Chapter 230
Chapter 230
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 230
>Chapter Title: Noblesse Oblige
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Anonymity grants speakers tremendous courage.
It allows them to freely say things they couldn’t utter if their names were known, and enables acts they’d never even imagine in normal circumstances.
Whether this power of anonymity is positive or negative is not easily debated.
What mattered in this situation was just how vicious the speakers hiding behind the mask of “anonymity” could become.
[2,000 gold!]
[Yes! Speak up.]
[You said it’s a noble house—whose family is it?]
[Anyone planning to block questions? I’ll wait a moment.]
Aster kept the questioner waiting briefly, then turned his gaze to the VIP room where Basilyn and Saurica were.
That was when Shine spoke up.
“What will you do? Answer quickly.”
“P-Profit……”
Basilyn ground his teeth.
2,000 gold.
Twice that would be a whopping 4,000 gold.
4,000 gold could buy an exquisitely crafted carriage from a master artisan—a sum even Basilyn couldn’t easily let slip away.
But.
“……Young Master Basilyn, we must prevent the Decullan name from being mentioned here.”
Basilyn’s nose twitched at the sight of Saurica, who couldn’t budge against the thug yet glared with eyes wide open.
‘You dog…… acting all proper only now?’
Basilyn’s gut twisted at Saurica’s duplicitous use of formal speech, so unlike him.
And rightly so—he felt like coughing up blood.
‘All the money I’ve poured into Decullan……!’
And this lowlife was the captain of the mage squad!
“What will you do? Neither I nor that one have endless patience.”
“……Do it!”
At Saurica’s roar, Basilyn squeezed his eyes shut.
“Block…… the question.”
“A wise choice.”
A smile crept across Shine’s lips.
But only for a moment.
“Do you even have the means to pay?”
“……Will this suffice as proof?”
Basilyn pulled a blank promissory note from his pocket and placed it on the table.
It was a Goldrin note, unlimited in value, possessed only by top merchants and Basilyn himself.
“Hmm. We can fill in the amount later. Fine.”
Shine, well aware of Goldrin’s reputation, inspected the blank note and nodded.
He signaled Aster right after.
[Oh! Sorry about that. A certain guest has blocked the question.]
[Boo!]
Perhaps disappointed by the unexpected turn.
Jeers erupted immediately from the audience seats.
[So what about my 2,000 gold? I’m not paying the auction house, am I?!]
The original questioner even frowned and complained, clearly displeased.
But Aster brushed off all the jeers with a smile and shook his head.
[If no answer is given, the questioner doesn’t have to pay.]
That single remark was the spark.
[Oh?]
[Is that so?]
The audience began murmuring excitedly among themselves, everyone eager to throw out questions.
They didn’t know which noble house the man in the iron cage belonged to, but the sharp ones had already realized it was present in the room.
And the simple reason they showed such interest despite that?
……Anonymity.
The general seats were masked anyway…… and the mage’s noble house remained shrouded in anonymity as well.
If it were pinned to a specific house, the questions themselves would be a direct challenge to that house—but since no one knew who it was, there were no qualms.
“Eek……!”
Basilyn bit his lip, reading the mood.
Aster stepped in to organize right then.
[Ah, ah. Please refrain from overly reckless questions. We’re not gathered here to harass anyone, are we?]
[Hah!]
[True that!]
Laughter laced with mockery echoed through the auction house.
The guffaws from the next room over were so loud they reached Basilyn’s ears through the walls.
[Hmm, but we can’t not take questions…… How about this? Ten percent of the bid. If a question wins but gets no answer, we take ten percent as a fee.]
The words had barely landed when thunderous boos exploded from the audience.
[Boooo!]
[Ten percent!]
[What kind of daylight robbery is this!]
Ten percent of 1,000 gold was a full 100 gold.
Not a huge sum for them, but not something to throw away lightly either.
Aster burst into ‘haha’ laughter at the fierce reaction.
[Too bad. Doesn’t fly, huh? Alright, I’ll be generous— one percent! How’s one percent? That should weed out the absurd bids and feel just right.]
Of course, one percent wasn’t chump change.
But after proposing ten percent first?
[One percent, huh……]
The audience pondered.
Aster drove the nail home.
[For reference, all responsibility for what happens in this auction lies with me, not the Svetlana Cartel. And I…… well, you wouldn’t know the name, so I’ll just say I belong to a group with some pull. What does that mean?]
In other words.
[If it bids to 1,000 gold and no answer comes, you lose just 10 gold—but you get to screw over some pompous noble house brat strutting around. Everyone here knows, right? How those noble houses, thinking they’re hot stuff, pull all sorts of filthy deeds. Greedier than goblins, yeah?]
This time, cheers rained down from the audience.
[Damn right! Noble house bastards! Huh?!]
[Every business I lost because of those pricks……!]
[What’s a goblin? Those damn sons of bitches!]
Who among these mid-tier folk hadn’t been bullied by a noble house?
Aster had struck that nerve.
He urged the indignant audience in a sly tone.
[Think about it. I take full responsibility. If you see it as the price of a fun noble-bashing…… it’s a bargain, isn’t it?]
These were people running businesses large and small—they calculated fast.
‘Even at 10,000 gold…… they lose 20,000, I lose just 100.’
‘100 gold…… not nothing, but not huge.’
‘Which mage noble house is it? Hmm. Doesn’t matter— this’ll be fun anyway.’
But hesitation lingered.
Screwing nobles was great, but stepping up just for that felt…… off, even under anonymity.
However.
Aster, sensing that, quickly continued.
[Also, the debtor and his cohorts toyed with and killed innocent Black-White Slums urchins for sport. Confirmed victims alone…… number in the dozens.]
Unlike before, his solemn tone drew sighs of ‘ooh’ from the audience.
They didn’t treat Black-White Slums urchins as people either, but even to them, the villain’s atrocities were horrific.
To them, Aster offered one justification.
[For this auction only, all proceeds will go to the welfare of second-generation Black-White Slums urchins. Noblesse oblige. Please, show some mercy.]
Basilyn ground his teeth at the cunning rhetoric.
‘You…… filthy dog……!’
The moment Aster framed it as ‘screwing nobles,’ the audience could shrink back.
They’d realize what they were doing.
How many could harbor pure malice toward a ‘noble house’ name? Not many.
But.
By bringing up the ‘urchins,’ every action ahead could be packaged as one thing.
Noblesse oblige.
Their deeds became not vengeful spite against a noble house, but mercy toward starving, ragged urchins.
Indulge dirty desires as desired, while claiming moral superiority—a tactic nobles would love.
……The effect was stellar.
[1,500 gold!]
[I’ll bid 2,000 gold!]
Bids kept coming.
[Yes! 2,000 gold, sold!]
Due to the fee? The winning amounts stayed modest.
But the issue wasn’t single bids.
[2,100 gold!]
[2,200 gold!]
The more Q&A rounds, the more actively the audience joined in.
No one held back.
A two-for-one thrill: venting base desires while feeling morally superior.
The vicious frenzy from these masked figures swiftly engulfed the auction house.
“What now? Block this question too? Or……”
“Young Master Basilyn! What are you doing!”
Basilyn bit his lip.
“Block…… it.”
Before the crowd’s madness, Basilyn was powerless.
* * *
By the time Aster’s auction wrapped up.
In the now-empty auction house, with seats vacated by all spectators, Aster sat cross-legged, staring blankly at the audience area.
Then came footsteps ascending the stage.
“I handled it as you said. Reassured the kid Duke or whatever and the boss Timur.”
“Good work.”
“Wasn’t much work.”
For reference, Evelyn and Shine didn’t know each other’s identities.
Aster had just told them to act like allies.
That’s why he’d asked Shine to reassure Evelyn.
It’d carry more weight from a mysterious powerhouse than Aster himself.
As Aster thought that far.
“But…… you look down in the dumps?”
Shine eyed Aster with newfound curiosity.
“Me? Did I do something wrong?”
“Wrong…… hmm, sure. Whatever.”
Shine watched Aster reply mechanically without meeting his gaze, then shook his head with a sigh.
Pretending otherwise, Aster seemed deeply sunken.
As if the vibrant figure on stage earlier had been a lie.
‘This guy had this side too?’
A man with not a shred of seriousness, now fuming over what?
But Shine didn’t pry.
Better to stand by than dig for reasons—that was a comrade’s virtue.
Aster spoke then.
“Left? Right?”
“The Qingbing captain? Looked right-handed, so I took the right.”
“The message?”
“Delivered. Whether he passes it on properly is another story.”
“The note…… how’re we handling it?”
“That Duke guy’s a real piece of work. Says using it as-is risks tails, so he’ll check the seal and sell it to another Big Three merchant group.”
“Not bad.”
Selling the note to another Big Three meant we wouldn’t get its full value.
But they’d pull every trick to collect from Goldrin.
This was truly screwing over Goldrin’s heir.
Not bad, yeah, not bad at all.
Aster muttered repeatedly, then rose.
“Then, time to prep the next phase.”
“Next phase……”
“Let’s go. Got school tomorrow.”
With that, Aster headed out of the auction house.
Opening the door revealed Svetlana’s men, sprawled casually, feasting in celebration of the successful auction.
As the door closed again.
“……”
Shine, standing frozen there, unconsciously rubbed his arm. Chills raced up his spine.
‘He’s steeled his heart.’
In Shine’s eyes, Aster looked utterly twisted.