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"The auction has begun." Ji-hun alerted me when he noticed that I was distracted.

I looked back to the stage again, Madame Dufort was long gone and in her place, a boisterous Wizard with shifty eyes was anchoring the auction.

"And right here, we have a tooth from the famed Herpo the Foul!" He announced with vigor, gesturing at the stand that had been brought to the stage by smiling and scantily dressed Witches.

A gasp rippled through the crowd at this, and right on the stand, there was an open black box with a velvet-covered interior where a tooth was nestled in the silk sheets.

"Now we all know who Herpo the Foul was so there is a possibility that some of his dark magic still resides in his tooth to this day." The anchor pitched his voice lower like he was telling a secret. "And we will practically be giving it away at a measly 500 Galleons!"

I listened intently with my fingers laced in front of me, my elbows resting on the arms of my chair. The price had been brought down low to trick people into going for it thinking that they would get it, it was the perfect distraction from the authenticity of the tooth.

I was sure that that auction hall had an impressive reputation, impressive enough to bring some big names around so a fake tooth sold for a couple of thousand Galleons to some wannabe wouldn't even dent that reputation.

Besides, if the eventual owner of the tooth told no one that the tooth was fake, no one would know. And it was a big deal to win a sale at the auction, how had Madame Dufort put it?... Money Wars.

The tooth was sold for a decent 5000 Galleons which was easily ten times the original price that had been put up on it. 

Madame Dufort ran this huh? At this rate, it was possible that the large woman earned at least half a million Galleons at every auction and that was the lower level. On a good night, she might earn up to two million Galleons. It was understandable now how she was a Dark Lord even though her magical power wasn't the least bit impressive.

To my shock, the next item brought out was a young Witch. Her wrists were cuffed behind her and she had her head down.

The anchor of the auction, rudely grabbed her chin to show her off to the crowd, advertising her like she was merely a commodity.

"We'll begin at 10,000 Galleons!" The anchor announced, looking at their crowd to gauge their responses. 

A thick silence fell over the guests and I could see the anchor swallow thickly, he had overestimated the girl's worth and that was a dangerous thing to do because reducing the price wasn't an option.

The girl was average and her eyes were dead, even when her head was forcibly lifted up, she stared at nothing, gazing blankly.

"Going for 10,000! Who'll be the one to take this fine specimen home?"

After several moments of more silence, a Wizard at the far end lifted up his paddle.

"Wonderful! We have a bidder! Anyone else want to battle for this prize? Anyone? Going! Going! Goi… Wonderful! We have another bidder who has raised the price… Now going for 10,500, anyone else? Going… Going… Going… Gone! Sold for the impressive price of 10,500 Galleons!"

I could see the anchor literally sweating, he was lucky to get any gain from that bid and he was well aware of it. He bounced back to his bubbly state and continued the auction, this time carefully gauging the audience's expressions before naming a price.

The next item was a huge chunk of Hagstone, and it was a peculiar-looking one, for starters how was it so big? There was the usual naturally made hole at the center of the huge stone. It sold for a higher price than the previous girl, I couldn't imagine how she must felt. It was awful enough to be kidnapped and sold but then no one wanted to buy you and a literal block of stone was sold for a higher price than you were.

In terms of my morality, I had none left. I quickly came to terms with the truth about getting what you wanted and keeping it. You had to be powerful and influential enough to achieve that, power and influence were gotten from riding on the backs of others.

I didn't know the girl that had just been sold or any of the girls that would be sold, and to put it bluntly, I didn't particularly care. My personal opinion on the matter was that I would never buy or sell a human but I had no interest in going out of my way to stop it.

The clock hand went around the numbers, an hour passing since the auction began. I stopped counting the girls brought out to be sold after the third one, a cursed object was put out for auction as well but it was clear that the girls were the main attraction. 

It seemed like it was just the first girl that had awful luck because the rest of the girls were sold for an average of 50,000 Galleons each. I also noted that Leland Blackburn bought at least three of them, that was a huge number for a single person.

What did he need the girls for that he was willing to spend over a hundred and fifty thousand Galleons? Nobody batted an eye at this behavior too which meant that it was routine for Leland Blackburn to buy so many young Witches.

My brow furrowed as I tried to make sense of it. Why did he bother to buy them off the auction when he literally had a warehouse specifically designed to kidnap young Witches? What was the catch?

Granted, I would admit that if it hadn't turned out this way, Juni would have fallen straight into the arms of the monster, and getting her back would have become a suicide mission, but I still couldn't make sense of his actions. 

"Now, now! We have one last item before the special item of the night." The anchor said in a sober voice. "She is a real gem and if the special item wasn't so important, she would have been put in the position of the special item instead…"

I fiddled with the handle of the wooden paddle that I had been given, the number on it matched the number on my temporary card…

… 307… Ji-hun's paddle had the number 308 written on it. I noted that there were differences in the paddles given to the guests.

There were some people who had wooden paddles like us and then another group of people with metal paddles. Leland Blackburn and a select few others had golden paddles, it must be a privilege that came with getting a special access card.

Ji-hun stiffened and without looking at the stage, I knew that Juni had been brought out. 

"Take a good look at her, ladies and gentlemen! I'm certain you do not want to miss out on this opportunity…"

A gasp rippled through the crowd at Juni's appearance, she was dressed in the sheer white dress as the other girls and her head was held proudly up as she stared down at the guests. Was she always that gutsy?

Ji-hun's grip tightened on his glass of red wine that he had never taken a sip of and I had to lightly tap my wooden paddle on the table to get his attention so that he didn't shatter the glass cup.

"Sorry." He mumbled, forcing his grip to loosen but still not taking his hands off the glass cup, like holding onto it was a physical way to keep a reign on his emotions.

The anchor waited for a few minutes to let the audience take in Juni, she still had her head held high and for the first time, I looked at her with a critical eye. I always knew that Juni was a pretty young girl but right now she looked like a doll come to life and the fire spitting from her eyes was bound to attract a lot of potential buyers.

I sighed. "Can your sister stop being so impressive? At this rate, I'll have to empty my coffers to buy her back." I said in a slightly amused voice.

This caught Ji-hun off guard and he had to blink a couple of times to process my words. "What?"

"... The starting bid will be…"

"100,000." Leland Blackburn's amused dark voice rang through the hall, enveloping the entire auction hall in a thick silence.