The Ring
Various items began appearing on the auction block: a king's sword purportedly recovered from ancient ruins, a cursed lich's grimoire, a fountain pen once belonging to a famous novelist, and more.
'Leviathan, are any of those real?'
{I sense no peculiar energy from them. They are counterfeit.}
Instead of ominous, aura-radiating relics or mystical tools, it was an unending parade of bizarre junk. I watched with a bored, unimpressed scowl.
"Ten thousand gold!"
"Ten thousand gold from Bidder Number 115!"
"Twenty thousand gold!"
"Twenty thousand gold from Bidder Number 64!"
Watching people eagerly bid without realizing the goods were fake made me feel a flicker of pity—which promptly curdled into raw envy.
Look at them, practically drowning in money.
Some of us had to claw through every single day just to survive in a brothel...
Yet as I sat there seething with jealousy, an ingenious idea struck me.
What would happen if I directed my Envy toward a person or an object, rather than a skill or an ability?
'Leviathan, I'm curious about something.'
{The item brought out just now is also a fake.}
'No, not that.'
As Leviathan continued lazily appraising the useless trinkets, I pressed on with my question.
'What happens if I direct my Envy toward a person or an object?'
{That is...}
Leviathan turned toward me, meeting my gaze with a solemn stare.
{Even this one knoweth not.}
'Huh? Why not...?'
{Because this one hath never attempted such a thing.}
It was a surprisingly candid confession.
{Why should this one ever envy the transient relationships or petty possessions of mortals?}
'Then what about an Arcana? That's an object too, isn't it?'
At my retort, Leviathan quietly averted its gaze.
{That is because an Arcana is no mere object. It is a vessel of divine power.}
'A vessel of divine power?'
The Arcana—relics imbued with the might of gods. They were treasures that everyone, from the Demon King and the Hero to the Seven Deadly Sins and ancient evil deities, scrambled desperately to possess. Was there some hidden lore or backstory about the Arcana that I hadn't uncovered yet?
Back when I played Tome of Arcana, I only skimmed through the main beats rather than digging deep into the lore, so I couldn't be sure.
For now, I had to focus on the auction.
{Thou... this one senseth it now. A potent force... the power of an evil god.}
At Leviathan's warning, I shifted my attention to the next lot being brought onto the stage.
It was a ring radiating a faint, dusky black gleam.
{Ah... the Queen?}
'The Queen? You mean the Queen of the Black Forest?'
{Thou... knowest of her?} Leviathan asked, clearly taken aback.
The Queen of the Black Forest—an evil deity in Tome of Arcana whom players encountered along the dark corruption route.
Why on earth was her ring being auctioned off here? Had something happened in the Black Forest?
Swallowing down my questions, I gave a nonchalant reply.
'Yeah, heard about her before.'
Well, technically I'd seen her on a computer screen.
{Thou keepest many secrets.}
'A girl full of mystery is always popular, you know.'
Leviathan narrowed its glowing red eyes in suspicion, but obviously I couldn't just blurt out, "Actually, this world was a video game I used to play!" So I brushed it aside with a smirk.
Regardless, taking another look confirmed it beyond doubt: that was indeed the Queen's ring. It radiated a sinister, oppressive pressure, proudly flaunting its cursed pedigree.
Its inherent ability was to devour and nullify attacks from anyone perceived as an enemy—a localized black hole. Against an overwhelming opponent, it would serve as an absolute defensive trump card. I had to secure it at all costs.
Fortunately, the rest of the bidders seemed oblivious to the black aura wafting off it, their reactions lukewarm at best.
"Next up is a ring unearthed from black ruins deep within the forest! With its deep, lustrous ebony sheen, it would make the ideal gift for your lover! We will start the bidding at a modest ten silver!"
Even the auctioneer had little to say about it, proving that nobody in the room understood its true value.
Which suited me just fine. Cheap and easy.
I raised my paddle. "Ten silver."
"Bidder Number 7, ten silver! Ten silver going once! Any further bids?"
The auctioneer slammed his gavel and declared it sold. I rose from my seat to collect the ring.
{Thou... art thou abandoning the Arcana?}
'As if.'
I have a plan, okay? Just sit back and watch.
After collecting the ring, I slipped into a deserted alleyway and slid it onto the index finger of my left hand.
Slide.
It slipped on seamlessly, fitting so snugly it felt as though my finger had been its destined owner all along.
The very next instant, a malevolent miasma erupted from the metal, surging violently to swallow me whole.
The Queen of the Black Forest.
This was one of her signature powers: Parasitism.
Be it beast, human, monster, or demonkin, anyone who slipped the ring onto their finger would have their flesh hijacked and claimed as her own vessel.
Hah... but you think a mere evil god can overpower one of the Seven Deadly Sins?
I unleashed my own Envy, slamming it directly against the ring's invasion.
I envy that power...
To hijack someone else's flesh and make it your own...
I want another's body too...
Desperately...
More than anything...
Instead of consuming me, the black aura was engulfed by my ravenous Envy, withering away into submission.
At the same moment, a surge of foreign energy coursed through my veins, filling me with exhilarating fullness. It was the familiar sensation that arose whenever Envy plundered an ability.
The question I had pondered earlier in the auction hall was answered. By directing Envy at an object, I could assimilate the latent power sleeping within it and make it my own.
With this, Parasitism is mine.
Creaking under the immense pressure of Envy, fine cracks spiderwebbed across the surface of the ring.
{Thou... was there a need to shatter the ring?}
'I didn't shatter it completely. It can still hold up for one or two uses.'
That way, I could replicate its black-hole nullification ability later when the time came.
See? I told you I had a plan.
Well, stumbling onto Parasitism was a complete stroke of good fortune, but still...
'Let's head back to the auction. Our Arcana is waiting.'
Plus, I needed to test out this brand-new ability.
"Now then! The item we are about to present is the very relic you have all been waiting for!"
The auctioneer's voice boomed across the hall, heralding the grand climax.
'Just made it in time...'
{The Arcana...! It is truly an Arcana...!}
Leviathan could hardly contain its excitement, squirming so violently it nearly burst out from my hair.
"Said to harbor the divine power of the gods! We present... an Arcana!"
The heavy velvet curtains parted to reveal a reinforced glass display case.
Enclosed within was a single card.
Depicted upon it was a wizard clad in ceremonial white vestments and a rich crimson mantle. Around his feet bloomed a garden of immaculate white lilies intertwined with thorny red roses. Above his head rested the symbol of infinity—a Möbius strip—while coiled about his waist was an ouroboros, the serpent biting its own tail.
It was the card bearing the Roman numeral I: The Magician.
"Incredible..."
"Just gazing upon it is intoxicating..."
"That... that belongs to me..."
Murmurs of reverence and greed rippled through the spectators as their eyes remained glued to the card.
"We shall open the bidding at one hundred thousand gold!"
The moment the auctioneer signaled the start, the bidders lunged like starving wolves.
"Two hundred thousand gold!"
"Three hundred thousand gold!"
"We have one million gold!"
{Thou... art thou truly doing nothing?} Leviathan pressed, its tone fraught with anxiety.
'Relax, I told you I have a plan.'
My scheme was delightfully simple: I would use the Parasitism ability I had just plundered from the Queen of the Black Forest on the winning bidder. During the brief moment I hijacked their body, they would hand the Arcana over to me, and I would slip away unnoticed.
'Well? Clean and simple, right?'
{Thou... hadst a cunning design after all.}
Apparently satisfied with the underhanded strategy, Leviathan quieted down and fixed its gaze back on the stage.
I leaned back, scanning each of the frantic bidders while waiting for the dust to settle.
"Fifty million gold."
"F-Fifty... fifty million...!"
Even the seasoned auctioneer sputtered in sheer disbelief, and every pair of eyes in the hall snapped toward a single figure.
A figure cloaked in an immaculate white robe.
The fabric was woven from luxurious, pristine white silk that radiated a distinct aura of sacred purity, and the voice belonging to it was delicate and soft, clearly that of a young woman.
Wait a second...
Isn't she the one who was clapping so enthusiastically while I was juggling earlier?
Thanks to her, I had died of sheer mortification out on that street. What marvelous timing. The price for making a laughingstock out of me would be paid with that shiny new Arcana of yours.
Perhaps feeling the weight of my glare, the white-robed girl turned her head toward me.
Her face was concealed behind an elegant white mask.
Beside my ear, Leviathan let out a low, unsettled hiss.
{...Thou. That one...}
'You know her?'
Leviathan glared at the white robe with undisguised distaste, its crimson eyes narrowing to slits.
{The Saintess...}
'The Saintess?'
{Indeed. That being is the Saintess.}
The Saintess—one of the primary heroines of Tome of Arcana.
By now, she should be living happily as a member of the Hero's harem. Besides, why would the spiritual leader of the Holy Kingdom ever venture all the way here to the Imperial Capital?
What was more:
'She seems a bit too young to be the Saintess, don't you think?'
{And yet... every fiber of this one's essence and consciousness proclaimeth that she is the Saintess.}
'Is that so...? Fine, noted.'
Tearing my gaze away from the white robe—the putative Saintess—I turned back toward the glass case holding the Arcana.
Naturally, no one in the room could match fifty million gold, and the Arcana was knocked down to her without further contest.
Time to make my move.
I was rather curious to see just how well a holy Saintess could withstand my Envy.
"Is it truly an authentic Arcana?" the holy knight inquired of the white-robed figure.
"Yes. The motifs of the sun, moon, and stars carved upon its reverse, and... the unmistakable presence of Goddess Aria's divine might. There is no doubt. This is an Arcana."
She carefully tucked the card inside her robe.
"Then there was good reason not to spare fifty million gold."
"I simply threw down what was necessary to guarantee success."
Following the trace of an Arcana's presence in the Imperial Capital down into the underground auction house had been the right choice.
This was part of the mission entrusted to her by her mother, the Saintess of the Holy Kingdom: to gather as many Arcana as possible and return.
When she had first received the directive, she could feel nothing but bewilderment. It was not that she doubted her mother, but her confusion stemmed from a simpler question: in a peaceful era where the Demon King had already been sealed, why was there any need to reassemble the Arcana?
To her question, her mother had replied:
"My child, the Demon King is not the only horror that threatens this world."
Heeding those solemn words, the white-robed girl had set out on her pilgrimage. And now, she had finally secured her very first Arcana.
Eighteen were in the possession of her father, the legendary Hero.
Twenty remained sealed away alongside the Demon King.
The whereabouts of the rest were completely unknown, lost to time and chaos. Which was why her mother had instructed her to retrieve 'as many as possible,' rather than 'all of them.' Only now did she truly grasp the weight behind her mother's intent.
'Come to think of it... that girl with the eerie aura was in the auction hall, too.'
'She even kept glaring right at me...'
'What a strange child.'
Wholly unaware of the creeping tendrils of Envy unfurling from the shadows behind them, the girl and her knight turned on their heels and walked into the dark.