Chapter 118

I studied Madam Bong closely.

‘No matter how I look at her, she’s someone I know.’

I hadn’t seen her face, nor had I heard her voice.
But the eyes, the skin, and even the slightly hunched shoulders that only someone who spent a long time sitting at a desk would have.
All of those signs pointed to one person alone.

‘Gal So-ye.’

I immediately shook my head.

‘No way. The Grand Strategist wouldn’t come to a place like this.’

She had so many duties that she might have some business here.
But if that were the case, she’d send a subordinate. Why would she come herself?

‘Still, I think it’s her.’

My thoughts wavered back and forth over Madam Bong’s identity.
One of the auction house’s two biggest spenders.
If Madam Bong really was Gal So-ye, I could make very good use of that.

‘Let’s confirm it.’

I made up my mind at once.
If I didn’t know, all I had to do was create a situation that would let me find out.
And right beside me, the horse-mask man was chattering nonstop.
People this talkative were useful sometimes.
This was one of those times.
I cut him off mid-sentence.

“By the way.”
“Hmm? What is it? Is there something you’re curious about?”
“What do you think of the Grand Strategist?”

I subtly raised my voice.
I watched Madam Bong, but she didn’t move in the slightest.
If she really were Gal So-ye, there should have been at least a small reaction.

“What sort of nonsense is that all of a sudden?”
“The more I listen to you, the more it seems your insight is exceptional.”
“Ah, haha. I suppose I am that sort. So, you’re curious about my views on the Grand Strategist? The Grand Strategist is one of the foremost masterminds in the cult-”

Sorry, but I cut off the horse-mask man again.

“Now I’m curious about something else.”
“What is it?”
“Do you know of the Seven-Treasure Dragon King Soup?”

I brought up the dish Gal So-ye liked to the point of obsession.
Even so, Madam Bong didn’t budge.

‘Was I mistaken?’

I tilted my head, then added one more line.

“That thing tastes disgusting, doesn’t it?”

At that moment, Madam Bong’s shoulders twitched ever so slightly.
I’d been right.
It was Gal So-ye!

“As for the taste of Seven-Treasure Dragon King Soup, opinions do differ-”

I let the horse-mask man’s voice go in one ear and out the other and grinned.
No matter how meticulous Gal So-ye was, it seemed even she couldn’t tolerate an insult aimed at the Seven-Treasure Dragon King Soup.
Judging by how she’d flared up for an instant.

‘How could this be?’

One of the Golden Resonance Vault’s two biggest spenders.
And Madam Bong, famed for ending things in a single strike, was Gal So-ye.

Several questions flashed through my mind.
Why had someone as busy as Gal So-ye come to the auction in person? Was she trying to win something?
And with her information network, she would definitely know I was here.
There was even a high chance she knew the White Ghost mask was me.
Then why hadn’t she acted like she knew?
No, before that, why hadn’t she tipped me off in advance?

‘No way, she’s not after the same thing I am, is she?’

When I asked about the whereabouts of the Defeated-Spirit Paste, it was Gal So-ye who told me about Gu Cheong-won and the secret auction house.
If it was her, it wouldn’t be strange if she’d formed some plan the moment I asked.
Draw me here, give me certain information, and make me act in a certain way.
And in doing so, create some result she wanted.

‘The Defeated-Spirit Paste can’t be the real objective. Is it bait?’

While all sorts of thoughts ran through my head, a voice transmission rang in my ear.

[…You noticed?]

It was Gal So-ye.
Pretending to respond to the horse-mask man, who was still rambling on about the taste of Seven-Treasure Dragon King Soup, I answered the transmitted sound aloud.

“Right. There’s no way not to know that.”

[Haa. How in the world did you figure it out?]

“You can’t fool me.”
“Exactly. No matter how much one tries to deceive, the tongue cannot lie. When it comes to taste-”

[Of course. How could I fool Seventh Young Lord, when you’re the sharpest in the cult when it comes to noticing things. Actually, I came because I was worried whether Seventh Young Lord would handle his very first auction well.]

“Ha!”

I let out a loud snort.
Gal So-ye, busy as she was, had come because of me?
That was hard to swallow.

“Be honest.”
“Huh, the truth is I’ve never actually eaten Seven-Treasure Dragon King Soup myself. Was it that obvious? The reason I pretended I had is-”

From that point on, I tuned out the horse-mask man entirely.

[Haa. As expected, that didn’t work at all. The reason I came to the Golden Resonance Vault is because of one man. The one called Lord Yong.]

Lord Yong?
One of Golden Resonance Vault’s biggest spenders alongside Madam Bong?
Why him?
As if she’d read my curiosity, the voice transmission continued at once.

[I believe he is a lackey of the Heaven Rebelling Society.]

The Heaven Rebelling Society.
A name that soured my mood the moment I heard it.
Those bastards who sought to overturn the Demon Cult through destructive means, then came after hearing nonsense that I would become the successor and blew themselves up while demanding we die together.
And Lord Yong was a lackey of the Heaven Rebelling Society?

“And?”

True to her role as Grand Strategist, Gal So-ye laid out the current situation with perfect clarity.

[I’ve been observing Lord Yong for quite some time. He’s so thorough in how he conducts himself that I haven’t been able to find definitive evidence. But among the items he has won, the largest share consists of weapons, elixirs, and martial arts manuals. And I’ve found signs that some of them have made their way into the Heaven Rebelling Society’s hands.]

Her explanation went on like this.
The Heaven Rebelling Society had long made raising soulless puppets one of its goals.
The more powerful sorcerers they had, the stronger their force would become, so if Defeated-Spirit Paste came up for auction, they would certainly try to win it.
So with this incident, she intended to determine Lord Yong’s true purpose and respond accordingly.

‘So that’s why you used me.’

She had probably pictured this entire situation in her head from the moment I first mentioned Defeated-Spirit Paste.
I would request Defeated-Spirit Paste from Gu Cheong-won, he would accept, and it would go up at the auction house.
If Gu Cheong-won had tried to hand it over to me quietly, Gal So-ye would have found some way to change that decision.

When I stayed silent for a moment, Gal So-ye sent another transmission. It seemed she had noticed my mood.

[Are you angry? I had no intention of putting Seventh Young Lord at a disadvantage. But why aren’t you answering by voice transmission? Is there some reason?]

A reason? Yes, there was one.
Gal So-ye would never expect it, but I still couldn’t use voice transmission yet.
So was a skill in which one wrapped one’s voice in internal energy, then sent it through the air as a medium.
Once you managed it once, it became easy after that, but I didn’t currently have the amount of internal energy required to pull it off for the first time.
If the Chaotic Demonic Qi Jade hadn’t been holding such a considerable amount of internal energy, it would have been fine.

‘I think I could imitate it, though.’

That was only a hypothesis.
If I drew out Perfect Demonic Qi, an extremely stable energy, as thin as a thread and made it reach the other person, then maybe it would work.
But there were several problems.
The directional calculation was tricky, the internal energy consumption was high, and there was a high risk that someone else might intercept it midway.
Something flying at great speed was hard to snatch, but a long, connected thread was easy to touch. That was the principle.
So unless it was truly necessary, it would be better to save it.

“That’s not what matters. Tell me, what do you think about using other people?”
“Hmm? Ah, well, when it comes to that, trust is something that-”

[Hoo. I’ll tell you the truth. Yes, I did decide to use Seventh Young Lord. But I came up with no fewer than seventeen plans depending on the situation so that you wouldn’t be harmed.]

“How many of those plans benefit me?”

[…Two. But those two have the highest probability. I’m sorry. I had no choice but to keep it secret in case the plan leaked out.]

“Forget the apology.”
“Hmm? I didn’t apologize, though……”

The horse-mask man was still responding to me.
But perhaps he had noticed that something was off, because he started edging away.
I grabbed the hem of his clothes.

“So what are you going to do?”
“I-I was just trying to go back to my seat.”

[The best outcome is for Seventh Young Lord to win the Defeated-Spirit Paste, determine Lord Yong’s objective, and send him away empty-handed.]

“And the worst?”

[That it gets taken from us. I did request cooperation from Third Young Lord in preparation for that, but he said the auction house is a place that speaks only through the winning bid. He’s a difficult man. So, about that- Ah, let’s talk again in a moment.]

Gal So-ye’s voice transmission stopped midway.
It was because the First Chief Steward had gone up onto the auction stage.

“Everyone is gathered now.”

The First Chief Steward stepped onto the auction stage.
By then, there wasn’t a single empty chair left.
With a few light words of greeting, he skillfully seized control of the atmosphere, then immediately announced the start of the auction.

“The first item is the Crescent Moon Three Forms! It is not an extraordinary martial art, but for those of you who wish to study the martial arts of a sect between orthodox and unorthodox, it will be an excellent choice. The opening bid is ten taels, and bids will rise in increments of five!”

One masked bidder raised a hand first.
Then Lord Yong casually raised his hand with hardly a moment’s pause.

“Fifteen taels! Twenty!”

The first auction ended before long.

“Lord Yong has won the Crescent Moon Three Form manual for fifty-five taels!”

Thunk thunk thunk.
The chief steward struck the wooden hammer three times.
Maybe because of what Gal So-ye had told me.
The sight of Lord Yong winning a martial arts manual looked suspicious.

“Now then, the second item is-”
“The third item is-”

Lord Yong truly was unstoppable.
Whenever a manual or elixir came up, he bid without fail and won it.
The more it went on, the more suspicious it looked.
That way, out of ten items, seven ended up in his hands.

“And now, the final item! It was truly difficult to obtain. To put it in words-”

The explanation went on for quite a while.
Anyone could tell it was Defeated-Spirit Paste, but the First Chief Steward continued dragging out the explanation at length.
This too was probably part of setting the mood.
At that moment, Gal So-ye sent another voice transmission.

[So far, Lord Yong has spent two hundred seventy taels. Do you know what that means?]

I didn’t answer.
How was I supposed to know that?

[The amount Lord Yong puts into a single auction ranges from nine hundred fifty taels to one thousand fifty taels. He has never once gone outside that range. If he bids higher than seven hundred eighty taels for the Defeated-Spirit Paste, that will be direct evidence that he is tied to the Heaven Rebelling Society. But do you know what the problem is?]

Because the auction was in progress, I kept silent.
Knowing that, Gal So-ye continued.

[That we don’t have enough money. The winning bid should have been pushed higher so he would spend more, but for some reason everyone else backed down hard today. So, how much capital do you have, Young Lord? Clear your throat in hundred-tael units.]

“Ahem, ahem.”

That meant two hundred taels.
In truth, if I counted my own private funds, I had about a hundred taels more, but I had no intention of touching that unless I absolutely had to.

[I have four hundred ninety taels. If I add the thousand taels I borrowed from the money house, that makes one thousand four hundred ninety.]

I was suddenly speechless.
She borrowed money from a money house?
And a thousand taels at that?

[Yes, I know. It wasn’t a good choice. But with the year-end accounting close at hand, no department had any budget to spare. So I ended up having to bear ten taels of interest per day. The interest is high, but I suppose I should at least be thankful it isn’t compounded. It would have been nice if someone hadn’t lived so extravagantly in the Central Plains.]

Was she talking about me?
She was the one who told me to treat the Heavenly Demon to nothing but the best, and now she was saying this?

[Haa, why am I the only one who has so many things to worry about?]

“Ahem!”

I expressed, with a cough, that she should stop lamenting her lot.
Once she got started, she tended to go on and on.
Leaving the now-quiet Gal So-ye aside, I turned my mind to the problem.
Originally, I had been planning to wreck the auction and bring it all crashing down.
At the very least, that way the Defeated-Spirit Paste wouldn’t end up in anyone else’s hands until it ended up in mine.
But now, a better justification and a better method had come to mind.
On top of that, there was even an accomplice now, who was in a position where she had no choice but to help me, so it wasn’t a bad situation.
By the time I’d thought that far, the First Chief Steward finally shouted out.

“And so, the final item is the Defeated-Spirit Paste itself!”
“Oooh.”

The masked bidders began murmuring.
I heard comments that it was an item they had never seen before, or that it was extremely desirable.

“The opening bid for the Defeated-Spirit Paste is one hundred taels!”

The excitement died down in an instant.

“One hundred taels?”
“As the opening bid?”
“Heheh. A hundred taels quite an amount.”

Ignoring reactions like those, Lord Yong raised his hand.

“One hundred ten taels!”

The masked bidders who had been reading one another’s faces began raising their hands one by one.
Just like that, the bids shot up to three hundred taels in no time.
By then, everyone else had already dropped out.

“Are there no more bids? I’ll count to five and close the lot. One, two, three- Ah! Madam Bong has raised her hand!”

“Oho, Madam Bong is finally making her move.”
“They say Madam Bong never misses an item she wants, but today Lord Yong also seems especially determined. At this rate, it’s impossible to tell who Defeated-Spirit Paste will go to.”

A bidding war crackling with sparks.
The bids quickly climbed toward a thousand taels.
Gal So-ye was probably feeling half like laughing, half like crying.
She had gained strong grounds to suspect that Lord Yong was tied to the Heaven Rebelling Society, but if he won the bid, the Defeated-Spirit Paste would end up in dangerous hands.
And even if she won it herself, she would have to keep paying huge amounts of interest until she scraped together the budget.

‘Hmm. This is a perfect situation for a deal.’

There was information I absolutely needed to obtain if I wanted to ease my chronic internal energy problem.
It concerned an elixir said to raise one’s internal energy by decades just by chewing and swallowing it.
At this point, only the Demon Eye Pavilion Lord and Gal So-ye probably knew about it.
Until now, I hadn’t even brought it up because I didn’t think she’d tell me, but now that this opportunity had come up, I might as well use it.

‘Let’s try sending a voice transmission.’

Now was exactly the time to use internal energy.
I focused and spread Perfect Demonic Qi out like a thread.
It was such delicate work that cold sweat broke out, and I poured a considerable amount of my Perfect Demonic Qi into it.
But in the end, it reached her.

[Shall I solve the Grand Strategist’s problem for you?]
[How?]
[What would you do if I had a way for you to win the bid without spending a single coin?]

Gu Cheong-won was the kind of man who would hand the item over regardless of whether the winner was from the Heaven Rebelling Society or the orthodox sects.
I was going to smash that smirking face of his to pieces.

[There’s really such a way?]

I could feel her disbelief through the voice transmission.
I laughed inwardly.
No matter how clever, cold, and brilliant a strategist was, there were still shameless methods she wouldn’t even imagine.
I tossed the voice transmission back to her.

[In a situation like this, what matters is talking skills. Not brains.]
[Talking skills…?]
[Watch and you’ll see. But I’m not going to solve this for free. There has to be a price for trying to use me.]
[…What price?]
[It’s a secret for now. It won’t be an unreasonable request.]
[I suppose I’ll have to trust Seventh Young Lord.]
[That’s right. As long as they’re human, there’s a method they can’t escape from, so relax.]

I pulled up the corners of my mouth.
The preparations were complete.
Gu Cheong-won was the one who provoked me first.
I’d make him understand that the laws of the auction house he held so dear meant absolutely nothing.

“Nobody move! Everybody put your hands down. You might lose your wrists otherwise!”

I sprang to my feet at once.

“Gasp.”

Behind me, Im Yeon sucked in a sharp breath.
Ignoring her, I climbed onto the auction stage.
I looked down at them boldly and took off my mask.

“W-what?”
“I-Isn’t that Seventh Young Lord? Why’s he suddenly taking off his mask?”

I swept my gaze over them with a broad smile.
From this point on, I’ll be the one running the auction.