How long has it been since I’ve been locked up in this cage? Ah…I don’t even know anymore. Maybe a month, maybe two…one thing is sure. It’s been a very long time.

Every day had been hell. They would give me the bare minimum for me to stay healthy, but that was it. I was locked up like a prisoner. The worst part of all this was that I didn’t even know how I got captured.

All I remember was me going to bed normally and waking up in this stupid cage. That’s when weird-looking people talked about what my future would look like.

They told me I would become a slave… At first, I thought it was a joke to scare me. But as the days passed, I realized that it wasn’t a joke at all.

And that’s how I got here in front of thousands of people looking at me as if I was some kind of piece of meat that they could have given a certain price.

Disgusting people. All of them. Actually…there was one person within the entire crowd that didn’t seem all that bad.

He managed to make me giggle from the inside even when I was stuck in this situation, and for some reason, when he looked in my direction, I wasn’t able to sense the same thing as the rest of those weirdos.

The look in his eyes was pure, devoid of any bad intentions.

“What is a professor doing in our VIP room exactly, and how does a professor have 125 Million to spend on a slave?”

“Who knows? Can’t a professor make that much?”

I smiled. For the first time in days, I managed to smile. It felt good for a short moment.

That guy just looked so…stupid? I don’t know, he was funny to me.

“Well, if you don’t want to say who you really are, then that’s fine. Just make sure you have the money you bid. Otherwise, there will be consequences.”

The man just nodded and gave a little shrug.

“Now that’s done. Anyone else?”

I looked toward that masked man who was looking at me directly in the eyes and his vibe was the complete opposite from that professor or whoever he really was.

I felt chills just by looking at him…he was scary.

Actually, I couldn’t even look at him in the eyes anymore…it was too much.

‘Please don’t bid…please don’t bid.’

I prayed in the back of my mind that he would just let me go. I didn’t want to go with him…

“Going once…going twice…going thrice! It’s done. Our beautiful, virgin, elven princess was sold to the gentleman with red and purple hair standing in our VIP room. May you give us the honor of knowing your name?”

He stood up right away with a huge smile on his face. He looked very excited for some reason.

He slowly started walking forward.

The man turned around suddenly, and it seemed the masked man was talking to him about something. However, he just laughed it off, making it seem insignificant.

The VIP room was actually a platform that was simply placed above everyone else giving them the perfect view, however that was it. There was no window, there was nothing separating them from the rest apart from that high-placed platform.

Then, as he reached the end of that platform, I couldn’t see him anymore.

He had disappeared as if he had never been there in the first place.

I looked around frantically, trying to find him as fast as possible.

‘Please don’t tell me that you left me…I don’t want to go with the other guy. Please…’

“My name? Caedrel. Caedrel Stuart. Nice to meet you all.”

I heard his voice but for some reason…I heard it right next to me. But that made no sense. He had been hundreds of meters away, standing at the edge of a platform. How could he be on the stage with us?

When I looked in his direction, I saw that he wasn’t alone. He had two beautiful elven maids in his arms, which he quickly let go of.

“Y-You…how?” The girl on the stage was even more flustered than I was.

That man, Caedrel, had his hand extended in her direction, waiting for her to shake it as if nothing out of the ordinary had just happened.

“My name is Caedrel. Could I know yours?”

The girl blushed instantly. “M-Me…uh, my name is Alexa.”

“I see. Nice to meet you.”

Then, after he said that, our eyes met up close for the very first time.

“And what about you? What’s your name?”

I tried opening my mouth and saying my name, but I couldn’t. It had been weeks since I had last spoken, and my throat was so dry that no words even came out.

I coughed once, and it was fixed.

“Um, um, my name is Ariella…it’s nice to meet you.”

“So, how does this work? Do I just let her free from the cage? It’s my first time buying a slave, so I got no clue.”

I released a small giggle when I heard him speak.

He looked so…stupid and easygoing when he had just spent millions. I just couldn’t understand this man. It was a weird thing to say, considering that he had just bought me, but I couldn’t wait to learn more about him.

“Come with me. We’ll get everything ready,” Alexa said as she made a sign to someone on the right, and instantly the curtains closed.

“Before we prepare the slave contract, please give us the money.”

“Uh…how do you want it?” He said with a smirk.

“Whatever way you want to give it to us.”

“Ah, fine. Here.”

He grabbed a pouch around his waist and turned it around, causing millions of coins to fall out of it.

“S-Sir…what are you doing?”

“Well, I’m paying, why?”

Alexa had this look of exasperation on her face because of what Caedrel had just done.

“Just who invited this idiot here…” She whispered to herself.

“Hmm…what did you just say? I didn’t understand,” Caedrel, the man who had just bought me for 125 million, said with an innocent smile.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep