And so the auction proceeded, and the time finally came.
“The next item up for bid was from Sir Warren, [A detached house in the West District of Kilket.]”
“Six million mana!”
As soon as the auctioneer introduced the item, a familiar lowly voice could be heard.
“It’s number 44, Sir Radiak, 6 million mana. Any other?”
“Seven and a half million mana!”
Saying that, I fished the price up 1.5 million mana at once.
From the beginning, I had assumed that it would exceed 6 million mana.
Now that I had over 12 million mana in my hand, it would be a waste of time to play around with it in a meaningless, low-stakes game.
The real battle would come when they exceeded 9 million mana.
“Nine million mana!”
Jimmy Radiak’s voice, proud of himself as he raises another 1.5 million mana from my offer.
Does that mean there is still room for more?
“9.2 million mana!”
“With some impatience, I raised my offer by about 200,000 mana.”
“The manna from Albus, the number 76, is 9,200,000 mana. Is there anyone else?”
“9.3 million mana!”
But Jimmy Radiak chopped the price from there.
His voice sounded a little impatient, but was it my imagination?
“Nine and a half million manna!”
“Ten million mana!”
I raised the price without a pause, and Jimmy responded with 10 million mana.
I knew he was an aristocrat.
Can I beat this guy?
“10.2 million mana!”
I put a higher price on it.
Now, how is Jimmy going to play?
I was nervous as I held my hand.
Jimmy Radiak stopped competing.
“Is this…the end?”
I had thought that Jimmy Radiak, an aristocrat, would surely prepare up to about 12 million mana, double the market price…
“The manna for 10.2 million from Mr. Albus, the number 76. Is there anything else? If there is nothing else…”
If it ends up being 10.2 million mana, there is nothing wrong with that.
Hurry up and get it over with!
I whispered to myself.
My heart was racing and my breath was labored.
Seconds felt like minutes.
And then…
“10.5 million mana.”
Then I heard such a voice.
It was not Jimmy Radiak.
“What…!Huh? !”
It seemed that the auctioneer could not hide his bewilderment at the entry of this big-name nobleman.
I, too.
“No way…”
A voice like that leaked out unintentionally.
“Yes…the number one bidder, Sir Gilbert Warren. He himself offered 10.5 million mana for his own exhibit…”
I don’t understand.
Just as I had just done, Sir Gilbert Warren was making an offer for his own item.
But I, like Sir Warren at the time of the Holy Fist Aluminas, would not back down there.
“Ten and a half million mana.”
“Eleven million mana.”
Sir Warren puts a higher price on me without a moment’s pause.
“You’ve got to be kidding me!”
This is a fraudulent act, isn’t it!
How can Sir Warren, who has more money than me by any stretch of the imagination, do this?
“11.4 million mana!”
I shouted at the top of my lungs as I looked toward the nobleman’s box seat where Sir Warren would be.
“Eleven and a half million mana.”
Does this guy…does he know what he’s doing?
You’re going to lose 90% of your mana for nothing when I can’t keep up with you!
But… if that happens, I won’t be able to serve my purpose either.
The only way to make sure I’m serious is by letter, Sir Warren…
Are you saying that he’s playing a last-minute game, assuming that I intend to buy this detached house at any cost?
I did it earlier.
I tried to raise the price of Holy Fist Aluminas by setting it up, and got a lot of bashing from people around me…
After all, this is not a good thing for the buyers.
This is certainly an act that should be penalized, an act to be despised.
I’m starting to feel a little embarrassed.
And now I have 13,937,000 mana on hand.
Including the negative amount of Holy Fist Aluminas, I got 848,000 mana during this auction, so the amount Sir Warren is offering is already well over that amount.
Of course, Sir Warren has no way of knowing what I have on hand.
The only figure I had given in my letter to Sir Warren was that I was certain I could pay more than 6 million mana at the end of the auction.
If Sir Warren misread my hand, it would all go down the drain at that moment.
For a moment, I thought about quickly spitting out my hand…
Even if I told the truth in all honesty, if he suspected it was a lie and put a higher price on it, that would be the end of everything at that moment.
If that happened, no one would be happy, including Sir Warren himself.
I decided that I should wait and see what happens for a while, hoping that the other side would back down at a suitable point.
“11,550,000 mana…”
I ticked off the price with trepidation.
It’s time to call it quits, Gilbert Warren.
“Twelve million mana.”
Big again.
He’s raised the price by almost half a million.
“Damn! Twelve and a half million.”
It was now a one-on-one battle between me and Sir Warren.
Everyone was watching with bated breath.
And then, Sir Warren went even further.
Thirteen million mana.
What?
Is he an idiot?
What are you going to do if I can’t keep up with you by suddenly raising the price so high?
Does that mean he read me…?
It’s about to get really bad.
“13,240,000 mana. This is the last! I can’t go any further!”
It’s really bad already.
If they raise the price further from here, I won’t be able to do anything about it.
I knew I couldn’t turn my back on them, so I declared that I had run out of mana.
“Wouldn’t it be foolish for you to waste your mana, too?”