371 371 Bidding
Wolfe took out another copy of the listing and circled the name and location in the order. He wouldn’t split up a family if he could avoid it.
“Just find me the best crew you can. Witches are best, but I’ll take what you can get me for a reasonable price. I’ve got just over a hundred thousand crowns.” Wolfe explained.
The man whistled at the mention of the cash. “How did they get you that much? Grand Dutchies cash isn’t exactly common on the far side of the continent.”
Wolfe smiled at him. “I killed a bunch of men and took it. If I knew there was an auction today, I could have brought more with me. We’ve got stacks of it at home, just sitting in storage since we don’t use it for trade.”
Once the first lot of petty criminals sold for just under one hundred crowns each, the first Witch was brought up to the stage. She had a muzzle on and her hands in mittens, which made Wolfe smirk at his newly acquired helper.
“Oh, Goddess, no. Nope, bad idea. That one is insane. Even with handcuffs on and the wristband blocking her magic, she managed to kill two guards when she was brought in.” The man explained.
Wolfe looked at the listing. Justine, with no last name listed. Auctioned as a debtor. The minimum reserve was one thousand Crowns.
“What did she owe them money for?” Wolfe asked.
“From what I hear, someone in her family is a heavy gambler, and since she’s underage, they sold her to cover their debts to the bookie. She’s a real piece of work, though. I can see why they wanted to get rid of her.”
“I kind of like her, though. She’s stabby, and that’s a good quality for a Witch in the Frozen Wastes.” Wolfe replied as the witch managed to get her manacled arms around the throat of a guard, nearly choking him out before the other man could tear her off of him.
John smirked down at the stage, where the guard had clear chain marks on his neck and was about to kick her.
He shouted down to the stage before the guard could move. “My master requests that you don’t damage his property. He will give one thousand Crowns for her.”
A large General in the front row crowed with laughter. “You’re fucked now, Girlie. They’re going to give you to a big bad Demon Lord who likes it rough.”
The Witch growled at him, and the auctioneer addressed the crowd.
“We have one thousand crowns bid. Now, she might be a bit violent, but she’s young and fertile with a good body. Surely she’s a diamond in the rough.” The auctioneer suggested.
“Aye, if you pull all her teeth and keep her chained. How is that worth the trouble when there’s so many more to bid on?” Someone shouted back.
“One thousand five hundred.” A man in the back called out.
“That’s the spirit. High risk, high reward. Who knows, she might make a good wife once she calms down.” The auctioneer called out.
“We have one thousand five hundred. Do I hear two thousand?”
Wolfe nodded to his helper.
“Master bids two thousand.” The man called back.
“Bah, that’s half what my corn sold for. Good luck with your new bride.” The man in the back row complained.
He must have sold out early or gotten here a day in advance and sold before the official market opened.
Four thousand crowns for the whole wagon full of his crop wasn’t much, less than a half-crown per kilogram, but these farmers were mostly self-sufficient. Wolfe also hadn’t seen any large trucks or anything bigger than a two-oxen wagon, so they were only bringing enough that the city didn’t get it into their heads to attack the farms in the area.
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Wolfe took that as his cue to collect his purchase before the staff member could come in to ask. He activated [Levitate] and picked her up off the stage, bringing her straight to his booth while the soldiers down below laughed at her doomed fate.
The first thing that the Witch did when Wolfe set her down on the floor beside him was to lunge at him, going for a headbutt.
Wolfe wasn’t expecting her to take the news that she had been sold to a demon very well, so he had already been on guard, but the look on her face when she hit his armour spell and Wolfe didn’t move was priceless.
“I recommend that you don’t do that. You’ll just hurt yourself.” He informed her with a smile, then picked the Witch up off the floor where she had fallen and sat her down on the couch beside him.
“Just behave for a while, and I will explain things as we go,” Wolfe told her while the Witch eyed his sword in a way that Wolfe was sure that she thought was subtle.
Her patience ran out in mere seconds, and the next group wasn’t even up on the stage yet when she made her move, lunging over his lap to try to pull the sword free.
Unfortunately for her, that left her across Wolfe’s lap with his hand on her back and her arms pinned underneath her by the handcuffs and mittens.
“Fine. Let’s calm you down the easy way.” Wolfe chuckled, then proceeded to spank her with an open hand that echoed through the auction house floor.
But with every slap, he flooded her with mana, just to the point where she would moan instead of screaming.
After five swats, Wolfe stopped and looked down at her.
“Are you going to behave? Because I can do this all day long, and I’m pretty sure the guy in the next room over is enjoying the sound of it way too much.” He whispered.
Her legs kicked futilely at the air, and Wolfe gave her one more swat that instantly stopped her motion.
“That’s what I thought. Now behave, I have a lot of workers to collect today, and our friend here doesn’t need the distraction of you wiggling your ass at him all night.”
The witch froze as she realized that her auction-issued Toga was really quite short and was riding up while she was bent over Wolfe’s lap like this. Which made her realize that the other man in the room had quite the view had he chosen to look her way. Then, as soon as Wolfe released her, she returned to the spot beside him and sat silently, plotting her next move.
“Man, you really should worry more about her stabbing you.” John laughed as he watched the next prisoner walk to the auction block.
“I’m bulletproof. You should worry about her stabbing you for looking up her toga. But now that Justine here is calmed down, I should explain. No, I’m not planning to harm or kill you.
I will bring all of you back to the place I’m staying, and you will help me with my plan to grow trade goods to bring here to purchase back more of the prisoners.”
That plan was insanely unlikely to happen in reality. There wasn’t much chance that the human armies were going to just let him leave with the Witches, but Wolfe still had some hope that they wouldn’t do anything stupid.
The witch couldn’t answer, but when the other prisoner held up the Myrrh Coven coin that Wolfe had given him, her eyes began to shine with the first traces of hope.
“Good girl. Now, who is up next? Are they any good?”