The Auction House was being quite accommodating, Wolfe thought. The greeter inside handed him a golden card and wordlessly motioned him to the right, where a concierge was waiting for him.
"As an honoured guest of the house, we have prepared a VIP room for you. It has an excellent view of the room, as well as a priority viewing of the holding room, so you can be assured that we have not damaged the product.
If you would like any refreshments or snacks that are not already placed out, we will gladly bring them to you, and your purchases can be delivered directly to your room."
Wolfe smiled at the man escorting him, and the gentle look in his eyes made the man shudder. For all he knew, the Demon viewed them all as potential workers for his plan, and not just the ones on the Auction block. Once Wolfe opened the door, he was quick to bow out and return to his duties instead of giving Wolfe the customary tour of the room.
Wolfe settled onto the couch and picked up the remote that was marked as the control for the backstage cameras. The prisoners for auction were being held in separate cells, small things that didn't even give room to sit down and extend their legs.
But they had all been cleaned up and put in fresh toga-style outfits, and the women had their hair and makeup done.
The men were all clearly soldiers and guardians, and they were marked for the first group to go out, meaning they were expected to be the cheapest of the day's sales.
They were wearing prisoner collars, so whoever bought them could control them, while the witches all had anti-magic bracelets on.
Wolfe could tell that not all of them could use magic even without the bracelet, but the Auction House took no chances, and the price of the accessories was added to the sale price.
Wolfe looked through the list of auctions and found that most of them were labelled "Traitor," but a few were "Debtor," and a sale lot of three which were to be sold together were labelled "Mutants."
That was an easily cured condition when he had Rank Two Witches on his side, and they should go for fairly cheap since unstable forms of Mutants weren't expected to live long.
Wolfe couldn't find them in the back room cameras, but when the hostess rang the bell to signal the start of the auction, he didn't have to wait long. The three boys with animal ears were brought on stage along with ten men chained together.
The boys looked terrible and had clearly been beaten within an inch of their life, but the men were all missing limbs and most of them had the look of the Morgana Coven's Fortress City or the soldiers that he had seen in the last village.
Pale with dark hair was common enough among the humans, but these ones had the distinctive facial features that Wolfe recognized from home.
"First up, for those who need unskilled labour and can deal with mobility or work speed issues, we have today's bargain bin specials." The lovely young woman introduced them, earning herself growls from the boys and glares from the men.
"Oh, they're spicy. Good luck getting a bid on that." Someone below Wolfe laughed, and the crowd in the auction house began to laugh and jeer at the prisoners up for sale.
"Ten Crowns each," Wolfe called out, doing his best to sound amused and disdainful.
He had told everyone that he needed cheap labour to make cheese, and these ones would do that as well as any others.
Still, from what Wolfe could tell, a crown and a Credit were roughly the same value, so he could get all thirteen of them for less than his monthly electric bill back in the City.
Even though they were for sale, the entire group looked offended at Wolfe's bid. It only grew worse when nobody bid against him, and they realized that they were about to have their lives sold off to some random bidder for less than the price of a lunch special with a beer.
"Are there any other bidders?" The hostess asked, making the room laugh at the attempt to be professional.
What Wolfe didn't know was that these groups had gone unsold for multiple auctions already, and they were a familiar sight to the bidders near the front, who were here every month.
"Sold to the man in VIP room one." The hostess called, and a young girl in the auction house uniform with what looked like a shock collar around her neck opened the door to Wolfe's room.
"Sir, would you like them taken back to the waiting room, or would you like them brought here? There are a lot of them." She whispered.
Wolfe reached back and patted her head out of habit. "Bring the one that had spit at the hostess here. The others can wait together."
ραΠdαsΝοvel.cοm The girl disappeared, and a few seconds later, the man was escorted into the room, and the prisoner chain he was attached to was dropped on the floor, so he couldn't get to the door or to Wolfe.
Wolfe sighed and turned around to grab the chain and throw it on the other side of the couch. He was careful to keep his hand covered in Air Magic so that the chain didn't try to bond to him and force him to break it right away, but now the man could move about a little.
"What's your name? Come and sit here. I want to know about the others who come up across the block. Which ones have a decent personality, which ones are the backstabbing sort, and who is looking for revenge on the Grand Dutchies." Wolfe instructed quietly enough that the people in the next room wouldn't hear him, then tossed the man a single Myrrh Coven coin.
The prisoner looked at it in shock for a second, then took a seat on a folding chair near the edge of the stage.
"Well, I didn't expect this today. But I will tell you what you want to know. The name is John." He muttered.
The next group was all older men, and the crippled soldier shook his head.
"They call them traitors, but most of the men who come across the block are petty criminals. Vagrants, drunkards, thieves and such. They're selling that group as ten, but only one is worth taking." He explained.
Wolfe handed over the list. "Are there others you would recommend?"
The bidding for the second group went on, nearly to fifty crowns each now. It was still pitifully low but better than what Wolfe had offered for the first group.
"There are these ones and these. I don't know how much you're authorized to spend, but most of these are good people." The man explained.
Wolfe noticed his eyes linger on one of the Witches for an extended time, and the man was trying to hide tears as he circled her name as worth buying.
"Who is that one?" Wolfe asked gently.
"My daughter."
The pain of mourning in his voice was worse than anything Wolfe had heard in years, and it was clear that the man already considered both of them as good as dead.
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