Chapter 307

Chapter 307

Once inside the auction house Ajax had no use for his ticket. Despite them being received as a show of good will for his testimony of the steampunk gear Ajax, Lexi, Judy and Elija had all been invited to the Goldmancer private balcony.

Due to the instability that had been dragged out of Oliver the archduke was a bit light on people he trusted as far as mercantile people went. Those he did trust he left behind to keep watch over the others. This left him with a space for a few friendly faces to join him in enjoying the auction.

“You two finally made it, I was sure it was going to start without you!” Ajax was surprised to see the king’s oldest son in the room as he was brought in by the attendant.

“What are you...?” Lexi left the question unfinished but it was pretty clear to everyone what the question was.

“Dad’s room has all those nobles in there, he and my brother can deal with that.” the prince shamelessly said. “I can actually enjoy the auction from here.”

Most of the nobles that had come from the kingdom were actually expected to socialize a little, it had been one of the king's requests in exchange for making the detour that the nobles were not focused as merchants try to create some favorable connections with the Republic.

As the sole experienced merchant from his family this meant that archduke Goldmancer was allowed to take the opportunity and teach Anna about how to handle auctions in other countries so he was exempt. Ajax was exempted for the very simple reason that it was better for all involved, while he had made great strides in handling social situations he was barely at the point where he could attend any event without unintentionally insulting at least a few participants.

“Welcome my lords and ladies...” the host began the welcoming speech up on the stage only to be silenced as the prince pressed on an enchantment near the glass window.

“I doubt any of you are interested in the opening speech.” the prince said as he retook his seat.

Both Elija and Judy looked like they wanted to complain, neither doing so because the person who drew their ire was a prince, instead they were focused on the presenter and trying to lipread the welcoming speech hoping to gather any extra information they could about the local situation and any extra tidbit about the items in the list they were given.

“So what is your impression about old Whisker?” the prince asked Ajax.

The question drew more than a few frowns from the Goldmancer guards present in the room, despite him being a foreign champion his strength did inspire respect from all of them.

“He’s definitely something else, very scary.” Ajax said honestly.

“Managed to get any information on him?” For the first time this evening the prince lost his joking mood, this time it was the champion of Gryndor asking the question not the aloof prince who threw away his position as heir. “Don’t worry the room is secure.”

“That’s the one you put up, what’s it do?” Anna asked as the half mask with an eye was brought out, this was also the first of the steampunk items.

“What do you mean what’s it do?” The prince interjected before Ajax got a chance to answer.

“Some of the items were still usable.” Lexi said with a smirk as she brought out the steampunk leg, started the steam process and caused it to jerk with a small eclectic pulse at the connection. “Depending on how damaged they were, some are still usable as prosthetics, with a bit of a learning curve.”

Ajax did his best to ignore the dumbfounded look on the prince's face and answered. “No idea what the eye is good for, I wouldn’t try attaching that since messing up has a good chance to kill the wearer. The lower portion however should be some kind of filtration system for gasses and poisons.”

“Woah there, back up. Some of the things there might still work.” The prince was still catching up. “Is there anything in the pile that me or Shadow had that might be very useful?”

“Uh, I think so.” Ajax said as he thought back through any of the things they had taken for anything that might be useful. “That connected suit from the mini-boss who didn’t fully replace anything on his body. You took off his head so I think the suit should still be whole and functional.”

“What’s so good about that suit?” the prince asked.

“Not sure how long it can keep going since you killed the boss pretty quick.” Ajax answered. “But since it's an exoskeleton with all four limbs and chest connection with the steam engine on the back it should be usable by anyone, not only that but it would increase anyones physical capacity up to a level sixty-five physical fighter.”

“That’s very good for an enchanted piece of gear.” the prince exclaimed.

“It does have some drawbacks.” Ajax warned him. “When not powered up it should be quite heavy. Not only that but you saw how this gear works, much better at short burst releases of power than continued use.”

“That’s true, their opening attacks were a lot deadlier than anything else they had.” the prince nodded as he pondered the suit in question. “I hope that thing still works, my niece wanted to be a mage but with those extra stats she got from your training method the extra weight shouldn’t be that much of a problem.”

Ajax was very much surprised to see his grandfather enter a bidding war for a small ruby gemstone. “I know someone looking for one of those back home, it’ll bring us quite a bit of profit.” Elija's smile didn’t show that he had spent over 40000 gold coins on a single rock.

“Okay kid come on time to move.” The prince started to lead Ajax and Lexi towards the door. “This thing is almost over and the last time I came out from the same balcony as old Goldmancer I had to spend five parties mending fences with the nobility in that city.”