I Should Have Let Him Strangle the Man
Michael had asked him something earlier. She had to say it again. He had never said such a thing.
Instead, he gripped the man’s neck and lifted him into the air as if throttling him.
The fellow was a decent size, yet Michael’s hand made him sway like a paper doll.
“Cough! Ack!”
The man thrashed wildly, unable to utter a plea for his life as he struggled against Michael’s grip.
Irene rushed over in alarm.
“Paladin Michael! What are you doing?!”
“He insulted you.”
“I know. I have ears too. But… I’ve grown used to it.”
She had almost suggested they enter the auction house since the bidding was about to begin.
“Used to it?”
Michael’s voice dropped even lower.
The rough, beast-like growl made Irene recoil.
Meanwhile the suspended man kept gurgling and flailing.
When he finally reached his limit, his eyes rolled back and foam appeared at his lips.
They would probably drag his body away before the auction even started.
“Calm down! Let him go before he dies!”
Desperate to calm him, Irene wrapped her arms around Michael’s other arm and clung tight.
He was tall and strong, but the arm pulling her in felt like a slab of iron muscle.
His own human arm, yet so unyielding.
‘If he struck someone with an arm like this…’
One blow and he could summon a god.
“Release him and ask him about the crime!”
Yelling that, Irene squeezed his arm even tighter.
The moment her chest pressed against his arm, Michael shuddered, dropped the man, and slammed him to the ground.
Fortunately the fellow coughed and curled up.
‘At least he won’t suffocate.’
Relieved, Irene breathed out.
“Speak again. You said you were used to such humiliation. Who exactly are those savages who spewed such brutal words? I will cut their tongues out and punish the crime myself.”
The man who always spoke politely and gently.
The moment those cold words—“savages,” “cut their tongues”—left his lips, Irene questioned her ears.
She had no idea why he was so furious.
“That… that is…”
Irene froze, trying to recall the name.
This life, except for the man now sprawled on the floor, no one had ever spoken so crudely to her.
‘Besides, this man didn’t know the situation inside the fortress and was probably just repeating rumors he heard.’
Either way, she had to calm Michael down right now.
“They said it before… not here.”
“At the Count’s residence?”
“I heard it there too… but…”
Irene answered, then stared at him in shock.
“You knew I came from the Count’s place?”
The man who had never once asked her about anything—then or this life.
Yet now he spoke as if he knew her entire past.
At that moment the auction staff appeared.
“We’ll take care of the mess and come back shortly.”
Michael immediately went over and explained the situation to the staff.
“Paladin Michael suddenly rushed in, attacked my friend, and shouted vile insults! How could a knight who serves the gods behave like a monster…”
The man who had been pointing at Michael suddenly shut his mouth and looked away.
When Irene glanced at him, Michael was glaring at the man who had been talking to the staff.
That was no holy knight’s gaze. It was pure beast—wild, ready to tear flesh apart at any second.
The man hastily left with his friend, tail tucked.
Michael watched their retreating backs, finished speaking with the staff, and returned to Irene.
“I apologize for not stopping the man’s mouth more quickly.”
“That is not for you to apologize for. Anyway, let’s forget about it. We must go inside quickly—the auction is about to begin.”
With that, Irene grabbed his sleeve and pulled him toward the entrance.
Even when facing monsters, his body moved without resistance, following her lead as easily as she guided him.
* * *
Irene and Michael took the seats prepared for them.
Normally they should have sat in the VIP area reserved for Pairs. But the stares and attention directed at Michael were overwhelming.
To avoid revealing his identity while still participating in the auction, they requested a box seat on the wall side.
Fortunately the staff, who also wanted no problems during the auction, offered the box without hesitation.
“Huu.”
Sitting down, Irene unconsciously let out a long sigh.
Seeing her, Michael spoke again.
“If anyone else behaves rudely, please tell me immediately.”
Who would even want to?
‘If I did, he’d probably just dump the body.’
Honestly, that was a mild warning. Yet seeing how he jumped at the mere mention of it, Irene realized anew that he was a paladin of the Temple.
He would react exactly the same way toward anyone else who insulted her.
‘It would have been better if he had done this before.’
She shook her head at the pointless thought.
Irene gave a wry smile and opened the auction catalog on the small table beside her.
The main item today was the “Transparent Ring.” But the artifacts being sold were far more.
“The Quiet Stone we obtained is also listed here.”
Irene looked at the catalog illustration of the Quiet Stone.
It had been obtained from the dungeon they raided after clearing a high-level one together.
A few days ago, after getting the Transparent Ring from a high-level dungeon, Irene had barely slept.
The regret over not receiving her share and being unable to pay off her debt weighed heavily on her.
Of course it wasn’t only that.
‘Why did it even appear there in the first place?’
It should have come from the dungeon she and Michael had raided.
Yet it had surfaced in an entirely wrong place.
‘That was the only odd thing.’
The rewards from the other dungeons were exactly as she remembered, but the Transparent Ring had vanished as if it had no intention of entering her hands—only to appear elsewhere.
The real problem was that she still couldn’t gather money.
‘Even the items I barely obtain are sealed and cannot be sold.’
Now that she had acquired something rarer than the Transparent Ring, its value had vanished.
At this point she wondered if someone was deliberately preventing her from saving enough.
Anyway, Irene had to earn money again.
So this time she had asked Michael to take her to the dungeon where the Quiet Stone appeared.
Throughout the journey to the dungeon with Michael, Irene’s worries never ceased.
‘What if it doesn’t appear this time, or something else comes out instead?’
Then much of the information she remembered would become useless.
So, heart pounding, she opened the reward box—and to her relief, the Quiet Stone appeared exactly as she recalled.
Finally everything was going according to her memory. She was overjoyed.
She also wanted to check if the items would sell properly, so she had decided to come to the auction house.
She wanted to see how much the Transparent Ring would fetch and how the Quiet Stone would perform.
‘Besides, I’ve never been to the auction house before.’
Every time she heard Wilhelmina brag about visiting, she had imagined what it was like.
‘I never thought I’d end up here.’
And she would be sitting in an extremely comfortable box seat watching the auction.
Before long a host appeared on stage, greeted the crowd, and announced the start of the auction.
The lights in the hall dimmed, and all illumination focused on the stage.
“We have been waiting for you! This year too, many honored guests…”
Half-listening to the host’s words, Irene gazed at the glittering artifacts.
Right after finding them in the dungeon they had looked shabby, but after cleaning they gleamed as if they were the rarest treasures on earth.
‘Indeed they are the rarest.’
Seeing that even the Quiet Stone she had obtained looked expensive, Irene finally understood why people paid the fees just to sell at the auction house.
She looked down while waiting for the sale to begin.
“Hm?”
Among the items, something caught Irene’s eye.