49
“Hyeonseong hyung, you just arrived?”
Hong Chan, who had been sitting in a chair, got up and went to the entrance. He was the youngest, but also because they were usually close.
“Aw, our youngest is the best. As expected.”
The tall man who had arrived at the pension carrying paper bags in both hands grinned after patting the head of the affectionate youngest who welcomed him first.
This was Jang Hyeonseong, who along with Choi Jiyoon held the position of eldest in Yeoun Guild.
“Hyeonseong’s here?”
Doun, who had been frozen for a moment, slightly turned his head and opened his mouth small.
“Oh, it’s the real Magnetic-nim. Hello?”
The moment their eyes met, the man dressed in clothes painted in various colors from head to toe smiled with his eyes. He had sunglasses stuck on top of his head, and his flashy patterned clothes mixed with primary colors hurt the eyes just looking at them.
“…Hello.”
Since his nickname had been called, he couldn’t pretend not to know. Doun awkwardly got up from his seat. Then Jang Hyeonseong put down the paper bags he was holding on the floor. Watching him wipe his hands on his pants, Doun felt déjà vu.
‘Huh, could this be?’
He’d had a similar experience recently. Right in the lobby of Yeoun Guild building.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Jang Hyeonseong, using the nickname Barnabas.”
It was a very polite handshake request, polite enough to make Doun, who had been greatly intimidated because his voice, intonation, and way of speaking were similar to his former guild master, feel awkward. Doun, who had put down the banana he was holding, also wiped his hand on his pants.
“Hello. Um, I’m Lee Doun.”
After hesitating briefly, Doun finished his self-introduction concisely with his name. While other people could casually call him by his nickname, he was embarrassed to mention the nickname Magnetic with his own mouth.
“Please take care of me from now on, Doun-ssi.”
Jang Hyeonseong shook hands lightly and let go. Unlike his flashy outfit, his simple greeting made Doun secretly relieved. If he’d given some kind of loud, boisterous welcome like Samin, his soul might have already been shaken out.
“Hyeonseong hyung, didn’t you bring a suitcase? Are those paper bags all you have?”
“Haha. I put my suitcase in my inventory and came.”
“Huh…?”
Kim Chansol, who had stealthily joined the group, made a strange sound. As if he’d been waiting, Jang Hyeonseong pulled out two large suitcases from his inventory. All eyes focused on the two suitcases that appeared instantly as the air shimmered.
“Crazy. There was a sucker in our guild who bought magic stone-embedded suitcases.”
Kim Chansol looked back and forth between the suitcases and Jang Hyeonseong like someone who’d seen something strange.
Items that could be stored in inventory were basically limited to things that came from towers. Magical beast corpses and bodily fluids evaporated the moment they left the tower. The only things that maintained their form completely were magic stones collected from corpses and items that could be purchased from hunter shops.
However, after repeated research, one company developed a method to store even non-Veritas system items in inventory.
By embedding magic stones in objects. Of course, just crudely embedding magic stones in ready-made products wouldn’t make them go into inventory. Only items made with special development technology that the development team treated as top secret were possible.
Even though they looked similar to ready-made products, prices skyrocketed dozens of times because they could be stored in inventory. There were even many cases where you had to wait several years to receive them due to insufficient supply.
“You couldn’t sleep last night because you wanted to show this off more than looking forward to the team-building retreat, right? Be honest.”
At Kim Chansol’s interrogation, Jang Hyeonseong laughed awkwardly as if he’d been caught.
“Hey. I waited 7 months to get this. I even wrote a pledge when I received it.”
“What pledge?”
“That I wouldn’t use this for drugs, weapons smuggling, or acts that violate international law. The funny thing is they make the pledge with an A-grade artifact too, but the artifact fee is billed separately. Crazy highway robbers.”
When Jang Hyeonseong shuddered, Kim Chansol was busy mocking who would pay expensive money for such things in the first place. Still, he seemed curious as he kept taking pictures. Samin, who was standing in one corner of the living room that had become noisy with more people, poked Doun’s side.
“Hyung. Is the suitcase you bought also like that?”
“…No. I just bought it online. A normal one.”
“Yeah. Good job.”
He wasn’t even a seven-year-old child, but he got praised for buying one suitcase.
‘I’m the hyung though…’
Doun pouted with a disgruntled face. That’s when it happened.
“How much do those cost?”
“49 million won.”
“For one?”
“Yeah. The pledge artifact is 27.8 million won separately.”
“Two would be over 100 million?”
“That’s right.”
Jang Hyeonseong recited the price with an attitude that was unclear whether it was bragging or complaining. Doun understood why Samin had praised him. Over 100 million for two suitcases. No matter how high-income hunters who mainly conquered high floors were, it definitely felt like overconsumption.
“There’s a sucker here who spent 100 million on two suitcases. Hyeonseong hyung, don’t go around guaranteeing for people, okay?”
At Do Hyeonwoo’s sarcastic words that seemed to represent Doun’s inner thoughts, Jang Hyeonseong, who was annoyed, retorted.
“Hey. Think about it. How convenient would it be to put luggage in here and take it out when needed? When you’re going around dungeons and your hunter clothes get torn, it’s bothersome. At times like that, you just pull it out and change clothes. How great is that?”
“Why bother? If you just don’t tear your clothes, you don’t need to buy it.”
When Kim Chansol objected, Jang Hyeonseong changed course and listed the uses of magic stone suitcases.
“When camping, instead of loading tons of luggage in the trunk, how nice would it be to just put this one thing in inventory? It has much more storage too.”
Samin’s heart, who had been looking at Jang Hyeonseong like a sucker, wavered for a moment. Actually, Samin also had a few products from the same company.
When Samin continued to maintain rank 2, the brand’s promotion team sent him a small box and ice box as gifts. They contacted him saying he could make priority reservations whenever new products were released, but since there seemed no need to buy them, he’d never contacted them first.
Come to think of it, the small box he received as a gift contained handkerchiefs, wet wipes, hand cream, and chocolate bars prepared for Doun, and the ice box had been useful last time too.
‘Now that I hear it, it’s kind of appealing? Should I buy one while I’m at it?’
Samin casually joined the conversation.
“Hyeonseong hyung, how long did it take to get that?”
“7 months.”
“That takes too long…”
Samin muttered seriously. Doun, who was standing next to him, poked Samin with his elbow.
“…You’re going to buy it?”
“It doesn’t seem bad to have one. Ah, are you interested too, hyung? Want to buy the same one as me?”
“No. I was just asking.”
Doun looked at the suitcase Jang Hyeonseong had pulled from his inventory and thought.
‘Kyung Samin seems like he’ll buy that and do something weird with it… That’s probably just my imagination, right?’
It felt strangely ominous.
* * *
The place where the team-building retreat of Yeoun, a domestic elite hunter guild, was being held. In that place where all the members who had decided to attend had gathered, the 10 top rankers were wrapped in breathtaking tension.
The situation where they’d decided to eat tteokbokki for lunch. They’d decided to pick the bottom two through rock-paper-scissors to make them cook, but somehow only two remained.
“Go! Choi Jiyoon! Show the power of Sewon-dong’s fallen angel!”
“Sol. Be quiet. Please.”
Yeoun’s sub-guild master Choi Jiyoon glaring at Kim Chansol who was shouting her embarrassing Veritas nickname, and…
“I can lose. I can lose. I can lose.”
Yeoun’s guild master Kyung Samin standing there taking deep breaths while chanting strange mantras. If he lost, he’d have to make large portions of tteokbokki for ten people to eat, but there was a reason he desperately wanted to lose.
The person waiting for the other last-place finisher to make tteokbokki with was none other than Doun. And he was even properly wearing a white frilly apron he’d found in the kitchen drawer.
‘I must lose and make tteokbokki with hyung.’
Samin moved his bony fingers and glared. His already fierce eyes became sharper. At that moment, Choi Jiyoon suddenly shouted a battle cry.
“If you don’t throw, you lose! Rock-paper-scissors!”
A sudden rock-paper-scissors match. The moment he was about to reflexively extend his hand, Samin’s eyes flashed.
‘Huh?’
At the thought that crossed his mind, he quickly hid his hand behind his back. Choi Jiyoon, who had thrown a fist into the air alone with a vigorous shout, burst out yelling.
“What? Kyung Samin, why didn’t you throw?”
Even at the fierce protest, Samin just grinned and shrugged.
“You said if you don’t throw, you lose.”
His expression of ridicule was very irritating. The Sewon-dong fallen angel’s outfit was turned upside down. Because the opponent was desperate to lose and used such tricks, she didn’t have to make large portions of tteokbokki. Anyone could see it was beneficial, but why did she feel like she’d been played?
“Ah, I lost. I lost. How could such a thing happen in this world?”
It was no different from reading from a textbook. It seemed like instead of unity at the team-building retreat, there would only be discord.
“Hey, if you’re going to cheat, put some soul into your words.”
“I don’t want to. I won, so go rest. Sewon-dong fallen angel-nim. Doun hyung, is there another apron? I want to wear one too. White clothes can’t get tteokbokki sauce on them.”
Samin brushed off Choi Jiyoon’s scolding as if it were nothing and stuck to Doun. Anyone could see he wanted to wear the same apron, but he was making excuses about tteokbokki sauce. It was so ridiculous that a snort came out naturally.
Meanwhile, Doun, who had been waiting to see who would make tteokbokki with him, managed his expression to hide his relief. Samin was more comfortable than Choi Jiyoon, whom he’d only met briefly a couple times in the guild master’s office.
“…I saw another one earlier.”
At the question about finding an apron, Doun answered while scratching around his eyes.
“Where? Here?”
Samin started rummaging through the kitchen drawers with a cheeky smile. Watching this, Choi Jiyoon thought.
‘Kyung Samin, I want to hit that bastard on the back of the head just once… He’s strangely annoying…’
Her bucket list was growing by one more line today.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
