Vol 1 Chapter 6 (1/2)
Chapter 6: Light and Shadow Part 6 – translated by Azakura
One hundred gold? Everyone in the room was completely shocked. One by one, they turned to face the one who had shouted. Silvester was no exception. He stared straight at that person and was pleasantly surprised as he shouted, “Red Cloak!”
An extremely bold red cloak appeared at the door. The overly dramatic entrance made everyone in the room momentarily confused about what had happened. Only the host of the auction, the fatty, was slightly alarmed by the situation because he was well acquainted with any and all people who would come to purchase slaves from him. Yet he did not know the fellow wearing the red cloak.
The fatty swept through the room in a circle. There were indeed a few n.o.ble families who were absent from the scene, some of them being families that he definitely could not afford to offend. What if he was someone employed by one of those families? He did not dare to provoke the other party even in the slightest, so he continued to speak in a fairly respectful tone.
“Might I ask if you have your invitation, sir?”
Red Cloak stretched out his hand and pulled open the ribbon holding his cloak closed, allowing his cloak to slip off and fall to the floor. His true colors were thus revealed.
He had a tall and slender figure with long legs and a thin waist. His bodily proportions, contrary to what one would expect, resembled those of a woman except that there were no particularly distinct curves around the chest area, so it very well could have been either a flat-chested woman or a man with some pectoral muscles. However, because of his oval face and features that were smaller and more delicate than those of an average male, an overwhelming majority would probably guess that the person before them was a woman… if not for that pair of eyes.
His pair of black eyes which was burning with a fearful murderous spirit did not resemble the eyes of a woman in the least. On the contrary, they were more akin to those of a veteran army general who had murdered countless men. Once one had met those eyes; size, body proportions, oval face, and delicate facial features were entirely forgotten. That pair of black eyes was sufficient to make people think that he was male.
“Breaking the law by selling slaves in private and even forcefully arresting some of the common folk to sell off, have you no conscience, city lord?”
When he was done speaking in an icy cold tone, the color of everyone’s faces had changed, and the fatty… no, he should be addressed as the city lord now. His face was as white as a sheet. He tried to defend himself as vigorously as he could, “W-Who are you? Don’t try to influence others with your venomous slander! We’re only gathered here to exchange the slaves we already own amongst each other!”
The slaves immediately caused a commotion, one after another refuting the city lord’s words.
“Of course not!”
“We were kidnapped and brought here!”
“We are not slaves!”
The city lord promptly exclaimed, “There are many aristocrats present in this room, and I am even the lord of this city. Are you going to believe what we say, or would you actually go so far as to listen to the words of those lowly peons?”
Red Cloak simply paid no attention to him. He pointed towards Silvester and said, “You, tell us what has happened thus far.”
Upon witnessing this situation, astonishment flashed through Cale’s mind. He had a rough idea of what was going on so his eyes no longer held any animosity when he looked at Silvester. Instead, there was a trace of amus.e.m.e.nt in his expression… An undercover agent this useless is truly very rarely seen.
Silvester spoke, br.i.m.m.i.n.g with confidence, “They captured people who were not willing to be sold off as slaves for this auction!”
The look on the city lord’s face was so bad that it could not possibly become any worse. However, he still tried hard to squeeze out a smile as he said, “That slave is actually very disobedient which is why his owner wanted to bring him here to exchange for a slightly more obedient one—”
“He is one of mine,” Red Cloak coldly interrupted him mid-sentence, “But he was captured by the likes of you, making me search for him for two whole days!”
The city lord was shocked. He growled, “So this was all just a blatant attempt to take a slave home for free!”
Red Cloak ignored the accusation and instead turned to face Silvester. He said in a commanding tone, “Take out your insignia for them to see!”
Insignia? Silvester stared blankly, but since he only had a single insignia on him, he fished it out from an inner pocket in his clothes at once, and that was the imperial bard’s white rose insignia!
Everyone was dumbstruck and could only stare at that rose insignia. For a moment, n.o.body dared to believe that the Holy King’s white rose insignia would actually appear in a place like this.
The city lord was standing right beside Silvester, so he could see it the clearest. The engravings on the rose insignia were so exquisite and graceful that it looked nothing like a fake.
Come to think of it, when I was captured earlier, I would have been able to free myself if I had just taken out this insignia, right? As he watched the emotions in the room turn from astonishment to dread, Silvester suddenly felt that he might be a little stupid.
At this point, the city lord feared that it was impossible to plead his innocence any longer. With s.h.i.+fty eyes, he saw the crowd on the floor looking around in all directions, trying to find an exit, as if they wanted to run away. After all, if any of them managed to escape, no one would be in power to convict them of any crimes. In the end, only the city lord himself had nowhere to run!
The city lord turned to face the city patrol captain and shouted, “If the Holy King hears of this, we are all dead! He’s only one person, so killing him off will solve the problem! Patrol team, attack!”
If the man was killed, everyone present would have no choice but to help conceal the crime. The city lord thought he had the perfect plan— if they were to survive, they would survive together. If they were going down, they were going to go down together.
Purchasing slaves was one thing. Watching without acting when one of the Holy King’s men was killed was another thing altogether. As long as the two people involved with the insignia died, no one in the room would be free of guilt!
The patrol captain had his mouth agape and was at his wit’s end. Helping capture people and pa.s.sing them off as slaves to sell did give him a good commission, so he was more than happy to do that. However, he definitely did not have the guts to actually kill the holder of a white rose insignia.
“I said attack!” The city lord’s mouth distorted from his rage. He furiously berated the patrol captain, “If they get away from here, we won’t be able to live any longer! A death sentence for all!”
Death sentence… Upon hearing those two words, the patrol captain immediately mustered up his courage. If I kill him, I will probably die. If I don’t kill him, I also have to die… Might as well risk my life!
The patrol captain turned to bellow at his subordinates, “Hear that?! Aren’t you going to attack? If each person lands a strike, no one would be able to escape!”
At this point, Cale promptly rushed towards Silvester and knocked him off the stage. He then shouted to the slaves, “Quickly, protect the two of them! If they are to die, we will definitely be silenced as well!”
Evidently, the slaves were very obedient towards Cale. Once they heard him speak, every one of them gathered around desperately to obstruct Silvester from view. However, as Red Cloak was farther away and the city patrol had long since charged over toward him, everyone could only helplessly watch as sword after sword struck in Red Cloak’s direction.
Cale was so worried that he had nearly stopped breathing, but when he turned to look, he noticed Silvester was unexpectedly not worried in the least bit and was wearing an excited expression on his face instead, as if he was looking forward to something that was about to happen… While Cale’s entire mind was racing, he could still understand one thing; the man who was wearing a red cloak was perhaps not that easy to do away with.