Chapter 78.2 - Auction Part 2

Translator: SFBaka

Editor: Thor’s Stone

I called out to Karina-san, who also looked quite exhausted.

“Thank you for the hard work, Karina-san. That must have been hard on you.”

“Not at all. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be able to manage such an auction, so I wouldn’t say it was hard.”

Then, a guild employee rushed toward us and handed Karina-san a memo. Karina-san’s eyes widened after she read the memo.

“Alan-sama, the total of today’s winning bids is 387,213,000 Guineas.”

“”Ooh!””

Everyone raised their voices in shock. I already knew the total amount beforehand since I had Nanom calculate it earlier, but I had to act surprised in front of everyone.

“What an amount! It’s amazing, Alan-sama!”

“Yeah, it sure is. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s result.”

My party members all looked happy as well. Cleria was particularly elated, but she’s probably pleased because now she would be able to send a large amount of money to Roberto to support her people.

“Oh, right! Arista-san. Just as we talked about before, please include everything in the auction except for the dragon fangs.”

“Eh? So you’ve already negotiated with the noble envoy?”

“That’s right. We finished the talks successfully just this morning. I managed to settle it by offering both dragon fangs.”

“Congratulations, Alan-sama!”

“Well, it isn’t exactly official yet. I’m leaving for the royal capital in the morning of the fifth.”

“Understood. We’ll arrange everything as you’ve specified.”

When we went down to the guild building’s first floor, we found quite a number of merchants waiting to meet us, and it took more than 30 minutes before we were able to leave the guild due to them thanking and congratulating us for our work in subjugating bandits and the dragon.

After we were done with the Commerce Guild, we headed straight back to our Home.

“I didn’t expect for the panacea to actually be that expensive. I mean, all that money for something they probably wouldn’t be using for a good while?”

“That’s right. It’s actually better to make use of healing magic for injuries and cuts after all…… And besides, the panacea’s healing effect isn’t as potent as healing magic, right?”

“I’ve heard rumors about the effects of a panacea within the royal palace in the past. They said if you took a diluted dose of a panacea on a daily basis, you wouldn’t get sick at all.”

“Hou, so a panacea also had that kind of effect huh…… So they’d probably sell them to nobles then.”

“I don’t think anyone but the highest-ranking nobles would be able to make use of them, actually. They would probably sell them to royalty instead.”

“I see. So they’d still make a profit even after spending that much after all huh.”

When we arrived back at our Home, everyone else has already gathered inside the dining hall for dinner. It looks like they were quite curious about the result of the auction. I decided to announce the result before we had our meal.

“The total winning bids for the panaceas amount to 387,213,000 Guineas, everyone.”

“”Oooh!””

“Amazing!”

“If it’s already like this on the first day, we’ll be able to expect more tomorrow.”

Tonight’s topic of discussion is, of course, the money we earned after today’s auction and the possible amount we’ll be able to get tomorrow.

“Alan, you’ll send money to Roberto and the others, right?”

“Yeah. When the three-day auction finishes, we’ll send them a large amount of funds. Apparently, we’ll be able to send a message to them as well along with the money via the Commerce Guild, so I think we should tell them a bit about our current progress.”

“That’s a good suggestion! But what should we include in the message?”

After this, we put our heads together with Adjutant Dalshim and the sub-party leaders in order to come up with a suitable message to send to Roberto and the others. The minimum cost for sending one was 10,000 Guineas, and it was 100 Guineas per character, so we pored over the message and reduced the number of characters in it as much as possible to fit the 10,000 Guinea fee.

We already had a lot of money right now, of course. But since the money we would be sending will serve as the living expenses and reserve funds of more than 5,000 people, we couldn’t afford to be careless.

“Right, it’s decided then. The final draft is: We succeeded in defeating a dragon. There’s a large possibility of being granted a peerage. Our preparations are proceeding slowly but surely. Wait for further news.”

“I’m sure they would be quite surprised after they read it.”

“I can already imagine Roberto-dono’s elated expression.”

I was quite tired today, so I decided to go to bed early. Tomorrow’s auction will begin at 9 in the morning and the items going to be auctioned off will be the dragon meat and dragon scales.

The next morning, we headed for the Commerce Guild well before 9 o’clock. We found it just as crowded as yesterday.

Before long, it was finally time to come up to the auction venue. The plan was to auction off the dragon meat in the morning and the scales in the afternoon.

Thankfully, I didn’t have to make a speech this time around.

“Well then, let us begin the auction for the dragon meat. First, let us check the product.”

After Karina-san’s announcement, guild staff began filing into the venue. They started arranging tables and put plates with cooked dragon meat on them one after another.

So the nice smell I picked up earlier came from these huh.

According to the records, dragon meat was edible and supposedly quite delicious. That went for the dragon innards as well. Among all the meat cuts, it seems the thigh meat was considered the tastiest.

“We have prepared these grilled meat dishes for all of you to sample. The seasonings we used are only salt and pepper. We arranged one plate per person, so please use them accordingly. This goes without saying, but only one slice per person. Please begin.”

“”Oooh!””

I thought people wouldn’t pay much for something they haven’t tried personally yet, so I proposed this taste testing session to Karina-san. Sure, it would reduce the amount of meat we could put up for sale, but I’m sure it’ll be effective in drumming up the sale price.

The merchants immediately lined up in front of the tables and began sampling the meat.

“Just what is with this meat’s overflowing umami!?”

“It virtually melts inside the mouth!”

“To think such delicious meat could actually exist in this world……”

It looks like the meat was quite highly rated.

“We are going to auction off wooden boxes like this one that is filled with dragon meat. All dragon meat cuts are stored in similar boxes. As we announced, one company can win only a maximum of five bids. Listings will have ten, five, and two boxes of dragon meat respectively.”

Karina-san pointed to a box that probably contained about 100 kilograms of meat as she explained the rules. I see. That’s nice and simple.

“Well then, let us begin with ten boxes of dragon thigh meat. Price starts at 10,000 Guineas per box. Please go ahead and start bidding.”

Similar to what happened yesterday, bids were made one after another and the price steadily rose.

“Tsuiril Company bids 30,000 Guineas!”

“Baras Company bids 32,500 Guineas.”

“Karel Company. 35,000 Guineas.”

“Silas Company bids 50,000 Guineas.”

The moment Arista-san raised her bid, everyone else quieted down instantly. It was practically a repeat of yesterday’s events.

“Well then, ten boxes of dragon thigh meat. Sold for 500,000 Guineas.”

Arista-san won the bid four more times and left the venue afterward. It really was just like yesterday.

So the meat sold for 500 Guineas per kilo huh. It wasn’t as high as I expected, but it wasn’t bad at all. We’ll be selling dozens of tons of meat anyway.

According to Karina-san, they’ve prepared a very large amount of ice in order to transport the meat to other cities overnight, and the total transport costs will be very high. And that’s why we couldn’t expect too much regarding the meat’s final selling price

Sessions were held one after another, and everything was finally sold off by noon.

The total amount for today’s winning bids was 19,885,400 Guineas.

“Alan-sama, the total of today’s winning bids is 19,885,400 Guineas. It looks like perishable goods like meat really won’t sell for that high a price, just as we expected.”

“No, it’s actually higher than my estimate. I’ll be counting on you again in the afternoon.”