"Thank you all for your hard work this sester. See you next sester."
As Instructor Do Hanseong’s voice ca to a close, the students all spilled out of the classroom at once.
Now, it was official—the sester was over.
Not that it changed much.
I’d be staying in the dorms anyway.
As for the rest… well, they’d go ho or do whatever they wanted.
I naturally started walking down the hallway with Yoon Chaeha, who was standing next to .
"Where will you be during the break? Gaon? Magic Tower? Or ho?"
Originally, Yoon Chaeha would have entered the Magic Tower as an apprentice and learned various spells.
But since she hadn’t chosen that as her path anymore, it was likely different now.
She looked at for a while at my question, then tilted her head slightly.
"What about you?"
A counter-question I didn’t expect.
I smiled and answered.
"Dorms for ."
Yoon Chaeha imdiately responded.
"Oh, too."
Hmm. That was odd.
Sothing about it felt… off.
I changed my answer on a hunch.
"Ah, actually, I might go back to Vanquisher. I might get a room there."
Before I even finished speaking, Yoon Chaeha flinched slightly.
A brief silence passed before she spoke again.
"Ah… actually, I might stay at ho too…?"
Her words trailed off awkwardly.
She was twisting a lock of hair around her finger.
Her eyes t mine briefly before she looked away.
Suddenly, I rembered—her house was near Vanquisher’s headquarters.
Her family was rich, after all.
"……"
I stared at her ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) quietly.
Now it was certain.
Yoon Chaeha was trying to follow . She had clearly decided I was soone worth her attention.
She wasn’t the type to act without a plan.
When I kept staring, she quickly turned her gaze away.
"Geez…"
I let out a small, amused sigh.
I had lunch with Yoon Chaeha and Cheon Yeoul.
Then the two of them left first—Cheon Yeoul had business with the Order, and Yoon Chaeha said she was going to take a nap.
I didn’t bother returning to the dorms and instead tapped away at my laptop from a quiet corner of a café.
I’d done the sa a few days ago, and the atmosphere hadn’t been bad. I could focus well.
It was better than the dull, gloomy dorms.
Tap tap tap.
“Mmm…”
I sipped my coffee and resud clicking through pages.
Today was a bit different than usual.
Click click click.
I was browsing the Hero Auction for the first ti in a while.
The first reason? I had way too much money now.
I turned on my watch for a mont and checked my balance.
“…Wow.”
Then I turned it off imdiately.
Dividend payouts from Glory, reward money from the Association, all the various bonuses from Gaon.
I had beco—by any asure—far wealthier than soone my age had any right to be.
So I figured I should seriously think about how to spend so of it.
There were things I needed to prepare for entering Bugaram’s workshop, too.
The problem was—
[Excalibur (replica)]
[Goblet of Dionysus (replica)]
Everything I searched for ca with that tag: replica. In other words, fake.
Sure, they were still expensive and high-grade equipnt by market standards, but they didn’t satisfy .
[Type Blade]
[Thunder Axe]
Even scrolling down more didn’t improve things.
No handcrafted items by masters. Just well-made factory gear.
Overall… it was just disappointing.
It didn’t used to be this bad.
Back in the day, at least one good item would pop up if you kept browsing. I rembered having fun just window shopping.
But these days, any decent item vanished almost instantly.
Take this, for example—
[Ring of Justice]
[Sold Out]
Just by the na, you could tell—it was a ring beneficial to n in many ways.
So of its effects were a bit embarrassing to describe, but in short, it greatly helped mana activation.
It sold out in ten minutes.
And that wasn’t the only one.
“Dragonlord’s Rope… Martial King’s Belt… Depressed Frog Statue…?”
The last one was a bit odd, but whatever. Anything that looked good got snatched up instantly.
As I browsed through the sold listings, a sudden thought hit .
Wait a minute… could it be a collector?
Soone ca to mind.
The infamous collector known for sweeping up every genuine rare item on the Auction.
If he was behind this, it would make so sense… but at this point in ti, the collector shouldn’t have the funds.
So it probably wasn’t him.
Then who the hell was it?
“Ugh…”
In the end, I had a ton of money—but fewer and fewer things worth spending it on.
That’s when—
“Sothing bothering you?”
A coffee cup slid toward across the table.
Soone sitting across from was watching .
Actually, I wasn’t alone at the café today.
We’d run into each other after lunch and ended up coming here together.
She said she had so urgent work and ca to wrap it up at the café.
She’s always so busy.
So sohow, I ended up with Kang Arin here.
She looked a little more annoyed than usual. I hoped her business matters were going well.
“No, nothing really…”
I half-answered, tilting the monitor slightly away from her.
But wait.
What was I stressing about?
The person sitting in front of was Kang Arin—the heiress of the greatest conglorate in Korea and the next guildmaster of Glory.
The items not listed on the Hero Auction were usually sold in what’s known as “the Archive.”
Tickets to join the Archive auctions were sold through the Auction site, but getting one was like plucking stars from the sky.
Only high-ranking guild families or well-connected people could attend. I wasn’t anywhere near that level yet.
The Old Man never bothered with gear, so he’d never had a reason to go.
But I was different. I had a huge interest in equipnt.
I didn’t have the luxury to worry about “gear carry” accusations.
So, I cautiously opened my mouth.
“Arin.”
“Yeah?”
She answered absently.
Clearly not in a great mood.
I hesitated, then turned my laptop and pointed to the black banner at the bottom of the auction site.
[ARCHIVE]
The Auction’s top-tier, invitation-only marketplace.
“Could you… take there? Just once?”
I asked carefully.
At that mont, Kang Arin’s eyes lit up.
“Oh, of cou—!”
A wide smile began to spread… then imdiately froze.
“…Hmm, but it might be a little difficult?”
Ah. As expected, not easy.
It seed bringing a student like might be pushing it.
I wasn’t a known figure yet.
I had no intention of burdening Kang Arin.
“Oh, then it’s fine. Thanks for considering it.”
I nodded and backed off imdiately.
But at that mont, Kang Arin jolted upright in her seat.
“No, no? I didn’t say no! It might be possible.”
I smiled and shook my head.
“I just don’t want to be a bother. It’s okay.”
Then, uncharacteristically flustered, Kang Arin frantically waved her hands.
“I’ll definitely get you in, for sure. Mmm-hmm—just joking earlier~.”
She stretched the words out in a cutesy voice.
Even her ears were red.
She really did seem serious.
I chuckled at the sight and added softly,
“…If you really an it, I’d appreciate it.”
Kang Arin rolled her eyes, then nodded.
“…Yeah. Leave it to .”
She gave a short reply and took a sip from her cup for no reason at all.
Still, her eyes kept sneaking glances in my direction.
Then she added in a low whisper:
“Then… I’ll contact you soon. Get ready.”
“Got it.”
I smiled quietly and nodded.
***
Jeong Haein had left.
He seed to be heading back to the dorms, now that he was done.
“I almost blew it playing hard to get.”
Kang Arin grinned like she’d just lost ten years off her life.
She’d only done it out of frustration… but no more dangerous push-and-pull gas like that from now on.
Not her style anyway.
Unluckily, the Pentagon had gone into lockdown for the break, sealing away her Fragnt.
That ant she was totally out of the running. Jeong Haein wasn’t the type to force it.
She’d felt like tearing the Pentagon down, but of course, that wasn’t an option—so she had given up.
But she never expected such a golden opportunity to show up.
“Hmph~”
It felt good.
She humd as she looked at her laptop.
In truth, the one who had been sweeping up every valuable item on the Auction was none other than Kang Arin herself.
Anything she thought Jeong Haein might like, she bought.
She wanted to soday place it directly in his hands.
The problem was, lately she wasn’t the only one doing it.
The bidding wars had beco brutally intense.
Two… no, maybe three other people…
Now she had to monitor the Auction’s trends constantly.
She was dying to know who was out there, buying up rare items without any thought.
Eventually, she even planted spy code into the Auction system.
[Depressed Frog Statue]
[Origin: Hokkaido, Japan]
[Seller’s Note: It’s a frog statue. Verified to bring good fortune to the owner. Applicable in all areas.]
[Price: 100,000,000 KRW]
[Final Sale Price: 260,000,000 KRW]
The final sale price was far above asking.
Dozens of bids. It had been a fierce fight.
It boosted Luck dramatically.
A rare item, no doubt.
So Kang Arin personally put it up for auction to bait out the bidders.
There was one trap, though—the item’s effect was temporary.
“Tch.”
There were exactly three participants in that auction.
All of them fighting over a ti-limited item.
With anticipation in her eyes, Kang Arin clicked the bidder list.
“Let’s see whose na shows up~”
She was genuinely curious.
As she opened the list… her lips twitched.
A strange expression crept onto her face.
[1000_y]
[OnE]
[Sion]
“…Ha.”
She wasn’t the only one.
They were all thinking the sa thing.
Kang Arin quietly closed her laptop and sighed.
Then she imdiately picked up her watch.
Tap tap tap.
[RIN]: (photo)
[RIN]: Thanks for the 250 million~
She casually dropped the screenshot of the bidder list into the group chat.
“Ahaha!”
Then, grinning ear to ear, she closed the watch.
She couldn’t say for sure, but she had a pretty good guess who that mysterious [OnE] was.
And for that, she was thankful.
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