Priya turned her body halfway, indicating the Chimeroi with a sweeping gesture. "Ladies and Gentlemen, as you can see, we've saved the best for last. Tonight, we offer you no less than two dozen Purebloods, each and every one of them below the age of awakening."
She smiled slightly at the excitement of the crowd, but her expression turned serious in the next moment. "As you all know, it is forbidden to sell Slaves anonymously. Therefore, we will soon remove the privacy features. If any of our guests wish to remain anonymous, you'll have to leave now."
A short while later, the front of their private lounge slid up and disappeared into the ceiling, allowing Zeke to hear the murmurs of the crowd once more. Although he was still hidden from the other participants, he was now in clear view of the stage. Snow's eyes found him mere moments later and lit up. Zeke didn't dare to react in a big way and only nodded lightly.
"For those visiting our auctions for the first time, let me explain our offerings," she continued. "All the Chimeroi on offer are Purebloods, direct descendants of a Progenitor. This means that each of them has the best possible potential of their species and grows far quicker than others of their kind."
Her expression grew stern. "As a warning to those who think of using them for other purposes: Save your money. Their descendants will not inherit their traits. Only a progenitor is able to create Purebloods, and their children will not be any different from those of third- or even fourth-generation Chimeroi in terms of talent or ability."
Zeke could hear some people mumbling in disappointment, but this information must have been common knowledge, as most didn't react. Zeke had learned about Purebloods a while back but hadn't realized that the frightened youngsters he had seen in the vault of the Treasure Pavillion at that time were counted among them.
Still, he could have guessed as much. After all, what other Chimeroi would be worth selling here when even peak combatants like Gravitas, Vulcanos, and Ash didn't make the cut?
Priya waited for the small commotion to die down before continuing her introduction to this next stage. "As most veterans can attest, picking out Purebloods is more art than science." Many chuckled at her remark. "The reason for this is two-fold. First, Purebloods are almost indistinguishable from humans, meaning you can not confirm their lineage through sight alone. Second, since none of the Purebloods on offer have awakened their abilities, they can't be judged by those either…"
"How convenient," somebody called good-naturedly, and many people laughed. Priya glared in their direction but didn't contradict the statement.
This interlude made it clear to Zeke why the auction operated in this manner. Selling unawakened Chimeroi was far more lucrative. Even if some were of no use in combat, buyers still had to pay full price in order to find out. The Varun family likely intentionally included descendants of weaker races to inflate their numbers.
As for what the participants got out of this? They could gamble and boast if they chose correctly, but the thrill was likely the main draw.
Zeke once again realized how the lives of Chimeroi were used as a source of entertainment for the Korrovan people; their misery was nothing but an afterthought. Be it in the Rings or at these auctions, they were mere playthings to the powerful. At this point, he paused. He was quite hypocritical, wasn't he? After all, he owned more Slaves than half the people here combined.
But was he really?
Zeke truly desired for them to lead fulfilling lives, devoid of any needs. While he might have leveraged their circumstances to persuade them into an unfavorable arrangement, that was the harsh reality of the world.
Without him, most of them would die prematurely from something easily preventable, like hunger, thirst, or petty infighting. Was it really that wrong to trick them into a contract that would only benefit them?
His musings were interrupted when Priya resumed her explanation. "Be that as it may…" she said, glaring again in the direction of the man who had interrupted her. "Choosing blindly might result in a suboptimal result, but you'll also have the chance to buy a product that would otherwise have been unattainable for that price. Fair warning though: None of the Chimeroi here are Slaves, so it will fall to their eventual buyers to 'convince' them."
Zeke frowned deeply. She might not have said it outright, but the term was clearly code for using unsavory means. He could very well imagine the methods those ruthless family heads would employ in order to motivate these Purebloods if they dared refuse. In his opinion, this was even worse than the conditions in Undercity. At least they still had the choice, even if it was a horrible one.
For a moment, Zeke had the impulse to buy all the Purebloods, but he gave up on it just as fast. At the Veergati, the cheapest of them had been listed for around 10,000 gold. Those here would likely not start quite that high, but it would still cost far more than he could pay. He had only brought 20,000 gold, of which he had already spent 3,000.
Combined with the 10,000 gold he had left with Priya as a down payment, he would be able to pay up to 27,000 for Snow, which was likely far more than she was going to cost, but not enough for him to take the risk to bid on anybody else. Zeke set his jaw and watched as the auction started.
The first Chimeroi was a woman with raven-black hair and an athletic physique. She was among the most composed and glared viciously at anyone who dared place a bid on her. Unfortunately, that seemed to backfire as more and more people began to take an interest. She ended up selling for just shy of 12,000 gold, even more than some of the Purebloods with confirmed abilities. Zeke recognized the name of the buyer. It was the owner of a prestigious school.
The second Pureblood was a young man with curly brown hair and a placid expression. He looked like one of the oldest ones on stage, but compared to the woman from before, he didn't seem to have a lick of fight in him. His expression was almost bored as he watched the bids go up. He sold for 8000 gold.
The next person was a young woman who had been crying ever since they had been brought on stage. Now that it was her turn, her tears redoubled, turning her pretty face into a complete mess. She sold for 9500.
Zeke found this hard to watch, but there was nothing he could do, so he endured. One after the other, the Purebloods were auctioned off… until only one remained.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, this brings us to the last offering of the day," Pryia shoved Snow, forcing the young girl to take a stumbling step forward. "She might not look like much," Priya said with a teasing grin, "but we actually had a client already place a bid of 10,000 gold on her, hoping to buy her before the auction even started."
An excited murmur swept through the crowd while Zeke gnashed his teeth. Priya was clearly trying to drive interest by implying that Snow was a hidden treasure. And from what he could see, it worked. Being the final item up for auction, competition was sure to be intense.
One bid followed the next, and the price soon reached 12,000 gold, surpassing any of the other Purebloods. Zeke's expression turned grim as he watched this scene. It was one thing not to sell her ahead of time, but to use that knowledge so callously against him was completely different.
Any and all goodwill he had for Priya and her family evaporated in an instant. Before, he might have felt bad for taking so much of their business through his expansion into Undercity, but that no longer bothered him. From now on, the gloves were off.
"20,000 gold," Zeke called out, plunging the room into utter silence. His offer had overshot the last one by several thousand.
Priya smiled in his direction but made no moves to start the countdown just yet, even after there had been no offers for a while. "We have a bid of 20,000 gold. Is anybody willing to bid more than that?"
"21,000," a male voice called out, making Zeke frown. Who would pay this much for an unawakened Pureblood? Nevertheless, he was not in a position to back down.
"22,000!"
"23,000!"
"24,000!"
Zeke and the mysterious stranger continued to raise the price, and he became more suspicious with each new bid. Something was going on; he could feel it, but what could he do other than raise the price? Especially now that Snow's eyes were darting anxiously between him and this stranger.
he didn't know what she saw, but she was clearly horrified at the possibility of being bought by whoever was in the other lounge.
"27,000 gold!" he called out, reaching his limit. However, to his dismay, his opponent continued as if this amount didn't bother him in the slightest.
"28,000!"
Zeke cursed himself for his premature spending spree. Yet, he couldn't undo it now. However, he refused to give up so easily. Did he have any more money? Perhaps there was a valuable item he could sell? No, that wouldn't suffice. At this point, only gold would do.
Priya turned to look at him when no further bid was forthcoming. Raising a brow, she asked, "Are there any more bids?"
Zeke hesitated. Was there nothing he could do? He clenched his teeth and, in a last-ditch effort, connected to his spatial node in Tradespire. He had emptied his reserves before coming here, but maybe somebody had checked it in the meantime and restocked the supply.
After a breathless moment, the image of his space came into view… with three golden bars lying there. Zeke could hardly believe it. Whoever had checked on his supply must have decided that the usual 20,000 gold were not enough and had gone out of their way to provide him with additional funds.
At this moment, he vowed to find out who had done this and give them a massive raise—no, a promotion—better yet, a promotion and a raise and whatever else they wanted! But, first, he had an auction to win.
"I am getting tired of this," Zeke announced, having regained his confidence. "30,000 gold." He reveled in the reaction of the crowd, who once again broke out into excited murmurs. However, his good mood was instantly destroyed when he heard the stranger's next words.
"35,000 gold," the voice sounded almost bored as if this amount of money held no meaning to them.
"40,000 gold!" Zeke yelled.
"50,000," the stranger countered, forcing Zeke to gnash his teeth.
"57,000," he called out in a last-ditch attempt to salvage the situation. However, it was all for naught when he heard the stranger call out the next bid, his voice unchanged.
"60,000 gold!"
Zeke slumped back in his seat, utterly disheartened. It was hopeless. There was nothing more he could do, and he couldn't shake the feeling that even if he had brought more money, it still wouldn't have been enough. That it would never have been enough.
He turned to Priya, expecting a gloating expression. Instead, he found no joy, only... regret? In fact, her expression resembled someone forced to bite into a lemon and suck it dry. It didn't really matter; whatever game she and the Varun family were playing had nothing to do with him anymore.
When Priya looked at him, he could only lower his gaze. "3… 2… 1… Sold!"
He had lost—lost completely.
Not only was he gonna miss out on the clue about the last ingredient he was missing, but he would also break his promise to Snow. He had not yet dared look at her, but he was certain that she was either glaring at him or crying, and Zeke didn't know which would make him feel worse.
No! This wasn't over. He still had one last chance. Since this part of the auction wasn't anonymous, he would soon find out who had outbid him. Maybe a compromise could still be reached.
His eyes burned into Priya, willing her to speak the name with the weight of his gaze. He hoped that it would be a scion of the royal family with too much money on their hand. After all, he might be able to apply pressure using his allies in Tradespire.
"The last item was sold for 60,000 gold…" Priya seemed to hesitate, pausing for an instant before forcing out the words, "…to young master Jaihar of the Firebrand school."