The Flying Emporium

After announcing the first item of the evening, Mr. Reigh turned towards his right, thereby redirecting the attention of the whole audience.

It was clearly a pre-arranged signal, as, exactly at this moment, another employee appeared on the stage, pushing a trolley. On its top shelf sat a doll, with its legs dangling over the edge.

Immediately, the crowd broke out in excitement.

Severin, however, could only stare.

Initially, he suspected that maybe he had misheard or misunderstood the auctioneer.

But clearly he didn’t. It truly was a doll.

At this distance it was hard to see every detail and Severin was no expert on this matter, but at least to him the Isabell looked very much like a Victorian porcelain doll. Roughly fifty centimeters in size, with blonde curly hair, wearing a lovely dress.

The whole situation was very bizarre to Severin. And at first it seemed Mylana felt similarly when she said, “No wonder I wasn’t initially on the guest list.” But that impression changed when she continued saying, “But A Model-5? Very impressive. I wonder what secrets she hides within.”

“But…” Severin was struggling for words. In the end, he settled on a single word to express his doubts. “Dolls?!”

“Don’t look down on them too much. More importantly, remember why we are here in the first place. The items themselves are of no real interest to us. Just keep observing.”

“Right.” Severin clearly had some doubts, and it was noticeable in his voice. But thinking about it more carefully, he found Mylana was right; again. After all, it wasn’t solely out of spite that Mylana interrupted him whenever Perc wanted to tell them about the actual items of today’s auctions.

So what if some eccentric rich folk wanted to buy their children some creepy dolls?

“Right,” he repeated, this time more sincerely, and stuck to quietly observing from above.

Soon, the initial excitement in the audience below had similarly died down.

While the visibility from the balcony was poor, especially when the object of interest was so small, the sound, Mr. Reigh’s voice in particular, was very clear.

“This genuine Model-5 combines all the greatest features of its predecessors into one. Be it the intricate workmanship of the first model, the durability and sturdiness of the second, the remarkable range of motion of the third, or the expandability of the fourth.

This is without a doubt the pinnacle of Silven-style of doll-making.

But please, see for yourselves. My words alone could never do justice to a masterpiece such as this.” Reigh gestured towards his assistant, and continued.

“This Isabell in particular comes with several of the most popular modules already pre-installed. Such as the time-proven Mk6 Household module, a custom-made sewing and knitting-,”

While the auctioneer kept educating the audience about the most noteworthy aspects of this first item of the evening, his assistant didn’t remain idle, either. Following Reigh’s previous gesture, the woman leaned over the motionless doll.

From up high Severin couldn’t see what exactly she was doing, and initially he didn’t especially care. That was until soon after the woman was done with whatever it was she had been doing.

At this point, the assistant straightened before raking back several steps to give the audience an unobstructed view of the doll.

Which suddenly sprang to life.

Without forewarning and with a swift movement that escaped Severin’s eyes, the seated doll swung her entire body up into the air. And landed in a standing position on the top shelf of the trolley.

The small human-like figure then slightly lifted her dress and curtsied towards the audience.

Severin couldn’t believe his eyes. Meanwhile, the people in the main hall- the children in particular- once again erupted into a loud cheer.

But the surprises didn’t end there.

The children were still going crazy, when the Isabell again sprang into action. Again, she jumped. This time off the trolley and onto the ground, a distance greater than her own height.

This time, she didn’t stop for any grand gestures. She directly turned around and reached for an item laying on the bottom shelf of the trolley; a doll-sized broom.

Soon, under the auctioneer’s narration, she began sweeping the stage.

Under different circumstances, this would have been the most boring and mundane demonstration imaginable. But at this moment, to Severin, this was the most incredible thing ever. Observing the small artificial human work demanded his full attention; Reigh’s talk about the modules implanted into the doll’s core- that was the component which enabled the doll to this kind of task-were only of secondary interest to him.

But of course, this was only supposed to be a short showcasing of the item’s capabilities; the doll could hardly go on to sweep the entire stage.

And so, after a minute or so, she was instructed to a different task.

Obediently, Isabell put her broom back where she had picked it up and picked up a number of different objects instead. Then she sat down on the floor, her legs crossed.

Severin couldn’t help but curse. These damned seats. How could the private booths have the worst view in the entire hall?

At this point, he was tempted to leave for the main hall to get a clear view of things.

The broom had been one thing. But now he couldn’t make out anything. All he could see was that some colorful thing way laying on the doll’s lap and that she was rhythmically moving her tiny hands in front of her chest.

Frustrated, Severin had to rely on Reigh’s narration to figure out what was going on.

“-developed in collaboration with some of Galira’s finest seamstresses. As such, Isabell is fully capable of making her own clothing. But again, I invite you to see for yourselves.” Following the explanation which Severin caught only in parts, Reigh remained silent and let the audience observe in quiet. Still, it was enough for Severin to deduce that the colorful object in the doll’s lap had to be a ball of wool and that she was currently wielding two embroidery needles.

Even then, nothing compared to seeing things clearly with one’s own two eyes.

‘Someone should tell this White Hall about my transmission crystals,’ Severin complained to himself, fully convinced those items of his would make for a far better viewing experience for the VIPs in their private booths. But he also concluded that someone wouldn’t be him. If everything panned out as planned, this wouldn’t only be Severin’s first and last time in the White Hall, but helping them might actually end up hurting his own business; just this thought drastically improved his mood immediately.

It wasn’t a big deal, anyway. If the previous showcase was anything to go by, then this one would be concluded just as quickly. With this in mind, Severin focused his attention on everything else that was going on.

Like the other doll that was suddenly carried onto the stage.

‘Is that the second item already?’

But the closer he looked, the more he declined that notion. This one wasn’t comparable to the Isabell, at all. Not only was it easily thrice its size, and completely undressed, it also lacked all of the other’s detail; that much Severin could distinguish even at this distance.

‘That’s how plain that thing is. It looks more like a regular mannequin. But then why bring it onto the stage? Do they intend her to create a full set of clothes, after all?’

Yet soon enough, his doubts would be cleared up; reality once again would far exceed Severin’s imagination.

“I think this much shall suffice for a demonstration of her knitting capabilities. As you can already see, this custom made module can easily hold its own compared to those of some of the more established brands such as Wilker or Puppeteer’s Choice. In fact, we, White Hall that is, guarantee that it far surpasses them in every aspect.

That said, let us focus our attention on a far rarer subtype of modules altogether.

Isabell. Activate Intruder Elimination modu-”

The sentence was not yet finished when the innocent-looking doll was not just already up in the air, but had already landed again, now sitting on the neck of the plain mannequin and with her short legs crossed in front of the other doll’s throat. Her small fists strangely placed on either side of the mannequin’s neck.

It took Severin a moment to understand the doll hat never let go of her two needles.

“What the fuck!?” Came his delayed reaction, but his own shout was drowned out by a series of cries.

“Wooow.”

“I want her! Daddy, please! Please, get her for me!”

“Amazing!”

“Moooom, I will be good, I swear. Just-”

Just as much as he couldn’t believe his eyes, Severin also couldn’t believe his ears. The children in the audience reacted like this was the greatest toy ever.

“What the fuck?” he repeated.

Only that this time a voice unexpectedly answered.

“Not bad. Not bad at all. You might want to get her for little Em.”

“???”