Chapter 182: Choosing the Auction items II
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If sold correctly, hidden to the right buyer, the value would be absurd.
Alchemists would pay fortunes for bloodlines. Bone crafters would bid like mad. Beast tamers, ritualists, undead cults, desperate nobles trying to strengthen heirs — every kind of monster in refined clothing would crawl out of shadow with open purses.
It would bring money. It would bring fear. It would bring attention. Too much attention.
Sekhmet’s jaw tightened.
Selling Benimaru’s corpse in Slik would be like hanging a burning banner from Dawn House and inviting every greedy madman to visit.
And greed was not even the worst risk.
Benimaru was the son of a true god.
Even if the father did not care, even if divine families were cruel enough to ignore dead offspring, the bloodline itself mattered. Divine residue drew hunters. Priests. Blood readers. Opportunists.
And if one of them traced the corpse back to him...
"No.
Too dangerous."
Sekhmet dismissed the thought completely.
"You stay hidden," he muttered under his breath, eyes on the glowing text. "Until I find a use for you."
The system responded immediately, as if it approved caution.
[Benimaru Asset Retained in Secure Storage in the void land.
Public Sale Lock Recommended: Active]
Sekhmet did not bother asking what "public sale lock" truly meant. As long as it kept him from making a stupid decision under pressure, he accepted it.
He leaned forward.
"Show me a full auction arrangement," he told the system. "Order of presentation. Which items first, which last, and which should be teased in announcements."
The system began reorganizing the list.
Sekhmet watched in silence, mind already shifting into merchant strategy.
The opening item had to be respectable but not peak value. Enough to warm the room. Enough to create confidence.
Middle items needed variety.
A weapon. Defense. Utility. Something for nobles. Something for fighters. Something flashy.
The final item needed to make people feel like they had to stay until the end.
The Stormcall Anklets and Embercore Ring both had strong closing potential. The Warblade too, but a massive blade at the end risked narrowing buyers too much.
Sekhmet tapped the desk lightly. His mind moved faster. Then he heard footsteps outside.
Not servant steps. It was light. It was familiar. It was Lily.
Sekhmet dismissed the display with a thought just before the knock came.
Knock. Knock.
"Come in," he said.
The door opened, and Lily stepped in with sunlight behind her, The look on her face had changed from earlier. Not brighter exactly. More settled. Like she had forced herself to make peace with thoughts she did not like.
She closed the door behind her and walked closer to the desk.
"You disappeared into work," she said. "It’s been so long. I was tired of waiting."
Sekhmet looked at her calmly. "That is because work keeps trying to keep me busy."
Lily’s lips twitched faintly. "Comforting."
Sekhmet leaned back slightly. "Did you come to save me?"
"No," Lily said. "I came to annoy you before I leave."
That made him almost smile.
She moved around the desk, then stopped near the side, looking not at him first, but at the documents, the sealed ledgers, the disciplined neatness of his study.
"You really are doing this," she said quietly.
"Yes."
"The auction."
"Yes."
Lily turned her gaze to him.
"Can you pull it off," she asked.
Sekhmet answered without pause.
"Yes."
Lily searched his face, as if checking whether he meant the word or simply preferred sounding confident to sounding realistic.
Whatever she saw seemed to satisfy her. She exhaled and leaned one hand lightly on the desk.
"When," she asked.
"Next week," Sekhmet said. "If everything stays on schedule."
Lily blinked once.
"Next week."
"Yes."
She straightened a little.
Then her expression shifted, and the remaining uncertainty she had been carrying since the garden finally broke in a different direction.
"Then I am not leaving yet," she said.
Sekhmet’s eyes narrowed slightly.
"What."
Lily lifted her chin, fully herself again now, stubborn and bright and impossible.
"I said I am not leaving yet," she repeated. "I will delay it."
"Delay what."
She gave him a look.
"My trip," she said. "To my mother. I will delay it as much as I can."
Sekhmet studied her carefully.
"Lily—"
She raised one finger at him, mirroring the exact tone Elena used when she wanted someone to sit down and accept reality.
"No," she said. "Listen first."
Sekhmet actually stopped talking.
That alone was impressive.
Lily continued, voice calmer now.
"I know I have to go eventually," she said. "I am not refusing forever. Mother will hunt me down personally if I try that. But I am not leaving before your auction. And I am not leaving while half the city is circling your house like hungry dogs."
Sekhmet’s gaze stayed on her.
"You do not need to stay for that."
Lily’s expression softened, but only slightly.
"I know," she said. "That is not the same as not wanting to."
Silence sat between them for a moment. Not uncomfortable. Just true.
Sekhmet looked away first, toward the window.
The morning light had risen further now. The city beyond the glass was fully alive. Trade. Noise. Motion. Greed. The usual machinery of Slik turning without pause.
Inside Dawn House, things were turning too.
Auri was in the void land.
Which made him think of the shelter. He refocused inward for a brief moment and asked the system quietly.
Status of void land construction.
The answer came instantly, overlaying his vision without being visible to Lily.
[Void Land Structure Update.
Primary Shelter: Complete
Occupant Assigned: Auri
Basic Interior Status: Functional.
Further Furnishing Recommended]
Sekhmet’s expression did not change, but a quiet satisfaction settled in him.
Auri had done it. With bats, ghouls, carrying materials, and discipline. There was now a real shelter inside his hidden territory.
A start. A base. A future plan for a blood castle. Not just darkness and storage.
Lily noticed the slight shift in his face.
"What," she asked. "Why do you look so happy?"
Sekhmet’s mind came back to the room.
"Nothing," he said.
"That is a lie."
"That is privacy," he corrected.
Lily rolled her eyes. Then, unexpectedly, she smiled. She thought Sekhmet was happy because of her.
"Fine," she said. "Keep your secrets. I am keeping mine too."