The mercenaries, having made their decision, informed the attendant, making her ensure it got through. And once that was done, they relaxed and returned their attention to the screen. And while no one expected the bidder to respond to the mages question, there was a response coming from the same man
"As master Airen can attest, being a mage brings some unique contacts." And while it indeed was an answer, it probably rose more questions than it answered, since they could not see the man from his curtained private room, and sensing the lingering questions in the air, Rex added
"And being the blood mage you have come here in hopes of meeting, makes it more so." And now it explained everything to the people present. If anyone could pique the interest of raid clearers and owners, it would be a blood mage.
"Indeed, forgive my curiosity." master Airen responded. He had gleamed a bit of the mans character with this interaction, and he could not find much to complain about. Then again he only had a small glimpse, and so he needed more, to create a proper evaluation, but from the get go, the mage felt young, exeptionally so, but smart enough to push his advantages when necessary, and exploit the lack of knowledge, or ensure he gains an advantage, if disclosing some knowledge could head to it. He just hoped they could ensure an audience with the man to have the chance to understand the man more.
With that short distarction out of the way, the sale of the blonde kitsune was soon confirmed, with the girl going over to Rex. And while a little dissapointed with their failure to ge tthe girl, no noble could be heard grumbling about it, since the blood mage was the one who got her. To ensure that his special status did not disrupt the auction, Rex did add that since this is an auction, he expects people to bid for what they desire, and if he were to lose to anyone because he was outbid, there would be no bad blood between them, since here, their wealth is talking, and not the men behind the curtains. In addition, he said that it was also a game, adn he might bid on things he did not care about, just to ensure it did not become stale, hell he even expected the nobles to bid as arrogantly as it was expected from their rank, since who else but them could ever be equal or be above him in standing or prestige.
That would stroke the egos of the nobles, ensuring the auction would proceed without any face giving as a pure war of wallets. And that ensured that the ones coming out the winners would be the sellers, ensuring better stuff auctioned here in the future. He could almost imagine Victor being quite peased with his way of handling the matter, and the ear to ear grinns on both Brognis and Eredars faces. And his plan had worked quite well. The smartest of the people present understood his intentions clearly, but it did not harm them in any way, on the contrary, his approach ensured noone had to worry about offending him while bidding, and it also raised the city statues as a neutral zone even more, since the blood mage himself was not only willing but also encouraging such behaviour. With all that set up, every one would have to keep some sort of residence in the city, and have their web of connections set up and employed. And the nobles that loved the bustle and intrigue, would find a new playground to sink their teeth in. Rex action also earned a nod of approval for master Airen, enforcing his belief in the mages intelect a step further.
With that litle distraction out of the way, the aution resumed, bringing out the next slave to be sold and so on. And while that was happening, Rex moved out of his room for a short moment, and was lead to a seperate room, where the exchange of goods would take place after his last aquisition. Once he was in the room, he saw the attendants with a group of people and the kitsune standing next to them. She had her head lowered, small tears falling down her face. Her life was clear from now on. A slave for eternity, since there was no escaping the brand. The mercenaries had treated her well enough. Food, sleep, rest- she had it all, maintaining her condition in the best possible shape only for this moment.
It didnt take long, weights and evaluation stone already prepared, and Rex wasted no time in withdrawing a large piece of meat from a storage ring and placing it on the table where it was kept preserved, just like in the storage ring. It was a large piece of some animals thigh. Rex knew it was from a deer in the trirty first floor, as those were almost the only beasts he had encountered there with the heaven grade meat. The piece weighed a few dozen killos, so rex pointed to the butcher present.
"Evaluation, and then cut off the aforementioned five killos. This way there is no worry whatsoever that some of it might not be genuiine and would not take long to check." And he was right, solid pieces of meat could be instantly recognized as tampered, and already processed ones wre not reliable, as there could be other graded meat mixed in, to reduce the amount of the real stuff given out. Butcher nodded, almost salivating at the huge literal treasure mountain, evaluated it, shoving the golden light radiating from the item, and thne proceeded to very carefully cut a few pieces, placing them one by one on the scales. The man was a master at his job, as he was only a few grams over once he placed the last piece. Rex nodded with satisfaction, and retrieved the remaining piece.
With that done, the mercenaries took their payment, deposited in their rings ,and relinquished their rights over the girl transferring her to Rex.
"Millie, he is your master now." was all the leader of the company said. Then their group bowed and quickly left. They had to quickly return adn finaly cure their sister. Their expected results from this auction far surpassing their wildest imagination. They expected to be toiling yor years still untill they had enough wealth to secure bloodline enhancing material for their sister, but now, it was alredy in their hands. They could ask for nothing more. With mercenaries gone, the attendants bowed and excused themselves, and once only Rex and Millie were in the room, he spoke
"You wont be needing that choker anymore" and with that he held her with his blood chains and branded the girl. It took only a few moments, and once done the girl followed him back to the room his other girls were staying at. Once inside, Aisha pulled the new girl to her seat, seeing she was very timid and somewhat scared still. Besides ensuring his slaves could not betray or harm him or his, there were ruels few and far between regarding other things.
"Anything good, that I missed?" Rex asked Val and Mel, who were tasked with keeping an eye on the auction, in case something extraordinary appears, with Aina used as an assitance, if such a slave was brough out.
"Nothing that would reach the level of Rika or the kitsune." Val replied.
"The kitsune ambasador will probably flip out for the stunt you pulled. Not only you bought their kin, but you also made the heaven grade more expensive in the future." Aina spoke with a smirk, expecting Rex to suffer a bit for his actions, even if she was well aware that he would probably get off scott free. Blood mages were unfair that way.
"Laugh while you still can, I will be having the last laugh." Rex grinned evilly, making Aina furrow her brows. She didnt like what he was plotting. It cound not be anything good, as she knew the man had a good head on his shoulders, and he wasnt afraid to get his hands dirty. And while it would not harm her, it still had her a bit wary. At her reaction he laughed, having achieved the wanted reaction.
The auction lasted for another hour, when only the final piece remained.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we are happy to announce that with this, only one thing remains." spoke the lady on the central stage "It is time to Auction off the rare chance to have a proper audience with the famed blood mage, whose branded orc champions you have seen guarding this venue today, and the one that was auctioned off today. However, it would be increadibly difficult, if not impossible to calculate the value of the unique treasure you are surely going to use to entice the esteemed sir, so we have come up with a solution for that. What we expect of you is to write down what you believe to be a proper offer for such an opportunity, and what esteemed guest has made the offer. Once that is done, we will collect your generous offers and the esteemed sir will make his choice, and you will be informed if your offer had enticed esteemed sir"
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Her words created a moment of silence, then one of the present nobles asked
"Is there any other reason besides what was mentioned for such a roundabout and hidden way of doing things?" and before the lady could think of an answer or excuse, Rex spoke as he had come to the stage and created a chair he could sit on.
"It was a last second change, since my previous words regarding a proper auction were noted and honoured. And as I am quite pleased, I decided to increase the number of audiences I will be accepting. And since I myself am unsure of how many, if more than just an extra one, it would be quite unfair it things remained as is."
His words were met with some silent exchanges and quite a few approving looks. The new approach was not only benefitial to more people, since the chance was much greater now than before, but they could also keep their treasures they were willing to spend undisclosed from the other nobles, reducing the schemeing they could be involved into, in attempts to claim those same treasures from other noble houses.It was a win-win situation for every party involved, so very soon, the nobles were starting to hand in their silent offers, and as they were in the process, Rex asked michieviously
"Should I announce the two who will get to meet me tommorow, once I have rewieved the offers, or should they be contacted discreetly?"
It was quite obviouly a small game from the mage, as his voice proved just how pleased he was with todays auction, providing quite the peace of mind to the people present. A happy blood mage was much more likely to lead to more fruitfull discussions, since normaly each branding took quite a bit from them, and they kept it to a relatively low number of brands in a given time period. And shortly after the branding they tended to be quite unpleasant to interact with, or so the people who had to deal with them had spoken. The majority didnt mind the lucky winners announced, since that would allow them to plan more carefully in regards of their future intreactions and the like. A noble family with acsess to a blood mage could prove to be incredibly powerfull ally, or a terrible enemy.
A while later all the suggestions had been delivered, and the mage used some fifteen minutes to read through the many offers he had recieved. His facial expression rarely, if at all, changing while he was going through them one by one. He was placing the offers in two different piles, one being the largest, while only a few of the pages in the second. It was rather telling, the mage had a few possiblities already in mind, seeing the divide in two, and every noble faction present were quite hopefull theirs was among the few.
What had them ever more interested in the mage was that shortly after he was starting to read through the offers his just acuired kitsune and the catgirl walked up to him, having had changed their outfits. Both now wore quite modest clothes, but the most glaring thing was the rather low cut cleavage, displaying the brand they both had just aqired. And seeing the rather good mood of the mage it was apparent he had quite the energy still left. That alone elevated this specific person way above the average blood mage, raising the desire of the nobles to have some dealings with him.
As Rex was sorthing through all the offers he was quite gratefull for all the books he had recieved and read preceding the auction, so it was quite easy to understand the value and rarity of the items offered. He was quite amused when at the very begining he was paying quite the attention to Izumi, who was writing their offer as well. She seemed to hold some grudge for his aquisition of Milie. And while the offer kitsune had for him was not bad at all, he could get his hands on better stuff after , when dealing with their council dirrectly. Right now the pile he was considering to choose from consisted of six different offers, all special in their own way, but he had decided on three houses to deal with innitially, and then he would slowly expand or change his contact list.
After some ten more minutes of carefull thinking Rex had decided. He would go with three. Tommorow afternoon he would listen to Ven Hersts and Al Merhads. And the day after he would also welcome the Nyx Ifritti. These three had offered the most interesting things. Everyone had offered quite a bit or oricalchum coins, and something special. Ven Hersts had offered a vial of introspection. It was a rery rare concoction that they created once every few decades with the ability to help one deepen and strenghted an affinity towards a certain element. The effect varied on a few parameters such as inherent affinity with chosen element, compatibility in temperament with the inherent values of it and so on. The most interesting thing was that some implied that the most important thing was the power of ones soul. And Rex was banking on that, if true.
Al Merhads had offered a speciality of theirs too, something they were quite famous for among the nobles. Similar to Ven Hersts they too grew a few unique things in the mostly desert lands of their dominion, and one such thing was crystal rose. It was a starnge plant like artifact, and its main purpose was to purify and strenghten the mana around it in a certain radious. It basicly made ones chosen location to be even more mana rich, helping the residents to develop better in mana enriched enviroment. The only downside with the regular ones they sold was that they lasted only a few months, then you had to buy a new one. But what Rex was offered was one of the eternal variants. As the name suggested, once placed, they would last untill destroyed, and Rex quite liked the thought of having his home be a better enviroment for his girls growth.
And finaly Nyx Ifritti. Their queens offer was the most unique. She offered ten of her personaly picked and groomed sucubuses along with a captured angel beauty, untouched, and a daughter of hers, all to be branded if he so desires. Rex was quite interested, since he had never seen any demonspawns in this city, and he found it quite exotic. So once he had decided, he pocketed three offers, and to ensure no one else could spy on the not chones ones, he used his mana to quite literaly burn them to cinders. Slight nature manipulation wasnt that hard with his reserves of mana and the power of his oul.
"Once again, I have enjoyed this auction, and I hope you all had a good time. Now, as for the negotiations. I would like to have a quick chat with Ven Hersts, Al Merhads and finaly Nyx Ifritti families." Most nobles could guess what the first two had offered to draw the mages attention, but the third one was a mystery. While they knew the general info of this rather remote territory on a small continent, the detaisl were quite scarce.
"I thank everyone else for your presence and if fate wills it, may we meet again." With that said, the rest of the nobles started to return to their respective mansions, to relax and plan their endevours in the city for the future. And as they left, Rex was keenly watching, who was left. If the kitsunes were leaving he had an attendant prepared to keep them longer, since he had a prearranged meeting with their council. The three groups remaing were quite different. As he had a few words with the groups whne they planned their visits for tommorow and the day after, Rex was evaluating them.
Ven Hersts were your tipical caucasian people. They looked like your standart man. Nothing too particular, untill one notices the specific aroma that always acompanies them. A sort of floral scent that relaxes thouse around, making the conflicts less likely. They attributed it to the countless hours any of them spend in their temples, tending to their unique cultures. Even if they are nobles, they were well aware of the lifeline of their region, and ensured its continious prosperity.
Al Merhads were of arabic descent. Darker, exotic skin tones with well developed and healthy bodies. Both the women and men looked trained and ready for a fight, due to their roaming bandit groups always finding a way to survive and harden their people. And then there were Nyx Ifritti. From demonic red to bright pink skin shades, with their small horns on their heads they lokked exotic beyond reason. Dressed in light, and both inviting and decent clothes. Their leader was indeed their queen, who had quite the big smile on her face, obviously she was quite elated that she had gotten the mages attention.
And so after a small talk with all three groups, and setting the times then they would come to discuss the terms of their agreements, they parted ways. Rex paid particular attention to the back side of the sucubi queen as she left. She was swaying her ass and hips with each movement very enticingly and seductively. Once they had left, Rex went over to a room quite close to this, on his way he sent all his girls home while he meets up with Izumi and has his small chat with the kitsune council.