Laurel frowned as she felt someone's glare piercing into her back. As a thief and someone who spent time around demons, she knew how to differentiate between the different kinds of glares people had. There were the I'm annoyed with you, the I'm going to kill you, and the I'm going to beat some sense into you among the few she could name. This one, however, felt like a mix of the first and third. The former made sense since these people wanted to see her dead, but the latter wasn't one she expected.
She considered the possibility that one of the other harem members was here. The fact they didn't come to her aid would mean they wanted to see her take a beating or wanted to get rid of her. Of course she could be wrong, and they weren't here. She could just be imagining things, but she could still feel the glare. When she got out of this mess, she was going to hunt down the person and figure out what their deal was.
At least the goblin thought she was dead, giving her time
The announcer declared, "To make up for this oversight, we will allow you to decide her fate."People immediately started to discuss different ways to torment her. 'Kayla' grimaced in disgust at all the crude things coming out of the audience's mouth, while Grace shuddered and curled in on herself. Luke, on the other hand, had hoped for this very scenario, but it looked like he underestimated just how bloodthirsty the audience was. Many of them wanted to see how long she would last against the staff or how long she could endure torture before she broke.That wasn't his goal. He needed to save her and somehow convince her that they were on the same side. Unfortunately, he doubted she could do that latter easily and within the black market. He would need to transport her to a safer location before revealing just enough to convince her to trust him.As he was about to shout out his suggestion, someone else beat him to it. "Why not keep her as a pet? She would make
The rest of the auction ended up mellowing out after the stunt they pulled. It was almost anticlimactic for the auction to simply end after all the items had been sold. Unfortunately, he had been unable to get his hands on the last items on his list despite his best efforts. Peacesong, the Restored Sphere, and Glimmer, Crystal of the Victor, ended up in the hands of others, and he could only grit his teeth at their loss. It didn't help that he read the item descriptions to see exactly what he lost out on.[Item Information][Peacesong][Mythic][A golden harp that once belonged to the angel Seraphina. It has lost a good chunk of its power since it has been lost in the mortal world, but its music remains heavenly.][Every time you play it, those that listen to it receive a temporary boost to all stats depending
Things had gone smoothly after that. After seeing all the money laid out on the table, he had no excuse to continue to treat them poorly. Seeing him get on his knees and apologize for his actions had amused Luke greatly. The other two, on the other hand, had looked at him with an unreadable expression.Now they were walking away with Laurel in their possession, but the quests regarding saving Laurel hadn't been resolved quite yet. He assumed it was because they were still in the confines of the black market. She wouldn't be safe until they left the place and returned back to the Kingdom of Shadarwen. Unfortunately, they had to wait for Samuel in order for that to happen.Luke scowled as he thought back on how the announcer had believed they were poor. He hadn't been wrong. They had actually spent all the money they had. The look on 'Kayla' and Grace's faces after he told them this once they were out of earshot would have been hilarious if it hadn't been so serious and
Samuel remained silent, which was undoubtedly an admission of his guilt not that Luke expected anything less. They both knew the truth, and it would have been pointless to try to pretend otherwise. The others were waiting anxiously to see what would happen next. With 'Kayla' being the only one with a weapon and was stuck carrying Laurel, she and Grace would be unable to defend themselves properly if something did happen.The first one to make a move was Samuel, who raised both of his hands and clapped, "Not bad."Not expecting that response, 'Kayla' and Grace stared at each other, wondering what was going on. Luke, on the other hand, wanted to sigh in exasperation. He had suspected that Samuel did this as part of his test since he still didn't trust Luke and the others, but it didn't make it any less annoying. Because of his stunt, they missed out on valuable items that they couldn't normally get at their level or ever."Will you now stop testing us?" Luke asked
The moment they reappeared in the Saintess's meadow, Laurel moved. She shoved herself off of 'Kayla' who cursed at the sudden movement and stumbled forward as she regained her balance. Laurel, on the other hand, took the opportunity to lunge for the weakest person in their group, Grace. Unfortunately for her, Luke had expected this and grabbed her by the wrist and flipped her onto her back. She gasped as the wind was knocked out of her.Luke kept a tight grip on her hand. "I suggest you don't try that again, or else I will take matters into my own hands."She glared up at him, which he ignored, as 'Kayla' stomped her way towards them, obviously intent on getting payback for what happened. He rolled his eyes at her behavior. The both of them had known she was awake, so she had no excuse to be surprised by Laurel's stunt. If 'Kayla' had not known about it, then she was a complete disgrace for being both an angel and human. She had been the one literally carrying Laurel o
Princess Lera inwardly frowned as the hero was unable to present anything of value to her. While it was true that he said he wasn't sure if what he learned was real, hearing that he had nothing to show for his efforts was disappointing. He had been doing so well, proving his worth to her, only to fail her now. Well, she hadn't been exactly fair to him. She hadn't actually expected him to present anything of value to her when she assigned him this task.This whole thing had just been a test. The black market wasn't exactly something that could be discovered that easily. If it was, then it would have already been dealt with by previous heroes or those obsessed with justice like Sir Gilbert. It would also mean that the hero in front of her was a lot more dangerous than she expected, and she would have to determine whether or not it was worth keeping him at her side.She outwardly smiled at him and said, "You have nothing to apologize for. I should have known better that i
'Kayla' stared at him with an indescribable look on her face. She had been like this ever since he started making plans for the possible tournament. At first he had been willing to let it go, but it had honestly gone on long enough.Before he could demand why she was like this, she said, "You're a demon.""Yes?" It was honestly the only proper response to what she just said. "And?""You were born into the wrong species. You should have been born a demon," she said.Well, he was a demon now. technically a demon king, but it was basically the same thing. "What brought this up?"She looked me in the eye and said one word, "Tournament."That certainly explained her behavior. She must have heard his thoughts about his future plans for the tournament if it did happen, which saved him a lot of time. He had been planning to inform them later, but this was fine."So you know what you're supposed to do, right?" he asked for confirmation.
Of course, no one dared say they would quit after hearing what Sir Gilbert had to say. Instead, everyone focused heavily on training for the tournament. The full details of the event were not finalized yet, but the basics were told to them. Essentially, they would be competing with each other to see who could kill the most demons in the fastest time. Friendly fighting between heroes was allowed, but if someone allowed themselves to be caught up in the moment, they would be disqualified.While the purpose of this was to see who was the strongest, that didn't mean the natives wanted the heroes to kill each other for the title, even by accident. They would have judges watching. Also, since the tournament was actually considered a quest by the system, it would be able to monitor their actions to prevent this from going too far. Obviously, it wasn't one hundred percent foolproof, but it was enough to comfort people.The format for the tournament was so simple that a child c