Vale turned to the masked merchant, pointing briefly toward the nine preserved corpses displayed near the corner.
"What about those?" he asked.
The merchant's masked face turned slightly, and he replied.
"They're not for direct sale. Those are part of tonight's auction—four hours from now. We're simply displaying them for preview. Buyers like to study the goods before bidding."
Vale nodded slowly, understanding.
That makes sense. They want to build anticipation—and let buyers estimate value ahead of time.
"Anything else being auctioned?" he asked casually.
The merchant only chuckled. "More than you'd expect. Just wait and see."
With that in mind, Vale left the stall and resumed his browsing. He still had time, and he didn't intend to waste it.
He moved stall to stall, carefully selecting only the items that he could possibly purchase in bulk later on and extract resources from.
As always, he kept a calm demeanor as he looked around, like all the other customers.
