Date 20 Mar 2321
Time 10:55
Location Sky Blossom City, Adventure Guild Association, Guild Administrator office.
Knock..knock…
“May I come in sir?”
“Come in! ” A hoarse voice sounded from the office, As soon the clerk entered the office the voice added, “John you know I don’t like being disturbed at this hour.”
“I am sorry sir, but it is urgent.” Said the clerk passing an auction catalogue to him.
“What is this? why are you giving this to me?”
“Sir it’s the catalogue of the girl you promoted as associate auction manager this morning to free up the last permanent staff spot for your grand niece.”
“Oh! Are the items listed in the catalogue genuine? I think I made myself clear when I told her not to give her any assistance in regards to the items for auction?”
“You did sir and I checked the items listed are not from the auction house. She is providing them herself.”
“Oh! Do you know who is providing her with items for the auction?”
“When asked she said it was from one of her clients. But I double-checked all her clients in association mall archives, none of her clients is capable enough to provide her with such good cards in such short notice.”
“Then how the hell did she get these cards?”
“Sir, I think she is lying. Seeing how the catalogue has been able to create a small hype, I believe she is going to use this hype to rebel and tell her story knowing that she is going to be fired tomorrow.”
“That’s it, you disturbed me for this. You know that if she pulls such a stun then our legal team and media team will swallow her whole.”
“I know sir, I am not worried about bad press or you but the young miss, seeing how she wants to start from the bottom, it will be hard once every staff in guild mall knows that one of them was fired to make way for her.”
“Um… You are right! She is stubborn and righteous, if not for her insisting on starting at the bottom she would be the one with an associate auction manager title and with my pull in the association mall, she would not have to worry about anything, the items, venue, audience or the timeslot.
Good since the ant wants to fight back then I will help her! Send a whole team of our media and other popular press to her auction and also send this catalogue to all the stubborn prodigal sons and daughters of sky blossom city, I think some of them will be interested in the items mentioned in the catalogue.”
“Brilliant sir, I will proceed accordingly.”
Once these prodigal audiences knew that the auction was just a ruse then their anger will be directed at the ant for wasting their time, The audience was prodigal but knew whom to offend and whom not to. So they would rather stay silent than sympathize with the ant. even the media will choose to write a story about how an auction manager published the fake catalogue for popularity and offended the audience rather than how the guild corruption and office politics screwed over an ant’s life.
Although this was not a perfect solution it would mislead the attention of the netizens from his niece until all this cools down and is taken care of by the association’s legal team and media team.
…
20 Mar 2321
Time 11:55
Location Sky Blossom City, Guild association mall, Guild Card Lab
Admiring the 50 perfect F rank cards in front of me, I called Susan to come and get them.
Having successfully created 50 perfect F rank cards in two hours, I was tired and had a headache, my reflexes and responses were slow. One would think it’s affecting my decision-making and judgement but my mind was clear except I was feeling very sleepy.
Maybe I should buy myself a card which can reveal this fatigue whenever I overexert myself, I should ask Susan to look for such a card.
Susan excitedly entered the card room and said “Wyatt I didn’t disappoint you, currently our auction catalogue is within the top 10 trending. This will attract deeper pockets. We are rich! “
Susan’s eyes shined with dollar bill signs, for every item auctioned the guild charges a 10% auction fee of which the auction manager gets 1%. But if the items are directly provided by the auction manager themselves but not by the auction house then the manager gets 5% of the 10% auction fee.
This is a stunt so that the auction managers are not passive and depend upon the guild for goods to auction but for them to actively search and bring many valuable items for auction.
“Wipe your drool would you? This small amount of money is nothing, stick with me kid and I will show you what being rich looks like?”
Hearing my words Susan vigorous nodded her head but then, “Hey! Who are you calling a kid? you shorty! This is the last time next time..next time I will bite you.”
Hearing the word shorty a vein popped on my neck as I thought ‘control! control!’ As my height was among one thing that I was sensitive about in this second life. I consoled myself, thinking my body is still young and yet to reach its full growth.
Even though I was not tall my height could be considered average but Susan was tall, very tall with a long neck and legs, slender waist with fair, smooth and glowing skin.
“Y-you! I am of the right height, you giantess!”
“Okay, that’s it I am ignoring you.”
“You can’t ignore me, I am your client, you have to pay attention to me!”
“Okay, sir, how may I help you?” Susan’s height was her mental scar as her schoolmates bullied her calling names like the Big girl or Giantess or barbarian. One of the reasons why she chose to work after high school no matter how much her parents stressed on her going to college.
Seeing Susan act all cold and distant I realised I said something wrong.
“Okay you win, I am sorry. Now can you talk normally!”
Susan glared at me intently and snorted, “okay I can’t stay mad at you! You are like the bratty little brother I didn’t have.”
‘Be the big man! Be the bigger man!’ I thought, trying to control myself from saying something which Susan will make me regret later.
“Now take these 10 cards and feed them to your origin card,” I said handing her 10 different F rank armour cards.
“Why? Aren’t these for the auction?” Said Susan, looking at the 10 cards in her hand each of them was perfect F rank cards with a 1-star rating and 100 durability rating.
“No, I made 50 cards, 10 for you and 40 for the auction. With this, you can change into each armour when you are about to auction that armour card. So, the audience can see the flawless design of the armours. Try doing a ramp walk with each armour on, so that they can see how beautiful the armours are?”
“No! No! Auctioning the cards is one thing but to be a model and ramp walk I can’t do that. That will be embarrassing.”
“What are you saying? Don’t tell me you didn’t dream of being a model and ramp walked in your room when you were little.”
“T-that, I am not …. It’s too embarrassing for me to be modelling.”
“What’s so embarrassing about you modelling? You are beautiful and tall, with your long neck and legs, slender waist with fair, smooth and glowing skin, It’s as if your body was chiselled for modelling.”
“No! I am not beautiful, you are just praising me, to get me to model for you.”
“Susan listen to me, look into my eyes.”
“Why?! “
“Just look into my eyes.”
“O-okay..”
“Do you know who is more beautiful than a beautiful lady?”
“N-no..” Said Susan with a red blush on her cheeks.
“A beautiful lady who doesn’t know how beautiful she is..”
“..”
“Okay, you trust me right. Just do this, this once for me.”
“..”
“Pretty please!”
“Ok just this once I will wear the armours but I will not do the ramp walk.”
“Okay, no ramp walk. But you will have to twirl once, deal?”
“D-deal..”
Susan fed the cards to her origin card. And then activated it and changed into every armour while twirling for practice, in front of me.
This was the first time I had seen her origin card in action and it was a sight to behold, especially the flash and little smoke that appeared whenever she changed into a new armour. It was just like watching a magic show.
The colours of the armours I chose for Susan complimented her perfectly. She looked beautiful and heroic in each armour.
Even her hairstyle changed with the armours. It was an effect of another card.
Along with that card, she had many other special effects and item cards to help her with the auction, for example, the voice control card’s fiction was similar to a microphone in the other world.
“I have registered your name in the VIP guest list.”
“Do I have to come, I mean I wouldn’t buy my cards that would be stupid.”
“You have to come. This is my first time conducting an auction. I wanted to invite my parents but they can’t be here on such short notice. It would mean a lot to me if you came.”
“Well you did agree to be a model for me, I will be there, not in the VIP room but in the front seat to cheer for you.”
“You are the best! See you soon.” Susan hurried to organize the auction as now she had the cards for auction.