"Apparently, in the heat of bidding, I didn't realise that I offered a higher price tag than the amount that I have currently on me. I can only ask for forgiveness. As soon as I will reach my home, I will get the money from my treasury and bring it to pay the required amount."

While in any other situation, this would be a viable solution to the embarrassment that I forced this man into, I didn't rack my brains how to corner him, only to let him off so easily now!

"I'm sorry, but your previous attitude of threatening us and clearly disrespecting behaviour forces my hand here. If it was just between us, I wouldn't mind it as I'm rather kind even to strangers, but since you indirectly insulted my employer, I can't give you this credit of trust. Hence, I think the only viable way to settle your debt will be… Vindication!"

As soon as I said the last word, the entire area turned completely silent. No matter how one hated the other, vindication was something that remained only in tradition, not real use!

"Hold your horses!"

Before everything, I could already hear Venna's voice coming from the communication jade that she offered me for the case of some critical situation. Who could've thought that she would end up using it to hold my advances!

"If he really is a Katenari or Draconic elder or servant, this will spring up city-wide war!"

Like, isn't this something that I was aiming from the very beginning? Only in the flames of global conflict would the relatively small feud between my fiancee and her own family go unnoticed! After all, even if Venna scouted me up and invited to her heavenly sect, she couldn't speak for the sect masters of hers!

"Oh boy, do you hold some kind of grudge with me? Are you sure you can shoulder the consequences of your actions?"

Turning around to face me, the old man bore a dignified look on his face this time. As if his previous demeanour was just an act, there was not even a hint of former anger or annoyance, all replaced by a calm and composed expression.

"How twisted Sir's logic is to put me as the oppressor here? It wasn't me who came here, forced his bid on the auction only to start arguing later and refuse to pay the prize I offered myself! In which way am I responsible for the occurrence of this situation? Unless you find someone who is willing to back you up right here, I don't see any other way to settle this problem quickly. As you might've noticed, other esteemed guests would like to go back to the bidding!"

"Heavenly Sword Sect will shoulder the debt!"

Out of nowhere, Venna appeared at the entrance of the open space in which the stage and seats were located. Heavily breathing with the beads of sweat falling down her face, it was obvious that she overexerted herself while rushing downstairs.

"Going as far as enacting Vindication law would only hinder other customers. As such, my Heavenly Sword Sect is willing to shoulder the debt of this old man!"

Fuck! What does she think she is doing? I know she is playing exclusively for the sake of her sect, but this one action of hers rendered all my efforts to corner this guy, pointless! Not only could he leave the place now without any further trouble, this would calm the relations between the two major powers down quite a bit while pushing all the blame for the situation on me!

I guess I will have to reevaluate how tight relationship with the sect would be most suited for my interests!

"Since that's the case, let's go back to the auction. Like before, the starting bid will be five hundred arena coins!"

With my attention focused now on the auction, I still made sure to focus on everything that this old man did. After all, the first few bids would be worthless after all. Looking at the old man, I could see how he bowed slightly to the Venna, before turning around to send me a long stare.

Be it intuition or just the social awareness, the bids while appearing, were slow enough to allow me to have a gaze standoff with this man. In the end, with a devious smile appearing on his lips, he left the place with his new beast under his arm. Even if I was tempted to send a small shockwave his way, in the end, I decided to hold myself back. If anything happened to him right now, I would be the first suspect on the list. While that in itself wouldn't be a big problem, it would force more attention on me, possibly revealing one of my spells to the public. While I only had three of then on hand, losing the hold of even a single one would be a huge hit to my fighting prowess!

"Two thousand!"

"Two fifty!"

"Three thousand!"

Even if I didn't announce the minimal incrementation of the price, the people in this place still decided to use the starting price to base on. In the end, there was no point raising the price by ten or a hundred of a arena coins while we were still at such a low price tag.

As the bids started to increase at a normal pace after the old man left and Venna came back to her lodging, my mind was operating on its maximum speed. Should I switch my allegiances? If Venna decided to go against me now, there would be no surprise if she didn't bother to shield me from any backslash of my actions when I would leave the city and advanced to the sect directly.

Since that was the case, should I favour one of the other powers to gain enough favours with them as to secure two spots in their sects? But without any prior agreement, it would be insanely hard to do! To add the insult to the injury, while the big sects of this place were all interesting, only Naturals could offer me a shield against the wrath of the Katenaris. While I was attracted to Heavenly Sect due to their enmity towards the Dracons that were a military arm of the Katenaris in the city, maybe changing my focus to the only neutral major sect was the key to avoid the wrath of my enemies after I would humiliate my cousin that already affiliated himself with dracons?

While those thoughts lingered in my head, the amount of what I could do to manipulate the auction was severely limited. Outside of deciding who would be eligible to join the after-party that I prepared, I could only change the pacing of confirming a bid.

Let's see how the situation will develop from this point onwards.

"Five thousand five hundred, once, twice and sold!"