Once inside the auction house Ajax had no use for his ticket. Despite them being received as a show of good will for his testimony of the steampunk gear Ajax, Lexi, Judy and Elija had all been invited to the Goldmancer private balcony.

Due to the instability that had been dragged out of Oliver the archduke was a bit light on people he trusted as far as mercantile people went. Those he did trust he left behind to keep watch over the others. This left him with a space for a few friendly faces to join him in enjoying the auction.

“You two finally made it, I was sure it was going to start without you!” Ajax was surprised to see the king’s oldest son in the room as he was brought in by the attendant.

“What are you…?” Lexi left the question unfinished but it was pretty clear to everyone what the question was.

“Dad’s room has all those nobles in there, he and my brother can deal with that.” the prince shamelessly said. “I can actually enjoy the auction from here.”

Most of the nobles that had come from the kingdom were actually expected to socialize a little, it had been one of the king's requests in exchange for making the detour that the nobles were not focused as merchants try to create some favorable connections with the Republic.

As the sole experienced merchant from his family this meant that archduke Goldmancer was allowed to take the opportunity and teach Anna about how to handle auctions in other countries so he was exempt. Ajax was exempted for the very simple reason that it was better for all involved, while he had made great strides in handling social situations he was barely at the point where he could attend any event without unintentionally insulting at least a few participants.

“Welcome my lords and ladies…” the host began the welcoming speech up on the stage only to be silenced as the prince pressed on an enchantment near the glass window.

“I doubt any of you are interested in the opening speech.” the prince said as he retook his seat.

Both Elija and Judy looked like they wanted to complain, neither doing so because the person who drew their ire was a prince, instead they were focused on the presenter and trying to lipread the welcoming speech hoping to gather any extra information they could about the local situation and any extra tidbit about the items in the list they were given.

“So what is your impression about old Whisker?” the prince asked Ajax.

The question drew more than a few frowns from the Goldmancer guards present in the room, despite him being a foreign champion his strength did inspire respect from all of them.

“He’s definitely something else, very scary.” Ajax said honestly.

“Managed to get any information on him?” For the first time this evening the prince lost his joking mood, this time it was the champion of Gryndor asking the question not the aloof prince who threw away his position as heir. “Don’t worry the room is secure.”

Ajax took another short look around before he answered the question. “He’s got a Legendary inspection skill, high leveled too. If he wanted to he could break right through [Enigma] and take a look at any part of my status.” At least he could before Ajax chose the upgrade to provide a reinforced defense to the more guarded sections of his status, though he kept the part about the upgrade to himself.

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“He didn’t take a look at anything that others haven’t already gotten, but he could have.” Ajax continued to calm down his family and friends who were surprised at the reveal. “His defense to being inspected is much lower quality, I would guess it's a high Uncommon or a middle of the way Rare.”

“From the way you knew who I was talking about I am guessing you got his name. What else?” the prince nodded.

“He is a lethal threat to me, level 209” there were a few sharp breaths drawn in at that but the prince didn’t seem surprised in the least. “And he is 679 years old.”

That last remark caused both the archduke and the prince to stare at him with wide eyes. “You’re sure about that?” the both asked at the same time, sparing a small glance at each other for a split second before focusing on Ajax once more.

“I’m sure.” Ajax confirmed. “Why does that matter?”

“Because the Republic has been leaking out that he is closer to nine hundred.” archduke Goldmancer answered. “If he is only 679 years old, and looks as old as he does, that means he doesn’t have as much time left as a deterrent as they want, it does explain why they are so interested in you and your succession as the war deterrent.”

“I’ll let father know but other than that the information doesn’t leave this room, by royal command.” The prince unleashed his aura to punctuate those words and everyone in the room felt the pressure.

The solemn air in the room was dispersed as the opening speech ended and the auction began in truth. The prince returned to his relaxed, carefree state and the silent enchantment on the glass was turned off.

The items being auctioned off were a solid mix of actually useful items, items meant for vanity and prestige as well as curiosities obtained from one of the other kingdoms. While none of the items were anything Ajax was especially interested in he found himself in awe of what he was seeing.

From the start of the auction fifteen items had gone by and there was only one that the archduke hadn’t made a bet on, that item had been won by kind Gryndor. On every other item brought up the archduke had been very active, despite all that he didn’t win a single item. This might seem like a poor showing to the untrained eye but both Elija and Judy were looking at him like they wanted to ask for his autograph but didn’t dare disturb him while he was working. Ajax assumed that he had already raised the princes on the items he had been active on by 30-40%.

The archduke was so good that Ajax was at the same time thankful for the chance to see him in action but also a little worried, he silently promised himself to leave this balcony before the end of the auction so that nobody would associate him with the raised prices.

“That’s the one you put up, what’s it do?” Anna asked as the half mask with an eye was brought out, this was also the first of the steampunk items.

“What do you mean what’s it do?” The prince interjected before Ajax got a chance to answer.

“Some of the items were still usable.” Lexi said with a smirk as she brought out the steampunk leg, started the steam process and caused it to jerk with a small eclectic pulse at the connection. “Depending on how damaged they were, some are still usable as prosthetics, with a bit of a learning curve.”

Ajax did his best to ignore the dumbfounded look on the prince's face and answered. “No idea what the eye is good for, I wouldn’t try attaching that since messing up has a good chance to kill the wearer. The lower portion however should be some kind of filtration system for gasses and poisons.”

“Woah there, back up. Some of the things there might still work.” The prince was still catching up. “Is there anything in the pile that me or Shadow had that might be very useful?”

“Uh, I think so.” Ajax said as he thought back through any of the things they had taken for anything that might be useful. “That connected suit from the mini-boss who didn’t fully replace anything on his body. You took off his head so I think the suit should still be whole and functional.”

“What’s so good about that suit?” the prince asked.

“Not sure how long it can keep going since you killed the boss pretty quick.” Ajax answered. “But since it's an exoskeleton with all four limbs and chest connection with the steam engine on the back it should be usable by anyone, not only that but it would increase anyones physical capacity up to a level sixty-five physical fighter.”

“That’s very good for an enchanted piece of gear.” the prince exclaimed.

“It does have some drawbacks.” Ajax warned him. “When not powered up it should be quite heavy. Not only that but you saw how this gear works, much better at short burst releases of power than continued use.”

“That’s true, their opening attacks were a lot deadlier than anything else they had.” the prince nodded as he pondered the suit in question. “I hope that thing still works, my niece wanted to be a mage but with those extra stats she got from your training method the extra weight shouldn’t be that much of a problem.”

Ajax was very much surprised to see his grandfather enter a bidding war for a small ruby gemstone. “I know someone looking for one of those back home, it’ll bring us quite a bit of profit.” Elija's smile didn’t show that he had spent over 40000 gold coins on a single rock.

“Okay kid come on time to move.” The prince started to lead Ajax and Lexi towards the door. “This thing is almost over and the last time I came out from the same balcony as old Goldmancer I had to spend five parties mending fences with the nobility in that city.”