Chapter 16

Chapter 16. "The Thing Bought from Them with Money."(10)

"A dark elf (Dark elf)?!"

...She really was dark.

While Exel, I, and the others participating in the auction were all staring in shock, Irisa, who had been sitting quietly all this time, looked once at the dark elf glancing around the room with an expressionless gaze, then quietly opened her mouth and said,

"She was already here before I came. She would not tell us her name, but when she was dragged here, that child healed every injured monster she saw. She is a kind child. But in the end, it comes to this."

As I listened to her explanation, I slowly looked over that little dark elf.

As was true of all elves, this young dark elf had long black hair that hung straight down like loosened threads of silk.

Her skin was slightly dusky as well, so if she were standing somewhere dark, I did not think most people would be able to find her easily. And just as Rene had once told me....

'All elves are beautiful, but dark elves in particular possess a beauty capable of imitating the smile of a god. Simply put, dark elves are the kind of beauties who stand out even among elves.'

She was astonishingly beautiful.

Granted, she looked no more than thirteen or fourteen by human standards, but wait. Then was that why that marquis over there had so readily given up on Irisa after hearing one of the staff whisper something in his ear earlier?

When I turned my head, Marquis Jergal, that very man, happened to be looking at me as well.

When he saw me, he gave me a broad grin, and I returned a bitter smile as I looked at his face. Then I turned back to Exel and leisurely smiled.

...I am sorry, but now that we are here, as of today, this place is finished.

I turned to look at Exel, and he was already curling his lips into a grin.

Raising a hand, he said,

"Wait. This time, let me try my hand against that marquis. We are already late anyway, so what difference does it make if we get a little later?"

"That is true enough. We are going to smash everything to pieces anyway. Fine, do as you like."

After saying that, I leaned back lazily in my chair, and Irisa, who had been quietly listening to our conversation, spoke to me in a slightly trembling voice.

"Um, then... that child too?"

"Not just that child. Even the monsters being held here. All of them."

After hearing my answer, Irisa gave a faint but warm smile. Then she took hold of my hand, lifted it, pressed it to her forehead, and whispered softly,

"Thank you. They will all be happy. They really will."

At that moment, Exel, who had been casually smiling at the marquis beside us, looked over and saw Irisa and me. Narrowing his eyes, he gave me a sly grin and said,

"Oh ho, if Miss Tarsis were to see you like this right now, Reed, what do you think would happen to you?"

"...Please do not say anything."

Unable to bring myself to shake off the girl still holding my hand, I answered with a flustered expression.

At that moment, the auctioneer, who had spent quite some time introducing the dark elf on the platform, added one final remark to conclude his introduction, and suddenly savage smiles began to pass over the faces of the people in the room.

"And one last thing. Unlike the ordinary elf who was just purchased by that gentleman over there, dark elves do not kill themselves out of noble pride. Even if you handle them a little roughly, it does not matter. Now then, bidding will begin at 50 million woni."

The instant the auctioneer finished speaking, hands shot up from all over the room, and the man on the platform began waving his hand this way and that, rapidly raising the price. I watched them in silence, then lifted my eyes to the white-plastered ceiling.

...Humans are suddenly starting to disgust me.

Beside me, Irisa, the ordinary elf, had been quietly listening to the auctioneer's words. She let out a long sigh, folded her hands atop her thighs, looked down at the floor, smiled bitterly, and murmured as if speaking to herself,

"It is true. We kill ourselves out of pride. But those dark elves mock us for it and punish the ones who trample on their pride. That is what separates dark elves from ordinary elves. Everything else is the same, but that one thing is different.

We know how to receive, but we do not know how to give to others. Dark elves, however, can do both. In a way, perhaps they are the ones most like humans."

...Is that so?

Certainly, when the guards first led Irisa onto the platform, she had faced the crowd with a deeply anxious expression.

'Because she did not know how to yield herself,'

But that little dark elf standing on the platform with both arms bound in antimagic shackles, staring at the people laughing and placing money on her body as though they were filthy insects in a forest, did not look anxious in the slightest.

'Because that child knew how to yield herself,'

Elves truly were rather difficult beings to understand. Rene had never told me any of this. Then again, between her and me, love alone was enough. Love was simple. It was not complicated.

Thinking that, I looked at Exel, who was quietly watching the dark elf with a gaze that was anything but ordinary. Noticing my eyes on him, he smiled and said,

"Well then, shall we begin about now? Reed, get ready. And was it Irisa? The moment I draw my sword, cover your ears. It is going to get a little loud."

Irisa tilted her head at Exel's words, but true to the sharp mind of an elf, she quickly realized what we were about to do and nodded. At his words, I pulled the gauntlets from my pocket and quietly began slipping them onto my hands.

The room was noisy. Hands and money bags were being raised from every direction, and sums two or three times higher than the previous bids were being shouted out.

Each time that happened, the auctioneer on the platform let out delighted shrieks and cried out an even higher price.

But that lasted only for a moment. Then, from somewhere, there came a squeal like a pig being slaughtered, and the man called Marquis Jergal shouted,

"Enough!! Stop raising the price if you are not even going to buy her! 200 million! That is all the money I have with me right now! I will pay every bit of it! If you cannot follow that, then give up!"

"........."

Impressive. To silence this many humans, all crazed with desire, through force of spirit alone....

As everyone stared at him blankly in silence, Marquis Jergal rose to his feet, lifted both hands to his coat collar and snapped it twice, then straightened his back proudly, looked around, and declared,

"I will say it again. All the money I possess at this moment is 200 million woni. I will pay every last coin. Therefore, if you cannot match it, quietly yield to me."

When he finished, some people laughed helplessly, while others collapsed back into their seats.

Then, from somewhere, a dazed man slowly raised his hands and began clapping. Before long, the sound spread throughout the room until every last person inside had joined in, and the hall became so full of applause and cheers that even Irisa had to cover her ears.

Then Exel, who had been sitting there with folded arms, snorted with a look of contempt and said,

"Vicarious satisfaction? In other words, one wants to feel through someone else what one could not feel oneself? How ridiculous.

Where in this world could there be a phrase more laughable than that? Vicarious satisfaction.

It is the filthy self-justification of those who failed to fulfill their own dreams, gave up in the end, and then take pleasure in watching another man do what they could not."

"That is not exactly wrong."

"Would it kill you to call it a wise saying?"

"You know as well as I do that a venomous remark cannot be a wise saying."

At my answer, Exel lowered his head slightly and smirked, then rose from his seat. He looked as though he were about to say something, but quickly realized that in the current uproar no one would be able to hear him.

So instead, he picked up the gun blade he had set aside earlier when he lent Irisa the long coat, aimed it at the splendid chandelier hanging from the ceiling, and the gun blade spat fire with a thunderous roar.

"BOOOOOOM!!" CLATTER~ CRASH!! BANG!!"

The chandelier hanging from the ceiling was struck by Exel's gun blade and dropped straight down, smashing into the table beneath it and shattering together with it, sending shards of glass and splinters of wood flying in every direction.

The people sitting at that table sprang from their chairs with looks like they had been struck by lightning in their sleep, throwing up their hands to shield their faces from the debris as they screamed. Meanwhile, the people at the nearby tables clutched their ears, frowned, and turned toward the source of the explosion.

And beside me stood Exel, still frozen for a brief instant in the exact pose he had held while aiming at the chandelier, one foot up on the table. Under the murmur of the crowd's startled stares, he lowered his foot, raised the arm holding the gun blade high, and said,

"This is a gun blade. Those among you who are well-versed in weapons should recognize it, should you not? There exist only two such swords in this world. One is in the possession of Miss Grandia, the eldest daughter of House Narsel, and the one that remains is this one here. Come to think of it, there was once a time when King Itan of the neighboring nation of Serpiz personally sent a letter to House Narsel in his own hand. He asked whether Miss Grandia's gun blade might not be handed over to him. House Narsel politely declined his request, of course, but at the time, the price King Itan named for the gun blade in House Narsel's possession was...."

"In the currency of this country, Merses, approximately 580 million woni."

Those words were not spoken by Exel, but by some man seated at the table in front of us. He was staring at the gun blade in Exel's hand with his mouth hanging open, and Exel inclined his head slightly toward him.

The handsome middle-aged man with the fine mustache awkwardly bowed back in return. Lifting his head, Exel looked at Marquis Jergal, who had just offered 200 million woni, and said,

"You heard him, did you not? 580 million. What do you say? Yield, Marquis."

The marquis's face looked exactly like that of a man who had bitten into something foul. He stared silently at Exel's face, then lowered his gaze to me and Irisa, who was sitting beside me, then turned again and glanced up at the little dark elf on the platform, who despite all this commotion had merely lifted her antimagic-shackled hands to touch her ears a little.

After that, he lowered his gaze back to us and ground his teeth. Then, as if unable to contain his rage, he raised his fist and slammed it down onto the table.

BANG!

"Damn it all!"

He glared at the table, then lifted his head again, shot Exel one last dark look, turned sharply, and strode off on his short legs toward the staircase leading upward, shouting,

"Kaal! Let us go! It would have been better to stay home and drink tea!!"

Then he stomped up the stairs still grumbling, and a young man carrying a bag and the fake painting the marquis had bought earlier hurried after him.

Once the marquis disappeared, a brief silence fell over the auction hall. Then the auctioneer, the first to recover his senses, slowly raised a hand to point at Exel and said with a slight stammer,

"Uh... a gun blade worth 580 million has been presented. Is there any higher bid?"

The auction hall was silent.

The auctioneer swallowed once, then lifted his hand high, pointed first to the dark elf and then to Exel as he declared,

"This dark elf has been sold to that silver-haired gentleman! Ladies and gentlemen, please give that gentleman your applause!"

But no one cheered, nor did anyone clap. Wearing a somewhat awkward expression, the auctioneer called over the guards standing beside him and told them to hand the young dark elf over to Exel.

Soon, under the gaze of everyone in the room, the dark elf, the guard whose eyes had been red with rage earlier, and the uniformed man with the cold eyes came to stand before us.

The red-eyed guard stood there in silence with a face that looked ready to beat us to death, but when the cold-eyed man beside him lightly tapped him on the shoulder, he spoke in a voice so strained it sounded suppressed.

"Congratulations. We will now... hand over... the auction item you have successfully purchased. And the payment.... Grit.... Excuse me. Yes, it is to be paid in advance."

That sound just now... that really was the sound of him grinding his teeth, was it not?

Then he placed a hand on the dark elf's shoulder and lightly pushed her toward Exel. Rather than truly walking, the young dark elf was half-guided forward until she stood directly before him, where she stopped and looked up at him fixedly.

Exel, too, quietly looked down at her. For a short while, they simply stared at one another to such an extent that it would not have been an exaggeration to call it a contest of wills. Then, after a moment, Exel curled his lips into a grin and spoke first.

"As the master who bought you, I wish to know your name."

The little elf, who had been standing with both hands gathered in front of her because of the antimagic shackles, tilted her head and looked up at Exel. Then, for the first time, she opened her mouth and said,

"My name is....