• Hey now. If you frown like that, you’ll get wrinkles.

The moment my expression soured, a light rebuke came flying. The timing was so uncanny that I instinctively scanned the guild ceiling and walls, my eyes filled with suspicion.

“What, did you install a CCTV in my building?”

• It doesn’t take a genius. How long do you think I’ve known you?

Mijeong cackled through the phone. She sounded so pleased, anyone would think something wonderful had happened to her.

I guess something happening to me is a wonderful thing for her.

My already low mood sank twice as deep. My grip on the phone tightened with a paak, and Jongsik shook his head with a desperate expression. Seeing him on the verge of biting a handkerchief and shedding tears, I relaxed my hand and looked for the break room. I kicked out the guild members who were inside with a glare and claimed the large sofa for myself. Jongsik, who had followed me in, draped a thin blanket over me and poured some tea as if he were my personal attendant.

“Hyungnim, about the subsequent interview requests…”

“Reject them all. From now on, you check all reports that come to me first and then store them, Jongsik.”

It was a declaration that for the duration of my call with Mijeong, I would be playing around by taking her call. Jongsik, who couldn’t have misunderstood my meaning, muttered aggrievedly, “But how many reports are coming in,” before retreating under my sharp glare. I crossed my legs up on the sofa armrest and dealt with Mijeong.

“Where did you hear that story, anyway?”

• What story? The one about you getting stood up by Han Geon-joo?

“You really have a way with words…”

She wasn’t in her thirties, but her forties. As I rebuked her for acting so frivolously at her age, she retorted that it’s good to live young and then brought up the story about Geon-joo that she was so curious about.

• A story was going around among the info brokers that you were asking around for your pretty boy’s location and information, so I asked, just in case. It may be the black market, but I’m an info broker too, you know?

Mijeong hummed as she spoke, confessing that she had poked at it because it was information that would likely get a fun reaction. Her voice was so clear, it was impossible to even get angry.

• So, did you really get stood up? What’s up with him? He acted like he was so devoted to you, but how long has it been since you got out of Adelia’s Tomb that he’d just pop into a Gate and not come out? Did you torment him?

“Would I have tormented him?”

If anything, he was the one tormenting me. I was dying of frustration. I clicked my tongue, and Mijeong’s interested voice leaked through the speaker.

• Do you know what he was like when he carried you out of Adelia’s Tomb on his back?

“…What was he like.”

• Oh, you don’t know? Then I can’t tell you for free. Information isn’t free, you know.

“…”

I really couldn’t tell if she had called to console me or to tease me. Judging by her actions, it seemed to be the latter. I remained silent for a moment, twirled a strand of hair with my fingertips, and then let out a voice that would have given the Night Rat executives goosebumps if they had heard it.

A gentle and kind, interview-mode voice.

“Noona, it seems the black market is doing well these days. The distribution channels for your guild’s products are having no trouble, and the auction house is famous for being terror-free, so it’s selling well. It seems you’re in a good mood because everything you do is going so well.”

• Are you threatening your noona right now?

Mijeong sounded dumbfounded. Even though this wasn’t a video call, I smiled, my eyes crinkling.

“A threat? I’m just saying I’m envious that all of your business is going so well, noona.”

The cloying sweetness in my voice was, from any angle, a threat. At my nonchalant reply, Mijeong expressed her displeasure that I had lost my innocent charm and then told me about Han Geon-joo’s reaction right after they came out of Adelia’s Tomb. I liked the story so much that I decided to only lock him up for half a year, instead of the full year I had planned. I even decided to show some benevolence and take measures so he could go out on a leash, with my permission.

At my hum, which clearly showed my improved mood, Mijeong clicked her tongue.

• What’s so great about him that he… No, wait. What’s so great about you that he…

At Mijeong’s uncertain, pitying voice, I corrected the error in her words.

“He doesn’t like me.”

It was Mijeong who burst out laughing at those words.

• He doesn’t like you?

“Well, he probably respects me, right?”

After his disposition changed, I couldn’t see his feelings, so I didn’t know the details. But I was certain he had held feelings of awe and respect for me in the past. I said this, feeling quite proud, and Mijeong laughed once more and muttered something about youth. The way she spoke made her seem like an old person from another era. When I shared my honest impression, a burst of anger came back.

• You and that mouth of yours are the problem. So, you don’t like him?

The emotion lingering at the end of her words was, for some reason, interest and anticipation. Not knowing what she was hoping for with that question, I wrinkled my nose, then frowned with one eye and sighed.

“Does anyone feel like or dislike for their possessions?”

• …

A long silence followed my plain answer. For a moment, I thought the call had been disconnected, but after confirming the screen still showed it was in a call, I tilted my head. When I asked why she was silent, Mijeong said, “Never mind,” and after a long pause, she brought up the reason she had called. The ever-busy her wouldn’t have called just to tease me for no reason. As expected.

I, who had been waiting for some real information, flexed and unflexed my toes and listened to her continue.

• I called because I got the information on that thing you asked me to look into. I don’t know how you persuaded the Association President, but that heavy-assed man moved himself and persuaded Aiden. Aiden has put The Desert’s Punishment up for auction. He doesn’t seem to have any intention of canceling. I’m currently checking to see what kind of deal was made, but no information is leaking. It’ll be faster for you to meet the Association President yourself. The auction date is in three weeks, want an invitation?

She was asking the obvious.

I smiled a satisfied smile at the Association President’s faster-than-expected movement and gave her the address for the Swallow side.

• Swallow, not Night Rat? You planning to operate as Sa-yoon?

Mijeong’s voice was questioning.

Sa-yoon, not Kwon Sa-yoon, not the head of Night Rat.

That was the name for me to use while operating as Noah. I had even requested in the recent interview that when the article was published, it should only list me as Sa-yoon, without the family name. Recalling the interview, I hummed.

When Mijeong questioned the hum, which was no different from a misfortune alarm, I stopped tapping my foot and opened my mouth.

“Noona, do you know what my concept is?”

• Concept?

“The concept for Sa-yoon operating as Noah.”

• Didn’t you say you were going with something like a mysterious concept?

“It’s a mysterious concept, but there’s a word that needs to be attached to the front.”

The humble madman of the Korean Association, the pretty psycho, etc.

I laughed, having analyzed on a big-data level what kind of nicknames people would give me for my future activities as Noah. It was a nickname I quite liked.

“Just because I’m operating as Sa-yoon of Swallow doesn’t guarantee I’ll be docile. Send the invitation.”

The auction to be held in three weeks would be my grand debut.

At my excited words, Mijeong, sensing the trouble I was about to cause, sighed. When I replied, “Got it,” to her request to at least refrain from destroying the auction house property, the call ended. In the quiet room, I organized my complicated thoughts.

“Now that The Desert’s Punishment is out, they’ll make their move, too.”

We were tracking Scorpion’s movements quickly, but the bastards were preparing to hide in the sand again, so it was difficult to catch them with simple tracking. I needed to throw out some bait to lure them into an open place, which was why I had asked the Association President, who was close friends with Aiden, the current owner of The Desert’s Punishment, to persuade him. I smiled.

As The Desert’s Punishment was a relic of the Scorpion god, the Scorpion bastards would not be able to give up on it.

“They’ll try to come out, even knowing it’s a trap.”

I relayed the news to Gyeongjin that it would be a grand auction and told him to carefully and secretly spread the information that The Desert’s Punishment would be an auction item, making sure the source was not revealed. Then I stood up. Just in case, I asked for information on Han Geon-joo’s location one more time. At the ㅗ¹ that came back in response, I turned off my phone screen and left the guild building.

I drove to the Night Rat building and went up to the room. A door that hadn’t been there before greeted me. I opened it and went inside. A brand-new product that had just arrived yesterday was decorating the empty room. An object that filled the room just by being there, with no need for any other interior design.

It was a top-grade cage, made stitch by stitch by an artisan.

Just by a rough visual count, there were two hundred needles coated in deadly poison. Satisfied with the intimidating presence that would make even an S-rank swallow hard, I stroked the iron bars and hummed.

“I wonder if this can go into the inventory with a person locked inside.”

Artisans were those who had awakened a skill to create items and set up a workshop. That was why all the items they created were classified as items and could be stored in an inventory, but it was questionable whether it could be put in an inventory with a person inside.

I had tried putting it in my inventory for a test as soon as the cage arrived. I stroked my chin, contemplating.

I couldn’t leave Geon-joo behind for the auction to be held in San Francisco, USA. If they were to stay stuck in the Gate for a thousand years, that would be one thing, but the Geon-joo I knew was not one who would take up to three months to open one skill.

Two weeks at the latest.

He would be out of the Gate by then, so it was almost a certainty that he would be out before the auction.

That was why I had no choice but to put him in the cage and take him with me, but the means of transport was a real concern.

“Should I put someone inside and check?”

I decided to find an uncaught sex offender, lock them in the cage, and check. I moved with light steps.

And that evening, my interview spread through news articles, media outlets, and various communities.

An interview with content that would make Association President Min-cheol grab the back of his neck and collapse.