Chapter 81
Clink, clink. The host shook the bell he held and spoke.
“Here’s how to participate in the auction. Each table has two small bells. Ring the silver bell to place a bid — bids increase in multiples of two. If you ring the gold bell, you may call out ten times the current bid.”
This was too big to ignore.
At the very least, people would want to confirm whether the sword up for sale was genuine. Didn’t Viscount Flux once tear that whole black market apart when he was touched? There had been other victims besides Viscount Flux, and everyone whispered that however they’d silenced those people, the black market had kept running quietly afterward….
There were surely collaborators among the city’s nobles. Even if the principals didn’t know, there might be people pulling strings and using others from the shadows. Either way, someone would try to verify the rumor using whatever help they could get. And if it truly turned out to be authentic, they’d try to get it by any means.
The Emoticon Sword wasn’t a weapon containing the power of a god that would go down in history.
Still — to be honest — even if limited to its contractor, its performance was absurdly good.
Anyone seeing it might easily mistake it for a god-imbued weapon.
The Castrain family had already obtained the Flameberge’s Wrath and the Gloriana’s Banner. As far as I knew, the lost Chloria’s Necklace had originally been a Castrain family treasure. In other words, among the current powers, they were one of the factions holding the most weapons said to contain divine power.
Whether I wanted to bring down the empire or defeat the Castrains and become empire number one, if an opportunity to obtain something like that appeared, I’d use any means necessary to seize it.
One of my ultimate goals was to gather every ancient weapon imbued with a god’s power, fully repair the decaying barrier day by day, and then applaud the empire’s safe future before disappearing… but lately I had an ominous feeling that the task would only get harder. I narrowed my eyes and stared at the scene before me.
“Now, the first item. Because it’s been a while since our last auction, today we’ll show you….”
The host placed his bell down and removed the dome that had covered the tray. A tiara studded with gems that shimmered in many colors was revealed.
“Behold! A venerable tiara passed down from ancient times. All the gems adorning it are magic gems! Unfortunately, the gems’ powers are exhausted now and are merely ordinary jewels, but perhaps some skilled guest will find hidden secrets from their past!”
It was a common bait item to whet appetites. Debi muttered, sounding deflated.
“Pfft. Who doesn’t know an exhausted magic gem is basically trash? They sure know how to dress it up.”
“So it’s pretty trash?”
“Well, you can’t sue later for buying something here….”
Still, that pretty old junk drew more interest than expected and sold for a fairly high price.
Next up.
From one end of the stage a woman came out dragging a tray covered with red velvet. Like the many “guests” seated there, she wore a mask that hid half her face and a tight red dress that revealed her figure — a seductively beautiful woman.
Someone whistled. She paid it no mind and slowly set the tray down beside the host. The host laughed loudly.
“Now, it’s a bit early for the mood to heat up, but today we have many truly important items. This is… yes. We obtained these with great difficulty. Without further ado, let’s show the item!”
The host slowly pulled back the red cloth.
What lay on the tray was a large stone.
No, it couldn’t be called a simple stone. A faint scarlet and violet hue swirled through it, and it glittered like stardust when it caught the light.
“…Yes, look at this beautiful sheen! Some of you may have guessed at a glance. We couldn’t be careless in confirming its authenticity, so we had it verified by a priest through our special channels. Yes — it’s a relic, said to have not been freshly discovered in over two hundred years! It heals people, expels fiends, and invigorates holy energy! Look at its majestic size. Even the temples rarely have such a precious relic!”
A murmur spread in every direction. Voices sounded clearly bewildered and several people started whispering to one another.
There had been rumors that ‘the princess’s lost sword’ would appear.
But very few had expected a genuine relic to be put up for sale.
I smiled.
“Sorry, but according to our auction rules, we can’t disclose the acquisition route, the original owner’s identity, or anything else. All we can say is this is genuine. Only those who pay its true value will be able to take it home….”
The host clapped; the woman who had brought the tray stepped closer to the stone. She produced a small glass vial from her bosom. She opened the stopper of the thin vial — as slender as a child’s pinky — and let a single drop of the black liquid inside fall onto the stone.
Whoosh!
The moment the liquid touched the stone, it vanished into thin air as if boiling away into steam. The host gestured at the display as if to emphasize it.
“See! The poison extracted from a fiend is purified and disappears in an instant!”
Nabira, who had been complicit in this scam, let one side of her eye twitch slightly.
That was right.
The reason Castrain’s newly donated, supposedly genuine magic gem—relic substitute—was there was because I had had it placed there.
In the first place, the “relic” used in the offering ceremony is only a medium to maintain the temple’s own barrier and boost its strength. That does not mean the object itself possesses healing power or anything actually miraculous. So the priest who whispered to Count Cortez that “this relic might cure your son” had essentially lied, probably without even realizing it.
In short, dropping poison taken from a fiend onto a big magic gem would not naturally purify it. So Nabira had secretly hidden a device that performed purification magic in her gloved palm and, while she herself dropped the poison, used the gem’s appearance to perform the magic. It was such a flawless trick that even the host beside her was fooled.
“Now, such an incredible item! It’s impossible to appraise this properly…but we have to start somewhere. Yes. We’ll begin at 300,000 gold!”
Right from the start that sum could easily buy a respectable mansion in the capital. But the guests hammered the silver bells wildly.
“600,000 gold!”
“900,000 gold!”
“Ugh, what a hassle — 3,000,000 gold!”
Normally, the bidding would have proceeded more gracefully, with footmen positioned around announcing, “A patron has rung the gold bell; three million gold! Any further bids?” but….
The guests joined eagerly in the auction. I watched them with calm amusement.
Of course, as the competition intensified, the amounts shot up like crazy. 3.6 million, 6 million, 9 million…. It even reached 12 million.
No matter the auction, twelve million gold was astronomical. One would doubt whether anyone could actually pay that on the spot. It was an amount enough to buy forty large mansions in the capital.
“Wow, amazing. Twelve million gold! Twelve million gold has been bid. Will anyone place another bid?”
The buyer who’d called twelve million was sweating profusely.
Like the others, he wore a mask that covered more than half his face, so his features were indistinct, but his face was certainly pinched with worry. After all, twelve million gold. Even the Castrain family would hesitate to spend that casually. To be able to pay such an amount without flinching — well, it would have to be someone who manipulates the palace household and pockets bribes like Empress Cleo, or a family that manipulates the empire… or perhaps—
“…I will bid!”
Maybe a priest like Kronen, who’d quietly amassed bribes over many years in this prosperous southern city, and thought it better to secure a relic substitute than risk ruining his life by botching the offering ceremony.
Yes. If he emptied all his savings and slush funds, he might pull together that sum.
“Sir, I’m sorry but because of the amount, you must pay the full sum today if you win the item….”
“I said I’ll bid!”
Kronen shouted like a man in desperation. I snorted at him.
