Chapter 97: Slavery, Freedom...

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She was thrown off on the stage without a word as the thought to escape coursed through her head instantly but her body refused to move at all and kept trembling as if there was a mountain pressing down on her entire being.

Edam looked at the unconscious host and manager of this auction house, picked him by the collar, and...

Slap! He slapped his face one time to wake him up but it didn't work so…

Slap! Slap! Slap!

He slapped him till he woke up in pain of course!

The star-glasses man then started to complain about it before threatening him with whatever means he had and lastly begged not to kill him after carefully looking at the 'demon' facing him.

Walking up to the metallic wall, he lifts his hand as a ghastly blood-red halo rapidly enveloped his hand forming a threatening bestial claw.

Swish! Creek! With a simple move of his hand, the metal wall was thoroughly torn off like ordinary paper.

Behind the wall, there was another room with a lot of cages and a dozen people inside each cage. Those people weren't unconscious like the rest.

Stepping beyond the wall, he looked at the people and the majority were silent although surprised to see the manager of the place being dragged by Edam.

However, Edam didn't look at a single one of them but directly made his way somewhere in the depths of the auction house with the said manager in hand.

After a while, Edam and the guy came back with a lot of keys in hands.

He threw the manager to the ground and told him.

"Go and free every one of them…"

"What!? But if I do that, I will have to pay for every single one of them! That's a life debt!"

"Then choose, a life of debts with the possibility to live another day, or being disabled for life without the possibility to die, which means in simple words that you won't have your four limbs anymore along with your tongue, you hear me?"

"You… you… but you're a marine how can you do that…?" Though he said marine, he himself didn't believe that a 'demon' like that could be a marine.

Edam looked at him with a grim expression. "I don't even know why Marines tolerate your businesses, and I don't mind getting fired or imprisoned if I can get rid of it."

His body was silently bursting with a bloodthirsty aura on him as he said that.

The manager finally realized that the savage beast in front of him was truly dangerous.

"But, but what are those slaves for?"

"Shut up and just do what I tell you to…" He said harshly. 

"But… but…"

"...You know… I'm not especially skilled in medicine, but I will do my best for you, it's a promise..." He said that with a heartfelt smile but didn't seem so good-natured at all.

"I… I will… I will do it…" When he saw his smile, the manager knew that he wasn't kidding at all and was truly capable of doing it.

He then begins to open every cage of the slaves before taking off their collars. A lot of them cried in tears and thanked him from the bottom of their hearts.

Most of them were mostly normal plebeians apart from a prince, a mysterious masked young man, and a lynx.

With every one of them free Edam lifted one hand toward another wall a,s blood-red ki gathered in his palm and…

Boom!

He exploded the wall showing the outside world to those people.

"You're free, go on, I've already destroyed the slave papers and stuff, now it's your turn to live on…" His voice didn't display much apart from indifference.

They bowed to him and then directly ran for freedom with a bit of hope in his eyes.

Only, the prince and the masked guy didn't hurry but took a deep look at Edam and only then did they go out.

Seeing this Edam sighed and turned toward the manager and said with his eyes flickering with a violent blood-red color.

"Now as for you…"

This simple sentence completely frightened the poor manager as he begged.

"Please, please don't cut my limbs off I beg you I will do whatever you want…!"

"Humm…" Edam seemed to ponder on something and then said after much reflection…

"Then… here…" He took a slave collar off the ground and showed it to the manager.

"..." The manager hesitated for a while and said. "This… this is for me?"

"What? No of course not…" Edam said, making the manager sighed in relief.

But then Edam picked up another collar from the ground and showed it with a smile. "This one is for you…"

"But… but…" He wanted to fight it but he saw the 'demon' eyes light up with an evil light.

"Okay…" He never felt so miserable in his life.

"Then, who's the other collar for Sir?" Star-glasses man asked with the collar in hand and was about to present a beautiful slave to him to please him a bit.

"Her…" Edam pointed at the trembling woman on the ground.

"Good- good sir, you must be joking right? If- if you were to be caught, what will await you will be worse than death…"

"That's why you're the one to put it on her…"

"..." The manager blanked out for a moment. "You're completely crazy…"

"Do it…"

The manager was completely terrified by such a maniac and moved forward with a great reluctance in his heart.

He placed the collar around the Celestial dragon's neck and their eyes met.

"You… what are you-…!?" The woman yelled crazily.

But before there could be any true exchanges between the two, they both fell unconscious.

Edam took a look at the two and threw them in a cage, the manager on top of the woman before closing it.

Looking at the keys in his hands, he crushed one of the two keys leaving the other one in the cage, and finally left the place, going through the hole he made for the former slaves.

He was quickly greeted by the fallen prince.

"Well, you're not going?" Edam shot a glance at him.

By now, the faint demoniac aura had already faded away as he retained his previous handsome appearance, stunning the prince for a moment.

"...Hum, well… I still want to thank you though, although people say that I'm a fallen prince, I was just kidnapped and trade by my enemies to make my kingdom fall as I was the crowned prince but anyway…"

Saying that the prince took out what looks like an entirely golden ticket of some sort and gave it to Edam.

"This is a gift for you. A ticket for one of the greatest entertainment in the world." The guy said, looking very sincere.

"Hum, okay, I will accept it then…" Edam looked at the golden ticket for a brief moment but didn't mind it much and stuff it in his pocket.

He then exchanged a few words with the prince as the latter departed to return to his Kingdom by using some special means.

But Edam didn't depart immediately, instead, he turned his head in a certain direction and spoke.

"I know you're still here, come out…"

Sure enough, it was the mysterious masked man who came out.

"Uh, sorry…"

"Why do you hide and spy on me? I warn you already, I'm a straight man and already have someone…"

"What?! No no I'm straight too but I'm just…" The masked-man looked flustered and waved his hands around.

"Okay okay, so what do you want then?" Edam laughed a bit and asked.

"Uh, I, I don't know what to do… I left my parent's place and originally wanted to write an adventure essay… but I was caught by those slave traders…." The man sighed at the end.

"As you are my savior I thought that perhaps I should write your heroics stories instead of mine, what do you say?"

"Uh…" Edam seemed to ponder a bit but then said. "Nah thanks, being popular is so troublesome for me…" 

"You don't want to be a hero?" Even with his mask on, his eyes still showed his surprise. 

"Not really no… I'm not such a pure soul, and certainly...not a hero…"

"Sigh… that's it then…" The man sighed and turned around walking seemingly without a goal in life.

"...wait…"

"...? Yes?" The guy lifted his head.

"Sigh...Just... go and live your adventure freely, and maybe you will meet a fated guy and write both of your adventures? However don't you do anything bad, or I will catch you and beat you up okay? See ya…" Saying this Edam waved a hand and walked around the auction house to go back with his teammates.

"What did you do in there?"

"...Ah, nothing... let's go..."

He took his teammates and quietly left the place before the crowd from the auction woke up.

And whenever they would meet some people on the way, Edam would without a care put them to sleep with a Conqueror's Haki shock. Only after having put some distance did he stopped doing that.

'Sigh, I didn't even accomplish what I was sent for, it's all that woman's fault…! Pissing me off so much, tch…'

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