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“This…has truly become a big problem…” God knows how many times I’ve already sighed, but when this skinny old man appeared before us without any prior indication, feelings of despair began to swell within my heart.

Warnings started to scream out like crazy in my head, but my legs were locked into place. I could hear myself silently crying in misery, while it felt like all my blood started flowing in reverse.

That’s impossible…that’s absolutely impossible… no matter what method we use, we’re not his match. Even if we begged for our lives, or used scrolls, both were utterly incapable of providing any use in front of this man.

This was the first time… that I didn’t have the courage to fight back. As soon as I made even the slightest move… I’d get squashed to death like a bug.

“I’ve never expected my plan, which I had spent 30 years on, to almost be foiled by you little brats. What a blunder.”

The red-shirted old man knocked his crutch against the floor as he used an indifferent gaze to size us up. Upon seeing Sae, a shock appeared on his face as he asked with raised eyebrows: “A corpse? How’s a corpse able to move?”

“You’re the one who’s a corpse, you old b̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲…no, you old smelly bug.” Seemingly not fazed at all by the threat presented by the old man, Sae continued to glare at the old man with a distasteful look. Nevertheless, she was clearly not as relaxed as she appeared to be. In fact, the “thou” word she would use to note other people…or vulgarities…had all disappeared.

“Haha. Interesting…” Without flying into a rage, the old man returned a laugh as he replied, “I never expected such a great situation for my return. A corpse that’s able to curse definitely has extraordinary research value. Furthermore, there’s you, little girl. You’re quite cute, I’ll definitely get quite a pretty penny from selling you.”

The old man suddenly turned his gaze towards me, causing a strong shiver to run down my spine. Furthermore, his long red robes felt exceedingly familiar to me.

This old man… Was he the hidden master of the auction house? That’s right. I’ve seen this old man before! He seems to be the person [Number 1] was talking to before they got into a fight with me!

Then, everything made sense now, the reason Ruth Devia tried to assassinate us was all due to the orders of the auction’s house real master. She was ordered to kill every single one of us that helped those young slave girls to escape! However, at this moment, Devia had lost. Therefore, it’s up to him, the final boss to personally take action.

But… how did they find us so quickly? Spatial teleportation should be impossible to track.

“Ahahahahaha!!!” A loud and disgusting laugh rang out before an extremely familiar figure walked out from an inconspicuous corner. Wearing a ridiculing smile on his face, he said, “I said…that none of you would be able to run away…”

Wilkis raised his hand, revealing a red circular gem that sparkled with a faint pulsing glow. Walking towards the pile of unconscious people, he searched Elle Weir’s body, before pulling out a faint, blue button-shaped gemstone, which also sparkled with a faint pulsing glow. As the 2 gemstones grew closer together, the glows they radiated became increasingly bright.

“What’s the matter? Did you really think that I’d let you guys go that easily? What a joke! This is the result of my blood and sweat for the last 30 years! There’s no way in hell I’d let you go after all the trouble you’ve caused!”

Filled with an insatiable rage, Wilkis’ malevolent expression appeared just like that of a sinister monster.

“I also want to let you guys experience the taste of having what’s most important taken from you!” filled with anger, Wilkis pulled out his saber and sent a chop towards the unconscious Carol lying on the ground.

“What do you think you’re doing? Stop it!!” However, at that distance, other than instant transmission, it was utterly impossible to stop Wilkis.

“Ahaha! Die!!” Seeing Wilkis’ blade drawing ever so closer to Carol, without me being able to do anything at all…

Dammit! I’m still as weak as before!

“Stop it, Wilkis!!!” Although the old man had a skinny physique, his voice rang out with power. In fact, he had even imbued a part of domain power into his voice, causing Wilkis’ blade to stop just short of Carol. “Now’s a crucial time for us to manage our expenses! You’re not allowed to damage our goods!”

“Ye-…yes…” in the face of the old man, even the anger-filled Wilkis appeared just like a chihuahua wagging its tail and being forced to withdraw its claws, “Oh great bishop…”

“To prevent you from continuing with your idiotic ways of harming our assets, remain still or else don’t blame me for what happens to you.”

“Yes.”

“As for all of you…” the old man raised the staff in his hand, before knocking it fiercely onto the ground: “I heard about the method you have to blow up my auction house. So, hand it over, or else.”

Domain!

A faint blue halo rapidly enveloped me and Sae causing a terrifying pressure to appear out of nowhere. It took only an instant to cause all of the bones in my body to cry out in misery.

“Sae…do you have any plans?”

“I…urgh…” Just as Sae opened her mouth, she vomited a large clump of jet-black blood. In fact, I could see a few fragments of internal organs present within.

“You…Are you alright?!”

“No…I’m alright…it’s just that this body has already reached its limit, and is starting to collapse.” Just as she said that, Sae’s legs suddenly bent in an unnatural angle before snapping, revealing the blood red bones for all to see, “Dammit. It’s troublesome to have such an unsuitable physical body.”

Sae’s appearance made me understand that there was nothing that could help me out of this situation. Regardless of the scrolls I have, or the necklace that could attract the attention of the entire dragon race, none of them could save me at this moment. Now, the only thing I could rely on was myself.

However…

“Oh my… Little miss, you’re quite formidable, huh? To be able to endure 30% of this old man’s full strength. Let’s… increase it to 50%.” the old man waved his staff around casually while increasing the massive pressure on my body at near-instantaneous speed. As this happened, not only could I hear my body crying out and shaking continuously, I could even sense that from all of the organs in my body.

Exactly how am I supposed to go against an opponent of this level?

“Ughh…my head hurts…”

Huh? Is that Carol’s voice? Is she awake? Nevertheless, even if she is awake, she’s utterly useless in this situation. Even if Carol were to assist us, we had absolutely no chance of obtaining victory against this old man.

“What’s the matter? Why was I sleeping…uaaaaa!!! Why is there a blade pressed against my neck?”
“Waaa! Why’s the stupid auction house master also here?”

“Who are you calling stupid, you b̲i̲t̲c̲h̲! If not for me being unable to move, I’d have already chopped you into pieces, you hear me?”

“Waaaa! Why’s everyone sleeping? Lilith? And you. Are you alright? Why do you look like you’ve lost a lot of blood?”

“Carol…hurry up and run…” I only managed to squeeze these few words out before my body was squashed down further by a few more inches.

“Run? Why should I run?”

Idiot! Can’t you figure out the situation?

“Haha. You really are a beautiful and innocent girl. Looks like this old man will have another huge cash cow.”

“Are you saying…that this old man’s a bad person?! He’s the one that caused Lilith and everyone to look like that?”

Big miss Carol finally understood the situation she was in. However, she would not have the chance to flee, as after all, the disparity in strength was really too large.

“B̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲! What did you do to them? Hurry up and let them go!” Carol cursed out in anger. In the next moment, I heard a “whoosh”, as what seemed like a small stone was tossed by Carol towards the old man.

Throwing a stone…ermm…that truly seemed like what a powerless big miss from an aristocratic family would do. Doing something like that right now though…

Huh? Wait a minute. From what I know, the floor of the hotel is made out of perfectly aligned slates. Where did she get that little rock from?

It couldn’t be…

Seemingly in the mindset of ridiculing us, the old man did not evade the incoming rock. Instead, he extended his hand and grabbed hold of the black rock, before slowly crushing it. As the rock powder slowly fell from the cracks between his fingers, he grinned towards Carol and said: “Haha, you really are a cute little girl. However, the more you’re like that, the happier I am. Only a cute little girl like yourself can be sold for a good sum. Hahahahaha…”