NOVPUBOnce a year, Kunst holds a massive auction.
And this year, the organizers are going all out, making it even grander than usual.
The largest auction on the continent.
Naturally, the items up for bid are insanely rare—things you’d almost never get a chance to see.
Among them is a piece of the Relic Ludger has been desperately searching for.
At first, Ludger’s goal was simple: get the Relic piece.
But after everything that’s happened with the Luk Corporation, he decided to shift gears a bit.
The host and person in charge of this auction? None other than Ivan Luk.
That’s right.
The same guy who hit on Selina at that party and tried to start shit with Ludger.
Ludger still had a score to settle with him.
“This time, I’m planning to rob the place properly.”
Stealing the Relic was already a given.
So while they were at it, why leave all those other treasures just sitting there?
The recent projects in the slums had eaten up a good chunk of their funds.
If there was a chance to stockpile some resources for the future, this was it.
“Anyone think this is a bad idea?”
“Leader. I’ve got a question.”
The first to speak up was Alex.
“Yeah. Go ahead.”
“Well, hitting the Kunst Auction sounds fun as hell, so no complaints there. But it’s not exactly problem-free.”
“What kind of problems?”
“Let’s see. Even someone like me, who just rolled into town today, knows this auction is a big deal. It’s gotta be the top thing on every millionaire’s mind.”
“Right. This time, they’ll be gathering in droves.”
“It’s already a famous auction, but now the rumor’s out that they’ve blown up the scale to the max. That news is spreading overseas, too. The items on offer are all top-tier. So yeah, I get why we’d want to hit it. But that also means the security is going to be tight as hell. Can we really pull this off?”
No one disagreed.
Everyone had been thinking the same thing.
The bigger the event, the bigger the crowd. And with that kind of attention, there would definitely be others sniffing around.
The Luk Corporation weren’t idiots. They’d take every precaution against potential threats.
“And from what I’ve heard, no one’s ever successfully robbed the Kunst Auction.”
That was what Alex was most worried about.
He raised his fingers, ticking off the issues one by one.
“Kunst Auction is where the most money flows in all of Rederbelk. Items go for tens of billions of denars like it’s nothing, and only the richest bastards show up to bid. And we all know what kind of people those rich assholes like to bring with them, right?”
Hans chimed in from where he’d been quiet.
“Expensive bodyguards. Top-class pros with real records to back it up.”
“Exactly. And when you throw in the security guards hired by the organizers, the Kunst Auction is basically a damn fortress.”
It’s not like no one had ever tried to rob the Kunst Auction.
In fact, people had tried all kinds of tricks to swipe auction items for years.
If you counted the number of attempts, it’d be in the triple digits.
And yet...
The number of times Kunst Auction was successfully robbed?
“Zero. Not once. This auction’s been running for 20 years now, and not a single thief has set foot inside.”
Everyone here understood what that meant.
Ludger was suggesting they pull off something no one had managed in two decades—rob the Kunst Auction with just this small group.
Alex shrugged, cracking a grin.
“If we weren’t already close, I’d be telling you to stop spouting crazy shit.”
“I get it.”
“But here’s the thing—we are close. And you’re the one saying it, leader.”
The reason Alex hadn’t walked out of the room.
The reason he didn’t brush off this insane idea and was actually considering it.
It was because Ludger was the one who said it.
“If it was anyone else, I wouldn’t believe it. But if you say it, that’s different.”
Alex glanced around at the others, checking their reactions.
“Looks like everyone else is thinking the same thing.”
No one here was looking at Ludger with doubt.
Even knowing how impossible this sounded, they were still taking him seriously.
You don’t get that kind of trust without earning it.
“So. What’s the plan?”
“You’ll see. Hans.”
At Ludger’s call, Hans immediately got up. He grabbed a large rolled-up sheet from the corner of the room and unfurled it in front of everyone with a swish.
Seridan’s eyes lit up when she saw the diagram.
“Wait, is this... the floor plan for Kunst Auction?”
“That’s right. Got the real thing from the guy who designed it 20 years ago. Took a lot to get it.”
There were a few worn-out and faded spots from age, but it had been well-kept. The plan was still perfectly legible.
Ludger pointed to a section at the bottom with his finger.
“This is our target.”
“This... is underground?” Arfa asked.
Ludger nodded.
Kunst Auction was a massive building—way beyond normal scale—and it had an equally massive underground facility.
“It’s the basement level of the Kunst Auction. Forty meters underground, where they store all the auction items before they go on display.”
“Forty meters? That’s insane. How do we get down there?”
“There’s one elevator. No other way down. No stairs.”
One entrance.
Naturally, one exit.
“It’s the perfect place to drop the important stuff and lock it up tight. If we can sneak in somehow, it might work.”
Alex scratched his chin, mulling it over.
But Hans shook his head.
“Not gonna be easy.”
“Why not?”
“It’s not just the single entrance and exit that’s the problem. Inside, the security is insane—practically like a royal castle.”
Hans pulled out a few sheets of paper and laid them on top of the floor plan.
The photos were blurry, poorly printed, but still clear enough.
“These are Kunst Auction’s guards.”
“G-guards? Huh. But they’re all wearing armor?”
Bellaruna leaned in, staring at the photos.
Everyone in the pictures was decked out in full armor.
Full plate mail—something most considered an outdated relic.
Hans nodded.
“Yeah, that’s right. Shockingly, those guys in full armor are the guards. While everyone else wears sleek uniforms, these guys are suited up in custom-made alloy armor and guard the inside.”
“That’s «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» even allowed?”
“Who knows how much they paid off the city, but Kunst Auction got official permission for it. They dumped an astronomical sum into lobbying.”
“All that just to put guards in armor?”
“It’s part intimidation, part practicality. The armor’s custom-forged and seriously imposing. And what’s inside those suits isn’t to be underestimated either.”
Hans pulled out more prepared documents and laid them out.
Violetta watched in quiet awe.
Until now, Hans had seemed like the poster boy for unreliable.
Where the hell did he even get this stuff?
Now she understood why Ludger kept him close, why he was called a specialist in intelligence gathering.
“The guards at Kunst Auction are known as Blackguards. Here’s a list of some of them.”
Hans flipped through the papers, listing off their profiles.
“Former mercenary captain of a giant merc group, retired knights, seasoned traveling swordsmen, that sort of lot.”
“Knights...? Filling the security with people like that couldn’t have been cheap.”
“They poured money into it, that’s for sure. And while they don’t have huge numbers and they rotate in three shifts, on the day of the auction? You can bet there’ll be no breaks.”
One entrance. Thirty meters underground. Staffed entirely by knight-level guards.
And don’t forget the private bodyguards brought in by the wealthy bidders—it’d be packed tighter than a needle’s eye.
“Hmm. Still, this is...”
Alex seemed to be seeing some kind of opportunity, but Hans hit him with more bad news.
“And just so you know, the path to that underground vault? Lined with every kind of alarm you can think of. The door to the underground alone is restricted to authorized personnel, and down below, it’s crawling with magic-based alert systems.”
“What?”
“And the biggest problem? The vault can be monitored in real-time.”
“Real-time? That’s even possible?”
“Take a look at this.”
Hans set down yet another prepared document.
“Three years ago, a mage from the old Mage Tower presented a rather odd artifact. It was a modified communication crystal.”
“Communication crystal—as in, the ones that let you talk over long distances? Interesting.”
“The Mage Tower decided it wasn’t worth much and rejected it, didn’t even grant a patent. But somehow, the Luk Corporation caught wind of it and swooped right in, buying the rights from that mage.”
“And this, this is it?”
The paper Hans showed had a drawing of a flat, rectangular glass panel.
Communication crystals were normally spherical, mixed with magic-infused glass. This one was thin and wide.
It looked unfamiliar to everyone else—but Ludger recognized it.
It looked like a TV display from Earth.
“Unlike the usual crystals that only transmit voices, this one can send real-time images.”
“Unbelievable. They’re using something like that just to guard items?”
Seridan practically jumped out of her seat, trembling.
It wasn’t admiration for the artifact—it was fury that something this valuable was being wasted on storage security.
Hans ignored her outburst and kept explaining.
“Anyway, with this real-time surveillance artifact in place, even if we do break in, we’ll get caught almost immediately.”
“...So let me get this straight.”
Entry is strictly controlled through a single elevator, leading down thirty meters underground.
The place is crawling with Blackguards in full armor, all of them proven fighters.
The vault itself is surrounded by magic alarms.
And worst of all, there’s a magical artifact that lets them watch everything live.
“Pfft.”
Putting it all together, Alex couldn’t help but laugh in disbelief, tapping his forehead.
“So, tell me... is it even possible to get through all that?”
All eyes turned to Ludger.
Everyone had been on board with the idea of robbing the place at first, but now that they’d heard the details, it felt overwhelming.
“Of course.”
Even with everyone staring at him, Ludger didn’t flinch.
“We can break in.”
“Leader. You’re serious?”
“Why would I lie to you now?”
“Well... yeah, but still.”
“Seems like you’re most worried about that real-time surveillance artifact.”
Alex nodded.
They could maybe trick or sneak past everything else, but that constant visual monitoring? No way around it.
What if we destroy it?
That wouldn’t help. Destroy it, and people would swarm the place.
So we’d have to move without being seen by that thing? What are we, invisible? That’s not possible...
They had no choice but to rely on Ludger for answers.
And Ludger was serious.
To him, the artifact Hans showed was something he was very familiar with.
So they’ve got something like a CCTV system in this world, huh.
Sure, for this era, a magic-based artifact like that was revolutionary.
But that didn’t mean there weren’t ways to beat it.
“I have a plan.”
