The Demon's Bride

The Masked Man In The Slave Street, Buying a Slave

After the great war, the Empire was divided into 5 lands, the Northland Warine, the Southland Marshforth, the Eastland Downbridge, the Westland Hurthend, and the middle of the empire, Runalia. Each of the lands had their own lord and was famous with many tales behind the land. Some were ferocious with only mythical creatures or beast around and some mixed with each other to learn how they could co-exist with the human.

And one of the lands that were utterly different tab the other four lands, had no single mythical beings in it due to its rule. That land stayed in the middle of the Empire, called Runalia. Runalia is regarded as the only place where humans live without mingling with other mythical beings. As long time before the Empire was even founded, the humans in Runalia feared other beings than humans and sorcerer. This fear ran down through their blood to the point that even until now they could never allow any beings to stay inside the land. Just as how humans react strongly to mythical beings, the Mythical beings also didn't want to intrude humans live and lived in their perspective lands.

In Runalia, there was a place where all humans would love to visit and that was Afgard. Other than its beauty and for being the main city of the Runalia, Afgard was best known for its slave and the black market. The patrons to the market weren't only sorcerers who searched for sacrifice, but also lustful nobles with the frightening hobby.

The town was wide in diameter and shielded with tall cobblestoned walls that circled the whole tone, guarding it against any invasion from another empire. All around the town was filled with houses and large buildings while in the middle of the path, shops, and trading stalls lifted the merriness.

On this day, the town was holding the Spring festival which was celebrated by making flower crowns to your head, giving it to your beloved as you dance around the bonfire. Near the water fountain, a man with a higher build than the other humans walked through the sea of people while humming the same tone that the choir children sang in the town's heart.

The man's whole body was covered in a somber black cloak and his face was shielded by a masquerade mask that had golden patterns around it. Even in such a simple black cloak and mask, it couldn't hide the nobility aura that surrounds the way he walked. Although it was a festival, no one could hold back their eyes from the strange person who was walking with a masquerade mask.

Strolling to his destination, the man couldn't care less about the people eyeing him and instead thought in his heart that his attire was normal enough. Next to him, a young man with a slightly different height with golden hair like gold strands had his emerald eyes shopping around the window. He had charming features and a sweetly seductive smile. Although he looked a little older than his age, the young man was still around seventeen in age. From time to time, he noticed some of the girls looking at him shyly and smiled sweetly while waving for a greet. After having a crowd gathering to them, the masked man had a slightly irritated expression in his face. Crowd and noisiness, it was the things that he dislikes the most. Unable to bear the crowd, he stepped fastly to have the young man who stopped to converse with the girl running toward him in haste. "Wait! Milor-"

The masked man turned his face and warned, "Don't call me that here."

"Oh, I forgot that we are now undercover." The young man replied naively and saw him giving a stare of warning or perhaps a mocking glance that asked him how he could say such a thing here. "I apologize." The young man replied with a grin, with a face that hasn't reflected on his blunder. The masked man didn't bother to chastised him for the matter and went again with his lazy steps.

Long after they walk the stone path, the young man who felt a little tired finally asked the masked man. "We have got the rest of the things that we needed, where are you heading to now?"