“Rotor-nim, do you need anything?”
The man called me by Mikhail’s pseudonym, ‘Rotor.’
It looked like ‘Rotor’ had considerable influence here.
Otherwise, there’s no way an executive of the illegal slave trade would be escorting me.
Because of the grade of Gold, they followed behind me as if they were my attendants.
They seem to mistake me for Mikhail.
I don’t know the details, but Mikhail doesn’t seem to be well-known here. Only his alias, “Rotor,” was known.
I can’t believe you didn’t recognize me even though we have completely different physiques.
My voice seemed to belong to a man, complete with modulation magic.
Maybe I’ll look like a small man to them.
In fact, Mikhail was tall.
I looked at the flowing short gray hair from the corner of my eye.
Just in case, I prepared a hair wig like Mikhail.
I had tried to dress up as a man, but it was such a sloppy disguise that anyone with a good eye would notice that I was a woman at once.
Fortunately, a deep voice hid the fact.
“Anything you need, ·····.”
Yeah, I do need something.
Only then did I look at the manager.
When I make eye contact, the manager is stunned.
I haven’t done anything yet.
Is it because of the grade of ‘Gold’ on the invitation?
I tried to recall the original novel.
Gold grade is Rotor, so only Mikhail has a gold rating here.
And below Gold, there is a rating of Silver, and below which I can’t remember in detail, there are other grades.
It was complicated for me, who didn’t know the laws of the underworld.
It’s the world’s miscellaneous knowledge, which is not explained deeply in the story.
Mikhail, you didn’t tell me anything, you just gave me an invitation.
Something tells me my task is going to get more complicated.
“Hey, I heard you’re selling Elf this time, am I right?”
“Yes, you’re right! Are you interested in the Elf?”
The man’s eyes flashed a ‘yes I’ll do anything you want’ look.
The man, who quickly glimpsed at my real intention of what I wanted, began to recite selling points about the Elf.
I listened to it for a moment to see if there were any useful information points, but it was all very useless.
“Are you here to buy the star of this auction?”
“Yes, so when will the elf appear?”
“Since he’s the main event, of course, he’ll appear at the very end.”
No. Then it’s too late.
The novel did not say precisely when the protagonist will attack. It just says that he accidentally found an elf while raiding a slave auction.
If I had bad luck, the auction could be raided before the Elf appeared.
I didn’t want to be involved in a commotion.
‘I can’t help it. If you can’t buy the Elf, you’ll have to go to Plan B.’
Buying an Elf is Plan A.
Even before the plan was implemented, Plan B was also set up in case of the male lead’s appearance.
It’s a plan I don’t want to use.
“So, where did you keep the elf?”
“Yes, yes? That’s,····.”
The man next to the steward was flustered.
Nevertheless, I was a Gold guest, so the man could not give me a firm rejection and stammered.
I said emphatically with an unpleasant tone. “I want to see that elf.”
“That’s not….”
“What kind of person is Rotor-nim, that you can’t grant a simple request?”
When the man next to him tried to say no, the manager frowned and stopped what he was trying to say.
The steward smiled kindly to me and said he would lead me to the Elf.
I rethought my initial assessment that being Rotor would make my task more challenging and silently thanked Mikhail for making my work easier while he was sick in bed.
* * *
A cry heavy with despair was ringing in the dark basement.
The enslaved aged overnight and plea to be let free.
Overseers beat and whipped those that were too loudly begging or too pridefully silent.
Those who were beaten couldn’t even resist.
Some extended their arms between iron bars, dryly weeping for an escape.
The jailer, who saw it, assaulted them again, skillfully avoiding their faces so the ‘products’ wouldn’t lose value ahead of the big sale.
Violent of the verbal and physical sort was rampant.
I played my part and passed them by in an indifferent manner, reminding myself that the male lead would soon destroy this place, and he would save them.
“Tsk. Trivial things are dirtying Rotor’s ears.”
The custodian looked at me with a servile look and worried that they might have offended me.
I only glanced at him once and didn’t respond.
There seemed to be no end to this basement.
When I started to wonder about whether I would see the Elf today, the man’s footsteps stopped.
We were in front of an iron cage. A man was lying within it.
***
I stepped closer.
The closer I got, the closer I got to an overwhelming joy that I would finally get to meet the elves.
The proof was that my fingertips were tingling.
The main star of this slave auction. And the Elf I’ve been searching for so eagerly.
“Do you like it?”
“Well. I don’t know unless I look more closely.”
Having said that, I went closer and grabbed the iron fence with both hands.
The Elf’s blonde hair was tangled around, and something was coagulating it.
It was blood.
The Elf had been abused for a long time, and the blood had hardened and was brown.
The Elf did not move, even though I was poking my nose through.
The only movement I saw on the Elf was a slow blinking of vacant eyes.
The Elf seemed like he was on the verge of fainting.
How much abuse have you had to withstand here?
There were bruises and wounds all over.
Elves are a proud race committed fiercely to their freedoms and equity.
Probably he’s been rebelling for a long time—maybe ever since he was first captured.
And at the end of it—like all enslaved people—he’d learned to give up.
The evidence was the hopeless, desolate look in his eyes.
“Elves are a beautiful species, so he is beautiful. And he’s good at medicine. If you buy this Elf, it will help you in many ways.”
The caretaker began to sprout out selling points in order to increase the likelihood of a competitive sale.
I was quiet as my thoughts were interrupted.
“Okay. Could you shut up?”
“······Yes?”
“Your banter is disturbing me.”
“Oh, b-but…!”
The custodian was quite embarrassed.
He had made a mistake and stood there awkwardly in silence, raking his head to come up with a solution to remedy the problem—but nothing came to mind.
The man was quite annoying—just standing there stupidly, perhaps he didn’t understand.
I used my mana to lower the ambient temperature, cooling the man’s flesh.
The man trembled at the slowly falling temperature.
The man’s tremor became even more intense at the feeling of an ominous unknown.
“Aren’t you going?”
“I-I-I will go out!”
Whether it was the cold or the fear, the man turned pale and scurried through the hall.
When the man disappeared from my sight, I collected my mana back, used to chill the surrounding temperature.
Even though the temperature was cold, the Elf didn’t even move—nevermind register my presence.
I looked down quietly at the Elf.
It was amazing that his blonde hair—with all kinds of dirt, such as blood and dust—still did not lose its sheen.
Every time the Elf blinked his eyes, his green eyes were visible.
His darkened eyes and lack of reaction told me that he was in terrible shape.
It started to worry me.
Would it be possible to get him out of here?
To be honest, given his current state of affairs, it was utterly unbelievable that the male lead saved him.
That’s how broken he was.
I studied the hopeless Elf and felt my heart fall.
However, I had no choice but to hold on to these straws.
“…Do you intend to live with me?”
I opened my mouth to try to provoke a reaction to pull him out of his stupor.
With terrible words in his mouth, he said,
“I don’t care anymore.”
“Is that so?”
I smiled at the Elf gently.
In the original story, he was saved by the main character, but this time, it would be me.
“That’s right. I’m thinking of buying you.”
“…..”
“You will soon leave this place that’s worse than a pigsty.”
The Elf didn’t even look at me. He looked only at the moldy ceiling.
It looked like his soul left him.
“Why do you keep looking there? There’s nothing.”
“…………”
“Aren’t you curious? Why am I buying you?”
“…….”
‘What if he’s out of his mind…… Then I’m in trouble.’
I don’t know what to do or say. This task wasn’t turning out to be easy.
I tried speaking to him a lot but received scant a reply.
I looked at his tightly closed mouth and let out a sigh.
From him, there was not a glimpse of willingness to continue the conversation.
His dull eyes also showed no will to live.
Communicating ‘nothing matters,’ the Elf just blinked.
I never thought an Elf, a symbol of a pure and robust spirit, would be so broken.
“Don’t you want to go home?”
The Elf didn’t answer. But I wasn’t the one to give up.
“I can get you back if you want.”
The Elf’s eyes turned to me. I bent my eyes curled when I met his green eyes.
Can we continue the conversation smoothly now?
I spoke again without erasing the smile I had. “I can get you out of here right now.”
“······I don’t know what you are trying to say.”
“‘Truly. I’m here to get you out of here.” The Elf’s persistent gaze searched me.
His vigilant eyes regarded me suspiciously.
He tried to figure out what my intentions were, but I was wearing a mask so that he couldn’t read my face.
“What do you want from me?”
“You’re quick-witted. That’s right. I want something from you. I’m thinking of getting you out of here as long as you do me a favor.”
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