Chương 186: CH55 (185), The Auction
The exams were no problem this time around as well and with the last one finished my first "long" holiday began. The 3rd term holidays were 3 months long and indicated that half the academy/school year was over. The first month alone had two "big" events for me.
First was the auction I was going to visit on Dialday, 06.36.2178, with my parents. It actually went on for three days. Admittedly the auction only went on from 10 a.m to 8 p.m each day, but that was still 10 hours per day. Well, 8 hours if we did not count the breaks, but it still added up to a whole lot of time.
The second event was "Rayquaza's Patrol", aka. New Year, which would be the first New Year's celebration at our second home here in Rota. My parents planned to "stay over" for the duration of the first event, and stay for a week before, as well as after, the second one. I can't really call the first one "stay over" since we will be in Celadon City for the auction.
I spent the next 5 days either chilling with my Pokemon or training with them. I met up once with Erza as well, and we went to a cafe that offered pancakes that she liked.
Ace and Weiss went back to their families for the holidays, but it seemed they were going to the auction as well with their parents, so I was going to see them there. Well, the few times we could meet up during the breaks.
It was 7 a.m right now and I was waiting for my parents to show up. The auction was going to begin in three hours and we still had to go to Celadon City, check into our hotel, and find our seat in the auction house. Fifteen minutes later they finally showed up.
"You ready, kiddo?" My father asked and I rolled my eyes.
"I have been ready for the last 30 minutes, dad." I returned and he just smiled as if they had not made me wait.
"Alright, boys, let's go. We need to be at the Pewter Teleportation Hub in 15 minutes." Mom interfered and I had to stop myself from asking whose fault that was. Instead, I called out Horus and had him Teleport us there.
It took two jumps to reach our destination. The first brought us to the border of the "Rota Kingdom", and the second one deposited us near the entrance of the Teleportation Hub. We still had more than 10 minutes so we did not have to rush to enter the Hub.
My parents had forked out a nice sum and bought us a single jump ticket. At 7:30 a.m an Alakazam appeared on its lonesome in front of Teleportation Station 17, where we were waiting.
'Are you the Geo family?' Alakazam asked per open telepathy.
"Yes," dad replied, which made Alakazam nod.
"Great. Do you have everything with you?" Alakazam inquired and after receiving a positive answer it crossed its spoons.
'Alright, we've arrived in Celadon City. Thank you for choosing Alakazam's Instant Teleportation Services and I hope you consider traveling with us again.' Alakazam suddenly announced before it crossed its spoons once more and vanished.
I was extremely surprised that the teleportation went so smoothly. I hadn't even really felt the tug that normally happened during regular teleportations, not to mention long-distance ones. Luckily, it seemed I was not the only one taken by surprise.
"Oh, wow. That was the smoothest long-distance teleportation in my life." Mom said and dad nodded in agreement.
"I think that Alakazam was probably at the peak of the Dark Gold stage with a really high mastery of Teleport. The question is why such a strong Pokemon is transporting people around. A hobby perhaps? I mean it shouldn't be for the money, right?" Dad theorized but got cut off by mom.
"Well, that's not important right now. Alakazam can do whatever she wants. We, on the other hand, need to move towards our hotel now. I have to prepare for the auction, and so do you two, so get moving." She urged us and we followed her lead.
We took a taxi to our hotel and I kept looking out the window to get a picture of Celadon City since this was my first time here. I saw a lot of high-rise buildings and a few skyscrapers, but surprisingly the city still looked pretty green.
Despite being one of Kanto's most populous cities, the place did not look crowded. I noticed parks, greeneries, and trees everywhere. When I asked my parents about it, to tempt the taxi driver, the man began to brag about the city for the rest of our 15-minute drive to the hotel.
I learned that the reason for the green look of the city was the Gym Leader and his family, the Hana family, who already had that post for a few generations.
The Gym Leader was a man named Takeo, but he seemed to have a daughter called Erika who had started her journey 7 years ago. Erika seemed to be a pretty successful grass-type specialist. Coincidence? I don't think so.
The taxi driver also mentioned that the number of Skyscrapers was 36 and that each one seemed to be placed strategically so that they did not give a crowded image.
Moreover, the "Lotus" auction house we were going to visit was owned by the Hana family and the auction was organized jointly by them as well as the alliance. They organized a "big" auction like this one every three years, while "smaller" auctions happened more frequently.
Dad gave the driver the fare as well as a nice tip and we got off the taxi in front of the "Daffodil Hotel". I was starting to see a pattern. Anyway, we checked into our room, and mom forced us to take a shower before changing into semi-formal wear.
It took over an hour before we, *cough* she *cough*, were ready and by the time we arrived at the auction house, it was 9:30 a.m. The auction house itself looked like a really large 3-story flower-themed oriental building.
Inside were a lot of people mingling around, and I found a leaflet with a little info on the auction. Apparently, there would be around 100 items auctioned per day, so there were around 300 items total, if not more.
Unlike auctions in my old world where each item was listed beforehand, the auction had publicized only 30 items for publicity sake, but the rest was kept as a surprise.
After looking around the reception hall for a bit we entered the main auction hall. There was a stage close to the center of the hall, and a large screen was placed behind the stage, presumably to make sure the people sitting in the back could see what was happening on the stage.
A lot of chairs were placed in rows in a semi-circle around the stage for the "regular" guests, which made up the majority. There were a few tables close to the stage for the few more important "regular" guests, and looking up were the private rooms for VIPs on the second and third floors.
The hall ceiling was the ceiling of the building since it was designed in a way that allowed the rooms on the second and third floors to look at the stage.
A majority of the seats were already full despite there still being 20 minutes for the auction to start. We went straight to our seats, which to my surprise were in the second row, somewhere at the center of the semi-circle.
I knew that Weiss and her family were in one of the rooms on the second floor and Ace had told me his family was going to be at one of the tables on the first floor. So, the only one I could theoretically get a glimpse of was Ace.
I let my gaze sweep over the tables I could see, but I could not really see him. So, I took out my phone and texted our chat group that we had arrived. A short moment later Ace and Weiss replied.
[I'm already there as well. We're seated at one of the tables on the right.] Ace answered.
[Me too. Our room is roughly central, and I have spotted Mikail, but I can't see Ace.] Weiss replied.
We kept chatting for nearly 15 minutes before Weiss wrote that her parents told her to focus on the auction.
[Alright, let's meet up during the 1-hour break at 2:30 p.m.] I wrote in return.
[Sure./Alright.] The two answered before I closed the group chat.
"Make sure your phone is muted, please." My dad said before I could put away my phone.
After I made sure that it was indeed muted I put it back into my pocket and focused on the stage where a beautiful woman with red hair and a light beige skin tone was standing with a microphone. She wore a red dress that matched well with her hair and she did not seem to mind showing off her long legs since her dress ended a bit above the knees.
Anyway, gorgeous looks aside, she introduced herself as Mary and declared the beginning of the auction, promptly starting with the first item that an assistant brought over on top of a cushion. It was a Pokeball.
The beautiful assistant just stood beside Mary carrying the cushion, probably as additional eye candy, while Mary began introducing the first item.
"To make sure we have a great start, I have a big surprise for all of you. I'm sure everyone will love our first article." She began, raising the expectations of all guests.
"Provided by the Williams family of Cerulean City, with a certificate to prove its authenticity, our first article is a 5-star stageless Squirtle. Our first article is one of the fabled royal Pokemon of Kanto." Mary hyped up the surprise before announcing a Squirtle.
A commotion went through the crowd once she mentioned the Squirtle. I on the other hand idly thought that my friend /acquaintance Misty had the same surname and came from Cerulean City as well. What a coincidence, indeed. I got broken out of my musing by Mary's voice.
"We all know that the Williams family is reputed for their water types, which means you don't have to worry about Squirtle's health in any way. Together with the certificate to prove its 5-star potential, this little guy is the perfect Pokemon to gift your juniors as starters or to train up as a member of your own team." Mary began lauding the Squirtle to fire up the crowd a bit more.
"The starting bid for this little gem is 15.000.000 Poke." She declared and I was not too shocked by that.
The price for stageless Pokemon was actually higher than the one for (high) iron-stage ones since they were all pretty young and thus more impressionable than the iron-stage ones. This made it easier to bond with them and they tended to be easier to train.
"16.000.000!" Came the shout from somewhere behind us.
"A bid of 16.000.000 Poke, from the Mister in seat D53!" Mary repeated before asking if there were any further bids.
"17.000.000," was immediately heard from somewhere on the left.
"18.000.000," quickly followed without giving Mary the chance to ask for a higher bid.
This was followed by a few more bids from the crowd on the first floor easing the price to 39.000.000 Poke.
"The bid is at 39.000.000 Poke, by Mr. Storm at Table 3. Are there any other bids?" Mary asked but no one spoke up.
"Then if there are no other bids, I shall begin the closing of the bid that will ensure that the 5-star Squirtle with a bid of 39.000.000 Poke will go to Mr. Storm," Mary said obviously stretching her sentence hoping someone would increase the bid.
"Going once, going twice," she began counting down.
"40.000.000" Came from somewhere interrupting her countdown.
"Room 12 has raised offered 40.000.000. Are there any other offers?" Mary asked in a happy tone.
"45.000.000." I recognized the voice of the previous bidder raising the price.
After the person from Room 12 raised the price to 56.000.000 Poke, that guy called Mr. Storm gave up.
"...going three times. Sold to Room 12 for 56.000.000 Poke." Mary finally closed the bid.
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