Rui arrived before a large spread of juicy red at of various herbivorous animals. "So this is where all the gay odor was coming from..."
He directed a sweeping gaze across the various rows of stores selling at with a stunned expression. "...I thought therianthropes were against the sale of living animals, let alone dead animals?"
That was what broke down the negotiations between the Minotaur and Bodhisattva Maitreyi, although in hindsight, it was always dood to fail. What shocked him, however, was that flagrantly many therianthropes and their clans sold animal at without a care in the world.
He turned to the at store he was with a curious gaze, studying the crest on the flag that waved in the ocean breeze.
The crest of that was of a leopard.
The n and won in the store had leopard ears and eyes; so even had leopard fur across their entire bodies. They tended to the store, butchering at from all manner of herbivorous animals native to Kiriket.
None of the many custors lining up to enter the store seed to bat an eye at this, as if it were entirely normal.
"The fuck are you looking at?" one employee gruffly glared at Rui. "If you ain’t buying anything, move the hell on."
"I just had a question..." Rui turned towards what he was pretty sure was bull at. Won’t the Bull Clan get pretty pissed at that?"
The leopard man grinned wildly. "They get pissed about it every single mont of every day, but who cares? Not like they can do anything about it. Hehehe..."
"I see..." Rui grew amused at his words before turning to the at.
With a single glance, he could tell why their anthropomorphic at stores were as popular as they were.
The at was perfect.
Its marbling, its tenderness, its freshness.
All of it was absolutely pristine, and it was available in large abundance.
Rui didn’t cook, but he was tempted to buy the at just because of how good it looked.
"Do you sell dragon at?" he blurted out as he thought about the Ryu Clan and the Dragon Emperor.
Perhaps eating their at would be good training.
His question, however, froze the people around him, both custors and especially clients.
"Shut up!" the man hissed at him with a hushed tone, looking around, alard. "Are you trying to get us killed?! What are you going to do if they hear you?!"
Rui raised an eyebrow.
"They?"
The man glared at Rui.
"The dragons...!"
RUMBLE...
Tremors passed through the world as everybody froze.
Rui’s senses tingled as he turned in the direction of the coast.
Towards the sea.
He sensed powerful presences converging upon the Hlakaschken Trade Empire from afar.
RUMBLE!
The tremors grew more powerful as people staggered unsteadily, trying to maintain their balance.
Rui’s eyes lit up as he spotted exactly what he was looking for.
Dragons.
They possessed a perilous presence to them as a diverse spread of winged, scaled, reptilian monsters erged from the distance, converging towards the therianthrope market high in the bright, blue morning sky.
They converged on a strangely empty spot, devoid of human presence.
It was a spot reserved for them and only them.
They landed with a gentle grace that defied the rough exterior they possessed. Their very presence sent shivers down the spines of all those who beheld them, watching them shudder in the presence of the most powerful apex predators of the Kiriket Continent.
"They’re just dragons," Rui murmured with a confused expression. "Why are they acting so cocky?"
It wasn’t as though they were an abyssfeeder, or a chira, or a jormungandr. And even those species weren’t as cocky as the dragons before him were. Still, he simply kept watch on them with an interested expression, eager to see what they had to offer.
A dragon man leaped off from the back of his dragon.
His body was significantly dragonified with dragon scales running across his entire body, while his eyes were reptilian.
He even had wings and a tail behind him.
His dragon was the largest of them all, a jet-black eastern-style dragon with a long body and small arms and claws across its entire body with a large black mane around its head.
His reptilian eyes swept across the entire market that gazed at him with fear and excitent.
"The sale of dragon scales will comnce soon," he declared coldly. "We will conduct a live auction of each and every single one of them."
"Yeah!"
"Finally!"
"I’ve been waiting for this!"
The crowd erupted in an uproar as the dragons made preparations while Rui simply watched.
"Dragon scales..." Amare’s eyes lit up with curiosity. "Do they truly sell for such high prices that they can conduct spontaneous auctions for them?"
"They must be," Rui replied as he watched them get their setup. "To be able to expect their clients to keep up with such a spontaneous schedule, they must be highly desirable substances."
A smirk erged on his face. "They would hold on to their money if they knew what was coming. When I get to Kiriket, a lot of dragons will be losing a lot of scales, you can be sure of that."
This ti, however, the dragon at the very forefront didn’t seem to miss Rui’s words, even if he had muttered them under his breath.
"What was that?"
The man turned his head as his perilous dragon eyes focused on Rui.
The crowd froze in silence as those in the way of his gaze parted, turning to rest their eyes on Rui.
"That’s why I told you shut up," the leopard man squelched, imdiately running away. "Bla yourself when you die!"
Much to his surprise, however, Rui wasn’t particularly moved by the dragon therianthrope calling him out. He simply stared at the man with a bemused expression, sizing him up as a small smirk erged on his face.
"You shouldn’t go around calling people out when you’re that weak."
"...You bastard." The dragon’s eyes flared with wrath. "I will burn you where you stand!"
RUMBLE...
The therianthrope market heated up as Rui found himself in a confrontation with the dragons already.
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