The moment the two went out, Senna thought it was obviously still early in the morning but puffs of heat were already emitting from the sandy grounds beneath her feet.
Senna couldn't be grateful enough how after Iris returned, he lent her the pair of sandals he borrowed from Risus.
They were slightly big for the slender girl's feet as he thought but it was better than walking barefoot in such crucifying desert heat.
With sweat already running down her pale neck, the two started to walk on the small and empty road of the residential street.
Calling it a residential street was exaggerating since there was never anything other than houses in Iris' district since people living there were so poor that commerce wouldn't survive.
Still, Iris thought that it was pleasant to stay in such a rundown environment; it was quiet and the incidence of violence and crime rates were low.
It wasn't long until they reached a higher district as they entered through an archway made of wood.
The city of Ark was made up of twelve districts that divided the people based on social status. The higher people were on the social strata, the closer they were to the castle of Triumph which was on the very center of the huge city.
If you'd walk from the outskirts up towards the castle, you'd really feel the difference between the different districts.
First of all, every district was separated from one another by surrounding walls that would boast the financial capabilities of the ones living within. Each had its own trademark type of architecture with the streets and pavements unnaturally shifting from sand to more expensive gravel and stone from one district to another. And it wasn't enough how every district was located higher than the ones before it; the walls itself stood taller and taller the nearer they were to the center.
Senna thought it was pitiful how the humans separated themselves this way. 'Were the humans really this simple as to want to vaingloriously emphasize their superiority and look down on others?'
While on their way to the sixth district, as they were still in the middle of climbing a very steep, high and wide stairway, Iris pulled Senna out of the bricked path and made her crawl down under the bushes on the side.
"What are we doing?" Senna asked Iris in panic.
"We can't just enter through the following districts' gates from here on. Guards are authorized to kill anyone from the lower districts who would enter without a pass from someone living inside its walls."
Senna remembered how she sprinted her way up to the open park at the edge of the fourth district.
Compared to how scary Iris explained getting inside was, she got in quite easily yesterday when she looked for a good vantage point of the city.
Though she was definitely foreign in both place and time, she was well aware of her definitely above average appearance. Senna didn't say anything more and just assumed that the guards might have thought that she was from a very rich family in the upper districts as Iris also thought.
Human nature hasn't changed much from her time. People still judged their kind based on superficialities.
The two secretly entered the sixth district's wall through a small opening that was lousily concealed by small to medium sized pieces of rocks.
The moment they went in, Iris handed out a pair of Iron shackles from his knapsack to Senna. The plan was that both of them were to put on an act as slaves on an errand.
Iris normally did this whenever he doesn't have a pass from his part-time works, normally commissioned by Saevus, but still wanted to go inside the prohibited districts.
It was simple but really effective. Rich people, especially aristocrats, found it degrading to look at slaves' eyes. They had this notion that they were much higher that slaves can only look on their feet with envy.
As they walked on the a busy street, Senna froze in silence as her eyes widened in horror because of the creature meters away from her.
Standing in front of a small number of people gathered around was a naked woman shackled from the neck down her to her wrists with long flowing hair that touched the stone pavements. The horrifying part was how she melted to a serpentine lower half from the waist!
She moved closer to the encircled crowd with a dreaded expression. It was the first time Senna saw of such a creature.
The man standing in front of the snake lady was telling the people gathered around how useful the creature would be inside the house.
"Listen folks! This here is useful around the house! It can do house chores without making a single sound!"
The man continued on with his long sales-talk but the people still remained uninterested.
"Can it dance?"
A random man from the crowd inquired.
The man beside the snake lady put on a greedy smile and said, "Of course it can...!"
The man noticed the unchanged expression of the people around him and looked at the merchandise he was auctioning.
The poor woman had her face bowed so low and remained unmoving after the man's pathetic attempt of persuasion.
The man gripped the rolled whip in his belt and lashed it to the snake lady.
"When I tell you can dance... YOU DANCE!"
The snake lady tried to remain motionless but the pain from the whip left her no choice but to slowly put on a farce as if belly dancing.
The man saw the pitiful attempt and beat harder. The sound of the whip hitting the woman's scales and skin grew loud enough to the point where Senna, who was at the far back, could hear it.
The woman shook her torso faster and added a small writhing movement by her lower half.
The crowd laughed in enjoyment but the salesman didn't stop the beating. It seems he had found amusement as well at the expense of the snake woman.
Senna moved her head from side to side to look for Iris but if only she could've have known what she would see, maybe she would've listened to Iris instructions.
As they entered the busy street, both Senna and Iris had their heads bowed down as what he instructed to prevent having eye contact with people from the sixth district and, because of this, Senna didn't realize where she was.
As she frightfully looked for the emerald-eyed man she was with, she saw scenes similar to the one she just saw.
On the other side of the street was a shackled creature with the head of a bull and the body of a man only that it had hooves for feet. The beast was beating its own head towards a large boulder.
The man beside him was boasting how muscular and powerful his merchandise was.
The next instant, the boulder shattered with a mighty charge and then splinters and dusts came flying everywhere.
The creature indeed seemed powerful but one wouldn't be dumb to think that the bull-headed man wasn't in so much agony with every collision.
In her confusion, Senna heard the familiar voice she was searching.
"What are you wondering around for? And I thought I told you to keep your head down....?!"
Iris said as he forcefully lowered Senna's head.
"What are those people doing? And what are those creatures?"
Senna said as she diverted and shifted her gaze from Iris to the snake lady then to the bull-headed man.
"Oh, you mean the Naga and Minotaur?"
Senna returned a puzzled look after Iris reply.
"They're trading them as slaves."
Iris said in a matter of fact manner.
"Don't tell me they don't sell them from where you came from..."
Senna looked at Iris straight in the eyes. In her mind, she was answering how it's not that they don't sell them, it's just that creatures like that never existed at all based on her memory! Much more making them slaves and making them undergo such agony!
'What exactly has become of this world?'