When the sun reached the top and felt its warmth, the street where the slave market was located was dressed in a noisy outfit. Contrary to what Alyon had predicted, orcs weren’t just bought and sold as slaves. Humans, dwarves, animals, and even wild creatures took their places among the merchants’ goods.
When Nafız and Alyon were put up for sale on the wooden podium, attention would be drawn to this point. Alyon had suddenly become the favorite product of the market, with his majesty that overshadowed all of its other cognates displayed beside it.
Nafız was attracting the attention of many buyers with her interesting structure and her red hair from the ends to a little higher.
“Dear Parthenia residents and my dear merchant friends! Today, we have two rare pieces in our exhibition!”
Alyon and Nafız met eyes when the trader started to shout with a loud voice. Their thoughts were to infiltrate the city to learn the dynamics and destroy Parthenia from the inside. They knew that neither these handcuffs nor the people gathered around them could deter them from their goals.
“One hundred gold for a male orc!”
Before the trader finished his speech, an excited buyer made an offer.
“One hundred and fifty gold!”
Another voice raised the offer.
“Two hundred gold”
“Two hundred and twenty gold!”
The seller was scratching his belly with delight as the offer increased.
“Two thousand gold!”
The last offer muted the crowd because the amount had been increased almost tenfold in one go. While the eyes are looking for the daring person who made the offer, the youth, walking with sweeping fur and golden hair blowing in the wind, was advancing with great strides.
“Epiphanes of House Augustus!”
“His father was the owner of the largest gladiator school and the manager of the arena, right?”
The crowd was whispering among themselves. Hearing these, the young man put a smile on his handsome face that would warm the hearts of those who saw it.
“Sir, your presence has brought glory and honor to this strange merchant’s exhibit!”
When the slave trader saw the young man approaching the wooden podium, accompanied by his bodyguards, he jumped in front of him and bowed to the ground.
“Get out of my way, you miserable. Who gave you the right to stand on the path I walk?”
Throwing the merchant aside with a solid kick, Epiphanes came to Alyon’s side and began to examine the giant orc. After staring at him for a while, he called out to his guards without taking his eyes off him.
“Chain it; we’re taking it with us!”
The burly guard, handcuffs, and chains, who threw a bag of gold on the merchant lying on the ground, walked towards the orc they had bought. While looking at the person approaching step by step, storms were breaking inside Alyon and, volcanoes were erupting. His inherited master, the Son of the Great Lord of the Orc Steppes, conquered a whole realm.
Turning to Nafız involuntarily, Alyon found his friend staring as if to say, don’t do anything. The situation of the two, speaking with their eyes, did not escape another person’s attention. The golden-haired youth approached the female orc with small steps.
”Smile!”
While Nafız was surprised by the person’s attitude shouting next to her, Epiphanes repeated his words.
“I ordered you to laugh!”
Nafız laughed, but inside she was asking what this psychopath was after?
“Scream in pain!”
Nafız, who was patient, became very tense when she heard this request.
”Cry!”
Looking at Epiphanes with blank eyes, Nafız asked her question before he could shout again.
“Shall I show my teeth too?”
“What kind of question is this? What do you say?”
When one became stupid, Nafız spoke with pleasure.
“Maybe you want to know my age, bright boy!”
Epiphanes flushed red at the insolence to his face and began to shout in anger.
“I’m taking this orc too! Gladiators will rape you before your lover’s eyes. I will leave you hungry and miserable. Let’s see if you can laugh like now, then.”
Understanding from his young master’s tone that this was a rush, the bodyguard started running. Nafız was convinced that she should kill Epiphanes, but she wondered whether to do it here or where she was to be taken away.
”One minute! I want to make an offer for the slave too!”
The voice that gave life to the words was timid and trembling, but the assembled crowd could not help but feel a heaviness in their hearts. When the voice owner, approaching the exhibition where the sale was made with a litter carried by two orcs, opened the curtain, all the exhibitors, including the merchant on the ground, bowed respectfully and shouted in unison.
”Little Lady!”
It was Eftelya, the young lady of the Partheni household in charge of the ports, whose arrival made the look of horror disappear from the handsome young man’s face.
“Eftelya, by what right do you take my slave away from me?”
After saying so much in front of the audience, Epiphanes didn’t want to lose his face.
“Doesn’t the young master of the Augustus family know how to talk to ladies?”
The young girl spoke with scrutinizing eyes, and the crowd around was ecstatic as if they had entered a flower garden.
“I suppose you still think that the city is run by your family, young lady. Those days are long gone; I will take the slave!”
The golden-haired Epiphanes had made up his mind. He intended to take the female orc and torture it at any cost.
“As far as I know, trading was done by auction. Since when did this rule change?”
While the two continued their bickering, another male voice echoed in the environment. The newcomer also had bodyguards behind him and carried a long slender sword at his waist.
“Marcos, mind your own business. This is an issue between Eftelya and me!”
Epiphanes grimaced when he saw the person coming. The youngest son of the Cervantes family, who was in control of the customs gates, was involved.
“Merchant, start the auction! I am the first offer of a thousand gold coins!”
By ignoring the words spoken, Marcos made a move to plunge the atmosphere into chaos.
”One thousand five hundred!”
It didn’t take long for Epiphanes to answer the offer, loudly enough for everyone to hear, before wiping the anger on his handsome face.
“Three thousand gold!”
The crowd was flooded with surprise at the offers. One side could get their money back by making the slaves they bought fight in the arena, but what was the young lady’s purpose?
“Five thousand gold!”
The golden-haired youth was intent on keeping up.
”Ten thousand!”
When Eftelya doubled the offer with her magical voice that penetrated the souls, Marcos couldn’t help but burst out laughing. The situation did not please Epiphanes at all. Because they were in the same age group, the person he was constantly compared to was making fun of himself.
“Fifteen thousand gold!”
Shaking with anger, the young master of the Augustus family put forward all of his wealth.
“Thirty thousand gold!”
As the crowd shouted in excitement, even Marcos couldn’t help but be surprised by the scale of the offer. Although Epiphanes was just an overly pampered child, he was the one who held control of a gate to the city. However, his gain may not have been enough for such a duel.
“The lord of the Partheni family is very fond of his daughter, my dear friend Epiphanes. As a gentleman, wouldn’t you like to give the elegant lady some face?”
Speaking loud enough for everyone to hear, Marcos offered a way out for the heir apparent of one of the three great families, though he disliked it. Eftelya’s father cared about his daughter; even if the two people were united, they could not have won such an encounter.
“You are indeed a little too stubborn, beautiful lady. You did not give me the chance to buy the slave and present it to you!”
Epiphanes had to maintain his reputation in society, so he followed the path that Marcos had shown.
“Oh, was that so? Please take this as a little spoiler of mine!”
Regardless of the extent of their conflicts among themselves, members of noble families were always taught to maintain their nobility in front of ordinary people.
“Snıfff! Snıfff!”
Epiphanes was walking towards the burly orc he had bought when he felt someone sniff his neck.
”What are you doing?”
It was too late when the golden-haired youth, wanting to flee in fear, realized that the female orc had locked his shoulder with her chin.
“I wrote you in my mind, son!”
When Nafız finished her words, Epiphanes ran away from her with his face like chalk. The friends who were going to be apart for a while were saying goodbye to each other with determined looks while the merchant was smiling happily amid the heated arguments of the crowd.
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Every person dies, but not every person truly lives.
William Wallace
