Chapter 53: Talwar

It has been 10 minutes since Ian went out to find Andressa. With nothing to do at the time, Karl is bored. Suddenly the metal covering moves and the glass wall opens by itself.

"Welcome back everyone! We are continuing the auction with our second segment of weaponry and armoury!" Aneer again snaps his finger and the curtain opens up. There is a large greatsword put on the display stand.

"This greatsword is made by a talented master blacksmith! Using the core of an glacio white giant." All the lights starts flickering. It looks like Karl is back on earth, looking in pitch black sky while the stars twinkled.

"It's handle is also made up of the skin of yellow tailed bowler fish making it super durable. In the hands of a skilled individual this thing can wreck a havoc. Here are the details." A screen is represented at everyone's table. It shows the basic attributes of the greatsword. Such as overall length, weight and height.

[Height- 175cm

Weight- 300kg

Element- Ice

Blacksmith- Not available]

'300 Kg?' Karl is baffled by the weight of the greatsword.

"The starting bid is 7000 green photons!"

Quickly, all the lights started to flicker. 'Oh? This is within my budget. I would have bought it, if it wasn't for that ice element.' Karl thinks as the price starts to increase. It kept on increasing for a while and got sold for 9750 green photons. Karl was observing the middle bracket for any movements from the illusionist. Unfortunately, nothing happened. Seems like illusionist wasn't interested in this weapon as for the light from his room, it didn't even flicker once.

Next item was a earth elemental spear. Again, Karl nor the illusionist was interested in buying that spear. Few more weapons went by but none of them interested Karl. He is starting to speculate that the illusionist left the auction judging by the lack of any movements from his room.

"The next item in our list is this long sword!" Two masked people brings another stands which has the weapon onto the stage. Everyone observes the sword.

'That's not a long sword.' Karl notices the long curve on the sword. Aneer grabs the sword and lifts it high in the air.

"This is an artistic masterpiece of ancient times!"

'That's a 'talwar'." Karl finally reconginzes the blade from his history textbook.

'Talwar' is a type of sword originating from south asia, India. It's length is similar to a long sword but it is curved unlike the traditional long sword. Its weight is also half of the long sword due it's unique design. The biggest difference between a long sword and a Talwar is the handle. A talwar's handle is usually quite decorated with various gemstones and ornaments. but this talwar's handle is made with plain steel.

Just as Karl is looking at the blade, his chest feels lighter all of a sudden and breathing becomes easier. 'Finally!' Karl feels mana entering his body.

"It is said that this blade was used by a powerful noble during the cresent war. But there is no evidence of it. Our appraisals reveals that this is damaged beyond repair. It can't even properly intake any mana. But this is made from an unknown metal which makes it very durable." Aneer taps at the tip of the sword which makes ting sound.

"This would be a great art piece and a relic of our struggle against those vampyrs."

'That.....is mana.' Karl sees a purple coloured smoke coming out of the blade. He feels a weird sense familiarity from that smoke. His mind tells him that It's space mana.

"The starting price is 5000 orange photons!" Aneer announces. Lights from every bracket starts to flicker. In instinct, Karl presses the button. Lamp from his room starts to flicker.

"6000!"

"7000!"

The price starts to rise rapidly. But Karl doesn't stop, he glances at the illusionist's room and sees the light flickering.

'Not this time.' Perhaps it was Karl's ego or the mysterious sense of familiarity from the sword that made him do it.

"9000!"

"And 1000 yellow photons." Karl immediately stops. As he knows that he doesn't enough money to compete in the auction. Suddenly his watch vibrates, he clicks on it and a window pops up.

[1 purple photon has been credited to your account. Remaining balance: 1 purple photon and 2 yellow photon.]

'Perfect.' Karl smiles and spams the button like a madman.

"3000!"

"4000"

"5000!"

The prices continues to soar but the amount of competitors decreases. Now light flickers only from mid-top bracket.

In the illusionist room.

"Yelm! I want that sword at all costs." The madame sitting on the couch orders. The button on the table is being pressed on it's own. The man standing besides her bows deeply.

'That sword posses an aura similar to milady. Such rare weapon! I must obtain that for the sake of Tenebris family.' The battle between the two vampyers and Karl rages on as the price finally reaches next stage.

"100 blue photons!" At this point no ordinary man could even think of bidding so much money on a decorative sword which cannot use any element, almost everyone in the auction have backed down. Excluding Karl and illusionist. Only these two lights dare to flicker.

"6000!" One product which was sold for purple photons has already made huge profit for the Chamber Family but this sword also going to bring another huge profit for the Chamber auction. Greed could be seen on Aneer's face as the price continues to increase.

"7000!" Karl smashes the button with all of his might and the lamp flickers. The man sees Karl's lamp flickers and clicks his tongue in annoyance. "Is something wrong, Yelm?" The woman asks.

"Forgive this lesser one, milady. But we don't have enough photons to bid in the stage."

"How much do we have left exactly?"

"9902 blue photons to be exact. We can use the emergency funds but then, we won't have enough funds for the Knight succession tournament." Yelm explains. The woman doesn't say anything and stares in Karl's direction.

"8000!" Karl is still spamming the button but in the back of his mind he is starting to worry about price rising above his budget.

"9000!"

'Come on! Which sentinel family's boot did you lick to become this rich?' Karl curses.

"9600!"

"9700!"

"Brother!" Karl turns back in instinct. Even if his mind doesn't recognize this voice, his body does. The main door opens slowly and a faceless girl stands there, her height is equal to Leonard and her short black hair waves along the wind. She grips her white frock and waves at Karl.

"Brother! Come play with us." Karl simply stares at the faceless girl.

"Come brother. We leave this boring place and play outside." She chuckles.

Karl smirks and lifts his hand up in the air. Then he flips his middle finger and presses the button. In the blink of an eye, the girl disappears and the door closes on it's own.

"9800!"

'This could have worked on Leonard. But I am not him.'

"9900!"

CRACK! The main glass wall cracks. "Milady?" Yelm calls his master in panic. The woman's eyes are now blood red, there is no innocence in them anymore. Her razor sharp teeth are exposed as she grits her teeth.

"That bastard! He dared to counter my illusion. I rip those fingers, personally!"

"Milady! Should we continue?" Yelm asks.

The woman notices the silence. Everyone is waiting for them to raise the price. "Yelm. Fetch the sword."

"Yes, milady."

"Sold to no.2353 for 9900 Blue photons." Aneer announces.

'Huh?' Karl couldn't believe for a second that he actually won.

"Moving on, our next item is-" The auction moves on but Karl is still celebrating. 'I am him!'

Suddenly, a knock comes from the main door. But before Karl could say something the door opens and a man in wearing silver mask comes inside with a long suitcase in hand.

"Sir Ian Desouza Phirsecot I assume?" The man asks.

"Uh, I am his friend. He went out for some personal work." Karl answers truthfully.

"I leave this here. Please hand this over to him." The man puts the suitcase on the table and bows as he leaves the room.

Again, Karl feels something familiar from the suitcase. 'Is that?' He touches the suitcase and a window pops up from his watch. [Please pay the final bid to obtain the product.]

'Ugh? Paywall?' Karl clicks on the pay button and pays the total amount of 9900 Blue photons. The suitcase opens on it's own, revealing the Talwar. Now looking closely Karl notices the purple hue on the sword. He slowly grabs the handle of the sword and the sword starts to suck mana from Karl. In matter of seconds, Karl lost all the mana in his body. The purple hue on the sword has become more bold.

"Oh? Is that how it works?" An unknown voice echos all over room. Karl quickly gets up and dashes to the main door. But before he could escape, Yelm picks up Karl by his neck.

"Whoa! Leaving before saying hello?" Karl struggles to escape from Yelm's grip.

"Give me that sword and I let you live." Yelm threatens. His eyes glowing bloody red. If he wanted he could snap Karl's neck with ease but his superiority complex against humans got better of him. Seeing Karl struggle, he loosens his grip letting him talk.

"Fuck off. KHWAK!" He spits at Yelm's face. Yelm's eyes turns fully dark red. He throws Karl at wall but before impact a dark portal appears and sucks Karl in.

3 minutes later. Ian walks in the room. He has flower bouquet in hand. "Leo?"

The room is empty. Behind him, Andressa walks in behind him. She is wearing a white wedding dress. She sees the empty room and her heart sinks. Ian tries to call Karl but he doesn't pick up.

"Ian."

"Wait a minute. I ask the staff, they should have seen him going outside."

"No need. I am going back."

"What? You can't. We did all the preparations. Look behind you, there are 10 people standing with gifts. I booked another room for you guys. Also dinner is scheduled. I even arranged ceremonial rings. Look at you, you are all dressed up. Don't back down now. Leo must have went to the toilet or something. I find-"

"Stop it!" Andressa yells. "I-I can't anymore. I was delusional to love him this much. He is clearly avoiding me." Andressa turns back and leaves in tears.

"Wait!" Ian tries to stop her but she doesn't stop.

"Sir?" A servant asks.

"UGH!" In fit of rage, Ian punches in the air and the entire sofa flies and breaks the glass wall.