I had thought the competition would be less as the sword was in such a terrible shape, however the nobles seemed to like mysterious things like this so there was quite the bidding war for it. Unfortunately for them, my pockets connected to both the King's pockets and the Church's pockets, meaning I was far richer than any of them, and I had nothing better to use my money on. But it didn't mean that they didn't put up a good fight. One person in particular, a woman by the shape of her figure, really didn't want to let me win, she stayed in the running for the longest, eventually making the auction delve into a match between me and her. A match I eventually won, much to her chagrin.
Mimi looked at me in confusion as I escalated the bets, only speaking up after I had won. "Um, are you sure you want that? It looks useless to me…" Her speaking up had actually confirmed something to me. I had been speculating that the mana I felt was familiar because it was related to the 'heroes', however if that were the case Mimi would have felt it as well and wouldn't be questioning me like this. Of course, she could still have thought it wasn't worth buying but she wouldn't say that the sword looks useless. Which meant that it was resonating with something else that is unique to me, which was either my skill, which had just evolved, or my class.
Both of which were rare enough to be considered unique to me. Which begged the question, just who was that woman? And why did she try so hard to get the sword that only reverberated with me? I looked at the woman once more, studying her figure in order to hopefully recognize her if I were to ever meet her again. It would have been nice if I could use my 'Eyes of a Pervert' Skill to identify her right now, but it seemed to have a range on it, something I didn't know until now.
I was half tempted to rush down there right now and talk to her myself, but while I was debating doing so, she vanished. I don't mean that she walked out while I wasn't looking, I mean she literally vanished. As if she wasn't even real in the first place she just disappeared, much to my surprise. I looked over at Mimi to see if she saw it as well, only to be met with her confused face still staring at me. I didn't even bother asking her, instead I finally answered her question from a bit ago.
"I feel connected to that sword's mana somehow, that's why. Something tells me it will be a very profitable purchase." She looked at me and tilted her head.
"You could feel it's mana from here? You're incredible, Kei." I smiled when I heard her use my nickname that she had come up with. I understood why she had wanted me to make her one now as well, the feeling of someone you are close to referring to you by a nickname will always bring a smile to your face.
Yet for some reason, Mimi looked downcast when she spoke those words, saddened about something. I stared at her while I pondered what it could be, taking in the sight of her crestfallen face that was currently looking away from me. Finally, I figured it out.
"Mimi, are you sad that I'm stronger than you?" I asked bluntly, wanting to get to the bottom of her feelings of sadness as fast as possible. Her face reddened and she looked even further away from me, trying to hide her face. "Do you not want me to be so strong?"
I had figured out what made her sad, but not why it made her sad, so I was kind of shooting in the dark for reasons. And my first shot missed. "No no!" She quickly turned towards me with a worried expression and brought her hands in front of her before shaking them in to convey her feelings even more. "I just… want to be of use to you… but I'm too weak."
Her explanation nearly broke me, as I was tempted to pounce on her and kiss her right then and there, but I held back. I had to properly confess first. She wasn't like the others where I could just manipulate them, I needed to do it properly with her. I put my hand on her shoulder and used my other hand to tilt her face towards me so I could look into her eyes. "You are already of use to me, so don't worry so much. Even if you aren't strong, you're still my friend, that's enough."
I said that to comfort her, even though calling her my friend kind of hurt as I wanted to be more, but it seemed to have worked, as her face, instead of the bright red she had been, was now flushed pink as she stared vacantly into my eyes. Looking at her expression now, I convinced myself once again that she loved me. She has to, everything she does with me just makes me more and more convinced that she does. And yet for some reason, I'm scared that I'm wrong. That I am misreading everything, and that somehow, she just sees me as a friend.
This 'love' emotion really is tiresome.
The thing that broke us out of our moment was none other than the auction attendant, arriving with my purchase. The sword was wrapped up and placed into an easy to carry case, but even through those layers I could still feel the mana coming from it. I took the case from the attendant, saying a word of thanks, and placed my hand on top of it, feeling the mana directly. I was right, the mana was definitely familiar, it felt like the time I had first awakened my Skill, when I had broken through the level cap.
It was a bit different, as my skill doesn't use mana, but the feeling was the same. I smiled, it was good to confirm that I had felt correctly earlier. A hand appeared from the side and rested on top of the case as well, feeling the mana inside. It was Mimi, she was trying to feel the mana I had talked about. "I can feel the mana, but it doesn't seem familiar to me. Are you sure it's something familiar to you?" It couldn't be helped that she didn't understand, after all, she didn't have my skill.
I was considering not telling her the truth for a moment, but I decided against it. If it was Mimi, I wouldn't lie to her. Instead, I will just hope that she accepts me even with the truth. "It resonates with my skill, Mimi. They feel the exact same, except one's mana and the other isn't." She tilted her head in thought.
"Your 'Ravenous' skill?" I was amazed that she remembered my skill, after all she had only heard it once at the very beginning of our transmigration. It was back when we first held status boards and I had been confused about my skill. I smiled and nodded, answering her question. "By the way, you never explained the skill to me."
I froze up, wondering how to answer that. I didn't want to lie to her, but I also didn't want to explain my skill just yet, in fear that she would be repulsed by it. So I settled for putting it off for later. "I'll explain it to you later, in the inn." She looked at me with a slight hum, staring into my eyes for a moment as if to gauge my feelings, before nodding in acceptance. I let out a small sigh of relief, one that didn't go unnoticed by Mimi, before standing up, case in hand. I held out my other hand to Mimi, helping her stand as well.
The auction was still going, but it was past all of the expensive, eye-catching objects and was instead into the land ownership portion, where they sold off land to the highest bidder. This was something neither I nor Mimi were interested in, so we had decided to leave and enjoy the night market some more before heading back to the inn.
We continued to walk around the market just like before, this time lugging around a case with a sword in it, and enjoyed the experience once more. We didn't buy anything more, however, as nothing else had caught our eye, instead we had visited some of the game booths to try to win a prize, just like the game booth we were currently at.
This was one of the booths that you could see at any festival on earth, a small tower with a button at the bottom that you hit with a hammer. The goal was to gauge your strength perfectly in order to make the meter land exactly at the top, but it was incredibly difficult to do so. For normal people, that is.
For me, it took two tries, one to gauge how much strength the meter wanted and the other to win. To be honest, it was entirely thanks to my 'Perfect Body' as it gave me perfect control over every single thing in my body. I smiled and played my win off as luck to the shocked booth keeper, winking at Mimi as we walked away. It was obvious that that man had not expected anyone to win the game today, as the game was practically rigged against the competitors. In order to win you needed to exert the exact amount of force needed to make it land on the top, even just a tiny bit more or less would mean you failed.
Even failing would win you a prize, so people didn't care that it was rigged. But winning gave you the biggest prize of all. Unlike the booths back on Earth, they didn't give out stuffed animals here. Instead they gave out things that caught the eye, namely jewelry. And the piece of jewelry that I had just won was a beautiful, sparkling red necklace.
Which I, of course, immediately gifted to Mimi. She had tried to refuse, but there was no way I was going to let her, and instead I guilt-tripped her into taking it by asking if she really hated it that much with worried eyes and a furrowed brow. It was a bit of a mean thing to do, but I wanted her to accept it no matter what so I did it.
I realized after that booth that Mimi looked tired, even more tired than when we had stopped to take a break at the auction, so I decided it was a good time to go back to the inn. When I asked her, she agreed, so we made our journey back leisurely, finally arriving after a bit of walking. When we entered, we were greeted by multiple staff members who took our luggage and brought it up to our rooms quickly for us, leaving us empty handed as we walked to our rooms.
Instead of splitting up and going into our separate rooms, I asked Mimi if I could go into hers to talk, which she of course agreed to. Which led to us, together in the room, sitting around a table sipping black tea. Both of us were too nervous to talk.
It took me the entirety of my teacup to gather enough courage to speak, finally opening my mouth as I set my now empty glass down with a *clink*.
"Mimi," I said, as I looked into her glowing hazel eyes. "I think… I like you."