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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Mod7
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The first day of the auction ended.
I returned to my hotel room and collapsed onto the bed. Gartea, now a Spirit King, materialized. Her long, blue hair flowed down to her waist.
As I had predicted, her appearance had changed after becoming a Spirit King. She had taken on a more feminine form.
Not that spirits had genders. And I had given her a new name: Rutea.
Gartea sounded too masculine.
―Master, you look exhausted. I’m worried.
“I’ve been using a lot of mana lately.”
I had been powering the Colossus and had formed a contract with a high-level spirit.
It had taken a toll on my mana reserves.
I had been trying to conserve my mana, taking naps and drinking mana potions regularly.
Rutea looked at me intently. She seemed to have something to say.
―I’m grateful to you, Master. Thanks to you, I’ve become a Spirit King… and Lunia…
It was the third time she had thanked me.
“It’s fine. Just help me out when I need it. And Lunia isn’t even alive yet.”
Runtar appeared. The sight of a humanoid fire spirit and a feminine water spirit in the same room was strange.
―Rutea, don’t forget I was the first to form a contract with Master Ethan.
―Hmph, are you jealous, Runtar?
And just like fire and ice, they bickered constantly.
―Jealous? Master Ethan and I fought the undead horde, the assassins, and even Kanion together. What did you do? You attacked Master while serving that disgusting human.
―Well, I’m a Spirit King now. And you’re still just a high-level spirit. Haha!
Was this… a spirit catfight?
Their bickering was giving me a headache.
Runtar’s expression darkened at the mention of “Spirit King.”
―Master, if you had to choose between Runtar and Rutea, who would you choose?
―Haha! As expected of a fire spirit. So hot-headed.
―What?! What’s wrong with being hot-headed? Are you calling me childish, you overgrown ice cube?
I rubbed my temples.
“Both of you, be quiet.”
―Master, that’s so unfair…
I snapped my fingers, dismissing them. Runtar disappeared mid-sentence.
I lay back on the bed and stared at the ceiling.
I had a lot to think about.
First, Aphrodite.
She had appeared before me and tried to seduce me. I had sent someone to check room 204, but there was no sign of her.
She had returned to Olympus.
But why had she been interested in me in the first place? I wasn’t interested in the gods’ voyeuristic tendencies.
Was this another butterfly effect, a consequence of beating up Achilles? I didn’t want to get involved with the Greek gods.
And…
‘That auction was rigged.’
Tia had warned me about the Northvan auction house. Unlike the one in Eastvan, it wasn’t exactly clean.
She had even given me a price guide for the items in the catalog.
‘Thanks to her, I didn’t get ripped off. I should treat her to dinner.’
I stretched and decided to go for a walk. The cold Northvan air would clear my head.
I walked through the city streets.
The sky was overcast, and it looked like it might snow.
I felt someone following me.
At first, I thought it was a coincidence.
But they continued to follow me, even after I changed directions and walked through several alleys.
I finished my mana-infused toast and took a sip of orange juice.
My Combat Intuition wasn’t warning me, so they weren’t hostile.
But they were persistent. I should at least acknowledge them.
I turned around. They turned around too.
They were wearing a gray hooded robe, the hood pulled low over their face, as if trying to hide their identity.
‘Suspicious. A demon?’
Or maybe one of the surviving assassins.
I thought I had annihilated them all, but there was a chance one of them had been away on a mission.
And after all the trouble I had caused, it wouldn’t be surprising if I was being targeted by demons.
I walked towards them.
They started walking faster, almost running.
They knew they had been discovered.
“Are you that bad at tailing someone?”
They started running. I followed them at a leisurely pace.
They turned a corner and disappeared into an alley. I followed them and saw them scaling a building.
I shrugged and Blinked.
I reappeared in front of them.
Thump!
They collided with my chest and fell backwards. They scrambled to their feet, avoiding my gaze.
“Who are you?”
I scratched the back of my head and reached for their hood. They jumped, as if to run away.
They were about to jump off the three-story building.
They weren’t an ordinary person. I grabbed the back of their neck, and they landed on their butt with a thud.
Their hood fell back, revealing a familiar head of hair.
They turned around, an awkward smile on their face.
Pink hair tied back in a braid, cat-like eyes, and bright blue irises.
It was Sepia.
“Haha! H-hi, Ethan!”
“Sepia…?”
“Heehee! What a coincidence!”
Sepia avoided my gaze, a nervous smile on her face. I scratched the back of my head.
“What are you doing here?”
“I was… just… in Northvan, and I… decided to attend the auction, and I saw you, and I wanted to surprise you!”
She was rambling. I shrugged.
Sepia looked away, like a child caught doing something wrong.
“You’re here for the auction?”
“Y-yes!”
Sepia pulled a card from her robe. It was a premium annual membership card for the auction house.
“Ta-da!”
“You came alone? Where’s Vivian?”
“Vivian had something to do…!”
“Something to do?”
Ah!
Vivian would be taking the Neydia entrance exam right now.
It was a difficult exam, but Vivian would pass easily.
She would be joining the academy next year, a year below Sepia.
“Let me see your membership card.”
I examined the card. It had Sepia’s picture on it, and a watermark to prevent forgery. It was real.
She wasn’t a doppelganger.
I had been suspicious. Our encounters during summer and autumn breaks had seemed too coincidental.
Was it the Lucky Ring’s effect?
I had been staring at her picture for a while, lost in thought.
“Don’t… don’t stare at it like that. It’s from when I was sixteen. Haha!”
“No, it’s a cute picture.”
I handed her back the card and offered her my hand. She was still sitting on the ground.
Sepia took my hand and stood up, brushing off her clothes.
“Ethan, have you… had dinner yet?”
“I had some toast.”
“Oh… why did you eat alone? What about me?”
She seemed disappointed that I had eaten without her.
“Why? Because I was alone. And you don’t even like toast.”
Sepia hated toast.
She used to eat toast with her mother every weekend morning. And after her mother’s death, the sight of toast brought back painful memories.
“How did you know that?”
I had slipped up. Even Vivian didn’t know that. Sepia had never shown that vulnerable side of herself to her servants.
It had only been mentioned in the novel, in her internal monologue.
“I’ve known you for a long time. I know these things.”
I shrugged, hoping she would buy my excuse.
“I see…”
“Yeah.”
“…Aren’t you going to eat dinner?”
Hero candidates had high metabolisms. They burned through calories quickly. I might be full now, but I would be hungry again soon.
And I didn’t want to go to bed hungry.
“Want to grab some dinner?”
“Yes! I know a good place. Want to go there?”
“Sure, where is it? Do you even know how to get there?”
“Of course! Trust me!”
Sepia nodded eagerly, her eyes sparkling with anticipation.
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