Soon after, a masked man in a red, neat, and lavish cross-buttoned robe stepped on the stage and addressed the attendance lively "Hello, esteemed merchants. I am your humble auctioneer for tonight and we have something special to auction. I hope you're ready."
The whole attendance hummed in satisfaction on hearing his words and some even nodded in anticipation to see something 'special' with gleaming eyes.
"...But the specials will be the last to be auctioned tonight. And so, the auction will officially commence, are you ready for it?"
The Attendees cheered and declared their readiness. Even kitty and Zoe were having this unsettling feeling of anticipation. Finally, they were seeing something new apart from forests or young lads cultivating.
"Okay then! The first thing we have here is a rifle created by one of the most talented mechanics in the kingdom..."
Two lithe women stepped on the stage from the curtains, carrying a long rectangular case with them. They opened the case, revealing a rectangular object, but with protrusions and irregular sides. It consisted of many parts joined together intricately to form a mechanism that no one knew of yet except for the creator.
The rifle had two sections, divided by a barrel extension. On the rear part were the grip and guard details. Rectangular barrel, padded hand guards, and a big round muzzle.
Tiny lines snaked all around it intricately. A zip adjuster on the rear, above the grip. And two gaps on each side of the rear section and two others on the frontal barrel section.
"This is a spirit beam rifle created by Joy Demveihm, a derivative of the beam cannons that were gifted to us by the gods. No one had managed to successfully create one that could function without imperfections and this one you're looking at right here is literally for beautification, it's not functioning and no one knows why."The Auctioneer appraised the rifle, making murmurs rise among the crowd of attendees, all sharing their opinions about the one who created the rifle.
Indeed the rifle looked pretty. Its black bronze and adeptly etched body further solidified that fact. But not many showed interest. Who needs a toy?
"Joy? I mean, what do you expect from a prodigal son of a noble house? Piling up trash to make money. No way I'm wasting my money on this."A merchant said out loud.
"That thing can be best used as a toy for my children. That's what joy created it for, as toys. He knows how we mothers are..."A woman chuckled, but she was serious about what she said.
Seeing the commotion, the Auctioneer decided to add "...Of course, our mechanics found nothing wrong with the inscriptions that made up this rifle. The only thing wrong with it is that it has a missing component."
"Oh!"The attendees oh'ed in curiosity and watched as the auctioneer picked up the rifle, which's length accommodated both of his hands.
He raised the rifle and showed a part beneath, just inches away from the grip, a hole.
"If the component wasn't missing, then this rifle could probably wreak destruction, but unfortunately there's no component and we aren't even sure if it exists or not, therefore, it's a toy."
People hummed at the enlightenment but weren't that motivated to buy. Perhaps because of the bad reputation the creator had.
"Of course, you can improvise it to your liking after you claim it with your money."The auctioneer coyly added and chuckled.
Kitty on the other hand expressed a lot of interest in the rifle that she asked Zoe "I want that thing. You still have money with you right?'
Zoe was silent for a while, her expression covered by the mask. Later, her indifferent voice came out,
"...Thought you had a plan b. It's quite disappointing seeing that you don't."
A vein popped on Kitty's neck. She leaned forward to whisper in Zoe's ear with blazing blue eyes "of course I have a plan b, but I'm so interested in that thing that I thought it would be taken from me."
"Taken from you?"Zoe was confused, the way she said it seemed to be conveying a greater meaning.
"Something big is about to happen tonight, I can feel this unsettling anticipation in my spirit, coupled with the fact that Loki isn't back yet, which means he found something suspicious."Kitty clarified, whispering as silently as she could so as not to disturb the other attendees.
"Are you ready for the bid?"The Auctioneer cheerfully said as he motioned about on the stage "Okay let's start!"
A man raised his bat and shouted "50 GM."
"Okay... Bidder 25 has placed the bid, anyone wants to bid for a higher price? Going once!"The auctioneer pronounced, his articulated timbre reaching the ears of the attendees.
"55 GM"
"70 GM"
The attendees didn't have much interest in the rifle, so not many decided to bid for it. Those that bid wasn't much and didn't go for a higher price above 70 GM.
"No. 64 Going once, going twi—."The auctioneer was about to conclude when Zoe suddenly raised her bat.
"100 GM."Her youthful timbre reached the Auctioneer and the attendees, drawing eyes to her figure.
"She's a good mother."The motherly lady said then averted her gaze to mind her business.
"Bidder 65... 100 GM. Going once, going twice... and—."The auctioneer put everyone on their toes, making them wonder if anyone was still willing to bid for a higher price.
"I thought you said you didn't have any money."Kitty leaned towards Zoe and inquired.
"I meant that I have no more money to give or spend on you. But you're too pitiful..."Zoe whispered back to her.
"So you bought it for me..."Kitty teased.
"No, I didn't."
"You did, "Kitty argued further frustrating Zoe and cramping her mood.
"No, I bought it because I might find something that'll help me with fixing Empress in it."Zoe raised her voice in anger but not loud enough for everyone to hear, considering that the place was filled with murmurs that drowned theirs out.
"Whatever..."Kitty shrugged and straightened back to her bodyguard position.
Empress' lips formed on the surface of the form-shifting armor and moved "...Whatever."
She bought it for kitty but didn't want to admit it, this made kitty forget about her revenge on Zoe for a while as her mood had been uplifted.
"...Sold!"The Auctioneer declared and pasted a sticker with the number '65' on the rifle. "...please, it's your property now, we'll take the payment after the auction is over and then it will be delivered to you."
"Moving on to the next one..."The Auctioneer said, motioning the Lithe girls to bring in another object to the stage.
The Auction continued and the other auctioned materials were being bided at a higher price exceeding thousands of GM. It didn't take long before it was finally time for the specials.
"We have three specials today. First is an Ancient crossbow. Found in the secret chambers of the ancient and desolated Sky Weaving Sect."The Auctioneer appraised the first 'special'.
The crossbow was big with large stock and prod. A hollow part was in its stock. A seat was there in the cockpit, spaced enough to accommodate a pilot and levers at the control center, for the pilot. With feathered wings on the sides, outstretched in full glory.
It was carted in by not just the lithe girls but other men who joined hands to carry it to the stage. The crowd mummured, all interested in a relic.
But somewhere in the corners of the rows of seats, a family of four with black smiley masks on their faces looked at the bow with stars in their eyes.
"It's really special, I want it..."The Sweet voice of the mature lady came out.
"Don't worry Bianca, It's all ours."The man replied and gave his wife a side hug.
As the specials were being auctioned and the event was coming to an end, the family of four sprung into action.
The two Ladies in masks. Mother and daughter of the Banditti family arrived on the stage, pulling the curtains apart invited, and started playing their musical instruments, creating sounds of pitched frequency that threatened to burst the eardrums of the auctioneer and the lithe girls. The attendees were not spared in the least.
"Here we go, "Kitty muttered in vigilance and left the spot immediately, leaving the baffled Zoe on the seat.
People were suffering from the chaotic sounds, some outright fainted while some screamed in agony, and some gritted their teeth and endured, all covering their ears with eyes closed shut.
Zoe wasn't bothered though, even though she was disturbed by the sounds, she wasn't affected to a painful extent.
She looked at the mysterious ladies who now stood on the stage uninvited. Facing the auctioneer and the lithe girls who seemed to be suffering but were trying to fight back.
The mature lady blew air in her flute, but instead of sound coming out, a tiny beam of Spiritual energy came from its end and burst the head of the auctioneer into smithereens in a blink.
While the younger one flicked the strings sharply, making spiritual energy flow in the shape of stars to pierce the hearts of the lithe girls with deadly precision.
And so, things went down into chaos quickly The bodyguards of the merchants, with their fuzzy minds, were taken down silently but quickly by Duiro.
And thus, the rich people were stuck in the Auction hall, with the Bandittis. They had their money's taken from them by the men, while the women looted the Auctioned items.
But Zoe was there, a sharp gleam in her eyes as her eyes met the eyes of the woman with the flute. She looked behind and behold, kitty was gone with no traces of her.
She harrumphed and stood up to look for kitty.
Close to the stage, unnoticed by the women who were busy scavenging the auctioned goods unlawfully, kitty crept close to the rifle.
She opened the case but the click of it opened attracted the attention of the teenage banditti.
"Hey, you!"The girl yelled in apprehension and aggressively walked towards kitty.
But kitty acted innocent "What?"She asked and proceeded to take the rifle out of the case.
She laughed mischievously and stored it away in her spatial ring in high spirits. Her work here for tonight is done
She turned and saw the young girl Banditti looking at her with a smiley mask on her face but her eyes said otherwise "Put it back, now!"
"What?"Kitty's innocent voice comes out of the wooden mask with fox ears "I didn't take anything..."
...
On the other side of the hall, Zoe was searching around for kitty and even seemed to have lost her way. She looked around cluelessly and saw one of the Bandittis come out through a set of curtains.
"What do we have here?"
It was the older lady Banditti...