But he forced himself to stay calm. He knew he was helpless in a direct fight. Of course, he could kill the man, but what next? He was outnumbered and he was inside an enemy stronghold. He had to use the one weapon he actually had.

And that was money.

Adrian took a breath and locked eyes with the salesman.

"Do you take mana crystals as direct payment?" Adrian asked and this time, his voice was completely cold.

The salesman instantly went stiff. He froze completely as he realized that he was standing on the edge of a massive terrifying deal. He couldn’t afford to play games or try to scam the rich man in front of him.

"Y-Yes, my lord," the salesman stammered as he began sweating heavily. "We absolutely accept mana crystals. Our official exchange rate values a single crystal at exactly one hundred and fifty gold coins."

Adrian didn’t care about the exchange rate. He had no gold coins on him and he needed this done fast.

"How much for every single kid in that pile?" Adrian demanded.

The salesman pulled a small notebook from his pocket and started doing rapid calculations.

"Well, my lord," the salesman babbled nervously. "Children aren’t considered high value stock. They lack physical strength and require years of feeding before they reach peak labor efficiency. They bring a lot of trouble to their owners. Of course, they do last for decades if treated right, but their current value isn’t much compared to healthy adults."

"Give me the final number," Adrian snapped.

"Taking the average rate," the salesman gulped. "Each child is worth roughly fifty silver coins. There are exactly fifty youths in that group. Fifty silver multiplied by fifty units. That’s 2500 silver coins, my lord."

The salesman looked up, "Converted to gold, that puts the total at exactly twenty five coins."

Adrian put his hand in his pocket, brought a mana crystal out of the dungeon and took it out of his pocket.

He casually tossed it and the salesman scrambled. He caught the rock with both hands and clutched it to his chest like his life depended on it.

"Take it and go get my change." Adrian said.

"Right away my lord! Just one moment!"

The guy bolted down the hall and vanished into a side room. Adrian watched him argue frantically with a bunch of other managers through the doorway and after a while, he saw them rush to unlock a massive iron safe.

A minute later the salesman was back. He carried a polished leather bag and shoved it into Adrian’s hands. He was literally shaking.

"Exactly one hundred and twenty five gold coins my lord." The salesman bowed low. "Transaction complete. They belong to you."

Adrian tied the bag to his belt. There were no thank yous. He just walked past the sweating merchant and stopped in front of the kids.

"All of you," Adrian said, "Get up and follow me."

The armed guards stepped aside and the teenagers scrambled up. They looked absolutely terrified but nobody wanted to disobey their new owner.

Going back to the fancy inn was a terrible idea. Marching fifty bruised kids through the wealthy district was just asking for trouble. So Adrian marched them straight out of the city gates instead. The guards let them pass without a word.

There was total silence on the road as Adrian took them deep into the dark woods right outside the city limits.

They stopped once the thick trees hid them from view.

"Aria, fire." he said as he took out a few dry pieces of hard wood from his dungeon and tossed them into a small pile.

Aria snapped her fingers and a small fireball lit up the pile of firewood in the middle of a clearing.

"Sit down," Adrian told them. "Circle around the fire."

Fifty kids awkwardly shuffled into a wide ring. They plopped down in the dirt, shivering with their heads kept strictly down. They were just waiting for the beatings to start.

Adrian stood by the flames. He pulled his heavy hood back, his silver hair and red eyes on full display.

He checked out the crowd. Thirteen to seventeen year olds mostly. Slave traders never broke the law about selling kids under twelve. It was too much paperwork and the chance of going to prison was also high.

"My name is Baron Adrian Sterling." Adrian kept his voice extremely calm. "I look over a place called Oresfall. And I have absolutely zero plans to keep any of you as my slaves."

A few kids looked up, totally confused.

"I am going to be honest with you," Adrian continued. "I can’t remove those slavery seals on your bodies. The magic is way too complex. It takes a seventh circle archmage to break that seal and I definitely don’t have one of those."

The tension dropped immediately and a few kids started crying.

"Listen." Adrian raised his voice over the sniffles. "I can’t break the seal, but I refuse to treat you like livestock. You are all kids and you deserve a normal life."

The crying stopped. Everyone was just staring at him now.

"I am traveling right now," Adrian said. "You’ll follow me for now and once we get back to my territory you get a choice. I can drop you off at the church orphanage and they will take care of you. Or you can choose to work for me."

He paced around the fire.

"If you work for me, I pay you a fair wage. You eat three meals a day just like my regular citizens. I won’t mistreat you and I won’t lay a hand on you."

A tall bruised kid near the back slowly raised a hand. "Why?" The boy sounded incredibly skeptical. "Why would a noble do this?"

"Because I am paranoid." Adrian stopped pacing as he looked right at the kid. "I run a territory, i have enemies and I need soldiers and workers I can actually trust. A regular guy can sign a blood pact, sure. If they betray me the pact kills them. But a blood pact only works after the damage is already done."