Chapter 26: 26

How much time had passed?

The girl couldn’t tell. After the man left and the hired soldiers entered as if they were trading places, she had simply stared at the plain ceiling of the carriage. The words her mother once told her kept repeating in her head.

‘Have pride.’

In the Farnese estate, the portraits of previous heads had been hung in the halls. When her mother had helped her get accustomed to the house, she had pointed at each of the portraits. The first head, Pietro, the second head, Prudencio, the third head⎯⎯⎯Laura couldn’t read anything from their gazes which had been drawn with murky paint. In her head, all of the portraits mixed together and swirled around as dirty water.

She then thought about something which she had never pondered about before.

‘Come to think of it……what was my gaze like?’

Laura was the esteemed daughter of a noble. It’s an exaggeration, but she looked at a mirror as often as she breathed. And yet, she has never thought about her own gaze. She desperately searched through her memories. How did she look like in those mirrors? She promptly remembered since she had an excellent memory. In her memory, her eyes were dead.

‘Peasant.’

‘Huh? For you to talk first, this is rare.’

The hired soldier answered in a flat tone. He had been remodeling Laura’s body in order to satisfy his aristocrat customer’s various preferences. Normally, esteemed ladies would have mental breakdowns during this process because they couldn’t bear the fact that their bodies were escaping their control. Mercenaries enjoyed watching them become depraved and awaken to a new side of their personalities, a side which they didn’t want to know about. In other words, Laura was the worst subject matter. She didn’t show even remote signs of something like that happening, after all.

‘How are my eyes?’

‘Huh? Your eyes? What, do your eyes hurt or something?’

‘No. My question is literal. What do you feel from my eyes?’

The hired soldier snorted as he felt up Laura’s bottom.

‘What is there to feel? There’s nothing there like the eyes of a dead man. I feel uncomfortable for the rest of the day whenever I make eye contact with you, so please don’t look this way.’

‘……Is that so?’

‘Seriously. It’s been a while since I didn’t want to do my job. Especially when the merchandise is a girl who looks as pretty as you on the outside. This is unimaginable. Kuh kuh. Pray that the bastard who becomes your master is a truly kind person. If it were me, then I wouldn’t be able to hold myself back after 2 days and I’d probably whip you to death.’

The soldier continued to complain. The girl could no longer hear his words. The girl was silently enveloped by shock. Even though she was able to read people’s eyes and was more sensitive than anyone else to the gazes of others, she never looked at her own eyes. Were her eyes any different from the eyes on the portraits that were hanging in the hall? Was she any different from the meaningless portraits that only took up space?

Was the life she strived for similar to that of those portraits?

‘Thank you for your cooperation! Now then, allow me to sincerely welcome all of our esteemed guests for coming to the Opera De Pavia Auction House!’

Laura was still in deep thought even as the auction began. She wasn’t pondering about some clear topic and logic. Vague words floated around the surface of her consciousness like a cork that was bobbing around after having sunk to the bottom of a sea. Laura became tired after failing to find an answer.

She surveyed her surroundings. A bunch of slaves was waiting backstage. One of the slaves must have felt anxious as they kept peeking through the curtains and at the auditorium. Another one was crawled up on the floor and hugging their knees. The slave supervisor let out a big yawn since he would see this same scene every week. They were all giving up on life in their own unique ways. Laura realized that it was the same for her as well, except in her case, it was her philosophy.

‘The next slave we wish to introduce to you today is, surprisingly, the second successor of the House of Farnese that boasted immense authority within the Kingdom of Sardinia!’

The supervisor patted the girl’s back without a word. Laura walked out on stage. Once she stepped out, she received a flood of looks. Nearly a thousand pairs of eyes were staring directly at her and her alone. The innate ability she had since birth began to read the meaning behind tens of hundreds of gazes. Delight, ridicule, anger, anxiety, competitiveness, lust⎯⎯⎯a wave of dizziness suddenly struck her. It felt as if all of these primitive desires had wrapped around her entire body after turning into a single warm breeze. 

“From the previous Chrysanthemum War…….”

“As I thought, an excommunication order from the temple is terrifying. The peerless House of Farnese has…….”

“She’s a lot prettier than the rumors had portrayed her.”

Sweat dripped down Laura’s back. But, the girl muttered to herself mentally before clenching her jaw. She raised her head high. She walked out on stage with the same noble gait which she had been taught since she was 4 years old. The only thing that was keeping her up was the education she had become accustomed to for over 10 years. However, she couldn’t stop herself from eventually growing frightened of the gazes and gradually dropping her head.

The auctioneer seemed satisfied with Laura as he proceeded to shout loudly.

‘Her Ladyship, Duchess Laura De Farnese!’

People applauded. There were people here who were hostile towards the House of Farnese. It was humiliating for Laura. She unconsciously clenched her fists. Was this it? Was this her life? Was she supposed to tolerate these people in her life?

‘Pardon me, but this item will start off at a higher price. We have no doubts that this item will reach the highest price in the history of this auction. 500 gold! We will start the bid at 500 gold!’

Does she have to watch quietly as she herself becomes nothing more than a piece of merchandise?

‘My word! 6 people raised their hands as soon as I announced the starting bid. I apologize, but the bid will begin with guest number 213 as they had raised their hand first. Number 231, 550 gold!’

Laura felt her heart tighten as it became filled with spite. What was this situation? Her father who hid the fact that she was an illegitimate child, the household servants who somehow knew about this and thus disregarded her constantly. A place where she was allowed to be, where in the world was her will allowed? For how long must she tolerate everything that happens in her life and resign herself to them?

Laura mumbled.

‘……Dantalian.’

But there was no response. Only the voice of the auctioneer grew louder.

‘Yes, number 567, 600 gold! Number 12, 650 gold!’

Laura moved her lips once more. Dantalian, she muttered. Still, nothing happened.

‘Number 64, 1650 gold! Dear Lord! Oh my God! We’ve already reached the highest recorded bid!’

The girl raised her head. She wanted to put her hopes into the sole person whose gaze she could not interpret. She didn’t care if she had to make a contract with the Devil as long as she could escape a life like those portraits that decorated the halls. As long as she could escape from this wretched place. She cried out as loudly as she could.

‘⎯⎯⎯Dantalian!’

And then, a light filled the room.

* * *

The surprise assault was a success. The dim lights inside the theater made the silhouettes of the monsters appear even more terrifying. Once the golems that were roughly three times the size of a human started to rampage, the nobles who had never seen a monster before in their lives started to scream in panic as they tried to flee the theater.

Hundreds of people bumped and trampled over each other as they fled. The number of people who were trampled to death like this was probably far higher than the number of people who died by the hands of the golems. If they moved in a more orderly fashion, then handling 10 golems would be an incredibly simple task. However, I didn’t have any time to spare. It would be problematic for me if these people came to their senses or if the city guards arrived. This was the only opportunity I had as everyone was in a panic due to the surprise assault.

“Jack! Where are you, Jack?!”

“Lolita!”

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I found Jack near the stage. His expression looked as if his soul had escaped from his body. He welcomed me like I was some angel that had descended from Heaven.

I spoke urgently.

“I don’t know what’s happening, but we have to run away with haste!”

“B-But…… I can’t leave without Her Ladyship De Farnese…… the future of my company…….”

Jack looked up at the stage with despair in his eyes.

“It’s not just my firm. My father’s firm will receive a huge blow as well!”

Selling Laura must be an incredibly important task for a slave trading company. How much connections and funding they had to use in order to acquire the esteemed daughter of a duke was already unimaginable. I struck his cheek lightly.

“Snap out of it! There’s no need to panic. Listen carefully. Let us take Her Ladyship Farnese and get out of here calmly. Okay? Calmly.”

“Y-Yeah. Let’s do that.”

I grabbed him by his hand. I practically had to drag Jack up the stage. The host was trying his best to calm the guests from the stage. Please evacuate calmly, he kept crying out. The fact that he didn’t abandon the guests and escape first made him quite an excellent professional. Although it was a question as to whether you could attach the word excellent to an auctioneer of a slave auction.

He looked at us in shock.

“Gentlemen! You mustn’t come up on stage.”

“We’re the merchant group that owns Laura De Farnese!”

I shouted at him.

“The Medoranm Firm that is under the influence of the Lombards Firm. We are here to personally take the slave and evacuate!”

“Please show me the slave brand!”

As expected, he was swift with his judgments. He didn’t say yes or no but instead asked for proof. It seems he understood the severity of the current situation. I suddenly wanted to know how high the auctioneer’s stats were, however, I, unfortunately, did not have the time to check.

“Here!”

Jack stepped forward and folded up his sleeve. There was a bizarre symbol tattooed onto his forearm. The auctioneer took out a sheet of paper. He glanced back and forth between Jack’s forearm and the paper before giving us a nod.

“You can take her! We apologize beforehand for this shameful situation!”

He then tapped his throat twice. The sound amplification spell must have been turned off once he did as his voice returned to normal.

“There is a secret passageway at the back of the stage. May Hermes’ blessing be with you.”

“Thank you very much! May Hermes’ blessing be with you!”

Hah, I was in awe. He took care of his business partners even during this moment of chaos. He even lowered his voice so that he could tell us about a secret passageway. Currently, the entrance of the opera was so crowded that it was almost impossible to escape. If the other guests knew about the secret passageway, then they would naturally swarm towards this end as well. The havoc would become more intense, then. The host was making sure to prevent such a situation from occurring. A person’s true value only shows in a time of crisis, it was a waste that such a competent man was working as a mere auctioneer.

‘It’s unfortunate that I don’t have any time to spare.’

As people emptied the auditorium, a few people who knew martial arts stayed behind. They positioned themselves however they could before fighting back the golems. It wasn’t a proper countermeasure since the wave of panic was still strong, but they were far stronger than some F-rank adventurers. If I waste any more time, then my unit of golems might get wiped out. We picked Laura up and ran to the back of the stage.

“What are you.”

“Be quiet for now.”

Laura tried to say something, but I cut her off. What mattered now was evacuating. Once we got to the back of the stage, sure enough, there was a small door. Once I opened that door and stepped out, I spoke.

“Lapis, it’s fine now.”

Once I gave her the signal, Lapis muttered in a small voice. It was a de-summoning incantation.

Jack asked while catching his breath next to me.

“Who’s, haah…… that?”

“She’s a mage and my comrade. She cast a simple defense spell over us.”

“Ah!”

It seems Jack was in awe at the fact that a mage was my comrade. He even bowed to Lapis and thanked her.

“Now then, we don’t know when the situation will turn worse. Let’s keep running.”

“You’re right. Haah, why is this happening all of a sudden.”

Lapis, Jack, Laura, and I escaped completely from the theater. The outside of the theater was no different from the inside. The nobles forgot about their dignity as they searched for their carriages. The carters had to move the carriages clumsily under their employers’ orders. They were moving their carriages so fast that they often crashed into other carriages. However, that was only the beginning.

“Oh, my Lord!”

Jack’s jaw dropped at the sight of the city. Smoke was rising up from the place that was on the opposite side of the slave auction. It was an immense cloud of smoke. The city skyline was covered in black clouds. Someone had undoubtedly committed arson systematically around the city.

I laughed in my head. The request I gave Lapis had been carried out as I wanted. The smoke was caused by a bunch of straws being set ablaze, but there was no way that Jack would know this.

This was the same for the guards as well. The guards were most likely immediately dispatched to check the sources of the smoke. I had used that opportunity to summon my monsters in the slave auction. Hearing the news and turning around to come all the way back here would take the guards a lot of time. Although there’ll be nothing when they arrive at the theater later.

I intentionally pretended to be incredibly serious as I spoke.

“……A planned assault. I don’t know what group would do such a thing, but this place is too dangerous now. Jack, my carriage is nearby. Let’s take that and head to the outskirts of town.”

Jack was so out of it that all he could do was agree. We ran a short distance away from the auction house and hopped on my carriage. Lapis, who naturally knew how to ride horses and drive a carriage, sat in the coach box. Once Lapis flicked the reigns lightly, the two horses began their advance. Our carriage passed through the northern gate hastily. Only then did I grin without reserve.

***

TL Note: Thanks for reading the chapter. All things considered, the order of things really have swapped around a bit. The Walpurgis Night happened before Laura in the LN. Well, nothing much to say except that I’ll be busy this weekend preparing more assignments and another presentation. Please end my suffering.

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