Chapter 347: Chapter 347: Seclusion (2)

The Magitechnician, Yurven Habelión.

The head of a school and a mage respected by countless crafting mages.

Beads of sweat formed on his forehead.

It was that difficult of a task.

Interfering with the laws of the spiritual world.

“Damn it.”

The man in a robe muttered as he looked at the jewel on his workbench.

The jewel placed on the workbench was given to him by an old man he met shortly after arriving in this world.

It was essentially the server and system of the spiritual world, now named Ghostbusters.

“What’s wrong with it?”

Countless magical circuits, large and small, were intricately intertwined within this small jewel.

The man had honed his skills by analyzing and studying this, and by modifying the circuits one by one, he created the current Ghostbusters.

But…

“…Is this method impossible after all?”

After spending a long time pouring mana into the jewel and modifying the circuits, the man sighed as if giving up.

Honestly, it was ridiculous to even be disappointed.

There’s no way something he couldn’t achieve for decades would suddenly be possible in a few days.

His biggest achievement lately was updating the anonymous chat rooms so that he could secretly view the nicknames of the players entering with administrator privileges.

Buzz.

His personal pager vibrated.

He didn’t even need to look to know who it was.

“Yes, SoulQueens. No issues about me, right?”

[No… I haven’t heard anything about you yet.]

“…I see.”

The man felt a mix of annoyance and relief.

His identity, which he had been hiding for nearly 20 years, had been revealed in the most unexpected place.

“Please keep an eye on it. It’s important to nip these rumors in the bud. I’ll continue looking for a way to identify the other members.”

[Okay. And… I’m sorry.]

“…….”

The man was speechless at the woman’s apology.

He couldn’t bring himself to say it was fine.

“Then… please contact me again if anything comes up.”

[Okay, rest well.]

The man ended the call and returned to the workbench.

And…

‘Even if I just change the circuit so that the server saves the location data when you log in, it would be possible to track them…’

He continued to analyze the jewel’s intricate internal circuits.

As always, the answer would be within this jewel.

_____________________

Knock, knock.

I jumped up from the sofa as soon as I heard the knock.

‘…Who is it?’

I didn’t know.

Erwen wouldn’t knock, so it had to be someone from the outside…

But who would knock on the front door instead of the gate?

‘Damn it.’

I held my breath, crouched down, and quietly approached the door.

And at that moment…

Click, click.

I heard the doorknob rattling, and then the lock clicked open.

Creak.

The door slowly opened.

I clenched my fists, ready to subdue whoever it was, but then I froze as I saw the visitor.

“…You’re here.”

“Amelia…!”

“Ugh…! I, I told you not to do that…”

I’m just happy to see you.

How embarrassing.

“…Come in.”

“Excuse me…”

I quickly let Amelia in, skipping the reunion hug since she seemed to hate it.

I had a million questions.

But to ask them in order…

“How did you know I was here?”

“…I waited in front of the bank and followed the fairy.”

“Huh? But why now…?”

“I couldn’t get close.”

Huh?

But she was always out during the day, going to the sanctuary.

Amelia shook her head as I pointed that out.

“That’s impossible. She was always near the house.”

I felt a chill run down my spine.

“…You’re saying she never went to the sanctuary?”

“Don’t tell me… you didn’t know?”

“…….”

“Well, she started leaving the house recently, as if something had changed. I waited for a few days, thinking it might be a trap.”

I was a bit relieved.

If something had changed, then it was probably because of our conversation.

“So… what happened with the Blood Spirit Marquis? She wouldn’t have been happy to see you alive, especially considering the evil spirit issue.”

“Ah, that’s been taken care of.”

I briefly summarized my encounter with Erwen, focusing on the important parts.

Amelia seemed surprised.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re an evil spirit or not… That’s an unusual mindset for a surface explorer.”

“She’s changed. I don’t think she would have thought that way before.”

“Well, I don’t think so.”

“Huh?”

“She didn’t stop trying to avenge you even after it was announced that you were an evil spirit. She had already made up her mind. It doesn’t matter to her what you are.”

Hmm, that’s possible.

“Anyway, I made sure to emphasize that I’m not an evil spirit. Just in case.”

Amelia chuckled.

“So I’m the only one who knows your true identity?”

“No, there’s one more.”

“…Didn’t you say Misha Kaltstein doesn’t know?”

“It’s someone else. He’s not even from this world. He’s from my world.”

I told her about Lee Baekho since there was no reason to hide it, and he could become a variable in the future.

But her reaction was strange.

“Lee Baekho…? He’s from your world?”

It sounded like she knew him.

Come to think of it, there were quite a few people who knew about Lee Baekho at the Round Table.

I was originally planning to subtly ask Erwen about him, but it seemed like it would be better to get the information from Amelia.

“Do you know him?”

“…Of course.”

“Well, you came here much earlier than me, so I guess you could have met him. Ah, but how long has it been since you returned?”

“Two years.”

“Oh, so time flows at a 1:1 ratio for you—”

“But it doesn’t matter when I returned. I met him much earlier.”

Huh?

She met him before that?

I stared at her, wanting a more detailed explanation, and Amelia opened her mouth.

“You remember I said I was on a team with an evil spirit for over a year?”

Uh…

“That evil spirit was Lee Baekho.”

That bastard is everywhere.

______________________

Amelia met Lee Baekho about five years ago.

She had intentionally approached him under the Lord’s orders.

There were suspicions that he might be an evil spirit, and she was sent to confirm it.

After all, they could try to recruit him if he was an evil spirit.

“Explorers who could use Aura were rare, so it wasn’t difficult to join his team. And I spent about a year with them.”

Amelia said that she obtained [Self-Replication] in the Doppelganger Forest and cleared the Hundred Colors Temple during that time…

Wow, no wonder she knew all about the hidden pieces.

It made sense if she had been with Lee Baekho.

“So? What happened?”

“Nothing special. The Lord lost interest after a year when I couldn’t find any concrete evidence, and I left the team with an excuse. And then… I heard the news later.”

“What news?”

“I don’t know the details. The royal family covered it up thoroughly. All I could find out was that his identity was revealed because of a companion’s betrayal, and many people died in the labyrinth that day.”

Amelia then said that the royal family had erased all records of Lee Baekho and controlled information about him for years, making him disappear from the city.

But I was curious about one thing.

“Then how do you know his name is Lee Baekho?”

“It’s a relatively recent development. It seems like he’s really turned against the royal family now. He’s appearing everywhere and introducing himself as Lee Baekho. Ah, he used to use an alias, or people just called him ‘that guy’.”

I see…

I didn’t know someone who knew about Lee Baekho’s past was right next to me.

“What was he like back then?”

“Well, we weren’t close. I didn’t like his casual attitude. But he was very close to the others.”

“Close?”

“Yeah, like the teams you create.”

I heard several stories about Lee Baekho out of curiosity, and the more I heard, the stranger I felt.

“What? Everyone on the team was a woman? And he dated all of them? Wow, did he build a harem in the labyrinth…?”

“Harem? I don’t know what that means, but all your team members are women too, aren’t they?”

What is she talking about?

Avman is still holding strong.

And when we were Team Misfits, everyone except for Misha was a man.

“Well, that’s true. But it just happened that way because I chose them based on their abilities and aptitude, not because I was interested in them romantically—”

“You don’t have to make excuses. I don’t mind.”

“…?”

“We’re from different countries. I don’t know what it’s like in Korea, but it was probably similar to the noble culture here.”

No, Korea is a monogamous society…

What does she think Korea is?

I felt like Lee Baekho and I had completely ruined Korea’s image, but I decided not to say anything more.

It wasn’t important.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

It was time to move on.

“Amelia, what was in that note you left at the bank?”

“…What do you mean? It’s just like I wrote.”

“Ah, the letter Erwen gave me was torn at the end. I only read up to ‘Kraul’s Demon Crusher is…’.”

“…I, I see.”

Amelia seemed noticeably flustered when the topic shifted to my precious hammer.

“No wonder you didn’t say anything… so you didn’t read it…”

“No, that makes me uneasy. Tell me. What happened to my hammer? Is it still there—”

“Your hammer is safe.”

Amelia cut me off firmly.

And…

Swoosh.

…she said quietly, avoiding my gaze,

“At the Alminus Exchange, in the collateral loan department’s vault…”

Sigh…

_____________________

A heavy silence fell between Amelia and me.

Even Amelia, who was always confident, seemed to know she had done something wrong and was avoiding my gaze. It was me who spoke first.

“…Why did you sell it?”

There must have been a good reason.

This was Amelia—

“I’ll correct you.”

“…Huh?”

“I didn’t sell it, I used it as collateral for a loan.”

Ugh, are you serious?

Amelia coughed awkwardly as I glared at her.

“We should at least get the facts straight to avoid future problems—”

“Just answer the question. Why did you use my hammer as… no, collateral? For what?”

“…To protect you when you returned.”

Phew, as expected.

She must have had a good reason—

“…I bought an essence at the auction.”

“…………What?”

I finally regained my senses after a long silence.

Well, I guess that’s possible if she needed money urgently.

She probably used it to buy Twin Hydra’s [Dual Control]. It was a good enough essence to justify buying it if you could.

But I had to confirm.

“…When’s the repayment date?”

“Two months.”

“…How much?”

“I don’t have it right now.”

“Then do you have a plan to get the money?”

“…I had one.”

Right, past tense.

Another quest had been added to my already busy schedule.