Ignotus didn’t listen much after those claps.
The auctioneer was still up there talking, waving his arms dramatically about the next item, but Ignotus’s mind had already checked out. That left him sitting there, slouched in his chair, his head tilted back, letting the noise fade into background static.
The crowd was still buzzing about the "thirty-six gold bid," both mocking and impressed, but he didn’t really care.
Ignotus was thinking about what would remain after all this.
Thirty-six gold... that was a gut punch, a deep, deep one.
He could almost feel his coin pouch weeping sowhere in his inventory.
’Damn it... they really squeezed dry.’
Still, he consoled himself.
No doubt the auctioneer only accepted his outrageous bid because their House, Fifth Seal, expected the Blood Rune to be fought over much like this one. Or at least knew that it’d fetch more than sixteen gold.
That, or they were just being opportunistic bastards who saw a reckless fool and thought, ’Yes, let’s pull him in.’ Perhaps thinking of giving him the Divine Relic only if he swore an Oath to pay back the rest at a certain... less than ideal interest rate.
It was a tactic many bastard Houses used, tricking the pitiful into becoming Debtors of Oath and losing their lives forever.
’At least I won it.’
Eris humd faintly in his head, Her tone teasing.
’Won or not, you’ve spent nearly all of what you’ve worked so hard to get.’
"Investnt."
Ignotus muttered out loud, making Lykos turn beside him.
"Excuse ?"
"Ah, nothing, nothing."
Waving a hand, Ignotus slumped further into his seat, calculating in his head.
By his guess, they’d probably take the rest of his coin to "round up the balance."
He’d be lucky if one gold remained after everything settled.
Still, still, still... one gold wasn’t so bad.
That was a hundred silver coins.
’Yes, a hundred silver.’
Ignotus mused a little.
Though it might not seem like it after this, that could buy him a lot of things.
’I could get my manor prepped and staffed with that much.’
A small smile tugged at his mouth.
It was not bad.
Yes, not great, but really not ’bad.’
He let out another long sigh and looked around.
Only then did he notice sothing strange.
People were standing up.
And it wasn’t in applause; no, they were leaving.
Whole rows were getting up, shuffling toward the exits, even though the auctioneer was still yelling about sothing "exclusive from the first tier that you’ve never seen before."
’Ah. The tier one items.’
Understanding why, Ignotus leaned over slightly.
"Are they done already?"
Ulv, who’d been absentmindedly flipping through so catalog, gave a short nod.
"Yep. Tier one’s up next. Honestly, there’s no point in staying anymore. Even I don’t want to waste ti looking at things we can’t afford. Tier two was more disappointing than I expected."
That got a chuckle out of Ignotus.
"Yeah, fair. We already blew what you had on ."
Lykos groaned, rubbing his own fluff.
"Don’t remind ."
With that, they stood up together, stretching their backs as they made for the exit.
Lykos, following a step behind, looked oddly fidgety.
His fingers twitched at his sides, while his eyes darted toward Ignotus like he was psyching himself up to jump off a cliff.
Ignotus, of course, noticed but didn’t comnt.
He was giving the wolf-boy a chance to grow.
And sure enough, when they passed through the hall’s gold-trimd corridor, Lykos suddenly took a deep breath—perhaps a little too deep—and blurted out:
"I-Ignotus!"
Ignotus glanced at him.
"Yeah?"
Lykos straightened, though his voice still cracked halfway through.
"I... I wanted to invite you to a private banquet."
That actually surprised Ignotus a little.
"...a what?"
"A banquet!"
Lykos repeated, a bit faster this ti.
"At our manor tonight... It’ll be mostly my guards, rlin, and her guards, too. Nothing fancy, really!"
Ulv puffed his chest out a bit, clearly proud of his Lord for saying it, and added:
"Don’t worry... we won’t throw you into politics or anything. It’ll just be good food and drink to celebrate our first Colosseum Trial victory. That’s it."
Ignotus blinked.
For a few seconds, he was just... quietly processing.
Then, all of a sudden, his grin spread all wolfish-like.
"A BANQUET INVITE?!"
He repeated it loud enough for half the corridor to turn their heads.
Ulv sighed, and Lykos imdiately flinched.
"Wh-Why are you so loud!?"
"TO YOUR MANOOOOOOOOR~?!"
Ignotus shouted even louder, dragging the last word out.
"?! LITTLE OLD ?!"
A few nobles walking by stopped to gawk.
Soone dropped a glass while another nearly tripped over their robe.
Ulv facepald so hard it echoed too.
"Oh Gods, please stop."
Lykos’s entire face had gone crimson.
"K-K-Keep your voice down!"
"WHAT’S THAT? SPEAK UP, LORD LYKOS!"
r, who had been walking slightly ahead, groaned.
"Ignooooottoooussssss~. Let’s just go. I’m tired."
Nodding at her, Ignotus turned to fully face Lykos.
"Thank you! I will gracefully accept this invitation."
Lykos gave him a most deadpan look.
"You’d better have sothing good in that fancy dinner, alright?"
Still laughing to himself, Ignotus clapped Lykos on the shoulder.
"Like, really good. I spent thirty-six gold today. I deserve a break."
Lykos sighed, visibly relieved yet embarrassed beyond saving.
"You should go die."
"I try."
And with that, they continued walking down the corridor, Lykos muttering under his breath about regretting every decision leading to this mont, while Ignotus just looked smug, humming a tune that didn’t exist.
A tune that was suddenly interrupted by the sa clerk as earlier, who appeared out of nowhere, nearly scaring r into blasting him down into Hell.
"My apologies."
Coughing softly, the clerk bowed a little.
"If you wish, we provide a service to those who’ve purchased items in our auction. You can request teleportation to wherever land you desire... in the Third Stratum, of course."
Ignotus took a mont.
"Wherever we desire?"
"Yes, my Lord. The Fifth Seal offers convenience after service."
Humming, he looked at Ulv.
Ulv looked at Lykos.
Lykos looked at r.
A full circle of silent eye contact later, she was the first to shrug.
"Sure."
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