Ryan walked along an Ally on the west side of LA.

Ryan had been homeless for upwards of 2 years now after running away from the many foster homes the state had tried to imprison him in.

Out here, he felt free, but freedom came with a heavy price.

He clutched his stomach as he felt the glass shards from the bottle the drunken bastard had hit him with, was now lodged in his side.

He pulled his hand up to inspect it, only to see his hand covered in red.

Ryan sighed and sat down, his back against the cold ally wall.

He was tired. So very tired.historical

Ryan knew that he should get up and call for help. But even if he called, who would care?

Everyone only cared about themselves.

But that's when he saw something, a random silhouette passed by the ally, and grasping onto hope, in a last-ditched effort to survive, he cried, "Wait, please!"

He saw a woman's silhouette enter the ally's entrance, and then everything went black.

===

Ryan stood frozen by the door for several seconds before he turned around and looked at the speaker of the voice.

She was one of the two girls in white veils. She had pressed her head against the floor, and although she wasn't crying, she was shaking. Ryan assumed it was from fear.

Sighing, Ryan looked at the other girl in the white veil, but she only bowed low in response.

Looking at Elena, Ryan felt that the situation had shifted. He was letting his emotions get to him, which was something Aliza had peppered him time and time again to make sure it never happened.

Attempting to get things back under his control, he asked, "You said they were trained. Why aren't they with the others, then? Why have you attempted to trick me into claiming them?"

Mistress Elena looked at Ryan, then at the girls, then back at Ryan before sighing. "Lizzy and Izzy are sisters who came into my care about a year ago."

"Lizzy here," pointing to the kneeling girl, "Is blind."

"While Izzy," pointing to the still bowing girl, "Is mute."

"An unfortunate turn of events forced my hand," She said, glancing at the duo, "And I had to put these girls into the enhancer slave pool."

"Usually, this meant they would be split up, but the winner gets to take home two."

Ryan nodded. Everything Elena said was reasonable and made sense.. except for one thing.

"Then why did you feel the need to trick me? You can't be so uninformed that you'd think I wouldn't know about what the winner would get?"

"Surely a better strategy would have been to simply lay your cards on the table and offer something extra in exchange. If that is, you really need to keep these two together."

Ryan had heard about the winner getting to take two slaves from multiple recruits, Emily and the guard.

And choosing your own slave was basically all the recruits were blabbing about in the end.

Power was something males craved but rarely got the chance to get. So when the recruits were given the power to choose their own slave, it really got their blood flowing.

pA n,dan(-)0ve1.c0m Mistress Elena looked up at the ceiling and sighed, "It's because of a clause in their contract."

Ryan's unease after getting emotional finally went away as he had found the missing piece of the puzzle.

Ryan knew that a slave's contract stated what their master could and couldn't do. But it also stated a plethora of other things. For example, whoever created the contract could set clauses for future owners, such as pay, living expenses, time off, or anything else the creator wanted.

Every paid slave had such clauses, while the fallen slaves usually didn't have such things as the owners were required by law to do a bare minimum.

Ryan knew that all the slaves the enhancers would be getting were fallen slaves, so he was surprised that the duo had clauses, but it now made perfect sense why the Mistress tried to trick him into claiming these slaves.

"What are the clauses?" Ryan was intrigued, and since the Mistress seemed like she wanted the girls to go together, Ryan might be able to strike a deal if the terms were right.

As Aliza always loved to say, "Ryan, both sex and deals are great. But with your stamina, deals last much longer."

Elena looked hopefully at Ryan before motioning Lizzy and Izzy towards her before she held their right hands, and a sigil appeared on the back of their hands.

Then Ryan saw a transparent screen above the sigil that seemed to hover in mid-air.

It read:

[Slave Contract]

[Owner: Kheaweth Empire]

[Slave: Lizzy]

[Slave Type: Fallen Slave]

[Term Remaining: 37 Years]

[Clauses: Next owner will take the slave for the remainder of their term, the owner is not to see the face or body of the slave until after the contract is signed.]

Lizzy's and Izzy's screens were identical apart from their names, and everything seemed normal until Ryan got to the two clauses.

While it would be off-putting, either clause by itself wouldn't be to the point where it would cause a headache.

In the case of the first clause, the owner could transfer the slave, they would just have to get someone else to sign that same clause.

And that would be simple as long as the slave was beautiful. But the second clause made it impossible to know what the slave looked like beforehand.

Meaning, if the slave were ugly, they would be stuck with that slave for 37 years.

Being stuck with an unwanted slave was a big problem on this strange planet, Ravier, as one could only own many slaves, depending on rank.

Slaves were limited to 3 before getting your heavenly screen and multiplied by three for every cultivation rank and two for enhancer rank.

For an E-Rank enhancer, you could have up to 6 slaves. D-Rank up to 12, C-Rank 24, and so on and so forth.

But each rank was a colossal leap and could take decades to advance even to E-Rank, which meant that if Ryan claimed these two slaves, he could only get one more in the next 10ish years if he advanced at an above-average pace.

Paired with this, these were only fallen, slaves. Any resources or time he used to build up these slaves or teach them anything would eventually be lost as they would be free eventually.

Seeing Ryan's gloomy look, Elena said, "This is the reason. Now all my cards are on the table."

Thinking for a moment, Ryan said, "As my teacher once said, 'even if all the cards are dealt, there are still other decks.'"

Hearing Ryan's reply, Elena's eyebrows raised in understanding. He was looking for a deal.

But while she did feel bad for the girls, she had lived on Ravier for too long not to know the truth of this world.

It wasn't a place one could afford to care for others before themselves, lest they be swallowed up with them.

Still, she would try her best, saying, "I know you must be worried about their looks, but they are very beautiful."

"Also, 37 years is the longest term in this year's batch. If you end up selling them later, you can make a lot of profit!"

Ryan stared at the woman as if she was an idiot. After her just attempt to swindle him, would he really believe her?

Seemingly aware, Izzy tugged at her sister's clothes and seemed to be communicating with her.

After a few seconds, Lizzy looked toward her sister in shock. After frantic whispers and inaudible communication by the duo, Lizzy sighed in defeat. She said, "If you take us on as slaves, we'll swear the oath of eternal servitude if you can cure our conditions within our term."