"400,000 gold!"
"700,000 gold!"
"1,000,000 gold!"
Soon the price reached scary levels that Draco semi-expected. One should note that the Divine Auction handled batch bidding differently from how one would expect it to. The typical way was to assign a gross price tag to the whole batch and let bidders bid for the whole set accordingly.
However, the Divine Auction let bidders bid for the whole batch based on the price of an individual item. So for example, should the 1,000,000 gold bidder win the bidding, he would pay that amount for each individual Dragorugio set for all 12 sets. This meant that Draco would be paid out 12,000,000 gold or 120,000 platinum.
For scale, 100,000 platinum was what Draco had received for clearing an outpost in the Paradise Lands, a quest that was marked a death quest because no one could survive completing it. Those who probably could complete it didn't need the rewards provided there either because they were too high level. Such an amount of money to a measly Rank 1 player was enough to wreak a lot of havoc.
"1,200,000 gold!"
"1,500,000 gold!"
"2,000,000 gold!"
However, the truly scary part was the fact that the price kept rising. At this point, Draco knew that the value of the set was nowhere near the prices being called out, even if you took the factors that made it attractive to NPCs into consideration.
So why on earth was the price still rising so viciously?
Draco turned his gaze to one of the NPCs who was a stereotypical fat man with a piggish look as well as beady eyes. He was one of the most recent bidders for the set and one would wonder exactly how he intended to equip it with such a frame.
When Draco looked at him through the screen, it was as if time stopped in that moment. Well, time hadn't actually stopped per se, just that Draco's eyes had pierced through time itself to create this effect. Naturally, this wouldn't allow his body to move through stopped time like Dio, but he could use anything related to his eyes or his mind in this state.
True Sight allowed Draco to see beyond, through and of anything and everything. While this sounded complex, it was actually very simple. Take what he was doing now, stopping time with his eyes. He hadn't literally stopped time but only seen through it. If Draco were to try and peek at the future or the past, that would be seeing beyond it. If Draco wanted to see the source of time or the flow of time, that would be seeing it.
In essence, one should remember the three usages of the True Sight passive. Seeing, seeing through and seeing beyond.
Right now, Draco was trying to see into the mind of the fatman. Of the three usages of the True Sight ability, seeing was the easiest to manage. Seeing through was moderate and seeing beyond required herculean effort. Naturally, he had tried to see beyond in the time since the auction began, but all he got was a splitting headache for his efforts.
Draco unveiled the thoughts of the fatman and ascertained why the NPCs were bidding for his item so heavily. When he did though, he was very surprised. He read the minds of the other fervent bidders and was further shocked. Immediately, he shared his findings with Riveting Night through private messages.
"Eva, some of the bidders plan to use the set to appease the Demon King during the next Great War. Some also are his spies that have blended into human society since the last war and plan to destroy them after purchase. - Draco"
Riveting Night was startled by his revelations but remained calm. "Understood. - Eva"
It was certainly a point to note, but the two old monsters couldn't care less. Madam Carrie had suspected rightly, if it weren't for the fact that the Great War was so lucrative to players, these two would not take part. In fact, they might act like the devils and sell their services out to both sides.
Knowing there were spies and traitors, Draco wasn't going to enlighten the 'good guys' because if they were incompetent enough to allow spies in, they deserved to suffer for it. Though, he might sell the information for a good price should it be necessary.
The Aide who was serving them suddenly felt her heart go cold. The sun was shining lightly on them as they sat on beautiful clouds, meaning that the area was lukewarm. Even with the rays of the sun directly on her, the Aide felt like she had been thrust into a blizzard. Her body began to shiver and her heart began to pound.
Her eyes roved for the source of the chilling feeling, thinking that an enemy might have broken through to execute these two guests! However, there was nothing and eventually, her eyes settled on the real source… her guests themselves! In that moment, the Aide realized that she was trapped in a super mini small world with two individuals who were less than human in her eyes!
No human could be that callous!
Of course, one should not forget that this little miss was a naive lass who hadn't seen much of the world. All she had been exposed to was the kindness of the church. In her eyes, humans were good, demons were bad. The idea that a human could be worse than a demon was impossible, meaning that the 'human' had to be a 'demon' in reality!
"2,500,000 gold!"
"3,000,000 gold!"
"3,200,000 gold!"
"3,500,000 gold!"
"3,800,000 gold!"
"4,100,000 gold!
"4,150,000 gold!"
"4,200,000 gold!"
Slowly, the price began to wind down as it reached levels that far surpassed its value. Even those who had been determined to bid to the death were flabbergasted that it could reach this high.
Bro, it was just a Semi-Epic set okay? Even some weaker Legendary items didn't sell for this much at the price per piece, much less when considering the total price.
"4,990,000 gold!"
"5,000,000 gold!"
Once that last bid was called out, the room went silent. Even if Boundless was hyper realistic and each NPC was unique to the point of impossibility, some rules were still sub-consciously followed. In auction scenarios, minimum and maximum prices were set for goods based on rank, not actual value. Since Draco's set was Semi-Epic, the maximum bid NPCs could call out for a piece was 5,000,000 gold even if they wanted to go higher.
Of course, players faced no such rules, but then again, which player would make such an outrageous bid for a Semi-Epic item?
The other competing NPCs seemed gloomy that they couldn't bid more. They didn't recognize their code imposed limitations, thinking that it was absolutely natural to think like so.
5,000,000 gold going once! Going twice! Sold!" Shizura called out with a happy face. Even as ignorant as she was of business, she could tell that reaching the price cap was a good thing for the Church!
Once again, remember, Boundless was a game. Instead of having to wait until the end of the auction to receive the proceeds like in real life, it was instantly deposited into his account.
｢Congratulations on your successful sale
Rewards:
60,000,000 gold｣
Draco smiled when he saw the tab representing his finances in his inventory. He was rich! Callous or not, wealth was something that would make any individual smile happily. Immediately and without hesitation, Draco transferred half of the amount to Riveting Night.
However, he was startled when she rejected the transfer. Draco turned to her to inquire as to the reasoning behind her decision.
"My purpose isn't to leech of you while you perform all the work. My purpose is to ascertain all your wants, needs and goals and make sure they are achieved by any means necessary." Riveting Night stated with a rare lucidity in her voice.
"I don't mind playing a supporting role in your life, Draco. As long as anything I can do can bring you the slightest happiness, I'll be happy as well." She finished with a slightly warmer tone.
Draco could only remain silent in the face of her obsession. Was this how main characters in stories with a yandere felt? He had always been slightly revolted by such characters when he watched anime in the time before his rise to power, but having one himself made him aware that it was far different in reality.
"Eva, why didn't you ever show your obsession in our past life?" Draco asked the question that had been weighing on his mind since they reconciled and decided to be together again.
If he had know she was this type of woman, he would have never doubted her. His first reaction upon viewing that scene would not be anger towards her, but towards Local Lord solely. In fact, it was mostly because of her reveal of her obsession that he made that earth shattering decision to forgive and reconcile.
If Riveting Night had been coerced normally and done it to save his life because of love but not obsession, he would have forgiven her and reconciled, but not re-enter a relationship with her. After all, they both had a clean slate in this life. He would go his way and she would go hers, as friends who shared a secret more than people who were interested in one another.
But upon learning that she was obsessed and made that decision, his heart broke. Obsession was a disorder that should not be underestimated. It could lead to good endings, but most of the time, it led to bad endings.
Draco's desire for vengeance was one type of obsession. It had eaten his sanity and humanity away until he became what he was now. He had done evils that couldn't even be recounted because they were abhorrent. All of that he justified and laid blame on Riveting Night while mentally absolving himself because he was the victim in his own eyes.
He had eventually won, but then wasn't he murdered? After all that fighting, just when he had realized it was all over and could focus on other things, he realized that he had been killed.
If he hadn't been reincarnated, would he be able to even ruminate on all this?
Riveting Night was silent for a bit before she replied. "I hid my real side from you because I was scared."
She curled further into Draco, as if worried that he might let go of her. "You weren't as… diverse as you are now. Back then, you were silly, shameless and funny. You were all around normal except for your talent, your wit and your extreme handsomeness. I was worried that you might detest women who were clingy as I was."
Draco shook his head. "You're pretty weird, Eva. You were never clingy. I used to think I was the clingy one. I always used to think I never deserved to have such a woman love me. If you remove that hood right now, I bet you that almost every other guy would agree with me too."
"Nothing you ever did had the capacity to put me off. In fact, if I found out you were such a psycho, I might have howled into the sky from excitement. Not everyone gets the chance to have such a perfect woman be absolutely loyal to them." Draco added while pulling her hood down.
When the Aide, who was absolutely lost by their conversation, saw Eva's face, her heart began thumping. Her cheeks became rosy and her legs clamped themselves shut. She had always found it weird that she was unattracted to boys, thinking it was because the ones she was exposed to were dull. She had never reacted in such a way to girls either, otherwise she would be aware of her own orientation.
She was lucky the two of them were too caught up in their heart to heart to pay her attention. Usually, no one survived seeing Eva's face, one way or another. Eva couldn't run the risk of trouble developing because of it.
Eva curled up into herself further, her expression one of guilt. "I know that now. I wish I could have been a bit more brave, but I was too scared. The idea of losing you was far too horrifying for me to comprehend."
She laughed bitterly at this point. "However, in the end I lost you anyway. My years after that was a hellish existence of self-hate, depression and madness. I hated myself for being unable to protect your life in any other way. I was depressed because of the hatred I saw in your eyes whenever you looked at me. I was lost in madness because I knew I could never have you again."
"I actually tried to commit suicide three different times but was stopped by my fear of your death at the hands of Local Lord as well as the impact it would have on Sublime. I wasn't going to make both of you suffer just to take the easy way out."
Draco's heart went cold. Three different times? He had never considered such a thing himself during his hatred phase. All he could think about was how to make her suffer for her betrayal. What made Draco so uncomfortable was the fact that, had he heard of her suicide in his past life, he wouldn't have cared. In fact, he might've been angry that he wasn't the one to cause it himself.
He gripped Eva tightly. Unfortunately, since they were about the same height, he couldn't totally cover her form in his. But for Eva, it was more than enough. She felt all her remaining negativity from their past life bleed away as she embraced the freedom that this new life granted them.
"I recognize the pain you went through, Eva. I'll never forget the sacrifice you made to protect my life from harm. I'll never forget the suffering you had to go through all that time because of my inability to understand you, who I claimed to love."
Draco's words were heavy in his own ears, but extremely light and fluffy in the ears of Eva. How many times had she wanted to hear this in their past life? She had fantasized about Draco knowing the truth and busting her door down, holding her in his arms and saying these exact words many times. How did it feel to have one's most desired fantasy become reality?
Eva would describe it as heavenly.
"En. No matter what, I'll always be yours, Draco. No matter what."
Draco nodded his head at that and returned his gaze to the auction screen. In his mind, he knew that he had finally resolved all his issues with Eva fully. From henceforth, he would never doubt her again, no matter what he was presented with. After all, she had suffered enough. For an obsessed person to betray what or who they were obsessed with was much more painful for them than it was for you.
The poor forgotten Aide had been silent as a mouse throughout. She was trying her absolute hardest to keep her raging hormones in check, which had kept her under the radar.
"Okay okay, that's the last of our epic items for sale!" Shizura announced with another cute idol-like pose. Draco once again lamented the insane amount of content that AI had been subjected to. Clearly, Shizura didn't even understand what those poses meant in the real world, but they were hardcoded into her character.
At her words, the audience became more alert, Draco and Eva included. This was where the Divine Auction stepped into second gear!
Instead of a tray being brought up to the stage, a portal was opened up beside Shizura. Out of the portal came a large table in which an item was covered by a display case.
While the general audience were rushing to identify the item, Draco immediate utilized his True Sight to pierce through the space that lied on the other side of the portal. It took a bit of effort, since piercing through space was a little bit harder than piercing through time for some reason.
On the other side of the portal were tables with similar designs as the one that just rolled out, about 12 of them in total. Draco could see what each of them were carrying physically, but couldn't identify them because that would be pushing his ability to the limit.
The first 8 seemed to be different Legendary materials. Draco saw that three were different plants that each looked like they be perfect for the alchemy, farming and physician Tradeskills. One was a basin of swirling purple blood that seemed to be pulling worldly energy into its depths. It looked perfect for alchemy only.
There were two that looked like strange metals. Both floated in their display cases, one with a bright green coloration that exuded high levels of mana while the other was pitch black and seemed to consume all light around it. Draco surmised the former was Elementium while the latter was Obsidian.
The last two were both for the cooking Tradeskill. One was a large slab of meat that gleamed with vitality. The other was a pound of what looked like a spice. Draco was sure that he saw space around the spice begin to melt. Anyone who ate food with that spice would probably feel that wasabi was a joke.
The other four non-Tradeskill items were where Draco focused his attention while he could still pierce space like this. The first was a crown that radiated kingly might even from where Draco was sitting. Draco felt the crown notice his gaze and try to suppress him. All he did in response was to activate Subservience slightly and the crown began kowtowing in an almost cartoonish way.
The next item was a scarlet arrow that had phoenix carvings on its shaft. The shaft itself looked like a bone of a chicken leg. It's fletching was also similar to the tail feathers of a rooster, but Draco was sure it definitely wasn't if it were a Legendary item. The arrowhead was a mass of flame that brightened and darkened intermittently.
The arrow also tried to command the invading presence of Draco's gaze around but was subdued after Draco directed his ability on it. While it was respectful, it didn't kowtow like the other fellow. Clearly, it was of a much higher rank within Legendary items than the crown.
The third item was something Draco was surprised to see. It was a map! When he tried to see the contents of the map, he was almost blinded for overexerting himself.
Hmph! When it was brought into this space, he would be able to see its contents since he would only be using stage 1 of the True Sight ability, which was to see.
The last item was… was…
It was an egg!