The report goes like this -
The Santak village of the Dusker Dukedom was having their crops eaten by the strange reddish bees. Not only that, if anyone were to eat those remaining crop foods, they immediately become sick and weak. The locals have been suffering from this problem for more than 6 months. Too many people have been afflicted by diseases by now. They desperately needed some expert's help.
Axel, unfortunately, did not remember the exact village name but he did remember that in the general area of where the demonic plant resides. Most of the cultivated crops will suffer from being eaten by red bees. And obviously anyone eating those crops will also fall into diseases.
He then asked the servants about that area, and there were indeed some mountains nearby that village. The demonic plant was related to a major character who was born as a commoner. For the first parts of the story, he is a villain, but later on, he becomes a powerful ally for the main characters. He was a complicated character driven by profits. So, he was not a permanent ally.
Axel needed to get the demonic plant before that guy did. That guy also has the demon bloodline running through his veins. But Axel couldn't bring himself to kill that guy. Because that guy had a sick mother waiting for him back in home. He worked as a mercenary from when he was 12, he had to work hard to the bone since he was a toddler, just to keep earning and buy medicines for his mother.
Without him, his mother would die, and no one would even know it. Now, he needed to create an opportunity to go to that place. Not only that, but when he would get that plant, he needed to be alone. Axel knew that he was being constantly monitored. He needed someone loyal to him and a secret channel of information and trade.
He needed to get his hands on a cloaking artifact. But these things were easier said than done. The next day, in the evening, he took a day off from his instructor, Lex, and decided to go to the market.
But there were two guards with him, both in the 1st phase. He really was having a massive headache from how overprotective his father was.
It was hard for him to do anything with so much monitoring. Eventually, he entered a slave market. He could not help but grimace at the sight of so many people caged and chained. Their clothes were ragged, some women had lifeless eyes. The more he walked in, the better the quality of the slaves were. Yet, a sense of rage could not help but pile up within his heart.
The women in the cages barely had their private parts covered, and many were beautiful. It wasn't hard to understand what purpose they would serve. There were some slaves from other species as well.
Eventually, a slightly fat man came out from the inner section with a devious smile. Just the sight of that made Axel even angrier. To be honest, he did not care too much about those slaves. Yet, for a person who lived in modern society, a sense of disgust crept up on him seeing such atrocious acts. He did not show any emotions on his face.
Lex taught him how important it was for persons of noble stature to have absolute control over their facial expressions and body language. It was hard for him to control his emotions, but he managed to hide it nonetheless.
The slave trader said enthusiastically, "Esteemed guest, may I ask what you're looking for? I assure you I can get you what you want, no matter what it is. Even if the specimens here do not meet your requirements, I can bring it from somewhere else within a week at most."
It wasn't hard for Axel to understand his underlying meaning, he understood that Axel must be an important person seeing that he had two first phase guards guarding him, and the traders underlying meaning was that if you want to play with beautiful women from other species you need to give me one week of time.
Axel simply looked at the Slave trader with a cold gaze for one whole minute and did not say anything. The Slave Trader started to feel that something was wrong. Just as he was about to apologize, Axel cut him short,
"I need a competent worker, is human. Someone intelligent. Who can handle tasks on behalf of me?"
The Slave Trader had a surprised expression, then he put his hands on his chin and kept thinking deeply. Axel understood how rare his request was, it wasn't easy to get one's hands on such a slave. The guards accompanying him also had bewildered expressions on their faces. They did not understand why their young master would need to buy a slave just to have an assistant.
Axel had no choice, even though his actions would be viewed as suspicious. He needed to do it. The Slave Trader stopped thinking and said,
"I do have one that might fit your requirements, but it won't be cheap."
Axel said expressionlessly, "Let me see first."
He brought him deeper inside and showed a slightly skinny man whose age was likely almost 30. But he was clothed much better and treated well in the cage. Simply at one glance, anyone could tell the man was educated.
The man looked at Axel for a moment, then looked at the Slave Trader but did not say anything and simply kept silent. Axel asked the slave,
"Are you smart? Can you do management work and run errands?"
The Slave smiled at him and said cryptically,
"Who knows? I may be able to or may not."
The Slave Trader had an angry expression on his face after hearing that, but Axel stopped him. he went closer to the bars and said, You better speak honestly otherwise, you won't have a end after I bury you.
The slave's expression changed after hearing that. he said hesitatingly,
"I can."
Axel replied to him, "If you work for me to the best of your ability, I can promise to free you after 2 years. You will also be paid well. But it depends on how well you can work, and of course, you need to be loyal to me, and I mean absolutely loyal."
The Slave Trader and Two guards expressions became strange after hearing that. They could not understand why he would offer the slave freedom only after 2 years unless he was tricking him. Axel didn't care about their considerations; his eyes were only on the slave.
The Slave unexpectedly burst out laughing,
"Do not insult my intelligence. Do you think I will believe that?"
Axel's expression did not change at his behavior, and he said, "Those conditions shall be on the slave contract, and after that, I will not in any way directly or indirectly try to threaten you or mean any harm to you unless I see that you are trying to do any harm to me. You can come up with all the conditions that cover all the loopholes."
The Slaves' expression finally changed. He looked intently at Axel to see if there was any hint of a lie, but there was none. He sighed and said, "If those conditions are true, you will have my utmost loyalty as well as my intelligence. You shall not be disappointed, sir."
Axel then turned towards the Slave Trader and said coldly, "The price?"
The Slave Trader smiled again at him, "Ah, you see young master, he is the only specimen that we have of that category and is hard to...….."
But Axel cut him off coldly, "THE DAMN PRICE?"
The Slave Trader's expression changed for a moment, and he said,
"Including the contract, 5000 silver or 5 gold coins."
Axel looked at him with visible disgust at this moment and said,
"2 gold and no more negotiations."
The Slave Trader wanted to say something, but the 2 guards behind him looked at the trader menacingly, and he did not dare to offend the young man in front of him. It was too easy for anyone to die a dog's death in this world if you offended the wrong person, even by mistake.
He went inside and brought out a parchment of black paper and a keychain, he opened the cage ordered the slave to come out. The Slave came out, he introduced himself to Axel as Neil. Axel simply nodded.
Then the Slave Trader handed the Black parchment to Axel and said,
"As you may know, both parties need to write down all the conditions on the parchment, and both need to give a drop of blood to the parchment. Then, the Prime Nexus shall take care of everything."
Axel nodded and started discussing with Neil about all the conditions in detail. After 10 minutes, they were done writing down conditions for both parties. And they both dropped a bit of their blood in the Black Parchment.
An astonishing scene followed next.