Rebirth of the gamer duchess

Aweek has passed since then. 

After completing my training with Alfred and my usual walk around the mansion. I realized that the inside of the mansion was busier than before.

And there was a man who was directing all of the chaos, the butler.

"Quickly, quickly!"

All the people running around to and fro inside the mansion truly looked like a hurricane of activity was happening before my eyes.

"Looks like things are quite busy."

"Ah! My lady, did you have a nice walk?"

He quickly stopped his order and turned to greet me, while pulling out a handkerchief to wipe away the sweat forming on his forehead. His age may be catching up to him, as just walking around the mansion seemed to be tiring him out.

"Please don't overexert yourself. You are at that age after all."

"Please don't worry, I am still plenty healthy!"

The butler looked very moved by my words and tried to hit his chest with a fist to look manly, but it didn't look convincing at all.

"Actually, what's the reason for all this hustle and bustle?"

"Goodness. I should have mentioned it to you first… My apologies, my lady."

"It's fine. Please just tell me."

"They say that today Lady Katalina shall be visiting. To think that she would suddenly barge in here without any forewarning, how very rude of her."

The butler's complaint was pretty justified. Even if you know each other, to visit another household first thing in the morning is quite a rude thing to do.

You'd usually invite them for lunch or dinner. It's even ruder when they're visiting when you haven't even considered inviting them to begin with. For the butler who always prefers to strictly adhere to rules and traditions, it may have upset him quite a lot.

It seems that Katalina saying the day before that she will be visiting wasn't just an empty promise.

"My lady. You're not planning to greet them while wearing that, are you?"

As the butler quickly turned his sharp eyes towards me, ready to vent his anger out on me instead, I quickly shook my hands side to side.

"Of course not. I was thinking of changing after taking a shower."

"I believe you will. Oh yes! I'll send the clothing you should wear after the shower to Sara."

I felt a bit uneasy hearing that, but I didn't want to cause any more hassle, so I gave a dry answer back to him, after which I went back to my room.

Even while heading to my room, maids and cleaners were everywhere trying to clean. 

'I'm sure they're cursing me under their breath.'

After taking my shower and combing my hair.

I opened up the 'Hello Blue Sky' website.

'Merlin's Staff. The biggest news in the world of Blue Sky.'

The main headline that covered the front page was as I suspected. Just as I was going to the auctioning part of the website to cancel my auction offer, I saw that there were 390,000 comments on the auction as well as 500 individual bids put up. The fact that I also received several hundreds of direct messages also amused me.

Though I am not too surprised by the number of comments and messages, the 500 individual bidding numbers were quite higher than I expected. I started to look through the comments section which was heated up.

"Is it really true that it's only been a day since this was put up on auction?"

"If it does sell, then it's already reached the all-time highest price for an item to be sold in an auction. And there's still 6 days left on it, I wonder how much higher it will go."

"It's no different than winning a lottery…"

"Even the foreign country servers are keeping their eyes on our server. The TV network is also having 24-hour coverage on the auction as well."

"Aren't they getting a 5% cut of the price as commission for putting up the auction item? They'd be rich even if they take just 5% of that price."

"They're profiting way too much off this!"

"Auction sites are like that. Directly making a trade is still the best in terms of personal profit."

There were many other endless amounts of comments besides those, but reading that it had already reached the highest-priced item to be ever sold on the website, I quickly moved to the location of the page where it showed the top bidding price.

The bids were lined up from top bidders and below.

BSD – (900 million Euro)

SRGDD – (850 million Euro)

RPG – (800 million Euro)

SAWE – (780 million Euro)

KINGS – (700 million Euro)

900 million Euro….

The price that this single item was calling for… I once again felt the realization just how Blue Sky may have transcended just being a videogame to people.

On top of that, the problem was that the price was still rising. I was having a hard time estimating just how much the price would go up by the end of the 7 days it will be up for. I remembered Katalina saying that it may even reach one billion euros, and now I believe her. It may just be a matter of time before it reaches that point. I'm sure even she may not have predicted it to be this high already.

Although I was curious about just how high the bidding will go without caring much about the actual money I would be receiving, to continue this auction of this item would just be insulting to those bidders even more at the end.

Bidding is an extremely taxing thing to do for the people who buy and sell, in a mental sense.

[Would you like to cancel the auction?]　

I canceled the auction without any hesitation and paid the penalty price of the auction I've put in for the cancellation. Although the website may have lost a huge potential profit, they still were able to salvage at least 1 million off of me so the sting might be lessened.

Later, Sara came with an army of maids to dress me and do my makeup. It was torture. All for Katalina…

"A message from the front gate. Esteemed daughter Katalina has arrived."

Sara leaned in as if to receive the message, as she was a bodyguard and a maid. She relayed that message to me while I sat in the chair in the home office waiting for Katalina.

"Got it."

I got up to head to the entrance, and even though I was pretty annoyed that I must go all the way over there, under the nagging of the butler and having Eastern courtesy buried deep in my mind, I had to give up trying to go against it. Even if I had to go all the way there while wearing a high heel.

Of course I was happy to see her but this is too much for me. 

Along with the sounds of tires rolling on the ground, I saw a line of vehicles coming in towards the mansion. It looks like it was Katalina and escorts tagging behind.

The expensive black cars stopped in the driveway not long after, and the white limousine amongst them stopped near the front entrance itself.

Soon after, a bodyguard got out of the limousine and opened the door for Katalina, who stepped outside of the car.

With long black hair reaching to her hips, big green eyes, perfectly symmetrical nose and her cute little lips, the woman with astounding amounts of charm smiled towards me with a bit of a shy expression.

"Ellie !"

"Katalina"

Seeing me having a ‌nervous expression on my face as I said way too courteously, Katalina couldn't help but laugh as she covered her mouth with her hand.

"Ahem!"

Looking at the two of us acting way too informal, the butler showed his expression of annoyance.

"Please, come inside, my ladies."

He then quickly regained his composure and guided us inside of the mansion. I felt a tinge of worry that the butler may berate me for having such a stiff face after Katalina goes back home today.

"Ah, have you eaten?"

"Well, it's really early, so I planned to eat at your place."

"Okay."

As the two of us step inside of the mansion, the workers all bowed deeply as a greeting. It was the same ‌soundless greeting they all gave when I was discharged from the hospital, but standing here with Katalina by my side and wearing a dress, I felt that it was much more fitting. I was glad that at least I didn't feel like I was the leader of some mafia gang.

They guided both Katalina and me to the dining hall part of the mansion2, and sat down at the prepared table with the two of us sitting on opposite sides of the table, staring directly into each other's face.

It's not like I was having a blind date or something. But to make the guest sit somewhere else would be rude, so ‌ we both sat at opposite ends, me looking away from her gaze as it felt like she kept enjoying looking into my eyes.

"Hehe…"

Katalina giggled seeing me look away from her, making me realize that I was being ‌ rude to her, so I turned to face her directly.

"Gosh. I think it's the first time I'm seeing you with makeup on, Ellie. Wow! You look so beautiful that I can't help but be amazed! You really look amazing."

"… Thanks.It was not easy really"

"How about me? Do I look good? I looked my best for you today. Hmm? How is it?"

Although she had a completely different set of facial features to Elizabeth, ‌she definitely had a very pretty face. But if I were to just make an unbiased judgement between the two, I would pick Katalina as the more beautiful one.

"Yeah. You're beautiful."

"Hehe, really?"

Seeing her smile so innocently, I had the thought ‌her smile looked very similar to the smile of the woman I knew in the past. Maybe it's just me, though.

"Thank you for waiting."

Finally, the meals arrived. Although several dishes were served first instead of the main course, they all tasted very good.

"How does it taste? I'm not sure if it's to your liking."

It's not like I've ‌cooked these meals myself, but as the owner of this household I felt that it is courteous for me to at least ask that question to her, so I did with slight caution in my voice.

"Yeah, it's delicious. I think your chef is quite better at cooking than mine."

And so, the breakfast between us where smiles and light laughter was enjoyed had finally ended, though it was only smiles for me on the outside.

"Now that we finished our meal… I must unpack my belongings now."

We were having tea time when Katalina spoke as she put her teacup down.

"Belongings?"

"Ah, I didn't tell you beforehand, did I. I've decided to stay in your mansion for a while. I also went on break for a semester so I can go to school together with you. My parents said they'll be gone for two months for a trip around Asia; since there won't be anyone I know in my house for a while, I got permission from your butler to stay in your mansion."

What I want to know is why you'd get the permission to move into my mansion from the butler rather than the owner of the house, which is me!

"So! I'm saying I'll be staying in this mansion for a while. We're already always close to each other in the game, so it's nothing embarrassing at all, right?"

"…"

She looked very excited and happy about all this, 

"I have permission, right?" She's quick to ask.

"Yeah of course"

"Hehe, thanks."

Katalina gave a bright smile and walked over to give me a light kiss on the cheek.

Come on, stop blushing…! I don't remember ever having the attention of such a beautiful girl before. Plus it's just a kiss on the cheek !

"You'll help me unpack, right?"

I'm sorry. But can't you tell the army of maids to take care of it instead? I'm extremely tired mentally right now.