Talia

"I'm easily the strongest person in this room."

Talia presented a bold statement.

Tophat grinning gleefully called out to the guards.

"Bring her the boulder!"

As the uniformed guards made their way to pick up the basketball sized boulder Talia with a seemingly insulted look on her face felt the need to interject.

"That's way too small! If I need to show my strength I'll need something atleast three times the size!"

Although it seemed Talis had been anticipating Tophat's refusal. He surprisingly obliged. After about twenty minutes of ten different guards trying to carry the same house-sized boulder they eventually lay it to rest on a track.

The goal was simple, Talia had to make it around the track just once. While carrying the gargantuan boulder. As Talia bent down and held the boulder with her wooden augmentation she casually lifted the rock with ease.

'Even a wooden unique augmentation is this strong? Strength must be it's primary attribute.'

Unique augmentations usuallly had a primary and secondary attribute. These could be anything like basic strength or reality manipulation.

Niko and the audience observed in terror as Talia casually made her way around the track in not even a minute.

But she didn't stop.

She went again.

Then again.

And again.

By the time she was done about 20 laps had been completed. Obviously a feat like this made her quite desired so she ended up being sold to Alaric Vonn Halstraad, one of the five at the back, for about one million five hundred thousand Auria.

Supposedly Alaric was the richest person in the room, owning a multi-moon mining ring and over a thousand sun energy plants.

Niko waited with bated breath, curious aas to what would happen next. It seemed he wasn't the special, so hi theory about his family being from royalty was most likely incorrect. 

'Where will they be taking me next?'

Niko expected a closing statement from Tophat. The typical hand-shaking and goodbyes.

But that didn't happen.

"Now everybody! You most likely thought we had just one special. You thought that we couldn't pull it off twice."

Niko understood why he had been put in the same room with Talia.

"But you know, we like to shake things up every now and then."

Tophat began to ramble.

"So with that I'd like to introduce our second special of the evening baring the delphinus constellation, Niko!"

What.

The delphinus constellation? There was no way they had the right person. Niko had never even used a constellation before. People with constellations were already exceedingly rare so Niko being able to use an ability like that sounded bizarre. They must have made a mistake surely.

Unless...

If Sasha had been able to figure it out. That might've explained why she sent that group of slaver's to the ship.

Shit. Usually having a constellation would make a life easier but this meant that he just might be worked to death in order to progress his. If he even had one.

Now stuck between an ocean and a hard place Niko made his way up the stairs not sure what to expect. As he came towards the front stage he mustered out the loudest and most confident voice he could.

"Hello everybody! My name's Niko."

"I hold the delphinus constellation and my only talent is manipulating others."

Tophat, aghast at Niko's declaration quickly put him to the test.

"And why do you say that?"

Niko responded in kind.

"Because I manipulated you into thinking I was just a normal slave!"

"Be assured all of you, if any of you take me in I will escape. I will fight back. No matter what!"

Maybe it was his fear of living in servitude, maybe it was Brown-haired's selfless declaration, or maybe it was just pure anger. But seeing the evil that had lay in the hearts of these rich people made niko temporarily insane. How did the quote go again? 'I'd rather die standing than live kneeling'. That was exactly how Niko felt.

"I promise you this much, if you do take me in I'll have your head by the end of the month!"

"Because I won't stop until every last slave is free!"

Adrenaline rushed through his brains he had just committed a massive taboo, disrespecting a group of aristocrats. Death was almost imminent. Fuck. But he would've rather died like this.

The evils of slavery were something Niko could never accept. Laying his head down and begging like a dog merely for the chance of a good life? No. That was unacceptable.

'I didn't live a good life. Not at all, but atleast it was mine.'

As Niko closed his eyes in preparation for a knife to the head he was instead met with a hand raising right from the back of the room, and a booming voice which thundered across the entire room.

From one Alaric Vonn Halstraad. The same man who had purchased Talia.

"Ten million Auria. For the man."