"The last rune is an ice elemental rune, simply inject some mana into the rapier, and the rapier with have an attribute of ice with it" The auctioneer finally finished explaining the details of the rapier and set the starting price to 10 High spirit stones
The crowd sucked in a large amount of air through their teeth, however, to their surprise, a feminine voice called out from one of the private booths
"10 High Spirit stones!"
Ruth called from the VIP booth, Matilda was willing to pay as much as 100 High Spirit stones, luckily the majority of the people didn't seem interested in the weapon
'Since nobody uses a rapier, this weapon should be as good as mine A grin crawled on Matilda's face
However, unexpectedly, someone else in a private booth called a bid
"15 SPIRIT STONES!"
This caused people to murmur and Matilda to raise an eyebrow,
Matilda did expect some competition, that why she bought the majority of the spirit stones she had
"20 Spirit stone!"
"25 Spirit Stones!"
…
"50 Spirit Stones!"
Matilda finally called this bid, although she expected competition, she didn't expect them to be this desperate, wasn't she one of the few that used this sort of weapon?
Now half of her savings were blown, even though she brought 100 High Spirit stones, this was an emotional and financial blow to Matilda
However, disregarding the pain in her heart, she resolved she must get this weapon at all cost
…
In a private booth, a white-haired, golden-eyed girl sat in a chair, feeling a slightly perturbed
The majority of the funds she had previously was blown on an explosive potion she bought three years ago for 130,000 High Spirit stones
Such an amount isn't even imaginable, even for the royal family, such an amount had to be around 5 years of their annual income
Spending such an amount of money, took a toll on the imperial treasury
However, Aerial knew that it can be easily recovered with the businesses the royal family had and the taxes they received each year
She didn't bring much here as this was a personal viewing instead of trying to buy something for the royal family, so she had limited funds
This rapier managed to catch her eyes, it would be suitable for her, even the three runes they had made her want it more, since she had ice affinity, the compatibility with the sword was perfect
She hasn't expected anyone would want this, even if they did, they would stop and a high enough price
Now the price of the rapier was 50 High Spirit stones, so the feeling in her heart, similar to Matilda's, was one of slight grief
Although she could go further, was it worth it? Aerial didn't let her emotion affect her decision unlike Matilda
If the rapier went higher than 150 High Spirit stones, she'll stop it and accept her loss, any further than that was a loss
Although they weren't many rapier's in the imperial treasure, there were multiple runic weapons there, so there was no need for Aerial to try so hard, she came here for a different matter anyway
As the bids increased between the noble girl and royal girl, the threshold of Matilda just reached, Matilda placed a bid of 100 High spirit stones, even for a marquis family, this amount wasn't small
Matilda was anxiously waiting for the auctioneer to count and declare her the winner of the bid, but how can life be so easy
The mood-shattering phrase that came from another VIP booth, crumbled any thoughts of her getting the weapon she wanted
"110 High Spirit Stone" a feminine voice sounded out
After realizing that she was unable to go any higher, Matilda could only clench her fist and stomach her loss
"110, Going Once, Going Twice…"
Auctioneering make a slight pause just in case anybody wanted to increase the bid, glancing at the booth Matilda was in
After realizing that the battle has come to an end, although he was slightly disappointed he ended the bidding war saying "SOLD!"
Everybody clapped, although they thought it was stupid to go so high for such a weapon, although the runes were nice, they weren't enough for them to place a bid that high
Matilda was angered and on the verge of tears, as she wasn't able to get the weapon she chased for, could only stand up and leave along with Ruth
Although the auction was still going on, the only thing she wanted was the rapier, with that out of her grasp, there was no longer a reason for her to stay
She left her booth in order to leave and she stepped on the formation, the formation glowed up and she vanish but instantly appeared on the lower floor
As she was heading toward the exit she heard a voice
"Excuse me!"
Matilda turned around to see a white-headed, golden-eyed girl with what seemed to be an attendant and a guard by her side
However, when she look at the girl, Aerial's voice wasn't directed toward her, but directed at another person
She looked in the direction Aerial was looking just to see a familiar face, in fact, a face she just saw yesterday night
She was wondering why he was there, but when she thought about it, he did have a close relationship with the alchemist of the myriad auction house
Matilda made sense of it, however, she was dejected due to the rapier, or the lack of it, so she decide to just go home and try to wallow in her training
But before she could turn to leave, she looked back at the girl, but more specifically the girl's waist
Her eyes twitched at the sight of what was hanging on the girl's waist
'Isn't that the rapier that was just auctioned, it seems she managed to get a hold of it she thought
If this was Lara, she might've made a huge scene and would try to force the girl to submit the rapier to her, but this was Matilda, her temperament was different from her deceased sister
"Hello, do you mind if we spoke in private?" Aerial approached Rio and spoke
Rio lifted his eyebrow up and slightly tilted his head to express "What for?"
When Aerial saw this expression, she contemplated and said "Oh, I forgot to introduce myself, my name is Aerial, Aerial Santos, it's a pleasure to meet you" She gave a polite curtsy
"Santos, as in the royal family?" Rio asked
Aerial nodded with a bright smile on her face
"Why would a royal want to speak in private with me?" Rio said displaying his suspicion toward her
"I mean you no harm, I just wanted to speak to you, about regarding your potions" she spoke to try to ease his suspicion
In the midst of thinking, Rio looked up and saw both the guard and the attendant, he was shocked to realize he couldn't sense their level
So he naturally did what he always did
'System'
[Ding!]
Name: Eli
Class: 3rd Rank Mage Master
Strength: 100
Agility: 150
Endurance: 100
Mana: 1500
Trait: [ Mana Blessing ]
Name: Harris
Class: 3rd Rank Judan Martial Artist
Strength: 720
Agility: 680
Endurance: 780
Mana: ~
Trait: [ Sword Heart ]
"…"
'This is the first time me seeing a trait, what is this??' Rio internally exclaimed
"Sure," Rio said while putting on a smile
Matilda looked at this conversation and when she saw the smile Rio put on, she was slightly annoyed
'Why is his attitude different from hers, is it because of her beauty or her status' Matilda thought
But she didn't get distracted, she approached the four of them cautiously, although there wasn't any aura from any of them, the two that stood guard made her feel a sense of fear
"E-Excuse me, your highness," Matilda said as confidently as she could
Which made the four of them turn in their direction and made Eli and Harris raise their guard
"I don't mean to intrude on your meet-up, but I was wondering if you are okay with discussing the rapier," Matilda said as she pointed at Aerial's waist
Aerial looked at Matilda then glanced at her rapier, then as if coming into realization she said
"Oh, were you the one who was bidding against me?"
"Yes, indeed, I was, I'm sorry if I offended you" she bowed slightly
Matilda heard the Santos name come out of her mouth, however, she really wanted the rapier, and judging from a first impression POV, she didn't seem so bad
Matilda thought the worst she could do was get shouted at, so she attempted to try to see if she could somehow obtain it
Matilda glanced at Rio, to which Rio replied with a causal nod, so Matilda did the same
Aerial naturally saw this and proceeded to say "Do you know each other?"
"Not really"
"Yes, Your Highness"
"…"
"…"