The Dark Rebirth of Pandora: Revenge of the Abyss

Chapter 267: Conclusion of the auction

The auction continued, but aside from the two slaves, nothing was interesting, and it took almost 3 hours for everything to be presented, as there were many things in the other categories and it was very boring.

Amiya woke up after an hour and a half, apparently without any effect from the drink, it seems that being blessed by the stars has its advantages.

So I told her about the progress of the auction and the two slaves, and I also told her that she will have to kill one of those two, she clearly seemed disturbed, but did not seem to try to deny it, knowing that it wouldn’t work.

I still haven’t decided which of the two to try, they both seem delicious in their own way, but maybe I’ll go with the 13-year-old girl, I think her meat will be tender and tasty.

But I’ll only know when I try, it’s like it will take some time, there’s no point in thinking about which one is better.

”And now, let’s move on to the last category, information, I see that few of you are left, a shame,” Serena says sarcastically, it’s obvious that the few who are left are because they need or are looking for something.

She begins to cite information not directly, but by saying to whom they are connected or to the location they are connected, citing them all and placing papers on a table that was placed on the stage.

Each paper contains the purchased information, that paper is what guarantees that she will deliver the information later, and there is a lot of information, she keeps citing names and writing the name on the paper that she places on the table.

She also talks about locations, but nothing that still catches my attention, Amiya gets agitated with the number of names and locations cited, the castle, the academy, popular places, various noble families.

An extremely high amount that she just mentions the name and writes it on the paper, and in 15 minutes she cited more than 169 names of nobles.

And more than 247 locations for which she has information to sell, obviously she didn’t explicitly say what it is, so it’s like a surprise box, you buy it and something good can come, but it can also come trash that’s useless.

She also mentioned my name 5 times, I wonder what information she has about the Grand Duchess to share, but it’s not like I care about that, I’ll let some lucky person buy that information.

If they come to threaten me, I’ll make them disappear from existence, I won’t even leave a trace for someone to find.

”Now, let’s start auctioning in order of what I think has the most importance, so who pays the most for the papers of information about the king, the castle and the church all together?” Serena starts with something quite large.

”50,000 gold coins” I speak, starting the bid for the information, it’s not a high value, but it’s not low either, there’s no need to spend unnecessarily, I just set a high price on the slaves to make my position clear.

Paying a huge amount for the slaves is like a warning, I have enough money to compete for anything, and so only the richest can try to compete with me.

And of course, the payment in gold is the only real one I’ll give, since the payment in Celestial Stone will always be destroyed because I won’t give my blood to someone so easily.

”I pay 500,000 gold coins” A bid several times higher than mine is made by someone next to me, I don’t know who the person in the seat next to me is since we’re far apart and separated.

And she is the best equipped person here to hide, and although I can see such personnel, I literally don’t know her, I haven’t seen any book about such a person, but if she can pay so much, she must be at the top.

So one option is a servant of someone like the Pope or the King, who came just to buy the information.

”1 million gold coins” I say, doubling the value for the information, it seems I’ll have some competition.

”...5 million gold coins” The other side increases again, while Serena on stage sits in a chair and puts her feet on the table with a smile.

”...” Gold coins don’t really have that much value, because alchemists can produce gold with magic, of course, to not break the economy, this is illegal and can only be done with the kingdom’s permission.

However, for those who are criminals, they can very well arrange a secret place with skilled alchemists and then make gold without stopping, if the kingdom discovers it, they will have problems, but in the end, it’s just a matter of whether the kingdom discovers it or not.

I myself can easily offer 1 trillion in gold coins and that wouldn’t be a blow to the economy I have, because what is really valuable are magical ores, they have an absurd value because alchemists can hardly fabricate one.

And those who manage to fabricate a single piece take years to do so, showing why magical ores are the most valuable currency.

”I offer 1 billion gold coins” I offer a large amount, even though gold coins in quantities like millions are of ”low” value when it reaches billions, it becomes more expensive for two reasons.

Either you are insanely rich, or you illegally produce gold so that you can offer this kind of value.

Only me and the person next to me are competing, so it’s hard for others to enter without being something useful to them.

”I will offer 50 billion gold coins for this” The person next to me offers much more than I expected, in the end, it must really be someone connected to the Pope or the King to be able to offer this amount.

”I offer 100 billion gold coins” I say, doubling the value he offers, Serena doesn’t even bother to speak, just watching with a smile this little competition.

”Hmmm...I will bid 10 trillion in gold coins”

”...” Everything falls silent with this offer, even I am shocked by the absurd jump in value, 10 trillion gold coins is still not a problem for me, but if he can bid that value, it becomes suspicious.

’Should I give up?’ It could be a trick, I may be being fooled into spending more than I need for something that may not even have that much value, anyway I’m going to the church, I can find things out on my own.

’I’ll make one last bid’ If he bids something even higher, I’ll give up, I’m not stupid enough to keep competing.

”I offer 20 trillion in gold coins” I make the last bid I’m willing to pay, there’s the option of trying to buy with Celestial Stone, but offering it in very high amounts will cause its value to decline and, worst of all, put annoying eyes on me.

I’ve already offered a very high amount, if I offer another high amount of Celestial Stone, they may come to bad conclusions about me having a source of them or something like that, which could make the Grand Duchy a target of certain annoying people.

Who would try to discover what they shouldn’t, and could even really discover something problematic, after all, I know that even disguised, someone can discover that it’s me who is here.

After all, anonymity in the black market depends entirely on you, and there are few who can pay such high amounts in the black market.

”I offer 30 trillion in gold coins” The other side makes another bid higher than mine, I just sigh, clicking my tongue, I hate to lose, but I must be smart here.

”...” I don’t speak anymore, assuming defeat, while Serena gets up from the chair satisfied with the result, 30 trillion in gold coins is a value equivalent to the economy of several small kingdoms together.

The measure for this is the cost of maintaining a kingdom, depending on how much it costs to maintain a kingdom, its value increases or decreases, and 30 trillion clearly allows for a lot of things in several kingdoms.

”It seems we have a winner, or would there be someone who offers more?” Serena makes a final question, holding 8 papers containing information about the 3 things we competed for.

”One, two, three...sold!” Serena says, placing the papers in a separate location inside a red box.

’Tsk...I hope I didn’t lose anything valuable’ Life is not just victories, I may hate losing, but this information might not even be useful to me, and since I don’t plan to destroy the gold coins but rather leave them for her, it might not really be worth it.

And even if I destroyed the coins, if the information was useless, I would still be at a loss anyway, at least the Celestial Stone will be destroyed without any evidence that it was my fault.

I just wonder who this person is who is willing to pay so much just to prevent things about the church and the king from being revealed.

”P-Pandora, are you okay?” Amiya asks.

”...Totally fine” I’m irritated, undeniably irritated, I didn’t think there would be such strong competition, I don’t even know how far he was willing to compete, but from the unhesitating tone, I think this would have gone on.

’At least we’ll have something to have fun with after this’ We’ll have two slaves to vent our frustration over a defeat at the auction, the rest of the information isn’t really worth it.

They’re about nobles and places that I have no real interest in knowing, plus for the auction members, it’s not really a disgrace to know when to stop.

Sometimes certain competitions aren’t worth it, stopping here doesn’t mean I don’t have money, it just means I know how to weigh the merits and demerits, and paying too much for information that I don’t even know is useful is clearly a detriment with a high risk of failure.

Only the stupid would continue in a competition where the risks of coming out at a loss are too high, with 20 trillion gold coins I can make very big improvements in my kingdom by buying new things.

In addition, I may have a lot of money now, but when the war starts, the money will disappear like water in the desert, after all, there will be many expenses in the war for troops, materials, weapons, reconstruction, rewards, etc.

In the end, giving up on this only had one real downside, it left me annoyed that I had to admit that continuing to compete could go wrong for me, but it makes me curious about who the competitor next to me was.

It’s a shame I failed, but I can still talk to Serena later, because she’s sure to come and check my Celestial Stone payment.