Chapter 220: Auction House (10)
“Your cheek is…….”
In the end, the one who broke the silence first was Lian.
Pointing to Velita’s reddened cheek that could not be fully hidden even by her fan, he asked cautiously.
“Ah, this?”
As if it were nothing at all, Velita lightly tapped her own cheek with the fan.
“Well…… shall we say my siblings’ quarrel got a bit intense?”
An elegant smile still hung at the corner of her lips, but her eyes were not smiling at all.
The clear handprint stamped across Velita’s cheek was, to anyone’s eyes, the mark of a heavy blow.
“……Do you require treatment?”
Lian asked after a moment of hesitation.
However, Velita smiled with her eyes and shook her head.
“My, how kind of you. But I’m fine. It’s not that I’m disregarding your kindness, but there are one or two people around me who know how to use healing magic, you see.”
That meant she had deliberately left the injury untreated.
Lian, as if he had expected her answer, gave a small nod.
In the meantime, Velita lightly gestured and took the lead.
“It would be a bit troublesome if my appearance were discovered here.”
As she spoke, she hid her face even deeper behind her fan.
Under the dim lighting, her pale violet eyes were glinting strangely.
“More importantly, didn’t the two of you receive one as well when you entered? I’m not forcing you, but there’s really nothing good about walking around here with your faces exposed.”
At her words, Lian and Valen Zeisho took out the simple masks they had received at the entrance and put them on.
They were crude items—enough to hide one’s face somewhat, yet familiar acquaintances would recognize them immediately.
“You’ll be sitting right next to me, so shall we go together?”
At Velita’s suggestion, Lian nodded as if he had no particular objection.
Then, Velita subtly placed her hand on Lian’s arm.
“You will, of course, escort me, won’t you?”
Her voice carried a quiet expectation.
Without a word, Lian offered his arm so she could rest her hand comfortably.
Valen Zeisho merely watched the two of them in silence.
“……I was wondering why you suddenly brought up the auction house, Sir.”
As they walked down the corridor, Velita whispered softly.
Her gaze was directed toward Valen Zeisho standing beside Lian.
“So it was because of your companion.”
“……What do you mean by that?”
“Don’t play innocent.”
When Lian asked back with a puzzled expression, she smiled with her eyes from behind the fan.
“Didn’t rumors spread that Valen Zeisho’s remains would appear at this auction?”
As she said that, Velita quietly continued.
“To elves, the remains of a High Elf carry significance in many ways. It’s a problem that so many people seem to underestimate that.”
She gave a small shrug.
“Think about it. If another race were to loot an imperial tomb and put the body up for auction…… wouldn’t the empire issue a declaration of war hundreds of times over and still not be satisfied?”
Velita then looked straight at Lian and asked,
“More importantly, since they’re presenting it as the main item of this auction, there won’t be just one or two people coveting it, and the bidding will be astronomical…… Have you prepared that much money?”
Velita whispered quietly.
“Of course, the Gwendil Count family has been doing well in business recently…… ahem, pardon me. I didn’t mean to slight you.”
She gave a small apology with a cough and changed the subject.
“……I do know that your merchant group has been growing rapidly of late, but even so, I don’t believe it’s prosperous enough to pour money around like water in a place like this, is it?”
As she asked, Velita chuckled softly.
Her attitude was as if she already knew exactly what kind of method Lian and Valen Zeisho had decided to choose.
In the end, Lian let out a small sigh and opened his mouth.
“……Do you truly believe that the item this time will really be Lord Valen Zeisho’s remains?”
“Well…… honestly, I don’t think so.”
Velita answered firmly.
“Still, the fact that they are the remains of a High Elf will be an undeniable truth. That’s not something that can be forged…… and to begin with, the body of a High Elf that has hardened like a gemstone…… mm.”
She briefly glanced at Valen Zeisho, then, as if asking his pardon, gave him a slight bow.
“The body of a High Elf itself, turned solid like a jewel, is valuable enough that any price named would be justified. It’s probably just a cheap trick to draw people in. Well, thanks to that, I get to stroll alone together with a gentleman like this, so it’s not all bad.”
“……What is it that you want, my lady, that brought you here?”
At Lian’s direct question, she shrugged.
“Well, I skimmed through the auction list, but there wasn’t really anything to my liking. To begin with, whenever there was something I wanted, I always obtained it by whatever means necessary, so auctions like this don’t particularly interest me.”
As she said that, she cast a sidelong glance at Lian.
Her eyes carried a meaningful gleam.
“If I had to put it into words…… hmm, perhaps it’s just that I’d like to have someone to talk with while watching this auction unfold?”
“……Do you have no guards or attendants with you? Tesrad…… or Anette, for example.”
At Lian’s question, Velita froze for a very brief, truly fleeting moment.
However, she immediately recovered her usual smile and answered.
“I came into my bedroom to take a nap, you know? Hmm, though by now they may have noticed.”
“…….”
Lian opened his mouth, as if thinking that it was only proper etiquette to ask at least once.
“What about the Departure Festival?”
“Well?”
Velita replied as she gently fanned herself.
“I don’t have even the slightest desire to help the person who made my cheek like this. I think most people would understand my feelings. Don’t you think so, Sir?”
Was that why she had deliberately left the injury untreated?
Velita even tilted her head slightly so the wound would be clearly visible to Lian.
In the meantime, they had arrived at their seats.
It was a spot slightly set apart from the other seats.
There were seats prepared for three people, and it was a good location from which the platform where the auction items were brought out could be seen at a glance.
In many ways, it was a seat that showed Velita had pulled some strings.
“Shall we sit?”
As soon as the three of them sat down side by side, Velita spoke again.
“By the way, Sir. Aren’t you curious why I ended up like this?”
Lian decided to give her the answer she wanted.
After all, they would have to sit side by side like this for at least several hours.
“Why did that happen?”
At Lian’s question, Velita smiled brightly, clearly satisfied, and answered.
“My younger brother has been…… cornered in many ways, you see.”
She said it in a whisper, accompanied by a soft, giggling laugh.
“Sir, as you know, recently there was the Underground Sewer incident and such…… well, all sorts of big and small events have been happening nonstop both inside and outside the Academy, haven’t they? There were things you and your friends resolved yourselves, and things other students took care of. In any case, a great many things happened.”
At Velita’s words, Lian silently nodded.
Through rumors, stories of various incidents—who resolved what, who did something else—had reached his ears not only in his past life, but also frequently in the present.
“And coincidentally, most of those incidents worked…… hmm, in many ways—politically and otherwise—to my younger brother’s disadvantage. Thanks to that, shall we say that his overwhelmingly solid position as Crown Prince wavered just a little, just a very little? You could think of it as something like that.”
As she said this, Velita subtly glanced around.
Her manner was as though she were about to confide a secret.
“From here on, what I’m about to tell you is an extremely dangerous story—one that could see me accused of treason if it were to leak outside. So absolutely, absolutely do not speak of this anywhere else. Understood?”
“……Pardon?”
Before Lian could even return an answer, Velita smiled sweetly once more and whispered.
“I heard that His Majesty the Emperor is deeply troubled over the matter of the next successor.”
“…….”
At those words, Lian closed his mouth.
Valen Zeisho, seated beside him, continued to show no reaction at all, silently gazing down at the platform where the auction items would soon be displayed.
After a brief silence, Lian asked,
“……Why are you telling something so momentous to me?”
“Because you, Sir, are not someone entirely unrelated to this matter either.”
Velita replied as if it were nothing.
“Did you happen to know that my second older brother secretly sent people to investigate you and those around you?”
She immediately added,
“In the process, my people…… yes, someone you know well too. There was a bit of friction with Anette as well. Regrettably so.”
She continued quietly.
“Anette is currently missing. I heard that only a severed arm was found. And beside it, someone from my brother’s side had already been left behind as a cold corpse.”
So he slapped my cheek and berated me, saying I must be scheming something.
Muttering, Velita paused for a moment, then quietly looked at Lian.
Her gaze was more serious than ever.
“Perhaps, Sir…… do you know anything about this matter?”
At her question, Lian firmly shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
It wasn’t a lie.
He truly knew nothing.
Anette’s disappearance and the death of someone close to Gernot—those were stories he had never even imagined.
“…….”
Velita stared intently at Lian for a moment, then gave a small nod as if she understood.
“……Forgive me. She was a child I cared for quite a bit, so I suppose I got carried away without realizing it. Will you forgive me?”
Just as Lian opened his mouth to reply—
“Greetings, everyone. I will be serving as the auctioneer for this auction, though my abilities may be lacking.”
The auctioneer’s voice announcing the start of the auction echoed through the hall.
In a somewhat uncomfortable and awkward atmosphere, the three of them silently looked down at the items being brought up onto the platform.
“Now then, let us begin by looking at the first item.”
At first, as if it were only natural, items that didn’t look all that impressive appeared one after another.
Of course, even those items were rare artifacts that would require a huge sum to purchase from an ordinary shop, or would be worthy of donation to some famous museum.
It was around the time when five or six items had passed by in the blink of an eye.
“……Just when is this going to end?”
Valen Zeisho muttered in a low voice, sounding bored.
“About one to two hours…… maybe three?”
Lian, who had been answering, suddenly trailed off.
That was because the item that had appeared on the platform was something he had seen many times before.
‘That is……?’
It was an old jar that looked utterly unremarkable.
Perhaps because of that, the starting price was set extremely low compared to the other items.
The auctioneer explained it with flowery words, saying it had been accidentally unearthed from some nameless ancient ruin and was a rare jar crafted in a style from several hundred years ago.
“What is it?”
Even at Valen Zeisho’s question, Lian could only stare blankly down at the jar.
‘It’s definitely…….’
He remembered that old jar all too clearly.
In the past—his past life, that is, when he had still been attending the Academy—
Lian had once been absurdly dragged into a trial on charges of theft and destruction of cultural property.
He wasn’t the perpetrator, but had simply been unlucky enough to be named an accomplice caught up in the incident.
At the time, in the process of proving his innocence, Lian had secured acquittals for himself and his companions, and his name had briefly become known within the Academy.
That was because the opposing lawyer had been a very famous figure.
……In any case, such trivial stories of the past didn’t matter right now.
The real reason Lian had flinched involuntarily upon seeing that old jar—
was because during that trial, he had personally touched that jar, and in that moment, he had felt a sharp, needle-like pain near his collarbone.
And from that day onward, a Brand had taken root on his collarbone.
In other words, it was the very object that could be said to be the direct cause of the unidentified Brand now engraved upon his body.
‘……Was it sold at that time and donated to a museum?’
Even as he thought that, Lian was considering the remote possibility—whether there was any way he could somehow win the bid for it.
It was at that moment.
“Five hundred gold coins.”
Suddenly, someone called out an absurdly high price for that jar.
And the voice belonged to someone Lian remembered all too clearly.
The bidder was none other than the demon woman wearing a Fox Mask—her.