'Alright, this is an order to all kaijin in the city: do not start a fight with any of these bastards. If any of them decide to throw a punch first, feel free to end it yourselves. Otherwise, maintain neutrality and no violence. Got it?'

[Understood.]

…

As the auctioneers of the Cyan Stone Auction House prepared for today's proceedings, the kaijin of Mysticlassic were busy scanning the crowd from their hiding spot above the main stage, in their mini modes.

If anybody saw them, they would just assume that they were strange decorative elements.

[Wait…I'm confused,] Screamira shared with her counterparts. [Why are we looking for Bellona's cousin? Last I checked, we don't have any bad blood with any of her blood.]

[That's true,] Razorstella capitulated. [But you and I have both read through those stories we have in the library, the ones about wars of succession turning into rather ugly and brutal affairs that lead to the deaths of many non-participants.]

[Yeah, and?]

[There's a non-zero chance the director will be swept up in their war as well,] Springerdermain answered. [Bellona may not want the crown, but she still qualifies for it. Best case scenario, she might get press ganged to assist one of her cousins and have us fight due to how deeply intertwined the Zhen branch clan is with her family. Worse case scenario...]

[They take her out, because they think of her as a threat.]

[Exactly.]

[Fucking hell...]

…

"Alright, ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the Cyan Stone Auction House! Looks like we have some familiar faces in the crowd and some not-so-familiar visiting artisans today!" The auctioneer for the event called out in an aether-enhanced voice that demanded attention. Although the aforementioned audience didn't seem to really care about such frivolous introductions.

"But I know why you guys are here, and it's not to hear me yammer on all day. So why don't we skip the formalities and go straight to the meat of today's events, shall we?!"

"WOOO!"

Evidently, the auctioneer immediately recognized this fact, like usual, and decided to skip straight to the bidding over rare materials.

Down in the crowd, a certain merchant's daughter didn't really appreciate such bluntness, although she did understand why they had to do so.

"On the one hand, I'm annoyed at the lack of proper auction etiquette. On the other...this doesn't seem like the crowd for the usual fanfare..."

Zhen Xing, Zhen Tai, Harriet, and Axer didn't really understand what Alicia was talking about since this wasn't in their wheelhouse of know-how, but they still did their best in trying to assuage her stung feelings.

"If it helps, the auctions that are run by your family in the Golden Clover Auction House are a lot more memorable than this one."

"Thank you."

Unaware of this criticism of their auction proceedings, the auctioneer presented their first item for sale...which just so happened to be one of the ones that Alicia and company submitted.

Well, items that were provided by the Zhen Clan.

"Our first item for the day is something I'm sure all of the tailors in the crowd will deeply appreciate, behold!"

From the left of the stage came a comely attendant in an eye-catching outfit carrying several bolts of silk in her arms.

Upon sight of this silk, the aforementioned tailors in the crowd began to sit noticeably straighter in their seats.

"Why the hell am I feeling bloodlust?" Zhen Tai commented as he was, incidentally, seated directly in front of one of these crazy tailors.

"Our first item for the day are these lovely bolts of giant spider silk harvested not from just one type of sixth tier aether beast spider, but three!" The auctioneer explained as the attendant presented and unfurled each bolt of spider silk for the audience to see.

"Three different types of aether spider silk?! Bullshit!" An audience member called out in disbelief. "Only spiders big enough around here that could even remotely provide that amount are Brown Titan Weavers, and those are only second-tiered at most."

"Did she say it's a local product? No? Then it's probably an imported material, we get the all the time!" One of the aforementioned tailors retorted.

"Now way in hell that stuff is real," another critiqued. "You'd either have to be crazy or well-connected to get even one bundle of spider silk from such dangerous beasts."

"That stuff is authentic, alright," another of the interested tailors spoke up. "And it'll be perfect for my next big project."

Ignoring the murmurs of the crowd, the auctioneer continued.

"Every last one of these spider silk bolts had been thoroughly tested to resist even attacks from the mightiest of fourth tiered aether beasts, so they're more or less perfect for those in your life who are at the Aether Master tier and below...if you were making a normal set of clothes."

At this apparent joke, several of the tailors in the crowd began to laugh.

"What the fuck?" Zhen Xing commented over the laughter.

"Artisans," Axer answered. "Just...artisans."

"Now the first bolt of silk, this lovely crimson number, is sourced from a Crimson Sparkweaver. Any outfit made from it will keep the weather nice and warm regardless of the weather," the host continued once the laughter had died down. "The second bolt in yellow was sourced from a Thunder Widow spider. While it won't make you resistant to lighting, the conductivity it enables is second to none. Any electrical aether moves the wearer would perform would be enhanced by ten percent, guaranteed. As for the last bolt in blue, this was sourced from the elusive Icy Mist Trapdoor Spider. With the right treatment, this silk can turn the wearer invisible to most mortal eyes."

In order to demonstrate the truth of these statements, the beautiful attendant pulled out several gloves that were made from the aformentioned materials and demonstrated the possibilities.

Needless to say, once the tailors knew what they were looking forward to, most of them locked in.

"Now the seller of these fine silks has bestowed upon us not just three bolts of silk, but six additional ones as well, two for each type I just mentioned," the auctioneer explained as yet another pair of attendants strolled in with two more bundles of spider silk.

"We're going to be selling them in bundles of three, each bundle containing at least one type each."

"Hmmm."

"Reasonable. Reasonable."

If these bolts were sold one at a time, there was a very good chance that Alicia and others would've been low balled in terms of price. However, if they sold these bolts as specific clusters, there was a very high chance that there would be blood spilt outside of the auction house later.

This way, bundled like this, the amount of bloodshed would be minimized as the buyers could easily trade or come to a deal over the silk themselves... idealistically.

Either way, once the bolts were sold, the Zhen Clan scions and their allies would be rolling in dough... hopefully.

"All three bundles of silk will have a starting bid of five hundred gold coins," the auctioneer announced."And we'll be starting with the first bid...now!"

"500!

"510!"

"580!"

"650! All of you back the fuck down!"

"800!"

"Oh, I just love how auctions bring out the greed in people," Alicia chuckled at the sound of the bidders.

The actual retail value of the silk bolts altogether was about 750 gold pieces, each bolt being 250 by themselves.

Starting at a price point between them incentivized the bidders to try and outdo each other until they had reached a price well beyond the actual value of the items.

In the end, the final price was... ludicrous.

"Going once, going twice...sold! For the grand total sum of 2100 gold pieces, the first bundle of silk goes to the gentleman in the purple hat!"

"Oh I just know my daughters are going to absolutely love the dresses I plan to make from these silks," the buyer proclaimed with glee as the first bundle got brought to the backstage in preparations to be sold.

This scenario played out two more times, with the grand total amount of money earned after selling all of these silks being a sum of 31000 gold pieces.

To most people, this was enough to retire to a midsized city in a nice estate for at least two generations.

To most aether warriors, this was a...decent sun.

"Damn, I thought the silks would sell more than that," Zhen Xing clicked his tongue in his disappointment.

"Don't worry my soon to be cousin by law," Alicia assured Zhen Xing. "This is why we have multiple entries in the auction house today."

"Our next item is a bit more traditional and has a lot of uses to everyone present, a set of five aether beast cores all rated to be between fourth and sixth tier!"

"Holy shit!"

"Oh hell yeah!"

"Please be poison related, please be poison related."

"Huh..."

As soon as the Zhen Clan scions heard the excitement from the crowd, they soon realized that they should've been selling their stuff on the auction circuit more often.