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“What? Sinuiju?”
At Hyeonseong’s words, Hyeonju’s eye twitched.
“Sinuiju… the free market?”
“Uh-huh. There.”
Hyeonseong nodded at Hyeonju’s question.
“What, do you need to buy some stolen goods from China or Russia or something?”
“Not sure…… wouldn’t it be roughly like that?”
Hyeonseong recalled the information she had received from the secret information exchange. Since it mentioned stolen goods and illegal auctions, the item in question was highly likely to be stolen property.
“So that thing you said you’d tell me when we got home—this was it?”
Hyeonju stared at Hyeonseong with an expression that couldn’t have been more displeased.
“Yeah, pretty much…….”
“You’ve really sunk to hunting stolen goods now…….”
That displeased look slowly shifted into one of open contempt. Under that gaze, Hyeonseong felt a flare of irritation.
“You think I want to go looking for stolen goods?”
“Sure. There’s no grave without an excuse.”
“Ugh, seriously.”
Hyeonseong opened the Interstellar Network window and pulled up the information she had bought from the secret information exchange again.
She flipped through, opened the section about the Sinuiju Free Market, and showed it to Hyeonju.
Hyeonju skimmed the information without caring what the Constellations were babbling about. Now and then, she even told Hyeonseong to turn the page.
“That’s all it says about the free market, isn’t it?”
“Forget that—just hurry up and keep flipping.”
At Hyeonju’s demand, Hyeonseong grumbled and turned the page. Only after checking every last entry in the record—not just the Sinuiju Free Market section—did Hyeonju say it was fine to put it away.
“……Are you serious?”
The moment Hyeonseong closed the shared screen she had targeted to Hyeonju, Hyeonju asked.
“Of course I’m serious. Do I look like I’m joking?”
At Hyeonseong’s curt reply, Hyeonju looked at her in stunned disbelief, like she’d run out of words.
“I’m dead serious. About this.”
Hyeonseong lightly mimed slicing her own throat with one hand.
“You really think that’s realistic?”
“They say you should dream big.”
“A ‘dream’—more like going to collect money you got stiffed on.”
“It wasn’t a small amount. That’s plenty big as dreams go.”
As the conversation dragged on, Hyeonju pressed her temple, looking like her head hurt.
“……That’s not a joke. This could get genuinely dangerous. Do you think this is the same as going to rob some gangsters?”
“Well, in terms of them acting like thugs, it’s kinda similar.”
“Hey.”
Sensing Hyeonju was about to launch into a long lecture, Hyeonseong waved a hand to cut her off.
“Hyeonju, do you remember this?”
“……Out of nowhere, what?”
Hyeonju eyed her suspiciously at the abrupt change of subject.
“You know. Us…… that day…… the day we became Awakened.”
At Hyeonseong’s words, Hyeonju’s face hardened.
“……Why bring that up now?”
Hyeonju frowned, displeased at a topic that was basically taboo in their family.
“I dreamed about back then recently. So I thought about what happened again…… and no matter how I tried, there was one thing I couldn’t remember.”
Hyeonseong continued, holding up her index finger.
“The Constellation’s name—the one who was way too happy when we Awakened.”
Normally, even if Hyeonseong dreamed of the past, she didn’t dwell on it. Thinking too hard about those dreams never brought anything good.
But this time was different. After deciding—half joking, half serious—to take the scammer’s head, she had that dream again, and the Constellation name she couldn’t recall suddenly gnawed at her curiosity.
“Every time that name shows up in the dream, it’s like there’s a hole punched right through it…… I can’t tell if I’m the one who can’t remember, or if it really appeared like that. So…… Hyeonju, how do you remember that name?”
At the question, Hyeonju just stared at Hyeonseong in silence. It felt like she was scolding her for bringing up something unnecessary—and also like she was probing the past.
Maybe it was both.
“……Come to think of it, I can’t remember that part either.”
After a moment, Hyeonju spoke.
“Most of the rest comes back clearly. But…… that one part you mentioned, I can’t recall either. I don’t know if it’s a genuine blank, or if the name was hidden by some trick.”
“So it’s the same for you……. Then would Hyeonyeong be the same?”
“Seems likely……. Now that I think about it, this is the first time we’ve even talked about it.”
“Well, it wasn’t exactly something worth bringing up. And we never had a reason to compare our memories.”
It was something the three of them had experienced together. There was no particular reason their memories would differ, so there had never been a point in comparing them.
“Either way, we’ll have to ask Hyeonyeong when she gets back.”
“But why do you care about that Constellation’s name?”
Hyeonju asked.
“Think back to what we were talking about before this came up.”
After thinking for a second, Hyeonju frowned again.
“You’re dreaming about revenge now, of all things?”
“I told you. Dream big.”
“Do you have any idea how many Constellations laugh their heads off while watching people’s lives get wrecked? What, are you going to hunt them all down for revenge?”
“Hyeonju, why are you saying stupid things today?”
“What did I say?”
“Even if you and I can’t remember the name, we both remember what that bastard said, don’t we?”
Hyeonseong remembered most of what had happened back then—Interstellar Network windows, Constellation messages, the situation itself. They’d never talked about it in detail, but she assumed Hyeonju and Hyeonyeong were similar.
“……I remember.”
Hyeonju swept her bangs back and narrowed her eyes.
“Yeah. The way that Constellation talked was pretty suspicious.”
“Glad you remember.”
“So…….”
Beep, beep, beep……
Right as Hyeonju was about to continue, the keypad sounds of the door lock being entered came from the front. Hyeonyeong was home.
“Huh? What are you two doing?”
Seeing them sitting in the living room, Hyeonyeong asked with a puzzled look.
“Oh, we were having a serious talk. Actually, there’s something I wanted to ask you too—good timing. Change your clothes and come sit here.”
At Hyeonseong’s words, Hyeonyeong headed to her room, still looking confused. A moment later, she came out in comfortable home clothes and sat in the empty spot in the living room.
“What did you want to ask?”
Hyeonseong repeated the same question she’d asked Hyeonju. After thinking briefly, Hyeonyeong shook her head.
“……I can remember everything else, but not the name.”
“If even Hyeonyeong doesn’t know, then maybe it wasn’t that we couldn’t remember—it was erased on purpose…….”
Hyeonseong murmured, leaning back against the sofa.
“Come to think of it, there was talk today. Someone said they saw a Constellation changing its name in real time.”
Hyeonju spoke up suddenly.
“Oh, right. I saw it too. One of the guys who sent out that chimera boss. He changed his name to brag about his chimera.”
Even now, it felt absurd—Hyeonseong’s voice dripped with sarcasm.
“That ‘hole’ in the name might be something like that.”
“You mean it wasn’t hidden in our memory, but hidden by a system setting?”
At Hyeonseong’s question, Hyeonju nodded.
“Yeah. From a human perspective, we have no idea how far the Network’s functions go for Constellations. If name changes are possible, who’s to say there isn’t a ‘hide name’ function too?”
Hyeonseong understood right away.
“But why are you suddenly curious about that Constellation’s name?”
Hyeonyeong asked, still confused.
“Ah. Now that I think about it, I asked you out of nowhere without explaining.”
Hyeonseong briefly summarized the conversation she’d had with Hyeonju before Hyeonyeong arrived.
“Mm…… so what you’re saying is, the urgent thing right now is going to Sinuiju and coming back?”
When Hyeonseong finished, Hyeonyeong spoke.
“Uh……? Yeah, I guess……?”
Hyeonseong blurted out stupidly for a second.
“Then I think we should talk about that first.”
In other words, she didn’t want to talk about the past right now.
‘Usually she’s as slow as a bear, but when something gets awkward, she dodges it like a ghost……. Well, that’s probably how she managed to stabilize a newborn guild at that age.’
Hyeonseong looked at Hyeonyeong with a slightly sour expression, then lightly shook her head—not to deny her, but to shake off the stray thoughts.
“Anyway, I only brought that up because I needed to explain something to Hyeonju. It wasn’t the main point.”
Just as she had with Hyeonju, Hyeonseong opened the info screen and showed it to Hyeonyeong as well.
“As you can see, to get the item, we’ll have to search the shadier markets, not the legitimate ones. If nothing weird happens along the way, we can probably get it at the place listed there.”
Hyeonyeong silently studied the shared screen as she listened.
“So we’ll probably have to go there for a few days…….”
“Want me to come with you?”
Hyeonyeong cut in mid-sentence and asked.
“Huh? You can?”
Hyeonseong stared at her, startled.
“I saw the news earlier—something about an emergency posture. They said we might get a standby order or even mobilization soon. And even without that, isn’t it bad for a guildmaster to be away for long?”
“I heard that too. But in my experience, those things are usually ‘emergency’ in name only, and it still takes at least a few days before anything is firmly decided……. Right?”
Hyeonyeong’s gaze shifted to Hyeonju.
“Right. No matter what, it’s hard to just steamroll the guilds’ pushback and force things through.”
Hyeonju agreed.
“Still, they could issue something like ‘don’t leave your base’ pretty quickly.”
“If they were going to, they would’ve already. And even if something had come down earlier, it wouldn’t be a hard order—it’d be more like ‘we strongly recommend you comply’…… that kind of thing.”
“Yeah. Check the news tomorrow morning. You’ll probably see a breaking update exactly like what Hyeonyeong said.”
As Hyeonyeong and Hyeonju kept countering, Hyeonseong had no choice but to back down.
It made sense—those two, who actually ran organizations, obviously understood guild affairs and government command structures better than Hyeonseong did.
“Fine…… I get it. Then what’s left is figuring out how you, Hyeonyeong, can legally and naturally be away for a few days in times like these?”
Hyeonseong asked with a faintly displeased look.
“That’s easy. If there might be an emergency order, I’ll say I’m going to procure items needed for me or for the guild’s fighting strength before that. Hmm…… if it’s Sinuiju, we might actually be able to find something useful.”
Hyeonyeong answered calmly.
“You heard her. The problems you’re worried about either probably won’t happen, or even if they do, we can dodge them well enough—so don’t stress.”
Hyeonju said to Hyeonseong.
“Yeah. If you put it that way, I don’t really have anything to say…….”
“And for a black market trip, there’s no better escort than an S-rank swordswoman. It’s not like we can go in a big group.”
“True, but still.”
At Hyeonyeong’s remark, Hyeonseong’s expression turned sour again. She was nominally S-rank too—why did she keep getting compared like this?
“……Alright. But I was planning to leave tomorrow morning. Are you sure?”
“Sure. None of the raids scheduled for tomorrow have me on them. I do have to stop by briefly for official records, though.”
“Then…… okay. We’ll swing by your guild first tomorrow.”
In the end, Hyeonseong admitted she couldn’t not bring Hyeonyeong. At Hyeonseong’s resigned reply, a satisfied “mission accomplished” look appeared on Hyeonyeong’s face.
‘……She’ll definitely be helpful if something happens. Still, I’d rather nothing happen at all.’
As she planned the Sinuiju trip with Hyeonyeong, Hyeonseong thought that to herself.
Of course, it didn’t take long for her to realize that hope was laughably naive.
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