Black Market

"Please…. Just save him and I will do anything you tell me to…" The hooded girl begged non-stop like it was the end of the world for her and she didn't have anytime to breathe. Lucas could know how dire her situation was, just by hearing her stuttering voice.

"Where is your brother?"

As soon as Lucas asked, the girl immediately stood up and pointed towards the valley that she had come from, while also dragging Lucas's hand as if she was asking him to hurry up. Both Lucas and Ryosuke looked at the valley she was pointing at and with one glance they could see that it was a shady one.

'Is it the black market?' From the books he read, Lucas knew that every market also had a black market which usually sold goods that weren't suitable or that hindered the mind of a majority of shoppers, such as chimeras, used for the mana examination and some kinds of controllable beasts that hunters caught alive. Even so, Lucas didn't have exact or deeper knowledge as information related with the black markets were not that widespread in the outside world.

"Lucas, should we wait for Carl?" Ryosuke stated his idea while glancing at the said boy.

"NO! You can't wait!! I don't know what they will do to Tus if you don't hurry!" The girl was sounding more and more impatient.

Lucas decided to follow her instantly as she appeared to be really worried about her brother. Besides, Black market might sound eerie but it was not a dangerous place as long as one didn't mess around with people and most of the problems could be negotiated with money. When it came to money, Lucas still had a lot left, wasn't it?

"Ok girl, lead the way! Brother Ryo, wait for Carl and ask him to follow me when you meet him!"

The said girl and Lucas immediately left, leaving Ryosuke behind even without listening to his answer. Of course, Ryosuke also did go after them, murmuring to himself that how could he leave Lucas to go alone to a suspicious place.

The path was really dark and kind of gave off a terrifying atmosphere, indicating that this was really leading to not a very good place. After running along for 5 minutes, the trio was finally at the back side of the buildings where there was a market area but it was not an ordinary one.

People could be seen here and there, all with their respective hoods on as if they didn't want to let other people see their faces which also made both Lucas and Ryosuke subconsciously wore the hoods of their robes. There were also shops that sold various items but all of them gave Lucas a bad vibe making him not want to know what they were and what were the uses for them. The buzzing atmosphere that Lucas faced in the central market area instantly changed into a cold and terrifying one.

"This way!" The girl led the duo into a deeper part of the market area, and when arriving at where the girl intended to go, Lucas was horrified and shocked abruptly, looking at the scenery in front of him.

The area was filled with different sizes of cages in which there were not monsters or such animals but humans. There were also some cages which contained beastmen from different tribes. But all of the beings in the cage were in rugged clothes and their heads were all down and some with lifeless eyes as if they lost hope for their lives. Their skinny figures were also bruised and some even filled with injuries, showing that they were greatly abused.

'They must be slaves…..' Lucas almost vomited from the disgusting atmosphere. He really did have no idea that their kingdom also had such inhumane places like this. At least, he didn't hope to see such places in the capital.

Ryosuke was also disgusted and felt the same with Lucas, finally noticing the dark side of the country as he also had not seen such a scenario since the day he had arrived here nor at his original home town.

The girl was also looking here and there, desperately looking for her brother, Tus. Before she could look for Tus, a muscular man who looked like he was the one that handled the slaves, pointed to that girl, subsequently coming over to the trio madly with other two people.

"You little bitch! You dare to run away!? Now you come here with your own feet, it makes less trouble for us!" When he was going to grab the girl, Lucas and Ryosuke were ready to knock his hand off but they didn't even get to do this as the girl instantly grew out her nails and scratched the man's hand real deep making the man cry out in pain.

"TELL ME WHERE IS TUS!?"

"You fucking monster! You dare to do this when you are just a lowly slave!? Let's see who is going to win."

As soon as Lucas saw the man signaled for the other men to grab the little girl, he had to step in. He just hoped that he could talk it out.

"Mister! Wait, you said she is the slave, right? I will buy her!" Lucas immediately exclaimed, thinking that this should be the fastest way to solve the problem. He just hoped that the slaves were not extremely expensive as he only had 10 gold coins left to spend.

The girl also glared at Lucas before she screamed back at Lucas. But Lucas could guess what she was going to say so he just tapped her shoulder while wanting her to understand and leave the matter to him. Hopefully, she got the message and calmed herself down.

"You brat. Don't stick your nose in unrelated places. You think that they are just the things you can buy with your pocket money?" The man got closer to Lucas with a terrifying aura making Ryosuke came out from back while covering Lucas, at the same time, his right hand was already on the handle of his newly bought black sword.

"Hey brat, do you have a death wish?" It seemed that the man also noticed Ryosuke's behavior, raising up his left eye brow and with his sound mocking that two kids could not do anything against them. Come to think of it, the man and his fellows were also well equipped.

"Just name the price." Lucas even didn't realize that his voice was almost as cold as Cassius, even making the man hold back a bit. "And take out Tus, too. I am also buying him."

"The girl is 8 gold coins and for the boy, 2 gold coins."

Lucas was amazed by the price for the girl. Why was her price 4 times higher than the boy? Normally in the fictions, it was the boys who held the higher price, right or was he wrong?

"What, brat? Now you are petrified by the price? That girl is not an ordinary one so you better give up on her and get lost when I am being polite to you!"

Before the man attempted to touch the girl again, Lucas held out his coin bag, showing that he had enough money to buy both of them. After seeing the money, the men were not as hostile as before. Maybe they might be thinking about the identity of Lucas.

"Now, you see it. Go bring Tus." Lucas reminded them again, his voice having the same coldness, and his eyes sharply glaring out the man. Even Ryosuke was surprised by his behavior.

"I don't assure the quality of the boy, though." smirked the man as he ordered out to bring out the boy which he called him bastard.

After a few moments, a slim boy whose situation looked like he was beaten so badly was dragged out from the back of the cages. It was an unseemly sight to see all the blood that covered the boy.

"Tus!"

Of course, the girl immediately hugged the slim figure as she constantly called his name, telling him to wake up. No matter what she said, the boy was still in a state of unconsciousness.

"How could you....?" Lucas even couldn't ask how someone could beat up the other until they reached such a state. He felt himself to be fuming in anger and disgusted emotions as his blue crystal eyes, being more icy than before.

"Let's go, Lucas. We should hurry back." But Lucas was drawn back by Ryosuke who was now picking up the unconscious boy on his back.

"Where are their contracts?" He glanced at the slave holder.

"Wow, kid. I thought you were just a spoiled young master who knows nothing but I didn't expect you to know well." The man laughed while telling his fellows again to bring out the necessary ones.

Of course, Lucas didn't know that the contracts existed. It was just purely an attempt to see whether these two kids had some contracts bonding them or not. Lucas needed to have full ownership for them so that the trouble would not come to them later.

He accepted the two signed paper that stating the slavery of two kids and immediately leave the area with Ryosuke while holding at the girl's hand. The man was telling them to come back if he wanted more goods but he didn't even want to hear his voice.

'Next time….' Lucas promised in enraged. 'Next time, I will bring out all the people behind those cages.' He gotta destroy this disgusting system one day.

Lucas and his group met Carl on his way back to the central market. Carl was really drenched in sweat and his face showed many panic and worries as he ran to them quickly whether they were ok and why they were in the valley. Carl might be wishing that Lucas didn't go to the Black Market but his wish wasn't fulfilled.

Lucas told Carl that he would explain everything later and now he needed to go to the carriage as quickly as he could so that Tus could be treated.

"Tus… he won't die, right!? Tell me, he is ok, right!?" She seemed like she was really going to cry.

"He won't." as the carriage continued to move back to the mansion, Lucas immediately cast healing magic on Tus. Carl and Ryosuke were gonna protest immediately but stopped by the glare of Lucas.

"I know what I am doing. I assure you I won't go over-limit."

Faint green glow as usual covered the body of Tus, slowly healing his injuries. After a few minutes, Ryosuke stopped Lucas again, worrying that he might suffer, as he had already known the side effects that one had when his mana was exhausted. This time, Lucas also did stop as the boy's condition was improved, nearly to a good state. He was just sleeping and all they had to do was just to wait for him to wake up.

"He is fine now. You don't have to worry anymore." Lucas smiled at the girl.

The girl just looked at Tus whose head was lying on the girl's shoulder, saying softly that she thanked Lucas a lot.

"Carl…. Please let me request something…"

After seeing that Carl was paying deep attention to him, Lucas continued. "Don't tell Anton and Alisa about this. No, don't tell anyone about this! I will explain them later… by myself" Lucas didn't want to be faced with questions and stuff as soon as he arrived at the mansion. He desperately needed the rest now.

Carl was reluctant to follow Lucas's order as he had the duty of reporting back to Duke through Anton. But he agreed to Lucas, after Lucas asked him so many times.

Not very long after that, and it was almost the sun set, they finally arrived at the manor, welcomed by Anton and Alisa and fellow staff. Anton and Alisa were surprised by the newcomers, of course. But Lucas just told them that they were his guests and let them stay together with Ryosuke which Ryosuke gladly accepted.

As soon as he was done with a brief explanation and leaving the two to Ryosuke, he just told everyone that he was skipping dinner and headed straight to the room, ordering no one to disturb him because he was tired and going to head to sleep. Every one was surprised by Lucas's behavior but Ryosuke and Carl didn't let them to fill up Lucas with questions. They knew that Lucas needed rest.

"Ah shit….."

After his room's door was closed, Lucas couldn't even control himself and fell down to the floor, suddenly. He felt like his world was spinning as he breathe in air slowly while struggling, but he was glad that he didn't reach the worst state. It would get better after he had slept, he supposed.

"This nausea is really killing me….." He murmured. He expected to have this effect as the boy's injuries, actually his internal injuries were serious. It really did take him a lot of effort to get on his bed, falling into deep sleep just as he laid down on his comfy pillow.