Auctioning Art
After finishing his painting and some alcohol, Heart steps outside to get some fresh air.
( Gag! )
( Splash! )
Wiping the residual puke from his mouth, Heart heads back inside his art studio to behold his latest creation.
"It only took me four days this time," Heart thought as he admired his work.
The detail and creativity were only possible for one of the best artists in the world.
Looking at his art piece from different angles, Heart decided to call it, "Crystal Cove In The Abyss!".
( Thump! )
( Click! )
Heart closes and locks the door of his art studio before trying his best not to fall over while walking to the town hall.
The pounding sensation in his head and the uneasiness of his stomach from drinking too much made Heart take a few pit stops before reaching his destination.
The town hall was located in the middle of Tep. Unlike the cities where most jurisdiction has their separate buildings, towns have a town hall that handles everything like taxes, laws, and announcements.
Tep's town hall is one the biggest if not the biggest building in Tep. The building was made out of stone and wood and had multiple windows.
Still really early in the morning with the sun barely out, the town hall wasn't open yet so Heart fell asleep outside of the entrance.
Feeling the sensation of being shaken awake, Heart opened his eyes. There stood three men.
The one waking up Heart was one of the guards for the town leader. Wearing leather armor with a sword sheathed on their hips two guards followed the town leader as he made his way to the town hall.
The town leader was much shorter in stature compared to the two guards and seemed twice the age of the guards.
"If it isn't Mr. Heart Cards. Are you planning to sell another art piece at the auction on the seventh day of the week? If so let me know as we must quickly make news about it as it will headline the auction." says the town leader.
"Um, yes. Selling art," still distorted from reality after being quickly woken up Heart answers the town leader.
"That's good news, also please get out of the way as you're blocking the entrance." replied the town leader.
Quickly getting up and moving away, Heart got out of the way of the three men.
The first guard walked into the town hall while being followed by the town leader and the other guard.
"Oh yeah, I forgot to say congratulations on having the kid." said the town leader as he stopped heading inside.
Digging in his shirt he threw out a copper coin for Heart to catch.
Catching the copper coin, Heart looked up and said, "It's going to cost you more than a copper coin for the art piece.".
( Hahaha! )
All three men laughed at Heart's joke.
"That is for the communal bathhouse. Go use it because you reek." said the town leader.
( Thump! )
The door closed in front of Heart.
Thinking about the last sentence of the town leader, it has been a while since Heart cleaned himself.
( Knock! Knock! )
"It's me, open the door! " said Heart knocking on the door of Clover's house.
( Clank! )
( Creak! )
Alina opens the door before commenting, "It sounds and looks like you but doesn't smell like you,".
Seeing Alina leave the room Brune follows behind her while commando crawling to the door.
Peeking out the corner Brune sees Heart and thinks to himself, "Damn it's the stinking guy I have to call dad in the future.".
"Hey Brune! Did you know daddy was here?" said Heart as he made his way towards Brune.
Heart proceeds to pick up Brune from the ground.
( Sniff! Sniff! )
"Looks like someone finally cleaned themself," Brune thought.
( Growl! )
The noise came from Heart's stomach.
"Haha, is there anything to eat?" asked Heart.
After filling up his stomach Heart tells Alina, "I will be taking Brune back with me to go see the painting.".
With Brune in his arms, Heart made his way back to his art studio.
"Let's see how good of an artist he is since he's oh-so-famous," Brune thought to himself as he was right outside the art studio.
In his little eyes, he could see the building clearly. The art studio was made out of stone and wood with only about what seems like half the space of Clover's house. On the front door laid a lock bolted down.
( Click! )
Heart opens the door.
Taking a few steps inside, Heart still holding Brune manages to turn Brune around.
The only thought that ran through Brune's mind was "This is why he's famous". The artwork had hints of abstraction from the crystal and smoke to define details in the shadows hidden in the smoke.
"See this Brune, with the inspiration I got from you this is what I've thought up," said Heart before scoffing at the thought of speaking to a baby.
Heart showed Brune around the studio, inside there were only two rooms. The rooms were the creation room and storage room. The creation room had things from paint, stands, and blank canvases. The storage room had raw materials and a desk.
Laying on the desk was paper of what seemed like sketches.
Seeing the sketches, Brune was still surprised by the quality of work from Heart.
Brune's respect level towards Heart grew as each second passed.
Spending the days with Heart until the auction house opened, Brune respect level for him went down.
"Even though he's a good artist he's still a drunkard," these thoughts passed Brune's mind plenty of times during the days he shared with Heart.
Finally, the day of the auction came.
Connecting to the street was a big wooden stage, and behind the stage was the auction house.
Brune in the arms of Heart, walked with Clover and his family towards the auction house.
The auction house doors led to a front counter area where the workers answered questions or assisted those auctioning off their items.
Walking up to the front counter Heart tells one of the workers, "Heart Cards, the seller of Crystal Cove In The Abyss.".
"Oh, Mr. Cards, I'll let the owner of the auction house that you're here," replied the worker.
After waiting for what felt like two or three minutes, the door behind the workers opened before a bald man with a mustache connected to a goatee appeared.
Walking with a piece of paper the bald man stopped and placed the piece of paper in front of Heart and said, "You should already know what to do,".
The paper was a contract that both the man and Heart signed.
Folding up the paper Heart tucked the piece of paper inside the left side of his pants and placed his shirt over it.
Walking back outside there was a crowd forming around the stage as the auction was soon starting.
Waiting and waiting until finally, the auctioneer walked up on stage and gave a speech, "Thank you all for waiting now before we start I would like to announce the main items. The last two items that will be sold are an art piece made by Heart Cards, the artist recognized as the best artist in Suncrest by the king himself. Lastly, the final item will be a large gray monster crystal!".
( Oooooo! )
Excitement and energy were rising from the crowd hearing the last item that was being sold.
The items sold during the auction were jewelry, weapons, monster crystals, and artifacts.
Hearing the words monster crystals and artifact confused Brune as he hadn't heard of those before in his original world.
Monster crystals sold were clear and white in color and varied in size from small to medium and large. The artifacts came in random items and objects.
One of the artifacts sold was a red rock, "With this artifact once injected with aura burns up creating a flame, with this flame you can save money on buying flint and steel, the flame also lasts for four minutes so the starting price will be three copper!" said the auctioneer.
The crowd didn't answer until a voice in the crowd shouted, "Two copper take the deal now or I'm not offering two copper anymore!".
"Sold to the man in the blue cloak!" said the auctioneer.
A few more items were sold until finally getting to Heart's item.
Three people walked onto the stage, two men and one woman. The women placed down a stand while the two men put the art piece onto the stand.
With a black covering still on the auctioneer walks up to the painting before quickly pulling off the covering.
"Heart Card's latest art piece is called Crystal Cove in the Abyss!" yelled the auctioneer dramatically.
( Wow! Oouuu! )
The crowd was amazed by Heart's artwork.
"Now the starting price will be ten silvers!" said the auctioneer.
"Here!" yelled a voice.
"Twelve silvers!"
"Fourteen silvers!"
The prices of the painting kept going up until it was one gold and sixteen silvers.
Hearing the bids, Brune put two and two together and realized twenty-five copper was one silver and twenty silver was one gold.
The winner of the painting was an older-looking fellow. Hearing the news that he won the man said, "I can't wait to put this in my banquet hall.". Wearing fancy clothing and jewelry, the man looked to be of high class.
Taking back the stand and painting inside one of the workers walked out with a large gray monster crystal.
Brune could feel some sort of energy encapsulated inside of the crystal.
Before the auctioneer was even able to let out a word the man in the blue cloak yelled out, "Two gold coins and five silvers!"
"There we go! The starting price is two gold and five silvers," said the auctioneer excitedly.
"Two gold and fourteen silvers!" yelled a deep voice in the crowd.
Taking off his hoodie from his blue cloak the man laughed and responded, "A Tigret barbarian doesn't know the market too well. A large gray monster crystal is only worth two gold and fifteen silvers at the most, we blue spearfish merchants don't aim for little profit you can have the monster crystal.".
"Two gold and fourteen silvers going once... going twice..... sold to the orange hair Tigret!" said the auctioneer.
Finally, with the last item sold, Heart went back inside to collect the money he made from selling his artwork.
"After taking away a five percent deduction for fees, Mr. Cards you are left with one gold, fourteen silvers, and five copper." said the front counter worker as he handed Heart his money.
Holding Brune in one arm while the other reaches for the pouch of coins, Heart noticed Brune sweating badly.
Brune was sweating not from the heat but from the physical and mental exhaustion of floating two gold coins outside of the auction house.