A Merchant With Zero Combat Power Who Was A Baggage Handler In A Hero Party (Me), Was Finally Banished And Wants To Be A Steady Merchant. - Chapter 108 – Auction (1)

Day of the auction.

I met up with Gandra early in the morning in front of Kilket’s inner gate.

The auction would start in the afternoon, but we had a lot of work to do beforehand, such as putting up the items and depositing the mana.

In front of the iron door, which is even higher and thicker than the outer gate. Gandra and I each showed our permits to the gatekeeper and proceeded with the procedure.

Only those with a permit could pass through.

Not if they are attendants of nobles who are already inside the inner gate. Merchant and scorts from the outside can only enter through this gate.

The reason for this may be to protect the assets of the nobles, which amount to hundreds of millions of mana, lying in the central district of Kilket.

For the merchants, it is an outrageous story that they have to deal with whatever happens on their own.

But that was the rule of this Kilket.

There is a security group in the central district funded by the nobles, though. They protect mainly the nobles.

At any rate, it was reassuring to know that Gandra was with us.

→→→→→

And the mana we have available to us to this day is…

At the time of the launch, we already had 3.25 million mana on hand from relic sales and other sources.

From there, about 400,000 mana was obtained through business, including about 1,100,000 mana from relic sales and about 400,000 mana from the kodris baking store in the square.

And about 700,000 mana from all the business, including food, drink, and doll sales at the theater.

The total is 5.45 million mana.

The relics were still selling less and less as the assortment became less and less, falling short of the 1.5 million mana that had been highly anticipated.

Since the main purpose of adventurers buying high-skilled, high-priced armors is to “strengthen the battle effort,” they will not buy them unless they can find something that matches their own skills and tactics.

For them, skilled armor relics are valuable weapons, not just collectibles.

I am so glad I opened the theater, after all, because the sales of relics have been declining.

“But again, the number one key is the sales at the auction on the day of the show.”

I muttered to myself in front of my friends who had come to see me off as I proceeded with the procedures to pass through the inner gate.

“I count on you Albus!”

Clarice loudly presses me.

The expectation from Clarice hurts.

I’m almost breathless with nervousness.

“Albus, are you nervous?”

Loloi looked into my face as I said this.

“This guy has a lot of nuts. He can’t even beat a goblin with his bare hands, but he’s got the guts to run around in the underground labyrinth of the ruins without a care in the world.” (Burgess)

Burgess patted me on the back.

That’s not the same as this.

Ever since I was an adventurer in a hero party, I have lived my life thinking that I might die at any moment.

So I thought I had long been prepared for the possibility that death might come someday in the course of my adventures.

But.

If I fail today…

For the past two months, I’ve been trying so hard to live up to the expectations of my peers.

As it turns out, if that didn’t work out…

I still have to live.

I don’t know what to look like when I tell everyone.

“Sigh…”

“What’s that? Are you really as nervous as Loloi said?”

“I was afraid that if I failed, I wouldn’t have a face to match everyone’s.”

“If that day comes, you still have 6 million mana on hand, you can do whatever you want with it. We can all move out together or something. Unlike adventures, losing doesn’t cost you your life.”

“That’s true.”

That’s really true.

What an unawareness that Burgess notices.

I mean, my biggest fear is that I might not be able to live up to the trust and expectations of my peers and achieve what I set for myself.

In other words, I was freaking out under pressure.

I thought it would be easier to have an adventure where defeat would be the end of everything.

“Burgess made me feel a little better.”

Even though I’m leaving a lot to chance, I’ll do what I can.

And I have done so to this day.

If it didn’t work, I would think of the next move.

Yes, it’s true, if you live long enough, you can do anything.

But I had no intention of losing from the beginning.

I decided to do it, so I would do it.

So now…

We’re going to win this thing.

That’s all we can do.

There was no more hesitation in my steps.

I looked at my friends and nodded to each other.

Together with Gandra, we passed through the thick inner gate of Kilket.

→→→→→

From the inner gate to the venue was a 30-minute walk away.

It is rather east of the city.

We entered through the inner gate on the west side and were made to walk quite a distance.

At various places along the way, we saw elven slaves tending to the street lamps while dragging iron balls chained to them.

Elf slaves were rarely seen outside the inner gate. They were frequently seen here and seemed to be a useful cog in the daily lives of the nobles.

“It is absurd to think that they are slaves because they are elves…”

The arrogance of the nobles.

Such words came to mind, but I don’t have the power to do anything about it.

“I’m not familiar with this it, though, so I’m not sure I understand it.”

Gandra responded.

To the general population of Kilket, elven slaves and the like must be about the same.

“Well, it’s a kind of hobby for those who have a lot of money, I guess,” he said.

It’s infuriating, but there’s nothing I can do about it.

Maybe if I earned a tremendous amount of mana and had the financial resources to buy all the slaves in this city, I could do something about it…

For a merchant who is neither noble nor royalty, it is only a dream.

→→→→→

Then Gandra and I made it to the venue.

The building was a huge hemispherical structure.

I went around it and found it to be quite huge.

Then I entered through the entrance and went down a long hallway to the venue, which is also quite a large theater hall.

There were strong-looking security guards everywhere in the hall.

“There will be a lot of formalities here for the time being. You will deposit your mana there and your exhibits there.”

When Gandra urged me to look around, I saw that there was already a long line of merchants at the end of the hall.

“Am going to stand in line for this?”

“If you don’t make it by the noon deadline, your entry will be canceled.”

“I’m going to get in line.”

Anyway, the aristocrats will not have to line up in such a line.

It pisses me off, but that’s how the privileged class is.

→→→→→

And evening.

The sun was already setting and it was getting quite dim inside the building.

Then, after a certain time, the venue began to be illuminated with twinkling lights by “lighting ignition limitus,” a kind of support magic.

It seemed that several people were sharing the use of lighting ignition luminous luminaries to brightly illuminate the entire huge dome-shaped venue.

I was surprised to see a silver-haired figure glimpsed on the scaffolding near the ceiling. I am sure that ***** elves are used in such places as well.

Disgusting.

Suddenly, a scene came to mind.

It was a scene I had seen in a city on the central continent when I was once in the party of the hero Ryan.

There, ***** elves were made to fight against magical beasts controlled by beast master, and the winner was the object of a wager.

For some reason, the audience laughed when they saw the elves being devoured by the demonic beasts and the demonic beasts screaming in despair when they were beaten by the elves.

Even those who lost the bet were laughing happily at the sight of them.

And as an aside.

At that time.

I’m talking about the consequences Ryan’s party released those elf slaves once.

At that time Ryan had a quarrel with Gioline the white magician over this matter, and Ruschfeld, a black-iron magician who was unusually sympathetic to the situation and willing to help him

Result.

After Ryan’s reckless strategy to bring Dodorus the Earth Demon Dragon by Ruschfeld power, the original target of the defeat, to the arena venue. He had destroyed that place messily in battle and freed the ***** elves.

The fact that he didn’t care at all that there were a good number of deaths in the process is probably why Ryan is such an asshole.

But Ryan’s real goal was to use that as a excuse to force the stubborn, indifferent Gioline to marry him. Everything else didn’t seem to matter.

He just wanted to show that he could go to such lengths for the sake of the woman he fell in love with.

As a result, the elite party that was the talk of the town took all the credit for defeating the earth demon dragon that suddenly appeared in the town.

As a result, there was a topic, “The elite party subdued the earth dragon that suddenly appeared in the city.”

“….”

I just indulged in my memories, but that’s irrelevant now.

I’m sorry to the elves. But there was nothing I could do about the ***** elves in this town now