Chapter 79
I’m translating the chapter now and preserving the chapter structure, including the special in-universe display block at the end.CHAPTER_TITLE: A New Team Member and a Hidden Find
Kim Si-woo was waiting for Choi Yi-seo in the office at Eterna Gallery.
On the desk lay the resume Choi Yi-seo had sent ahead of time.
- Early graduation from Korean High School
- Top of the class, Department of Archaeology and Art History, Korea University
- Completed doctoral coursework in East Asian Cultural Heritage Studies, Korea University Graduate School
- Completed the Cultural Heritage Management Program at the Louvre School in France
- Working group member, UNESCO Committee on the Prevention of Illicit Trafficking in Cultural Property
...
...
The experience listed on the resume was anything but ordinary.
Why is someone like this coming to my team?
In the art market, there was a saying that a single resume meant nothing.
Only the results a person had built up could prove their qualifications.
And even so.
He still couldn’t shake the feeling that someone like this was far too accomplished to be under him.
Then.
Knock, knock.
He heard a knock at the door.
"Come in."
The door opened, and a neatly dressed woman stepped inside.
Her hair was tied up in a clean bun, and her white shirt was without a single wrinkle.
She had the kind of face that made people turn for a second look on the street.
But her cool, almost faultless impression made it hard to approach her easily.
Then, the first thing that came out of her mouth after she opened the door was utterly unlike that impression.
"Hello. I’m Team Leader Choi Yi-seo from the Cultural Heritage Repatriation Foundation!"
Her voice was very bright.
Choi Yi-seo bowed deeply.
"I’m truly a fan... no, I’m honored to become part of the team!"
She corrected herself halfway through, but it was already too late.
...A fan?
For a moment, he wasn’t sure what kind of expression he was supposed to make.
Ever since the Singing Bird documentary had been released, he had received that sort of look a few times.
Looks of admiration, and of awe.
Si-woo cleared his throat a few times.
At the same time, he still couldn’t quite connect the glamorous resume in his hand with the young woman standing before him.
"Please, have a seat."
He gestured toward the sofa opposite him.
"Thank you."
Choi Yi-seo sat down.
"I’ve read your resume. But why choose to work on the cultural heritage repatriation team? With credentials like these, you could be welcomed anywhere."
At the question, Choi Yi-seo placed both hands neatly on her knees, and her expression turned serious.
"I’m much more used to writing papers through source verification than directly handling artifacts in the field. To be honest, appraising things in real-world situations was an entirely different discipline."
She paused briefly, then added,
"In fact, that’s why I hesitated when the Cultural Heritage Repatriation Team made me an offer. I wondered what role I could play, and how I could contribute. But if I kept hesitating, I wouldn’t be able to give you an answer within the set period. As I’ve always done in life, I thought it would suit me to face it head-on. So I applied."
He looked at Choi Yi-seo again.
Someone who could have stayed buried in papers and historical records had chosen to come out into the field.
She could have hidden behind that brilliant resume and chosen the safe path.
...Well, after talking to her, she doesn’t seem like a bad person.
It had been a short conversation, but even that was enough to give him a rough sense of who she was.
The truth was, Si-woo didn’t really need a team.
He was already used to scanning auction sites around the world as always.
Used to searching through the DMs and videos people sent him for shining artifacts.
He could manage on his own.
Building an organization around it didn’t suit his temperament.
There were also some things he couldn’t easily explain through the status window when looking at an artifact, so he spoke honestly.
"To be honest, the work I do doesn’t require a great many people."
Choi Yi-seo looked puzzled.
"As you know, recovering cultural properties that have been taken abroad is realistically very difficult. Just look at the Ogura Collection. More than a thousand pieces are held at the Tokyo National Museum alone, but the moment they’re brought to the diplomatic table, the issue becomes political."
"Yes. It’s a frustrating reality."
Choi Yi-seo nodded with a tight expression.
"That’s why I’m looking in a different direction."
"A different direction...?"
"I’m going to search overseas auction sites for suspicious artifacts related to Korea. Not just major auction houses like Sotheby’s or Christie’s, but small local auctions and even minor yard sales. I especially intend to focus on Japan."
"Japan?"
"Among Korea’s displaced cultural properties, the confirmed total spans 27 countries and more than 240,000 pieces. Japan alone accounts for 110,000 of them, nearly half. That’s only the official count, of course. If you include items privately held in secrecy, the number will be far higher. But—"
Choi Yi-seo listened with complete focus.
"What I want are not the ones already on that official list."
"Then...?"
"The Korean cultural properties scattered across Japan that still haven’t been properly brought to light. The ones sleeping in private collectors’ warehouses, buried in small antique shops in provincial towns, or briefly appearing at auction only to disappear again. Artifacts whose very existence hasn’t been fully revealed."
Perhaps because she was tense, Choi Yi-seo’s eyes widened.
"Team Leader Choi Yi-seo, I’d like you to identify the sites where objects showing characteristics of Korean cultural properties appear, and send them to me. I’ll make the call from there."
At that, Choi Yi-seo raised a question.
"Most photos of ordinary auction items are taken by regular people, not experts. The backgrounds are all different, the lighting is usually terrible, and a lot of sellers don’t even know what they’re listing. Can you really tell whether something is a Korean artifact or not from pictures like that?"
"I can."
Just that.
No boasting.
No explanation added.
...He really is confident.
Before Singing Bird turned him into a sensation, Choi Yi-seo had watched every interview with Kim Si-woo that had been published in the papers.
She had thought that Appraiser Kim Si-woo had the eye to read the hidden value inside artifacts that other appraisers overlooked.
No, anyone would have thought that.
His career had proven it, after all.
I really did make the right choice applying.
Just as that private sense of satisfaction began to bloom, Si-woo said,
"If nobody finds them, they stay buried forever. Cultural properties whose whereabouts are already known, those registered with museums or institutions, are a matter for the government and diplomacy. It’s not something I can solve by stepping in. But the things sleeping in places no one knows about — those are the ones I think I should be going after."
It was a sentiment Choi Yi-seo found deeply relatable.
"I... you said you didn’t need many people. How should we structure the team? How many do you think would be good?"
Si-woo’s answer came quickly.
"You speak French and Japanese, so please take charge of those language zones. Japan first: Yahoo! Auctions, Shinka, Mainichi, and other regional auction sites, plus small groups and private trading boards. Same for France."
"Yes, understood."
"If you find anything that looks promising, send me everything: photos, seller information, auction history, and the artifact description."
"And then?"
"Japan and France alone won’t be enough. We’ll need to cover the English-speaking world, German-speaking regions, and Chinese-speaking regions as well. We need people who can search auction sites and antique markets in each language zone."
Si-woo set his pen down on top of the resume and said,
"But there’s a condition. It’s not enough to just know the language. They need to be the kind of people who can look at a single photo and suspect it might be one of our pieces. They should be able to tell the difference between the celadon glaze of Goryeo and Chinese celadon, the form of Joseon white porcelain and Japanese ceramics. At least that much."
"So not necessarily appraisers, but people with the ability to filter?"
"Exactly. As I said before, I’ll make the judgment."
Choi Yi-seo thought for a moment, then spoke.
"A few people come to mind from a team I worked with before. I can definitely cover the English-speaking side, and I have one person in German-speaking regions too, though I’m not sure I can bring them in for certain..."
"There’s no rush. You can bring them in slowly. For now, let’s focus on Japan first."
Si-woo looked straight at Choi Yi-seo.
"But people with loose lips won’t do. The moment word gets out about what we’re looking for, the item could disappear."
Choi Yi-seo’s expression hardened.
"Understood. I’ll screen carefully."
* * *
There had been no need to set up a separate office.
With Shin A-young’s consideration, they installed a few desks and partitions in Si-woo’s spacious office at Eterna Gallery.
From the next day on, Choi Yi-seo watched everything with eagle eyes.
She had been told she could start work a little later if she wanted to.
But she came in right away.
As soon as she arrived, she organized her desk.
Then she opened her laptop and began searching for information on overseas auction sites.
After setting up classification criteria and getting them approved,
she gathered suspicious artifacts one by one in a shared drive and sent them over.
She really works hard.
It was as if her enthusiasm had taken up residence beside him.
As usual, Si-woo sifted through overseas auction sites and checked the DMs and artifact-related videos that had come in.
In the shared drive, photos and listing information for suspicious objects had been neatly organized.
Links were attached so he could click straight through and look at each one.
All he had to do was open them and examine them.
...I should’ve done this sooner.
Back when he had handled everything alone, just checking the sites consumed a great deal of time.
With filtered information laid out in front of him, it was far more efficient.
Several days passed like that.
"Appraiser Kim Si-woo, did you check the files I uploaded today? A lot of pretty good items went up."
"I was just about to look."
Si-woo opened the shared drive.
A new file from Choi Yi-seo had been uploaded.
He skimmed a few entries.
And then, in that instant.
The golden light burst forth.
Si-woo’s gaze changed.
Light that could reveal memories from the past.
At the same time, the edges of his vision began to blur.