“...A phone? No, start with the explanation! What did you even talk about?”
I gave the puzzled Joo Seowon a brief rundown.
“Asked to get a single item at the auction. Didn’t say what it was. Said they’d add a twenty-percent premium.”
“What?”
Seowon cut off, frowning like none of this made sense.
“...It’s an auction.”
“Exactly. How would she know how high I’d bid to win it.”
“Did you say you’d do it?”
“She finished saying her piece and left.”
Did she have another appointnt? Or maybe she was running around trying to buy people off.
“...Did you get who she was?”
I nodded at Seowon’s question. I’d heard a na and a nationality. Whether it was true was another matter.
“Said she’s Chinese-Arican. First na Lydia, last na Lin.”
“Chinese-Arican...”
“But I think it was a lie.”
“What?”
He echoed like it was absurd, then a mont later convinced himself at speed.
“Well, yeah. If she’s making that kind of offer, the odds she gives her real na are low.”
“Right.”
He stared at for a beat, then suddenly pulled his chair in and sat. He let his eyes roam the room without drawing attention and lowered his voice.
“According to my foresight skill... did anything specific happen?”
“Ah.”
For a second I forgot I’d lied about having a skill like that. Lately he’d been so willing to take my word that small lies evaporated from my head fast.
I pretended to think, then just shrugged.
“No?”
“Why does it work sotis and not others.”
“Because my awakening rank is trash.”
“Ha...”
Even when I told the truth, he answered with a sigh. Annoying, but I generously decided to ignore it. Instead, I brought up sothing else.
“Contact Nagao and set the eting sowhere else.”
“Where?”
“Just not here. Find another hotel lounge nearby.”
“Got it. Why?”
“If we run into that person again at this hotel, it’ll be awkward to explain.”
aning, we’d be screwed if our invitation-buying scam got exposed. Seowon seed to get it, nodded, and started searching nearby hotels on his phone.
I moved the soft tofu to another plate and resud eating, then asked,
“What if Tae Hyunjin’s sword doesn’t show up the first day?”
“...Just thinking about you making my life hell over that is giving stress that didn’t exist. For now, I’m looking for invitations for tomorrow too. When the date gets close, so people sell. And anyone who gets what they wanted today might sell their ticket for tomorrow.”
“Got soone you can reach?”
“There is one, but his reply tis are slow.”
With that, Seowon slid his phone over to . A chat window with soone else was open.
“What’s this.”
“I said there’s one contact. That guy.”
“No, I an how am I supposed to read this. Seowon, do I look like an idiot?”
It wasn’t English—it was all in Chinese. How was I supposed to make sense of it?
“I don’t know either! We’ve only ever texted, how would I know his na? I’ve been copy-pasting his na every ti too!”
“Ha...”
Perfect pair of a dumbass and a moron.
I tossed the na into a translator and got a phonetic reading. Wang Tiansin.
‘I’ve heard that sowhere...’
An article? Or a na from the original? Unless it was so big plot point, everything had mixed into one soup in my head and wouldn’t co back clearly.
While I was thinking, Seowon added an explanation.
“He usually sends a representative in his place. That’s why I thought he was a good shot and asked. Given how spotty he is, maybe he’s actually attending this one.”
“Keep trying to reach him.”
“I will.”
With no perfect plan, it was better to stack multiple Plan Bs. I recalled the woman’s words from earlier.
‘My invitation is for the second day, but for certain reasons the auction order got changed, so I need to buy sothing on today’s list. If you buy it for ... twenty percent as a fee.’
Honestly, more tempting than the twenty percent was what she said right before. Her invitation date wasn’t the sa as mine?
‘Maybe I should ask her to hand over the next day’s invitation instead.’
No idea if the item adjusted for the buyer’s gender. Or she might have a partner’s ticket—whether she was “Lydia” or Kang Sojeong. Either way, it was in my favor to talk.
While tearing his toast ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) into pieces, Seowon quietly asked,
“What was that about the phone?”
“To contact her.”
“What? Seriously? Why?”
“She said she also has an invitation. For tomorrow. But she wants an item from today, which is why she approached . If she knows details like that, she’s probably not ordinary.”
“So what? You’ll contact her and pick up loose info along the way? Isn’t that too dangerous? Best not to stir things up...”
He clamped his mouth shut there. Then shook his head and muttered to himself in a rush.
“No, forget it. If I say that, you’ll just say it sounds more fun.”
“What?”
I kept my mouth shut instead of arguing, because honestly, it did sound more fun.
With a sigh, he shot a sidelong glance.
“So first we buy the phone, then we head to the eting spot?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, got it.”
He looked like he had more to say, lips parting—then didn’t.
***
After finishing our al, we went to the nearby hotel we’d booked ahead of ti, left our bags, then deliberately bought a used phone at a nearby shop.
We grabbed a prepaid SIM, activated it for now, and headed straight to the eting place.
“You gonna contact her now?”
“No. Around lunchti.”
“Okay.”
“Did you move the eting spot?”
“Yeah. Central Hotel, first-floor lounge. They said we had to reserve the lounge, so I booked it. For three.”
“Nice.”
We got out of the taxi and went to the Central Hotel lounge. After a short wait, I spotted a man craning his neck and looking around. Seowon had already stood; wearing a friendly smile, he strode over and greeted Nagao.
“Ah, Mr. Nagao. Hello.”
“Hello. ...And this is Mr. Han Gyeongu?”
When did he change my na again? At a loss from the first line, I decided to let Seowon handle everything and simply smiled.
Nagao t my eyes, let out an awkward laugh, and sat down hesitantly. What was his deal?
‘Let’s take a peek at his status window.’
Na: Nagao Kikuji
Age: 34
Rank: B
Title: –
Main Skills: Gale (B), Drizzle (B)
Growth Limit: –
Decent. Considering the combat footage we’d dug up had looked solid, he was genuinely usable.
While I was scanning Nagao’s status window, the two had finished the small talk and gotten down to business.
“Ah, before that, could I see sothing to verify your identities...”
“Yes, here. We can swap these back later, right?”
Seowon took the lead and handed over his passport. Of course the guy who gave a fake na wouldn’t hand over his real passport.
But Seowon was far more ticulous than average. Seeing Nagao hesitate, he had already spread a stack of docunts—no idea when he’d pulled them—across the table in front of him.
“I work with a Korean guild, so the guarantee is solid.”
“Sure, well... as long as I get my passport back.”
“Of course. And honestly, even if I took your passport, it’s not like I could actually use it to leave the country. Right?”
“Heh... It’s because you, Mr. Gyeongu, and—well, both of you—are handso.”
“You’re handso yourself, Mr. Nagao. You look much better in person than in your photo, so I wasn’t sure at first.”
Fascinating. The photo looked way better.
As I stared at Nagao’s face, marveling at Seowon’s taste, I felt a hand clamp down hard on my thigh under the table. I think he ant “stop staring,” but the placent was questionable.
‘Has he lost his mind...’
Seowon must have realized where his hand had landed; his body went rigid for a beat.
“I’ve never sold an invitation like this before... Are you sure you’re comfortable with it?”
“Hmm? Of course.”
Answering smoothly, Seowon casually withdrew his hand and set it properly on his own thigh. With only his right hand going stiff, the awkward movent was pretty funny.
‘What are you doing?’
I glanced at him, but he stared straight ahead and kept talking, unfazed. The conversation drifted who-knows-where for a while, and only much later did we get to the point.
“Then, about the money...”
Still staring straight ahead, Seowon finally turned his head and tapped my shoulder.
“He’ll discuss that.”
“Ah, yes.”
At last.
Up to now I’d suffered through an unfun conversation; it felt like I’d earned this. Suppressing the urge to stretch, I spread all ten fingers in front of Nagao.
His eyes snapped to my hands on reflex.
“Wads of cash are heavy and attract attention.”
“Th-then...?”
“I brought collateral instead.”
Grinning, I slipped off the rings from all ten fingers and set them on the table. Tap, tap—each ring down, and Nagao’s mouth clamped shut.
“The five on the left are diamonds. If you look close, they’re pavé-set, carats are as you see. Got a proposal planned?”
“...No. Then the right side is...”
“Sha. Would’ve been perfect if you did—though you’d have to size them down a lot. The right side’s all pieces processed from dungeon magic stones. Honestly, that side’s pricier.”
“All of these...?”
Seeing his eyes shake uncontrollably, I added in a polite tone,
“Pick five from these as security. I’ll return the rest tomorrow after the auction, along with your passport. If you want, we can go get them appraised together.”
“...”
His jaw dropped. This should be enough. Also nice leverage to stiff him at the airport later, if needed.
Still at a loss for words, flicking his gaze between and the rings, Nagao got one more little bonus from .
I grabbed Seowon’s half-raised wrist and yanked; his whole body lurched forward.
“What are you—mmph...”
Leaving him to swallow his words, I unfastened the watch from his left wrist with one hand and set it on the table. Where did he even get such a pretty watch...
When I saw Nagao’s gaze shift to the watch, I flipped it over so the logo showed, and offered a friendly note.
“Oh, this one’s on the house.”
A mont later, Nagao nodded.
“...All right.”
Good. That was more than satisfactory.
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