Underground Auction House and Human Hunters (1)

Raul looked around.

It was Debrick’s secret vault, disguised so well that it could have passed for an ordinary underground cavern.

Lined up inside were so many expensive magic scrolls that they could have turned anyone’s eyes inside out with greed, but...

All of it was nothing more than a decoy.

Raul reached back to the display case his hand had brushed past the moment the message appeared, and placed his palm on it again.

His fingers stopped at the middle of the ornate case, on a shelf handle crusted over with reddish-brown rust.

“Ancient technology...”

So he’d deliberately hidden the artifact under a layer of rust?

He’d never imagined a disguise technique like this existed.

Raul had played the game so obsessively that it was almost impossible to measure, and yet even he had never seen anything like this before.

Without the message only he could see and the passive skill called Ancient Understanding, he would have been fooled too.

Ancient technology.

The more he looked at it, the more monstrous its versatility seemed—far beyond the basic common sense of the game.

Raul always liked discoveries like this, things he hadn’t known he was still capable of finding.

He pried open the hinge connected to the artifact.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

In his palm lay only a rusted, circular bracelet, which he studied with complete focus.

The activation phrase.

From Raul’s experience, an artifact’s activation phrase was the artifact’s own true name.

In the game, he could identify that name with a magnifying glass used to appraise items.

But here...

How am I supposed to find the name in this place?

Raul rubbed a hand over his face and considered several possible solutions, when another message appeared.

“Holy shit...”

Once again, it was Raul’s own unique trait, Ancient One, that had come through for him.

Now that it recognized Raul’s presence, the artifact began to buzz and tremble on its own, flickering with a faint light.

As he stared at it, a piece of knowledge naturally rose clear in his mind.

“Al Lar Girdo?”

With the awkward roll of his tongue, he read out the strange letters, and sparks leapt across the artifact’s surface as the reddish rust flaked away cleanly.

“Wow.”

Raul enjoyed the phenomenon even though he was seeing it for the first time himself.

A new discovery in a familiar place.

That was the primal pleasure that had once pulled him into this world called Exeria.

Once the rust had all been stripped away, what remained in Raul’s hand was nothing more than an ordinary iron bracelet.

But once he spoke the activation phrase?

“Al Lar Girdo.”

The bracelet flashed with its carved runes, and a circular distortion spread around the space Raul stood in.

True to the name Mirror Shield, it seemed to be an artifact that created a barrier which reflected any attack that touched the distortion back at the attacker.

“So it was runes.”

Of course, Raul couldn’t read or write runes—not anything ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠beyond the handful that appeared often in the game.

But the moment his eyes took them in, the meaning, the function, and even the usage method surfaced in his mind as if it were perfectly obvious.

It was definitely not Raul’s own memory.

This body’s original owner. The Saint must have possessed this knowledge as an Ancient One.

It wasn’t exactly pleasant to know there was another person’s knowledge piled up inside his head.

But what was the point of worrying about that now?

Raul decided he was satisfied simply to accept the miracle born from the combined force of the message, Ancient Understanding, and Ancient One’s knowledge.

There were signs that someone had at least maintained the rest of Debrick’s secret vault, but this artifact, hidden as nothing more than a “handle,” was covered in a thick layer of dust.

“...So Debrick’s ancestors obsessed over the decoy scrolls they’d thrown down as bait and completely forgot the real treasure. That’s what happened, huh?”

Raul snorted at the absurdity of it all and slipped the Mirror Shield onto his wrist.

Well, it worked out better for him, anyway.

Those bastards wouldn’t even realize the artifact was gone.

Raul vanished into the shadows, a faint smile touching his lips.

***

By the time the sky had turned violet and twilight finally settled over western Valentia, a heavy tension hung over the district.

The hulking bodies of Cyclops men moved through the streets, clanking with weapons and armor.

Likewise, private soldiers carried the Debrick insignia high as they swept through the city.

Looks like they’ve noticed.

Just as Raul had expected, by dusk the misunderstanding between Cyclops and Debrick had been cleared up, and the two sides had joined forces to search for him.

Too late.

By then, Raul was already mixed into the crowd making its way down a dark alley behind a huge entertainment district in the north-northwest.

“Hold it.”

Just then, a muscle-bound man with the Cyclops insignia stamped large across his face stepped forward.

He stopped the person leading the crowd with a look that was more than a little threatening and swept his gaze over the line of people, clearly searching for someone.

But this group was not the sort to sit quietly for that kind of rudeness.

Tsking sounds and irritated coughs rose from all directions, and the man leading the crowd immediately spoke up.

“Lord Darod. I’m sorry, but these people all have passes. They’re auction participants. If we don’t hurry, we’ll be late.”

Then Darod, who had looked like a savage tiger a moment ago, instantly smoothed over into something almost catlike.

“Ah, my apologies. Please forgive us, honored guests. I hope you have a pleasant time.”

Even he, who was clearly an executive under Cyclops, backed down obediently.

That was what it meant to be able to attend an auction in this western region.

Raul blended naturally back into the moving crowd and headed deep underground.

So long as he had the identity of an auction participant—and the animal mask every participant had to wear backward—there was no one in this city who could identify him.

The underground auction house they arrived at was quite large.

The lights were already kept as dim as possible, though the stage where the goods were to be displayed had been lit brightly.

As rumors had it that nobles from all over the western kingdom came and went here, the whole place radiated a determination to guarantee the participants’ safety.

Works for me.

It made things easier for Raul.

He could roam around the underground auction house without obstruction, and in an instant he mapped out its layout and any hidden passageways.

He filled in the last blank on the escape route he had already prepared.

After checking to make sure no one was watching, he quietly moved behind the stage.

There, sitting alone, was the wagon with iron fittings that would be used to transport the elf slaves as a group after the auction ended.

Raul placed his hand on it and briefly drew up the radiance of Halo.

He left a mark with the one-of-a-kind holy light only a Saint could possess.

Okay.

Now everything was ready.

Once the auction ended and that wagon loaded with elf slaves started moving, he would hijack it and hide it along the broken road he’d marked.

Then he’d take all of them to the Great Forest.

At that point, whether the whole city was looking for me or not won’t matter anymore.

Raul would have crossed the border.

With that rosy future in mind, Raul let a thin smile spread across his face and stepped back outside, avoiding the approaching crowd.

By then, quite a few people had already claimed their seats.

Raul, too, secured a good spot for his plan before it got any later and sat down.

After a little while, someone wearing a rabbit mask sat down beside him.

But Raul couldn’t help staring at the strange figure.

He had no choice.

The rabbit mask next to him was a small man, then an elderly man with white hair, and then suddenly a woman with flowing hair—it kept changing from one form to another.

And no, that wasn’t a joke.

It really was happening.

Two, sometimes three different shapes kept overlapping and breaking apart in front of him.

What the hell is that...?

Frowning, Raul focused holy power into his eyes.

The hazy shapes vanished, and before him appeared a woman with full golden hair, white skin, and a seductively striking body.

But there was a problem.

This woman...

Her ears were long.

She was an elf.

An elf had shown up at the underground auction house where elves were being bought and sold.

What did that mean?

Raul didn’t even need to think about it for long.

Fuck.

Of all the places in the north-northwest, an elf archer had arrived at this underground auction house today to rescue her kin.

“What is it?”

Then a clear voice brushed past Raul.

When he came to himself, an elf with shimmering emerald eyes was staring straight at him.

He had been staring too long.

Raul jerked his head away and said in an awkward tone, “Nothing.”

But this time, it was the elf who began staring at him.

She clearly seemed to be wondering whether Raul had seen through her identity or not.

Of course, he couldn’t let her know that he actually had.

If he did, this elf would carve a refreshing little hole through his throat without a sound.

“Could it be...”

Raul was still trying to think of an excuse, and the elf was just about to speak again when—bang!—all the lights illuminating the audience suddenly went out.

“Thank you for waiting! On behalf of everyone here, I offer my heartfelt gratitude to all of you who have joined Valentia’s secret auction...”

The auction had begun.

As the emcee onstage called out in a loud voice, the surrounding murmur died down as though a mouse had been strangled.

Fortunately, the elf beside him also closed her mouth without protest.

Hah.

He really had just dodged a bullet.

Or maybe not at all.

On second thought, letting that elf run wild like this would be a problem in itself.

As everyone knew, the elves of Exeria were a long way from the words gentle and warm.

If they reclaimed all the slave elves, that meant every human in this place would be killed by their hands.

What do I do?

Raul had intended to head for the Great Forest immediately, but now he was in no position to either openly oppose this elf or simply help her plan.

Unless he personally rescued the slave elves, they would never let him into the forest.

Hmm.

Raul first concentrated holy light into his eyes and swept the entire auction house.

One, two, five, ten.

Even from a quick glance, he found more than ten elves.

There were surely more he hadn’t spotted, which meant their numbers were significant.

Crunch—

Then he heard a sound of grinding teeth from the seat beside him.

Startled, he turned, and saw the emerald-eyed elf from before staring at the stage, her clenched fist trembling violently.

Following her gaze, Raul turned his head and saw an elf being dragged in like a beast, a huge iron chain looped around their neck.

“As for this item, let me tell you...”

The emcee, utterly unaware of the fire burning in Raul’s veins, launched into an eager introduction of the “product.”

Where it had been captured, how used it was, how well it had been broken in...

He rattled off a stream of words that would have turned Raul’s stomach even if he hadn’t been an elf.

That one’s definitely going to die.

Raul could easily see the blazing fury in those emerald eyes.

But seriously—what now?

Once he saw that the elf beside him had already lost interest in him, Raul sank into thought.

How could he make use of the elves that had suddenly appeared so the situation would turn in his favor?

He ran through the information and options at his disposal, working hard to find a countermeasure.

He had assumed that even elves would stay quiet until the auction ended.

But as always, elves proved capable of far more than Raul had imagined.

Whoosh!

With a sound that tore the air, an arrow struck home.

Where?

Right in the emcee’s head, just as he was onstage tapping a slave elf on the skull and spewing perverted jokes.

Raul turned in shock, and there, with his face already flushed red, stood an elf holding a bow.

He hadn’t seen her draw it, hadn’t seen her nock the arrow or pull the string.

This elf...

She was no ordinary archer.

“Aaaah!”

“Elves! It’s elves!”

Screams and shouts erupted one after another from the audience, where people were now babbling like idiots.

“Guards! Guards!”

“What the hell are our family soldiers doing? Get your asses in here now!”

“Elf infiltration! Elf infiltration!”

The auction house turned into chaos in an instant.

But that chaos didn’t last long.

Swish—!

Sha-sha-sha!

A storm of arrows shot like a gust of wind and punished, one by one, anyone who stood up or gaped open-mouthed.

“Nobody move!”

The elves who had been hiding their identities revealed themselves all at once.

As they appeared, soldiers and gang fighters guarding the auction house came surging in like the tide, but the situation still didn’t change.

“Cut them down!”

At the command of the elf who seemed to be their leader, the archers divided the hall ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠into sectors and launched their arrows like trained soldiers.

But those arrows were not ordinary either.

Among the fighters in the auction house was a user of a massive shield, the perfect counter to archers, and that shield-bearer could even wield aura.

And yet—

Bang!

An arrow that caved in that iron fortress of aura in only three shots.

The instant a gap opened, the shield-bearer’s leg was blown away.

There was no doubt it carried aura too.

“Re, retreat! Call for reinforcements—kraaagh!”

The combatants, robbed of all composure by the rain of aura arrows, broke and ran.

Well...

Raul couldn’t say he didn’t understand.

Wrapping aura around a weapon that was already attached to your body was one thing, but wrapping aura around arrows that had already left your body meant the user stood on an entirely different level.

This is really bad.

Raul felt the muscles at the back of his neck tighten.

Those were not just well-trained elf archers.

They were surely the rangers of the Great Forest.

Warriors among the western elves, the elite.

“Alicia! Rescue our people! Elunto, sense the enemy movements! The rest of you, follow me.”

At the leader’s command, more than a dozen elves moved in perfect sync.

The rabbit-mask elf called Alicia looked back at Raul for a moment, then turned and headed toward the back of the stage.

The rest searched through the auction items other than the slave elves as though looking for something, and soon it seemed they found what they wanted, stuffing something into a wide pouch.

“Did you get everything?”

“Yes. What should we do with the rest?”

“They were going to ‘buy’ our people like merchandise. Kill them all.”

That short, quiet exchange turned the auction hall, which had just begun to settle, back into a cauldron of chaos.

Those wearing weapons tried to evacuate the nobles, while others fled wildly toward the surface.

But naturally, the elves’ sharp arrows flew straight for the throats and heads of anyone who moved first.

Soon people were tripping over one another, tangling together in knots that made the whole place look like hell itself.

And the elves, in turn, drew their bows with even deeper looks of disgust.

Their eyes looked as though they were staring at cockroaches.

So even they don’t see humans as people.

Raul watched the human hunters of the Great Forest with a strange look in his eyes.

Yeah...

Before long, a cold killing intent settled into his gaze.

Maybe I should just kill them all.

Raul seriously considered whether he should erase this variable with total extermination, leaving no witnesses behind.

That was when—

BOOM!

From where the watcher called Elunto had been standing, a deafening roar shook the hall, and a cloud of pale dust billowed upward.

“Elunto!”

“Elun!”

As the startled elves narrowed their eyes and aimed their arrows, it burst through the auction house ceiling and crashed down like a bulldozer, slamming into yet another elf.

“Damn it! Don’t shoot. I’ll handle this.”

Detecting the danger, the ranger leader drew his sword and shouted.

He seemed worried that any stray arrows would hit his allies in the thick dust.

No, this isn’t the time to act like you’ve got the luxury...

But from Raul’s point of view, he could vaguely guess the identity of whatever had just appeared, and the elf leader’s judgment was clearly a mistake.

“Such filthy mana. You there. Are you an orc?”

Then the elf leader, approaching the dust cloud, spoke.

And through the murky gray stone dust, a huge figure appeared, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠one hand clamped around an elf’s head.

“I thought some extraordinary bastard had shown up because the lower forms of life were making such a racket, but... were you just these refined elven nobles after all?”

Pallid, gray-white skin.

And two long fangs that protruded even when the mouth was closed.

On top of that, the blue-tinged full-body armor wrapped around the orc from head to toe announced his identity and nature more clearly than any words could.

“...A Frost Steel Orc.”

“And you lot are the lowly race of elves who can’t even breathe properly once you step outside the forest?”

The great tribe that had devoured the northern reaches of Tetra Mountain, the Frost Steel Orcs of the frozen lands.

And the elves, who had long guarded the west of Tetra Mountain as rangers and warriors.

The two races infamous as human hunters glared at each other and sent sparks flying from their eyes.

Raul quietly concentrated divinity at his fingertips, preparing to erase every last one of these variables in one sweep...

Ping—!