The Extra's Return

Ka-clank!

The door of the iron bars carriage opened.

"Down!"

Pavlova's voice was very harsh when he had told me to get down.

According to what he wanted, I immediately got down and stepped onto the floor where the horse-drawn carriage had stopped.

When I was down, the horse-drawn carriage was immediately taken out by another person who suddenly appeared from inside the clock tower.

There was only Pavlova and two soldiers who seemed ready to guide me. While following them, I paid attention to the inside of the clock tower.

The first thing that caught my attention was, the amount of light inside the clock tower. That was a very small light.

I had been sure there was very bright sunlight outside. But why was the inside of the clock tower was so dark? Not much light comes in. The light only came from a few small air ducts in some places which had been installed. 𝑓re𝘦𝔀𝗲𝘣𝘯𝘰νℯ𝒍.c𝗼ｍ

It was like being in a different world.

Not only was there limited visibility due to the lack of light, but the inside of the clock tower was also very soundproof.

There was no noise sound from outside successfully coming inside. I wasn't sure if the clock tower had used the concept of soundproof room technology. I had been more convinced that this place used some kind of magic scroll.

I started looking at the interior of this place.

There should be a large machine or pendulum in the middle of the clock tower building so that the clock on top of the tower can keep ticking. However, I didn't see it.

I just kept walking in a small alley.

Could it be that parts of the machine have been replaced using magic technology in this world? Or perhaps the core of the clock tower is in another place or room?

Since this clock tower had to be very large, bigger than some of the famous clock towers on earth, I didn't know the exact answer.

"Hmm?"

I stopped when I found a tall, perforated wooden plank that looked as if it were in charge of separating the hall I was in from another room.

Is this ground floor some kind of maze? I became very anxious.

I glanced at what was in the other part of the room through the cracks in the wooden planks like a stalker.

Even though the light here was minimal, I could still clearly see what was there.

'Oh…'

It turned out that there was a large room without any furniture there. The main entrance hall leads into the clock tower there, it seems.

And… there was an entry hall for children and underprivileged people who were participating in charity activities.

I knew because there happened to be a face I saw outside that had just come inside. He was a thin, shabby old man.

He was greeted by several men that had been already waiting inside. Some of them sat on chairs, but some of them stood so that they formed a line like the judges.

"You already know the rules, right?! If you want to take this wheat, you have to take off your clothes!"

They told the slum old man to take off his clothes. Not only clothes but also pants and all the things that stick to his body.

Not waiting long, the man complied with the request of the judges in front of him and took off his clothes. He was completely naked in front of the judges. There was no hint of embarrassment on his face.

"Hmm. Fine. Give him his share."

One of the judges ordered the person beside him and the person beside him immediately gave something to the seedy old man.

What was given to the shabby old man was a grain. I saw that there were already many small grain sacks neatly arranged at the sides. The gaps in the sacks revealed that the contents inside were a piece of wheat.

"This is your share. Please come out."

"Thank you, sir."

One person had gotten his share and had been told to leave.

Then, another person entered. This time it was a woman. He seems to have a standard face.

"Wasn't she a prostitute, why is she here?"

"You know her?"

"Yeah, that's it. I tried her before."

"All right. Take care of her immediately."

This time, unlike the shabby old man before, the woman was immediately approached and caught just like that.

The woman's hands were handcuffed without her having the chance to refuse.

"W-what are you doing? Don't I just need to undress to get food?"

The woman screamed in confusion. Even though her hands were originally in the position to undress her clothes, instead, she was immediately arrested.

It was a pity that the man prevented the beautiful sight from appearing.

The woman keeps trying to rebel. Her feet continue to be forced to step back and go out. But her efforts were in vain. Her hand was gripped tightly by the man firmly.

Even so, she tried another way, namely by screaming at the top of her lungs.

"H-Help meeee!"

"It's useless for you to scream."

Obviously no one would go to help her.

Even if she screamed loudly, there would be no one outside who could help her, since this place was soundproof. Her last attempt failed and she ended up being dragged up a flight of stairs. The stairs lead to the top of the clock tower.

And that's how the slave traders secured their supply of goods.

It was clear that the fate of women would be slavery.

As I focused on peeking, I felt a touch on the top of my head. My hair succeeded to identify that someone's hand was holding my head.

Turns out it was Pavlova's hand.

"What are you doing? Quickly follow me!"

He tried to turn my head so that my face could look back at him. However, I immediately brushed off his hand.

I smiled disdainfully when I saw his arrogant behavior.

"Do you want to die right now?"

"Cough!"

He coughed instead of maintaining an arrogant expression.

Maybe because we were in a rush, he ignored my attitude and told me to focus on following him.

I continued to follow him and ignored the ongoing slave selection auditions.

Leaving the hall, I was led to climb the stairs leading up.

Pavlova took the lead in front of me and two soldiers followed me from behind.

The more I followed in Pavlova's footsteps, the farther I went up. We climbed the stairs simultaneously. Until finally, we reached the top of the stairs.

As I reached the top of the stairs, there was another person who had just come up from the other stairs. It turned out to be the woman I had seen earlier.

She came by a different flight of stairs from me, but our destination seemed to be the same room.

When we both reached the top of the stairs, we found a door to a room.

The room we were headed for had two soldiers guarding the door who had been standing to the left and right of the door while holding spears. When they saw us, they opened the door.

We entered the room together.

I remained still and calm as I entered the room.

Meanwhile, the woman who had just graduated from auditions to become slaves continued to rebel and scream incoherently. However, when she looked inside the room, she immediately froze. Astonishment was evident on her face.

It was not the darkness that greeted us, but sunlight from the sky.

It turned out that the place was an observation room.

I entered with a slightly amazed face.

There was a large and majestic glass covering the entire ceiling of the observation room.

The existence of the glass, in addition to preventing strong winds in the air, can also make people who enter the observation room can see what is outside directly.

The entire contents of Burgenfield could be seen from the observation room.

This kind of scenery, in this non-modern era, if you are not a person with many privileges, then it is impossible for you to see it.

Unfortunately, the feeling of having received special treatment had to end when the woman and I saw what was in the observation room.

There were already a lot of people there.

They all wore shabby clothes, had faces full of dust, disheveled hair, and emitted a foul odor into the air. Another thing they had in common was that their hands were handcuffed.

They were clearly slaves.

In addition to the human slave candidates, I could also see that there were some beastman slave candidates there. The animal tails and ears on their bodies made them very recognizable.

And... right in the center of the observation room, there was a device called a teleportation gate.

In addition to vehicles like horse-drawn carriages that everyone used to move from one place to another, there was another alternative that could be used by certain people.

The special ones are for magicians and nobles.

People like them would want a way to travel to distant places with something more special than having to use the same methods used by ordinary lowlifes.

The special way I'm referring to is by using a teleportation gate.

And in front of me right now there is already a Teleportation Gate.