Slave Market (6)
Slave Market (6)
The noisy underground slave market. The auction was in full swing.
The sounds of people getting heated could be heard. Customers who looked loaded were parading their slaves around like trophies, clinging to them.
Cheong-ui Gongja sat in a plush chair wearing a ridiculous hahoe mask. It was a mask used by patrons here to hide their identities. They'd handed them out at the entrance upon entry.
He'd stuck fake mustache onto the hahoe mask. It looked funny, but it was a disguising mustache with genuine mystical effects. It made other people see him as more 'natural.'
Thanks to the mustache, he'd infiltrated easily.
Muk Seo-ah was supposed to appear in this auction. Cheong-ui Gongja planned to buy and rescue her along with the most expensive slave in the auction.
That way, drawing the boss's attention and making contact with him—that was the goal of this operation.
He'd scouted the trading post beforehand. The most valuable slaves always came out last.
Sure enough, people were holding back their money. The priciest slave would be the tipping point of this auction battle.
But no matter how long Cheong-ui Gongja waited, Muk Seo-ah didn't show.
'Something's wrong.'
A bad premonition hit him.
At that moment, staff dragged a rectangular steel frame onto the stage where the auction was underway.
A woman with her wrists and ankles bound to the frame was visible. She had a blindfold over her eyes and small earplugs in her ears.
Her mouth was gagged. Eyes, ears, and mouth completely sealed, limbs restrained. The naked woman bound to the frame wore a strange chastity belt that wouldn't stop its intense vibrations.
Her lewdly eye-catching body glistened with sweat and oil. A seductive fragrance wafted from her.
She thrashed her head silently in ecstasy. Her waist bucked wildly forward, making the frame rattle. She was being driven relentlessly to the brink of climax.
But she could never quite reach it.
From her gagged mouth, drool poured out as she let out tortured, lascivious moans.
「You've waited so long! The final item—a body like it was born to be a sex slave! A captured former exorcist! It took quite the effort to break her in!」
The auctioneer removed the blindfold from the woman bound to the frame. Her glazed, dilated pupils met Cheong-ui Gongja's.
It was Muk Seo-ah. Cheong-ui Gongja's blood ran cold.
In that instant, a folding screen appeared in Cheong-ui Gongja's mind.
'Hyungnim! The operation's failed! Run away!'
Hwang Ga-bi's voice rang out from the mental folding screen. He turned around to see every hahoe mask-wearer charging straight at him.
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A few days before the auction, slaves underwent training before being put up for sale. This was a rule of the slave market that Muk Seo-ah had just learned.
It made sense. Buyers were usually high-class yangban. If a rebellious slave attacked their master and fled, it'd be a huge problem.
They needed a process to train them to obey before the auction.
The trainer was also the broker. His own fighting skills were mediocre, but behind him stood Pungrang, a powerful exorcist. The other slaves shot the broker defiant glares but didn't dare harm him like they had on the first day.
「You've cleaned up nicely after bathing—looking good now. Watching you all, it seems you need some pretty harsh training. Everyone, eat this.」
The broker opened a box. Inside were pitch-black beads.
Muk Seo-ah recognized the resentment pills immediately. This was a deadly poison, made not with pharmacology but curses.
「Kekeke, it's yeommae. Not sure if you know it... but take one each.」
Yeommae. The most wicked of the wugu curses.
Normally made by starving someone to death. A constantly famished person loses their reason at even a tiny bit of food.
The orthodox yeommae involved starving someone for ages, then offering a porridge jar full of food to lure them in and kill them. It was infamous for its cruelty.
But to Muk Seo-ah, this wasn't standard yeommae. It wasn't made by shoving a person directly into a porridge jar to die—instead, it extracted grudging thoughts. And it didn't seem made from starvation either.
Getting hit by yeommae poison turns you exactly like the material it was made from.
In other words, starvation-made yeommae makes others starve too. It was hard to guess how this one was created.
The broker watched with bulging eyes.
The other slaves wept as they swallowed the yeommae pills reluctantly. Muk Seo-ah had no choice but to swallow hers too.
It's fine. She could get rid of it later. Worst case, she could use Cheon-ae-yuseon to destroy the yeommae poison. Muk Seo-ah wasn't the type to die from mere poison.
「All eaten? What you swallowed was yeommae made by Mr. Guk over 100 days, edging a woman without letting her climax. From now on, as sex slaves, you won't climax without your master's permission, and without the antidote, you'll die of organ failure in 7 days.」
The broker said mockingly. The slaves' faces turned grave.
The true nature of the yeommae was a time-bomb necklace to prevent escape. Without periodic antidotes, the poison would cause organ failure. They were inevitably bound to the slave market.
'No way in hell.'
Muk Seo-ah immediately called on Cheon-ae-yuseon.
Pajik. Cheon-ae-yuseon removed the yeommae poison. But something felt off.
It only excluded the organ failure death part—the remaining poison stayed intact. Cheon-ae-yuseon had only destroyed one part of the yeommae toxicity.
'What the hell. Why?'
Even Muk Seo-ah didn't know.
Cheon-ae-yuseon was a spell that rejected what she rejected. But its judgment criteria were vague. It was like some AI arbitrarily judging her preferences.
Cheon-ae-yuseon was never wrong. It was an incredibly advanced sorcery. If Cheon-ae-yuseon deemed it right, there was one reason: it considered even her subconscious tastes, making the optimal judgment.
According to Cheon-ae-yuseon, Muk Seo-ah preferred climax denial. That was her guess.
'Is this spell insane?'
No matter how pissed Muk Seo-ah got, it didn't change. Cheon-ae-yuseon wasn't a communicative being.
It was just a massive force that judged her preferences and smashed everything she disliked. And its judgment criteria differed slightly from her conscious mind. It was an omniscient standard considering all her tastes.
「If you don't wanna die, take the training seriously. Once you're fully trained sex slaves, then you'll get the antidote.」
The broker grinned sleazily. Muk Seo-ah and the other slaves shot him eyes full of resentment.
=================================
Training Day 1. The broker brought some liquor.
He poured clear sake from a gourd bottle and passed it around to the slaves.
「Drink up.」
「Hell no! Who knows what you spiked it with?」
Clang! A woman named Juye hurled her cup. The broker dodged nimbly, but the flying cup smashed on the floor.
The broker twisted his face and grabbed Juye's throat.
「Aaaack!」
「You fucking bitch.」
「Get your hands off Juye!」
Ha Young-su charged at the broker. He was Juye's childhood friend. They'd hung out as friends forever, then one day he confessed successfully, and they became lovers.
They were still in the fresh early days of dating, not even holding hands yet. They'd been walking night streets together when bandits kidnapped them, landing them in the slave market.
But becoming slaves didn't break their spirits. Seeing the broker hit his lover made Ha Young-su's blood boil.
「I said get your hands off her!」
Thwack.
The broker kicked Ha Young-su in the gut.
Same gender, but there was a huge size difference between Ha Young-su and the broker.
Ha Young-su couldn't resist the power gap. He just rolled on the floor taking hits from the furious broker.
「Young-su!」
Juye jumped up in shock and ran over.
She checked his condition first. He was out cold. She immediately slapped the broker's cheek.
「What the hell are you doing!」
「What are you doing, you bitch? Still don't know your place and rebelling? Because you're acting out, your lover's the one getting hurt trying to protect you.」
The broker poked Juye's chest as he spoke. He had bright yellow hair and coppery tanned skin. He leered down at her with a sinister expression.
Juye flinched and trembled for a moment. Were guys supposed to be this big? Up close face-to-face, the height difference was huge. Playing with the smaller Young-su had always felt comfy. But this big guy scowling right in her face was intimidating.
Juye quickly hid her fear and growled. Like a puppy curling its tail and baring teeth. The broker handed her another cup.
「Drink.」
「Kuuh...」
She glanced around— the other female slaves had already drunk. Only the hulking former butcher and the silver-haired beauty still held their cups untouched.
Juye squeezed her eyes shut and chugged it. No choice. She had to protect Ha Young-su. It was a sacrifice for her boyfriend.
「Ahhat?!」
The moment she drank, a hot buzz spun through her head.
This booze was definitely not normal!
「Ugh, uuugh.」
The broker grabbed the staggering Juye's arm. Supporting her flushed, stumbling self, he opened the door and led her elsewhere.
The broker locked the room's padlock as he left, chuckling.
「Tough luck, girl. Only one cup had Mr. Guk's special brew, and you drew it. Or is it good luck? You'll feel amazing soon.」
「Uungh? G-good lu... what're you...」
Juye staggered away, led by the broker. Ha Young-su, beaten unconscious, finally woke up after a while, wiping nosebleed.
「J-Juye?」
Six people left in the room. Juye... seemed to have drawn a sort of 'jackpot.'
Muk Seo-ah's eyes gleamed as she spoke.
「The trading post's running a lottery on us. Only one of those drinks was different.」
The butcher dumped his plain takju onto the floor. He clenched his fist. Grinding his teeth.
「These bastards, worse than lowly cheonmin. Why lottery with booze? Playing with us?」
「Doesn't seem exactly like that. What's the trading post's goal? Turn us into sex slaves and sell us. Maybe they can only train one at a time?」
Everyone focused on Muk Seo-ah. Oops, talked too much. Seeing those relying eyes, she shut her mouth.
「Anyway, just my guess.」
「...You're awfully calm even in this mess.」
「We gotta escape. Report to the magistrate's office. They should know how to antidote yeommae, right?」
The butcher said. Biggest guy, strongest too, so he naturally became the leader. Luckily, attention shifted from Muk Seo-ah to him.
Muk Seo-ah was undercover—drawing eyes wasn't good.
The butcher was right. As real slaves, they had to escape.
「Tomorrow, another one'll drink the weird booze and get dragged. Let's plan an escape now. I could smash that damn broker and this door with my fists... but that green-haired exorcist is the problem.」
Pungrang was brainwashed, and she hadn't even seen Mr. Guk. Were the other exorcists doing okay?
Muk Seo-ah's head was starting to ache. Her axe was wailing. Complicated ops didn't suit her temperament.
That day, food came through the dog flap under the door.
First proper meal since capture. The slaves warily devoured it.
Then, one female slave bit into a skewer, then spat it out quick.
「Everyone stop. The food's laced with pig aphrodisiac.」
「These crazy fucks.」
Everyone had already eaten plenty. The effects seeped into their bodies.
Muk Seo-ah dropped her skewer. She'd eaten almost three times as much as the others.
'Ah, fucked.'
Cheon-ae-yuseon. Wipe out the aphrodisiac components.
Cheon-ae-yuseon gave its usual indifferent non-reaction this time too.