed to be invaluable to most, this ring is enchanted with the ability to slowly cure all physical wounds once worn. Please watch the demonstration, as it will only be shown once.”

The nobles in the crowd gasped and others started excitedly muttering to themselves when Bradley pulled out a small dagger from within his coat. He gestured for the maid attending him to come over and she did without hesitation.

Yua tightened her grip on my hands, probably thinking that he might be crazy enough to cut the maid with the dagger. However, when the maid stepped up beside him, all she did was unbutton the cuff of his sleeve and roll it up.

Without a shred of hesitation, Bradley pressed the dagger to his forearm and pushed, drawing blood. He then, without flinching, dragged the blade up towards his elbow. Dark red blood gushed from the wound and onto the floor. When he pulled the blade out and showed the audience to his insanity, several in the crowd gasped with horror at the sight of the deep gash roughly three inches long that now ran through his flesh. With barely more than a grimace twisting his expression despite the semi-rapid decline of his health bar, he kept his elbow bent, possibly to prevent the blood from reaching his fingertips. If he went this far to test the ring on himself rather than one of the slaves, he must be taking extra caution not to ruin the goods they were trusted with. And in this case, that meant not touching the next item with his bloodied fingers.

Was that why he was so rude to me yesterday? He must have known when he saw its enchantment that he was going to have to do this to demonstrate its effects on himself.

While I wondered why he didn’t just hire a second, unbiased Merchant to Appraise the ring in front of the crowd, he held out his other hand towards the maid and she obediently plucked the ring out of its box and slipped it onto his finger. The crowd watched in amazement when the wound he made himself started to close all on its own. Just like when I had Yua use it, in less than a minute, the wound was completely sealed shut and the health bar only I could see filled right back up. The only evidence left the trench he made in his arm being what blood still clung to his skin.

Being that the majority of the crowd now were Adventurers that were probably used to seeing such barbarism, the room erupted into cheers and clapping, either at his bravado or because of the ring’s amazing effect as the maid dutifully started wiping the blood from Bradley’s arm with the towel.

Yua seemed to take his action rather boldly herself as the only reaction he got out of her was a small furrow to her brow. It actually looked more like she was considering how the ring once healed her, though her wounds were much less visible.

“The starting bid for this item is 25,000 gold.”

The room was quiet for a while after he announced the ring’s starting price. Like I was told when I dropped it off, trying to auction it at that high of a price may make it unsellable and that fact was starting to hurt as I listened to the silence. But we didn’t have a choice. The bare minimum I could allow it to sell for was 27,800 gold. If I started any lower than that, the bidding might not even make it that high before someone snatched it up.

I could feel my palms start to sweat, but Yua didn’t seem to notice as she held onto me. She was already leaning forward in her chair, watching the crowd with pleading eyes.

Finally, someone raised their arm and the bidding began.

“25,100!”

Yua leaned into me hard, gripping my hand tight enough to make it hurt as she waited for the man to speak, but I kept quiet. Not because I was speechless, but because the voice sounded familiar. Familiar enough to recognize that I’d heard it before, but not so much that my improved memory could place it.

“25,500!”

Another person raised their hand and raised the price. Then another. And as if that first bid broke the flood gates, bids started raining in. Only for that familiar voice to bump it up a full thousand all on his own.

“26,800!”

Each time the bids rose and reached closer and closer to our goal, Yua made a small, cute squeak of excitement. Her eyes were wide, like a person waiting for a spinning slot machine to alleviate them of all their money troubles.

“27,100!”

Another person called out a number and we could barely contain ourselves. I slipped my sweaty hand out from between Yua’s and wrapped my arms around her, hugging her as tight as I could. Smiling a toothy smile, she clenched her shaking fists on her knees.

Please, just let it get to 27,800. We don’t need any more than that.

“27,400 over here!”

A large Adventurer that stood a full foot above the rest of the crowd laid out the next bid and I tightened my hold on Yua. Surely, if I put any more force into it, one of us would break, but she hugged me right back as if she hadn’t noticed. I crossed my fingers and started wishing that I put more points into my Luck stat.

The crowd went silent for a moment, contemplating the price when…

“27,500!”

The familiar voice called again, but I’d already given the voice up for lost, assuming it belonged to someone I coincidentally heard in the city, but whose face I’d never seen. My train of thought was now too muddled to consider it more. Grateful as I was for their help, I wasn’t about let go of Yua to start scanning the crowd for faces to match the voice. Not when this may be our last chance to hug it out like this as relatively free people.

“27,600!”

“27,600 going once,” Bradley called, holding his gavel in the air, ready to bring it down.

Our rapture ended almost as soon as it began. Where the bids had been coming in non-stop, once it reached that price, the room fell silent again.

No, please. Just a little more.

“27,600 going twice.”

Please. Just 200 more gold. At least put it up to 27,700 and I can pay off the rest myself.

Time seemed to all but cease as my mind sputtered back to life and I started to go over possible contingencies we could take to make up the difference if things ended here. We still had the option to fight the bosses in the dungeon again. It had been a while since the start of the auction, but there was still time left in the day. We still had a chance.

Just before the third and final call rang out and ended the auction, a heavy-set man hefted himself to his feet, leaning on the maid he’d been sitting with for support and raised his hand up high over his head. The maid, however, kept in her seat, pressing her knees together as she tried to catch her breath for some reason.

Seeing that man’s face fully in the light, I suddenly remembered who the voice belonged to when it bellowed a new offer in an increasingly worried tone.

“32,000 gold!”

My heart stopped, only to instantly be reignited when Yua jumped out of her seat to hug my head to her chest, pressing my face between her breasts while I was still trying to come to terms with the overly generous number I just heard.

“32,000 gold to Lord Barrily. Going once…”

It was him. The same noble we followed inside the first time we came here. Standing near the stage was the man that supposedly had some sort of business partnership with Alphonse. Hearing his bid, I instantly wanted to apologize to him for remembering him as the fat noble that grabbed one of the maids’ asses, but his connections gave me pause.

Before I could let myself panic, I remembered both the contract I signed when putting the ring up for auction and Bradley’s words before the auction started. I have the auction house bound by contract, and anyone that buys the ring is effectively sworn to a contract too. If Yua’s life could be stolen from her for a similar verbal agreement, then it should be the same for the buyer here.

There’s no way either of them can screw us out of the coin as long as Lord Barrily pays the bills. And as someone that sold slaves for a living, though his money may be dirty, he was sure to have the funds to do so. I’d deal with the consequences of my moral compass later.

We watched in slack-jawed awe as the crowd went silent once more. Not only did he jack up the price to much more than we needed, he brought the ring up above its original appraised value. A value that seemed to be well above what all the others here were willing to pay, as it quickly became clear that nobody wanted to fought him on it any longer.

“Going twice.”

I wasn’t sure if the price he bid was just too much for the others to join in or if they were just counting what they had on them to check, but I didn’t care. We’d won. Most of those that were bidding were high-level Adventurers who no doubt delved deep into the dungeon, but they just couldn’t compete with a nobleman with pockets as deep as his. Either that, or they were scared to bid against a noble willing to put up that much coin for something he was clearly desperate to own. Regardless, however the auction ended now didn’t matter.

Yua was nearly on the verge of crying when Bradley paused for what felt like hours. I struggled to move my face enough to see what was happening from where she held me in her cleavage, but I could hear her heart pounding directly against my eardrums as she waited.

Bradley raised his gavel to call one last time.

“… And sold, to Lord Barrily.”

"“Yes!”"

We shouted and I jumped up to hug Yua. Already starting to cry herself, she jumped into my arms, forcing me hold the both of us upright as her feet left the ground. We made quite the spectacle of ourselves to the others still in the room with us, but they kindly pretended not to notice. I had seen more than a few of them pump their fists in victory when their items sold, too. So, seeing my reaction to our item selling for one of the highest bids of anything that had sold today was probably understandable. They might have even assumed, correctly, that this was our first time at the auction and that the excitement had just gotten the better of us.

It likely helped that I had a beautiful girl here to celebrate with me.

I lifted Yua’s tear-streaked face and kissed her full on the lips even as she continued to smile.

“Come on Yua, let’s see if we can get our money and get out of here.”

She wiped the tears from her face and sniffled to clear her nose before grabbing hold of my hand and running me out of the room. I was already long past caring what the others thought of us, so I said nothing and just ran after her.

We stopped the first maid we found wondering the halls with a broom and dust pan in hand and had her direct us to where the sold items were paid for and picked up. We followed her as she slowly walked us to the payout window. I desperately wanted her to walk faster, but Yua was so happy that she kept trying to cling to me, only to recall her earlier warning of the hazards of PDA forced her to back off the second she realized what she was doing, only to then do it again seconds later. The maid, though, looked oddly content with this reaction and I noticed a bit of a smile crease her lips as she walked.

Finally, the maid brought us to a large room at the back of the first floor. I guessed that we were behind the actual auction area because I could hear Bradley’s voice much more clearly now. That and because I watched as a few maids were working on carrying out the next piece up for sale that was a heavy-looking breastplate that actually took two of them to carry. I guessed that the light-weight enchantment that Yua said all enchanted armor had likely only took effect once it was worn.

The maid gestured for us to head to a window cut directly into the wall. Six thick and sturdy steel bars were driven into and across the small countertop that wrapped around the front of the window, protecting it. Even more of these bars were lined up uniformly along the wall, reaching from the floor up to the roof, as if the staff were worried that some exceedingly strong Adventurer might someday choose to break down the wall, and possibly the rest of the building, just to get at what was inside.

Looking through the window, I could see the entrance to another, much larger room than what the small window suggested could fit back there. Thanks to this and the impressive lineup of heavily armed guards waiting and watching us from all sides of the room, I figured that this was most likely where they kept the absurd amount of money that no doubt flowed through here.

“How may I help you, Sir?”

We were greeted by a man with a high-level Merchant class sat just behind the window like a bank teller. The bags under his eyes and the deadpan way he spoke made him sound exceedingly tired, if not bored. Our smiling faces did not seem to change his mood even slightly.

“Uh, hi… I, we are the ones that just sold the Silver Ring of Regeneration. Has the person that purchased it paid for it yet?”

At this point, all we had to do was see if Lord Barrily paid already, which was honestly doubtful since we rushed here as soon as he made what was likely his final offer. And if he hadn’t yet, then no problem. I’m sure they’d let us stay here and wait for him.

Of course, there was always the chance that he may be unable to pay, but I doubted it. No matter how desperate he sounded to get the ring, I found it highly unlikely that someone like him would risk letting himself become a Thief, not knowing he had a ton of negative karma stalking behind him. Plus, Bradley himself said just yesterday that the Lord was a regular partner. So, it was almost a sure thing that he would be able to.

“I’m sorry, but he has not,” the man behind the window said with a sigh.

“Oh, well, that’s fine then. Could we wait down here until he does?”

The man’s face tensed up like that was the very last thing he wanted to hear and shook his head.

“That’s not necessary, Sir. Because Lord Barrily’s slaves have already been bought and paid for, we can just take what he owes for the ring out of his earnings.”

“R-Really? Can we do that then?”

“Of course. Do you have the contract you signed when handing your item over to us?”

“Yes, Sir. I do.”

I handed the man the document I pulled out of Yua’s backpack and, after he looked it over, he had me put my hand on it. He did the same and the rune drawn into the top of the page glowed blue, just like it had when I accepted it. Seemingly satisfied, the man let out a grunt as he forced himself to his feet before disappearing behind the window’s curtain. Yua grabbed hold of my hand as we waited, entirely unable to stand still.

I was right there with her, but like with all things, the more pessimistic side of myself refused to keep quiet and let me give into the giddiness completely until we got the money and threw it at Alphonse so we could finally be done with him. Until then, everything was still up in the air.

Finally, after a long wait, the man came back huffing and puffing and sweating profusely as he dragged something heavy across the floor. When he reached the window, he paused to catch his breath before squatting down, letting out a loud, strained grunt and hefting up a large treasure chest-shaped box whose lid couldn’t quite close down all the way onto the table beside him. It hit the table with a thud so loud I was almost positive that those still watching the auction must have heard the noise, but all I took notice of was the jingling of several coins as they settled into place.

He took a minute to catch his breath again before opening the chest to reveal a pile of shining gold coins so abundant that it rendered Yua and I speechless. Our reaction went unnoticed by the man, as he started pulling the coins out one after another to stack them on the table. Seeing what he was trying to do, I quickly stopped him.

“Oh, there’s no need for that. I can confirm the amount with Appraisal.”

“I see,” he said, sighing deeply, but gratefully. “It is customary to count out the coin for our customers that can’t do it themselves, so that they might be confident they were getting what was owed to them. I’m sorry to have assumed.”

“It’s fine. No harm done.”

“I have personally counted the coin myself and, apart from the ten percent the auction house has taken, as per the contract, I assure you that you have been paid in full.”

After he stuffed the coins back into the chest, I held my hand out over it to cast Appraisal. When the sum that appeared in the info box confirmed our total earnings, I started shaking. It was all there. Every single coin of it. I didn’t fully appreciate how small the coins actually were until now, when I had 28,800 of them all piled into one box.

Honestly, these things looked so unwieldy in large quantities that it was no wonder why the shops here didn’t keep them on hand. I had to imagine some sort of banking system had to be available that I hadn’t heard of yet, because holding onto this much coin had to make it look like you were begging thieves to harass you.

Trying and likely failing to completely suppress a grin, I nodded to Yua to let her know it was all there. She too looked like she was having a great deal of difficulty containing herself, but kept mostly calm on the surface, only let herself smile back at me as her tail did all it could to truly display her joy.

When the man raised a dubious brow to me, I cleared my throat.

“Er, sorry. I’ve confirmed the amount to be as promised.”

“Excellent. We at the Amoranth Auction House look forward to your continued business.”

Looking ready to be rid of us so he could return to his seat, he tried once more to lift the chest up and when he visibly struggled just to move it, I realized why he looked so tired. He must have already paid off all the others that left the auction already, likely having to move large sums of coin just like this one by hand.

I wondered why they didn’t just ask one of the guards to carry the chests for him, but figured it had something to do with him being in charge of the auction house’s coin, so they likely would’ve been branded Thieves just for trying to help. Still, they should have gotten someone with a bit more muscle to do this. Yua’s slender body definitely didn’t appear visually strong, but this gaunt man looked almost malnourished.

He managed to push the chest towards us and was quick to let go of it once it crossed the threshold of the window. Once I was sure the trade was considered complete, I dove for the chest, both eager to finally get my hands on the gold we’d been hoping for and to prevent us from having to pick up each and every coin of it in the event the whole thing came crashing to the ground, spilling its contents everywhere.

Proving once more that strength in this world came from your stats just as much, if not more than your actual muscle, I too struggled a bit when I caught the chest, but not nearly as much as he did. While I was sure my muscular strength was likely at least considered average by the standards of this world, I was sure that, were it not for the points I added to my Strength stat, I might not have been able to hold onto it at all. This man’s high level must be the only thing allowing him to even move the thing. The gold coins may be small, but they were frighteningly heavy once you piled them up.

Naturally. Gold was heavy, but getting to experience its weight first hand was exhilarating.

Seeing my struggle, Yua kindly set her backpack down on the floor and held it open for me. Grateful for the help and deciding that the chest’s un-closeable lid was going to be a problem if we tried to carry the thing by hand, I obliged her kindness. While anyone on the outside might have guessed that I was forcing her to carry the heavy chest, I was actually just stuffing it all into my item box so we didn’t have to overwork ourselves to transport it.

When it was nice and packed away and she stood up, moving easily enough to make the now non-existent chest full of gold appear as though it was weightless to her, the guards in the room all shot her impressed nods. Even though her effort was clearly a lie, I caught Yua smugly puffing out her chest to brag.

“Come on Yua,” I laughed. “Let’s get out of here.”

Deciding it was best to get out before anyone realized that her bag wasn’t bulging with the shape of the chest, I asked another of the endless stream of maids to lead us to the exit. I was lost trying to navigate the building the same way I would have been in the dungeons. On the way down here, I had been much too busy being excited to have paid any sort of attention on our way down here, so I was grateful they had someone waiting nearby to help us out.

Down a couple of halls, around a corner or two and past a few others making their way down to collect their coin, our maid attendant suddenly stopped in her tracks. Thinking she might have noticed our little magic trick, I was about to blurt out an excuse and say I actually hid it using a spell, something surely believable in this world, but she wasn’t even looking at us.

Instead, she bowed in the direction we were headed. With her hair dangling over her face to hide her expression, the only way I had to tell that she was calm was how still her shoulders were. But before I could say we were safe, I followed the direction of her bow to find the reason behind it walking towards us.

Wrapped up neat and proper in a set of some of the finest clothes I’d seen in all of Amoranth, though his thick gut put an obvious strain on the buttons holding it together, a short, stout man approached. Accompanied by a maid of his own, the very same I’d seem him with back during the auction, Lord Barrily strolled towards us, looking to be in a very good mood. And with his hand unashamedly and firmly pressed up under the back of the maid’s skirt, it wasn’t too hard to guess why. Her brightly blushing cheeks were just the icing on the cake. However, when he turned his exalted gaze towards Yua, his eyes widened a bit, almost like he recognized her, so I hurried to step in before he could get any ideas.

“Excuse me, Lord Barrily. I wanted to thank you for buying our ring.”

“What? Buying your… Oh, yes. The Silver Ring of Regeneration! That’s what you mean, yes?”

At first, looking both confused and annoyed that someone, anyone, would dare to interrupt his fondling, he sneered reproachfully at us. With his disgust palpable enough in his expression to make even the dungeon-experienced Yua cringe and step back, he must have instantly assumed by our lackluster appearances that we were of a lower birth than he, and that we were therefore undeserving of his time. Which, in all honesty, was probably technically true by this world’s standards, but as soon as I mentioned the ring, he was all smiles.

“No, kid. Thank you for finding it!”

He gave me a slight bow, almost a nod, really. Though he clearly didn’t feel it necessary to actually lower himself before a commoner, he did lower his head enough to need to take his hand off the maid to keep his gut from forcing him to fall face first into the carpet. The maid was just as surprised to be rid of his touch as she was with his words. As if he’d never said the words “thank you” in his entire life.

“Uh, um, Lord Barrily, you don’t need to lower your head to someone like me.”

“Perhaps not, but you do have my gratitude. You see, I bought that ring for my son a few years ago. He practically begged me for it, saying it would help him in the dungeons and that’d he’d be the first to clear the whole thing. He was a youthful fool, but… spoiled as I let him become, I could never say no to him.”

Lord Barrily’s eyes took on a more somber look before he continued unprompted, showing some of the desperation I heard in his voice when he cast his final bid.

“I bought it and he went to fight in the dungeons. He seemed to be faring just fine in there and always came back home with a enormous, ridiculous smile on his face whenever he beat a boss. He’d force me to sit at the dinner table as he exalted me in all the fine details of his triumph, as if he were a knight returning from the battlefield with a handful of tales meant to woo a maiden. He continued like this for months… That ring was supposed to keep him safe, keep me from having to worry, but one day he never came back home.”

As he shared the story of his lost son, the Lord’s shoulder slumped, his deeply mournful expression stealing away with any of the dignity he had as a noble and for a minute, I almost forgot who he was. Even the maid he had ruthlessly been fondling, furrowed her brow respectful amount of sympathy for his tale.

I, on the other hand, was lost.

“Sorry,” Lord Barrily said, clearing his throat. “Here I am trying to thank you, only to end up whinging.”

“H-Hardly. But are you saying that ring used to be your son’s? That exact one? As in, it’s not a copy or one with a similar enchantment?”

I hadn’t considered the possibility that he didn’t think to check the ring in more detail to make sure before he dropped what was essentially a lifetime’s supply of gold on it. Had he found purchase to have been a mistake, he might try to dispute the purchase before we left and since he was in better standing with the auction house than we were, I had little doubt they’d side with him, regardless of worldly laws.

But before I could work out if the contract I signed had any sort of loophole that would allow him to take his coin back, he blew away my expectations and just nodded back with a small, confident smile.

“Most definitely. I wasn’t sure if it was one and the same at first, but once I saw the demonstration, knew I had to squeeze my way through the crowd for a closer look. When I saw it, saw the positioning of the rubies, I was positive. I remembered it in detail from when I first bought it and engraved it in my mind the second my son put it on his finger. He always favored the color red, so it suited him perfectly.”

“But if the ring was his, how did it end up in a chest in the dungeon?”

For some reason, my question made Lord Barrily clench his fist in an attempt to stop his apparent sadness from reaching his face. Seeing that I was missing something deeply important to the conversation, Yua explained for me.

“Master, when you find something like that in a dungeon, it is almost always an item that used to belong to someone that died fighting the monsters. Sometimes it might have just been dropped, but it’s unlikely.”

Confused by her switching back to calling me Master, I watched as the joy that nearly had her bursting quickly fade away, making her ears and tail fall limp. She and the two maids collectively lowered their chins to stare at their feet, none willing to join the conversation between their masters past that short explanation.

But doesn’t that mean that everything we found in the dungeon chests used to belong to somebody that died? Thinking about it like that, I suddenly felt like a piece of shit for selling everything we found without any hesitation or question about their origins.

“Anyway,” Lord Barrily composed himself. “Thank you for finding it and giving me the chance to buy it back. It’ll be nice to have something of his to remember my son by. Good day.”

He let out a long sigh and, after putting his hand on his maid’s back to guide her, he started towards the money changer again, only to stop when he happened to meet Yua’s eyes.

“You, girl… you’re the one that was always causing trouble for DeGrave, am I right?”

Yua’s mouth fell open, unable to respond. It was all she could do to nod sheepishly.

“Hmph. I thought so,” he said, eyeing me as well. “He told me his intentions for you and I do have an inkling that you being here may have uprooted those intentions, but… as a favor to you both for bringing me the ring, I’ll forget I saw you here today. If anything, I’m grateful for the fact that he won’t have to come crying to me to replace all the men you brutalized.”

“I-I’m sorry for the trouble I caused, My Lord. And thank you very much.”

“Th-Thank you.”

Seeing Yua, the same woman that would go on a full rampage in front of her former master that literally held property over her soul, bow her head in apology to this man, I had to wonder just how high up on the food chain he really was. And considering how the maids didn’t so much as utter a word in complaint when he fooled around with them, he must truly be a powerful man.

“Think nothing of it,” Lord Barrily said magnanimously. “The man was always too full of himself. Got a little too thick in the head once his sense for trade kicked in. Fool should have just brought you to auction and been done with you. But there’s nothing to be done about it now. Who knows what sort of thoughts were running through that head of his? He does bring in good coin, at least. That’s all that matters.”

Unwilling to further the conversation, he gave the maid’s back a small push, as if urging her forward to allow him a chance to make his leave before he could say any more about his business partner, or from the sound of things, his underling. As he left us, seemingly in a calmer mood, I noticed he had stopped groping the maid and that she too was walking easier.

I was still on the fence about using that man’s money for our own profit, knowing where it came from. But it was knowing that he not only knew of Alphonse’s plans and that almost all the rest of the coin we’d earned in the dungeon came from those that lost their lives down there that made it all the harder to take in.

As I contemplated this, Lord Barrily was well on his way down the hall when I heard him say something more to his maid that helped me to smile a bit.

“… And to think, I was planning on sitting out the auction today. What luck. I’ll have to thank old man Morin and tell him to give that apprentice of his a good reward on my behalf. Poor man bloodied himself just to bring me that message.”

Yua’s ears flicked, having heard him too, and she grinned knowingly.

The maid that guided us through the building finally brought us back to the front lobby and opened the door for us. Wanting to quickly be done with the place, we hurried through and thanked her. She looked a bit surprised when she heard that small platitude, like she was expecting to be ignored, but bowed to us with a smile as we left.

“Oh man. That’s a huge weight off my shoulders,” I said, stretching my hands up towards the clear blue sky.

“It sure is,” Yua nodded. “What should we do now?”

“Hmm…”

Using my menu, I shifted the gold we’d just earned into the much larger treasure chest we found in the dungeon, after leaving out the excess coin we would be allowed to keep after Yua’s contract was paid off. With this, we’d be able to pay off our debt in one lump sum, no doubt screwing over Alphonse’s plans just like Lord Barrily suggested.

Seeing that I had gained several times the gold I’d started with, I suddenly felt like splurging a little. But we still had some important matters to attend to.

“Let’s head straight to DeGrave Imports and deal with Alphonse as soon as we can so we can enjoy the rest of our day, together.”

“Okay!”

Once more ignoring her own earlier request, Yua grabbed hold of my hand and dragged me down the street past all the carriages still awaiting the auction’s finish. Seeing her unclouded smile burning so bright in the afternoon sun, and with her tail propelling her forward down the street, it was almost like she was actually the happier one between the two of us.

And that was a thought that made my heart flutter.