In the reception room they returned to, there was a couple who had fainted amicably beyond the partition.

“……You got it? Furrow your brows as much as possible. Are you ready to go out again? Are you prepared to be an unfilial son?”

“Yes.”

Noah, who had barely reached an agreement with Nigel Ars after a healthy conversation about banning weapons and physical contact, answered with a brighter face.

Compared to putting his own sword to Nigel Ars’s neck and harboring lewd thoughts alone towards the innocent Nigel Ars, being called an unfilial son by his father was a piece of cake.

Creak.

The reception room door opened for the third time.

“Be, Besel……!”

Noah, who had been wide-eyed every time Nigel Ars opened the door to find an employee standing there, now didn’t change his expression at all.

This time it was a middle-aged man who looked high-ranking at a glance, wearing a jacket and vest.

“Oh ho!”

Just as the middle-aged man was about to speak, a stern rebuke fell as if scolding a disobedient child.

“This person is not that kind of person!”

Nigel Ars said, gesturing carefully towards Noah with both hands outstretched.

The employee smirked at Nigel Ars’s exaggerated gesture and asked with folded arms what was so different.

“Well, this person is completely sick of his stuffy family’s ways, so he had his name erased from the family tree and cut ties!”

When the pure, innocent voice told a lie, Noah bit his lip slightly, stung by his conscience.

Despite the deadly lie, the employee still couldn’t shake off his suspicions. Nigel Ars cursed the employee inwardly and opened her mouth again.

“Oh come on, senior! You saw my guest’s name on today’s guest list too. If he came here to make trouble, he wouldn’t be so obviously advertising his hair saying ‘I’m Beselion~’, and unless the Beselion heir has cut ties, why would he come to a place like this?”

Nigel Ars smiled brightly without changing her expression.

“And! I’ve thoroughly obtained a confidentiality agreement, so don’t worry!”

Nigel Ars nonchalantly pulled out a familiar document from her thin jacket pocket and spread it out.

This had fallen out of the pocket of the second person who fainted when they were moved to the reception room.

The man, unaware of this backstory, completely let down his guard.

Now there was no reason not to believe this audacious young lady’s words.

Also, according to rumors, the young viscount of Beselion was said to be a gentle-looking handsome man, and seeing how he was glaring at him as if he wanted to kill him, it seemed there had indeed been a big change in his mindset recently.

But if there was one thing that bothered him.

“You, I haven’t seen your face before?”

He was in charge of training new employees at this auction house.

But recently, while he had seen many with black hair, he hadn’t seen anyone with purple eyes. Especially not a girl with such striking features.

‘……At this point, the only option left is to evoke sympathy.’

Evoking sympathy was a tactic that varied greatly in effectiveness depending on the person. But with no other choice, Nigel Ars rolled the dice.

The girl scratched her head as if embarrassed and opened her mouth.

“Well…… I’m from the slums, abandoned since birth. So when Count Lumen saw my lowly origins, he didn’t even let me participate in the new employee training. Of, of course the Count took the right measures! My reading skills are poor too……”

Hmm, while the Count is sensitive about status, this time he went too far.

The employee opened his mind’s eye wide at the girl’s tearjerking words.

And Beselion, who heard the girl’s words, made a strange face with unidentifiable emotions.

The fact that he showed no signs of sadness even at such a heartbreaking story added credibility to the girl’s claim that she had recently cut ties with her family.

“Ahem, you say you can’t read well?”

“Yes. Moreover, I’m not sure if I can give the customer the product they want. The customer said they wanted to see and choose the special items directly, but none of the other kids would tell me where the special items are located.”

Haa, a deep sigh burst from the girl’s cute lips.

“I wanted to work hard since it was a job I obtained with difficulty, but at this rate, it’s no different from when I lived in the slums.”

The girl, who had somehow come close to the man, mumbled in a small voice only he could hear, looking dejected and dispirited.

“A-ahem! W-well then, it can’t be helped. As it happens, I coincidentally have some time left, so I’ll personally guide you!”

He blurted out the words and immediately started walking straight ahead. Right away, an exclamation of “Wow!” was heard.

……He fell for it.

Behind him, instead of the pure girl, there was Nigel Ars wearing a vile smile, delighted at having hooked a sucker, no, a free guide.

Before long, the man stopped in front of a pure white door that exuded a mysterious and strange atmosphere.

“This is the place. I feel uneasy about assigning an inadequate employee to a customer of your caliber. However, the items beyond this door will surely meet and exceed your requirements.”

The man smiled gently and bowed politely to Noah as he spoke.

“Well then, I’ll take my leave. I hope you have a pleasant time.”

After bowing at a perfect angle without the slightest deviation, he ruffled Nigel Ars’s hair, who had been trailing behind Noah, and soon left.

“……Disgusting bastard.”

As soon as he was completely out of sight, Nigel Ars roughly shook her head as if there had been a bug on it and muttered coldly.

“You suffered for nothing, having to listen to that nonsense while playing along with my bluff, Noah.”

“It’s alright. Given the situation, it couldn’t be helped.”

Noah, whose face had somehow relaxed into a smile, said softly.

“Well then…… let’s go in now.”

Nigel Ars gripped the white doorknob tightly. But though she held it with her hand, the door ultimately did not open.

“Nigel Ars?”

Noticing something was off, Noah quickly checked Nigel Ars’s condition.

Nigel Ars’s face had turned pale without a trace of blood, and the hand that wouldn’t let go of the doorknob was trembling.

“Nigel Ars, your hand…… it’s shaking.”

Nigel Ars covered her trembling hand with her empty one, trying to hide the shaking. But it wasn’t enough to conceal it.

“If you’re afraid to know what’s beyond this door, I’ll go in alone.”

At that moment, Nigel Ars slowly turned her head. And barely opening her lips, she whispered.

“You…… don’t you remember this door?”

Following Nigel Ars’s words, Noah shifted his focus from Nigel Ars to the door.

The pure white door that gave off an elegant feeling was somehow familiar and unpleasant.

“……!”

Noah belatedly realized the identity of the door.

That door was identical to the entrance on the third floor of Histon, where young girls were kept confined.

“It doesn’t seem…… like a coincidence, does it?”

Seeing Nigel Ars unable to let go of the door despite her distress, Noah couldn’t easily add any words.

Looking at Noah like this, Nigel Ars forced a smile.

“I’ll open it, customer.”

The door opened lightly.

Beyond it was a pure white cage, the same color as the door.

And inside the cage were about twenty people with dark, pale skin.

Blink.

Several pairs of red eyes opened simultaneously.

Those eyes stared at Nigel Ars and Noah all at once, not missing even their smallest movements.

“……Nox.”

Nigel Ars spoke the name given to them for humans to easily call them.

These beings, called Nox meaning darkness due to their dark skin, were a hybrid race born from the union of humans and magical beasts.

Nigel Ars had read a book about the Nox when she was young. In the watercolor illustrations, they were always playing and frolicking with nature and magical beasts.

As a major characteristic, the Nox were born with vast magical power, so they didn’t need to create language to communicate like humans, but conversed with their magic.

It was also said that they were a pure race that loved to play pranks.

Those who should be freely roaming about in the vast and beautiful nature under the sunlight were trapped in a small cage in some underground place without even a single window, wearing collars embedded with magic stones, looking at Nigel Ars with hopeless, empty eyes.

“……Some of them have light-colored bands on their arms.”

Noah, observing the room with cold eyes, said.

Looking closely at the bands, there were numbers like 34, 85, 12, 67……

These were all the numbers of those who had won bids in the second auction.

The Nox wearing those bands, perhaps knowing what was about to happen to them, were tightly holding the hands of their kindred.

It was a horrific sight.

At the same time, anger welled up.

Who had taken away their freedom and shackled them, who had stolen the vitality from their red eyes that once sparkled in the sunlight, who would rob them of their hope to live, why did it have to be this way – it was incomprehensible.

That’s when it happened.

Shing.

Noah drew his sword.

At the same time, fear crept into those red eyes. But they didn’t writhe in fear or try to escape, just sitting still.

Noah’s blue eyes, filled with sadness, took in all of their appearances.

Whoosh!

The sword traced a weighty arc, and a refreshing breeze that ruffled their hair blew through the room.

And.

The cage that had been confining them shattered into pieces and collapsed.