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12th level of the auction house, in the room of the auction housemaster.

At this moment, there wasn’t a single guard present in this usually tightly guarded room. Even the master of the room was nowhere to be found. The only people present were two beautiful young girls dressed in short-sleeved servant outfits that stood motionlessly at the entrance of the room. Despite their beautiful appearances, not a sliver of happiness was present on their faces, with their eyes being as stiff as a puppet’s.

“Oof!” All of sudden, as though they had received an attack, the two young girls gave a muffled groan, before collapsing onto the ground. In the next instant, the space behind them started to warp and distort, before the petite figure of a person roughly the age of 10 years old appeared in the empty room.

The girl that had suddenly appeared was Eleanor. With a frown, she swept her gaze across the empty room.

The room looked exactly the same as she remembered it from a few years ago. However…where were the guards?

Before coming here, Eleanor had already made preparations to fight to the death, even though she knew that her chances of success were less than 30%. Nevertheless, who would have thought that the mighty auction housemaster, Wilkis, was such a scaredy-cat to not arrange a single guard in this room? In fact, she didn’t even know where the hell Wilkis had gone to.

Could it really be…a trap?

In an instant, Eleanor’s eyes turned sharp, before a few tiny, firefly-like lights started to slowly rise from her body and started to spread out across the entire room. As the lights slowly scattered, the frown on Eleanor’s face grew deeper by the second.

There isn’t any trap? Where the hell has Wilkis gone to?

Taking a deep breath, Eleanor forcefully suppressed her doubts to the bottom of her heart, as she had more important matters than to be fret with worry.

Walking over towards the room, Eleanor did not hesitate one bit before walking towards Wilkis’ storage room. Upon arriving, she stood before the door, not rushing to enter. Looking at the seemingly empty room, Eleanor gave a sneer while saying: “After so many years, this ******* still uses such lowly tactics.”

Eleanor took a flower vase from the side. From the looks of the exquisite design present on its surface, anyone could tell that it was definitely worth a substantial value. Nevertheless, Eleanor naturally didn’t care about this. Instead, she proceeded to roll this expensive item right into the center of the room.

As the flower vase rolled forwards, the spacious and quiet room suddenly erupted into chaos, as various explosions, alarms, laser shots, and traps activating appeared all at once. In that instant, all of the different traps and magics Wilkis had installed in the room were activated. Various kinds of frightening attacks smashed into the rolling flower vases, the might of the attacks was capable of overwhelming even a 9th rank expert.

Yet, there was not a single scratch present on the flower vase.

Those attacks and traps were arranged to perfectly strike the martial artist that crosses the center of the room. Furthermore, they were arranged in a manner that would take those minute human reactions and delays into consideration. Activating in a uniform manner…all of them were concentrated right before the flower vase.

God knows what this room was constructed out of, as not a single chip was left behind after that frightening barrage of attacks. Just like that, the flower vase continued to roll all the way to the centermost display shelf.

Seeing this, a smug “I knew it” look appeared on Eleanor’s face. Looking at the big doors, which appeared just like those impenetrable doors used in treasuries, a ruthless sneer appeared on her face as she muttered: “It’s alright if you don’t like to close the door, but you’ve actually not changed a single one of those garbage traps.”

As she muttered to herself, she strolled forwards in a slow and leisurely manner. Dangerous explosions and light rays continued to appear before Eleanor. Nevertheless, it appeared as though she was invisible, as none of them struck her while she slowly walked towards the wall.

As she walked past the display shelves, Eleanor was still feeling surprised by the lack of items present on them. Knowing that Wilkis treats those collections of his like his precious children, anyone who dares to steal them would definitely face his all-out wrath. Nevertheless, Eleanor didn’t have any more time to think about this, as her entire mind was already completely attracted by the white dagger present before her.

Counterfeit Artifact, The Pale Kiss.

Eleanor looked at the white dagger with a gaze unlike the one that people would use when looking at an item or weapon. On the contrary, it was just like looking at a teacher one had not seen for ages. In fact, there was even a sliver of respect present within her eyes.

“Long time no see, Sae.”

As Eleanor’s voice rang out, a black figure fluttered out from the dagger.

The figure was that of a black haired young girl dressed in a black dress, with a size approximately the same as Eleanor. Her pair of golden eyes sparkled with an unspeakable might. Nevertheless, her faintly translucent appearance showed that she wasn’t a physical existence, but an Artifact Spirit.

If any other person was present in this room, their jaws might have already dropped wide open in shock, as this white dagger, The Pale Kiss, was without a doubt a Counterfeit Artifact! Furthermore, a Counterfeit Artifact was a Sacred Artifact that had failed in its final stage of Spirit Refinement, so it was impossible to give birth to an Artifact Spirit!

Nevertheless, there was no denying this Artifact Spirit was there, and it was floating in the air.

“Young Fairy Elf girl, thou hast finally arrived.” The clear voice of the Artifact Spirit by the name of Sae rang out. Nevertheless, it completely didn’t fit the image of her young appearance: “Dost thou knoweth that tossing this great one aside for so longeth bodes of great disrespect?”

“I’m sorry. There are reasons behind that.” Eleanor apologized with a lowered head.

Seeing Eleanor’s apology, the ice-cold expression on Sae’s beautiful face softened slightly, before she said: “So for what reasoneth hast thou summoned this great one?”

“I want to save my fellow compatriots before blowing up the hall of this auction house.”

“Thou hast sought out this great one for just such trifling matters? This great one remembers handing thou a Saint Realm Scroll. The [Collapse] Spell engraved therein is ranked in the middle in terms of might among all of the Dragon Language Magic. Although it’s a low-rank Saint Magic, its might is not weaker than a middle rank one. That should be more than enough to blow apart this eggshell.”

“I know. However, this isn’t what I want to know. I’m talking about the Soul Contracts of the slaves reared from young by the auction house.”

Speaking till this point, Sae suddenly narrowed her eyes towards Eleanor, before replying while radiating an aura that was tinged with a sliver of threat: “So that’s what thee wanteth. Aren’t thee extremely disgraceful? This great one hadst taught thee magic, taught thee the method to extend thy lifespan, and the reason thee hadst visited this great one after abandoning I for all these years, is just for this great one to becometh thy informant?”

“This lowly one doesn’t dare.” Although Eleanor had said those words, there was not a sliver of regret present within her voice.

“Alright, alright. Since this great one hast lost mineth original body, and can only wander around liketh a lonely wild ghost, it’s normal for this great one to receive such treatment.” Pointing at the display shelf in the center of the room, Sae continued to say: “It’s in the bottom shelf.”

Upon hearing those words, Eleanor was somewhat astonished that such an important item was found as easy as that. Nevertheless, after giving it some thought, she understood that this might be the safest place that Wilkis had under his control.

“Are thou still filled with regret?” asked Sae suddenly.

“What?” As she was deep in her thoughts, Eleanor wasn’t able to react in time. Nevertheless, she immediately understood exactly what regret Sae was talking about: “Naturally. That’s the only way I can continue living on.”

“Even if it doesn’t strictly mean living on as a [living being]?”

“Yes.” Looking towards Sae, Eleanor’s eyes gleamed with an incomparably resolute glow: “Even so, I have to ‘live’ on.”

“So that’s the case. Indeed, this great one didn’t make a mistake.” All of a sudden, a peculiar faint smile appeared at the corner of Sae’s mouth: “Then this great one will help thee in this one last act.”

Subconsciously, Eleanor was feeling that something was amiss. However, it was already too late, as Sae suddenly transformed into a black ray of light and shot right into her body. Being frightened by this sudden event, Eleanor jumped up in shock as she rapidly scanned her body. Upon doing so, she found out that a mysterious power had suddenly appeared within her body. At the same time, her white hair appeared to be gradually transforming into black color.

What in hell’s happening? Could it be that Sae, the Artifact Spirit that I was never able to read, has sacrificed itself to let me live a little longer? Although she has taught me magic and a lot of things, I’ve paid the price for all of them.

“This great one hadst taught thee magic and the knowledge needed for thee to break through thou’s fetters. However, thou have to promise this great one all of your time and life after breaking through thou’s fetters to find something for this great one.”

Those were the first words Sae had spoken to me. However, I’ve yet to break through my fetters, but she had already sacrificed herself! What the hell! This is too strange!

Even after racking her brains, Eleanor wasn’t able to understand why Sae had done something as outrageous as this. However, the thing that Sae had requested Eleanor to spend all of her time and life to find, she had in fact already sensed its existence not long ago.