Chapter 89: The Auction (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
He had had the same feeling while reading the formula of Awakening Potion. The formula itself had no secret, but it was the arrangement of runes and words that made Angele feel like those formulas were from the ancient times.
The strange feeling only occurred when Angele was reading the formula with his eyes, and he did not feel anything while checking it in the chip’s storage.
He stared at the formula for a while, but could not come to any conclusion. Putting the formula back, he pushed the book into the shelf. He applied some negative energy particles onto the book, so only Wizards would be able to open it without getting hurt.
‘This place is not safe enough, I probably need to find a new place to live. I can still use the shop to sell the potions I crafted and make some good money off it.’
The shop was quiet and nice, but Angele thought security was a major issue. Also, he had a lot more equipment and materials that needed a larger storage space.
The brown bookshelf had two levels. The first level had all the books in it, and two boxes were sitting on the second level. The smaller one had the red pearls Angele had obtained through the school missions. He took the other, the large black one, off the shelf with many strange lines and runes drawn on its surface.
Angele opened the box carefully. There were two beating hearts inside it, and the strange-looking hearts were glowing due to all the green flames raising out of them.
“Hearts of Glowing Elephants… I can make them into enchanted items, but I feel like it’s a waste. I don’t think I’ll find anything like them again,” Angele mumbled. “If I have all the necessary information, I should be able to use them for the cores of my servants.”
Angele shook his head and grabbed the two hearts.
‘Zero, do you have a better plan than making them into enchanted items?’ he inquired.
‘Analyzing…
Enchantment Plan A: Low-level enchanted items.
Enchantment Plan B: One-time enchanted items.’
‘One-time enchanted items… I never thought of that. Are they powerful?’ Angele asked.
‘They will be 12.7 times more powerful than low-level enchanted items.’
Angele narrowed his eyes. ‘I will make one low-level enchanted item first. If I can succeed in the first try, I will be able to…’
‘Mission created, time required: 7.12 days. Energy consumed: 11.4 degrees. Mentality consumed: 9.’
*****************
Ten days later…
Night.
Carriages filled up the parking lot in front of the Mincola Auction Market of Lennon City, and many nobles were entering the auction market.
Two heavily armored swordsmen were guarding the entrance of the market. The other guards beside were well-trained and were bowing to the customers who entered through the gate.
A white carriage slowly stopped by the side of the street but did not enter the parking lot. A man with a pretty face opened the door and jumped off the carriage. He was wearing a black suit with a decorative silver chain on the right side of his chest; he looked gentle and quiet.
Another man with short brown hair got off the carriage as well. He was wearing a white tight suit, and it almost looked like he was showing off his strong muscles. The man was glancing around the crowd, and the others were all trying to avoid eye contact with him. They felt uncomfortable just by looking at the man. Their instincts told them that he was dangerous.
“Tinos, I’m in the middle of an important experiment, and the urgent matter you said was the auction?”
Angele was a bit disappointed. He stopped looking around and stared at Tinos.
“You know we missed the last auction due to my injury, but we won’t miss this time.” Tinos smiled. “Angele, my brother already took care of the spies from Snake of Sand Forest in the city, and their family properties are being auctioned here. Those people were rich, and they had a lot of collectibles. I think there might be something valuable to you so I asked you to come. Today is the only day that you can place bids, so it is actually urgent.”
He looked at Angele and winked.
Angele shuddered and backed off a bit immediately.
“Well, I hope so. Did you find any decent house for me?”
Angele walked toward the gate of the auction market.
“I thought you forgot about it already. I found a nice manor several days ago. It is remote, and I heard there are ghosts living in it. Buyers backed off after hearing the rumors, so the price is great. I think that one fits your requirements,” Tinos answered.
“I’ll take it then,” Angele said. “Ghosts may be scary to the normal citizens, but they are no problem for me.”
“True.” Tinos nodded.
He caught up and entered through the gate with Angele. Several nobles ahead of them turned around and greeted them. Most of the nobles in the city knew Tinos, and they had seen Angele talking to Harland many times, so he became famous too.
Tinos scorned. “When the Glowing Elephants were threating the citizens’ lives, only the Knights in the army decided to help, while those nobles did not even provide any resources for the mission. The only thing they know is to purchase expensive decorations to make their houses look better. Without me and my brother, I can’t even imagine what this city would become.
“There are three major power holders in Lennon: me, my brother, and our father. Besides us, there is a dwarf Knight, who’s the leader of the infantry. When the citizens were attacked by the Glowing Elephants, he did not send even a single soldier because he wanted to make sure none of his people died. I doubt they could have dealt with the Glowing Elephants if we weren’t here.”
After the mission, Tinos became much closer to Angele and started to talk about all kinds of events with him.
“Really?”
Angele had wondered why they had only sent a small team to deal with such dangerous beasts, and it seemed the soldiers with them thought it was an easy mission. They probably trusted the Grand Knight Harland too much, or Harland just took whoever volunteered to come with him. It seemed he was not in control of the whole army.
They walked down the hallway. The floor was covered by a red carpet, and there were oil lamps hanging on both sides of the wall. Solid fat was burning inside them, and there were more than enough lamps to make the place bright.
Angele could smell the incense in the air.
They reached a large hall after walking down the hallway.
There were many chandeliers hanging on the roof, and there were rows of red chairs in the hall. Many customers were already sitting, so the place was a bit noisy.
There was a large sign standing beside the auction block, which said ‘Mincola Auction’ in Anmag. The words were very well written. It was almost like they had asked someone to write the words in a special way.
“Come, let’s go to my private room.”
Tinos led Angele to the left, where they entered a door and saw a staircase. They went up two floors and reached a door by the end of the corridor. A maid in red was standing there. She bowed after seeing Angele and Tinos coming.
“Only I have access to this room,” Tinos explained, smiling.
After entering the room, Angele found himself at the top left corner of the auction hall. There was a large glass wall in front of him through which he could easily survey the whole hall.
There were a large sofa and several red leather chairs in the room. A large piece of white high-quality carpet was on the floor, and an incense stand was on a rectangular table. There were three incense sticks burning on the stand, and the smoke coming from the tip of the sticks made the room smell good.
“Do you like it? You can see everything in the hall from here.” Tinos sat on the sofa and laughed.
The maid brought them water and some high-quality fruit wine. She bowed and left the room quickly after depositing everything on the table. Angele poured himself some wine and shook the glass lightly. The fruit wine was green, and he could smell the fragrance of fruits. It was fall, so it seemed the maid had heated the wine a bit. Angele thought it was great to have something like this on a cold day.
“There is another reason I asked you to come here.” Tinos had a mysterious smile on his face. He stretched his legs and lied on the sofa, Angele just could not stop considering him as a ‘lady’.
He had that strange uncomfortable feeling again and decided to stop staring at Tinos.
“What do you mean?”
“Two families will be fighting for their names here. They are almost done, and it is a story full of love and hate. The two families are enemies of each other, but their son and daughter fell in love.” Tinos chuckled.
“A young leader of the family decided to sacrifice the family’s fame for the girl he loved, but he failed, and his name was removed from the genealogy. However, the young man took the most important item in the family and sent it to this auction, so this put a price on his head. At the same time, this item is what the girl from the other family needs. I think she will be here tonight and try to save her love from the danger. She will try to convince the young man to cancel the auction of the item, but the young man’s family has already set up traps everywhere around here. How touching...” Tinos wiped off the non-existent tears from his face and faked a sad impression.
“Yea, yea. Touching love story. How beautiful.”
Angele was speechless. He stood up and walked toward the glass to check the situation down below. He sipped some wine. It was smooth as silk, and he could barely feel the liquid going down his throat, but there was still a distinctly sweet flavor of the fruits in his mouth.
Angele closed his eyes, enjoying the apple-like flavor.
“I don’t care about things like this. The only thing I care is if I can find something useful to me.”
“You will, don’t worry.” Tinos yawned.