Repelled Successfully

He received a letter bearing the duke's seal from one of the guards.

With this, he'd be able to meet the duke when he visited his territory.

The letter alone was enormously valuable. Of course, misuse it and you'd lose your head.

Come to think of it, he also had a connection to an imperial duke.

Quite a remarkable set of connections for an ordinary merchant. Unfortunately, the imperial one was hard to leverage for business right now.

Once the empire settled down, he'd love to make another expedition and earn some coin.

The duchess had taken a liking to his fragrances, so he wanted to sell her more.

He was curious whether Orleans was doing well, too.

Alexia would probably like to check on the city of Aquarius as well.

Having finished his conversation with Duke Baroba, Yohane headed back into the building to see how things looked.

The domed great hall had been reduced to a mountain of rubble. It had been a magnificent sight before, but now there was no trace of its former glory.

The masked man came over, brushing dust off his clothes.

"My sincerest apologies for having to rely on our guests for assistance."

"Looks like you managed to drive them off. The venue's seen better days, though."

"Oh, that's no problem at all. Once the auction is finished, the entire island gets dismantled. Still, I thought holding it up in the sky would keep things secure. I never expected them to pinpoint the location. Perhaps we expanded the guest list too much."

He dropped his shoulders as he said it.

Someone among the participants had leaked information.

With wind magic, communication over distance wasn't impossible, and a trained bird could potentially be used to relay the location.

With that many participants, keeping tabs on all of them would've been an enormous challenge.

"So who were those people?"

"All we know is that they were a group wearing red robes. We managed to capture one, but when they realized there was no escape, they self-destructed."

The only evidence left behind was a scrap of robe, apparently.

The auction house would be conducting their own investigation for retaliation purposes.

Azu and the others came running over. The sight of them in dresses while armed was quite the striking contrast.

Though it only worked because they were all beauties.

"I'm sorry. They got away."

"We were so close, too!"

Azu bowed her head in apology while Alexia looked frustrated.

Elza seemed lost in thought.

"What is it, Elza? Do you know who those people were?"

"No, that's not it."

When prompted, she snapped out of it and returned to her usual self.

The security guards began clearing away the rubble.

No need to help with that part.

"Yohane-sama. As a token of our gratitude, please accept this."

He took the paper offered by the masked emcee.

It was a scroll.

"It's a teleportation scroll. Think of the place you'd like to go within a certain range, and it'll take you there."

"I'll gladly accept."

Scrolls were items created using special paper that could contain sealed magic.

Unlike magic stones, they couldn't hold large-scale offensive spells, but anything else was fair game.

A teleportation scroll alone would fetch no less than a hundred gold coins on the market.

It could also serve as an emergency escape measure in a pinch.

This might have been even better than receiving cash directly.

They left the building to stay out of the way of the cleanup efforts.

Outside in the plaza, with the crisis now past, the auction items were being distributed.

"In the end, I'm not even sure why we came. What a wasted trip."

"You'd think so, wouldn't you? Take a look at this."

He showed Alexia the duke's letter.

"Oh my, this is…"

"That orb you all picked up? He wants to buy it. Sure, we didn't buy anything at the auction, but this is more than enough, so don't complain."

He gave Alexia a slap on the rear as he said it.

She'd been too absorbed in the letter to see it coming.

"You are impossible!"

He ignored Alexia's protests and headed back to the carriage.

Her dress had been torn during the emergency, so she needed to change.

He also didn't want other men seeing her in such a state.

Once the auction item distribution was complete, Duke Baroba was last to receive a chipped crown and an Earth Elemental Stone. Given the sums involved, those around him offered their congratulations and applauded. Yohane and his group joined in.

In exchange, a single sheet of paper was handed to the auctioneer.

A check. For seven thousand five hundred gold coins.

The amount was beyond imagination.

Combined with the Anti-Magic Orb, that was ten thousand gold coins.

The difference in financial scale was staggering.

Just how wealthy a territory did the man command?

Could it be that Duke Grabahl, who held a seat in the Imperial Senate, was equally rich?

Money was power.

Thinking about it that way, it really hit home that ordinary citizens were insignificant to people like them.

But there was no point envying those born into a different world.

And Yohane had already received plenty of benefits. Through his connection with the imperial duke, a Fire Elemental had come to join his household, and now a deal worth two thousand five hundred gold coins had materialized.

Though of course, the job wasn't done until the money was in hand.

The return trip was apparently handled collectively rather than individually. Participants filed one by one through a portal created with teleportation magic.

By the time Azu and the others finished changing, the crowd had all but vanished, leaving the plaza nearly empty.

Their usual outfits really were nice too, Yohane thought as they headed toward the portal. The guards had already gone through, leaving only the masked emcee.

He removed his silk hat and gave a deep bow in their direction.

Then, snapping the fingers of his left hand, the one not holding his cane, the floating island began to crumble apart.

"If we don't hurry, this is going to get dangerous."

Unable to just stand by, Elza grabbed his hand and pulled.

There was something mesmerizing about watching things fall apart. He'd been completely absorbed.

"Honestly, you can't just space out like that."

"My bad."

He half-heartedly indulged Elza's scolding as they passed through the portal.

The floating sensation was something he doubted he'd ever get used to.

They emerged from the portal and felt solid ground beneath their feet.

The other participants had already set off on their return journeys.

The mules must have been bored during the wait, because they let out enormous yawns.

Time to head home.

Where were they? Yohane checked the map against the surrounding terrain and his compass.

The landscape didn't look familiar.

"Isn't this Highrise? I recognize it."

"Highrise? That's…"

The Dragon Slayer. This was the district where the Dragon Slayer who'd participated in the Ocelot Colosseum lived.

It wasn't organized enough to be called a nation, just loosely defined as a region.

Since the area was resource-poor aside from its dragons, it had never been invaded and had enjoyed a long peace.

From here, it would be a fair trek back to the Kingdom.

Following Duke Baroba's group would get them home without any trouble.

But as long as they were here, he wanted to look around a bit.