Return of the Runebound Professor

The main corridor came to stop before a pair of already-open stone doors. They were carved from stone, and the swirling patterns running along them looked to be nothing more than decoration, but Noah knew better.

Those are definitely hidden Imbuements.

Contessa didn’t stop to appreciate their surroundings. She stepped through the doors and started down into an amphitheater beyond it. There were twenty different viewing platforms, each with small walls and completely isolated from the others.

Pathways ran out of the amphitheater in every direction, leading to doors identical to the ones they’d just come through. At the very center of the amphitheater was a large, raised dais.

A man in pure white clothing with a black, featureless mask stood at the center of the dais, his hands crossed behind his back. He wasn’t the only other person in the room, though. About three quarters of the viewing platforms were already occupied by groups of up to six people.

All of the platforms had at least one person with the inversed clothing colors – white, with a black mask – standing in a corner. Karina led them over to one of the unoccupied viewing platforms and they piled in, sitting down at an awaiting table. Noah inclined his head in greeting to the masked woman in their room, but she didn’t return the gesture.

Bah. It’s going to be a bunch of stiff assholes here, isn’t it?

Once they’d all gotten onto the platform, the woman strode over to the back and closed the door behind them, locking it with a click. Noah’s scalp prickled as a low hum washed over all of them. He stiffened.

“Don’t worry,” Contessa said, raising her hands. “It’s to make sure nobody can overhear us when we’re talking. It’s just a safety measure.”

Contessa shrugged. “I… think so? As far as I’m aware it’s trustworthy. There would be a lot of anger if anyone was somehow breaking through the Imbuements or abusing them. That’s the whole point of doing the auction like this. It ensures privacy.”

“Just how Arbitage ensures a neutral zone, huh?”

Contessa cleared her throat and looked out to the dais. “Yeah. Either way, everything should be getting started really soon. We made it with just a bit of time to spare. There will be a few different rounds, categorized by what they’re selling today.”

“Do we know what they are?” Moxie asked.

Contessa shook her head. “No. They change, but I’d assume some of it will be Runes, some will be Imbued items, and some will be information. I don’t know what the rest will be – probably monster parts or the like.”

“I didn’t think about selling information at an auction, but I guess it makes sense.” Noah paused, then glanced at Moxie. “You know, I completely forgot again, but did we ever get that letter from Thaddius with our money?”

“Oh, shit. I forgot to tell you.” Moxie let out an embarrassed laugh. “Yeah, we got it. Nine thousand gold.”

“Damn, that’s a solid sale,” Noah said. “We’ll definitely be able to get some nice shit here, then.”

Contessa turned away from the dais to look at them. Noah couldn’t see her expression because of the mask, but her head tilted to the side in confusion.

“What?” Noah asked.

“How much money did you bring?” Contessa asked.

“About ten thousand each,” Noah said. “Plus the money Moxie just mentioned, so around… forty thousand, I guess? A bit less.”

“That’s it?” Karina demanded. “Are you crazy?”

“What? What’s wrong with that?” Noah asked. “Forty thousand is a huge amount of money!”

“This is a noble auction,” Karina hissed. “Forty thousand isn’t going to get anything good! Most of these people probably thousands of gold a week on travel and luxury expenses alone.”

Noah’s eye twitched behind his mask. “You can’t be serious. Forty thousand would be enough to buy so many flying swords.”

“This is an exclusive auction for members representing the noble houses. Do you really think they’re measuring things in the number of flying swords they can buy?” Contessa asked, choosing her words carefully. She sent a glance at the employee in their booth, but the woman seemed unconcerned in their discussion. Evidently, she wasn’t paid enough to care.

“There should be some stuff that isn’t that expensive. Even auctions like this have less rare or damaged objects for sale, right?” Moxie asked. “Not everyone comes here wanting to spend enough money to buy a nice house.”

“Well, yeah. There’s bound to be some garbage, but I thought you came here wanting to get powerful Runes, not trash. If that was the case, we might have been better served going to a normal auction or just buying things outright,” Karina said. “This is overkill.”

Trash Runes aren’t so trash when I’m the one that buys them. If I can get my hands on some poorly combined Runes, as long as they aren’t complete garbage, they could actually be really useful. Nice thinking, Moxie.

“Well, we’re here now.” Noah shrugged. “No point complaining. Might as well see what they’ve got. Besides, if they’re buying information, can we sell?”

“I suppose you could,” Karina said after a moment. She looked to Contessa. “That’s normally what I’ve seen in other auctions. Can you do that here too??”

“Yeah, you could,” Contessa said with a nod. “I wouldn’t be concerned at all about your safety, but you’d need to be able to provide a way to verify that what you’re selling is true. If you can’t, you won’t be able to sell it.”

“Noted,” Noah said. “Well, for now, let’s just play things by ear. No point worrying when we don’t even know what’s for sale yet.”

They all settled down to wait, but they didn’t have to wait long. Just a few minutes after they finished speaking, the lights in the amphitheater blinked out, plunging everyone into darkness. An instant later, a silver glow lit around the dais, illuminating the man standing upon it.

“I’d like to thank you all for joining us tonight,” the man said, pressing one hand to his chest and stretching the other out to his side as he lowered into a bow. “For those of you who are returning – the Troupe greatly values your patronage. And, for those of you who are visiting for the first time, my name is Rin. I will be the Auctioneer for tonight.”

Rin raised, then crossed his arms behind his back in parade rest. Another hum washed over Noah’s skin as beams of light erupted, illuminating all but five of the platforms.

“We have fifteen grand houses with us today,” Rin continued. “I beg your forgiveness, but I must reiterate our rules before we can enjoy ourselves. As always, the Troupe strives to be as unintrusive as possible. Our assistants are all thoroughly bound by Rune Oath – not a word of what you say will leave their lips. In fact, they can’t even hear you unless you touch them as part of the imbuements on their mask.”

That’s… intense. Definitely a way to make sure that information doesn’t leak, though. Can’t share what you can’t hear. Of course, that’s assuming I actually believe this guy.

“Should you wish to bid on any item that arrives, you may simply call out your offer. Your Troupe member is only present in the scenario that you have questions or need clarification on anything. Please know that any attempts to threaten or otherwise harm a Troupe member will result in expulsion from this auction and hefty fines that will be paid in blood.”

Don’t screw with the employees. Got it. Hey, at least they care. Better than the shitty school administration I had back on Earth.

“Finally, please be aware that while visiting your neighbors on their viewing platforms is permitted, any altercations involving Runes are not. If someone requests you leave their platform, you are requested to comply as quickly as possible. Interfering with another group’s ability to place bids will be punished accordingly.”

Noah’s brow furrowed behind his mask. The Rules about interference felt… off. They could have easily said that everyone had to stay in the locations where they started, but instead allowed anyone to walk around as they wished.

I suppose that lets you bargain or try to convince another house to give up on something without broadcasting your intentions to everyone else, but it also leaves a lot of opportunity to strongarm someone. You could easily go over to a competitor and threaten or otherwise try to figure out who they are to determine if you can afford to fight them or not.

“Furthermore, collaboration in order to acquire an item is allowed, though it will require that you identify yourself to the group that you are working with. The Troupe is not responsible for anything that happens in this occurrence,” Rin said, his voice echoing through the room. There was no way it was naturally that loud – it had to be magically enhanced. “We guarantee that no information of yours will ever leak at fault of the Troupe, but this guarantee only goes so far as you maintain your secrecy. We have a running promise – if we fail to uphold any of our promises, your family will be accommodated with their choice of an item valued at a range of one million gold to four million gold.”

Noah nearly choked on his saliva. The amount of money the Troupe was using as collateral was enough to buy so many Runes that he didn’t even know what he’d do with them.

I could probably boost myself and everyone else all the way up to rank six with that much money. What the hell are these people doing where they can throw it around? Although… I guess money doesn’t mean you can make a Rune that doesn’t suck. Dayton is proof of that.

“With that, it’s time to get our festivities underway,” Rin proclaimed. He clapped his hands together once. “The auction has begun!”

A grin slowly stretched across Noah’s lips, though it was concealed by his mask. Money or not – the situation was more perfect than he ever could have asked for. Nobody knew who anyone else was, so if a group believed they were bidding against someone that had more power than they did, they had to be careful to avoid offending them. While there was theoretically no way to retaliate outside of the auction, Noah highly suspected some of the powerful houses would buy out every item someone else wanted purely just because they’d been annoyed.

The whole thing was one giant bluff competition. And, if there was one thing Noah was good at, it was bullshitting.

This is going to be fun.

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