The Beginning of Salvation
“100 gold!”
“120 gold!”
“150 gold!”
On days when the slave auction took place, the Central Square was always this rowdy. Nobles and merchants with a bit of coin gathered in droves, thrusting their hands high and bulging the veins in their necks. Today, though, the fervor was especially feverish—easily three times hotter than when that special-grade female slave had gone up for bid not long ago.
“160 gold!”
“200 gold!”
“T-Two hundred gold has been bid!”
That frenzy finally eased a touch at the staggering sum of 200 gold. Bidders and spectators alike began to murmur. Two hundred gold coins. Anyone who knew that the average high-grade slave fetched less than 2 gold would grasp just how exalted this one's value was. An insane fortune that could buy a hundred high-grade slaves—or fifty special-grade ones. A pipe dream no commoner could ever touch in a lifetime of toil.
“Ooh! As expected of Count Lubran!”
“Hah, isn't Count Lubran a major shareholder in the Orient Caravan Company? Even so, 200 gold—befitting the backer of the kingdom's top trading firm!”
“Two hundred gold? Was Count Lubran that filthy rich?”
Everyone showered praise and awe on Count Lubran, the man who'd thrown out the bid. I just silently swallowed a groan. I'd joined the auction but hadn't placed a single bid yet. I glanced at Lubran. Beneath his long, twisted mustache, his greed-smeared lips curved in a smile, flaunting his vanity. Disgusting pig spawn. Infamous for snapping up slaves, working them mercilessly as sex toys, then dumping their corpses by the riverbank. And now this scum was grinning at the slave trembling like an aspen tree on the auction block.
My teeth ground together; I looked away, but there was nowhere safe to rest my eyes, so I bowed my head. Her—vital spots barely concealed by rags in place of gleaming plate armor. And the lechers endlessly gulping at the sight of her. Not a single spot to let my gaze linger.
“Kuhuhu~ Count Lubran's feasting well tonight, eh?”
“Look at those tits. So firm and juicy.”
“And certified virgin to boot. A virgin hero—rarer than a gold dragon. You'll get your fill tonight. Damn, I'm jealous~”
“That's why he bid 200 gold. Traitor slave or not.”
High treason. The charge that had plunged her—the hero who'd saved this world—from grace to slavery overnight. But I knew the truth. That it was a fabricated crime, pinned on her by the kingdom's scheme. I had no choice but to know.
“Two hundred gold! Any more for two hundred?!”
The auctioneer bellowed at the top of his lungs, signaling the close. Lubran laughed, smug with victory in his grasp. But that vile grin cut off sharp. At my single bid.
“Five hundred gold.”
Five hundred gold—enough to carve out a small fiefdom. But it didn't sting. It was only the modest sum I'd scraped together for her alone. Emilia... no, Choi Yoon-seo. Now, I would save you.