The young mermaid panicked badly when all the wizards stared at her with their merciless gazes. People grew more and more excited when they saw the poor yet beautiful creature’s timidness turning into fear.
Angor watched the auction with a plain mood. Mermaids tended to invite bane due to their beauty. But at the same time, such beauty was their deadliest weapon. On the sea, these creatures always bewitched innocent sailors and destroyed entire fleets.
The mermaid went to someone at the cost of 320 crystals.
The second cage was revealed, revealing another slave inside—a dwarf covered in crystal-like scales.
“A Crystal Folk from Grand Plane, a born craftsman. They do wonderful jobs when constructing buildings, either above or under the surface,” Twilight explained.
A Humanoid from another plane? Angor did find traces of damage left by the world’s consciousness on the creature.
He was considering whether he should buy this slave and then used this chance to ask the auction house about how to prevent the slave from being expelled by the world’s consciousness.
But the cold truth quickly discouraged him. The crystal dwarf was sold to someone at 1,500 crystals. Angor only had 600 left after buying the nightmare horn.
The cages were revealed one after one. There were all kinds of beautiful woman-like creatures or slaves from other worlds, and every single one of them went higher than a thousand magic crystals. Angor never had a chance.
He heard from people before that capturing otherworldly beings and selling them to wizards meant huge profit. But he did not expect them to be so costly.
What he did not know was the Twilight Auction always provided the best merchandise which all went through careful selections. Also, the creatures they sold all came here by legal means, so the Supreme Cult could not do anything to the slaves. The process increased their value, too.
There were only the last three lots left.
Usually, these would be the most valuable items there were to offer. However, people noticed that there were still two cages left on the stage, which meant two of the three “ace items” were slaves.
Concluding the auction with slaves? As people wondered what kind of creature held such value, another cage was revealed.
Angor raised an eyebrow when he saw yet another grand beauty; a blond woman with a pair of pure-white wings on her back.
The woman had the same look as told in certain stories which described angels from heaven. Obviously, they would not be seeing a real angel here. She might have the same look, but the hatred hidden in her eyes was real, the same hatred one would find from demonic beasts.
All the slaves more or less displayed hatred. But unlike them, this woman did not specifically direct her hatred to anyone present. Also, she wore fine clothes and was not constrained in anything like the other slaves. She just sat there quietly, with her wings covering her sides.
Angor sensed mana ripples coming from her. It seemed she was a Humanoid supernatural.
Twilight pointed a finger to the woman. “She’s called Gabriel.”
Many people expressed their surprise upon hearing that name. Angor saw them whispering to each other.
“Excuse me, Lady Twilight…” Someone asked, “She’s Gabriel? Which Gabriel, if I may?”
“The one you all believed to be. She is Gabriel Fudo Islanle, the current saintess of Parmigi Winged Folks.”
Saintess? The saintess of a race closely related to Subterrians?
Someone gasped in shock.
Winged Folks usually dwelt in the sky. However, some of them were once persecuted by the Karabits and were forced to move underground. After thousands of years, the ancestors of these Winged Folks established a tight bond with underground dwellers. They settled on a floating island to the north of Parmigi Highlands later and named themselves the Parmigi Winged Folks.
“Lady Twilight, is it really okay for you to sell the saintess of those people as a slave in public?” A Subterrian wizard asked.
In truth, people could hardly contain their thirst for beautiful women. However, they still had to nod and agree to the question, just to be “polite”.
Gabriel grinned a little when looking at the horny audiences. She nodded to Twilight and closed her eyes.
Twilight sighed in her mind.
“I think you all know who she is. Of course, we’d never sell the orphaned child of the Holy Wing. She… came at her own will, on condition that her buyer must help her with revenge. She wants to kill… ‘Lord of Night’ Moodick.”
Her words startled everyone for good.
“If anyone can help her get it done,” Twilight continued, “she’ll deem herself as that man’s eternal slave and agree to do anything. A test subject, a tool of pleasure… anything.”
‘Holy Wing’ Sariye, the former saintess of Parmigi Winged Folks, a formal wizard, and Gabriel’s beloved teacher.
Three years ago, Sariye died in the hands of Moodick. Nobody knew what exactly happened. Moodick only admitted committing the murder, but the man never said anything else.
Twilight did not explain why Gabriel was so determined to kill Moodick even at the cost of becoming a slave. She only followed her profession and began the auction. “There’s no reserve bid for this one. Anyone willing to accept her quest may sign the contract with her.”
The discussion among people grew more heated, but no one stepped up and took the job. ‘Lord of Night’ Moodick was an illustrious figure in the entire Sleepless City, and no one here would try his or her luck against that terrible man.
Twilight secretly glimpsed at Chamber 19. As she believed, that man was the only one here who “might” have a chance at this.
Five minutes went by.
Twilight sighed and ended the auction with a sad look.
Instead of being taken away by the workers, Gabriel opened her cage on her own, bowed to Twilight, and flew out of the inner stage with a desperate yet determined look.
People remained silent for a while.
“Let’s hope desperation can bring her strength and the courage to oppose the cruel world. Able women should not rely on useless dickheads,” Lydia commented.
…
With Gabriel gone, there were only two items left, one of which was another slave.
They frowned when they saw what was inside the last cage.
That looked like… a person?
The figure had a slim body; short, gray hair; and dark skin. He wore a clean servitor suit one would find on any waiters in restaurants.
He had a high nose bridge and average, pale-colored lips too. Everything on him suggested that he was an ordinary human. Everything apart from… one thing.
He had no eyes.
It did not mean he was blind. Rather, there was only bare, empty skin where his eyes should have been. Someone drew a pair of cartoon-style eyes on his face with ink, which looked horribly cute.
“What the heck is that? I don’t sense the mark of the world’s consciousness on him. He’s not a foreign creature?”
“Is there a race called the ‘eyeless’ in this world? I never heard of one.”
“What can he do? Why did you place him at the last but one?”
Angor did not have those questions. He rubbed his eyes and looked at the slave carefully.
“What’s the matter, Angor?” Dave saw his movement.
“I think… I saw him somewhere before. He looks so familiar.”
“Familiar?” Dave also poked his head higher and inspected the figure, but he did not notice anything.
Angor tried to remember if he saw someone like that in the Nightmare Realm, but nothing came to his mind.
Toby suddenly moved in his pocket. During the music box incident, Angor successfully soothed the bird down and put it to sleep. It seemed Toby just woke up.
Angor changed his attention to the bird and no longer cared about the slave on the stage. “Only two items left. Good timing, we’re leaving soon.”
Toby tweeted lazily. Angor smiled when he understood that the bird had completely gotten over the previous trouble.
As Angor and his bird joked at each other, Twilight began her introduction.
“As you all know, there are two absolutely divine dining places in the south: Felicia’s Butterfly Tavern, and Greya’s Barbie’s Restaurant.”
Angor froze up when he heard the name of Greya.
“Those who’ve read the newest edition of Expedition into Endless Planes should know that Greya got herself into a fight with Granny Shikazaru in Haunt World, and the two of them, together with another station wizard of the expedition team, ‘Sawai’, were sucked into the Nightmare Realm. It’s commonly believed that Greya has fallen, which meant her restaurant is no more.”
Cold sweat appeared on Angor’s forehead as he finally remembered who the slave was.
“All the other workers in the restaurant are gourmet wizards. Apart from those who escaped back to Candy House, the rest scattered away into different parts of the world. This one is one of the workers, captured by a wizard during an incident. I think I do not need to remind you of the value of gourmet wizards. He’s not yet a formal wizard, but he already knows how to cook amazing dishes which share the same level of properties as alchemy potions. Now, let’s get some bidding done. We start at 10,000 magic crystals, and I expect raises of no less than 5,000!”
A scene flashed through Angor’s memory, in which he entered Barbie’s Restaurant with Mara and a group of other wizards. They saw a number of strange workers and waiters along their way. The dancing Tom Weasel, a ghost janitor who always spoke nonsense, head waiter Greasy Neo, and another man with a stiff body who could only advance by hopping forward, the ‘Eyeless Man’.
The very same figure locked up inside that iron cage!