The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 599: Bidding is easier if you treat your entire wealth as a spending money

Chapter 599: Bidding is easier if you treat your entire wealth as a spending money

Whether it was the auction house’s excellence or Heraz’s presence, the commotion soon ended. As a bonus, the auction house even sent us more refreshments as an apology.

"It seems like they are usually staying in this booth?"

"In a place where money plays, one’s rank is easily changeable," Zarfa shrugged. "It just means your account has a higher limit than theirs."

"Hmm..."

"But the only one who would know is the auction house, so it’s easy for them to think it’s unfair," Fatia explained further. "After all, everyone here has a platinum medallion. They probably didn’t think there was anyone wealthier than them here."

I glanced at her curiously. "Do you know them?"

"The voice sounds like one of the nobles," there was a bit of underlying scoff in Fatia’s seemingly calm response.

"Is it rare to have a platinum medallion?" I asked curiously. I knew Zarfa didn’t have it, but she was relatively new in this kingdom, so...

"The minimum balance is one billion gold," Zarfa said, and some people were coughing at the next table.

I...didn’t really comprehend how much that would be. It had been two years since I was taking care of my own financial situation, and to be fair, at that time I was just throwing money for painkillers and information since I couldn’t be bothered to understand how much money I should spend.

Having numbered days had that kind of effect, you know.

Or perhaps I just became too desensitized about the value of money. Who knows.

"Even that much is difficult to maintain. But like I said, it’s a minimum," Zarfa shrugged. "There’s no tier above that, so someone could have ten times that amount in their account. The only one who might be wealthier than the platinum medallion owner is the royal family, so there’s no need to make another tier."

"I see..."

"On that note," Aina scooted to my side and peeked at me while holding the armrest. "How much you have in there, Boss?"

Saying I didn’t know would look irresponsible, wasn’t it? So I just muttered ’enough’ and the girl raised her thumbs with sparkling eyes.

Well, I would trust the ’no limit’ thing the director told Natha. At any rate, I have faith in my husband’s immense wealth.

"Well, getting placed here means we’re in the top three among the people who come today," Zarfa giggled. "Oh, it’s starting!"

Seemed like everyone was finally seated in their booth, and the auctioneers bowed politely to start the auction. Different from the general auction, where the auctioneer was cheerful and full of energy, talking loudly to encourage more bidding wars, this time the auctioneers were calm and spoke more like a curator.

They brought in the item with a golden tray and covered it in a velvet cloth, treating each and every item like a piece of art. Well, those items were indeed rare and precious, so careful treatment was to be expected.

The first item that interested us was the weapon we had discussed earlier. The vote went to a dagger, but none of us guessed right.

"A whip!"

We gasped--for different reasons. I gasped because I never thought it would be a whip, and the other gasped while looking at Renna.

"I think it’ll be perfect for Renna," Zarfa wiggled her brows.

"She used a whip?"

"Whips and ropes and such," Zarfa smirked. "Kinky~"

"Zarfa!" Fatia, the model student, scolded our mischievous girl. I would too, if Jade hadn’t fallen asleep from boredom.

Jokes aside, we should get it if it was useful, so I nodded at Zarfa. But Renna waved her arms in panic.

"Oh, no--I couldn’t!" she shook her head. "It’s by Master Blacksmith Welch! There’s no way--"

Pfft--she even knew who made that whip, so she must have been fantasizing about owning it at least once like a little girl would dream of their wedding dress. I exchanged glances with Zarfa and grinned, before the girl calmly put her hand over the bidding device and raised it.

Hicc! Renna clasped her mouth as a hiccup escaped her lips. And as the price kept on rising and rising, her hiccup did not stop.

"Oh...hicc!" she fidgeted nervously, moving her eyes from the whip to me several times as if she couldn’t decide between her dream weapon and leaching off me. "Oh, no..."

At any rate, we get the weapon. Rather easily, if I could say so. Perhaps because a whip wasn’t something that a lot of people used--like swords, for example. People bid for it more for the collection value since it was made by a legendary blacksmith. It didn’t even touch ten million, so I guessed it wasn’t too bad.

"Wow~it makes my material seem like a roadside pebble, don’t you think?" Aina nudged Ian.

"I guess my armor is just a discounted vest..."

What mischievous kids.

The teasing made Renna tremble and gasp. She couldn’t close her mouth when the item was delivered to her trembling hands, and she looked at me with round eyes and a pallid face.

"Just work as hard as the price of that whip," I told her with a laugh. I mean, that was our objective in this auction, wasn’t it?

"Of...of course! Yes! I will do that!"

She stood up and bowed deeply several times until I told her I would confiscate it if she didn’t stop. That got her to sit still in her seat while hugging the whip tight as if worried I might change my mind any time.

Well, I reckoned the whip acted like a literal ’whip’ now, if I could command obedience just by the mention of it.

Whoops--unconsciously, I started to treat money as a collar for people. Ahem...was this the effect of marrying the Lord of Money--I mean, Greed?

Anyway, we did not act greedy and only bid on something we really needed. Not because of the money, but because it would be annoying if the others started to attack and outbid us just to inflate the price for the things we really wanted.

They bought out an endlessly flaming rock an adventurer found in the crater of a dead volcano, which made Ignis flick its tail on Zarfa’s hand like a whip, ordering the girl to bid quickly.

We also found a dense magic stone that almost made Jade drool. We did bid for it, but not for the disappointed little bird. We let Fatia have it for her staff, and I promised Jade a big ball of purified mana later as a compromise.

Aina almost shrieked in happiness when a rare alloy came out, and looked at me with sparkling eyes while kneeling beside me. Pfft--we bid for it just for the fact that she was cute and very honest about her desire.

"Oh, this one..."

We finally reached the last five items, and there was something in the next item’s description that intrigued me. It said something about ’a memory of a fallen kingdom’, and it triggered me. Of course, there were also fallen human kingdoms, but the description was written in green ink and...

Seemed like too much of a coincidence, don’t you think?

And what do you know--

"Here we go--item number sixteen!" the staff pulled the velvet cloth covering a glass case protecting a statuette of a tree with thirteen jewels in the shape of leaves adorning it. "A decorative piece rumored to be dug out of the druid palace’s drawing-room!"

It really was what I thought it would be. My inheritance.

"V-Val..."

"Hmm..."

I could feel their concerned eyes. Except for Renna, everyone knew my story, after all. A sliver of heat crept into my shoulder and talked beside my ear. "I can snatch it off if you want."

"No," I smiled lightly and stroked the blazing light blue flame. "Let’s not make innocent people’s life miserable."

Well, of course, I was irritated. It was something that should be in my hand without any cost. But I couldn’t just stomp my feet to the auction house and demand they hand the item to me. Auction houses only acted as a middlemen, after all. If I wanted to get angry, it should be to whoever acquired it in the first place and put it up for auction.

The Salamander scoffed and flicked its little tail indignantly, but I managed to avoid an arson. "Are you going to bid, then?"

I leaned back and thought about it for a bit while the bidding started, stroking the sleeping bird on my lap to soothe myself. If I had to be honest, it was hard. Just like Ignis, I wanted the item to be in my possession without having to make the seller richer. For a second, I had this thought of letting someone else win and taking the item afterward, but...

It felt wrong, and we didn’t have any time.

Taking a deep breath, I thought about the items Natha got for me before I employed Tsalinade. Natha also had to get them from auctions and black markets before. Certainly, he used his own money for that. Thinking like that eased the heaviness in my heart a little bit and helped me make a decision quickly.

"Let’s not be too eager. Just bid calmly, Ceci."

"Okay," Zarfa nodded and gauged the situation before entering our bid at the right time and small increment to not show that we were eager. "We can trace where it comes from if you want."

"That’ll be nice."

I leaned back and closed my eyes as the price went higher and higher. It touched a hundred million at one point, but I raised my hand and told Zarfa to continue. It might look like a ’decorative piece’ for the humans, but that statuette meant a lot to a druid. The thirteen leaves must have symbolized the tribes, and the tree was the palace--or rather, the Great Tree Alveitya. I had to pat my left arm soothingly to prevent my spear from coming out in anger, but eventually, we won with persistence.

"Phew--thankfully, it’s not something wearable, so it slowed down after reaching a hundred million," Zarfa let out a sigh of relief. "But...you’re okay with it?"

I shrugged. I was given a platinum medallion with at least a billion gold inside, right? The total so far hadn’t even touched two hundred million yet, so it should be alright.

I didn’t want to dwell on it too much, so I shifted my attention to the brochure again. "I guess the main item is the relic, right?"

Zarfa smiled wryly for a second before burying it just like I wanted. She nodded and replied cheerfully. "Logically."

"What will it be? I can’t really guess from this description alone..."

Actually, no one could, and we delved into another discussion and guessing game, getting rid of the statuette I just won from our head. Skipping a gaudy-looking necklace, Zarfa bid for a beautiful hand fan for herself--this time with her own money--before the highlight of the auction appeared.

This time, the auctioneer didn’t even bother to hype it up, because everyone was hyped already. Just knowing it was a relic was enough, and the moment the cloth was pulled, everyone gasped.

Except me, who narrowed my eyes in confusion.

It was...a bead? A translucent bead like a smooth, perfect-looking big pearl.

"That’s--"

Everyone was gasping and widening their eyes. But...why?

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.