“….I will come after some time once again, and you will tell me everything,” Ryuk said, ignoring the system’s words and pointing his finger at the man who was crying out in pain yet biting his mouth shut to prevent any truth from being revealed due to fear of the pain caused by the Elder.
Unaware that the pain from the Elder could only lead to death but he didn’t realize the upcoming agony would make him beg for it.
Within a flick of a moment, a black drop shot out of Ryuk’s finger before directly hitting the man, who appeared unaware as the tiny particles slowly moved inside his body through facial orifices.
“Urgh…. You will..not get anything from m—?!” The man tried to retort that even if he died today, he wouldn’t reveal anything, but suddenly felt a sharp pain that seemed equivalent to—his balls bursting, heart being crushed, and brain freezing—all at the same time.
With that sensation coming from within his body, a rhythmic cry tore through his lungs, his vocal cords vibrating to the breaking point, “AaaRrrrGgggHhhhhhhh!!!!”
Ryuk slowly stood, not even flinching after seeing the once-human body now turned into a music band under the assault of pain, showing different colors on the skin, bloodshot eyes, and a voice that could have echoed throughout the place if it wasn’t for the sound barrier around him.
“Young master, is someone hurt?” Zhen’er, feeling a negative sensation around her body, tried to turn her head but found it hard to hear any sound of someone’s cry.
Naturally, due to her blindness, she had honed her other senses. Throughout her life, she always felt a tingle when someone was suffering or harbored ill intentions toward her. It wasn’t an ability or an absolute truth, just an instinct.
“No, it seems after I asked for a few slaves, that man went out to bring someone,” Ryuk said, standing and moving towards the desk from where he was feeling the demonic presence. Arriving and opening a drawer, he saw a paper with a drawn magic circle.
[Host, it’s a low-grade Slave seal.]
‘How much minimum power level is needed to nullify it?’ Ryuk subtly glanced towards the seated woman in front of him, who appeared unaware of her surroundings, before his ears caught a distant sound of the auction beginning and the announcement made by the auctioneer.
[Host, it needs 1000 units of Energy stats to break it.]
‘Meaning if given to someone devoid of energy, even though that person is strong, it will work?’ Ryuk guessed that if this was true, then the moment this amount of energy was replenished, the individual could easily break the seal. So it was not practical to use on any strong individual to begin with.
[Indeed, it will work but remain effective until the energy gets refilled.]
‘Hmm,’ Ryuk thought. Not that he was in need of a slave seal given his possession of the Grimoire, but there was a small doubt in his mind after seeing that guy here out of all places.
A doubt that the gardener’s presence here could be to lure Ryuk in, but the question remained: how could one be so sure that a mere gardener among hundreds of servants could be a good prey?
“Let’s go,” he said, moving towards the woman. She was slightly taken aback but stood and held his robe to follow him as before.
“Young master, where are we going?” Zhen’er inquired, not understanding the reason for them leaving without the young master purchasing any slaves as he had ordered that man earlier.
“Somewhere safe since there will be a beast wave attacking this place,” Ryuk said, passing through the door and making his way out of the room, followed by the woman. Hearing his words, she appeared confused, trying to understand before realizing that Liu Wei was in the marketplace.
“W-wait, if it’s a beast wave, then Liu will be in danger!?” She halted and pulled his clothes, causing Ryuk to stop as well.
“Liu was banished from the Wei Family. Do you know the reason why?” Ryuk asked calmly, directing his question at the woman who had appeared anxious a moment ago but flinched upon hearing his words.
“W-why?” she asked, feeling perplexed and trying to understand the reason for his words, not understanding why Liu would be banished.
“…..Leave it, you are already brainwashed,” Ryuk firmly declared, continuing forward and prompting her to follow since she held his robe.
She felt confused and at the same time fell into deep thought, pondering what he meant by being brainwashed.
Unaware that, like breadcrumbs, small pieces of information were being fed to her, which would soon lead her to believe that Liu is the evil one.
“Young Master, is your work done?” The soldier who had brought Ryuk here and was now in conversation with a few others at some distance, saw the black-robed man finally leaving the room accompanied by the woman.
“Yes, I will wait for the slaves to be delivered to the Wei family residence and also bring the manager’s letter after five hours,” Ryuk confidently declared, moving while ignoring the soldier.
The soldier scratched his chin slightly, feeling confused but understanding that these things might have already been discussed with the manager.
So, he bowed, taking it as a privilege to be selected to accomplish this task himself. He made his way towards the door and firmly declared to the other soldiers, “No one will disturb the manager for five hours; he is writing a letter.”
.
.
.
.
“Young Master, are we not going into the auction hall?” Zhen’er inquired, moving towards the place while clearly feeling the people passing by her in the opposite direction, indicating that they were heading towards the auction house and she was going in the opposite direction.
“As I previously told you, there will be a monster wave here soon,” Ryuk informed her again while passing through several individuals who glanced at him due to his particular attire, revealing him to be from a higher town. Their gazes were gauging him and the woman from top to bottom.
“Um, yes, but wouldn’t we be safe inside?” Zhen’er kept his cloth clenched tightly to avoid getting lost, taking slow but steady steps to match his pace.
“Exactly, the beast wave will only attack inside.” Halting after arriving at the end of the plain path outside the auction house, his eyes fixed on several cages lining both sides of the pathway. They were filled with weakened beasts, appearing broken or either half-dead due to hunger and continuous beatings.
‘….It’s a relief then,’ Zhen’er felt much better after knowing that Liu would be safe if the young master’s words were true and the beast wave would occur.
‘Here you are,’ Ryuk’s senses caught the familiar presence running towards the auction house—the man whose Qi veins had been sealed a few moments ago yet had somehow managed to come here, defying all the bad luck in his way.
“Let’s move to eat something,” Ryuk said with a smile, moving towards a stall at the end of the path filled with slaves.
It was a peculiar sight since it was the only place selling something to eat, offering barbecued meat while a thin man was fanning it.
But from Ryuk’s perspective, it was clear that the intent behind fanning the smell was only to make the beasts in the cages react more vigorously, thus increasing their value. A hungry beast wouldn’t particularly consider these humans as food and act as such.
“Hey, how much meat do you have?” Ryuk asked after a few seconds of continuous walking, halting in front of the stall. It was small, with a narrow width and just enough length for the shopkeeper to sit.
“Oh, Young master, I have 10 kilos of meat on me right now,” the thin man clasped his hands and replied, causing nearby people selling the slaves to glance in their direction at the black-robed man who appeared different from others.
Naturally, due to the stench of the slaves and beasts, the whole area was unfit for people to eat. It was unhygienic, with poop, vomit, and rotten flesh present around the cages filled with beasts.
Yet, among all the individuals who avoided eating here, a man approached the stall, accompanied by a woman.
[Host, he is lying. Just look at his body; I bet he doesn’t even have 3 kilos of meat.]
‘….Don’t speak until I say so,’ Ryuk warned, hearing the system’s third-rate joke before turning his attention back to the shopkeeper. “I would like you to give me 5 kilos since I want to feed it to one of the beast slaves I will purchase.”
“Ohhh, that seems feasible,” the man feigned surprise, initially intending to make an excuse for not having much raw meat on him, but hesitated after hearing that this young master just wanted to purchase a beast slave, indirectly promoting the business of the slave traders nearby.
And he could easily keep doing his work with even two kilos of meat since the main ingredient to stimulate those slave beasts was a poisonous herb.
“Fine, pack them,” Ryuk calmly stated, his eyes glancing at a small bag filled with leaves of something placed at a nearby corner, while on the other side the shopkeeper was packing the meat.
“Do you have money?” Ryuk, already aware that he needed to do something else here for plan B, inquired to the woman beside him if she had some money for him to purchase the meat.
“Uh? I may have five copper coins,” Zhen’er, who was smelling the nearby stench and the cooking meat, felt that this was definitely an unsuitable place to eat but glanced towards his direction upon hearing his question.
“I see…” Ryuk, with his eyes fixed on the bag of herbs, felt that it was time to take action.
SWOOSH!
In an instant, his body was shrouded in an orange aura with visible luminance, causing all the pedestrians and slave traders to look towards the direction from which the intense light was coming.
Due to this being an aura, and not a body enforcement technique, Ryuk could feel the pressure of the ether shrouding his body.
Ignoring all of them, Ryuk grabbed Zhen’er’s wrist and calmly stated before his figure blurred, “A fast breeze is coming, be prepared.” He didn’t think much about it, considering she wasn’t able to see, and with those words as a warning, she tightly shut her eyes for safety.
There is a saying: if you don’t have money to purchase something, then just borrow it and return the money later when you come back—it’s definitely not theft.
“I will send you the money,” Ryuk looked in the direction of the shopkeeper, who was also shocked and horrified upon realizing the density of the energy, which even made him, standing two meters away, feel a high warmth.
“I-it’s—?!” He tried to speak but saw the figure shrouded in the orange aura vanish, taking the bag of meat with him. “Wait but mone—where are the herbs!”
He cried out upon seeing the missing bag of poisonous herbs, but before he could react, a roar from one of the beasts broke out of its cage.
ROOOOOARRRRR!
