Chapter 8 Slaves

[Morgan's POV]

~~

"I will kill you!"

Randall stood holding his sword tightly, his body covered in small slashes, although not fatal, I know the wounds were surely painful.

He looked at Edward lying beneath my feet. I stood with an indifferent expression, casually using his head as a pillow.

Anger filled him, he bit his lip until it bled, I watched blood trickle down his lips.

'Why isn't he moving?' I thought.

Seeing him in a defensive position, I also stayed still, he was bleeding after all, the longer he delayed, the more advantageous the fight going for me.

"Edward, forgive me!!" Randall immediately ran backwards. I can see his eyes shedding tears.

I was surprised by this development, tightening my stance, I also immediately dashed in his direction.

'Towards the cave? What is he thinking?' I wondered, it was odd for Randall to run towards such a dangerous place.

As I chased him, Randall moved in a weird pattern, which slowed his pace, he might be afraid I would throw my throwing knives at him if he's running straight. Hehe, I must say that's quite effective and a good thought, unfortunately...

I'm faster.

I managed to catch up, I immediately thrust my sword towards Randall, but he dodged by leaping forward, using the momentum I gave him and ran off quickly.

As I anticipated, he ran straight into the cave, the place I was instructed to investigate by Master Samuel.

'What is he doing?' I wondered silently as I looked towards the cave.

Seeing the scene in front of me, I was surprised but hoped for this development, I saw Randall holding his head in pain. Shortly after, he fell, his body unmoving like other mercenaries' corpses.

I had witnessed the death of the New Angels mercenary group, observed the entire incident from the beginning. I had seen other mercenaries die while holding their heads, so this wasn't strange.

'Is something attacking their minds?' I thought, my hair standing on end and a chill running down my spine.

Seeing Randall unmoving, I quickly turned around and paid no further attention to him.

'I must leave immediately and report this situation to Master Samuel, with this information, it should be worth it for him.' I thought as I walked away from the cave.

Rustle

Rustle

I heard footsteps behind me, I immediately turned to see what it was but it was too late.

Bang!

The sound of a gunshot rang in my ears. Looking ahead, Randall stood there with a crazed look, his eyes red and blood dripping from his nose and ears.

Agh! Pain! That's what I felt in my left shoulder, I felt a searing heat from the bullet. But I didn't stay still, I immediately threw a throwing knife at that half-dead bastard.

Randall, who seemed to be out of his mind, didn't even bother to dodge my knife, which lodged directly into his neck.

Thud

Seeing him fall to the ground, I sighed and felt my nerves relax, but the pain was still there. I immediately removed my clothes and armor, then took out some bandages to cover my wounds.

Unfortunately, I didn't bring any form of medication, and Ironhaven was 6 hours away from here, not to mention I needed to rest.

"Haha, what an unexpected surprise! Who would've thought that bastard would survive and even get a flintlock!?" I said with annoyance. But if I think about it, a flintlock is valuable, so I took it from Randall's corpse, along with some Edrean gold coins.

I decided not to linger any longer and dragged my body to the city of Ironhaven to get treatment. On the way, I killed Edward by slicing his throat open, I don't want to make a second amateur mistake.

***

[General POV]

~~

"You're finally awake." A voice sounded.

Morgan, who had just awakened, immediately looked towards the source of the voice. Of course, the owner of the voice was his Master, Samuel Aunweor.

"Yes, thank you for taking care of me, Doctor." Morgan said, his voice filled with sincerity.

"It's nothing, I am a Doctor after all." Samuel smiled at him, but soon became serious again.

"More importantly, what happened during your journey?" Samuel asked, noticing the flintlock he found in Morgan's bag.

Upon hearing Samuel, Morgan immediately became serious, he began to explain from the beginning what had happened to him, starting from his fight with the New Angel mercenary group and Randall who had a crazed expression and managed to survive from the cave.

Listening to Morgan's explanation, Samuel was amazed. "What about the deaths of the others in the cave?"

"I saw it, Doctor, not everyone survived like Randall, initially there was, he screamed in pain but also died immediately, while the other two even fell directly without saying anything." Morgan explained again, a horrified expression on his face.

'Attacking the mind, huh? Does this have anything to do with the Mind Nurturing Mantra?' Samuel concluded based on what he heard.

'Then that guy.. he's enduring the attack with only sheer will?'

'That's right, the Mind Nurturing Mantra strengthens someone's mind, so it should be the key to entry.' Samuel felt he had found the key to the mystery.

'It must be a magic spell done by the previous owner, and he gave the key to me!' Samuel is very excited by this possibility.

"Doctor?" Morgan asked, looking at the silent Samuel.

"I was just lost in my thoughts, don't think too much about it." Samuel said nonchalantly. "I need to investigate something immediately, you must rest until your wounds heal."

"Thank you once again, Doctor."

Samuel stood up and left the room, Morgan didn't disturb him because he knew Samuel seemed to know something about the mystery of the cave, but he didn't bother to ask him.

***

Samuel walked towards the town market located near the town square, it took him ten minutes to get there but it felt fast because he was lost in thought.

"Ah, Doctor!" A familiar voice sounded in Samuel's ears.

"Oh, Jamie! What are you doing here?" Samuel asked.

"Don't you know, Doctor? There will be a slave auction around here soon! I heard the slaves being sold are nobles from other kingdoms and they are beautiful." Jamie exclaimed happily.

'Slaves?' Samuel thought, he was interested in these slaves, not because he wanted them, but he wanted to know what the slave sellers used to prevent them from rebelling.

Slavery did exist in the kingdom of Edrea but it was very rare, by any means, it was still considered inhumane. But, there were some special cases regarding this, such as prisoners of war and criminals marked by high nobles or the kingdom as slaves.

Samuel was naturally interested in these slaves, they had uses for Samuel that couldn't be done by ordinary people. Well, he had to determine the method of control of the slave sellers first to make sure. He hoped to find anything related to the supernatural on them.

"Slaves? Such a cruel world, I pity them, their freedom has been taken away, however, they are still human, just like all of us." Samuel sighed and said to Jamie regretfully.

Seeing this, Jamie was surprised, because yesterday, Samuel acted like a rough person, but seeing him like this, he looked like a saint. He felt ashamed for being excited about the prospect of having beautiful slaves.

'He must have been very worried about Mr. Morgan yesterday, that's why he was like that,' he thought.

"Doctor, you don't need to worry! These slaves are criminals or enemies of our kingdom! No need to sympathize," Jamie said, trying to comfort Samuel.

Samuel just smiled sourly and didn't say anything, then he asked Jamie. "Can I accompany you? If possible, I want to free them with my money, although it's not much, I have to try my best."

"Of course, Doctor! Your heart is truly noble! I feel ashamed for having improper thoughts earlier." Jamie said with teary eyes, truly, the person in front of him was full of goodness!

"You're exaggerating, Jamie, but thank you." Samuel said with a smile.

"Is the auction still happening soon? I need to buy some items in this market."

"It's still about an hour away, Doctor! It's okay, I'll accompany you." Jamie said with a cheerful smile. He's really proud of the man in front of him and happy to know him.

The two of them walked through the market before finally heading to the town square to attend the slave auction that was about to take place.

***

A crowd of people stood on the side of the town square, while people with high status stood near the square, they were nobles of the city or government officials appointed by the kingdom of Edrea.

Samuel and Jamie were also among the high-ranking people, for Samuel, it goes without saying, but Jamie.. he came with Samuel so it should be fine.

Among the crowd, Samuel noticed Lina chatting with another high-status woman.

Lina felt that she was being stared at by someone and immediately looked at Samuel, she was surprised and saw Samuel wink at her which made her look away shyly. Although she felt embarrassed, she didn't show anything outwardly and acted as if nothing happened.

'Ugh, why is he here? I don't want to be viewed as that kind of woman by him.' Lina thought.

She initially came here to look at handsome male slaves to be employed as an eye candy in her house, her husband wouldn't care too much about things like this as long as she didn't cross the line. But seeing Samuel, she immediately dismissed all thoughts like that because she was afraid Samuel would misunderstand.

It's funny because she considered Samuel's feelings more than her husband's, ironically, she knew Samuel was probably just playing around with her.

As she got lost in her thoughts, a voice sounded, "Mrs. Rudolf, I heard there are some handsome male slaves available, are you interested?"

It was the voice of a mature woman around her age, her name was Alicia Patricko. She was the wife of a Baron who originally was a commoner. She's lesser than Lina in terms of beauty, but not far behind. Small nobles like Barons or respected Knights wouldn't care too much about the status of their partners. As long as they were pretty or handsome, it's considered okay.

Different from high-ranking nobles, they were very picky about their partners, even polygamy would be considered disrespectful because often their partners came from the same or slightly lower background.

"Are you kidding, Mrs. Patricko? I'm not that kind of woman." Lina smiled and waved her hand.

"Oh, then why are you here?" Mrs. Patricko asked curiously.

"T-that.." Lina was confused about what to explain and tried to think of a reasonable answer.

As they continued to chat, Samuel continued to observe his surroundings. He saw people discussing what they would do with the slaves they bought. Samuel could only scoff at them in his heart, they were just ordinary people, how did they have enough money to participate in this event?

'I hope these slaves aren't too expensive,' Samuel thought, he had to remember he wasn't wealthy. His savings were dwindling because of his increasing needs.

While everyone was busy talking, the auction administrator finally stepped onto the stage and spoke,

"Everyone, welcome to our auction!"