novelraw Chapter 148 : Chapter 148
Chapter 148 : Chapter 148
Volume 2
Chapter 72 : Auction
“Refund you?”
The air fell silent for a brief instant before the shopkeeper flatly rejected him.
“That is impossible!”
“Oh? Then do you believe I cannot find someone to tear down your wretched shop?”
Muen let out a cold laugh.
“Or do you think I am incapable of doing that?”
“...Judging from the degree of wealth you displayed before, customer, you probably could.”
The shopkeeper sounded troubled.
“But I truly do not have any money right now. Even if I wanted to refund you, I could not.”
“You do not have money?”
Muen did not believe it.
A shop this black-hearted had no money?
“How about this? I can compensate you in some other way.”
Seeing that Muen was clearly determined to get an explanation today, the shopkeeper seemed unwilling to stir up trouble and thought for a moment before speaking.
Muen raised a brow. “What kind of compensation?”
“A customer who comes to the black market surely is not here just to trouble me, right?”
The shopkeeper glanced around, then leaned close to Muen and lowered her voice.
“If you want to find good things in this black market, information is of the utmost importance. As it happens, my sources have always been quite well-informed.”
“Information...”
Muen’s thoughts stirred.
He was indeed worrying over where to find the ancient dragon heart’s blood.
If he could get relevant intelligence from the shopkeeper, it would certainly be worth more than a mere one hundred and thirty thousand Aemir.
“Go on. Tell me the details.”
Now interested, Muen leaned in as well.
At that moment, he caught a faint fragrance, somewhat familiar.
Yet it also seemed distorted by the black robe that concealed one’s aura, so he could not quite say in what way it felt familiar.
“The truth is, I only learned this piece of information through my private channels. If it were not for a generous customer like you, I ordinarily would never mention it.”
The shopkeeper took out a crumpled sheet of paper.
On the gilt paper, one could vaguely make out the image of a red-eyed bat.
There was not much written on it, only a brief line along the lines of “Secret Auction, sincerely inviting all distinguished guests to attend.”
“This is...?”
“An invitation.”
The shopkeeper spoke in a mysterious tone.
“Before long, the black market will be holding a secret auction. This is the invitation to that auction. You could also call it an entry pass.”
“An auction?”
Muen’s eyes lit up. “What sort of good things will be there?”
“Well, I do not know the specifics either, but one of the greatest powers behind this black market is the organizer of this auction. The things they put up should not be bad.”
“One of the major powers...”
Muen stroked his chin.
It certainly sounded like an opportunity not to be missed.
“In that case, I’ll take it.”
As he spoke, Muen reached out for the invitation, only to find that the two slender fingers holding the other side of it were clamped tight like iron pincers, refusing to let go.
“You do not want to give it up? Then that hundred and thirty thousand—”
“...That is not exactly it. It is just that admission slots for this auction are limited, and extremely precious. I also went to great lengths to get this. I only have this one. If you simply take it away like this, would I not be suffering too much of a loss?”
“What do you want, then?”
“Would the customer be willing to add another eighty or a hundred thousand?” the shopkeeper asked tentatively. “Fifty thousand would do as well.”
“In your dreams!”
Muen yanked the invitation out of the shopkeeper’s hand with force and sneered.
“I have not even asked you for compensation for emotional distress yet!”
“But—”
“No buts. I’m leaving!”
Muen carefully tucked the invitation into his clothes.
Fearing that this black-hearted mysterious shopkeeper might still have some outrageous trick up her sleeve, he promptly fled.
The moment he stepped outside, even his footsteps felt lighter.
Being able to get some benefit out of that black-hearted shopkeeper was harder than snatching food from a tiger’s mouth.
It felt wonderful.
...
“The address on the invitation should be somewhere around here, right?”
After leaving that mysterious little shop, Muen followed the address on the invitation and arrived at a comparatively prosperous part of the black market.
There were likewise quite a few people along both sides of the road, their appearances obscured, directly setting up roadside stalls and selling all kinds of strange things.
Based on Muen’s past experience, those roadside stalls surely hid many priceless treasures buried beneath dust.
Unfortunately, he was neither the protagonist nor someone guided by a white-bearded old mentor spirit.
Other than a bit of money that could buy anything, he had nothing at all.
So he could only go to a place like an auction, where the premiums were absurdly high but at least there would be no counterfeit goods, and play the fool there.
“Hm? Strange. Is it really here?”
After finding the place, Muen scratched his head in puzzlement.
Because the location indicated on the invitation was actually a lavishly decorated building, a luxurious structure that was clearly rare even within the black market.
Was this not supposed to be a secret auction? Why make it so conspicuous?
“Hello, sir. Please take one of these.”
Just as Muen was feeling puzzled, a glamorous beauty in a short, alluring skirt walked over.
She had a stack of papers in her arms and handed one to him.
“A flyer? Sorry, I am not buying a house, I am not drinking milk tea, and I am not looking for escorts from some private club.”
Muen instinctively tried to refuse, but when the corner of his eye caught the contents on the flyer, he suddenly froze.
Why did the big bat on that flyer look so familiar?
“This... this is?”
“It is a flyer for the auction.”
The beauty explained, “After the previous purge, the entire black market suffered a major blow, so in order to revive the black market’s economy, our boss specially organized this auction. Many of the items in the auction are from the boss’s own private collection, so it is absolutely something to look forward to!”
You are a black market. What economy are you reviving?
No, that was not the point. The point was...
“Limited admission?”
“Hm? Ah, I suppose you could say it is limited. After all, due to venue restrictions, we can only allow five hundred people to attend at the same time.” The beauty looked a little puzzled by Muen’s question, but still answered conscientiously.
“Secret auction?”
“Oh? So you have even heard the name of our auction, sir? The boss said that since it is being held in the black market, it ought to have at least a bit of a mysterious air to it. So not only were the specific auction items not disclosed, we also gave it this odd little name.”
“...”
Muen’s hand had already begun to tremble.
“The invitation?”
“Did you notice, sir?”
The beauty said proudly, “The boss said that since this is the first auction after the black market reopened, it absolutely had to be done with some dignity. So every flyer was made to look just like a real invitation. Do you see those gilt words on it? They were really written in liquid gold.”
“...”
“What is wrong, sir? Would you not like one? It may only be a flyer, but you still need this to get into the auction.” The beauty persisted in offering him one.
“N-No, thank you. I already have one.”
“You already have one?”
The beauty froze for a moment and looked at the “invitation” Muen was pulling out with a trembling hand.
Her expression instantly turned cold.
If you already had one, why did you not say so earlier?
You made me waste all that breath.
Was he doing it on purpose?
In the end, he was probably just a lecher trying to strike up a conversation and take advantage of her because she was pretty.
In the black market, she had seen far too many people like him.
Here in the black market, they only dared entertain such thoughts while hiding themselves, but in everyday life they probably had never even touched a young lady’s hand.
“Pervert.”
The beauty spat the word in a low voice and walked away with a sway of her hips, leaving Muen nothing but a disdainful silhouette.
...
Faced with the beauty’s scornful departing figure, Muen fell silent.
Blank.
Confused.
Thinking.
Realizing.
Understanding.
Then exploding with fury.
Damn it!
That black-hearted swindler!
He had been tricked by her again!