****

After a few seconds of silence, Zakadon stood up, marched toward Reiner and pushed his chair far away.

"Kurghhh... I don't know this guy."

"Neither do I." Eileen nodded.

"I - the Hero of Storms - would never associated myself with a pervert like that!"

Seeing that everyone in his group were acting as if they were strangers, Reiner frowned. "I- It's Aryl's orders! It's not like I wanted to do it!"

But the sight of Lucy now clinging onto him while asking for candies didn't make the situation any better for him.

"Big bro! Give me candies! You said before that they're below your waist, right?"

Suddenly, everyone's gaze turned unfathomably cold.

"H- Hey lady Lucy! Don't make everyone misunderstand! I only said it because they are in my pockets! Where would I put them otherwise? W- Wait! Why are you reaching into my pants!?"

But his resistance was futile, as his image in everyone's mind was already crumbling down.

Arthur, despite only having a few braincells to work with, still knew what tricking gullible girls like Lucy into a dark alleyway meant. And he wasn't going to let this villainous scum that dared to harm Lucy get away unscathed!

"You dare to trick Lucy? Unforgivable! I'll k—"

"Wait! Arthur, leave him be!" Marie shouted as she held Arthur back.

"Why Marie? Don't you see that the guy is tricking Lucy?"

"He's not tricking her." Marie shook her head. "I believe that he is telling the truth. I mean, just look how happy Lucy is when she's with him!"

Since Reiner was filled with gratitude by the fact that someone finally believed him, he failed to notice Marie's malicious smirk.

"Hehe..." Marie muttered. "...With Lucy clinging to that random guy there, no one will stand in my way with Arthur now—"

"What did you say, Marie?" Arthur tilted his head in confusion.

"N- Nothing! Let's sit, shall we?" Marie changed the subject and pulled Arthur down to a seat next to her.

Everyone else followed them suit except for Sylvia, who approached Lucy and took Glacia out of her arm. She then returned to her seat, but not before giving Eileen a cold glare.

Seeing this, Eileen gulped in fear.

Zakadon saw this too, and he was confused. "Kurghhh... what did Aryl make you do to her, darling?"

"Erm... let's just say that I'm lucky I wasn't froze to death by lady Sylvia... or razed to death by Hero Arthur."

Though still confused, Zakadon nodded and let it go. It wasn't as if he could go against a duke's daughter like Sylvia Ecertold anyways.

It was then that the auction finally started.

-"Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you all to this year's grand auction of Pyriaville. I will not bore you any longer with boring speeches and start the auction right... now!"

Instantly, all lights were turned off, and all chatters were ceased. After a while, the lights were turned on again. This time, they were all focused on the main stage.

Basking himself in the light for a few seconds, the auctioneer walked toward a pedestal and placed his gloved hand on the white cloth covering it.

-"For our first item—"

He unveiled the pedestal.

-"—An iron sword!"

Everyone in the auction hall frowned at the item, and Sylvia was no exception.

'What...? Why would they put an iron sword in the grand auction? Not to mention, it looks a little rusty too.'

And she also couldn't shake off a weird sense of familiarity coming from it too. It was almost as if she had seen the sword before, or at least something similar to it.

Fortunately, her question would soon be answered.

-"Now now, don't be hasty with your judgement. This is no ordinary sword!"

He then grabbed the sword by its handle and lifted it up. With the sword now in his hand, he held it up near his face and showed the flat side of the blade to the whole venue.

-"Do you see this? No? Let me make it easier for you to see then!"

His hand then slightly glowed blue as Mana was poured into the sword. And soon after, letters began to appear on the flat side of the blade one by one.

It was at this point that Sylvia realized why the sword seemed so familiar. And when she did, she couldn't help but to bury her face in her hands in shame.

After a while, all the letters were revealed as they glowed a color of light blue.

-"Take a look at this! 'To my beloved Theo', is what engraved here on the sword. Now, I know that this might look like some shoddy ironworks made by a terrible blacksmith, but it really isn't!"

Seeing that everyone was still skeptical, the auctioneer sighed and decided to just reveal the information now.

-"This sword is worth it because it was made by none other than... Archangel Semier!"

Instantly, the venue was filled with murmurs.

Grinning, the auctioneer continued. 

-"That's right! This seemingly ordinary sword was made by Archangel Semier, and our best appraisers have confirmed it! Now, don't go bidding for this item thinking that it would do anything special, as it's just an iron sword. However, many of our contracted scholars and historians have speculated that this was one of Archangel Semier's first works. You might be asking, 'isn't Theo a male's name?' Our answer to that question is no! You see, up until a few hundred years ago, the name 'Theodora' was a popular name for girls. And..."

Arthur listened to the auctioneer's explanation with confusion apparent on his face.

"Huh? Why would anyone want to buy that ermm, politely speaking, extremely pathetic excuse of a sword? Even I who have no experience in blacksmithing can make something better. And what's with that cheesy 'To my beloved' line?"

"Mmmmmmphhhh!"

Arthur turned his head toward the source of the muffled groan.

"Sylvia? Why are you like screaming into your hand like that?"

Sylvia promptly ignored him and continued to regret having ever tossed that iron sword out into the streets in the first place.

Yes, the sword was in fact, Sylvia's creation. When she heard from Semier that Theodore had bought a lot of swords from him, she thought that he liked swords.

Thus, she tried to pour all her heart in making a special sword for him. However, the result turned out to be extremely mediocre. The sword was barely functional at best, and that was with Semier actively helping her and giving her pointers.

Since she didn't want to present Theodore with something so shoddy, she threw it away.

'But it's still something that I made with all of my passion!'

Thus, she didn't feel good when she heard words like 'shoddy', 'bad', or 'a pathetic excuse of a sword' being used to describe her work.

As to how everyone thought that this was Semier's creation? Even Sylvia herself didn't know!

Maybe it was because Semier helped her somewhat during the creation of the sword and the Status gods only recognized Semier as its maker because of that.

But that wasn't the point! She felt extremely bad and embarrassed having her worst work being displayed like that. Worst of all, she wasn't even getting any money off this!

Sylvia's thoughts were interrupted by the auctioneer's loud voice.

-"...so some speculated that Semier had a hand in the fall of the Sloveitas Union hundreds of years ago. And... that's all the information we had on Semier's early work of blacksmithing! Now let's begin the bidding. Starting aaaaat... 5 Platinums!"

As soon as the auctioneer said that, Sylvia briefly glanced at the red button on her hands. She just needed to press it if she wanted to bid for the current item on display.

'Should I buy it back and smash it to pieces this time...?'

However, she ultimately decided against it; It would just be a waste of her time and money.

Unfortunately though, other nobles present in the auction didn't share her thoughts, as they were bidding on the sword like crazy.

-"Number 15, 10 Platinums!"

-"Number 321, 15 Platinums!"

And just like that, the number grew bigger and bigger until...

-Number 1349, 90 Platinums! Anyone else? Going once! Twice! Thrice! Aaaaanddddd... SOLD!"

As soon as the auctioneer finished his words, the whole venue clapped as they congratulated the one who won the bid - an old looking man wearing a monocle.

Judging by his appearance, Sylvia guessed that he was a historian. However, that guess just made her fall deeper into despair.

"MPHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

She let out another muffled groan again as she imaged the scene of him putting the sword inside a glass case and displaying it in a museum for everyone to see.

Seeing her mother act like this, Glacia, who was sitting on Sylvia's laps, couldn't help but to pat her head in worry.

"Are you okay momm—"

Before Glacia could finish her sentence, Sylvia suddenly covered her mouth with her hands. She then scanned around the room with a nervous gaze.

"Good... looks like no one noticed." She muttered.

Sighing, Sylvia then whispered to Glacia. "Sweetie, don't call me that in public, okay?"

"..."

"...I'll give you treats if you follow my words."

"Nn! Treats!"

Patting Glacia's head and sighing in relief that the bidding for her iron sword was over, Sylvia directed her attention toward the main stage again and waited for the next item.

'Hopefully they didn't also recover my iron spear...'

...

The second item, much to Sylvia's delight, didn't seem like her spear. Judging by the cubical something that the white cloth was covering, it looked as if there was a cage on the stage.

'Are they going to sell monsters?'

As if to answer Sylvia's question, the auctioneer unveiled the item.

However, what the second item ended up to be wasn't monsters. Instead, it was... a slave.

-"Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you a newly captured slave from the nefarious [People of Liberty] that dares to conspire against the Empire!"

What was inside the cage was a beastkin, a Wolf beastkin to be exact. However, her physical state was... less than ideal.

-"Ah, don't worry about her bruises and unnaturally bent arm. I assure you that she's not a defect. She was just 'educated' a little bit before she got here since she was disobedient. I take that everyone have already known what slaves are used for so I'll just start the bidding now. Starting aaaat... 1 Platinum!"

While Sylvia was uncomfortable seeing another person being in a state like this, Arthur was full of rage.

"How could they!?" He shouted. "I'll rescue her—"

"Oh no you don't." Ria immediately stopped him from doing the stupid thing that he was very obviously thinking of doing. "You crash the auction and save the slave, and then what? Will the slave traders all shake hands with you and promise not to capture anyone ever again?"

"Th- That..."

Hearing Ria's reasoning, Arthur turned timid. However, his rage wasn't quenched, not when he saw that the bid for the slave girl was getting higher and higher by the second.

A few minutes had gone by and the biddings finally stopped.

-"...going twice! Thrice! And sold to number 1245 for 20 Platinums!"

After the bid had finished, the auctioneer called people over to transport the cage to the backstage. It looked like that the slave was going to be delivered to her bidder after the auction was over.

...

The third item was a typical weapon artifact that neither Sylvia nor Arthur's group had use for.

Sylvia would have ignored the fourth item too if it wasn't for something peculiar catching her attention.

-"And the fourth item is... a vial of Wyrm blood! Wyrms are mythical creatures that have disappeared from this continent a long time ago. Some says they've migrated to beyond the [Wall of Fog]. As such, Wyrm blood can only be found in ancient ruins containing Wyrm corpses. Now, although there are no known uses for Wyrm blood, they are still rare enough to be included at today's auction. We'll start bidding now, staring at 20 Platinu—"

However, the auctioneer stopped his sentence upon seeing something on the holographic tablet he was holding.

-"O- Oh! It seems like one of you out there is eager to get your hands on this item. Very well! Number 12 has just bid for 25 Platinums! Going once! Going twic— ooohh, too bad for number 12. Number 90 has just bid for 40 Platinums!"

'Wait, number 12? Isn't it...'

Sylvia immediately glanced to her left, where the human that apparently tricked Lucy before - Reiner - was staring at the red button in his hand with a nervous gaze.

'...Why am I even questioning what he does? Of course pedophiles would spend money on useless things.'

However, she soon recalled that her father also bought Wyrm blood for seemingly no reason at all.

'On second thoughts, maybe there's some use for Wyrm blood that I just didn't know.'

After a while, the price inflated to 90 Platinums.

-"Number 90 bid for 90 Platinums. Will number 12 also bid this time? Going onc—"

The auctioneer halted his sentence and widened his eyes in shock at the number he was seeing in the tablet.

"U- Um number 12 has just bid for 150 Platinums. Going once, twice, thrice, aaaaandd SOLD!"

As soon as the auctioneer announced that he had won the bid, Reiner threw the button to the ground and sighed in relief.

"God, even if it's not my money, it hurts to spend this much..."

...

The fifth and sixth item went by uneventfully. However, the same couldn't be said for the seventh item.

-"And here we have [Ribbon of Apollo], an <A> ranked artifact! Although it might look like a plain bluish-colored hair ribbon to most of you, I can vouch for its effectiveness. Allow me to demonstrate!"

<[S - Copier]>

As the auctioneer's hand glowed blue, another ribbon suddenly appeared from thin air. Catching the newly-created ribbon, the auctioneer called over one of his assistant and told her to put on the ribbon.

He then turned toward the main venue again.

-"What you have just seen is me using my Skill to create a down-graded version of the artifact! Although it is downgraded, the effect is still the same, just less effective. Right now, the ribbon my assistant is wearing is considered an <E> ranked artifact."

The auctioneer then proceeded to explain how the artifact worked.

"Now, I will imprint my Mana on this ribbon!"

His hand glowed blue as his Mana signature was taken into the blue ribbon.

"And the preparations are completed, simple as that! Now, the ribbon will protect my assistant from one attack below <E> rank and break. As soon as it breaks, I will be teleported to my assistant's location."

To better demonstrate, the auctioneer took a few steps away and took out a bow. He then aimed it at his assistant and fired.

As soon as the arrow made contact with the assistant, it disintegrated into nothingness alongside the ribbon.

Just a second later, the auctioneer disappeared from his spot and reappeared right in front of his assistant.

Seeing this, everyone in the venue gave him a round of applause.

-"Thank you, thank you! Now back to the item. Since this artifact is <A> ranked, it will protect its user from an attack below <A> rank. You can use this to guarantee your safety by assigning it to your strongest guard and wear it yourself! Due to the nature of this artifact, we at the Pyriaville auction house will have to regrettably start out at a higher price than normal."

Murmurs was spread throughout the venue, understandably so. After all, if the biggest auction house of the Empire said that an item was expensive, it was going to be extremely expensive, even for count-ranked nobles.

Seeing everyone'd dissatisfaction, the auctioneer hurriedly continued. "Ah, but don't worry. We have set a limit cap on how high the price can go. The buy-out price is at 8000 Platinums, and the starting price is... 200 Platinums!"

Despite having just complained about the price earlier, the nobles were eager to buy the artifact that could protect them from assassinations that were oh-so common in the high society. As such, the price of the ribbon was climbing fast.

Sylvia stared at the ribbon with widened eyes, baffled that such a perfect item could exist.

'Isn't this perfect for my little Glacia?'

She may be paranoid for thinking this, but she wanted Glacia to be safe, especially after hearing Theodore's words at his dorm a few months back.

'He's right. Some mad mages are bound to capture her and experiment on her if her identity was to be revealed.'

Furthermore, she could already imagine how cute her Glacia would look with that ribbon on her head!

As such, she stroked Glacia's head as she pressed the big red button without any hesitation.

-"Number 57 bid 900 Platinums. Going once! Twice! Thric—"

The auctioneer paused as he looked a the new notification on his tablet in disbelief. Rubbing his eyes to make sure that he wasn't just seeing things, he hurriedly gestured for his manager to come over.

After discussing with the manager for a while, the auctioneer turned his attention toward the venue again.

"Ah, sorry about my earlier pause. There was something that I needed to confirm."

He then turned to look straight at the VVIP room Sylvia was in.

"VVIP client number 8, are you sure you want to buy this item at the buy-out price?"

Instantly after the auctioneer finished his words, the whole venue fell into complete silence. After a while, the silence was broken by a screaming noble.

-"OH MY GOD! 8000 PLATINUMS!? I- Is a duke attending this auction?"

-"E- Even if he's a duke, spending this much money i- is just..."

Just like the nobles outside, everyone inside the VVIP room Sylvia was in was staring at her as if she was mad.

"S- Sylvia", Ria stuttered. "A- Are you okay in the head? Isn't 8000 Platinums all of your savings?"

In response to everyone's shocked gaze and Ria's question, Sylvia continued to stroke Glacia's head as she pressed the red button a second time.

-"It seems like that client number 8 is sure of their purchase. Since this item is much more expensive than anything in today's session, it will be delivered to client number 8's room right this instant." The auctioneer said as he gave Sylvia's VVIP room a salute.

He then screamed on the top of his lungs.

-"SOLDDDDDDDDDDDD!" 

***

Immediately after the auctioneer's announcement, the door adjacent to Sylvia's room was swung open. Walking through it was a fat noble that could barely fit the doorway. 

Since the seats were faced away from the door, the noble couldn't see anyone's face. All he could tell was the seats' numbers... but that was more than enough.

"YOU!" He screamed as he pointed toward Sylvia's seat. "GIVE ME THE ARTIFACT NOW!"

Sylvia didn't bother to turn around. Instead, she merely replied with a bored tone while still caressing Glacia's head.

"No."

"How dare you refuse me!? I'm count Hugh Mann, and I'll get what I want regardless of the cost!"

He then marched up to Sylvia and attempted to grab her shoulder. 

Before he could, however, he was stopped by Ria.

"What do you think you're doing?" Ria scowled.

"What? Who are you? How dare you stop me—"

But before he could finish his sentence, Hugh Mann suddenly froze in fear as he realized who Ria was.

"Y- Young miss Ria Pyrian!"

He then attempted to back away, only to bump into Arthur's seat.

"H- Hero Arthur!?"

-"Hey! What about Hero Nevih?"

But of course, no one paid attention to Nevih, who was shouting from behind.

Seeing that Hugh Mann had just bumped into Arthur, Marie frowned. "How dare you touch my darling Arthur? And don't you dare utter his name with that disgusting mouth of yours!"

"Y- Young miss Marie Evien!"

Count Hugh Mann was close to pissing himself now. In fact, he did piss himself upon seeing Lucy and Krista grinning at him.

"Y- Young miss Lucy Fertilus and Krista Nightshade!"

Although Irene Nightshade was merely a viscount, Hugh Mann knew that both his military might and political power were nothing compared to hers.

With his pants now stained with piss, Hugh Mann stuttered. "Wh- Why? Why are you with that commoner girl?"

"Commoner?" Ria spoke, baffled by the noble's ignorance. "You do realize that this is a VVIP room, right? How can any commoner be here?"

Although Hugh Mann could hear violent coughs coming from his side as soon as Ria said that, he didn't have time to care as he suddenly felt a gaze on him.

Slowly turning his head up, he was met with the sight of Sylvia staring at him with a disgusted face.

"Y- Young miss S- Sylvia Ecertold—"

As soon as Hugh Mann realized who Sylvia was, his face went pale and he fell unconscious on the spot.

"What's up with him?" Sylvia muttered. "I merely turned around to see where the smell of pee came from. Why did he faint?"

***

With Hugh Mann now escorted out of the VVIP room by the auction house employee, Sylvia stared at the dark blue ribbon that had just been delivered to her.

Looking at the ribbon and Sylvia, Ria sighed. "I still can't believe you spent all of your savings on that."

"Really?" Sylvia said as she tied the ribbon on Glacia's hair. "What am I supposed to spend my money on then?"

"I don't know, lodging and food maybe?"

"...You do realize that my father will pay for all my living expenses, right? And I've barely spent any money during the past 6 years. You of everyone here should know it best."

Ria couldn't retort to that. While she had spent her allowance on new clothes and accessories like a normal noble woman would, Sylvia decided to be weird and merely lived in her father's estate boringly while dedicating all of her time to training and becoming stronger.

And the little money she did spend, she spent on training equipment and... food.

Thus, it was not a stretch to say that having that much money was useless to Sylvia.

"But it still feels wrong..." Ria muttered.

Though very aware of Ria's thought process, Sylvia didn't pay much mind to it and watched the next item as she continued to tie the ribbon on Glacia's hair.

-"Now for our eighth item. I'm going to be completely honest here, we don't know what uses this might have but... maybe it can serve well as a decoration in your home!"

The auctioneer took off the cloth covering the item to reveal a sword embedded in a stone slab.

Aside from the weird state of being stuck in a stone, there was also something more notable about the sword: Mainly, the aura it gave off.

Adorned with bright jewels on its hilt, the divine sword with pure white blade and gold-gilded crossguard looked like something taken straight out of the [Scared text of Light] that every Light priests were forced to memorize.

It seemed that the sword was indeed something special like Sylvia had thought, as she noticed Arthur staring at it with sparkling eyes.

"Excalibur...?" Arthur muttered.

It was then that the auctioneer continued with the item's introduction.

-"This item was uncovered by some Priests of Light during their bi-yearly pilgrim to the Sacred lands. It would have been left to collect dust inside the main basilica of Light's treasury if it wasn't for the revelation the Pope of Light received from Goddess Lumaria detailing that it must be sold here."

The auctioneer then paused for a moment for the bidders to process the information before continuing.

-"Thus, we at the Pyriaville auction house shall carry out Goddess Lumaria's will with utmost dedication. Starting with 100 Platinu—"

However, he couldn't finish his sentence as the ground below him suddenly shook violently.

<The fourth movement of [V - World splitter]: Absolute split>

Then, the main stage of the biggest auction house in the Empire was split in half by a thin yet destructive line of Space mana.