Panting, Lucian stumbled out of the alley and into the sprawling slave district, his injuries throbbing in protest.
He raised his head to take in his new surroundings. Dilapidated wooden shacks and iron-barred pens stretched in every direction, enveloped in a thin mist. There was an ornate auction house nearby, its painted banners fluttering in the cold wind as distant auctioneers' voices boomed over the crowd.
Infiltrating the slave market sounded like a good place for a foreigner to hide. The sellers kept track of their slaves, but what's one more in the lot?
Dimming his eyes with his golden stage, he made them look tired and lifeless. Lucian then began to act like a runaway slave. He slipped between stacked crates and carts, peeking through the gaps.
"Hey, you!" Slave catchers shouted, running after him when he "tried to run" away. "Stop!"
"Ah," Lucian ran in a zigzag, almost tripping over his feet, as if he didn't know how to properly run. He was "caught" pretty quickly, and was chained, collared, and thrown into the cart with three other slaves.
Voice was furious, like always. Lucian was supposed to become a new Kingpin, not join the ranks of the lowest of low.
Lucian observed how the pirates spread out the news to others like ants, informing them that the "Glory's Founder" had come to take over their business. They were exaggerating the story, as usual, making him sound like an arrogant prick.
Lucian sent a silent astral message to his ferals, ordering them to withdraw. The whole place would soon become a hunting ground for anyone connected to Glory.
'I need to feed my son,' Lucian closed his eyes. He took the moment to use his astral energy to connect with Lion Head, only to find Lion Head lying on the ground inside his office.
His view was of a boot pressing Lion's face into the floor by a masked person, the revolutionarist leader.
'What is Celine doing in the south?' Lucian panicked, watching her use his chair as her throne and cradling their son in her lap.
She was feeding him a bottle, talking to him with a soft voice, "We were supposed to mourn your death together as my unstable condition worsen. I'm sure your father would have remained by my side to help me heal, but look at you, alive and breathing."
His son responded with a gurgle as if laughing at his mother's drama, his tiny hand slapping the bottle.
"You have my sense of humor, huh?" Celine chuckled, curling their son's hair around her finger, "That means you must have brought lots of trouble to your father. I wish I was there to see it. I'm sure he has gotten even crazier from being separated from me, the poor thing."
Lucian wanted to protest, but his vision was suddenly cut off by someone dragging him by the chains.
He was forced to join the line of slaves in the backstage area of the auction. He kept his head low and followed the slave man in front of him, moving like an undead.
The guards were strict, counting each slave, and pushing them to keep moving. Lucian tried to stay in the middle of the group, and the guard's whip landed on his back a few times, just like it did on the others.
"Move, move! You're all up for sale today, so look presentable," a guard shouted, his whip cracking against the floor. "If I see any of you causing trouble, I will personally make sure your buyer whips the skin off your bones."
Both males and females were mixed together, but Lucian noticed that the prettier ones were pulled aside, to be kept for VIP buyers.
Lucian was dirty enough to be in the cheap group, or so he thought. Until someone grabbed his arm, "You, come here."
Lucian looked up to see the man who had separated him from the others, examining his face, "You don't belong here."
The man had two gold earrings, his hair tied back into a bun, with a few strands falling over his forehead. Lucian could spot a merchant by their clothes alone. This one had luminescent hair strands and emotionless eyes, which were specific to the Eastern Reavers.
Lucian blinked confusedly, as if he didn't know what the man was talking about.
The merchant sighed, realizing that this dirty slave was probably not well educated, "Don't make me repeat myself. Walk over there."
He pointed at a wooden structure that looked like a cage.
Lucian followed the direction and before entering, a bucket of water was dumped on his head. He was taken aback, his first reaction being to wipe the water from his eyes.
The water was cold and smelled like roses, probably to hide the stench of the slaves. A rag was shoved into his hands and he was ordered to clean himself. He did as he was told, wiping his face and hair, then his arms.
When he was done, he was being pushed inside with other slaves who had some sense of aesthetic to them. There were ten people in total, both men and women, and they were all much cleaner than the ones outside.
They were all in rags, but their rags were washed and without tears. They looked like they had been groomed, and were on the expensive side.
Lucian spotted some westerners from the Varia Kingdom among the group of slaves. They had a specific shining crystal on their forehead, just under the skin. It was something that only westerners were born with.
A sudden lurch made everyone grab onto the bars of the cage, as they were lifted up by a crane.
"Move, move, move!" a guard shouted, poking them with a stick from below.
They were being moved to the main stage, where the buyers would gather to look at the slaves like they were livestock.
"We have a special treat for our VIP customers today," a man began his sales pitch from the stage, "Ten beautiful specimens from all around the world. Don't miss this chance to own one of them."
'But I already belong to someone else,' Lucian thought about Celine, and how she would react if she knew he was selling himself. She already made him wear a cat tail and beg on all fours for her. Who knew how much further she would punish him for his questionable actions again, 'She definitely cannot find out about this.'