Starlight Life Of The Sage

In her many years as The Sage, Cara never had to deal with other people opposing her in an auction. Too many people respected her back then, and they would often bow out, letting her win at a reasonable price for both her and the seller.

This experience, to Cara, was a foreign one. She hadn't had to compete in an auction in nearly 30,000 years!

So it was no wonder why she ended up doing something as stupid as going toe to toe against someone with nothing to lose. For a brief moment, Cara lost herself to the hormones of her teenage body, and she surrendered to her anger and frustrations.

"Fifteen million!" said the young man one balcony over.

"We have Fifteen, do I hear fifteen five!?" The auctioneer continued trying her best to drive up the price further. She was feeling pure ecstasy at the moment. Two big fish were fighting, and it wasn't even over one of the main event items! She loosened her collar a bit, showing off more cleavage than normal, and she posed provocatively, better revealing her body. She wanted to drum up a frenzy from the men in the room, hoping to get more of them bidding.

And the Auctioneer's attempts worked.

"Seventeen million," a man in the lower seating called out.

A vein popped on Cara's forehead. She was so frustrated she could scream.

"Eighteen million," another patron cried out.

The people in the crowd started to murmur, wondering why a simple beast core was selling for so much over its normal value. Whispers and rumors started about it having some secret to it, and little by little, a strange atmosphere appeared in the venue.

"Twenty two million!"

"Thirty million!"

Just as the Auctioneer wanted, a frenzy started. Cara smashed her fist down on the railing in front of her, sending a crack through the stone structure all the way down the wall to the lower seating. Several people jumped out from the seats underneath the balcony.

Cara's anger, though, didn't draw much attention. Too many nouveau riche were bidding on a low-end beast core to even notice the cracks running down part of the back wall.

"Ohohohohoho!" Enra Zeitgar laughed obnoxiously from one balcony over. "It's such a shame. It seems we are over our price limit so we won't bid anymore~"

Cara wanted to bite something. She knew she could still win, since she didn't really have an upper limit at the moment, but the disrespect of the matter was an entirely different thing.

She took a deep breath and calmed herself down, exhaling slowly. She remember what she told herself earlier, that she couldn't let every arrogant upstart noble get on her nerves.

Cara glanced to the side and found her useless disciple still off in her own world.

"Tch," Cara clicked her tongue before raising her paddle and roaring, "Fifty Million!"

The building went silent. Enra, off to the side, went silent too. Her laughter stopped and she looked to be choking.

"F-fifty million!" Echoed the Auctioneer. "G-going once."

"Going twice."

The room stayed silent. A few eyes stole glances at the balcony in the back of the room.

"Sold! To number 87!"

-

The beast core was delivered to Cara with the utmost care. A young man in the Xantian Rungs brought it personally, offering it to Cara on a pillow wrapped in silk.

Cara grabbed it with rough hands. "Let's go, Zara. We're leaving," she said.

"Wait, Teacher," Zara snapped out of her stupor. "I want to stick around and see if there's anything else good. I also want to see how much my pill goes for."

"We should leave, Zara. Those things aren't important…"

"They aren't important to *you*, but they're important to me," said Zara.

"... Fine, I'll go back to the room alone," said Cara.

"No. That's not happening. You're not leaving my side, Teacher."

"Zara, I need to start building my Weapon. I can't afford to waste an entire afternoon at an auction house," Cara's voice was soft but firm.

"Ah, I still have my Seven Spacefold Tent. I can set it up here in our balcony. You can make your weapon inside, away from prying eyes, and I can say here at the auction while guarding you!"

Zara hadn't finished talking before she pulled a small fabric tent from her ring. It was small enough that, when it appeared, hardly anyone in the venue even noticed, with the only exception being Enra Zeitgar, who watched on in confusion at the strange antics of her neighbors.

Cara opened her mouth to rebuke her disciple, but couldn't find the right words. After a moment she finally conceded.

"Fine," she said in a snappy tone. She wasn't happy, but she had to make do. She knew the Seven Spacefold Tent was bigger on the inside, and it had enough equipment for her to forge her weapon...

"Our next item is a piece of armor recovered from the Westerland Ruins," the Auctioneer's voice echoed. Cara scrunched her face and went into the tent.

-

The inside of the Seven Spacefold Tent was large, almost a small auditorium to itself, and it had numerous refinement features built into it. In the center of the tent, though, was a large cauldron covered with runes, and arrays. Running up the sides, following the curve, was a painting of a dragon stretching and rolling up and down like a streamer in the wind.

Seeing the cauldron, Cara realized her disciple planned to have her use the tent all along. Her 'suddenly remembering' the tent was an act.

"Goddammit, Zara," cursed Cara. She was angry mostly because Zara didn't say anything to her about this. Had Zara just shared her plan to bring the Tent then there would have been no problems or arguments in the first place.

After a few moments of hyperventilating in anger, Cara calmed herself down enough to realize just how thoughtful her disciple really was. Zara always intended to sit through the entire auction but, rather than make Cara sit with her and do nothing, she brought along the tent. Zara was even thoughtful enough to include a wonderful refining cauldron in it...

Cara clicked her tongue. She decided that, for now, she could forgive her rude disciple, but only if this kind of thing didn't happen again. Cara didn't like surprises.

-

Outside the tent, the auction stormed on. Zara would raise her paddle from time to time to place bids, and every time she did the balcony off to the side would also place a bid out of spite.

Zara, herself, didn't quite mind. She viewed the whole auction as a game, anyhow, so she didn't care about running the price up on a few items.

"Seven million, going once~" cried the Auctioneer. She couldn't properly explain how happy she was at that moment. Two groups of people in the upper balconies were clearly fighting, often raising the prices of nominal goods to outrageous levels. She could just about see her commission at the end of the day rising.

"Eight million!" Cried the young man sitting with Enra Zeitgar, making sure he didn't let the green-haired woman sitting with Cara win anything. Cara Stonelight had embarrassed the love of his life, Enra, and he certainly didn't want to let that sleight go unanswered. He didn't mind flaunting his wealth. He came with forty million gold, after all, and he was willing to blow plenty of it out of pettiness.

It was at this point in time, though, that one of his servants approached him from behind.

"Young master," said the servant. "I have a message from the Clan Leader."

"Can't you see I'm spending time with Enra, right now?" snapped the boy.

The servant moved his weight from foot to foot, his face antsy. "I was told it is of the highest importance, Young Master Kane," said the servant.

"Fine. Give it here."

The boy, Jonathan Kane, read through the letter and his face paled. His eyes went wide and he tried to say something in reply, but his mouth felt too dry to form words. He snapped his head to the side and looked at Enra with death in his eyes.

"What's going on?" Enra asked.

"The auction, there's going to be a Knight Technique as the main event…" said Jonathan.

"As the main event? Is it a Broken Soul level technique?"

"No. It's…"

"Half Soul?!" Enra interrupted, her voice a bit too loud.

"Enra," Jonathan grabbed her shoulders, "My dad and your Grandfather are coming. It's not a Half Soul level Knight Technique. It's a Perfect Soul level technique."

Enra's eyes went wide and her face turned white. She immediately thought about all the money she wasted on her petty squabble. Then she thought of all the money her boyfriend wasted, too.

"Our families are going to kill us," she said under her breath.

"We need to leave now," said Jonathan. "Maybe if we can collect enough money to make up for our costs they'll forgive us…"

"No," said Enra, "We need to leave this City entirely."

Zara leaned on the balcony, resting her cheek on the palm of her hand. She listened to the conversation at the next balcony over and snickered to herself. The folly of pride brought many people to their knees, after all. She considered it just another ordinary day. Zara had seen people fall far harder, in the past.

"The next item up for auction," said the Auctioneer below, "Is a beautiful dress said to help invigorate growing women, helping accentuate their c.h.e.s.ts and make their waists look thinner, too!"

Zara jumped to her feet.

She. Needed. It.

There were no ulterior motives whatsoever. She definitely didn't think of her rather flat-c.h.e.s.ted Teacher hiding away inside the Spacefold Tent. Zara just wanted the dress for... Reasons she couldn't explain. Important reasons.

And, for a moment, she thought that if she couldn't get her teacher to wear it, at the very least she could use it to tease Gen the next time she saw him. He'd definitely have some funny flashbacks~

A golden paddle shot to the sky from the upper balconies with an unmatched vigour.