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Traveling through the air at full speed, in a few minutes we reduced most of the distance that separated us from Silver Thread City.
Now we are only less than ten kilometers away from it.
But we can no longer go farther through the air due to the city's protections, which were weakening the effect of the Wind Brazier as we got closer.
"The next time you go to do something like that, let me know at least," says the old man, leaning his four limbs on the ground while his irritated expression has a slightly greenish tint.
"Don't worry, old man. When you're my age, you'll understand why I didn't warn you," I say mockingly, as I stow my Wind brazier back in my inventory.
Old Gerald seems to be debating between wanting to strangle me, laugh at my words or throw up.
After a few seconds, it is the last of the three that wins the contest.
After he finishes vomiting, the old man stands up and starts walking with an offended air toward Silver Thread City.
I follow him silently, enjoying the result of my little revenge.
Then, after a few minutes of silence, as we get closer to the city, the old man finally speaks to me again.
"Wouldn't it be better if you put that thing away before we get to the city?" He says as he glares at the weapon hanging from my waist.
"Why do you think that? It doesn't pose any risk as long as it's sheathed, does it?" I ask cautiously.
'At least that's what I had deduced from his words…
Have I been hasty in my conclusions?'
"Yes, well... That's true, but in a city there are many people.... And the sheath only covers the blade of the weapon. If someone were to touch the hilt of the sword by mistake, or if it came out of the sheath by carelessness... I don't know for sure what would happen," says Gerald apprehensively.
"Ahh, I see what you mean. But that's not really any risk. At the slightest hint of anything unusual happening, I can put the sword away again like I did at your place," I say with renewed calmness.
'My conclusions were correct...
Haa… This old man worries too much...
If touching the hilt will represent a risk, I could not keep the sword equipped....
After all, I am constantly brushing the hilt of the weapon with my arm.'
"Yes, I suppose that is also an option..." says the old man, sighing.
"... Just make sure you keep that thing away from people. How did you manage to store it in your storage ring the first time, by the way? I couldn't do it while I had it in my hands."
"I didn't store it in my storage ring. I use my inventory to store it," I say, but I don't explain further as I don't have that much confidence with this old curmudgeon.
"Ahh," says the old man simply in response, as he gives me a strange look.
' - He can use Inventory without chant and at a distance, huh? That's strange... Very strange. I imagined he had some special magic item that worked similar to storage rings'
...
By the time we finally arrived at the entrance to the city walls, the number of people waiting to enter had thinned considerably.
The process of entering the city is simple: people who want to enter must tell the guards their names and class, as well as their occupation and reasons why they want to enter the city. After the guards finish verifying, thanks to an identifying tablet, the veracity of the information, they finally let them in.
All this can take a few or several minutes, depending on the number of people and the load they are carrying.
Strangely, although they do check the contents of the carriages, they do not check the storage rings or the inventory of people.
By the time it was our turn, I had been thinking about which of my classes would be the best to show the guards, since all of my active classes are now at a very high level.
But then I remembered that I now have a certain special item, which I had never put to the test before and which could perhaps get me out of the whole control process.
My medal of honor.
I had doubts about whether the object would really have the usefulness I had been informed about, so I decided to put it to the test.
And the test was successful, despite being in a different kingdom than the one that issued the medal of honor.
Apparently the medal serves as proof that I am the Golden Archer, war hero of the Castemira kingdom.
Then, after identifying the medal with their identifying tablets, the guards gave me a respectful bow and let us enter the city.
If Gerald found any of what happened surprising, he didn't say anything about it.
But I get the impression that he now speaks to me in a slightly different tone of voice.
At the entrance to the imposing auction house, there was also a queue waiting to get in.
At the old man's request, I tried to use my medal of honor again, this time to skip the queue.
But that second time was useless because in the queue there were several nobles and important people of the Ephire kingdom.
People who, according to what the workers who were in charge of the queue told me, are much more important than a war hero from a small kingdom.
The old man did not seem the least bit surprised by what had happened and, looking at me with a smug smile, told me to follow him to a side door of the establishment, which was guarded by two guards.
Then, after the old man talked for a few moments with the people in front of the door, we finally entered the building.
The inside of the place turned out to be as huge and luxurious as it looked from the outside, so I thought it would take several minutes to find our seats.
But Old Gerald seemed to know the place very well, for he guided me safely down several corridors to a door leading to a small balcony, occupied only by two plush armchairs.
Sitting in the armchairs, one could see from the height a huge vaulted space filled with chairs, most of which were already occupied.
At the far end of the domed room was a long platform, on which, after a few minutes, they began to display various objects for which people in the audience began to bid.
Then I quickly realized that the order of the objects presented follows a certain system, as the first few minutes they presented only and exclusively objects intended for people's home quality of life.
There were even some that seemed to have no other use than as magical toys.
I bid on several of the magic items in that section of the auction and ended up winning the bid on most of them.
Every time I placed a relatively high bid, I could tell that old Gerald was giving me a strange look.
I guess the old curmudgeon didn't expect me to have so much money.
But these days, thanks to having used the energy potions, I have been acquiring money in exorbitantly high amounts.
Even by my standards.
And this does not include the small treasure of gold and gems I obtained from the temple that kidnapped Delia.
Also, I still have a ridiculously high amount of runes in my inventory, as I can only sell them in small numbers so as not to attract too much attention.
But it doesn't matter, as those remaining runes will serve me in one of the most important parts of the smart clone's plan to defeat the king of Drial Cenit.
In the end, in this section of the auction, I acquired a magic communication item in the form of a bracelet, which allows me to create some fine metal rings from mana, with which a kind of telepathic link is established.
I also got a magic item that allows people to heat or cool food, a magic item that helps to remove dust from houses and several magic items that serve to illuminate the rooms of a house.
I also obtained a few items of clothing with magical properties, mostly undergarments, but none with the magical properties I had imagined they would have, as they had effects such as self-cleaning, self-repairing, perfuming, etc.
Nothing like the extra protective clothing I had thought.
But I guess that's to be expected, since no matter how much someone might augment the physical protection of something like a bikini with a physical protection rune, the garment still only covers just a small portion of the body.
It is true that increasing the defensive capability of larger garments may be still viable, but it must not be very efficient judging by the absolute absence of such effects on the auctioned garments.
Most of the magic items in that section seemed to be the result of the work of skilled Magic refiners. People who know how to make wonderful things that sometimes result in true masterpieces.
The most expensive item of all the ones I bought in that section was the communication bracelet, but it is definitely worth it.
In the war zone, I saw firsthand how useful these things can be, and for that reason, if I'm going to start traveling a lot more, having a magical communication item will be incredibly beneficial.
After all, if I had had this item earlier, Delia would never have been tricked and captured by the f*ckers of the Solus Temple.
Seeing the amount of things I was buying and my seemingly infinite money, Gerald advised me that, if I was interested in this type of event, I could hire someone to buy some of the things that would appear at the auction on other occasions, as long as those things fit my preferences and needs.
That way I could acquire new magic items, runes, and rare materials without having to be present at every auction.
I thought it was a great idea, so when the auction ends, Gerald will introduce me to an acquaintance of his who can take on the task.
After the household items section came the slave auction section.
Most of the slaves auctioned are people of semi-human races because, according to Gerald's explanation, the Ephire kingdom usually kidnaps people of non-human races to sell them as slaves.
When Gerald was explaining this to me, I surprisingly received a word through the link to Zariche: 'Hypocrites'.
But the word came with a cruel humor that somehow revealed to me the fact that the sword finds it funny that a kingdom that considers itself 'peaceful' is engaged in enslaving people.
After I asked him to be quiet in Gerald's store, I did not hear the sword's voice again, but from time to time I get brief glimpses of his consciousness.
In this case I do not share the sword's sentiment, but I do agree that forcing people into slavery is hypocritical on the part of the Ephire kingdom.
The fact that the enslaved semi-human people come from races that live in hidden tribes within the kingdom's own territory does not make them any less hypocritical, in my opinion.
There are also some human slaves, but the few humans being auctioned off are people who were once important. People who, after losing their economic power, had to become slaves to pay for their family's debts.
According to Gerald, those types of people usually come from the Sacred Kingdom or are related in some way to the Solus Temple, as are most of the human slaves in the kingdom.
This is because many people from all the kingdoms, in order to pay for the services of a high-level healer or a Saint who can heal a mortal wound or illness, choose to go far beyond their financial capabilities.
In a sense, these are people who have a past similar to Alessia's.
When Gerald revealed this information to me, I again got the vague feeling of cruel humor from the sword, but this time I did not perceive any words coming from it.
As I watched the slaves pass by the stage, I constantly felt the strong urge to buy them to free them from their possibly terrible fate.
But fortunately my more rational side was fully alert and I was able to resist those 'heroic' impulses coming from a more sentimental part of my mind.
Every time my left hand started to rise to bid on a group of enslaved children with various kinds of animal features, for which I logically speaking have no use, my right hand shot out to stop it.
Or, at least, that was until a certain female slave got up on the platform.
'I've got to buy that slave. I'm going to save that girl.'
Seeing her, the two parts of my mind finally agreed.