Chapter 74
Terminally Ill, but It's Okay — Episode 74
Was it a case of a cow backing up and accidentally catching a mouse? Or was it a side effect of viewing the culprit through the eyes of a genius?
[That friend you mentioned last time turned out to be an incredible swordsman—the type with the exact opposite disposition from mine.]
It was certain that some luck had been involved, which made the unsettled feeling after it all ended even worse. Then Wednesday arrived.
Amid an atmosphere more subdued than usual, the first person to seek me out was Baek Sa-young.
"I'm thinking of leaving around nine Saturday morning. Does that work? It's near Ganghwa Island, so it'll take about an hour."
"Works for me. We can meet in front of the dorm."
"Okay. If you're late, I'm leaving without you, so don't be late."
A misunderstanding had formed, but the awkwardness had largely faded, so dealing with him was much easier now.
"Ha, Ha-yul. I heard you protected Reina. You could've at least contacted me first."
After that, Cheol-soo came by, his disappointment written all over his face, and next was Lee Min-ha.
Finally, even Professor Cha Myeong-hwan stopped by before his lecture.
"Tsk, tsk. Why drag out someone who barely has enough time for research?"
At some point, the number of people seeking me out had gradually increased, and I'd been busy since morning dealing with them.
Only after the lecture began did I get any time to myself.
Setting aside the Cheonjam Thread training for the moment, I stared at the back of my next target's head.
"Yosal Corps founding date, 1098. Noted, noted."
Cheon Seo-yoon, unusually for today, wasn't dozing off and was putting real effort into the lesson.
I wondered if the meeting with Han Soo-hyeok had belatedly ignited her academic zeal, but it was still too early to judge.
After all, her usual routine was to start nodding off again before long.
Anyway, the Baek Sa-young matter was mostly wrapped up, so now it was time to consider Cheon Seo-yoon's growth, and the direction had already been set.
"The smooth manifestation of Lightning Power."
Cheon Seo-yoon had stormed out of the Cheon family at the very age when she should have been honing her Lightning Power, and had missed her window.
By now, even if she wanted to manifest it, she had reached a point where she couldn't.
However, she had acquired a new trait and laid the groundwork for a comeback. If left alone, she would get a feel for it and develop it on her own after the second-semester midterms.
But right now, unlike the original work, anomalies were happening constantly, so I couldn't just sit back and wait.
Therefore, I needed to accelerate her Lightning Power proficiency to match the increased difficulty, but.......
It wasn't as easy as it sounded.
The source of Lightning Power was composure. Stillness within motion, to control the rampaging energy.
It was the exact opposite of Cheon Seo-yoon's disposition, so giving advice was awkward, and our relationship was still too ambiguous for a serious approach.......
The ill-fated connection that had started with the necklace had been resolved after the Roberto incident, but I still wasn't in a position to offer advice openly.
"This is tough."
I stared at the back of the innocent Cheon Seo-yoon's head and racked my brain.
While I was doing that, Cheon Seo-yoon yawned and stretched, and our eyes met.
"Haa...... hm?"
"......."
For a moment, an awkward exchange of glances passed between us, and then Cheon Seo-yoon mouthed the word "what" and made a sulky face.
As expected.......
It still seemed too soon.
Especially today, she looked to be in a very foul mood.
If I showed goodwill, she looked ready to take it as malice and do the opposite.
The moment I confirmed it, I shook my head, and Cheon Seo-yoon, apparently not liking that either, mouthed her words even more emphatically.
It looked like she was saying, "What are you glaring at?"
But that action was rather exaggerated and conspicuous, so.......
"Tsk, tsk. There it is. Are you messing around again today?"
There was no escaping Professor Cha Myeong-hwan's scolding.
"Huh? No, that's not it. That bastard.... No, Park Ha-yul was......."
"What about Park Ha-yul? Why are you bothering someone who's listening properly?"
"No. He was glaring at me, so...."
Cheon Seo-yoon shot me an aggrieved look, but I quietly turned back to the textbook.
* * *
As soon as class ended, I headed to the dorm.
[A package has arrived.]
The antiques I had paid for over the weekend had been delivered.
With a fluttering heart, I received the package and set it on my desk.
I opened the box, which had been double-sealed with mana, laid out the items, picked up the brush that looked easiest to handle, and activated Appraisal.
[Nameless Poet's Fountain Pen]
[Description: A high-quality fountain pen used by a nameless poet in a small village in western France.]
The purchase price was around 1.5 million won.
Aside from being an antique of about a hundred years and having excellent preservation relative to its history, it had no special effects. It was purely a display-grade antique.
But.
What would happen to the price if I enhanced it with SP and an effect appeared?
"Hm."
I thought for a moment about what effect to grant it to give it higher value.
Considering the function of a fountain pen, something like "Master Penmanship" or at least a "Handwriting Correction" effect seemed appropriate at first.
"Who uses a fountain pen these days?"
These days, it's closer to an accessory than a writing instrument, isn't it?
Even if it made someone a master calligrapher, if its use was limited, it would just be all show and no substance.
I needed to think about the kind of customers who still deliberately used fountain pens despite current trends.
I needed to target the psychology of people with financial means, or people in positions that required frequent signatures.
In other words:
[Adding the "Subtle Dignity" effect to "Nameless Poet's Fountain Pen."]
[The presence you project to others increases slightly.]
[Calculating required SP.]
[Calculation complete.]
[Required SP: 5]
[Proceed with enhancement?]
It was only slight, but because of that, the SP cost had been reduced.
It seemed decent enough, so I began the enhancement.
[Nameless Poet's Fountain Pen]
[Grade: Common (Low)]
[Description: A high-quality fountain pen used by a nameless poet in a small village in western France.]
[Effects]
-Subtle Dignity (increases the presence shown outwardly)]
Let's see.......
I clipped the fountain pen to the chest of my school uniform jacket and stood in front of the mirror.
Unlike before, I looked somewhat solemn and distinguished, as if I had transformed into a completely new person.......
......Well, not quite.
Honestly, I couldn't really tell.
Park Ha-yul's face, already an upgraded version of the original, naturally oozed class to begin with.
I lingered in front of the mirror for a while, then turned my attention to the other antiques.
The noble lady's necklace, with a fingernail-sized jade stone beautifully set in it, was given a skin texture improvement effect, adding practicality to its aesthetics—
And the leather coat of the Geumgang Twin-Headed Serpent, which I had purchased at the highest price.......
[Adding a size adjustment function to "Geumgang Twin-Headed Serpent Leather Coat."]
[Enhanci......]
[!]
[An uncommon stroke of luck activates during the enhancement process.]
Huh?
[Some of the Geumgang Twin-Headed Serpent's traits are added as effects.]
[Geumgang Twin-Headed Serpent Leather Coat]
[Grade: High (Low)]
[Description: A coat made from the leather of a Monster possessing two heads and both fire and ice attributes simultaneously. Its durability is considerable enough to block light blades without damage.]
[Effects]
-Size Adjustment Function (shrinks or expands to fit the owner's body.)
-Temperature Maintenance Function (blocks the influence of outside temperature and always maintains a comfortable temperature.)
"You're using up luck on this?"
I stared blankly as I stroked the leather coat, its black sheen gleaming.
It was a stat that existed in the status window, but because its application was so ambiguous, I had treated it as nonexistent. I never expected it to work like this.
"Then why hasn't it activated even once until now?"
I glared into the empty air, full of complaints.
[Your Luck stat is below average.]
Well, when they responded with facts, I had nothing to say.
.......
Anyway, it was an item that had appeared(?) at a timely moment.
It had gained an effect suitable for use in the magic space.
Therefore, excluding the coat, the remaining two antiques.
No, now that they had effects attached, they had become lifestyle-type Armaments. I decided to sell only those.
I turned on my laptop to connect to Gumanet.
Since it was related to my trait, moving through official channels was problematic, so I planned to sell through the black market.
When I connected to the site, the backlogged messages all popped up at once.
[Bro, let's meet up sometime soon.]
[Bro??]
[Haven't you been going to hunting grounds lately?]
[Ah, I'm just worried, so message me when you see this.]
I wondered who it was, and it turned out to be Cheon Seo-yoon.
Come to think of it, she really was something.
She was nosy in the best way and quick to grow attached to people.
We'd only known each other for barely a day, yet she was this concerned.
I could not understand it at all, but still.
Ah.
For a moment, a decent idea flashed through my mind.
Maybe I could approach Cheon Seo-yoon the same way I had the Special Mission Taskforce, wearing the "Limited Lifespan" persona.
But I soon dropped it.
No matter how I thought about it, it did not seem like a persona I would use for long.
There was no advantage in status, and creating more flying-sword personas would only increase the chance of getting caught.
Thinking about the future headache it would cause, I shouldn't get greedy.
"There's still some time left."
I decided to set aside the Cheon Seo-yoon problem for now and focus on registering the auction items.
The fountain pen had a starting auction price of ten million won, and the noble lady's necklace, twenty million won.
I registered each at a tenfold markup.
Still, since they were Armaments now, I figured this was a bargain.
* * *
Time flew by, and Saturday morning at 9 a.m., the time I had promised Baek Sa-young, arrived.
When I arrived at the dormitory front gate wearing the coat, Baek Sa-young, dressed in training clothes, waved at me and then made a puzzled face.
"What's this? Why'd you get all dressed up? Aren't you hot? I'm sweating even dressed like this."
"Well, you know."
For you, it's just clothes. For me, it's an Armament.
"Let's get going first."
As Baek Sa-young took the lead, I followed behind, the Twin-Headed Serpent leather fluttering.
We used a portal to travel near Ganghwa Island, then took a boat to Seokmo Island.
"Come on, come on, let's get a photo here before we go."
"Manager Kim, why aren't you coming over to take the picture?"
We squeezed through the crowd of tourists who had come out for the holiday.......
The entrance to the magic space was Bomunsa Temple, a must-see tourist spot on Seokmo Island.
Specifically, it was in front of the Rock-Carved Seated Buddha, famous for its Eyebrow Rock Buddha statue.
For that reason, we couldn't enter right away even after arriving.
"Drink."
"Huh? Oh, thanks."
I took out a drink I had prepared in advance from my subspace pouch and handed it to Baek Sa-young.
We squatted there sipping our drinks for a long while.
After waiting about an hour, it overlapped with lunchtime, and a moment came when the crowd of tourists thinned out.
I tapped Baek Sa-young on the shoulder and said,
"They're gone. Let's go."
"Okay."
We quickly stood in front of the seated stone Buddha.
"How do we get in?"
"It said to make eye contact with the Buddha."
"That's it? Easy."
Pretending not to know, I egged him on and grabbed Baek Sa-young by the collar.
In truth, making eye contact was only a supplementary element.
The actual condition the magic space responded to was the special blood flowing through his body.
It was responding to traces of the vanished clan.
"I'll try jumping once."
Baek Sa-young kicked off the ground to match his eye level with the Buddha, and at that timing, I jumped as well.
At that moment.
Swish—
Along with a floating sensation, my vision went dark.