"I... I... I!"
Giratina blinked lightly, its big head stopping right beside that person.
["You were looking for me?"]
The man waved his hands frantically, terrified by the power of distortion emanating from Giratina, stumbling backward as he explained, "N-no, I mean-I just wanted to say holy sh—"
"No, not that, I mean, I was just too shocked!"
["So boring..."], Giratina glanced at him, then finally shifted its gaze to Geeta and shook its head.
["The people here are too complicated, too dull..."]
["You clearly called for me yourselves, yet now you act so afraid."]
["My master is still waiting for me. We'll talk about the rest after my master gets my orb back."]
After speaking, Giratina couldn't be bothered to continue chatting with the others. It turned around and reentered the Distortion World.
Geeta calmly waited for Giratina to leave, then looked at the others.
"Do you believe it now?"
"Yes, yes, we believe it, we'll leave right away!"
With Giratina's appearance, no one present had even the slightest doubt anymore. They had no intention of continuing to question Geeta and only wanted to leave this place as quickly as possible.
For the first time, they realized that the hero who saved Sinnoh was actually Giratina's master.
But before they could turn around, Geeta spoke again.
"In order to let Axel obtain the Great Lustrous Orb without breaking the rules, I promised him that all the auction expenses would be reimbursed by me."
"But now I suddenly feel like my money isn't quite enough, so..."
Geeta stopped halfway through her sentence, her gaze settling on those few people.
A quick-witted person immediately reacted, understanding that Geeta was making them pay the price for their earlier questioning, and hurriedly spoke up.
"I'll pay, I'll cover the full amount!"
"Then I'm relieved. Everyone should go back and rest."
Geeta pointed at the Pidgeot wall clock and smiled, "It's already time to get off work."
Once everyone had left, the smile on Geeta's face instantly disappeared, and her gaze turned toward the direction Giratina had left.
"Giratina... master... interesting..."
"Should I tell him the secret of Kitakami? The Explorers would probably be nothing but chickens and dogs in front of him..."
———
[Zapapico Town]
Axel wandered around the market for the entire day but didn't find anything worth buying.
In the end, holding two buckets of iced cola, he took Gardevoir's hand and returned to the museum.
The museum auction started at five in the afternoon, and it was just about 4:50 now.
Compared to venues that could hold tens of thousands of people, the hundred or so people here looked sparse.
Basically, everyone could get seats in the first or second row, all sitting quite close together.
The host began calling names to confirm whether those who had applied for auctions were all present.
"Has Mr. Lawrence arrived? The item you reserved... has already entered the auction pool."
A middle-aged man raised his bidding paddle, "I'm here!"
The host smiled slightly and continued calling names, until Axel's name was called among the last few.
"Has Mr. Axel arrived? The white jade orb you reserved has entered the auction pool."
"I'm here!", Axel also raised his bidding paddle.
"Sir, please wait patiently. We'll continue the roll call next."
"Has Mr. Vale from Naranja Academy arrived? The Aurient gauze clothing, jade hairpins, and jade bracelets you reserved have all entered the auction pool."
Unlike before, there was no response this time, the young female auctioneer looked puzzled as she glanced at the audience, "Mr. Vale hasn't arrived?"
"I'm here!", A bruised and swollen fat man burst through the auction hall doors, glaring viciously in Axel's direction.
Beside him were two security personnel.
"Sir, you haven't passed facial identity verification. You cannot enter."
"Stop immediately! If you take another step, I'll have my Pokémon act!"
Vale's lips trembled, revealing several missing teeth. As he spoke, air leaked through, and he pointed at Axel with grief and anger.
"Can't you see I've been beaten until I'm swollen like this?"
"I was beaten by that guy."
Axel blinked, looking innocent, "That gentleman speaks quite harshly. Didn't you say yourself in the plaza that you challenge all dirty tactics?"
Vale's whole body trembled, his voice carrying a sob.
"So that's your reason for using Confuse Ray, burn, Toxic, Stealth Rock all at once to control me and my Pokémon, and even binding me with Wrap so I had to take the beating together with my Pokémon?"
Axel spread his hands, "Just answer this, were those dirty tactics or not?"
Vale: "..."
"Just you wait. Today I'll make sure you don't win a single item!"
With Axel's side confirmation, the security personnel finally let Vale go and allowed him to sit in his seat.
Vale deliberately chose a spot very close to Axel, his eyes swollen like a Pangoro's, glaring sideways at him.
He refused to believe it. His family had been in business for three generations, there was no way he couldn't suppress some random trainer he didn't even know.
Axel grinned. Although he hadn't lived a wealthy life before, that depended on who you compared him to.
Even while raising so many legendary Pokémon, with support from Eva, Platinum, and Caitlin...
'Ahem! Support...'
Axel's bank account had never dropped below ten small targets.
Especially since Geeta had promised that when auctioning the Great Lustrous Orb, the Paldea League would fully sponsor him.
In other words, once he finished bidding on those clothes and such, Axel would be unbeatable when it came to bidding for the Great Lustrous Orb.
Could a spoiled rich kid really compete with the entire Paldea League?
It's not like his surname was Berlitz.
With a pleasant chime ringing out, the auction officially began.
Just as the man had said, today's auction wasn't intense. It was more like a small bonus period for those who could still enter the museum.
During the earlier part of the auction, everything was harmonious. There were almost no cases of two people competing for the same item.
It was mostly the officials subtly raising the price a bit, allowing the buyer to take the item at roughly market value.
There were fewer than two hundred people present, and whether an item was auctioned depended on the customer's own application.
If someone tried to drive up another person's price, then their own desired item would also have its price driven up.
Very few people would do something so self-defeating.
Until the auction entered the latter half, the young female auctioneer spoke softly, "This round's item was discovered some time ago in a Terastal pit, a silk garment from ancient Aurient."
"Over the passage of time, it has accumulated a rich amount of energy, making it an excellent material for crafting silk scarf-type secret treasures."
"Since these jewelry pieces were also applied for by the same gentleman, they will be sold as a bundle."
"Starting price: 100,000!"
Hearing this item, Vale, who had been imagining how to intercept Axel, suddenly snapped back to his senses and prepared to raise a one million bid to secure the item outright.
At that moment, Axel suddenly raised his paddle, "One million!"
Vale: "???"
'You bastard, you beat me up and now you're cutting me off too?'
'This is completely upside down!'
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