Asmodeus held the bidding button, his eyes narrowed into slits, burning with enough anger that they almost set ablaze. He wanted to praise his wife, to kiss them all over and over after seeing this situation.
'I am foolish.'
He'd only planned to bring 10,000-20,000 credits at most.
Yet when Serena and Lumina learned of this, they spoke with Alice, who also scolded him, and before he knew it, the three won piled gold, gems, and other tradeable goods into his hands. Thanks to that, the total amount of imperial credits reached over twenty tis his planned expenditure.
The night before he left, Velvet shyly left a sack of bills totalling 100,000 credits.
'Can I be like this, saving them all?'
He glanced at the other elves, realising that his plans and plot for the evening might have been too naïve in his thoughts. Asmodeus didn't consider himself a genius; he was just a normal 25-year-old with a bit of strength.
This event taught him just how much he relied on Alice, Velvet, Serena and Ciela, who dealt with politics and other important sectors.
Heck, even Brando's importance suddenly grew even bigger in his heart.
'Could I run a rchant guild and survive?'
'Could I make it grow so large in three years, despite the dislike and racism towards monsters?'
But Brando did, he changed his life, beca a man able to protect and fight alongside his beloved wife Marth.
That's why Asmodeus ca to save them!
.
.
.
"Phew..."
Not long after he made his choice, all the elves on the stage beca his property, costing him almost 100,000 credits. All because they revealed that the eldest daughter was a virgin, which raised her price to 50,000 alone.
"Oh my goodness~ look at the high roller in VIP booth AB-1!"
"Now, now, handso, please leave so prey for the others, or else what will we do with negative reviews? Hehe~"
The issue with these seductive auctioneers was the lack of emotion and humanity. Asmodeus couldn't help but feel their minds lacked anything but acting seductive and selling items.
"Forget it~ the next item is another great artefact found in the depths of the desert!"
This ti Funf stepped forward with a completely new dress and hairstyle.
'How and when did she change?!'
Asmodeus tried to keep his focus on Funf, knowing that if sothing were to happen, it would be because of her. She wasn't normal. An Arbiter wasn't an enemy he could face without going all out, not to ntion the aura of Grundig lingered to his right.
'But that's fine...'
Unlike before, his divine aura amassed into a dense sphere, hidden and able to resist the suction force of the existence beneath them. Thanks to this, Asmodeus knew his enemy wasn't so kind of all-seeing, all-knowing god.
"Now then, for those who ca looking for item number three! Please~ prepare your coins!"
"A once forgotten trinket with unmatched beauty!"
"The gift granted to the most beautiful empress of an ancient empire that ruled the northern territories before the empire ca to exist!"
A low hum spread through the crowd.
Even Asmodeus knew it was against the law and taboo to ntion the eras before the empire, because this vain little human empire liked to paint their current emperor as a god, and that their kingdom was the beginning.
It reminded Asmodeus of a religion from the Middle East in his old world, one of the youngest, yet they all claid to be the one true religion.
'Foolish people.'
He thought of the emperor sitting on his throne, claiming to be a god.
But then Asmodeus realised he might also be the sa, yet he hadn't claid to be a god; just being known as the Demon Emperor was enough. A sha he didn't know about the propaganda and work of his beloved wives.
"This beautiful gemstone, gifted to the most beautiful empress, all to gain her love, but the tragedy, oh the tragedy!?"
Finally, the three other auctioneers vanished into the darkness; each ti they spoke, the lights shone upon them. In contrast, Funf enjoyed the light, no matter what. But this ti she showed up wearing a beautiful crown, the gemstones bright, blood rubies with small diamonds across the platinum.
When worn by soone with inhumane beauty like Funf, most of the n in the crowd imdiately started pressing their buzzers.
Asmodeus also felt a sudden twinge in his chest, a desire to take it all.
To make the crown and this cheeky Arbiter beco his.
But he stopped.
Because Funf began to dance, slowly twisting and bending her hips while telling a story, with a forlorn expression.
"The Empress wasn't short of courters, n from all over the lands sought her affection, but alas! She held only a single man in her heart." Funf's eyes t Asmodeus's for a mont before she pulled away with a twist. "The man who spent half his life creating this trinket, could he accept such a response?!"
A lody of instrunts ca from the main stage, while the choir that sang during the intermission also joined in.
The song carried a forlorn mood, but the strings and percussion built slowly, like the man's jealousy, anger and intense desire for revenge.
"In a mont of rage, the man decided to punish the empress, his heart like a dry prune, lost in a quagmire of drunken jealousy, he placed a curse on the beautiful crown!"
Asmodeus couldn't help but wonder what kind of life Funf lived.
After he fought her and won, small images of a little songstress who worked at an opera flowed into his mind. The modest, but beautiful redhead entered a world of darkness as the images faded.
"He whispered, "Since I cannot have you, then nobody can!" Without waiting for the morning to co, he mixed the mysterious objects and cut his palm, bleeding onto the beautiful blood-red rubies."
The crowd beca entranced by the story, and the image of Funf, who played the Empress, and another auctioneer who seed to be the man.
'What did the curse do, though?'
He didn't know about the past of this world, especially the mainland.
"The curse, cruel and unrelenting, stole the empress's future!"
Asmodeus watched Funf vomit blood as she knelt with trembling arms placed against the floor, and although he knew it was acting, sohow it struck a chord in his heart.
The appearance of Funf beca desolate, her pretty face filled with wrinkles, her eyes lost their bright and vibrant light, and the entire stage almost felt like a barren desert without water, sunlight or even emotion.
Funf finally finished, but remained on her knees, eyes locked on Asmodeus as silvery gold blood dripped from her nose, different from the fake blood she vomited.
'She's really dying?!'
He should be over the moon, but wasn't.
Her desolate figure overlapped with her mother's, the final months when the curse started to eat away at her, despite accepting the facts. He couldn't help but lose himself for a mont, banging on the crystal and shouting her na.
"Funf!?"
.
.
.
Sothing strange occurred during the planned act.
Funf's body beca heavy, as she felt sothing akin to blades slicing her insides the mont she placed the crown on her head. At first, the blood pack in her mouth popped, but suddenly the tangy taste started turning sweet.
That's when her nose tingled, and the pain grew further.
'What's happening?'
She tried to wipe her nose, only to find the silvery-gold blood coating her white silk gloves.
"Eh?"
Her arms dropped, powerless as she glanced at the flashing VIP seats hovering around her; they glanced at her with perverse, obsessive glares. None of the n could endure her illusion and charms; most of them were willing to bet most of their fortunes to buy even the most useless trinket.
Then she saw his face again.
That man who sprouted nostalgic feelings she'd once abandoned.
"Funf!?"
He called her na, his eyes clear without a trace of her control, yet his brows furrowed, and he scrunched his face as if in pain.
'Ah, what is this?'
From the mont she lost to Asmodeus, she'd lost the right to return to the divine palace, and she started playing in nostalgic places from her past.
'I thought I wanted to kill him for sure...'
Yet, when she saw him, looked into his eyes and realised his emotions and actions were all genuine, it stirred her cold, dead heart.
Ba-Dump!
Ba-Dump!
That's when the crown upon her head trembled slightly and activated the curse. It devoured her energy and used it to create sharp, twisted blades invisible to the eye, designed to tear her apart.
Blood poured across the stage as they sliced and tore her flesh, ripped and destroyed her insides without rcy.
'Ah, the man's curse was because of his jealousy towards the Empress who held another in her heart...'
Funf tried to speak, the irony of this tragic love story.
"The man she loved was a young, dirty craftsman from the south. A man she t before becoming an empress, a princess who knew nothing of the world. Their ti together short... she could only tell him her favourite jewels."
Asmodeus watched her and listened to each word.
That's all she wanted; now she realised the curse of this crown was cruel and foolish.
Sadly, the Empress who activated the curse by mistake, for the mont she noticed the man's arm, a certain scar which she caused.
A scar in the shape of a serpent.
The sa shape and form he'd lted and ford the platinum into.
However, as she tried to call out to the young man, unlike Funf an Arbiter, the Empress was but human with a small amount of siren's blood.
Thus, as she called his na one last ti.
The man turned around with wide eyes, only to see the woman he loved torn apart and realised everything.
He was the man she loved.
Her love for him activated the curse!
Imdiately after she finished the story, the three other auctioneers took the crown from the wounded Funf's head.
The curse instantly dissipated.
However, Funf's eyes remained locked on Asmodeus.
Her heart filled with a question.
'Why, why, why did the crown activate?!'
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