After the execution, when the dead body of Griss Vul was publicly dragged outside the city to rot or be eaten by monsters, the city began the festival. Arthur decided not to comment, but Catherine saw a slight surprise in his gaze. While it was obvious to her that he couldn't decide if he approved of the situation or not, he kept it to himself. For her part, Catherine wasn't surprised in the slightest. Without Griss Vul and his thugs, the guards quickly brought order back to the city. Even during the execution, the guards were raiding the minor bandit dens they had known about for a long time. The people celebrated what seemed to be the return of safety and order to their city. Arthur was chatting with the Baron while Catherine was loudly ordered, mainly so that no one would disturb her, to eat and drink whatever she wanted. She felt the gaze of basically everyone on her, but she really couldn't care less about it. Some of the stares, especially from women, were full of jealousy. With surprise, she realised that she enjoyed them with a strange sense of satisfaction.

  "Catherine! Is that you?!" Someone shouted from the surrounding crowd.

  She followed the familiar voice and cringed. She pretended not to hear the man, but unfortunately for her, he was loud enough for most of the people to notice. Arthur noticed the man as well.

  "Who is it, Cate?" He whispered into her ear, which twitched nervously.

  "A person I hoped I would never see again." She lowered her head. "That man has been pestering my father since forever to get me married to him, my Lord. I hate him."

  "Uhum... But he seems rather harmless." Arthur tilted his head but she gave the Inquisitor an irritated stare. He smiled. "You want me to deal with him?"

  "Thank you but absolutely not, my Lord." She hissed but felt happy that he wanted to do it. "Someone like him is not worthy of your time. But if I could borrow some of your authority..."

  "You don't even need to ask." He laughed as he straightened. "You want a sword as well?"

  "Please, don't tempt me like that, my Lord..." She smiled brightly at him and bowed like an exemplary maid.

  Arthur laughed politely and waved his hand as he returned to his discussion with the important people gathered near Baron Howthorns.

  She finished the excellent food on her plate, and only after she drank the whole cup of the equally excellent juice, did she turn around towards the man who called her name. She noticed that Captain Amos was walking nearby, pretending to inspect the guards. Catherine stopped two steps before the man and looked at him with disdain, keeping one of the city guards between them.

  "What do you want, Fharid Wolkren?" She asked with a neutral expression.

  "Oh, Catherine! I'm so glad you are well and alive!" He smiled in a very creepy way. "I heard that Arcadian Noble was releasing all of his slaves. Now that the bastard Griss Vul is dead, we can be together. Once that noble releases you, I arranged in the temple that I will take you as my wife. Aren't you happy?"

  "Sorry to disappoint you, but he isn't going to release me." Catherine covered her lips and said with a tone that expressed everything except sorrow.

  "I... I will buy you from him! I will save you!"

  "Save me? I'm already saved, Fharid." Catherine straightened with dignity, but her tail coiled angrily around her legs. "I do not wish to see you, so please do not bother me anymore."

  "No, no, no!" He pulled at the hair on his plump head. "Is it because of that man?! He ordered you to say that! But don't worry, Catherine! I understand everything now!"

  "You don't understand anything." The Nekomi sighed and crossed her arms in front of her as she cast an annoyed stare at him.

  "But... But I love you!" He exclaimed, earning a pitiful glance from every single guard in earshot.

  "Love me?" She leaned slightly forward, an open hand pressed to her chest and the second one angrily clenched behind her back. Her voice was full of seething anger as she all but hissed, "Where were you with your ‘love’ when Griss Vul destroyed my life? Where have you been when, for nearly a year, I was shipped from town to town and displayed like some exotic animal?!"

  "I-"

  "Listen to me very closely! I don't love you. I don't even like you! I despise you and I don't even want to see you!" She shouted. "My Lord doesn't wish you to bother me anymore! Begone!"

  "Stop making a scene, Catherine..." Fharid Wolkren said angrily.

  "It's you who started it." She said coldly and burst into bitter laughter, hearing the snarky but hushed remarks of the nearby soldiers.

  "Just give it up, man." Captain Amos, who approached the closest guard, said with an annoyed tone. "You can't even afford to buy her the meal she was ordered to eat today. Do you think that you could buy her off that noble? Good luck."

  "You..." Fharid turned red and looked angrily at the guard captain, who gave him a warning stare. "This does not concern you! I promised her father to take good care of her..."

  "Catherine?" Arthur's voice came from behind her. He was smiling as he approached them. The Captain saluted him, but the soldier holding off Fharid seemed slightly undecided about what to do. He ultimately decided to keep his guardstance after nodding towards the Arcadian Count. "I have wrapped everything up on my end, so we can go now. Are you done here?"

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  Catherine swiftly turned around and smiled towards the Inquisitor, in a way that would purposefully anger Fharid the most.

  "Yes, my Master!" She purred sweetly, with a voice that should be reserved only for the most intimate conversations that usually happen in bed between lovers.

  "Excellent!" He smiled at her without even losing a beat. "In that case, we should-"

  "Count Arthur Ives!" Fharid interrupted him with a voice underlined with fury but somehow polite at first glance. "My name is Fharid Wolken and I'm Catherine's friend! May I beg you to listen to my plea?"

  "I'm listening." Arthur sighed and looked at Catherine, who shrugged lightly, but if her stare could kill, Fharid would have been reduced to ash long ago.

  "I was informed that you don't plan to release my cherished friend, Catherine Clark. Would you consider selling her to me, then? I want her to be free, Lord Ives!"

  The Inquisitor looked the man before him up and down slowly, his face turning ominously hard and cold as he did so.

  "Never again lie to me, Fharid Wolken. You want to buy her? The entirety of the Kingdom of Saftia doesn't have enough gold to buy her. You want to release her? What a crude joke. Even without my skills, I can see in your eyes how enormous a lie that was. But don't worry. I will release her."

  "Then..." The man cast a luscious and victorious gaze at Catherine who in turn smirked.

  "Once I return to my home in the Empire of Arcadia, she will be free as I promised her," Arthur said, and saw how all Fharid's dreams and plans shattered. The man took a deep breath but Arthur just raised his hand to stop him. "I order you to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, for the next five minutes, Catherine."

  "As you wish, my Lord." She bowed at his words.

  "Do you love Fharid Wolken? Do you want me to release you right now?" Arthur asked.

  "I hate him!" She immediately answered. "No, my Lord! I want to stay in your service for as long as you need me!"

  There was utter silence within earshot while everyone seeing the spectacle covertly eavesdropped.

  "It seems that ordering Catherine to speak only the truth for the next five minutes was overly optimistic on my part since she needed less than ten seconds to explain to you her point of view, Fharid Wolken." Arthur shrugged and looked at the man with scorn. "Do not bother her ever again. If I learn that you are stalking or inconveniencing her even in the smallest way imaginable, I will perceive that as an attack on my person. Let's go, Catherine. We have places to visit."

  "Yes, my Master!" She answered with an exhilarated tone and didn't even glance at Fharid.

  The man extended his hand powerlessly towards her, but stayed quiet as they left in the opposite direction.

  "You'd better give up on her. Lord Ives wasn't joking." Amos said coldly and returned to inspecting his men.

  Catherine was putting extra effort into not jumping like an excited little girl while she followed Arthur. However, her cheerful mood faded as she noticed his thoughtful expression. "Something wrong, my Lord?"

  "Wrong? No." He softly smiled at her. "I just learnt something very interesting and wanted to ask your opinion upon it, but more about that later."

  "Now I'm curious, my Lord." She pouted slightly and her ears flicked, after which they aimed directly at him to not miss a single sound in case he decided to say something.

  "Huh? Do I have to constantly keep you under the order of being absolutely honest to see more of such cute reactions?" He laughed, making her blush. "Anyway, I bumped into Benjamin earlier and he reminded me about the discount he gave me. I mentioned to him about those three girls and he asked me to bring them to his shop."

  "So we are returning for them?"

  "Not really..." He pointed at one of the soldiers slowly walking with the slaves from the Baron's mansion. "I asked one of the Baron's soldiers to bring them here."

  Said soldier stopped in front of the Inquisitor and saluted him eagerly. When the man left them, Catherine looked at Arthur with curiosity as they resumed their march down the city's main street.

  "I know that you are the talk of the entire city at the moment, but he seemed slightly too excited just for that, my Lord. Should I know anything?"

  "Oh... You know, I promised Sion to check the nearby monster den and he insisted on sending a company with us. The boys are all fired up for the hunting trip, so I took advantage of their eagerness." Arthur grinned and stopped to take a look around.

  "Ummm... Us?" Catherine looked at him nervously until she realised that the remaining slaves were even more terrified than she was.

  "Why are you so scared?" Arthur looked at them in surprise. "It's not like those monsters will even have a chance of wrongly looking your way. From what I heard they are mostly level twenty."

  "Sir... Please... I don't want to die." One of the girls fell into tears.

  "Excuse me? Die? How?!" Arthur was genuinely surprised. "You wouldn't even be there! I was talking to Catherine."

  "Oh... Ohhhh!" Catherine lightly bumped the side of her head and made a small laughing sound as she slightly showed him her tongue. "My bad! Sorry, everyone! Lord Ives would not use you as bait or sacrifice you."

  "I really don't want to learn what the basis was for that particular fear, Catherine." Arthur rubbed his eyelids as they reached the front gates of the one of various Trade Companies shops.

  "Many nobles used the slaves as bait for monsters and then hunt down weaker ones to level up, Master..." One of the girls said in a hollow voice and shuddered, looking quizzical upon seeing Arthur facepalm.

  "Figures..." He muttered, sighed, and opened the doors.

  "That's..." Catherine shook her head with a sigh and looked at the large banner over the portal. Her jaw dropped. "It's Alabaster Trading Company! Impossible..."

  "Well... Benjamin introduced himself as Benjamin Alabaster so I thought you already knew who he was..." Arthur gave her an incredulous gaze. "I didn't know how big his business was, but you?"

  "I... It's not a secret, at least for all people in Saftia, but I should have assumed you might not know... I'm sorry, Sir." The Nekomi shook her head. "Many traders impersonate Benjamin Alabaster and while at first he was fighting with it, he ultimately decided to use it to his advantage. Currently, no one is sure what the real Benjamin Alabaster looks like, and he can travel freely because even the bandits have given up on asking for ransom every time they catch Benjamin Alabaster."

  Arthur started laughing. It was something that fit the image of a skilled merchant in his head. He pushed the doors wide as they went inside.

  Thank you all for reading.

  I wish you all a great day and as always I wait for your comments.

  A big thanks to and who edited the chapter!