(1700+ Words)
The cover was unfolded.
"Is there no more? She is the precious lady of the illustrious Lindelheit family of the Lindelheit School of Magic! And she's a maiden at that!"
A man in a ridiculous mask exaggeratedly gestured towards the center of the stage.
There was a crude iron cage, suitable for containing a wild beast. However, what it contained was not an animal but a person.
Or should I say something that used to be a person?
Slaves didn't have human rights, after all.
Perhaps sensing the grim stares surrounding her, the woman in the cage shrank back with a frightened expression.
Her platinum-colored hair sparkled under the lights, and her fair skin flushed red with humiliation.
The dress she wore barely covered her, but somehow, it didn't feel vulgar.
If one could paint nobility, it would look like this.
Her delicate and precarious yet beautiful posture had a captivating charm, but…
One single element drastically changed the impression she gave.
It was her eyes.
Ruby-red pupils that shined even more beautifully than real rubies.
Her wet red eyes darted around like a frightened rabbit.
Just with that alone, she went from an untouchable work of art to something easily exploited.
It was a sight that provoked men's instinctive desire for possession.
Entranced, the crowd began to raise their number plates enthusiastically.
"1,000 gold!"
"This side bids 1,500 gold!"
"Only that much? I bid 3,000 gold!"
The price soared to the sky.
And in response, the crowd's desires became increasingly transparent.
However, unlike their boundless desires, their capital had limits.
"10,000 gold! We have 10,000 gold! I will confirm one last time! Is there no gentleman willing to 'take care' of this tender lady?"
Despite the host's competitive urging, the audience couldn't offer any more.
After all, 10,000 gold could be used to build a huge mansion in the middle of the capital city, and there would still be gold left over.
It was enough to buy an entire rural village or acquire a well-crafted mithril weapon.
Even with wicked intentions, it was an amount one would hesitate to spend recklessly.
"If there are no more bids while I count, we'll conclude it here! One! Two!"
After confirming that no one else had stepped forward, I finally raised the number plate in front of me.
"Oh! Another participant! According to the rules, you must add at least a tenth of the current bid…"
"20,000 gold."
"…Excuse me?"
"I said 20,000 gold. In cash, of course."
The previously quiet auction house now buzzed with noise.
"20,000? Did someone just say 20,000?"
"Seems so. I thought I misheard."
"Who in the world has that kind of money?"
Even for a top-quality item boasting both beauty and talent, people were flustered by the excessive amount.
And this included the potential buyer, Count Kipros, who had planned to buy her.
"Heh… heh…"
He could only alternately glance at his coin purse, the iron cage, and then me, unable to bid.
It seemed like a good outcome.
If he had bid after me, thinking he was humiliated, he might have sent an assassin for me. And that would have been problematic.
However, if someone else bids more than double the final amount, the story changes. Then, I simply had to acknowledge the difference in wealth and give up.
At least, that's how it was in the game.
"Nobody else then! With that, we will conclude today's final auction for Carla Lindelheit!"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sound signaling the end of the auction made me smirk.
It was none other than Carla, whose price was 20,000 gold.
At this rate, I had acquired her quite cheaply.
________________________________________
"Thank you for the good deal. As you may already know, the slave you've purchased is a talented mage. Therefore, it'll be easier for you to manage her if you order her to destroy her mana core."
"I know. But can I get a suitable cloak first? Standing out too much isn't a good idea."
"Of course, please wait a moment."
Having said that, he ordered someone nearby—no, looking at the thorn vine mark on their neck, it was probably a slave—to fetch a cloak. Only then did I turn my head towards my loot for today.
"...!"
As our eyes met, Carla reflexively averted her gaze.
She was about as tall as my chest. But she looked smaller due to her hunched shoulders.
I briefly caught sight of a thorn vine mark on her nape through her long hair.
That must be the slave mark.
Since Carla is now officially my slave, it is only natural that she has it.
But it was interesting. So, this was how Carla was at this time.
I only knew her as a crazy person after her rebirth as a dark saintess, but her current appearance was different.
She looked like a terrified little animal, which was incredibly cute.
"I find it irresistibly captivating."
"Eh…!"
Unknowingly, a genuine feeling slipped out of her, and Carla's trembling intensified.
Well… if I heard something like that in this situation, I'd be scared too.
My awkward musings didn't last long. The manager's slave came back with a large black cloak.
This should be enough to cover Carla's scantily clad attire.
Throwing it to her casually, I watched for a moment as Carla hastily covered herself with the cloak, then turned away.
"Now that I've received the goods, let's go."
"Yes, we look forward to your next visit."
That was a given. There were more than a few items I needed to buy from this auction house in the future.
Covering herself seemed to have calmed her down a bit. Even though Carla was still wary of me, her trembling had lessened. I focused my attention on her.
More precisely, on the invisible chain that connected me and Carla.
I acknowledged Carla's presence and spoke with conviction,
"[Follow me.]"
"Y-y-yes…"
Carla followed my command obediently. However, her expression suggested she was confused as to why she was behaving this way.
So this was what it was like.
I recalled what I had previously heard about the slave contract.
You could control their actions, except for orders that would strongly go against their instincts—like taking their own life, for instance.
To be more accurate, they would feel a compulsion they believe they should obey. Wasn't that the same thing, after all?
Just by engraving a mark, you could turn a person into something no different from a tool.
It seemed like the magic of slave contracts was truly formidable, although not particularly convenient.
Mind magic tends to be difficult to cast but also easy to dispel.
So, a talented mage could sometimes dispel their own slave mark and escape, right?
That was why the manager advised me to break her mana core first.
Not that I intend to do so.
It had been three years since I found myself in Hero & Academy, or H&A, as it was also known. I had been waiting for this moment all along.
Then I muttered a phrase that had become a habit by now.
"Status window."
Ding!
[Name: Yandel
Title: Lost Foreigner
Basic Abilities
Strength: 11
Endurance: 10
Agility: 12
Talent: 14
Magic: 18 (Sealed)
Traits
Infinite Mana (A) (Sealed)
Elemental Affinity (B)
Excellent Memory (B)
Clumsy Weapon Skills (E)
Mana Sensing Disability (S)
※Some stats and traits are sealed due to the trait 'Mana Sensing Disability.
Special experiences are required to remove or mitigate negative traits.]
To anyone looking, the stats and traits scream 'mage.' In fact, I designed this alt character to be a mage.
However, I never expected to get Mana Sensing Disability as a random penalty when I first started.
Moreover, I found myself in the world of H&A several years earlier than the timeline in the original story.
I never sent a complaint to the game company, and H&A wasn't particularly terrible or fantastic.
…I've been playing it for so long that I could be called a veteran, but there were plenty who had played it even more than me.
Anyway, without any forewarning, I went to sleep and woke up inside my alt character in the game.
Initially, I was shocked, so much so that I sat dumbfounded on the streets for about three days.
Well, hunger eventually snapped me out of it.
The silver lining was that, as the status window showed, I was inside the body of the character I had been playing.
It was unfortunate that it was my alt and not my main character, and that the random starting penalty was pretty bad… But at least all my extensive gameplay wasn't in vain.
In H&A, there was an odd system where the gold earned was shared among all characters on the same account.
Why couldn't they just make a shared account for storage instead? What was the point of sharing only gold?
I used to grumble about it during gameplay, but now I'm genuinely relieved that I at least have gold.
The world of H&A was set on the continent of Eurelia, which was fundamentally fantasy but with a blend of various technologies and commerce close to modern standards.
In other words, money talks here as well.
And unlike online games where the operator controls the amount of gold in circulation, H&A was a packaged game with only some multiplayer elements.
Late-game gold inflation was more or less inevitable, especially when the playtime could reach over 7,000 hours.
Imagine how much gold I had accumulated over that time.
Even the 20,000 gold I spent on Carla wasn't that much to me.
But regardless, this place was a fantasy. Individual power mattered more here than it did on Earth.
As a mage who couldn't use magic, the suffering was immense. The trait of Clumsy Weapon Skills was a desperate attempt to adjust to.
But that ends today.
With the mana breathing technique from the Lindelheit School of Magic, I should be able to cure my Mana Sensing Disability.
Looking at where Carla's mana core should be, a satisfied smile automatically formed on my face.
Ah, look at that mana container. To handle that much mana, she must've mastered the mana breathing technique, too.
"Eeek!"
I wonder what she mistook my gaze for.
Startled, Carla instinctively covered her chest with both arms. Not that she could fully hide it, though.
Ah, come on. I won't eat you.
Probably.