“Alright, let’s move on to the next shop, I’ll need the guards to carry these.”, I say as I pass the spellbooks to one of the guards.

I agreed with the shopkeeper that I’ll send the guard in 2 days, as I didn’t want people to know I was in possession of the item. Better safe than sorry, I’m still much too unclear on many things here.

To keep up the pretense, I continue browsing around the subsequent shops to little avail. I bought 2 other apprentice spellbooks subsequently, but otherwise returned empty.

“I would like to take a look at a slave house, are there any affiliates of ours in the business?”, I ask the maid.

“Of course, young master, the Duke House owns the second biggest Slave House in the market. This way.”, She seems to be filled with pride when saying this.

We reach a small mansion, with the signboard “Rising Flame Slave House”. It’s well decorated, much like what I’d expect from the mansion of a small noble. A well dressed man comes out of the store, after the maid goes in to report our arrival.

“Welcome young master, the name’s Xu Liang, I’ve been told by Leticia here that you’re here to observe our merchandise, please allow me to lead the way.”

So her name’s Leticia, she does indeed hold some power, if the owner of a large shop like this knows her by name. I glance at her while thinking so. Her expression is ever so stoic.

“Ah yes, excuse my abruptness, I would like to know if you have any young warrior around my age.” Here, they refer to anyone able to fight as a ‘warrior’, and besides the most powerful and popular title of the Mage, there are other combat jobs such as Knights, Archers, Assasins and Berserkers.

I’m intending to see if I can find any suitable slave to be my guard for the time being. I can’t bring my family’s guards with me to the academy, but I can certainly bring slaves, my own possessions in.

“We do have a few young warriors currently, they’re over here.”

He shows us to a large cell, where there’s quite a few young slaves. Upon his introduction, there’s a female elven mage (12), a male wolfkin berserker (16), two male human knights (15 and 16) and a male half-elf archer (13).

I don’t find it odd that the male-to-female ratio is skewed, younger females tend to be more sought after than their male counterparts afterall.

“What’s the origins of those two knights?”, I ask the dealer.

“Young master, those are orphans of full-fledged knights born from the war with the Jue Empire. As you know, our Kingdom has been at odds with the Jue Empire for years, the recent expedition northwards were where these slaves came from. For you, they’re 5 gold pieces each. ”