Chapter 275 - Slaves Auction
They reached the city's gates after a few hours. As Arthur looked around, he saw that almost everyone else was a demi-human. Those that had long tails and ears of a tiger, those that had giant wings on their backs, and those that had massive horns for their foreheads.
All of them had one thing in common, they looked down on humans. They treated the fact that they were chained like a common sight, not allowing it to disturb their lives.
They stopped at the city's gates, being inspected by a man with an eagle's mouth. He looked at them with his sharp eyes, looking for any abnormalities that he could weed out.
As he reached Arthur's cage, he suddenly shouted something while looking at the young man next to Arthur. The cage was opened and the man was dragged out as he screamed.
An artifact was brought up that cast white light on the man's body, revealing many dark spots. The eagle-man suddenly gave a command and a sword cut off the man's head its neck.
The woman screamed as the man's head rolled on the ground. Arthur's heart shook at such barbarity. He looked for the man's body looking for clues as to why he was murdered, but he could only see that his skin was riddled with black patches after the light touched it.
The man's body was dragged away as the rest of the humans shivered in fear. For the first time in a long while, Arthur felt the familiar fear creep upon his heart.
He was in a place where he could die at any moment, without even having the ability to protest about it. Luckily, no other humans were killed and the slave merchant was allowed entry to the city.
As they walked through the streets, Arthur thought he was back on Earth. Even though the demi-humans proved that he was wrong, everything otherwise was identical to the things you see in a human's establishment.
Shops, markets, houses with chimneys, kids playing around, and vendors trying to make a living. It was similar, but Arthur noticed the lack of technology in the surrounding. There were also no cars, only wagons pulled by horses.
The convey took them deeper into the city toward a large building. They were taken out of the cages and pushed toward the inside of the building, where they have chained off again and imprisoned.
"Istan ber no valia." The woman sobbed as the middle-aged man consoled her. Arthur guessed she was that man's wife, but he couldn't tell for sure.
At this point, he could tell nothing for sure. He was being tossed around from one place to another before he had the time to adjust.
This time, his imprisonment didn't last as long as it did. A few hours later, they were taken out and dragged toward a giant hall with a stage in the middle.
Arthur had regained some of his ability to walk now, but it was still done with difficulty and he needed some time to make a single step. That's why, impatient, the ape-human dragged him through the ground and threw him on stage.
There were other humans too, but they were all standing still while looking fearfully toward the crowd that surrounded the stage.
It took nothing but a moment for Arthur to realize what was going on.
'It's a slave auction.' Arthur realized as he studied the eyes of the demi-humans shouting around them. He was handed a blank of wood with something written on it, Arthur expected it to be a number.
He carried the plank of wood and stood there as the crowd shouted. The slaves were bought off quickly, but Arthur was left toward the end. The slave merchant pointed at him and said a few things, probably explaining his handicap.
Thus, to his greater relief, the auction went on with no one buying him. Arthur thought he would be left when a woman shouted something that made the crowd go mute. She pointed at him and the man next to him with a smile and the slave merchant seemed thrilled.
'I guess we're fated to stick together.' Arthur sighed as he and the middle-aged man was taken away toward another cell. They were given new clothes and their chains were removed.
As the slave merchant arrived, he hurried and stabbed something into Arthur's forearm. Pain shot through his body as Arthur grunted and felt the device lodge itself into his body.
It was a needle with a gem on top. The gem shone brightly as if to remind Arthur that his life wasn't his own anymore. As soon as he tried to move his mana, a pain worse than the one earlier shot through his body and made him fall on the ground.
"Sakal!" The slave merchant shouted and took out a vial. He made Arthur drink it and his body began recovering.
'Did he call me useless?' Arthur didn't say anything all this time lest they knew he wasn't from this world. He didn't want to imagine what kind of fate would await him if they knew.
Soon, the woman arrived and Arthur managed to get a better look at her. She wore clothes that were extravagant compared to the surroundings and her green hair was arranged in dreadlocks.
"Sel," She said and her tongue came out. It was the tongue of a snake, not a human. Her eyes were deep brown and her pupils were slits instead of circles. "Ann sakal, ne?" She held Arthur's chin while saying.
'Did she say I wasn't that useless?' Arthur hoped since that meant he wouldn't be killed. Well, given that she didn't want to torture him.
The woman said something and a few of her attendants came to escort Arthur and the middle-aged man toward a giant wagon. This one was pulled by giant reptiles that walked on two with short arms in front of them.
The wagon set out as soon as Arthur managed to sit down. It raced across the streets, taking Arthur through a road he didn't know what awaited at its end.