"35 gold coins!" Hearing that the bidding for the set of Greater Health Potions was open, a young man at the back of the auction house raised their sign up with great fervor.
"40 gold coins!" Unfortunately, the young man's excitement was short-lived as a mature-sounding woman at the front bid higher than him, reminding everyone that the auction would become more ferocious as more time passed.
"50 gold coins." Hearing these words echoing from the middle of the auction house, Sirius could not help himself from having a slight smile appear on his face, noticing that the auction house had gone silent after that.
"Are there no more bids higher than 50 gold coins?" asked the man, attempting to rouse everyone's urge to bid as he asked the women holding the items to roam around the stage once again.
"50 gold coins going once…"
"50 gold coins going twice…"
"I'll bid 55 gold coins!" Surprisingly, the man's tactic had worked, forcing a young man near the front of the auction house to bid at the very last minute, causing the smile on Sirius' face to grow wider as he counted to three once more.
"Alright! The first set of Greater Health Potions has been sold to the fine man that has bid 55 gold coins on it." Asking one of the auction house's workers to move the set of potions that had been sold to the back, Sirius made a mental note of the man that had just bid before proceeding.
"Let us now move onto the next set!"
…
With the first item sold in the auction being multiple sets of Greater tier potions, not a lot of people had bid on it, considering that they were generally ordered in a way where the ones with the greatest purpose were saved for last. Because of that, those that were in dire need of those potions had gotten them at a considerably low price.
Then again, there were those who had malicious intent in their bidding, greatly inflating the price of the potion sets to many times over the original. However, as if the heavens had wanted them to learn their mistakes early on in the auction, no one had outbid on their prices, forcing them to grit their teeth as everyone applauded for them with hints of mockery.
After the sets of potions were a couple pieces of equipment made by competent blacksmiths from the Blacksmith Guild. Since they were being sold in the auction, that meant that they had something special going for them, which was the fact that they could store magic spells, allowing them to be used at some other time.
Unsurprisingly, quite a few younger mages fancied the gimmick of the equipment, which had taken on the form of armor. Because of that, there was a bit more fighting in between the audience regarding these special items, which only made the smile on Julian's face widen as he knew the blacksmith that had specifically forged the items that were sold.
Once the special pieces of equipment were sold, Sirius brought out three vials containing viscous fluid that piqued the interest of a great portion of the audience, warranting their oohs and aahs as he explained what was inside them.
"Right here in front of you are three vials coming from the Lord of Medicine directly, the young Faulus Erlenmeyer, also known as the star prodigy of the Alchemist Guild." At these words, multiple people already had ideas of what the vials contained, prompting some of them to shake their signs in anticipation as they wanted to be the first to bid on them.
Noticing how some of the audience could not hold their desire to bid any longer, Sirius inwardly grinned as he continued his explanation. "Though the efficacy of the potions you see in front of you are nowhere near the Panacea that Faulus is greatly known for, you can think of these potions are a weaker type of Panacea. In fact, if I were you, I would give this to a genius of the younger generation as a gift due to it still having miraculous properties."
"With that, the bidding is now open for these weaker Panaceas. The starting bid is at 3 platinum coins. Any bid after the previous must be higher by at least 1 platinum coin."
"I bid 5 platinum coins!" Unsurprisingly, after everyone had heard that the Panaceas being sold weren't the ones they knew about, a great portion of them lost all interest and decided to save their money for the item that would come after. Then again, that did not stop others from bidding, some of whom seem to know more than what Sirius had explained.
…
"I'd suggest you get one." Just as the first of the three weaker Panaceas had been sold to another person in the audience, Julian looked at Valyr beside him and gave him a suggestion. "Though Sirius explained that it's a weaker Panacea, it's actually a potion that's different to a Panacea in purpose."
"How so?" Though Valyr had faint doubts of the man's words, the young man decided to follow the man's suggestion, considering that the Blacksmith Guild was paying for it anyway.
"The Panacea Faulus is known for concocting has superb medicinal properties," said Julian, to which Valyr nodded as it was something he knew very well. "Even returning someone that's only a few thousandths of an inch away from death wouldn't be impossible when they consume one of them."
"However, the type of Panacea being sold at the moment is only known to those with high authority in the kingdom, which Sirius has aplenty of," he continued. "In any case, the potions being shown at the moment focus on the body strengthening properties of the Panacea rather than its medicinal properties."
"Because of that, those in the know call it by another name, which is Might."
"Now, you might be wondering. Why would the auction house sell such an item like that so early?" Just as Valyr had placed another bid on the potion, Julian had said something that the young man planned to say in response, leaving Valyr with no choice but to nod.
"Well, it's because Sirius wants those that bid on it to think they've struck a gold mine at such a low price." At these words, Julian let out a chuckle. "And in turn, that would cause them to return to the Leio Auction House more often."
"He's also doing it to foster the young generation, but he doesn't want you to know that," added the man as Valyr had successfully obtained the potion, prompting the latter to let out a chuckle as he nodded.
"Say, Julian." Thinking that now was the right time to ask about the thought he came up with earlier, Valyr mustered up the courage as he took advantage of the downtime that appeared during the duration in between bids.
"What is it?" Unsurprisingly, Julian raised his eyebrow in curiosity, faintly wondering what the young man wanted to ask him. Though, once he heard it, a slight frown unknowingly appeared on his face.
"Now that I think about it…"
"With how everyone is focused on the thing that's going on within the Zeihardt clan…"
"Why is it only considered a royal clan?"
