Chapter 104 Killing Intent?

"What a surprise, so young master has also come."

'Such bad luck. I had to run into two pigs today.' Ethan thought as he saw a fat man in luxurious long white robes waving at him from the other side of the shop.

"Bishop Reyes, and High Priest Gerhart," Ethan responded as he greeted with a smile on his face while snickering inwardly.

Bishop Reyes showed a brilliant smile as if he was very happy to run into Ethan. Averting his gaze from the slaves, bishop Reyes began walking toward Ethan.

"This must be God's will that we meet today like this. Hahaha!" Bishop Reyes said as he stood in front of Ethan.

"Yes…"

"I have heard of the young master's merciful and benevolent nature but it is only today that I get to witness it."

"It's nothing, but why is Bishop here in a place like this?" Ethan asked childishly.

"You jest, the Church too, is benevolent. I am merely carrying out the duty assigned to me by God. I am here to aid some pitiful souls as well." Said the Bishop in a benevolent tone.

"I see… So will you free them?" Ethan asked in admiration.

Bishop Reyes flinched momentarily but then answered with a gentle smile, "Even better, they can serve God as his servants in the Church. God will surely reward them by opening the gates of paradise."

"Oh…" Ethan muttered as his mouth shaped into a perfect circle. He looked like he was intrigued.

Even though Ethan seemed like he was acting like a typical seven-year-old, in his mind, the image of when he had visited the church appeared. The image of those soulless and robotic servants who were doing chores in the church. Ethan thought that there was definitely something wrong there.

"Well then, please excuse me." Bishop Reyes said, bowing slightly as he turned around with Gerhart and four holy knights and walked off heading toward the slaves.

"What does the young master require today?" The slave merchant stepped forward and asked while rubbing his hands with a greedy look on his face.

"I will tell you when I have decided," Ethan replied stoically as he moved ahead.

Ethan's eyes glowed faintly as he activated his appraisal ability. Immediately after, he could sense the strengths of the people around him almost like instinct.

Ethan sensed that there were around five people present in the tent hiding although he did not sense any malice or danger from them. There were the fatty's personal guards with who Ethan was familiar. Even Albert and Commander Wolfe were aware of them.

Ethan also sensed that the Bishop had no strength to speak of. However, the knights with him seemed decently strong. Ethan also saw the brownish particles roaming around Albert.

As Ethan began making rounds in the shop, a few of the slaves started murmuring in low voices looking at Ethan with hopeful eyes.

"Y- young master!" A voice suddenly called out as Ethan was making rounds of the shop searching for some useful slaves.

Just as Ethan turned his head toward the noise, a sharp sound of a whip rang followed by a muffled groan.

"Don't make noise bitch!"

Ethan looked over with a furrowed brow and saw a woman curled back in fear with despair written all over her face and a man looking at her with a furious expression while holding onto a whip.

"D-don't hit me… Please… I won't do it again." The woman pleaded with tears filling her eyes as she prostrated herself on the ground.

The woman sneakily shot Ethan a sideways glance as if pleading with him to save her.

'What a pity…' Ethan thought as he could not sense an ounce of strength or potential from the woman. However, seeing the woman's unwavering gaze on him, he felt a bit interested.

The woman was very beautiful. Although her long hair was messy and dirty, she wore ragged clothes, her huge bust almost tearing the clothes apart, but she still stood out like a sore thumb due to her green eyes, beautiful face, and her charm that made one feel like protecting her.

Ethan walked up to the place where the woman was with other slaves, observing her keenly he asked the man with a whip, "Can she read and write?"

"Yes!"

"Bring her to me,"

The man with a whip seemed surprised and envious for some reason as he roughly grabbed the woman dragging her in front of Ethan.

Making some distance between himself and the others, Ethan gestured for the woman to come closer.

With a look of hesitation but firm eyes, the woman moved closer to Ethan and kneeled, getting on his level. With an emotionless expression, Ethan moved even closer to the woman and whispered in her ear.

"Speak quickly."

"Young Master, I will be helpful to you! Please take me in your care." The woman said without any hesitation not wasting any time.

"Interesting, why did you think I would help you?"

"When you entered, some people here who knew you said that you buy slaves with at least some skill. I have always had good instincts and I knew that this was my chance. This is why I took the risk and yelled like that to get your attention. I can read and write! I can do anything! They will beat me because of disobedience. Please help! I will be useful!" The woman pleaded in a desperate tone and a shaking voice.

In a very low, almost inaudible voice Ethan whispered, "Make your mind, there will be no going back. I will have a task for you in the future but it might be dangerous. In fact, you might even be better off here.

The woman's expression sank then flickered in bafflement, hesitation, and confusion but then she shook her head as if to clear her thoughts and nodded in agreement as if her life depended on it.

Albert and others simply watched from a distance with suspicion not understanding what their Young master was doing. 'Could it be… That… he has 'those' preferences?' Albert thought to himself with cold sweat on his back. Soon after, he inwardly shook his head thinking that the whole conjecture was absurd.

"Alright, I will buy her," Ethan called out to the man nearby as he pulled away from the slave woman.

The man sighed inwardly feeling envious as well as having a terrible misunderstanding. Looking at the beautiful, busty woman, a lecherous look flashed in his eyes before disappearing as he sighed once again in lament.

"Alright, you got a deal! I will make the contract right away. Her price will be 100 gold. You got any problem with that?"

"100?!" Ethan exclaimed.

"Yea… It's absolutely not for a bargain. She can read and write, which is very rare. She is also a virgin and she's from a ruined foreign noble household. It's a good deal…" The man said, his voice getting fainter in the end as he gaped at the woman's breast with lecherous eyes.

Seeing this, Ethan's anger flared up as he narrowed his eyes dangerously.

The man jumped back in fright feeling a chill creeping down his spine. With cold sweat, he ran off quickly after mumbling.

The woman finally sighed feeling a wave of relief washing over her. She clasped her hands in front of her and quietly moved behind Ethan, intending to follow him.

Suddenly a clamor broke out as more women gathered all their courage seeing that Ethan had bought one of them. Immediately after, a few men rushed forward with furious expressions to shut them up as multiple groans soon sounded.

"Can they read and write?" Ethan asked plainly, pointing at the other women.

"No." Someone responded.

"Let's go." Ethan coldly said much to the slaves' misery and walked off without looking back.

Albert sighed with relief seeing that Ethan was not swept away by emotion. He looked over at the pitiful women and noticed that some of the other women were even more beautiful and voluptuous than the one Ethan had chosen.

This clearly meant that Albert's previous conjecture was indeed wrong. 'What will you do with the woman anyways?' Albert wondered.

Just as Ethan walked off from the woman, Bishop Reyes appeared there as he saw all the women who were in despair. With a benevolent smile, he declared, "Don't be in despair. You all are in luck, the church will shelter you, praise the allfather!"

Hearing this and seeing the Church's emblem on Bishop Reyes's robe, color once again returned to the women's faces as their cloudy eyes became clearer with the light of hope.

Ethan who had been looking back and observing everything sighed helplessly with regret and shook his head.

Just as he was going to resume looking for more slaves in the tent, suddenly he sensed a very faint and weak killing intent that was almost non-existent.

Unexpectedly so, the killing intent was targeted not at himself but at Bishop Reyes. Even more unexpectedly, Bishop Reyes flinched, seemingly also sensing something as he looked at the place where the killing intent was coming from.