The Survival of an Inferior

Patrons who won a bid are given a badge with a number on it. After the auction, they must visit the respective rooms on the upper floors to collect their items and pay.

Mine is "12".

At the end of the auction teleports every winning participant into a room. 

Someone wearing an oversized cloak sits across the room. The hood over the person's head prevented the leak of his or her identity. 

A man wearing a black coat and an inner white shirt with long black pants enters the room with two other huge men. The two huge men follow behind the man with a black coat. 

"I am Vik, an overseer of 'Luxurious'. I am a witness to this transaction." the man with a black coat says. 

Vik then pulls out some scrolls of contract for both parties to sign. The contents include an agreement for silence about the transaction and honest trade. Breach of contract will not take one's life but if the seller attempts to steal the item back, the 'witness' will be notified of the offender. 

Both the seller and I sign the contract without hesitation. The contract glows before burning and disappears into thin air. 

"Now then..." Vik turns his attention to me. 

I pour out a large mountain of gold into the room from my hand. "I'm sorry, I don't have a storage ring," I say.

Vik widens his eyes but says nothing except smile. 

...

"Not a problem," he replies and lifts his hand. The ring on his index finger glows and sucks all the gold in. 

He closes his eye and touches the ring.

...

"Alright, I've confirmed the amount. I will send the corresponding revenue after the patron received the product."

The seller hesitantly hands over the broken sword to me. 

Vik nods and moves his hand to the seller. The seller responds with his or her hand. Their storage rings touch and light shine. 

Vik takes a deep breath and stretches. 

"Alright...Thank you for your patronage. Please come again-"

"Wait," I say and take out a bag of 1000 gold. 

...?

I throw a glance at the seller. 

Vik catches on and scratches his head.

"Hm...Fine, 10 minutes." Vik accepts the bribe and left the room with his subordinates, creating some time for me and the seller to talk.

...

"If it's about the sword, I'm sorry-"

"You are Ava Targula, right?" I say.

!!

The seller jolts and darts her head up.

"W-What..."

"Ava Targula, the younger sister of The Hero. Revered as a prodigy, you became a High Mage at the young age of 10 and a Grand Mage at 16. You are also the secondary mage of The Hero's party." I say.

She backs off. "How...did you...Who are you?"

I scratch my head when she asks that. "Thinking logically, you are the only one who can have possession of your brother's weapon and your past is pretty much known to everyone."

...

"Ah..." Ava looks away in embarrassment. She pulls back her hood to reveal a beautiful lady with white short hair and emerald eyes, a scar engraved diagonally across her face. Despite her young appearance, she is 70. She probably kept her youth with magic. "Anyways...who are you? And what do you want?"

"I'm..."

If I want to make her an ally...I have to reveal my identity...

I pull down the cloth covering my face.

!!

Ava froze. "You...are Samuel?!"

"Wait! Before you say anything, know that I have turned over a new leaf and will clean up all the mess that I made." I say.

...

Mana bursts from her body and engulfs us. 

"Speak." She says, now showing hostility.

"Look, I've sacrificed myself as redemption back at Chael. There is no need for the...anger." I try to calm her.

Ava raises her brow. "Sacrificed? What?"

...?

"Ah, the news-"

"No, I heard of your deeds but news circulating stated that you failed to escape and the demon self-destructed. What do you mean by sacrifice?" says Ava.

...

I decided to tell Ava an extremely summarised version of everything because I need her help. From killing Jared to destroying Chael, everything but of course leaving out the game system and any nonsensical information. However, I left out things that I have no proof about such as the elf king being a demon cultist.

"..."

Ava reaches her hand out and grabs my wrist. She circulates mana around my body to discover the demonic mana mixed with regular mana within my meridians and energy core.

"You...are a demonic human," she says.

"That was how I survived."

Ava glance at my face and tries to detect illusion or transformation magic, but she found none.

Ava sighs and stares at the ground. She notices I am trying to go against The Demon Lord.

"My brother couldn't do it but you can?"

"It's better than accepting our fate," I reply.

...

"I'm sorry but I can't trust you," says Ava. "I can pretend we never had this conversation."

I expected this and it's fine. Being acquainted is progress. 

"I understand. I will come to find you at a later date, I hope by then you will see my sincerity. Thank you for your time." I say. 

As I head for the door, Ava stops me. 

"Wait a while...for the valuable information, let me tell you something. The one who forced me to sell The Blade of Eternity was demonic humans. They might go for you."

"Forced you? Did they blackmail you? But with your strength...it shouldn't be...possible?"

Her face grows pale. 

...

"Sure, I will keep that in mind," I say.

"Also, I doubt anyone will know the truth of your sacrifice. For an ordinary bystander far away, it seemed more plausible that the demon's goal was to destroy Chael, not occupy it." Says Ava.

She is right, no one will believe that I killed Jared and unleashed immense demonic energy; Everyone has every right to be sceptical. That's why my reputation, albeit increased, is still negative. 

I sigh and place my hand on my forehead. 

For starters, I need to clean up Arsto's mess before my reputation can increase.