Chapter 364: The Necklace Does Look Familiar

Vaelric and Melisande looked at their daughter as though she had dropped a lit match onto the table.

If looks could kill, the Asrephaths would be planning a burial tomorrow. The anger came very quickly, but both of them were smart enough to bury it before Lancet or Spectra could catch it on their faces.

Vaelric’s fingers tightened beside his plate, Melisande’s smile became a little too intentional, and then they turned toward the open case and pretended like Opaline had simply reminded them of an unimportant transaction.

"Ah," Vaelric said, forcing recognition into his voice. "Now that you say it, the necklace does look familiar."

Lancet looked toward Opaline with harmless curiosity. "What do you mean you found it?"

Opaline’s excitement immediately disappeared. She had spoken before remembering that her parents’ rule about outsiders hearing too much about what she could do or how her power was involved in the family’s acquisitions.

When she glanced across the table, her father’s stare was like a knife while her mother kept smiling without warmth.

Opaline was immediately terrified, knowing a scolding awaited her once this was over.

"I mean, I saw it with my parents," Opaline corrected quickly, stammering over her words. "Not like I found it myself. We were buying some treasures from one of the old buildings near the mountain, and the necklace was among them. I picked it up and gave it to Father."

Her explanation came out too quickly, but Lancet only nodded as though he believed every word.

Across the table, Spectra leaned forward, crimson eyes fixed on the blue-haired girl with a focus that made Opaline shrink slightly into her chair.

"What building exactly was this?" she asked. She didn’t notice the odd tension in the air after that response. Maybe she did but just didn’t care.

Opaline hesitated and looked toward her parents again. Lancet thought the question was futile. It would not solve their immediate problem.

Whatever building had held Sacramenta years ago would be empty now. The Asrephaths had taken the necklace, passed it into the artifact trade and eventually delivered it to the Grand Auction. Dakatharit explained where the trail began, not where it ended.

"The exact building can wait," Lancet said before Opaline had to answer. He closed the case and rested both hands beside it. "What matters is whether the necklace the Asrephath family recovered was already fake."

He looked at Vaelric and Melisande. "If this is the exact necklace you got from the person who sold you those treasures, then they deliberately passed you an imitation. Point us toward them and we’ll deal with it.

"But if you’re certain the necklace you found was real, then the Grand Auction took an authentic relic you sold them, kept it out of public sale and offered a fake to everyone else."

Vaelric’s expression darkened as he considered both possibilities. Neither reflected well on people with whom his family did business, but before he could answer, Spectra folded her arms and looked at him with keen suspicion.

"Or perhaps the Asrephaths kept my real catalyst and sold the auction house a copy."

Vaelric’s eyes found hers and in that sudden moment, his pride for his family’s work made him forget he was speaking to the Mother of Demons. "How dare you?" he scowled.

The servants around the walls went still, and Melisande’s face tightened, understanding how her husband felt but also fearing Spectra’s response.

Thankfully, the Villainess only smiled. She had learnt to enjoy annoying humans, knowing their anger ended only with words.

Lancet, meanwhile, knew Spectra did not even believe what she said. The bidding master had already admitted that the real Sacramenta reached the auction house before disappearing into the underground market.

She was simply angry, and Vaelric had given her a convenient place to direct some of it.

"I apologize on her behalf," Lancet said before Spectra could make the situation worse. He placed one hand lightly over hers, less to comfort her than to keep her from producing any Gloom tendrils across the dinner table.

"We know the Asrephaths would never build their name through something as crude as selling counterfeits. Your family became legendary because buyers can trust what comes through your hands. Nobody controls this much of the magical trade for this long without earning a reputation for fair contracts and authentic goods."

Vaelric’s anger eased beneath the praise, while Melisande straightened with renewed dignity. Lancet continued carefully, reminding them that House Asrephath’s legacy stretched across all five kingdoms and that even the Kingdom Rangers Board trusted them with the acquisition of dangerous magical items.

Whatever Spectra’s suspicion suggested, the family’s name was far too valuable to risk on a cheap deception.

Opaline listened without touching her food. Her parents accepted every compliment with quiet pride, but her own expression remained caught between guilt and discomfort.

The family had not become wealthy by cheating buyers; that much was true. Yet Lancet’s praise of their honorable rise sounded different to the daughter whose power had built most of it while she remained trapped behind the walls of their estate.

Lancet saw the change in her face but did not call attention to it. He looked back toward Vaelric and Melisande instead, allowing his voice to lose some of its polite distance.

"We need your help. Sacramenta is very dear to Spectra, which makes it dear to me. Getting it back would restore a great part of her strength." Lancet glanced toward Spectra before returning his attention to the couple. "Her becoming stronger makes me stronger, and King Romsgard especially needs every bit of strength I can offer for what’s coming."

The mention of Romsgard made both parents more attentive. They remembered that the Kingdom Rangers Board had increased its demands for weapons, relics and defensive artifacts without explaining why.

Large orders were arriving from government contacts, private Guilds were buying ahead of some expected crisis, and now the Legend Summoner himself was asking for help restoring one of his most powerful Summons.

If the Asrephaths helped him recover Sacramenta before whatever war the Crown was preparing, the favor would not be forgotten.

Vaelric exchanged a brief look with Melisande before he answered. "Legend Summoner, what the Grand Auction does after purchasing from us is not information they normally share. We sell an item, accept payment and allow them to manage their own buyers.

"If the necklace we recovered was fake, then the source of the cache deceived us. If it was genuine, then the Auction replaced it after it left our possession."

"We can give you the address of the building near Dakatharit," Melisande added softly. "The site may have changed since then, but our acquisition records will still carry the exact location."

Vaelric hesitated before continuing, his voice lowering despite the servants remaining well beyond hearing distance. "And if the real necklace was sold through the underground black market, we may know several brokers capable of asking the correct questions."

Lancet raised a brow.