“Your minions are quite unique, aren’t they?”
Casually keeping my distance from Balutak.
If even Roseha, who breathes innuendos like it’s air, is taken aback, that says it all.
Roseha briefly locked eyes with me before casting her gaze away.
Babayaga flinched at that glance.
“Are you satisfied?”
Still not over the anger even after having his eye pulled out, huh?
I silently stared at him before turning my body towards Babayaga.
As I approached, Babayaga trembled and lowered his head.
“I apologize for my rudeness.”
“No need for empty apologies.”
Wham! I snatched Babayaga’s staff.
“I’ll take this as a token of your apology.”
“Ah….”
This way, Roseha’s anger would be appeased, and I’d get something valuable too.
It’s a win-win situation, isn’t it?
An A-rank item isn’t the best, but the successful enhancement was a big deal.
In the game, A-rank (+1 enhancement) was considered close to S-rank.
Since both Charlotte and Estizel are mages, I planned to gift it to one of them.
Preferably to Estizel.
Considering Charlotte’s potential to hit level 90 someday, she deserves an S-rank or better.
When I returned, Roseha was smiling contentedly.
“A boss who thinks about their subordinates?”
She seemed to have caught onto my true intentions.
In a way, it makes sense; I am a Death Knight after all, so it’s a rather obvious guess.
“I’d like to stay with you a bit longer… but I should head to the round table soon. If I join in, everyone gets awkward in various ways. It’s just how it is.”
“Let’s meet again at the round table.”
“Okay. Let’s do that.”
No sooner had I finished speaking than Roseha dove into my embrace.
She wrapped her arms around me for a deep hug before finally letting go.
“I’ll see you later!”
With a light wave, she started heading down to the basement, flanked closely by Drabule and Carleon.
As I watched her retreating figure, I let out a slight sigh.
Thanks to Roseha, the tangled situation unraveled in an instant.
The Babayaga faction, which had been so irritating, could no longer meet my gaze.
Seeing them lower their eyes and back off felt refreshing.
“Ahem, my lords?”
The devil in a neatly tailored suit, who had been keeping his distance, cleared his throat loudly.
“Although there have been some unexpected issues, the preparations for the auction are complete as scheduled. Please follow me to the second floor.”
We proceeded to the second floor under the devil’s lead.
While going up, Estizel was quite a sight.
She seemed to have lost her strength in her legs and struggled to climb even a single step.
‘Can’t blame her.’
She was at the center of the conflict among lords ranked 8, 7, and 6.
Just being able to stand is fortunate. If she suddenly fainted, I wouldn’t even be surprised.
“Balutak. Help her out.”
“Got it.”
“Th-Thank you….”
The second-floor auction hall had no designated seats and was set up for free seating.
No lords came near us as we sat down.
Roseha’s Crimson Moon faction kept their distance, which I could understand.
Instead of becoming friendly, the recent confrontation probably widened the gap further.
“I’m sorry.”
Charlotte suddenly spoke up.
Why is she saying sorry out of the blue? As I looked at her with confusion, she seemed to hesitate, her words trailing off.
“I wasn’t able to help at all this time.”
So, was it something that happened on the first floor?
I had kept it bottled up, and from my perspective, it was like, why bother?
‘Isn’t there really nothing to apologize for?’
No matter how much a deputy of The Seven Lairs, Babayaga was still ranked 8th.
There wasn’t much Charlotte could do against him.
At least from my view, her response at that time was the best choice.
She didn’t back down in fear and responded appropriately.
“You did well enough. If you had gone further, it would have only gotten worse.”
“…Thank you for your words.”
In fact, it should have been me who felt sorry.
After all, the boss didn’t say a word until Roseha arrived. If we’re being precise, that was a disqualification for the boss.
“However, I didn’t know you were waiting for the queen. You kept silent, which surprised me… you were just waiting for the right moment.”
“….”
“I always realize things way too late. I guess that means there’s still a long way to go. But this incident has been a major wake-up call.”
I held back my words since she was managing her own misunderstandings.
Anyway, this event raised a lot of awareness.
It’s undeniable that I had benefited a lot from strengthening techniques up to now.
Unknowingly, I had come to depend on strengthening techniques, which meant that I was relying on luck for all the problems at hand.
The Holy Sword was just a unique case of binding.
In essence, the Holy Sword was a qualification item, and the superior version of ‘qualification’ was ‘binding.’
The idea was that binding was the enhanced version of qualification.
Qualification, for example, was like Thor’s Mjölnir. As long as the conditions were met, even a Blue Skull could use it; it was an item with a lot of potential for betrayal.
But binding is different.
As long as the binder doesn’t die, they follow the binder for life.
At first glance, an EX-grade binding item seems like the strongest item in the world, but it’s not that simple.
Relic 5-star.
Also known as holy relics, there are five of them according to the setting.
Holy relics are the ultimate items in the world.
However, only two have revealed themselves. One is held by the 2nd ranked, and the other is housed in the Imperial Cathedral.
The remaining three are just like Old One, full of speculation.
With my weak Divine Force, having just one holy relic would be enough to cover me.
I wondered if holy relics would pop up at auction like in a web novel hidden piece, but after checking with the strengthening techniques, I only saw items below grade A.
I dropped the stick made of petrified wood I had in hand.
…Thinking about holy relics made this look so pathetic.
It was an utterly useless item for me.
It felt weird to keep holding onto it, so I passed it aside.
“Estizel.”
“Huh?”
“Take this.”
Estizel, who had turned away, was shocked.
I forced it into her hand to avoid the frustrating back-and-forth.
“Why are you giving this to me…?”
“It’s the perfect wand for you. Use it well.”
She fumbled and mumbled after that, but I ignored her.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Charlotte sneak a glance at me pretending not to.
Is she asking for one too?
I had been keeping an eye out just in case a good item came up at auction to give to Charlotte or Balutak.
But there really wasn’t anything valuable.
“I’ll give you a better gift later.”
“…Huh?”
“You’ve been looking over this way too often, haven’t you?”
You want it too, don’t you? With that implication, Charlotte quickly shook her head.
“That’s not it. Absolutely not.”
“Then why were you looking?”
“….”
She hesitated in an uncharacteristic manner before finally bowing her head low.
I noticed her level had turned bright pink.
Hmm. So she was just looking out of fondness, huh?
She seemed too embarrassed to lift her head.
*
“The auction will conclude here! A heartfelt thanks to all the lords who attended!”
The auction was short and brisk, lasting about an hour.
Since the purpose of the gathering was a banquet and a round table discussion, the auction was merely an auxiliary event.
After the auction, the merchant guild officer guiding everyone to the lower floor spoke up.
“I must inform you in advance. Currently, there are five Lords of the Seven Lairs present at the round table.”
They say the Seven Lairs will welcome you the moment you step through the door. Is there a more spine-chilling announcement than that?
But if there are five, one must be me, and the other one is obviously…
“Is the Old One not coming?”
“Instead, his deputy will attend in his place. He hasn’t arrived yet, though.”
As expected.
For reference, I had never seen the Old One, let alone his deputy, in the game.
Dealing with them might be even tougher than facing the bosses of the Seven Lairs.
The deputy, ranked first, likely holds as much speaking power as the other Lair bosses, and since I know nothing about him, I have no idea how things will unfold at the meeting.
“Originally, the deputy was not supposed to attend. This will be his second appearance since the first meeting. They must be interested in the new Lord of the Seven Lairs, don’t you think?”
It could be that the Old One is the one interested. Either way, it didn’t feel pleasant.
In a world where the strongest power was all hype and no substance, I felt overwhelmed to the point of fear.
“O Lair of the Seven, please wait a moment.”
Just before heading downstairs, a demon officer blocking my path stood firmly.
Then he whispered something to the beastman officer beside me.
In the end, the beastman officer bowed and led the other lords to the conference room.
Only three of us, including Charlotte, Balutak, and me, were left standing awkwardly.
Feeling even more pressured, I could feel myself shrinking.
Why is this happening only to me?
Sensing my inner thoughts, the demon officer finally spoke.
“You will be the last to enter, my Lord.”
“…Why?”
“There was a special request from Queen Roseha. The Lord in the seventh rank was to enter last, to be set apart.”
I couldn’t believe my ears.
I knew the reason for resuming the meeting, but would it really come to this?
Is it a rule that the protagonist must appear last or something?
If I walked in alone, all eyes would inevitably be on me.
At this point, it felt less like a special seating arrangement and more like a concerted effort to make me the odd one out.
“Please wait a moment.”
“….”
Reluctantly, I stood there like a nail stuck in wood.
Charlotte appeared to share my sentiments, frozen with a straight face.
The only one remaining calm and scratching his head was Balutak.
Gugugugu─
With a grand echo, the stone gate opened from the other side.
With a grand rumble, the stone gate swung open.
As the 72 Lords stepped inside, the stone gate creaked shut once more.
Despite that, the entry permission didn’t drop afterwards.
It seemed they were anticipating everyone’s arrival until the Lords were seated.
While it was a bit awkward to be the center of attention, on the flip side, it gave me more time to prepare mentally.
Let’s face the reality that’s about to hit us.
I would have to stand shoulder to shoulder with the 2nd to 6th Lords of the Seven Lairs.
The pressure was immense, but I was primarily concerned about the clairvoyance of the Seven Lairs.
‘If that’s the case, all my cards might be laid bare.’
The Lords of the Seven Lairs, aside from their individual strengths, each possessed a special clairvoyant talent.
Here, clairvoyance meant the ability to see through the inner workings of a target.
Roseha reads the sexual desires of living beings, while Calandas reads their souls.
Additionally, the 4th-ranked Lord perceives greed, the 3rd discerns truth from lies, and the 2nd comprehends fear in living beings.
Among these, the only ability that applies to me is the 3rd-ranked scrutiny of truth and lies.
The rest only works on living beings. It wouldn’t apply to me, the already-dead undead.
Calandas’ soul reading looks at the quality of a soul, but not for the undead.
In this world, the souls of the undead were all the same. They are all dead souls.
The ‘quality’ of the soul he perceives only penetrates the souls of living beings.
To put it bluntly, the soul of the Bond Dragon he sees and my soul would look identical.
I had a fleeting question: Am I different somehow?
The body is undead, but maybe my possessing spirit is still alive.
If that’s true, Calandas would raise an eyebrow at me.
“Hey? This guy is dead, but why is his soul alive?”
That was merely a curiosity, and I doubted he’d feel anything beyond that.
Sure, he might interpret it differently, but it didn’t seem worth worrying about.
‘The problem is discerning lies.’
The 3rd-ranked clairvoyance.
It can discern truth from lies a total of three times concerning a target.
What if they outright questioned me, doubting, “Are you really the 7th-ranked of the Seven Lairs?”
What would I do? What else but just keep quiet.
The essential condition for lie detection is dialogue. If I don’t respond, it wouldn’t activate.
Sometimes silence helps set a tone, and this time it would serve as the groundwork as well.
If I kept silent and questions came my way, I could just brush them off nonchalantly.
Instead of having others question me, they might think, “Oh, that’s just how he is.”
Just then, the Calandas and Roseha knew the silent and serious 7th-ranked of the Seven Lairs.
I had already laid the groundwork meticulously. It was now all about how to conduct myself.
“Thank you for waiting. Now, you may enter.”
At the end of my musings, the Demon Merchant gestured.
Following behind him, I tried to calm my swirling emotions.
Thanks to the time bought, I had sorted my thoughts and readiness.
Eventually, our steps halted, and we arrived at the stone door.
The two officials on either side nodded and pushed the door open.
Creeeeak—
With a rumble, the ground shook slightly.
The vibrations started from my feet, reverberating through my entire body.
From here on, it’s all up to me. So let’s just keep my act together.
With a resolution I had fortified hundreds of times, I took a step into the meeting chamber.
