"Tell me, who are you?"
Karl is overwhelmed by Ray's mana. He is struggling to stand yet he grits his teeth and looks at Ray in the eye. "What happened old man? You scared?" He mocks Ray in the face.
The gust of the wind calms down and everything returns to normal. Ray smirks. "The idiot who can say this to my face is only you. That means you are still alive."
"Of course, I am."
"Take them away and give Leonard the already agreed reward." Ray looks at Hector and orders. Hector bows and moves towards the main door followed by Karl and Ian.
"What did you say to my father?" Ian whispers.
"Nothing in particular." Karl answers with a smirk.
The big door opens and three of them exits the throne room. Karl yawns loudly. "Sir Leonard. I suppose you need to have a lecture about etiquette from me." Hector grabs Karl's shoulder and suggests in a threatening tone.
"N-No. It's o-okay." Karl gently lifts Hector's hand from his shoulder.
"Oh. Fancy meeting you here." A voice comes a little away from the corridor. Karl looks at the source and sees the knight who had cat-like ears underneath her helmet which are fully exposed now.
"Nia!" Ian calls her name.
'Nia. Gotta remember that.'
Nia walks towards them and bows to Ian. "I greet you, young master." Nia's ears twitches cutely.
"I told you many times not to kneel when you are about to greet me."
"It's my duty to do so." Her ears stands upright. "And this should be the adventurer from Sabre guild who slayed the Koraet. I am grateful for your assistance in the battlefield." Nia bows again at Karl who is mesmerized in the movement of Nia's fluffy ears.
'Cute. They are weapon of mass destruction.'
"Leo!" Ian shakes Karl which breaks him out of his own imaginations.
"Huh? Yes. Yes. I am him." Karl fumbles hard.
"Why are you here?" Hector asks in a cold voice. Karl could see the face of disgust on Hector's face. 'It's the same face that Ian made that day.'
"I....I came here to give a detailed report about the cleanup." Nia answers in a calm voice.
"Heh. The casualties wouldn't be this high if we had proper human knight." Hector taunts. Karl senses some kind of animosity between them but decides not to interfere.
"That might have been the case." Nia's ears drops down as her voice becomes soft.
'Noooo!' In his head, Karl yells in exaggerated matter.
"I think father is waiting for you, Nia. You should hurry." Ian quickly steps up and helps Nia. Hector keeps glaring at Nia as she enters the throne room.
"Hector. I can take it from here. You should do your other jobs." Ian suggests.
"Yes, as you wish. The reward would be credited to Sir Leonard's account in few hours." Hector bows and leaves.
Ian and Karl goes to the main garden of the castle and lays down in the grass. "I thought you hated halfbloods."
"Nia is not a halfblood. She has ears and a tail which makes her a normal fullblooded beastkin."
'T-Tail?' Karl imagines Nia swaying her tail right and left.
"Also, I don't hate all halfblood. Just those who sell away their honour and takes advantage of other people for their own good. I hate those."
"I see. Then, why did Hector reacted in such a hostile way to Nia?"
"It has something to do with mother. Apparently, when we were at the banquet in Jedket. Nia was the Captain who was supposed to look after me and mother. But my father ordered her to directly report to Clamoire house and she obeyed which is why she couldn't protect my mother. That's why Hector blames her for my mother's death."
'I think it was a good thing that she wasn't there. Looking at her combat ability, she would have just become food for that turd.' Karl decides to not to say it.
A cool breeze passes by leaving a soothing sensation on Karl's skin. "What happened to Jose?" Karl asks while enjoying the wind.
"The guildmaster? She demanded her reward and quickly left the castle." Karl nods in understanding.
Suddenly, Ian's watch vibrates. He taps on it and sees a message from Andressa. Ian smiles as he stands up. "Let's go. We can't be late."
"Go? Where?"
"To the auction? Like we planned?"
"Isn't that supposed to be 3 days away?"
Ian chuckles. "Looks like the ancient beast ate your brain."
"Huh?"
"You slayed Koraet two days ago." Ian clarifies.
"What?"
"While you were in the confinement chamber. Alessa gave you a heavy dose anesthesia to stop your body from unconsciously consuming mana."
Shocked, Karl quickly checks the calendar on his watch. It is indeed has been 2 days since the black worm entered Karl. 'Just how much anesthesia did she used on me?'
"She did say that you won't live long life." Ian says it in a sarcastic tone.
"How funny." Karl stands up and cracks his neck. Sleeping in the same position for 2 days straight made his body stiff.
Just like that, Ian and Karl left the castle and sat in the van which took them to the auction. Ian wanted to ask Karl about the his epic fight with the ancient beast but unfortunately, just 5 minutes into the journey Karl's eyes got heavy. Seeing Karl sleeping so peacefully Ian decided not to wake him up.
After 2 hours or so, they reached their destination. Karl is still sleeping. Ian check on him and clicks a picture where he is drooling. He sents it to Andressa with the caption [I bet that would be sweet.]
Andressa immediately replied with an red-faced emoji. [Don't tease me.]
Ian chuckles. [When are you coming? We just reached here.]
[I should be there in like a hour or so.]
[But you took the first bus in the early morning! How come you are still not here.]
[I am not rich enough to own a private rover. Sorry for that.] Andressa answers with an crying emoji.
[Whatever. We are going inside. Text me when you reach here, I come and get you.]
[You have everything that we planned?]
[Yes, it's ready.]
[Okay, see you in a bit.]
[Sure.] Ian closes the window and glances at Karl. He still is sleeping very peacefully.
"Hey! Wake up." Ian wakes up Karl.
"Yeah. I am up." Karl gets up rather easily and hops off the van.
Infront of him, there is large single story stone mansion. It has no decorations, gardens or fountains. It looks very plain. 'Isn't an auction supposed to be a big thing in stories where all the knights and rich people gather?' Karl questions.
There is one person who is wearing a large hood which covers the entire face is standing besides the old wooden door. Ian and Karl walks to that person.
"Do you have the invitation?" The man asks.
Ian taps on his watch and a blue screen shows up. The man glances at the screen and takes out a key from his pocket. He hands the key to Ian. "Venue no. 2353" Ian takes the key and opens the door.
Inside, there is narrow pathway which leds to the stairway going down. "Still sleepy?" Ian asks after seeing Karl's quiet behaviour.
"To be honest, I expected something different when you said we are going to the auction. This place feels like a jail."
"You expect that the most illegal thing in the world happens in the court?"
"What?" Ian remains quiet.
After few hundred steps, they finally reached the bottom. There is a corridor with many rooms at both sides. Ian and Karl enters the room which has [2353] written on the door. It is a very lavish room with a large sofa with a big round table close to the sofa, there is a old lamp which is looks like a miniature lighthouse as it is flashing light straight at the glass walls which are opposite to the table. From the glass wall, down below you can see a large opera stage which has it's curtains down. Karl walks to the glass wall and glances around but sees nothing but darkness.
"There is still time for the auction." Ian takes a seat on the sofa while Karl observing the stage. At the corner of his eye, Karl sees a light source in the distance.
Suddenly, another light sources appears. Another light source appears straight ahead of Karl and this time he sees it clearly. The light source is the same identical room as one they are in currently. In the matter of seconds hundreds of such light sources appears all over the place and they slowly starts to move. It looks like fireflies are dancing in endless darkness.
"Have a seat. It's starting." Ian suggest Karl.
"What are those dots of lights?" Karl asks as he takes a seat beside Ian. He notices that there is small black button on the table.
"Those are customers like us. In the central continent Silver Chamber auction is very famous. Everytime the auction opens almost all of the knighthoods send their representives to scout any valuable treasures."
The view through the glass wall is astonishing. The curtains of the stage opens up. A single old man with a bent back walks to the centre of the stage. He is wearing a vintage black hat on top of a shiny suit and a golden stick in hand. "Hello! ladies and gentleman. I, Aneer Chamber, welcome you all to this year's auction. Due to some difficulties this year's auction is pretty behind the schedule for that I seek everyone's forgiveness." The old man bows like a gentleman.
"I hope you spend alots."
Suddenly all the lights are turned off, nobody could see a thing. "Well then, we will start with our first segment! The remains of the Crescent war."
Lights turns on and there is only a bookshelf filled with old and tattered books on the stage. "With every expedition and labyrinth explored we get closer to the Horizon. These are few diaries and fairy tales written by the knights who fought in the Crescent war. I am sure that knight from this generation would gain a significant amount of battle experience. Of course, this books are represents a very crucial part of humanity's struggle against those pesky bloodsuckers."
A random book comes out of the shelf and floats in the air. "Our first product of the day is the diary of Jeffery Klein. Jeffery was the nephew of the second emperor of the Andromeda empire. He led an army of 30000 strong, straight to the red border. He fought bravely for 31 years before being ambushed. Jeffery struggled till his last breath and recorded his entire life in this diary. Just by holding this book, I can feel the weight of Sir Jeffery's resolve and loyalty to the empire. Who wants to be as great as Sir Jeffery Klein?"
All the lights from the lower brackets starts to flicker. "We are starting from 300 Green photons." The amount of flickering lights decreases in an instant. Only 14 dots of lights are still flickering. "350! No.5624. 400! No. 7965." The numbers keeps on increasing.
'What is happening?' Ian notices Karl's distressed expression.
"Don't panic. The lights which are on the lower brackets belongs to the small fries who aren't even backed by an intermediate knight. Your attention should be on those 3 rows." Ian points at the top three rows. "Those rooms belongs to the Sentinel families or a high knight who belongs to a powerful guild."
Karl notices that no lights are flickering aside from the last two rows, not even the middle rows. Ian sighs and leans back. "This is the boring section of the auction. If you know a bit of history, you should know that the nephew of the second emperor was a coward and disgrace to the royal family. But the folks who can't access any of information other than provided by the sentinel family gets manipulated by such words."
"Normal people can't read history books?"
"No. Any type of history records which dates back more than 100 years is kept locked in the church of the Horizon which is funded by all of the Sentinel families."
'There is a church?'
"Sold! To no.7954. For 1490 Green photons." Aneer announces. A light from the lower brackets glows red for a second.
"Do you know how the bidding works?" Ian asks.
"No."
"Listen, this button controls the fire at the centre of the table. When you want to bid on the product, press the button rapidly which makes the light of the lamp flicker." Ian points the button on the table.
"The auctioneer will notice the light and add your bid. Once you successfully bought a product, the lamp will glow red and you have to press this button once to confirm your final bid. If you don't press the button in time, you will be disqualified and the product would be given to the second highest bidder. Got it?"
"Yes."
The auction goes on for 30 minutes, the bookshelf is nearly empty while nothing caught Karl's eye. There was some flickering from the mid bracket for a spellbook written by some well-known mage, sadly it contained only water elemental spells.
The last book floats in the air. It is quite thin compared to other books which got sold earlier. "I am sure this will catch the attention of everyone. This book is a fairy tale about the forbidden element of space. The title is [The adventures of Arcturus.]"