Everybody gasped. They look at Levi as if he'd grown two heads. One hundred thousand? has the Azure king gone bonkers or what? How could he be so dumb as to waste that much money on a broken slave?
Dagan was elated. He hadn't expected this broken slave to bring in so much money. He doesn't loose her in vain then.
Noir was dumbfounded. He was just about to bid since no one was talking but Levi has already cut in. He was surprised at that, he knew Levi wasn't being unnecessarily generous and he would not do anything without a reason. There must be a reason why he bought the girl.
Noir became restless, he had to investigate this case as soon as he's out here. He had to know who that girl was, and why Levi was buying her.
Lilura tilted her head in the direction of the voice of the man who had just bought her, wanting to see who was dumb enough to waste that much money on a broken slave.
Levi was still looking at her when she turned, and when their eyes met...her breath lodged in her throat. She squinted her eyes. Who was this man?
She couldn't make out his features clearly through her hazy vision but caught a faint glow in his eyes which disappeared as fast as it had come. Lilura was confused. How come his gaze seems so familiar? She wished her vision was not so bad. She would have really like to get a good look at him.
" Going once, going twice, and sold to Number one" Rayan's voice brought her back to the present.
"Now we've come to the end of the auction. Thank you all for gracing us with your presence and perticipating. Now we can all go to the palace where a dinner banquet is waiting for us. Your items would be delivered to each one of you tomorrow. Have a wonderful night". Archmage Rayan bowed while everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief. They rouse from their seats and began making their way out of the hall.
Rex watched as the cage was carried away with the girl in it. "Care to tell me why you spend so much to buy that slave, Levi? and don't tell me it's because of the diamonds." Rex asked his son.
"Yes , Levi. why do you waste so much money on her? she isn't even beautiful." Nerida pouted. She had noticed how her brother kept staring at the slave and that was the first time he had really looked longer than necessary at a girl without a hint of disgust on his face. Nerida felt displeased.
"Not now Nerida." He himself still doesn't know why he did that except for the one fact that she looked familiar. " Father, I have to take care of something first, I'll talk to you when i get back" With that, he turned around after instructing Archmage Rayan to deliver the slave safely to the palace tomorrow. Then he walked out of the Hall with Jasper and his personal guards flanking him left and right.
*************
As Levi walked through the halls of the Dungeons, his thoughts retuned back to everything that has happened that evening.
Earlier in the morning when the royal mage Miron, had told him the Magical stone will appear at the auction, he'd been happy, really happy. But after he heard the report that Vader's men would try to sneak in his Kingdom for the stone, he'd gone to the Azuran Tower to investigate the list of items to be auctioned.
But he had learned there wasn't any magical stones among the items. His little flame of hope had been doused with a bucket of cold water.
He wanted to be angry with the mage but he calmed himself because he knew the mage had never been wrong before and doesn't talk carelessly. For the magical stone not to appear that night, something must have happened. But he couldn't think of exactly what that could be.
But he'd decided to wait and make the best of the situation by rooting out the spys of Vader from the auction. That was why he had asked his teacher to enchant a stone. They would use it as a bait to lure out Vader's men.
Later at the auction, he had noticed the three men right before they started bidding because their demeanor spoke volumes. They hadn't partake in any of the bidding and neither did they partake much in unnecessary interactions with the rest. They'd remain sharp and focus on the auction as if waiting for something.
Although when the Magic stone was finally presented, he hadn't expected them to be so bold as to try to snatch the stone right at the auction either but he knew that had also happened because he'd acted to provoke them into action. If he hadn't ask Nerida to keep bidding, they wouldn't have quickly believe that the stone was real and fallen into his trap.
Now, he'd like to interrogate them and find out what exactly Vader wants the magic stone for and how he knows.
Levi's thought was cut short as they arrived at the cell where the two prisoners were chained. The body of the third one on the floor.
"They haven't said a word since they've been captured and they've tried to take poison again but the healer had neutralize it immediately." One of the guards reported.
Devlin, lifted up his head as he heard the clank of metal against metal as Levi motion for one of the guards to open the cell. Cadmus was already out cold after going through torture.
Levi walked in and his eyes settled on Devlin, who seems to have more balls than the rest of them. Right now he's chained to the wall, stripped of his clothes with both hand spread eagle wide and pull taunt by the chains. Levi noticed the burn in his chest was still there, one of his eyes had swollen shut, his lips split open, the nails on his left hand has been removed. He appeared to have been tortured badly but yet his hard countenance remained the same as Levi walked in with Jasper by his side and the rest of the guards stationed outside the cell.