Chapter Nineteen: Rage And Refia

Kenjiro eventually got led into a fancy looking building by Tedbaldus. The man looked prideful of the place, growing even prouder when he saw the subtle shock on Kenjiro's face.

The people Kenjiro passed while walking through the building all looked at Tedbaldus with either respect or fear. Some of them looked at Kenjiro with either fear or… disgust, although Kenjiro didn't know why.

Eventually Tedbaldus led Kenjiro into a room where he told him to sit down, while the man himself opened a glass bottle of whiskey.

Tedbaldus poured himself a cup while offering one of Kenjiro, although he didn't give him much of a choice and put it in front of him. Kenjiro just let the drink sit there, not having any plans on drinking.

"So, you're not much of a drinker?" Tedbaldus pointed out, Kenjiro just nodding his head. "Well, suit yourself." He said, taking a swig of his drink before putting it down.

"Follow me." He said after a knock on the door was heard.

When they walked out of the room two tall men with bulging muscles stood there. And escorted them to wherever Tedbaldus was taking Kenjiro.

"I'm sure you're curious as to what I know about you, right?" Tedbaldus started. Kenjiro nodded his head, staring at the man with a small glare. "Well, I'll be honest with you. I don't know much, but that's what makes you so interesting- what makes you worthy to be my customer!" Tedbaldus exclaimed in excitement.

Kenjiro let out a subtle sigh of relief at that, knowing that he would be okay.

"Although I have some theories." Tedbaldus said suddenly, making Kenjiro tense and clench his fist, the guards around them ready incase Kenjiro attacked. "The first is one that I have thrown out, that you are either a disgraced or illegitimate child of a noble. But with the way you act, there's no way. If that theory was true, you would still have this… air of pride or arrogance around you. All nobles have them."

"The second is one that is still a possibility… if it's true I'm in big trouble right." Tedbaldus said, although he didn't seem nervous about it contrary to what he said. "It's that you're a demon in disguise. You plan on building your rank up, getting a good reputation and any info you learn would be reported back to the demons." Tedbaldus said in a ridiculous guess. "Well, am I right?"

Kenjiro just shook his head. "Well, not like you would tell me if that was true or not." Tedbaldus pointed out to himself.

And he had one other theory. A ridiculous theory that would make people question what was real or not. Was that this kid, Kenjiro- was a hero! One of the recently summoned ones. But then that begged the question, why was he here and not with the others?

But Tedbaldus still kept that option on the table, no matter how ridiculous or ludicrous it sounded. After all, Kenjiro didn't seem to be familiar with what he was. Any normal person would be able to tell, but Kenjiro seemed ignorant. Only someone either extremely naive wouldn't know, or someone… say, recently summoned to this world by the Goddess.

Eventually they reached another door. Tedbaldus put his hand on it, but didn't open it just yet. "Behind this door is my job. And possibly one of the things you might buy. Don't worry though, I'll give you a good deal." Tedbaldus reassured him, and Kenjiro wondered what he was on about.

When he opened the door the room on the other side wasn't a room, but a hallway with jail-like cells on either side.

"Follow me, tell me if one catches your interest." Tedbaldus said, gauging his reaction.

Kenjiro's eyes widened subtly as he looked around in shock and disgust. He was so stupid! Why hadn't he noticed it before! This man, Tedbaldus, was a slave trader!

Tedbaldus saw that and immediately knew that Kenjiro had figured it out. "That's right, boy. I'm a trader. Took you a while to figure it out." Tedbaldus said mockingly, his arms at his sides as he shook his head.

Kenjiro looked at Tedbaldus in anger. He didn't care whether it was legal or not, which it probably was considering it was a mediaeval world, he knew this was wrong.

Tedbaldus ignored the anger and walked down the hall, the guards at his sides for protection. "These slaves are all high quality goods. Every one of them has a skill in something. Or if you're looking for… something more exciting, we have some pure ones further down back."

Kenjiro couldn't take it any longer and pulled the sword off his back and it was at Tedbaldus's neck in one quick motion, but only stopped a few centimetres away with the man not nervous at all.

While the two guards had reacted as well. One with a dagger at Kenjiro's neck, a drop of blood sliding down it. And the other had grabbed the sword itself with his hand, although a glove was on it.

Tedbaldus held the glare that Kenjiro was shooting him, not nervous at all knowing that he wouldn't be the one during today if Kenjiro went any further. "Don't test me, boy." Tedbaldus warned, his eyes then turned to Kenjiro's hands which, although having a tight grip on his sword, were shaking. "I see, you've never killed anyone, have you?" He asked rhetorically.

But Kenjiro answered back anyway. "Yes, I've never killed a human before." He admitted, but his glare then became more fierce and he let his anger flow through him. His hands and sword stopped shaking as his glare finally made Tedbaldus sweat a little. "But I have no problem with a scum like you being my first kill."

Tedbaldus knew this kid wasn't kidding right now. Although that might be true, he could see that Kenjiro was still hesitant. "Put your sword back, Kenjiro. No one here has to get hurt today." Tedbaldus reasoned with Kenjiro.

Kenjiro sent one final glare before putting the sword back on the handle on his back. "I'm leaving. I don't want anything to do with this." Kenjiro said, his voice hoarse that it sounded like someone gurgling on blood while trying to speak.

Kenjiro started to walk away before Tedbaldus called back out to him. "Are you sure you want to do that?" He questioned Kenjiro, with Kenjiro turning around with a glare that promised that Tedbaldus would get hurt if he continued, but he continued anyway. "If you leave now… one of the slaves you could have bought today might go to a scumbag… they could be used as a sex slave. Whereas if you bought one today, you could save one from such a horrible fate."

Kenjiro hated the way he hesitated not to leave right there, not to just kill Tedbaldus even if he had never killed anyone before, and he knew if he did it would weigh on his mind. He hated that even though Tedbaldus barely knew, he knew enough about him to guilt trip him into buying one.

Tedbaldus saw it in Kenjiro's eyes. The sign that Tedbaldus knew he was going to buy one. "Perfect." Tedbaldus said greedily, rubbing his hands together. "Follow me, I'll lead you to the section you'll want to see."

Kenjiro followed and walked deeper into the slave traders den, even though he was disgusted with himself for following him or allowing himself to get guilt tripped like this.

The slaves around them that had heard the conversation were shouting and screaming for Kenjiro to buy them. Bringing their arms out of the cage just to grab onto him, to get his attention. To be the one that he saved.

Kenjiro could only try to ignore them, even though he knew it was the wrong thing to do, he kept his head down and did not look at them. Only looking at Tedbaldus's feet to know where to go.

They eventually passed through another door, with the screams and shouts still weighing on Kenjiro's mind, he was glad that the door blocked out the sound from the other room.

This time, instead of it being a mix of men and women in the jail-like cells, it was just women in the cells. Although he said women, they were mostly teenagers, some probably not even.

They were looking at him, fear in their eyes at what he would do if he bought them. Some quietly begging for him not to choose them, some crying at the sight of him, others trying to ignore him and others being close to empty shells with dead eyes, some looking at him and others not.

"This is the female slave section. As you can guess, they would be mostly used as sex slaves. Although, I can assure you, none of them have been 'used' or has a previous owner and each of them is 'pure'." Tedbaldus assure him, but by looking at Kenjiro from the corner of his glasses Tedbaldus could tell that Kenjiro didn't care about that. "I can tell that you're not interested in that, so I'll let you know that some of them have potential to be strong fighters. Look around, you have all the time in the world."

Kenjiro nodded his head, although reluctantly, and looked around at the girls. Although he didn't want to buy any of them, he didn't want to be the owner of a slave, it was morally wrong for him. But he didn't have a choice.

He could either leave here today, empty handed, and let all of them suffer from an unknown future. Or, he could buy one, and save them from an uncertain future that could be horrible, but leave the rest of them to suffer. There was no in between. The guards Tedbaldus had were stronger than him, so there was no way he could start that fight and expect to win.

He looked in each of the cells as he walked by them. Every girl had a different reaction to seeing him, but none of them were one that Kenjiro thought were good or healthy for the girls. They seemed to live in constant fear, and he couldn't really imagine himself in that situation and understand what they were going through. That was something one had to experience to understand.

Thenat the corner of his field of vision, something caught his eye.

He walked over, to a cell, and looked inside. Inside was a pair of eyes glowing yellow in the dark.

Tedbaldus walked over and flicked a switch that turned on a light for that cell.

The eyes stopped glowing and when the person opened them again, after closing them and adjusting to the light. Their eyes were now just a hazel colour, staring at Kenjiro with distrust in them.

"Who is she?" Kenjiro asked, quietly, to not strain his voice more. He tilted his head to the side to look at her, and she mimicked his movement.

Tedbaldus knew this was who Kenjiro was going to buy. "You really do have a good eye. This is Refia, a Wolf Demi-Human, she belongs to a clan in the race that went extinct, as far as my knowledge reaches… she's the last one left."

Kenjiro could only feel sad for Refia. He might not fully understand and he probably never would, but it was in a way similar to his situation except he would see his family again and she would probably never see her clan again.

Refia herself was beautiful. She had silver and black hair that blended together. She had the features of a Wolf, which was normal considering her race, with wolf ears and a tail. She didn't have any scars, which was obvious to Kenjiro as she didn't have much in… the clothes department, only wearing some rags that gave her the bare minimum decency.

Kenjiro gulped before speaking. "I'll take her." He informed Tedbaldus.

The man grinned at those words, while Refia had a growing sense of dread, seeing as the unknown man with a mask was about to buy her.

For what purposes she didn't know, but although she hoped he would be nice and possibly let her go or not make her into a… sex slave… She didn't have much hope for that.