Chapter 231 - Bidding Wars

"Ladies and gentlemen! The clock strikes midnight, but before we move on to the main event of this night, I'd like to make a small speech. Ever since our secret society had been dug up, life hadn't been the same for many of us. But I believe that this is a change for the better. In these days, like never before, we are forced to interact and cooperate, no matter what is our species. And I think that for so long, we really lacked in the spirit of cooperation. Today isn't about making money. It's about all of you coming together to share your appreciation for finer things in life. The auction is just a reason, a bait to motivate you leaving your mansions and coming to mine. But, I promise the items won't leave you disappointed! This is, after all, a collection that I gathered for decades."

For everyone's convenience, I imagined, Cornellio spoke in English, which I understood well enough to chat with Eve before. I applauded to the speech together with everyone, with sincere appreciation for his motives. Plenty of people in the hall seemed to share it. Some didn't, but I assumed that most of those who disagreed didn't come here in the first place.

While Cornellio spoke, lackeys had been running around, moving tables and chairs to create a place for all the participants of the auction to sit, as well as gave people signs with numbers for bidding.

In minutes, everyone had their place. Cornellio's was still on the stage, while I and JJ ended up sitting near Eve in a corner, away from people who actually came to bid, and were just there to look at the items.

The first item Cornellio announced was a painting of a reasonably famous artist that had an additional feature of being cursed. Eighty thousand dollars was a fair price for it, in my opinion, but it went for twice that much. This made me realise that most people here were probably rich enough to not care for money at all. Both vampires and witch covens gathered their power and money for generations… And I just felt very out of place.

The rarity of items and their unusualness only rose with time. Amulets of masterful craft, relics of old—like a staff that belonged to the legendary Merlin, who was a real person, it turned out—and so on. People bid with enthusiasm, while I examined every item with the same interest, until the late hour seeped out the strength out of my body and mind.

Meanwhile, I also kept an eye on the cursed man, but nothing unusual happened there, and as the time passed, my attention slipped more and more towards the stage where the interesting things were.

It was three at night when Cornellio's attendants brought on the stage a small tray, where laid something mysteriously covered by a piece of fabric.

"And for the last item of today, I brought something truly unusual. A relic of old with a cautionary tale attached. In year fourteen twenty-five, a thirsting for knowledge witch Hong Se Niao—"

I tensed as the name sparkled recognition in my mind. Where did I hear it? Not in my history books, that's for sure. It was relatively recently…

"—thought to cheat her way into learning everything at once there is about the world. Being a master in the craft of seals, she created one for that task. A true masterpiece of seal creation, and one that worked exactly as intended. The woman that was too smart, yet too unwise, for her own good, learnt everything there was about the world in a single moment. You can say… it blew her mind." Cornellio grinned as few laughters came from the crowd. Then he sobered. "Alas, the relic that the seal itself was, then had been destroyed by Hong Se Niao's closest student, who blamed it for the death of his teacher and lover. Now, only shards remain, useless on their own, but each worthy to be a centrepiece of an outstanding collection."

With a dramatic gesture, Cornellio took off the covering from the tray. There, on a small velvet pillow, laid a palm-sized jade shard covered in intricate etchings.

"A shard of the Seal of Absolute Knowledge! Yesterday, it was mine. Today, it can be yours! Make your bids. The starting price is two hundred thousand."

"He had something like that and didn't tell me?!" Eve jumped to her feet with a dark scowl on her face. "Dammit! I would've bought it off his hands… Good thing I decided to watch the auction, after all." Without even a pause, Eve raised her number. "Three hundred thousand!"

I didn't know where to stare with more surprise and astonishment—at the stage or at Eve, who was both very passionate and quite rich. I ended up sharing looks with JJ, who looked just as surprised.

"Five hundred thousand," a firm voice sounded from the other part of the hall. 

"Five hundred thousand from number twenty-six," Cornellio smiled, looking at the gathered people. "Does anyone wish to bid higher?"

A bid of five hundred and fifty thousand was instantly put away by Eve's eighty thousand. Her declaration of determination to have the thing put away enough people that for a second, no one spoke. 

Then, "One billion."

I looked at the speaker, both with my eyes and my well, and saw that it came from no one else but the man with a seal on his heart. It was beating fast now, full of adrenaline born from the same fear that surrounded him before.

Eve scowled. "Fine. It's not like I spend this money on much, anyway. A billion and a half!"

"Oh, what a nice bid from our number sixty-three. A billion and five hundred thousand. Can anyone beat it?"

"A billion and six hundred thousand," the cursed man bid again after a brief pause. 

Eve gave him a long, long look. No one spoke but Cornellio, who counted one, opened his mouth for two—

"Two billion," she said. "Try to overbid this, whoever you are!"