The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 598: It’s nice acting like a big brother sometimes

Chapter 598: It’s nice acting like a big brother sometimes

The new room was definitely so much better that it felt like discrimination.

Zarfa had paid a considerable amount for the private booth we were led into previously, but while that one also looked comfortable enough, the chair didn’t have the soft velvet cushion, and the table wasn’t filled with premium refreshments. It certainly wasn’t decorated with nice potted plants and flower arrangements.

And you know what? We didn’t even have to pay more. It was just an automatic upgrade from...whatever number that staff was seeing in the medallion.

Oh, no--it did not show how much money was stored in the account, for obvious reasons. But it showed some kind of level, a threshold of how much the owner of that medallion--me--could spend. Something like oh, this person could spend a billion without incurring debt or something like that.

Well, I guessed having a platinum medallion itself meant the account needed to have a certain amount of money inside, so...

Hooray for the platinum medallion!

"I love you, Boss," I received a sudden love confession after our first successful bid. Aina hugged my arm and rubbed her cheek on my shoulder. "I’m going to follow you forever!"

"I see that your loyalty is worth seventeen hundred gold, Miss Aina," I scoffed playfully.

But it was the ’prize’ that Aina received during the dinner the other day, and honestly, she probably could buy the material herself from the inter-realm communication orb that Natha bought from her.

Still, receiving free stuff was always nice--although this wasn’t exactly ’free’.

Knowing this fully, she slid the brochure in front of me and pointed to another stuff that would come out in the next batch. "If you may bid for this one, I shall extend my loyalty to your lovely son."

I laughed and snapped my fingers in agreement like some boss...well, I guess I was. She only asked for materials anyway, which would go into her research and benefit Natha through the contract--which meant, it was a benefit for me too!

Win-win!

Perhaps because Aina was so bold and I looked unbothered, Ian started to loosen up and gave in to his inner shamelessness. "Ahem--what about this armor, brother?" he scooted closer and even kneeling beside my chair, holding out the brochure too. "I think I’ll be able to protect you from a deadly spell with this."

Ignis, as my true bodyguard, scoffed from my shoulder, but I just nodded comfortably because it felt like I was buying stuff for a little brother I didn’t know I had. "Yes, yes--just tell Zarfa to bid."

"Yes!"

"Ian..." the Hero sighed, and it was a clear distinction between people who eagerly received the splurging opportunity and those who were still shying away from it.

It seemed like Fatia, Jin, and Renna were still reluctant to use my money to buy equipment. It was all transactional for me, but Fatia and Jin probably thought finding the Goddess was the righteous thing to do anyway, while Renna...well, she was just shy in general, and I reckoned it was hard for the new kid to speak of her greed about something.

So I threw them a justification. "It’s fine if it can help our cause."

"That’s right, Jin--we need to get stronger," Zarfa chimed in strongly. "On that point, what about this necklace, Sir?"

That necklace was pretty without any magic in it, but it added +10 points in charm and confidence stats, so I nodded like a boss.

Of course, the humans weren’t the only ones having fun with the shopping. "This one," Ignis flicked his tail at an item’s picture in the brochure.

"Please bid on that rock, Miss Goldbell."

"Yes, Sir!"

[There’s no candy at all] Jade slumped on my lap, grumbling in disappointment and sadness. [Boring]

"This is not confectionary, Jade," I patted the green head. I mean...who would sell a candy at an auction? Thankfully, this premium booth was equipped with all kinds of comfort, so I took a box of sweet bars. "But you can have this chocolate."

[Yay!]

I laughed and let the bird eat more dessert than usual as compensation. Leaning back on my armchair, I let the more experienced Zarfa make the bids because there was a strategy in it--I see there was a reason why people called it a bidding war. Things like timing and how much one needed to raise couldn’t be done recklessly, and while I had no idea how to do it myself, it was quite fun watching other people bid the items with various degrees of emotions.

We even witnessed a fight almost break once before the staff stepped in and ushered them out. After that, no one tried to start a fight anymore, but the unreleased rage and unspoken curses translated into how fierce the bidding was. Some were so petty they only bid by adding just one gold since there was no fixed increment during the general auction.

"Isn’t it fun?" Zarfa glanced at me with a twinkle in her eyes.

Naturally, we had won all of our bids so far, calmly. "Pfft--yeah, it’s fun if you have money to buy it."

She laughed and turned toward me since there was no more stuff that interested us. "You do look like you’re having fun."

"Well...it is fun," I shrugged. And it was fun in a different way than usual. "You see...back home, I was the youngest," I stroked the little bird who had gotten bored again after devouring the chocolate.

Except for my two children, I was truly the youngest. Even Ignis was around my age if we excluded the Salamander cycle. Despite just reaching adulthood, even Zia was technically older than me. Being the youngest around, however, had an advantage in a loving environment.

"They are all spoiling me, babying me, serving me--and it’s very nice. It was awkward at first, but I learned to enjoy their affection."

"You should," Zarfa shrugged.

Yeah, I should--at least to respond to their sincerity. "But I like a chance where I was in the giving end too, you know?" I laughed, glancing toward Aina and Ian, who were admiring their new stuff at the next table. "It feels nice to be the older one sometimes and take care of people instead of being cared for. I mean, I had been cared for my whole life, so..."

In this group, the only one older than me was Fatia, and Jin was the same age as me. I didn’t know how old Renna was, but I didn’t think she would be older than Jin. Back in the Castle, even though people knew my ability, they still treated me like I was made of crystal. Here, I was the reliable one.

It was a totally new sensation.

"I got that," Zarfa laughed and patted my shoulder, before shifting closer and arched her brow. "But doesn’t that mean you have to buy something too? Is there nothing you fancy?"

"Hmmh...no," I glimpsed over the brochure and shook my head. It wasn’t because I didn’t want to spend money on myself, but nothing really enticing in my eyes. "Nothing I already have."

"Yeah, nothing is nice enough compared to what you usually receive," Ignis agreed; the fire attribute rock had already ended in the Salamander’s stomach.

Hmm...I truly had been spoiled rotten by my husband.

"As expected of our sponsor," Zarfa clapped heartily while laughing. "Seems like we do have to wait until the late-night auction."

Right. Since she mentioned it, I took the brochure and pulled out a nice-looking card from a slot on the last page. Unlike the items in the general auction pages, the late-night auction card did not include any picture or the item’s title. There were only several lines of description to hint at what the items might have been. Zarfa said some premium guests might have already received a leak, but she wasn’t originally going to attend, so she did not bother to look for any.

"This is actually quite fun? Feels like a puzzle or something," I laughed as we read the descriptions together.

Some were delivered like a poem, and some were straight-up a riddle. Deciphering it was a rather fun activity while we were waiting for the general auction to be over. We also ordered some dinner to be sent up, and Jade woke up for another set of desserts.

"This sounds like a weapon, right? How about it, Mister Hero?" Zarfa glanced at the next table.

"Uhh...I don’t know if it’ll be better than the one I have..."

"Well, yours is an artifact after all," Zarfa nodded. Make sense; there was no way a protagonist carried a shabby weapon. Even his starter kit was already high-quality items from Lenaar’s treasury. "But we can’t tell if it’s a sword or anything, huh? What do you think it’ll be?"

We all made random guesses since the description only gave something like ’a sharp swing cut the wind’ and stuff like that. While we were busy making guesses, the general auction ended.

As I wondered about how exactly this special auction would be held, the ceiling suddenly collapsed. Pardon me--it did not ’collapse’ but lowered, moving down until it became a new floor at the same level as the premium booth. At the center of the new ’floor’, there was a table where I reckoned the items would be placed and two smiling auctioneers.

"Huh...that’s impressive," I clapped silently.

At that point, we heard sounds of people coming into the other booths. It seemed like not everyone stayed for the general auction and just came for the late-night ones. But then, we also heard a bit of commotion in the hallway right outside our booth.

"What happens?"

Jin, the one with an enhanced hearing, glanced toward the door and relayed the information. "Seems like they want to have this booth."

This was how I realized that we were truly in a premium spot: because we had a front view of the table. There were only three booths with this privilege, and the others had to be satisfied with the side view. We did not even choose this place ourselves, so it must be due to the medallion’s limit level.

Once again, I felt the power of my dear husband’s wealth.

"Heraz," I called out softly, but he stepped out from the shadow in the corner and almost made Ian drop his after-dinner coffee.

"Shall I take care of it, Young Master?"

"Only step in if the staff can’t solve it," I raised my hand and pinched the air. "Just a little bit. Let’s not make any commotion."

"By your command."

When Heraz left the room, Zarfa clapped and wiggled her body. "Kyaaah~ our big brother is so keeewl!"

Ugh--this girl. Ahem--anyway, it’s time for the real auction!