"Sold to number four hundred and twenty for two hundred Creas!"

Wahahahaha!! Those baby castellas are mine!!

"Si… Sister Aster? Why do you need those?" Ardi asked, the Amrap looking at me, utterly perplexed.

"Eh? Aren't they sweets? They look like baby castellas~"

"Err… What are baby castellas?"

She looked to the others for help but all of them shrugged.

Eh? But I think I remember eating some of them before? I guess they aren't called baby castellas in this World? Or is it just because they don't know them since they don't like sweets as much as I do?

I coughed, "They look like sweets and it boosts magic so it's fine isn't it?"

"Umm… Those aren't worth that much, Aster…" Lisa sighed while scratching her head. "They do raise your magic but only temporarily before decreasing it again… So actually they would only be worth maybe ten Creas apiece at most… Most of the time even less…"

Ardi, Katsuki and even Odeta were nodding in agreement with her, obviously thinking that it was a bad decision on my part to bid so high and so quickly.

Hmmm… So there were ten of them, meaning I basically paid twice of what they would usually be sold at most… That's actually not too bad?

Wait… If I were to remember that two hundred Creas is basically worth twenty thousand dollars in my old World… I basically just spent that amount to buy ten baby castellas…

Oh whatever, they're magic sweets! It'll be worth it!

I hope…

I would be so mad if they weren't even sweet…

Unexpectedly I received an ally in the form of Mother who giggled while patting me on the head, "Ara, ara? As long as it's something that my little one wants and it can be purchased with money, it's no big deal~"

Ehehe~

Right then, a knock came from our door and Sebastian moved to answer it again. He conversed with the person outside and received something from them before closing the door without another word.

"When you win a bid, they will hand you a number chit that will signify your win. You can then take the chit to a designated area to exchange them with your money for the items you won," Lisa explained to me without prompting.

I nodded my thanks to her before we went back to watching the rest of the auction.

The next few items weren't of interest to me as they were just some jewellery and paintings that I didn't care about.

On the other hand, Mother was interested in a few of them and even bidded for some of the art pieces, even going so far to bid tens of thousands of Creas several times on different items one after the other.

It really showed the difference in the sense of value between everyone here.

While it was obvious that Katsuki had already expected something like this considering how long she had served in our house, Lisa, Ardi and Odeta were obviously not used to seeing how much money was being thrown out like peanuts.

Take the current item for example…

"For the next item, we have this uncut emerald stone that came as a dungeon drop shipped all the way from Arwan Territory! It weighs just over two kilograms and even contains traces of mana within, making this very likely to be an elemental stone!! The starting bid shall be at ten thousand Creas! Remember the bid increments are now at a thousand Creas!"

Several paddles immediately went up and the price quickly started skyrocketing to twenty five thousand Creas with no signs of slowing down.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

Mother whispered something in Mary's ear and the maid raised our paddle casually, "Fifty thousand Creas."

There were curses coming from below amongst the audience as they already learned that Mother was relentless in her bids and showed no quarter to her opponents.

"Number four hundred and twenty, fifty thousand Creas! Do I hear-- Ah! Number two hundred and two, fifty one thousand Creas!"

Mother smirked, "Ara, ara? Seems like someone interesting finally showed themselves~ Mary~"

Mary raised her paddles and made several hand signs to the auctioneer.

He nodded at her, "Number four hundred and twenty, fifty six thousand Creas! Oh! Number two hundred and two, fifty seven thousand Creas!"

Delmare shifted a little closer to me, "Umm… Aster… Just how much is fifty thousand Creas?"

I wasn't really sure how to answer her but thankfully Katsuki came to my rescue, "Miss Delmare. One Crea is enough for a family of four to survive for a whole month. A normal labourer might be earning anywhere between five to ten Creas a month."

The siren's eyes widened, "Fi… Five to ten? Then… Then… Umm… Umm…"

"Assuming they earn ten Creas and everything is saved up, it would take them over thirteen years to earn that much money," Katsuki informed her helpfully.

"Thirteen… Ummm… Correct me if I'm wrong but… That thing over there is a rock right?"

I giggled, "I suppose you would not be wrong in calling it that. Yes, it is indeed a rock~"

I could see Delmare's eyes spinning from the number she had just heard as her mind tried to wrap itself around the fact that Mother was basically throwing out money that others would need thirteen years to earn on a rock.

"Number two hundred and two, sixty thousand Creas!"

"Ufufufu~ It seems like someone really doesn't like to lose, Mary~"

The Trasif maid wordlessly raised the paddle while holding up two fingers.

"Number four hundred and twenty, sixty two thousand Creas! Number two hundred and two, sixty five thousand Creas!"

Mary looked to Mother for instructions and unexpectedly, Mother made no move to ask her to raise the paddle again.

The auctioneer paused for a moment, most likely also a little surprised by the lack of response from Mother but he managed to hide it well.

"Sixty five thousand Creas for the emerald magic stone going once! Going twice! Sold to number two hundred and two for sixty five thousand Creas!!"

Mother giggled, "Ufufufu~ That would teach them to think they can try to play me like that~ How naive~"

Ah… I see now.

The other party must have been upset that Mother was basically buying up all the good things and tried to drive up the price of this emerald even though they did not want it themselves by forcing Mother into a bid war.

The only problem was that they didn't expect Mother would see through their intentions and even force them to pay an exorbitant price for the rock too.

"Would those people come after us because we tricked them like that?" I asked.

"Unn… Normally the auction house would do their best to protect their guests' privacy but it isn't unheard of for people to start fights and even assassinate the winners of the items that they want after they leave…" Lisa admitted, looking a little concerned.

Mother giggled, "Ufufufu~ There's no need to worry about that~ Mary and Sebastian will take care of any such mongrels should they come and bother us~"

That raised another question though…

"Wouldn't people realise who we are if they saw Mary and Sebastian?" I pointed out.

"Not to worry, Mistress," Mary assured me with a bow. "My face is only known by the people in the capital city. Even if someone were to recognise us, I have means of dealing with them."

For some reason, I felt that I shouldn't ask what exactly she meant by 'dealing' with them.

The rest of the auction proceeded relatively uneventfully at least.

It seemed like after what Mother did to those people, no one else dared to mess with us anymore.

Unfortunately for me, no other sweets came up for bidding so I only had those baby castellas to look forward to.

I did, however, see some interesting items like monster parts including their mana crystals. There were even a few Greater Healing potions which were sold for about a thousand and five hundred Creas per bottle.

I intended to also bid for one as well since I thought it would be good to at least have one of them in case anything happened. It was really pricey but I felt it would have been a worthwhile investment.

But before I could, Mother went ahead to bid for them and won a few of them with barely any competition.

Ah… I guess I could just buy them from Mother later?

As though reading my mind, Mother just giggled at me, "Oh my silly little child~ I bought those for you~ You don't need to worry about it my little one~"

I didn't know what to say so I just went ahead to cuddle myself against Mother, an action that made Mother let out a soft squeal of joy before she proceeded to hug and head pat me excessively.

Not long later, the auction came to a close which prompted us to go and pick up our winning bids.

I had thought Mother would tell me to store all those paintings, sculptures and precious metals in my Pack of Folding to transport back home but she did not. Instead, Mary had simply opened up a portal and Sebastian picked up everything to deposit them inside said portal… Which apparently led back home…

So we actually don't need Emilia's ship to travel here and could have used teleportation huh…

The only things that weren't placed in the portal were the potions and my baby castellas, the former of which I placed into my Pack of Folding.

That left me with my baby castellas which I immediately picked one to toss into my mouth.

…

…

IT'S SWEET!!!!