At the sight of my terrified expression, Lilith offered no words. Only that enigmatic, faint smile pyed across her lips - the one that always made me feel like a mouse beneath a predator's paw.

  She gently stroked my chin with her fingertips, forcing me to look straight ahead, and pulled me even closer as if she wanted me to feel every vibration of her commanding aura.

  The succubus’s velvety voice rang out once more in the auction hall, beginning the history of the "item" with professional enthusiasm.

  “This specimen, my dear guests, is a true pearl of downfall,” she began, circling the huddled rabbit-girl. “She hails from a high noble house of the Southern Continent. A demi-human race, blue-blooded, yet stained by poverty. Due to her family’s staggering financial debts, she was sold by the head of her house and brought to our Demon Continent to pay for her kin’s honor.”

  I clenched my hands into the fabric of my pink dress. A noblewoman? Sold by her own family? Up until now, I thought svery was only for the unlucky few caught in traps, not someone who grew up in paces.

  “Her skills are worthy of her lineage,” the succubus continued, proudly presenting the statistics dispyed on the magical screen behind her. “She possesses the Talent [Aristocratic Etiquette] and high proficiency in household management. Her rank is admittedly only E, but her aesthetic and genetic value is invaluable to any collector who desires a fallen aristocrat in their service.”

  The moment the starting price was announced, the hall erupted. The buyers' voices overpped, the sound of hammers hitting tables and the clink of coins filling the room.

  “Fifty thousand credits!” “Sixty!” “Seventy-five thousand from the gentleman in the third row!”

  I watched with mounting disgust. Humans and demons were bidding on this girl as if she were a rare racehorse, not a being who felt and suffered. I felt my pink cage pulse in time with my terror, while Lilith merely chuckled softly behind me, seeing how much the scene was affecting me.

  Lilith, sensing my trembling, pulled me even closer. Her voice became low and calm, almost academic, as she began to expin the rules governing this cruel pce.

  “Do you see those numbers on the screens, kitten?” she whispered, stroking my arm. “Those are credits. It is a special currency used in auction houses, obtained after exchanging gold coins. It’s a way to separate common trade from the... art we practice here.”

  I listened to her, trying to control my breathing, while she continued her tale of a world I didn't know.

  “The Southern Continent, where this rabbit-dy comes from, is the weakest of the three continents,” she expined. “For over two hundred years, it was under the iron fist of humans. They ensved all demi-humans and beastkin, treating them worse than cattle. However, less than fifty years ago, the tide turned. A few powerful individuals emerged among the sves and began to liberate their brethren. The humans’ misfortune was that their legendary Heroes, who kept order, died of old age, and the new generation had not yet been summoned. The beastkin sensed an opportunity. A bloody uprising broke out. Millions died, including two of their four most powerful leaders, but eventually, they pushed the humans off the continent, reciming their freedom.”

  I listened with growing disbelief. It sounded like some dark chronicle from a time I had no concept of.

  It sounds like... the Middle Ages, I thought suddenly. The term "Middle Ages" fred in my mind like a neon sign, but the moment I tried to follow the association, I felt a painful jolt. A bck, impenetrable wall rose before my eyes. I tried to remember where I knew that word from, what it meant in my previous life, but I felt only a void and a mounting headache.

  I let out a heavy sigh, giving up. I looked at Lilith, and from the floor below, I heard the sound of the hammer striking, ending the bidding for the rabbit-girl.

  “If they recimed their freedom and pushed the humans out...” I choked out, looking her straight in the eyes, “then why is this woman still being sold here as a sve? If her race is free, how is this possible?”

  Lilith smiled - sadly, yet predatorily - toying with the end of my leash.

  “The freedom of a nation is not the same as the safety of an individual, you silly kitten,” Lilith replied, her fingers wandering back to my ear. “Do you think her own father, selling her to save his fortune, cared about the continent’s freedom? In this world, if you ck the strength to defend yourself, your freedom only sts until someone more powerful puts a colr on you. Like this one.”

  She gave a light tug on the leash, causing my head to tilt back, and I felt the painful constriction of the colr.

  “Now, look,” she added, pointing to the stage. “Here comes something that will interest you much more.”

  The succubus’s hammer struck the lectern, concluding the auction for the first sve.

  “Sold to this gentleman for one hundred and twenty thousand credits!” she announced joyfully, casting a flirtatious smile toward a dark corner of the hall. “Your new acquisition will be waiting for you in the transfer room, where we will complete the formalities regarding the sve contract...”

  The man who won the bidding only snorted with contempt, ignoring her words. Before anyone could blink, his seat in the lodge was empty. In a fraction of a second, he materialized in the center of the stage, right in front of the cowering rabbit-girl.

  The guards guarding the "merchandise" immediately tensed, reaching for their weapons, but the succubus quickly stopped them with a wave of her hand. She knew him. She knew he was too strong to risk an open conflict, and since he had paid, he was allowed to be a bit... eccentric.

  I watched with bated breath, feeling Lilith’s hands tighten on my waist. Without a word, the man reached out and grabbed the rabbit-girl by the face, lifting her up. I saw her legs lose their footing and hang limp in the air, but she didn't even try to fight. She was like a dead doll.

  Suddenly, with one brutal motion, the man tore the remains of the ce clothing from her, leaving her completely naked in the view of hundreds of hungry eyes in the hall. He felt no shame or pity - he looked at her like a newly purchased tool being checked for defects.

  “[Absolute Overwrite],” he rasped, and his hand fred with a blinding, violet light.

  In that same moment, identical, pulsating magical sigils appeared on his hand and just above the girl's womb. The girl arched her back, and a silent scream tore from her throat. The man let go, allowing her to fall onto the hard stage floor with a dull thud.

  “I have overwritten the contract. She is mine,” he tossed coldly to the succubus, who stood nearby with a slightly twitching eyelid. To say she was shocked would be an understatement - after all, this guy had just bypassed all the sacred bureaucratic rules of the Auction House. Possessing a talent that allowed for the forced overwriting of sve contracts was something extremely rare and terrifying.

  The man turned and headed for the exit, not gracing the purchased woman with even a gnce. “Follow me,” he commanded shortly.

  The rabbit-girl tried to stand, her whole body trembling, but her movements were too slow. Suddenly, her new sigil fred, and she let out a piercing shriek of pain as she scrambled to her feet. Despite the humiliation and her nakedness, she began to run after her new owner, vanishing into the darkness of the corridor.

  I sat on Lilith’s p, shaking with disbelief. My eyes were wide, my mouth slightly ajar. What I had just seen was so raw and brutal that I couldn't form a single coherent thought.

  Lilith smiled to herself, clearly amused by my reaction. She held me tighter, and her voice became soothing again, though the words she spoke turned my blood cold.

  “Quite an interesting talent, isn’t it?” she whispered, stroking my shoulder. “Normally, to transfer ownership of a sve, one must perform a tedious ritual. The previous owner must formally hand over authority to the new buyer, and the contract magic must be voluntarily dissolved and rebound. It takes time and requires the consent of both trading parties.”

  I felt her breath tickle my ear as she continued: “That man simply bypassed all of it. He arbitrarily overwritten the contract, erasing the previous owner and inserting himself in their pce. Brutal, efficient, and... very dominant. That is how strength works, kitten. If you are powerful enough, rules cease to exist.”

  Rules cease to exist... I repeated in my mind, feeling my pink cage painfully remind me of my own contract.

  For the next few minutes, a thick silence of anticipation hung over the luxurious room and the entire auction hall. The merchants whispered among themselves, and as I sat on Lilith’s p, I felt my mind begin to race at top speed. Suddenly, a thought struck me that made my heart beat faster.

  That talent... [Absolute Overwrite]... I thought, and my tail gave a flicker of excitement for a split second. If that man noticed me, if he could overwrite my contract... maybe I could escape from this monstrous Demon King? Maybe he could be the key to my freedom?

  The hope was short-lived and painful, however. My tail almost immediately slumped in sadness, hitting Lilith’s thigh limply. I remembered the man’s icy gaze and how brutally he had treated that rabbit-girl. He tore the clothes off her in front of everyone like he was stripping pstic off a new tool, then forced her to run despite her pain. A shiver of terror ran through me at the mere thought of what that girl must be going through now.

  I looked at Lilith out of the corner of my eye as she pyed with a strand of my hair. I had to admit it to myself, even though it hurt: out of all the worst-case scenarios in this world, I probably hadn't nded quite that badly. Sure, Lilith was sadistic, she loved to humiliate me, lock me in cages, and lead me on a leash, but... I never cked for food. I had a soft bed, luxurious clothes, and although the maid work was hard, it wasn't the death-toil in the mines that likely awaited many of these sves.

  Suddenly, for reasons unknown, my mind veered into dangerous territory. The image of our nights together rose before my eyes. I remembered the intense scent of her skin and the sight of her body as she completely dominated me. The vision of her wet-with-arousal femininity was so vivid that I felt the blood rush violently to my cheeks.

  I realized that a thin thread of saliva was starting to escape the corner of my mouth. I quickly wiped it away with the back of my hand, feeling incredibly humiliated by my own reaction. My cock strained against the pink cage with such force that I hissed in pain, frustration nearly forcing tears from my eyes. Lilith felt my movement and smiled to herself, but said nothing.

  Desperately seeking an escape from these thoughts, I fixed my gaze on the window. Another person was being led onto the stage. I had to focus on anything else, anything at all, just to keep from sliding deeper into this abyss of desire and pain.