Chapter Text
Wriothesley opened his eyes, and a large black curtain fell into his field of vision. The curtain completely covered the iron cage, blocking out all the light from the outside. In the darkness, Wriothesley's two beast-like eyes gave off a distinct icy-blue glow. Through the heavy black cloth, he could hear the voices outside the iron cage; the huge noise was loud enough to knock over the entire roof.
"The next lot is—" The auctioneer deliberately paused, selling the suspense under the gaze of the countless audience members.
Wriothesley bowed his head inside the iron cage and stared silently at his rough claws for a while. "System, I seem to have become a monster." After saying this, he suddenly realized a fact: "Did you forget to erase my memory?"
System: [I checked to see what went wrong.]
Wriothesley nodded. He looked at his palm with a strange expression; thick, hard scales were attached to the back of his hand. His nails were long and sharp like knives, capable of cutting a person's throat in an instant.
If I really transmigrated into a monster, aren’t I incredibly ugly right now?
Wriothesley subconsciously reached out, intending to touch his face. The moment his right hand was halfway up, the long claws naturally retracted, instantly turning back into the white, sleek skin that a human being should have. Noticing this, he found it magical.
Meanwhile, the excitement of the auctioneer passed through the microphone, echoing into every corner of the underground exchange.
"This next lot is a half-orc, a species that has been disappeared for two hundred years!"
Before the announcement even finished fading, the auctioneer snapped his fingers, and the staff at the side joined forces to pull down the black cloth covering the iron cage.
The sudden bright light made Wriothesley close his eyes. When he adapted to the illumination, he slowly opened them, exposing his entire body to everyone's sight. The surroundings fell suddenly quiet. Everyone calmed down and turned their eyes toward the half-orc in the iron cage.
To be precise, it was better to say he was a man rather than a beast. His eyes were darker than a normal person's; looking at them, you could barely see the whites of his eyes at all. His gaze seemed to hide magic—a deep darkness with a vortex that magnetically attracted their attention.
This was a handsome, suffocatingly beautiful man.
"Please rest assured, everyone! We have invited the most authoritative, top-ranking doctors to inject this half-orc with hormones that inhibit animal instincts. As long as the special serum is injected into the half-orc on time, he is absolutely incapable of harming humans."
Looking at him from the outside, no one would believe that such a fine man was not a human being.
Someone immediately questioned: "Isn't it said in legends that the half-orcs are extremely ugly, with an animal's head and a human body? The one in the cage is clearly a human being. How can we treat our own kind this way?"
A frivolous voice chimed in: "This man is so beautiful, even the royal family is no match for him. Who cares if he is a man or a half-orc? As long as you have enough chips, there is nothing that can't be bought."
"He is so charming; I really want to go to bed with him."
......
The arguments from the men and women came one after another. Amidst the intense discussion, Wriothesley lazy pulled a yawn, which attracted a collective exclamation from the crowd.
He asked in his mind, “System, did you check it out?”
[Checked out. The time code of the system went wrong, causing you to wear into this body directly after a two-hundred-year gap.]
Wriothesley blinked, “What do you mean by that?”
[That is to say, at the moment you transmigrated, you were already betrayed by the scum attack target, causing the memory seal to automatically release.]
It was good to be able to have his own memories, but he didn't know anything about the current situation. Where was he supposed to find the scum attack target to abuse? Thinking this way, Wriothesley held onto a bit of hope and asked: “What should I do now? When can you recover the code?”
[The staff is currently trying to repair it. In view of the irreversibility of your memory awakening, even if you were to wear back to two hundred years ago, you still wouldn't have the memory of this world. You can only rely on your own wisdom to find the scum attack target and raise the target’s pain value.]
“...”
[To make up for this negligence, I can satisfy one of the host's wishes.]
Wriothesley’s spirits instantly rebounded. He was just about to increase his chances for romantic encounters, but then he thought of how he had wasted his opportunity in one of the previous worlds. Forget it—he should wait until his six chances for love were used up before playing it safe. If he didn't use them efficiently, he would lose out.
“I haven't thought of a wish yet. I'll tell you when I think of one.”
[Okay.]
Outside the cage, the auctioneer and the crowd had discussed things enough. They announced the starting price, officially opening the prelude to the auction.
In order to claim Wriothesley, everyone was arguing with faces flushed red like chicken blood. The auction amount refreshed again and again. Watching them, Wriothesley curled his lips into a satirical smile; he hadn't expected that he would actually be so valuable. The tense atmosphere maintained for a long time, and when the auction price skyrocketed to an astronomical amount, many people retired from the bidding.
Peering through the gaps of the iron cage, Wriothesley noticed that only a few people were still competing in the field. His current vision was excellent, allowing him to clearly see their faces. They all had the advantage of fair, white faces—undoubtedly wealthy, good-natured sons to be wasting money like this.
Wriothesley lost interest in these people, simply bowing his head to concentrate on playing with his own fingers.
He had just heard the people below calling him a half-orc. Hearing the name, he estimated it was a mixture of human and animal genes. However, he was more interested in the bio-suppressive hormone the auctioneer mentioned. Was it true that he had been injected with a hormone making him this weak?
“System, half-orcs should be very powerful. When can I restore my force value?”
[...What humans say doesn't work on you. You don't have power right now simply because you just woke up, and your body's functions haven't fully recovered yet.]
“So that's how it is,” Wriothesley thought thoughtfully.
What did the system mean by "woke up"? Just as he wanted to continue asking, the system directly cut off contact with him due to the need to fix the system vulnerability.
Wriothesley: “...”
The excitement had made the auctioneer’s throat go hoarse. Spitting as he spoke, he continued to stimulate the people under the stage to raise the price, a process that lasted for more than ten minutes. The final few rounds of intense bidding pushed the atmosphere of the venue to a climax.
Wriothesley distractedly swept a glance below. The person who eventually bought him was a weak, scholarly young man. From beginning to end, the youth carried a white handkerchief, coughing from time to time. Facing the marveling, envious, or stunned stares of the people around him, he maintained a calm face. He simply curled his mouth, whispered a few instructions to the person by his side, and then slowly left with his entourage.
Although the youth did not reveal his face completely from start to finish, Wriothesley still felt that he was completely different from the other people here.
But……
Wriothesley squinted half-heartedly. A sick ghost bought me? What is he planning to do with me? Isn't he afraid he might die right on top of me?