Chapter 322: Auction on the Sea

"Then Mr. Watson, is it okay to call the story *Heart of the Ocean*?"

Miss Princess proposed, her hair swaying slightly in the sea breeze.

"Of course."

Xia De nodded, then coughed:

"Then I'll start telling it. This is a true story that happened not long ago, perhaps..."

Regarding the story of the sinking of a large ship that had been circulating in his hometown for a long time, he actually didn't need to change many details to tell it, after all, the era of the story background wasn't much different from the contemporary era.

Facing the sea breeze and looking at the scenery of Coldwater Port gradually moving away, Xia De told the story, while Miss Princess rested her hands on the railing, listening while looking out at the sea surface.

In the wind, her long golden hair swayed slightly backward. Originally, she just wanted to kill time before the auction and find an excuse to let Xia De accompany her for a drink. But when Xia De's story ended, the young girl couldn't care about drinking anymore.

"... That blue sapphire necklace was thrown into the sea by her. The seawater swallowed it, just like the night of the disaster many years ago, the ocean swallowed her lover. Looking at it disappear without a trace, the white-haired old woman seemed to have returned to that night many years ago, returned to that ship. She turned back into that young blonde girl, and together with the man beside her, stepped into the ballroom where the violin music was pleasant."

Xia De used the weakening of his voice as the end of the story. He was also moved by the story he told and was very proud of his storytelling ability, which could also be considered one of his strengths. A beautiful story is full of charm in any world.

Turning to look at his companion beside him, it was a pity that she was wearing a mask now, so he couldn't see the expression of the girl wearing a blue dress, only those beautiful eyes:

"Finished telling it. How is the story?"

"Very nice."

The voice was very normal, and no emotion could be heard. Miss Princess probably didn't feel much:

"Do you... often use this method to tell stories to girls?"

She asked in a low voice against the wind.

"What?"

"No, nothing."

The girl whose hair was fading and whose tips were already showing red shook her head slightly, then looked at the sea surface again:

"Alright, you don't have to drink. I admit this is a very good love story, very beautiful... although, I suspect you omitted some content in the middle, for example, when you mentioned the plot of painting, you clearly skipped some content, making the story incoherent."

She glanced at Xia De, and seeing that Xia De didn't react, she sighed:

"For someone like me who is dying, it's really great to be able to hear such a story."

"Don't say anything about dying. There must be a way to eradicate the curse."

Xia De had to speak now. Although they had only known each other for half a day, he had already regarded Miss Princess as a friend and didn't want anything to happen to her:

"But this isn't a story I wrote."

Even if no one could expose him, Xia De wouldn't claim someone else's story as his own, otherwise he wouldn't even have the face to see Mia:

"The story was told to me by someone; it can be considered a local small story that has been circulating for a long time."

"I hope this is just a story, not something that really happened, otherwise it would be too sad. I really hate tragedies... Of course, I also admit the charm of tragedies."

Miss Princess took a deep breath, as if to discharge all the bad emotions:

"After the auction ends, we will separate. Perhaps there will be no chance to meet again in this life. Mr. Watson, since we are lucky enough to meet today and come here together, why can't we enjoy the banquet?"

"Why, do you want to experience the feeling of standing at the bow of the ship like in the story?"

Saying this, Xia De even spread his arms and gestured, and the girl wearing a mask smiled:

"No, there is no beautiful sunset shining on the sea surface now, nor is there a band playing the out-of-tune song you hummed. If there is a chance, use my ship... I mean, there are still fifteen minutes until the auction starts, are you willing to dance a dance with me?"

She stretched out her right hand to Xia De. Because this wasn't a formal banquet, she wasn't wearing gloves. That white hand made a gesture of resting in the air:

"Do you want to dance?"

Xia De thought for a moment, thinking that the other party seemed calm, but was still affected by the emotions when listening to the story just now:

"Of course, no problem."

He raised his right hand, letting Miss Princess's hand rest on his:

"If you don't mind, of course I have no problem. Just, only one dance."

He emphasized, actually not very willing to dance with a stranger either; this feeling was very strange.

"One dance is enough. I thought you would refuse on the grounds that you don't know how to dance."

Miss Princess said with a smile, then let go of Xia De's hand and pulled at the hem of her dress to turn around. The blue skirt spread out like a flower, and she turned back to look at Xia De:

"Don't go to that place where there are many people. Just stay here; you can also hear the music here."

"No problem."

Xia De nodded, not forgetting to explain:

"I'm not good at this; I can only be considered a beginner at dancing. Not long ago, I went to attend a very important banquet, and two beautiful girls taught me how to dance together. At that time, I stepped on them several times."

If it weren't for wearing a mask, Xia De would definitely be able to see what kind of expression was on the face of the girl who called herself "Miss Princess" at this moment. However, through such probing, Xia De almost understood who the other party was, but in this way, the relationship between "Miss Princess" and the writer lady was a bit too outrageous.

He intended to expose this noble-born girl after the cruise ship safely docked. Now everyone almost knew it, but no one broke it. The outsider who longed for more stories, and the princess who used small jokes to relax herself, both wanted to quietly enjoy this peaceful "Coldwater Port holiday."

The sound of orchestral music came from the other side of the deck. For the two dancing in the night wind, the loudest sound they heard was actually the sound of the waves in their ears.

Although Xia De had learned to dance from Luvia and Iruna, he was still very unskilled. Fortunately, Miss Princess took very good care of him. Even though Xia De clumsily almost stepped on the young girl's shoes, she only chuckled and didn't care at all.

The two didn't speak during this period but quietly enjoyed this moment. When the dance music stopped and Xia De let go of his hand, Miss Princess actually paused for a moment before letting go, allowing Xia De to step back:

"Yes, you really don't know how to dance."

She said in a joking tone:

"The feeling you gave me just now was like a clumsy elephant carefully avoiding the banana peel on the ground."

After speaking, she didn't give Xia De a chance to speak and pointed to the other side of the deck:

"Let's go, the auction is about to start. Speaking of which, did you bring enough pounds? I brought a bank draft."

"I brought quite a lot of cash."

Xia De answered.

"Is that so?"

Miss Princess looked at his clothes, not understanding where the "large amount" of cash Xia De mentioned was hidden.

The auction was held at the front end of the deck. Some wooden boxes were stacked to form a wall, and people who wanted to enter the front end of the deck could only pass through the entrance between the wooden boxes guarded by someone. Only guests holding special invitations could participate in the auction. On one hand, this was to prevent people with ulterior motives from mixing onto the cruise ship, and on the other hand, it was also to prevent ordinary people from accidentally entering the auction.

There were at least a hundred guests on the deck, but including Xia De and Miss Princess, there were only twelve guests who finally entered the auction.

Loose benches were placed on the deck, and people wearing masks chose to sit in places far away from strangers. Most of them came alone, and those like Xia De and Miss Princess were the minority.

Time was limited, and there wasn't much nonsense before the auction. In the sea breeze, the white-bearded old gentleman briefly explained the rules of the auction, and then the auction finally began.

There were a total of eleven auction items in the auction, five were 【Relics】, one was an antique stone slab from the Fifth Era, one was a potion, two were alchemical items in the shape of pistols, and the last were two old books. One was related to the spiritual rune 【Soul】, and one was a study notebook of a Seven-Ringed Shushi who died in the New Continent.

There was no cargo list before the auction; only when the auction items were taken out could people know what they were, so inspecting the goods and looking at the goods really took quite a bit of effort.

The total number of recorded relics was no more than five digits. This auction being able to have five items could be considered a big deal. Among those five 【Relics】, three were Poet-level, one was Document-level, and one was Keeper-level. But it was a great pity that there were no currency-type relics that Xia De needed, nor anything Xia De was interested in.

It was Miss Princess who took a fancy to the Keeper-level relic 【Sands of Time】, which was a handful of sand that could extremely slightly affect the flow of time in the nearby area after being scattered. But because there was competition, Miss Princess gave up after the bid was raised to 460 pounds. This kind of relic sounded interesting but didn't have much practical value; most people bought it for research.

Xia De didn't buy any relics but became interested in the antique stone slab. The stone slab was half a person tall, excavated from ancient ruins in the New Continent, and recorded a sacrificial rain-seeking activity in the Southern Continent at the end of the Fifth Era. The text on the stone slab hadn't been deciphered, but Xia De completely memorized this large-scale rain-seeking ritual that required the participation of hundreds of people when watching the auction items.

In this way, this stone slab was of no use to him, and he could be considered to have obtained useless knowledge for free through small means.

The most sought-after item in this auction wasn't those five relics, but that bottle of potion. The potion was contained in a flat glass container, presenting a very luxurious purple luster. It was called "Grace of the Ringed Shushi." Within an hour after drinking it, the soul would become abnormally sensitive, the probability of obtaining spiritual runes through reading, touching, and comprehending would be greatly increased, and the possibility of coming into contact with existences that couldn't be seen at ordinary times would also increase.

In other words, this potion with huge side effects could effectively improve the efficiency of obtaining spiritual runes. Even though this improvement was very slight, this bottle of potion was still sold at a high price of 210 pounds, even higher than the price of the cheapest Poet-level relic. ===== CHAPTER 323 =====