Chapter 152

—Ohhh!

The atmosphere in the auction house heated up intensely.

It was the roar of the onlookers and the citizens who had participated with a light heart to spend the Talents they had earned from the games.

Of course, there had been expensive items in the middle, but for them, after watching bids at the 3-Talent or 100-Talent level, the sudden jump in the unit of the amount made their dopamine levels surge.

The fact that the subjects were the commanders of the Special Unit’s 3rd and 4th Divisions played a part as well.

“It’s fascinating. I heard that adult men bought and sold in Ground Zero aren’t that expensive. Hey, what’s your ability?”

“…”

“Excuse me?”

With even Rubietta watching with interest, there was only one person trembling in his boots.

That was me.

“I’ll raise it to 150.”

“160. Hayan is mine.”

“Oh my, you’re even speaking informally now. You weren’t like this when we met at my building the other day, were you?”

“Our ranks are the same now. I can’t lose face in front of my subordinates by being pushover to a Division 4 Commander.”

Back when I was pushing to move out of the dormitory and live independently.

Unlike when she came at dawn to send No Yeon-hwa and Cheon So-baek home, Yoo Se-byeol was now a full-fledged Commander leading a unit of the Special Unit.

However, I wished she wouldn’t drag her subordinates into it just because she was no longer using honorifics with Cheon So-baek.

Wasn’t she just acting prickly because she didn’t want to lose me?

Besides that, there was one point of doubt.

It was the amount she had just called out.

“Where on earth did you get all that money?”

“I earned it fair and square, is there a problem?”

“Would you mind telling me how? It’s making me curious.”

Yoo Se-byeol was also the daughter of a family that had accumulated immense wealth, just like Cheon So-baek, but it was difficult to directly convert Talents into assets as they were.

There was bound to be a difference in the amount gathered by Yoo Se-byeol, who had been active as a Deputy Commander, and Cheon So-baek, who had served as a pillar of the Special Unit from the beginning.

Even so, to call out an amount over 16 billion without hesitation.

Where on earth did that money—or rather, those Talents—spring from?

Did an oil well erupt in the basement of the Division 3 training grounds?

The answer to that came soon enough.

At Cheon So-baek’s question, Yoo Se-byeol’s body stiffened, and after a moment, she lowered her head and muttered.

The voice was so small that one couldn’t hear it without focusing, but it reached the ears of both of us Awakened clearly.

“…It was Dad’s.”

“…”

So it was money Yoo Cheol-jin had earned.

The source was a bit tacky, but fortunately, it wasn’t Talents obtained unfairly.

Since she was the one who had legitimately inherited the Commander position, and she was using the share of her predecessor—who also happened to be her flesh and blood—it seemed Cheon So-baek had no intention of raising an objection.

However, apart from that, the price had already risen to the hundreds of millions and was skyrocketing.

It had far exceeded the amount I had asked Rubietta to use as Patel, so I couldn’t even intervene.

This is bad; no matter who wins, only the worst outcome awaits me.

As I was about to slowly slip away from the stage, possessed by the thought that I had to escape immediately as a warning bell rang in my head—

A soft witch’s hand grabbed the back of my neck.

When I turned my head, Rubietta was holding a microphone to her mouth with a beaming face.

She looked at the two women and spoke.

“Could I have everyone’s attention for a moment? We will suspend the auction for now~.”

“Why?”

“For what reason?”

“It seems like there’s an interesting story behind this, and if we continue like this, the audience won’t be able to hear it properly. Of course, don’t worry, I intend to finish it right here.”

Rubietta, who had called Yoo Se-byeol and Cheon So-baek onto the stage, began to listen to their story.

Her words were smooth, saying things like ‘the auction amount is abnormally high, so people might be suspicious’ or ‘it could be perceived that there is discord within the Special Unit,’ but in reality, it was clearly because she was curious.

Just like a succubus who fuels human sexual desire, witches are inherently beings who mock people’s greed.

From her perspective, it was just entertainment taking place on one of the many nights she didn’t attend the Council, but to me, it was a life-or-death matter.

As the two women, who had been far apart, stood close together, their magic power began to tear through the atmosphere as if trains approaching from either side of the tracks were about to collide.

“Since it’s come to this, I’ll just say it, but could you stop getting in my way?”

“Got in the way? Me?”

“I am merely helping Hayan design his future. But it’s embarrassing for you to suddenly intervene and reveal your possessiveness. It’s not like you’re going to take responsibility for him for the rest of his life, like someone said.”

It was Cheon So-baek who landed the first strike.

The magic she unleashed as an Upper-Level mage was ‘Justification.’

It looked as if she was simply gathering mana in her hand to swat away Yoo Se-byeol’s sharp gaze like a fly, but what was built within it was a terrifying spell of around the 56th Rank.

It was a fearsome technique that could only be unleashed after reaching the mastery of White Magic at least eight times.

“I was planning to put the amount I used to purchase Hayan with Talents directly into the building and transfer the ownership to that side.”

“Isn’t that a form of wash trading?”

“So, according to commercial law…”

“And according to what you said, it doesn’t matter who pays for it, right? If you’re going to buy the building with it anyway.”

Yoo Se-byeol, who parried that attack like flowing water, immediately drew an invisible ‘Mind Sword’ and sliced directly into Cheon So-baek’s heart.

The first battlefield where Yoo Se-byeol’s remarkable growth was displayed—growth that would have brought tears to the Sword Immortal’s eyes—was not a Gate teeming with demons, nor was it a seed of calamity still remaining in the middle of South Korea; it was the peaceful riverside of Hangang Park.

“I’ll buy Hayan, and I’ll have you buy the building with that money. That works, right? You sell the building, and I get Hayan.”

“The math doesn’t add up. It was mine to begin with.”

“What? Hayan? Or that building?”

“Ah, so this is how you want to play. This is getting annoying.”

Cheon So-baek muttered as she twisted her red hair with her fingers.

Yoo Se-byeol, who could not have missed hearing that, also adjusted the position of the scabbard hanging from her waist and stamped her foot lightly.

Traditionally, the swordsmen and mages within the Special Unit were dying to get at each other’s throats, so there was no reason for the two of them to get along.

It was a reality I didn’t want to deny: that I was the fuse for that conflict.

“I don’t understand why you’re getting so worked up in the first place. Is there anything you’ve actually done for Hayan so far?”

“And what have you done?”

“I’ve done plenty. I gave him missions, arranged a professor position at the Magic Tower, and even set up a date account so I could deposit money into it every month.”

“I have everything prepared in the basement of my family estate as well.”

Hearing everything Cheon So-baek had done for me, Yoo Se-byeol scoffed.

It was a statement as if she had a thousand golden calves at home.

However, unlike the boasts of gossipers, not even a single spoonful of bluff was mixed into her words.

That fact was what I feared most of all.

“Come, come, I get the gist. So, he’s such a precious item that both of you are coveting him?”

Rubietta, who had been watching the situation, stepped out in front of the two of them.

She had a playful smile plastered on her face, which made me uneasy.

“A witch’s proposal here! How about doing it like this?”

“What is it?”

“I’ll use magic to snip him in half! Then you two can split him. That way, there’s no reason to fight, so wouldn’t that be great?”

Oh… it was a brilliant idea that only a witch could come up with.

I had seen it once over the shoulder of Alexei at the dormitory while he was reading a book he bought for my ‘little sister, the Outer God.’

Wasn’t it clearly Solomon’s Choice?

When the wise king tried to cut the baby in two, the fake mother said that was fine and asked for the baby, but—

The real mother, who loved the baby, wept bitterly and begged him to give the child to that person, just to save the baby’s life.

This was a chance to verify the sincerity of these two people toward me.

Whose side should I actually take?

“…Shall we?”

“That doesn’t sound bad.”

However, contrary to my expectations, upon hearing Rubietta’s suggestion, the two of them nodded at the same time.

Why?

“I don’t care if I only have half. I’ll stick him back together later. Yes, because we’ll be together forever.”

“I can just ask White Immortal to revive him even if he only has half.”

“Wait… you two. I didn’t mean cutting him in half and killing him? It was, um, puppetry… a spell that splits the soul…”

With even the witch reacting in horror, I was at the point where I didn’t know which side to trust anymore.

If even the wise King Solomon had seen them both nod, he would have sentenced them to death without hesitation.

“I’ll take the left.”

“I don’t want that. I’m the left.”

“The face is mine.”

“Then is the lower body my share?”

“…Ah, no way!”

“You startled me, why are you acting like that all of a sudden?”

“A-anyway, no! It’s shameless, so don’t even think about touching it!”

“You’re saying you want to hog all the tasty parts for yourself, right? Then I have no reason to accept; the negotiations are broken.”

For better or for worse, the proposal to split me, Ha/yan, into two could not be realized due to the difference in opinion.

However, the auction was not over yet.

Returning to their respective places, the two checked their pickets to bid again.

Rubietta, who had caught a glimpse of madness in humans equal to—or in some aspects, surpassing—that of demons, quietly held up the microphone.

“Th-then, let’s start the bidding again. The item signaling the start of the second part is this!”

As I climbed onto the platform following the staff’s guidance, I saw Cheon So-baek’s beaming face from afar.

She immediately raised her picket at my auction price, which had started at 100 Talents, and bid an astronomical amount.

“7 billion.”

“I have 7 billion! Is there a higher bid?”

Since it was money that would go toward the building payment anyway, it would actually be a problem if I were bought cheaply.

But no problem.

I had bullets loaded that were a whopping 1.5 times that.

No matter how rich Cheon So-baek was, Talents were not cash but were received according to the merit contributed to the Special Unit so far.

It meant she couldn’t just take them out of her wallet and spend them like water indefinitely.

“Me, me!”

“Yes, the little de… girl wearing the party hat over there!”

With this, I would be able to throw off the shackles and be free.

“One, two, three…”

But then.

Before the little witch, entrusted with the Talents by Rubietta, could raise her hand to stand, the person sitting next to her raised her picket first.

“Fourteen…”

“Fourteen billion.”

“Pardon…?”

The identity of the woman who had doubled the amount while glaring at Cheon So-baek with half-dead eyes was none other than Yoo Se-byeol.