By now, I shouldn't be surprised that we arrived at the Sect by the dead of the night.
Sadly, there was hardly any other way to go around it. Unless we wanted to spend the entire night outside while taking shifts, wasting an entire day just for travel was regretfully necessary.
In the end, no matter how powerful I grew, it would be all for nothing if something came to eat me while I was asleep.
As such, I was already quite used to arriving late at the Sect... But it was a first for me to arrive in the middle of the night.
'Damned monsters,' I thought, recalling the one encounter during the journey that pushed our plans back.
A monster dared to attack the two of us right on the road.
Normally, things like this weren't supposed to happen... But whatever kept the monsters away from the road was ancient technology.
According to Lucius, it was some kind of massive, continent-encompassing formation that protected all the ancient roads. That's how the term of high-way developed, with a network of those connections serving even a thousand years after the conception of those roads.
I could hardly believe such a fancy explanation. But as my formation mastery was still a low-key secret from Lucius, I didn't bother arguing.
Because a formation that big?
It simply had no way of working!
Nevertheless, the monster that attacked us didn't seem to mind whether the road was some kind of ancient formation or just a place that monsters customary didn't attack.
It attacked us either way.
On its own, it was a pretty simple fight. I could deal with monsters far stronger all on my own. But doing so without the support of my class abilities?
'I guess that's how it feels to hide one's power,' I thought, quickly growing to despite this feeling.
Just because I didn't want to put myself in the center of attention, I had no other choice but to hold back far more than I would like!
'I can only hope it will be worth the effort in the future,' I encouraged myself before shaking my head to get rid of those memories.
"I will go and visit the auction hall first," I said, informing Lucius about my plans for the night.
"It's already so late," my overseer protested. "You will bother them now. Just get a good night of sleep and then go," he suggested.
"Don't worry," I replied, shaking my head. "They won't pay any mind to this kind of a small bother," I added before turning around and leaving.
I wasn't trying to act cool. It wasn't my intention to act high and mighty either.
I was painfully aware of my project's importance for the auction hall. And knowing what was necessary to truly make it going, I could tell that the boss of the auction hall would let some random stranger fuck her if only that could speed up the process!
Moving through the silent roads of the city, I couldn't help but get melancholic.
Now that everyone was asleep, this place looked pretty similar to the hometown I was brought up in.
I could see the similarities in the smallest things possible. The cobblestone road, the bricked buildings enclosing it from both sides...
Only when I actually arrived at the grandeur building of the auction hall did I get rid of that feeling.
"Arthur!" Just as I expected, the boss of the place came running the second I appeared in the doorway. "How did it go?" she asked, fixing her unkempt attire.
From just a single look at the woman, I could tell that my arrival forced her out of bed.
Right now, only the courtesy and feelings I had for Mia stopped me from openly ogling the parts that the woman's night robe didn't really cover.
"Pretty well," I muttered while moving my eyes away. Next, I had a pretty awkward moment when the boss not only realized just how she appeared but saw me digging my hand deep into my pants.
"Excuse me," she muttered, blushing as she moved her face away.
"This is the only place where I can keep my rings hidden," I explained with a deep sigh before throwing the ring back to the woman. "I'm sorry for how unhygienic it is, but I believe it's better than just slamming all the bones here on the floor," I added.
The woman reluctantly took the ring into her hand before rubbing the bottom of her thumb against the ring's crystal.
For a moment, her eyes dimmed as if she was looking at something that I couldn't perceive. And then, her face returned to its normal self, only to freeze in a shock.
"You really did pull your weight," she muttered, no longer giving a single fuck about where did I keep the storage ring before. "I will go bring the resources to the factory right away!" the woman informed, putting two fingers into her mouth before letting out a loud whistle.
Its sharp, prolonged sound cut sharply into the silence of the night.
But it worked.
Before I could as much as clear my throat, an attendant appeared and reported to the woman.
"Bring this ring to Natan and Yvvy," the boss ordered before turning her face back to me. "Now then, do you have anything else?" she asked, joy written all over her face.
'So I guess I wasn't mistaken when judging the dislike between the sect and the Auction Hall,' I thought to myself, letting out a small, mysterious smile.
"First, I would like to ask some questions about the contract," I said before glancing over the near entrance to the corridor. "But would you mind if we took a seat somewhere?" I asked before putting on an uneasy smile.
"I just finished a pretty long and boring journey. Surely, you won't refuse a rest for my tired legs!"
"Come on in," the boss laughed out as she fixed her robes again.. Yet, this time, there wasn't even a single hint of shame on her face. "Seeing how you ask about the contract, I can't help but think this will be quite an interesting discussion!"
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