There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 221 - 215. Night of Contending Wealth (1)

Chapter 221: Chapter 215. Night of Contending Wealth (1)

It’s a common conception to think that people attended the Association’s annual gathering for building connections or sowing agendas. That was true, of course, but the real reason people came was for the event of the third day; the auction.

There were several auction sites in the Eastern Federation, and even more in the continent. There were those established in the black market too. But the one held at every annual gathering was considered to be the biggest of them all.

It was a fixed event, so there was no need to advertise it. The fact that the most prominent and wealthy espers would gather in one place made the supplier and owner of the auctioned goods save their best products for this event. From artifacts to rare potions, even collectible items from the era before the age of the apocalypse.

And only those who participate in the gathering may join the auction. It could be said that the action was one of the tricks the association came up with to make sure as many people participate in the conference as possible.

And it worked.

Even Radia Mallarc, who only showed his face during the opening event, came for the auction.

"You know...for some reason, I always thought an auction is held at night," Dheera commented after they entered the private booth overlooking the auction venue, looking at the numbered medallion in her hand.

While the auction was held in a large conference room, several private booths on the second floor could be rented for an extra charge. Guilds and individuals with wealth to spare liked to use the booth, whether to flaunt their wealth or hide their identity, since the booth was protected by enchanted tinted glass.

"That’s because most of the artifact auctions happen at night, so people can go to work first," Lex explained kindly. He had turned into some kind of tour guide for them, as well as a walking encyclopedia.

The artifact auctions that he mentioned, however, were monthly small regular auctions, where people sold off the random artifacts they got from the Tower. It was mostly normal stuff without incredible functions that people tried to rid of because it didn’t match their class or fighting style.

Such normal artifacts would never fly to be put on display here.

"I see..." Dheera nodded her head seriously. She was the youngest along with Alice, but had a different scale of enthusiasm about new things that didn’t prevent her from even making a comment in front of the executives that were in the same room with her.

There were two tables in their private booth, one situated closer to the railing where they could see the stage and the things for display. The five-star espers and their one and only guide seated there, lounging on a comfortable couch and various kinds of refreshments.

"Are you planning on buying something?" Lex asked the girl, who stared at the screen on one side of the wall which showed the stage in closer proximity.

Dheera shook her head. "No, most of them are artifacts, right? It’s not something that a guide would need more than an esper, right?"

"It’s good to look for defensive tools," Zein said from the other table. "Especially for someone reckless like you."

"Captaaain!"

Zein glanced back with a grin hidden behind his mask. "What? It’s the truth."

"I think you’re more reckless, though," Bassena commented, recalling the way Zein would have zero hesitation jumping into danger if someone’s safety was at risk, despite there being other espers.

Despite how he always said to the guides to never attempt on attacking and looking for the safest way possible.

But old habit died hard, it seemed.

"Hear that?" Dheera stuck her tongue, which nearly gave Nadine a heart attack because she looked as if she did that to the Guildmaster too, since Zein was seated at the same table. It was fortunate that Radia wasn’t the type to get petty for something like that.

It was fortunate that Dheera wasn’t in Celestia.

Zein chuckled at the girl’s comment. Seemed like the helicopter date and the assurance from Radia put him in a better mood. "Isn’t that why I’m here?"

"To look for defensive artifacts?" Rina asked.

"It doesn’t have to be defensive, as long as it’s useful," Zein shrugged.

"But Sir Vaski would probably buy it for you," Lex said, voicing everyone’s thoughts.

Bassena propped his hand on the backrest behind Zein, looking at his assistant with a grin. "Oh, you know me so well, Lex."

"Who do you think I am?"

"My accountant?" the Saint-class smirked, winking at the man whose main job was to clean after all the trouble he caused.

And said assistant could only sigh at the remorseless face. "Yes, and while at it, why don’t you start looking for a real accountant, Sir? Doing your tax is tiring."

"Oh, Alice also doing my tax," Zein said, tilting his head as he thought he might need to really hire someone to manage all of his money, not just the one he used for charity. He never had enough to be taxed before, so Zein was really blind about this kind of thing. Not to mention, he was weak in numbers from the start.

Alice, however, replied nonchalantly. "I don’t mind."

"You traitor--we have to bond in a time like this!" Lex hissed at the girl, who merely shrugged with a subtle smirk.

"But my Boss never caused accidents that needed immediate damage control, so my workload is pretty chill--right?" the girl glanced at Jock, who stood beside the door along with the Guildmaster’s summoned guard.

The man looked up for a bit in contemplation before answering. "It’s definitely easier guarding someone who rarely goes out except for work-related business."

And every time Zein did go out for non-work related business, it was either with Bassena or Radia, so the guarding duty got even easier.

At the vastly different work experience, Lex narrowed his eyes at Bassena and clicked his tongue. "Tsk."

"What? What? Is it my fault that people picking fights with me?" Bassena raised his brow defiantly, not at all acting like the high and mighty Saint-class esper he always tried to portray--another advantage of staying in the private booth.

Nadine and Dheera had grown accustomed to this side of Bassena after a few days of staying in the same hotel, although they were quite in shock the first time they saw Bassena being all clingy and drowsily acting like a baby koala to Zein during breakfast. But nothing surprised them more than Zein letting the esper do that, even indulging it more. They caught Zein called the esper ’baby’ before and it took them a whole breakfast time to recover from that.

Of all things, they never expected Zein to be the one using a pet name.

All of those unexpected things only proved that those people were still human, despite their prowess. And it lightened up the mood between the groups as they go through the conference. Especially for Dheera and Nadine, so they didn’t have to be so nervous in front of the five-stars.

Their merry banter, however, had to end as the host came up to the stage. "Sush," Radia stopped Bassena and Lex from arguing further and they started to pay attention to the auction.

There weren’t many interesting items at the start, just slightly better than the ones available at the usual auction. But it was still a much better spread of items, the level of which people would buy for a gift, or something that regular espers from mid-low guilds could buy.

Zein did not find anything he liked from the first batch catalog, but upon hearing the range of the end price, he decided he could afford one or two things.

"Dheera, you can choose something if you like," Zein told the girl, who almost tripped from her chair. "You too, Alice, Nadine."

"What? Really, Captain?" the girls looked at Zein with widened eyes.

The stuff in the first batch indeed had the cheapest starting bid, and since most of the people who bid for them were from the medium to the small guild, the increment wasn’t much. But still, it wasn’t something that could be bought easily with a regular paycheck--maybe if they saved their salary for a few months, but...

"I told you this trip is a reward," Zein just replied casually, pointing toward the catalog. "Choose, before it got snatched by others."

Because the girls worked with Zein a lot, they knew the man did not like giving orders twice, and immediately looked at the catalog.

"I don’t even go inside the dungeon, though..." Alice muttered, feeling out of place as she looked into the artifacts, potions, and antiques. After all, she was just a normal non-awakened.

"There’s nothing wrong with health-related stuff," Rina gave her suggestion. "Even one with the slightest effect would provide tremendous benefits for civilians."

And with that, the usually expressionless and stoic girl let out an excited face for the first time, and huddled together with the other girls over the catalog like they were about to go shopping.

"I see, you have to choose your boss carefully," Lex nodded as he watched them, and Bassena scoffed in response.

Well, Lex said that, but Bassena always paid him handsomely from his own pocket, aside from sending his brother to the academy, so it was all in good-natured jest. In regard to how they treated people who worked for them, whether it was Bassena or Zein, they resembled Radia in a lot of aspects. They were soft for those who did well, and ruthless for those who did not. It sounded simple, but strangely enough, not many could do. A lot of people were only capable of either being too soft or being ruthless all the time, like Celestia.

Lex especially, during his information gathering, found out that Celestia’s internal situation had been more chaotic. With a guild as big as Celestia, there were many stakeholders in the management, and thus many factions. There were rumors that the current Guildmaster was at odds with the previous management’s values, and had been trying to reform the whole guild.

He had no idea, however, if this situation was something that would help or hinder Trinity in winning the project. After all, the one who put that Guildmaster in check before was the other factions in the management. But if those factions were getting purged...

He glanced at his own Guildmaster. Well...if Radia looked this relaxed, there was no point for him worrying about things. And if Celestia was shrouded in internal war, Trinity might gain benefits from it.

Or so he thought, but the war was happening even faster than he predicted.

Of course; he almost forgot that this was an auction. It was another battlefield where people fight with each other for an object using money.

This time, a three-way war was happening between Trinity, Celestia, and Azure for one single item. And the strangest of it all; they had the same targeted recipient.

"You guys are insufferable..." Zein groaned on his couch.

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