Chapter 146

‘I can only hope it’s nothing more than a suspicion…’

Still, the possibility lingered that there could well be adherents of the heretical cult among these conservative nobles. The question was, how could she ever possibly distinguish them?

While she was lost in thought, one by one, the lights illuminating the auction hall began to fade.

Pop—

The murmur of nobles gradually died down, until at last a single beam of light shone upon the central dais. A middle-aged gentleman stepped into its glow and bowed courteously.

“Honored guests of Serpene, may you all enjoy yet another elegant evening!”

His brief greeting was met with thunderous applause from the nobles.

Evelyn, uncertain what farce was about to unfold here, clasped her trembling hands together. Watching her closely, Axion reached over and covered her hands with his own steady grasp.

What is he…

Held fast by his hand, she twitched faintly at the bridge of her nose, unable to move away. Leaning closer, Axion murmured low, his voice meant for her ears alone.

“Do as you wish.”

“….!”

“I’ll deal with whatever follows.”

Her eyes wavered in startled confusion, while the man’s lips curved into a languid smile. To anyone else, the words might have sounded reassuring, yet coming from her fiancé, they left her with an oddly different sensation, like something that tickled strangely at her heart.

Before she could put a name to this unfamiliar feeling, music swelled through the hall, announcing the beginning of the auction.

The nobles cried out over one another, raising bids without hesitation, eager not to miss a single treasure. It was only natural since every item sold at Serpene was exceptionally rare and hard to obtain.

‘Have the sorcerers not arrived yet?’

Even though the auction had already begun, one corner seat in the silver section and a prime place at the heart of platinum remained empty. This, despite the fact that hopeful entrants had queued endlessly outside, for Serpene admitted only the chosen few.

Evelyn narrowed her eyes, wondering who could possibly be meant to fill those vacant seats.

“The next item up for bid is a rare tome. We begin at three hundred manettes.”

Three hundred manettes?

Even for a rare book, such an opening price was absurd. Three hundred manettes was the cost of a single night’s stay in a luxury suite at the finest hotel in the capital’s heart.

What kind of extraordinary volume could warrant such a fantastical sum?

Eyes alight with curiosity, she fixed her gaze upon the stage. The moment she beheld the auction lot, her pupils widened in astonishment.

“That’s…!”

What the auctioneer lifted with his gloved hand was the limited-edition bonus from the first printing of her all-time favorite BL novel. Evelyn clenched her bidding paddle so tightly it hurt. After years of searching, the book she had wanted was suddenly before her eyes.

Oh, I have to get that!

But it seemed that she wasn’t the only one thinking that. Judging by the way the price leapt higher and higher, most often from the ladies of the hall, many coveted the rare volume as fiercely as she did.

Watching his fiancée fidget restlessly, Axion let out a thin, incredulous scoff.

“Don’t tell me you’re trying to bid on that?”

To him, it must have seemed absurd that she was so fixated on an item offered by the very black market they regarded as rivals.

‘Well, everyone has that one favorite work they cherish deep down.’

She wanted to say as much, but in the end, she stubbornly chose loyalty over desire.

“O-Of course not. Why would I?”

“I don’t believe you.”

She thought she hadn’t let it show, but clearly the disappointment had shown on her face.

Hmph. If he already knew, why even ask?

She wrenched her gaze away from the coveted limited first-print bonus, though her eyes kept wanting to drift back to it. Just then, a stir swept through the uppermost tier of nobles, who until now had watched the proceedings in silence.

‘What’s going on?’

Sensing something unusual, she glanced around, and her expression soon froze like ice.

It was because the person who had taken the last remaining vacant platinum seat was none other than the Crown Prince himself, Erden Liam Maximilian.