"Our dear customers! First up, we have a young, gorgeous, and sexy little female from the East Blue. Bring it up!"
One of the guards pulled the girl who was first in line out, exposing her to the stage. All the lights focused on her, and all the eyes in the audience fell upon her. The tremendous pressure made the girl try to cover her face, but the guard pulled the chain, so she had to let her full face be exposed.
"Indeed gorgeous."
"Very beautiful."
"I want to eat her already."
I couldn't help but recognize the voices from the seats. I tried not to listen to them, but they violently entered my ears.
"The auction starts at 100,000 berries!"
"110,000"
"125,000"
"160,000"
"162,000"
"163,000"
"163,500"
"163,501"
…
"Going 1?"
"Going 2?"
"Going 3!"
"Deal! Congratulations to customer 474 on your purchase!"
I glanced at the man behind me while the whole thing was going on. His face didn't show any emotion in particular. "Are you not angry, old man?"
"Are you?"
"I am."
"Honesty. I like it."
"And you, do you not feel a thing?"
"I do, but what can you do about it?"
"You're strong. You can end this."
"Ha ha. This is just a link in a long, entangled, and messy chain. Even if you break a link, the chain is still there, and it would replace that link in no time."
"Then you just have to break every single link fast enough until the chain no longer exists."
"I like the optimism. Keep it alive. But you should learn more about this world before doing anything reckless."
"Are there others stronger than you?"
He thought carefully and replied. "There are candidates. Debatable."
I turned back to the front, continuing to watch, as he had told me to. "Why didn't you do anything with all that time in your life?"
"What do you know about my life, kid? We did many things, but it isn't our time yet."
"What does that mean?"
"Observe. Be patient. Observe."
"PLEASE! NO!!! HAVE MERCY ON ME! MOMMYYY!!!!"
The first auction ended, and the girl was dragged away to the one with the highest bid. She was struggling and yelling during the whole thing, so they had to cover her mouth with a piece of cloth.
"Please excuse us for such an uncivil incident. Let's continue! Bring up item number 2! Please take a look, our dear customers. This item was the queen of a country that no longer exists."
The lady stood with her back straight, her eyes closed. She was uncomfortable but tried to show a tough face, even in such a dire situation.
"Look at it. Look at this skin that has never done any hard work before. Look at this beautiful face, this voluptuous body, this graceful demeanour. This is truly a rare and exciting item for a customer with high taste."
After that disgusting advertisement, the speaker waited for the customers to evaluate the woman. He nodded, knowing they had fully appreciated what he said, and continued. "Since this is such a rare and valuable item. We will start with 50 million berries!"
"70 million!"
"80 million"
"85 million"
"100 million!"
"120 million"
"200 million!"
…
"200 million going once?"
"Going twice?"
"Going thrice! Ding Ding Ding! Please give applause to customer number 7 for getting a once-in-a-lifetime item!"
The whole place clapped, and the sound was suffocating.
"Men! Bring it to customer number 7. Cover its mouth right now, we don't want to disturb our customers again."
"Old man," I uttered. "How much longer do you want to just watch?"
"Don't you want to understand this world. Settle down and just watch."
"The only thing I see here is a slave market. We have that in our world. I don't need to watch this any longer."
"The slave market is only the tip of the iceberg, young man. There is more to come."
"Hm," I trusted him once more and contained my hand that was urging for some action.
*Thud!
A loud noise came from the stage. All of us turned to it and saw the woman who was sold for 200 million berries had fallen to the ground.
"She bit her tongue," I said.
The man behind only shook his head.
"She wouldn't have to die if you let me act!"
"She chose her fate. A former queen of a fallen kingdom. She would get mistreated for the rest of her life by this world even if you save her."