Chapter 618: The Auction Items

Two days later.

Rod lay half-reclined on the bed, ignoring Tally, who sat before him.

He took a stack of newspapers from the bedside table.

A huge headline immediately caught his eye:

— "Campbell's Black Nest Ambushed by Lightning Strike of the Conscription Knights! Chaos Triggers Unknown Barrier, Remnants of Both Sides Suspected Swallowed by the Labyrinth!"

"Master, I'm almost—"

Tally shook Rod's body, making the characters on the newspaper blur beyond recognition.

"Don't stop."

"M-Master is so domineering~~"

Her face flushed red; she gritted her teeth, pressing the instep of her foot against Rod's thigh, straightening her back to exert more force.

The succubus put on a show, strutting and posing while being fed only once a day.

But Rod still paid her no mind.

He shook the newspaper, the rustling sound obscuring her figure, which provoked an indignant squeal from her.

Another news headline appeared.

— "The Labyrinth Devours People! Sudden Transformation at the Large Labyrinth in Twilight Hills; Great Hero Ranger Rod Fled Seriously Injured and Remains Unconscious to This Day!"

Rod curled his lip.

He supposed few would believe this report.

After all, he had only recently faked his own death to incite infighting between the Red Dragon Nas and the Black Dragon Mikhail.

Yet when he returned alongside the Wind of the Shadow Hunters leader, Eve, and Rosalia, he truly did look utterly wretched.

It was mainly a performance for the remaining members of the Conscription Knights.

They had not deployed their full force; roughly twenty remained behind, with half of them belonging to the Wind of the Shadow Hunters.

The Yige Sect had only a handful of low-level members left.

Rod didn't know their attitude, but two days had passed, and none had dared to leave the inn they had rented.

Whatever they were thinking.

Naulin, as the consciousness of the Labyrinth, had indeed sealed off the entire Campbell Labyrinth; no one could enter or exit.

That was certainly a perfectly valid reason.

"Eek!"

Tally let out a squeal; her exhausted arms slid from Rod's abs, and she crashed onto the newspaper, smearing her face across it with a wet slap.

She pretended to be too weak to move, smearing her sweat-slicked face all over Rod's.

Instead, she ended up giggling herself.

She clung tightly to Rod's head, panting loudly.

A sweet scent drifted into his nose.

Rod arched his legs upward.

His right arm locked around Tally's slender waist while his left hand grabbed her hair, pulling her down for a kiss; he would do it himself.

Tally's face lit up with surprise, but she knew exceptionally well how to stir her master's emotions.

Her expression quickly shifted to one of delicate sorrow, indignation, and resentment.

Tears misted her eyes; her snow-white arms weakly tried to push him away, yet she was utterly powerless to resist.

Her actions in her mouth were equally perfect.

She kept her teeth tightly shut; even as he pried them open, she struggled to push him away, achieving peak chastity, one might say.

Not long after.

Amidst Tally's performance-filled sobs mixed with coquettish cries, he finished smoothly.

The creature had become addicted to acting; afterward, regardless of the mess spreading across the bed, she curled up weakly and wept softly.

"Waaah, scum..."

"..."

"Your son died just yesterday, and today you assault your daughter-in-law at the altar... waaah, if you aren't scum, then who is... waaah..."

"What kind of twisted setting is this?"

Rod kissed her cheek and tossed the sweat-dampened newspaper aside.

He had just sat up to leave when Tally grabbed his hand.

He turned to look.

She unwillingly turned her face away, her cheeks burning red.

"Stay with me a little longer... my legs are still weak; I don't want to get up so soon."

"I still need to arrange things for the people rescued from the Labyrinth; I'm busy."

Inside the Campbell Labyrinth, Rod had rescued all the living slaves, including many beautiful, well-preserved non-human girls.

As a stamp-collecting enthusiast, Rod couldn't help but feel excited.

But seeing the panic and fear in their eyes, he knew he couldn't bring himself to act.

Using the Nu Yi Zhou to enslave them as subordinates wasn't right either; they were all kidnapped victims, and surely some wanted to return home.

Doing so would make him no different from the Campbell family.

For now, the priority was comfort.

Those who wished to return home could receive travel funds from Rod, or he could send a letter for their families to come fetch them.

Those who couldn't find their homes or had simply been sold by their families could work in Coral Bay, earn their own money, and manage their own lives.

Rod didn't have the patience to find every single person a home, but providing a job and lodging was still doable.

The key here was to modify the memories of those who had been slaves of the Campbell family, to keep Rod from being exposed.

This task was to be handled by the elf Lady Kaliste.

But she wasn't a mage well-versed in Jing Shen Xi Fa spells, so naturally the process was much slower.

If the Tu Ren Zu Fa mage Lady Aona were here, things wouldn't have to be this troublesome.

"But your daughter-in-law isn't satisfied yet."

"That's a contradiction, Tally. You just called me a scumbag a moment ago — how are you suddenly not satisfied?"

"What can I do? My husband only has that little bit, but you, Father-in-Law, have reached a place he never did — I, I—"

Tally froze for a moment, then made an adorable thinking face, gazing up at the sky.

But in the end she still couldn't come up with a line, and with a wave of her slender hand—

She dropped the act and said in a coquettish voice:

"Anyway, your daughter-in-law has been... conquered by you, Father-in-Law. Master, my lord~~ let's do it again~~~"

Rod cast her a sidelong glance.

Tally instantly cowered, crawled across the bed, and gave him an ingratiating, fawning smile.

Then she cast a transformation spell, turning into a petite flower fairy, and burrowed into Rod's arms.

"My legs aren't weak, I'm coming too~~"

They moved on to Coral Bay.

Currently, part of this harbor town in the Munster sea region had already been completed — enough to be basically livable.

That included an estate belonging to Rod on the western edge.

He had no intention of living there.

But after all, it was a maritime trade town — it needed some impressive buildings to keep up appearances.

For now, though—

It was being used to secretly house the slaves rescued from the Campbell Labyrinth.

The moment Rod opened the great door and appeared inside a high-domed room—

The slaves who had been going about their activities immediately swarmed over noisily.

There were delicate elven twin sisters with wings, gentle and adorable multi-tailed fox-girl sisters, a charming female lizardfolk with pink scales, a mantis woman staring with a pair of yellow eyes in great excitement, a noble half-dragon girl with six pairs of dragon horns, and so on.

Because of their pleasing appearances, which fit human aesthetics—

These girls had been auction items, and so hadn't suffered too much torment.

By contrast, there were also a small number of slaves who existed as "consumables."

Dog-people like Nick and Uma made up part of that group, and most of the cat-people, gazelle-people, and the like bore signs of bodily mutilation and torture.

The vast majority here were girls, and none of them were very old.

Many of the men had been controlled by the gray dwarves as combat power, and ultimately died along the way under their control.

"Lord Rod!"

"My lord! My lord!"

"Great benefactor, you've come!"

Looking at those pairs of grateful eyes, Rod couldn't help but give a wry smile.

They had personally watched Rod kill the villains who had enslaved and controlled them, then tear open their cages as if it were nothing. For the past two days they'd had food and drink, could even send letters for free, and didn't need to live in fear at all.

They had probably long since taken Rod for a savior.

The elf Lady Kaliste walked over slowly.

Lady Kaliste snorted coldly: "As you wished, human — so many girls looking at you with adoration."

(End of chapter)