44. Black Market (1)
Wednesday.
Lee Do-jin opened his eyes. The warm sunlight illuminated my eyes.
It was still the mansion of the sword demon Jeong Yong-ha.
The door opened and Yu Seol-ah’s red hair came into view.
“Today is the day to go to the black market. I can finally keep my first promise with Cadet Dojin.”
Black market.
It had a name that seemed to be secretly and illegally operated, but it was a legitimate auction house and commodity exchange.
“Ah, is that elixir?”
The elixir you said you would save on the day of the entrance exam.
“Yes, ah. You don’t have to haggle at the market. I already took one off by talking about it. Just take it.”
It was possible enough if it was the swordsman’s network.
The servants in the house of the swordsman Jeong Yong-ha had to be busy because of a guest after a long absence.
It was to prepare breakfast for Lee Do-jin, Baek Hwa-yeon, and Geomhu.
“Did the old swordsman hire them?”
At Lee Do-jin’s question, Yu Seol-ah shook her head slowly.
“I did it. Of course, I spent the money of the elder sword demon. I felt it was too precious for the money of the elder sword ghost, who has been sitting quietly in a safe for the rest of his life.”
Hey, in the past of being the 4 superhumans of the previous generation. As a towering warrior, the money he received from the government must have been an astronomical amount.
“Yes. Thanks to you, I spent useless money.”
After a long time, the sword demon ate direct food instead of nutrition given through a hose.
“Who knows if the state will try to return it after hoarding it all? You didn’t even write a will.”
“The will was written down.”
Yoo Seol-ah widened her eyes at the gray-haired old man’s determined words.
“Really? What did you write?”
Jung Yong-ha stared into Yoo Seol-ah’s eyes.
“When I die, I divide my property in half and donate it to Kang Seok-hoon and Yoo Seol-ah.”
The seaweed soup in Yoo Seol-ah’s mouth popped out.
“Uh uh uh! Master, it’s dirty!”
Baek Hwa-yeon, who criticized her teacher, hurriedly got up and brought a tissue.
“Master, I’ve never been like this before!”
Yu Seol-ah removed the rice paste from her mouth with her hard face.
“That’s right, I’ve never been this flustered while eating…”
She finished cleaning her mouth with a flushed face. And she stared at her old boss.
“You’re really leaving me a fortune?”
“Do I have a relationship with someone other than you and Kang Seok-hoon?”
Yoo Seol-ah thought for a moment.
Certainly, there was no one except for two of her old men.
Unfortunately.
All dead.
The sword demon’s wife and son died on the day of the cataclysm.
And it was so common that I couldn’t tell anyone about it.
“…Nothing.”
“That’s right. That’s why I’m leaving it to you.”
Yu Seol-ah put down the spoon she used to scoop seaweed soup and glared at Jeong Yong-ha.
“Contrary to what I thought, you were organizing things one by one.”
The Sword Demon didn’t seem to mind.
“Because I can feel this body rotting away day by day. Two years is the longest I can endure.”
Jung Yong-ha’s gaze turned to Lee Do-jin.
“So if you’re going to steal something from me, you’ll have to come here often and bother me very often.”
Lee Do-jin nodded his head very loudly.
“I’m confident that I’ll bother you a lot. This is the first time I’ve ever been in an environment where I can fight against an overwhelmingly powerful force who doesn’t have to think about his hands!”
Unlike Lee Do-jin, the pitch went up.
I am genuinely happy. Being given a situation where you can hit and run with ease.
“…I see a real madman like this right before I start searching.”
Pure desire for martial arts.
Sword Demon Jeong Yong-ha said as if he was tired of seeing Lee Do-jin, whose bright eyes were shining brightly.
“Oh, but now he’s like a disciple. A madman. You should say he’s a man full of passion.”
Yu Seol-ah said while eating mocha buns while forgetting the seaweed soup she had just poured out from her memory.
With hot Americano.
The Sword Demon burst into laughter.
“Yes, he’s full of passion.”
The frantic breakfast went by.
Lee Do-jin confirmed that her body was fine and put on plain clothes.
***
Hunter Street in Incheon.
The SUV stopped.
When I got out of the car, there was a building with a flashing neon sign.
Black market.
I saw people queuing up to enter the black market.
It’s not even illegal, so why is the name Black Market?
There was already a widely known story in the world.
Starting is illegal. This is because it was a ‘black market’ in the sense of a real dark market.
From noble mtl dot com
In the early days of Cataclysm, the statutes were not properly set.
It was a time of severe cold when I had to risk my life in a raid.
The swordsmith gave an explanation.
“At that time, all the famous hunters were using the black market, so the government couldn’t call it illegal.”
And the hardened name did not change that easily.
The Swordsman didn’t stand in line with everyone. An underpass that only those in the know know.
And it was the door on the underpass side.
A large gatekeeper was standing in front of the door. He was wearing a suit, but he had a look that would make anyone fold his waist in half if he wanted to.
And that person folded his waist in half and said hello.
“Welcome. Swordsman.”
“Yes, this is my two companions.”
“Yes, I’ll just check your ID.”
After checking the student ID issued by Iroas Academy, the gatekeeper opened the elevator door.
A one-way door that ignores all the lines that can easily exceed an hour.
A building with a total of 30 floors.
The elevator stopped on the 29th floor.
“Welcome. It’s not Yuseol.”
A magic potion shop hidden at the far end of the 29th floor.
The owner of the store, a middle-aged man, bowed deeply. He had a well-groomed mustache.
“Yes, half a year.”
The store owner immediately took out the goods he had prepared.
It was a wooden box.
“There is an elixir in the box.”
As soon as Seolah Yoo accepted her box, she handed it to Dojin Lee.
The box contained a purple marble the size of a man’s fist.
The bead was shining brightly.
Lee Do-jin passed Yu Seol-ah and immediately approached the middle-aged man.
“By any chance, how much is this elixir?”
“An elixir classified as S-class. The lowest price was once sold for 5.5 Billion. Currently, there is no quantity other than this, so it has a value of three or four times more. There will be people who want to buy five times as much.”
Lee Do-jin wrinkled his forehead a little.
“How much did you sell it to the Sword Master?”
The middle-aged man shook his head slowly.
“You told me to keep it a secret.”
Yoo Seol-ah raised her index finger and put it to her mouth.
“B-wheat.”
“…I will pay you back. Please let me know later.”
Yoo Seol-ah stroked Lee Do-jin’s head.
“You know now, right? I don’t want anything from Cadet Lee Do-jin.”
I know.
She wants something both materially and emotionally, so she’s not so invested in herself.
That it is an investment because there is a clear goal of conquering the “Tower”.
“But being thankful means being thankful.”
“Huh, cute.”
Yoo Seol-ah kept stroking Lee Do-jin’s hair as if she were admirable.
Beside her, Baek Hwa-yeon wanted to stroke Lee Do-jin’s hair, and her eyes were shining brightly.
She put the elixir in the space pouch. Yu Seol-ah finally lowered her hand that had been stroking his hair.
Lee Do-jin, who went to the bathroom for a while, looked around the inside of the black market alone for a while after doing his errands.
I looked around the 25th floor, which sells accessories.
Half of the artifacts were related to the raid, and the rest were normal accessories.
“Ooh.”
Actually, Lee Do-jin himself had no great interest in either.
There were definitely times when I wondered if a defense-related artifact would be necessary, but the performance of the nano black suit I received from the Sword Master was so excellent that I no longer thought about it.
The reason why I am looking around these accessories now is the conclusion I came to after thinking about how to express my gratitude to the people around me.
In the end, Dojin Lee ruled out artifacts and turned to ordinary accessories.
It’s a gift to express gratitude rather than usefulness.
“Welcome, customer.”
“Yes, hello.”
A female employee greeted Dojin Lee with a bright smile.
Lee Do-jin, who looked around for a while, looked at a product consisting of a set of earrings and a necklace.
It was a set of 14k diamond jewelry.
“It would be burdensome to give all of these to one person. Give one a necklace. Shall I give the other an earring…”
“????”
At Dojin Lee’s crazy words that he would take off one set and give it to the two, the waitress widened their eyes wide, but Lee Dojin’s expression was so serious that he couldn’t say anything further.
‘Speak… I think I should do it.’
But in the end, the waitress couldn’t tell me about him.
Due to the nature of the black market, it is impossible to guess where the customers are.
It was because the other party could not be judged to be rude.
“How much?”
“550,000 Won. Customer.”
So she couldn’t tell me until the end.
After purchasing a few more accessories, Lee Do-jin got on her elevator again.
The door of the elevator that reached the 29th floor opened.
As we were looking for Baek Hwa-yeon and Yoo Seol-ah, someone shouted.
“S-Seung! Dojin! Lee Dojin!”
A bobbed-haired girl was running.
It was Choi Bitna. And behind him, a tall man stood blankly.
It was Changwang Lee Ji-kwang.
She also seemed to have visited the black market with a student.