Abe the Wizard

“The second lot was the purple fantasy series set designed by Master Lisa of Bakong City. It consisted of a necklace, two earring pieces, and a ring. The complete set was made of gold and purple gems.”

Hopper continued his introduction in a cheery tone, “Not only are they made of some very fine jewelry, but Master Lisa has also added a lot more artistic value to them with her craftsmanship. The base price of this set of jewelry was 800 gold coins, and every bid must not be less than 50 gold coins.”

Abel had already lost his interest when he heard the word “jewelry.” Harry Castle had no mistresses in the first place. Besides, Abel was way too young to have a girlfriend.

Abel looked at the people around him. Although he could not see their face, judging from their actions and forms, he could roughly guess what these people do for a living.

Most of these people were businessmen. Abel could tell from the way they spoke. Some people deliberately learned to speak and act like nobles, but the etiquette they’ve used was incompatible to the current scenario.

Abel was sure that some of them were trained since childhood. Most people might not realize it, but Abel could easily tell them apart from the others. These nobles rarely raised their hand to raise the price. Instead, they seemed to be waiting for something else to come up.

Abel was kind of the same. He, too, had no interest in the next dozen or so items that were put up for sale. Most of these items were items previously used by mistresses of noblemen. Since most people had no access to them, they were directly auctioned here in the black market.

Actually, if the ones who sold these items were not nobles, to begin with, they would’ve been arrested by the noble arbitral tribunal if they decided to wear those in public.

“Looks like you haven’t bought anything at all. Were you also waiting for the last item?” The man next to Abel asked.

“I’m not really interested,” Abel replied, “Something’s been bothering me, though. Just why are there so many people who’re out to buy these luxurious items? Surely most of them aren’t nobles, so what would they do if they actually get their hands on them? Aren’t they scared of getting arrested?”

“You don’t know a lot about merchants, do you?” the man said and explained, “You see, the merchants are an insignificant and prideful bunch. Apart from the gold that they have, not much else is enough to give them any comfort. To answer your question, no, they aren’t afraid of getting arrested, because after they’ve managed to purchase something here, all they are going to do is to put what they’ve bought inside their houses. Rather than wearing the items, they are just going to spend their time looking at them.” The man explained.

“Oh, my spirits! What unique taste these men have!” Abel exclaimed. For someone like him, it was hard to imagine if all the jewels and fancy clothes inside his castle were all stored inside a collection room.

“Here, my dear customers and guests is the last lot of today’s auction. I know, I know. This is probably why so many of you have visited us today, so please enjoy yourself as we introduce you to our next lot! ”

Despite having introduced dozens of items today, Hopper was not getting tired at all. In fact, not only did he not tire, he seemed to be only getting more energetic as the hours went by.

“Her eyes are blue like the sky, her mouth small like a cherry, and her ears shaped like a piece of carved jade. And would you look at the figure of her body! Such finesse! Such wonder! Here we have an elf from the Double Moon Forest!”

Under Hopper’s dramatic introduction, a female elf in cuff walked up towards the auction stage. There was a small iron chain attached to her handcuffs, and the other end of the chain was pulled by the guard.

The female elf looked young. Child-like, even. This was an underage elf girl, with a fearful look on her face and a lot of distress showing from her pair of blue eyes.

“This is an elf who has yet to lose her virginity. The bottom price is 10,000 gold coins, and the minimum bid is 500 gold coins. We’ll start the bid now!” Hopper shouted.

“10,000 gold coins.” Someone shouted as soon as Hopper finished speaking.

“11,000 gold coins.”

“11,500 gold coins.”

“12,000 gold coins.”

The auction became very lively now. There were several who hadn’t called out any prices yet, and they were going all-out at the same time.

Abel frowned and asked the man next to him, “The principality has banned the sale of any slaves other than orcs. How is that we have an elf on sale here?”

“I also don’t know, either,” the man responded, and suddenly screamed as he checked his wallet, “Oh, no! I didn’t bring enough money today!.”.

Abel shook his head at the sight of this. It was probably Prince Middleton George who was responsible. For someone who could trade with the worgens, selling elves would most certainly not be taboo for him.

“15,000 gold coins!” one of the customers yelled as he looked around for anyone willing to compete with him, the murderous spirit(qi) starting oozing out of his body.

“An elite knight!”

Abel was shocked. He did not expect that an elite knight would appear on such occasions. While this man was not as powerful as Viscount Dickens or Fowler, the qi he released was not something anyone could possess.

This man actually used his qi in public, and not to mention that it was targeted at normal people. Some people were already collapsing because of this. As weak as the aura of an elite knight was, it would still take about a month for most people to recover from it.

“Why don’t you continue the auction?” The elite knight spoke with a rather cocky tone in his voice. He seemed kind of proud to have injured so many people all by himself.

“How dare you?” Hopper scoffed without fear as he knew how well connected the Kree’s Auction Stand was. Instead of complying with this troublemaker who was trying to order him around, he decided to turn to the guards.

“Catch him,” Hopper told his men, but boy, he really made a miscalculation here.

In a blink of an eye, all six intermediate knight guards fell on the ground and started moaning in pain. Like how any fight between a child and a grown-up was, the combat qi of an elite knight could easily crush any intermediate knight in his way.

Abel knew that the elite knight was holding back. He wasn’t looking to commit murder in Harvest City, obviously. While the black market was not protected by law, as long as no one died here, no one would bother to report on the elite knight.

“Looks like I’ve saved 15 grand for myself,” the elite knight laughed, then kicked Hopper off the auction stage with one kick. He didn’t even look at Hopper’s bodyguards, as they were all too frightened to even stand up on two legs. Without anyone in his way, he came straight towards the enslaved elf.

“Greetings, my lovely elf lady. I have always wanted an elf as a maid. You will be my exclusive maid from now on. From this point onward, I will be your master till the end of my days,” The elite knight feigned politeness as he introduced himself to the elf.

The elf girl was too shocked to say anything. While looking around with her big pair of eyes, she desperately searched for any help that could come and rescue her.

Abel did not want to get involved, but when he saw the helplessness and despair in those eyes, he was reminded of the time when he first came to this world. He was reminded of being scared and alone every single day, just like this elf girl was.

She was now in the human world, surrounded by malicious people who wanted nothing but to exploit her.

The elite knight reached out and grabbed the chain on the elf’s handcuff. While doing so, a mysterious force interfered and stopped him right where he was at.

“Who the hell are you?”

The elite knight was very annoyed. If he didn’t know that elves were up for sale here, there was no way that he would be coming to this dirty place today. And to have someone interfering him from getting what he wants, that just pissed him off even more.

Abel looked at the elite knight in front of him and found it funny because Abel just found out that the elite knight in front of him didn’t bring his weapon in order to hide his identity.

Finally, an opportunity to fight an elite knight empty-handed,  Abel thought to himself.

Lord Marshall no longer wanted to fight empty-handed with Abel in Harry Castle. Lord Marshall and every knight in the world seriously lacked the skill of fighting empty-handed, so the reason that Lord Marshall refused to fight empty-handed was that the knights never learned any empty-handed fighting skills.