Chapter 60
Chapter 60
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 60
Chapter Title: The Sham Auction
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The next morning.
Juliet was standing alone at the entrance to the auction house.
Esselrid and Theo had gotten her an entry ticket, but both were busy with their own matters, so she was going to browse around on her own.
As she handed over her ticket at the entrance and tried to go in, a man dressed in luxurious purple silk blocked her path.
“Excuse me, Lady. Do you happen to have anything to prove your identity?”
Proof of identity?
Juliet tilted her head.
An ID at an illegal auction house.
Why would they need that?
Moreover, she hadn’t needed any such thing when entering Carkason thanks to the Marigold Merchant Group, so she had left behind the ID for “Lily Ann Seneca.”
Juliet blinked slowly.
“I don’t…….”
The man in purple then looked her up and down once. He seemed to be trying to gauge her status from her attire.
‘A striking beauty—I thought she might be someone important, so I asked, but……’
A young lady coming to an underground auction without even a single attendant. It was obvious. She was probably some impoverished noble’s concubine or a naive country girl who loved to play.
Merat, the mid-level manager of the auction house, clicked his tongue inwardly.
He was a veteran in this business, and his specialty was spotting small fry.
Due to the nature of underground auctions, all sorts of flashy but substanceless riffraff swarmed in, so Merat took pride in his skill.
And this young lady before him was a perfect example.
Her face was pretty enough, but her clothes were plain. A young woman with no escort? There was nothing more to see. It meant there wasn’t much to squeeze out of her.
Merat snorted inwardly as he took the entry ticket envelope from Juliet.
But without even opening it, he pretended to gravely scan the guest list.
“Let’s see……. Oh dear. What shall we do, Lady? There aren’t many empty seats today, you see. What would you like to do?”
Juliet tilted her head.
“But I have a ticket.”
“A ticket is just that—a ticket. With so many big-ticket items in today’s auction……. Ahem!”
Juliet, who had been blinking slowly for a moment, then smiled brightly as if she understood.
“Ah, is this enough?”
Juliet flicked a silver coin with her finger.
Pinggrr,
The silver coin flew neatly and landed on the guest list.
“Oh, what in the world……. Ahem!”
The silver coin vanished into Merat’s pocket.
Juliet’s beaming smile was no ordinary one, but Merat, distracted by the coin, didn’t notice.
“You’ll go to Section 3 on the first floor, Lady. I’ll specially guide you to a table seat!”
But that was a blatant lie. Section 3 was the cheapest, most remote seat in the auction house.
“This way, please.”
An attendant boy led Juliet into the auction house. Watching her back, Merat let out a satisfied smile. There wasn’t a trace of guilt on his face.
There was only one rule in this underground auction house.
“The sucker’s the fool.”
Merat hummed a tune, thinking the day had started off great from the opening.
“People really need to use their heads.”
Unaware that this was his worst mistake.
**
Juliet sipped her drink, feeling a bit intrigued as she looked around.
The interior of the auction house resembled a high-class opera house. The red curtains and soft lighting created an air of secretive luxury.
The curtains obscured the view, but there were separate seats on the second and third floors as well.
Like opera house boxes.
The people in the boxes were all dressed extravagantly. Though some wore masks, perhaps to hide their identities.
Meanwhile, the first floor where Juliet sat was like a restaurant with several round tables gathered together.
Her assigned table was in the corner, but Juliet didn’t mind much.
‘I didn’t expect Theo to get me a proper pass in the first place.’
In truth, Merat hadn’t even checked the pass properly and had arbitrarily stuck her in the corner.
Juliet thoroughly surveyed her surroundings, thinking Theo would feel quite indignant if he knew.
The auction format was simple. An item went up on stage, and spectators called out bids in turn.
Just then, the auctioneer announced the next item.
“The next item is…… a Soul Stone!”
What?
Juliet’s head snapped up.
A Soul Stone was an all-purpose item that allowed even those without divine power to wield power. Much like how a mana stone let mana-less people cast magic.
Its only drawback was that it was extremely rare and expensive—and to find one here of all places.
Juliet, who had looked up hopefully, quickly felt disappointed.
The item on stage was just a fist-sized, sparkling white orb.
‘Of course.’
It was an obvious fake.
They were banking on few people recognizing a Soul Stone.
The reason Soul Stones were so rare and costly was that they came from the bones of saints who had amassed great virtue or priests with high divine power.
Moreover, the temples managed such items with ironclad control, making it nearly impossible to obtain one.
It wasn’t something that should ever hit the black market.
The others seemed to realize it wasn’t genuine too, as hardly anyone bid.
The turns passed quickly. As she watched the subsequent items, Juliet got a rough idea of how the system worked.
There were almost no outright fakes like the initial Soul Stone, but about three in ten magic tools were counterfeits or low-quality junk.
‘I wonder about the other holy relics.’
Juliet glanced at the glass shard she had.
‘If I used this, I could tell.’
This holy relic from Robel Temple reflected light when detecting divine power.
Soon, Juliet lost interest and stood up. She had waited in case a monster egg appeared, but it seemed they were at a different auction house.
‘I should let Grandfather know.’
Juliet stood to leave the auction house and head home.
But she must have taken a wrong turn, as she exited through a back side door instead of the entrance she had come in.
‘Huh?’
After wandering a bit, Juliet spotted a suspicious warehouse.
Peeking inside, she was certain it belonged to Merat, the handler from earlier.
The latch was loosely fastened, so she sneaked in and looked around, only to discover something astonishing.
Inside the warehouse were pairs of items that looked exactly identical.
‘Ah, so that’s how it is.’
Juliet shone her mirror shard on two pottery pieces at once and understood the whole scheme.
One side reflected the unique glow of a holy relic with divine power, while the other showed nothing.
One was real, and the other a fake that only mimicked the appearance.
‘Not content with selling fakes at the auction, they show the real one, then deliver the duplicate? And sell the real one again somewhere else with the same trick?’
A classic, low-down scam.
‘But for something like this, catching them in the act would be best…….’
Reporting without preparation could let them deny it or hide the evidence.
As Juliet quietly slipped out of the warehouse, she spotted a familiar redhead staggering between the auction house buildings.
“Theo!”