Instead of looking at me, he is staring at the corpse of the chimera which is rotting away. It is decomposing much faster than it should be, making it obvious that something is off. Anyone with decent knowledge of magic will be suspicious of how fast the body is rotting.

If the experiments were secret, chances are the arena owner is going to be in big trouble. I notice that the mage who acted as witness is also staring intently at the corpse. However, instead of being shocked, he looks angry as he watches the corpse rot.

From the look on his face maybe I don't need to worry about looking for the mages myself. As a local, not to mention part of the government, he will have a much easier time investigating than I would. As long as the experiments aren't some secret project of the government, he should be able to deal with them.

Once the corpse has turned into a puddle he finally wakes up and waves his hand. At his signal a door opens and the seven elves walk out into the arena carrying several chests. Those chests contain the seven million crystal coins that now belong to me.

The elves walk over and put the chests down in front of me then stand behind them. The mage walks over, hands me their ownership papers, and then walks away. The five male elves look at me with hostility, but the two women look slightly hopeful.

With a wave of my hand I put all the chests into my ring and then motion the elves to follow me. Luckily, they don't give me any problems and just follow behind me. I lead them out of the arena by one of the service entrances and take the shortest path to a city gate.

Things at the arena are fairly chaotic, so hopefully word of me walking around with seven million coins won't spread too fast. When I walk up to the gate I already have the papers for the elves in hand. We are able to leave the city quickly with no fuss at all, which is a surprise.

With my normal luck, I was totally expecting something to go horribly wrong. After moving out of sight of the city I lead the elves into some woods. I do my best to cover up all traces of our passing, which makes two of the elven males give me odd looks.

Once we reach a small clearing I stop and remove the restraints of the elves. Then I open a gate and try to talk them into going through it, but they don't believe me. Just as I am about to contact Stillwater for help I have a sudden idea.

Crouching down I summon the dagger and use it to carve some symbols into a rock. The two symbols are from the elven scout language and mean the path ahead is safe. As I was hoping, the two elves who gave me odd looks recognize the symbols.

They quickly tell the other elves and after that the five males are willing to go through. The two female elves on the other hand give me disappointed looks, although I have no idea why. However, when the five males go through the two females follow them and then I close the gate.

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Stillwater and the other elves can fill them in and explain things to them. Finding out I am actually a beast from their own people will go a lot better than me telling them. I can understand the two females looking hopeful when I got them, but why did they look disappointed at the end?

Whatever, it doesn't have anything to do with me now, the elves on the ship will help them. Leaving the forest I head for the city gate that is the closest to the manor. Then I use smaller streets and alleys to try and get to the manor without drawing attention.

My good luck actually holds, I get back to the manor without anything going wrong. Honestly, it is unusual enough that it starts to worry me a little, something feels off. When I enter the dining room looking for Henrietta, that's when I find my bad luck.

Seraph says "Hello again, Ash!"

"Princess, what are you doing here?"

Henrietta says "Oh, you two already know each other?"

Seraph says "Of course! He saved my life, twice! As to what I am doing here, I saw your match and wanted to make sure you were alright, Ash."

"If you saw the match you should know that I didn't even get a scratch."

Seraph says "That isn't what I meant, there are all sorts of people searching for you right now!"

Henrietta says "She is right about that. Seven million is a huge temptation for a lot of people!"

"I know. I plan to lay low here until the auction starts."

Henrietta says "Your suite is too small for seven more people, do you want me to arrange another room?"

"No need. The elves have already been sent off. Seraph, you shouldn't be here. You are supposed to avoid me."

Seraph says "Don't worry. I have been roaming around in disguise. No one knows that I am here."

"Your guards are probably going crazy!"

Seraph says "Not really. They know what I am doing. The capital is really safe. Well, as long as you are not walking around with millions of crystal coins!"

"It's not like anyone could really threaten me. I am only avoiding trouble until the auction starts."

Henrietta says "You call this avoiding trouble? I don't ever want to see what happens if you are looking for trouble! Although, I will admit that your fight in the arena was impressive! Not to mention I won a tidy sum by betting on you!"

Seraph says "So did I! However, that wasn't even close to your full power!"

"Yeah, I dragged the fight out on purpose. I didn't want to show what I am really capable of. It would draw way too much attention!"

Henrietta says "More attention than seven million crystal coins?"

"Yeah, way more! I don't care about the thieves that might come after me. It is the mages' attention I am trying to avoid."

Seraph says "You shouldn't worry, the mages won't pay attention to anyone who doesn't have magic."

"I would prefer not to take that chance. I don't want anything to stop me from attending the auction. After the auction I won't care anymore."

Henrietta says "Speaking of the auction, you should leave early tomorrow."

"Oh? How come?"

Henrietta says "In order to be able to bid you need to provide the funds ahead of time. This is to prevent anyone from bidding more than they actually have. Don't worry, the money is absolutely safe in their hands."

"Alright. When does the auction start?"

Henrietta says "It starts an hour before noon and runs until the items are sold. Sometimes it doesn't end until midnight, but for the boxes, food and drink are provided. When you arrive, simply show your invitation and you will be guided to our box."

"Alright, sounds good."