Heukwol Auction House (4)

“So, um… the idea is to hide that item somewhere in the auction house, and then we all go look for it together. That way, the first person to find the item gets the right to purchase it. …Doesn’t that sound all right?”

After finishing the explanation, the guest quickly looked around at the others as if asking for agreement.

“I don’t think it sounds bad.”

“That seems fairly fair in its own way…”

The other two guests immediately agreed with that opinion. Both of them shifted their eyes around as though gauging the room, but no matter how you looked at it, that was acting.

‘So they were all just waiting for one of them to bring that up.’

“What do you think?”

Before long, all eyes turned to Hyeonseong’s group.

“Well…”

Hyeonseong began in a flat voice. The three of them made subtle expressions, as though they had already expected a negative reaction from the moment she started like that.

“It doesn’t sound bad in words. But that method has one fatal flaw.”

Hyeonseong raised her index finger.

“…A flaw?”

One of the guests furrowed his brow.

“Yes. There is no way to completely rule out interference from outsiders… or more precisely, from this auction house.”

At that, another guest demanded in an offended voice.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Do you want me to say it bluntly? I’m saying we have no way of knowing whether one of you might be backed by support from the auction house.”

As she said that, Hyeonseong quickly examined the expressions of everyone in the room, including the employee.

Everyone other than Hyeonseong’s group of three reacted at least a little.

‘That employee bastard really was in on it, just as I thought. You can tell from that little smirk. And the people sitting in front of us seem to think their vague unease won’t be noticed by us.’

“You say that like you’re convinced one of us is actually doing that.”

One of the guests protested.

“I said that could be the case. I didn’t say I was convinced.”

Hyeonseong answered calmly.

“That sounds like wordplay.”

“To begin with, if you weren’t clearly suspicious, it doesn’t seem like the kind of thing you’d bring it up at all…”

Another guest also showed a hint of displeasure.

“If that’s not the case, then it’s not the case. I don’t know why you’re all getting so angry. Don’t tell me it really is…”

“It isn’t.”

“No.”

As Hyeonseong spoke in a deliberately startled voice, stern denials immediately came back.

“So all three of you are saying that you have absolutely no connection to this auction house, right?”

Hyeonseong followed up by looking at the three guests one after another.

“We already said that.”

“What exactly are you even suspicious of…”

The guests answered irritably. In any case, all three of them had now personally said that they had no hidden relationship with the auction house.

‘Making them sign something like a contract that guarantees the truth… no, that would be too much.’

It was true that contract-type items had useful effects. But there was no need to keep prodding and agitating them any more than this.

‘And I wasn’t planning on doing a treasure hunt anyway.’

Even if they verbally denied any relationship, that would not make their hidden connection disappear in reality. If they kept pretending otherwise while receiving support from the auction house, Hyeonseong had no way to stop it.

And even if, by some chance, the auction house drew a line and refused to support them, that still would not give Hyeonseong any advantage. Even without directly backing them, there were plenty of ways for the auction house to obstruct her side.

“Well, if not, then fine. But even if not, I still don’t really like that method.”

“Why?”

One of the guests challenged her in a sharp voice.

“Because even if it’s not the auction house, there are still too many outside factors that could interfere. Someone might mistake the hidden item for lost property or trash and remove it.

Or some totally unrelated person might deliberately steal it and then try to extort something from us with it. Isn’t that right?”

What Hyeonseong said was something that really could happen even without any relation to the auction house.

“That…”

“Mm, I guess that could happen.”

Even the guests could not deny Hyeonseong’s point. But their act of looking concerned did not last long.

“Still, doesn’t this seem like the best method for now? It’s not like there seems to be any fairer way…”

“Even if we go with another method, I don’t think we can completely eliminate those kinds of unexpected variables.”

The guests started pushing their original opinion again.

“Really? If you think about it carefully, I feel like there should be at least one.”

Hyeonseong said it lightly.

“Huh? There’s no way there’s something like that…”

One of the guests answered with a disbelieving face.

“Well, I agree that there’s no way to remove every variable completely. But there is exactly one area where we are all equally blank. Over there.”

Hyeonseong turned her gaze toward the employee seated in front of the desk.

“Yes.”

“That item. Could we check its item information first?”

Hyeonseong asked the employee, who answered as if he had been waiting for it.

“If it’s information, that can be arranged as much as you like…”

“By bringing the actual item here.”

At Hyeonseong’s added words, the employee’s eyebrow twitched. It seemed to be a request he did not particularly welcome.

“It’s better to make this kind of thing clear, isn’t it?”

“I think you should explain first what exactly you mean by making it clear.”

The employee was still smiling as he spoke, but there was a trace of irritation in his voice.

“That item still doesn’t have any proper information on it, right?”

“Hm, well. I suppose we’d only know that after checking the information.”

“Then while we’re at it, we can all confirm it directly together. Either bring the item here, or we go to wherever the item is.”

“Is there really a need to confirm it directly?”

“There is if we want to set conditions that are fair and leave no room for misunderstanding.”

Having said all she needed to say, Hyeonseong stared directly at the employee. After a brief contest of gazes, the one who gave in first was the employee.

“Very well. Things have become awkward enough as it is. Not that it’s our fault, of course, but since this concerns an item we handle, we should still take responsibility for it.”

The employee stood up with a smile.

‘Weren’t they the ones who made it awkward in the first place?’

The thought naturally stirred a sense of resistance, but Hyeonseong did not voice it. She followed behind the employee as he left the office.

After exchanging a brief conversation with someone through his communication device, the employee led the group of guests, including Hyeonseong, to the front of a storage room.

“Please wait here. I’ll bring the item out.”

With those words, the employee opened the storage-room door and went inside. The moment he entered, the heavy door slammed shut with a bang.

‘The way it opens and closes itself looks ordinary enough.’

While waiting, Hyeonseong examined the storage-room door. Other than the fact that the door lock was exactly the same as the one attached to the entrance of the secret passage inside the underground arena beneath the Free Market, there was nothing especially remarkable about it.

‘If it’s blood information, then yeah, that wouldn’t be easy to falsify. But honestly, a lock like that could just be smashed apart. So there must definitely be something in place to prevent that.’

Hyeonseong’s gaze naturally turned toward Hyeonyeong and Haesu. If it was a magical or otherworld-derived defensive device, Hyeonyeong would notice to some extent. If it was mechanical, Haesu would.

‘…But what would I even do with that information?’

As her thoughts continued, Hyeonseong narrowed her brow. Without realizing it, she had started analyzing the storage-room lock the way she would in a dungeon.

‘It’s not even an occupational hazard.’

Hyeonseong shook her head.

[Something wrong?]

At that moment, a hologram of a phone message appeared before Hyeonseong’s eyes. It was a message from Hyeonyeong displayed by Nemesis.

[Nothing much.]

Hyeonseong took out her phone and sent back a reply.

[You say that, but you seemed pretty focused on it.]

[And you noticed that already.]

[Is there something on the door?]

[Seems like you’d know that better than I would.]

The moment Hyeonseong sent that reply to Hyeonyeong, the storage-room door opened again.

“Thank you for waiting. Here is the item you requested.”

The employee who came back out pushed a small rolling cart over in front of the group. There was a single box on top of the cart.

The employee opened the box and showed them what was inside. Inside was a golden spool of thread half-soaked in an unidentified white liquid.

‘I thought blood would be red, since they called it sacred blood…’

Hyeonseong found herself thinking that, in whatever world this item had been made, perhaps the gods bled white blood.

“All right, please confirm the information as requested.”

The employee spoke as if urging them on. Hyeonseong immediately opened the item’s information window.

‘It’s exactly the same as what was in the information.’

Even in the item information she opened directly, there was no meaningful information other than the name and rank.

“This is how it looks to me.”

Hyeonseong changed the options of the information window she had just opened to full sharing.

“As you can see, this is all the information I can see… What about the rest of you?”

Hyeonseong asked while looking around at the others. It was a signal for them to share their information windows just as she had.

“…It’s the same for me.”

One of the guests revealed his screen first. Just as he said, it was completely identical to what Hyeonseong had shared.

“Same for me.”

“M-me too, this is all I can see…”

The others all showed the same information windows as well. Since Hyeonyeong and Haesu also showed the same thing, the only one left was the employee.

“I’d like you to confirm how it looks from your side too.”

Hyeonseong said to the employee.

“Understood. If it really must be done.”

The employee answered in a slightly snide tone and revealed his information window. The item information as seen through the employee’s eyes did not differ by a single word from what everyone else had shown so far.

“So the information really is blank. And it’s also true that no one here has any new information about this item.”

Hyeonseong said as she closed the shared item-information window.

“So?”

“And that means that when it comes to this item’s information, both we and the auction house side are equally close to a blank slate.”

“Well… that’s true, but…”

At Hyeonseong’s words, one of the guests furrowed his brow as if he did not understand.

“I wish you’d stop dragging this out and just get to the point.”

Another guest said in a dissatisfied voice.

“In that case, let’s decide the right to purchase the item this way. Whoever updates its information the most gets it.”

Hyeonseong answered while pointing at the item inside the box.

“The person who updates its information the most?”

One of the guests asked with a bewildered expression.

“If we’re going to take it anyway, shouldn’t the one who understands best what kind of object it is be the one to take it? That seems like the most rational way to me.”

Hyeonseong replied calmly.

“…This is an item that even the auction house couldn’t properly identify. And you think anything will come out if we investigate it among ourselves?”

“That’s exactly why I think it’s worth trying. At the very least, it means the auction house can’t interfere in this competition.

If they can interfere, then that means they’ve already known the information for some time and simply haven’t updated it… and that would mean the auction house managers have been that negligent, wouldn’t it? It would mean they failed to properly investigate even the goods they put up for sale.”

As she said that, Hyeonseong looked directly at the employee. The corner of the employee’s mouth twitched slightly.

“Can you really say that so openly?”

Haesu whispered in a small, urgent voice.

‘Of course. I said it so he’d hear.’

Hyeonseong did not say that part aloud.

“So, what do you all think? Compared to something like a duel or hiding it and searching for it, I think this is a more fitting way to decide the true owner of the item.

Wouldn’t it look better if the one who understands its information the best ends up taking it?”

Hyeonseong asked the others again.

“…Let’s do it that way.”

One of the guests clicked his tongue and agreed.

“And your side?”

“…We’ll agree too.”

The two guests moving as a pair finally nodded as well.

“As for us, we were the ones who proposed it, so of course we agree. Then… now we just need to settle the detailed rules. From here on, I think we’ll need your help again.”

Hyeonseong then said to the employee.

“Do as you please.”

The employee answered in a somewhat sour voice. Soon, with the auction-house employee included, even the detailed rules were all decided.

“…You’ve made this into quite a troublesome sort of contest.”

After finishing the conditions, the employee said to Hyeonseong with a troubled face.

“Well, everyone said they didn’t want anything simple, so what can I do?”

Hyeonseong shrugged. The other side had refused a duel, and this side had refused a treasure hunt. Since they also could not use things like shell games or gambling, there was no choice but to adopt a troublesome method.

“Then this item will be stored in the warehouse again until the agreed deadline.”

The employee closed the lid of the box and opened the warehouse door. Soon, the item was returned inside. After putting it back in place, the employee came out of the warehouse again and said to the guests,

“Then please decide the owner of the item according to the rules you have established.”