Herald of Steel

Chapter 776 The Slave Market of Thesalie (Part-3)

And even then he only finished looking at half of the market.

For adjacent to the huge venue, was the site for the auctioned slaves.

Alexander entered that premises to find the place in much better conditions than its counterparts, largely because the slaves here were all valuable, and most would fetch high prices.

So naturally they were better taken care of.

The most notable improvement here was certainly the overhead paneling which shaded one from the heat of the sun, as well as the fact that servants were constantly sprinkling water on the nearby ground to prevent any dust cloud from swirling upward.

The roads here were much wider and the crowd significantly less.

Hence as Alexander entered the site, he breathed a cool sigh of relief, before dryly commenting, \'Should have brought can umbrella.\'

Standing under the bare sun for so long in that heavy armor took a toll even on him.

Then afterward he started to look around.

The entire place was much smaller, accommodating a far smaller number of slaves.

Though this was normal as when the soldiers took the citizens as slaves, they knew there was an implicit limit to the number they could take.

So they only took the ones that would fetch the highest value- i.e.- beautiful women and strong men.

Though given the latter could fight back, most of them stuck to only capturing only the former.

Hence most of these stalls featured scantily clad girls of various ages or underaged boys, with only a few stalls selling men.

And this time, these strong, muscular beings were chained with manacles or ropes.

But the crowd around them was clearly much less than the stalls selling the pleasure slaves.

Those stalls were designed much like modern day window shops.

The few of the most beautiful girls or boys were put on display on raised platforms, designed to attract customers, who could then peruse the much bigger collection housed in the tents nearby. 

Hence these showpieces were decorated to look their best, very clean, and with the appropriate make up, they even smelled of soap or sweet perfume, as from time to time they made various poses under the instruction of their slave masters,

Furthermore, the clothes they wore were intentionally designed to tingle the senses being very provocative. 

For the girls, they wore translucent linens designed in various shapes such as lingerie or sashes, which covered their upper and lower halves in a way that both revealed but also hid their wares, displaying them without revealing everything.

Most onlookers were able to make out the shape of the breast, the flanks, the dark buds, and the thick patches, but not anything more, like the skin.  

And a similar view was provided for the boys, where one could make out the shape and size of the lower parts without the details.

And seeing this, Alexander would have to give it to these traders, they knew marketing and knew it very well.

Because such a sight was even more tempting than if these people were fully bare, for it stimulated anyone\'s desire to go and have a closer look, to try and see if they could find something that was hidden yet discernible.

And if that happened, if anyone was interested in finding out more about what was hidden, then there was a high chance of there being a purchase.

As for the group that would be most willing to make such a purchase, it was predictably mostly men, though Alexander also spotted a few women in the crowd.

The environment here was better to the point that they felt comfortable coming here, albeit with all of them having a male escort or guard, for they too wanted to experience the good things in life.

But to be fair, the people here were not only because they wanted a bed warmer.

Some were trying to find their loved ones and buy them back, though given by now it was the second week since the auction started, they were a minority.

While another group was here to simply look for help- be it a cook, a maid, a gardener, etc.

And lastly, a few were looking to buy girls and boys for their red light institutions. 

Though of course, in reality, a majority of them were looking to buy them for sex.

Even though Tibians were a monogamist society, relationships with slaves apparently did not count.

Hence to attract these buyers, the slavers peddled their wares with shouts and gestures, trying to get a wealthy patron to peruse his ware.

And if one was interested, they could go forward and \'inspect\' the commodities for themselves, touching various parts of the body to look for any defects, with no regard for that person.

Hence Alexander could see both men and women touching the girls\' chest and back to get a feel of their flesh, and some even traced their fingers along their crotches, mostly trying to find any warts or scabs which would indicate any venereal diseases.

The buyers of course knew what must have happened to these girls just after their capture, and so felt this was almost a necessary precaution.

Of course, it was not like the boys were spared either, but with them, the finger went mostly around their rear.

Such a practice did leave a very bad taste in Alexander\'s mouth, especially seeing the age of some of these kids, many of whom appeared to be on the verge of tears but did not dare to let out even a whimper.

They knew what could happen if they did.

And given Alexander was once in their position, he too knew firsthand what that entitled.

He had seen many die with ruptured intestinal walls after the slavers punished them in that brutal way.

And many times this was even done intentionally, to make an example for the other kids, so that they did not dare rebel or resist.

Alexander even remembered being very scared of such experiences occurring to him, so he had tried to always be as inconspicuous as possible, talking very little and appearing in front of his slaver as little as possible.

And this fear persisted many years after he was bought too, as Nestora\'s job as a mercenary leader perhaps fit perfectly into the typical type of man who did such things.

But out of all the misfortune Alexander was made to suffer, including starting off as a sweeper, he never had to experience that.

For that, he was eternally grateful to Lady Luck.

Now one might ask, if Alexander suffered so, why did he not try and stop these practices happening right in front of him?

And the reason was simply because this was such the norm of the times.

People simply did not think there was anything wrong with it.

So no matter how powerful he was, Alexander knew it would be impossible to enforce, like how the prohibitionist government of the United States failed to ban alcohol.

Hence Alexander knew to stop these, he first needed to change society as a whole.

After all, there is a reason the concept of slavery existed since human civilization began almost 10,000 years ago, and remained for more than 9,800 years, with it being abolished in large part due to the advent of the Industrial Revolution, when low-skilled, manual jobs could be performed faster and cheaper by machines.

So just because Alexander did not like something according to his own values, it did not mean he could decree it banned.

That would make him only a tyrant, and a hated one at that.

So Alexander let the practice continue for now, touring the place while receiving calls from every slaver, inviting him to come and inspect their slaves.

Though these people did not necessarily recognize Alexander, but the large ten men squad of bodyguards he came here with left no one in doubt of the weight of the purse the man carried.

Everyone was eager to make a sale to him.

 Alexander of course ignored all such calls, as he continued on his way, until he at last came to a very large, conspicuous red colored tent located at the very end of the site. 

"Welcome my lord, we have been eagerly anticipating you."

And even before Alexander could approach the tent, from 50 meters away, the owner of the place knowing of the approaching man rushed out to meet him, a largely flattering smile blooming on his fat, flabby face.

The man was surprisingly the very caricature of what you would think that a slave trader would look like, rotund with layers of fat forming layers on his cheeks, dressed in expensive, sparkling robes, with jeweled rings gracing all his thick digits.

His teeth were yellow and his laugh was almost sickly, and as Alexander saw him, it reminded him of his past, making Alexander feel a bit uncomfortable. 

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