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'If his daughter isn't rescued very soon, she will be sold on the black market.'

Coming to this conclusion, Alex leaned back in his chair, sighing.

'What to do now?' he wondered.

Knowing the reality about Cedrix's daughter's origins made the already urgent situation seem even more pressing.

'If I decide to help him, I would have to set out immediately because with each passing moment, the risk of her being sold increases.'

Alex and everyone here knew that if Cedrix's daughter was already sold, then rescuing her would be a significant challenge, as a slave was considered its master's property, and it was illegal to take someone as a slave by force. Their one chance would then be to buy her from her master. The problem was that Virax slaves were highly valued, and their price was exceptionally high. Whoever could buy a Virax slave was undoubtedly wealthier than Alex and his branch; that's how much Virax slaves cost!

Considering that, the only shot at saving her they had was to rescue her before she was sold, and to do that, they needed to act immediately. However, taking such action would jeopardize all of Alex's plans.

He had planned to train during the coming days and then set out for the brazen auction house to propose his products to the brazen family. Following that, he would have to travel to the center of the Eswald territory where the competition to decide the heir of the Eswald family would be held.

Alex already had his schedule traced, and he greatly disliked unexpected events such as the one happening right now.

'It's not that I don't want to help him rescue his daughter, quite the contrary, but by doing so...' thought Alex with a conflicted expression.

"In which direction does your tracker point you?" asked Lilia.

Cedrix concentrated for a moment, then pointed in the direction of the north.

"If it's the north, then it's in the same direction as where the brazen auction will be held this year, so you just need to do a little detour," said Lilia to Alex.

'Ah that's right, how did I not think about it?!'

"It's in that direction, but from time to time, I feel the distance between us increase," informed Cedrix.

"They must be moving," reasoned Anna.

Cedrix nodded.

The old man suddenly kneeled in front of Alex until his forehead was resting on the floor. The old man's voice trembled with sadness, tears welling up in his eyes as he pleaded, "Please, Lord Eswald, I implore you and am willing to give you all I have. Please, please, please, Save my daughter."

"Alright, alright, we will rescue your daughter, just give me time to prepare," said Alex as he stood up from his chair.

"Really?!" exclaimed Cedrix joyfully.

Alex made an acknowledging sound and exited the room followed by the girls.

"You did good accepting to help him," praised Lilia.

"I just hope doing so wouldn't be detrimental to us," replied Alex.

"I'm sure it won't," added Amelia.

"We will see, for now let's just prepare ourselves."

****

Far from Alex's family manor, in a sparsely frequented village due to frequent bandit attacks along the way, within the basement of an inconspicuous house resembling its neighbors.

"You disgusting bastards, RELEASE ME!" screamed a woman with glowing blue eyes as she banged at the door of a cell.

"Would you f*cking shut up?!" shouted someone at the other side of the cell.

The sudden outburst of one of the guards that had stayed silent the whole time she screamed and insulted stunned the woman, rendering her silent. However, it was only for a split moment because just after, she started screaming even louder.

"Oh, f*ck, this b*tch is getting on my nerves," complained one of the guards with an angry tone.

"Calm down, you know that we can't do anything to her. Any wounds or marks on her body will lower her value, and we definitely don't want that," said the other guard.

"I know, I know. If it wasn't for that fact, I would have long stuffed this b*tch's loud mouth with my c*ck."

"Just ignore her; she will eventually stop screaming," said the other guard.

"Hey, one of you know when the boss is going to arrive?" asked a third guard entering the basement.

"No idea, but he shouldn't be long. After he arrives, we can continue our journey."

"Ah, I'm getting excited just thinking about the money we would be winning selling that girl," said the third guard with shining eyes.

"Me too, brother, me too."

As the guards continued chatting among themselves, the woman kept furiously banging at the door until both of her arms hurt and her throat became sore from screaming. Only then did she stop.

"What?!" she exclaimed in annoyance when she turned around to find the other people held captive in the same cell staring at her like she was mad.

She ignored their glances and went to sit in a corner of the cell.

'Humans are really despicable!' thought the woman.

As she thought this, the woman's eyes glowed with a furious light that seemed to want to burn the whole cell, making the other captives squirm away from her.

'They kidnap and sell their own kin like they are pigs, disgusting bastards,' thought the woman as she glanced at the people in the same cell as her.

The people in the cell were divided into two groups. One group looked well-fed and wore clean, lavish clothes, while the second group looked malnourished and wore torn clothes. It didn't take a genius to understand that the first group was constituted of people from noble families, while the second group was formed of people who lived in the slums.

Even while all of them were kept in the same cell, the nobles kept their distance from the others and looked at them in disgust.

And then, there was the woman, Anita, who was ostracized by both groups. No one wanted to associate themselves with her, not even the people coming from the slums.

'Ha, they keep looking at me like I'm different from them. Well, I am indeed different from them, but our fate is mostly the same, being sold like animals,' sneered Anita.

'I wonder how dad is goin-'

Anita's thought process was cut through when the door of the cell opened, and three people were tossed inside before the door closed again.

As Anita observed the newcomers, one of them wearing what looked like nun's clothes stood up and banged at the door.

"Release us, lest the divine fury of the Goddess of Light descend upon you all!" shouted the nun in a cute voice that didn't go along with the threat she was uttering.

At the nun 'threat', Anita chuckked.

"I doubt those people fear gods," she said, "and I don't think your Goddess of Light would save you – otherwise, you wouldn't even be here in the first place, right? Anyway..." Anita smiled "...I wish you a warm welcome to our modest cell, where all your dreams are crushed... well, if you're not noble, that is."