Chapter 105: Slave Trade

"You still need to wash your face; just remember to tell me next time."

Rayan continued to maintain a cold expression on his face, offering no comfort to Sola. Instead, he stuffed the fur and the fangs of a bristle pig into Sola's arms. "Take these, let's hit the road."

Sola finally breathed a sigh of relief, holding the heavy fur and fangs, following closely behind her master.

After leaving the hunting spot, all the bounty hunters they encountered on the road shrank away from them, avoiding any eye contact. Rayan was already accustomed to such scenes and didn't care, leading Sola into Triumph Town.

The reason for entering Triumph Town instead of traversing directly through the dense forest was partly due to unfamiliarity with the terrain—traveling on man-made roads was naturally faster than navigating unfamiliar mountain paths. Additionally, it was to expose Sola to the local customs and culture, and to have her slave mark branded to avoid any troubles that might arise.

Triumph Town was not particularly affluent. Compared to the newly established Shadowcrest Ridge, it could only be considered a larger-scale village. Choosing to brand here meant the slave registration data would be recognized, and they could avoid the trouble of larger towns.

Originally, Shadowcrest Ridge had a slave trading post too, but that was twenty years ago. Since the new Shadowcrest Ridge was established, the Crow Lord that Rayan portrayed had given a severe warning to all slave mercenary groups. The high taxes on trading slaves in Shadowcrest Ridge were enough to scare pregnant women into labor, and merchants engaged in the slave trade, seeing no profit, naturally gave up on Shadowcrest Ridge. Thus, Sola's slave mark had to be sought in such places.

Triumph Town belonged to Stonerock Kingdom, which had mediocre power in the Auroria Continent and a significant wealth disparity, giving Triumph Town a pretentious but indifferent demeanor. Although named "Triumph," Rayan knew that this place had never won any significant victories; the term was merely a veneer of glory.

The town's merchants displayed false smiles, vigorously selling furs, crossbow equipment, and the endearing Feral Beast cubs, while passersby gathered in groups, chatting and gossiping, making the place seem bustling but essentially hollow.

The tavern in town was named "Saintess' Footprints," as if a saintess from the Holy Light Sisterhood had truly set foot here. But in reality, the tavern's entrance was crowded with soliciting barmaids.

If "saintess" referred to those coquettishly posing, scantily clad barmaids, then this establishment would have been flattened long ago by those wanting to join the "Wings of Dawn" guild.

The true "saintesses" referred to three specially positioned female mages within the Holy Light Sisterhood.

The supreme leader of the Holy Light Sisterhood was honored with the title of throne, and each throne could have at most three disciples. These disciples had to remain virgins committed to the Holy Light, exceptionally talented, and distinguished in spiritual energy. When a throne abdicated, the next throne would be selected from among these three disciples. Therefore, before they became throne, other female mages referred to them respectfully as saintesses.

At any given time, there could only be three saintesses within the Holy Light Sisterhood. Their noble status was enviable even to princesses from various countries. Yet, a small tavern in Triumph Town dared to use the "saintess" sign, attracting business with "prostitutes," which Rayan found to be a biting irony on the Auroria Continent.

Here, residents carelessly threw filth and dirty water out of sight, and mercenaries beat the weak in broad daylight without anyone to administer justice.

Tax collectors for the local lord flaunted their wealth, swaggering through disturbances, taking whatever they wanted at will, while the merchants, rather than banding together to resist, were instead grateful for having less taken from them that day...

In short, this place was beyond saving.

The air was foul, the people's spirits numb, their pretensions hollow. Despite its grand name, there was nothing worthy of praise or tradition.

Compared to Shadowcrest Ridge, governed by Olivia, this place was nothing more than a dump.

The reasons for the miserable conditions in Triumph Town were varied, but the residents were so numb to their plight that they didn't recognize it as suffering and didn't know to resist, so no one could help them.

Rayan cared even less; he was just a passerby, completing his business and planning to leave with Sola afterward.

Sola curiously looked around, intrigued by the various goods. Although she had seen some of them in Shadowcrest Ridge, she was still a barbarian tribes girl, and everything on the Auroria Continent was novel to her.

She stopped at a stall selling Wind Wolf cubs, and couldn't help but reach out to touch them.

"Get your filthy hands off!"

The stall owner glanced at Sola with disgust. "You filthy slave, can you afford it? These are one gold coin each, and if they get tainted by your stench, how am I supposed to sell them?"

Sola's throat emitted a beast-like growl, and her orange eyes instantly ignited with true fire. As she growled, all the Feral Beasts in the market started howling along.

The stall owner was taken aback; it was the first time he had seen human eyes emit such intense, fiery heat.

He screamed at the top of his lungs, "Whose slave isn't tied up properly? Does the owner even care—"

Rayan turned around and glared coldly at the stall owner, cutting off his words mid-sentence. The dark, piercing look in his eyes was like a sharp knife against his neck, making it almost impossible for the stall owner to breathe, his face pale, even paler than Sola's.

"Sola, let's go."

Rayan casually instructed his female slave, then turned his head and continued forward. Before causing a fatality, he first needed to get Sola branded, otherwise it would be very troublesome.

Sola immediately extinguished the true fire in her eyes and, with a delicate touch of her fingers, left a burn mark on the stall owner's shelf. Then, she quickly turned and caught up with her master, disappearing into the crowd.

It took a long time for the stall owner to recover from Rayan's glare. Clutching his chest, he said resentfully, "You're lucky! Bastard—huh? Where is that smoke coming from?"

The true fire from his shelf spread rapidly, the flames so fierce they couldn't be extinguished. In just a few seconds, it burned all the wooden cages completely, and the caged Feral Beast cubs immediately rushed out, sprinting towards the depths of the dense forest.

"My babies! Come back! I raised you! I... wuwu..."

The stall owner's face covered in ashes, collapsed on the street like a child and burst into loud cries.

The pedestrians on the street all reveled in his misfortune; none intervened. A few even caught the Feral Beast cubs that had failed to escape and secretly kept them, not returning them to him.

Rayan naturally heard the wailing from behind. He glanced at Sola, who was walking with her head down, and smiled slightly without saying a word.

There's a saying that's not wrong: like master, like servant.

Coming to a low hut, Rayan stopped. From the dilapidated hut came the sound of whips lashing, followed by chilling screams after each crack.

Sola looked up and saw the plaque in the center of the decrepit hut inscribed with gilded letters: "Home of Light." She looked at Rayan, puzzled as to why there would be sounds of torture coming from a place called "Home of Light."

"I don't want to upset you, but if you still want the slave mark, you have to come in with me, and you mustn't make any trouble. Because—"

Rayan pointed to the deceptive sign and said, "This is a slave trading post."

Sola's heart tightened, immediately realizing that the heart-wrenching cries inside came from her kind. She firmly bit her lip, "Master, I will behave."

Rayan nodded, his expression as grave as water, and walked into the slave trading post.

Inside the dim slave trading post, two rows of thick tallow candles burned. In the dim candlelight, a slave trainer with a corpulent body was violently whipping a slave lying on the ground with a thick snake-skin whip.

The whipped slave was barely alive, their naked body covered with complex bloodstains, flesh turned inside out, barely any intact skin visible. If not for the screams, Rayan would not have been able to tell whether this bloodied figure was male or female.

Behind the trainer, in a luxuriously decorated lounge chair, reclined a fat man with a Fu Manchu mustache, appearing almost immobile like a large lump of meat. His swollen, lotus-root-like arms were embracing two delicate young female slaves.

These two female slaves looked even younger than Sola, the area between their hips hairless, areolas not yet spread, and breasts just small mounds. The eyes of the pheasant were filled with an adult's world-weariness and deadness, similarly wheat-colored skin rubbed with shiny musk oil. Rayan could smell the intoxicating fragrance even from a distance.

Like the other slaves in the trading post, these two female slaves wore not a thread. They timidly shrank next to their master, allowing his lecherous hands to rub over their bodies freely.

Seeing Rayan and Sola enter, the slave master's eyes immediately flashed with a gleam. While greedily staring at Sola, he waved to the trainer, "Switch to another slave to beat, this one can't scream anymore. This time, I want to hear the female slave scream..."

The trainer immediately dragged away the unconscious slave, leaving a long trail of blood on the dirty floor.

"Ah, we have guests."

The slave master pretended to have just noticed Rayan, speaking with a superficially grandiose tone but a sneer, "But this guest looks unfamiliar, not sure if he's a noble young master here to patronize our business or a mercenary brother here to provide us with stock."

His words were pompously formal, but the slave master knew very well by Rayan's attire that he was definitely not any noble young master. So, he eagerly locked his gaze on Sola, calculating her worth while shamelessly sliding his fat fingers into the legs of his own female slave...