After hearing the bunny girl's voice, most of the people hurried to the main hall. Pushing and shoving other people to be the first one at the main auction.
Asher didn't scuttle like others to rush toward the main hall. He stood there and quietly perceived the situation, looking distracted and unconcerned as if he wasn't the one who was supposed to attend the main auction.
He observed the respectable men who were now behaving like country folk, disregarding all the manners and education they took pride in and rushing to the auction hall.
But that didn't mean everyone was the same. Some of them were like Asher, sitting back and enjoying the show.
Asher turned and looked at Emma who wasn't too interested in the state of affairs. He tried to decipher Emma's body language but couldn't gauge her emotions.
It seemed like she only showed her true fangs when they were alone. Asher smiled at the thought and sloped his shoulder to touch Emma's.
Emma looked back at him at the touch. To others, it looked like they were a pair of lovers who were dejected to be separated from each other.
Only Emma and Asher knew that they were far away from that. Asher put his right arm around Emma and hugged her waist. Emma wanted to escape from his hands but she couldn't make any perceivable movement as others would become suspicious.
Thus, she clenched her teeth and forced herself to smile sweetly at Asher who looked anything but sweet.
On the other hand, Asher was fully enjoying every second of their interaction. He felt like an old pervert taking advantage of an innocent girl and decided to hold back.
Putting his lips near her ear, he whispered, "Do you have anything you want?"
Emma was taken aback by his question as she had expected him to not pay much attention to her considering how she had tagged along with him at the last moment.
She had been pondering over how to put forth her request to Asher without revealing her intentions but had never thought that Asher would take the initiative to ask her and cut her worries in half.
Now that he had taken the lead to ask her, Emma wasn't sure if she should be direct and ask him to bid on King-Un's Vase. If she went ahead and told him, he might question why she wanted it. And if she didn't ask, she would lose the opportunity to get in touch with that woman. She was in a dilemma.
Suddenly, an idea struck her and she coquettishly whispered back, "I want that hand-crafted yellow dragon vase."
If Asher were to ask why she wanted him to bid on that vase, she would say that she was interested in it because it was a rare treasure and she wanted to have it.
It would not raise his suspicion as well. Because many people buy things when they are limited-edition and priceless.
She could even pose as someone who loves collecting rare ancient artifacts.
She was positive that Asher didn't know her well so he would not make things difficult for her.
However, Emma was surprised when Asher simply let go of her and didn't ask any questions about her impetuous decision. He held Emma in front of her and adjusted her hair before patting her head and going away.
The crowd had reduced a lot by now and only a few people were left wandering here and there. Asher didn't acknowledge or reject her wish, leaving an ambiguous air and a confused Emma behind.
Emma wasn't used to this style of Asher. In their every meeting, he either infuriated her or teased her, he was never so cautious with her as he was now.
A small bud of hope began to waver in her heart but was ruthlessly crushed by Emma immediately as she had yet to recover from her past mistakes and misconceptions.
She looked at her broken hand which helped her recall the incident whose wounds were still fresh and bleeding.
She wasn't ready for another betrayal and crushed dream. She sighed and closed her eyes as she reminded herself of her goal.
She must find out the reality behind that disturbing "thing" that she chanced upon.
Once again directing her attention back to the crowd, Emma wasn't astonished to find only a handful of people who remained there.
Among them, more than half were women. Some were chatting and trying to get information out of their opponents while others were focusing on their surroundings, looking vigilant and sharp.
Emma belonged to none of the two groups. She relaxed as she took a sip out of her glass. She didn't have much to do here.
The thing for which she came was away from her approach. Now, she was left here to wander independently and have fun.
She made up her mind to go to the group of ladies making small talk and joining them. As soon as she raised her foot to walk towards them, an announcement stopped her forward steps.
"Since everyone has left, plus ones are required to make themselves known to the bodyguards present here. They will then be guided to the Naelon Hall where they can bid for items." A male voice resounded in the now empty room.
Emma saw the guard standing next to her and didn't rush to him. Instead, she waited for someone else to do the same first before registering her presence.
As expected, a lady wearing a blue short skirt and white top which failed to conceal her curves, went ahead and smiled at the guard.
"Name and Person whom you came along," The guard asked in a throaty voice.
"Alana Richard. I came here with my husband-to-be James Richard," the girl answered delicately. However, her short skirt failed to serve its purpose and spoke otherwise.
Emma frowned as she heard the name of the girl's husband-to-be. She scanned her from top to bottom, it was a petite girl with a voluptuous hourglass figure and black hair.
James Richard was the ex-fiancé of Bella Nielson. Since this girl was saying that she was going to get married to James, it meant she was James' mistress who was pregnant.
Emma didn't know what was wrong with this girl. She came here knowing that it was a deadly auction with a child in her belly.
Emma pondered for a while and came up with two reasons as to why she was there.
Either she was here to buy a gift to impress her in-laws or she was here to build connections for the future.
No matter the reason, she had risked her baby's life. If she fell here, who would take responsibility for her child?
Although Emma hated mistresses, she could not take revenge on an innocent child who wasn't even been born yet.
Thus, she was baffled by the actions of this mother-to-be who didn't care about her young child.
Emma determined it wasn't her place to advise Alana as she had already shaken hands with Bella. So she decided to ignore her presence.
"Miss, tell me your name at the moment. You can only take your husband's name after you have married him," the bodyguard asked in a grim tone, sending shivers down Alana's spine.
"A- Alana Simon," Alana stuttered.
Emma was irked by the similarity in the names. Max's mistress was Ana Smith and James' mistress was Alana Simons. If Alana had been a blonde, Emma would have had a hard time not beating her up to a pulp.
Do all girls who cheat have similar names? Emma was genuinely curious about this. While Emma was busy with her musings, the bodyguard gave Alana a yellow wristband and asked her to step aside.
Slowly, others also began to surround the bodyguard as he asked their names and distributed different colored wristbands to each one of them.
Emma noticed the difference in color and saw they were allocated randomly.
At the moment there were almost 25 people who had yellow wristbands, 20 had purple, 19 had green, and 17 had orange.
Emma couldn't decipher how they were given and soon it was her turn as she was the only one left.
"Name," the bodyguard asked grimly. Emma wasn't too intimidated by the man and simply replied, "Emma Woods."
"Whom did you come with?" he asked indifferently.
"Asher Maximillian," After saying his name, Emma realized that it was the first time she said his full name.
After hearing the name, the bodyguard gave her a yellow colored wristband. Emma didn't ask anything and wore it on her wrist.
Unlike what Emma thought, she wasn't the last one to register her name with the bodyguard. The lady from the buffet came after her and went to the bodyguard who asked her name.
"I'm Betty Graham."
Emma's breath hitched as she heard the name of the lady. It was the same lady she had been paying attention to since the buffet. It couldn't be a coincidence.
Emma observed her with a burning fire in her eyes. She couldn't believe that she had such a stroke of great luck. The lady whom she had been looking for was also a plus one.
It meant she had a high chance of interacting with this lady and building a connection with her.
Emma took a deep breath and calmed herself down as she could be mistaken. She still needed to confirm that she got the right person.