Chapter 51
“500,000 Neden.”
A calm and composed voice rang in the silent hall, stunning many.
It was Oliver.
Oliver had bid for the stone unexpectedly?
People turned their heads to look at him and realized it was the same person with the suspicious outfit and mysterious powers from earlier.
The auctioneer paused, giving Oliver a look before she quickly said,
“500,000 Neden. Does anyone wish to counter?”
“Hmph!”
The old man from earlier sneered as he looked at the short Oliver with a gaze of disdain.
“Young and naive, don’t know how to appreciate elders’ help? This generation is useless.”
Being the old block he was, his thinking naturally matched his age.
Some short-sighted people also snickered at that; they felt that they had misjudged Oliver from the beginning.
It seemed that the boy was just carrying some strength-concealing artifact or something to appear more mysterious.
Some people in the audience could not help but feel disdain towards him.
While the others contemplated his reason for buying the artifact, they wondered if he was really naive and just wanted to stand out or if there was something deeper…?
Oliver felt the once-familiar gaze probing him again; he looked towards Jenna and through his special eyes read what she was mouthing.
She was asking him what he intended to do with that?
Although it was not her business to know that, he did not say that. It couldn’t be that she was concerned about him either.
A ruthless and clever woman showing concern for him all of a sudden? He would never believe that.
It was possible that she wanted to know if he knew anything related to the artifact or not.
Naturally, he wouldn’t tell her anything or she’d directly place a bid that he would not be able to match.
He mouthed the words,
‘I. Want. To. Stand. Out.’
And then ignored her.
_______________
Jenna, who was far above, was stunned after hearing his reasoning.
She knew that it was not this simple.
This little kid, although he looked silly and naive, was very money-minded; he was aware of the rates, and his eyes were that of a growing merchant.
He would not deal in loss, and that stone which everyone was thinking was going to cut a loss was suddenly bid by him?
Had she not known him, she might also have thought of him as an attention-grabbing brat, but not now.
She knew his personality from their interaction last time.
He was a genius when it came to picking trash among treasures; his artifact appraising skills were too good!
So good that she was willing to invite him to become a true member of the Black Codex Federation!
He definitely saw something in that stone that she was not able to detect.
She wondered if it was another epic-rank artifact in hiding?
She suddenly had the strong urge to bid against him.
With her wealth, he would not be able to compete with her at all!
And after purchasing the stone, she could just send it to the top appraisers in the Black Codex Federation to get it examined.
She once again looked at him and then at the ordinary stone in the display box placed on the stage.
She sighed and shook her head.
“I should have bid for it first…”
She regretted not bidding for it first; now she decided not to bid for obvious reasons.
Oliver and she now belonged to the same organization and in a way, he was her junior and a child.
If she really competed against him, then not only would she worsen her ties with him in the future but also be indirectly or directly provoking him based on his thinking.
He was too mysterious and was shrouded in a fog of secrets.
His potential was unknown; she did not believe the Mystic Purge Clan’s evaluation of him being useless.
She always thought of multiple scenarios at the same time.
What if Oliver was extraordinary and the clan simply did not want to leak the details about their best heirs to other people in the clan, so they just termed him talentless?
What if Oliver was hiding something that not even the great clan was aware of?
There were many scenarios revolving in her mind.
If such a scenario indeed came true, then she would be making enemies with the wrong person.
If she had bid before him, then he wouldn’t have had any reason to blame her, but what’s done was done.
She decided to place more importance on human resources than materials this time.
With her calm mind and wits, she had survived and dominated the business industries among exorcists; she knew what was more valuable to her at the moment.
With a heavy heart, she calmly waited.
Even though she had earlier been suspected by him for being creepy, she let it go.
It was just that he didn’t know his limits and was thus so daring.
How could she, a dignified woman, be a creep?
If he knew her real strength, he wouldn’t even dare to look up at her.
She shook her head and looked ahead with a straight face, secretly suppressing the intrusive thoughts to just bid a very high amount.
___________
“Since there’s no one interested in bidding, the item now belongs to Number 69! Congratulations, number 69!”
She clapped lightly, heaving a sigh of relief that someone was willing to buy this piece of junk.
There were always such junk materials that would occasionally slip in; she had heard from her colleagues about how awkward they would feel when no one wanted to buy an item.
She had never experienced such a situation before in her time here, and it was about to become like that, but fortunately, someone bought it. She felt grateful.
She would get more commission now thanks to Oliver!
Later, she would submit a report to the auction head and request that they don’t accept items through backdoor entries and get them appraised properly first.
The crowd had mixed reactions as well.
“Number 69 is a fool, haha.”
“It can’t be helped; there are always such attention-grabbers present in auctions every year.”
“You’re right; he even dared to ignore Mr. Tesshu’s advice, a junior expert appraiser, haha.”
“Sagara Tesshu was kind enough to let others know about this junk of a material, and yet this person number 69 didn’t know how to appreciate it.”
Another person shook his head.
“Forget it; he’s either a spoilt child from some noble family or clan or just spent his entire savings to buy this junk to look rich. If it’s the latter, then he will be regretting it soon enough.”
It was then that they suddenly felt a chill!
