Highschool DxD: Dragon's Ascent

Chapter 65: Breaking the Ground

Venelana looked around the lobby of the newly built Auction House in amazement. It was pristine and certainly looked similar to the mansions of other noble families. It screamed wealth and importance but not to the point of being in your face or gaudy.

She hadn't expected Rias' new bishop to become so important so quickly. She had seen the rating game personally from the viewing zone and seen the terrifying battle prowess of the young man but such was expected of the Red Dragon Emperor albeit somewhat unexpected from such a young one.

She had also known he was an alchemist from Rias gushing about him over the phone. He sounded really competent and skilled from how Rias described him but she also considered her having a bias in her considerations.

What she hadn't expected was for him to shake up the entire underworld by announcing the opening and first auction of the Goch Grand Auction House in Lilith. The entire thing being endorsed by Satan Leviathan and Satan Beelzebub, rarely did any event of such scale backed up by such figures that would attend happen.

Even with the announcement he had chosen to remain relatively anonymous, she had heard people complaining that he wasn't showing his face around and not responding to their mails despite not even being a high-class devil. Regardless, most of the Pillar Families and the less important lower-ranked noble families had chosen to attend.

Most out of the desire to network with the enigmatic Beelzebub and Satan Leviathan. But they also had an interest in what the young alchemist devil had produced that would garner this much fanfare.

Annoying her no end, her husband Zeoticus hadn't wanted to attend because he was still sour from the young devil utterly destroying the relationship he was trying to form with the Phenex family. He had been sulking and sour the past few days because of it and even tried to not attend the Auction almost every other pillar family was attending.

Apparently because 'He is a young man, he doesn't know what he is doing it will probably turn out to be a big mess' or 'I don't want to see him' and even 'He is a part of Rias' peerage, isn't he? We don't need to attend this one'. He had plenty of excuses he tried to give but Venelana had dragged him along with her regardless.

Her husband was a childish man, and while it was charming it could easily become frustrating and a pain to deal with when he sulked like a child and she had to pick up after his slack. Even now Zeoticus was trying to find things to complain about but she largely tuned him out.

She found the apparent Homunculi attending manning the main lobby and approached the masked creature with a casual greeting as it bowed.

"Welcome to the Goch Grand Auction House, how may I assist you today Lady and Lord Gremory?" Hearing the Homunculi's impassive voice Zeoticus stood up and tried to look dignified before speaking.

"Yes, we were here about the auction held by my daughter's bishop? Do we get any special benefits or VIP passes?" Venelana noticed how the posture of the Homunculi shifted to a more defensive one. Something that Zeo had said had somehow managed to offend it despite its dubious sentience.

"No, and I hope that you would refer to Lord Katsuragi or Sekiryuutei by proper titles. Now, allow me to seat you, please follow me to the auction room." Venelana sighed and shook her head cutting off whatever her husband was about to say, ignoring her now sulking again husband they followed the homunculi maid into the very large auction room.

It resembled more like a large theatre that would host a play instead of an auction room but how it worked out remained to be seen, she could already see hundreds of devils sitting around waiting for the auction to start they had come a bit late because she had to convince Zeo to come and not cause any issues.