An Old Man
At the end of the hall was a large door from which people gushed inside and found a decent spot to rub their asses on the plush chairs. The hall was filled with noise and din of the people. Everyone was eager to find a seat of their own.
Elora walked on the stage from behind with a nervous expression. She looked back. Kadyn nodded towards her and gave a confident and encouraging smile. She smiled back and again turned towards the audience, clenching her nervously trembling fist, and said. "Good morning, everyone."
Her voice boomed throughout the hall—this was the function of the hall that let the auctioneer exemplify his/her voice—the muffling sound reverberated and the entire hall became quiet.
"Ah," she became nervous as the eyes of hundreds of people focused on her. However it didn't take her long to calm her thudding heart down.
"Cough, as you all know," she said, "today we are going to auction the potions. What kind of potions, some might ask?" she peered at people, her nervousness fading slowly. "Let me show you then."
As she said the floor in front of her split open and a large table climbed out of it automatically and over ten wooden boxes had been placed on it—everyone looked at the scene with dumbfounded expression. They had never seen such a display prior to this day. That lifting trolley seemed a marvelous thing.
Elora eyed the comical expressions of the people and curled her lips and said. "We have over ten different potions. The first one we will be auctioning is," she paused, creating a tension in the atmosphere, then went on, "the Potion of Purification."
Everyone had a blank face as they had never heard about such a potion, so she explained. "This potion is used for purifying magus' bodies. It could extract the impurities from the body and strengthen it. You should know what the magus lacks the most? Its defence, of course. Though this potion might not completely solve that problem, it could increase the rate of your survival.
"Furthermore you can't disregard another benefit that is impurity extraction—everyone knows that our bodies have impurities. When we use different potions, they would leave a small amount of impurity in our bodies that would increase over time and at one point that impurity could turn into a deadly poison, turning you into a cripple from a majestic magus."
As she explained, the entire hall broke into an uproar, everyone's eyes turned fiery. All of them wanted the potion. Kadyn saw their reaction and shook his head. Elora was really clever with her words. Although the potion was effective, it couldn't remove all the impurity. Nonetheless it was still worth purchasing.
The crowd gradually calmed and turned their heated gazes towards the potion in Elora's hand. She smiled and said. "Furthermore…" she stated and went on, "the grade of this potion had reached the peak and you should know that only the top grade is above it."
The murmuring again sounded, but Elora went on. Her face was already brimming with a confident smile and all the nervousness had washed away. "The starting price of this potion is just three thousand."
It was the real standard price of the potion. Kadyn had decided to make all the standard prices a start price for auctioning them. With this he won't seem like a money-grubbing merchant. However he knew that this starting amount would not affect the result in any way, as people were eager to purchase the potions. Moreover his potions were rarer than anyone had ever seen before so everyone wanted to take possession of them.
"Oh, you don't need to worry about the starting price." A languid voice reverberated from the first row, attracting everyone's attention. An old man with a fragile body and white hair sat on a chair with his legs crossing each other—beside him sat two other men. One was an old, and another was a middle-aged man. Both of them seemed extremely respectful to this old guy. The man continued, "because we are taking those potions."
"What do you mean, sir?" Elora frowned. "Are you trying to cause trouble here?"
"No, no, you have misjudged me completely." the old man stood and strolled in front of the stage. "I'm taking it as compensation for your terrible behavior…"
"Hey, old man, get lost and do your prank somewhere else," someone shouted from the back in irritation.
"It looks like his screws got loose. The side effect of the increasing age is too much for him to endure."
The entire hall burst into a peal of laughter at this comment. The old man's face turned red in fury and a terrible pressure released from his body, choking everyone in terror. Those who were closer to him immediately maintained their distance in shock and fear. This fragile looking old man was a terrible, terrible foe.
Though the old man was irritated by two comments, he restrained himself from going after the speakers. However that didn't give peace of mind to those two poor fellows. Both of them left the hall with terror-stricken faces. Not daring to stay any further.
The old man turned towards Elora and said. "Ah, you can leave now. I'll take care of these potions."
"Who are you? Why are you doing this?!" Elora demanded, not willing to give her hard work without a fight to anyone. She and Kadyn had put so much effort into brewing these potions. Why should she give them for free? If you want, then pay for it!
"Oh, you want to know the reason?" the old man said with a proud tone. "Then I will tell you."
He turned towards the two men standing behind him and said. "Remove it."
The duo nodded and removed the disguise, revealing their faces. "Elder Yel?!" Elora exclaimed and her face turned pale, and the entire situation became clear. Though she failed to discern the identity of the second man. He was a tall, proud-looking middle-aged man.
"Damn, what is Association Leader doing here?!" Epharius and Sho jumped from their seats. Although they weren't that familiar with Elder Yel and knew just his name before meeting last time. They knew this middle-aged man—he was the Leader of the Association!
"Now you understand the situation. Step aside, girl," the old man said and walked towards the stage.