Chapter 245: The Auction House (3)

Ravian spotted them as expected, though sooner than he had anticipated.

Darius sat beside Elias, leaning toward him to say something that did not reach their room. Malrik sat at the other end, while Kael had taken a seat near the aisle.

“There they are,” Claria said when she noticed them too.

Evelyne leaned forward for a better look, then smiled.

“Hehe, we got better seats than they did.”

Lysandra said nothing, but Ravian noticed her glance at the squad before returning her attention to the platform.

It was not long before the auctioneer below announced the start of the auction. He indicated the first box, which his assistant carried to the table and opened, revealing three tightly sealed vials.

They began with materials used in cultivation: extracts that helped restore spiritual power and others intended for lengthy meditation sessions. The man explained how they should be stored and the quantity contained in each vial, then named a starting price that made Ravian instinctively look at Evelyne for an explanation.

She noticed his glance.

“These aren’t things you buy after every training session,” she said calmly. “People usually keep them for when they need to recover their strength quickly, or when they don’t want to waste an important meditation session.”

Ravian nodded without reaching for the bidding paddle. He had a considerable sum of money, received from Shmichael before his departure as the advance he had agreed upon with Earl Patrick Viola, but wanted a clear idea of the general quality of the auction’s offerings before spending any of it.

The auction continued, the auctioneer presenting lot after lot while the audience bid on items they considered important or necessary. Ravian’s visit to the academy library helped him considerably in judging what was worth his attention. From what he had seen so far, he wanted to see more, and a faint hope had begun to form.

After several lots, an assistant brought out a Seal Box and set it down with greater care than he had shown the previous items.

Ravian recognized its type immediately.

“The heart of an Eighth-Rank beast, preserved since extraction without any leakage of spiritual power,” the auctioneer announced. He gave the audience a chance to see inside before closing the box again. “Bidding starts at nine hundred gold coins.”

The bids came faster this time, and the price climbed while Ravian watched without moving.

‘So what House Viola gave me really wasn’t anything trivial.’

He had known that already, but watching people compete for a heart similar to the one he had received in recognition of his work cast it in an entirely different light.

The bidding did not last long. The price settled at fifteen hundred gold coins, well above the opening bid, and the buyer’s number was recorded. Judging by the voice that had placed the bid, the winner was a woman in one of the elite rooms to the left of theirs. The box was taken to her before the next lot appeared.

Armor and weapons followed.

One suit of armor was made from magically treated leather, with small plates reinforcing the chest and shoulders and fine magical lines inscribed along its inner surface. The auctioneer explained that the magic worked into it increased its resistance to blows and the four elements, then had his assistant demonstrate its effects rather than relying on description alone.

Ravian looked at the armor, then at what he was wearing.

Evelyne, who had been watching him, noticed the glance as well, but said nothing, as though waiting for something first.

It was more tempting than the vials, but the price rose at a rate Ravian disliked, especially once two upstairs rooms began competing for it. He left it to them, preferring to save his money for something more valuable, and continued watching the weapons that followed, from swords designed to withstand and strengthen the flow of aura to spears whose heads bore permanent, active enchantments.

Each new piece broadened his understanding as he watched people compete to buy them.

‘I wonder whether that armor could withstand my Void flame.’

The reckless thought crossed his mind, but he quickly dismissed it. He had suffered enough for his recklessness already.

The auction continued.

Not every piece was a relic with a special ability. Some owed their value to the quality of their materials, their capacity to withstand their wielder’s power, and the precision of their craftsmanship—even the identity of the person who had made them. People here seemed to follow weaponsmiths closely, particularly the famous blacksmiths who used magic to forge weapons with inhuman strength and precision.

Ravian remembered the wooden sword that had shattered in his hand, then Karius’s sword. Both had been worn wooden practice weapons.

‘Well, those must have been the shittiest swords available,’ he thought. ‘Shouldn’t this Empire invest a little in its military camps, man?’

While he was considering the Viera Empire’s stinginess, movement from someone familiar below caught his attention.

Darius joined the bidding on a broadsword, and Ravian and Claria watched with interest until Malrik raised a hand in front of him and said something. After that, Darius did not lift his paddle again.

Ravian and Claria frowned, having finally begun to enjoy themselves, while a soft laugh escaped Evelyne.

“I think the captain reminded him how much he has in his purse.”

“Tsk, tsk. What a bunch of paupers,” Ravian said. “Making money isn’t difficult these days, man. They should put a little effort into it.”

All three women went still at the bullshit coming out of the mouth of a man wearing the cheapest clothes in a room containing hundreds of people.

Claria turned toward him, trying to hide her smile as she giggled silently, while Lysandra’s and Evelyne’s eyes gleamed for a moment before they looked ahead again.

…

Much of the auction had passed by the time the boxes brought to the platform changed. They were smaller and more varied in shape, and the auctioneer no longer opened each presentation with a detailed explanation of the item’s use.

“We now move on to the special and obscure items.”

Ravian straightened in his chair.

Evelyne noticed at once and sat up as well. A pair of amber eyes regarded her with a bored look from the side, though she did not notice, her attention fixed on the platform below.

“We’ve reached what you wanted,” she told Ravian.

He did not answer immediately. His eyes had settled on the first piece, a metal plate with indistinct writing around its edge. The auctioneer explained where its current owner had purchased it and what attempts had been made to examine it, then stated plainly that the auction house had been unable to determine its purpose.

That did not prevent people from bidding.

Ravian watched the paddles rise in the hall, including some that had not moved throughout the earlier lots. Others had come specifically for this part, just as he had, though he did not know what each of them was seeking.

For all its intrigue, however, the plate did not make him want to buy it, and the auction went on.

Other pieces followed: a small vessel whose weight did not match its material, an incomplete scroll whose owners had been unable to determine its purpose, and a fragment of an entirely black weapon. Too little remained to identify even its original shape, though it still bore traces of potent darkness magic.

That drew considerable interest from the hall, but Ravian remained unconvinced.

The auctioneer explained what he knew and left what he did not know unanswered, without trying to assign some extraordinary value to every piece. That approach had its advantages and disadvantages. Nevertheless, some prices rose merely because someone in a private room placed a bid, as though the bidder’s presumed knowledge of an item’s worth was enough to tempt others.

Nothing had yet compelled Ravian to participate. He wanted something worthy of his attention and was not prepared to buy every object its owner had failed to understand.

Just as he began losing hope in the auction, the final box arrived.

Two men carried it onto the platform and set it on the table before one removed the lid, revealing a stone roughly the size of a human head.

Its shape was irregular, though parts of its surface were smooth, and there was something about its red color that made Ravian stop thinking about everything around him. The light of the hall reflected off it with a distinct gleam, then a deeper shade emerged when the assistant turned its base to show it from different angles.

At first, Ravian tried to identify what had caught his attention. The color? The sheen? Something about its shape? None of those answers was sufficient.

He reached for the edge of his chair and leaned slightly toward the opening overlooking the hall, never taking his eyes off the stone.

There was something inside it.

He did not know what, nor could he explain how he had reached that conclusion, but a distinct sensation had settled within him the moment he saw it, urging him to move closer.

‘System, do you feel that too?’

The reply came without much delay.

[I cannot examine an object at this distance, Host.]

Ravian’s eyes narrowed slightly.

‘So you can’t tell what’s inside it from here?’

[You must approach it and touch it before I can examine it.]

He continued watching the stone while the auctioneer shared the little information he possessed about it. Ravian heard the words, but none explained the feeling that had persisted since the lid was removed.

“Ravian?”

Claria’s voice brought his attention back to the room. He glanced at her and found that all three women had noticed the change in him.

“Have you found something that interests you?” Evelyne asked with a sly smile.

His gaze returned to the platform.

“Yes,” he said, nodding.

He offered nothing further, merely reaching for the bidding paddle on the table for the first time since they had sat down.

He could afford the mistake of buying a worthless stone, but he did not want to watch someone else carry it away before he discovered what he could feel inside it.

As the auctioneer announced the opening price, Ravian’s fingers settled around the paddle.

‘All right… let’s see how much you want for this.’