The audience was in a frenzy, they all admired the beautiful wings that had originally sat on Talia's back.
"They're pretty, your wings." I commented, looking to her direction.
She blushed, turning her face so I couldn't see. What a childish reaction.
"I can see why those guys betrayed you for them," I added.
She kept quiet, but had a disturbed look on her face.
"What's on your mind?" I asked.
"Are you really going to get it? For me?" She asked suddenly.
Why was she asking me this? Was she suddenly beginning to doubt me? My capabilities? I have to say, I was honestly disappointed. She had such little faith in me?
"I-It feels so unbelievable. Like I'm dreaming. You already told me you would get it, and I still believe your words. It's just that, this feels so unreal." She said, sobbing.
Urgh, tears? For real? Well, I can't say I was all that thrilled by her mushy attitude, but it cleared my earlier notion. She did trust and believe me, she was just finding it difficult to come to terms with reality. I guess she still had little self worth in her own eyes. It's one thing if she felt inferior to me, but for her to carry it, even in little matters like this. That was a problem.
"You should have a bit more confidence in yourself." I told her, before facing my front to fully concentrate on the auction.
She looked at me with a happy and surprised look. She nodded her head rapidly, slapped her cheeks and then faced the stage as well. Good, I saw all that with my enhanced vision, which allowed me to see things I was not looking at directly.
"We'll begin our bid from..." The auctioneer began
Everyone held their breath, a moment of suspense ensued.
"Five million coins!" He announced.
Immediately, people started bidding crazily for the wings. In my mind I played the event which would have taken place if I hadn't obtained root or had the ancient coins and Imperius auction house on my side. I clearly remembered the membership price for premium was fifty million. And now the mere starting price of Talia's wings was equivalent to ten percent of that amount. These people had crazy money to spend. I was really happy I decided to find root, my beloved ring.
That said, only the premium members would be bidding at this point. The regular and special members could only watch. There was no surprise there, if they had that much money in the first place, they would have gotten premium membership. Other than exclusive bidding rights on some items, premium members and above had some closed bidding events, with only them in attendance. That was the advantage of premium and royal membership.
"A hundred and three million" A person bid.
"A hundred and twenty one million" Another said.
I just sighed. This has gone on for too long. In order to not waste anyone's time, let's put this to a close. Julius told me that the estimated value of the wings was two thousand ancient coins. An ancient coin was currently equivalent to a million regular coins. That gave me two billion coins at my disposal for this auction.
I was not a big fan of wasting money. I meant, spending so much money on something that originally belonged to someone who belongs to me. That just meant that I was buying a property that I was already entitled to. However, since I had enough at my disposal, plus for the sake of good relations with Imperius auction house and beyond, I'd participate this time.
"Five hundred million," I bid.
Everyone was surprised by my rash bid. I'd just increased the bar to a remarkable level. No one was bidding again. I'm certain it was for two major reasons. One, they simply did not have enough money to compete with the likes of myself. For me to bid five hundred million, I had to have more in store, I'm sure they all knew that. The second reason was simply because I was of royal membership, and while my identity was hidden, there was the general assumption that I was a royal. No one in the room would dare to bid so seriously against a royal.
"Six hundred million" A buzz, followed by a voice was heard.
I recognized that voice. It was... Of course it makes sense. The only one who would oppose me, one of royal membership, was another royal. The royal who obtained the two elves, he also wanted the wings? How laughable. Well, he must have very deep pockets. Let's see how far they run.
"One billion" I raised the stakes.
I was not one for bidding little by little to minimize cost. I prefered having an undisputed and overwhelming win. Now then, let's see if our royal could keep up.
"One billion and hundred million." He said, after a while of silence.
"One billion and five hundred million," I said immediately.
"O-One Billion, five hundred and fifty million" He croaked.
Okay, now I knew he was reaching his limits. Let's kick things up a notch shall we?
"Two Billion" I declared.
The crowd let out noises of shock and surprise. Even amongst the rich, two Billion was a lot. Certainly, not the kind of money one spent on fairy wings, which, while they were very special and potent, were simply not worth that price.
The royal remained silent for a while. Just for amusement sake, I decided to use my enhanced vision to see his face and reaction. It was just as I expected.
He was biting his nails and looking really frustrated and angry. I could tell that he didn't have enough funds to continue. I guess that's a wrap. Time to end this.
"2.1 Billion coins" He spoke up surprisingly.
He was bluffing. He didn't have the money, at least not anymore. After all he had recklessly bought two elves at the price of a hundred million each. He had also purchased other items as well. The only reason he was doing this was to spite me. By raising the price, I'd have to bid higher and he'd bid higher again until I'd lost a lot of money meaninglessly.
However.
"How foolish" I smiled to myself.
Fools like that needed to be disciplined.
Suddenly, there was an intercom announcement in the room. I don't know how the voice was projected, probably another relic, but Julius announced in the auction.
"Sir Forbio, that's enough. As a measure against intentional puffing of the prices of the items for certain reasons, we requested for your bank statements and the capacity of your coin cards. Both are below two billion. With all due respect, do not bid any longer when you have no means to back your bids. It reflects badly on the other royals." Julius said.
"Well then, you may continue." He stated, before the intercom disconnected.
Well, I expected that. For such a prestigious company, they would have certain measures concerning the handling of problems in bidding.
"Y-You bastard! Come and say that to my face. I dare you. Do you know how much I..." He rambled. "It doesn't matter anyway." I said to myself.
Looks like I'd have to shut the idiot up myself. Sorry Julius, I'm going over the budget a tiny bit.
"What's the matter royal? Cat got your tongue? Come on. Say something, hahahaha"
"Five Billion coins" I finally said.
"W-What?" He blurted out in surprise.
I smiled. It was checkmate. When Julius spoke, it was already his check.
"And so I announce this Auction sale officially over!
After no other resistance, I obtained my items. Most people got their properties from the various people responsible for giving them their goods. However, I was herded off to Julius's office. I smiled.
"Let's go Talia, time to get your wings!" I said to her as we walked.
"Yeah!" She smiled.
Finally, this long chapter was closed. Moving onto the next phase, which would be done after this and that was to destroy everything, I'd need to carry out my grand plan of course, first things first.
"Now then, time to obtain my slave and fairy wings" I smiled.