After their lunch the trio searched through the marketplace. Although both the girls had their eyes glowing from all of those fancy trinkets neither of them voiced out their desires. Irwyn let them maintain that almost amusing humility and instead focused their search on looking for the catalyst for Alice. Just as he had expected, they had gone through the entire marketplace without finding something anywhere near the quality he wanted for his newest subordinate. Surprisingly not even a single additional attempt was made at his life, perhaps the quiet before the storm.

"We will have to visit the Imperial auction house," Irwyn concluded after over an hour of pointless sightseeing "the action starts late in the day. If we go right away we should still have a bit of time leftover after arriving," and so they departed.

"Why does everything have to be called Imperial in the capital?" Alice wondered out loud. It was not an uncommon question for people visiting the city for the first time.

"It signifies that a business or a property is directly involved with the Imperial family, and thus should not be messed around with," Irwyn naturally knew the correct answer.

"The royal family," Alice looked towards the vast skies above "they still feel so out of my world."

"That may not remain the case for long," Irwyn smiled at her "in just two days I have a meeting arranged with the 4th princess, and the two of you are naturally coming with me."

"Eh," Alice immediately let her expression show that she was absolutely flabbergasted, meanwhile Elizabeth's expression only betrayed sincere curiosity.

"How are you going to pass the two of us as someone worthy of being in the presence of royalty?" it took only a few seconds for Alice to start doubt that idea. She was naturally aware that noble’s pride reached extreme heights.

"I don't have to pass you off as anything," Irwyn shook his head, a thin smile still on his lips "officially the two of you are my personal maids. That in itself might not grant you the permission to speak with royalty or sit at the same table, but it more than qualified you to accompany me. We can go through the necessary etiquette in the evenings. Anyway, we have arrived," as Irwyn finished speaking they had just passed around a marble corner and a large building was revealed in front of them. Its outer appearance was not too different in style from other buildings, but a great anomaly was immediately apparent.

"Didn't you say that the material was indestructible?" Alice was far more open about voicing out her doubts than Elizabeth, so she immediately asked "Then how did they do that," she pointed just above the building's entrance there were two words elegantly carved into the marble: Auction house.

"That is simple: They didn't. The words were carved there by the city's founder," Irwyn smiled and already knew what the follow-up question would be.

"How could that be? Did they use the same language?" Alice immediately asked the question Irwyn knew she would. Predicting her actions was a good exercise to understanding how her mentality works, and that allowed him to pull the strings faster and with more accuracy.

"No. The letters are in fact enchanted by potent magic. Most would assume it to be an illusion, but it is in fact a potent version of the rare deciphering magic. That sort of magic is usually used to understand complex secret codes, but when applied to something like this it makes you understand the meaning while your brain automatically supplements the letters. Thus it completely bypasses the language barrier.”

"Interesting," Alice was immediately in thought about the implications while Elizabeth began to silently but intently stare at the letters.

"That won't work, Liz," Irwyn just chuckled at her attempt "considering who made it you would need to be at least oh the 4th tier to see through it."

"I-I see," Elizabeth went slightly red in the face at her intentions being so easy for Irwyn to read.

"Let's head inside for now," Irwyn ruled and the girls followed. As soon as they entered they were welcomed by an elegant old butler, already deeply bowing. He wore an elegant black and honey yellow uniform, which made an interesting contrast with his gray hair.

"Lord Irwyn von Blackburg, it is my honour to greet you in our humble auction house,” the man instantly recognized Irwyn. Not surprising considering that it was announced quite a while beforehand that he would arrive in the capital “would you like to share a booth with your brother, Brite, or would you prefer your own?” he politely asked.

“We will be separate from my brother, in fact,” Irwyn smiled and a golden coin appeared in his hand. The piece was probably about as much as this butler from first rate auction house earned in a month “it would be preferable if my brother wouldn’t be aware that I am present,” he said as he tossed the coin to the butler, it made a beautiful arc through the air and landed on the man’s prepared palm. He quickly grasped it into his fist and bowed again “of course. All shall be as lord Irwyn desires. Desir, please show our guests to their booth.”

“Yes, sir,” as soon as the butler finished speaking a young voice sounded from not far away. It belonged to a dark haired boy with azure blue eyes wearing the same, albeit smaller, uniform. He was not any older than 12, but the charm he possessed despite his young age seemed to influence even Irwyn. And the moment Irwyn noticed the boy’s charm had influence on his thinking he also realised it was far from natural.

“Lead the way,” however, he didn’t bother asking for a different guide, even this situation could be used. The boy quickly led them through the maze of hallways and corners like orienting the place was the most natural thing to him, and soon enough they arrived at their booth. The interior was a rather lavishly decorated box with multiple comfy looking armchairs. The walls were decorated with crimson tapestry and golden carvings which corresponded with the carpet’s colours. At the very front there was a huge window basically taking up the entire wall.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Is the view one sided?” Irwyn immediately asked. If Brite saw him bidding for something he might try to increase the price out of pure spite.

“Of course,” Desir smiled “there are catalogues which explain the services and refreshments we offer as well as showcase most of the items which will be auctioned today. With the exception of the last mystery treasure, that is.”

“Good,” Irwyn now stepped closer to Desir and in one quick motion grabbed his chin, forcing him to look downwards “I would recommend that you keep your charms in check, whatever their nature is. Not everyone appreciates the casual bewitchment. Now let us be.”

“Of course, sir,” Desir smiled with slight awkwardness “I will be waiting just beyond the door if you need anything,” were the last words he said before shutting the door behind himself. As the doorway closed Irwyn felt that unnatural amiable feeling rapidly disperse, and he turned towards the girls. They were as silent as mutes, both Alice and Elizabeth were red in the face. While Alice seemed shocked with mouth wide agape and her eyes staring at the door, Elizabeth’s eyes were instead darting all around the room in absolute chaos as she also occasionally stole glances at the door.

“I told you to not let down your guard,” Irwyn chuckled as he clapped in right in front of their eyes, snapping them back to normal “you got charmed so easily it’s almost humorous.”

“Charmed?!” Alice finally began to comprehend what had just transpired and the scarlet returned to her face “but how? I sensed not even a smither of mana from him.”

“It was not a spell. Probably a skill, maybe even a passive one,” Irwyn answered her as he sat down in the middle of their seats. Elizabeth snatched the spot on his right and Alice then took the one on his left.

“But how would such a young boy obtain those skills,” it was Elizabeth who was confused this time “I thought that skills were rare and difficult to get.”

“True, for humans that is…” Irwyn didn’t finish and let the girls figure it out.

“If he is not human is he some sort of monster?” their guess was, however, completely off.

“No. In fact I wouldn’t say that he is not human at all. It is not that uncommon for someone to have shreds of demonic or other bloodlines mixed in their humanity, it’s just that they rarely manifest,” Irwyn explained.

“Could he still just be a demon, though?” Alice asked, apparently not well versed in demonology and bloodlines.

“Almost impossible. If his human bloodline wasn’t dominant you would see horns poking out of his head, tail swinging behind his feet and claws lengthening his fingertips. Those signs are generalization of the form taken by most incubi which is likely the boy’s inheritance, but even if a different inhuman bloodline claimed dominance over him you would see it at first glance. The only non human race that can casually replicate human appearance and possess a similar charm effect are vampires, but a vampire wouldn’t survive even a week in the Imperial Capital.”

“I see,” Alice nodded, seemingly satisfied with the answer when Elizabeth spoke “they are not auctioning what we are looking for today,” she had the catalogue in her hand, opened on the list of items. She had browsed through it while she listened to Irwyn’s explanation. Her ability to multitask was admirable for someone her age; it was likely derived from her training in magic which took into consideration that complex multitasking was absolutely necessary for most actually advanced spells.

“It could be the last mysterious item,” Alice smirked, perhaps trying to take revenge for the hairpin incident earlier in the day.

“That’s true,” but Elizabeth’s instant admittance foiled her petty scheme.

“Either way, there is not much better to do. The auction house has enough goods to organise something like this daily. I am sure that if we come here daily we will be able to get what we need. Even if we might need to push things in the right direction,” Irwyn gave a vague assurance, but the girls understood he had some method in mind and didn’t question things.

Soon enough the auction began. Everything from lavish furniture, through exotic dishes, to magical items was auctioned off one after another as they made their way through the list. During the whole thing both the girls stared with glittering eyes, but despite Irwyn’s repeated encouragement never asked him to purchase anything for them. It was near the end that Irwyn had discovered something was off.

Two sources of mana, about the equivalent of average mages early into their second tier, manifested a bit behind their door. Irwyn was about to erect a barrier to block the third assassination attempt of the day, and was already considering what to tell the girls if they caught a glimpse of the boy’s corpse, since he was still currently standing near the doorway that was about to be blasted through.

But then Irwyn stopped, as a third source of mana manifested right behind the door. It was much more controlled and contained than the other two sources, but there was no doubt in Irwyn’s mind that the new source was in fact bigger than the previous two combined. Then the first spell was released, but it was not directed at where Irwyn was, instead it leaped towards the first two sources. Irwyn recognised void based magecraft in a split second, and in the next the original two mages were devoured by the spell. Then everything returned to normal.

Now Irwyn wanted to know just who killed the approaching assassins. The 3 Blackburg maids were still inside the room with him, in fact they didn’t seem to have noticed the whole ordeal at all from within the soundproof room, since they were not primarily mages and thus had to rely on their senses far more. It couldn’t have been Shadow as he definitely didn’t possess the void element, nor was this his style.

That left only… But of course, but that would also mean…

Now that Irwyn thought about it the conclusion was rather obvious. While he was deep in thought the last item was revealed. It was in fact a first rate catalyst, but for the element of water, not Time and space. The girls were visibly disappointed since they harboured way too many expectations towards that mystery item.

“Let’s head out, since we found nothing,” Alice suggested with minutely sunken expression and Elizabeth nodded. Still wordless Irwyn also nodded and stood up. In quick strides, he arrived at the door and opened it. Behind it stood the black-haired Desir in his neat uniform, just as he had promised. Even the unnatural charm Irwyn previously felt from the boy was gone.

“Will that be all for today, sir?” he questioned with polite voice.

“Yes. I will say goodbye to your manager and then head out,” Irwyn nodded and headed downstairs.

Yet still, there was only one conclusion Irwyn could arrive at.

[Activating Overseer]