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Last Embryo Volume 8 Chapter 1 Part 6

After saying that, he took out three pieces of pottery that reminded everyone present of the ones that were used in the distant past. They were two ornately decorated vases and a nearly plain celadon incense burner.

The former was so skillfully crafted that it can be seen at a glance, and depicts a dragon with three hearts. It looks like a valuable item. In contrast, a celadon incense burner is completely unpainted and does not look very expensive.

If they tried to have these three things appraised, then the celadon porcelain that none of them have ever seen before would be the main item of interest here, despite looking like it has little to no value at all.

「A dragon vase and a celadon incense burner. The people who expressed interest in these three items offered to pay thirty million yen for all of them.」

「Ho, ho. Thirty million yen, you say?」

Tokuteru’s eyes shined with an unpleasant light. He was undoubtedly thinking that thirty million yen would be enough to pay off all of his current debts.

On the other hand, Omatsu was looking at the pottery and tilting her head with a curious look on her face.

「Thirty million yen..is it? Somebody offered you thirty million yen for this old-looking pottery?」

In all likelihood, Omatsu could not possibly understand why pottery, which is just a part of daily life for her, would be can be priced so high. Masami Tendo, the person in question who brought the pottery in the first place, also appeared to be skeptical about this.

「Well, according to the explanation that was given to us, we were told that this pottery has been made during the time of the reign of the Song dynasty in China, and that this makes it very rare.」

Ayato extended her helping hand after they all heard Masami Tendo’s story.

「My father once told me about the value of pottery from the Northern Song dynasty. According to him, the recently acquired tea utensils from that time period were worth the same price as the three brand-new cars.」

「Oh my! Who would have thought that the CEO of Everything Company would also be interested in such antiques.」

「Unfortunately for us, he’s just an appreciator, not a professional appraiser though. Anyway, Masami Tendo’s father said he was going to meet those sellers, but no one form the family hasn’t been able to contact him since yesterday.」

The Northern Song dynasty means that the item was made more than 1,000 years ago.

That was the era when Chinese pottery developed the most, and many potteries from this period are extremely rare and popular, and some of them can be astronomically expensive, so there is an extremely high chance that the disappearance of her father, who went to see the pottery dealers, might not be a disappearance after all.

Kidnapping must also be considered as one of the possible options here. If her father won’t contact her by the end of the day, then she should probably go to the police with it.

Izayoi and Tokuteru, who heard the story, shifted their gaze to the pottery and almost simultaneously had the exact same glint in their eyes.

「… This is bad, Mr. President. This pottery is surely…」

「I know. I once saw the exact same thing in the palace before, but I don’t have any means of differentiating between a counterfeit and a real thing.」

「Huh…?」
Masami Tendo tilted her head, even more confused than before.

When the two of them had a disturbing looks on their faces, the owner of the store, who had run out of patience with them since they hadn’t placed a single order for a long time, showed up.

「Whatever you brats are thinking of doing, you better cut it out right this instant! This is not a public park, but a goddamn restaurant! Look, I don’t mind you sitting here and chatting, but the least you could to help the business is to order a cup of coffee.

「Oh sorry, I forgot.」

「But it’s great that you showed up now of all times, Don. Can you take a look at this? Some people told this girl over here that this pottery is supposedly from the Chinese Song dynasty and that they want to buy it off of her for thirty million yen, but we don’t know if it’s actually true or not.

「Huuhn?」

Don Bruno raises a displeased voice. Why would he, an owner who just came to ask why the problematic clients, two bastards who could only amass debts to their names didn’t order anything just yet has to do something as bothersome as this since it’s clearly outside of his range of responsibilities… is what Don Bruno wanted to say, but in the end he just groaned and picked up one of the pieces of pottery while scratching his grey hair.
Don picked up a vase with a dragon drawn on it next, but as soon as he tapped it twice on the side to check the pottery’s quality, a wry smile appeared on his face.

「… Hmm. These guys said that this potter is from the Song dynasty? Because no matter how I look at it, this is not from the Song dynasty, but rather from the Qing dynasty or even later.」

「I expected as much. So it must’ve been around 300 years since it was made, right?」

「Yeah. The state of preservation isn’t bad, but from the historical point of view, its value is not going to be all that high. If you look at this place right here, the fact that the dragon has only three claws means that this must have been the property of a low-ranking officer. When put together as a set, I think that these items would not be worth more than 100,000 yen at best.」

「I-Is that so?」

Masami Tendo blinked her eyes a few times.

The decoration of the dragon reflected the Chinese idea of five elements, and the number of claws was used to represent the status of the owner of the each individually made pottery piece. The five-clawed dragon is said to be reserved solely for the emperor, and the four-clawed dragon is an item sent to his senior vassals and important figures from neighboring countries.
「That is why it is unlikely that it’s from the Song dynasty. The culture of decorating possessions with dragons and using claws to mark one’s status was an idea that originated in the Qing dynasty. If you’re talking about an emperor’s possessions with a five-clawed dragon, then 30 million yen won’t be nearly enough of a price for such a valuable item, but this one right here isn’t even worth that much to begin with.」

「But… but if that’s the case, they why would these men say that they’re going to buy if from us for 30 million yen?」

「Well, it’s just a guess, but it’s probably because of the incense burner over here.」

Don Bruno took out his gloves and resumed the appraisal of the pottery using the appraisal loupe.

Don, who had a serious expression on his face unlike before, checked all of the tiny cracks, colors, and agate chunks used for the decoration. He silently spun the magnifying glass for about a minute or so to discern the colors inside and out of the pottery as well.

When Masami Tendo saw him doing all this, she looked puzzled and asked Tokuteru:

「Umm…….is appraising antiques a hobby of the owner of this store?」

「Rather than calling it a hobby, I hear that it used to be his main occupation before he opened this place up.」

「There are rumors that his services were always in great demand since he was one of the most famous auctioneers in Europe, but one day he was forced to flee here to the far east because he was playing with fire too much when he got too close with the daughter of a boss of a certain mafia.」

「Wow… an example of modern romance!」

Masami Tendo showed a slightly unexpected reaction to such a revelation. It was unclear whether or not she understood what they were trying to say, but one thing was perfectly clear: she was definitely impressed by what she heard.

When she showed her smile for the first time when her tension has been slightly lowered, even Izayoi couldn’t help it but to crack a mischievous smile himself.

「When you put it that way, then yes, I guess it can be classified as a kind of romance. Travelling all around the world with the love of your life while having mafia as your enemies… yes, the more I try to picture it, the more romantic it sounds.」