Walking to the back, Aren received many gazes from the workers of the auction house and the crowd.

'The owner of Rav'akari slave…'

'Which clan is he from…?'

They kept thinking.

In that moment, he arrived at the back and saw a hard-faced slaver open the cage and grab the chain that was attached to the slave collar.

With a strong pull, the slaver yanked the Rav'akari girl out of the cage. She stumbled, but her gaze of hate never left her eyes.

"Your purchase, sir!"

The slaver said, sounding very amiable, as he was the one who caught this Rav'akari girl, and with Aren's purchase, he was now wealthy!

"…Alright."

Aren handed the money to the servant, who counted and split the money between the auction house and the slaver.

"Whistle~"

The slaver whistled, and his very own Mystic, who worked alongside him in capturing slaves, walked over.

Mystic touched the slave collar and then tapped Aren's forehead. A mark appeared on Aren's brain—a symbol of ownership of a slave.

"You're now officially master of this Rav'akari slave. As long as she is wearing that collar, she cannot hurt you, and with that mark, you can command her, and she cannot refuse."

Mystic said coldly, his hood draping over his sickly greenish skin.

Aren nodded and then looked at the Rav'akari girl. She was looking at him, coldly, and in a quite dirty state.

"Come with me then, slave."

He grabbed the chain and pulled her behind him.

She wanted to refuse, but the order was given, and her feet unwillingly followed after her.

When they were making up the stairs of the auction house, the crowd looked. She didn't receive a single look of pity.

In his thug appearance, Aren truly looked scary. The crowd expected her to suffer like no one else had before.

They left the auction house, the guards glimpsed at the Rav'akari girl briefly before they resumed their guard duties.

Some of them had never seen Rav'akari in the flesh before. Usually if someone did, they would die a horrible death.

"If you try to do something to me, I will bite your dick off. I will use my teeth to take a bite off your neck, and I will not hesitate to do so."

She said.

"…What's with you and biting? How barbaric of you."

Aren said, and seeing that the crowds were too packed, he led the girl to the alleyways. If they just went down Main Street, they would garner a lot of gazes.

"…You dare to talk about barbaric? You think my kind is bad, but have you looked at the mirror in the morning?

"Your kind invented warfare, and all we did was study."

She said.

Aren pulled on the chain and pushed her against the wall.

She wanted to hurt him, but she couldn't move her hand at him.

"…In here? You will ravage me here? Couldn't even wait till you've taken me to your sick twisted dungeon? Humans…"

With hatred in her voice, she said.

"Your imagination is wildly inaccurate."

Aren said, then he moved his hand to his face, and he started ripping it off to the surprise of the Rav'akari girl.

She looked stunned.

In that moment, his thuggish appearance disappeared.

The black-eyed, black-haired, and slightly above-average-looking young man appeared. The religious cross ear piercings hung from his ears.

A long coat draped over his lanky body. A holster with a black revolver appeared on his belt. His eyes turned gentler.

"…You will wear this."

Aren showed her the Human Flesh Mask.

It looked creepy with its thin layer of flesh, but the Rav'akari girl, despite her relatively young age of fourteen, didn't look that fazed.

"What is it…"

She asked.

Without answering her question, Aren forced the mask on her, and she tried struggling for a moment but failed to do anything.

In front of his eyes, she changed.

The white hair turned brown. The beautiful face turned ordinary. The clothes turned from rags into a village girl's simple attire.

The slave collar turned into a pretty necklace. The chain disappeared.

She wasn't dirty anymore.

Through a cracked window of a nearby tilting building, she was able to see her reflection and saw how she looked currently.

"…I am disgusting. You made me look like a human."

She said in anger.

"If I keep walking you like a dog on a leash in the streets, you will be attacked by the mob. You might hate humans, but they also hate you back."

Aren said.

"Your name is now Mira Meredica. This is the name that you will use. Is that understood?"

That was a human name. She hated it. But she couldn't do anything to oppose that, as he was her master, and that was an order.

"Ptui!"

In that moment, Mira spat on his face.

"…"

Aren closed his eyes as the spat splattered across his face, and with his hand, he wiped it off.

"…Well, hit me? I know you want to."

Mira said as she closed her eyes and waited for the slap to land on her cheek, but it never came.

Instead, Aren grabbed her hand and started pulling her out of the alleyway despite her protests.

"Don't… Touch me!"

She screamed, trying to yank her hand back, but the absolute order of 'Do not hurt your master' was stopping her from doing so.

"You'd rather stay here?"

Aren asked her and looked around the Black Market with all of its darkness and debauchery that he did not quite want to see again.

"I don't."

He said, and kept pulling her while she acted like a grumpy child who didn't want to leave a toy store.

She also didn't want to stay in the Black Market, but she hated his touch and wanted to do nothing more than find a knife and stab his heart with it!

They walked across Black Market, arrived at the elevator, and stepped inside before pressing a button.

The button rang a bell above, and manually, a man started pulling them up to the surface of Coggate.

With the doors of the elevator closing, their sight of the Black Market also disappeared.

'…I'll burn this place down to the ground one day.'

Aren pulled out a cigarette from his pocket, lit it up, and put it between his lips before taking a huge drag.

The ember glowed brightly.