As a burst of passionate, lively, and highly exotic music echoed throughout the venue, the lights in the hall dimmed. The auction was about to begin.
The opening performance, a standard routine before the official bidding, was spectacular. With the sheer capability of the Carlo Auction House, they always managed to present a thoroughly satisfying show.
(It's a pity Sanji didn't come. If it were him, he would probably be incredibly interested in this kind of performance.)
Gazing at the dancers on stage, each boasting a fiery figure and enchanting movements, Sherlock calmly pushed up his glasses.
The auction house, renovated from a theater, provided an adequately spacious stage. The constantly shifting lights made the dancers' movements appear even more dreamlike and blurry—their supple arms flexing fluidly, their exquisite curves veiled beneath sheer fabrics, and their full bosoms rising and falling. Their remarkably slender, boneless waists in particular caused the vast majority of the male audience members to subconsciously swallow hard.
"Hey, hey, Sherlock, what do you think of these dancers?"
Jean revealed a meaningful smile, leaning over to whisper, "They are also part of the slaves scheduled to be auctioned later today. Furthermore, they've already been trained to absolutely obey any and all commands from their master."
"If you have your eye on one, you can tell me in advance. Don't worry, I won't bid against you."
"No, there is no need. I am not particularly interested in these things." Sherlock felt somewhat amused in his heart. He had only come to this auction to check out the excitement, having absolutely no intention of buying a slave to take back.
"Oh, alright then." Jean nodded dismissively, assuming in his mind that the little gentleman with glasses was simply being reserved.
Following the dance that left the audience wishing for more, Stavis, the chief auctioneer of the Carlo Auction House, stepped onto the auction stage wearing a tailcoat and a pair of gold-rimmed glasses. He first delivered a brief, formulaic opening speech, and then skillfully rapped his small gavel three times, signaling the official start of the auction.
"First up, our very first auction item is a piece of rare jewelry from the Alabasta Kingdom—the Heart of the Ocean!"
Stavis made a gesture, and a beautiful model wearing a sapphire necklace stepped out from behind the curtain at the side of the stage. At the same time, a massive close-up of the sapphire was projected onto the screen behind the stage via a Visual Den Den Mushi.
Under the illumination of the stage lights, the sapphire radiated a brilliant luster, complementing the deep cleavage on the model's chest, drawing bursts of admiration from the distinguished guests below the stage.
However, looking at the expressions on these fellows' faces—which looked exactly as though they had been possessed by the soul of a certain love-struck cook—Sherlock harbored sincere doubts about the actual object of their admiration.
"Alabasta is a desert kingdom with a long history. In that wealthy nation, luxury goods such as spices and jewelry have always been eagerly pursued by nobles and wealthy merchants from other regions," the auctioneer Stavis said, scanning the audience and talking with effortless eloquence.
Standing on his auction stage, Stavis's face was filled with confidence, and this absolute confidence belonging to an excellent businessman was highly infectious, easily making others feel that the merchandise he recommended was the absolute best.
"And this Heart of the Ocean possesses an intensely mysterious color in the history of Alabasta. Legend has it that this gemstone buries a monumental secret..."
Next, the chief auctioneer began weaving his tale around several historical anecdotes of Alabasta. His eloquence was superb; the story was described so vividly that even Nico Robin, the archaeologist, might have doubted whether such events had actually transpired in history had she heard it.
Not only that, the guy later even dragged in the recent rebellion in Alabasta and Crocodile's conspiracy to usurp the kingdom. According to his ambiguous way of phrasing it, these events were actually intricately linked to this gemstone, leaving the Sorcerer in the audience wearing a highly peculiar expression.
(I really don't know what Crocodile would think if he heard this auctioneer's words,) Sherlock thought to himself.
But the guests present were not all-knowing like Sherlock. Under Stavis's deceptive spiel, they all wore expressions of profound awe despite not fully understanding.
In the end, the Heart of the Ocean, which had a starting price of only 1 million Berries, had its final transaction price driven up to a staggering 7.5 million Berries amid the frantic bidding of the crowd, leaving a certain gentleman with glasses to lament that some people really had more money than brains.
"The chief auctioneer of Carlo is still as formidable as ever. I thought the closing price would be 2 million Berries at most," Jean grumbled softly. As a jeweler, he was all too familiar with the true value of gemstones.
"Yes, this auctioneer's eloquence is indeed excellent, and his imagination is quite vivid," Sherlock agreed noncommittally with a nod.
An auction was fundamentally different from ordinary buying and selling. It involved a vast array of knowledge—the appraisal of goods, the art of language, the psychological warfare between bidders, the evaluation of others' psychological price ceilings, the reasonable allocation of one's own funds, and knowing when to let go of an item one fancied, among other things.
Thus, Sherlock enjoyed attending auctions very much, and more often than not, it wasn't to actually purchase anything, but merely to enjoy the process of bidding itself.
This was what one might call the art of bidding.
Aside from the first item, the Heart of the Ocean, which Stavis had praised to the heavens, the subsequent auction items appeared somewhat conventional. Although impressive, they were far from causing the sensation of the first piece. However, under the intentional build-up and introductions by the auctioneer Stavis, they were all sold at highly satisfactory prices.
Sherlock did not remain a cold bystander the entire time; he also tentatively raised his paddle a few times, but his bids were quickly overtaken.
By observing the attire of the participants, the frequency of their paddle raises, and the increments of their price hikes, Sherlock could confidently determine that at least three individuals were shills hired by the auction house to artificially drive up the prices.
In addition, he roughly assessed everyone's purchasing power and used it to analyze their psychological price ceilings for each auction item.
This would have been a very difficult task for Sherlock in the past. However, ever since he awakened his Observation Haki, his observation and sensory capabilities had instantly escalated by countless levels. His efficiency in gathering information and grasping the human heart was naturally incomparable to before.
The next auction item was a specialty of Hannabal: ten barrels of premium rum, with a starting price of 8 million Berries.
These top-tier liquors, aged for at least 40 years, could be said to command an astronomical price. However, under Stavis's linguistic onslaught, the alcohol cravings of the crowd were quickly aroused. Just as they were hesitating over how much to raise the bid, a single individual's paddle raise caused all of their cravings to shrink right back down.
"17.5 million Berries! The gentleman with glasses has bid 17.5 million Berries! Are there any higher bids?"
Stavis shouted aloud, holding a Megaphone Den Den Mushi, but looking at the quiet state below the stage, this highly experienced auctioneer knew very well in his heart that this item was likely going to be an instant kill.
This price was neither too high nor too low; it just happened to exceed the psychological price ceiling of the vast majority of people. Even if a few wealthy tycoons who loved a good drink intended to raise the price, they abandoned the idea upon considering that the slave auction afterward was the primary objective of their trip.
The few shills hired by the auction house to maliciously drive up the bidding were even more conflicted. They knew that this guy with glasses only placed a single bid each time. In the event that they raised the paddle and this little gentleman with glasses stopped bidding, who could they run to and cry to then?
However, time did not permit them to hesitate for long. With the final strike of the auctioneer's gavel, these ten barrels of top-tier fine wine already had a new master, becoming the fastest transaction of this auction. This caused the surrounding guests to involuntarily turn their gazes toward the handsome young man wearing silver-rimmed glasses.
"Congratulations to the gentleman with glasses. I hope these fine wines bring sufficient joy to your life." Although Stavis felt a bit awkward in his heart, the chief auctioneer still delivered his blessings with a smile, displaying excellent professional cultivation.
"I really couldn't tell," Jean said with astonishment, stroking his small mustache. "It turns out you are so interested in alcohol~"
"No, I am merely bringing it back for a friend."
Sherlock pushed up his glasses. If a certain green-haired swordsman hadn't requested him to bring back some rum before, a person like him who was extremely sensitive to alcohol would never buy these fine liquors.
It was just that Roronoa Zoro definitely hadn't intended for him to buy alcohol that was quite this expensive...
"Alright, let us invite out the next auction item, which is also our final rare treasure."
Stavis cleared his throat, adjusted his mindset, and announced in a clear voice:
"One of the 21 Great Grade Swords, the famous sword—!"
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