Bunny Girl Evolution (BOOK 2 COMPLETE) (STUBBED!)
110 – The Auction Finale

“What are you talking about?” asked Elise.

“Don’t play dumb,” said the duke. “I’ve had plenty of experience with your kind. But you don’t have to worry. I have nothing against you. In fact, I will be working closely with some other fey in the near future. I just thought it was fascinating to meet one by chance like this.”

Probably not by chance, thought Elise.

“Are you with Ostra, by the way?” he continued.

“Maybe,” said Elise.

“It’s a good thing your group did, by the way. Taking out the Blood Syndicate, I mean. They’ve been a thorn in our side for a while, but we couldn’t even find their base of operations, let alone sneak people in to take them down.”

“...Thank you.”

Elise suppressed a smile and a blush.

“By the way,” she continued. “When you said you would be working with other fey in the future, what did you mean?”

“That’s classified.”

“Fair enough.”

Elise figured she would get an answer like that, but she still held a bit of hope she would get some useful information. The man in front of her was a duke in Jelor in charge of secretive operations, and he was going to be working with fey in the near future. It didn’t take a genius to connect the dots between that and the school initiative that Freddy was talking about. She had a feeling that she would be seeing more of him in the future, though she would be under a different name.

“Well, it was a pleasure to meet you,” said the duke. “I’m going to pay you now, if you don’t mind. I’d rather not get hit with whatever curse you set up.”

“It would just be a brief bout of sickness,” said Elise as he started producing leather pouches from a ring on his middle finger. “Nothing too uncomfortable or permanent.”

“Still, I’d rather not have a chance of experiencing it,” said the duke counting pouches. “Each of these have 50 gold. There are 20 here. And here…” he summoned a sheet of paper and pen and started writing it. “Once you get the books, you can send them here.”

Elise looked at the paper, which had what looked like an address and a password before sending it into her own storage device.

“Thank you,” she said. “I’ll send them as soon as I can.”

Elise wondered why she couldn’t just hand them over when she got them after the auction, but she assumed that the answer would be obvious enough that it would betray her ignorance, so she just nodded and smiled.

“I won’t keep you any longer,” said the duke. “This intermission isn’t too long anyway. You may return to your seat.”

“Thank you,” said Elise, bowing slightly. “I’m glad this worked out so well.”

“As am I.”

With that, Elise took her leave, and the servant guided her back to her balcony where she waited until the auction began again. Franz didn’t arrive until the very last moment, right as the auctioneer began speaking again, and he looked ever-so-slightly disheveled. Through {Sense Emotions}, Elise could also tell that he was feeling differently than he did before, though she still couldn’t tell exactly what he was feeling. Excitement? Anxiety? Fear? She had no idea, but it felt more intense than what he was feeling earlier, so she knew he had done something.

“Welcome back,” said the auctioneer. “I hope you all used the restroom if you needed to, because you’re not going to want to leave your seats for this next part of the auction. As promised, we will begin by selling two more of the items from Carsas. However, if you think you have some idea about what they might be, I’m afraid you’re most likely wrong. If the theme of the first half’s items was natural resources, then the theme of these items is unnatural resources.”

The auctioneer paused with a satisfied expression on his face as murmurs spread throughout the room. Elise even sensed Franz’s emotions change as he leaned forward in interest.

“That’s right,” he continued. “On the wild continent of Carsas, evidence of an ancient civilization was discovered. And when I say that, both ‘evidence’ and ‘ancient’ are extreme understatements. An entire ruined city was discovered, and its size rivals that of even Jelor City. And the earliest analysis dates this city as being pre-System.”

Even Elise’s eyes widened at that, as the only other time she had ever heard of anything pre-System was when Hallbjorn told her about Astrid’s Star. She idly fidgeted with the chain around her neck as the announcer continued speaking.

“Unfortunately, the current expeditionary forces have yet to make it very far into the city. The reason happens to be the same as the leading theory as to why such a large civilization fell so quickly. The entire city is within the highest-level spawn zone in the known world. The mana density is so high monsters are able to spawn in at 8th tier. On top of that, many of them are varieties that we are completely unfamiliar with. To date, of the 500 explorers sent to scout the city, only 80 were able to return.

“The 80 that did return though brought with them some very interesting artifacts, and I’m certain that all of you will see their value soon, as the first item is one of them.”

The murmurs returned and swelled to a low rumble as another covered cart was wheeled out.

“This item was found in the ruins of what is believed to have been an old smithery. There were a number of other items also found, but most were either too damaged for sale, or were claimed by others before we could get our hands on them. This one was quite damaged as well, actually, but fortunately, none of its functionality was hindered, so we were able to hire an 8th tier dwarven blacksmith to refurbish it.

“The functionality of this artifact is nothing special. It creates a shield around the user, just as any other defensive artifact would, and its power is only at the level a low 7th tier craftsman could create. However, it does come with a few useful features that make it a cut above other defensive artifacts. First, due to being a pre-System device, skills like {Appraise} do not work properly on it, and it registers as a simple piece of mundane jewelry. Second, for the same reason, it also cannot be disabled by skills that usually disable artifacts, so it is guaranteed to function regardless of circumstance, as long as it is fully charged on mana.”

He waved his arm behind him, and the woman by the cart lifted the cloth off the case to reveal a golden hair clip inlaid with some red gems. It was a little bit underwhelming, and looked rather simple, but Elise supposed that was more of a feature than an issue.

“The enchantment is held within the largest gem,” continued the auctioneer. “With a high-leveled craftsman, it can be reworked into just about any form. As you can see, it is currently in the form of a hairband, but it can be easily made into a bracelet, necklace, brooch, cufflink, or any number of other forms. The starting price is 3000 gold. Bidding starts now!”

Perhaps Elise was just jaded due to her own pre-System artifact, but she thought that the audience reaction was a bit disproportionate compared to its quality. Similar artifacts had been sold in the first half of the auction, but without the pre-System features, and they hadn’t even reached this item’s starting price. Meanwhile, this one looked like it would sell for more than 10000 gold. Even Franz was bidding on it. In fact, he seemed to be one of the ones most interested in it, based on what happened when the bid actually did reach 10000.

“12000!” he shouted, raising his paddle.

The crowd was shocked by him raising the bid by a full two thousand, and many of those who had been bidding seemed to give up on that point. Not all though. One overweight man on a balcony across the room shot Franz a confident smile before he spoke up as well.

“15000!”

Idiot, thought Elise.

Franz gave up, feigning disappointment after that, but Elise could sense that his emotions hadn’t changed, and as she observed him, she saw some subtle signs that he was actually pleased with the outcome. No one else tried to outbid the overweight man, and that round ended with the item going to him.

“How much was that actually worth?” whispered Elise.

“Pardon?” said Franz.

“You were trying to get him to overspend, right?” she asked. “How much would it have gone for if he didn’t do that?”

Franz gave her a look of newfound interest before responding.

“No more than 13000, I’d say,” he replied. “Though it could probably be sold for more than that to the right buyer. There are plenty of wealthy nobles and businessmen who are not present who would gladly purchase such a thing for their wives or daughters.”

“I see,” said Elise.

She stopped her questioning there. She couldn’t figure out exactly why Franz would want the other man to overspend on the artifact. She couldn’t figure out how he benefited from him spending more money, unless he was after something later in the auction that he wanted to be able to outbid the other man on.

Whatever his plan was, she had no way of finding out, so she turned her attention back to the auction as the auctioneer began speaking again. The next item was another ancient artifact, this one found in a ruined mansion. At first glance, it was a stylized painting of a small enclosed garden, but it was actually a spatial device that one could enter. As with other pre-System artifacts, it did not register as a magical device. It ultimately sold for just over 10000 gold, and then the auction moved back to the already known items.

The next hour passed by quickly, with item after item being brought out and sold. These items were significantly more valuable than the ones from the first half of the auction, and even with all the money Oberon had given her, Elise would not have been able to win more than a few of them. She did bid on a few items, but every time, they always went for more than she was comfortable spending.

Franz bid on quite a few items, and though he was regularly among the final two bidders, he almost never won. Elise also found his choice of items a bit odd, as there was no rhyme or reason to them. She assumed this was part of whatever con he was currently running, but she still couldn’t figure out how.

When the grand finale came around, Elise was getting a bit anxious that nothing bad had happened yet. The duke had found her out, which was a little stressful, but wasn’t actually a problem. Franz was suspicious, but beyond whatever he had done during the intermission, he hadn’t done anything suspicious either. As the bidding for the portable library began, Elise was beginning to think that she would be able to return to the castle after a relatively uneventful event. Then, the library sold, and it was time for the final item from Carsas.

“And now, it’s time for the item you’ve all been waiting for,” said the auctioneer. “The final item from Carsas. An item so valuable that we’ve placed the starting price at 10000, and we expect the ultimate sale to be for far more than that.”

As he spoke, a large cart was wheeled out with a covered case the size of a refrigerator.

“This item was found deep underground in a vault within the ancient city,” the auctioneer continued. “As with the other items, it is another pre-System artifact, though unlike the others, we’re not entirely sure what it is.”

He waved a hand, and the woman by the cart pulled the cloth away, revealing a pedestal holding a large, pitch black box. There was a thin line going around the box near the top where it looked like the lid was, but there was otherwise no decoration or variation in the smooth black surface.

“This was found in what is believed to have once been a bank of some kind. There were many other vaults around, most holding precious metals and other treasures. However, this item perplexed not only the explorers who found it, but also the researchers they brought it back to, and even our very own Madame Hawke. None were able to open it, and even when we got a bit more desperate and tried some more… destructive techniques, none of them managed to leave even a scratch.

“This box is nearly indestructible, and thus far has proven impossible to open, so we haven’t the faintest clue what’s inside. However, given the location of its discovery and how well it withstood the test of time, we can only assume that whatever is inside is quite valuable. Additionally, it is impossible to put it into any kind of spatial storage, indicating that it itself is a spatial storage device of some kind. Of course, we have also considered the possibility that it is empty, but in that case, should you find out how to open it, you will have what is quite possibly the most secure storage unit in the entire world, and that alone is well worth it.

“As mentioned, bidding begins at 10000. Do I hear 10000?”

As the bidding frenzy began, Elise sat in stunned silence. Given everything she knew about her current role, she had had a feeling that one of the items from Carsas was the thing she was supposed to get, but none of them had really jumped out at her. Not until now. This time was different.

More than just her instincts, it was like something deep inside her wanted that box. No, needed that box. She almost wanted to jump off the balcony right then and fly toward it. She was somehow certain that if she could get to it, she could open it.

However, the bidding was rapidly increasing. She wouldn’t have enough. It was already at 20000 and showed no signs of slowing down. She raised her paddle to bid 22000, but was almost immediately outdone by one of the people in the uppermost balconies raising it directly to 25000, her upper limit.

If Oberon wants me to get this, it should be fine for me to buy on credit though, right? she thought, scratching anxiously at her chest.

She bid again at 30000, and then again at 35000, and only then did the bidding start to slow. At 39000, it finally seemed ready to stop, so Elise bid one final time.

“40000!” she called, raising her paddle.

“40500!” someone countered.

“42000!” Elise said.

“42000 from Lady Wagner!” said the auctioneer. “Do I hear 42500? 42000 going once! Going twice! Sold!”

There was a large round of applause as Elise relaxed slightly, at which point she realized that she was standing up and partly leaning over the railing. Many of the people around her were giving her odd looks, and after a moment, she felt mortified and retreated back to her seat. Even Franz was looking at her strangely.

What did I just do?!