The Amber Sword

Chapter 44 – Bruglas’s underground auction (2)

The inside of the auction site in Maria’s market did not have a large space. It was the size of a mini theater with dim light in it, and surrounding the central ‘stage’ was a series of chairs that piled upwards. These chairs were for the commoners. There was a separate boxed area on the four sides of the stage, decorated with silk and satin. These areas had three levels in them, with a bronze telescope in each seat, placed onto a Redwood stand, in order to let the powerful nobles who participated in this auction look closely at the merchandise on the central stage.

Roen had enough connections to actually reserve this boxed area, but Brendel refused. He did not wish to draw attention to himself, and participating in this auction was only to see if he managed to obtain any unexpected items.

They got their number and proceeded to their seats. Even though Brendel looked calm on the surface, he had a repeating crossbow tied under his wrist and it was hidden under his knight uniform. The crossbow was armed with Tamar’s cursed bolts in order to prepare for any unexpected situations.

This particular crossbow was an intricate object that resembled a jewel box when it was opened. Amateurs would find it hard to use something like this, but Brendel’s profession compensated for this and with his passive abilities. Due to this ability, the knowledge in his mind allowed him to act like a veteran user of such weapons, and it was enough to the point where he could install simple mechanisms on his fingers and used them with proper aim.

After he sat down for a short while and the auction had not started, Roen came to him in a disguise along with a long robe covering him and sat beside him. He carefully looked to the left and right before he spoke.

“My lord, the poisoned daggers and the potions have been sold. The daggers had caught the eyes of a familiar guild, don’t worry, my lord, they were very generous with their gold. A single dagger for 2500 Tor Coins, and they did not ask who the seller was.”

Not every transaction was done at the auction itself in this site. In fact, the majority of the transactions that took place was done privately. The buyers and sellers went through a third party like Roen, and sometimes there were even more intermediaries, to ensure safety and secrecy. Each person only required a small amount of money to seal their lips.

In this grey underground city, no one was more talkative than them, and no one had tighter lips than them; it was a contradictory mix.

“What about the potions?” Brendel watched the staff with fake interest, while his attention was on the topic. He knew the rules well, and the items like the poisoned daggers and his potions typically would not be sold through the central stage.

“The potions are slightly more troublesome. The people from the Tower of Stars kept asking for the maker of the potions. They stated that the recipe for mana potions has not been circulated for a long time, and they said that the Wizards Association welcomes a professional alchemist to join them.” Roen said while he used his beady eyes to take note of Brendel’s expressions.

He wanted to see what Brendel’s reaction was. If the youth felt that this news was useful, he would praise him and make him feel safer. At the same time, if Brendel felt the situation was troublesome, Roen would feel delight at getting back at the youth. Even though they were on the same boat, beyond the fear and dread, he also felt that he could not take things lying down without fighting back a little.

The cripple looked at the youth, hoping that he would succeed and becoming rich, but at the same was hoping a little that he would fail.

However, Brendel merely shook his head and replied without showing any expression: “My friend has no interest in that. Just tell me the important details about the transaction, cripple.”

[It looks like I wasn’t wrong. The mana potion in this world is much rarer compared to the game.] Brendel thought to himself.

“Each bottle of sold for a thousand Tor coins for a total of thirty thousand.” The cripple did not show his disappoint in his face.

Brendel nodded. The price for the daggers was higher by twenty-five percent, and the mana potions sold for over two hundred percent of his original estimation, especially when the materials for making the mana potion were nothing more than ordinary reagents.

[An insane profit.]

Brendel immediately classified this as a golden goose that would keep laying eggs. He looked at Romaine and thought it would not be impossible for Romaine to set up her own merchant guild if she used the mana potions as her primary goods.

Romaine instantly noticed his gaze and raised her eyebrows. She raised her hands and brought them to her chest, and praised him without any reservations.

“It’s half of one hundred thousand Tor coins. It’s just like you said, I knew that you would be able to do it!”

“The interesting scene is yet to come, Miss Romaine.” Ciel was behind Brendel’s seat and he smile while speaking.

“Wait, you’re mistaken Ciel! Our merchant lady is reminding me that the hundred thousand Tor coins is her capital.” Brendel said without breaking a sweat.

Romaine giggled with pride as though she was a wily fox who had managed to take advantage when her real goal was divulged.

Amandina frowned a little when she saw the scene happening before her eyes. She had seen tens of thousands of Tor coins as she had been born in a noble family, but seeing them treat the amount of money that they received like it was nothing, was something that she had not seen before.

From this exchange, she felt that this young knight might have left his home to seek his own fortune, but his family background must have been quite powerful.

Sadly, it could not have been further away from the truth. Romaine had no idea how much that amount of money was, and Brendel had billions of coins in the game. The amount of money might have meant nothing to him, but thinking that he was from noble family because of that fact could not have been any more off the mark.

The lights in the auction site suddenly dimmed. They looked back and noticed the staff was extinguishing the candles around the walls. It appeared like the auction was about to begin—

Roen whispered: “If we were in the boxed area, the list of items that is going to be sold in this auction would have been delivered to us. My lord, do you have any particular items that you want to have?”

“I do not know yet.” Brendel watched the central stage becoming brighter from the candles that were being lit up. “Come to think of it, did they come looking for your trouble?”

Roen shook his head: “Just as you have predicted, Foltest’s men came to look for me after that event at Miss Amandina’s home. I just told them that I did not know you—”

“You sound like you’re unhappy with that?” Batum mocked him from the sides.

“I wouldn’t dare.” Roen now knew Batum’s position, and he did not act as servile as before. “My lord, that sword of yours really looks like a perfect piece of art. How much do you think it will sell in the auction?”

Brendel knew that he was talking about the magic sword made by the Dwarves. He thought for a while and said: “Approximately a hundred thousand to a hundred and fifty thousand Tor coins.” (TL: Not the Thorn of light.)

Amandina lightly gasped from behind when he finished speaking. Everyone looked back in surprise and found the noble lady waving her hands with a blushing face: “E-excuse me.”

She placed her hands over her chest in an effort to prevent her heart from beating too fast. Her eyes was translating the amount of money.

[That’s the equivalent of one hundred and fifty Aouine gold coins. When Brendel came, he was empty handed, but in the blink of an eye he had the equivalent of the entire savings of a small noble family in their lifetime. Two hundred Aouine gold coins. It’s not an impossible thing to purchase a land fit for a knight in a remote place.]

To Amandina, this amount of money should be invested in production. She had once lost herself in her designs and bankrupted herself, but she was smart enough to not make the same mistake twice. She quickly calculated and thought of what this amount of money could do. Regardless of commercial or production investments, both routes were fine. With this amount of money, she estimated that she could grow it by thirty percent in a year.

Then she frowned again. She had introduce herself as his advisor and the young knight did not object to it, but she was not sure if he would allow her to use such a large sum of money. But Brendel noticed her myriad expressions and could not help but ask:

“Miss Amandina?”

“What?” She raised her head up by reflex.

“Are you considering about the problems in our budget?”

Amandina’s face flushed a little, but she soon recovered. She nodded seriously.

“Yes. As an advisor to Ser Brendel, I feel that I need to consider this properly—”

She spoke as she looked at Romaine without any confidence. As Brendel’s fiancee, she seemed to have more speaking power in this regards.

But Romaine continued to smile sweetly as before.

Brendel showed a look of contemplation before glancing at them: “If you have ideas, I can split the money into two. Romaine and you can get an equal portion and handle this amount of money according to your ideas, but—”

Amandina showed a look of disbelief even before he finished speaking. “Ser Brendel, are you serious?”

He nodded. It was his habit as the team leader not to doubt someone, or test their abilities by letting his team members handle things on their own.

Amandina took a deep breath and nodded earnestly: “I will definitely use this money well, Ser Brendel, I have already thought of a plan to increase this amount of money in a short time……”

Brendel interrupted her: “No. What I want to say is this. I’m leaving it to little Romaine to help me invest the money, but Miss Amandina, I want you to help me use this money.”

“Use this money?” Amandina looked blankly at him.

The bells in the auction site started ringing, and Brendel turned his head back to the front.

“You will understand it shortly, Miss Amandina. Of course, you can help out by discussing things with our grand merchant missy, she has a huge plan ahead of her!”

Brendel was thinking about a new land of his own. If Romaine was able to set up a merchant guild, it would not be suitable to have ties with his land. If that was the case, he needed a butler of sorts.

Since Amandina wanted to help out, he would certainly be glad to leave things to her. (TL: …….)

“A big plan?” She was taken aback. She really did not think that this ‘grand merchant lady’ would have any probable plan to speak off, and she even wanted to advise him to not leave the important task of earning money with Romaine, but it was not easy for her to speak of this topic.

[Wait… Romaine’s actions in these past few days… She kept asking about the events and festivals in Bruglas. If I rearrange her questions in order, then… I’m seeing a big picture here.]

She suddenly stopped herself with the idea of persuading Brendel and her eyes brightened a little. She realized something and thought deeply for a while, then whispered to Ciel next to her. “Mister Ciel, before you entered the city, where was the Madara’s army at?”

“They were at the Dragos’s area for approximately half a month.” Ciel replied casually, before he paused and followed up with a question: “Did you realize it? Miss Amandina?”

He was a little surprised at Amandina. She was able to understand what Romaine’s plan was from Brendel’s words, and remarked inwardly to himself that Brendel’s advisor was someone with considerable skills.

“If Romaine’s plan works out, the profit is nearly eighty percent!” Amandina looked at Romaine as she chatted happily with Brendel. She felt like she was knowing her other side for the first time.

“Miss Romaine calculated that the profits was a fold.” Ciel replied.

“But that’s probably because she did not cover the problem of connections—” Amandina gritted her teeth as she felt a blow to her confidence. She thought about it a little longer before she said each word solemnly: “But if we work at it carefully, it’s not impossible to have a hundred percent profit, because of Mister Roen…..”

Brendel did not notice his subordinates talking amongst themselves. That was because the auction had started and unexpectedly, the first item had already caught his attention.

There was a parchment that sat under the candle light. There was an old contract written in the Elemental language used by the Four Clans.  The corners of the parchment were curled up because the elemental magic of wind, earth, fire and water were spiralling towards the center of the parchment.

This parchment was used to open a road to become an elementalist, and was meant for those who were not talented in this field. Many nobles use this to create a pathway for their related family members.

Without a question, it was expensive.

But to Brendel, this was something that was worth more than money.

Because in his eyes, this was the name of the scroll:

‘Scroll of Elemental Pool (unlock)’