The Elven Slave and the Weight of a Thousand Gold Coins
The price of my body had barely reached five hundred gold coins?
Slave Market – Illicit Trade Detected
This place was no ordinary shop. Steel bars protruded at odd angles, and behind them huddled humans and various other races—trapped like animals waiting for the butcher.
What's strange about it? Most of the slaves here were women. They were usually sold to the entertainment districts near the market or bought by noble aides for their masters. When guards tried to raid the place, the nobles connected to it always stepped in to stop them. In the end, the illegal slave trade in Moncrito Kingdom had never been wiped out completely.
That was why these shops grew bolder every day, openly displaying slaves on the streets. It showed just how much influence they held over the kingdom.
And now, the most jaw-dropping news had reached this shop...
“What?! An elf?!”
“Yes. A peddler brought an elf slave.”
The shop employee told the owner everything he’d seen from the peddler’s wagon.
The owner didn’t even bother putting on his shoes and sprinted out front.
Out front stood a plain peddler’s wagon. The peddler, looking like the one who’d brought the elf slave, greeted the owner with a bright smile.
“Did you say an elf?”
“Yes. It’s an elf with an unbelievably beautiful appearance.”
“Not some half-breed hybrid elf, right?”
“Come take a look yourself.”
The owner didn’t even return the greeting and jumped straight into questioning the peddler. He suspected the man might have mistaken a cheap hybrid for an elf, but instead the peddler rolled back his wagon’s canvas with a confident grin.
Most people thought elves were always half-elves, and the two looked so similar that distinguishing them was nearly impossible. But that was only for ordinary people. Anyone who ran a slave shop could tell the difference just by looking at those pointed ears.
“Over here…”
The owner leaned in through the gap in the canvas and looked inside. The peddler had tied the elf up, and there she lay—limbs bound, sleeping peacefully beside him.
“It… It’s really an elf…”
An original 100% pure elf, something you hardly ever saw in a slave market, lay right in front of him. The owner stared for a long while, stunned.
Using that moment, the peddler stepped closer and launched into serious bargaining.
“Haha. How do you like her? Isn’t she top-tier?”
“Hm! Hm! Y-yes, she is.”
Thanks to the peddler’s words, the owner finally snapped out of his daze. He cleared his throat several times, straightened his expression, and began real negotiation.
“Fifty gold coins. How about it?”
“Haha, she’s not a half-elf—she’s a full elf. Fifty gold coins? I’ve heard elves start at two hundred gold, at least.”
The peddler threw out real market knowledge he’d gathered elsewhere so the owner wouldn’t treat him like an amateur.
The owner, slightly flustered, cleared his throat again and opened his mouth.
“Ah… I see, I was mistaken. Then… how about two hundred gold?”
“Haha, but even that’s only for ordinary elves. Look at that face. How does she compare to a normal elf? She looks at least S-rank or higher…”
The peddler kept bargaining as if it were a joke directed at the owner.
Finally, the owner’s temper snapped. He scowled and roared.
“Then how much do you want?!”
“How about five hundred gold? I’ll even give you a good deal.”
The owner’s face twisted with anger at the five hundred gold, but he paused, deep in thought. Five hundred gold was no small sum—even in the famously expensive capital, it could buy an entire house.
“If you don’t like it… go talk to the slave dealer next door.”
“Ah… A-all right! I’ll take five hundred gold!”
“Haha, thank you.”
Even this slave merchant, who owned many slaves, found five hundred gold burdensome. But dressing up this elf and selling her to the nobles would still be a profitable deal. Plus, with a rare elf like this, he could even bring her to the secret auction house. Nobles would compete fiercely there, and the merchant would pocket astronomical profits beyond the purchase price.
Once the deal was struck and the owner headed inside to get the money, the employee and peddler stepped into the wagon to free the elf…
“Kuuuugh!! I slept so well.”
The elf—tied up—had apparently slipped her bonds somehow. She stretched her arms wide and stretched herself out with a big yawn.
“How long did I sleep…?”
The peddler had fed me water from his flask and told me to pretend to sleep. I’d thought I was faking it, but I must have actually passed out. I hadn’t slept properly the day before after slaughtering orcs, so I’d fallen deep. A cold draft from the canvas being lifted woke me.
“Kuuuugh!! I slept so well.”
Feeling refreshed from a good rest, I stretched my body and let out a huge yawn. Someone in the wagon gasped in shock.
“She… She didn’t eat the sleeping potion…”
The peddler who’d given me the water and a strange man I’d never seen before stood beside me. Through the wagon window, I could already see the capital’s walls.
Originally, I’d chosen the wagon to sneak into the capital without walking the main road—skirting the reinforced gates easily. This was more than enough success. Plus, they’d brought me into the back alleys to avoid patrols. I almost felt like I should pay them a tip.
“Hey, you’re not even unloading her yet?”
Inside the wagon, the peddler and the unfamiliar man stood frozen, staring at me. Outside, a short, plump middle-aged man carrying a large sack appeared—clearly the slave dealer.
He too looked startled by my awakening and shouted, “What are you doing?! Grab her immediately! Put on the mana chains right now!”
He probably thought I might try to run. He yelled at the man inside the wagon. Only then did the man snap to his senses. He hurriedly jumped down and ran to fetch a mana chain.
From the mana aura radiating off the chain, it was no ordinary iron cuff.
I first traced the mana to analyze the magic circle engraved on it. Sure enough, it bound and sealed the wearer. No force or magic could break it—only the master who owned the chain could release the slave seal.
But that was only for those already bound…
Whack! Whack!
I still had my rapier at my waist. I drew it and swung it a few times in the air, the sharp whistle of cutting wind echoing around them. Every time they heard that sound, their shoulders jerked in surprise.
“How much did you plan to sell me for? A thousand gold? Or two thousand?”
Before attacking, I asked the peddler first. He’d already expected this—feeding me sleeping potion and selling me. The real question was at what price he’d agreed to sell me.
“Th-that… five hundred gold…”
“What?! Five hundred gold?! W-wait… that’s way too low!”
The moment I heard the price he’d agreed to, I couldn’t help but get angry. But then a thought struck me.
“You call this… a normal elf? In the human world, this is a high elf with an appearance no one sees. With this beautiful face and this sexy body, only five hundred gold?”
The sheer ridiculousness of my own body’s price reignited my narcissism. If I could sell myself, I’d happily pay ten thousand gold without blinking.
“Hah… a high elf, you say?!”
“Wh-what?! A high elf?!”
Even the peddler and the man outside the wagon with the sack shouted in unison from behind me.
They’d planned to sell me as an elf to the slave dealer without even knowing I was a high elf…
Yeah… well…
I didn’t really know the difference between ordinary elves and high elves either. Visually, there was no obvious distinction. High elves might simply look a bit more refined because they were nobles in the elf world. Other than that, I couldn’t tell any clear difference.
“No. And do you even know the bounty on Hero Party member Lowell?”
“Around one thousand gold…”
“You knew and still planned to sell me to that pig uncle for five hundred gold?!”
The peddler stopped mid-sentence, eyes wide with shock, staring straight at my face. Outside, the slave dealer exploded with rage at the “pig uncle” insult.
“Th-that’s… that’s…”
“Lowell Titania Sileos. That’s me—right here.”
Only then did the peddler realize my true identity. He looked like he’d seen a ghost and stumbled backward. The man holding the mana chain dropped it and fled, yelling “Run! Run for your lives!”