Sulla had come to the bustling metropolis known as Abingdon. The marketplace was buzzing with merchants selling their wares, wagons going past, house-wives searching for ingredients. There was a message board with advertisements. There were missing persons. There was a declaration by the king. There were bounties. Sulla was busy investigating one particular advertisement. It read: “Beautiful Girl Slave Auction”. Sulla had long thought to himself that such a honorable hero of justice as himself should have a young, female slave to attend him—which was only fitting of a hero of justice. The women of the world, he reckoned to himself, couldn’t help but fall in love with his charm, so he was doing them a favor. Under it were names of slaves which were to be auctioned the next week. A certain one caught his eye. Her hair was green. Her country of origin it said was “Nippon”. Sulla didn’t know what a Nippon is. Said her measurements were 82-57-85. Age of 18 years old. Said to be a magician, and to have received magic training. Says hymen still in tact. Her name is listed as “Shizuka Masou”. Sulla became immediately interested. Unfortunately, he had blown all his money had made on his last job on drinking, gambling, and hiring prostitutes.
First, he had no idea how much slaves even sold for, much less a young, female, magic one. Sulla spotted another middle-aged man staring at the same poster he was.
“Hands off. She’s mine.”
“Auction one of first one hasn’t even begun. Quite a statement for someone looking like a horse and haven’t taken a bath in a month.”
“Yeah, what’s a young woman want to do with a geezer like you?”
The man took the fat cigar out of his mouth for a second, and pointed it at Sulla, “They’re slaves. Don’t matter what they think.”
“How inconsiderate. An ally of justice such as myself is always considerate of the woman’s feelings.”
“If you’re so considerate, then you should buy her and set her free. She knows magic, she could do fine for herself on her own.”
Sulla thought about this for a few moments, the thought had not crossed his mind.
“Sounds like a waste of money, and the effort it took to make the money.”
The man gave an amused laugh, “How noble you are.”
Sulla quite agreed with this man’s assessment.
“Say”, the man said, “do you really not know that only certain people can buy slaves? It’s held in a special invite-only auction house, which has a reputation for being exclusive.”
“I’m sure they’d make an exception for someone of such a laudable character for as myself.”
“I’ll choose to believe that when I see it.”
“So, how much they usually go for?”
“Considering this one is quite the prize, I’d say 950 shekels.”
Sulla was trying to wrack his brain where he was going to get such an amount of money from. Oh course, he wasn’t going to admit this to this gentleman. But the man seemed to have read his mind.
“How about this, if you want her so bad, then let’s set up a deal. I’ll go in and buy her, you pay me back whatever the price I paid plus an extra 200.”
Sulla thought this over in his head. It sounded like a decent plan to him. Making money was something which he understood. Stealth and deception came unnaturally to him.
“Very well then, if you make it 75 it’s a deal.”
“100 is as long as I’ll go, bud.”
“Fine. Fine.”
The two discussed the details. Sulla hid the tiny fact from the man that he was practically broke except for his horse and the sword on his back. After they split up, Sulla took to scouring the town to find a way in which he could make money fast.