12 Slaves

Lucifer handed the old man a small sack of gold. The two then leaned back to the wall and took a few deep breaths as they prepared themselves.

While they were doing that, they could hear the noises coming from the eastern part of the town, where smoke suddenly appeared from the stables. The cries of horses and civilians could be heard throughout the market.

Because of that, the entire black market went into chaos. People grabbed whatever they could find and started running.

Most people at this kind of place knew how to take advantage of this sort of occasion.

Shopkeepers were trying to stop them, but a single person couldn't defend against the crowd. In the end, they just gave up and started packing what's left.

Even as this all was happening, the greed that people carried within them was still active. It was even intensified when they saw others robbing the shops. The reason for this was simple: 'if they can do that, why can't we?' feeling.

Using this confusion to their advantage, the two snuck past the brothel and at the back of the inn keeper's workplace.

They entered from the back door, used to import-export slaves and items to the market.

The guards at the front were busy trying to deal with the outrage, so all they had to was throw a few coins and get them mixed in a mess.

Once the way was clear, the two entered the rooms where the slaves were kept. There were a lot of them —mostly female— in a half-naked state. Some even had untreated wounds and scars in their body that went from spanking marks to cigar burns.

The slaves saw the two of them walk, but once Michael shushed everyone, no one uttered a word. They all quietly looked down and continued doing what they were doing. It looked like throughout their time here; these slaves were mentally broken to the point where they lost their expressiveness along with their hope.

In one of the corners of a room near the inn keeper's room, Lucifer noticed the bunny girl that he saw tied to the table before. There were others like her in the room, indicating that they must be related in some manner.

"No, Lucifer, we don't have time for this. We need to keep on moving; we will come back for them later."

Michael still considered Lucifer to be naive. He still thought of him as someone who made decisions based on emotions instead of logic.

"Tch! Old man, I am not a kid, you know. Don't you see the look on their face is different from the rest? They haven't given up like the rest."

After saying that, Lucifer took the keys that were hanged in the passage. Since this city itself was like a fortress, they probably didn't see the need to carry the heavy keys around.

He opened the barred door and walked inside the room. There were eight girls with bunny ears from left to right, and at their center was the girl he saw before.

Their dress was torn, but not as much as the others they saw on their way. And compared to the girl at the center, the others looked a little angry as they had the look of disgust on their face.

"Hey girl, you at the center. Do you remember me from then?"

The girl raised her head and looked at Lucifer. Even though none of them were saying anything, there was a hint of familiarity in her look.

Her level was the highest among the ones there. She was level eight, while the rest ranged from 5 to 7.

There were other slaves who had higher numbers out there, but most didn't seem to possess any fighter classes, unlike these eight. These eight had the class warrior close to their status. Under their class was the title slave, given to them as part of the contract.

"I didn't come here to save you. But if you help me, I will help you get out of this place and erase that slave title of yours. So, are you in, or you wanna spend the rest of your lives rotting here?"

"You're lying. That's impossible."

Lucifer looked at the girl who just said that. Even though her eyes were hopeful, her gesture and words were contracting her look.

"The city is in chaos, and there are lots of ways to escape from here. Free the slaves, and go towards the front exit. I will leave the door open, so you can choose to stay here or flee yourself. I don't have time to wait till you decide."

Lucifer turned around and walked out of the door. Before leaving, he took out a sack with eighty gold coins and threw it towards them.

"Use these to go back to your lives once you leave the city. If not, start a new life."

Hearing that, the old man sighed. The two then continued moving towards the innkeeper's room. On their way, they used the distraction to get past the guard and arrived in front of the room.

The two hid at the corner before the stairs. From this point on, they were to work separately.

The old man was tasked to create enough distraction for Lucifer to slip through the guards while avoiding the inn keeper's eyes.

"Okay, here goes!"

The old man walked right from the front while raising his hand. Since he had no weapons in his hand or anything that resembled a weapon in his clothes, it seemed like he was surrendering.

"I am here to make a deal with the innkeeper. I am just a level one guide with no special skills; please allow me a chat."

"Stop right there, old man."

"The front door is closed because of the mess. How did you even get in?"

The two guards on the door —who stopped the man— were dressed in heavy leather armor and were high-level warriors. One of them was level 16, while the other was 18.

"I snuck through the black market. The guards stationed there have all run away because of the fire. The slaves are all trying to escape this moment."

"What!"

This time the sound came from inside. The two guards cleared the space once the innkeeper started talking.