"Before we get into the discussion, my name is Scarlet, the one in charge of the Vermilion Auction House here in Olen, and as you all know, a partner in the search for a way to end the trials and free the world," she said. Her tone was light and casual, yet it carried a certain sense of seriousness.

Jake leaned forward from the couch. "If I may, why exactly? You are a mega business auction structure that stretches out all over the kingdom. Why dip your hands into something like this?" Jake asked.

She narrowed her eyes, her hand slowly moving toward the teacup. She pulled it and took a sip, then dropped it back.

"Do you understand the concept of business?" she asked.

"Well, I think I do know a thing or two about business. Buying, haha, selling, supply and demand," Jake responded.

"Hmm, that's good enough for me," she said. "Now, you see, in business, no one gets anything for free—nothing at all.

Everything comes at a cost, and this cost must be beneficial to the person that is giving the product in the first place.

Now, shifting that ideology into this world, we were attacked by the Abyss, coming to destroy us, and then boom, a hero comes from nowhere, a dragon, and he saves us, and then installs this trial to keep us safe.

But I find it hard to believe that this trial is only to keep us safe. The being must be gaining something from all that we are being put through.

I can go on and on about how my logic works, but all you need to know is, five thousand years of something makes you come to hate it. Sure, the Abyss was bad, but a trial for five thousand years? Now that's just absurd.

And I believe that if we find out the truth of the trial, we will also find out the truth of the Abyss, and all this might finally come to an end," she explained.

Robert walked back into the room with a tray and two cups of tea. He placed it down carefully. Jake and Peter picked up their cups and took a sip. The bitter leafy taste ran down his throat, and yet for some reason, it felt relaxing and soothing, even under the heat.

Peter placed down his cup and pointed at the purple egg, the eagerness in his eyes. "This—what do we do about it? It is the first time a tainted egg is recorded, and beyond that, it was something the Abyss Church also wanted. They sent their Disciple of Silence to get it," Peter said.

"A Disciple of Silence, huh? If someone like that was there, it shows the importance of this egg, and it shows that they know something we don't.

We have no clear direction to take on it due to the fact that there is only one, and if something happens to this one, we have basically lost everything," Scarlet said.

"You could hand it over to your researchers," John suggested.

"No, those idiots would cut it open immediately they get their hands on it, and my gut tells me it isn't the right course of action—at least not for now," she said. She rubbed her temple with her fingers as she kept thinking.

"Then let's do this. No one needs to know about it. Information like this could cause a stir, and now that we don't know much about it, we don't want that.

I'll take the egg back to my base, and we will keep it there. We will also try to simulate the same situation we found it in—it was surrounded by some red glowstones," John said.

"Red glowstones? In the ruins? Were they processed or in their raw state?" she asked.

"Processed," John replied.

"Processed glowstones can only be found in shops in the cities, not in the ruins," Peter said.

"Exactly. If it had been the ores, we could have said that the snake gathered it, but since it wasn't, then it had to have been man-made," Scarlet said. "The question is—who?"

"Hmm, let's worry about that later. Maybe it was the Abyss Church, maybe it was someone else, but what we know is that red glowstones can help it somehow," John said.

"Alright then, we will go with your plan. Keep it at your base," she said and then looked at Robert. "Gather some of our best red glowstones and bring them here."

Robert bowed and left the room immediately. He returned a few moments later, handing a ring to John.

"Do well to return the ring, John. You have a habit of not returning what you borrow," Scarlet said.

"Oh come on, it doesn't even cost you anything," he said with a smile.

"Bring it back, John," she said with a serious expression.

"Yeah, yeah," he said. He put the egg back into his own ring and got up. Peter and Jake followed him. They left the Auction House and system, heading back to the bar.

"She didn't seem too interested in what happens to the egg," Jake said.

John popped out a cigar and lit it. He drew on it and let out a puff. "She is, I could tell. But you see, she was groomed from birth to be unreadable. That's what happens in the Vermilion family line.

So even when she isn't trying, she still stays unreadable. It takes knowing her for a very long time to know what she truly thinks.

Right now, I'm sure she'll scour every information source she has, looking for anything that can help her understand that egg," John said.

"So her family runs the Auction House?" Jake asked.

"Yup. It originally started hundreds of years ago to mask their operations of trying to stop the trial. And soon after, it got too massive and turned into their whole thing. It's still used as a mask, though—only this time, they take business seriously," John explained.

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