"Hey, hey, hey. Boss, have you got anything good on you? Something to help me put on a show."
Ambrose had sidled up while he was eating, hands pressed together in entreaty.
"What for? Your conversation seemed to be going well enough."
Vance set down his plate and said it with some interest.
"Let me get that for you." Seeing Vance reaching for more food, Ambrose read the room and helped him to it. "Boss, this is also a chance to move goods. Anything you'd rather not be seen handling can be cleared here, with hardly any risk at all."
"Heh heh. And it does my face a world of good, heh heh."
"What's all this? What sort of good thing? Anything in particular?"
Vance took the plate back and asked what this good thing was for.
"Miss Odette is holding an auction shortly, isn't she. Besides the lot of good things her Quillon family are putting up, they're inviting the guests to put in a few as well." Ambrose paused there. "I thought we oughtn't to disgrace ourselves. We're here to work a room, and face is what matters most. It'll help us collect intelligence later on, and it raises the standing of our Galaxy Technology company besides."
"Ah, so anything that will do for an auction."
"Yes, yes, yes. A treasure, a rare Pokémon, that sort of thing. The higher the grade the better."
Ambrose nodded and nodded, watching Vance expectantly. There was no measuring this boss of his; he was bound to have something.
"That's right — I may as well clear that Rhydon here." Vance had remembered the Rhydon he had taken, which was still lying half-dead in its Poké Ball; he had been busy of late and had never got round to selling it on the black market.
At the Rocket base it had been awkward, so he had meant to deal with it once he reached Celadon. Then he had wiped out the Black Dragon Gang, then he had been sent to Pewter at short notice, and he had forgotten all about it.
Now was as good a moment as any to bring it out; an Elite-class Rhydon made a respectable lot.
"As it happens, I have something suitable on me."
Smiling, Vance took a Poké Ball off his belt and looked it over. The Rhydon inside was still alive.
A Poké Ball carries a fluid of its own which a Pokémon can take to stave off hunger, so that it can live inside the ball for a short time.
"How about this one? Grand enough, I'd have thought."
Vance tossed the ball over; Ambrose caught it hurriedly and looked it over himself.
"It's a Rhydon! And what a presence — an Advanced-strength Pokémon? That'll do."
"Not Advanced strength. Elite."
Vance added it.
"What! An Elite-class Rhydon?" Ambrose stared at his boss in shock. He could take down something Elite-class! Since when was he that strong?
He had known the man was beyond measuring, but not this far beyond it, and at the same time he counted himself lucky to have thrown in with this boss.
Vance only nodded calmly and said nothing.
"Ha, ha, ha. That's enough, more than enough. Watch this, boss. With a lot like this, nobody is going to look down on us."
"Isn't it too showy? Bad for our digging after news?"
"It isn't. It'll help us collect it, you'll see. And I haven't only been chasing women, I've been working at this seriously, and now I'll get more out of it than before. Just wait, boss."
Then Ambrose took up the ball with the Rhydon in it, full of swagger, and walked over to the crowd, and in front of a group of women he handed it to a man who looked like a steward, saying something as he did.
After that, respect came into the way the people around him looked at him; several very handsome women had a new light in their lovely eyes; only the steward stayed as level as before.
As a rule, a man who can put up an Elite-class Pokémon is strong himself — Elite at the very least, and possibly a Gym-class fighter.
And Elite or Gym-class was no small figure; in the League's structure either could hold a middle or senior post.
To some of the great houses that might be merely respectable, but to ordinary families like theirs he was a man worth befriending.
After a while the room slowly quietened.
A bright figure came up onto the platform, unhurried: a beautiful girl, her brows like willow leaves, her nose finely drawn, in a magnificent white gown. Her delicate lips parted, and a pleasant voice rang out.
"Welcome, honoured guests and friends, to this evening's party. I am Odette, and I greet you all."
"Clap, clap, clap—"
The applause came at the right moment, and generously.
On the platform Odette inclined her head with composure, and the applause slowly died away.
"This evening has no other purpose than to make your acquaintance, and in the hope that you will look kindly on my Quillon family's business in the days ahead. There will also be an auction tonight. As its hosts, we will be putting up a quantity of goods ourselves, and there are besides a good many treasures consigned by our honoured guests — no small number of them, and quality assured. I hope you will all bid generously."
Odette said it with a soft smile and in a gentle voice.
"Well said. You have my custom."
Someone on the platform immediately spoke up in support.
Odette smiled at him and bowed slightly, then came down from the platform, and two auctioneers, a man and a woman, went up to conduct the sale.
As the daughter of the Quillon house, Odette was surrounded the moment she came down, people pressing in with pleasantries and toasts.
Odette kept a warm smile on her face throughout and handled the traffic of people properly, in no hurry at all, with considerable poise.
"Odette, is it? Another woman with real ability. Though I've no idea what relation she is to James. Come to that, who knows where James is at the moment — still a child, presumably."
Watching Odette hemmed in by the crowd, Vance thought of that luckless boy in the trio, the one the hero's party beat down again and again.
Only at present neither the hero's party nor the villain trio had grown up yet; by the time the story began, he would be a senior himself.
"Heh heh, boss. You've been staring at Odette this whole time. Taken a fancy to her?"
Ambrose had come up beside Vance at some point, chuckling.
"I'll tell you this. Never mind how refined and elegant she looks now — in private you've no idea how violent that woman is."
"Hm?" At that Vance turned, his eyes dark on Ambrose's fat face. From the sound of it, the lad knew her.
"From the way you say it, you know her?"
"After a fashion." Ambrose rubbed his head, a little embarrassed.
"So you really do. Your circle is wider than I thought, Ambrose."
"Heh heh, it's nothing much. All for the job."
Ambrose laughed his little laugh and stayed to keep Vance company.
The women who had been with him earlier had all gone over to Odette, so he was not following them; that one he had no wish to provoke. Those small fists of hers hurt like the devil.
"The Quillon are a great house and a large family; the young generation all go out to different cities to build something. This Odette came to our Celadon. There should be a good deal worth having at the auction later."
"I see."