The Dragon King's Heart

Not wanting to make a scene, Laina walked back over and grabbed Kol by the hand, and pulled him away. By the time they finally found their new seats, the auction was just about to begin. 

The lights dimmed as the auctioneer walked up on stage. He first introduced himself to the attendees before introducing the first item of the day to be auctioned. For the first few rounds, Laina observed how the bidding went down. 

Through her observation, she learned the different tactics different people used to bid for the items they wanted. She noticed that the three women particularly enjoyed bidding on pieces with glittering gemstones. 

Laina grinned as she came up with a brilliant idea. 

The auctioneer brought the next item up for auction. Under the spotlight, the art piece sparkled as all the gemstones capture the light rays at all the right angles. There was a lot of buzz amongst the spectators. 

Laina grinned as she looked over to the three women. They were clearly interested in the piece. 

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have a unique work of art here today. The very first piece of artwork produced by The Yellow Villa. Bidding will begin at 1000 gold coins."

Everfree Nation was a center of commerce for many neighboring countries and kingdoms. In the Auction houses and when making big purchases, all are done in the form of gold coins. 

Each gold coin weighed an ounce. 1000 gold coins was more money than some people make in their entire lifetimes and more. 

As soon as the auctioneer finished speaking, paddles went up, one after the other. The bids increased in intervals of 10 gold coins. The price increased steadily until it hit 10,000 gold coins. 

Laina noticed that the three ladies were having the final bid of the painting. She grinned as she raised her paddle. 

"12,000 gold coins," she called out her bid. 

Almost everyone turned to look at her, the source of the bid, including the three ladies. As soon as they saw Laina bidding on it, they gritted their teeth. They raised their paddles too. 

"14,000!" One of them called out their bid. 

Seeing as the price was going up, this attracted other buyers to bid along too. This allowed the price to reach new heights. Now, it was at 19,000 gold coins. The last bid landed with the three ladies once more. 

At first, Margaret could not understand why Laina was bidding on their own artwork. But as the price goes higher and higher, she realized Laina was using the situation to her advantage. 

Just as the auctioneer was about to hit the hammer, Laina raised her paddle once more, "20,000 gold coins."

The three women were fuming in anger. She grinned as she saw the look on their faces. Without any hesitation, one of the women raised her paddle. 

"30,001 gold coins!" She exclaimed at the top of her voice. 

Laina grinned from ear to ear. She put down the paddle on her lap and crossed her arms. The women grinned with joy, seeing that Laina had seemingly 'admitted defeat'. 

"Going once, going twice," the auctioneer slammed the hammer down and announced, "Sold to the Beckermont Sisters for 30,001 gold coins."

Margaret could not believe the final sale price of the art piece. Not only was it an absurdly high amount, but it also meant that their other pieces of art would receive high appraisals too. 

The three middle-aged women, the Beckermont Sisters, were personally escorted out of the hall to make payment for their most recent purchase. As they walked past Laina, Margaret and Kol, they took the chance to ridicule them. 

"Looks like you lost your seats and the bid. I wonder what it's like to have a bad day, we've never had one," one of them said before they laughed maniacally and walked away. 

Laina leaned back in her chair, she could not help but chuckle to herself. The Beckermont Sisters had no idea that their money was going to her!

"Sometimes, I pity people like them," Laina laughed as she whispered to Margaret, "They don't even know what they've gotten themselves into."

The rest of the auction went well, better than Laina had expected. Seeing the other antiques and works of art being auctioned off also intrigued Laina. She could see that finding the right pieces would bring her large fortunes too. 

For the ten pieces of art that were auctioned off under The Yellow Villa, they made over 300,000 gold coins. And that was after they deducted the fee that the auction house takes. 

Laina was greeted by the general manager of the auction house. 

"Crown Princess Laina, we welcome you back to Crystie Auction House when you have new pieces ready to put up for auction. We look forward to working with you in the long run," the general manager said as he bowed politely to Laina. 

"We look forward to doing business with you too. The Yellow Villa will be hard at work, creating new pieces of art for the world to appreciate and collect," Laina reciprocated with a smile. 

On their way out of the auction house, Laina noticed the Beckermont Sisters at the entrance. They were waiting for their transport, likely to bring them home. Upon learning who they were through the auctioneer, Laina could not resist the opportunity to get back at them. 

She walked up to them with Margaret and Kol trailing closely behind her. As soon as they saw her walking up to them, the Beckermont sisters were ready with their insults to Laina. 

But the Crown Princess of Kinshearth did not give them the chance to attack first. 

Laina smiled as she thanked the Beckermont sisters, "I just came over to congratulate you on a successful auction of that wonderful piece of art by The Yellow Villa."

One of the Beckermont sisters replied, "Oh? Now you're trying to butter up to us? It's not going to work, Crown Princess Laina."

"So what if you're a princess? The wealth of your Kingdom is not even one percent of the wealth of our family!" Another sister added with a grin on her face. 

Margaret and Kol were both mad at the insults the Beckermont sisters were spouting. But Laina held both of them back. 

"Now now, we have to respect our elders," Laina said as she held them both back, "We can't be caught hitting weak elderly women out in public. It might hurt our reputation."

"Are you calling us old?!" One of them exclaimed in a fit of rage. 

"My my, anger causes more wrinkles, Lady Beckermont. I merely came over to thank the three of you," Laina replied.. She maintained her smile throughout.