RISE OF EROS

Unaware of Candice's thoughts, the operations of the Heavenly Palace continued without incident. Carolina had been very busy in the last few days coordinating the decoration and adaptations of the premises, while Andrew had to concentrate on finding a matron and some chefs for the kitchen.

Initially, the chefs would be Carolina's task, but seeing how busy she was with her other activities, Andrew did not want to overload her with work and decided to get down to work.

Unfortunately, he didn't have any contacts in the city to look for people with talents in those professions, which made his job difficult. Johan being practically his only contact, tried his luck asking him, but since it's not his field of expertise, he couldn't help Andrew.

Seeing that he couldn't go through with that, Andrew called Fluffy to upgrade his ability, Eyes of Eros, as he had reached 3 million points. He achieved his goal ahead of schedule, but he also lost almost all of his points, as he currently only has 36,500 points.

Despite the few points he had, he could now observe the specialties of the people he evaluated with his Eros's eyes. However, this ability was not as specific as Andrew thought.

He believed that Eros's eyes would show him a screen detailing a person's specialties with his levels, similar to states in a video game from his old world, but it wasn't like that.

What his ability showed was a kind of perception, that is, if Andrew evaluated a person with his Eros's eyes, a screen would appear listing the specialties they had and hidden talents, but not the mastery level of those abilities.

For example, when he evaluated Oliver, the swordsmanship and hand-to-hand combat specialty appeared, in addition to the blessing of aura eyes, but it did not show how strong he was in swordsmanship or hand-to-hand combat.

Fluffy told him that it was not possible to establish those levels because there were no benchmarks for a person's talent, that is, a person could infinitely improve their mastery of an art, so cataloging those skills into levels was not possible.

Despite that, Andrew did not get depressed because he also acquired the ability to see the aura, similar to Oliver, so that in this way he could identify in a certain way the strength of the person thanks to the intensity, color, and shape of the aura and he had been surprised to see that Oliver's aura was powerful.

It wasn't like he could compare Oliver's aura to other warriors as there were no others nearby, compared to the aura of the others in the Heavenly Palace it was overwhelming. He also learned that different people have different colored auras.

To humans was white and although he knew that other species had different colors, since he had not seen them he did not know what colors they were, he only knew that the candidates for gods had a golden aura.

With his new ability, Andrew wasted no time and immediately went to the Galtony group to check if there was a slave that met the conditions he needed, however, he returned disappointed since he did not find any.

He also visited other slave houses looking for a suitable one but with no luck. When he was about to give up, in a small slave house at the end of town he found a girl who caught his attention.

The girl was small in stature and somewhat gaunt, but what caught Andrew's attention was the fact that her face was bandaged covering most of the right side of it.

Andrew looked at her carefully and his ability showed him that the girl had a strong aura, not as powerful as Oliver's, but definitely stronger than any he had seen. In addition, she had the specialties of assassination and stealth, which was what he was looking for.

"What's with that girl?" Andrew asked as he pointed to the bandaged girl and the woman who accompanied him showing him the slaves said with a bitter smile, "Sir, it's a defective product, I don't recommend it."

The words "Defective product" annoyed Andrew, as he still had his reservations about slavery, but ironically he depended a lot on it, even he himself thought it was hypocritical, but he could not do anything, so he gritted his teeth, swallowed his resentment and asked, "What does she have?"

The woman let out a long sigh and began to explain, "Sir, that girl suffered an injury that damaged her face. She was a very pretty girl, but her scars damaged all her beauty".

The salesperson didn't want Andrew to focus on that girl, because being a "Defective Product", it didn't have a high price and that meant a smaller bonus for her, but Andrew didn't care about the salesperson's thoughts and asked again, "How much?".

Seeing Andrew's insistence on the bandaged girl, the saleswoman could only resign herself and she said the price. Andrew did not hesitate and accepted the deal and the transaction proceeded.

The contract was signed and Andrew left the slave area accompanied by the bandaged girl. Neither of them said anything during the walk back to the Heavenly Palace.

The girl followed him like a zombie. Her only visible eye seemed dull as a dead fish and his body was so thin that she barely had the strength to walk, it was better to say that she dragged her feet than to say that she walked.

When Víctor and Carolina, who was at the reception at the moment, saw Andrew arrive accompanied by the bandaged girl, they were surprised, but they didn't say anything, and Andrew said unperturbed as he entered, "Víctor, tell Carmen that prepare a porridge for the girl and Carolina follow me to the office".

Victor nodded his head and left the reception desk towards the kitchen to comply with Andrew's order who, accompanied by the girl and Carolina, entered the office.

Andrew sat on the sofa with Carolina next to him, the girl stood in front of them with an obedient blank look, but as if nothing bothered her. Carolina saw the girl and then her husband as if asking what's going on here? but Andrew didn't say anything, he just looked at the girl carefully.

When Carolina was about to open her mouth, Andrew asked, "What is your name and age?" The girl didn't answer, but Andrew didn't repeat himself, he just looked at her and feeling the intense gaze, the girl raised her head slightly, and with a weak and broken voice she answered, "Aki, 18 years old".

Andrew and Carolina were surprised. It was normal since the girl was barely 1.60 meters tall and her emaciated condition did not allow him to believe that the girl was 18 years old, but even so, they recovered quickly and Andrew continued the interrogation.

Andrew asked her many questions about her life, how she fell into slavery, and similar questions, and there he found out that the girl had been captured at a young age by a group of assassins when she was 5 years old with the aim of turning her into an assassin.

However, that group offended a powerful character and was wiped out, allowing her to escape from captivity. Unfortunately, in her escape, she was attacked by a wolf that destroyed her face with its claws and although she was able to survive, she was unlucky enough to be found by a group of slavers who captured her and sold her.

Cursing her bad life, the girl ate little and she wanted to die, so she led to the situation she is in now. Because she had spent a decade training with the group of assassins that captured her, she had good proficiency in assassination and stealth skills, but she hadn't actually exercised either of them yet, all based on the practice she had in captivity.

She also removed the bandage that covered her face so Andrew and Carolina could see her hideous scar. They were the marls of three claws that started at her forehead and ended at the end of her cheek, it was a miracle that her eye was unharmed.

Carolina had tears in her eyes when she saw the girl, Aki's tragic past had moved her and Andrew was a little upset because he thought that without that wound and with a better diet, the girl would be a beauty.

Before they could continue their conversation, there was a knock at the door and Andrew allowed entry. Carmen entered with a plate of porridge that it was still steaming and smelled delicious.

Carmen placed the plate in front of the girl and left, but Aki didn't seem to want to eat and it was expected because she wanted to die. Noticing that Andrew said seriously, "Aki, you can't change the past, but the future can be better."

Andrew's short prologue caught Aki's attention who looked up and after caught her attention, Andrew continued, "You've certainly had a tragic life, but now you can't do anything about it, and dying is the easy way. Now you are my slave and I need the skills you have, certainly, that is not important to you, but I can offer you two things".

Aki was still listening to him, but somewhat absently, however, Andrew didn't care and said, "I offer you dignity and respect." After his words, the office fell silent.

Carolina did not say anything, she remained calm even moved by Aki's life, however, Aki had a strange expression because she did not understand what dignity and respect an emaciated and damaged slave could have, but Andrew's next words surprised her.

"Even though you are my slave, I will not mistreat you. If you have doubts, you can talk to my guards and you will understand. Also, you will have good food and I can heal your face, returning you to the beauty that you are."

Aki was stunned, but she still didn't believe him, but the next words brought the sparkle back to her eyes, because Andrew said, "If you think I don't meet those conditions, I'll release you and you can die if that's what you want."