(Konekomaru POV)

「Hae~, there’s a lot of people.」

「Sukuna-kun, you’re going too far ahead.」

「Sorry, Konekomaru-san.」

Even though it was supposed to have been her first time going to that place, I ended up chasing after the kijin girl who was advancing rapidly, walking down the road toward the assembly hall of the auction in the capital. It seemed like Sukuna-kun had hunted more Mysteria Rabi, so her lack of money had been solved and she was in high spirits about today’s auction.

「If there’s something I want to buy, I just have to bid for it, right?」

「Of course. Today’s auction is what you would say is a regular auction, one that is held once every two weeks, so there might not be that many rare items, but….well, I have also exhibited my work, too. So let’s just relax and have fun.」

「You’re right. It would be great if I could buy materials for accessories.」

As if agreeing with my words, my wife――Wanda, who was walking beside me――said so.

Today was the auction day that I promised to go with Sukuna-kun to. According to the plan, it should have just been me and Sukuna-kun, but my wife decided to come today as well.

My wife, with the player name Wanda, put energy into crafting accessories. Both of us were crafters and we both lent each other materials, there was no mistake that we were having fun playing the game alongside each other.

The Red Wolf attire that I delivered to Sukuna-kun, its design was something my wife had mostly thought up. It was the same with the choker too, it was my wife’s work.

“I want to see what she’s like at least once while she isn’t fighting or doing something battle-related.” “I want to see her at least once doing something that isn’t battle-related.” I couldn’t stop my wife, who dreadfully came at me with that line, from doing so.

「Wanda-san, do you have an item you’re aiming for?」

「From the stuff on the auction list….maybe the rainbow agate? Mineral types are quite the natural thing on accessories, after all.」

After finding something that interested both of them, the two of them suddenly got along with each other. And right now, the two of them were talking about the contents of the auction.

While feeling like I was leading them, thinking about both the age of my wife and I, I thought that this might have been what it felt like to have a daughter.

Though we had met a few days before, and although I usually saw her through the stream, somehow I thought that Sukuna-kun was in a good mood.

No, rather than being in a good mood…..it felt more like she was really relaxed. Regarding the atmosphere around her, it felt closer to when she was streaming with Rinne-kun at the archives.

I didn’t really know why, but I thought again that it was most likely better for her than being tense.

「It would be great if there was a good weapon or something. If there was, I’d like to buy it~.」

「It would be great if I could at least get materials. The third wavers are coming in today, and the event will start in four days as well, so it wouldn’t be bad to prepare for it.」

「Well, buying something isn’t bad. Just to remind you though, we are also auctioning, so we should also be thinking about the earnings on that one.」

「You’ve got a point. Well, as for that money being necessary for Sukuna-san, that might be rather questionable, though.」

「Since I earned a lot yesterday after all….hehe.」

Sukuna-kun might have appeared a bit shy about it, but from what I had heard, it seemed that she went on a killing spree towards the Mysteria Rabi, which was quite a surprise.

It seemed that she had gathered nearly one million Iris, but if we were to be imprudent with it, that amount would be enough to buy a cheap house.

For Sukuna-kun, who was focused on clearing, owning a house might be pointless, but even so, owning one million Iris would be enough to buy equipment on the level of the current frontliners’.

“Until the end of the event, maybe I should keep hunting for Mysteria Rabi.” Saying so while holding a steel ball and a knife and smiling, that figure made me shiver.

Actually having watched the scene of her defeating the Mysteria Rabi via her stream, I had asked her to let me buy the materials, but really, Sukuna-kun’s throwing techniques were already abnormal.

It wasn’t strange to be able to throw for several hundreds of meters in and of itself. Setting aside weapons with a lot of weight, throwing weapons were set to have longer throwing distances than normal items.

And in addition to that, with high stats, it would probably be possible to throw even further than several hundreds of meters. In fact, Sukuna-kun had actually done that.

The problem was, her throwing technique was so accurate and so precise, as if she was seeing the future.

As the general premise, WLO’s throwing hit rate completely relied on the player’s skills. Where the throw landed depended solely on the way the player threw it.

Even if there was some assistance to some degree, it was not something that would cause throws to always go straight and home onto the target.

So first, you needed the technique to be able to hit things, and then beyond that was prediction, the power to read ahead, which was a necessity.

I didn’t know why Sukuna-kun had chosen to use throwing, but in this game, there shouldn’t have been any other players as good as her in terms of throwing skill.

That skill of hers was already on the level of precision sniping. And also, her ability to consider the ricochet was on an extraordinary level. One hundred hits for a hundred bullets was normally impossible.

Moreover, in her case, it seemed like she could see the way it would hit and the angle it would impact at. It seemed that, just by looking, she could understand just how much strength was needed to hit it, or in which direction it would deflect to.

Naturally, when we heard that, Wanda and I were dumbfounded. On that certain stream, the NPC Kohaku-kun had mentioned it, but Sukuna-kun’s eyesight was on another dimension.

「Dear? What’s the matter?」

「Aah, I’m sorry. It seems that I was thinking too deeply. The entrance ticket is this.」

I passed over the entrance tickets for the two for the receptionist of the auction. It wasn’t like membership-type tickets, but they were still something that you needed to buy beforehand.

Regarding my wife’s presence, I had taken into account that just one more person would be coming, but Touka-kun couldn’t come today, so it didn’t turn out to be a waste.

Though it said ‘regular auction,’ it wasn’t like in the shows where they would bid for the auctioned items one by one but was actually much closer to how fishes were auctioned at a fishing harbor.

First of all, the items would be exhibited in a large auction hall, and then each person would apply an amount towards their bid.

Once the time for bidding was over, the person with the highest bid could purchase the item, it was structured like that.

What I had presented was body armor. It was a piece where the jewel of a Mysteria Rabi was used, so this time, I made a mantle.

Named 《Illusion Mantle》, despite the rainbow-y appearance, it had a stealth effect on it. It was a rather high-levelled good as of right now.

It was just that, although the effect might have been high level, the core defensive power was nothing. It had a flaw where it needed to be compensated for with other pieces of armor and accessories.

《Illusion Mount》 started its auction with a 100k Iris bid.

I paid Sukuna-kun 150k for the price of the jewel alone, and considering the other materials I had used, I’d ideally have the price exceed 200k.

「So, rainbow agate starts at 10k…..for now, let’s bid for it. Oh my, a white obsidian, such a rare thing. It was not on the auction list, was it…..oh well, let’s try bidding for it within the extent of the budget.」

「What’s a white obsidian?」

「It doesn’t break and is really soft, a mineral with a unique nature. As a mineral its strong against blunt but weak against sharp object, it has those kinds of characteristics.」

「Hee~.」

I was curious whether my item would sell, but since it was also my first time coming to the auction, it would be a waste if I didn’t enjoy it.

Learning from the two who were having fun looking around the exhibition area, I should also have fun.

「Oh my….dear, look at this!」

「Nn? Wanda, what’s the matter?」

What I was called over by my wife to see was a high-attribute metal ingot called《Flare Metal》. It was a red metal with higher purity, and as of right now, there were no other ways of getting it. No, to be exact, you could say that it was only possible to get it through this auction.

Since it hadn’t been in the auction list, had it been a secret or was it simply late in having its application filed?

Seeing a rare metal-type material, I unknowingly got excited. Compared to red metal, which you could get from the Scorching Caverns, it was deeply red in color, perhaps crimson? The luster was dull but shined with a light, belaying its importance.

Whether you did smithing, clothes, or accessories crafting, you would gather quite a lot of info regarding rare materials like this, but to think that I could admire this high-attribute metal with my own eyes…

The starting bid was at 200k, and it already had a price of over one million Iris on it. Most likely, a high-ranked adventurer had already set their sights on it.

I was a bit charmed, but obviously I didn’t have the financial leeway to buy it. It was just that, thinking that if I were to participate in auctions like this, I could get items like that. My heart was a bit excited.

「If it was a bit cheaper then I would have recommended it to Sukuna-kun-san. If I’m right, wasn’t she given an attribute crystal from Meneas?」

「Yeah. It’s unfortunate, but even around Zeronoa, they still haven’t found a high attribute metal. The weapon’s abilities should match with the player’s level as much as possible so they have much more fun. So they probably still don’t need it yet.」

While agreeing to the words of my wife, I moved my gaze toward Sukuna-kun who was looking around the items.

It seemed like something piqued her interest. I could see her eyes glittering a bit.

「 Sukuna-kun, was there something…?」

「Ah, Konekomaru-san. Take a look at this.」

Looking at ‘this,’ what Sukuna-kun was looking at, there didn’t seem to be anything.

While I was beginning to doubt what she was talking about, suddenly, as if it were a phantom, a glass case with an item inside of it appeared.

「Uwa!?」

「What’s the matter?」

「Nothing, just that suddenly right now….. Sukuna-kun, were you able to see it?」

「…..? Oh, well rather than that, take a look at this.」

Sukuna-kun looked as if she didn’t know what I was surprised about. It seemed she thought it was troublesome to think about.

In a state as if we didn’t really care at all, whe pointed at the good’s description from the auctioneer.

Having looked at the goods earlier, it looked something like a glossy white thread. From how it appeared, it was a fur or hair of some kind.

「《White Wolf’s Illusive Hair》…….is this, perhaps, a Named material?」

「That’s right. It’s not like the auctioneer defeated it, it seems like the they just picked it up of the ground.」

「Is it even something you can just ‘pick up….’」

I unknowingly let out a bewildered voice.

Sukuna-kun’s stream where she talked about the world’s setting with Kohaku had become popular discussion material among theorizing groups.

To those who liked settings like that, it had become quite a significant source material. I had also somewhat gathered this kind of information to some degree, so you could say I was rather versed on the lore.

If you took White Wolf, and the word ‘Illusive,’ then you would have the《White Wolf of Illusion》. It was natural to think that this monster was lined up with the 《Red Wolf of Isolation》and《Black Wolf of Congregation》.

「I don’t know if its the real thing, but since it rather cheap, I thought of trying to bid for it.」

Certainly, for a Named material, its price was quite cheap. Even comparing it with a weak party Named material, of which the value is immeasurable, the starting bid for this item was just 10k Iris.

And moreover, it seemed that no one had even tried to bid for it, the only bidding history that showed was the 10,001 iris that Sukuna-kun had just recorded.

It was obviously too cheap, for goods like this that should have been talked about quite a bit, being ignored was quite the ridiculous thing.

However, based on the phenomenon that happened just a moment ago, I could somewhat guess why it was so.

It was simple: other than Sukuna-kun, no one else had noticed it.

As its name said, it was ‘illusive.’ The material itself should have quite a tremendous amount of something like a stealth bonus.

「Isn’t it fine? Even if its a fake, if it’s just 10k then it won’t be problem for you right now, right?」

「Yep, yep.」

「What are you doing ther-…..!?」

It seemed that, after becoming curious from seeing Sukuna-kun happily nodding and me standing where nothing was, my wife came over.

And on the way, it seemed that she had noticed the glass case that had just appeared, and her eyes opened wide, but she didn’t have the same frank reaction as I had.

「I did bid for this, you know.」

「Oh my, a monster material, is it…..that’s nice. It looks easy to make an accessory from.」

Unlike me, my wife wasn’t really that interested in the lore of the game, and she just looked at the item as if it were any material.

Certainly, those silk-thread-like fur hairs seemed like they would be easy to weave, which was rather convenient.

It was too lacking in quantity to make a piece of armor, but as for an accessory, it ought to be enough to make part of it.

Still, I thought of this.

Considering how Sukuna-kun was able to find this because of how deeply she herself was connected to it, I could confirm for myself just how deep the lore and the settings of this game went.

The problem was the auctioneer who「picked it up.」

Just how did they pick up something like this, and why were they doing something like putting it in an auction?

Moreover, if Sukuna-kun hadn’t found it, in the worst case, they wouldn’t’ve been able to sell it and that would have been that.

In the first place, I didn’t completely understand what they meant by ‘picked up.’ If a monster died, they turned into polygons and disappeared, with their materials the only things that dropped.

Then had they defeated the White wolf and obtained it? No. Even the Black Wolf’s name had only just been confirmed, there shouldn’t have been any players that could defeat the White Wolf.

If someone could, it would be an NPC like Kohaku, who was super powerful, or the Heavenly Eye》 that has been the big topic among the NPCs recently.

No, wait. Certainly it was because the 《Heavenly Eye》 visited the capital, Fias, several days before that it became a topic, right?

That NPC herself had put a material of hers in the auction, and put it on sale with a random reason behind it.

But regarding why that White Wolf material was there, it would somewhat connect.

However….in the end, what would they have done if no one had gotten their hands on the White Wolf material? That question still hadn’t been solved.

I tried hypothesizing about it, but I might have been reading too deep into it.

「Unexpectedly, it might have actually just been something that they accidently picked up and put on the auction…..」

「Dear, the auction for the metal wolf fur is starting over there, you know?」

「What!? I’ll go there right away!」

「There sure are a lot of varieties of wolves.」

Ignoring Sukuna-kun’s carefree impression because I had the chance to get something good, I hurried over to the auction area for the metal wolf fur.

In contrast to the white obsidian, fur materials were strong against slashing, so they were good items.

And since it was a rare monster, its materials were harder to get. Moreover, they only appeared in the 《Abandoned Mine》 between Griffis and Zeronoa, so in the first place, the players that are able to get them are too few.

It was an item you would definitely want when you could get your hands on it.

「There are absolutely no blunt weapons….」

Sukuna-kun, who was searching for a new weapon inside the hall, muttered in disappointment.

「Fufu, for players and NPCs alike, blunt weapons are not that popular, after all.」

「Earlier, there was a two-handed club right there, you know?」

「Eh!? I’m going to go see it!」

「Well, I’ll guide you there.」

Did she take Sukuna-kun’s happy reaction pleasantly? My wife also smiled as she showed Sukuna-kun over.

In the end, including breaks, we spent nearly half a day inside the auction hall.