At last, the day of the auction had arrived. Since we were heading to the auction venue, Nir was left behind again today. He looked extremely dissatisfied, but when I told him I’d bring back some meat as a souvenir, he quieted down. He might have just been hungry, so I made sure to tell the maid that he would eat enough for five people.

We made our way to the main hall of the theater where the auction was being held and presented the admission passes we received yesterday to the security guards.

“Ah, sir, it seems you haven’t undergone cash verification yet. Please take care of that first.”

“Cash verification?”

Apparently, participants had to inform the auction organizers of their available cash. This was to prevent situations where someone won a bid but couldn’t pay.

Thus, we were taken to a separate room where our cash was counted.

Both of us had cash stored in our respective dimensional storage boxes, but we had no idea how much we actually had in total. As we kept pulling out cash from our boxes, the staff's eyes went wide with shock. Counting was easy since all we had to do was feed the coins into a magical counting device, but because we had a lot of small denominations, it took some time.

“It’s 2.1 billion flons.”

“Oh, we had that much in cash?”

We had sold various things through the Rashiyu Trading Company, including the Great Dragon.

“If something interesting comes up, maybe we should bid on it.”

“Sounds good. Money needs to circulate for the economy to thrive.”

After receiving a brief explanation on how bidding worked, we were finally ready and entered the grand hall serving as the auction venue. Inside, about half of the seats were already occupied. If the hall were full, it would probably hold around a thousand people.

Following the seat numbers printed on our admission passes, we found that Fleur was already seated next to our assigned spots. After exchanging greetings, we sat down as well.

“Did you make sure to bring enough cash?”

“Yes, we had it properly verified.”

“Then there shouldn’t be any issues. The auction only accepts cash payments.”

As we chatted with Fleur, the hall gradually filled up, nearing full capacity.

It seemed the auction was about to start, as the entrance doors were closed, and the hall dimmed.

A spotlight illuminated the stage, and a sharply dressed man in a black butler-like suit appeared from the side.

“Thank you all for gathering here today. Since I can see you're all eager to begin, I’ll skip unnecessary formalities and get right to it!”

The audience erupted into cheers and applause.

“Now, for our first item.”

A woman in a highly revealing outfit wheeled out a cart from the back of the stage. Sitting on top of it was a rugged-looking knife, accompanied by its sheath.

“This is a masterpiece by the renowned artisan Lushiel, a knife made from Taur Steel.”

At the announcer’s words, murmurs spread throughout the hall. Yeah, I had no idea how impressive that was. Since it was the first item, I decided to just observe for now. I figured there would be plenty more weapons coming up.

“The starting bid is 100,000 flons!”

The morning session of the first day of the Gold Section ended without much incident. The minimum bid price gradually increased, but so far, no item had exceeded a million flons.

“This is just how it is at the beginning.”

Seeing our slightly disappointed expressions, Fleur gave a wry smile.

“The real auction starts on the second day.”

“I see.”

Apparently, the first day was mainly for slightly rare items. However, since these were the only items within reach for the average person, the first day also had the highest attendance.

“Still, there were a few things that caught my eye.”

There hadn’t been any magic tools in this price range. Most of the items were either experimental pieces created by artisans or things that were somewhat rare but not exactly legendary.

They were the kind of items that made you think, “Oh, that looks nice!” but if you asked yourself if you’d actually use them regularly, you’d hesitate to answer.

“If there’s something you like, you should bid on it. There’s no limit to how many items you can win.”

“I see… If something catches my eye, I’ll try bidding next time.”

Even though we had been given instructions on how to bid, there were probably things we wouldn’t understand until we actually tried. It would be a waste to hesitate when something we truly wanted appeared.

After lunch and a short break, we returned to the hall with Fleur. Now, the afternoon session was about to begin.

“Now, our next item!”

It was nearing the end of the afternoon session.

A small object was wheeled out on a cart. It was about a centimeter thick, with a height of fifteen centimeters and a width of around seven or eight centimeters. It looked just like a smartphone.

“This item was brought in by an adventurer. Let’s see… The Second Magic Research Institute attempted to analyze it but found it to be completely unidentifiable. No information about its function could be determined!”

“What the hell is that…”

“Hehe, but don’t worry. Every item in this auction has been appraised.”

Ah, so at least they could determine its name? Considering how there was a mysterious tower in the Fenrir Woods, it wouldn’t be surprising for strange artifacts to exist in this world.

…Now that I think about it, I should have had that tower appraised too.

“Its name is ‘Smartphone’! The bidding starts at one million flons!”

—Huh? A smartphone?

Hearing the name announced, my mind went completely blank.