-Hey! There is a second floor! And there even is a stairway to the roof! We could plant flowers on the roof! There is also a workshop there is even a blacksmith room with a smithy! There are also so many rooms?! And is that a bathroom!?

Cornelia cried out, much in joy as she explored the place that originally belonged to her, but was now Avian’s possession without much thought, even though she looked to have despised this place at the beginning she quickly changed her mind the moment she actually got to exploring this place and she was right.

The place was indeed very big, the first floor was where the store, the smithy, the workshop and a kitchen was, there were also a few rooms that seemed to have been used as storage rooms making the first floor the work area and the dining area.

Following the corridor, a stairway was found that lead to the second floor.

The second floor was mostly just 4 empty rooms, a bathroom with a big bath plus a sink and a toilet, Cornelia was especially excited about the big bathroom and even wanted to jump in immediately as she hadn’t bathed for ages other than rinsing her skin with a wet towel which she couldn’t get used to even now.

But Avian stopped her as he thought that they didn’t have time for this right now, Cornelia though proved to be extremely stubborn as she refused to give in rebelling against Avian as her female instincts couldn’t accept not bathing when she had a chance right there.

It took a lot of convincing from Avian, mainly with his fist, to finally make Cornelia give up tearfully as they continued looking around.

The second floor was obviously a living area.

Finally, the next stairway lead to the roof, the building they were in was in the shape of a cube, making the top flat.

The roof was pretty empty for all intents and purposes, growing something here would likely have been ideal just as Cornelia said with the amount of exposure it had to the sun, it could also be used to dry washed clothing, unfortunately Avian didn’t even know if they ever would get such an opportunity considering the monster horde that would come in 3 days.

Truly something troublesome happened right as they arrived.

(Sigh)

Avian sighed as he looked out from the top of the roof down into the big town, from up there he could see a whole lot, from adventurers walking around showing interest for merchant wares to blacksmiths working hard and shaping metal with their hammers, but the people running around and hurrying whatever they were doing were the most prominent, many looked to be planning on leaving but a lot more seemed to decide to stay just like the fruit selling uncle, simply making preparations for the upcoming monster horde with a tough look on their faces clearly unsure but seemingly having no other choice but to stay.

Again Avian wanted to sigh again, but instead he sat down on the edge and thought about what he should do.

-This is a good building…even if the store is faced in a questionable place I rather not leave when I have a good place to set camp, this would be so much easier if I only knew whether or not this town can survive the monster horde.

Avian muttered, looking at the people bellow as if hypnotized while deep in thought, but finally he was interrupted as Cornelia who was still exploring on the second floor suddenly came up to the roof and called for Avian.

-Lukas! Come! You should see this! There is something happening on the street!

She said, making Avian puzzled for a second as to what could make Cornelia so up and about, thinking he had nothing better to do for now, he decided to check out whatever Cornelia called him out for.

Walking down and coming out with Cornelia, Avian locked the shutter to their store before following Cornelia who was waiting for him at the end of the alleyway.

The moment he arrived, Cornelia quickly pointed at what seemed like a crowd of people all gathering around a podium of sorts seemingly waiting for something.

Avian’s interest was immediately piqued as he decided to see what this was about; Cornelia too was immensely excited as the podium reminded her of the theatrical plays she used to go to with her mother when she was little, she thought that this was something similar and couldn’t wait to see, but unfortunately for her this wasn’t a play at all, in fact Cornelia regretted calling Avian to something like this as she immediately frowned the moment she realized what it really was.

Avian on the other hand didn’t share Cornelia’s thoughts as his interest only continued to pique further when he saw what it was.

-Welcome everyone! My name is Delton, but you can call me slave merchant, today because of certain circumstances our Doulos company decided to make a public auction to sell our slaves for the upcoming monster horde heading this way, as you may have already guessed all the products that are going to be shown will be excellent combat slaves to better protect yourself for the monsters to come, but if you are not interest don’t be disappointed as many more slaves to be sold are inside the tent behind me one of which will surely garner your fancy, and if slaves aren’t what you are looking for we also sell many kinds monsters that are just as vicious and useful for your protect! Now without a further ado let me show you our first product!

As the slave merchant announced standing atop the podium wearing a shady suit and a dark cane, a person or rather a slave was brought up to the podium wearing shackles on his ankles and wrists rattling with every step he took.

The slave that was presented was quite the showing as people ooed and aahd witnessing what looked like a gray wolf, but in human form, possessing a wolf head, a tail and some sharp looking claws on his fingers, the eyes of this wolfman was a deep crimson red almost to the point they were glowing, it was difficult to discern what he was thinking being so calm in front of a crowd that was inspecting him like some merchandise, but just through his looks alone everyone knew that he was strong.

And of course he would be strong as no one heard about a weak beastman before.

Beastmen were one of the many races this world had, they possess their own kingdom and are actually in an alliance with the humans against the demons.

So why is a beastman slave up on auction when the humans are in an alliance with them?

There are many reasons, but it is mainly because of greed and also because before the humans and the beastmen decided to make an alliance, they were actually enemies who went to war with each other.

The reason for this war also had many reasons, but saying them now wouldn’t mean anything as anyone could guess and be mostly right, humans treating beastmen like monsters or lesser beings was one of those reason while beastmen themselves pretty much did the same thing resulting in an argument that basically revolved around who was the superior race so and such, while beastmen also practiced slavery and sold human slaves just like humans themselves.

Of course once they got into an alliance to combat a common enemy, the demons, blatant selling of slaves of either race without proper reason became banned on both sides lessening the influx of slaves on both kingdoms, though they still exist, as slaves captured for proper reasons could still be sold.

Currently those reasons are, people who committed crimes, went into debt or were considered war prisoners.

Of course there were also a lot more illegal channels from which slaves come from that isn’t even being talked about, but Avian didn’t really care as he watched the people present start quoting prices one after another to buy the strong looking wolf beastman while the slave merchant laughed and pointed at each person who had the highest bid.

What Avian was really thinking was how smart this company was for making a public auction to sell slaves in the current situation, though anyone could see an opportunity like this, it took more than seeing an opportunity and grabbing it.

Execution was key as well as not every opportunity could be benefited from.

-Lets go in.

-What?! Why?!

Avian said, walking forward as he made his way to the tent behind the podium, Cornelia was a bit shocked when she heard that as she truly didn’t want to get in there.

Reason being she was reminded of the bandit raid a week prior when those dirty and vulgar bandits held her down while talking about all those filthy things they were going to do to her, being send to be sold as a slave was one of them, the trauma she suffered because of this wasn’t light which is why she felt resistant to the idea of heading to a place she almost could have ended up in herself.

Avian knew this, but again he couldn’t care less, in a sense he was actually helping Cornelia get over her trauma by forcing her to the place she didn’t want to go to while at the same time accomplishing one of his own goals as he actually wanted to buy a slave.

He had planned for this ever since he made his way to this town, currently it was a bit doubtfully whether or not it was a good idea to buy a slave considering the circumstances, but Avian thought differently as he thought that more arms could accomplish more work and speed things up.

He currently had a lot of money to boot, enough even to maybe buy a mount and a carriage for personal transportation if things went south and he immediately would need to make a get away with Cornelia.

Overall what Avian was simply thinking was converting his money into actual strength, money itself had no use or value, it was only after you invest it into something or buy something that it has meaning, Avian’s mentality was to never hoard money, but to spend it wisely to get more money later.

Either way Avian decided that he would buy a slave today and from what he saw he recognized that this seemed to be the biggest market for it and maybe the best time to buy it as instead of an increase in value he may actually be looking at a discount.

There was a reason this company was selling these slaves right after the news of the monster horde came, not only because it was the prime time, but also because they likely wanted to get rid of much of their wares as fast as possible before the monster horde came.

And transporting slaves and monsters was likely not going to be a fast process.

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