Heukwol Auction House (1)

The next morning.

After spending the night at the inn Haesu had guided them to, Hyeonseong checked the news from inside the Free Market as soon as she woke up.

The flames that had burned part of the Free Market’s underground level, starting from the transfer room, had somehow been extinguished.

According to the announced report, the fire that had broken out underground was presumed to be of the darkness attribute, demonic attribute, or black-magic type. The reason was simple. The thing that had shown the greatest extinguishing effect was water infused with the holy attribute.

‘The Fire of Judgment is black magic? That doesn’t seem right.’

Sure enough, the Constellation that had given her the ‘Fire of Judgment’ angrily sent a message in response to the news.

“Then what attribute is it exactly?”

‘An attribute that annihilates sin… Since it’s an item whose power changes depending on the target’s karma, that really is the perfect explanation.’

Looking at it that way, she could understand why the holy attribute had been especially effective in extinguishing the ‘Fire of Judgment.’

The holy attribute had the effects of blessing the target and purifying wicked energy. Of these, the wicked-energy purification effect was commonly known as being extremely effective against undead and black magic.

But that was not the end of the effects corresponding to wicked-energy purification.

‘It also has the effect of absolving and purifying sin. …The effect is so extremely faint that everyone treats it more as a symbolic meaning than an actual effect.’

An extremely degraded sin-annihilation attribute. That was another characteristic of the holy attribute.

‘No matter how degraded it is, if they poured an absurd amount of it into one spot, it probably wasn’t completely without a purification effect. If it erased even somewhat mediocre karma like that, it would have been enough to kill the fire’s momentum as it spread.’

In any case, this let her learn a little more about the properties of the ‘Fire of Judgment.’

She then checked the news regarding the arsonists.

The arsonist gang had been arrested overnight while Hyeonseong’s group was sleeping and taken to the police station with jurisdiction over the Free Market.

The arrested arsonists were the owner of the face Hyeonseong had used when doctoring the evidence footage, along with part of the black-market enforcer group that had chased Hyeonseong’s party. There was no mention of Hyeonseong’s group anywhere.

‘So it wasn’t a lie when they said they’d withdraw.’

There was still something uncomfortable about it. No matter how she looked at it, the original footage was obviously still in their hands.

‘Even if they wrap up the incident like this for now, there’s no telling when they might change their minds.’

Hyeonseong recalled the messages she had received yesterday on the transfer-room computer and on her phone. From the way the person spoke, she had gotten the impression they were rather moody.

‘If things go wrong, they might try to drag the fire incident back out again… I wonder if those bastards have a server at the auction house too?’

Depending on how things developed, she might have to attempt access to the auction house’s servers.

‘…In the end, I’ll only know if I go there. What’s there, and whether there’ll be any opening to make a move or run if it comes to that.’

Other than the fire incident from the previous day, there was no other noteworthy news. For now, it was enough to confirm that she was not about to be chased as an arsonist.

“All right, let’s get ready to move.”

Hyeonseong said to the group.

“Ugh, damn it…”

Haesu grumbled with a completely miserable face. She had been like that the entire time since waking up in the morning.

“I told you I’d make sure you get extra pay, didn’t I?”

“Even salaried workers curse the boss who pays them.”

“At least they do that where the boss can’t hear them, you know?”

“Ah, whatever. Why should I care about people who live diligently and conscientiously?”

“If you keep this up, I might really not give you what I promised.”

“What a wicked boss…”

For some reason, Haesu had been treating Hyeonseong and Hyeonyeong like employers ever since last evening.

“…Enough. Let’s just go get something to eat.”

Hyeonseong cut off Haesu’s contextless grumbling and gathered her outerwear. She meant to eat before using the auction-house admission ticket.

‘It sounds like they sell food there too, but… who knows what kind of trick they might pull with what they serve.’

Her relationship with the group managing the auction house had already become tangled in many ways even before entering. So she could not carelessly accept anything they provided there.

‘I stocked up completely on consumables like potions last night… I just need to buy some more food to take with us.’

Hyeonseong’s group soon finished getting ready and left the inn.

“Come to think of it, shouldn’t you be buying something here too? Officially, you came here to procure items, didn’t you?”

While resupplying emergency rations in the market streets, Hyeonseong asked Hyeonyeong.

“It’s not like I absolutely have to buy something. Hmm… If there’s really nothing worth taking back, I can just say the market survey results weren’t very good.”

Hyeonyeong answered with a calm face.

“Well… sure. It’s guild business, so you can handle that part yourself.”

“More importantly, you’ve bought everything you need now, right?”

“I’ve bought everything.”

At Hyeonyeong’s question, Hyeonseong nodded. Everything that was going into their mouths had been purchased.

“You don’t need to prepare anything else separately?”

“I don’t.”

“Good… Haesu-ssi, what about you?”

“No… no, wait a second.”

Haesu, who had been about to give a sullen answer without thinking, quickly changed her response.

“…Can we stop by my house for a moment?”

“Your house?”

“…Why are you making that face?”

Haesu asked with a dubious expression.

“…No, it’s just, why bring up your house all of a sudden at this timing?”

Hyeonseong could not quite bring herself to say, You actually had a house?

“I got dragged into going all the way there, so I think I’ll feel safer if I bring some of my tools too.”

“Putting aside the part about being dragged into it, tools…”

Hyeonseong looked at Haesu with an expression of half-disgust. It was obvious what kind of “tools” she meant.

“I don’t think there’ll be any pockets or warehouses there for you to pick clean.”

“Who said I was going to steal anything? It’s just, um… what was it… Ah, right. They’re basically sentimental items.”

Haesu snapped at her. It was truly an absurd thing to say, but Hyeonseong decided to just let it pass. She was getting too tired to argue over every little thing.

‘And, one way or another, it is true that what we agreed on ended up changing.’

In the end, Hyeonseong nodded.

“Do whatever you want. But we’re coming with you to your house.”

Haesu agreed to that condition as well. The three of them headed straight to Haesu’s house.

“Wait here a moment.”

Haesu slipped inside a house within the Free Market that looked far more decent than expected. Then, in less than five minutes, she came back out with a single bag slung over one shoulder.

“Let’s go.”

Haesu declared confidently. From Hyeonseong’s point of view, it was absurd how much better her face looked after grabbing one bag. Apparently, what she had said about sentimental items had not been a joke.

“…Hand that over.”

Hyeonseong stretched out a hand toward Haesu’s bag.

“Why?!”

“You don’t seriously think they’re going to let stolen-goods equipment pass through over there, do you?”

At Hyeonseong’s remark, Haesu fell silent. Apparently even she could not come up with a rebuttal.

“…Well, I guess the people there aren’t idiots, so if they see anything that looks even a little dangerous, they’ll immediately restrict it. But what are you going to do if you take it?”

“Here.”

Hyeonseong opened a small spatial slit above her outstretched fingers.

“If we put it in here and take it with us, we can avoid that.”

“I heard there are skills and items that can detect subspace, though.”

“There are, but they couldn’t see into this one.”

It was not as if there were no skills or items in the form of subspace. Extremely small-scale subspace skills, commonly called slots or inventories, were not unusual among high-ranking Awakened, and there were also several subspace bag items in existence.

But those kinds of subspace abilities could have their interiors detected by certain skills or items. Such detection abilities were on the rare side, but if it was that auction house, there was every possibility they possessed them.

‘They were operating something like that transfer device I saw yesterday. And the auction house itself is hidden with absurd concealment technology.’

In many respects, those bastards boasted technology that did not seem to belong to modern Earth. Seen in that light, subspace-detection technology was certainly something to be wary of.

“…Does that even make sense?”

Haesu looked at her doubtfully.

“That’s something I wonder myself sometimes too, but in any case, it really is impossible to detect.”

Hyeonseong answered firmly. Haesu hesitated for a moment, then finally let out a sigh and handed over the bag.

“Give it back once we get inside.”

Hyeonseong immediately stuffed the bag Haesu had handed her into the Infinite Corridor.

“Then you’ve gathered everything, right?”

Hyeonseong asked Hyeonyeong one last time. When Hyeonyeong nodded, Hyeonseong put on the new mask she had prepared and took out the Heukwol Auction House admission ticket.

‘Since this is Free Market territory too, it should work here.’

When Hyeonseong held the ticket slightly forward, Hyeonyeong and Haesu grabbed the end of it.

Once all three of them were holding the ticket, the admission ticket recognized its users, shone with the distinctive radiance of a magic item, and activated transport magic. Their vision distorted briefly under the influence of the spell and then returned.

‘We got here in an instant.’

In the blink of an eye, the scenery had changed from a secluded market alley into a plain indoor space. Hyeonseong quickly scanned the surroundings. Since nothing noticeable stood out aside from a door and a doorman, this seemed to be the auction house entrance.

The three of them walked straight up to the doorman. They presented the admission ticket, now used by transport magic, to him.

The ticket that passed into the doorman’s hand was torn in half just like that and summoned something. The doorman lightly caught the small object that appeared in the air.

“These are badges given to guests invited through the proper route. Please take care not to lose them before you leave this place.

Whether or not you wear them is up to you. They will be automatically collected by our side when you leave, so there is no need to come find us separately in order to return them.”

The doorman handed one coin-sized badge to each of the three. After receiving her badge, Hyeonseong first checked whether its item information would open.

‘B-rank, an access pass for using the auction house’s internal facilities… Since the information opens, this is an item too.’

B-rank was by no means low. It was not something to dismiss just because it was small and had a simple function.

‘If that’s the case, then it means the pass function itself is fairly powerful.’

Hyeonseong clicked her tongue. The more she dug, the more she found herself wondering just what kind of people they were, to be able to boast this level of technology.

‘It’d be hard to do all this just with things gathered from dungeons. Do they have a Constellation backing them?’

Hyeonseong’s gaze drifted unconsciously toward the section where Constellation messages were displayed.

Only the usual Constellations were posting occasional bits of meaningless chatter here and there. There were no Constellations that seemed connected to this auction house.

‘…Do they have a rather taciturn Constellation backing them, one that knows how to keep its mouth shut? Or did they really just pour in every last bit of capital and manpower they had, with no Constellation involved?’

“Aren’t we going in?”

Haesu asked Hyeonseong, whose thoughts were dragging on.

“We are.”

There was no way she would find an answer just by standing here and thinking.

From here on, they would have to go inside and find things out. Together with the other two, Hyeonseong stepped toward the entrance the doorman indicated.