66 Chapter 9 (Omake): The auction, a year later

Since it was the day before my birthday, I was kicked out of the palace so that my wives could prepare a surprise for me. Is it really a surprise if I know that there's something coming, though not what? Eh, that's not important. The important thing is, I was wandering around town on my own, incognito, of course. I changed my red eye to match the other, didn't inflate my breast size, and hid my wings and horns, so nobody could recognise me if they'd only seen me in my guise as the Demon Lord. Some high-class thugs tried to beat me up but got beaten up in turn, and a card was found in the cleavage of one of them... totally not because I fondled her massive breasts briefly as punishment before handing her and her cohorts off to the guards. Anyways, I looked at it to find that it was a nameless VIP invitation to an auction, address included. Should I go, should I not? Is it legal, is it not?

"Eh, why not. I have plenty of money, and there might be something interesting" (Ryuu)

I went to the palace, just to ask if there was an auction scheduled to happen at that location that day, and got a quick answer from the vice-chief of commerce's aide.

"No, there isn't. There isn't any auction scheduled for today anywhere in this city, actually" (Aide)

"In that case, there's a black market auction going on. I'll deal with the problem myself, I don't have anything to do and I'm bored. Thank you for the help!" (Ryuu)

I went to the building specified, and was let right in after I showed the VIP invite card. The building was a small opera house, and I took the seat also listed on the card. There was a truth orb next to the auctioneer's stand, so as to prove the authenticity of the bud upon goods. Soon after I sat down, the auction started off with the bidding for some wacky painting, then some herbs, a palace maid uniform from the human lands, last in style three hundred years ago, and so on. Nothing caught my eye for a while, until...

"Sold to number 713, for 133 gold coins! And for our 64th item, we have this lovely portrait of Eldrissia Maou's beautiful wife, the rabbitkin Angelica Maou. Even the palace doesn't have a painting of her, you know... It was stolen about 17 thousand years ago, and has been preserved perfectly ever since. Shall we start the bidding off at 2 thousand gold coins? Ah, I see 21 hundred! 22! 25! 25, going o- 27 hundred!" (Auctioneer)

I bit my lips, then placed my first bid of the night, trumping an elderly male demon's bid, much to his dismay.

"Am I seeing this right? 36 hundred! It just jumped up by a third! And this is number 666's first bid of the night! 36 hundred, goin- 38 hundred! 4 thousan- 43 h- 45- fourt- I can't keep up! 5 thou-" (Auctioneer)

A bidding war ensued, but I finally bought it for 7 thousand flat. That put a bit of a dent in my purse, but not much. Four items later, something else caught my eye. Was that... Ver? Naked?

"And now, we have a limited edition work, a hug pillow shaped, sized, and colored to be identical to the au naturel humanoid form of the eleventh divine beast Verene! Now, I know she looks like a child, but she's probably a few hundred years old, so it's fine. As it's one of, perhaps, ten in the world, shall we start the bidding at... 2 thousand? I see 25... oh my..." (Auctioneer)

I stood up suddenly and removed half of my limiters, before my voice echoed throughout the hall.

"I would like to point two things out. First, the very existence of such an item without the consent of the one it is modeled after could be taken as an affront to the state, due to it being modeled after the Demon Lord's wife, and second, Ver is only two years old" (Ryuu)

"And your basis for that claim? How do you know that?" (Auctioneer)

I blinked, then, I removed my disguise and the rest of my limiters.

"She's my wife. You think I wouldn't know my wife's age? I was there when she hatched!" (Ryuu)

"And we have the Demon Lord in the house! With that being said, uh... we don't want any trouble. Why don't we let you dispose of it however you please, and you forget it ever appeared here" (Auctioneer)

The crowd groaned, but didn't try to stop her as she brought it to me and I stored it away for a later day. The rest of the auction went by more or less normally, and nothing else caught my eye, so I went home at about dawn to find... well, a surprise party thrown by my wonderful harem. I'll leave it up to your imagination. That way, the author doesn't have to think of something... Anyways, that night, Ver fell asleep on my left arm in her miniature wyvern form, about two meters from snout to the base of her tail, which curved up and around my leg to my thigh. On the other side, I hugged the new pillow of her humanoid form, its tail doing the same, its wing modestly covering my right boob, mirroring what the real Ver's wing was doing with the left. Apparently, Elise is good at painting herself, so my next birthday's gift from her was a painting of that scene. When Ver woke up, she saw that hug pillow of herself and berated me to no end about how shameless I was to get someone to make it without her consent, and it took hours for me to explain what had really happened.