The Author's POV
chapter-227

At the same time, inside another VVIP room, a beautiful woman with green hair sat on a black sofa.

Next to her was a male attendant.

"All the preparations are ready. We have multiple A-ranked Heroes and B-ranked Heroes on stand-by watching over the venue"

Spoke the male attendant as he looked at the tablet in his hand.

"That's good, anything else?"

"Nothing so far"

The male attendant shook his head and responded.

"Alright, you may go"

Nodding her head, the green-haired woman dismissed the attendant.

"As you wish"

Bowing down, the attendant swiftly turned around and made his way towards the exit.

'”Clank!

Right before the attendant could leave the room, startling him, the door to the room swung open and a small girl with orange hair entered the room. Following her from behind was a beautiful woman with long black hair and amethyst-colored eyes.

"Eyo how's it going Amber!"

"Monica, you're supposed to knock before you enter"

Shaking her head, Donna reprimanded Monica as she entered the room.

This wasn't the first time Monica brazenly entered a room like this.

She needed to fix her bad habits as one day it might come back and bite her.

"Monica? Donna? You guys are finally here"

"How are you doing Amber?"

Staring at Donna and Monica who had just entered the room, the green-haired girl whom Donna referred to as Amber, put her tablet down and smiled.

"I'm doing better now that you guys are finally here"

Being the owner of the establishment and the one responsible for tonight's event, Amber had a lot of things to do.

She was quite understandably tired.

However, now that Monica and Donna were here, Amber instantly felt better.

"How long has it been since we last saw each other Donna?"

Amber asked.

"Hmm, I'm not sure. Maybe eight years? You were two years ahead of us so we didn't spend much time together at the Lock"

"That true..."

If there was one thing Amber regretted, it was the fact that she was born two years too late.

If not for that she would've been able to enjoy her school life with Donna and Monica, her closest friends.

She truly missed those days where she would chase Monica around with Donna around the campus.

Those days were much easier.

Now she was presented with endless paperwork that she could see no end of. Every day was a constant challenge for me.

"Wow, what's this! Oh, look at all of this food! Don't mind if I take some. Oh, what a nice view!"

"Childish as always I see..."

Looking at Monica jumping all over the place, Amber shook her head.

'I guess some people never change...'

Even eight years ago Monica was the same. From how she behaved to how she looked, she was the exact same person.

Apart from her strength, nothing else seemed to grow.

"Tell me about it, I have to deal with her every day now"

Sighing, Donna shook her head.

"Oh? How come?"

"You didn't hear? Monica over here, for a short period of time, is going to be an instructor at the academy"

Donna pointed at Monica as she massaged her forehead.

"What!?"

Amber's eyes opened widely.

"Monica teaching? Isn't that a recipe for disaster?"

"It's what I've been saying!"

Donna had said this from the very beginning.

Monica was just not fit to teach. Not with that personality of hers.

Without a doubt, she was going to cause some sort of trouble sometime soon. Donna felt it.

"Hey, you know I'm here"

Turning around, Monica frowned.

'Why does everyone think I can't teach? I'm obviously way stronger than the both of you', muttered Monica as she took a plate of food.

Wasn't her strength enough to prove that she was qualified to teach?

'Hmph, they must be jealous', thought Monica as she stuffed herself with pastry.

"Alright, sorry Monica. Please have a seat and enjoy yourselves. The auction is about to start"

Waving her hand and apologizing to Monica, Amber pointed at the seats next to her.

"I'll forgive you only this time since you personally invited us here"

Turning her head to the side, Monica calmly walked towards a sofa and sat down. Donna did the same.

Shortly after the lights turned off.

...

"If you'll excuse me, I will now attend the other guests. If you have any inquiries, please feel free to call me by tapping on the call function on the tablet next to you"

Jeremiah explained a few things before bowing and excusing himself.

"Will do"

Looking at the auction hall, Melissa nonchalantly nodded her head.

"I hope you will have a pleasant experience"

Curtly bowing again, Jeremiah left the room.

'”Clank!

Standing by the side of the room, I quietly munched on another macaron.

'I guess he's starting to make preparations...'

Watching Jeremiah leave the room, I smiled.

Jeremiah, or to be more precise, Ivan Rankvick was in fact an extremely renowned thief. In fact, he was actually the most infamous thief to date.

The reason for this was because no one knew who he actually was. That includes the Seven heads of the union and the Monolith. He was like a ghost.

Well, that's how it should've been, but...

I existed.

Being his creator, I naturally knew a little bit about him.

...and so why I came to the auction today. To meet him.

Auction item aside, Ivan owned something that I really wanted.

'The Mask of Dolos'

An <A> ranked artifact named after Dolos, the spirit of trickery. It was also the artifact that gave Ivan his current nickname, the man with a thousand faces.

The Mask of Dolos had the interesting effect of enabling the wearer to alternate their face to whoever they wanted.

By simpling touching a person once, the mask had the ability to mimic the facial features of the person it touched down to the bone structure which was what set the mask apart from regular skin masks that everyone could buy.

Since they only copied the face but did not change the bone structure, they tended to be quite unrealistic in some cases.

That aside, with the mask, Ivan was able to change his face whenever and however he wished, and thus thanks to the mask he was able to avoid the pursuit of the government agents.

That's how his name came to be.

'The man with a thousand faces'

To this day no one knew of the existence of the mask as everyone attributed his face-changing abilities to some sort of skill of his.

This was exactly what I wanted since it would make things much easier for me later along the lines...

"Ren what are you doing? The auction is about to start, aren't you going to sit down?"

Snapping me out of my thoughts was Kevin who shouted from his seat.

"Coming"

Putting my plate away, I quietly walked towards one of the sofas and sat down.

There was still quite a bit of time before I needed to act, so for the time being it was best to just enjoy myself.

"That's quite a lot of stuff..."

I muttered as I took a tablet and opened the auction catalog.

Artifacts, skills, monster parts, special ores, monster eggs, and many other things were present in the long catalog. Most of the items were things that would make anyone drool over them.

Especially me.

However, the items listed in the catalog were not the main stars of today's auction. No, the main stars would only come out once the auction began.

─Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank you for coming to the Ashton city grand auction that is being held in the Crown's King hotel...

Right as I was checking the catalog, the lights turned off the voice of the auctioneer resounded across the hall.

Instantly all chattering from below stopped.

─For our first item of today, I present you this.

Unveiling the first item, my brows knit together.

'A painting?'

It looked like just a regular painting at first glance. A badly painted one to boot.

"Ah, wait..."

Taking a closer look I soon realized my mistake. It wasn't a regular painting at all.

─Some of you might be thinking. What is this? A painting? Why would just a regular item be presented in the auction as the first item? Well rest assured everyone, this is no regular painting.

Pausing, the auctioneer traced his finger on the painting and channeled his mana. The painting soon glowed.

Instantly the hall was filled with murmurs.

"This..."

Squinting my eyes, I leaned forward. My interest had started to pique.

─That's right, this painting is in fact an artifact. Especially painted by Leonard Vaz, 29th in the Hero ranking. With his incredibly artistic sense, Leonard created this painting for everyone to see and admire. What makes this painting special is the fact that the painting contains some of Leonard's insight on psyon control. One of the most fundamental subjects in order for one to reach the top. If one is lucky enough, upon looking at the painting, they may be able to take a step further in their martial mastery and become stronger.

The auctioneer paused and looked at the crowd. He was trying to let the information sink in.

─Enough said, the starting price for the painting is 500,000 U. Let the bids begin.

After a couple of seconds, the auctioneer officially opened the bidding.

Instantly a wave of hands rose in the air.

─Number 60 bids 550,000U, going once, Ah! Number 78 bids 700,000U

─Number 765 bids 1,300,000U! Oh, number 05 is raising the price even further 1,500,000 is the current bid!

"This..."

Seeing the crazy waves of bids, I looked at the tablet in my hand. On it was a red button that I could press to bid.

If I had to be honest I was quite tempted, but I forcefully tried to throw such thoughts from my mind.

'I already have Donna teaching me psyon control. It's no use for me. I shouldn't waste my money on the painting'

Though Donna wasn't as strong as Leonard, her mastery of psyon control was at least on par with his level.

There was no way a painting could help me as much as a face-to-face lesson with Donna. Though somewhat useful, it would sort of be a waste of money to me.

─Number 1289 bids 5,690,000U! Anyone else? Oh, it seems like another distinguished guest wants to take a piece of the cake, 5,900,000U!

Looking at the rising price, any thoughts I had on buying the painting were immediately thrown out of the window.

Although the painting was indeed tempting, 6 million for it was a bit too much.

─Number 60 bids 8,000,000U Going once! Going twice! Going thrice! And sold!

In the end, the painting ended up selling for 8 million U.

A fair price for someone that didn't have two ranked heroes teaching them three times a week.

─What an exciting first item. Now onto the next item. Right before you guys is a...

For the next half an hour or so, different items came and left as everyone fervently bid for them.

To be honest, although all of the items were somewhat interesting, none of them were something that I particularly needed so I wasn't tempted to buy anything.

'Huaam, when is the item I want coming', I muttered in a low voice as a small yawn escaped from my mouth.

Fortunately, the wait did not last for long.

─Next up, for our next item, I present you this.

Unveiling, the next item. A black ominous rock suddenly appeared before everyone.

Staring at the rock, my eyes lit up.

'Finally, it's here! '

The item that I had been waiting for.

...

Ever since young, Emma had always wantonly spent all of her money on whatever she wanted. If she wanted something, she would buy it. It was simple as that. Yet, for the first time in her life, she could only sit down and helplessly watch as multiple items she had her interest in fall into the hands of other people.

'If it wasn't for that damned bastard...', muttered Emma as she clenched her teeth.

With her card frozen, Emma could only stay still and watch others buy the items she had set her eyes on. It was the first time she ever felt like this.

It felt so frustrating.

This was all because of her damned uncle who was trying his best to suppress her.

─Next up, for our next item, I present you this.

Suddenly a new item was presented. It was a black rock about the same as a football.

─Folks, I'll have to be honest with you here. Not much is known about this item, however, after some thorough testing, we were able to find something extremely interesting. This item is incredibly strong. So strong in fact that even with our best equipment we still aren't able to make a scratch on it. The reason why we're presenting you this item is precisely because of this. Since we can't process it, we thought that maybe it would be better in someone else's hands.

'A rock? pfff, who would be stupid enough to buy this?'

Listening to the description of the item, Emma inwardly laughed.

So what if the rock was strong? If they couldn't cut it what was the point of even bidding for it?

To whoever bought the thing, it would just end up resting in their storage to collect dust.

─The bid starts at 5,000,000U. Let the bids begin.

Following his call, like usual a wave of bids came in.

─Number 99 starts off the bid with 7 million! Oh, number 643 is now bidding 9 million. Will there be a higher bid today?

"What a bunch of idiots"

Looking at the people below bidding for the rocks, Emma shook her head.

─Di!

Suddenly a small chime rang inside of the room. Turning around, Emma was taken aback by what she saw. With twinkling eyes, Ren looked at the rock below as he pressed on the tablet before him.

Besides him, the number 15 lit up.

─Looks like number 15 from one of the VVIP stands bids 15 million!

'What is this idiot doing?'

With her eyes wide open, Emma was at a loss for words as she looked at Ren.

"Ren?"

Showing a similar reaction, almost everyone in the room looked at Ren with confusion in their eyes.

"Ren, why would you spend so much on a rock that even the auctioneers can't cut?"

Kevin was the first one to ask.

He couldn't understand. If they couldn't cut it with the equipment they had, then who could?

"It's fine. I just like the rock"

Ren responded halfheartedly as he kept on bidding.

"Re-"

"Kevin, it's fine, let him do his thing. If he wants the rock just let him have the rock. It's his money anyways, he can do whatever he wants with it"

Interrupting Kevin, Emma shook her head.

It was his money anyways.

"Bu-"

"No buts, just relax and watch the show"

"Alright"

And so Kevin did exactly as Emma suggested. However, as time passed by, he found it increasingly harder and harder to follow through on this. Emma was the same as she opened her eyes wide as she looked at Ren.

─It's number 15 again! This time he's bidding 79 million U!

"Ren where did you get all of this money from?"

'And here I thought that I could lend him some money', thought Kevin as he looked at Ren with wide eyes.

From the way Ren was bidding, Kevin realized that his previous comment was unnecessary. Ren was richer than him!

─Di!

A further ten minutes had passed since then and Ren was still trying to bid for the rock.

─It's number 89 this time with 130 million U. Will anyone bid again?

At this point, everyone in the room had stopped trying to talk Ren out of it.

No matter how much they tried to dissuade him from buying the rock he kept stubbornly bidding for it.

Seeing how stubborn he was, Emma gave up and just watched as he and bidder 89 outbid one another for the past 5 minutes or so.

─Once again 15 bids again with 135 million U. Anyone else? Perhaps bidder 89 wants to go again? No? Going once? Going twice? and sold! Congratulations to bidder number 15!

"Yes!"

Hearing the announcement, Ren stood up and fist-pumped the air.

'What's the point of being so excited for a rock?'

Staring at Ren from her seat, Emma shook her head. She really couldn't understand. Not just her, everyone else in the room shared the same sentiment.

What was so special about that rock that it made Ren buy want it so badly?