Chapter 372 - What to do?
The slaves were slowly brought onto the stage one by one. The woman that Ray had helped earlier was looking a lot better. Although Mana couldn't be used to match the nutrients of food, it could definitely make someone energized and make them feel better.
Without food, the body and the cells that make up the body wouldn't function and work properly, so what Ray had done was just a temporary measure. As for the others on the stage, they didn't fare any better. A crowd of a.d.u.l.ts and teenagers were on the stage, and at the dark reaches of the stage— there was even an entire family.
The sight didn't make sense to Ray. He couldn't understand it.
Just what crime could a whole family have committed that they would be forced into such a situation like this?
"Um, Sir," Bob nervously called out to Ray. After seeing what he had done outside of the auction, Bob was already picturing the worst in his head. "Please I beg you not to cause an uproar while we're inside the auction house. Not just for my own sake of course… but for yours as well. If you cause a disturbance here the whole town will be against you."
"Worry not, rest assured," Ray replied. "It's none of my business what you try to do with each other. They are not my friends, they are not my family either— so there is no need to help them."
Although Ray had said these words, it didn't do much to calm down Bob. In fact, at this moment, he was even a little confused. If Ray wasn't concerned about the humans or what has happened to the slaves, then why did he choose to step in earlier?
The bidding had started for the slaves and they were to be sold one by one. As their names were called, they would step forward and the auction would begin. The first person to be picked was the long-haired brown girl that Ray had saved.
As he saw her step forward onto the stage, Ray could sense the fear in her heart, worse, he could even see it. At this moment his dragon eyes were showing him the little energy she had was flickering backwards and forward. The aura surrounding her body even looked frightened.
"The auction is now. The preliminary price is at 4 silver coins!" The man said.
Hearing these words made Ray feel sick for some reason. Putting a price on human life was disgusting enough, but this girl even had a price that was less than the price of a painting or a dress, it was sickening and disturbing.
"4 silver and 2 bronze!" A man shouted as he licked his lips.
"4 silver and 6 bronze!" A woman shouted in the distance.
The auction continued to go up and eventually, a fairly old-looking man currently had the highest bid at 6 silver coins.
"Is there no one else who wishes to bid any higher?" The announcer asked.
When looking at the man, the female could see a creepy smile. She shivered at the thought of being sold to such a person. Then, just above the old man at the back of the room, her eyes had managed to meet Ray's.
It was the person who had saved her outside, she was never expecting him to bid for her, but she was glad before she was sold away someone had actually treated her like a decent human being.
Ray could see this… He could see the deep fear in her heart when looking at the old man and it was being reflected in her eyes.
As Ray saw this a thought came into his head. "Didn't Slyvia say we needed more people for the city? Ah yes, I think she did. If I was to buy them all, then it would be good for the Redwing Kingdom."
Ray quickly sent a message to Slyvia explaining that some slaves were going to be sold off and whether it was okay to use some of the funds to purchase them.
Back in the kingdom, Slyvia was currently taking a rest in her room, she had been busy these past few days with a lot of everything going on at the same time. But she was instantly revitalized seeing a message from Ray.
And when reading the contents, she was even more pleased. To be honest, the Kingdom needed all the money that they could keep— but she knew that Ray's task was an important one. Furthermore, at the end of the day, all of these belonged to him, so she happily lent him the funds.
After hearing what he wanted to spend the funds on, how could she have the heart to say no? It seemed like Ray was changing and she wanted to help him in that process.
But what she didn't know was that Ray had been using the funds in a leisurely manner before all of these. The only reason why he asked was that he felt somewhat guilty. He felt like he needed a reason to use the funds.
After receiving permission from Sylvia to go ahead and use the remainder of his funds.
Just before the announcer was about to slam his mallet down on the podium...
Ray raised his paddle with the number 23.
"8 silvers," Ray said.
When the audience turned around and saw who it was, they all let out a sigh. At this point, they all knew it was going to be tough going against the big spender. Even the old man had given up the idea of purchasing the girl.
The girl's eyes lit up when she saw who had made the final bid. She had no idea what had happened before, but it looked like no one wanted to go against Ray's bid.
She thought that he was perhaps just an adventurer passing through the town. But at the same time, she started to have her own doubts as to why had Ray helped her so much.
She knew not to trust people so easily as people tend to have illicit and bad thoughts when it came to slaves.
But for now, she planned to enjoy this moment, for once— she wanted to believe that perhaps there was someone out there that did good deeds out of the kindness of their heart.
The female was taken off to the side away from the stage, and the next slave was brought forward.
He seemed to be a teenage boy.
At this point, Ray already raised his paddle once more before the announcer had even said anything.
"I would like to purchase all of the slaves for one gold coin each, if anyone has a complaint or wishes to pay for more for one then please do continue."
It didn't take long for the announcer to make his decision. When he saw that no one else planned on going against the baller. He slammed down his mallet once again.
"Dillan, Go prepare the slaves for this fine gentleman immediately." He shouted.
A percentage of the earnings made from the auction house that day went towards him, and it had been a long time since he had met a big spender like this.
The auction was finally over and Ray, along with Bob were guided over to another area to collect their items. Ray allowed Bob to take the things that seemed unimportant to him and send them to the storage unit they were using for the carriage.
The real problem though was what to do with the slaves. A mage appeared and handed over ten pieces of paper with a magic circle on them. The pieces of paper had the names of the slaves written on its surface and what appeared to be a fingerprint made of blood on the bottom.
All of the contracts were handed to Ray. The mage, then held onto Ray's hand and a new magical circle seal was pressed onto the top corner of the contract.
"These are all yours now, esteemed customer." The mage said.
Ray stood there staring at the ten slaves, he pondered. Just what should he do with them?