Chapter 395

“Yes, anyway, it is a grand invention. It should sell for a higher price than that golem of Professor Uli.”

“Though how could I dare surpass the professor, I also believe it will be so.”

“……Is that humility, or what?”

Harden narrowed his eyes and glared at Roan.

Seeing Roan’s confident posture, it seemed he shared a similar thought, so Harden decided to let it slide.

But even the great Roan and Harden did not know.

The greed of the merchants far exceeded their imagination,

“Now, we will begin the auction for student Roan Darc’s item!”

and their information network also far surpassed expectations.

*Ki-ru-ru-ruk—!!!*

Just as Uldein was about to open the bidding, a familiar cry echoed from outside.

“Huh? Black Knight, did you cry?”

*Smack, smack—!*

“Argh! S-sorry!”

Although Demona was hit as a representative, the other students likewise looked back, wondering if their own spiritual beasts had cried.

……Honestly, he wondered why they would ask such a thing of spiritual beasts in the form of dogs or cats.

In any case, none of the divine or spiritual beasts inside the auditorium had made such a cry.

Which meant…

The gazes of the students, merchants, Roan, and Harden naturally turned outward.

Immediately,

*Crash—!!!!*

two window panes of the auditorium shattered, and a person and a golden divine beast entered like special forces members!

“A-a thief!”

Demona immediately raised both arms, preparing to flee.

“I-is it a terrorist attack by a black mage?!”

Hector huffed in surprise, preparing for battle.

Roan stopped them.

“No, it is neither a thief nor a black mage.”

Because the black mage was right here, and he had no intention of committing a terrorist attack.

Still, since she had seen him a few times, Sion immediately recognized the identity of the intruder.

“Senior Zorv and Goldy?”

None other than the senior from the sanctuary and heir of the Richmond family, Zorv!

Hector tensed his body further and stepped forward.

“As expected, it is a criminal’s terrorist attack!”

……It seemed he was harboring a grudge about being valued at fifteen thousand gold before.

After breaking in, Zorv looked around casually as if he had been invited, but became slightly flustered upon seeing Harden.

But he quickly offered a polite greeting.

“Principal, have you been in good health?”

“That does not seem to be a greeting fit for a rascal who broke the window of my building to barge in.”

Harden looked down at Zorv with a face that seemed to ask what kind of punk this was.

How was it that even the black mage student quietly used the door, yet the heir of one of the four great families broke windows time and time again!

As the representative figure, it was deeply embarrassing.

But Zorv, as expected, immediately offered an excuse.

“Ah, looking from the outside, the auditorium windows seemed old. I wished to replace them on this occasion. Of course, the Richmond Merchant Group will bear the full cost, and such periodic damage and repair are beneficial to the empire’s economy…”

“Stop, stop! I’ve practically memorized that speech you give every time you smash something.”

“Yes, I apologize. Had I known you were here, Principal, I would never have done so.”

“Enough. Rise. Why have you come here? Surely you have class.”

After standing up, Zorv pulled a piece of paper from his pocket.

“I also received an invitation from Professor Uli.”

As Harden glanced at it, it was indeed Uli’s invitation card to participate in the pop quiz auction.

“An auction excluding the Richmond family makes no sense, does it?!”

Sensing a pinch of guilt, Uli, who was at the exchange booth, shouted loudly.

Harden sighed for a moment, then spoke.

“Right, if that’s how it is, it can’t be helped. Replace the windows within today, and participate in the auction. Though it is already the last one anyway.”

“Yes. But I have come precisely for that last one.”

Zorv nodded, then walked over to Uli at the exchange booth.

Uli smiled brightly.

……He was happy just because Zorv was approaching.

And he quickly changed the exchange booth sign back to the 30% one.

“Are you going to exchange? The fee is thirty percent!”

“No, I have no intention of doing so.”

Uli became sullen again.

Instead, Zorv pulled a proposal out of his pocket and handed it to Uli.

“Please read this.”

“……What brought this on from you?”

Uli stared at Zorv with suspicious eyes.

Knowing how much Uli loved money, Zorv would never do business with him no matter how much he begged.

Yet he was making a proposal first this time?

*Sniff, sniff—*

But the proposal definitely reeked of money.

And a very strong smell of money at that!

‘……It’s just paper anyway, so why not just read it?’

Roan wondered why he was sniffing it, but assumed it was just animal instinct.

Only after sniffing it for a good while did Uli read the contents of the proposal.

*Boing—!*

“Hieek! The professor’s eyes turned into gold coins!”

Just as Demona said, his eyes had changed into gold coins!

Roan spoke to Demona with a cold face.

“How could a human’s eyes turn into gold coins?”

“Then what is that?”

Since they looked like gold coins to anyone, his friends’ gazes also gathered on Roan.

Soon, Roan began to explain the principle behind Uli’s eyes changing.

“To be precise, they didn’t turn into gold coins, but rather a holy relic inserted into his eyeballs reacted to a specific stimulus. For example, it is connected to the brain…”

“……I didn’t want to know in that much detail, Roan……”

Due to the somewhat grotesque explanation, most of them gave up listening to the end, though.

After reading the entire proposal, Uli swallowed hard and spoke as if his final conscience as a professor was triggered.

“Go quickly and get Darc’s permission too. Hurry! If he doesn’t give permission, tell me immediately!”

……It seemed that final conscience wasn’t very sturdy.

Unlike the highly worked-up Uli, Zorv walked over to Roan composedly.

“A moment.”

And then he whispered briefly,

“Can you hear it, Fanatic?”

“I was about to ask you, Heretic.”

No matter how hard his friends pricked up their ears, they couldn’t hear what was being said at all.

This was naturally because Zorv was using a security holy spell.

“Why go to such lengths for no good reason?”

Only Harden, who broke through a student’s security holy spell without any effort, remarked indifferently.

Since even Harden reacted that way, the others became even more curious about the contents.

“Hmm.”

“What do you think? It shouldn’t be a losing proposal for you.”

At a glance, Zorv’s expression seemed no different from usual, but a subtle confidence could be seen.

A confidence that asked if he could truly refuse this proposal.

Naturally, Roan—

“Please do so.”

had no particular reason to refuse.

‘I made it to sell anyway, so if it sells well, it’s good for me.’

If one had to summarize Zorv’s proposal,

it was truly like the Richmond family.

“A wise decision.”

Zorv nodded deeply.

─ What did Young Master Richmond propose?

─ Who knows, but anyway, it probably isn’t anything good for us.

The merchants were on tenterhooks, not knowing what Zorv had done.

But it didn’t take very long to see what result Zorv’s proposal brought.

*Click— Whoosh—! Crash—!!!!*

─ ??!?!?!?!?!!!

Before anyone could say anything, Zorv grabbed Roan’s complete calculator and fled out of the auditorium in an instant.

……By purposefully breaking another window.

─ L-lightning speed!

─ Hey, that’s a bit dangerous…

─ Why is ‘lightning speed’ dangerous? It just means as fast as lightning and as fast as a spark from a flint, right?

─ W-well, that’s true.

The students were bewildered at what on earth had just happened.

“Ro-Roan! He’s a real thief! Senior Zorv was a thief!!!!”

Demona went into a frenzy, believing Zorv had stolen Roan’s complete calculator.

“Hmph! I will make sure to catch the thief and punish him, Roan!”

Hector also chimed in, huffing as if ready to draw his axe.

……Rather than being angry because Zorv was a thief, it felt strongly like Hector was just excited to have found an excuse.

At any rate, Roan looked at the two with a pathetic expression and spoke.

“He went with my permission, so what do you mean, thief?”

““Ah, is that so?””

Only then did Demona and Hector tilt their heads.

“I thought he was a thief since he broke the window on his way out~”

“I-I thought so too.”

Indeed, it was certainly an action that looked like a thief’s.

Receiving a signal from Uli, Uldein waved his arms and shouted.

“Roan Darc’s complete calculator is sold to the Richmond Merchant Group! With this, we will conclude the auction!”

This was a literal snatch-and-grab, getting fleeced with one’s eyes wide open!

The merchants, who had missed the biggest fish of the auction while being flustered by Zorv’s sudden appearance, stirred.

Especially the young merchants who didn’t know the situation yet flared up in anger.

─ Does this make sense? It’s an auction, yet it’s sold without even accepting bids!

─ Yeah, what kind of way is this to handle business!

‘Hmm. That is the normal reaction.’

It was a natural reaction that even Roan nodded at.

Since everyone was only staring at Roan’s calculator, barging in through a broken window and leaving through another broken window was hardly normal.

However, no matter how normal the reaction was, it was important to know who the opponent was.

The older merchants watching them immediately stepped forward to pacify them.

─ Hey, I understand your feelings, but you must endure.

─ Yes? But aren’t you angry? No matter how great the Richmond family is…!

─ It is easier to just think of it as a natural disaster. If a carriage flips over due to a typhoon while traveling, you can’t ask the typhoon to pay for the damages, can you?

─ ???

─ And it won’t be a total loss for us either.

─ ??????

The young merchants tilted their heads at the words of the elderly merchant.

They couldn’t understand what on earth this meant.

Merchants were, after all, a breed that couldn’t bear to live suffering a loss.

Just then,

*Creak—*

the door of the auditorium opened and a group of people entered.

They were naturally employees of the Richmond Merchant Group.

─ First, replace all the windows.

─ Yes, sir!

With the instruction, the people swarmed over to replace the auditorium windows one by one and began to clean up the broken shards meticulously.

Before long, the window panes were all replaced with clean new ones.

Not stopping there, the Richmond employees also went to the other merchants gathered in the auditorium.

─ Wh-what is it?

Although the young merchants who hadn’t grasped the situation yet showed wariness,

*Bow—*

─ Our young master was rude. We would like to compensate you for that.

─ Compensate…?

The Richmond employees abruptly pulled out heavy pouches and handed one to each of the merchants.

─ Hmph, to think they did something so underhanded in an auction, and then give us this…

Although some merchants tried to refuse out of pride,

*Clink—!*

they couldn’t help but peek inside at the unusual sound coming from the pouch.

─ ……Ahem. Well, there is no need for merchant groups to cause conflict among themselves.

The amount was far too large to maintain pride.

─ Hahaha, you shouldn’t have.

─ No, the young master instructed us to compensate everyone thoroughly so that you will not regret participating in the auction.

Furthermore, the experienced merchants naturally took the pouches, having expected as much.

The saying ‘If you get involved with Richmond, even if you suffer a loss, it is not a loss’ did not come out of nowhere.

If Richmond had conducted business only to fill its own pockets, it would never have been able to maintain such an overwhelming position throughout the long history of the empire.

In truth, the money Richmond distributed across the empire went beyond merely lubricating the economy.

In any case, as things turned out this way, the merchants’ dissatisfaction vanished without a trace.

Harden vanished after clicking his tongue, apparently thinking the matter had ended far too tamely.

“Since the auction is over, everyone go back. I have to go make money again.”

Satisfied with the deal with Zorv, Uli ended the class just like that.

─ I wish we had a pop quiz every week in the holy item crafting class!

─ Yeah, we get to make money and watch a good show.

‘They won’t be saying that by next semester… no, even by midterm exams.’

Mumbling terrifying words, the students scattered in small groups for lunch.