In the concealed room, the four cloaked figures were watching the currently scene intently.
Earlier, when the surveillance temporarily cut off, all of them were dumbfounded. In their hundreds of years serving this branch, such an event has never happened before!
Although it was working now, they sent out messages to their classified tech staff to check the cause immediately. These staff members were personally sent by headquarters to manage this important system.
"Your grandson is really making our auction house lose face." The middle-aged female voice sighed.
"Enough! Just keep watching." The elderly male voice didn't want to spend the entire day listening to the other three's constant criticisms.
Back at the VIP room, Weasley was barely keeping up his appearances.
"So then, what brings you to our great auction house?" Weasley asked with a neutral expression. The humble attitude from earlier was already gone.
Weasley glanced at Ron and was stunned. He was so focused on Alice earlier that he didn't notice Ron until just now.
'Isn't that Ron?!' Weasley's thoughts went wild. 'Why is he here?'
Ron noticed these changes instantly and sighed. He reluctantly decided to go through with his original plan.
"My Young Master and Miss would like to exchange some cyber currency." Ron spoke on behalf of the two children.
"..exchange currency?" Weasley appeared offended but he tried his best to hide it.
'Do you treat the Clover Auction House like a bank?!' He never said these thoughts out loud because Ron was there.
Although Edward and Olivia could feel something seemed off, they were smart children. They knew when to talk and when to keep quiet.
As long as Ron was doing all the talking, they had no reason to be concerned. The amount of trust they had in their butler was extraordinary.
Alice noticed Weasley's fake countenance and her frown got even deeper. She tried moving even farther down the couch.
Erin was already being squeezed between the end of the couch and Alice. She was so disgusted by Weasley that she didn't even notice Erin's awkward position.
Edward and Olivia found amusement in this sight, although the latter was still pouting.
"Naturally, even as a branch, I would never look down on the Clover Auction House." Ron motioned the two children to hand him their crests.
Edward and Olivia took out their identification crests and mentally unlocked it before handing them to Ron.
Ron mentally adjusted the settings on these crests before holding them both up.
As the crests activated, two identical holographic screens appeared side-by-side.
[Available Cyber Currencies]
[150,000 Lafite]
'Ancient Cyber Credits?!' Wesley was absolutely dumbfounded.
'150,000 EACH?!' His eyes popped out of their sockets.
Alice glanced over at the holographic display and was greatly stunned too.
"Ah.. Er.. exchanging currency is what the Clover Auction House is best at!" Weaseley's voice was stuttering. His attitude changed instantly. These were Ancient Cyber Credits! Even all the elders in his clan would drop their jaws at the sight of so much credits!
The cloaked figures in the concealed room were panicking right now!
The Clover Auction House had a very sophisticated security system.
The moment it detected something of extreme value or importance, a notification would immediately be sent to the Clover Clan's headquarters. Even the Branch leader of this auction house could do nothing to prevent this.
That's why they were extremely confused when the VIP room they were monitoring went offline for the first time ever. Because it was only a single room in the entire auction house, that small episode wasn't enough to notify headquarters.
"..This is very bad." The female elder's voice sounded out first. "Looks like you're in for some trouble. Weasley doesn't even have an auction master's certificate yet he's dealing with clients that want to trade-in Ancient Cyber Credits!" Her voice was clearly directed at the elderly male.
"Isn't this your fault too?! You insisted we send Weasley in because of his contracted shadow demon!" The male elder completely forgot that he was the one that agreed with this proposal in the first place. His words were hypocritical.
As they were worrying, a golden dimensional portal appeared outside the Clover Auction House. The auction guards were alerted and aimed their weapons at the portal.
An armoured dimensional beast slowly walked out of the dimensional portal.
The beast looked like a Rhino. It's just that its horns were made of crystallized fire. The armor that it was wearing looked exceedingly gallant. The most important part was that there was a Clover symbol engraved on the beast's armor!
An ordinarily-dressed man with grey hair was sitting on top of this beast!
The guards quickly saw the Clover symbol on the beast's armour and they immediately withdrew their weapons.
When they saw the face of the man sitting on top of the beast, some of the guards even gripped their weapons in pure shock! They stood up straight and saluted this man with every fiber of their being!
Back in the VIP room, Weasley was doing his very best to hide the shock on his face. However, deep inside of him, there was a hidden greed that burned even stronger.
'Why are those little pipsqueaks so lucky?!' His internal monologue was full of complaints.
On the outside, his face shifted from shock to an awkward smile.
"Hehe. This is quite significant." Weasley gulped a little. "Could you tell me which Cyber Currency you want to exchange the ancient credits for?"
"You've misunderstood." Ron stared at Weasley seriously. "The Young Master and Miss desire hard-currency."
'We do?' Edward and Olivia didn't know this themselves. They still let Ron decide though.
"Oh! Hard currency is very doable as well!" Weasley didn't care what they wanted as long as he was able to confirm this transaction. The commission he would get from facilitating a trade for Ancient Cyber Credits was no laughing matter! "Which one? We have plenty of Ancient Gold. If you want quantity, there are even Fine Silver Bars."
"We don't need those lesser currencies. They only want Dimensional Platinum." Ron's voice was very stern.
"Oh, eas-" Weasley held back his tongue.
'Dimensional Platinum?! Why don't you just ask me to rob a bank?!' He tried to control his emotions but the outrage in his eyes was easy to spot for Ron.
"Haha.. We don't actually have that much of that in stock at our branch." Weasley made up a really ridiculous excuse. If they actually exchanged it with that, his commission would nearly be zero.
Ron frowned. This was clearly an excuse. The amount of dimensional gates on Planet Charh far exceeded 100,000. The reason why this planet could afford it so well is because the planet is used as a distributor for precious resources. Dimensional Platinum was no exception!
Saying that there was a lack of Dimensional Platinum in one of the most affluent factions on this planet was pure nonsense.
"Then, my apologies, we'll have to look elsewhere." Ron sighed. He stood up and was about to motion everyone else to follow.
"Wait!" Weasley wasn't just going to let them leave. "We have plenty of other hard currencies! Surely something else could work?"
"Apologies. We only want Dimensional Platinum." Ron was firm with his declaration.
Erin squinted his eyes in confusion as he was watching this conversation.
'Didn't we come here to exchange it for basically any other currency?'
Weasley gritted his teeth as he stared daggers at Ron.
He stood up and walked to a spot just in front of the room's door. The shadow behind him became very visible.
Suddenly, Weasley's shadow formed into the shape of a humanoid demon.
'He has a Shadow Monster?!' Erin went wide eyed.
Alice looked quite upset and took out a mysterious device from one of her pockets.
Edward and Olivia stood up and ran behind the couch. They stood next to Ron's shadow and instantly felt a lot safer.
"We can still be civil." Weasley spoke with a slightly deranged tone. The greed in his heart was so deep that it woke up his contracted shadow demon.
Although demons are not ordinary beasts or monsters, their intentions are very obvious. Either take things by force or, if it cannot be taken, destroy it all.
Contracted demons could normally be controlled by the contract-bearer so long as they were sane. It's just that Weasley lost his control the moment he let his emotions get the better of him.
[Warning. Extremely Dangerous. Identification is currently not possible. Please raise your level.]
A familiar notification popped up in front of Erin.
'Doesn't that mean it's just as strong as Ron's monster?!'
Erin glanced at Ron and noticed that his shadow werewolf was already summoned. It casually lifted the couch and threw it aside before standing in front of Edward and Olivia.
To Erin's surprise, Ron actually stepped forward. He was staring directly at the shadow demon.
Ron glanced at the device in Alice's hand and smiled.
'Looks like I won't need to hold back.'
Alice noticed Ron glancing at the thing in her hand and promptly activated it. An energy barrier suddenly encapsulated her and Erin.
As for Edward and Olivia, the shadow werewolf let out a weird misty energy that formed a protective barrier around the two kids.
At this point, Weasley completely lost all of his bearings. The shadow demon's mental corruption was nothing to scoff at.
Just like the barriers around Edward and Olivia, the shadow demon also sent out a burst of energy that surrounded and protected Weasley's body.
The demon looked at Ron and knew that he was the biggest threat in the entire room. In a split second, it disappeared from it's spot and appeared right before Ron while throwing out a punch.
Ron lifted his hand so fast that it looked like his hand teleported!
The shadow demon's punch landed on Ron's hand and burst out with intense energy!
The energy of this one attack obliterated every piece of furniture in this room and even cracked the walls and ceiling!
The Clover Auction House was made to withstand heavy assaults from hundreds of military-grade starships. The fact that the mere recoil from the shadow demon's punch was enough to crack parts of the room was a testament to its power!
Ron didn't even move back a single step. His hand stood in the same exact spot and didn't even look bruised!
Angered, the shadow demon threw out an incredible number of punches and kicks!
The speed was so fast that the sound itself could injure people nearby!
Fortunately, the shadow werewolf barrier and Alice's mysterious barrier both absorbed all the potential damage directed at them.
Ron didn't fight back and only blocked. His hand casually teleported in front of every punch and kick and stopped them all.
These effortless movements looked absolutely insane!
Olivia and Edward were both cheering in the background while Erin was dazed by this overpowering display of strength. Alice stared at the deranged Weasley angrily.
Ron's eyes had a glint of anticipation in them!
The shadow demon was infuriated by Ron's nonchalant response and started attacking with even more power!
The walls of the room finally caved in and the ceiling looked like it was going to fall at any moment. There were even deep pits embedded on the ground that just barely touched the ceiling of the floor below!
The damage was so obvious and extensive that the appearance of guards were inevitable.
Some guards, after hearing the commotion, started flooding in from nearby hallways. Although they were shocked to see such a dangerous conflict inside the auction house, they still bravely wielded their weapons and ran forward!
The shadow demon looked at this bold display and sneered.
It snapped its fingers once and an extremely powerful sound attack instantly turned these incoming guards into a mesh of bloody pulps. Their remains splattered in every direction!
Erin gulped at this sight. All of them were golden armoured guards! Their strength was no laughing matter.
It was also at this moment that Erin was extremely thankful for Alice's barrier.
Although he couldn't recognize what type of barrier this was, it must have been very powerful to withstand all this damage.
Alice was too busy glaring at the shadow demon and didn't notice Erin's appreciative gaze.
Olivia and Edward weren't cheering anymore but were still watching the fight intently. The shadow werewolf's mysterious energy barrier didn't even let a speck of blood touch them at all. If anything, the bloodied sight of the dead guards disgusted the two children a lot.
Since the two of them grew up surrounded by experienced soldiers, they were more mentally prepared for fights compared to the average child. Otherwise, they might have fainted at this bloody sight.
Before the shadow demon could keep attacking Ron, a small clap sounded out from one of the in-tact hallways.
An ordinarily-dressed man with grey hair walked into the scene and frowned at the damage around him. He stared at the shadow demon like a giant looking down at an ant.