Bella and Friends

Bella gathered in the room with her fellow graduates. She was dressed in her sexiest bodycon dress with immaculate makeup decorating her face. All the women in this room were also doing the same. The room was full of prettily dressed girls. This was a historical, once in a lifetime, event for them.

“Hey, girl, you look amazing.” Bella was greeted by her friend, Ashley. Ashley was a blonde girl like her, while Bella had golden blonde hair, Ashley had more brownish honey blonde color. Her hair was put in a stylish updo for the day. Ashley was dressed in an elegant blue long ruffled dress.

After Ashley, a few of Bella also came to greet her. There was Amy, the nerdy glasses wearing girl. Though in this age, a defect like near-sightedness could be easily healed, and there was no need to wear glasses. Miranda was still wearing it for her style. She was the school valedictorian, aside from Bella, it’s probably Miranda that got the bigger chance to be picked as Secretary. Amy had auburn-colored bob hair. She was wearing a red balloon gown. Along with Miranda was Yuki. Yuki was a transfer student from the Orient in the east. She was a stunningly pretty girl, like a porcelain doll. Bella admitted that Yuki was one point prettier than her in face. Her stature was smallest among them with her being only at 5’2’, while Bella was around 5’7’, and both Ashley and Miranda were 5’4’. She also barely had any curve in the chest with her being only 32B. Yuki had long silky, straight black hair. She was dressed in a pretty kimono for this occasion.

“Well, all of you also look amazing, you seem ready to be on the spotlight for today.” Bella replied to her friend.

“Who doesn’t? Ready or not, after the ceremony, we will all move to the auction hall,” Ashley responded.

“I hope whoever buys me will follow the Unified State rules rather than the Orient rules,” Yuki said and then let out a nervous sigh.

The group of friends could only look at Yuki in helpless pity. While the Unified State only put the lowest requirement for the cybernetic and mechanical implant a woman should have at 20%, the Orient put that lowest requirement at 60%, more than half of their body should be changed to mechanical. Their Prime minister had a fetish for cyborgs.

“Well, we are in the Unified State and not the Orient. You should have a big chance,” Amy tried to comfort their friend.

“Hope so.”

The four of them then chit-chatted a bit before taking a seat as the graduation ceremony was about to start. There were 50 graduates today, 50 girls to be auctioned.

The ceremony itself was simple, they got called to the stage, and the principal would brand their skin. It was not a normal brand, but a digital tattoo, if someone scanned them, they would be directed to the school site that has their grade data. As long as the brand was scanned once, the data would be kept in their chip, and after that, the brand wouldn’t matter anymore, but some girls took these marks on their skin as a symbol of pride. After the girl got their brand, they didn't go back to their seats but went to the back room where people from the auction hall had been waiting for them. Then they would be checked before escorted to the auction hall to be sold.

It was finally Bella's turn to be called to the stage.

“See you later, girls,” she said to her friend that hadn’t been called to the front yet. She knew well that maybe this was the last time she would see them as everyone would go to their new life with their Masters. But saying like they would meet again gave Bella a peace of mind.

Bella stood on the stage in front of the principal. The only man in their all-women school. He was elderly man with graying hair. He looked Bella from top to down and nodded with approval before bringing a branding stamp to her skin. Where it would be placed was deliberate and depended on the principal’s whim, usually, the principal would target the revealed portion of the dress, but the principal could order the graduates to lift their dress or even undress so he could brand them. Fortunately for her, the principal didn’t ask her to undress, the man stamped the brand on her revealed collar bone.

Shit. Bella instinctively cursed in her mind. It was more painful than she expected. She didn’t hear other graduates screaming in pain, so she thought that the branding wouldn’t be painful, but it felt like a searing hot iron was placed on her skin. Thankfully, the process was fast, and once the principal lifted the stamp, a cool feeling permeated through her skin.

Liquid iron with nano-bots. Bella analyzed what the brand was made of. The brand was on a subdermal level but because of the nano-bots, it could be easily wiped off with a command, and the scar of branding would also be healed like it had never been there.

After receiving her brand, Bella moved to the backroom.

“Annabella?” A woman in a low-necked black blazer suit, with black glasses called her.

_She’s a secretary of the auction hall. _Bella looked at the woman in black with awe. Only a secretary could wear a pantsuit when going out in public. A symbol of privilege of the job.

“Yes, it’s me.” Bella answered. A girl wouldn’t have any last name before they were owned by a Master. Her Master then could give them a last name, change her name entirely, or let them keep their name.

“Follow me.”

There were a few auction halls in her city, at least 5 that Bella knew. The auction halls were varying in sizes, from the small one in the shady part of the city, to the big one in the port that handled imported ‘goods’. The graduates won’t be placed in a single auction hall to boost sales and their value. These secretaries were tasked to bring them to their respective auction halls.

Bella followed the woman to her van. There were already two other girls in there. Bella was familiar with them even though they were not that close, first was Martha, a devout follower of Neo-Catholic. After the war, many old countries had been toppled, and along with it, many followers of old religion had been wiped. In the After Protocol era, there were five major new religion that fit the current era; Neo-Catholic that quite popular in the Unified State, Zenism in the Orient, Meccaniclam in the Middle East Sultanate, Technoshamanism in the Southern Archipelago, and Cathanostic in the Vast North.

Like many followers of Neo-Catholic, for this occasion, Martha was wearing a long white dress that gave her a bridal impression. For women of Neo-Catholic, being sold at the auction was the same as being married off. In their teaching, it should be the happiest day for them, but no smile could be seen from Martha, only a frown.

Bella understood what happened after seeing the other girl that sat on the van. Devout believer of Neo-Catholic usually a very judgmental person, and thought they are holier than others. Sitting across from Martha was Ravena. Ravena was a goth girl with unnatural blue curly hair. She was dressed in a sleeveless black pleated midi dress that was torn around the lower skirt. When Bella looked at Ravena’s right hand, she saw that it was already replaced with a blood red colored mechanical claw.

All women would eventually got some of their body part replaced with machine, but for follower of Neo-Catholic, that is the right for our Master to decide what implant we should get, sullying the sanctity of our body with getting a mechanical implant before we get sold to a master was a heavy sin. For Martha, Ravena was quite a sinner. And she didn’t want her happiest day together spent with such a sinner.

But no one would accommodate Martha’s tantrum. Bella took a seat on the van, and the secretaries drove the three of them to one of the auction halls.

“Do you want the blindfold or not?” Asked the secretary in black before the three girls got out of the van.

Some girls might want to be blindfolded, it means that they didn’t want to see the whole auction process, the blindfold didn’t only block their sight, but also their hearing. They would be in a state of complete ignorance of what happened outside, until the blindfold was taken off. When the blindfold was taken off, they would already be with their new master. Not taking blindfold meant the girl would see the entire auction process, and who would bid for her. Sometimes expectation would lead to great disappointment.

“I want to be blindfolded,” said Martha.

“Me too,” Ravena followed.

The secretary then looked at the last girl, Bella.

“Let me see the process,” Bella answered. She didn’t want to be blindfolded. She wanted to know who would get her.

Bella stood on the stage, and saw numerous men across the stage. These men would be the bidder. There were not only white men from the Unified State. She could see some men dressed traditionally in their clothes that weren't common in the Unified States. They were men from the Middle East and the Orient, though their number was not many. There were even some women in the bidder area, those were secretary representatives for their Master as their Master didn’t bother to come themselves, or attend a different auction house.

“Next is Product #42, the girl is known as Bella. She is one of the best graduates from her school. You can scan her brand to verify her achievement. A good candidate to be made Secretary, but you can turn her into anything! The bid starts from $50.000 and in increments of $10000. Now, let’s start the bidding,” the auction manager declared.

Bella saw people started bidding for her. The people from the Middle East, the people from the Orient, a man with a nice suit, a secretary, an elderly man, an overweight man, a young man that was in her age group.

“3…2…1…and Product #42 is sold to…”