The Auctioning (1)

Both of them entered a designated room, more like a lobby where they could sit and wait for whoever was going to respond to them.

After very few minutes of waiting a man in a tailed suit walked into the room and sat on the red couch opposite them.

His face was hidden by the clown mask but his hair was colored purple, a rare color of hair in this region.

"I am sorry to have developed such important customers for this long. May I see the item?"

He said solemnly.

Raith could not see his face but he could sense a mischievous grin behind that mask‐ -perhaps it was just his insecurities kicking.

He opened the backpack anyways and brought out the helm first, the claws, and the boots. He placed all three items gently on the round glassy table in between him and the man.

"Isn't there supposed to be a machine?"

He asked, looking around the room trying to find another machine of equal size or maybe bigger than the one they had used in the shop.

"I am the machine."

The man said this time a grin could be read plainly from his tone.

Raith's fear deepened and he thoroughly thought about how to handle the situation if his friend was ganging up to play him.

The man's eyes glowed red from within the mask and immediately he expressed a state of astonishing surprise.

"What in the world? Where did you get this?"

The questions he asked were an answer to Raith, but he still demanded one.

"What grades are they?"

He asked.

"Are you sure this does not belong to a treasury or something... you didn't steal it?"

"I didn't"

His tone of response showed that the questions were already getting annoying.

"Alright if you insist."

The man leaned forward gently caressing the items with his fingers.

First, the boots.

"This one is a mythic grade..."

"And these both are relic grade."

He said touching the claw and helm.

"Wait, we measured it before with a gradiometer, it said legendary."

Mael put forth.

"Trust me... my appraisal skill does not lie. The machine might have just tried to estimate the result...they even have attuned skills."

"You can see that too?"

The man looked at Raith and scoffed.

"It must be your first time here."

He could tell right away, Raith's dazzling glances here and there in conjunction with his desperation to act like he wasn't looking, openly gave him away

"You can tell..."

He said with a pretentious chuckle.

"My appraisal is a peculiar-grade skill."

He leaned backward.

"I will register this for you and auction them along with other items don't forget the house has ten percent of whatever price these get sold."

"Sure"

Mael responded.

~clap~

A steward immediately ran inside after the man's clap. He took the items, first struggling with the weight but balanced on his way out.

The man brought out two number plates connected to a wooden stick and tagged '122' and '123'.

"In case you will be participating in the auction."

He said pushing the tags to both of them.

"No... we don–

"Thank you"

The quickness of Raith's voice surprised Mael.

The man nodded and stood up afterward.

"I didn't know you were interested in auctioning, as expected a noble will always be noble."

Mael said as the man walked out.

"But you don't have any money though."

"...it won't be a bad idea to see."

Raith's response had a shy feel to it. And alerted Mael's observations.

'Is he hiding something?'

Mael thought as both of them stood up and walked out of the room while the only thing that occupied Raith's head was:

'I wonder if I'll be able to see her again in the auctioning.'

...

The room was a theatre and there were higher floors where other people stood beside pillars with a glass of wine in their hands.

Raith settled in and the first thing he noticed was the red-haired boy who in a matter of looks was younger than him but those looks made Raith jealous.

How can a man be so formidable?

It was a good thing Raith had a thing for ladies else he would be simping for this young man who sat with little presence but elegance and brilliance were written all over his posture.

His red eyes from within those yellow and green clown mask, were like flames.

He slowly turned his gaze to his left as Raith's eyes wouldn't peel off him.

"How can I help you?"

He asked and belatedly noticed–

'...that black hair'

He couldn't see Raith's face as he had gotten a mask but the hair color was a genuine one- -a very uncommon kind of hair.

"I'm sorry..."

Raith naively bowed his head and faced the front, the stage where the purple-haired man in a black-tailed suit walked toward and began after a bow.

"I am the host of today's auctioning. My dear customers, we have splendid blah blah blah..."

Raith paid less and less attention to him as he spoke on the stage and instead continued to scan everywhere in search of a certain person.

By the time his focus got back–

"First item! The horn of Balablu: a rare item that can be used for an effective taunt with a special tendency to enchant and immobilize any creature within 100 diameters. The auction will be starting from the lowest denomination of leu. Fifty leu?"

"Hundred"

A black-haired lady raised a tag with the number '055'

"Two hundred"

Another man immediately responded with a '111' tag.

"Oh, we have a two hundred... do we have a two-fifty, three hundred."

After five seconds of no response.

"Okay! Purchased by one hundred and eleven"

"Okay... that was extremely cheap... don't rare grade items usually cost like hundred thousand leus or something... but it just got sold for two hundred?"

"It must be your first time here"

The red-haired guy beside him said with a subtle and polite scoff.

"Items here are not sold according to quality. Everyone here gathered here is gathered because there is something they need, which means forget about the grades, even a legendary item could get sold for a thousand leus if the use is trash and no one is interested."

'...Ah, I see....'

"Thank you"

Raith feeling awkward at the needless explanation appreciated him with a smile.

'Still, a thousand leu would be enough for me'

Some other items were gotten for as low as a hundred leus after the horn, but that was the least, from the third item even if it was a common-grade sword, the bidding began to rise to a thousand leu, a thousand and fifty, a thousand and hundred, two thousand and in that sequence, the pace of the auctioning picked up–the atmosphere got immersed and everyone seems to now be participating.

Everyone except the person Raith was looking out for, so far so good he hadn't even caught a glimpse of her.

'Is she even here...'

He wasn't so sure about that either.

Until now.

"Next is a special boot, this one was just recently submitted. Thard-Harl's silver boot, a mythic grade item that has its skill attuned to it."

The murmuring soared and at that moment, knowing fully well it was time for his item to be auctioned Raith's heart began to beat at an abnormal rate...he was nervous of how this will turn out.