CH 84

That’s how I left Weil mansion with Suradel.

Since it’s an outing to change my mood, I thought of walking a bit rather than teleporting.

Moderate sunlight, not too hot. Pleasant wind.

‘Everything is good…’

The problem was that there was one thing I overlooked.

Theodore, who has been chasing after me lately.

Stepping out of the mansion, Suradel smiled brightly when he saw Theodore who appeared as if he had been waiting for us.

It was a painted smile.

“Theodore, I’m sorry, but can you go away?”

“You don’t look sorry at all.”

“Huh. I’m not sorry, and can you go away?”

“That is what I want to say.”

As the war of nerves started again, I let out a deep sigh.

“Ha…”

‘At this rate, I’ll be stuck here.’

After fighting for a long time, the two eventually came to a dramatic agreement and stood on both sides of me.

“I don’t know why the wolf is getting involved with my date with Lia.”

“That is what I want to say. Why are you here today?”

I thought blankly as I listened to their resumed fight

Because I was leaving with Suradel, Iprus voluntarily dropped out, saying that she shouldn’t interfere with our date… 

For the same reason, Iprus prevented Hanu from following, so only Suradel and I came out.

Theodore cut in and the three of us ended up hanging out together. If Iprus knew, she would have hit the ground and wailed.

“Hmm…”

Tall and built men flanked my sides, so I was in the shadows.

I didn’t feel very good because I felt like I had become a dwarf.

As I swung my head and looked up at both of them, Suradel raised a corner of his mouth as if he had noticed something.

“Lia, isn’t it nice to have a shade that moves with you.”

‘You nasty… who only inherited a few good genes…!’

When I was about to choke up in anger, Theodore murmured quietly.

“Small peppers are spicy, Lia. The cheek that was hit by your wing the other day still hurts.”

“Hah.”

At Theodore’s words, Suradel smiled languidly.

“Then I am not a spicy man.”

(TL/N: ‘small pepper is spicy’ is a proverb, meaning ‘even if it is small, its persistence is strong that it can succeed in anything.’ These two cute idiots are saying nonsense, they can’t be a ‘spicy man’ because they’re not small…)

Theodore quickly added,

“Me too.”

…It looked like it would be a tiring day.

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤⋆

The place we arrived at was the largest auction house in the center.

I was a little worried for a while because it was operated under a membership system.

After confirming the faces of Suradel and Theodore, the staff quickly guided them to their seats.

Then, they handed out signs with numbers written on them. Theodore, I, and Suradel received numbers 21, 22, and 23, in that order.

Suradel sat down and tipped me off. It was likely he found out which items would be auctioned in advance.

“The largest blue diamond ore on the continent is coming out. I think it will look pretty in Lia’s nest, how about it?”

“…It will become a luxurious nest.”

Imagining a blue diamond that would shine especially among my cute stones, I thought it wouldn’t be bad.

“Are you going to buy me a birthday present?”

“I’m okay to give another present, but does Lia want to give it meaning?”

Ah. He must have remembered what I told him, that when a male presents a stone to a female, it means to propose marriage.

“…Birthday?”

Theodore was flustered. I guessed he didn’t know.

“Yes. It’s my birthday soon. It’s my first time as a human.”

“…I didn’t know. These days, just thinking about you is overwhelming.”

Suradel tilted his head.

“Then, isn’t it even better if you don’t know? How can you just think about Lia and not know her birthday?”

‘It’s my birthday that he forgot, and it’s not surprising he didn’t know.’

However, it seemed Suradel didn’t think this way. He began to lash out at Theodore.

“Come to think of it, didn’t you miss Lia’s birthday party last year too?”

“…How can I go to a place I am not invited to?”

When Theodore narrowed his brows in reply, Suradel blinked rapidly and spoke as if nothing was wrong.

“What? I’m not a pureblood, so I wasn’t invited too. I just went over because they were having a party.”

…I thought he was invited because he attended so naturally, but it turned out he was an uninvited guest?

I pushed their shoulders, indicating for them to stop. 

“It’s starting soon, so be quiet. It’s a nuisance.”

As if the timing was just right, as soon as I finished speaking, a man walked up to the podium.

“Good morning, I am the host who will be in charge of the auction today.”

After a bow, he went straight to the point.

“The guests probably want a quick start rather than a boring introduction, right?”

No one answered the host’s words, but he continued speaking like he was used to it.

“Okay, let me introduce you to the first item! The first auction item is~! Cufflinks carefully crafted by a monster rookie who is emerging as a promising craftsman among elephant demibeasts, who are said to be dexterous with their hands!”

Cufflinks… 

When I was a penguin, I never gave my dad any presents.

It was natural.

There was no way a penguin would have money, and even if it did, it had no way to buy anything.

It always bothered me that I could only receive and not give back.

‘Shall I make a bid…?’

I couldn’t give it myself, and I didn’t know if my dad would accept it if I sent it via Iprus.

Additionally, even the money I had now was my dad’s emergency fund.

‘Well, isn’t the heart important?’

“The starting price will be a light 10 gold coins!”

Huh.

I opened my mouth wide at the words ‘a light 10 gold coins’.

‘1 gold coin is 100 silver coins.’

‘1 silver coin is worth 100 copper coins.’

The skewers I bought at the Weil territory cost 1 silver coin each, so 10 gold coins was roughly the price of a commoner’s monthly salary.

I stopped holding up the auction sign and squeezed my fingers.

I could bid with my dad’s emergency fund, but it was an amount that I couldn’t help but worry about as I lived as an ordinary citizen.

Besides, it was just the starting price. I didn’t know what the winning bid would be.

Just as expected.

The price of cufflinks began to rise rapidly.

“10!”

“11!”

“12!”

…….

“20 gold coins! From now on, it’ll raise by 5 gold coins.”

“20!”

“25!”

“30! I’ll pause for a moment, the amount has increased quite a bit. Does anyone want to go for 35 gold coins?”

“Ah! 35 gold coins! Then I will see if there’s 40 gold coins.”

“40! There it is.”

“45!”

“50!”

At that time, Suradel, who had been quietly watching the auction, held up a sign.

“Double.”

“Double! A double is out! Is there anyone who can top it? If there isn’t, I’ll shout the final bid three times and it’ll end.”

“100 gold coins. 100 gold coins. 100 gold coins!”

“The first auction item, ‘cufflinks made by the monster rookie elephant demibeast’, is sold for 100 gold coins to customer number 23! Congratulations!”

“Then the next auction…”

I blankly opened my mouth and looked at Suradel. Then he shrugged lightly.

“Collecting cufflinks is my hobby.”

At those words, I began to realize that the childish people on either side of me were the heirs of great families.

‘Well, Theodore is the supposed male protagonist, and Suradel casually gave me the precious half-elixir.’

I shook my head and looked ahead again.

Time passed and the final auction came.

“Now, as you may have known, the highlight of today’s auction! The biggest auction on the continent, a whopping 39.34-carat blue diamond, begins!”

“Starting at 10,000 gold coins!”

…What?

It was a thousand times the starting price of the cufflinks I had my eye on.

However, contrary to my surprise, the starting amount was quite low, as the amount started to go up like crazy.

“10,000!”

“11,000!”

“12,000!”

“13,000!”

“…….”

“…gold!”

When 20,000 gold coins came out, Suradel raised his sign like when he won the cufflinks.

“Double.”

“Double! Double came out! 40,000 gold coins!”

‘…Didn’t you say you’re going to give it to me as a birthday present? Burning 40,000 gold coins…?’

It was when I was about to pull his sleeve and tell him he was crazy.

Theodore raised his sign for the first time since the auction started.

“Double.”