'126 million?'
It was, of course, not in 'won' but 'dollars'.
'That thing is so expensive?!'
Moreover, the amount written here is the final amount after Luina's commission fee of 30% had been deducted.
In other words, the actual price had been 180 million dollars.
Even Han JinHo who had been accumulating enormous amounts of money by selling this and that in auctions for an extended period of time, had no way of staying calm.
He ceased his steps and checked the amount, displayed on the smartphone, over and over again. After looking at the current currency exchange rate, he discovered it was more than 140 billion won.
'Do I even need to sell other things anymore?'
The difference in price is too much. The necklace he had sold at the previous auction which Yu CheIn was wearing had been auctioned at 3.8 billion won. After the deduction of the commission fee, it was around 2.6 billion that he received.
Of course, that was still a large amount of money, but it couldn't be compared to holy water which he sold this time.
Plus, isn't holy water much easier to make?
The more money he had, the better it was. There were lots of places to spend on, and soon, he would need extraordinarily enormous amounts of money.
After all, a magician's research required an unimaginable amount.
In any case, he put his phone back into his pocket and resumed walking towards the lecturing room. He had to listen to lectures, and graduate.
To keep his promise.
***
Han JinHo blankly stared at the podium. He was only placing his gaze there, and was of course, not interested in who was there, and what they were planning on doing. The lecture hadn't started yet, but the stage was busy with people setting up laptops and projection devices.
"Aren't you thinking more than usual?"
He suddenly came to himself when he heard a voice from the side. Turning his head, he looked at the seat next to his.
Next to him, was Yu CheIn smiling from ear to ear.
"Huh? You…"
"I also come to this lecture, you know? I attended it every time."
He smiled awkwardly when he heard that. The reason he chose this lecture was because he didn't need to care too much about attendance. He naturally didn't attend it very often.
Today was one of the four days in this lecture which he had to come. Two days from those four days was to sit the half-yearly test and yearly test, so basically, he only needed to attend the lecture twice, without any demerits.
"I was very surprised because I saw you sitting here, sunbae-nim."
"Well… Today's a compulsory attendance day, you know."
Yu CheIn looked at him silently before opening her mouth.
"Somehow, sunbae-nim seems to not have any feelings for school."
Han JinHo tilted his head.
"Really? It's not like that though…"
She replied while giving a constrained smile.
"That's good then. Sometimes you give off an aura as if you are going to vanish, so I become startled every time."
Although he didn't really understand why she should be startled by that, Han JinHo pondered on the 'aura as if going to vanish' that she was talking about.
It was in fact, true, that he had no real feelings for the school, since he was only looking to graduate. Even right now, rather than the lecture, things like the money he got today, and the new auction he would be attending in a few days were filling his brain.
He now had a chance to refresh his brain from side thoughts thanks to Yu CheIn. He emptied his brain of needless thoughts and freshened it.
Suddenly, he then noticed something which he had not so far.
'What's this? I feel chilly.'
It was similar to the time Che MinYoung was on his tail, but much weaker. At that time, Che MinYoung herself, was a bit careless so it was quite easy to find out.
The current one wasn't like that, which was why it took a bit of time for him to notice, and if not for Yu CheIn, he still would've been clueless.
Yu CheIn who noticed the subtle change in his expression carefully asked.
"Um… You are not angry, right? I'm sorry…"
Han JinHo quickly shook his head.
"No, that's not it. I was just thinking about something. More importantly, the teacher is here."
The lecture started.
He obviously wasn't interested in the lecture, so he took out his phone and texted Che MinYoung.
'It looks like someone is observing me, can you find out who he is?' he asked.
Soon, a reply came from her, saying:
- An expert called Lee ChaBum is on you. You could say he's on the same level as me, although our styles are different. Do you need help?
He replied there was no need, and added a reminder telling her to focus on the information he requested.
There was no need to rely on Che MinYoung for things which he could do himself. She was already short on time due to working alone so he didn't want to needlessly add more work.
And while he was diligently sending mails, Yu CheIn glanced sideways at the screen to find out who he was texting to, but no matter how she tried, she couldn't see what he was doing at all. It was impossible to see from the side.
She even pushed her head towards him, trying to get a better angle, but she still couldn't see.
It couldn't be helped, since Han JinHo's smartphone was a special item which had underwent magic processing.
***
Lee ChaBum observed Han JinHo through the window of the lecturing room, by using a binocular on a rooftop of a different building. After watching him for a while, he put his binoculars away and shook his head.
"For reals… who is this guy?"
At the start, he had thought he would get a rough understanding after a few days, but till now, he had yet to find anything meaningful.
His school marks, family relations and address were all he could find - even a 3rd rate errand centre would be able to find those out after one day.
It was difficult to understand how he could so perfectly hide his information. It seemed to be impossible to investigate using normal methods.
"It feels like an expert is involved…"
Otherwise, it could not be this clean.
If he could at least check Han JinHo's smartphone, he might understand some things, but even that was impossible.
Every attempt to hack into his phone was denied, and stealing a glance at the screen with other methods had also failed.
With a binocular from a distance, or through security cameras, he watched Han JinHo every time he used his phone but could not see anything. He also secretly went into the house but gained pretty much nothing.
If he hadn't heard of it beforehand, he wouldn't have even known that Han JinHo appraised relics as a part-time job.
"I personally attempted and yet couldn't dig around. That means there's someone of my level, at the very least…"
A person's name went through his head.
"Che MinYoung? But…"
Lee ChaBum shook his head. There was no reason for Che MinYoung to accept a request from a brat like that; more so, after she threw away her deal with Chairman Yu MyungHo.
As his thoughts lengthened, his confusion also intensified.
While pondering, he suddenly stopped and stood straight up.
"This… Something feels off."
He left the place without hesitation. This kind of sudden impulse was what contributed the most to forming the current Lee ChaBum.
Some time after Lee ChaBum departed, Han JinHo appeared at that place.
"He should've been somewhere here…"
Like how he found Che MinYoung last time, he used the wave of mana, but nothing was caught on the radar. There were small traces, so by following those, he was able to reach here.
Han JinHo stood at where Lee ChaBum was standing and carefully viewed the surroundings, but found no other traces.
That place to the lecturing room where Han JinHo had previously been in had nothing in between so it was easily visible, and the seat he had been sitting on, was exactly on the other side of the window.
Actually, the reason Han JinHo could easily locate this place was because Lee ChaBum was highly skilled. He could sense refined magic power from Lee ChaBum like how he could from Che MinYoung.
And that power had left a distinct trace behind. Perhaps, to not leave this mark behind anymore, he had to be at least five times stronger than now.
"I won't let him go next time."
Han JinHo took out a small cube from his clothes, and placed it on top of where Lee ChaBum had been on.
Voong!
The cube slightly vibrated and absorbed all the remaining mana in that place.
Soon, there was no longer any trace whatsoever, left behind.
***
It was now over 10 pm.
Han JinHo slowly left his house while glancing at the watch on his wrist. This new watch was something he made using the mana from the cube from before.
It would inform him if someone with the same wavelength of mana approached. It could also tell him the location of the source.
Regarding the observer, this was all he needed to do. After all, other information will be hidden by Che MinYoung. Hiring her was truly the best move he could've made. Now he didn't need to worry about little things which would've caused him a headache.
Thanks to her, he was now able to concentrate on the few important matters.
One of those important matters was what he was planning to do today.
"There's still some time left so should I move with leisure?"
Today, there was a secret auction being held. This was an information he received from Che MinYoung, and she reminded him countless times that the organisation that handles the auction as well as the guests are extremely dangerous people.
It was literally a secret auction without a need for any invitation cards.
The money had to be paid by transferring, so it was difficult for people like Han JinHo who had to lay low to participate. It was because, to make sure their personal details stay hidden, one couldn't just use a random bank account.
After leaving his house, he headed downtown. It was near his home, so it didn't take much time. He then entered a toilet of a building, took off his clothes and changed into a new pair of clothes which he got from the inter-dimensional ring.
Then, with his palm, his covered his face and slid it down.
His face, after his hand went past, was a completely different one. It was a magic which changed a person's facial features.
Although he requested Che MinYoung to hide information related to himself, he was from the beginning, a very cautious person.
He had no intention to show his real face when doing something this dangerous. Even in the previous auction, he wore a mask, but still changed his face beneath the mask, and the car wasn't his personal property but rather a company's.
In any case, after finishing all his preparations, he left the building and slowly walked around the town.
He then turned his body and paced towards the location Che MinYoung had found. It wasn't nearby so he decided to ride a taxi till he was close enough, and walked to the destination.
The auction today didn't have an invitation/qualification card. If one had money or goods, anyone could participate.
The most important thing was to discover that there was going to be an auction held here today. That was the only condition for attending.
Che MinYoung estimated that there would most likely be stolen goods mixed in.
After walking down a shoddy road for a while, he saw a large storage standing by itself. At one glance, it gave off a strong aura of danger.
But without even a slight fear, Han JinHo faced straight and walked towards it.
Going near it, he saw some people who had arrived before him. No, they were definitely the attendants and the bodyguards of the people who had arrived.
They were in groups of three to five and were in every direction. All of them had an aggressive aura and were obviously not normal people.
'Interesting.'
While smiling, Han JinHo paced his steps.
Translator: Rain27 Proofreader : Uptime
'126 million?'
It was, of course, not in 'won' but 'dollars'.
'That thing is so expensive?!'
Moreover, the amount written here is the final amount after Luina's commission fee of 30% had been deducted.
In other words, the actual price had been 180 million dollars.
Even Han JinHo who had been accumulating enormous amounts of money by selling this and that in auctions for an extended period of time, had no way of staying calm.
He ceased his steps and checked the amount, displayed on the smartphone, over and over again. After looking at the current currency exchange rate, he discovered it was more than 140 billion won.
'Do I even need to sell other things anymore?'
The difference in price is too much. The necklace he had sold at the previous auction which Yu CheIn was wearing had been auctioned at 3.8 billion won. After the deduction of the commission fee, it was around 2.6 billion that he received.
Of course, that was still a large amount of money, but it couldn't be compared to holy water which he sold this time.
Plus, isn't holy water much easier to make?
The more money he had, the better it was. There were lots of places to spend on, and soon, he would need extraordinarily enormous amounts of money.
After all, a magician's research required an unimaginable amount.
In any case, he put his phone back into his pocket and resumed walking towards the lecturing room. He had to listen to lectures, and graduate.
To keep his promise.
***
Han JinHo blankly stared at the podium. He was only placing his gaze there, and was of course, not interested in who was there, and what they were planning on doing. The lecture hadn't started yet, but the stage was busy with people setting up laptops and projection devices.
"Aren't you thinking more than usual?"
He suddenly came to himself when he heard a voice from the side. Turning his head, he looked at the seat next to his.
Next to him, was Yu CheIn smiling from ear to ear.
"Huh? You…"
"I also come to this lecture, you know? I attended it every time."
He smiled awkwardly when he heard that. The reason he chose this lecture was because he didn't need to care too much about attendance. He naturally didn't attend it very often.
Today was one of the four days in this lecture which he had to come. Two days from those four days was to sit the half-yearly test and yearly test, so basically, he only needed to attend the lecture twice, without any demerits.
"I was very surprised because I saw you sitting here, sunbae-nim."
"Well… Today's a compulsory attendance day, you know."
Yu CheIn looked at him silently before opening her mouth.
"Somehow, sunbae-nim seems to not have any feelings for school."
Han JinHo tilted his head.
"Really? It's not like that though…"
She replied while giving a constrained smile.
"That's good then. Sometimes you give off an aura as if you are going to vanish, so I become startled every time."
Although he didn't really understand why she should be startled by that, Han JinHo pondered on the 'aura as if going to vanish' that she was talking about.
It was in fact, true, that he had no real feelings for the school, since he was only looking to graduate. Even right now, rather than the lecture, things like the money he got today, and the new auction he would be attending in a few days were filling his brain.
He now had a chance to refresh his brain from side thoughts thanks to Yu CheIn. He emptied his brain of needless thoughts and freshened it.
Suddenly, he then noticed something which he had not so far.
'What's this? I feel chilly.'
It was similar to the time Che MinYoung was on his tail, but much weaker. At that time, Che MinYoung herself, was a bit careless so it was quite easy to find out.
The current one wasn't like that, which was why it took a bit of time for him to notice, and if not for Yu CheIn, he still would've been clueless.
Yu CheIn who noticed the subtle change in his expression carefully asked.
"Um… You are not angry, right? I'm sorry…"
Han JinHo quickly shook his head.
"No, that's not it. I was just thinking about something. More importantly, the teacher is here."
The lecture started.
He obviously wasn't interested in the lecture, so he took out his phone and texted Che MinYoung.
'It looks like someone is observing me, can you find out who he is?' he asked.
Soon, a reply came from her, saying:
- An expert called Lee ChaBum is on you. You could say he's on the same level as me, although our styles are different. Do you need help?
He replied there was no need, and added a reminder telling her to focus on the information he requested.
There was no need to rely on Che MinYoung for things which he could do himself. She was already short on time due to working alone so he didn't want to needlessly add more work.
And while he was diligently sending mails, Yu CheIn glanced sideways at the screen to find out who he was texting to, but no matter how she tried, she couldn't see what he was doing at all. It was impossible to see from the side.
She even pushed her head towards him, trying to get a better angle, but she still couldn't see.
It couldn't be helped, since Han JinHo's smartphone was a special item which had underwent magic processing.
***
Lee ChaBum observed Han JinHo through the window of the lecturing room, by using a binocular on a rooftop of a different building. After watching him for a while, he put his binoculars away and shook his head.
"For reals… who is this guy?"
At the start, he had thought he would get a rough understanding after a few days, but till now, he had yet to find anything meaningful.
His school marks, family relations and address were all he could find - even a 3rd rate errand centre would be able to find those out after one day.
It was difficult to understand how he could so perfectly hide his information. It seemed to be impossible to investigate using normal methods.
"It feels like an expert is involved…"
Otherwise, it could not be this clean.
If he could at least check Han JinHo's smartphone, he might understand some things, but even that was impossible.
Every attempt to hack into his phone was denied, and stealing a glance at the screen with other methods had also failed.
With a binocular from a distance, or through security cameras, he watched Han JinHo every time he used his phone but could not see anything. He also secretly went into the house but gained pretty much nothing.
If he hadn't heard of it beforehand, he wouldn't have even known that Han JinHo appraised relics as a part-time job.
"I personally attempted and yet couldn't dig around. That means there's someone of my level, at the very least…"
A person's name went through his head.
"Che MinYoung? But…"
Lee ChaBum shook his head. There was no reason for Che MinYoung to accept a request from a brat like that; more so, after she threw away her deal with Chairman Yu MyungHo.
As his thoughts lengthened, his confusion also intensified.
While pondering, he suddenly stopped and stood straight up.
"This… Something feels off."
He left the place without hesitation. This kind of sudden impulse was what contributed the most to forming the current Lee ChaBum.
Some time after Lee ChaBum departed, Han JinHo appeared at that place.
"He should've been somewhere here…"
Like how he found Che MinYoung last time, he used the wave of mana, but nothing was caught on the radar. There were small traces, so by following those, he was able to reach here.
Han JinHo stood at where Lee ChaBum was standing and carefully viewed the surroundings, but found no other traces.
That place to the lecturing room where Han JinHo had previously been in had nothing in between so it was easily visible, and the seat he had been sitting on, was exactly on the other side of the window.
Actually, the reason Han JinHo could easily locate this place was because Lee ChaBum was highly skilled. He could sense refined magic power from Lee ChaBum like how he could from Che MinYoung.
And that power had left a distinct trace behind. Perhaps, to not leave this mark behind anymore, he had to be at least five times stronger than now.
"I won't let him go next time."
Han JinHo took out a small cube from his clothes, and placed it on top of where Lee ChaBum had been on.
Voong!
The cube slightly vibrated and absorbed all the remaining mana in that place.
Soon, there was no longer any trace whatsoever, left behind.
***
It was now over 10 pm.
Han JinHo slowly left his house while glancing at the watch on his wrist. This new watch was something he made using the mana from the cube from before.
It would inform him if someone with the same wavelength of mana approached. It could also tell him the location of the source.
Regarding the observer, this was all he needed to do. After all, other information will be hidden by Che MinYoung. Hiring her was truly the best move he could've made. Now he didn't need to worry about little things which would've caused him a headache.
Thanks to her, he was now able to concentrate on the few important matters.
One of those important matters was what he was planning to do today.
"There's still some time left so should I move with leisure?"
Today, there was a secret auction being held. This was an information he received from Che MinYoung, and she reminded him countless times that the organisation that handles the auction as well as the guests are extremely dangerous people.
It was literally a secret auction without a need for any invitation cards.
The money had to be paid by transferring, so it was difficult for people like Han JinHo who had to lay low to participate. It was because, to make sure their personal details stay hidden, one couldn't just use a random bank account.
After leaving his house, he headed downtown. It was near his home, so it didn't take much time. He then entered a toilet of a building, took off his clothes and changed into a new pair of clothes which he got from the inter-dimensional ring.
Then, with his palm, his covered his face and slid it down.
His face, after his hand went past, was a completely different one. It was a magic which changed a person's facial features.
Although he requested Che MinYoung to hide information related to himself, he was from the beginning, a very cautious person.
He had no intention to show his real face when doing something this dangerous. Even in the previous auction, he wore a mask, but still changed his face beneath the mask, and the car wasn't his personal property but rather a company's.
In any case, after finishing all his preparations, he left the building and slowly walked around the town.
He then turned his body and paced towards the location Che MinYoung had found. It wasn't nearby so he decided to ride a taxi till he was close enough, and walked to the destination.
The auction today didn't have an invitation/qualification card. If one had money or goods, anyone could participate.
The most important thing was to discover that there was going to be an auction held here today. That was the only condition for attending.
Che MinYoung estimated that there would most likely be stolen goods mixed in.
After walking down a shoddy road for a while, he saw a large storage standing by itself. At one glance, it gave off a strong aura of danger.
But without even a slight fear, Han JinHo faced straight and walked towards it.
Going near it, he saw some people who had arrived before him. No, they were definitely the attendants and the bodyguards of the people who had arrived.
They were in groups of three to five and were in every direction. All of them had an aggressive aura and were obviously not normal people.
'Interesting.'
While smiling, Han JinHo paced his steps.
Translator: Rain27 Proofreader : Uptime
