Heukwol Auction House (3)

“W-what is this?”

After checking all three slips, Haesu asked in a flustered voice.

“What else would it be? It means things have gotten thoroughly tangled.”

To put it more bluntly, she should have said, We got played. But she could not say that outright here.

‘How did they… No, not that. The method itself isn’t the important part.’

Hyeonseong swore that she had never once spoken aloud the name of the item she had intended to purchase at the auction house.

And Hyeonseong herself had been the last one to write down the item name. There was absolutely no chance the people on either side had seen what she wrote and copied it.

‘Which means that either they used a skill here on the spot to read my mind, or there was some kind of magic placed on the other slips that reacted to the one I wrote. Either way, the range of possible methods is obvious.’

What mattered more was what could be inferred from this situation.

‘Those bastards have absolutely no intention of handing over the item I want without a fight. If I protest over this, they’ll probably answer like this: they only gave me the right to preempt it, nothing more.’

The preemption right only granted the right to designate an item in advance before the auction. It took no responsibility for overlapping preemption or any other variables.

In other words, if they wanted to obstruct her without breaking their promise, all they had to do was create a situation where the preemption overlapped.

‘If it had been just one person, I might’ve thought it was really bad luck. But two? From that point on, it’s hard to call it a coincidence. For all I know, they’ve hoarded more than just one or two items in this auction house.’

Whether it was coincidence or a deliberate snipe, it had happened either way. Now that she knew what the other side was aiming for, the next thing was to figure out whether there was any way to respond.

“I really can’t say anything except that this is most unfortunate. To think all three of you would want the same item. This is truly rare.”

The employee saying that was still chuckling the whole time.

‘I wonder if it really is that rare.’

Hyeonseong looked at the employee with dubious eyes. Who knew whether they pulled this kind of stunt every time there was an item they did not want to hand over easily, or a customer they did not want to sell to.

“Since it has come to this, the three of you will have to decide among yourselves who gets to purchase the item. From this point onward, it is no longer under my authority, so I shall withdraw. Ah, though if there is anything for which you require assistance from our side, please do call me again.”

With that, the employee stood up and went back behind the desk to their own seat. Whether the guests settled things here among themselves or went outside and fought was none of their concern.

‘Ideally, I’d like Hyeonyeong to solve this all at once with force… but that won’t work.’

If Hyeonseong’s guess was right, then the auction house would never accept something like a duel. No matter how many cheap tricks they used, defeating an S-rank combatant would not be easy.

‘The simplest thing would be to drag this into an auction among just the three parties.’

“U-um, now that it’s come to this, how about we hold an auction just among ourselves…?”

No sooner had Hyeonseong finished that thought than one of the other guests brought up the idea of an auction.

‘I figured as much. If they came here under the auction house’s direction, that would be the easiest method.’

If it turned into an auction, all they had to do was keep raising the bid until Hyeonseong dropped out. If they were acting under the auction house’s instructions, they did not actually need to buy the item in the end.

‘They’d just win it at an inflated price, pretend to make the payment, then siphon the item away, and that’d be the end of it.’

“It doesn’t sound like a bad idea… What about your side?”

Another guest asked Hyeonseong’s group for their opinion.

“Well. I came here to use a preemption right because I didn’t want to do that in the first place, and now you’re saying I should do that after using a preemption right?”

Hyeonseong answered while openly showing her dislike. Since she had packed a wholly sincere feeling into a perfectly reasonable objection, the guest who had proposed the auction looked awkward, but still nodded.

“I-I understand thinking of it that way. But it still feels like there isn’t any method as clean and convenient as that…”

“There’s also a duel. Settling everything with a few swings of a blade sounds pretty clean and nice, doesn’t it? It wouldn’t even take that long.”

Hyeonseong brought up the idea of a duel. At that, all the guests except Hyeonseong’s group made troubled or outright disgusted faces.

“That’s a bit…”

“We’ve got non-combat personnel with us.”

“If you put it that way, I’m by myself. But your side looks like a group of three…”

As they said that, all of their gazes turned toward Hyeonyeong. Their reaction of being most burdened by Hyeonyeong’s presence in a discussion of combat was exactly what she expected.

“Then I guess duels are out too. That means we have to decide on a method other than auctions and duels…”

Murmuring that, Hyeonseong sank into thought.

‘In any case, I need to avoid conditions that would favor their side… or rather, the auction house.’

In that sense, a treasure-hunt-style method where they hid the item and had everyone search for it was also out. The other side, which could see clearly through the inside of the auction house building, would have an overwhelming advantage there.

Likewise, bringing in other auction house guests or staff would also be troublesome. In terms of bribing people and steering the contest into a favorable flow, the other side was far more advantaged there too.

‘The conditions need to avoid outside interference… in other words, interference from the auction house managers, while also giving us a fighting chance. What kind of condition would that be…?’

Once all the simple options were eliminated, it was not easy to come up with an idea. Hyeonseong briefly turned her gaze toward the other guests.

The three guests were not offering any opinions and were only watching one another cautiously. It looked as though they were waiting for Hyeonseong’s group to speak first.

“Don’t you have any ideas?”

Hyeonseong poked at the guests first.

“Us? We are thinking about it, but…”

The guest who had come alone answered.

“And what about your side?”

The pair of guests asked back.

“I’m thinking about it too. But anyway… do the three of you all know each other?”

At Hyeonseong’s question, the three of them glanced at each other for a moment. Their eyes met only for an instant, but Hyeonseong caught that moment clearly.

“No.”

“The two of us know each other, sure, since we work as a pair, but we met that person for the first time today.”

The three of them immediately denied Hyeonseong’s words.

“But the way you were talking a moment ago, it sounded exactly like you three were all in the same party. Did I hear wrong…?”

As she said that, Hyeonseong slowly turned her head toward Hyeonyeong.

“Well, that’s because you asked all three of us at once…”

One of them answered as if making an excuse. In the meantime, Hyeonyeong had taken out her phone and was typing some kind of message.

“Ah, well, I did ask it that way.”

Hyeonseong replied while subtly hiding one hand below. Over the lowered hand, she opened the Infinite Corridor and pulled out the phone she had kept inside.

‘Nemesis, display Hyeonyeong’s message as a hologram.’

The moment she held the phone, she summoned Nemesis. Receiving Hyeonseong’s command, Nemesis displayed the message in a hologram visible only to Hyeonseong.

[Lies. They must be from the same group.]

Apparently Hyeonyeong had sensed the bodily reactions characteristic of liars.

“Anyway, if any of you think of something, please say it.”

After saying that, Hyeonseong fell back into thought.

‘A method that blocks interference as much as possible while still giving us a fair chance…’

A fair contest meant one where both sides started from the same line. In that context, Hyeonseong examined what she and the auction house side had in common.

‘…Come to think of it, neither side knows that, do they?’

Soon, Hyeonseong found one problem both sides shared in common.

That was that neither side knew any of the detailed item information for the Thread Soaked in Sacred Blood.

‘We can guess the rough attribute from the name… but we have absolutely no idea what kind of item it actually is, or what world or legend it originated from.’

At that point, Hyeonseong judged that she could set a condition worth trying.

‘But I can’t be the one to propose it first. No matter what condition I suggest, the moment I’m the one to propose it first, they’ll obviously oppose it on principle.’

She needed to block that kind of reflexive opposition. Hyeonseong opened her mouth again.

“Really? No good method at all?”

Hyeonseong asked the other guests.

“…Well. No matter how I think about it, aside from a three-way auction, there isn’t really any better method…”

One guest answered while putting on a troubled face.

“An auction does seem like the easiest way.”

Another guest quietly agreed with the auction idea.

“As I said, I came here to use a preemption right because I didn’t want to be involved in an auction. I absolutely won’t do an auction. I’d rather fight personally and do a duel than settle it through an auction.”

Hyeonseong flatly declared her refusal.

“…We don’t want a duel, though.”

“You say that, but if it actually came down to a duel, that person over there would be the one coming out, wouldn’t she?”

The guests’ gazes once again shifted to Hyeonyeong.

“Come to think of it, you all seem especially wary of her from earlier?”

Hyeonseong said, lightly placing a hand on Hyeonyeong’s shoulder.

“Well… she just looks strong even at a glance, doesn’t she?”

One of the guests gave an excuse that sounded hasty even to the ear.

“Hm… well, I suppose impressions differ depending on who’s looking.”

Hyeonseong replied in a voice suggesting understanding. At that, the guest who had just answered made an expression of realizing they had misspoken.

‘Honestly, if you didn’t know who Hyeonyeong really was, you might easily think she looked healthy, but you wouldn’t usually think she looked overwhelmingly strong at a glance.’

Of course, an Awakened’s combat power was not proportional to their outward appearance. It was extremely common for someone who looked frail to turn out to be an S-rank mage capable of wiping out an entire village with a mere flick of the hand.

But even taking cases like that into account, people normally thought, They might be stronger than they look, not, They look strong at a glance.

‘Usually, if they’re a high-level powerhouse to that extent, their face is known. But there aren’t actually that many people who remember all those faces.’

“…So what exactly are you trying to say?”

One of the guests, whose words Hyeonseong had seized on, demanded with a heated expression.

“I’m saying please think of something plausible other than an auction or a duel. I’m starting to feel like I’m the only one here taking this seriously.”

“You say that, but aside from saying you don’t want an auction, you still haven’t offered any real suggestion yourself, have you?”

Another guest shot back at Hyeonseong.

“Ah, and that brings me to this.”

Hyeonseong answered in a calm voice.

“It’s true that all three of you are finding it hard to think of any other method, right?”

“…Why?”

At Hyeonseong’s question, one of the guests asked back with a puzzled face.

“It’s better to make this clear before getting to the main point, isn’t it? All right, let’s sum it up. The three of you find it difficult to think of another method, and don’t particularly want to either. How about it? Is that right?”

At Hyeonseong’s continued words, the three of them briefly looked offended. But they quickly smoothed over their expressions and exchanged fast glances with one another.

“…Honestly, that’s true enough. I don’t see why we’d go out of our way to think of another method when the simplest one is right there.”

“Well, if we really want to get technical, there is one other method…”

One of the guests mentioned the existence of another method.

“Oh, really? If there was something like that, you should’ve said so sooner.”

Hyeonseong said in a deliberately surprised voice.

‘There we go. Sure enough, if I keep prodding, they’ll spit it out.’

“I guess you could say I wasn’t very confident it would be a good method…”

“At a time like this, it’s better to bring up anything at all first. We have to hear it before we can know whether it’s good or bad, or whether there’s room for compromise, right?”

“Ah, y-yes, that’s true…”

As Hyeonseong spoke in a bright, encouraging tone, the guest replied with an awkward face.

“So then, what’s the method you came up with?”

At Hyeonseong’s question, the guest glanced around at the others, then opened his mouth.