One Last Struggle

Richard maintained his composure as the auction continued, continuing to buy items at a breakneck pace. Even though more than a third of what he bought wasn’t donated, he still hit a staggering amount of 6 million gold, only 200,000 behind Cardiff.

Cardiff was nowhere near as calm; his shirt was soaked through by this point, and he couldn’t stop gnawing through his fingernails. Only when his aide returned with a small case that contained twenty high-purity magic crystals did he relax, but even then he was feeling immense pressure. Even if he won and Lina accepted his proposal, he would barely make any profit overall. Besides, Lina wasn’t even a part of the bet. As for losing, the losses from that would amount to almost ten million. He would go completely...