"Hey, Nero!" Helena waved at the shopkeeper near the entrance, "I've come to make some purchases!"
"You? Purchase from me?" The scrawny thin man smoking a pipe looked at Helena with a mocking but friendly smile, "I thought I'd never see the day."
"Not a hard job either. Just some high quality normal weapons will do."
"You say that like it's no big deal to make high quality weapons!" Nero laughed as he pulled the pipe from his mouth and let out some smoke, "And what do you want weapons for?! Fighting a war, princess?"
"You could say that. Not my war though."
"Got anymore details you can spare?" Nero's eyes narrowed suspiciously.
"You know of Mulapin?"
"That city ruled by that pompous bloke, Sirius?" Nero scoffed, "Don't tell me you've joined hands with the rebellion now."
"What would you say if I have?"
"Well last I heard, those idiots have been lazing about doing nothing. And those people under Sirius are no joke either. You'd be hard pressed to find someone that can match them."
"We're working on it."
"And you think this equipment will work? The only chance those rebels had was when Zenith was leader and now that bloke's gone."
"Zenith huh?" Roko muttered to himself.
"Since when did a weapons merchant care about where his weapons go?" Helena smirked.
"Hey, I'm an ethical arms dealer." Nero said with false sincerity, "I care about where my babies go. Don't want them going to a doomed rebellion anyway. Have you even ever lead a rebellion?"
"Oh, I'm not leading it." Helena grinned.
"Oh yeah? Then do tell who is leading it right now if you know."
"This man right here!" Helena pointed to Roko.
"Oho..." Nero took a puff on his pipe as he circled Roko, looking him up and down curiously, "And what's your name, young man?"
"Roko."
"Where you from, Roko?"
"Another world."
"Alright. Keep your secrets then." Nero smirked as he returned to his desk, "Not like it matters much to me. So what kind of weapons are you looking for?"
"Armor is the primary concern." Roko said as he brought out a notebook and consulted his notes, "I want them made with at least 4140H grade steel and swords of at least 1060 grade-"
"Whoa, hold on there, if you're getting all technical terms with me, I need to start writing this down!" Nero ran over to his front desk and scrambled to find an empty piece of paper, "You want full sets of armors like this?!"
"And chain mail."
"Chain mail too?! Geez, you sure know a lot about armaments."
"I studied a bit of it."
"This feels a lot more than just a few minutes of study. How many did you need again?"
"100." Helena replied.
"100?" Nero scratched his head as he consulted his records, "I don't know if I have that many equipment of that quality on hand right now. I can maybe fulfill half of that right now and have the rest sent to your base."
Roko glanced towards Helena who just winked knowingly and turned back to Nero, "Sounds good. Now let's talk about payment."
"Let's." Nero looked up, eyes hungry for cash, "I hope you're well aware this is going to cost well into millions of gold for you."
"We get a discount for buying bulk though right?" Helena grinned.
"Well I guess you can get like a 5% discount."
"Make it 10%."
"Why in blazes would I give you 10%?!"
"Because I know unlike most weapons dealers, you're the one with the mass supply that we need. Most others are into selling named weapons or pawning off normal weapons as legendary ones. And because of that, you don't get a lot of business from most of the people here. You profit in wars and I'm selling you a war. This is the biggest business opportunity you've gotten in a while if I had to guess, am I right?"
"You think I'm foolish enough to base my livelihood on one business?" Nero laughed, "I've been running this business for years and I'll be running it long after you grow old, young lady!"
"I'm sure you're a shrew businessman." Helena nodded, "But if selling weapons was all you did, then why aren't you selling them above ground?"
"You know damn well the reason I can't sell them in the open market." Nero scowled.
"Exactly." Helena nodded, "Now let me ask you. Why don't we take our business to the open market? Our demands aren't THAT illegal right?"
"I...guess the nearby blacksmiths have all been bought by Sirius?"
"That's right!" Momo clapped, "Now let's be real here. We're only here for the convenience. If we had to, we could just have these weapons bought on the surface market and delivered on the down low. If we really had to. But I really don't want to have to put more money than I have to towards this purchase. Lots to fund around the rebellion base, you know. But if I really had to..."
Helena's edging was having a clear effect on the man but Nero was an experienced salesman too and was no pushover. As he replied,
"What if I sold to Sirius instead huh?" He asked with sneering bravado, "I could sell weapons, hell I could sell information on you to him if I wanted to!"
"Nero..." Helena tilted her head, unfazed and amused, "Come on. I know you. Client trust is worth double, no triple its weight in gold. You wouldn't risk endangering our little business relationship would you? I would be hurt if you did."
"Well I..." Nero's bravado faltered against Helena's charm, "I uhh..."
"Plus, let's be real." Helena said, dropping her sweetness down a notch to speak a bit more seriously, "Sirius would never buy weapons from you. Why would he? He's got every blacksmith in a dozen miles close to us to supply for him and you're not exactly selling unique weapons here. What's more, he has the Five Planetary Stars. Have you heard of them? Five extremely strong warriors that have been soloing our efforts for a while. They have no use for your weapons and their guards are pretty well equipped already. Even if you could get him to buy, there's no chance he'll buy at the same quantity as us."
"Uhhhh...uhhh..."
"And lastly, Nero. Think back. Think back to what kind of person Sirius is. Do you REALLY think he'd buy from you? Given all his options? Given how he acts? Hell, do you even want to associate with that kind of man? He's not a good investment. Not of your money but of your time. You're no equal to him. And he certainly won't be your friend."
"..."
"Actually, if you DID get him to buy from you, that might even help us." Helena continued, "I mean all these weapons can't be cheap and Sirius certainly has the money to afford it but he doesn't have infinite money. We have plans on fighting him on the financial battlefield too. Ah, don't tell anybody I said that, okay? Our little secret. But yeah, if you did get him to buy this much weapons from you, that does make it easier to attack him in the stock market. Buying from the black market when he has all these trade deals with nearby smithies? Can't be a good look for him. So please understand. I'm trying to help you out when I'm asking for a 15% discount."
"You said 10% before!" Nero objected.
"Did I?" Helena smiled mischievously, "Maybe you misheard?"
"I didn't misheard nothing!" Nero shook his head, "And you made your point! You can have the damn discount! But only 10%! And in exchange I'll even throw in some extra stuff. Bows, arrows, staffs, you name it. I'll give it to ya at a special rate."
"THANKS NERO!" Helena clapped her hands with the biggest grin on her face, "You're the best! I knew I could count on you!"
"Yeah yeah, you're lucky I like you." Nero sighed, "Now let's work out the details of the deal before I start to regret anything."
"Firstly, I would like a sample of the weapons and armor you're selling us." Roko spoke up, "Just to make sure of it's quality."
"I ain't no scammer but if you feel like it then sure." Nero shrugged as he walked off towards his racks of weapons and armor, "Didn't take you to be much of an appraiser."
"Roko has his own methods." Helena nodded.
A cursory scan (and analyze) of the sample Nero set out proved he was not lying about having the quality and quantity Roko was looking for. Once they were satisfied, it became Melia's job to hash out the finer details of the purchase and Helena suggested they take this time to explore the rest of the market.
"They'll be in there for a while." She explained, "Don't worry about Melia. She's experienced in all this. More so than even me. Best way I can help her out is to grab something for us to eat after she's done. I'll be busy with that but you're free to explore the market if you want, Roko. This is your first time and you were curious about this place weren't you? Take the time to check some things out. Don't be afraid to buy anything. You won't need to haggle as much with small purchases."
And with those words in mind, Roko set off alone to explore the market. Unlike normal markets, there were no true buildings. Everything was a stall or a tent, elaborately set up and decorated as they were. And most of these weren't selling any foods or groceries. Some sold what seemed like jewelry and knickknacks but overhearing the discussions with the attending customers, these objects might be enchanted. This was the Warstorm Market after all. They sold things meant to be used for war. There were curios and weapons to medicine and even organs at sale. But it wasn't until Roko wandered into a large brown tent that the reality of his setting really sunk in.
No one was there at the desk near the entrance so Roko just started walking down the line of products. It started...innocuously enough for lack of a better term. A few exotic animals in cages, including some magical ones. But it wasn't until he saw a live human in one of these cages that he realized he had stepped into a slave trader's tent.
"Hello there!" The chipper voice of a rotund man cut into the cold dread and seething anger that Roko was hiding behind his calm demeanor, "Sorry I wasn't there to greet you at the entrance! Haven't seen you at this market before. Looking for anything specific?"
"Just...browsing." Roko replied, holding back his panic quite well for how much he wanted to get out of the tent already.
"Well, tell me if anything catches your eye." The man nodded, "I'd be happy to strike a deal with you!"
Roko nodded and turned back to the poor man in the cage. He was thin, starving and barely responsive to the world around him. There was food in front of him, a simple meal of bread and water but the man didn't seem interested in eating it. He was miserable. Depressed. Perhaps trying to starve himself to escape his reality. From the chains that kept him tied to the back wall. It was a sight that tore away at Roko's heart, fed into his raging anger and ate away at his rationality to remain calm. But he knew there was nothing he could do. If he tried to free them all there would be no way to get them all out of here safely. These people were in no state to partake in an escape both physically and mentally. And of any place in the world this was the one market where this kind of business was allowed. An impromptu rebellion would just cause the full force of every guard and maybe even the shopkeepers to quickly suppress him. He would not succeed, would not get far and would not even be remembered for his actions. A newcomer starting an outroar over the very tolerated form of business could not have been anything new and they would not remember him aside from barring him from ever coming back and ruining the weapons deal Helena and Melia worked so hard for. So all he could do was walk around and get out as soon as he could. Well...there was one more thing he was curious enough to do.
Scanning each of the human slaves brought up interesting statistics. Their stats were low due to their malnourishment but there were a few rare traits in some of them such as being a Trismegistus or having an interestingly high stat in anything that wasn't strength or constitution. Even with the obvious debuffs to those two stats, there were some with a notable enough spike in those two stats to be able to determine which ones were better suited for physical labor. Looking at people this way make Roko sick to his stomach but the cold logical analysis was the only thing keeping him stable and it was undoubtedly interesting data that could come in handy one day. That same logic was also the one keeping him from doing the bare minimum act of humanity and buying one of them just to set them free. A token gesture more to assuage his own helplessness rather than true kindness. His logic would not let him make such a pointless decision...until he came across one of the last slaves near the entrance, having made a u turn down the first lines of cages and up the other side of the tent. The light peaking out of the entrance from the outside gave Roko a better look from the dim depressing lighting that only grew worse when he traveled deeper into the tent. But in this peeking light, Roko found a small human child. A girl sitting on the floor in rags, hair unkempt with bangs covering one eye and a face devoid of hope and emotion. She was chained to the wall and unresponsive like every other slave and otherwise didn't seem all that different from any other child. But his spells told a different story.
"Interested in that one?" The slave trader spoke up, startling Roko who was so embroiled in controlling his emotions that he did not realize he had been following him, "She's a tricky one. Very clumsy. Uneducated. But she's young and you can teach her whatever you want. She might grow up to be pretty useful if you put in the effort. Though you look a bit young for fatherhood."
Roko's eyes turned away from the slave trader back to the young girl. She had not moved. Had not responded. Dared not to even look up in hope from their discussion. It didn't matter what the slaver said. His emotions were still calling for one act of validating kindness and his logic had seen a potential that interested him.
"You want to buy her?" The slave trader asked, "I'll give you a special discount for her."
"Yeah." Roko replied, cold as stone, "I'll take her."
The slave trader didn't respond immediately. It was clear he was keeping a watch on Roko, perhaps aware of how much he wanted to demolish his shop. But he clearly wasn't willing to turn away from a good deal and probably didn't even care for the very slaves he was raising.
"Alright. Come up to the front desk and I'll prepare the documents."
Said documents revealed a bit more about the girl. Namely that she didn't have a name. She had a serial number designated to her and a short description of where she was found. In an alley apparently. A story too vague and laced with dramatic prose to be taken seriously. Not that it really matter. Roko signed them all the same, a part of him still disgusted that he was partaking in his industry. But the slave trader didn't seem to care and was...industrious enough to only take most of Roko's ready money. From the sound of it, Roko could have been charged more and could pay in installments but this deal was so good that he should be grateful for the slave trader's generosity. When in reality, both never wanted to see the other again and knew they probably won't but the slave trader was still corporate enough to not burn bridges in case Roko ever did decide to make business with him again.
"Alright, now place your hand here." The slave trader gestured to a brace that was mounted to a strange magical contraption on the table.
"What's this?" Roko asked as he placed his hand in the brace.
"Isn't it obvious? It's to transfer the Master's Seal." The slave trader replied as he strapped Roko's arm to the brace. Then he removed the glove from one of his hand and placed it on the brace opposite of Roko's. On the top of his hand was a red mark, a magical seal that was simple enough in design. The slave trader set the knuckles of his hand against Roko's and after fiddling around with a few dials, pressed a button. The contraption rumbled and the seal on the slave trader's arm began to glow and parts of it began to disappear. At the same time, the top of Roko's hand began to grow hot as a magical seal began to sear itself on top of Roko's hand, drawing a complete copy of the one on the slave trader's but then drawing more elaborate additions to the design on Roko's hand. The process was painful but nothing Roko hasn't dealt with before.
"You sure took that well." The slave trader said as he unstrapped Roko's arm, "Mmm. That seal's a real nice one. You're definitely one of those pure of heart folks. Anyway, I'll grab her from the cage now. Wait here."
Roko looked down at the seal, a disgust choking the back of his throat. It was too late to take back what he's done now. Roko was sure he'd treat his new ally right. But not being able to do more and to do so little while in service to the concept...Roko didn't think he could like himself anymore. Then again that was nothing new.
"YOU BOUGHT A SLAVE?!" Helena and Melia cried when Roko rejoined them.
"Yeah..." Roko sighed, said girl hiding behind his leg anxiously.
"Roko..." Helena said, grinning ear to ear, "Can you stop adopting children already?!"
"What do you mean?! I haven't adopted any children!"
"First there's Aida and then there's Eresh and now this?"
"I haven't adopted Aida officially and Eresh is very clearly NOT my child! She's Enlil's!"
"Roko..." Melia said, "I'm...not sure how to take this..."
"I don't usually buy slaves, I swear." Roko grumbled.
"It's fine Roko, we should've kinda expected this." Helena chuckled, "Not much here to interest you but saving one slave seems like the kind of stuff you'd do."
"I was expecting him to come back with a new named sword or something." Melia shook her head, "Nothing like this."
"Can we just move on?" Roko sighed.
"Yeah, if you're going to explain yourself, you should probably do it in front of everyone else." Helena smirked.
"Well, the weapons deal is done." Melia looked back at the floating carriage that carried a large shipment of weapons and armors on it, "We can leave right now."
"Okay but first, here." Helena handed Melia a crepe, "Good work today, Melia."
"Thanks." Melia smiled, taking the crepe from Helena.
"Here. Got one for you too, Roko."
"Give it to the girl." Roko sighed.