William didn’t know what to do in that situation. Luckily, most of his important items could be stored in his inventory, including the spatial bag he had taken from Jinra’s tomb.

The only thing that remained outside was the Asura sword—which, for some reason, couldn’t be stored in the inventory.

Stuart was also unprotected, but that soon changed. He managed to enter Jinra’s spatial bag and stay safe inside, which was quite impressive.

However, William still had to hand over his Asura sword to the slave traders.

“This is going to fetch a good price,” one of them said, laughing maniacally. “Not to mention, we’ll sell this guy too. He looks unusual—I think he’ll be worth even more.”

They quickly noticed that William looked different from the other people in the region, which made sense since he was from another world and continent.

For them, this was a great thing and one of the reasons they were so excited to see him.

“What about the guy who was with him? Should we go after him?” one of them asked. Find your next read on My Virtual Library Empire

“No way! He seemed really strong and already teleported far away. Let’s focus on this one,” another replied.

They removed the magical barrier surrounding William, but he still couldn’t do anything! The seal they had placed on his body restricted his mana usage, similar to what had been done to James, leaving him powerless!

Of course, his body was still resilient and capable of facing some magical beasts without using magic, but taking on those slave traders without his full strength was impossible.

William was shackled, and his mount was confiscated for sale as well. He was taken on one of the slave traders’ mounts—a giant bat-like creature.

‘What the hell! How am I going to get out of this?’ he thought.

He could no longer communicate with Asura. Somehow, they had cut off their mental link. William suspected it was because of the seal on his body, but he wasn’t sure.

They flew through the region, heading toward what seemed to be the slave traders’ base. It was a small fortress hidden deep in the forest, isolated from the rest of the world.

“Get down!” one of them ordered William as they landed. He pushed William off the mount, causing him to fall face-first onto the ground.

One of the slave traders shoved William into a room where he saw something shocking. There were several people locked in cells, all with the same seal as him! And they weren’t just humans—there were other races too!

They stripped William of his clothes, giving him old, tattered ones, and threw him into a cell with four other people. The cell was filthy, with feces and urine in some corners.

The other people in the cell were dirty, but William could tell they were beautiful—just mistreated by the slave traders.

One of them was a woman with silver hair. She approached William to talk. “Hi, did you manage to alert anyone while you were being brought here? Is someone coming to rescue us?”

To her, William represented hope—a chance that something might happen to get them out of this terrible situation.

With a heavy heart, William replied, “I don’t think anyone’s coming to save us.”

The woman began to cry. William thought about comforting her and offering some words of encouragement, but he decided to stay reserved and keep to himself.

He looked around and noticed that none of the slave traders were watching him, so he took the opportunity to pull out the blood contract he had signed with Kier.

That’s when he noticed the contract was blank! Kier had tricked him! Not only him but also Stuart, who had a high level of magical perception. This only showed how skilled Kier was, and William had been foolish to trust him.

“Damn it!” William shouted, punching the dirty floor of the cell.

Immediately, one of the slave traders appeared and beat him, landing several punches to his face and ribs.

“Shut up! You’re not allowed to scream here!”

With that seal, William felt weak, but there was nothing he could do. The best course of action was to accept his situation and not resist the slave traders, as it could lead to worse consequences—maybe even death.

William spent two days in that cell with the others. During that time, they spoke little, but it was enough for William to understand their fate.

Soon, they would be taken out of the cells and brought to an auction where wealthy individuals would come to see and buy the slaves they wanted. William was “lucky” to only spend two days in the cell before being taken out.

‘If I had to stay in this hellhole any longer, I’d lose my mind,’ he thought.

However, leaving the cell didn’t mean things would get better. One of the slave traders opened the door and said, “You lot, come with me.”

William and the others were among the slaves chosen for the auction. Some remained in the cells—they weren’t as in demand or frequently sold.

This time, they traveled by land, locked in a cage being pulled by a carriage. It was far from comfortable, and there was barely enough space for everyone.

“They’re taking us to the auction,” one of the prisoners said. “I hope a not-so-cruel noble buys me…”

The prisoners were all anxious because they didn’t know what their fate would be. William felt the same way.

‘Even if a less cruel noble buys me, I’ll still have to obey, and they probably won’t remove this seal…’

The situation was far from easy. William’s mind kept drifting to Kier. Would he be able to enter the place where the demonic books were kept with just his blood?

Had Kier planned to betray William from the very beginning, only needing his blood all along?

There were so many unanswered questions, and the only thing William could do was endure the cell and use the bucket when necessary…

A full week passed before they reached their destination. The destination was a mansion located outside the city. It was where nobles from the region and beyond would gather to see and buy the slaves on offer.

Holding such an auction inside the city was illegal due to certain laws, but buying slaves wasn’t prohibited. So, all they had to do was hold the event outside the city.

William and the other prisoners were taken inside the mansion—which was completely empty—and given baths and better clothes by the servants.

The idea was to improve their appearance to fetch higher prices at the auction. To achieve this, they even cut the prisoners’ hair and shaved their beards. William had grown a fairly long beard over the past 20 days.

In the end, their appearance changed drastically before they were put up for sale. The auction began, and several prisoners were sold.

The price varied depending on the prisoner. The silver-haired woman was beautiful, and her hair color was rare, so she was sold for an exorbitant price.

William wasn’t much different. He was valued for other reasons.

“A strong, healthy young man capable of performing various manual tasks without issue. Starting bid: 5,000 gold coins!”

The prices were outrageous, but these people had money to spare. Several bids were made, and in the end, William was bought by the same noble who had purchased the silver-haired woman.

Because of this, the noble could no longer participate in the auction, as he had to leave the good opportunities for others. It was one of the auction’s rules, and everyone had agreed to it beforehand.

The noble in question was a young-looking man with long hair and pale, almost corpse-like skin.

“Come with me. Let’s leave. There’s no reason to stay here,” the noble said.

William and the silver-haired woman followed him—both still shackled and sealed.

Outside the mansion, they saw the noble’s carriage. It wasn’t an ordinary carriage—it could fly! It was the first time William had seen something like that.

This only showed how wealthy the man was.

“Get in and stay quiet,” the noble said.

They sat in the carriage and flew away.

The view from above was stunning, but it didn’t change the fact that they had been sold to a nobleman, and their fate was uncertain.

At least during the journey, the nobleman allowed them to sleep and provided them with food and drinks, ensuring their well-being.

Would this continue, or was he simply being kind during the trip?And what a trip it was!

William spent days in that carriage, and at one point, he decided to talk to the nobleman to find out where they were going.

“Do you know the forbidden region of the continent? Well, my family’s house is in a region near there, a place full of snow. So, it’s not that close, it takes about a week with a flying mount,” the nobleman said.

William couldn’t hide his joy.

‘At least I’ll be closer to the region I wanted to go to… Maybe I can escape and go there!’ he thought.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep