A Serpent's Tale
Chapter 229: The Auction (1/2)

Chapter 229: The Auction (1/2)

Those two days passed fairly quickly and in that time, I went out and bought myself a nice looking kimono, with white as the primary colours with red contours and gold lining all of it.

I had no reason to go and get this as I did have my own clothes, but I didn’t because I wanted to blend in with non-magical clothes as I wasn’t able to see many of such things. And even when I did, they were so expensive, like, over ten thousand gold expensive.

I had just finished cleaning myself and was getting dressed when I heard a knock at the door.

"Who is it?" I called out.

"It’s me, Alera. Just came here to bring you to the auction as it’s about to start." Her voice polite and formal.

"Okay, just give me a second, I’m finishing up now." My own voice less so.

"Understood."

A couple of minutes later I had finished getting ready and exited my room to head to the auction under Alera’s watch and care.

When I exited my room, Alera became stunned by my appearance. To be more specific, she was staring at my chest, which I had intentionally left on display because honestly? I like that kind of attention.

The hem of my kimono was resting above my nipples and the whole thing was strung tight, pushing them up and emphasizing them even more so.

Not to mention it also hugged the curves on the rest of my body nicely, giving me a shapely rear and lithe waistline.

Overall this kimono did wonders for my appearance with how attracting it was making me, which was the point.

The design that I had gone for was a simple depiction of the desert on the lower half made with red sparkles to represent the sand and golden threads showing the horizon of the sky which was filled with an archaic design for the sun on the back.

The sun was a simple gold lined circle with red flares here and there to represent the fire and heat of the sun. It also had some small wiggles that seemed to rotate all the way around it also. Not literally of course, they were just designed so that you would get the impression that they were supposed to do that.

Anyways, I coughed to snap Alera out of her stupor and guide me to the auction, as I was most certainly required to be there as I was the one that was auctioning the Dune Worm off.

"S-Sorry about that. You just look absolutely stunning in that." She stuttered slightly with a light blush and a hint of embarrassment.

"It’s fine. I was going for that so I’m glad to see that it works." I said with a charming smile as I started to leave the building.

Only to realise that Alera wasn’t following behind me as she was awestruck once more. Likely because of my smile.

I sighed and called out to her once more. "Alera?"

"Huh? Wha? Oh, right, sorry."

I gave a wry smile and my shoulders drooped a little. "It’s fine, I understand. Let’s just get going."

"R-Right, of course." She stuttered again, and followed me from behind this time. Though, I couldn’t help but feel her gaze upon my buttocks.

I gave a light chuckle and swayed my hips enticingly for a second before stopping that action and continuing on to the auction.

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When I arrived at the gate, the guards stationed there gave me a weird look, as they switched their focus between me and Alera behind me before shrugging and letting us through.

After exiting the city through the gates and heading into the open territory outside, I was greeted to the sight of several hundreds of people all mingling with one another whilst waiting for the auction to start.

Alera gestured for me to follow and led me behind some makeshift private stands or booths or whatever you want to call them, for the nobles, and brought me to one of said stands which was connected to the makeshift stage as well, specifically on its left.

And behind the stage were several tents housing everyone’s stuff that was being auctioned off. And beside all that, was the worm that was still paralysed, and easily visible with some light.

I entered my private booth and found that there was a maid with a face that looked rather familiar for some reason but I couldn’t quite pin why.

But as I looked ad her green features, I realised why. And it was because she was the Gorgon I saw on my first day here.

"Greetings, I shall be your maid for the evening. If you need any food or drinks, I shall go fetch them quickly and efficiently. And, if you wish to bid for an item, I shall bid in your stead if you wish to remain anonymous." She bowed fully and spoke in a highly professional manner with a tone that hinted at an extreme maturity that displayed her adeptness at her job and her experience doing it.

"Mm." I simply nodded back. "Do you know when the auction will begin?"

"I believe it should start within the next quarter of an hour or so." She replied courteously.

"Mm, thanks."

"You’re welcome."

So we waited for the auction to start.

And she was right, within a quarter of an hour, the auction started as a pretty and attractive Lamia could be seen through the semi-transparent veil.

"Welcome all! To this sudden and exciting auction event!" She cried out in a cheery tone. "I hope you’re all ready for a whole heap of items that will be sold off today, the last of which will be none other than the DUNE WORM! Courtesy of the benefactor over there." She gestured over to my booth.

I debated on if I should go out there and introduce myself or not but before I could decide that, the presenter had already moved on.

"And without further ado, please welcome a special unexpected surprise guest, iiiiiiiiiiiits DUCHESS KRARA!"

There was a sudden burst of cheers and clapping as the Duchess made her way onto the stage waving at everyone.

She hushed everyone after about a minute and began speaking, "Thank you everyone for your love and appreciation, but I only came here on a whim and just couldn’t refuse when the staff asked me to come up and say hi to you all. That said, I hope you all bid responsibly and can obtain what you desire."

"With that said, let the auction begin!" She gave one last cry and raised her fist into the air to signal the auctions start.

The original presenter came back on stage and gave a quick thanks to the Duchess before announcing the first item to be auctioned off.

It was an artisan vase, made by a well renowned craftsman, and is said to be the last in a long line of vases and possibly the last thing that he would ever make as he was planning to retire after this.

The bidding for this item was wild, but I wasn’t interested in pottery. Besides, even though it was fine craftsmanship, I had similar and even better-quality items back in my inheritance.

"Is there a list that contains the items being sold on this auction by chance?" I asked my maid with a disinterested tone. I didn’t actually have any plans to buy anything unless it really caught my interest.

The maid serving me silently handed me a scroll. I unfurled it and read its contents. It started with the current item at the top, meaning that it went in descending order.

There were several other art pieces that would be sold later on as well after this. But the first interesting item was some sort of spiky egg-shaped rock?

All it detailed was that it shimmered under the starlight and had dark blue colours otherwise. It didn’t give much more detail about it apart from its description, but I felt like this might be something nice to bid on.

If I felt like it that is.

Anyways, I spent some more time perusing the list and there was more junk that I would never care for like an ornate dress from ancient times, a journal from some retired adventurer and some rare magical tomes.

None of that really interested me to be honest. I mean, the magical tomes would be nice, but a lot of them aren’t really something I’m looking for, or already have the power to do.

Tomes and Spell Books and all similar items weren’t all that useful to people like me with a Soul Scroll. We could just pick the book up, read through it and we would just kind of be able to pick it up automatically within our Soul Scrolls.

But as I reached the end of the list, I of course noticed the Dune Worm that I was selling right at the bottom, but I also noticed something else that caught my interest.