Chapter 12: Dyan
Dyan had never imagined that one day, he would be captured by humans, and sold off like some lowly beast.
Once, he had been a Beastman adventurer.
He'd left his tribe to earn gold in human cities, buying food and supplies to send home. His name had even been known in the adventure guilds.
But fate turned cruel.
During a high-risk, high-reward mission, Dyan failed, and the crushing debt that followed devoured him. The magical contract he'd signed with the Adventurer's Guild activated the moment he defaulted.
The mark of a slave burned itself into his body.
He tried to run.
But the contract's magic was merciless, it tracked his every step, binding his life to his debtors.
He was captured, beaten, and broken.
Now, as he stood in a cage, he could only stare at the crowd of masked nobles and merchants, their eyes gleaming with the same hunger used to appraise livestock.
His future, he realized, would be hell.
The slave's seal prevented him from even taking his own life.
"Thirteen hundred gold coins!"
"Two thousand five hundred!"
"Two thousand six hundred twenty!"
The bids rose higher and higher.
A Tier 7 Warrior, bound as a slave, was enough to drive anyone mad with desire.
Then, a new placard was raised.
Ellan's voice trembled as he shouted,
"Five thousand gold coins!"
The room went silent.
Every gaze turned toward him.
They did the math - five thousand was excessive.
For that much, one could train three Tier 7 fighters of their own choosing, loyal, controllable, unbranded by curse.
This was foolish money.
Even Ellan thought so.
"Your Highness… I don't think we need to spend five thousand gold just to buy this Beastman. If you want a Tier 7 mage, the Magician Tower could…"
"No."
Emilia's quiet refusal sliced through his words.
"Because it's my money. I'll spend it however I please. You just need to raise the bid."
And when she spoke like that, Ellan could only nod in silence.
It wasn't that Emilia was wrong, she really did have money right now. But only for a limited time.
The Emperor, under pressure from his younger brother Demian, had been forced to open the royal treasury to her for one month after her return… a gesture meant to "compensate" for her thirteen years of exile.
She could buy whatever she wanted, no limits.
And buy she did, mountains of gold vanished under her whims.
The Emperor might have gritted his teeth, but compared to the fortune spent raising Milim and Arthur in luxury, Emilia's spree wasn't even a tenth of that sum.
"Today's the last day of that one-month grace period," Emilia murmured, lips curling into a cruel smile.
"And this Beastman appeared just in time. Five thousand gold coins — the perfect price to make that old man's heart bleed."
Pity? For that man? None.
Wicked men deserved to be crushed beneath her heel and then tossed away like garbage.
From his cage, Dyan stared in disbelief.
Five thousand gold coins, with that, his entire tribe could live in comfort for a hundred years.
He couldn't understand why someone would pay so much for him.
Then he saw a girl behind the mask. The man who'd raised the placard was only her servant.
When no one else dared to compete, the deal was sealed.
Emilia sighed softly, almost disappointed.
"Tch. I thought we'd reach ten thousand at least. These people are so poor."
After the auction ended, Dyan was brought before his new owner.
No one had even bothered to give him a shirt — his muscular, scarred torso was bare to the chill air.
"Oh… not bad at all," Emilia mused, tapping a finger against his abdomen.
The Beastman flinched, his muscles tightening instinctively under her touch.
"So alert. Good. But remember — I'm your master now, don't resist like a cute girl that way. What's your name?"
"...Dyan."
He hesitated, his pale cheeks flushing faintly pink.
"Alright then. Ellan, get him a cloak. We're leaving."
Dyan pulled the cloak around his battered frame.
A strange feeling welled up in his chest… something almost like relief.
Maybe… maybe this "master" wouldn't treat him like an animal.
For the safety of their clients, the black market always teleported buyers to random locations outside the auction grounds.
A golden light flared, and in the blink of an eye, Emilia, Ellan, and Dyan appeared elsewhere.
"Wait…this isn't right!"
Dyan was the first to react.
He immediately dropped into a defensive stance, stepping in front of Emilia protectively.
"How adorable," she murmured, amused.
"Such a loyal little dog."
Compared to Ellan — who was still fumbling with detection spells — Dyan's reflexes were exceptional.
Half a heartbeat later, several figures cloaked in black dropped from the rooftops, surrounding them from all sides.
The thieves of the black market had arrived.