When the sun reached its peak and made its heat felt, the street where the slave market was located donned a garment made of noise. Contrary to Alyon's guess, not only orcs were bought and sold as slaves. Humans, dwarves, animals, and even wild creatures had taken their places among the merchants' goods.
When Nafız and Alyon were put up for sale on the wooden podium, attention would turn to this point. Alyon, with his majesty overshadowing all other kin displayed beside him, had suddenly become the favorite product of the market.
Nafız also attracted the interest of quite a few buyers with her interesting structure and hair that turned red a little above the tips.
"Valued residents of the city of Parthenia and my dear merchant friends! Today, we have two rare pieces in our exhibition!"
When the hawker started shouting with his booming voice, Alyon and Nafız made eye contact. Their thought was to infiltrate the city, learn the dynamics, and destroy Parthenia from within. They knew that neither these handcuffs nor the people gathering around them could dissuade them from their goals.
"One hundred gold for the male orc!"
Before the merchant finished his speech, a buyer succumbing to his excitement made an offer.
"One hundred and fifty gold!"
Another voice increased the offer.
"Two hundred gold!"
"Two hundred and twenty gold!"
While the offer increased gradually, the seller was tickled pink.
"Two thousand gold!"
With the last offer, the crowd's voice ceased because the amount was increased almost tenfold in one go. While eyes searched for the audacious person who made the offer; the young man walking with his fur sweeping the ground and golden hair blowing in the wind was advancing with large strides.
"Epiphanes of House Agustus!"
"His father was the owner of the largest gladiator school and the manager of the arena, wasn't he?"
The crowd was whispering amongst themselves. The young man hearing these was placing a smile on his handsome face that would warm the hearts of those who saw it.
"Sir, your presence has brought glory and honor to this strange merchant's exhibition!"
The slave merchant jumped in front of the young man approaching the wooden podium accompanied by his bodyguards and bowed down to the ground to greet him.
"Get out of my way, wretch! Who gave you the right to stand on the path I walk!"
Epiphanes, tossing the merchant aside with a solid kick, came to Alyon's side and began to examine the giant orc. After scanning him from head to toe for a while, he called out to his bodyguards without taking his eyes off him.
"Chain him up, we're taking him with us!"
The hulking bodyguard, throwing a pouch of gold onto the merchant lying on the ground, walked towards the orc they bought with handcuffs and chains.
While looking at the human approaching step by step, storms were raging inside Alyon, practically volcanoes were erupting. His master, whose self he inherited, was the Son of the Great Lord of the Orc Steppes, and he himself was the conqueror of a whole region.
Turning involuntarily to Nafız, Alyon found his friend looking as if saying don't you dare do anything. The state of the duo talking with their eyes had not escaped the attention of one more person. The golden-haired young man approached the female orc with small steps.
"Smile!"
While Nafız was surprised by the attitude of the human shouting right beside her, Epiphanes repeated his words.
"I ordered you to smile!"
While Nafız was thinking we're stuck with a nutcase, she had to smile, even if fake.
"Scream in pain!"
Nafız, pulling patience, got thoroughly tense at what she heard after fulfilling this request too.
"Cry!"
Nafız, looking at Epiphanes with blank eyes, asked her question without giving him a chance to shout again.
"Shall I show my teeth too?"
"What kind of question is this, what are you saying!"
When the human looked dumbfounded, Nafız spoke with pleasure.
"Maybe you want to learn my age, bright boy!"
Epiphanes turned beet red in the face of the insolence done to his face and started shouting angrily.
"I'm taking this orc too! Gladiators will rape her before her lover's eyes. I will leave you hungry and miserable. Let's see if you can smile then like you do now!"
The bodyguard, understanding from his young master's tone of voice that this job was urgent, started running. Nafız had also decided that she needed to kill Epiphanes, but she was thinking whether to do this job here or at the place where she would be taken.
"Wait a minute! I also want to make an offer for the slave!"
The voice giving life to the words was timid and trembling, but the gathered crowd couldn't help but feel a heaviness in their hearts. When the owner of the voice approaching the exhibition where the sale was made with a palanquin carried by two orcs opened the curtain, all exhibition owners, including the merchant on the ground, bowed respectfully and shouted in unison.
"Little Lady!"
The person who caused the expression of terror on the handsome young man's face to be wiped away with her arrival was Eftelya, the young lady of the Partheni house responsible for the ports.
"Eftelya, with what right do you take my slave from my hands!"
After saying so many words in front of the onlookers, Epiphanes didn't want to lose face.
"Doesn't the young master of the Agustus family know how to speak to ladies?"
The young girl spoke batting her eyelashes, and the surrounding crowd was entranced as if they had entered a flower garden.
"I guess you still think the city is ruled by your family, little lady. Those days are long gone; I will take the slave!"
Golden-haired Epiphanes had steeled himself once. His intention was to take the female orc and torture her no matter the cost.
"As far as I know, buying and selling was done by auction. Since when has this rule changed?"
While the duo continued their bickering, another male voice echoed in the environment. The newcomer also had bodyguards behind him and carried a thin long sword at his waist.
"Marcos, mind your own business. This is a matter between Eftelya and me!"
Epiphanes soured his face upon seeing the person arriving. The youngest son of the Cervantes family, who held control of the customs gates, was intervening in the event.
"Merchant, start the auction! The first offer of a thousand gold is mine!"
Marcos, ignoring the words said, made his move that would drag the environment into chaos.
"One thousand five hundred!"
The answer was not delayed to Epiphanes, who increased the offer with a voice everyone could hear before wiping the anger formed on his handsome face.
"Three thousand gold!"
The crowd was caught in a flood of astonishment in the face of the incoming offers. One side could earn back their money by making the slaves they bought fight in the arena, but what was the young lady's goal?
"Five thousand gold!"
The golden-haired young man intended not to let the matter go.
"Ten thousand!"
When Eftelya increased the offer twofold with her magical voice penetrating souls, Marcos couldn't stop himself from laughing heartily. The situation didn't please Epiphanes at all. The person he was constantly compared to because they were in the same age group was making fun of him.
"Fifteen thousand gold!"
While trembling with anger, the young master of the Agustus family put forward all of his personal wealth.
"Thirty thousand gold!"
When the crowd shouted excitedly, even Marcos couldn't help but be surprised at the size of the offer. Even though Epiphanes was just an overly spoiled child, he himself was the person holding control of one of the city's gates. Despite this, his personal income might not be sufficient for such a duel.
"The master of the Partheni family dotes on his daughter, my dear friend Epiphanes. As a gentleman, wouldn't you also want to give the elegant lady some face?"
Marcos, speaking loudly enough for everyone to hear, was offering a way out to the heir candidate of one of the three great families, even though he didn't like him at all. Eftelya's father really cared about his daughter; even if two people combined, they couldn't emerge victorious from such an encounter.
"You are really a bit too stubborn, beautiful lady. You didn't grant me the chance to buy the slave and gift her to you!"
Epiphanes had to protect his reputation in society; he continued on the path Marcos showed.
"Ah, was that so? Please accept this matter as a small whim of mine!"
Regardless of the size of the conflicts they experienced among themselves, members of noble families were taught to always maintain their nobility in front of the common people.
"Snifff! Snifff!"
Relieved Epiphanes had started walking to the side of the hulking orc he bought when he felt someone smelling his neck.
"What are you doing?"
It was too late when the golden-haired young man, wanting to escape back in fear, realized the female orc had locked his shoulder with her chin.
"You're on my list, boy!"
When Nafız completed her words, Epiphanes moved away from her running with a face white as a sheet. At the end of the day, while the friends who would be apart for a while saw each other off with determined looks, the merchant was smiling with joy amidst the heated discussions of the crowd.