Chapter 126: A Date with the Villainess [Part-4]

The first item brought onto the stage was a small wooden box carried by two attendants. Lord Hallen opened the lid with a practiced flourish and revealed a bundle of herbs, glowing faintly green, which he introduced as the Moonveil Grass of the southern marshes, a rare ingredient used in the brewing of high-grade healing potions.

"The starting bid is fifty gold coins. Do I hear fifty?"

For a moment the hall stayed quiet, and Neo noticed that many of the nobles below were glancing up at the second-floor box from the corners of their eyes, as if they were waiting for something. Neo leaned back on the couch, placed his chin on his hand, and raised two fingers lazily in the air.

"Fifty-five."

A faint murmur rippled through the hall. Lord Hallen’s smile twitched slightly, but he nodded and looked around at the crowd with a hopeful gaze, as if he were silently begging someone to raise a hand.

"Fifty-five gold coins from the VIP box. Do I hear sixty? Sixty, anyone?"

Nobody moved. A fat merchant in the third row, who had been about to lift his paddle, slowly lowered his arm and pretended to cough into his sleeve, and the nobles around him suddenly became uninterested in buying that item.

"Fifty-five, going once... going twice... Sold, to the young master of the Draven family."

The gavel came down with a dull sound, and Neo heard a few people in the hall let out quiet sighs, not of disappointment, but of resignation, like men who had already known how the story would end before it had begun.

Nora, sitting beside him, turned her head slightly and looked at him with her usual blank expression, though Neo could feel the silent question hanging in the air, asking him why he needed a bundle of herbs.

The second item was a short sword said to have belonged to a knight of the old kingdom, and Neo bought it at the starting price. The third was a set of ancient pottery with beautiful patterns, and he bought that as well. The fourth was a gem the size of a child’s fist, which Lord Hallen described with excitement as a fragment of a fallen star, and when the crowd leaned forward in anticipation of a fierce bidding war, Neo simply raised his hand again, and the whole hall sank back into silence like a deflated balloon.

By the time the tenth item had been sold, the atmosphere of the Grand Hall had changed completely. The nobles no longer even pretended to be interested in the goods. They sat in their seats with polite, stiff smiles, chatting quietly with their companions, and every time a new item appeared on the stage, they would glance up at the second-floor box, wait for the raised hand, and then return to their conversations as if the matter had already been settled.

"He is going to buy everything again this year, isn’t he?" a woman in the front row whispered to the man beside her.

"Of course he is. Who in this hall has the courage to bid against the Draven family? If you win against him, you will have the Duke’s attention for the rest of your life, and you will lose everything else that comes with it."

"But isn’t the young master supposed to be only a child?"

"Don’t you know? Children are even more stubborn than adults, once they fixed themselves on anything, they listen to no one..."

"Hah... You’re right..."

Everyone in the hall knew who Neo was, and they knew very well that if the young master of the Draven family had decided to buy something, then there was no point in competing with him, since the dukedom’s wealth was so vast that any amount they could offer would only be swallowed up in a single breath. Even if someone did manage to outbid him once, they still wouldn’t be continue to do it for the next time and nobody wanted to provoke the Duke’s son just for the sake of a buying an items.

Neo could hear every word of it through the open window of the box, though he didn’t show any reaction, only reaching out to pick up a grape from the tray and popping it into his mouth, enjoying the sweet juice as the next item was announced. He had known from the start that this would happen. The Draven family’s name alone was enough to silence the entire hall, and the staff of the auction had already learned from past years that there was no point in expecting any competition once a Draven sat in the VIP box.

It was not that he was enjoying the sense of authority, since there was no pleasure in watching people shrink away from him. But it was the only way that he could take revenge on behalf of his father, who had been enduring the Crown’s mockery for years, and the sight of Lord Hallen’s smile growing stiffer with every item was a very satisfying thing.

"Next, we have a collection of ancient scrolls from the ruins of the Eastern Library... the starting bid is one hundred gold coins."

"One hundred and five," Neo said without even looking at the stage.

"Sold."

"Next, a suit of armour from the age of the Dragon Wars..."

"One hundred and fifty."

"Sold."

"Next, a pair of antique candlesticks..."

"Sold."

He did not even wait for the starting bid by the end, simply raising his hand every time a new item appeared, and Lord Hallen, standing on the stage with the gavel in his hand, had already begun to wipe the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief. Several of the attendants carrying the goods exchanged helpless glances, and one of them dropped a vase by mistake, which made a small crash that echoed through the quiet hall.

Nora, who had been watching the whole thing silently, finally picked up a piece of fruit from the tray and began to eat it slowly, her violet eyes shifting from the stage to the boy sitting beside her, and then to the growing pile of numbered tags on the table in front of him. Neo caught her gaze and smiled sheepishly.

Nora did not say anything, though the faint curve at the corner of her lips, partly hidden behind the devil horns on her head, was enough to make him feel that he had done something right.

The auction went on for almost two hours, and the number of items that Neo bought had reached nearly fifty by the time the second last item was announced. He had bought rare herbs, swords, crystal skulls, old maps, a stuffed phoenix, and a book written entirely in a language that nobody in the hall could read, none of which he had any real use for.

Then the last item of the day was carried onto the stage, a small cushion on which a single bracelet rested.

Neo had been about to raise his hand out of habit, but his movement stopped halfway, and his eyes widened slightly as he looked at the object under the golden light.

It was a slender silver bracelet, thin and elegant, woven from fine threads that seemed to shimmer between silver and violet depending on the angle of the light. Tiny crystal charms in the shape of petals were attached along its length, each one faintly glowing, and at the centre sat a small gem the colour of twilight, as deep and calm as the eyes of a certain girl he knew.

"This is the Twilight Petal Bracelet," Lord Hallen announced, though his voice had grown tired and lifeless. "A work of the old elven craftsmen, said to calm the mind of its wearer and protect them from mental harm. The starting bid is two hundred gold coins."

Neo barely heard the price. His eyes were fixed on the bracelet, and before he knew it, he was imagining it around a slender wrist, the gem sparkling as a pair of violet eyes admired it.

He was so lost in the thought that he didn’t notice how long he’d been staring until he felt someone watching him from the side.

He turned his head slowly, and Nora was looking at him with her head tilted slightly, the horns tilting along with it, her expression blank, though her eyes carried a very faint, curious light, as if she had noticed exactly what he was looking at and exactly what he was thinking.

Neo coughed and hurriedly looked back at the stage, his ears turning slightly red. "I... I just thought it looked interesting."

Nora kept looking at him for a few more seconds, and then she turned her eyes towards the stage as if nothing had happened, though Neo was sure that he had seen the tip of her ear twitch.

"Two hundred and ten," he said, raising his hand, and as expected, nobody else in the hall made a sound.

"Sold... to the Young Master of the Draven family."

The gavel came down, and the Grand Auction of Valoria came to an end.

Neo stood up from the couch and stretched his arms with a satisfied sigh, and he was about to turn to Nora and suggest that they go to a tea shop when a knock came from the door of the box. The staff member who had led them in entered with a nervous bow.

"Young Master, Lord Hallen has requested a short meeting with you in the back room. He says that it is regarding today’s purchases."

Neo glanced at Nora, who gave a small nod as if to say that she would wait, and then he followed the staff member down the stairs and through a long corridor to a small room behind the stage. Lord Hallen was already waiting there, sitting behind a large desk covered with piles of paper, his smile as polite as ever, though the corners of his eyes were twitching slightly.

"Ah, Young Master Neo. Thank you for coming. Please, take a seat."

"I’ll stand. What did you want to talk about?"

Lord Hallen’s smile did not change, though a drop of sweat slid down the side of his temple. "It is about the items which you purchased today. I am afraid that there has been a small... misunderstanding. The auction rules state that each guest may purchase a maximum of ten items per session, so I would humbly ask you to reconsider and cancel the purchase of the remaining items, so that the other guests may have a chance."

"Is that so? I have never heard of such a rule."

"It is a newly established rule, Young Master. It was implemented this year to ensure fairness."

Neo looked at him for several seconds in silence, and then he spoke in a cold, flat voice which made the man’s smile freeze on his face.

"I am interested in buying things. What is wrong with that?"

"It is only that..."

"Did I break any law of the Empire? Did I bid less than the starting price on any item? Or is it that the auction of the Crown does not welcome the money of the Draven family?"

Lord Hallen’s lips twitched, and the muscles around his mouth tightened as he struggled to suppress the annoyance rising in his chest. He knew very well that every word the boy said was reasonable on the surface, and he also knew that there was no way to refuse. The Draven family held a special privilege granted in the old agreement, which allowed them to buy any item of the auction at half of the final bidding price, and Neo had not raised any bid by more than a few coins above the starting price. It meant that the Crown would now have to hand over fifty items for less than half of a value of the bid which was already low, which would leave the auction not with any profit, but with a heavy loss that he would have to explain to his superiors.

"...No, Young Master. There is no law that you have broken."

"Then there is no problem." Neo turned his gaze to the stack of papers on the desk. "Transfer the remaining items to the Draven mansion by tomorrow. The payment will be handed over there, with the discount stated in the agreement, of course."

Lord Hallen swallowed his bitterness and bowed his head stiffly. "...As you wish."

"Also, bring me that bracelet. The last one. I want it right now."

The auctioneer lifted his head and glanced at the staff member standing by the door, who nodded quickly and ran out of the room. A few moments later he returned with the box, and Neo picked up the bracelet with careful fingers, turning it once under the light, feeling the cool, smooth surface of the silver against his skin. It was even more beautiful up close, and he slipped it into the inner pocket of his cloak with a small, satisfied nod.

"Well then, I’ll leave now."

He walked to the door and pulled it open, and then he stopped and looked back over his shoulder, meeting Lord Hallen’s strained gaze with a calm, polite smile.

"I had fun staying here. I will come again next year too."

The auctioneer’s smile cracked completely, and Neo did not wait to see what expression came after it. He walked away down the long corridor with a light step, his cloak fluttering behind him, and as the door closed softly at his back, a single thought crossed his mind with a warm sense of satisfaction.

’May the auctioneer get a good night sleep tonight...’