?Gregory Noran was a thin man with a large forehead, bushy eyebrows, and a scar across his left cheek that hadn't fully healed. He was a distant cousin of Brassel Noran, the head of the Noran household, the Mayor of Ulharis city.
Yesterday evening, he was made aware of news during a gambling session in one of the taverns about a particular display that had been put on in the Arena. He had relayed it to the Mayor, but it seemed his cousin had already heard of it.
He had then been ordered to confirm the validity of the statement, and if possible buy the weapon.
Gregory trusted the news as much as any sane person would, but the amount of sources he had heard the news from had forced him to reconsider. With the Mayor's command on top of it, he had to make sure if it was true or false.
After searching for nearly 2 hours, he arrived in front of the shop that everyone and their mother were talking about in the city right now.
Heeran's love.
"This is definitely it," he muttered under his breath as he looked at the amount of people that were gathered there, not just inside the shop, but outside as well. There was no place to step in.
Could he even take a step in here?
He tried to look for ways to go in when he heard a boy not even 15 saying something that he seemed to have reiterated hundreds of times today.
"Please stay in a line. Everyone will be allowed to make a bid in their own time. We won't let anyone leave without putting on a bid," the boy's tired voice went through the people again.
But no one seemed to care for what he said and tried to go in as soon as they could.
'Oh, everyone puts on a bid?' Gregory thought and looked at the boy. "Hey kid, what is the highest bid right now?"
A few faces turned toward him before turning toward the boy with fervent curiosity.
"I don't know," the boy said listlessly as if he would want to be doing anything else. "I only know that no one will know either. Everyone will get a chance to bid and they will do so in secret. In the end, whoever bids the highest will get the trident. Please consider how much you're willing to bid as you'll only get to do so once."
A few newcomers asked more questions and Gregory managed to learn more about the shop than he expected. 'So it's new, is it?' he thought. 'You should have remained low, whoever you are,' the man thought. 'Don't complain about getting cut when you stick out as a thorn.'
Due to the number of people there, it took him nearly another hour of standing in the sun before he made his way into the shop. To his surprise, the shop was better looking inside than it was on the outside.
He looked around with a weird look on his face. 'Why are the shelves half empty?' he wondered, looking at the weapons and armor that were still there. 'Well, those certainly aren't very good—'
His thoughts paused when he saw the prices attached to the weapons. 'What?' he nearly shouted in shock. He quickly looked around to make sure he hadn't spoken out loud, not that anyone would've noticed in the hubbub of the shop.
'What sort of idiot sells weapons and armor at 150 Fire Coins?' he thought. His first thought had been that everything the shop sold was simple and needed no further glances, but the cost had turned his opinion upside down.
If the weapons cost what they did, then it was more than a bargain. No wonder so many in the shop were missing. Surely most of them had been sold already. He wondered if he should buy one as well, but then he already had all the weapons he could need.
And he didn't have money to spare right now. He had lost a bit last night while gambling. 'I'll come back once I earn more,' he thought.
15 minutes later, he was at the front of the line with a slip of paper on the table and a pen next to it. Behind the table was a young man, and next to him was the Lightning Trident everyone talked about.
'Damn, so it was real,' Gregory thought.
"Write your name and the amount you wish to bid."
Gregory quickly took the pen and wrote his name. As for the bid, "Young man, what's the highest bid?" he asked.
"I don't know," Ning answered him. "Everything goes in that box. I won't know until I open it at the end."
The man felt a little annoyed at not knowing how much to bid. 'How is this an auction?' he grumbled under his breath. 'Did the shop's owner ever even go to an auction?'
"Young man, who's the owner of the shop?" Gregory asked.
"She lives upstairs," Ning said. "Why? I am the manager. If you want to talk to someone, you can talk to me."
The man frowned a bit. How could such a young man be a manager? Still, he had to trust him, not that it mattered.
He went close and whispered. "I was sent here by the mayor. He—"
Ning put up his hand. "I have had 3 other people sent by the mayor, 14 by some governor, 2 by the owner of the Arena, 10 by some teachers in the institute, and countless more carrying names of noble families whose names I don't bother to remember."
"Put your name, your bid, and leave. I give everyone a fair chance."
Gregory was slackjawed at the words. He tried to say something, but nothing came. In the end, he could only do what he was told to do and left.
He waited outside for 2 hours, and 2 hours later the news came.
"The one who has bid the highest bid 4800 Fire Coins. If you wish to come get it right away, come. Or you can come at any time afterward within the next 3 days."
A man quickly walked up the stairs and gave his name that Gregory didn't recognize. He went in and came back out with a satisfied smile.
Gregory couldn't believe it. The owner of the Lightning Trident was some person who was certainly nothing more than a visitor in the city. A tourist got it?
'Dammit!' the man thought. 'I should've bid more than 3000.'
He hadn't been aware of how low he had bid until the end. Sounds of grumbling passed through the street in front of the shop as people turned to leave. Everyone was disappointed by not winning the thing.
"One more thing," Ning quickly spoke before people could get too far away. "Tomorrow I will reveal another weapon in the Arena, and the day after that I will auction it off here."
"I will do so for a month before I start putting the items on display without showing them off. You may come to get it again.'
'Tomorrow?' Gregory thought. 'Another one? Another Lightning Trident? Or something new?'
He didn't know, but he wanted to. And he was sure, more people than just him would want to know.
