A half-elf stood outside at the Dewsummit City entrance gate on a fine early morning and seemed to be in the middle of deep thought. He had blonde hair and an oval face, looked around 16-years-old and wore a black-hooded robe to conceal his physical appearance.
He was none other than Abium.
'I made it before the auction began!' He breathed out a sigh of relief.
It had been more than four days since Goddess Nyara transported him into an unknown forest. But when he reached the nearby town and learned about his current location, he was utterly shocked.
She had transported him to the farthest part of Peral Kingdom!
'That trickster goddess. She did that on purpose.' If she had sent him near the Royal Capital, he could've met with Helena and others much earlier and made many preparations against the scheming nobles. But now, he had no choice but to rely on his wits.
Because of her prank, Abium had to travel here without any rest.
He let out another deep sigh and noticed that thousands of people were waiting outside the gate and standing in line.
'It seems the chaos has already started in this city.'
During the trip to the Royal Capital, he overheard some important news that deeply surprised him.
First, the royal banquet was postponed due to the Light Church's involvement, and caused restlessness all over the kingdom. Some nobles hoard grains and food materials to avoid being affected by any civil war!
'My actions against the Light Church are showing up.'
However, Abium was more puzzled by something related to Sewallus, the current King of the Peral Kingdom.
'Surprisingly, he is still alive and kicking. He should've died around two months ago, but my actions have caused another variation.'
In the past, the King died during the Royal Banquet, which caused massive panic and chaos everywhere.
The whole kingdom suddenly plunged into darkness, and many nobles even started to rebel against the Royal Family. Nevertheless, the Crown Prince stepped up with Mages' help and calmed down the nobles.
However, he made another reckless decision and invited all the Nobles to a peace talk in the name of the Grand Noble Gathering. But due to the Order of the Dead organization's intervention, everything was thrown into turmoil. At the end of the gathering, Crown Prince Huggins lost his life and disappeared from history.
Shaking his head, Abium shifted his attention toward the current situation.
'There is one more interesting thing. It's the postponed date.'
He didn't expect that the Royal Mages would postpone the Royal Banquet to the day before the New Year!
'There are only eight days left. Should I intervene and save the King? Or should I let him die?' In truth, he didn't care much about King's death. Unlike the Princes, King Sewallus was much more like a puppet character and didn't have much influence in the military or politics.
While Abium was contemplating what to do, the large metal gate before him suddenly made a creaking sound and opened from inside.
Then, more than ten metal-armored soldiers came from inside and stood in lines, blocking the commoners' path.
One of the soldiers then stepped forward and called the Nobles and Merchants to come forward.
Within seconds, Nobles' and merchants' carriages moved towards the entrance gate and entered the city one by one.
Once all the influential people entered the city, the city guard announced again to the commoners to get in line.
"Those who have enough money for the toll fees, move forward. If you don't have a silver, go to the right and wait." He said while pointing his finger at the right side.
As he ended his speech, many commoners made their way slowly, paid the toll fees to the gatekeepers, and entered the city. Abium also took out five silver coins and gave them to one of the gatekeepers. Although he didn't have any identification papers, the gatekeeper let him as he gave him another five silvers as tips.
When he entered the city, he was stunned by the sight of the six cylindrical magic towers on six sides. They appeared to be around 300 to 400 meters tall and looked intimidating.
'They are still in good shape.' Observing the capital city, he nodded inwardly.
Dewsummit City was the Royal Capital of the Peral Kingdom and one of the twelve major cities of the southern mainland. It had a population of around 2 million and was always a crowdy place. It was famous for its historical momentum and had some rich history.
The more interesting thing about this city was that 70% of the citizens were literate! Only the people of the Slums and new arrivals from different parts of the kingdom were the other 30%. That's why the city was often called the City of Geniuses. Even Abium learned his basic education from Helena and one of the Inn Owners and became a fully-fledged adventurer later on.
Compared to other kingdoms, the Royal Family of Peral is very generous to its citizens and even offers many job opportunities. Unfortunately, even some literate people got tricked by religious converts and became fanatics of the favorable god.' As he thought of the future problems of this kingdom, he couldn't help but shake his head.
'Religion is a slow poison. I shouldn't let any God into my territory in the future.' While muttering, he walked past the royal guards and soon stepped on the paved road.
An invisible power suddenly appeared out of nowhere and scanned his body!
The power was so strong that it made Abium shudder a bit.
'Enemy?'
'No. It's a Second-Tier Mage's spiritual wave. Don't worry; it's just a casual scan.' Azolla's voice made him calm down a bit.
'Oh!' Abium nodded and started walking down the main road with hurried steps.
His destination was, of course, the Orchid auction house.
Today was the grand auction day. The Orchid Great Auction event would happen every three months.
The auction would last about three hours, and only Nobles, Merchants, and Mages were allowed to participate in the auction.
If a commoner wanted to participate in the auction, he had to register his name beforehand and even needed Noble's permission letter.
He wasn't too concerned about this problem, though.
'Helena would have done all the preparations. Still, I need to watch out for Count Tibal. That vision showed me a completely different story.'
While thinking, he walked past many shops and buildings and reached a road junction after fifteen minutes.
Then, he took a right turn, moved towards the right side road, and entered the Merchants' District.
The Orchid Auction House was located on the main street of the Merchant District. So, it didn't take long for Abium to reach the three-storied Auction House.
It looked more like a mansion house than some auction house and covered an area of around 500 square meters.
The main building had a large yard, a fountain in the middle, and even a parking lot on the left side for nobles' and merchants' carriages.
While watching the interior in amazement, Abium arrived closer to the compound gate and took out Baron Auguinare's sealed letter from his space ring.
At that moment, two gatekeepers who stood at the entrance moved their spears and blocked his path.
"Commoners aren't allowed inside, lad. Move!" A cold voice came out of one of the gatekeepers.
On the other hand, Abium quietly removed his hood and spoke while holding Noble's recommendation letter.
"I came here to participate in the grand auction. It's Baron Auguinare's recommendation letter."
Upon seeing the Noble seal on the letter cover, both gatekeepers retracted their weapons and bowed.
"Please go ahead, young elf." The right-side gatekeeper spoke while stepping backward.
On the other hand, Abium quickly stepped onto the concrete road and turned his gaze to his left.
A few luxurious carriages entered the parking lot through the left side gate and soon stopped near the parking area.
Then, a few noblemen and noblewomen stepped down from the carriage and walked into the Auction House. They all wore silk-lined luxurious dresses, and some even possessed high-ranked magic items!
Abium even saw a young man holding a unique dagger in his waist and sighed.
'It's just a High-Rank dagger. Why are you jealous over something so worthless?' Azolla asked in confusion.
'Jealousy? No, the correct term would be hunger, Azolla. You wouldn't understand it. Do you know how painful it would be when a Noble decided to take away your precious artifact just because he likes it? I have been in such situations and even lost many things.' A trace of anger appeared in his eyes.
But soon, Abium shook his head and decided to move on.
'First, I have to acquire a large amount of money.' He muttered inwardly and shifted his gaze towards the Orchid Auction house's entrance.
An astronomical amount of white gold flows in and out of this auction house every three months, and it acts as a treasure house for this kingdom. In this city, no force would dare provoke the Orchid Auction house.
Even though the Orchid Auction house didn't reveal who stood behind it, everyone knew that it was the Kummiths Institute of Magic.
It was a perfect place to make some money!
At that moment, Azolla seemed to have thought of the same thing and spoke in his mind.
'Kid, exchange one or two elemental crystals here and turn them into gold coins. Otherwise, you'll have a hard time in the future.'
'I have the exact thought. I at least want to live a rich life from now on.' Abium chuckled inwardly and started walking into the main building.
After he walked inside, he noticed that many nobles and merchants were seated in the reception hall.
Although many looked surprised at Abium's elven appearance, he didn't mind their gazes and turned towards the right.
After that, he took a step forward and started walking towards the right-side reception counter.