While the crowd's attention was still fixed on Jace Rowan, he quickly grabbed the arm of the nearby vendor and shouted:
"Buying this thing! Anyone who has it can sell it to me!"
At that, everyone perked up. Anyone who'd lingered here for even a couple of days had seen this item before.
In the merchants' classifications, it counted as a Special Prismatic Stone.
When people first started finding them, the traders had been thrilled—since a new kind of Prismatic Stone had appeared, someone would surely pay a premium to acquire it. But later, more stones of the exact same kind were brought out of this secret realm, and the influx immediately drove the price down.
Although these Special Prismatic Stones were as dazzlingly colored as regular Prismatic Stones, every single one looked identical. That wasn't like regular Prismatic Stones at all; even if a secret realm produced them, it was rare to see two that were exactly the same.
But these were different. Aside from regular Prismatic Stones, these were the ones with a multicolored base hue—and every single one was perfectly alike, down to the distribution of each color.
That uniformity lowered the price further. Sure, the traders made a small profit at first by capitalizing on the item being unique to this secret realm.
But as the realm stayed open longer, more and more Special Prismatic Stones were brought out, and the price sank even more. So the moment they heard someone was buying in bulk, they all brightened. Anyone holding any on hand abandoned whatever they were doing and rushed over to crowd around Jace.
"I've got some! Seven! We can talk price!"
"I've got four! I won't overcharge—same price as regular Prismatic Stones!"
"You trying to fool a kid? Don't listen to him, youngster. Mine are going at market rate."
"Market rate? Are you crazy? You don't want to eat meat anymore?"
The man who'd said he had four stared in disbelief at the merchant claiming "market rate," looking utterly scandalized.
The merchant who'd said "market rate" shot him a disdainful glance. "I've got volume. What's it to you? Kid, I'll even give you ten percent off the market."
He stared at Jace with expectant eyes.
He'd already thought it through: these past two days there'd been fewer of these Special Prismatic Stones coming out of this secret realm, but there would certainly be more from other realms down the line. If they all turned out to be identical, then the price on these would only drop further, so offloading now wasn't a loss.
Jace asked tentatively, "So how much for each of your stones? And how many do you have?"
The merchant answered grandly, "Market rate is thirty-five units. I'll do ten percent off for you—thirty-one point five each. I've got thirty-two in total. If you take them all, call it thirty-one each."
Jace's face lit up. "Thirty-one? So thirty of them is nine hundred in total? I'll take the lot."
The merchant gave the young man a strange look and, puzzled, explained, "Brother, don't tease me. You can't count it like that."
"Pfft—hahaha!"
The merchant who'd earlier accused Jace of trying to wreck the market couldn't hold his laughter and burst out, then turned to the newcomer to explain:
"Hey, Old Liu, didn't you hear? It's this kid's first time here—how's he supposed to understand your slang?"
Then he turned to Jace, who looked completely lost, and explained:
"When he says 'thirty,' he means three hundred thousand. Back when everything was cash, ten thousand Dracocoins were bundled into one wad, so one wad was 'one.' Even though it's all digital currency now, we're used to saying it like this."
Only then did Jace realize, brow creasing a little with worry.
Good grief—three hundred thousand apiece? These Prismatic Stones were that expensive?
He suddenly grew curious: how much was that bag of Prismatic Stones he'd tossed to Auron worth?
"You said these stones are cheaper than regular Prismatic Stones. So how much are the regular ones?"
The merchant's eyes lit up. He hurried to answer, "Market is basically fifty and up. If you want a lot, I won't haggle you hard—forty-five sound good?"
Jace clicked his tongue at that. Good grief—did I just toss Auron five or six million Dracocoins like it was nothing?
"All right, give me a second. I'll check."
He said this to the merchant, then pulled out his phone and called Auron.
"Hello? Auron? Three hundred thousand per bead—are you sure you didn't mishear that?"
"Three hundred thousand? That's fine. Buy as many as you can."
Auron's casual reply was loud enough for those nearby to hear, and several people close by looked startled.
He sounded very young, and he'd just tossed out an eight-figure sum like it was nothing.
Then Auron's voice came from the phone again: "Count them up—how many are there in total? At that price, I'll take them all. Wait till the tally's done and tell me; I'll transfer the money to your card."
He hung up right after that, though just before the call cut off Jace thought he heard a little "pop" on Auron's end—like popcorn exploding.
Auron set his phone down and looked helplessly at the Pokéblock he'd been inattentive with—now burst.
He let it be, shook his head with a wry smile, and placed another call.
"Brr—brr— Hello? Grandson, what's got you calling your grandpa today?"
A warm, resonant voice came from the other end, tinged with joy.
"Hi, Grandpa. I've found something that can speed up your Prismatic Stone research."
"Oh? And what might that be?"
"You'll know once I send it over. But I need a bit of funding for now. You should have research funds, right?"
Auron addressed Grandpa Ashford with a mischievous lilt.
Grandpa seemed amused and chuckled. "Hah! So my good grandson has set his sights on the research budget, hm? That can't be touched on a whim. Out of pocket money already? Grandpa will give you some."
Auron could only be helpless with a grandfather who doted on him so much. "Awww, Grandpa—no, that's not it. Dad's confirmed it too—it's related to Prismatic Stones. It might even be the key to the evolution energy within them."
"And there's a batch available right now. Three hundred thousand each. If you don't want to use the research budget, that's fine—how about dipping into your private stash? This will absolutely be a scarce item later—people will scramble to get it. Buying now is definitely not a loss."
"All right—how much do you need? Send me a number in a bit and I'll transfer it over. And remember to send one piece to me as well. I want to see what's got my grandson so confident."
Auron brightened at once. "You got it, Grandpa. Trust me—you won't regret this."
"Haha, good! I'll leave it to you then."
"No problem. Rest easy, Grandpa."
They chatted a little more. Grandpa Ashford had something else to attend to and hung up after saying, "Tell him how much you need; he'll transfer it over shortly."
It was a funny thing—maybe that was what they called grandparent-grandchild closeness. Grandpa Ashford always kept a straight face with Ashen Vale.
But whenever he faced Auron, if the smile couldn't be helped, he just wouldn't show his face—because otherwise he couldn't keep the grin off it.
And from Auron's childhood till now, Grandpa had always granted any request—his doting truly had no bounds.
Auron stopped making Pokéblocks and sat on the stool to wait for Jace's call.
It wasn't long before Jace rang back. "Seventy-one pieces in total. You sure you want all of them?"
"Sure. Have them packed up. I'll wire you the money."
"Okay."
Auron then sent the quantity to his grandpa. Very soon, his bank app showed a deposit: 35,000,000 Dracocoins.
"Tsk, tsk. As expected of someone who serves the country."
Auron hadn't expected Grandpa's private stash to be that deep. He'd told Grandpa he wanted a hundred pieces—considering there'd be more brought out of secret realms later.
But Grandpa had gone ahead and sent an extra five million. Truly someone marked by the State from birth.
The Vale family really did count as a line that had always served the country. Because of the family's special Aura abilities, the State extended special treatment to the Vales.
Take Ashen Vale for example—he'd originally planned to become a member of the Elite Four and serve the nation. But Grandpa Ashford said a few words, he got mad, and decided not to become an Elite Four anymore.
Even after resigning from the Elite Four track, though, he became a researcher and continued serving the country.
(End of this chapter)