The crowd suddenly erupted into a roar of cheers and applause.

Both Hanzo and Malon immediately lowered their gaze, honing in on the next batch of slaves being brought onto the stage.

As they were being brought in, Hanzo couldn’t help but peer down at a man sitting in the front row.

He resided in a large booth that was filled with half-naked beauties, wearing colorful and revealing clothing while fanning the man and feeding him grapes.

Hanzo cringed on seeing this, but that wasn’t why he was staring at the bald-headed guy.

‘One of the three Lords of Rock Saelfine… Southern Lord of Female Slaves, Goghfrey. He buys all good-looking and useful female slaves in any auction he comes to.’

Hanzo took a glance around him. Many other nobles and random people were also staring at Goghfrey with upset faces, swallowing their spit in anticipation and worry.

‘It’s only once in a blue moon he pops up to small auctions like these… naturally, every other person wanting to buy a female slave now has their hopes in the gutters because of that swine.’ Hanzo gripped his paddle that had the name “Halon.” Written on it.

‘But… surely he wouldn’t spend much gold on her right? She’s just a random slave at a small auction…’ He hoped as the slaves were placed on stage.

It was a batch of only women. The eyes of both Hanzo and Malon flew wide open as they saw Noa in the midst of all of them.

She was the only one wearing her dress, so she heavily stood out. She was also at the very front of the group, so she was going to be ‘sold’ first.

The auctioneer began to speak: “Ladies and gentlemen! Your first slave is a one-of-a-kind. She’s the one I spoke about when introducing this swell group! One who can unlock all Aura binds, and ain’t she a fine piece of work? Take a good look at her face… her body.”

The crowd cheered, lustful eyes clearly landing on the girl.

Hanzo clenched his jaw, restraining himself from acting out in anger.

Malon placed his hand on Hanzo’s shoulder.

‘Huh?’ Hanzo thought, ‘Is he trying to comfort me?’ Out of nowhere, the grip on his shoulder tightened. He looked over at Malon, only to see an enraged expression on his face.

“The starting price is!” The auctioneer blurted, capturing Hanzo’s attention again as he prepared himself.

“250 Gold!”

A wave of relief washed over Hanzo as he heard this: ‘250? That’s quite low… there’s a lot of room I have to increa–‘ He stopped, stunned at what he heard come from below.

A paddle raised into the air as fast as a bullet and a loud voice echoed through the hall:

“10,000 Gold!” Lord Goghfrey exclaimed with a large smile on his face, “Gaaahaha!” He burst into a peal of laughter, revealing his several gold-capped teeth.

A low hum of disappointment washed through the crowd as Hanzo’s face turned pale, his heart suddenly feeling as though it was in his mouth.

‘W-what? Already? Why? Is the mother fucker just showing off!?’ Hanzo thought inwardly with sheer hatred.

Noa’s eyes widened with fear and shock as she heard this.

Goghfrey continued to laugh as the auctioneer slowly raised his microphone to his mouth:

“W-wow… we have Lord Goghfrey’s 10,000 Gold gambit! Are there any other takers!?” He shouted into the crowd.

A wave of silence rippled across the entire stadium. It was expected. Why would anyone want to go against a Lord? Not only because they had a stupid amount of money that they could splurge with, but it also came off as quite disrespectful.

However, Hanzo had no choice right now…

The auctioneer slowly smiled while facing Goghfrey, “I don’t know why I even asked that question… SOLD to–” The auctioneer paused, his brows quickly furrowing as a paddle flew into the air from someone random in the crowd.

As the auctioneer faced this man, the rest of the crowd also uniformly turned their necks to gaze at him.

Whispers quickly began to swim about:

“What? Why did he raise his paddle?”

“Is he stupid? He isn’t winning against Lord Goghfrey…”

“Tsk… what a fool.”

Even Goghfrey turned to look back past his shoulder with a judgemental expression on his face.

“20,000 Gold,” Hanzo said in a low tone, knowing he didn’t have to shout at this moment, as everyone was giving him their attention.

As soon as he said this, a block of astonishment fell onto the crowd like a mountain.

“WWHAT!?” The auctioneer exclaimed in shock. Everyone in the stands was perplexed at the bid.

“What did he say!?”

“Why would he–??”

“20… thousand?”

Hearing this, Noa squinted her eyes, ‘Who would…’ She mused, zoning in on the man holding the paddle.

As soon as she caught a good glimpse of who he was, she subconsciously gasped. Tears quickly formed in her eyes as her lips began to quiver.

‘Why… is he here?’ She said inwardly. She was immensely moved by Hanzo and Malon coming here to save her, hence why tears were trickling down her face right now.

But… she also faced the reality of the matter, ‘They will be punished… they don’t deserve that just because of me.’ She knew this but had no choice but to bear witness.

Even Goghfrey raised a brow as he heard Hanzo say his bet.

The auctioneer stumbled on his words a bit but finally got out: “20,000 gold bid from Halon! Do we have any takers!?”

Goghfrey turned back around.

Hanzo clenched his jaw, staring down at the back of Goghfrey’s head with disdain: ‘Come on you bald bitch… don’t tell me you care so much about losing a bid.’

Goghfrey looked down at his paddle, ‘More than 20,000 gold would be quite a waste… but this peasant dares try to make a mockery of me in my own home? He will regret that…’

He raised his paddle: “25–“

Hanzo kept his paddle raised, cutting Goghfrey off as he exclaimed loudly: “30,000 gold!”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep