Masquerade Ball (5)
Once we were finished, I used spirit energy to evaporate every last remnant scattered across the room and wipe the place clean. For the record, I restored the Chairman's torn dress with the all-purpose supernatural power of Yongan.
I had just wrapped up the cleanup when, as if on cue, staff members filed into the black market — it seemed the event was finally getting underway.
"Ah! Were you waiting here already?"
"Yeah, something like that."
This was the kind of place where admitting we'd just been going at it wouldn't have raised a single eyebrow, but I brushed it off all the same.
"If you follow where the bracelet guides you, we'll have some light refreshments prepared."
The staff bowed and moved in perfect unison behind the red curtain on the stage. That was probably where they kept the auction lots and whatever else the employees needed to get ready.
Woom—!
The black bracelet on my right wrist trembled lightly and tugged me gently forward.
"Ohh! That's neat."
I followed the bracelet, which shook hard enough that I could read the direction of its pull, and found a round table with a pair of luxurious red leather chairs set out for two. So this was where the Chairman and I would be sitting for the auction.
"This way, my lady."
I guided the Chairman softly into one of the leather chairs, then flopped down into the other. The instant I sat, a softness so exquisite it defied description wrung a gasp of delight out of me. You could really tell this casino had thrown money at every last little detail.
"Hehe..."
The Chairman watched me with an amused, fond little smile, as if she found the whole thing adorable.
"Pardon the interruption."
Before long a staff member approached our table and laid out simple food and drinks. Well — they only looked simple. The taste was so good I wanted to smuggle some home.
I was stuffing my mouth with cheese and crackers when participants began filing in through the entrance, finding their seats the same way I had, guided by those faintly trembling black bracelets. Dozens of them streamed into the black market, and once every last participant had taken a place at a table—
Click.
A figure popped out from between the red curtains on the stage, and a crisp, ear-catching voice rang through the hall.
"Hello there~! Participants! Have you been waiting long?!"
The outfit was stylish enough — fedora, tailored suit — but the face behind it was a ridiculous mustachioed mask, and the figure greeted us with a black microphone in hand. Anyone could tell this was the auctioneer. Which meant the reason I had come to the masquerade ball in the first place — the auction — was about to begin.
"While you waited, I do hope you thoroughly enjoyed the pleasures and luxuries we prepared. I truly wanted you all to have a wonderful time, but..."
The auctioneer stroked that curling mustache once and went on.
"How could entertainment possibly satisfy everyone's needs? Surely some of you came to this casino solely for this auction."
Unable to put sadness on a face hidden behind a mask, he twisted his whole body instead, pouring regret into every line of him.
"If you join us for the next auction, I sincerely hope you'll enjoy the new luxuries and pleasures our casino unveils with every masquerade ball!"
He flourished the microphone in a grand, theatrical sweep.
"I'm sure those of you visiting the black market for the first time might be thinking, 'Why is he talking as if we'll already be coming back?' You might even find it a bit unpleasant. However—"
Whoosh.
The red curtain behind him parted slightly, and a cart bearing a tray was wheeled up onto the stage.
"If, after seeing the goods on offer at today's black market, you still don't return for our next masquerade ball—"
He paused and slowly lifted the lid from the tray. Beneath the silver cover lay a heart, enormous blue veins writhing and pulsing across its surface.
"It certainly won't be because our merchandise disappointed you. It'll be because you're short on cash. But if you have enough money, you've nothing to worry about! This is a dream space that sells anything and everything to match our participants' tastes. Now then! Let the auction begin! We'll start things off light — a troll's heart! Opening bid: fifty million!"
With that rather provocative little speech, the auctioneer seized everyone's attention and kicked things off.
The first lot was a troll's heart. That blue-glowing organ, saturated with the troll blood that served as the main ingredient in healing potions, sold for two hundred million.
The next item was a shock: a half-human, half-beast demon girl they had brought in from a dungeon. She sold for six billion.
Truly, there was nothing they didn't have. Rare things of every kind came up on that stage — grotesque creatures so bizarre they were unpleasant just to look at, equipment with stats that made your jaw drop. I watched in stretches, and whenever something with a decently useful option appeared, I jumped in and competed fiercely to take it.
The auction ran for over an hour, and in that time I picked up quite a few useful pieces. But maybe it was from diving into every worthwhile bid and constantly recalculating amounts to squeeze out every last bit of value — the whole process left me so mentally wrung out that I sighed without meaning to, sank into the leather chair, and let my mind go slack.
"Haa..."
"My love, it's almost over. Just hang in there a little longer."
The Chairman massaged my shoulders from beside me, her voice warm with encouragement.
"Nngh... Yes, my lady."
Yeah. We were really in the home stretch now. There might still be something worth grabbing at the end, so I needed to keep my eyes wide open.
"And now! The long-awaited final item! As you all know, our black market auctions always close with something rarer than anything that came before. You're aware of that, yes?"
It would be rare, sure. The question was whether that rarity would be worth anything to me. Demonfolk writhing with their limbs chopped off were rare too, and completely useless — this last lot could just as easily be something that was merely uncommon and of no help whatsoever.
"Presenting! The final item of our black market!"
Whoosh.
Perhaps because this was the finale, the red curtain that had stayed shut until now swept open, revealing what it had been hiding. On a table set toward the back of the stage sat a single small stone, lying there all alone.
The chunk of rock was inscribed with writhing, grotesque hieroglyphs. It didn't look particularly special — and yet my senses, honed by Gigan, screamed at me.
That's it. That one little rock is more precious than anything that's come out so far.
"I trust no one is disappointed just because it looks like an ordinary rock? Hahaha! Of course not, right? After all, I did say it was rarer than anything that's come before."
The auctioneer grinned slyly and crossed to the stone on the table. He pulled a pair of black gloves from inside his coat, slipped them on, and snatched the rock up.
"Now then. This stone is believed to be a fragment broken off from a certain stone tablet discovered on a remote coastline."
He looked slowly around at us as he went on.
"It may look ordinary, but the power contained in this stone is tremendous. Allow me to demonstrate."
Snap!
At the auctioneer's finger-snap, a clerk who had been standing by came up on stage carrying a transparent basin of water.
"Now... a miracle is about to happen."
He clenched the stone in his fist and stretched his arm toward the basin.
And then—
Slosh~
The water in the basin rippled, then whooshed up into a single stream that floated free of the basin entirely.
"This is the power of this tiny stone. Even an ordinary person like myself, with no abilities whatsoever, can control water like this. Quite an exceptional gift."
He swirled his hand, and the water hovering in midair froze solid. Then he slammed his hand downward, and the frozen stream punched slightly into the stage floor and stood upright.
"For your information, our investigation found that ability users who already possessed water-related powers experienced a roughly twofold increase in their abilities just by carrying this stone. Quite the spectacle."
Holy shit. That was it. That was the one!
My gut had been right after all. I had to get my hands on that stone no matter what. It was an utterly broken, incredibly versatile item — I could use it as a Spirit Swordsman, and our Vice Chairman, an excellent water-attribute dealer, could use it too.
"Ah, as outstanding as this item is, it does have one drawback. If it comes into direct contact with the body, part of the skin turns into scales... a rather trivial side effect compared to the power it grants."
A somewhat weird side effect, but it didn't matter. As long as it didn't touch you directly, there was no problem. That was nothing compared to what the stone could do.
"The auction begins! Opening bid: twenty billion!"
As expected of something that was obviously insane, the auction opened at a far higher starting price than any previous lot. I brought the black bracelet to my lips and said forty billion.
Auctions in this black market didn't work by raising paddles. You spoke the amount you could pay into the bracelet, and the auctioneer called the bid up accordingly.
"Ah, yes! Starting right off at forty billion!"
My hands trembled at a sum I had never even touched in my entire life, but this was no time to hesitate. I had to have that thing. First I'd dump all forty billion I'd won from gambling and think later.
"My love, you can spend another fifty billion from here."
The Chairman sweetly informed me of my remaining funds from beside me. Damn it. If I'd known it would come to this, I never would have bought those earlier items. I should have saved every last coin.
"Ah, surpassing forty billion — fifty billion! We have fifty billion!"
Of course. No way a stone with that deranged a power was going to end at forty billion.
"Fuck, sixty billion!"
I spat a curse and called sixty. My brain was frying at the increasingly insane numbers, but I couldn't stop. I had to buy that thing no matter what.
"Ah~ yes! Sixty billion! And immediately after, sixty-one billion!"
"Sixty-two!"
The stone's price climbed like mad.
"F... fuck..."
When I snapped back to my senses, the price had already shot to seventy-five billion. A surge of resentment welled up at having to spend this much money on that tiny little rock — and then I changed my mind.
No. What was I even saving money for? Money was something I could earn whenever I put my mind to it. Yeah. Later I could just pick up leftover items from hidden dungeons I already knew about and sell them. I'd make that much back, right?
After spinning that little copium circuit and talking myself into it—
"Eighty billion!"
I clenched my teeth and called the price like I was coughing up blood.
"Ah~ yes, eighty billion! Eighty billion! Eighty billion!"
The auctioneer shouted the amount I'd called three times in a row.
"Eighty billion — anyone else?"
Please...! Fuck, please! End it here. I clenched my fists and prayed.
But heaven was heartless. Within seconds, the auctioneer spat out a price that leaped well past what I'd called.
"Ninety billion!!! Good heavens, ninety billion! Ninety billion!"
As the excited auctioneer's Anyone else? reached my ears, I collapsed into my chair, drowning in a hollow, ringing defeat.
Ah... fuck.
It was over. Even if I dumped every last bit of money I currently owned, I couldn't have it.
"My love, are you all right?"
The Chairman stroked me and offered what comfort she could, but I just kept sighing at the fact that I'd lost that item.
"Haa..."
Yeah, well. An item like that — I could always find one later somehow. Later... later... there'd be other items.
"Ah, ninety-two billion!"
I glared resentfully at the auctioneer, whose voice had only grown more thrilled. Ah, damn it all. I just wished everything I couldn't have would go straight to hell.
Rumble...
As if it had read my mind, the stone wall twitched, and a trembling vibration rolled through the chamber.
"Not to worry, participants! Our black market is built deep underground, so this happens from time to time! Now, continuing the auction. Ninety-three billion!"
The auctioneer, apparently no stranger to this, explained the situation without so much as a flicker of panic and pressed on.
Rumble...! Rumble!
But the vibrations ringing through the stone walls only grew more violent, and now the walls themselves were moving — visibly, unmistakably.
"Huh...?"
Even at a glance, something was clearly wrong. The auctioneer faltered and stopped mid-call. With him silent, the hall filled with the rumbling of the stone.
Rumble...! Rumble...!
The sound from the walls did not stop. It only grew louder, and louder still.