Auction House

Clarissa went to the sixth layer of soil for failing to catch up to Arta and losing track of that young man. She didn't understand at all why Arta could recognize all the doors and the fastest running lanes around Yamani so well, even though he'd only been in this place for a year. Clarissa was annoyed with herself because she felt that Arta knew better than she did, even though she had lived on this land since childhood and had a career as a journalist for the past three years.

Why does Arta seem to have outlived her?

But on the other hand, Clarissa is also quite amazed because Arta looks like someone who is not reckless. She was sure that Arta had come to The Hanging Gardens for the first time, so he was surprised to see many humans hanging, as if being cooled at the roots of the banyan tree, reflexively destroying some of the trees. He just intended to check the situation and then leave again. He even knew where the blue well was to get out of the garden.

Not many creatures know that.

Unfortunately, the well would have taken them to different places if they hadn't entered simultaneously. So she ended up at L-06 while Arta was nowhere to be found. She was sure that he had now hidden himself again, even though this was the first time she had met Arta.

"If it's Candrasa he's after, he'll definitely come back to the park again," Clarissa muttered subconsciously as she watched the auction house she was about to pass.

L-06 is the market area. Everything is sold or auctioned in this part of the land. All the traders, from the largest to the smallest, are on this land. They sell all kinds of meat, vegetables, fruit, weapons, and unique services on all sides. Nothing is overlooked. Everything can be considered a product of this land, including all kinds of races that exist in this layer of soil.

"There are interesting products, right?" Clarisa thought subconsciously, of entering the auction house for entertainment.

If she was lucky, she could usually see former high-class criminals who would be sold to the Candrasas to become slaves. That would be very interesting because usually they would rebel and make a fuss.

But when it comes to the inside, Clarissa was greeted right away by a familiar face she had often seen on wanted papers. A figure that has been sought after by journalists to steal information or just give it to the boss and resell it, a figure that has been considered easy to obtain.

Out of all the information she'd gotten, Anjani is the only human and fugitive from the Black Book who is caught so often, but is bought by wealthy merchants at the top tier. Some of her fellow journalists also said that the Candrasas didn't really care about Anjani's fate because she wasn't that important and didn't know much about Yamani. But even though the Candrasas don't really care, they still make Anjani a fugitive on the Queen's orders at L-01.

Anjani repeatedly entered the auction house. She was seen often wandering in the areas of L-07, where slaves were forced to breed, and L-06, as an assistant to a merchant who bought her. Even though she had a price for her head, the upper-class women did not regard her as special or important. However, for some residents in the L-07, Anjani clearly has a higher position than other human slaves.

She has a price and is quite worth buying, whereas the majority of human slaves around them usually have no price at all.

"Jane ..." squeaked a voice from someone standing next to her, making Clarissa realize that the human they had been looking for was not called by her real name, but by another name.

"I thought her nickname was Anjani," she thought subconsciously.

Clarissa, on the other hand, smirked slightly when she realized who had just called Anjani by that name. Maybe today isn't such a bad day.

Clarissa just glanced at that young man and looked back at the stage. At least she knew that she had a chance at this place, and she had to make the most of it. Her eyes darted around, making sure that there was no one from Candrasa or any of their subordinates in the room, so it would be easy for Clarissa to create a mess.

After all, inside L-06 there were a lot of auction houses, and this place she entered was neither part of a big nor a famous auction. She was at the very end, next to the entrance of L-06, in the giant portal used by the local residents to move from one soil layer to another. In a way, this auction belonged to an ordinary merchant, not a merchant close to the Seniors at L-3.5, where she used to work.

That meant this place was not something she should be wary of.

After looking around, Clarissa's eyes finally landed on the figure of Jane, who was standing on the stage next to the presenter, who was eager to increase the price constantly. Jane looked calm, even though her hands were tightly gripped by the big handcuffs. Her eyes stared at the faces of the audience, who were eager to buy her with cold eyes and looked very disgusted. She seemed not so afraid of the various creatures in front of her.

Even though she's just a human.

Coinciding with Clarissa, who was still paying attention to the stage where Jane was standing, the young man who had been beside her started to move and was about to pass Clarissa, making her immediately hold the young man's hand, then said quite slowly, but managed to make him flinch a little.

"You don't want to save her?"

"Who are you?"

"You're Putra, right?" Clarissa asked back, making Putra startled.

Even though Putra was absolutely sure that no one in this place recognized him, because in the few days he had been wandering L-06, no one was aware that he was one of Candrasa's fugitives they were looking for.

At least for this one year, on his journey to explore all the contents of this layer of Yamani, not many journalists, Candrasa, or the creature's subordinates recognize him. Even if there were, Putra could have run away from these people first, and usually, he would quickly come to his senses when someone recognized him.

In the first place, he didn't even notice that someone was standing right beside him. The presence of this unfamiliar girl felt very thin as if the girl could not be seen with the bare eye if he didn't really pay attention. Putra knows that the person who is holding him now is not an ordinary citizen.

Putra subconsciously thought, "She must be one of the creatures living in Layer 3.5, or a subordinate of the Candrasas."

"You don't want to save your friend?" scolded Clarissa, tightening her grip on Putra's wrist, making him aware of the theories that kept swirling in his head.

Putra still stared at Clarissa in silence. His eyes looked blank, but the furrowed brow line clearly showed that he was also annoyed by Clarissa's presence, who stopped his steps suddenly. Putra was completely unaware that Clarissa had placed a super mini tracker on the thin hairs on his wrist.

He then looked back at Jane, who was now raising her hand wrapped in handcuffs, and raised her middle finger while sticking out her tongue, mocking one of the merchants who wanted to buy her at a fairly expensive price. Jane seemed to deliberately want to make the person who later became her master even angrier and berated her.

"She's really crazy now," thought Putra subconsciously.

"I don't know her," said Putra quickly as he released Clarissa's grip on his hand, but she didn't obey Putra's wishes at all.

"You are Putra. You clearly know her." She said it more firmly, not wanting to lose. "I can unmask you here if you still pretend you don't recognize that girl being auctioned off."

"I don't know her!" Putra snapped at Clarissa, who had one horn on the left side of her head, "Even if I know her, I don't care. The life of that bastard is none of my business!" Putra's rampage pulled his hand violently, making Clarissa's grip suddenly slip away from him.

He then quickly left, but Clarissa also didn't want to lose her chance to get more information, until what she did afterward was enough to make everyone's attention in the room turn to Putra.

"YOU ARE YUDA SAPUTRA! ONE OF THOSE FUNCTIONS, RIGHT?!" She shouted along with her hands pulling the beanie covering Putra's head, making half of his face slightly exposed.

Putra took a deep breath but chose not to look back at Clarissa because he was sure that everyone in the place was now glancing at him. Various whispers began to be heard while several people at the entrance to the auction place were now really looking at him with rounded eyes. They clearly now realized who Putra was.

"This son of a bitch!"

*BOOM!!

Putra swallowed his saliva unconsciously, along with a huge explosion that occurred around the stage, right behind him. The explosion made everyone ignore their shock at Putra's presence in the place, and immediately panicked and ran out of the place to save themselves. Clarissa, who was covering her entire body with a shield, now subconsciously looked around her, realized that Jane had managed to break free from the handcuffs that restrained her movement, and fled through the ruined backstage.

"Stupid!" Putra cursed softly, along with a loud explosion that came from the middle row of the audience seats.

The new Putra realized that everything that happened here was the fruit of a trap that Jane had set herself. He knew that the prison for the auction products they would be exhibiting each week was a safe place to hide and emerge. He also once did the same thing as Jane to take a break from the chase, which was to deliberately surrender to the auction house and rest in the prison, then escape by killing the person who had bought him.

The chaos that Jane had caused had made Clarissa unable to hold Putra any longer, and made her now also lose track of Jane, who had disappeared behind the auction stage. She had no idea that Jane would do such a crazy thing to escape, and because of that . . . Clarissa had a little understanding of why Jane had yet to be caught.

Clarissa then looked at the blueprints that were automatically printed on her wrist and noticed the red dot starting to run and going to a place she thought was quite interesting.

"They always have unique places to hide, don't they?" Clarissa thought and gave a small grin.