Chapter 16
“Hmm….”
“That’s an exceptional choice! That sword is a master smith’s renowned blade, forged using the magic stone of a boss monster defeated in an A-rank Gate!”
After buying consumables, I headed to the floor that sold weapons and armor and looked at the weapons first.
As I examined the various weapons and picked up a purple sword, an auction employee approached and spoke.
I hadn’t even asked what kind of sword it was, but he launched into an explanation like a hyena waiting for its chance.
“This weapon is an astonishing Unique rank! It was painstakingly crafted by the master smith ‘Ma Dong-cheol,’ so its performance goes without saying—it’s exquisite!”
“Heh~. Is that so?”
Honestly, it didn’t look anything like what the auction employee claimed.
And that was because—
【Purple Dawn Sword (紫明劍) - Rare】
A failed work made by ‘Cha Myeong-jin,’ a disavowed disciple of master smith ‘Ma Dong-cheol,’ tarnishing his master’s reputation.
Its primary material was a magic stone obtained from an A-rank Gate boss monster, but its balance was completely ruined.
Though it was a botched piece that wasted excellent materials, it was reasonably sharp thanks to the quality of those materials.
Through the Mystical Art ‘Dokkaebi’s Eye,’ it looked like garbage.
This sword had been made to ruin his master, and it was nothing but a mediocre sword that merely glowed purple.
Still, given the quality of the materials, it might cut something, but it would break after only a few uses.
“What do you think? Since you picked up that sword, you seem to have a discerning eye for weapons.”
Swish, swish.
The auction employee rubbed his hands together and waited for my answer.
Did this man know? Or not?
That this sword was actually trash that had no business being in a place like this?
Honestly, I was almost certain—
‘He took a bribe on the side and put this sword on display here.’
There had to be people at the auction with abilities similar to my Mystical Art. There was no way they’d put it on display without realizing what it was.
This employee must have secretly placed this trash sword here on his own.
He’d emphasized that it was the work of master smith ‘Ma Dong-cheol,’ after all.
Master smith Ma Dong-cheol was a supporting character in the story who worked as a blacksmith.
He was Korea’s greatest blacksmith and one of the five Master Smiths in the world.
He had strengthened his abilities solely through blacksmithing. He might have been less powerful than the other four Master Smiths, who had also joined in monster hunting, but his craftsmanship was unquestionably the best.
As a result, his weapons were peerless, and his craftsmanship had made him one of the five Master Smiths.
Early in the story, an incident tarnished his reputation—and it was the disgusting revenge of a disciple he’d disowned.
It seemed the sword I was looking at now was part of that revenge.
‘If I can put Ma Dong-cheol in my debt, that might come in handy later….’
I shifted my gaze from the sword to the auction employee.
“This sword looks rather shabby for something made by master smith Ma Dong-cheol.”
“Pardon…?”
“Someone else made this sword, didn’t they? They copied master smith Ma Dong-cheol’s style exactly.”
“Th-That can’t be. This is indeed master smith Ma Dong-cheol’s work, the ‘Purple Dawn Sword.’”
As expected, this man had taken a huge bribe from the disowned disciple and put the sword on display.
I’d suspected as much, and I was right.
“Yura, do we have any swords made by master smith Ma Dong-cheol in the Sword Emperor family?”
“Yes. Master smith Ma Dong-cheol is Korea’s greatest blacksmith. We’ve received quite a lot of weapons from him as well.”
“That’s what Yura says. …Shall we bring one over and compare them? We’ll have this place’s expert appraiser do it, not you.”
The auction employee fell silent, like a mute.
Beads of cold sweat formed on his forehead as he kept his eyes fixed on the sword in my hand.
He seemed to be thinking of how to get out of this.
But now that we’d made it clear we were from the Sword Emperor family, he knew how futile that would be.
Insulting a sword was taboo in the Sword Emperor family.
To put it bluntly, if he got beaten to death, he couldn’t complain.
This auction employee.
“I-I’m sorry!! Please spare me, miss!!”
So he had no choice but to beg.
“Miss, I’ll take care of things from here.”
“Okay. Yura, wrap this up. I’ll look at some of the other swords in the meantime.”
Leaving the rest to Yura, I started examining the displayed swords one by one again.
After several dozen minutes, one sword caught my eye.
And just as I was about to pick it up—
“Huff, huff! …I’m Han Seong-hyeon, the manager of Hunter Auction’s sixth floor. I heard what happened and hurried over, Miss Yoo Seol-a.”
The manager of Hunter Auction’s sixth floor appeared, panting.
Since it had happened on the sixth floor, it was only natural that the manager in charge would come.
But how harshly must Yura have chewed him out for him to rush over in such a hurry?
Only Yura knew the circumstances, but I felt a little sorry for him.
—This must be the burden of being a manager.
“I’m sorry that one of our employees acted improperly and caused you great offense. As the person in charge of the floor that sells weapons and armor, I have no excuse.
“It’s all right. I only reprimanded that employee because I hoped the auction wouldn’t suffer any damage. I wasn’t harmed, so there’s no need to feel so sorry.”
“Thank you for your generosity. Still, an apology is in order. I’ll give you a 50% discount on everything you buy at the auction today, at my discretion.”
“A 50% discount…?”
A 50% discount on everything I bought at the auction as an apology for this incident was an enormous compensation.
The word ‘discount’ probably didn’t exist at the auction in the first place, so I was likely the first.
‘Does the auction consider this incident that serious?’
I could understand why.
A mere employee had tried to pass off a shoddy weapon as a work by Ma Dong-cheol, the blacksmith who represented Korea.
And he’d done it to the granddaughter of the Sword Emperor, a hero of South Korea.
It could easily have turned the entire country against them.
They didn’t want their reputation tarnished, so they were showing me this courtesy.
They wanted to keep this from getting out.
“If I refuse, you’ll probably offer me something else. All right. I’ll accept your goodwill, Manager Han Seong-hyeon.”
“Thank you, Miss Yoo Seol-a.”
There was no reason to refuse what they were offering, so I decided to accept.
If I refused, they’d probably try to offer me something even more extravagant as a token of goodwill.
But that would only burden the auction, and ‘that being’ would step in.
—The auction’s owner.
The auction’s owner had appeared only once in the story, during the incident when the Great Korean Hunter Association schemed to take over the auction for free.
At the time, the auction’s mysterious owner had appeared and used power on par with that of an S-rank Hunter to crush the Association’s scheme head-on.
This part confirmed that the auction was incredibly precious to its owner.
In other words, if anything seemed likely to harm the auction, the owner would show up and take care of it, whatever it was.
And while the owner’s personal strength was impressive, Hunter Auction itself was no pushover either. The Great Korean Hunter Association, which had tried to make a move against the Sword Emperor family, formally apologized to the owner and even pleaded with the auction not to leave the country.
—Begging it not to leave its homeland because of this unfortunate incident.
This was where the story dropped the hint that the auction’s owner was Korean.
‘I do want to meet the owner at least once. The owner might become an ally if things go well. The fact that the owner chose to stay in this country even after going through all that must mean the owner cares about it as much as the Sword Emperor did.’
If I got the chance, I definitely wanted to meet the owner.
“Ah, Manager.”
“Yes, Miss Yoo Seol-a.”
“Could you make the discount you offered into a donation instead?”
“A donation…you mean?”
“Yes.”
If I wanted to make a good impression when we met, there was nothing better than making a donation.
And a donation through Hunter Auction would be worthwhile.
Since Hunter Auction made a lot of money, it also did a great deal of charity work. One example was its donation program to help people in need.
It even carried out charitable projects that usually only the government would, such as scholarships and programs to encourage entrepreneurship.
Still, since its biggest charitable effort was the donation program, I figured that if a donation in my name were registered, the auction’s owner might think positively of me.
And with a donation made, the Great Korean Hunter Association’s blatant pressure on us might ease up a little, too.
The auction’s donations were always watched by the media, so even having my full name appear there would raise the Sword Emperor family’s standing.
“I’ll donate the amount of the 50% discount to the auction’s donation program. The Sword Emperor family hasn’t been able to do things like this since we went into seclusion, so I’d like to contribute in this way. It was my grandfather’s wish, too—to donate.”
“You truly have a kind heart, Miss Yoo Seol-a. I’m moved.”
Clench.
He clenched his fist.
“I’ll take care of it as you requested. I’ll make sure to include the amount you donate today on the list.”
“Yes. Thank you. And since you’re here, could you also handle payment for this sword?”
“I’ll take care of that right away. You’re planning to buy this Unique weapon, correct?”
“That’s right. I like it. Please charge it to this.”
“I’ve received your black card. The total comes to 10 billion won, and of that, I’ll process a 5 billion won donation in Miss Yoo Seol-a’s name.”
After that, I made an additional payment for the armor, bringing the amount I spent that day to a staggering 25 billion won.
Of that, 12.5 billion won—50%—went to the auction’s donation program, naturally making me a generous donor who’d given a whopping 12.5 billion won.
‘Doing something I couldn’t do before possessing this body makes my heart feel strangely buoyant. Me, making a donation. Hehe.’
I didn’t go on a reckless spending spree just because I’d decided to donate.
【Heaven-Sundering Sword (天壞劍) - Legendary】
A weapon obtained from the A-rank Gate boss monster, a Death Knight.
This was the monster’s beloved sword, which it had used even before becoming a monster, and it was an incredibly powerful weapon.
However, having lost its reason as a monster, it couldn’t use the weapon properly and merely swung it around.
- Abilities: Heaven-Cleaving Slash, Telekinetic Swordsmanship (Heaven-Sundering Sword only)
The weapon I bought was a Legendary weapon, not a Unique one.
It seemed the auction could only identify it as Unique because it was affected by an information-obscuring effect, something I wouldn’t have known without the Mystical Art ‘Dokkaebi’s Eye.’
—Which meant I’d gotten quite a good deal.
【Talaria’s Blessing - Unique】
Armor imbued with the blessing of the goddess ‘Talaria.’
When the paladins of the Talaria faith went to battle, they always wore it to protect themselves.
It reduces damage received from attacks by 50 percent.
-Abilities: One-piece, Equipment Invisibility, Goddess’s Blessing
On top of that, I’d also scored some very good armor.
It was armor a Hunter would later obtain from a villain. Considering all the ordinary people and Hunters who would die to that villain, I thought it would be best to acquire it here and now, so I bought it immediately.
10 billion won each for the sword and armor.
And with roughly 5 billion won spent on consumables, my shopping at the auction was over.
‘I’m completely prepared.’