In the coming hour, the Nirijin haven't disappeared, much to Jack's surprise. Though he didn't quite question it, as it became clear that this world was rather different than the one he had come from. At least now he had a group of fiercely loyal bird folk that suck to the shadows.
Kline had his eyes on Jack as everyone, except for the Lord and his Daughter, left the room.
When Jack turned to leave the table, not thinking anything of Kline, the Slaver walked right up in front of him.
"Lord Graham," the Charismatic pretty boy bowed his upper body respectfully towards the Angel.
"Kline?" Jack strained his eyes slightly looking at the man, wondering what his intentions were with approaching him after the meeting was adjourned. For the time being, he didn't see it fit to have any real relations with these people... Especially this one.
"I was wondering if you'd be free to talk business…"
Jack pursed his lips slightly ash is mind went back towards Runa and Vivian, could he possibly be wanting to try asking about the girls now?
"...Depends, what is this business you're talking about…?"
Kline could see almost immediately that Jack was far from enthusiastic. Perhaps he had a gripe against slavery? Or people who enslave others? "Hm.. Do you have something against what my business does to make a profit?"
Jack's eyes remained dully looking through the man, as if already treating the question as answered.
"Ah… I see… You don't like Slavery, do you…?" Kline leaned in towards him, one hand folded behind his back as he did so.
"Not used to it, where I came from, there were no slaves." Jack responded in kind, but in reality, he disliked the idea of slavery, but this world seemed to have drastically different ideals. In the previous world everyone was a slave to debt, if they weren't solvent with their finances.
He mostly just wanted to know what Kline was going on about, to see if it was beneficial to go along with. That and he didn't plan on letting this man live for long once he got everything going.
Perhaps he would be the first for him to devour? Learn the underworld from its source...
"Oh," Kline raised a brow looking him over, ignoring the spear in which the man was wielding. He didn't see himself getting killed, at least not right now he didn't. "They could be quite useful, for quite an array of things."
Jack couldn't help but to agree with that. Slaves had no real rights to refuse, and if they did, they were often punished. If they ran, it was their lives that was typically taken. If they could run away to begin with, since a master could straight up hobble them if they wanted.
From the premise of this conversation, Jack could probably deduce that he wanted to sell rather than to buy people off of him. Which was good, he didn't feel like selling people against their will.
Plus, Vivian was his in the sense that he had saved her life. He wasn't giving her life to anyone else.
Runa, he wasn't quite sure about. He had just leveled her a bit and she could be considered quite useful later on, so he planned on keeping her around. If she was to stay around anyways.
Jack looked to the ceiling, listening to Kline as he spoke.
"Would you be interested in sampling a slave?"
Jack's eyes slowly drifted from the ceiling above and landed on Kline having heard his question. "Sample?" He sounded like a young man being offered a food sample at a mall, but not the excited kind. "What exactly would you have me be sampling?"
Kline blinked a few times as he asked this question, it was what, not who. For a person who wasn't used to slaves, he was quick to use an inanimate and inhuman word. "A… Virgin?"
Jack narrowed his eyes on Kline, he was selling sex to him? He couldn't say he didn't expect this either, considering he seemed to be trying to sell him someone.
"A half-elf, forty years..."
"You're trying to give me a teenager?"
Pretty much the first year of an elf life is that of toddler hood after three months of infancy. After that they are stuck in the form of a child for the next twenty years. After that they grow into teenhood and are considered young adults by the time they reach fifty-five. Yet they don't necessarily finish maturing until well over a hundred.
They're almost always shorter than if not equal to five feet in height, unless they're High Elves, who can get as tall as average adult human beings.
So essentially, Kline was trying to sell a physically 'seventeen' year old elf that had the mind of a forty year old to Jack. For Jack, it was quite the age gap. His party he believed were a bunch of teenagers, now he was getting an adult.
"So what do you say?"
"Tomorrow?" Jack tilted his head slightly, he wanted to check out the wall and he was going to use that date with Cassandra to do so. The date was merely going to be a walk about the city, nothing special.
Kline smirked to himself, seemingly happy with himself that Jack had appeared to accept a sampling.
"So why the sudden attempt to give me a sample of a slave?" Jack inquired as Kline went to turn away on his heel. This immediately made the man freeze, before looking over his shoulder.
"Most people kill half-elves due to their nature as part of two different hateful societies," the man turned to look over his shoulder with his eyes resting on Jack's face. "They're more hated than the High Elves and their smaller cousins."
"Ah..." Jack slowly nodded at this as he seemed to understand the idea behind this. He was trying to spare this one, for some reason though, rather than give it to someone to kill. "Tell me about her temperament."
Kline turned back towards Jack with a curious look in his eyes, fitting his hands into the sewn pockets of his jacket. "Quiet, reserved, submissive. She's afraid of people taller than her, tends to shrink away from people in general."
A slow exhale left Jack's nostrils as they flared, he looked to the side slightly. "Sounds like she had been beaten down, abused or neglected. What kind of environment are you keeping her in?"
"A cage, in a maintained room with other slaves." Kline seemed to be wearing a smile across his lips as he gave forth the information he asked for. "And mind you… All of the slaves are conditioned to be obedient. Beatings, abuse… Neglect, they're all part of the methods to enslave the mind and body."
Jack's mind went back to how he had found Vivian, without fingers or toes. Welts all over her body, and clear anal abuse. It was a horrible thing to find, let alone to imagine feeling on himself.
Yet he didn't shiver at this, he didn't show disgust, but instead he had understanding.
"That all?" Kline asked as he continued to look up at the tall, supposedly, divine being.
"Appearance?"
"Ecto. Five foot, outward short pointy ears," Kline took his hands out of his pockets as to point his fingers away from his own ears whilst pressing his wrists against them. "Magic mint colored hair, soft pink eyes, her skin is soft and youthful but looks a bit sickly since she doesn't see the sun or sleep all that much, but she has the elvish charm going for her."
"I'm assuming she is bathed?"
"...She will be."
"Diseased?"
"Probably… Not?"
"Markings?"
"Vine-like tattoo going up from her right inner thigh to her abdomen, right beneath her left pectus."
"Ah...? Anything else I should know?"
"She's the illegitimate daughter of the Sorceress."
Jack's eyes closed partially at this bit of news, "How exactly did you get your hands on her?"
"Her father used her as payment in order to pass back into the Fae Imperium territory some years back," he dismissed it with a slight wave as if it wasn't all that big of a difference.
And it didn't.
Shaking his head slightly at this, "I'll see you 'morrow at the front gate, early in the morn." Jack's sudden change in how he talked, puzzled Kline for a moment before nodding slowly in return.
"It's a go then," Kline made a thumbs up gesture before poking his hands back into his pockets and making his way towards the exit of the Reception Hall. His eyes curiously coursing over the Nirijni guarding the door as he left.
It was clear there was an interest in the bird people, considering their tame nature and their apparent level of strength when they simply shout at someone.
Cassandra and the Lord Carmichael then walked over to him, both of them curious of what he was talking to Kline about. Though Cassandra appeared to be a bit more blatant about it as she was eying him suspiciously.
Jack scrutinized them, and after a few minutes snapped the fingers of his free hand, due to being stared at without a single word being spoken. "Is there something I can help you with?"
"Heh. May I ask, What you talking to Kline about?" Cassandra beat her father to speaking, as he caught her with his mouth only partially open before he could even form a sound with his throat.
"Quick one, aren't you..." Jack uttered as he shook his head slightly, "He wanted to know if I wanted to have a look at a selection of slaves. He seems to want to get rid of one in particular."
Though with that little snip-it of information he had gotten from Kline, Jack was able to learn that Kline also had a hand in the smuggling business. Which probably wasn't all that big of a surprise.
Cassandra's head lulled to the side, a slight look of disappointment on her face.
From what she had witnessed, it appeared that he had made an agreement with Kline. Likely in order to get his hands on the said slave he just mentioned.
Lord Carmichael didn't see anything out of the ordinary with this bit of news. Ivan himself has had several slaves at one point before he had an actual wife.
Kline was always going after the wealthy. The only thing Ivan didn't know was that Kline had offered the girl to Jack without any payment, mostly because it was too dangerous for him to have her around.
"Are you ready for the date?" Jack gave Cassandra a once over, before she almost immediately took off dashing towards the stairwell, with a light squeak.
"I'll be right back!"
With that, she was gone the moment she went through the door to the stairs and made her way up back to her room in the tower in order to get changed.
Letting out a light sigh, Carmichael turned his gaze towards Jack, crossing his arms over his chest. "So, where are you taking my daughter out to on a date away from the castle…?"
"A stroll along the wall."
Carmichael stared at him for a few minutes, until Jack's usual expression cracked into smile.
"An inspection of the wall more like," the Lord shook his head as he felt sorry for his daughter somewhat. While a walk could be romantic, it was cold outside, the city was grey as winter had stolen its vibrance. "I have faith that you'll treat her well."
Jack's smile turned faint, watching as Ivan spun on his heel before walking away towards another stairwell which he would use in order to go to his study.
"Faith huh…?" He spoke solely to himself as he turned to look towards the direction of the two sisters entering the room. Reign and Snow. Both of them traded glances with him, before walking over towards him.
"What are we going to do today?" They asked curiously, tilting their heads in towards one another's.
"I want you two, Vivian, Runa and Kokei to go back to the Dungeon with Lord Carmichael as an escort. I want the group to continue getting stronger incase your power is needed." Jack took some vouchers from his inventory. They were ranging between level thirty and forty vouchers. "When you finish with these, return."
"Does Carmichael know about this?"
"I told him about it right before the meeting I just had," Jack nodded to them as they were talking in unison. He found it slightly eery, but at the same time it had its appeal as it almost sounded pleasant.
The girls held at least six vouches each, a small smile across their lips. They'd be able to get stronger, be of more use, and have a purpose other than to just eat and sleep! Though they were already stronger than the typical human being, so that didn't quite matter right?!
Quickly enough, the two went hopping and a skipping off in a random direction, only to get lost in the castle which to them was like a maze!