It's a money-making night at the auction house in the Muriel Red Light District.
Mr. Jones, the ruler of the place, was reporting on the participants in today's auction.
"We have a swordsman."
"I knew you'd come. It's the only thing that's up for grabs this time."
He may be crazy, but he's only crazy about swords, so he won't cause too much trouble.
No big guy would dare to go after a sword demon in the first place.
Suha finished his report.
"The candidate for the next chieftain of the Myo clan, Ya Yung Min, is here with his escorts, and Dragan of the Deep declined to participate this time, saying he was busy."
"I see. And what happened to the Dwalski inspector you said might come?"
"He says he's sending a representative who possesses his sigil."
I don't know why Morne, who hasn't attended an auction in a while unless there's an unexpected corpse, is attending this one.
Honestly, aside from the sword he's interested in, the items up for sale today are all pretty bland.
I don't think there are any corpses in this auction that would pique Morne's interest.
Is there something I don't recognize in the mix?
"I'll have to see what Morn's representative is buying.
Jones spoke up again.
"Another peculiarity."
"They say that someone entered the red-light district wearing a Bloody Dan's mask."
"Dan's mask? Yeah, I get it. Go ahead."
Jones nodded and pointed to his hand, which was studded with colorful rings.
When Suha was gone, he scratched his head and blew a long puff of smoke from the cigarette he held in his mouth.
"It's Bloody Dan's mask...."
Bloody Dan had been found dead, unmasked, in the most unlikely of places.
While we don't know for sure that the dead man was Bloody Dan, we can speculate because Dan's last move was to meet Pyman.
He was killed in a fight with the gravedigger, Pyman, but his mask was missing, suggesting that the real mastermind of the crime had arrived.
I'll have to see what he's up to.
* * *
The auction house of the Red Light District was attached to the Arena.
As I walked along the street, I realized that, true to its name, the Red Light District was filled with shady characters, pimps, and hustlers looking for their money.
"I'm seeing all these villains I've never seen before.
Serial killer Michael Hydan, human hunter Jack Hill, the tearing Balan.
Normally hard-to-find villains were everywhere.
But I didn't want to have to deal with them, so I made a beeline for the auction house, avoiding eye contact as much as possible.
There was no point in arguing with them.
"There it is.
A gatekeeper stood at the entrance to the auction house, which operated alongside the arena building.
The one he was blocking was the entrance to the auction house, and the arena had a separate entrance at the back.
I handed the gatekeeper a piece of paper that I had cut out of the letter I had received from Morne.
"Verified. You may enter."
Unlike the golden banquet, the night where the money flows had a sleazy feel to it.
There were no VIP rooms, just podiums, people dancing all over the place, and a bar selling drinks.
'It's like a club.
The dark atmosphere reminded me of a club.
The only difference was that it had a slightly more decadent vibe.
"Uh-oh. You must be a customer?"
When I entered the auction house and stood still, I was approached by a woman who seemed to think I was a hobo.
She didn't look human, more like a half-elf.
"There's still a bit of time before the auction starts, but in the meantime, do you mind if we talk?"
I shook my head in silence, even as she spoke to me with a coy glance, dressed in a bewitching outfit that revealed her flesh.
She thought I was wearing a mask for nothing.
I didn't want her to see the slightest crack.
"It's a shame."
After uttering just one word, she moved on to search for a new prospect. Interestingly, I was able to recognize a few faces at the auction, despite wearing a mask. Mizellan the Hawkshooter, Ya Yung Min the gravedigger, and Flutman the Cursed Eye were among the familiar names. The auction boasted nearly 30 participants, most of whom were draped in cloaks to conceal their true identities. Perhaps they were aristocrats or well-known personalities who didn't want to be associated with Yinji. However, my attention was drawn to a man in the corner of the auction hall, who was drinking from his cup without a care in the world.
"Swordguy Hosan.
A villain who's just about to become an Auror Master.
In terms of skill, he was a famous villain, on par with Fayat.
He was a murderer with a great appetite for swords, carrying five swords on his back and three on each side of his waist.
The inspector who became the villain also committed murders because he was greedy for swords.
"Even in the game, if you carried a famous or named sword, you could trigger a sword reappearance event.
The time of the event was randomized.
If you were unlucky, it would show up within a week of getting it, and if you were lucky, it wouldn't show up for years, sometimes even until you beat the game.
Of course, this was all in-game, and it didn't matter because the sword ghosts wouldn't know that I had Galakshur now.
For a villain who kills people on a whim, Hossan was usually calm.
As long as you don't challenge him first, you'll be fine.
As we waited for the auction, listening to the shouts coming from the underground arena, a figure who appeared to be the host finally stepped up to the circular podium.
"You've been waiting a long time, so shall we get straight to the auction?"
Two hulking employees quickly placed the first auction item on the podium.
This was fast.
"First item up for auction! In this box is the mutant Keltus. He's got two heads and six legs, and we're starting at 20 million."
Keltus was a monster that looked like a praying mantis.
Unlike a mantis, it was a mammal, and like a mammal, it was covered in fur.
No one would buy such a thing, but eventually someone did.
To the wizards, the existence of a mutant monster is a pretty good test subject.
After that, all sorts of slaves, monsters, xenomorph organs, and other cursed items appeared in the auction.
'I just want to buy mine and leave.'
As if reading my thoughts, the same brochure that Morne had told me about appeared next.
The only explanation was that it was an encrypted map, but the organizers didn't seem to know what it was.
And the competition for the brochures wasn't great.
"Not many people want to buy a map with no information.
All of the bidders were just peeking at it out of curiosity, but none of them were as eager to win as I was.
In the end, I won the booklet for a very reasonable price without any problems.
As soon as my bid was finalized, I abandoned the next auction and went straight to pay.
"I don't want to stay here too long and get involved in something weird.
As soon as I left, the eyes of the bidders gathered around me.
I can almost sense their emotions. It must appear bizarre to them that I traveled all this distance just to purchase a booklet. When I arrived at the payment counter and received the booklet, I displayed it to Morn. After the clerk confirmed the magical treatment, they unexpectedly asked me to speak with their manager. The owner of the money-flowing night establishment was unmistakably Jones, a disagreeable man as one would anticipate. However, he was also hard to overlook, and his ego was sizeable, from what I could observe.
I followed him up the stairs and soon found myself on a lavishly decorated floor.
There was a huge bathtub dug into the floor, with naked women and a huge man covered in jewelry.
It was Jones, the owner of the auction house.
"Thank you for taking the time to come here. I am Mr. Jones, the owner of this place."
"What can I do for you?"
Jones' brow furrowed slightly at my inquiries, then loosened, and he gestured to a chair across from him.
"Why don't you sit down and we'll talk."
For now, I take his invitation and sit down.
But I kept my sword ready to draw at any moment.
"I understand you are here on behalf of Mr. Morne Dwalski. How is Mr. Morne doing?"
"I'll say less about him."
You recognize me as Morne's representative.
Since I didn't know Morne's situation anyway, the more I said, the better.
"Hmm. It's a little strange that you can't tell me that much."
"If you're asking about Mr. Morne, I don't have anything more to say, if you don't mind if I get up."
"I doubt you're really Mr. Morne's representative."
As Mr. Jones spoke, his henchmen, who had been hiding here and there, emerged.
Having nothing to fear, I spoke calmly.
"I don't know why you're doing this."
"Well, at least I know you're suspicious. That mask you're wearing, it's Bloody Dan's mask."
"I don't see what that has to do with my current persecution."
"Take off the mask first, and we'll see if you're really Mr. Morneau's agent."
I'm lost for words.
I don't understand why he's grasping at straws.
"I want you to understand my situation. If you're not Mr. Morneau's agent, I'm in trouble, so let's just unmask and find out."
If I was Morne's agent, I could use that story as an excuse to get out of it, and if I wasn't, I could do harm.
Still, I couldn't reveal my identity.
A fight seemed inevitable.
"I'm being condescending.
Judging from his demeanor, even if I had refused to talk to him, he would have followed me and stabbed me in the back.
At this point, I figured I'd better use force.
I slowly stood up and drew my sword.
"A sword? A Morn's proxy with a sword? This is getting more and more suspicious."
"Suspicious is your own damned word, asshole."
I swung my sword in an instant.
Two of Jones's men fell to the ground, their upper and lower bodies separated.
"Crack!"
The women at Jones's side screamed and ran away, and a panicked Jones exclaimed.
"What are you doing, hurry up and kill him! He attacked you first!"
"To hell with the subject who threatened me first."
Who do you blame for making you draw your sword first?
Still, killing Jones would only make things worse, so I decided to attack his minions.
Tong-boom!
I could only use Sword Wind as my first attack so far.
After that, I had to fight with my body.
They were skilled, but I wasn't the same person after being trained by Deshun.
In a matter of moments, I had sliced through about ten of Jones' men and grabbed him as he staggered toward the exit.
"Hic!"
"What's a hiccup, hiccup, for a big guy."
I asked, wiping the blood from my sword onto Jones' luxurious-looking clothes.
"What's the matter with you, aren't you afraid of Morn?"
"Well, I didn't realize you were actually Morne's agent. I can't really trust a man who wears the mask of Bloody Dan, so I thought I'd take a look at this...."
"That's why you brought the sigil."
"In my defense, the sigil could have been taken by you as well...."
My eyeballs roll.
He's lying to me all the way.
I pretend my hand slipped and scratch his stomach with the knife.
"Oops, my mistake."
"Ugh!"
"Jones. Jones, let's get this straight. If you keep rambling, I'm going to make another mistake."
"Well, I'll tell you the truth, so please put the sword away!"
Where is this coming from, bargaining with me?
I was about to slip up again, but then I heard someone coming up the stairs and looked toward the entrance.
"Swordguy!
Why are you here?
The sword spirit, Hossan, came up the stairs, locked eyes with me, and then came to the top and looked around.
"Ho, Ho San, please help me, I'm an assassin, I'm an assassin, I'll make a case for you, go ahead and take this guy to...."
"Shut up."
Grunt.
The half-uncovered blade from Hosan's scabbard disappeared with an iron clang.
Then Jones's throat, where I was sitting on top of him, split open and blood poured out.
"Madman!
I jumped to my feet and sheathed my sword faster than most people could see.
I felt both strong and insane at the same time.
He killed him just because he was noisy?
Even if he was strong, it would be quite annoying.
But I couldn't say anything.
I just kept my eyes on Hossan.
A tense moment passed, and his eyes traveled to the sword I was holding.
"The sword. I think I've seen it in a book. What's its name?"
This is bad.
Hossan was starting to take an interest in Galakshur.