Day of the auctioning of Dual Elemental Orb,

Masses of people were traveling to the capital in order to purchase the miraculous orb. The idea of an orb with two or more elements was a hot topic discussed ever since scientists found a way to use the orbs. But after a few decades, no one had anything to show for.

Now that one really appeared, everyone was excited for this was the mark of a new age. Because if there was one, there would be more for sure. But today wasn’t their day. Today was for the rich family to enter the Shin Warehouse.

Miles too was invited by his family and would be there, of course. He was avoiding any hunting trips because he couldn’t afford to miss this day. As one of the most influential families, Cross was invited and Miles was part of it.

Even if Merlin hadn't explicitly invited him, he would go there to see for himself. Hell, even if the Cross family wanted to stop him from entering, with Mae being his close friend, he would be able to enter. Today, he was ready to drop all of his pride if necessary, because it was too important for his future.

Miles wore a simple tuxedo. It wasn’t that expensive. He couldn’t afford a good one, and he couldn’t afford to buy either, so he rented the suit. But with his muscular well-built body, even a cheap tuxedo was good on him and brought out his shape. As he was getting ready, knocking on the door took him out of his thoughts. He walked to the door and looked from the peephole to see Merlin waving. He opened the door and saw his elder brother's handsome and dashing figure in an expensive-looking tuxedo.

“Merlin? Why are you here?” Miles asked, surprised. Merlin was holding a suitcase in his hand.

“You are not going to invite me in?” Merlin asked without waiting for Miles's answer and walked in with the suitcase. He looked at Miles's suit with disdain and asked, “Are you going to wear this rubbish tonight?”

Miles took no offense in his brother's theatrics, and asked, “Have you met with the most handsome man with little to no money to spend at all?” without waiting for Merlin to answer he pointed to his face with his two thumbs and said, “Miles Cross, at your service.”

“Shameless prick!” Merlin exclaimed dramatically, “How dare you call yourself most handsome while you are in the same room with me?”

“Hmph, slender body with almost no muscle at all. Please, you are not half as handsome as me.” Miles folded his arms on his chest as he boasted.

“Below the belt brother, way below the belt! You dare to tease your elder brother with his lack of muscles, while you are one giant muscle head. Dare to fight?” Merlin smirked as lightning chirped in his open palm. Cold sweat ran down Miles back as he looked at the lightning. It looked deadly.

“I surrender!” Miles accepted immediately. What a joke. Fighting against this monster was lethal. ‘Phew, luckily we were just joking. Just the idea of finding myself against Merlin gives me creeps.’

“Hmph, you still have some brain between those muscles it seems.” Merlin triumphantly said before pointing at the suitcase. “Seriously though, you cannot wear that cheap linen tonight. Not because of anything else but you are a Cross. We have to show our class to others. Or they will mock us.”

“Since when do we care about people mocking us?” Miles asked. Neither he nor Merlin ever cared what others thought. He wasn’t so sure about Merlin before, but the last trip to save a bunch of abducted children showed that Merlin was like him. He wasn’t acting like a hero because he wanted to prove his worth to the world, he was doing it because he wanted to.

“I don’t but grandpa does.” Merlin sighed and started to explain, “Lately other families are putting a lot of pressure on us. They are trying to reduce our influence in the army and Unity. And you know how simple-minded people are. They are easy to sway, so any misdemeanor will give other families leverage to pressure us more. Grandpa is hellbent on putting our best in this auction.”

“Is grandpa confident to buy the orb? Can we compare with rich families?” Miles asked. He felt a little bit guilty because instead of gifting the orb to his family, he was selling it. And at this point, it wasn’t certain if they could purchase it or not.

“He is. Don’t worry. Although Lemaze is the richest, we have a few things that can be exchanged while they only have brands. Also, no one in the right mind would spend a fortune on that thing. Although rare, it is just the lowest tier orb. Its maximum price shouldn’t exceed a few hundred million.” Merlin’s lackadaisical answer awakened Miles from his dreams.

‘Yeah, what the hell I was thinking. One of the kind it may be, but the lowest tier orb can’t sell for record prices. Also with the appearance of that orb, more will certainly follow.’

“You are right.” Miles sighed in relief. He was feeling guilty because he thought his mother would spend fortunes to buy the orbs and it would create a bad image. But now that he realized he was just exaggerating the worth of the orb, he sighed in relief.

‘A dagger orb with the lowest tier can only sell for a 100k UD to 300k, and this dual elemental orb can only reach a billion UD if I am lucky. It is nothing to those families.’ Miles sighed helplessly. ‘With that much money, I can barely buy the things I want.’