Kapitel 30: Pimp, Hero or a Saviour?

The auctioneer welcomes all the guests that gathered here and starts explaining the rules of today's event. The merchandise will be introduced one by one, with some exceptions for bulk packages, and anyone can raise their hand to take part in the bidding. The price gets raised to the amount they offer or, if there's no suggestion, by a specific number, to allow more seamless flow of the competition. 1 gold per bid under 25 coins, 5 per bid under 50, 10 per bid under 100, and the amount gets higher and higher along with the total price.

After three calls from the last bid, the one who has given it wins the product and no one has any rights to complain. The slave will be delivered to the exchange room after all of the assortment gets presented, as the woman from before explained to me. There, people can trade their prizes with others, selling is also allowed. As long as the highest bidder claims ownership and pays up, the organization doesn't involve itself with his decisions anymore. That said, any violence, extortion or malicious intent is prohibited as all guests are still under the protection of the hosts.

No one voices out any disagreements and the leading man starts bringing forth slaves. While they do look better than most found in the slavery companies or at travelling slavers, those are still races that can be considered nothing more than uncommon. A lot of Beastkin, Elves, Dwarves of various characteristics are being presented at first. Nothing that surprising, they will most likely save the precious ones for the last. Not that many people bid in the first hour and the prices usually don't reach 100 gold coins. A pure-blood black panther Beastkin male gets sold for the most.

More rare merchandise starts being introduced after around two hours in. Lamias, Centaurs, Satyrs, Lizardfolk, Ogres and such. Also some aquatic races, but they do not garner that much attention due to the capital being located along the shoreline of the biggest ocean on this continent. Bidding prices start reaching hundreds depending on the shown individual. I send Cornelia a notice, saying that this might be the spot and they should start committing more forces to my position. I ask her to wait for my final decision before they act.

Many people have joined the competition already, but Claw still sits on his sofa completely unmoved as if waiting for something. There were already at least a few quite unique slaves presented on the stage and yet he didn't even try to bid for them. He told me that he's a collector, so that's a little suspicious behaviour. He does not look like someone who has to sacrifice everything to save his money for when something ultra-exotic shows up.

I observe him cautiously for some more time, participating in the fight for a few slaves to show the crowd that I'm not completely passive. I join only the most heated races and overbid the winning person a few times to suck out more of their wealth before backing down. The girls all snuggle to me trying to cheer me up after supposedly 'failed' attempts, earning us even more angry glares from the men around and some jealous ones from their wives or partners.

The latest slave leaves the scene with the presenter and most of the lights turn a few notches down, enveloping the chamber in dim light. Some of the lighting crystals are aimed towards the stage as he reappears and bows.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! I believe it's time to finally touch on some of the more valuable items we have to offer! Feast your eyes on the first gem of tonight's auction!"

The crowd starts clapping enthusiastically while the man grabs the aforementioned slave and pulls them to the front. Suddenly, everyone begins cheering. An unimaginably beautiful Dark Elf woman appears from behind the curtains. Her long, bountiful purple hair goes perfectly with her dark brown skin and dazzling yet immensely elegant face. Besides metal manacles on her hands and feet, all chained together and pinned to the stage, she's only wearing a thin and narrow piece of material in the fashion of a circle, hanging from her neck, barely covering the nipples of her voluptuous and perky breasts, and similarly semi-transparent, seductive loincloth protecting her nether regions.

With a body that could make even a goddess jealous, she quickly wins every man's attention. Her alluring figure captivates you the very moment you lay your eyes on that perfectly toned body. It's no surprise that almost all males lost their minds when she was brought forth. Even being a demi-human can't stop these racists from lusting after such beauty and the fact that Elves and Dark Elves are considered the least 'inhumane' just adds fuel to the lust fire. There's no doubt that she would end up a sex toy, raped and abused until she breaks and loses her worth in the eyes of the owner, most likely getting disposed after.

"As expected, this product has instilled quite the reaction! As you all are aware, Dark Elves are extremely rare in this part of the world and it just so happens that we have this exquisite specimen in our hands. And not only does she possess such a brilliant body, but she's even an untouched virgin—"

"FIVE HUNDRED GOLD COINS!"

The man in the white tiger mask abruptly stands up and shouts from the top of his lungs, before the presenter even finishes his speech. I move my eyes to his position and see him standing there with his fists clenched strongly. From my spot, I catch a glimpse of the side of his face and just this little detail makes my eyes go wide. There's no doubt that he's smiling. And it's not just your everyday smile, no, I can literally feel in my bones how twisted it must look under that mask.

~Begin… Now…~

I quickly send Cornelia the signal to start the operation. I have a very bad feeling about this guy and even if no slave can leave the premises of this place before the event ends, I'm not going to take any risks with him giving off vibes like that. After his exclamation, the whole hall falls silent and no one dares to even look his way now. This is not your usual reaction, even if he sounded quite intimidating. Something is on.

"Can you raise for me, baby?" I turn to one of the girls by my side and stroke her cheek.

"Eh? Are you sure you want to go against… him?" She asks hesitantly.

「Yep. Looks like people do know that guy. All equal and anonymous, right.」

With my hand over her shoulder, I begin tracing circles above her exposed cleavage. "Don't worry, he's nothing compared to me, sweetie. Hit him hard." I chuckle and she giggles a bit while squirming under my caresses.

"Five hundred for the second ti—"

"Eight hundred~♪"

Before the auctioneer confirms the bid for the second time, a melodic voice travels through the silent hall, topping the previous amount. Everyone looks towards its source and their gazes land on me, sitting, or rather almost lying, while surrounded by a bunch of gorgeous women. Claw also turns around and spots me. I wave my hand at him nonchalantly.

"You!"

People start whispering amongst themselves, most likely shocked that someone dared to stand up to the previous bidder. Suddenly, shivers run down my spine and my eyes instinctively move to the person sitting near the white tiger guy. I just know that he's staring daggers at me very intently. I can feel our gazes lock even through the masks.

「He feels dangerous. I better keep an eye on that dude.」

"NINE HUNDRED!" Claw obviously doesn't just sit back down and raises the bid.

I bump another girl with my elbow.

"One thousand~♪"

"Wha—?!"

Looks like he didn't expect me to continue, perhaps assuming that I wanted to just tease him a little. Too bad, I'm going to play this game until the very end. Let's see how much money he can cough up.

"FIFTEEN HUNDRED!" He shouts to the auctioneer and turns back to me with arms crossed over his chest.

I give more instructions to the girls so that they can top him instantly, without waiting for my orders.

"Two thousand~♪"

He drops his hands in shock. "I told you to not get in my way, didn't I?! Twenty-two hundred!"

"I don't remember agreeing though." I nod my head and another girl raises the bid.

"Three thousand, hehehe~♪"

He takes a step back, wavering a little. "Is this the fun you've been looking for?!" he shouts at me accusingly.

"I mean… I guess? The ladies here seem to be having lots of fun, no?" I spread my arms and shrug while the women giggle to each other and stroke my chest or the sides of my face.

"Fuck off, you prick! Back down now or I'll make sure to completely erase your whole lineage to the very last, living root!" He clenches his fists again while shouting his threats.

"Oi, oi. Is this how a fair auction is supposed to be conducted? Your dirty mouth will cost you a bit since I felt offended. Go for it, my dear."

"Fifteen thousand, ohohohohoho~♪"

Everyone gasps from the sudden increase while Claw looks utterly shook by it. His butler helps him catch the balance before he falls.

"No way! There's no way some no-name has so much money! He's just fucking around! I demand you to kick him out!"

He furiously turns towards the auctioneer which slowly starts panicking, glancing from him to me in turns, seemingly judging if he can risk upsetting this guy even more by not complying. He might have partially accepted that I may be some hidden bigshot.

"Verify it then, I don't mind."

I wave my hand at the presenter and he quickly jumps off the stage and runs to me. I extend my hand and let him take a peek inside my storage ring. He goes almost completely pale after noticing the sheer number of platinum coins, which should border around five hundred. Of course, they are not completely mine, it's just borrowed money specifically for this operation and I'll return it to the King immediately after. The man steps back and prostrates himself before me, surprising all the onlookers and evoking even more whispers of confusion. He stands up and confirms my bid for the second time without moving back from my spot.

"WHAT?! Are you fucking kidding me?! How much money does this asshole ha—"

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

A big explosion occurs somewhere near and the whole hall shakes heavily, making many people who are standing fall to the ground.

*BOOOOOOOOOOOM*

Another one follows soon after but from the opposite side. Looks like the party is on the way to its encore. Everyone starts screaming and looking around. Someone bursts in through one of the entrances in the back while shouting.

"WE HAVE BEEN EXPOSED! EVERYONE RUN!"

As if a few screams weren't enough, the chamber gets flooded by shouts and shrieks as people begin rushing towards all exits, trampling each other along the way. No rules apply, just run before they get you. Nothing surprising, most of those people are just some sheltered nouveau riche kiddos seeking attention and I bet they barely know how to defend themselves. Some sounds of battle arrive from the open doorways. Metal clashing against metal, more screaming, magical effects from spells and such. It's not that the King's men are slaughtering everyone, their objective is to capture people alive for interrogation, but employees and guards from the organization don't plan to go down without a fight.

All the girls who were around me are already long gone. Only a few unlucky men and women, picking themselves up from the ground, are still in the hall, and like seven guards on the sides.

"Iyyyyyaaaa!"

A scream of a woman hits my ears and I instantly turn around.

「This fucker!」

When everyone was running for their lives, Claw rushed to the stage and is currently wrestling with the Elf girl on top of it. She's trying to push him away while he struggles to unhook the part of her chains which is locked to the floor. I quickly drop the mask, pull out a violet cloth belt from my ring and tie it around my head. All soldiers should have been briefed about this symbol, making them recognize me as an ally. I break into a run towards the scene as a few of the assailants reach this chamber and begin their skirmish with the guards.

I use Voidal Bondage to summon four Void Chains while I approach the stage and restrict his hands and feet with constraints rising from around him. As I jump onto the platform, he finally notices me charging at him.

"Zaaaaeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed! Kill that bastard right now!"

Before I reach the guy, the butler crosses my path.

"Young Master does not have to worry himself, I'll gladly dispose of this trash in a blink."

He brings out two large knives, almost as big as shortswords, from under the back of his suit. Taking off his rabbit mask, he assumes a fighting stance in front of me.

「Old man with grey hair, check. Servant to some bratty young master, check. Double knives and an aura of an expert, check. Yep. Definitely lethal. 2/10, wouldn't recommend.」

I quickly take out my silvery hilt and activate it, shaping up a shortsword first. My opponent hesitates for a moment seeing the weird smoke coil around my arm and create a colourful, fade purple blade in my hand. I point it to the ground by my side in a neutral stance. I can go for lots of moves from it.

"I've already blinked thrice yet I'm still standing, old man. I'd say you are the first one to wither away if we engage in a waiting contest." I try provoking him, but he doesn't take the bait that easily.

Just staring won't get us anywhere, so I summon more Void Chains and try catching him, but the butler swiftly dances around the void ropes striking from the ground, evading the next six attempts with ease. His reaction speed is quite something. After the last one, he finally lunges at me with his knives.

I manage to block the first attack, making it slide along my own blade to the side, but he promptly follows with a myriad of cuts and thrusts in close quarters, pushing me back with each action. Somehow, I'm able to avoid any deep wounds while parrying his attacks, but his relentless barrage doesn't give me even the slightest opportunity for a counter. The difference in our skill and battle experience is obvious and time definitely works to his advantage.

Revitalizing my body with Rejuvenate, I act like I'm stumbling over my own feet. He doesn't let go of this chance and launches a forward, x-shaped slash right into my chest. Before it connects, I firmly fix my faked posture and block it by holding my sword vertically with two hands. His knives bounce off the sides of my blade with a loud clink and I push him back with a shoulder bash.

Finally gaining a chance for a counterattack, I begin my own flurry of blows, inserting as much strength into my slices as I can muster, since power is the only way for me to beat his high agility. He gracefully parries or evades most of my attacks but these that hit, throw his guard around, evoking a slight grimace on his face with each contact.

「Thank god the other guy is a pussy or I'd stood no chance in two against one with my current abilities.」

We engage in a wild dance with metal clashing against metal, or perhaps metal clashing against crystalized mana, but who cares. None of us gains any significant advantage and I can't really use my recently acquired trump card thoughtlessly. With his reflexes and smarts, he won't fall for it twice. At the same time, I can't keep draining my mana reserves with Rejuvenate forever.

*BOOOOOOOOOM*

Another explosion occurs and he wavers a little on his feet. I quickly launch myself at the butler with a straight thrust, aiming for his heart. Just as my blade is going to puncture his body, a rogue smirk appears on his face and his whole posture blurs, disappearing from my sight. I've fallen for his feint, but I'm not that stupid to not realize what's coming after. I frantically jump forwards and feel one of his knives leave a shallow, horizontal cut on my shoulder line from behind. A second slower and that would have been my neck.

I fall onto the ground and roll to my back just to see two blades coming down straight at me. I barely react in time, but manage to block them by positioning my sword flat on my left forearm in front of my face. He succeeds in pinning me down with his knives just centimetres from my neck. We enter a strength contest.

"That was a decent fight, but it seems like you lack any significant offensive skills and trying to challenge me with just your techniques was your bane, youngling." He smiles while applying more body weight onto me.

"Yeah… I might be lacking… in skills… but I have… something better… old man..."

I try to speak without giving him more chances to push further and he raises his brow at me. I am the one who starts smirking this time.

"Creativity!"

All at once, I push myself upwards, dematerialize the blade and lock my legs around his waist. The knives fall through the smoke, but only graze the sides of my neck due to my sudden movement, leaving two shallow cuts on it, still painful though. As his eyes widen in surprise, I entwine my arms behind his neck and pull myself closer, hitting his forehead with mine, but not as an attack. I cast Carnal Mist at its full power, creating the smoke in my lungs and strongly blow it straight at his face.

He lets go of his weapons and rolls to the side, coughing heavily. Veins start popping up wherever his skin is visible and his eyes literally roll backwards. I materialize my weapon again and approach him frantically rolling around while scraping his face. Before the effect takes over his body completely, turning him into a sex-craving beast, I swiftly behead the butler.

I heal the wounds on my neck just enough so they don't bleed and take a glance around. A few of the knights are engaged in a fight with the organization's guards on the other end of the hall while the masked bastard stands behind the Elf girl, holding a knife to her throat.

"Why?! Why, why, why, why?! Why do you target me?!" he screams at me.

I furrow my brows in confusion. "Target you? You mean the bidding?"

"You stole everything from me! All the women's attention I've garnered went to shit when you appeared! You strolled through every corner of this damned place, seducing every girl I worked my ass off to make fawn over me! And if that wasn't enough, you even went for the slave I've chosen! What are you after?!"

「Oh, for fuck's sake, this kid is a definition of an attention whore...」

I slowly walk towards him while spreading my arms. "Listen, I didn't mean to clash with you, they all just flocked to me without a reason, okay?"

"Don't take even one more step further!"

I shake my head after stopping. "It doesn't have to end like this, Claw."

"Fuck you! If I can't have her, no one will! Especially not you! Drop your weapon right now or I'll slice off her head!"

I sigh, make the blade disappear and wave the hilt at him. "Look. I turned the artifact off. Now, I'm going to drop it to the ground in front of your eyes, so don't hurt her."

"Just fucking do it!" he shouts, pressing the knife harder to her skin.

I hold the relic between my fingers by the crystal on its end and release it while looking him in the eyes, visible through the holes in his mask.

"Good. Now step back and go fuck yourse—"

As the dragon's maw approaches the ground, I close my eyes and focus my mind on it. I feel some of my mana leave my body as I keep the hilt envisioned in my head.

*SHIIIIIIIIIING*

The man stops talking after a familiar sound reaches my ears. I open my eyes, which are directed to the ground, and see the handle with its materialized blade shoved halfway into the floor, surrounded by some of the purple mist. Moving my gaze up, I spot a wide, violet sword, sticking out vertically from the ground between the guy's legs, reaching even higher than his head, splitting him cleanly into two perfect halves. I wince a little while imagining the scene of it emerging from the ground and puncturing that certain part of his body.

The Elf woman turns around, surprised by the sudden silence and the knife falling from the hand of her assailant, and cries out in shock, watching as the two parts of him lean to the sides and hit the ground with a soundly plop, leaving just the big blade behind her.

"Ahhhhh!"

She subconsciously tries moving away, but still being chained to the floor, she just falls down too. I dispel all my magic, grab the hilt, collect the butler's weapons into my ring and walk closer to her. She looks at me slightly terrified. Kneeling by her side, I extend my hand towards her and speak in Elvish.

"It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you. If you follow me, I can get you out of this place safely."

Her eyes widen when hearing me speak her language and she visibly hesitates, glancing over the man's body and my smiling face. I look to the side just in time to notice a stray Firebolt flying straight at her. Without a moment of hesitation, I quickly cover her with my own body and the spell hits my back, turning to ashes a chunk of my clothes, scorching part of my skin and pushing me slightly forward.

"Guuh! Fuuuuuuck!"

I groan after hitting the ground.

"Saviour!"

The woman breaks out from her hesitation and calls to me while crawling to my position.

I cast Rejuvenate at its full power to quickly patch up the wound and notice another type of warmth entering my body. Turning my head around, I see the Elf barely reaching my back with her hands and casting some kind of healing magic. With combined efforts, we manage to deal with it pretty quickly and I sit up near her while keeping an eye on the guys fighting on the other side.

"Thank you." I bow my head to her.

"No, I should be one giving thanks to you. And I'm sorry. It was all because I hesitated." She bows hers even lower.

Being this close to her, I start noticing some finer details, like silvery rings piercing her long ears or how graceful her whole posture looks, besides the already obvious, alluring body with large breasts. I can hardly keep myself from staring at those impressive mountains. I stand up and help her do the same before she notices my lewd gaze.

"Will you trust me then? I have a place where you can take shelter for the time, and you will be free to leave it anytime."

She smiles and nods. "Yes. I'll leave myself in your hands, my Saviour."

I've been called many things in my life, but it's the first time someone addresses me as a saviour. Even though I don't want to show that it makes me a little excited and proud, the faint smile appearing on my face as I break her chains with my sword, completely betrays me. I extend my hand to her and she grabs it with confidence.

After taking two steps, I feel like I'm tugging her, so I turn around and see her looking back to where the curtain is. She clenches her other hand into a fist as if resolving herself, and turns to me with a slightly forced smile, beginning to run again.

I grab her by the shoulder. "What is it?"

She shakes her head. "It's nothing. I can't inconvenience my Saviour even more."

"Your Saviour tells you to speak." I look straight into her pretty, violet eyes.

"Some of my… subjects… are still being held in the storage chamber at the back. But I can't possibly—"

"But I'm the one making the final decision here, right? Lead the way." I gesture with my eyes for her to go the opposite way than we were planning to.

She smiles enchantingly, nods and begins guiding me towards the backstage while still holding onto my hand. I give her the knives just in case and we push our way through the guards without too many issues. With her acting as a frontliner, I can focus on attacking from unexpected angles with my whip and Void Chains. She's quite nimble and well-versed in combat too, so she just focuses on dodging and striking safely.

We reach the storage room with cages in around fifteen minutes. There are tens of slaves still locked here. She quickly leads me further into the chamber and stops by one almost completely covered from each side.

"It's here. They should still be inside." She looks at me expectantly.

I take a big swing and easily slice through the lock in the gate. This mana blade is really sharp and cuts through iron or even weaker steel like through butter. The Elf opens the cage and jumps inside. Shortly after, she guides five other Dark Elf women outside, all of them being not that far from their friend's gorgeous figure. They line up in front of me and bow politely after the first one quickly explains that I'm her saviour. There is just one small problem...

"Oh come, fucking, on! You had at least these cloths barely covering anything, yet why do all of them have to be completely naked?"

I rub my temples and speak in Elvish as the sight of 5 stark-naked elf beauties enters my eyes. Ten voluptuous breasts sway in front of my face, waving their perky nipples and dark areolas at me while small patches of hair peek out from above their nether regions. With each small movement, their alluring bodies just send waves of seductive signals at me, and even a little bit of juicy pink flashes from time to time from between their legs.

The only dressed one steps to the front. "I'm sorry, I should have let you know beforehand, my Saviour. I didn't think that looking at our bare bodies might be unpleasant…" She bows even lower than before with a tinge of guilt in her voice, misunderstanding my question completely.

"Unpleasant? Yes, it's extremely unpleasant. As much as trying to fight for your life with a throbbing hard-on can be."

I roll my eyes and literally point at my crotch. All of them follow my gesture and their dark brown cheeks show a little bit of barely visible crimson after they spot a visible bulge down there.

"We better find you something to cover yourselves or I'll have to walk the whole way back like a penguin," I say while mimicking the movements of one.

Some of the girls giggle and the main one smiles kindly. "I'll thank you for this compliment on behalf of all of us, dear Saviour. We'll try to pick something up from the fallen guards along the way."

"Good. And I'm Alastair. Al for short. No need to call me Saviour the whole time. I haven't yet managed to save you anyway."

"My name is Elea and those girls are my subjects. I think it will be better to introduce all of them in a safer place to not cloud Saviours mind with unnecessary names. You can refer to them by their hair as of now," she explains while gesturing over them.

"As Princess suggests." The one with short, silvery-white hair agrees.

「Figured out she's some kind of a royal with all the subject talk before. Oh well, I guess I'm a Hero saving a kidnapped Princess now.」

"Great. Let's move. Everyone stick close to me and grab a weapon if you find one. Time to get out of here before one of the explosions disintegrates something much more important than a bunch of slavers."