Akira searched for an open spot near the city wall and found one on the right side. He had his guards box off an area with their sleds allowing them to safely pitch their tents inside.
The large Gargs milling around in the cramped area acted as guards for their items as well as the people inside.
‘Why can’t I come inside?’ asked Grarr.
“You’re too big and there are too many people here for the auction. Even if there was no auction happening I don’t know if they would have allowed you to enter,” said Akira as he sorted out his items he would be taking with him into the city.
“When are we going to go trade?” asked Burkin.
“I don’t know how long I will be inside due to the large crowd. You can see what you can get done while I am in the city or you can wait and we can go together as soon as I get back from talking with governor Scoit,” said Akira. “Zundar, Burkin, Klyn, watch the three idiots and make sure they don’t corrupt Ferem.”
“We’ll make sure to keep him safe,” said Yib, as he and his two brothers all stood ramrod straight.
“You don’t need to worry about us! We would never bully our little 4th brother,” said Oib.
“Don’t go adding people to your group, especially not him!” said Akira. He gave each of the three brothers a quick bop on the head before leaving with his guards.
“Ow… what was that for? Didn’t he want us to watch over little 4th brother?” Asked Mib as he rubbed his head.
The line of humans, demon races, and even a few scattered Demigods waiting to get into the city was extremely long. This was due to the governor heightening the security due to the mega auction that would be held soon. Everyone who wanted to enter the city was questioned while their names and faces were checked with a wanted list compiled by the larger cities.
After an hour and a half of waiting, Akira was finally able to enter the city along with Dolph and Vilkas.
They Immediately headed towards the center of the city where the city governor’s house was. When they reached the small street that led to the house they found another large crowd of people clogging the area.
When Akira saw a city guard walking by he called him over.
“Is there a way to talk to the governor Scoit?” asked Akira.
“Get in line,” said the guard pointing to the large crowd. “And before you say that you are a lord or something, so are they. Just wait your turn and you will be able to see the governor eventually.”
Akira spent the rest of the morning and even into the early afternoon waiting outside just to talk to the governor. When he reached the front door of the governor’s house he looked behind and saw that it was just as crowded as when he had arrived in the morning with hundreds of people still waiting maybe even more than before.
“Who does he think he is,” complained a haughty female as she stormed out of the building with a male companion following behind her.
“Next!” shouted a guard from inside the house.
Akira and his two guards entered the building.
”What is your name and territory?” asked the guard stopping them from walking to the hallway that led to the governor’s office.
“He is Akira, lord of Kodria,” answered Dolph before Akira could.
The guard’s eyebrows raised as he inspected Akira before lazily waving him past where another two guards were waiting for them. Akira was led to the office by the guards at a quick pace.
“Akira, lord of Kodria, is to see you, governor,” shouted one of the guards in a formal manner as he opened the door.
“Akira you say? Ah yes, you’re that young werewolf that helped us clear the dungeon last winter. How are you? From the rumors I hear, you must be doing well with the large success of Kodria,” said a haggard and tired Scoit when he saw Akira enter the same messy office room that had not changed much other than getting messier.
“We are growing fast. There have been a few hiccups but we have taken care of them.”
“Please sit, who can I help you today. I will be frank with you, if you came to ask for favors towards the auction, or to get a list of the items, their prices, or the owners of the items, I can not do it no matter who you are,” said Scoit.
“No, I didn’t come here for the auction. I was surprised that something like this was happening. I came to talk about the trade deal between our two cities that you talked about with the grand elders last time,” said Akira.
“Ah… that I do really want to take care of that matter but that is not something we can take care of in a few minutes and as you could tell I am really busy today. I am swamped with greeting every noble big and small from every town and village in the surrounding area as well as those from far away.
There have even been a few Demigods that I had to talk to today. Can we do this after the auction has finished in a few days?” asked Scoit in a pleading manner. He wanted to work on the trade deal but was overwhelmed with work right now.
“I can wait a few days but I hope it doesn’t take forever as the situation south is quite tense. I only have one more question. Is there someone I can go to and in order to add items to the auction?” asked Akira.
“You can give them to me but they must be of a certain quality as this is not a normal low-end auction.”
“Do these match the quality you are looking for?” asked Akira as he started to take items out of his bag placing a bag of cut gems and a second one that had several [Cute Ice slime] stones.
Scoit’s eyebrows raised as he looked at the items inside the bags. He quickly scribbled some stuff on a piece of paper before putting the bags on a silver platter and motioning for one of the guards to carry it away.
“I will make sure that they are appraised and handled properly. Is there anything else I can help you with?”
“No that was all I needed. I will return the day after the auction has finished, to finalize our trade plans. Good luck with your work,” said Akira as he stood up.
“Just wait until your city becomes this big. Then you will understand the terror of paperwork,” said Scoit as Akira left the room.
***
It took Akira nearly a half hour just to exit the clogged city so he could walk back to the campsite where the others were waiting.
As they drew near he could hear the three idiot brothers talking loudly.
“That Akira guy really has gotten quite scary since we first met him,” said Yib.
“Right, right! Back then he was such a weak guy, I could smack him around with my pinky,” said Oib.
“If only he didn’t sneak up on us then we wouldn’t have lost,” said Mib.
“Do you want to try me now without me sneaking up on you?” asked Akira from right behind the three idiot brothers.
“AHHH!” the three idiot brothers all nearly jumped out of their skin in shock as they turned around to see a scarily grinning Akira who had a wolfish grin on his face.
‘What took you so long? It was so annoying having to listen to these three the whole time,’ said Grarr.
“The line to get into the city is no joke, and then there was a large crowd in front of the governor’s house as well,” said Akira.
“Did you take care of everything you needed to?” asked Klyn.
“No, we’ll have to wait a few days. Since it has tuned out like this I decided that we will also be attending the auction just to see what they have to offer,” said Akira.
***
The next day everyone including the three idiot brothers went into the city to take care of selling and buying the certain items they all needed.
With the large number of people that had gathered it was not hard to find a buyer for their items or find any of the items that they needed.
Akira made sure that Ferem properly spent the gold on the things his father had put on the list. When he had bought everything there was still a good chunk of gold leftover.
“You can save that for the auction and if there is something that you think will help you or your village use it then,” said Akira.
“Okay, I will do that big brother,” said Ferem, who had started to call Akira big brother after seeing how strong he was.
***
Day of the auction.
The large central market had been cleared of its usual wooden stalls and small tents and in their place, a massive tent was erected taking up the entire space of the large central market.
Inside of the massive tent were several hundred rows of wooden benches added in front of the raised stage where the items would be auctioned off.
Hanging from the tent’s ceiling were several chandeliers with burning magical fire lighting up the entire large tent. Akira did not know the cost but he guessed that It must have cost a small fortune to set up the Auction tent.
Akira was sitting in one of the several raised VIP boxes that overlooked the large growing crowd below him. He was only allowed to bring four guests into the VIP booth so he had picked Dolph, Vilkas, Klyn, and Zundar. Ferem and the rest of the guards had all found a spot somewhere nearby in the mass crowd.
Since his group had arrived at the VIP box ahead of the other groups that would be sharing it he was able to pick which seats he wanted to sit in. He chose to sit on the right side next to the VIP box’s wall.
“Look at the size of that guy, and that guy with the dark shiny armor next to him. I see, you must be Akira the young pup of that new werewolf city,” said a loud voice from behind as someone entered the VIP box.
An elderly dwarf with droopy eyebrows and a long gray beard appeared with three other Dwarves including Burkin.
“Are these seats taken?” asked the old dwarf as he stood next to the empty seats near Akira’s group.
“No, you can sit there if you like. May I know your name?” asked Akira.
“Names Drewpy. I’m Burkin’s uncle. You here for the auction’s big prize as well?” asked Drewpy, as he held out a dry and gnarled hand for Akira to shake.
“The big prize?” asked Akira as he shook the elderly dwarf’s hand which gripped his own with great strength.
“Uncle he came with me to do some trading, but with all that we have been doing, I forgot that the auction would be happening this week. He doesn’t know anything about it,” said Burkin.
“The Big prize is always the best and last item they auction off and it almost always makes the most money for them. So you need to save your money if you want it.
No one ever knows what it will be until they announce it on stage. There is always a risk of it being something that you can’t use making some wish they had spent their gold on other items. But if you waste all your gold on the smaller stuff and the big prize is something really special you will be cursing yourself for buying the small items,” said Drewpy.
“Ha you guys should just give up on buying the big mystery prize,” said an oily voice that was walking up the stairs into the VIP box.
Akira’s group along with the Dwarves looked to see a middle-aged man leading four others behind him. One of them happened to be Tormoid.
“Grand Elder,” was all Akira said in greeting as he nodded his head to him.
“Oh, you know Tormoid? I am grand elder Erock Nama of Crowmaw city. Looking at your age you must be that Akira I have heard so much about… You don’t seem like much,” said Erock as he walked over to the far left wall and sat in the front chair.
“What a surprise that we would all be put in the same VIP box,” said another voice from behind.
This time it was grand elder Dùghall who had arrived and was led by another Grand elder and three others who all chose to sit next to the dwarves.
“I’m Brod, grand elder of Bleur Shor city. I have heard a lot about you from grand elder Dùghall, I would like to talk with you later when you are free as I am sure we can both find benefit if we have a friendly relationship,” said grand elder Brod.
“Ha, your will just be bringing trouble on your head,” said Erock.
“Akira, I only heard of your grandfather’s death recently. I am sorry that I was unable to be there for his funeral,” said Dùghall.
“Ha, if he had not been so stubborn and listened to me he would still be alive,” said Tormoid.
“Thank you grand elder Dùghal. My grandfather believed in me and I believe I have not let him down with how fast Kodria has been growing. We will soon be building a great big 30-foot wall around the city,” said Akira.
“A waste of money and resources. You don’t need something like that I have none at my place and we are doing just fine,” said Erock.
“That may be fine for you. But I care for the people that live in Kodria and I do not wish any harm to come to them by any ill-meaning group of people or monsters who might wish to enter and cause problems.”
“Why did we get put in a box filled with a bunch of demon races?” asked a voice from behind.
“Ah that’s the guy who killed us!” said a familiar high-pitched voice.
“He also killed us!” said two others.
Akira looked to see Ineda Badth, Hary Mandtis, Etza Prap, Imma Prap, and one other person Akira had not seen before.
Everyone including Erock’s group had their hands on their weapons ready for a fight when they realized who the people were after they spoke those few words.
“Woah! What’s with the tense atmosphere here? We’re not here to fight we just want to bid on the items in the auction. I am sorry that my idiot friends offended you. I hope you still don’t have any hard feelings,” said the unknown man in a gentlemanly way as he gave Akira a bow.
“And you are?” asked Akira, not bothering to inspect him.
“Gen the gentleman at your service.”
Akira turned away from the demigod as he did not want to bother with them and also due to Gen’s face that made not only him but everyone else in the box want to punch it.
“Whatever as long as you don’t bother me I won’t bother you,” said Akira.
The others all slightly relaxed but did not take their eyes off of the demigods that had taken the leftover seats between the Erock and Brod’s groups.
Knock! Knock! A wooden hammer repeatedly slammed down onto another piece of wood echoing over the noisy crowd.
“The annual Jerora mega auction will begin now!” shouted the middle-aged male auctioneer.
