So this is the auction house? It looks surprisingly crappy considering the fact that it’s supposed to be the high css one. Even the paint of the walls has crusted and is slowly falling off, the bricks behind it look old and worn as well.

  *sniff*

  And I can’t smell Ellie either, so I don’t think she’s near.

  Well no point in dwelling too much on it, it’s almost time for the auction to start, after entering the building. I just headed towards the receptionist and tossed him my invitation in the face followed by my nonchant entrance through a hall.

  He didn’t even bother to say a word, but one of the attendants managed to catch me by surprise, not so much as him sneaking up on me, but rather what he said to me.

  “Ah! Miss Marisa, we’ve been expecting you”

  “...how did you know I was coming?”

  It irked me a bit, no idea why, regardless of my annoyance, I should really probe for information while I’m here.

  “If we weren’t aware of your arrival we wouldn’t have let you inside would we?”

  Hmm, ok, fair I guess, if it’s such an elite event, I can see why they keep a guest list, I continued walking down the hall with the attendant.

  “Fair point, but even if you didn’t let me pass I would’ve just entered by force”

  “I can see that, seeing how you treated our receptionist”

  “Are you trying to make me feel bad about it? I don’t have compassion for criminals of your kind”

  “Is that so? Then what are you doing in this pce if I may be bold enough to ask?”

  “As if you didn’t already know”

  The priority it’s to save the sves, and from the way the second receptionist it’s treating me, and the fact I can’t feel too many people in the building tells me that this isn’t the real auction house, think about it, if they knew I was coming, they knew of my pns, which means they would logically postpone or take away the sves and involved nobles, no one would be dumb enough to carry on with their pns, this tells me that this is in fact, a trap, however I ck any more clues or leads, so I’ll bite for now, I need to know where the real auction will take pce, and not whatever this is.

  “Well, certainly, I’m aware lying to you would be pointless, so I’ll simply won’t say the full truth”

  “Bold one for a simpleton worker, are you aware I can kill you in the split of a second?”

  “Very much so, regardless, I doubt you’ll try to do that”

  “Oh yeah? How do you know that?”

  “I was told as much”

  Hmm, he doesn’t seem to be lying, although my senses have been off tely, honestly all I can smell it’s the strong perfume aroma in the air, sweet and flowery, it’s quite overpowering, whoever was in charge of setting it, he went overboard, I can even feel the dusty particles of it in the air.

  “By who?”

  “I don’t know, a hooded man told me as much”

  Again, he’s not lying, did they know that I could tell if they did? This is no good if they knew this much, then questioning this attendant would be useless, I doubt they would give him any information that they didn’t want me to have.

  “Let me ask one st question then, and then you can get lost”

  “Of course, what do you wish to know?”

  “...”

  “Umm…”

  “Ah sorry, yeah, I..."

  I don’t know what happened, I spaced out for a second there.

  “Uh, do you know where Heather’s sister is being held captive?”

  “I’m afraid I don’t know anything about that, is she important?”

  Ugh, I’m feeling dizzy for some reason all of a sudden, I better leave immediately.

  “Whatever! It’s none of your-“

  ...

  ...

  “WHA!?”

  “Hii!~”

  Where am I!? What happened!? The world looked blurry for a second, all I could see in front of me was a small girl.

  “Ah you woke up!”

  “W-who? Where am I?”

  “That’s... we’re in a cell...”

  I looked down to myself, I’m shackled and with a thick metal colr on my neck. All of them connected together with a chain.

  “What the!?”

  What even happened!? At what moment!? How dare they! I tried breaking the shackles, truth be told they’re surprisingly thick for my hands, but it’s nothing that I couldn’t break and-

  “OUCH!”

  An electric shock in my neck made me stop in my tracks.

  “I wouldn’t do that...”

  The meek small girl told me, she’s quite eye-catching, kinda like looking at a small animal. She's petite and very young in appearance, despite the fact she’s even shorter than me, she doesn’t give me the sensation of a child, and her thick and long hair braided in front of her was a very huge characteristic of her cuteness.

  “That’s an enchanted adamantine shackle, I don’t know who you are, but the shackles were made to restrict demonic behemoths, I don’t think you’ll be able to break through it...”

  “Huh? You seem to know a lot of it despite being shackled yourself”

  “Ah... that’s because we’re about to be sold off as sves...”

  Sves!? I can’t believe this guys! But more importantly what happened, the st thing I remembered was the stupid smile of the attendant...

  How did they manage to put me to sleep like that? That’s not important right now, I need to gather information, that’s the priority, I can’t see outside of the cage we’re currently in, it’s covered by fabric, and the shackles are stupidly thick to pass them between the bars to get the cloth off, uh, let’s ask the girl who’s locked here with me to begin with.

  “Who are you anyways?”

  “Ah, I’m Rushka, sorry for the te introduction...”

  She seems to be very sad, I could see it in her reddened eyes, she’s been crying, probably not too long ago.

  “*hic*”

  Ah... it’s obvious she was trying to be brave for my sake, trying to not scare me, she’s such a good girl!

  “Don’t worry, I’ll get you out of here I promise!”

  I told her with an expression filled with confidence to try to ease her a little bit.

  “I-IT’SH IMPOSSHIBLEEEE!!”

  Oh great she broke down...

  “THERE’S NO WAY OOOOOOUT!!”

  I tried to calm her down but she’s just crying loudly, for now I need to get rid of these shackles but every time I try to break them I get zapped and it hurts a lot for some reason.

  The thoughts of these assholes putting these on me, or the fact they put me in a cage when I was unconscious...

  GROSS! GROSS! GROSS!

  I felt grossed out all of a sudden, god knows what they did to me while I was unconscious! It’s unforgivable! I’ll kill them! I’ll tear them all apart into pieces!

  I’m sidetracking again, let me calm the little one down first.

  “Hey, it’s all ok, don’t cry”

  I’m trying to hold her and pat her head but the shackles are not helping, I see she’s shackled as well, but hers look like nothing special, just normal iron shackles.

  “Hey, maybe I can get rid of your shackles, they look flimsy enough”

  “IT’S USELESS!! WE’RE STUCK IN A CAGE!!”

  “Well, not for long hopefully”

  I tried to destroy the bars of the cage but everytime i pced strength on it, the colr would shock me again, making me lose all my strength. Maybe magic? I’m trying to use it as I always do but it’s not working!

  “Dammit to hell with this!”

  Fucking colr getting on my nerves, I’m gonna wreck it! Oh just wait until I find who was responsible for this and they’ll get a piece of my mind!

  As I was having these thoughts, the fabric that was covering the cage we were in got lifted.

  “Ladies and gentleman, let’s begin the auction!”

  I looked around, there’s only about 20 people in this pce, plus the announcer kind of guy that pulled the fabric away, but what caught my eye was something I wasn’t expecting.

  “PIGGY!!”

  Of course! Of course he would be in the auction! I swear-

  “AGH!”

  Get out of there you two.

  How dare he use a whip! It hurts!! Why did it hurt so much, I don’t think he has that much strength!? I can see the red blemish in my skin where he hit me.

  “Did you not listen to me! I said get out of there!”

  “Ouch! You little- Agh!”

  Ok fine, geez, stop it with the whip!

  “We have a couple of fine girls on sale today! As you know time is short today so let’s end this auction quickly”

  They can’t seriously be trying to sell me off!

  “Some of you may know already, but for those unaware, let me introduce the first item for today! It’s the daughter of the demon lord of legends Maldi! It’s probably the rarest sve we’ve ever had! Let’s start with 200,000,000”

  “300 million!”

  “Oi!”

  “Who gave you permission to speak sve!”

  Tch! The whip hurts! And the other girl it’s just paralyzed in fear looking at this disaster unfolding.

  “You’re all scum!”

  Ah! I’m trying to break the shackles, I can’t do magic either for some reason. For now I’m trying to use brute force to break them open.

  “Would you just listen to me!”

  I’m on my knees, concentrating on the shackles in my wrists, thank the lord they’re so thick, I lifted my foot on the chain of the shackles and started pulling my arms back with all my strength.

  “You’re getting on my nerves! Stop doing that!”

  The stinging sensation in my neck was rather strong as electric shocks make me feel weak on the knees, all the while the auctioneer it’s constantly hitting my back with the whip, I can feel my clothes have all but been torn off from the posterior, barely hanging on myself, as I feel blood dripping constantly down my back, the stinging sensation it’s strong enough that I feel a tear forming in my eyes, nonetheless I grind my teeth and continue in my endeavor!

  It’s simir to the ones Heather’s dad had on him, and he broke them down the moment they received a scratch from Heather’s sword.

  “Agh!”

  I’m now banging them on the floor, blood in my wrists and hands and-

  “S-stop that!”

  I looked around, and saw the little girl tried to tackle the auctioneer, and I say tried because she couldn’t budge him at all.

  “One after the other!”

  He then backhanded her, making her fall to the ground, followed by a hit with the whip, the girl rolled in a ball on the ground.

  “I’ll deal with you ter!”

  This asshole! Leave her alone! Come on, I need the shackles to break! Even in the slightest!

  Break! Break! Break! BREAK!

  *crack*

  As the cracking sound happened, the shocking stopped and the shackles felt like they were made of butter. I was then able to tore them open without any problem!

  “Phew, much better!”

  I said, cracking the neckce, now that my hands are free I have more strength to break it easily for some reason. The auctioneer and the crowd were looking on in shock, some of them even gasped loudly!

  “Now if you excuse me”

  I yanked the whip from the auction guy, he tried to hold on to it, but it was very easy to take it away from him, cracking it in my hands, he looked at me with terror in his eyes.

  “You guys really, REALLY! Pissed me off!”

  “G-GUARDS!!”

  The auctioneer yelled as a bunch of burly men came towards me armed with swords and spears to try to stop me. Fortunately, as always, they couldn’t even pierce my skin.

  “Get lost!”

  A simple punch was enough to get the guards sent flying, when the first one stopped moving, the nobles in the auction house panicked and tried to flee, so I took one of the guards spear with my other hand and tossed it at the noble closest to the door they were running to, impaling his skull and the body dropping to the floor in a puddle of blood.

  “Don’t try to leave or I won’t hesitate! Now back to your seats!”

  I’ve never seen people that terrified, more so since some of them essentially passed out, for some reason I felt so satisfied, and the pain in my back, neck and wrists are slowly starting to disappear.

  “As for you!”

  I looked at the auctioneer, falling backwards after my gaze, in a fit of rage I swung the whip at him with all my strength, I really should have controlled myself better, my pn was to make him in pain but the whip flew at such speed that it cleanly cut the auctioneer in half, not only that but-

  “OUCH!!!”

  My fucking hand! I fucking hate whips, they’re unpredictable and fil around everywhere! I ended up whipping my hand on the recoil! The whip fucking exploded on contact with my skin but now I’m bleeding again!

  “This fucking useless thing!”

  Whatever, I don’t need the whip! These hands are rated E for everyone anyways!

  “And as for you guys!”

  “Whoa! can’t let you do that now dear”

  As I was gonna send a spell to the crowd in a fit of rage, a tall man and a slender woman got in front of me. They’re both covered in a bck coat or mantle, I can’t see their faces completely, or anything for that matter, they’re cloaked head to toe in a bck attire, only showing a symbol on their sleeves I’ve never seen before, the only thing I can discern it’s their chins peeking through the hood.

  “Move aside!”

  I have no idea who they are but they look shady! I was gonna slice them in half with an air bde, but to my surprise, the spell just disappeared in front of them.

  “What!?”

  “That’s no good princess, why don’t you go to sleep now?”

  What!? What’s happening I’m feeling dizzy all of a sudden! Is this a spell!? Is this how they put me to sleep before? Ah no good I’m losing focus again! They gave a step in front but I tried to slice them the moment they got close, even if the spell dissipated as well.

  I can’t pass out again! How are they doing This!? Looking in the crowd and the piggy smiling made me feel even angrier!

  He pnned this all along!! I hate the piggy and his sweaty ass!

  The only smell in the air it’s the sweet aroma wafting in the air! Wait! Is it the smell!?

  “You...”

  I quickly covered my mouth and nose with my elbow and held my breath, my dizziness stopped growing but I still feel a bit shaken.

  “Figured us out already? What a shame~”

  I obviously can’t speak, they obviously poisoned me but it doesn’t make sense! It’s only been a second or two compared to the long talk I had st time I smelled this strong perfume, yet I feel like I’m gonna pass out at any second! It’s those dusty particles in the air!? I-

  Wait a minute! Dusty? Why do I feel like-

  The pace! I remember it being particurly dusty these past couple of days! It’s not that they can put me to sleep immediately! They’ve been doing it for days! Wouldn’t that mean that it’s affecting me because it built up!?

  With my st strength and using magic, I shoved a bunch of water on my nostrils with a spell, it felt awful! I hate those salt water sprays, it’s not even salt water but still, the feeling of water in my airways is awful, more so since I’m literally inhaling water! It’s gross and-

  “Ah-“

  And-

  “Achoo!!”

  I was gonna sneeze so while I still had control over the water in my lungs, I made it all come out forcefully with that sneeze! There goes all the water that I shoved in my nose. As well as blood, and a light pinkish substance, is this the thing they used to drug me? I wouldn’t know but.

  *sniff*

  Ah! I can smell clearly now, and my dizziness is starting to go away.

  “Are you done perhaps?”

  “Yeah! Thanks for waiting for me or something!”

  What’s with the hooded people!? I seriously thought they would attack me in the middle of that but they just stayed there, watching.

  “So, who are you people?”

  I can smell properly now, but the sweet aroma still lingers in the air, I’m keeping my breathing to a minimum just in case.

  “Oh we’d love to tell you, if you can come with us that is”

  “To where? Not that I’d follow you anyways, even if you told me!”

  “So cold~ fitting for who you are~”

  “Whatever! It’s obvious that you won’t talk! Are you the hooded people who kidnapped Heather’s sister!?”

  “That we are”

  “Great! where is she!?”

  “Not here~ she’s been right under your nose the whole time”

  She did that on purpose! I swear you could hear a vein in my head popping.

  “Enough with the cryptic talking, spit it out or I make you!”

  “Oh yeah? Try it~”

  “You little!”

  I then proceeded to use another spell, maybe the st one didn’t have enough backbone put into it, so I used quite a bit of force, the slender woman then lifted her hand and the bde of wind dissipated!

  “Figures!”

  I tried it before but I have no idea how they’ve done that, so back to punching it is! I lunged at them as quickly as possible trying to punch her head away from her body. but the tall man intercepted my punch, air violently gusting around from the force of my punch nding on the man’s palm, it hurt for some reason, almost like punching a concrete wall!

  “Move aside!”

  I yelled, trying to kick him but he managed to grab my leg. In a panic, I was about to use magic to create an explosion on his face, but for some reason the spell took a moment to activate, enough for the man to let go of me and jump back, avoiding the explosion. As I nd I see the woman raising her hand again, was the reason it wasn’t instant her doing?

  It seems I need to get rid of the woman first! As I dashed towards her once more, the man intercepted me and now we’re hand in hand pushing each other like a sumo match!

  Who are these people!? I knew they were strong, I figured as much when I couldn’t massacre them on the spot, for some reason they don’t trip my senses when I fight them, much like Celestial, I learned she was strong but I couldn’t sense her! The same goes for these two!

  “Ugh!”

  “You’re strong princess”

  This man it’s built like a brick! I can’t budge him at all! All the while I’m looking at the woman, waiting for her to do her move, but she just stares at us struggling!

  What!? Now the nobles are trying to run away!

  “As if I would let you!”

  I used magic to make an ice spear like Celestial’s and impaled the noble trying to run away, much like the st one, he fell to the ground unceremoniously, the slender woman didn’t interfere at all this time.

  “Don’t move!”

  I yelled at the nobles, they froze in pce again, still I can’t read these two guys! It’s obvious in my mind if they were trying to end me I would be in problems! Yet they’re clearly not attacking me right now! Just reacting to my attacks!

  “Are you sure it’s ok to continue? That knight’s sister it’s alive but, I can’t guarantee for how long if you keep losing your time in here~”

  “Assholes! Where are you keeping her!?”

  “We won’t tell~ but if you want to know, I’m sure someone here knows where she is~ that is if you haven’t killed him already~”

  The woman then pointed at the nobles in the room.

  “You backstabbers!”

  The piggy yelled at them, angrily.

  “We’ve pyed for long enough, let us be on our way”

  “You’d think I will let you two go!”

  “You can’t stop us, even if you tried~”

  Ugh! I hate to admit it but they’re right, maybe if they were alone, but this two versus one it’s hard, they cover each other’s weaknesses perfectly, and they react in perfect timing!

  “It’s ok, we’ll see each other again, but until then, see you on the flip side, princess~”

  The woman then made a portal like the one Celestial uses, and they both walked away, I want to follow them but!

  “DAMMIT!”

  I screamed in frustration, I hate to let them go but there’s more pressing matters at hand!

  “You!”

  I looked at the piggy lord, he panicked at the sight of me, I would kill you where you stand but I need information! One step at a time, I bring back all the remaining nobles and sves to the pace, THEN I question him about Ellie’s whereabouts!

  “Where’s the rest of the sves?”

  “W-what do you mean!?”

  “Yeah, the rest”

  “T-there’s no one else, you two were the only ones being sold today!”

  A quick sniff and check tells me he doesn’t seem to be lying, but I can’t trust my nose blindly anymore it seems, but...

  “By god! Would it kill you to take a bath piggy!”

  Honestly! You’d smell better if you cover yourself in garlic even! I’m getting distracted again!

  “You guys, I’m super pissed, but I can’t kill you right now even if I wish to! So you’ll come with me, I’d think about the torture ter!”

  To my words they all looked distraught.

  “Ah! Umm... excuse me...”

  Oh right, the sve, uh, Russia something I think.

  “Of course, let me help you with that!”

  I broke the shackles and colr from her too.

  “You’re free! See, I always keep my promises!”

  “Umm, err...”

  “Marisa”

  “Marisa! Could I come with you! There’s something really important I have to talk about!”

  “With me? Of course, I don’t mind, but you’ll have to wait for a while”

  Honestly I liked her a bit, she was petrified and still found the courage to try to make the now dead auctioneer stop hitting me with a whip.

  “Of course!”

  “Say Russia, do you know if there were other people being sold besides us two?”

  “It’s Rushka... no, I don’t think so, I’ve been in that cage for a while and never saw anyone else...”

  “Hmm, ok then!”

  Ellie it’s not here then, I hope she will be with Celestial or Heather but, after what I’ve been told, I doubt she’s being auctioned at all...

  “Now for the rest of you, follow me to the pace, if anyone thinks, or even moves an inch trying to run away I’ll kill you on the spot! Are we clear!”

  I sometimes forget just how scary my eyes can look. I think everyone is scared beyond what seems reasonable if you ask me.

  “And you piggy!”

  “Hii!”

  “You’re coming as well, but I’m dragging you there!”

  And so I departed to the pace, the nobles following behind me, The soviet walking close to my side, and the piggy being dragged by the hair to the pace. I really thought about pulling him by the gonads, but I felt so grossed out by the idea I dismissed it immediately.

  On that note, his hair is greasy and disgusting! I want to disinfect my hand as soon as possible.

  One of the other nobles tried to flee, but as I promised, killed on the spot, did you guys not understand when I killed the other two at the auction house? Did you think I would hesitate in public? At least now no one will attempt to disobey me anymore, although I feel bad for the corpses left behind, I’m feeling quite peckish and the smell of fresh blood made my stomach rumble, no time to enjoy a meal sadly.

  “Walk faster!”

  I ordered the nobles, as I picked up the pace.

  ...

  ...

  “Ah Heather!”

  “Marisa! What happened!?”

  She asked looking at me with worry in her eyes, I am covered in blood and my clothes have been torn to pieces.

  “It’s a little setback, I’m ok don’t wo-”

  Wha!? I didn’t expect Heather to jump up and hug me as soon as she saw me, but it made me a bit happy. I'm not gonna lie.

  “Ah, I’m sorry, your sister wasn’t in the auction I went to”

  “Right! it wasn’t on mine either”

  “Well, Regarding that-”

  As I was gonna expin about the nobles and the need for questioning, A portal appeared in thin air, as Celestial appeared with a multitude of people behind her.

  “I’m back, I don’t think I found your sister and- Marisa! Are you ok!?”

  Celestial is worried as well, it seems I’m the only one that came back all roughed up.

  “Yeah! That's- no time for that right now! Piggy!”

  The pace knights are busy taking and separating people, they hesitated when they saw the piggy lord, so I yelled his name and beckoned him to come towards me.

  “You kidnapped Heather’s sister didn’t you!?”

  “Hii! O-of course not”

  “Yep! He’s lying as usual, good thing my nose is working again”

  “Again?”

  “Ah! Don’t mind me Heather, now tell me where Ellie is, or I’ll make you regret your life!”

  “Y-you’ll kill me either way bitch!”

  Did he!? Did he just spat at me?

  “Marisa allow me to kill him”

  Said Heather a bit enraged for some reason, moving her sword to the side aggressively, making the scabbard fly off the bde, it was fucking cool!

  “Sorry Heather, I’m gonna kill him myself!”

  I said kicking his legs to make him drop to the ground.

  “That would be problematic”

  “Hah!?”

  I turned around to the person that interrupted me, Heather did as well, but she just stood dumbfounded, and then got down on her knee, the pace guards did the same when he entered the pace.

  “Your majesty!”

  Everyone said in unison, seriously one problem after another...

  Joanne_carper