Translator: miraclerifle
Ju-Heon looked at him and snickered.
‘Don’t think badly of me.’
He hadn’t planned on dragging Julian into this, but what else could he do?
This guy tried to choke them first.
That was why anything that happened from now was all this bastard’s fault.
‘This bastard’s artifact really is annoying, but……’
Ju-Heon actually had been keeping an eye on Zhuge Kongming’s artifact more than anybody else because of that. He already knew a lot about it to start because they had been part of the same tomb raiding team in the past.
‘That’s why there is a method.’
But Ju-Heon debated for a moment.
‘Even still, if there isn’t a suitable situation……’
But as he thought about that…
“!”
Ju-Heon started to frown after feeling a presence.
He felt the presence of a third person here when it should just be him and Julian here in this storage room.
The location was the ceiling! Ju-Heon raised his head and the artifact spying on them disappeared.
Swish!
It had quickly run away after feeling Ju-Heon’s murderous intent.
Ju-Heon clicked his tongue in response.
‘Tsk, did they overhear?’
It was a soul-type artifact that had been eavesdropping on them while hiding in the ceiling. It was obvious that someone had sent an artifact to spy on them.
Julian, who noticed it as well, sneered at Ju-Heon.
“How wonderful. Now the information about how you put up a fake artifact will spread everywhere.”
Julian had noticed almost at the same time as Ju-Heon because the artifact had hidden so well.
Ju-Heon got an urgent call soon enough.
It was the auctioneer who had run the auction.
[Umm, we have a problem, sir.]
“Please tell me. What is going on?”
[The princess of Monaco has paid for the item and taken it. But there is a person hindering the deal……!]
“Hindering?’
[Yes sir, it is a woman claiming that the item is fake! Anyway, please quickly come to the exit area.]
The call suddenly ended as if there was a big issue at the other end.
Julian, who had heard the conversation because the person had been speaking loudly, started to laugh.
“You’re bound to get punished if you commit terrible deeds. Why don’t you just confess and ask for forgiveness?”
But Ju-Heon, who was looking at Julian, was smiling for some reason.
“Yeah, you’re right. I’ll go confess.”
He sent someone a text at the same time.
“What? You’re saying this is fake? What are you talking about?!”
Sophie, the lucky person who won the bidding war for the artifact. Princess Sophie of Monaco’s mind was a chaotic mess right now.
It made sense as something unexpected happened as she paid a hefty price and was trying to leave this stuffy small theatre.
A woman suddenly stopped her as she was trying to leave.
“What am I talking about? It’s exactly as I mentioned. Princess, the item you won is a fake.”
It was a female FBI agent who was speaking fluent French to the princess. She was the one who had received Lee Seol-A’s report.
Lee Seol-A was inside a car watching what was going on inside with a headset on her head.
She could see things thanks to the small camera she had stealthily placed on the FBI agent.
‘I called you guys as you wanted to stop the princess.’
Honestly speaking, Lee Seol-A had been suspicious of Ju-Heon. She had been suspicious since the moment Ju-Heon said he would have this auction.
Why?
‘There’s no way that wicked bastard is going to do an auction with proper intentions.’
Grind. This bastard had completely destroyed their area for the harem artifact and Nero’s artifact.
‘I’ve pretty much figured out that the bastard is focused on artifacts.’
Would such a person just sell an artifact they worked so hard to get?
‘Of course not!’
That was why she had infiltrated this place and looked around everywhere to see if she could find anything.
That led her to end up overhearing Julian and Ju-Heon’s conversation.
Yes. The owner of the soul-type artifact that had spied on Ju-Heon and Julian was none other than Lee Seol-A. That was why Lee Seol-A had clearly heard it.
She heard that the artifact was a fake!
Lee Seol-A, who was outside, immediately started to act once she learned this fact. She called the Interpol and FBI members she was connected with. The FBI had already found artifacts to be headaches, and did not have a good relationship with the CIA that was kind of doing whatever they wanted for the artifacts.
But the FBI would gain more rights to artifact investigations among other benefits if they took care of this properly. Lee Seol-A was using that for her advantage.
She wasn’t scared of the weird device Ju-Heon had installed on her.
‘The professor said it was a simple transmitter.’
Maybe that was the reason. The FBI agent who came after Lee Seol-A’s report showed their ID and surrounded the auction house.
“Anyway, that artifact is fake. Seo Ju-Heon scammed you.”
People started to whisper.
“Unbelievable!”
“What do you mean it’s a fake?!”
“Our Appraisers all said it was real!”
They didn’t think this was all just for attention as the cops appeared as well.
Of course, the princess who had instantly become the victim of a scam was receiving gazes of compassion.
Did that have an influence?
“Shut the hell up, what do you mean it’s a fake? I bid on it because our side’s Appraiser said that it was the real thing. If you want to try to turn me and my kingdom into idiots any more……!”
However at that moment…
“Let me show you proof.”
“!”
The person who appeared in front of the embarrassed princess was Lee Seol-A.
“Please hold that artifact out in front of you.”
The princess held the artifact out and started to speak.
“Fine. You won’t be fine if you’re speaking nonsense……kyaa!”
Lee Seol-A had taken a dagger out and ruthlessly slashed down at the artifact.
Crack!
It had really happened in an instant. The golden laurel wreath was destroyed and everybody gasped.
“Ahhhhhhhh!”
“What the hell did you do?! That was a 200 million dollar artifact!”
However, Lee Seol-A snorted while looking at the artifact that was destroyed so easily.
“Please take a look. A supposed S-Grade artifact was so easily broken. My dagger would only be considered B-Grade according to Pandora’s standards.
“W, what? B-Grade?”
“Unbelievable!”
“What’s wrong, what is it? Why does it matter that it is a B-Grade artifact?!”
Lee Seol-A started to speak as if to answer that question.
“A low-grade artifact cannot destroy a high-grade artifact like this. That’s a known fact. But it was destroyed?”
That made most of the people drop their jaws in shock. Even an idiot would know the meaning behind those words.
“Then that means that the item the princess won is lower than B-Grade!”
“Unbelievable! He said it was Julius Caesar’s artifact! Why else would we have come all the way here?!”
“It should at least be an S-Grade artifact because it came from a Great Tomb!”
Everybody turned chaotic.
“Just what is going on?”
What else could it be?
“As I mentioned already, you all have been scammed.”
People were astonished or angry after hearing that.
“Then you are saying we were fooled by that bastard and even paid an admission fee for a fake?”
“Ah, that crazy!”
“No wonder he happily accepted a bid for 200 million dollars!”
The inside of the auction area was turning rowdy while the princess started to glare.
“Find Seo Ju-Heon immediately!”
“This is big news!”
Lee Seol-A started to smile at the crowd’s intense reaction.
‘Good, send Seo Ju-Heon to prison just like this.’
He had scammed the princess of a country. It probably wouldn’/ disappear quietly as he fooled a ton of colossuses as well.
This would allow her to get rid of Seo Ju-Heon and negotiate with the princess.
People soon started to go wild, talking about catching Ju-Heon.
“Find Seo Ju-Heon!”
“Hurry up!”
But at that moment…
“You’re looking for me?”
“!”
A person unexpectedly walked toward them with his head up.
The shocked people turned their heads to see Ju-Heon smiling by the hallway, looking as if he was wondering why they were all gathered together.
Lee Seol-A, who had expected him to have run away, started to get anxious.
“Seo Ju-Heon!”
The shocked people snapped out of it and started to shout.
“Did you really sell a fake?”
“Please say something!”
Ju-Heon calmly responded.
“That’s right. The item that all of you saw was indeed a fake.”
People were shocked to hear Ju-Heon’s shameless words.
Was this guy crazy? How could he so openly say it was a fake in such a situation? What could he be thinking? Even Lee Seol-A looked confused as she could not understand his actions.
Ju-Heon clicked his tongue.
“But it’s not like we wanted to put out a fake.”
The people couldn’t believe it.
“Ho. Of all the excuses to pick from, that……!”
This seemed to be the right moment as the father of all scammers, Yoo Jaeha, started to shout.
“It’s not an excuse! Please look at this!”
Yoo Jaeha suddenly lifted up his shirt and showed them his stomach.
The people were shocked. There was a large scar on Yoo Jaeha’s stomach that looked as if it had healed not too long ago. He seemed to have been stabbed by a knife and had it sutured back up.
“W, what is that injury?”
“What does that have to do with the auction……”
Yoo Jaeha started to grumble.
“I’ll tell you everything since it ended up like this. We originally had no intentions of auctioning off the item! Who would want to sell something that they worked so hard to earn?!”
“Then why……!”
“We received a threatening phone call! The caller said to hand over the item we got from the Kyoto tomb!”
“What? A threatening phone call?”
Yoo Jaeha threw copies of a doctor’s note to the whispering people as he continued to shout.
“Take a look at this! We ignored it thinking it was a common prank call but I got stabbed a month ago!”
“……!”
The people looked at this completely authentic diagnosis and became anxious.
Yoo Jaeha continued to speak.
“Anyway, we did the auction because we thought we might die if we kept holding onto it!”
“That’s why we tried to catch the perpetrator here in the auction house.”
“Huh? Huh? That’s right! We knew someone who desired that item so much would definitely come here!”
Ju-Heon immediately looked toward the princess.
“That was why we tried to draw out the perpetrator with the fake. Wouldn’t such a criminal stealthily aim for the person who won the bidding?”
“!”
“In that sense, I believed the perpetrator would aim for you since you have the item.”
“If that is true, then you used me.”
Ju-Heon put on an extremely apologetic expression.
“I apologize, but I thought your guards would be able to handle themselves in danger, princess.”
The people around them were suspicious but shocked.
“……Is that for real?”
“……If that is the case, I can now understand it. I see why he let her win it with just 200 million dollars and some pretty useless artifacts.”
They could now understand why he chose the princess and the expressions on Ju-Heon and Yoo Jaeha’s faces made it seem as if they were not lying.
Ju-Heon soon started to speak.
“I apologize. I was planning on giving you the real item once we caught the perpetrator and explained the situation to you. An auction is an auction after all.”
“……!”
The princess seemed to soften up a bit after hearing Ju-Heon’s comment.
“Although we didn’t manage to catch the person who threatened us, we will give you the real thing right now since the situation ended up like this.”
“But this is still fishy……”
At that moment, Julian who was released by the rope was huffing as he arrived at where Ju-Heon was talking.
He had come to see if Ju-Heon really was confessing.
“Seo Ju-Heon.”
Ju-Heon put a hand on Julian’s shoulder.
“Sorry, Miller. I had to confess like you said.”
The good-natured Julian smiled after seeing that Ju-Heon seemed to truly be reflecting on his actions.
“……You should have done that from the beginning.”
“I apologize. Miss princess. Please let me give you the real thing.”
But the moment Ju-Heon tried to take the laurel wreath out of his pocket…
“Huh?”
Ju-Heon suddenly looked shocked. He then became flustered unlike his usual self and thoroughly searched his body.
The people around him started to get anxious while looking at Ju-Heon’s reaction.
“What’s wrong?” Did something happen?”
“It’s gone! The real thing! It was definitely here!”
“What did you say?”
Ju-Heon then urgently asked Lee Seol-A for help.
“Please block the exit for a bit! Can you do a body search on people just in case as well?”
Lee Seol-A tensed up. He truly had the gaze of someone who had lost something.
Julian was shocked as well.
‘What the hell is this bastard saying all of a sudden?’
He had just confirmed in the other room that Ju-Heon had the artifact on him.
That was why Julian found it odd and activated Zhuge Kongming’s artifact again.
He couldn’t keep it activated all the time because it drained a lot of energy, but he needed it now.
However…
‘Huh?’
He questioned his eyes.
‘W, what the!’
He couldn’t believe it.
The real artifact that Ju-Heon should have had on him was sending out its aura from his own pocket!
When the hell had this thing gotten here?!
Julian was rarely confused, but he was extremely bewildered at this situation. He then glared at Ju-Heon.
But Ju-Heon was smiling like the devil at him.
‘Welcome, my accomplice. No, the perpetrator.’
That was what he seemed to be saying.
That was why Julian got the chills.
‘Is this bastard perhaps…’
But that only lasted for a moment as Julian became urgent. They would suspect him no matter what if this was found when they did the body search.
Because of that…
‘I need to quickly let them know before there is a misunderstanding.’
But at that moment…
“Please cooperate with us for this body search.”
The Chinese Team Red excavation team put a hand on Julian’s shoulder with perfect timing.
A shocked Julian dropped his jaw in shock.
“Wait……h, hold on!”
