Auction
Satou here. The word auction makes me think of a place where artwork and jewelry are sold to the elite at unbelievably high prices. It’s hard to fathom how someone can pay twice or even ten times as much as an average company man might make in a lifetime, all for a single item.
“We’ve been waiting for you, Lord Kuro!”
When I used my Space Magic spell Return to teleport to the Echigoya Company, the manager greeted me in a high, taut voice.
Instead of her usual sharp businesswoman look, she wore the stylish dress of a typical noblewoman.
It looked similar to the dress that a count’s daughter had been boasting about at the tea party the day before.
Checking in my AR, I saw that it was from the same workshop. A single dress cost an outrageous thirty gold coins, but that wasn’t too tall an order on the manager’s yearly salary.
“Now, let us be on our way!”
“Just a moment, please.”
As Eluterina reached out to take my arm with a white-gloved hand, Tifaleeza’s sharp voice stopped her. Since she was coming along to the auction, she wore a similar dress to the manager’s instead of her Echigoya Company uniform.
When the two of them stood side by side, one beauty with silver hair and one with golden hair, it was like a gorgeous image out of a fairy tale.
“Manager, you’ve forgotten the matter of His Excellency the prime minister.”
“I—I remember.”
Miss Manager cleared her throat under Tifaleeza’s icy stare.
What about the prime minister?
“I had planned to relay that once we were settled in our VIP seats at the auction.”
“Are you sure you didn’t just get so excited about going on a date with Lord Kuro that you forgot?”
One of the executive staff poked her head into the room to tease the manager.
This earned her a steely glare, which sent her running into the next room with a joking cry of, “Ooh, scary!”
Manager Eluterina flailed her hands frantically, her face bright red.
…Honestly.
Can’t they take this more seriously? We’re about to head to the battlefield.
“You can get excited after you’ve fulfilled your duties.”
“R-right! I shall serve you with all my heart!”
For some reason, the scolding just made her face turn an even deeper shade of red.
She must have taken the word duties in a weirdly perverted way.
“Lord Kuro, by your leave, I will relay the message myself. Last night, we received a verbal note from the prime minister thanking us for ‘the expeditious delivery of supplies for rebuilding,’ along with a letter.”
Without giving the manager a chance to speak up, Tifaleeza smoothly gave me the prime minister’s message. The letter was similar in contents to the verbal note but with one major addition.
“It says he’ll pay us with a money order that can be converted into cash immediately.”
The prime minister must have known we were gathering funds for the auction.
He was a thoughtful guy for such a bigwig.
“Well, we wouldn’t want the prime minister’s kindness to go to waste. Let’s stop by the commerce guild.”
I was sure he’d had the money sent to the commerce guild as a favor to us as well.
I visited the commerce guild before heading to the auction hall with Eluterina and Tifaleeza in tow.
“Cyna, over heeere?”
“Hurry up, henchmen, sir! Pochi will treat you to skewers today, sir!”
I heard familiar voices coming from outside the carriage.
Peering through the window, I saw Tama and Pochi with a small gaggle of children, running around and buying snacks.
A little farther back, Liza and Nana were keeping an eye on the kids.
Mia walked with them alongside a gentleman who must be the musician she was performing with at the music hall.
“Miss Master Lulu, this meat wrap is simply delicious.”
“What’re you sayin’? You gotta start with sweet wheat candy, dude!”
Lulu was sandwiched between a chef from the Echigoya Company and the redheaded Neru, both chattering away.
Arisa seemed to be enjoying herself with them, too.
“Did you see something of interest, Lord Kuro?”
“No, just spotted Advisor Arisa and Neru and the others, that’s all.”
I turned away from the window as I answered the manager’s question.
Before long, the carriage passed the crowded gate and pulled up to the disembarking area.
There were a lot of ladies and gentlemen wearing masks and veils.
“Lord Kuro, over here!”
When we entered the auction hall, we saw one of the Echigoya staff girls hopping up and down, waving at us.
As we walked over, a small-statured girl riding a stone wolf made her way toward us through the crowd.
“Louna, how many times have I told you not to ride the stone wolf indoors?”
“Awww, but I like how everyone stares at me when I ride this.”
The staff girl seemed unconcerned with her manager’s scolding.
“You can discipline her later.”
With that, I let the staff member lead the way.
We went through the carefully guarded gates and followed a cramped, winding hallway.
“Lord Kuro, this is it! The special exhibit counter!”
“I’ve been awaiting your arrival, sir. Miss Louna has explained everything. We will analyze and accept each item in order of the list.”
I’d already handed over most of our items for sale, but there were a few that I was asked to bring on the day of for safety reasons, like some of the Magic Swords.
A silver-haired gentleman concierge and two appraisers were waiting at the counter, as well as several other officials.
The guard behind them was a seasoned level-40 knight.
“Please place the items on this table.”
I took out each item in order of the list and handed them over.
Then he turned to hand them to the “Analyze” skill user next to him…
“Wh-what in the…?”
The gentleman stiffened as he saw the appraiser slumped against the wall.
His guard drew his sword and stepped in front of the concierge.
Okay, I guess I better explain.
“That man is a thief. Take away the disguising magic tool he has hidden in his breast pocket and have the other one analyze him.”
Looking doubtful, the concierge gave the orders to the other appraiser.
“Th-this is a Job Change magic tool. J-just as the gentleman from the Echigoya Company says, this man is a thief…”
“But how?! I was so careful to only hire trustworthy individuals…”
Unlike the stunned official, the concierge quickly clapped his hands to draw everyone’s attention and gave orders, sending for a guard to tie up the thief and drag him out of the room.
It did sort of feel like overkill, but hey, no mercy for thieves.
Actually, there might be others, too.
I did a map search limited to the auction hall.
One, two, three…
Several dots appeared on my map to mark criminals.
I wasn’t about to let some pests try to snatch up the Prayer Ring that was supposed to save Arisa and Lulu from their Geist.
“I’ll get rid of the other pests, too.”
I inspected the best route to my targets.
I should be able to pull it off with magic. Using Clairvoyance and Magic Hand to find and open any closed doors in my path, I muttered a fake chant and fired Remote Stun at the targets I’d locked on to with my map.
I sent them along the ceiling to avoid hitting anyone else.
I could see the guided magic shots hitting one after another on my map.
Two of them dodged the first round—a useless attempt at resisting.
The second round was already on its way, hitting the criminals and knocking them out one after another.
Heh-heh. Evil vanquished.
“L-Lord Kuro?”
Oops, I got a little carried away there.
I smiled at the manager to ease her concerned expression.
“No worries. I was expecting this much.”
“No worries?”
Miss Manager blinked at me in surprise.
Oh, crap. I’d accidentally spoken in my normal tone instead of Kuro’s.
“Forget it. Stay focused.”
“R-right…”
I have to calm down…
I looked around at the shocked group of people.
The officials were gaping uselessly, so I addressed the more levelheaded concierge instead.
“What are you all standing around for? There are two on the second floor, two in the warehouse, and one near the underground vault. Go round them up.”
“R-right!”
The concierge gave orders to his subordinates to send them to apprehend the criminals, then rushed to the vault himself.
Honestly. They could’ve done a better job of cleanup in advance.
Once the concierge came back and confirmed that all the already-submitted goods were still safe, we resumed the submission process.
We parted ways with Louna and her stone wolf in the hallway and followed an usherette to the upper noble participants’ waiting room.
The usherette did warn me in a roundabout way that use of magic inside the auction hall was prohibited, though.
“…And that is the bidding process for the auction.”
While the explanation was long, there wasn’t much of note.
The only part that stood out was the fact that you had to report your maximum available bidding number in advance, and you weren’t allowed to bid higher than that. I’d already heard about this from the manager and Eluterina, though.
“Are there any questions?”
“Once we win an item, can we pick it up right away?”
I had a few questions, but this was the most important one.
“No, they will be brought to the exchange area on the first floor during the intermissions. Once a successful bidder picks up their item, its security is on them. Please proceed with caution.”
This seemed to be an anti-theft measure.
The auction was broken up into three periods of two-hour bidding and one-hour breaks, for a total of nine hours.
Though the break time sounded long when I first heard this explanation, there turned out to be a good reason.
There was a knock at the door, and a woman walked in accompanied by a guard.
“The official appraiser is here. Now, if you wouldn’t mind, please present the money you’ve brought for bidding.”
The manager had explained to me already why there was a mandatory verification of your cash on hand.
In the old auctions, too many people bid more money than they actually had, leading to borderline civil wars among nobles.
“Is currency besides that of the Shiga Kingdom acceptable?”
“Yes, as long as you’ve reported it in advance.”
With that confirmation from the usherette, I pulled out pouches full of gold coins from my Item Box, piling them up on the table. Each one contained a thousand gold coins.
“Wow…”
“Impressive. So this is the power of the rising company that already serves the royal family…”
The staff members on standby in the waiting room whispered among themselves, picked up by my “Keen Hearing” skill.
Ignoring them, I kept stacking bags of money on the table.
“Wha…?”
“E-erm…”
The usherette and the official appraisers began staring in surprise, too.
That’s weird—they must see this amount of money every day.
I ran out of room for money bags on the table and turned to them.
“It won’t all fit on the table. Can I put the rest on the floor?”
Neither the usherette, the appraisers, nor even the clerks and guards responded, all gaping at me in silence.
All I needed was a yes or a no. Taking their silence as a yes, I dropped more bags of money onto the floor until the usherette finally started reacting again.
“W-wait a minute, please!”
“What? The floor’s no good?”
“No, that’s not the issue here!”
The previously refined young lady started waving her arms around with a more appropriately youthful expression.
It was cute and all, but was that really acceptable on a professional level?
“Just how many gold coins did you bring exactly?!”
“About 310,000, why?”
From what the Echigoya Company’s research had gathered, even the most generous estimates put the upper-class nobles at 100,000 gold coins at the most. Based on that, the managers and I decided on 300,000 for our bidding budget. The last 10,000 was from the payment for providing reconstruction materials and the money my friends had offered.
For most nobles, while they had a lot of assets, they only had around a thousand gold coins in actual cash.
“A-are you planning on buying out an entire city?!” the usherette shrieked.
“Please calm yourself. I’m afraid you’ve lost your manners.”
“I-I’m terribly sorry…”
The manager’s scolding quieted the usherette.
“At any rate, I cannot possibly analyze this many coins. I’ll sample a few to inspect. For now, we’ll give you banknotes for the number you submitted.”
With that, the official appraiser took three of the 310 bags to begin analyzing.
“Finally, please swear on the name of the great ancestral king Yamato that there are no counterfeits in your coins.”
It felt weird to swear on Hikaru’s name, but I did as I was told.
I guess this was the most effective way to deter liars in this ancestral king–loving kingdom.
“Here are your banknotes for bidding.”
I accepted the banknotes, which each represented 10,000 gold coins, as I listened to the usherette’s explanation.
Each note was marked with a large number 29, indicating the bidder. Since many bidders at the auction were anonymous, it was standard practice to call bidders by their number.
“When you raise this, a Wind Magic user will amplify your voice throughout the hall. Please make sure it’s clearly visible.”
The official appraiser gave me six 10,000-coin banknotes. The remaining twenty-five would be brought to my room later.
“Now what?”
The people walking in the halls suddenly moved to the side and knelt.
“Lord Kuro, it’s His Highness the prince. We should do the same.”
Miss Manager joined Tifaleeza, the usherette, and the others in stationing themselves reverently against the wall.
I was still trying to decide whether to prioritize Kuro’s arrogant characterization or my position as the owner of the Echigoya Company when my eyes met with the eldest prince of the Shiga Kingdom: Crown Prince Sortorik.
He was a handsome man with an intellectual face, looking to be about in his thirties.
“That mask and appearance… You must be the so-called Kuro, servant of Sir Nanashi the Hero.”
“Indeed I am.”
I couldn’t tell from the prince’s tone what he was thinking.
Kuro’s rude response seemed to set off the prince’s entourage, who clamored about my insolence. The prince himself seemed unbothered, however, and raised a hand to silence them.
“Are you saying you bow to no man but your master, Sir Nanashi?”
I looked back at the prince silently.
“Hmph. I’ll let your rudeness slide in acknowledgment of your work defeating demons in Labyrinth City. Keep helping the Hero to work hard for our kingdom.”
In spite of the prince’s willingness to overlook Kuro’s rudeness, there was one discrepancy I had to point out.
“Let me make one thing clear.”
I coolly addressed the prince as he started to walk past me.
“We work to protect the world from danger. Not for the sake of any kingdom.”
“Hmph. As long as it still benefits our kingdom, it matters not.”
The prince laughed scornfully and walked away.
His entourage glared at me, which I ignored, since it was an understandable reaction in their position.
“…I thought my heart was going to stop.”
“Mine too.”
Miss Manager and Tifaleeza put their hands on the floor, letting out deep sighs of relief.
I guess I must have worried them.
“Sorry. I’ll handle it better next time.”
Given the king’s age and all, it would be a bad move to sour my relationship with his heir.
Once the two girls recovered their ability to stand, the usherette led us to nobles’ seat twenty-nine, which had been allotted to the Echigoya Company.
From the height of the nobles’ seats, one could look out over the entire auction hall.
It was arranged in a downward-sloping fan shape, like a university lecture hall. There were seats for around three hundred people, with the noble seats where we stood sticking out halfway up the wall like a balcony. There were about thirty seats in total.
It was difficult to see the adjacent nobles’ seats unless one leaned over the balcony, but the ones across and farther away were clearly visible. There were thin lace veils around each seating area to protect the bidder’s privacy.
“It looks like we still have some time before the bidding starts.”
“Shall I call for a drink or something?”
As Miss Manager checked the time on her magic watch, Tifaleeza glanced toward the handbell that was placed inside each noble seating area, presumably to call for one of the maids waiting just outside.
“No need.”
While privately appreciating Tifaleeza’s thoughtfulness, I killed time by gazing at the other nobles’ seats and searching the map.
Aside from the prince, the royal family occupied three more noble seats, including the fifth prince.
The king sure has a lot of kids, I thought as I scanned the list. There were nine princes, four of whom had already passed away. The crown prince, the fifth prince, the eighth prince, and the ninth prince were the healthy ones, while the third prince Sharorik was convalescing in a monastery in the countryside.
There were even more princesses—thirteen of them. All the adult princesses except for Princess Sistina were married to powerful Shiga Kingdom nobles or royal families from other kingdoms. Most of the underage princesses were already engaged, too.
Considering the outdated belief that women should stay at home that still seemed prevalent in the Shiga Kingdom, Princess Sistina was in a difficult position. Even if we weren’t close enough to be considered friends, I wanted to help her out if there was ever anything I could do to be of assistance.
“Lord Kuro, it certainly looks as though there are more influential nobles here than usual.”
“So it would seem.”
I’d gotten distracted thinking about the royal family and forgotten to keep surveying the noble seats.
Giving a vague response to the manager, I resumed my investigation.
The majority of the pedigreed nobles here were powerful ones, like the viceroy and his wife from Labyrinth City Celivera and Count Ritton’s wife. A majority of the lords seemed to be participating, too, including Duke Ougoch, Duke Vistall, and Marquis Eluette.
There were considerably fewer merchants, with representatives of a few long-standing shops like the Ghookuts Company taking up only three seats in the nobles’ section. The lone weaselfolk merchant—Homimudory from the Sahbe Company—was near the front row of the first floor, not in the nobles’ seats.
There were foreign ambassadors from places like the Saga Empire and the western regions, too. I didn’t see the leprechaun Prince Smartith of the Blybrogha Kingdom, though. He seemed like the curious type, so I was surprised he wouldn’t attend an event like this.
“Lord Kuro, the list of items for sale and the rest of the bills have arrived.”
Tifaleeza brought over the papers delivered to the nobles’ seats.
“It looks like the Prayer Ring is last, just as we suspected.”
Miss Manager peered at the list over my shoulder. I nodded, skimming the rest of it from the top.
The first section consisted of weapons, armor, and magic items, followed by potions and jewelry, and finally scrolls, Gift Orbs, and so on.
“So the Claidheamh knockoff is first up, eh?”
This was one of our submissions from the Echigoya Company, my failed attempt at reproducing the Holy Sword Claidheamh Soluis’s flying feature. I’d used a Magic Hand mechanism to make the blades fly, but it was a far cry from independently attacking and defending like the real thing, and even the flight speed was much slower.
Although I tried to improve this with wind stones and wind runes for propulsion, it still went only as fast as an arrow and was easy to dodge before it reached full speed. Quite frankly, it was totally defective.
“They probably put it first to excite the crowd right away, since it got the best response during the presentation in the salon.”
It was that popular…?
I guess a lot of people must have been fooled by its elegant appearance and high-on-paper specs.
We ended up waiting about an hour after being brought to the hall.
Finally, an announcement rang out that the auction was going to start.
Let the battle begin!
“The first item is the Flying Crimson Sword Louas!”
At the auctioneer’s shout, a cheer rose from the audience seats.
An epic theme song started playing; I looked around and realized a small orchestra had set up in the wings to provide background music.
“When did we give it such an absurd name?”
“It didn’t have an official name yet. Louna must have taken it upon herself… I’ll give her a talking-to later.”
“It’s fine. Won’t be ours for much longer anyway.”
The stone wolf–loving staff member Louna emerged onto the stage with the Claidheamh knockoff—the “Flying Crimson Sword Louas”—in hand.
They must be doing a demonstration before they started the bidding.
Several rings made with Practical Magic floated in the air, and the Flying Crimson Sword smoothly soared out of Louna’s hand to fly through each of them, speeding up to hit a target at the end.
That was pretty impressive. She must have practiced a lot.
“OOOOOOOOH!”
As soon as the sword broke the target, cheers shook the auction hall enough to hurt my eardrums.
I could see why that demonstration would make it look a whole lot less like a knockoff.
Louna must have a serious knack for naming and presentation.
And sure enough…
“Six hundred gold coins!”
“Six hundred and ten!”
The bidding started at a hundred gold coins and kept skyrocketing from there.
At first, Duke Ougoch and Duke Vistall were bidding, too, but soon it was down to a one-on-one bidding war between the viceroy of the trade city Tartumina and Count Ritton.
Eventually, the momentum slowed to a halt, and the auctioneer banged the hammer that indicated the end of the bidding.
I guess they use hammers to indicate a winning bid in this world, too.
“Bidder number twelve has won the Flying Crimson Sword Louas for the price of two thousand and thirty gold coins!”
Judging by the number, it must be the viceroy of the trade city who had won out.
“That’s more than I expected.”
“I’d say it’s a fitting number for that sword.”
The manager had appraised it as being on par with any national treasure.
The high price set the tone for the next several items, including Magic Swords and Magic Armor.
Some prototype defense-enhancing shields that were different from the types sold at the Echigoya Company went to some imperial knights and the military minister Marquis Kelten.
“Our items all sold at terrific prices.”
Miss Manager looked exceedingly pleased.
I had to agree. Most of the eccentric prototype weapons and armor sold for an average of five hundred gold coins, and even the five mass-produced mithril-plated Magic Swords known as Champion’s Swords, of which there were already several hundred in circulation, sold for three fifty to four hundred gold coins.
But while the former was one thing, I had no idea why the latter would fetch such a high price. Tifaleeza simply responded, “Because they don’t know when they’ll get another chance to buy one.”
Sounds like the demand is still way higher than the supply, then.
But still…
“That’s some serious inflation.”
“Inflation?” Tifaleeza tilted her head in adorable confusion, so I gave her a simple explanation.
“Now then, let’s move on to the treasures that Red Dragon’s Roar acquired by defeating a floormaster in the Celivera labyrinth! We’ll begin with weapons and armor.”
The spoils were divided up by category because they were a hodgepodge of so many different kinds of items.
Since these spoils were all considered offerings to the king, the seller was technically a representative of the kingdom.
“First up, the Magic Ice Sword Icebranch Fang!”
The blade scattered ice crystals when swung, creating a pretty effect.
I’d assumed that Jelil would keep it as his new sword, but maybe even the leader of Red Dragon’s Roar didn’t have the freedom to do that.
“You’d be the envy of the mithril explorers.”
“Hmm, did we steal the bidders’ interest?”
The price wasn’t going as high as I would’ve expected.
It was only at less than two hundred gold coins, even though its attack power was higher than the Champion’s Swords.
Mr. Jelil looked grim in Duke Vistall’s section of the nobles’ seats.
“I’ve no choice, then… Two hundred and fifty gold coins!”
I couldn’t help but raise my banknotes and call out a bid.
Since the banknotes were there to prove the upper limit of the bidder’s budget, it was perfectly fine to use a 10,000-gold-coin note to make a lower bid.
My shill bid seemed to work: The subsequent bids went up to 260, then 270.
I made a few more shill bids to bring the price up to around 360 gold coins.
That’s where I stopped the bid, since I got the feeling the other bidder was going to give up if I pushed it much higher. In the end, two others went on bidding even after I stopped, bringing the final price to 372 gold coins.
Yet, despite my best efforts, Mr. Jelil’s face still looked dour.
“Makes no sense.”
“Perhaps he thought a labyrinth-made Magic Sword from a floormaster would go higher, since the Champion’s Sword right before it went for four hundred and two gold coins?”
Okay, that made sense.
I nodded at the manager’s words.
“Or maybe…” Tifaleeza considered. “Could he have hired a proxy in hopes of using it himself?”
…Oops.
I didn’t think of that.
If that was the case, maybe I’d done him a disservice.
With that in mind, I didn’t do any shill bids on the rest of Red Dragon’s Roar items, but the first item selling for a relatively high price meant the rest went for higher than average, too.
I had no need for such reservations on Team Pendragon’s spoils, so when those came up next, I went all out on the shill bids partly just to keep myself entertained.
That seemed to help: The adamantite warhammer and paralyzing spear went for far higher prices than I’d expected.
I did win a bid on one of the Thunder Rods, mostly so I wouldn’t be frowned upon for not actually getting anything.
The lone Thunder Crystal Rod drew a deadly bidding war among three Lightning Magic users from the Shiga Thirty-Three Staves, which I decided to stay out of. I could understand their feelings—the Thunder Pearl that served as the core for the Thunder Crystal Rod was an incredibly rare item.
“Lord Kuro, are you sure it was wise to win a bid?”
“One or two should be fine.”
The rules really just meant that I could bid only up to 310,000 gold on one item—it didn’t matter if my final total was a little higher than that.
“Now then, let’s begin the second section. First, the miraculous medicine that Team Pendragon won from the floormaster! From lost limbs to poison to petrification, from incurable illnesses to a demon lord’s curse, this elixir can cure anything! We’ll begin at fifty gold coins…”
“Two hundred gold coins!”
Before the auctioneer even finished his statement, there was a call from the wife of Marquis Ashinen, the viceroy of Labyrinth City Celivera.
“Three hundred gold coins.”
Duke Ougoch gave a cool counterbid.
“Three hundred and one gold coins!”
The weaselfolk merchant Mr. Homimudory raised the bid by a small amount.
“Three hundred and ten gold coins!”
“Four hundred gold coins!”
A long-standing merchant house threw in another small increase, but the viceroy’s wife’s next bid drowned him out.
The normally mild-mannered marchioness sounded uncharacteristically intense today.
She must be desperate to save her dear friend the former Count Poputema from his deathly state.
I silently prayed for her victory.
“It’s going quite high, isn’t it?”
“That it is…”
The bids slowed down after it broke five hundred coins, leaving only the marchioness and Duke Ougoch in a bidding war.
“I-it’s gone over a thousand.”
Tifaleeza held her breath, transfixed.
After a bit of hesitation, the viceroy’s wife finally drove the price into the realm of four digits.
All eyes gathered on Duke Ougoch’s seat.
Sitting a little ways away, the viceroy’s wife glowered in that direction intently.
“A-any more bidders?”
The auctioneer counted down from three, then finally banged the hammer to announce the closing of the bids.
Marchioness Ashinen let out a sigh of relief and slumped deep into her seat.
Nicely done, Mrs. Ashinen.
Although even if she hadn’t won the bid, I could’ve easily made some elixirs for her once I did another round of prep work.
“The marchioness of Labyrinth City is truly impressive.”
The manager murmured with awe at the woman who’d won the elixir for a thousand gold coins.
Although technically we presented the elixir to the king, they would take an auction fee and give the rest of the gold to us as a reward, which made me feel like I’d swindled the viceroy’s wife out of a bunch of money.
I’ll just invest the thousand gold coins in some cause that benefits Labyrinth City.
“S-so you used such an expensive potion on Neru and me…”
I glanced over and saw that Tifaleeza was simultaneously turning pale and blushing pink.
“It’s fine. It was only a lesser elixir that I used on your burns, not an elixir.”
“R-right, of course.”
This time, Tifaleeza looked both relieved and disappointed. I was impressed with her subtle range of expressions.
“They’re only worth about a quarter of an elixir. Not a big deal.”
“A quarter… B-but that’s still two hundred and fifty gold coins!”
It was rare for Tifaleeza to raise her voice like that.
“You’re well worth that much.”
Distracted by the bidding for the next item, I didn’t think it through before I blurted out that response. I had to be more careful; my “Fabrication” skill took over whenever I let my guard down.
“You…think so?”
“…Mrrr.”
Tifaleeza went red up to her ears and turned away, while Miss Manager latched on to my sleeve a little sullenly.
The pair of them were acting kind of emotionally unstable today.
Maybe I’d been giving them a bit too much work.
“The cure-alls and advanced potions are selling high, too.”
They went for around the same prices as the Magic Swords. Even for items out of a labyrinth, this inflation was getting a little scary.
“Yes, such things are hard to come by.”
“But the Echigoya Company’s Antidote: All-Purpose is doing well, too.”
“Mm-hmm.” I nodded along vaguely to Miss Manager and the oddly competitive Tifaleeza.
The latter were selling in the range of twenty to forty gold coins. There were few people who could make them, and these ones were especially high-quality goods that I had produced myself, which was probably why they went for several times the market price.
“Grrr, so the rumors about the Echigoya Company selling hair restorers and exhaustion-recovery potions were false…”
When the potion bidding ended, I heard a few such complaints from the first-floor seats.
“Yes, I’m afraid neither is ready for general sale just yet. The former is too difficult for Anne and the others to produce with consistent quality, and the latter all get bought up by officials from the royal castle.”
“Hmm…”
High-quality hair-restoring potions really were surprisingly hard to produce.
Glancing in the direction of the complaints, I saw a few gentlemen with sparse scalps looking crestfallen.
Okay, I’ll increase production on those.
Like Arisa once told me, “Gimme a head with hair.”
Maybe I should do a little power leveling for Anne and the rest of the Echigoya Company’s alchemists, too.
“Here it comes.”
“At last.”
While I was lost in thought, Tifaleeza and Manager Eluterina suddenly focused on the stage with strangely serious expressions.
Before I could ask why, the auctioneer announced, “Next up is jewelry and artwork,” which was met with high-pitched shrieks and cheers.
That explained it. Lots of women were interested in this sort of thing, and these two were no exception.
Listening closer with my “Keen Hearing” skill, I caught wind that some “miracle jewels on par with Master Gemma’s work” were a popular prize.
“Ah, those gems of ours.”
It must be the gemstones I had produced with the Stone Object spell.
“Exactly! When I showed a sample in the salon, I could scarcely move for all the brokers clamoring for a deal.”
“Yes, I’m very curious to see how high the nobles will drive the price.”
Miss Manager and Tifaleeza confirmed immediately.
“The sapphire ring is first, eh?”
I’d modified a sapphire into the shape of a ring, adding a band of light stone in the middle so that the sapphire would glow with flower-patterned light when charged with magic.
“The bidding has begun.”
Starting at ten gold coins, the bids went up in ten-coin increments. Even then, it reached triple digits in the blink of an eye.
“They’re in a downright frenzy, aren’t they?”
“I can’t say I blame them. If you had a gemstone like that, you’d be the talk of high society, and make all kinds of new connections besides.”
Miss Manager’s words explained the reasoning behind the madness.
No wonder the young noblewomen, who valued social standing and connections above all else, were determined to get their hands on it.
Still, I hadn’t been expecting it to sell at a higher price than the Magic Swords.
“Bidder seventeen has won the ring for five hundred and three gold coins!”
The crash of the hammer echoed, followed by the auctioneer’s announcement.
It appeared that the winner of this first round was Count Ritton’s wife, who held a great deal of influence in the high society of the royal capital.
The next several gemstones all went to pedigreed noble wives at considerably high prices.
Most of them didn’t cost much to produce, except the ones that used light stones and diamonds, but that didn’t seem to matter.
I’d already promised to sell similar items to Mrs. Ritton and several of the others. Since those were made-to-order with the family crest, though, I didn’t see any reason to lower the price.
“Astounding. All this for some social clout?”
“That’s not all there is to it.”
“Yes, anyone would dream of wearing a gemstone like that at least once in their lives.”
Tifaleeza and Miss Manager gave sighs of admiration.
“Really?”
“Oh yes.”
“Tell me later which designs you liked best, then. I’ll make one for each of you.”
“A-are you quite sure?”
“I always am.”
I wanted to reward them for all their hard work and dedication. Besides, it’d be easy enough to whip up gems for these two and the rest of the executive staff with a little magic.
“Hooraaay!”
The normally refined Eluterina and coolheaded Tifaleeza smiled widely and even high-fived each other.
As I stared at them in surprise at this unusual reaction, they both turned red and composed themselves.
I was just happy to have made them so happy, though.
While I fondly watched Manager Eluterina grinning openly and Tifaleeza struggling in vain to hide a smile of her own, I kept an ear to the second part of the auction.
Although there were a few sculptures and paintings that probably would have thrilled Tama and Nana, I had to pass them up due to the obscenely high speculative prices.
I’ll pick out some nice gifts for them at an art gallery or a specialty plushie store.
And then, at last, the third section began.
It was finally time for the Prayer Ring to come up.
That would be the very last one, of course, but I was still interested in some of the other offerings, especially the scrolls and Gift Orbs.
“Bidder number 310 has won the Summon Pigeon scroll for twenty gold coins!”
Even at auction, the one-use-only nature of scrolls meant that they were only popular with dilettantes, military men, and people connected to scroll workshops like Viscount Siemmen. As such, their prices didn’t go very high.
“Number 310 again…”
“They’ve won everything but the three Ghost Magic scrolls. Perhaps it’s Sir Pendragon’s proxy?”
Tifaleeza was sharp, as usual.
Her guess was correct: Bidder 310 was the proxy I’d hired.
I gave a budget of a thousand gold coins to buy up scrolls and Gift Orbs.
The three Ghost Magic scrolls my proxy didn’t bid on went to Viscount Siemmen, who ran a scroll workshop in the old capital.
Incidentally, they included the Create Lesser Undead scroll that Jelil’s party had gotten from the floormaster and two products from Mr. Homimudory, Summon Lesser Ghost and Summon Lesser Undead.
“The next one ought to be a bit more popular.”
“Do you think so? It’s the Space Magic spell Material Transfer that’s supposed to move small objects around, right? And since it’s one-use-only, too, I can’t think of a single use for it.”
True, it wouldn’t be any help with fighting monsters.
“Hmm. You’re right; there aren’t many bids.”
A dilettante went up to fifteen gold coins, after which it was down to bids between my proxy and Mr. Homimudory.
“That weaselfolk man is the head of the Sahbe Company, correct? I’ve heard that Viscount Pendragon bought scrolls from him before. Perhaps he’s hoping to sell them to the viscount again?”
In that case, I would’ve been better off having my proxy hold off before the price went higher. I couldn’t exactly go giving orders to my proxy in this situation, though.
All I could do was look on as the price climbed higher, and eventually my proxy bought it for forty-five gold coins.
I guess even Mr. Homimudory couldn’t be sure that I would buy a scroll from him at this price.
That was the last of the scrolls; next up were the Gift Orbs.
These were special items that came out of treasure chests from defeating floormasters, single-use items that gave the user a new skill.
“Poison Resistance seems quite popular,” Tifaleeza observed.
“Nobles do have to worry about being poisoned, especially if they have lots of enemies,” Miss Manager explained. “I’m sure that’s why they’re taking the bidding so seriously.”
Several nobles were competing for the top bid, especially Duke Vistall, who’d nearly been assassinated twice just recently.
My proxy won the two orbs that had come up before this one, Paralysis Resistance and Water Magic, for 102 and 162 gold coins respectively.
They were fairly popular, too, but not nearly as much as Poison Resistance.
Before Water Magic was a Light Magic orb, which went for 319 gold coins, since it was a necessary magic skill for a Holy Knight.
“Ah, looks like the bidding’s over.”
“231 gold coins? Not as high as I thought.”
“If it went any higher, it would be more cost-effective to just buy up magic antidote items, especially since then your descendants can also use them.”
Still, those antidote items weren’t as effective—I imagine anyone whose life was in danger would probably want both.
“This next item is the final Gift Orb! It’s a mythical skill that has never once been witnessed in Gift Orb form before!”
Even this far into the day, the auctioneer was still as energetic as ever.
“It’s none other thaaan…”
He paused dramatically, waiting for the entire audience’s attention before going on.
“The proof of a master swordsman, the one and only Spellblaaaaade!”
“WOOOOOOOO!”
There was a chorus of almost bloodcurdling screams from swordsmen and nobles with an interest in such things.
I couldn’t blame them.
“Spellblade is handy.”
It really reduced the amount of time you had to spend cleaning or oiling your blade.
“No, I don’t think that’s the reason, exactly…”
Miss Manager looked flummoxed.
“Master, is everything all right?”
Arisa contacted me via the Space Magic spell Telephone.
Actually, since I could hear faint chattering in the background, it must be Tactical Talk.
“I heard some serious screaming from outside. Did they get to the Prayer Ring already?”
“No, that was a Spellblade orb.”
The military minister Marquis Kelten and the vice minister Count Boppan were rapid-fire bidding back and forth.
I guess neither of them had the “Spellblade” skill.
“The Prayer Ring is next.”
“Almost time, then.”
“Yep, almost time.”
Soon, I’d finally be able to free Arisa and Lulu from their Geist.
Technically, I had no real proof that it would work without a doubt, but surely the power of a god could break a curse or two.
“I believe in you, master.”
“Master! I believe in you, too!”
Arisa’s words were followed closely by Lulu; then everyone else all chimed in to root for me.
“Thanks. I promise I won’t fail.”
Vowing my victory, I cut off my connection with Arisa and the others.
Now, I’d better contact Hikaru before things get rolling.
“YEEEEEEES!! Now I can use ‘Spellblade,’ toooooo!”
Just as I finished my conversation with Hikaru, I heard Marquis Kelten bellow triumphantly.
Tears streamed down his face as he struck a triumphant pose in the nobles’ seats.
He must have really wanted that “Spellblade” skill.
“Based on earlier reports and the totals thus far, I believe we’ve eliminated five or six competitors for the Prayer Ring.”
Tifaleeza showed me the list.
She’d been meticulously taking note of all the winning bids this whole time.
“Good. Just as we hoped.”
After a moment, I realized that wasn’t enough and added, “I appreciate your hard work, Tifaleeza.”
The orchestra’s background melody switched from a lively theme to a more mysterious one.
An elderly head priest and a young priest with the “Item Box” skill emerged onto the stage.
There were five different Parion Temple priests with the “Item Box” skill at the auction hall, probably to confuse potential thieves.
“Lord Kuro.”
“Let’s win this no matter what.”
“Of course.”
I nodded firmly at the pair.
“Now, for today’s final item. A heavenly blessing submitted for sale by Parion Temple, it’s a legendary treasure that defines the word miraculous!”
The auctioneer dragged things out with a rapturous expression.
We get it—just start already.
“Full of miracles on par with the likes of Prayer Magic, which is granted only to the loftiest of archbishops and pontiffs…it’s the Prayer Ring!”
Feeling impatient to the point of irritability, I let the auctioneer’s rambling go in one ear and out the other.
“The Prayer Ring is sealed away in the Dragonseal Chest, which can only be opened by the head priest of Parion Temple!”
Miss Manager had told me about the fiendish safe known as the Dragonseal Chest when we were discussing the possibilities of the Prayer Ring being stolen. If you tried to open it without knowing the right sequence, the treasure within would be spirited far away from reach.
“Now then, good priests, if you would be so kind.”
The priest produced a strangely decorated cube-shaped chest from the Item Box and held it up to the elderly head priest, who hid the chest behind the sleeves of his robes while he fiddled around.
“Oooooh! Would you look at that! It’s so briiiiight!”
The auctioneer exclaimed dramatically.
“What dazzling light from within! Yes, this is the Prayer Ring, in which sleeps heavenly miracles!”
The head priest showed the ring to the crowd.
My AR display confirmed that it was the Prayer Ring. I put a marker on it just to be safe.
Just then, I saw a dark shadow approaching the head priest from the wings, reaching for the ring.
A thief.
“Lord Kuro!”
“On it.”
I used my always-active Magic Hand to drag the thief out of the shadows.
This seemed to knock the figure off balance: It landed nowhere near the old priest, hitting the floor and vanishing.
“Thief! Call the guards!”
While the auctioneer called the guards, the old priest quickly put the Prayer Ring away in the Dragonseal Chest.
It evidently stored items in a different dimension like a Garage Bag. On my list of markers, the Prayer Ring was now on an area with no map.
Afraid to lose track of it, I put a marker on the Dragonseal Chest, too.
“Please pardon that ugly intrusion… Now then, let us begin the bidding.”
Despite the incident, the auction was going on as planned.
“We’ll start at one hundred gold coins!”
As soon as the auctioneer spoke, bids arose from the first-floor seats.
They increased the bid slowly in increments ranging from one to ten gold coins.
I guess we weren’t the only ones who were here today for this specific item.
“Five hundred gold coins!”
Just as the bidding passed three hundred gold coins, a bid was called out from the noble seats.
This set the price climbing even higher.
When it crossed one thousand gold coins, I raised my card.
“Two thousand gold coins.”
That sent a stir through the auction hall.
Maybe doubling the price out of nowhere was a little excessive, but it did the trick for intimidating the crowd.
“Twenty-one hundred gold coins.”
“Twenty-two hundred gold coins.”
“Twenty-three hundred gold coins.”
“…Twenty-three hundred and one gold coins.”
The bids came one after another.
There were definitely plenty of competitors still putting up a fight.
The old merchant company had started going up in smaller increments, which meant they were probably going to drop out soon.
I kept going up one hundred coins at a time to avoid letting things get out of hand with huge bid increases off the bat.
“There’s still a lot of competition.”
“Indeed.”
The price had already gotten up to 3,900 gold coins.
Just then, there was a knock at our door.
“I’ll see who it is.”
Tifaleeza stood up to investigate our poorly timed visitor.
In the meantime, I raised my card and called out, “Four thousand gold coins.”
“W-wait a minute!”
I heard Tifaleeza’s alarmed voice and loud footsteps stomping toward me.
Our rude visitor was one of the prince’s entourage from before.
“Looks like the prince’s people have no manners… Four thousand, three hundred gold coins.”
“Why, you! It’s rude to look away when you have a guest!”
Resisting the urge to say, You’re one to talk, I glared at him out of the corner of my eye.
“His Highness wants the Prayer Ring.”
“Oh yeah?”
That wasn’t exactly news to me. He’d been bidding for a while now.
“…Four thousand, six hundred gold coins.”
“Y-you cur! Did you not hear me?!”
“What? Did your master order you to break the rules during the auction?”
Not appreciating the thinly veiled threat, I went ahead and cut to the chase, leaving him no room for excuses.
It would be one thing if the prince himself came to me with the request because of some vital emergency, but I wasn’t going to miss a chance to free Arisa and Lulu because of some vague nonsense.
“As if a noble prince would ever do such a thing!”
“So you’re doing this on your own, then… Four thousand, eight hundred gold coins.”
I wasn’t about to help this brownnoser score any points.
“Leave. I have no business with you.”
“Plebeian! How dare you make a mockery of the esteemed Count Imedion’s eldest son!”
The idiot charged at me with a sword. Without getting up, I caught the blade between two fingers, yanked it out of his grasp, and hit him with the business end of my “Intimidation” skill.
Since I was a little annoyed, I didn’t hold back much. The point-blank pressure from my skill sent him toppling to the floor, practically foaming at the mouth.
“Five thousand gold coins.”
The number of bidders was dwindling now.
Duke Vistall seemed to have dropped out of the competition.
“Lord Kuro, are you all right?”
“Don’t worry about it. I just subdued some ruffian who pulled a sword on me.”
I hadn’t actually laid a finger on him anyway.
“Six thousand gold coins.”
“…Six thousand, one hundred gold coins.”
Oh-ho, reaching your limit?
“Seven thousand gold coins.”
Since we were approaching the finish line, I raised the bid by a full thousand.
Then I glanced over and saw the manager’s distressed-looking face.
“Nervous?”
“Yes, well… Prince Sortorik is a great man who always puts the kingdom first, yet he is also known to be merciless toward those he sees as enemies.”
“What a petty man.”
If you’re going to be king someday, you should really have enough charisma to turn even your enemies into allies, in my opinion.
“…Seven thousand, one hundred gold coins.”
The prince put in another bid.
He looked pale, as if he was getting out of his depth.
Unlike a king, a prince probably didn’t have endless supplies of money that he could use as he pleased.
“Now, are there any other bids?”
The auctioneer started counting down.
“I suppose for the sake of the Echigoya Company, I’d better step down…”
“Lord Kuro…”
“Oh, this is horrible.”
I gently patted the unhappy-looking manager and Tifaleeza on their shoulders.
Now…
“Hikaru, it’s all you.”
“Ten thousand gold coins!”
Immediately, a clear voice rang out from the first floor of the auction house.
“What?!”
My “Keen Hearing” skill picked up the prince’s cry of shock.
“Any last bids?”
“Grrr… Ten thousand and ten gold coins!”
Clearly, the prince was running out of options.
“Twenty thousand gold coins!”
“D-damn yoooooou!”
Hikaru’s cheerful-sounding bid was met with a strangled yell from the prince as he leaned over the balcony.
Looking up, Hikaru spotted him and gave him a jaunty wave.
“D-Duke Mitsukuni! Wh-what are you doing down there…?!”
The prince’s mutter probably didn’t reach Hikaru’s ears.
“Erm… A-are there any other bids? Hmm? None at all?”
The auctioneer sounded distressed, probably because of the prince’s shout.
“W-well, if there are no more bids, then I’ll begin the countdown. Three…two…ooone… Erm, there are truly no more bids?”
The prince glared down, seething, at the auctioneer’s upturned face.
Hey, it’s not his fault.
“S-sold, then! Erm, bidder number 325 has won the Prayer Ring for twenty gold coins!”
The auctioneer was so flustered, he forgot to say the thousand part.
An official hurried over and whispered in his ear, prompting him to correct himself. “A-apologies. The winning bid was twenty thousand gold coins.”
“Mission complete, Ichirou!”
“Thanks, Hikaru.”
“Eh-he-he, I guess we didn’t need those two million coins after all.”
“No kidding.”
It didn’t go quite how I expected, but all’s well that ends well.
I had Hikaru come in right before the bidding on the ring just in case some of the nobles and merchants found out my bidding limit and conspired to put together more money or banknotes than me at the last minute.
This meant that the prince’s fury might turn on Hikaru instead of the Echigoya Company, but hopefully that wouldn’t happen, since she hadn’t been coerced by one of his entourage like I was.
If it came right down to it, I was sure her ancestral king power would get her through.
And if not, I’d just have to come to the rescue.
“Let’s go.”
“Yes, Lord Kuro.”
We vacated the noble’s seats, leaving the unconscious man on the floor.
But just as we were heading for the door, the light went out behind us.
“The chest! The chest is gone!”
The old priest’s panicked cry echoed through the pitch-black auction hall.
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