The man kept staring at me as the aura he emitted kept getting stronger and stronger over time.
He was powerful, very powerful, maybe just as powerful as me.
“Why are you quiet all of a sudden?” He said as a smirk flashed through his mask. “Scared?”
I thought about what to do as he kept showing off his strength, making both Zephyr and Lurok extremely scared of him.
I had two options, and I needed to weigh both of them.
The first option was respond to him by showing my strength. The second one was acting scared just like the other two.
It was hard to choose because I didn’t want to reveal my full strength to those around me. They knew I was special, but they had no idea to what extent. That’s why I was extremely tempted to act like I was impressed and scared of his power.
That’s why I decided to play the long game as I brought out my best acting!
“S-Sorry…I-I didn’t know you were this powerful…”
I made sure to stutter as much as possible to make things even more convincing and it seemed to work quite well as he seemed quite pleased with my reaction.
“It’s good that you know your place. Also, you can call me Zero.”
‘Zero, huh?’ I frowned. ‘Strange name. I’ll remember it.’
“O-Okay, Z-z-zero…”
“Haha! No need to be scared. I won’t hurt you.”
I just shook my head as I kept acting extremely scared of him. The maids sitting on top of me also seemed frightened of what just happened, as they currently had no idea that I was making a fool of myself. After all, if I were to show my strength to Zero, then there was a good chance that a fight would ensue.
For the next few minutes, I stayed quiet as I didn’t think it was wise to continue acting like nothing had happened. The auction continued, and no one in our private room bid on anything. Lurok, the bearded fishman, asked me a few times if I wanted to buy anything, but I always refused instantly.
Surprisingly, he didn’t pressure me into buying anything as he simply shook his head everytime. He seemed to empathy with what I had just went through with Zero. My guess was that he had gone through something similar in the past.
Still, after a few minutes, I had a question that I really wanted to ask Zero. It was something that had been on my mind ever since I had heard his nickname.
“Can I ask you a question…uh, Mister Zero?”
He scoffed for a moment before agreeing.
“It’s fine if you don’t want to answer…But I was wondering what your race is. Are you a human, a dwarf?”
I had other questions on my mind, but I thought that this one had the most chances of being answered.
“Caedrel, right?” He started off.
“Yes, sir. That’s my name.”
“If I want to tell you something about myself, I will. Do you understand?”
“Yes, I understand. Sorry about that.”
However, while I accepted, it was to keep my role as a scared person. I would have to find a way to figure out his race before we ended this thing. The fact that he was acting so secretly about everything annoyed me greatly. Still, I had ways to figure out what his race was.
However, there was just one little problem with those methods.
I needed to touch Zero.
‘I need to provoke him, but not too much that he would want to kill me…’ I thought in the back of my mind. ‘If he starts bidding on an item, then that would be my perfect chance, but he doesn’t seem to be interested in anything at all.’
Minutes passed by once again, and Zero still didn’t bid on anything, which meant that neither did I.
The items being shown in the auction were actually extremely valuable every time, but they were things that I had no interest in. I only cared about fighting others, and I didn’t do anything flashy to do so. The only times I would pull out my weapon was when I would have to fight seriously, and that practically never happened in my life in this world.
The ones who had seen my weapon had all died under my blade, and fun fact, almost everyone on the battlefield thought that I could only use my fists to kill demons.
If only they knew…
Then, as I thought that I would need to come up with another idea, the auction’s last item was put up for auction.
“Ladiessss, and gentlemen! It’s finally time to reveal our greatest item for tonight, the grand finale! Are you excited?”
Screams of excitement rang in the auction house. People threw money on the stage, I had no idea why, but the people in the stands were absolutely crazy.
“YESSS! SHOW US WHAT SHE LOOKS LIKE!”
‘Money and power is probably the reason they act this way. It corrupts most people, after all.’
I have experienced it many times in my life.
People who had been fighting for the good their entire life, changing overnight because they had received power to dominate others.
It was despicable. Ugh…just thinking about it makes me mad.
“Our final item is a SLAVEEE!” The girl on the stage shouted with a bright smile.
However, while she smiled, I didn’t.
“She’s a princess coming straight from the elven territory! She just turned 18, and more importantly, she is a virgin!”
“Daddy will take care of you, baby girl!” A guy below us in the stands said.
“I’ll be the one to buy her!” Another one said.
Every single time I heard something coming out of the mouth’ of those pieces of absolute trash, I could feel my heart pumping with rage and my fists clenched.
‘I will remember all of your faces. If we ever meet again, each and every single of you will die by my hands, you fucking disgusting pigs.’
“Zero, you wanted to buy her, right?” Lurok said out of nowhere, catching me completely off-guard.
“Yes. I was quite interested in a cute elven princess like her. She would be perfect for my collection.”
I could see him licking his lips behind that mask of his.
I wanted to kill him.
Right here, right now, in front of everyone.
This man, Zero, was even worse than a demon.
