“But I let you have that, Mr. Gratt.”
“...Wha? Are you out of your mind?! This appraisal crystal is on par with, or even greater than an Artifact!”
“Oh, come now~ I made that in less than no time; even you saw me do that, didn’t you, Mr. Gratt? It’s nothing as grandiose as an Artifact. It’s a regular enchanted item~”
“I don’t know where to start picking that argument apart... but you are serious about what you’re saying.”
“Of course I am serious. So, please, don’t be so reserved and accept it as my gift.” The whole reason that Gratt’s old appraisal crystal had broken was due to the brooch Ristia made, in any case. Her thought process wasn’t based off of assuming responsibility for breaking his possession, but since she could easily make a replacement for him, she didn’t see the harm in giving it to him.
“...I say, as of late, I feel like my financial know-how and general common sense is going by the wayside. Normalcy as I know it is flying straight out the window...” She didn’t quite understand why, but Gratt looked exhausted. Ristia wasn’t all that interested in anyone other than likely candidates to be her little sister, but she did have enough kindness in her heart to care for someone who had been such a big help so far.
“Would you care for another enchanted item as a present, as well? One that helps with fatigue?”
“I beg of you, please stop! My sense of normalcy will never end up coming back!” he pleaded with her with tears in his eyes, for some reason.
“Um, well... If you mean to say you don’t need it, then I’ll give up on the idea. But please, at least accept the appraisal crystal. Otherwise, I’ll end up feeling guilty for breaking yours.”
“...Very well. I will graciously accept your kind gift. In exchange, I shall foot all of the expenses and commission used for this month’s auction. The construction costs, as well, of course.”
“...Are you sure?”
“As sure as can be. I am making out with quite the hefty profit, after all. Please, do not worry about it. It will be my concern now, so I’d appreciate it.”
“...Okay, then. Thank you for all your help,” Ristia said, her smile full of gratitude.
“I should be the one showing my appreciation around here. Let’s see... So the highest bid in the auction was eighteen-hundred large gold pieces.”
“Oh, I see. Thank you so much, Sir.”
Eighteen-hundred large gold pieces was the equivalent of eighteen-thousand gold pieces. That was a price that would make any regular person—no, even an aristocrat—go wide eyed in surprise, but Ristia was indifferent, considering she had no sense of the currency of this era. Her lack of reaction prompted Gratt to comment, “Not very surprised, as I expected,” with an awkward smile.
“Surprised? About what?”
“Uh, well... if it’s all right by you, shall I bring the money here...?”
“Sure, I don’t mind... but why ask me?” she replied, cocking her head in confusion over why he went through the trouble to inquire.
“Well, bringing a large amount of money to the orphanage would be dangerous... Under normal circumstances, that is.”
“Ooh, that makes sense. But I’ll take good care of it, so it’ll be okay.” There was no safer place than Ristia’s Item Box, so Ristia accepted the large gold pieces.
“Also... there is something I want to tell you,” Gratt said, his face turning stern, suggesting he was getting to the heart of the matter.
“...You want to tell me something?”
“Your brooch, as I expected, has become a big enough topic to shake up society. Even at the auction, the highest bid went to the person who had the most money to give out of all the other auction-goers at the time.”
The auction floor went dead silent once the brooch was introduced. The auction-goers bid on it one after another, eventually driving the bid to exceed the funds most people had on hand and causing them to drop out. The ultimate result was that the person who had the most money on them at the time won the bid. It was a result that caused many of the other auction-goers who couldn’t win the bid to lament, saying that if they had known about the brooch beforehand, they would have prepared the funds even if it meant taking out a mortgage on their house. That meant that if he had made an announcement in advance, the highest bid would have been even higher. Under normal circumstances, one would be lamenting not making said announcement in advance. Ristia wasn’t fixated on selling the brooch for a high price, and if they made a grand announcement that made the brooch the target of a huge organization, there was a chance that not even Gratt Commerce could completely fend them off. That was Gratt’s decision. It was a decision that would have made Ristia happy, but...
“Truth is, the people who didn’t win the bid have been probing around for information on the exhibitor.” These people had an enchanted item on par with an Artifact bought out from under them, so several speculations flew by as a result. He explained that with all the discussion, there were people with intentions to negotiate business themselves if there were more items of that nature to be sold. “Of course, protecting my client is part of the agreement. I tried my best to hide your identity from them, but the aristocrats have taken this seriously.”
“...Do you mean you couldn’t keep it a complete secret?”
“Right now, there are no signs that the cat’s out of the bag, but...” Gratt offered as a preface. He continued by telling her that, while no one batted an eye to him dropping in every now and then because of his branch store in the same tow, keeping the fact that said branch was supporting the rebuilding of the orphanage under wraps was a daunting task. There was also the fact that the position of the orphanage’s director had just recently changed hands. If there was anyone who could connect those dots together, it wasn’t impossible that they would learn that Ristia was the brooch’s original exhibitor. “You have my apologies. I have been thinking up ideas for that aspect, as well,” Gratt admitted his failure, bowing his head.