Davarious First Born Light of the Autumn Wind:
It had been a few hours since the girls had gone their own way and during that time Gary, Carl and I had looked around the stalls peacefully. We watched some performances and enjoyed ourselves leisurely. There was word about a tournament fight going on but by the time we reached it we were told two female participants called Captain Fist Fighter destroyed the stage while fighting each other. Hearing that for some reason I felt a chill down my spine.
"Dave! Garr! Carl!" Alicia's voice came from behind us and she appeared pulling Sayuri in tow.
"Did you two take a bath?" I asked as they reached us. Their hair was wet and they looked refreshed.
"Yep!" Alicia smiled.
"Any reason why?" Gary looked at them.
"Nope, nothing in particular." Alicia looked away.
Sayuri did the same and mumbled, "Baths are nice…."
For some reason I didn't want to pry deeper.
With all of us together we headed to one of the smaller plazas near the town centre. A large group of people had gathered, most of them looked rich. A man in a ridiculously fine looking jacket was on a stage using magic to amplify his voice.
"Next on auction we have these five! Born in the West they're all fine products and capable of almost any task."
A group of five people were bought on to the stage. They ranged from fifteen years old to thirty. They had been cleaned up with decent clothes but they were chained together with thick iron collars. It was a slave auction. Carl's eyes widened and the others turned away.
"So they do things like this as well…." Gary said sadly.
"Well… yeah," was all I could say in reply, "Let's leave."
Carl held his ground, "Wait, I want to see what happens to them."
"Are you sure?"
He nodded. The others decided to stay as well as we watched the crowd bid for their lives. The young girl sold for the highest price going to a creepy older man with a creepier smile. The older men sold for the least to some industrial owner and the rest were picked off by rich looking folk. The entire time Carl had a grimace and the others stared in gloom.
"Can't we do something for them?" Carl asked me as the last one was taken away.
"Not unless we want to go against the country," I replied with a sigh.
"And if we did?"
"We'd probably tear the human alliance apart."
Carl's fists tightened, "I've seen enough," he turned away.
"I'm sorry." As it was my world, I felt responsible for their despondent expressions.
"It's not your fault."
We turned to leave but the announcer grabbed my attention,
"And all the way from across the border freshly picked we have a surprise!"
I turned back with a snap as three figures draped in black cloth we're taken to the stage. It couldn't be… the human's wouldn't dare.
"Dave is something wrong?" Alicia asked as she looked to the stage as well.
"First from the depths of the demon side's forests. A brute whose strength is his only merit an ogre!" he threw off the cloth and underneath was a muscular figure with a solid face. Pale blue skin, short tuffs of hair and a solid build but there was no way to mistake it for a human. The crowd gasped in disgust. People jeered and some even threw food at him. My heart began to beat harder.
"Second the creatures we scare our children to sleep with, the ugly Orc!" the second cloth was thrown off. A green figure with fangs jutting from his mouth, slightly hunched forward and thick black hair. His nose was squished compared to a humans and his eyes were small against his large head. There were more jeers.
"And finally as special surprise for everyone. The cursed ones who stalk the demons with their unearthly beauty, a fay!" the final cloth was thrown off. It was a young girl, like many fay she had fine features easily catching anyone's attention. Cut blonde haired draped over long ears but what caught the crowd's attention most were her stunning eyes, wet from tears. The crowd was agape. The fay were especially rare to see outside the demon side.
"Now let the bidding start! First for the ogre, can I hear a silver?"
The fay girl began to scream and plead with the crowd but her words didn't reach them. They couldn't understand her. They striped her of the magic to communicate with other languages. The human's frowned at her foreign tongue but I could understand it. I understood her pleas,
"Please have mercy! They're just children. Please whoever buys them don't hurt them please!" she continued to beg to no avail and only caused the other slaves on stage with her to begin to cry. For certain they were just children, although their sizes were around an adult male they still had room to grow. They were probably only twelve.
The human's looked at them with disgust as they cried. Hardly anyone was bidding for the ogre.
"So that's what demon's look like," Gary observed indifferently, the others just nodded but my heart was beating harder and harder with rage.
"Come on people, look at his arms he could easily be of use! Or even for those who hate the demons, no one would complain if you hurt them a little or a lot." He laughed and a few people started to bid higher amounts. Scum! The lot of them were scum. How dare they do this to my people!
"Dave are you okay?" Sayuri asked me gently.
My expression was probably livid. I needed to calm down. I took a deep breath and walked forward closer to the stage.
"Dave where are you going?" Carl tried to stop me but a barrier blocked his hand.
"I'll buy all of them!" I used magic to amplify my voice and the people immediately around me shrunk back. "Fifty gold for all of them!"
"Eh ah??" the announcer was confused. "All of them? Okay then… is anyone willing to go higher?"
"Fifty five!" The same creepy old man who bought the young girl earlier called out.
"Sixty!" My eyes locked on to his, he rose his hand to make a counter offer but he met my gaze and froze.
"Going once, going twice, no one? No one else? Then sold to the rich young man. Please pick them up from the office."
I turned around and started to head for the office. Sayuri grabbed my arm. Again this girl, I couldn't detect her movements but right now I didn't care.
"Dave what did you just do?" she asked confused.
"I did exactly what it looked like. I bought them," I replied coldly. My voice shocked her and she let go.
"Oi Dave!" Gary stood in front of me. "At least tell us why."
"Demons aren't meant to be slaves to humans."
"Why are you so angry now? They're just demons right?"
"They're people too Gary!" I yelled.
He flinched, "Sorry I didn't mean it like that. You didn't get so angry when humans were sold, why now?"
I wanted to yell at them all because they were 'my' people but even I knew I couldn't do that. I needed a logical reason. Breathe. "It's because they are demons," I began as we continued to walk to their office. "The demon side has slavery as well but only among their own kind. They don't go kidnapping humans to use as slaves. If the Demon Lord found out about this he would be livid and just like humans would go to save their kind he'd go to save his."
"So it could lead to war?" Carl asked quietly.
"Yes, depending on how bad it is, it could definitely be a trigger," I replied darkly.
We reached the slaver's office and were told to wait. My body wouldn't calm down and I nervously stood inside the waiting room. The Heroes tried to calm me down but their words bounced off me with no affect. Finally after half an hour we were let in.
The announcer from before was behind a thick expensive wooden desk. It seemed he was also the president.
"Hello dear sir, sorry for the wait but I wanted to see the man who would buy them at such a price face to face."
"Hello to you as well," my words were cold. "Where are they?"
"Straight to business are we? Well show us the money."
I threw the bag of coins on to the table and he had a man behind him count it. After making sure the coins were real he nodded. A door was opened and the ogre and fay girl were let in. Their eyes were dead.
"Where's the orc?" I asked angrily.
"About that," the man sighed. "During transport he got a little violent and our guards took things a little too far. But no problem right? He was just an orc. Here we'll even give you back an entire gold." He reached over to give me the coin but I slapped it away.
"Despicable," I groaned in a low tone. The room began to shake and the light darkened, "What did you do to him?"
Taken aback the man turned to the guard, "Explain to him."
"The orc tried to escape and a guard cut off his arm. The orc died."
My heart pounded and the room shook. Before I could stop my hands had gripped the guards shirt, "The body, where is it!?"
The guard flinched, "We took him to the dump. It's probably being eaten by monsters now."
I threw him away and moved over to the ogre and fay girl. Gently I unlocked their chains. They looked at me surprised,
"You'll be okay now," I smiled.
The fay girl began to cry, "But Larg… he…."
I placed my hand on her head reassuringly. "Don't worry I'll get him."
We left the office and the Heroes followed me in a daze. I turned to them.
"I need a favour."
"A favour?" Carl looked at me confused.
"Take these two outside the town and keep them safe till I return. Please do this for me."
"Umm sure but where are you going?"
"To fix things," I ran off before they could ask anything else and vanished around the corner. I appeared high up in the sky with an overview of the town. Orc's had high vitality, especially young ones. Having an arm cut off wouldn't be enough to kill him. Most likely due to his age he fainted and they thought he died. Time was of the essence, if I could find him I could save his life.
My hands clapped together and an explosion of mana escaped from me. It spread across the town searching for him. The reaction was quick as a ping lit up from the edges of the town. I teleported nearby. Two men we're carrying his unconscious body to a monster nest. It was a pit surrounded by a metal fence.
"Wait!" I tried to yell to them but it was too late as they dropped his body into to pit.
"Whoa!" the men jumped back as I rushed forward. I began to climb over the fence. The man grabbed me, "Hey what are you doing? You'll die if you go in there!"
I turned to him and growled, "Let me go." With wide fearful eyes he did as he was told. I jumped into the pit and flew straight down. It was a giant trash pile crawling with monsters that fed off it. They had already surrounded the orc and were about to strike but I landed beside him and with a single glare the monsters backed away. They looked like sharks with squat bodies and four legs. Simple monsters but even they knew not to mess with me right now.
I picked up the orc boy's body and began to heal his wounds. He shot up and began to cough and cry, trying to throw me away.
"Calm down!" I held him in place. "It's okay you're safe."
"How am I safe!?" he said to me in a guttural tongue as he looked at the monsters nearby. I waved my hand and they were blown away.
"See you're safe."
"W-who are you?"
"A friend. Now let's get you out of here." I flew out of the pit carrying him beside me. He panicked a little at the strange feeling. Now where were the Heroes? I closed my eyes and sensed for their mana. I could feel three of them and barely what felt like Sayuri's. They were just making their way out of the town. I flew over to them and landed not too far away. Together with the orc I met the Heroes who had stopped next to a nearby forest.
When we came into sight the Heroes jumped up in relief but more so the fay girl and ogre ran to meet with the orc. They were happy beyond belief that he was alive. I watched them with warm eyes. It was then that I realized the Heroes still couldn't understand them.
"You three come here," I called to them, "Don't worry I won't hurt you." I placed my hand on each of them and spread the magic through their bodies.
"What did you do?" the fay girl asked.
"Oh we can understand you now," Gary said in surprise answering her question.
The Heroes were still awkward around them, obviously not used to the demons. I had everyone sit down together.
"Please introduce yourselves," I said to them.
The fay girl spoke for them, "My name is Leifa, this is Larg and Burton," she pointed to the orc and ogre in turn. "We come from the Irie Forest just across the border. A few weeks ago while playing too close to the border we were captured and taken as slaves." She pressed her head to the ground in a bow. The other two followed her action, "Thank you for saving us. May I ask who you are?"
Carl looked at me and I nodded.
"We are the Heroes of the human side," he smiled.
"Th-the Heroes?" Leifa gasped. "Why would you help us?"
"To keep the peace between our people. We would hate it as well if you kidnapped us humans and kept them as slaves."
"You are much kinder than I thought however… there are still others like us."
"Others?" I jumped alarmed.
"Yes. During transport we met several other slaves both demon and human."
My fists tightened. Just how far did this go? I stood up, "You must be tired. Carl you have the chest right? Please set up somewhere for them to sleep. If you're hungry we also have some food. As growing boys it's best to eat a lot." I smiled to the orc and ogre. Their stomachs grumbled.
"Wait are they kids?" Alicia asked.
Leifa answered, "I'm sixteen, Larg is twelve and Burton is eleven."
"No way you guys are huge!"
I began to leave the camp site, "I'm going to head off for a bit. Take care of them while I'm gone."
Sayuri jumped up, "Where are you going?"
"I have an acquaintance who can help take them home. I'm going to try contact him."
"Then I'll come with you."
"No, stay here."
"No, I'm coming with you."
"It's not an option."
Sayuri glared at me, "You already ran off with hardly any notice to who knows where and now you expect us to let you do it again? We were worried."
"I'll be fine," I sighed, "Look my acquaintance doesn't particularly like humans. I'm fine but you can't come."
"Then I'll just stay out of sight."
"Sayuri stop being stubborn. You have incredible talent at remaining undetected but that doesn't matter for this."
"Why don't you just let one of us come with you!? If not me then take someone else at least."
I was getting annoyed. I couldn't remember Sayuri ever being this stubborn. "Please just stay, it's for your own good."
"We're strong aren't we? That's why we've spent so much time training."
I grit my teeth. The other Heroes were looking at me concerned as well. I didn't have time for this. Every moment I didn't act could mean more of my people suffering.
"I'm sorry but this is something I can only do by myself. Please look after them till I return. You can hate me as much as you want later."
"Wa-," Sayuri tried to grab me but I clicked my fingers and vanished into the sky. I looked down at them from above. Sayuri began stamping the ground angrily screaming 'idiot'. I'd have to handle that later. For now I flew off to a remote field and landed. Once on the ground I began to charge my mana and in a powerful yell I called to the sky,
"Sebastian!"
A few seconds later the area beside me began to shift and there appeared a fay wearing a butler's outfit. His hair was grey and his skin smooth aside from slight wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. The ever faithful servant who had been serving us since my grandfather's time.
"You called my Lord?" he bowed
"The humans' have been taking my people as slaves. Did you know this?"
His eyes flicked up at mine and with a saddened expression replied, "Unfortunately I did my Lord."
"Then why was I not told?"
"The occurrence was low my Lord. We decided it would only cause you stress. Your father and grandfather were already informed."
"They are my people Sebastian," I looked at him hurt. "They look to me for strength and I will do all I can to be it."
"Then what shall we do my Lord?"
My brows knitted together darkly "We're going hunting."
"By your will my Lord."