Raising Her Price

As they entered the reception, a chubby man with a thick mustache quickly came to greet them. He ingratiatingly smiled. "My Lord, may I know of your noble name?"

The pink man's smile charmed him. "It's Lance." He gave no further explanation, as if that was how it was meant to be.

The chubby man nodded with a cordial smile. "So it's Young Master Lance! Please come this way. Guide him to V-6."

The maid following behind Lance got shocked after seeing the chubby man come in. She wondered why the manager would personally come to greet an unknown guest.

The manager still had a polite smile as he watched the maid lead Peirce to a private room labeled V-6, short for VIP-6. A butler-like old man with gray hair soon appeared behind him. Without looking back, he asked, "Found something?"

The butler bowed. "No milord. There's no mention of such a figure among Zoran's nobility. Do we track him after he leaves?"

The manager frowned, but soon relaxed. "It's fine. After news of that Lord Mage's impending arrival spread, all sorts of hidden dragons and crouching tigers are showing their faces. Why does it matter that we don't know his background?"

He shook his head. "One look at his bearing tells me he's an esteemed person. Since he's here to spend money, our job is simply to take it."

The maid soon guided Lance across the entrances to different private rooms, and just as they passed by the room marked as V-5, Lance suddenly turned to stare at it and paused for a moment. "Whose inside?" he gently asked.

The maid felt troubled, but mustered enough courage to respond, "W-we do not share details of our VIP customers, sir. Please understand…" she pleaded pitifully.

He simply turned his head to stare at her with a small smile. The arrogance of a being who thought no woman could ever refuse him almost consumed her. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

She couldn't stand straight under his gaze. "It's the Flames."

"Of course." Lance confirmed something and nodded before entering his room and letting the maid follow him inside.

…

Ardor suddenly turned behind him at a familiar feeling and felt he could reach out to something.

He tried to get a feel for it and succeeded after a few tries, as the object he was trying to reach was moving for a while. He instantly felt that faint connection becoming stronger and instinctively understood something.

<Hey, is that you?> he tested by sending his thoughts.

<Boss?> Lance's smile got wider, as he got his guess correct. The maid sitting in his lap became more entranced, seeing him this way. An invisible arrow struck her heart, and she felt like she was in love.

<I knew it. I just felt your presence outside V-5!>

Ardor understood what was going on.

'It seems since he's made with me as the source, me and him still have abilities to discover and develop.'

<Yes, it seems we can talk with Telepathy when we are close.>

<Yes, it does seem that way. You can now hear my charming self even without seeing me."> Lance's character began acting up while Ardor simply smiled. He knew it was simply because 'lust' coursed through Lance's veins.

This resulted from the partial sacrifice of Ardor's 'lust' which caused an imbalance in Lance's emotions. Lance was now simply a more lustful version of Ardor. The main body and clone tested the effective distance of their telepathy and found the answer—10 meters.

As Ardor became joyful at this discovery, the female auctioneer came on the stage and he looked at the two women beside him, who remained still with closed eyes and saw the remaining time left for their complete obedience to expire.

[Status Effect (Obedience)

Alse - 00:54:44

Isabella - 00:29:49]

The timer was still counting down and he didn't want to waste more of his LPs by buying Obedience Perfumes for them, since the auction could take more time.

'Right!' he thought of the massive wealth gained through Alse.

"Wake up, both of you!" He ordered. Their hazy eyes opened and stared at him in the center. "Go to the corner and play with yourself till the auction is over. Remember to stay silent." He looked at the timer and estimated a few things.

He ordered Alse on his right, "You do it at least 33 times." He then looked at Isabella to his left. "You do it over 66 times."

'A 100% profit. What a nice investment,' he thought with glee as the ladies left the center sofa and went to the single sofas kept in the two southern corners of the room and began their assigned work.

"Welcome Lords and Ladies to the VIP auction of the Wicked Auction House! I am Ella Clark, your host for tonight!"

The beauty in green looked confidently at the crowd staring at her. Her heart felt pleased looking at so many people with platinum coins in their possession that she impulsively wanted to rob them, but killed that thought, knowing the dire consequences.

With a sweet smile on her face, she continued, "Everyone knows this auction was only announced after the news of the Lord Mage's scheduled arrival reached our ears, so we could only prepare a limited number of items, but each of them is exquisite. Let's start with the item of the lowest value!"

The crowd initially felt disappointed at the lack of items, but regained their hopes after knowing their high quality since that was the most important thing for the wealthy people present.

Ella waved her hand, and they brought a female up on the stage. A collar was tied to her neck.

"A slave?"

"Really? What use could a slave be of?"

"You know, she does look plump in the right places. Perhaps in a few years she'll be of great value!"

"Stop kidding. Who doesn't know a slave cannot last more than a single week with you?"

"Is this what you mean by exquisite? Are you making fun of us?"

The auctioneer looked at all the men booing at her, but still smiled, "She's a noble's slave, and according to the seller, still a virgin. At the ripe age of 16, she's extremely suitable to be trained as personal made for noble young masters."

She then winked. "And she can also be used for special purposes."

The men quietened down at the mention of 'noble slave,' and 'virgin'. If that was truly the case, then she would be worth selling at this VIP auction.

"We'll start with a bidding of 10 gold coins, with an increment of no less than one. Please begin."

The men still wanted to save money to buy the key items, so one man sitting in the rich crowd spoke.

"10! At least she can warm my bed."

"11. You know she can do more."

"12. I suddenly want to get her for my son."

"13."

Ardor was initially angry as they placed her first.

'You think she's worthless? To keep her in the beginning? She's my true love!'

Then his anger got out of hand when the men gazed at her with lecherous eyes and commented about her. He truly began fuming when her price rose by the minimum increments, showing what people thought of her.

"100!" he shouted.

The crowd quietened down for a bit since he was the first one from the private rooms to bid. On the stage, Jeanne's face eased after recognizing the voice, but she controlled her emotions to not negatively affect Ardor.

'As I thought, I can't control myself when I see you like this. Should have never let you reach this state.' Ardor's eyes became firm. 'I'll never let this happen, never, ever again! If not for the fact that I couldn't kill Gawyn, I would have…'

The silence didn't last long.

Another man downstairs bid, "101! Do you really think she's worth that much? Are you in cahoots with the auction house?"

Ella instead responded coldly, "Sir, please don't throw false blame at us. We would never do something like this to ruin our reputation!"

The man stiffened up, realizing that he had put blame on someone he could not offend. As an auction house spanning multiple kingdoms, the Wicked Auction House was not just backed by money, but also terrible power to protect that wealth.

"Ah, I was just kidding. I apologize if I spoke out of line." He had to appease Ella.

Ardor finally responded coldly, "Yes, she is worth much more. 200!" It made Jeanne smile.

Ella knew the Flame's had sold Jeanne, but didn't understand why they wanted to buy her back. She didn't care either way as the auction house would still earn from the transaction fee, regardless of who bought it.

"300!" A pleasant voice from the V-6 room sounded. Jeanne felt afraid after hearing the bid. Did her young master still have more money to get her back?

Now it was Ardor's turn to question his new opponent. "400! Are you sure she's worth that much?"