Heukwol Auction House (12)

Hyeonseong’s group followed the customer in question two more times.

The first time, just like when they had first encountered him, they eavesdropped on the conversation from the spectator seats. The conversations being exchanged were not very different from what they had heard a little earlier.

Hyeonseong was certain that it was some kind of groundwork.

‘He probably leaked talk about the item because he wanted other customers to get involved in this and make a mess.

As for inducing talk about backstabbing…… was he asking permission from the auction house to do that? Or it might have been a demonstration telling them to stop pointlessly going around in circles and just directly clean them up now.’

The other time, they faced the customer directly and played a game. Since pretending not to know each other would also look strange, they exchanged greetings and even openly had a conversation.

As a result of the conversation, the other party naturally had not yet properly collected information about the item. It was information that had a high probability of being true, not merely an excuse.

‘Hyeonyeong’s biological-response detection is highly accurate.’

Of course, if someone was determined to deceive it, they could, but the auction house would not have hired an ability user of that level as an interferer.

It was a situation where, even if he openly showed that he was lying, this side did not have any suitable means to respond. From that side’s perspective, there was no need to waste such high-class personnel.

“Wouldn’t it be pretty useless to stay here any longer?”

Haesu asked. It was right after the customer in question left the gambling hall.

“That’s true. Let’s leave now too.”

There was nothing more to investigate inside. Hyeonseong’s group left the gambling hall without lingering.

On the way out, they did not forget to refund all their chips at the unmanned currency exchanger. The fact that they had not used many chips probably would not be a particular problem.

‘There were more customers than expected who couldn’t get interested in gambling and left quickly…… and they’re probably watching all the suspicious things we’ve been doing on security cameras anyway.’

After reaching the stairs leading down to the lower floor, Hyeonseong stretched and loosened up her body. Perhaps because she had stayed in a stuffy place for a long time, she felt tired.

“Are we going back to the lodging now?”

Haesu asked.

“Well…… we should. No matter what, we need to sleep.”

It was now late at night. Some of the facilities inside the auction house were also around closing time, and a considerable number of the guests had probably returned to their lodgings.

“We need to find the information by tomorrow, right? Since they said the auction day is the day after tomorrow.”

“Ah, that information…….”

Hyeonseong, who had been about to reflexively answer Haesu’s words, turned her gaze toward the Constellation’s private messages piled up in one corner.

From the point when she had directly joined the game table, she had not been able to pay attention to her conversation with ‘Lotus That Gazes Down Upon the Six Paths.’ Perhaps because she had not reacted to the messages from time to time, the information about the holy relics had been cut off midway.

“I do have some information I received for now. Let’s go in and look at it together.”

At Hyeonseong’s words, the group returned to the lodging with quick steps.

“But is it safe to sleep here?”

Haesu asked as soon as they entered.

“I’m worried about that too…… but we can’t sleep rough in the hallway either. Otherwise, the only option is to endure without sleeping, but from what I can see, that would be hard for you, Haesu-ssi.”

“I can endure about one day without sleeping too…….”

“What about two days in a row?”

“That’s a little…….”

Haesu immediately looked repulsed. Judging by her expression, it seemed she hated suffering while staying up all night more than the difficulty itself.

‘If she can endure up to two days without sleeping…… then maybe her rank isn’t all the way at the bottom after all?’

Since they were not in a situation where they had formed a dungeon raid team, Hyeonseong had not bothered asking Haesu’s Awakened rank and trait until now. But now she thought it might be about time to ask.

They had already gone through a situation similar to combat, and there was no telling what else might happen before they left this place. So now, she needed to know at least a little about Haesu’s abilities.

“Come to think of it, Haesu-ssi, what exactly are your trait and rank?”

Hyeonseong immediately threw out the question.

“Huh? Me? I’m D-rank. As for my trait, well…….”

Haesu trailed off while watching her mood.

“What is it? Tell me properly.”

Considering what she had done and said, it was easy to guess that it was a thief-type trait. But even within that, the characteristics were bound to be divided in detail.

What Hyeonseong was asking about was those detailed characteristics.

“Well, you see…….”

Haesu hesitated and quietly avoided her gaze. Then, as if she had made up her mind, she squeezed her eyes shut.

“Um…… Phantom Thief.”

“……Pardon?”

Hyeonseong asked back with a bewildered face.

“Phantom Thief. My trait.”

Haesu’s face, as she revealed her trait, had turned burning red. It seemed the name of the trait was quite embarrassing.

“Ah…… that…… is pretty…… distinctive.”

Hyeonseong barely held back the laugh that had almost burst out and returned an answer. Looking at Haesu, if she openly laughed here, Haesu looked like she might even run away from home.

“You were about to laugh just now, weren’t you?”

“No.”

“Don’t lie. I saw the corner of your mouth go up this much.”

“Why? Should I really laugh?”

“Aaaagh!”

When Hyeonseong deliberately raised the corners of her mouth as if to show her, Haesu screamed.

“Unni, we still have a lot to talk about.”

Hyeonyeong cut into the two people’s conversation. It seemed she meant that Hyeonseong should tease her moderately and move on to the main topic.

“Ah, right. So, Haesu-ssi’s, um…… Phantom Thief trait, broadly speaking, is still a thief-type trait anyway. Right?”

Hyeonseong spoke while suppressing the laugh that almost burst out again.

“……That’s right.”

Haesu answered with a reluctant face.

“I’ve actually heard that such a trait exists, but I’ve never heard its specific characteristics. It’s not exactly a widely known trait.”

“But why were you trying to laugh?”

“Who was laughing? I was just surprised because a word I’d only seen in novels or comics suddenly popped out.”

Hyeonseong answered while feigning innocence.

“Anyway, what we need to know is which area Haesu-ssi’s trait is specialized in. Even traits that can be grouped into the same broad category all have different specialization areas, right? There are also slight differences from person to person.”

At Hyeonseong’s following words, Haesu nodded.

“They really are all a little different. But why are you suddenly asking that?”

“If you think about the things that have happened while you were going around with us until now, I think you’ll understand the reason quickly.”

At those words, Haesu’s expression immediately turned reluctant.

“Well, it’s true that I’m the only one here whose rank and abilities can’t be known. ……If we’re being particular, Hyeonseong-ssi’s trait also isn’t known, though.”

Haesu said while pointing at Hyeonseong.

“Uh…… that’s true.”

Hyeonseong opened her own status window.

Even while her stats had risen to the lower C-rank level, her trait was still in an undisclosed state.

Since even Hyeonseong herself could not know that information, it was similarly marked with a question mark in the S-rank Awakened information released on the Interstellar Network.

“So what exactly is Ye Hyeonseong-ssi’s trait?”

“Who knows. Honestly, I’m the most curious about it.”

At Haesu’s question, Hyeonseong shrugged.

“Well, I suppose the day will come when I know my trait if I keep living. What’s important right now is Haesu-ssi’s trait.”

“Ah, my trait.”

Haesu nodded.

“How should I put it……. Ah, right. It’s closer to a somewhat magical feeling. It’s in the minor-tricks category, but I guess I should say it’s even more technique-oriented within that.”

Haesu then briefly explained her trait. If the explanation was true, even its simple main characteristics were similar to the image that came with the trait’s name.

“Ah, no wonder you stole from pockets without even putting your hand in.”

Hyeonseong muttered the thought that naturally came to mind. Haesu avoided her gaze with an embarrassed face.

“Anyway, D-rank, a thief-type trait with a strong technical tendency……. When you were caught picking pockets or robbing empty houses, it was mostly because you were caught by higher-rank Awakened, right?”

“Well…… yes.”

“Then what about things other than pickpocketing? I think I heard that you’d done other things besides that.”

“Ah, that……. Um, things like shell games, guessing dice numbers…….”

As the answer continued, Hyeonseong’s expression turned reluctant. Haesu laughed awkwardly and trailed off.

“……You didn’t use it back there earlier, right?”

“I didn’t. Especially after seeing even a customer who got into a huge argument with an employee because he got caught using a skill.”

As Haesu said, in the gambling hall, there had also been a customer who tried to manipulate cards with a skill, got exposed, and argued with an employee. It seemed that, whatever else they might ignore, they did not pretend not to see skills that could manipulate the game table.

‘Ridiculous. They manipulate things however they like, but the customers aren’t allowed to do it.’

“Anyway, basic thief abilities, plus hand techniques and tricks similar to a magician’s……. I can understand it to about that extent, then.”

“Yes. That’s true, but…….”

Haesu looked at Hyeonseong with doubtful eyes.

“……Don’t tell me this means I have to steal something here or something like that, right? I told you I don’t do that kind of thing.”

“Of course not.”

At Haesu’s suspicion, Hyeonseong became serious.

“If it’s a thief-type ability, you can be good at things like picking doors or finding passages, right?”

“Right?”

“With that ability, even if you don’t steal anything, you can use it when escaping, can’t you?”

“……Right. So you’re telling me to pick doors and find paths when we escape.”

After understanding what Hyeonseong was saying, Haesu nodded with a reluctant face.

“Well…… I’d like to leave through the front door normally if possible, but we really don’t know about that.”

“Understood…….”

Haesu let out a sigh.

“Mm, I think we can wrap up the talk about Haesu-ssi’s ability to that extent…….”

Hyeonseong brought ‘Lotus That Gazes Down Upon the Six Paths’ messages before her eyes.

“Let’s check the information I received.”

Hyeonseong adjusted the sharing settings on the message screen. The messages Hyeonseong had received appeared before Hyeonyeong and Haesu’s eyes.

“As you can see, I did receive information about the thread itself for now. But I thought that receiving only exactly that probably wouldn’t make the information complete. So…….”

Hyeonseong pointed to the information about the other holy relics.

“I also asked about the remaining holy relics, and the original holy relic formed by combining each holy relic.”

“But the messages you received are only about the thread and two spear-shaft fragments.”

Haesu looked puzzled.

“There was a time in the middle when it was hard to send messages, right? Maybe because I couldn’t reply then, no more messages came after this.”

“Then you can just reply even now.”

“I was going to do it right after showing you the contents.”

Hyeonseong turned off the message screen sharing and immediately sent a reply to ‘Lotus That Gazes Down Upon the Six Paths.’

“I sent a reply, so…… if their mind hasn’t changed, they’ll contact me again even if it’s late.”

“Then are we done with what we have to do today?”

Haesu asked.

“There’s nothing more we can do right now. It’s late at night now, so it’s awkward to walk around. Places like the gambling hall would be running all night, but those people probably won’t go there again, right?”

At Hyeonseong’s words, Haesu nodded.

“Now then, let’s end today’s investigation around here and rest.”

“Then should I keep watch?”

Hyeonyeong asked. Hyeonseong thought for a moment, then nodded.

“It does feel a bit uneasy after all. Sorry, but please go through the trouble.”

“It’s not really something I’d call trouble for me.”

“That’s not wrong either, so I can’t say anything…….”

After replying to Hyeonyeong that way, Hyeonseong immediately lay down on the bed. Perhaps because there had been many things to pay attention to all day, sleep came over her the moment she put her head on the pillow.

‘It would be fine if things went only about this smoothly tomorrow too…….’

That was the thought that passed through Hyeonseong’s mind right before she fell asleep.

Of course, it would not take much time before she learned that even that wish was nowhere close to possible.