"Mr. Sanders? Does he have an interesting collection?"
As they stepped out of the restaurant, an empty carriage happened to be waiting at a nearby street corner. Jenkins waved to the driver, who hopped nimbly from his seat and prepared to set off.
"Sanders is a weapons enthusiast, so all of today's lots are weapons."
The professor explained, fastening the buttons of his coat one by one.
Three hours later, Jenkins found himself back at the Golden Sparrow Auction House at 43 Vail Fifth Street. As the heart of the city, the area was still bustling. The doorman had changed shifts, but the new one welcod Jenkins just as politely.
The afternoon auction wasn't held in the small hall on the ground floor, but in the grand hall on the second. Though not every seat was taken, the attendance was significantly better than it had been that morning.
Jenkins and the professor sat in the fourth row, just to the right of the center aisle. The seats to their left were empty, while to their right sat a young man with his hands on his knees, sitting bolt upright. He looked as though he were attending a critical eting, though he seed a bundle of nerves.
"You see? All weapons. I hear so of them are even still bloodstained."
The professor handed the auction catalog to Jenkins. It contained introductions and photographs of all the lots. Though the black-and-white photos were not perfectly clear, the general shapes were distinguishable.
"Which one are you here for this ti?"
Jenkins inquired in a low voice.
"Number nine. That cane."
"Can that even be considered a weapon?"
Jenkins couldn't help but ask, while also reminding Chocolate not to wander off.
"Of course it can. Let tell you its history. It's quite a thrilling tale..."
The professor's story lasted until just before the auction began, but it was indeed a fantastic narrative filled with conspiracy, love, betrayal, and international strife. In the end, the young prince had raised the cane high and impaled twenty-three of his own blood relatives, including his father. Utterly brutal.
Jenkins had been here that morning and had found no illicit items during his inspection. So, upon his return in the afternoon, he had relaxed his guard slightly.
It was only monts before the auction started that he rembered to check again. To his surprise, he saw a brilliant red aura directly in front of him, shimring in the shape of a longsword.
He blinked, scarcely believing what he was seeing.
"Professor, that direction... isn't that where they temporarily store the auction items?"
He gestured with a finger on his knee, careful not to draw the attention of the other bidders.
"Yes, it is."
The professor nodded. "Is sothing wrong?"
"Oh, no, nothing at all... Say, could I borrow a few pounds from you in a bit? I don't think I brought enough money."
The item that had caught Jenkins's eye was lot number four, a longsword of unknown origin that looked more like a decorative piece. The auction house clearly didn't think much of its value either, which was why it had been placed in such an awkward position.
When the bidding began, Jenkins discovered he was the only person to raise his paddle. He thus acquired an uncatalogued B-class Extraordinary item for the remarkably low price of twelve pounds.
Jenkins suspected it had never been recorded by the Church. Otherwise, there was no reason they would have overlooked its special nature during their inspection.
Good things ca in pairs, as the professor also successfully purchased the cane needed by the university. They didn't wait for the auction to end, instead rising to find a staff mber and settle their paynts.
The cane and the sword were presented to them in elegantly crafted wooden boxes inside a eting room on the third floor of the auction house.
"Professor Burns, Baron Williatte, please inspect them one more ti."
Following protocol, Jenkins and Professor Burns donned white gloves and made a show of examining their purchases. The mont Jenkins's fingers touched the sword, he knew. This was undoubtedly an Extraordinary item. That feeling of being out of sync with the world was sothing no ordinary object could ever replicate.
"Excellent. In that case, we should..."
Jenkins had barely gotten the words out when the eting room door was violently thrown open from the outside.
"Robbers have broken in!"
It was the sa doorman who had welcod Jenkins downstairs. His crisp uniform was now wrinkled from his frantic rush.
"Robbers?"
Everyone in the room stared as if they'd just heard a fairy tale. This was the heart of Nolan City; City Hall and KalFax Field were less than two blocks away.
"It's true, robbers! Oh, God, he's on the second floor now. May God protect young Lucal, I just saw him get... Sir?"
Jenkins had already stood up and grabbed the man's arm. Though it was warm, Jenkins could not sense a single trace of life.
"A corpse?"
His voice was a whisper, but Professor Burns, standing beside him, heard it. The professor's face paled. In Nolan City, anything related to the undead was a matter of grave concern.
"I'm sorry, Baron, what did you say?"
The others in the room hadn't heard Jenkins's word. They looked doubtfully at the professor's sudden change in complexion, assuming he'd eaten sothing disagreeable and was suddenly feeling unwell.
"I just rembered I have sothing to do. It's ti for my cat to eat... The Golden Sparrow Auction House provides excellent service."
As he spoke, his hand gripping the living corpse tightened, covertly infusing it with his Breath of Healing. Life and death imdiately clashed, and the struggling body collapsed to the floor in a heap.
"Also, I think I forgot to shut off the gas valve at ho. How dreadful!"
With that, he picked up the long, thin box, turned, and walked out. Chocolate and Professor Burns hurried after him.
Outside the room, there was no sign that robbers had broken in. Even as they passed the second floor on their way down the stairs, they saw only people walking about normally.
The two n and the cat exited the building with incredible speed. Back on the street, the fog was just as it had been, and the throngs of pedestrians showed no signs of panic.
"Ignore everything else. We're going straight back to the Church!"
Jenkins still had no idea what was happening, but he knew that returning to the Church was not the wrong choice.
They avoided the narrow alleys, running along the main road instead. They took a right at the west end of Vail Fifth Street onto Gorak Arts Avenue, only to be stopped by a massive, surging crowd.
"What's going on?"
"It looks like there's a circus performing up ahead."
The professor was taller than Jenkins and could see over the sea of heads to the far end of the street. Left with no choice, they ducked into a wide alley beside them, but after only a few steps, Jenkins froze.
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