I spoke coldly.
Even if I didn't try hard to change my voice, a cold tone came out on its own.
"I said I was going to lead you around as you intended, so why are you talking nonsense? Are you saying you're going to throw away the chance I'm giving you to raise your self-esteem?"
"I was wrong for a long time. This is not a problem of self-esteem. All food has an expiration date, and what you're giving me now is rotten food that I might have wanted to eat at one time, but it's now expired, and I can't eat it."
"What?"
Philap's reddish-brown pupils trembled faintly.
"How does the recipient feel when you put spoiled food in front of them? Dirty, of course."
I lightly squeezed Isidor's large hand.
He looked at me with a look of surprise.
"Philap, don't suddenly act like you are kind and take care of your partner. I'm going to wrap up the flower of the year and the ball in a pretty way."
'The flower of the year must be Isidor, right?'
What if I dance with just one person? He is more gorgeous than anyone here.
As Thierry said, no one can argue that Isidor is the flower of the year.
'Although I was going to skip the last dance and go out.'
I lightly pulled Isidor and walked towards the stage where the people were dancing.
With Philap standing blankly behind us.
Some nobles stayed longer inside the Imperial Palace; but as soon as the last song was over, I hurriedly left the ballroom and took out the black robe I had brought in advance.
"Princess!"
As I walked outside wearing the robe, the bodyguard that my father had given me hurriedly caught up with me.
"Where are you going all of a sudden? Where on earth did those clothes come from!"
He gasped heavily, surprised by my sudden disappearance.
"James, take me to the night market."
I spoke as if I was waiting, putting a mask with a boring design over my face.
"Why do you want to go to such an uninteresting place?"
As soon as the bodyguard heard my destination, he was stunned.
Unlike the fountain plaza near the imperial palace, where the nobles played around elegantly, the night market was a crowded place where all kinds of people came and went.
Of course, it was another highlight of the Spring Flower Festival.
"Uh-huh. You're talking a lot when I want to go somewhere. There is something I want to buy at the night market."
"Princess Deborah. The inside of the night market is much more crowded than around this plaza! You may be pushed by lowly things."
"I think you can make sure I don't bump into the lowly things."
The bodyguard made a preoccupied expression at my indiscreet tone of voice.
"In analogy, crowds come in like waves. How can a man stop a wave?"
I narrowed my eyes.
"Hmm, are you maybe stopping me from going to the night market because it is a difficult and inconvenient place to escort me? It is said that it is a place where a lot of nobles also go to have fun. I am very disappointed with you."
"How could I!"
"Then let's go. It's not that difficult."
As his pride was gently provoked, the guard eventually started guiding the way towards the night market.
'Good! Now, where should we go to dig for bonanza?'
The night market of the Spring Flower Festival.
Among the endless rows of stalls, it was described in the novel that an interesting auction was held every year in the basement of the building behind the stall selling black pots.
'Noir Pot.'
It was a highly speculative auction known only to acquaintances, ranging from junk worth less than a thousand won to treasures of high value.
And when one of the junk from this auction house fell into the hands of Diera Orgo, he hit the jackpot.
'It turned out that the junk was an ancient artifact that could hatch eggs from a holy beast…'
A holy beast.
In other words, a sacred animal.
It is said that in ancient times, when exchanges between different races were much more active than today, there were quite a few holy beasts born between spirits and animals.
The holy beasts have now disappeared due to the darkness that was cast on the land, but fossils remain everywhere.
Since holy beasts have an infinite lifespan like a spirit, unless they are physically damaged, the sleeping egg of a holy beast could be awakened by ancient artifacts that matched the wavelength of mana.
Diera Orgo obtained a white holy beast in the shape of a tortoise by incubating the egg he had in his possession with this object.
'And he gifted that precious thing to the heroine.'
The white tortoise was a precious holy beast that could inflict a strong blow with curse properties to a monster.
It was sensitive to the darkness of witchcraft, and even had the ability to quickly detect signs of rifts.
'Very useful in emergency situations.'
One time, the tortoise threw herself into a rift, and Mia could save her life.
'Honestly, that turtle, I need it more as I am the villainess.'
Mia has strong fishes who will line up to save her life, but I don't.
For the sake of my own well-being, I wanted to carry around a holy beast with about half the ability of a spirit.
'The turtle is small, so I can carry it in my pocket.'
That mysterious holy beast was my ultimate goal, but for now, I was thinking of preempting ancient artifacts with an incubation function.
I was wandering through the crowd with a dream of winning the jackpot, and finally found a stall selling black pots.
"Princess, where are you going now?"
Dark circles had already appeared in the bodyguard's eyes.
"Wait by the door. I have something to do inside this building."
"It seems like a suspicious place, so I will follow you."
"What? Suspicious? What do you take me for! Do you think I'm doing indecent things in this building? How dare you insult me, the Seymour's Princess?"
I gave him a glare and jumped at him like a crazy dog.
"P-Princess. I absolutely did not mean that. I made a mistake."
"Then stay here. I'll be out by midnight."
After stylishly lifting the black mask, like a villain, I strode into the dark hallway.
Then, I gave the invitation to the auction, which I had asked the Master to obtain in advance, to the security guard with a huge body.
"4 gold! We have 4 gold!"
"6 gold!"
"7 gold!"
The inside was already chaotic.
'It's already started. I should've gotten out of the ballroom a little earlier. If I came here for nothing because of Philap…'
"10 gold!"
"We have 10 gold! Is there no more?! Mermaid's Tears, sold for 10 gold!"
"Wow!"
The intense excitement hit my cheeks.
Fortunately, seeing the final winning bid staying around 10 gold, it seemed that it had just started.
Among the people who were desperate to get a bonanza, I, too, started searching attentively for the auction items lined up on the board.
"Feathers from an ancient phoenix, auction starts at 15 gold! Everyone. Look at these dazzling and mysterious colors!"
"15 gold!"
"20 gold!"
I narrowed my eyes as I looked at the feathers held by the auctioneer.
'What do you mean phoenix feathers? They look just like the pink quill I carry with me.'
No matter how you looked at it, it looked as if some attribute magic had been cast onto the bright red feathers.
'But if someone who doesn't know sees them, they'll be fascinated.'
In case it might be a jackpot item, the auction participants were shouting.
Just like game addicts who keep spending money to buy loot boxes in hopes of SSS-class items.
'I'm really not good at this. Will I be able to get a jackpot here?'
I got even more hopeless because of the auctioneer who spoke like a con artist.
Even though it's a speculative auction that is held in a flash for a certain amount of time, the host was just attaching any plausible words onto the objects.
Ancient, legend, emperor, dragon…
Those kinds of words.
There is a high probability that the real purpose and value of the object are not well known.
Had I known, I wouldn't have come to the auction house in the first place.
'I have no idea which of these artifacts hatch holy beasts.'
The shape of the jackpot item isn't specified in the novel.
The only clue I have is that the junk from the auction house turned out to be a precious ancient artifact.
'This is crazy, it's all junk.'
The items for today's auction were lined up on a long table covered with a red cloth, and most of them were rusty antiques.
A jar, shoes, a cane, a necklace, a bracelet, a mask, a book… It was endless.
'Which one is the artifact that hatches holy beasts!'
If I put a holy beast egg in that junk jar, would it hatch?
By chance, the jar had animal drawings engraved on it, so my guess felt even more plausible.
'Sigh.'
Actually, there are many ancient artifacts in the form of ornaments, so that old bracelet could be a jackpot item with the ancient mana wavelength.
I'm confused, should I just bid on everything?
"80 gold! Do we have more?"
"90 gold!"
'No way.'
I wiped my cold sweat as I listened to the endlessly rising numbers.
Perhaps because of the speculative nature of this auction, the price of the items was absurdly high.
Dyed feathers were sold for a whopping 40 gold, and the necklace of the orc chieftain, which is currently being auctioned off, soared to 100 gold.
'The auction is still in the early stages; how can it be such a brutal price…'
The price of buying all those things might be equivalent to the cost of buying a title.
I bit my nails nervously.
'I'm going crazy. Huh…?! Wait, I think I know what it is!'
As I carefully scanned through the objects, I jumped up at the realization that crossed my mind.
'This is it!'