「Your future husband is richer than Osokoi? Even if that were true, no man who ‘cherishes’ his fiancée enough to pay gold equal to her body weight would tell her to come alone on this stinking merchant ship. Ransom? Don’t make me laugh! I’d rather hand you over to Guld and collect payment—that’s more certain.」

Though Andrea didn’t know what “Guld” meant, she could tell from context it meant selling her, and her heart raced with urgency.

“Or contact Ulrich Trading Company…”

「Shut up!」

The captain roared like a beast.

Andrea’s legs trembled with fear. Even the worst thugs and street gangsters in Misolr hadn’t shown such savage violence. But she had to pull herself together.

“I-it’s not a lie. Please contact Ulrich Trading Company in Selon. Then you’ll be able to collect the ransom.”

The captain smiled with a fishy grin.

「Gold equal to your body weight?」

“Maybe not that much, but…”

She tried to hedge, thinking it would seem more suspicious to readily offer money that even royal families would struggle to pay, but the captain’s eyes flashed.

「Say one more word and I’ll tear that pretty mouth of yours apart.」

Then he deliberately stretched his mouth in an exaggerated, leering grin.

「There are perverted bastards who like beauties with torn mouths too.」

Andrea turned pale and had no choice but to shut her mouth.

***

With a sack over her head, unable to see anything, she had no idea how long they’d been sailing. She’d fallen asleep briefly from exhaustion after trembling with fear, but when she suddenly woke up, the ship was still sailing. Having slept, she’d lost track of time.

Inside the sack pulled over her head, her own breathing was amplified loudly, drowning out other sounds and increasing her terror.

After who knows how much longer, the ship finally seemed to stop, then after quite some time the door opened. Someone dragged Andrea out and off the ship.

Her feet finally touched land. Through the loosely woven sack fabric, she could dimly see torch shadows flickering, suggesting it was evening.

「Walk.」

A man with an unfamiliar voice grabbed Andrea’s arm and pulled her along. His stride was so long she was practically dragged.

She heard a door opening, indicating they were going inside. After walking for some time:

「You idiot!」

Suddenly someone spat out curses. It was yet another voice.

「This is the VIP passage. I told you not to come this way…」

Then, hearing approaching footsteps, he immediately changed his tone and said:

「Welcome, sir.」

The man holding Andrea quickly pulled her to one side, hiding her behind his body. Andrea had no choice but to squeeze between the wall and the man, barely avoiding being crushed.

Thud, thud…

She could sense a group passing by. Even without training, Andrea could tell from their presence and footsteps that they were quite large people.

Unable to contain her curiosity, she peeked slightly and indeed saw shadows faintly through the loosely woven sack. About four or five people, it seemed.

Seeing them surrounding one person in the center, that person appeared to be the so-called “VIP,” with the rest seeming like guards.

The passing “VIP” suddenly stopped in front of Andrea. He seemed puzzled by her presence, which didn’t match the VIP passage.

She was currently wearing only a strange beige dress over her chemise, having had her original dress taken away. With a sack over her head and her hands bound, she certainly looked unrelated to any VIP passage.

The “VIP” appeared to be male from his outline, but his face was completely unreadable as it fell right where the sack’s folds were deepest. So Andrea tried to move her head slightly to avoid the folds and get a better look. But the man holding her beside her jabbed her ribs with his elbow to stop her from moving.

「This way, please.」

Then the person who’d been irritated earlier politely suggested to the VIP.

The VIP was only briefly puzzled and seemed indifferent as he followed the merchant. When the VIP moved, everyone else moved in a rush.

Following at the back, someone quietly made shushing sounds toward Andrea, seemingly telling her to hurry up. The man dragged Andrea along again.

As her body swayed, something fell from inside the sack she wore and scattered on the floor. But Andrea, gripped by fear, had no chance to notice.

In the spot where Andrea had been dragged away sideways, a blue flower-shaped pin remained alone, glittering.

***

Suddenly the sack over her head was removed and Andrea reflexively squinted.

The room with its soft electric lighting was dark, dim, and luxurious. It felt exactly like an underground loan shark’s office. The middle-aged man standing before her gave off exactly that impression too—like a back-alley high-interest lender.

「Hmm, not bad.」

Satisfaction flickered across the man’s face as he looked at Andrea.

「She’s short but has large br*asts. Clean skin too. She looks young and innocent, so she’ll be popular with men who have that taste. Should fetch a good price.」

She couldn’t believe this was happening in the current era. She’d heard that the slave trade, which had long disappeared from Selon, still existed in the interior of the continent, but she hadn’t expected it to be this blatant. Just a little, she began to understand what Gillian had lamented about his homeland when he was in Selon.

Then the man, who appeared to be a slave trader, gestured to the man beside him. The young man who looked like a secretary gave off a similar vibe to the slave trader.

「Looks like that Osokoi fellow came too.」

That name again.

「He must be quite busy, yet he has time to come here.」

The young man answered respectfully.

「Indeed. There are rumors that gold was discovered on land he bought abroad.」

「I heard he lived as the lover of a wealthy noble widow and swallowed her inheritance? There are also stories that he made quite a fortune while working as a mercenary captain in Dalba.」

They seemed to be conversing freely in front of her, thinking Andrea couldn’t understand Kirak.

「Anyway, since we never know where he came from or what he was doing, we can’t believe what’s true. He’s completely different from his father. Annoyingly so.」

「But there are rumors he’s impotent.」

The merchant chuckled.

「Looking at that face, it’s funnier to think he has anything down there. That b*stard probably has nothing between his legs either.」

「True, would women even want to be held by a man prettier than themselves?」

Andrea’s head snapped up. Why did this talk about “Osokoi” sound familiar?

‘But Osokoi came here today? Then maybe…’

As she was thinking this, the merchant said:

「Anyway, get going now.」

The young man took Andrea away.

After walking a bit, in a long, narrow corridor leading somewhere, people dressed similarly to Andrea stood in line. The people were of various ethnicities. Surprisingly, there seemed to be quite a few who looked like they were from Selon.

From around the corner, sounds from an auction hall drifted over.

Whether this was the life of slaves, her heart felt like it would burst from the uncertainty lurking ahead and anxiety about the future. 

But if the “Osokoi” the merchant mentioned was possibly Gillian, he might be in that auction hall. Expectation and anxiety mixed as Andrea’s heart pounded.

People disappeared one by one from the front around the corner, and finally Andrea’s turn came.

A worker took her around the corner. What appeared at the end was a fairly large space with pillars, with the ceiling open in the center and something like a table underneath. It looked like a mechanical device for lifting onto a stage.

The worker placed Andrea in the center position of the table under the opening and said in broken Selon:

“No move.”

Then he gestured, and people on one side vigorously pulled ropes, and the device began lifting upward.

Creak.

The upper area was like an arena. The stage Andrea had risen to was at the very bottom, with people sitting on steps rising radially. In other words, from the customers’ perspective, it was a structure for looking down from above.

Hoping Gillian might be there, she hurriedly scanned the people. Then, about halfway up the steps, she noticed a man sitting obliquely with one arm resting on his chair’s armrest. His impressive deep blue clothes with expensive-looking Kirak-style embroidery caught her eye.

Due to the strong light shining on her, the man’s face was barely visible. But his jawline looked somehow familiar. Andrea tried to see the man’s face beyond the light.

Finally the light passed, and she could see the man’s face at last.

Andrea felt like the world was collapsing.

‘It’s not Gillian.’

The man certainly had a beautiful face, but he definitely wasn’t Gillian.

Moreover, most of the bidders, including the man with an indifferent face like carved stone, showed little interest in Andrea. 

They showed only the interest typically shown in a healthy young female slave—there were plenty of “products” like her, and Andrea herself had no particular merit.

If she was sold off helplessly like this, she had no idea where or for what purpose she’d end up. Andrea swallowed and raised her head.

「I can speak Selon, Kirak, and Dalba.」

When she suddenly spoke in Kirak, she could feel the auctioneer who was about to introduce her look at her in surprise.

「I can do accounting and have some legal knowledge. You won’t regret taking me.」

She needed someone to think of her as talent rather than simple labor or for s*xual purposes. At minimum, that would keep her chastity safe, and she could discuss compensation for her work.

Indeed, the bidders’ expressions changed, and they began participating in the auction one by one.

After some time, the man she’d mistakenly thought might be Gillian also raised his hand.

She waited for him to bid, but when he said nothing, people gradually turned to look at him. Andrea also looked at him puzzledly.

“…?”

Still, the man remained expressionless.

Bang!

At that moment, doors exploded open from all directions as armed knights poured in.

「Nobody move!」

It instantly became chaos. The slave trader ran toward Andrea, who stood bewildered on stage, grinding his teeth and shouting:

「Osokoi deployed troops! D*mn b*stard! He’s planning to sweep away every Guld in his territory! What are people like us supposed to live on!」

The startled auctioneer jumped down from the platform, and the trader grabbed Andrea, nearly making her fall. Rather than specifically trying to escape with her, he seemed to just grab whatever he could in desperation.

「Follow me right now!」

The trader tried to drag Andrea down the wooden stairs. But below, knights who had already stormed in from that direction were chasing away Guld personnel. It was like a huge wave covering a sandcastle.

While the trader hesitated, unable to go down, a knight who had somehow reached the stage grabbed his neck and threw him backward.

Bang!

「Ow!」

The trader flew like paper and rolled across the stage. Andrea flinched.

A knight in black clothes looked at the trader with undisguised disgust. He glanced briefly at Andrea but did nothing to her and went back down the stage to continue his work. So Andrea had no choice but to remain standing there, abandoned while the surroundings were cleaned up.

Only when the area was mostly cleared did the man in blue clothes who had been sitting in the bidder’s section—whom she’d hoped might be Gillian—stand up and walk down the steps.

Then a knight approached Andrea and said:

「You said you understand Kirak? Please come this way.」

It seemed he wanted to move her for organization, so Andrea nodded and followed him down from the stage. The knight untied the rope binding her arms and had her stand to one side so she wouldn’t interfere with the knights’ work.

Then, when the man she’d thought was Gillian approached, the knight bowed silently and stepped back. He seemed to be the one commanding the knights.

The man in blue clothes looked Andrea up and down.

「You seem to be from Selon.」

Andrea rubbed her freed wrists and nodded.

「Yes, that’s right.」

「How did you end up here?」

「I was kidnapped by pirates while coming to meet my fiancé.」

「Your fiancé? Is your fiancé from Kirak?」

Though she nodded carefully, not knowing exactly who this man was, she couldn’t rashly mention Gillian’s name. If he happened to be hostile to Gillian, it could become more dangerous. So she first tried to identify the man by asking:

「Excuse me, but may I ask your name? I’m Andrea.」

「I’m Kalsto.」

The man only said that briefly. This wasn’t enough to determine his identity.

「I’m not familiar with the geography here, so could you tell me what this place is called…」

But suddenly Kalsto took out a Fire Blue pin from his pocket and handed it to her.

「This is yours, isn’t it?」

Surprised at why it would come from there, she quickly felt around her head and found the pin that should have been there was missing.

「Oh my! Thank you!」

Taking the pin, Andrea’s eyes welled up with tears. She’d been so distracted she hadn’t even known she’d lost it, and she almost would have lost it forever without knowing where.

「I picked it up in the corridor earlier.」

So that “VIP” must have been Kalsto.

Andrea looked up at Kalsto.

「I’m Andrea Ulrich. If it’s alright, could you help me contact Ulrich Trading Company in the Kingdom of Selon?」

Rather than mentioning Gillian’s name, emphasizing that she was a foreigner seemed safer—they wouldn’t be able to threaten her due to diplomatic issues.

「You must be the trading company owner’s daughter.」

He seemed to guess from their shared surname.

「Yes.」

「Of course I should help.」

Then Kalsto looked at Andrea, who was preciously holding the pin he’d returned to her, and said:

「If you have nowhere to go tonight, why don’t you come to our house for now? It’s not far from here.」

Andrea was startled and shook her head. She couldn’t just follow a man she’d just met to his house.

「No, I…」

「This place is different from Selon. There’s no proper transportation, and even if there were, the sun will set soon so you can’t travel today. I’ll arrange transportation for you tomorrow.」

She looked at Kalsto. His indifferent face showed no particular emotion.

What he said was entirely correct, and anyway, he was the person who’d saved her. If he had other motives, there’d be no reason to try persuading her with words when she had no one else to save her.

With that thought, Andrea finally nodded.

***

So she ended up going to Kalsto’s house.

It was a splendid mansion standing on a hill, but somehow felt rather unsettled. Packed luggage and wooden boxes were stacked here and there, looking like someone was moving.

Seeing this, Andrea looked at Kalsto walking ahead and asked:

「Are you moving?」

「No. We’re expecting guests soon.」

「Ah…」

「Your room is this way.」

Then Kalsto personally led her to a room on the third floor. But the room was so luxurious it was bewildering.

「Is it really okay to give me such a nice room?」

「Of course. Well then, rest well.」

Kalsto turned away matter-of-factly.

She felt somewhat embarrassed. Even though she’d revealed she was the daughter of a trading company that could be useful to know, Kalsto was so kind that she’d briefly suspected he might be interested in her, and now she felt sorry for suspecting him.

But as Kalsto was leaving, he suddenly turned back and said:

「You speak Kirak quite well.」

「Yes. I learned from a good teacher.」

「Your teacher must have been a noble. I can tell from the vocabulary you use.」

「That’s right.」

But now that Kirak came up, something she’d been continuously curious about occurred to her.