-Chapter 14- Auction II

Vincent Helstea P.O.V.

It was a pity Arthur wasn't able to find a suitable sword. No matter, though; there were enough swords in storage, and I was sure he would take a liking to at least one of them.

"Your majesty, I hope you're finding it worthwhile to visit our humble auction house" I murmured respectfully.

"This place is anything but humble Vincent, I'm not sure how you managed to secure an A-class beast core from a silver coat bear, but you've managed to build quite the network. Let's just hope the beast will be still intact." He clapped me excitedly on the back.

"Don't get your hopes up, you know how rare it is" the queen said quietly in response.

His majesty and I turned our attention back on the stage, I knew what would be coming next. The announcer brought onto the stage a cage and pulled it away from the tarp. In the cage was a feline-looking animal the size of a dog.

The announcer yells out "An infant world lion! For those ignorant of this magnificent mana beast, an adult world lion has the capability of becoming at least a B-class mana beast. I dare say that if well taken care of, this infant world lion could even become an A-class mana beast! And you know what that means, taking care of this fine beast can allow the master to become a legendary beast tamer!"

The audience erupted into a frenzy as hands shot into the air, bidding without even waiting for the auctioneer. As the bidders, all reluctantly settled back down, the auctioneer finally announced the starting bid, One hundred gold.

The bids quickly passed Five hundred gold, then to Six hundred. Soon enough though, the king stood up and announced "One thousand gold coins!" through his voice-amplifying artifact.

At the sound of the king's voice, the bidding stopped. It was obvious that no one dared to bid against the King.

The king has won the infant world lion and soon came the next item.

"Congratulations King Glayder," I said. "What will you do with the new royal pet?"

"As tempting as it is for me to acquire a bond, I'm thinking of giving it to Curtis."

Upon hearing this Curtis's eyes light up with excitement. "D-dad!" Prince Curtis, whose face had visibly brightened at his father's first remark, stuttered with worry.

Just as the auction was about to continue I felt a terrifyingly oppressive force fill the room, suddenly my body constricted and I tried my hardest to move.

What the hell is going on? This was the most secure area in the building.

My breathing turned shallow as the overbearing pressure gripped at my insides. I could feel beads of sweat slowly rolling down my face.

Arthur Leywin P.O.V.

"Dammit, I lost control."

I quickly pull back my bloodlust on Sebastion who had fallen to the ground, the sound artifact must still be active because I don't hear him fall. He was pale-faced and crawling away from me. He raised his staff and began to cast some sort of fire spell to fire at me. Before the spell could be launched I jumped on top of him and punched him in the face making him lose concentration on the spell. I knocked away his staff and beat on him more.

Suddenly without realizing someone entered I was pulled off of him by a guard and subdued. They were yelling at me for what I was doing and soon the King walked in.

"What exactly were you doing boy?" He asks, trying to sound threatening.

"He had attempted to attack me so I had fought back." I calmly remark.

"Why would a Royal guard try to attack you?" He asks unconvinced.

Sebastion smiles knowing he will get out of this scot-free.

Suddenly an unprecedented moment occurred. We all heard a voice of a young girl speak for the first time since she had arrived. "He's telling the truth, I witnessed it all." Princess Kathyln states to the surprise of everyone.

This had me shocked, she had been watching this entire time? How? Has she seen me use my bloodlust? No, she couldn't have known that.

The King turns to his daughter "Is this true Kathlyn?"

She looks him in the eyes and says "Yes, I saw Sebastian approach Arthur and attack him first."

"What no! Are you going to listen to the child over me? That boy had attacked me in my weakness when that strange presence had appeared."

The King looks at Sebastian angrily for making such a statement.

The King stomps down on Sebastian's leg making him scream out in pain. The King has the guards pick up Sebastian and take him away.

The King turns to me "I apologize for this mess, we will see Sebastion getting a proper punishment for his crimes."

"It's no problem," I say while wiping off my clothing of any dust that had gotten on me during the brawl.

I simply just walk over to the place I was seated prior and watch the rest of the auction with everyone else. The problem was, I couldn't pay attention to the auction. I kept turning my attention to Kathyln who had somehow been there to watch Sebastian's attempt to kidnap me.

The rest of the auction passes by and we all get up and moving.

"We should head down to the storage room, you all can pick up the Items there immediately," Vincent says to the royal family. "Oh, and Arthur since you didn't find a sword to your liking we can search around in the storage room for you."

"Oh, you are training to be a swordsman boy? Why don't you and Curtis spar one time together for training?"

"No no, my use of a sword is nothing more than a hobby. I couldn't hope to ever reach Prince Curtis's level of swordsmanship." I say.

"No, I insist. Think of it as an apology for what had happened earlier." The king says again, pushing the idea.

Looking over to Curtis he looked intrigued by the idea, I guess seeing me earlier beating down on one of the guards has given him quite the impression of me.

"If you put it like that it appears I have no other option, I'll be happy to join Curtis in a spar one day."

After that we all head down to the storage, the royal family gets their guards to grab the winnings and bring them with. Meanwhile, I walk around the weapons area, I scan the swords looking for something that would work.

I found a few but they aren't properly balanced. I continue searching for about a half-hour before I find a decent short sword that will fit my height.

I grab the sword and sheath it. I bring it over to show Vincent my choice. "Good choice," He says.

"Come on, I'm sure your family is waiting for us," Vincent says, leading me to the carriages outside.

I get into the carriage with my family and we head back to the Helstea manor. Upon arrival, we all head inside and only there my dad learns what had happened in the VIP room with Sebastian.

"Damn that runt, If I were there I would have beaten him up as well, good job son." He says.

My mom hits him over the head for saying that telling me violence like that was ok. "He had attacked someone in the presence of the royal family, he could have gotten himself killed Reynolds!"

"Ouch, sorry. I'm just saying that he shouldn't let people like that walk all over him. He did well to protect himself." He says.

"Ellie joins in too, boo dada, you did bad!" Eleanor joins in to scold my father for what he had said.

We all laugh it off and later I head to my room to change out of my suit. I walk out in time to see Lilia passing by.

"Hello there," I say as a simple greeting.

"Hey Art, I'm going out back for some water training, are you up to training with me?" She asks. It seems she is no longer shy about talking to me after all these years, it's beginning to look like she is finally starting to see me like family.

"Sure," I say following her.

We head out to the back and she uses her staff to summon a few water spells to launch at me, I swiftly dodge them.

While training she begins to ask me. "Why did you hit so hard against that royal guard? It looked like you had gotten him after a few hits but you kept going after that."

Surprised by this question I try to answer it carefully, "I guess I was panicked at the moment and lost my train of thought."

While I'd like to say I wouldn't get like that being a King and all, I was truly worried. This guy wasn't like the other lowly slave traders who tried to come after me before. This guy was a royal guard, close to the King. He held the most power out of all the slave traders making him an actual threat to my family.

"Oh," Lilia says, a bit surprised.

"Don't worry about it. Everything turned out fine." I say.

I guess with that I no longer need to worry about people coming after me since I will be an adventurer soon.

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