WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Occult World’s Coveted Blacksmith ◈
Chapter 33: I Found a New Toy
──────
One of Master Do’s items had appeared in a regular auction.
After that single post went up, Goblin Fire was thrown into an uproar.
[HOT] Master Do’s item really went to a regular auction
I just went into Gyeongseong Auction and checked for myself.
└ Damn... The Do Emperor really operates on another level.
└ No way, is this for real?
└ Wait, is this even allowed? Won’t the Occult Management Bureau crack down on it??
└ Lol, why wouldn’t it be? Spell painters sell all their paintings at auction, and retired Spell Artifacts get listed as antiques all the time.
└ But if that’s the case, couldn’t they just sell it overseas? Why go through all this... why??
└ You need permission from the Occult Management Bureau to sell Korean Ritual Implements overseas. It counts as exporting spiritual assets.
└ Yeah, I heard the review alone can take years if you get unlucky.
What drove people even crazier was the listing itself.
[Lot 77. Unknown Creator, Blue Crystal Necklace]
[Date of creation unknown. Provenance unknown. Good condition.]
That was the entire description.
There was not a single word about it being Eul-tier or having an appraisal certificate.
Since it was an auction site mainly used by ordinary people, that made sense in a way. But to those in the Occult World, it carried a different meaning.
An item that had thrown the entire Occult World into an uproar just days ago had been tossed up with the same indifferent, matter-of-fact air as someone listing an unused item on a local secondhand app.
As if to say, anyone who knew what it was could buy it.
[Real man move: Just throws it up at a regular auction without a second thought.]
└ Damn, the Do Emperor is insane.
└ He’s giving us another hit of dopamine~
└ I can hear those family bastards seething from here lol
└ Pavilion of Ten Thousand Treasures: We can’t sell it because verification was insufficient^^
Do Emperor: Okay, then I’ll sell it somewhere that doesn’t need verification^^
└ Lol, this is exactly right.
The starting price was three million won.
It took less than a day for the necklace’s bid to reach one hundred million won.
[Breaking] Lol, Gyeongseong Auction’s site crashed again
└ Ordinary people must be so confused lol
└ Seriously, they probably think they got hit by a DDoS attack.
└ The employees must be losing their minds. People across the country are rushing in over some three-million-won necklace lol
It was chaos.
...But then.
[Question] Seriously, what’s with the people buying that thing? Lol
I’m genuinely curious. What makes them trust it enough to spend that kind of money?
└ Wasn’t it already deemed fake? Pavilion of Ten Thousand Treasures took it down because verification was insufficient.
└ Yeah, that’s why it’s being sold somewhere like that. If it were real, why would they hide it in an antique auction?
└ What if they buy it and it doesn’t even turn out to be Byeong-tier? They probably can’t even get a refund lol
└ Seriously lol
At first, it seemed like nothing more than ordinary malicious comments.
There were always one or two people trying to spoil things wherever a crowd gathered.
But then.
[Info] I’ll bet my entire fortune that thing won’t even be Byeong-tier once you inspect it.
Why else would Pavilion of Ten Thousand Treasures have taken it down? If it were really Eul-tier, they would’ve sold it themselves.
Do you know how much commission they’d make?
Doesn’t the fact that they took it down over insufficient verification answer everything?
└ Seriously, agreed.
└ Everyone’s been hyping up some nobody’s item way too much.
└ So how much is your entire fortune worth?
Posts like that began appearing one after another.
Their tones and reasoning differed, but somehow, they always reached the same conclusion.
The item was fake, and its maker was a fraud.
└ Damn, there have been way more posts like this lately lol. Did someone hire a bunch of commenters?
└ It’s obviously those people lol
└ The families sure handle things neatly^^
[Chat] Hm... It’s not getting as much traction as I expected. Boring.
└ Lol. Who’d burn hundreds of millions on something that hasn’t even been appraised as Eul-tier?
└ They’ll one hundred percent go back to their own country once it sells.
└ It’s way too obvious they’re trying to make one big score and bolt.
No one knew who had started it.
Still, as those posts piled up one by one, the fever that had raged so wildly at the Pavilion of Ten Thousand Treasures gradually began to cool.
* * *
Clang. Clang.
“Damn... What is this?”
Jin Mu-yeong had been sprawled across the sofa, staring at his phone, when his face suddenly twisted.
He held a half-eaten chicken drumstick in one hand.
“These family bastards, seriously... Boss, take a look at this! It’s obviously those assholes behind it, isn’t it?”
“...”
I had no idea how many days he’d been like this already.
The moment he saw my item go up on the board and the auction begin, he got fired up and started showing up at the workshop every single day.
“Hey. You’re one of those family bastards too. Go home already. Shoo. Shoo.”
“Come on, boss! Don’t say things like that! It’s been ages since I cut ties with my family! How many times do I have to tell you before you believe me? You’re really hurting my feelings here!”
For someone who kept saying his feelings were hurt, he showed no sign of getting off his ass.
‘...’
Over the last few days, I’d learned there was no point trying to chase him away.
That guy was a puppy.
No matter how often I shooed him away, he always came back wagging his tail.
With the chicken drumstick still in his mouth, Jin Mu-yeong thrust his phone toward me.
“Look at this! They’re saying it’s fake and hasn’t even been verified, muddying the waters like crazy! Just yesterday, these same people were calling you the Do Emperor and kissing your ass!”
Unable to contain his anger, Jin Mu-yeong waved the chicken drumstick around.
“They must’ve hired a ton of commenters somewhere! Otherwise, there’s no way a perfectly normal board would turn upside down overnight like this!”
Listening to his fussing, I set down my hammer.
I could roughly see what was going on.
I’d known from the moment they pulled the item from the Pavilion of Ten Thousand Treasures that the families would not sit quietly.
Since they could no longer stop it openly, they seemed to have shifted toward swaying public opinion.
“Doesn’t this make you angry, boss? I’m the one getting worked up over it.”
“What’s there to get angry about?”
Well, I’d expected something like this.
I figured that since I’d built a reputation, it would sell even through a regular auction.
But when it came down to it, the people buying that item would still be sorcerers.
So this kind of smear campaign would not stop easily.
“...Let them do whatever they want.”
Clang.
I picked up my hammer again.
Reacting to every little thing they said would only hurt me.
The lump of steel cooling in the furnace was a hundred times more important than some forum posts.
No matter what tricks the families pulled, the fact that the item was real would not change.
Someone would recognize it eventually.
It was only a matter of time.
All I needed was to sell one.
After that, word would spread on its own.
In other words, if I stopped hammering because I was worried about that nonsense, I was the only one losing out.
“...As expected.”
Jin Mu-yeong suddenly stared at me and muttered.
“Damn...”
He let out a sound that could have been either admiration or a sigh.
“Is this the bearing of a true big shot...?”
What was he talking about now?
* * *
At the same time.
The monthly joint meeting where the leadership of the Four Great Houses gathered was nearing its end, with major agenda items concerning the allocation of interests being settled one after another.
Rustle.
As papers turned, an elder set down his teacup.
“Oh, right.”
The elder spoke lightly, as if he had nearly forgotten.
“So. How is that outside auction matter progressing?”
No one present was unaware that the item removed from the Pavilion of Ten Thousand Treasures had made its way to the ordinary market just days later.
“Please do not concern yourself.”
Another elder across from him replied leisurely.
“We have already sent word throughout each family and the merchant groups under them. No one on our side will bid. Ordinary people will not even know it is a Ritual Implement, so they will have no reason to care.”
“I heard those outside riffraff have been making quite a fuss on the board. Saying the bids are pouring in.”
“We have... made a few preparations on Goblin Fire.”
The elder ran a hand over his teacup and smiled faintly.
“We made sure talk spread naturally, saying its authenticity was questionable and that it had not even undergone verification. Thanks to that, the frenzied enthusiasm from the Pavilion of Ten Thousand Treasures seems to have died down somewhat.”
“And the bid?”
“It has been hovering around one hundred million won. It is nowhere near what it reached at the Pavilion of Ten Thousand Treasures.”
“Only that much?”
“Leave it alone. The starting price was only three million won. People who have never even seen an Eul-tier item are just excitedly throwing around pocket change. Once it rises to a certain point, they’ll tire themselves out and drop away. Who would pay that much for an item without a guarantee?”
“Once the bid stops climbing, we can simply pick it up for cheap.”
“Pick it up?”
Low laughter spread through the room.
“We should take our time looking into what it really is.”
“Eul-tier, my ass. Once we inspect it, it will probably be nothing special. If we say, ‘After verification, it turned out to be a crude Byeong-tier item,’ all the hype around the Do Emperor will burst at once.”
“Hmm.”
The elders slowly nodded.
“But... the ordinary market is beyond our reach.”
A low voice came from the seat of honor.
“What if some blind fool suddenly buys it?”
“Then... how about informing the Occult Management Bureau?”
One elder leaned forward.
“On what grounds?”
“We could stop the transaction itself. We could say that releasing Spell Artifacts into the ordinary world so carelessly is far too dangerous.”
“That cannot be done!”
An immediate objection came from across the table.
It was a senior executive of House Jujak.
“Talismans and painting Ritual Implements have been circulating in the ordinary world for years. You know how many such items House Jujak releases every year. If we raise an issue now, we will all be implicated. Are you planning to burn down the whole house just to catch a flea?”
“Still, this is an Eul-tier item!”
“Officially, its verification is insufficient.”
“...”
“Did we not make it that way?”
Han Ye-rin watched the scene in silence.
‘...’
They had overturned the board under the excuse of verification.
And the other side had moved to a board where verification was unnecessary.
In a way that made their own justification bind their hands.
The moment they tried to move the Occult Management Bureau by calling it a high-risk Ritual Implement, would they not effectively be requesting an appraisal with their own hands?
‘...I don’t know who set this up.’
But they were no ordinary opponent.
Those old men kept saying, “It will fall eventually,” and, “We can pick it up slowly.”
Still, Han Ye-rin could not shake the ominous feeling that things would not go so smoothly.
“...Let us watch for now.”
After a lengthy argument, someone spoke as if taking a step back.
“Everyone seems skeptical, so we can quietly buy it at a low price before the auction ends. There is no need to stir up trouble.”
Just as the meeting was heading toward a conclusion.
Bzzz.
Han Ye-rin’s phone vibrated briefly.
She discreetly checked the screen beneath the table.
“...”
Then.
“...I believe it is already too late.”
Han Ye-rin set down her phone as she spoke.
Everyone in the room turned to look at her.
“What do you mean?”
“Just now.”
She slowly opened her mouth.
“It has been sold.”
* * *
[Breaking] Gyeongseong Auction Lot 77 has sold
└ Damn. How much did it sell for?
└ One billion won.
└ Wait, wasn’t it stuck at 110 million won until yesterday?
└ I was going to watch a little longer. Why did it end so fast?
└ There was still plenty of time left, but someone hit the one-billion-won Buy Now price and ended it lol
└ Lol, they said it was fake, but it sold in the end.
└ One billion won? For something that hasn’t even been verified? Damn.
[Question] But who bought it??
└ The winning bidder is anonymous.
└ It can’t be one of the families. I heard they contacted all their people and told them not to buy it.
└ Maybe some rich ordinary collector bought it? There were a lot of bids, so word must’ve gotten around.
└ Come on, someone who isn’t even a sorcerer?
└ Seriously, who bought it? Who would pay that much for something that hasn’t been verified?
The buyer did not reveal themselves.
Neither their name nor their identity.
Nothing was revealed.
As several days passed, the once blazing topic gradually died down.
The fact that an unverified item had sold for one billion won stirred people up for a while.
But since the buyer remained silent, everyone eventually lost interest.
Then, just when it seemed Goblin Fire would settle down again, a post appeared.
[Daily Life] Oh, did Noh Jin-hyeok come back to Korea?
It just showed up on his account.
(Airport photo.jpg)
It was a photo of him leaning casually against a suitcase.
―Back. Food first.
└ Oh, he’s back? Hi, hi.
└ I thought he had overseas work scheduled through the end of the year. He came back sooner than expected?
└ I heard it was a job for Dubai royalty this time. He must’ve raked in a fortune.
└ Damn, the Emperor has returned. The families are going to be watching their step again.
Noh Jin-hyeok.
A special-grade sorcerer from a non-House background.
A monster who had risen to the highest ranks of the Occult World through sheer, overwhelming skill despite having inherited none of the family blood.
A man who called domestic jobs boring and traveled overseas, accepting only major commissions from powerful figures.
The Four Great Houses had courted him for nearly a decade, but he had never bowed his head even once.
―Why should I? You come work under me.
Perhaps he was the only person in this circle who could say that in an interview and live to tell the tale.
His skills were overwhelming, and his personality was arrogantly overbearing.
He was also a lunatic who spent every astronomical sum he earned collecting rare Ritual Implements.
And he always called the Ritual Implements he bought this.
Toys.
A man who did not care what the families, associations, or anyone else thought.
That was why people called him the Emperor.
Then, that night.
Ding.
A short video appeared on Noh Jin-hyeok’s account.
The screen shook sharply once.
Amid the rustling sounds of someone getting into a car, the face of a grinning man came into view.
He dangled something in front of the camera.
A necklace with a moonlike blue Spirit Stone set in its center.
And beneath the video was a single short line.
―I found a new toy.
└ ...?
└ Wait a second.
└ Is that... that thing?
└ ?????
└ Noh Jin-hyeok bought it???
It took less than a minute for the board to explode again.
Not long after that, another post appeared on the same account.
It was only one line.
―Looooooooooooooooooooooooool, this is crazy.
Footnotes:
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