Chapter 268: The Banquet (III): Auction Begins

The banquet hall was already completely silent as they had all eyes on them, it was pretty annoying that they had to meet Malik once again in such a place, but honestly Rezar didn't care too much. It wouldn't stop him from trying to take the bloody death class user apart. Ever since their last meeting, even if he's not had too many chance to think about it, Malik had left a shadow In Rezar's mind, because this was the first opponent to thoroughly outclass him and it made him feel extremely helpless.

"As much as I would like to entertain you o Mighty King of Morte Bianca, you should realize that there's a time and place for everything, we will have our showdown, but that would be on a proper battlefield, not a useless party!" Rezar raised an eyebrow at that, looks like Malik did not care at all about the banquet or the people who organized it seeing as he was able to openly call it a useless party. Seems Rezar and his people were not the only ones with a magnificent set of balls on them.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Kings, Queens, and leaders! I welcome you all once again to this coming of age banquet and auction. I can see some tensions are pretty much rising, so to sate that rage we would like to proceed with the auction. The princess herself would be in charge of the ceremony and I hope her presence would be enough to deter any sort of conflict."

The person who had spoken was none other than the consort of the snow elf queen, the father of the princess. From the look of things, it seems he has a more important jobs than just being responsible for warming the Queen's bed and pumping her full of babies. But then again just announcing that an auction was about to begin didn't seem like it as that important of a job, but never the less it was enough to calm everyone down as Rezar have a signal to Lenore and Kitagawa to calm down and head back to their original positions. Samira was nowhere to be found and Malik actually noticed. But all Rezar did was give him a bright grin while the death class user etched a confused look on his face.

If that look was true or not, no one really knows. But Malik had a feeling Rezar was cooking something up and that worried him quite a bit. The last time they met face to face Rezar was pretty much straightforward and transparent, every moved he made could be seen and anticipated. But now to have a subordinate of his disappear when everyone had their attention drawn away for just a fraction of a second, was worrying. A hidden blade is always more dangerous than an exposed one, and Malik was not under the delusions that he could beat Rezar and Lenore like he did the last time they fought. The Rejuvenation pretty much out all of them on the same wavelength, and Rezar obviously covered his bases against the next they faced off, he was not even 10% confident of beating this young King.

"I'm extremely grateful that all of you have taken time out of your busy schedule to come here for my coming of age party. But let's face it, none of you came here just for the joy of seeing a beautiful face." A cacophony of laughter spread across the banquet hall as people laughed along with the humor of the snow elf princess. She had an extremely melodic laugh, but ultimately it stirred nothing within Rezar.

"So without wasting your time I'll get right to it. Our first item today was minded by dwarves from the peak of the Breone mountains. This ore, which is the size of a fist was mined from a larger deposit the size of a house, however only this small piece was retrieved all this time since the Rejuvenation. We call this ore a sun stone! Till now craftsmen and women have been unable to identify if this stone is a piece of a star or a meteorite, but nevertheless we can all confirm it holds an extreme strain of solar Energy. Bidding starts at 1 gold!"

The stone she was talking about rose up out of the middle of the banquet hall on top of a rising pedestal. It was misshapen, and bright orange and seemed to be like a crystal that had trapped flames within it's form. But even from where he was sitting Rezar could feel the heat coming from the stone. Alistair signaled Rezar, there was frantic look on his face as he stared at that stone. But Rezar did not make a move, those who were incapable of listening would forget that this was just a piece the size of a fist from a deposit the size of a house.

The snow elves weren't looking to just sell the ore, this was an advertisement for a better deal with the other leaders later. They needed a safer and quicker method to mine the stone. This tiny piece would not be enough to sate the appetite of those really big hitters. Alistair will get his stone, just not this piece. So Rezar kept quiet as those who were incapable of seeing the bigger picture frantically bid for the stone, until it was finally bought by an orc dressed in gaudy and exquisite robes, his pig face and rotund form seemed to point to the stereotypical merchant.

"The next item is an exclusive and is actually mainly targeted at the visitors from the illustrious Kingdom of Morte Bianca!" all of a sudden the spotlight was upon them, and Rezar narrowed his eyes, wondering what this princess was up to as she walked to their table and gave Rezar a perfunctory bow, one that made sure to expose her full cleavage and gave Rezar more than handful of looks into her dress, Lenore's rapier seemed to move, as the princess stood up and pointed as a rolled up piece of paper that now rested on the pedestal once occupied by the sun stone.

"Your Majesty King Rezar, it's my extreme pleasure to present to you a blueprint that has been discovered by the snow elf kingdom from our recent foray into a sub dimension. Based on our studies it shows that it's a blueprint to make a specific kind of ornament, with a specific kind of enchantment, catered to a specific kind of face." She smiled and kept quiet, playing with the tension and trying to get Rezar anxious, but all it served to do was make him bored. She seemed a little disappointed, but the show must go on.

"This is an ornament made for the recently discovered or rediscovered Vampire Race. And it's a blueprint for the an enchantment that can let vampires walk in the sun for a limited amount of time... A Day-Walker Cross!"