Chapter 922

Anton thought it would be amusing to pretend to be afraid of the two sleazy middle-aged men and their group of thugs who wanted to recruit him as a bard. Paul and Eric's mission wouldn't be completed for at least another two or three days, and he wanted to entertain himself by seeing what the two men planned to do with him.

"What do you want with me?" Anton asked, doing his best to make his voice tremble so that he would sound extremely afraid.

After hearing his trembling voice, Anton congratulated himself on his acting skills.

"You should have listened to us and simply let us recruit you! Now you'll have to experience something atrocious first," the fat middle-aged man pretending to be a talent agent said.

Anton felt his skin crawl at the lascivious way the two fat men were looking at him. They stared at him as though he were a tasty morsel.

He had never imagined that, as a man, he would experience such behavior from other men. Women were usually the recipients of that kind of lascivious gaze.

"Capture him!" one of the sleazy middle-aged men ordered his thugs.

"Don't resist, or you'll get hurt!" the other one added.

Anton allowed them to tie his hands. They also tried to bind his face, but he protested, saying that he wouldn't resist or shout.

Since they wanted to complete their operation as quickly as possible, the two fat men allowed Anton's face to remain unbound. They then dragged him outside and forced him into a carriage.

The two fat men followed him inside, and the carriage began moving.

Looking at the two men, Anton realized that they were trying their best not to touch him, at least while they were inside the carriage. If he was being honest, the moment either of them tried to touch him in any way, he would immediately destroy them and wouldn't stop until their very last molecule had disappeared from the face of the world.

After about an hour of riding, Anton saw the first light of morning appearing on the horizon. Because of that, the two fat men and their thugs began moving more quickly. Anton knew they didn't want anyone to see what they were doing.

When the carriage finally stopped, Anton was dragged outside. He saw that they had arrived at a huge warehouse located in what appeared to be one of the slums of Remuth.

Upon entering the warehouse, Anton saw that most of the area was blocked by enormous wooden crates, making the entire place resemble a maze.

Eventually, they reached the innermost section of the warehouse. There, Anton saw dozens of cages filled with all sorts of children of both genders and women of various ages.

There were also several men in the cages, but all of them appeared to be young and handsome.

Anton immediately realized that the two fat men were part of a large slave-trading ring.

The children inside the cages were huddled together, and some of the older ones were doing their best to protect the younger children with their bodies.

The older women were kept in a separate cage, where they, too, huddled together in one corner. The young men were confined to another cage.

The two fat men joined a larger group. Anton noticed that the slavers came from various backgrounds. A few appeared to be nobles, several were wizards, and some looked like ordinary merchants.

Once the two fat men joined them, a larger group that appeared to be in charge gathered together and entered a nearby room for what seemed to be a meeting.

The men left behind were the thugs who had been taking orders from the two fat men. They joined another group of rough-looking men who were guarding the cages.

Anton was placed inside the cage holding the young men.

After the thugs left him there, Anton introduced himself to the other captives.

"I'm Anton. Can someone tell me more about the situation we're in?"

"Can't you see for yourself? We've been captured by slavers. All of us will be sold to rich patrons who enjoy playing with slaves, and based on what I've heard, many of us probably won't survive," a bitter-looking young man replied.

"I can't believe Remuth has this kind of activity going on inside it!" Anton said.

He blushed slightly when he noticed that most of the young men were staring at him with a mixture of disbelief and scorn.

If Anton was being honest, the main reason he had little experience with the dark underbellies of the kingdoms he had visited was that they had never stopped in any of the kingdoms they passed through while fleeing from the Undead Coalition long enough to encounter dark things.

By the time they reached Ormunda, Anton's family was already considered part of the upper class because of the resources he had managed to acquire. Because of that, they had never even visited the slums of Ormunda.

Not only that, but Anton had become extremely powerful at a young age. His sister and father had also grown powerful in their own rights, and their family had consequently become part of Ormunda's elite.

Like any of the most powerful families, they were people that the kingdom's seedier underbelly went out of its way to avoid touching.

Anton had also remained focused on the Undead Coalition for most of their stay in Ormunda. That was another reason the criminals had never dared to approach him or any member of his family.

Even now, Anton thought that he could probably deal with this syndicate in a short amount of time.

The wizards he had seen earlier were mostly Archmage Rank.

If he was being honest, Anton couldn't think of any reason why a wizard above the Archmage Rank would become involved in something as mundane as enslaving other people. Most beings who had attained the Supreme Rank or higher considered mundane matters unworthy of their attention.

Their focus would always be on obtaining greater power. Pursuing longevity and indulging in their baser desires would be counterproductive to such a goal.

Anton began thinking about what he should do next.

He wanted to rescue everyone. Looking at the condition of all the people who had been captured as slaves, he couldn't imagine simply leaving anyone behind.

However, he couldn't simply take action.

If he did, there was a chance that the lives of the captives would be put in danger.

In truth, Anton felt a little overwhelmed.

Most of the problems he had encountered in the past, especially those caused by the Undead Coalition, had been resolved through brute force. He would simply overwhelm his enemies with the sheer power of his magic.

The problem was that he couldn't do that this time.

If he tried to brute-force his way through the situation and the wizards among the slavers retaliated, there was a chance that the other captives could be caught in the crossfire or even killed.

After several minutes of thinking, Anton decided that the best solution was to involve the authorities.

The thugs had already removed the rope they had used to tie his hands, so he summoned a raven.

He did his best to ensure that no one noticed his summoning.

Anton crouched down, which wasn't unusual since many of the captives were already sitting or crouching on the floor. He then summoned a raven while using his body to conceal the spell as much as possible.

Afterward, he wrote a letter containing all the details about the warehouse and the situation inside. He tied the letter to the raven's leg.

In the letter, he also explained that the summoned raven would be able to lead the authorities back to the warehouse.

Anton commanded the raven to walk at first so that the guards wouldn't notice it. Once he saw an opportunity when none of the guards were paying attention, he ordered the raven to fly toward Paul and Eric.