I didn’t risk staying in the town but also I can’t risk meeting with highwaymen when I carried that amount of money. We got to the nearest village, one called Pumpkinville. We hid in a desolate barn. At dawn we woke.

First thing the moment I awakened I controlled the money. The sack was there, it was heavy, filled with gold. Tim looked at me; he had looked at me with lifeless eyes, he was still in shock with all the stuff he lived through. But not much just six hours later we will be in our village. We got out of the barn, there was some commotion in the village square. My idea was to just get out of the village and hit the road but Tim probably still didn’t learn his lesson so he went there. I tailed him. In the square there were three malnourished men in rags. They looked like pathetic peasants when we think of the middle ages, unlike people of my village. Other villages were a circled square bunch of gamberson wearing guards and what I guess as a combat mage was in the middle of the square. You didn’t need to be a genius to know this is an execution. And also for knowing these are innocent men just a look at the crowd was enough. They looked desperate in rags; they didn’t have anything but pity in their eyes for the soon to be killed. And in the daylight the village looked rundown. I said to Tim “You don’t want to see what is going to happen, just go.” He said “Those men, they are innocent right, this is just about that corruption stuff you talk.” I just nodded silently. A few moments later a sarge among guards started to speak “This village belongs to glorious knighted mage Gilbert the second. He gives you everything you need. And these priggish serfs paid back with their greed. They didn’t pay their grain tax and they even dare to insult our lord by claiming taxes are too high. So they gained their deaths by the hands of our master.

I carefully watched Tim also carefully watching but our reasons differed a lot. I was watching how he turned the ambience mana to fire mana. I only used ambience mana and without much change I used it as a kinetic force. But the mage Gilbert was channeling mana in to some sort of shape, like a simbol made with triangles, cercless in a square, that shape turned natural mana in to fire mana, than he pushed it in to another shape that made fire mana much denser. Of course nobody saw the mana except me and him. I quickly pick out my paper and draw both shapes before I forget any details. People only see a fireball the size of an apple appearing near his hand and then it slowly turning into a much denser much smaller and dark red fireball the size of a walnut. They put three victims one after another. Then Gilbert fired his ball of death. Ball punched through all three of them. What happened after that was terrible. Ball was fast but that was no natural fire, It was a spell made readying that needed more than five minutes. That was a strong spell. After a small hole appeared in their stomachs victims started to cook, they screamed they begged for the end of their pain for minutes. Anyone other than Tim, I and some children wasn’t terrified. They probably are used to this cruel show. A stoic young lady watched this cruel show while his young brother who is cling to her crying “Dad”

Tim looked at me with questioning eyes. Probably wanted to say “Do something” truth to be told I wanted to do something. The cruel show wasn’t ended, two of the guards take some women and children to the squaire. Sarge declared “These people from now on lost their freedoms due to their rebellious housemen not paying their dutiful taxes. So we will sell them for slavery. Anyone who is willing to buy” of course this was all for show, those people will be sold in some city who had a slave market. I raised my hand. Everybody looked at me with surprised eyes, even Tim. I started to talk “My master sent me to buy him some house slaves. Although those are rather hollow if you give me a good price I would like to buy some.” Gilbert turned to me and said “I can sell you, all 13 of them. But I want 200 gold. I just turned away while saying “I was here for slaves, not jokes.” He shouted angrily “Are you insane, there are 13 slaves, the average man slave cost you at least 50 golds.” I laugh angrily. “Among those there isn’t even a single man, and none of them average, they are thin as a stick and half of them will be dead before I reach the manor.” He probably knows very well those malnourished people wouldn’t last long. So he said “Ok what you offering” I said to him “50” he started to get redder and redder and I said “Ok, I don’t buy any slaves then” and started to walk away. He shouted “Hundred” I continued to walk. He said “Seventy five” I just got faster and he said “Please 60” I said ‘what an idiot’ inside. If you feed the girls among the slaves you had pretty girls instead of sticks. And you can easily sell them to brothels for much higher prices. But of course although he is a mage he was a brute who had no head for trading. He said “Ok I accept 55, not a gold less.” I said to him “Okay”

We had 13 malnourished people with us, I bought them more than a bargain. Tim gave every ounce of food we had to them. They give me a small paper with their names written and showing those as my slaves, signed and sealed by Gilbert the combat mage himself. Of course I didn’t know how to read in this world language, but the alphabet seems phonetic so I didn’t think learning it would take me more than a day if I found the right teacher.