Amanda stared at it for a long time, ignoring the bidding on the ground floor. She was observing it from every angle, confusion filling her face. In the end, she handed it back to him and asked. "Is it really adamantium?" She further said. "No matter how I see it, it doesn't seem like one. The blade isn't that sharp, and neither is it heavy. Doesn't sound anything like adamantium. You might have made a mistake."
Kael shrugged, storing it in his storage ring. "If it is not what I think it is, I'll repay the palace even if I had to sell one of our treasures. But that will never happen, Princess."
"What?" Amanda was taken aback by Kael's response. She didn't expect him to exude so much confidence, a side she was seeing for the first time. Staring at him for a few seconds, she asked, "You handled an adamantine blade before?"
Kael cast a sidelong glance at her and nodded. "My sister inherited our ancestral sword, made of Adamantium and Elerium alloy. I played with it when I was a child, well, until she formally inherited the weapon. Adamantium might be one of the densest materials in the world, but the one that has developed spirit is different. Of course, the weapon spirit's grade is important. The higher the concentration of adamantium alloy used in forging the weapon, the higher its grade. The high-grade spirits have high egos, and the ones with a high ego would also bear the material density. The fact that this is so light means the spirit sealed inside the weapon is high-grade. That also means that the weapon blade itself has a high concentration of adamantium." He crossed his legs, finished off his explanation, and proceeded to calmly watch the auction.
Amanda took a glimpse at confident Kael. He looked different from his usual self, a reckless individual who makes a mess despite his good intentions, which then forces his wives to clean up his mess in the end. Her mother believes that he is an anchor that ties her and her siblings together. Moreover, the Moonstone House Bloodline is said to be quite powerful. But for her, he is more of a burden to her.
However, the invisible aura emitting from him while he was explaining all those stuff kinda caught her guard off. "Well, either he buckled up his knowledge to cover up his weak strength, or he was trying to bluff." A thought suddenly popped up in her head. "Should I take the dagger from him and test it with a master appraiser?" After a brief moment, she shook away that idea. "No, let's not humiliate him. As long as I can get that supreme potion in my hands, our marriage will be annulled anyway. Let him do whatever he wants." She thought in her head.
Kael and Amanda didn't talk after that. The auction continued to go on for the next couple of hours before the hostess announced the start of the second stage of the auction.
"Here are the ten items that will be featured now, and as I have mentioned at the start, only the guests sitting in the VIP section can bid for these items."
One after another, the three items were displayed on the desk. One is a scroll, one is a pendant, and the last one is a potion.
Camilla pointed her hand at the scroll and spoke. "Behold the Scroll of Fate. This is a one-time-use scroll. Once you pour your mana into the scroll, it will show you the greatest moment in the future you are fated with. Before we start the bidding, I would remind you all that fate is your fixed future. No matter what you do, it will all end up to the moment you will see it. You can't change it. We'll start the bidding with 100,000 gold coins."
As the murmurs filled the ground floor for a few seconds and an absolute silence on the first floor, one paddle rose in the air, followed by the voice. "Five hundred thousand gold coins."
Everyone's eyes turned to VIP Box No.2. The hand belonged to the Countess of Llyne, someone who is also a royal bloodline. Whether she carried herself or it was just her looks, she appeared more royal than the princess herself.
Countess Mirella Flamehart was the granddaughter of Amelia Flamehart, who is the maternal aunt of the current Queen. Llyne City is one of the Free Cities in the Queendom with a limited autonomy of governance. While she was only a countess, as the one with the Flamehart surname, the 29-year-old will still have a claim for the throne just as any Duchess's heir as long as she reaches the Legendary realm (Tier-8). And she has already reached the realm, too. Now, she wants to learn whether she has any fate to become the Queen.
But competing with her is the Duchess of Graena, Lirien Skyforge, someone who more or less had a bad relationship with Countess Mirella.
As soon as Countess Mirella voiced out her bid, Lirien didn't waste even ten seconds and raised the paddle. "1 million gold coins." Her voice reverberated in the hall.
Mirella narrowed her eyes, staring at VIP Box no. 30, which lies on the opposite side of her. As her eyes locked onto the Duchess with a smirk, she raised the paddle once again. "2 million gold coins."
"2.5 million." "3 million"
"3.5 million" "4 million"
"5 million." The Countess seemed to be losing her patience. Her face reddened in frustration, and she was clenching her fists, barely controlling her anger, watching the smirk on Duchess Lirien, who was trying to toy around with her.
Due to their hefty competitive bidding, other nobles didn't intervene. Just like in the first stage of the auction, even in the second stage, there is an unofficial rule between these distinguished guests: as long as two are engaged in a bidding war, no third person would enter it. Once it died down, if anyone is still interested, they would raise the bid from then.
Just as they wanted, Lirien didn't continue the bidding after purposely raising it to 5 million. She leaned to the back and took a sip of wine, lowering the paddle.
VIP Box No.2;
"Milady, Duchess Lirien played us." Jorien, her husband, said in anger.
Countess Mirella took a deep breath as the auction went into silent mode, no one willing to raise the bid. "It's fine. We have many treasures valued at more than 5 million. It wouldn't put a dent in our treasury. But, I need that scroll at all costs."
Half a minute into the silence, the hostess, Camilla Sunfire, spoke. "30 seconds left. If no one raises the bid in the meantime, the item will go to VIP Box No.2 for 5 million gold coins. I repeat 5 million."
Half a minute later.
"The time's up. 5 million once, twice, and…" *Bam*
"Sold." The hammer hit the plate and Camilla announced. "Congratulations, VIP Box No.2 on acquiring the Scroll of Fate."
"Yes…" Mirella clenched her fists, her lips turning into a smile. All the remaining noblewomen at once raised their glasses of wine, gesturing their congratulations to her. She, too, raised the glass and took a sip of red wine.
Putting the item away back into her storage ring, Camilla proceeded to point her hand gracefully at the pendant-looking artifact. "Now, for the next item, I introduce the Pendant of Argos—an artifact that lets you talk to your dead loved ones as long as they haven't gone through the cycle of reincarnation already. The limitations are: You can talk only once with them. Depending upon the spirit and the time they have been dead, its cooldown time will vary for the next usage. Last but not least, you can only talk with the dead for not more than 5 minutes.
We'll start the bidding with 500,000 gold coins."
"2 million gold coins." Duchess of Aquareld, Leona was the first to raise the paddle.
Following the plan, the Duchess of Ikaris, Adelina followed with a bid, "3 million." The others who wanted to participate were forced to spectate, following their tradition.
"4 million." "5 million"
"6 million" "7 million"
"8 million" "9 million"
.
.
.
"14 million" "15 million"
Leona and Adelina put up a fierce bidding war, raising it to almost 15 million gold coins in just a minute. It looked as if they were heavily competing against themselves to win this item at all costs. Kael, who was watching it beside the princess, couldn't help but be amazed that these Duchesses were willing to spill for the sake of this artifact. And he suddenly felt ashamed to think that the princess would be worried about splurging 100,000 gold coins on the item he wanted.
"No wonder the palace was ready to pay off all of my family's debts and still running the queendom normally. Just what is the net worth of a royal family?" Kael glanced at his wife, wondering about her wealth.