Chapter 17

“Did you get some good rest?” Gwichang asked quietly.

Geum Seoul bowed politely. “Ah, yes. Thanks to you. Thank you very much.”

The next morning, Geum Seoul was back in his usual clothes and disguise. He bowed politely to Yu Jeong-ham waiting outside the front door, then climbed into the vehicle with stiff, awkward steps.

When he had awakened at dawn, the house had been entirely deserted. Not only was the man who had sat lounging on the sofa gone, but even the foil-wrapped kimbap he had planned to take with him had vanished without a trace, leaving Geum Seoul to step out the door with a slightly crestfallen heart.

“Seoul-ssi, these two guys here will be slipping into the auction later posing as buyers. They’ll bid on some gems at reasonable prices, so if any trouble crops up, feel free to use them.”

Having no concept of what was meant by ‘if trouble crops up’ or ‘feel free to use them,’ Geum Seoul brimmed with silent question marks while obediently studying the operative in the front passenger seat and the driver beside him. Though he belatedly wished to ask for clarification, the vehicle began moving before he could speak. Instead of gripping the steering wheel, the driver simply tapped a console mounted on his wrist. Without anyone laying a finger on the wheel, the car glided forward on its own. He had heard in passing that wealthy people all rode in autonomous vehicles.

On very rare occasions, he had ridden along when trailing Park Gil-pyeong on errands. Yet that had been an ancient clunker requiring manual steering at all times, and Geum Seoul had typically been stuffed into the open bed of the truck or wedged tightly between other children.

Watching the autonomous wheel turn smoothly on its own for a moment longer, Geum Seoul turned toward the window. Even by the most charitable measure, the scenery flashing past could hardly be called picturesque. Having ventured merely to the lower sector just beneath their own rather than anywhere distant, all that met his eyes were skeletal branches planted sparsely along grey flagstones, blackened, withered brush, dilapidated shanties bordering on collapse, and deserted alleyways devoid of human life.

Still, Geum Seoul kept his lips tightly sealed as his eyes darted inquisitively. The crisp, chilled air inside the cabin felt so starkly divorced from the visible heat waves shimmering furiously outside the glass that the contrast bordered on surreal.

“Once you find Noki… you won’t come back, will you?” Seoul asked softly.

Geum Seoul had kept his voice down, well aware of his own impertinence. Seated right beside him, Yu Jeong-ham nodded without an instant’s hesitation.

“That’s right,” Jeong-ham replied softly. “We really need to locate him today.”

Soon, once Noh Pil-gyu entered the country, diverting attention would become devilishly complicated. Despite having combed through neighboring districts that amounted to criminal havens for days on end, Lee Hee-joong had shown no sign of surfacing. The remaining possibilities were that Lee Hee-joong—wherever he was holed up—would step out on his own two feet today, or that he had already dropped dead somewhere in this brutal heatwave and was currently rotting into a corpse. Tracking down a dead body was a vastly different headache from locating a living person, making Yu Jeong-ham desperately hope the runaway would be found today.

Only after following that train of thought did he wonder whether the boy had meant something else, prompting him to turn around—only to find Geum Seoul simply staring out the window, expressionless, so that Yu Jeong-ham had to call to him. “Seoul-ssi. Once the auction begins, how much free time do you usually get?”

“It varies every time, but usually about an hour,” Seoul replied.

“In that case, could you lend us a hand during that window?”

At that request, brown eyes regarded Yu Jeong-ham in silence before dipping in a resolute, solemn nod.

“How can I help?” Seoul asked earnestly.

***

Thud.

The vehicle pulled up in the clearing. While a considerable uphill trek remained, the alleyways were impassable for four-wheeled automobiles, forcing everyone to disembark here. The only motorized transports traversing those heights were the villagers’ three-wheeled motorbikes. Having intentionally timed their arrival when few people were wandering about, the four men climbed out and briskly navigated the steep incline.

Even villagers who had scattered before sunrise to find cooler spots had emerged one by one along the alleys today. Auction days meant a rare chance to earn cash, spurring people to prepare food and brew liquor using hoarded rations, or display cheap trinkets fashioned from low-grade gemstones outside their front doors. While seasoned auction regulars wouldn’t spare such junk a second glance, none of the locals could let a day when fresh outsiders entered the neighborhood and loosened their wallets pass by in silence.

“Seoul-ah! Where did you go?” Rin called out in a flurry of worry.

Standing near the entrance of the village, Rin hurried toward them out of breath.

“Ah,” Seoul stammered. “I was running… some errands yesterday.”

“We asked him for a favor, you see,” Yu Jeong-ham explained smoothly.

“Ah… I see,” Rin murmured.

At Yu Jeong-ham’s interjection following immediately behind Geum Seoul’s reply, Rin averted his eyes and peered over their shoulders. Though he appeared to be searching for someone, he briefly looked back and forth between the two men before falling into step beside Geum Seoul. He prattled on about how frightened he had been when Geum Seoul abruptly vanished yesterday, and how wonderfully quiet it had become now that the acoustic broadcasts had ceased since morning. Normally, Rin rarely ventured down from the second floor on auction days, yet today there was something faintly buoyant in his voice.

Yet for Geum Seoul, it was the exact same grind as always. Slipping briskly inside the building, he commenced auction preparations. The silencing of the speakers was an immeasurable blessing. Had he been forced to stand atop that scorching roof for hours like yesterday in this heat, he might have collapsed entirely, rendering him incapable of helping Noki.

After sweeping the ground floor and hauling out the bulky industrial fan with labored grunts, Geum Seoul changed his clothes. Replacing the garments he had collapsed in with the most threadbare long-sleeved shirt he possessed, he gathered the clothes from the line that had dried crisp over the course of a day. Neatly folding and tucking them away, he descended the stairs to the ground floor.

Park Gil-pyeong barked an order. “Geum Seoul, bring the gems down.”

Having apparently just arrived, Park Gil-pyeong—making his first appearance in days—stepped out of the manager’s office, buttoning up his short-sleeved shirt. Geum Seoul bounded up to the second floor, retrieved the palm-sized pouch tucked inside his bedroom door, and returned directly to the office on the ground floor to assist him as he loaded the gems one by one into the appraisal scanner.

Outside, Im Gyun-il’s coarse voice called out, “Right this way, gentlemen, step inside.”

It was Im Gyun-il’s voice. Glancing toward the entrance where the clients were arriving, Park Gil-pyeong patted Geum Seoul’s backside as a gesture to go greet them. Blinking placidly despite the repulsive touch, Geum Seoul moved toward the door.

It was a routine repeated every week. Some faces were familiar; others were complete strangers. In any case, their objective was identical: acquiring new gems and offloading old ones. Ever since regulations on private gemstone auctions tightened, online transactions were impossible, leaving those who trickled into this underworld venue categorized into a few distinct groups: those holding decent stones without the connections to fence them elsewhere, those seeking bargains on passable gems, and very occasionally, those wishing to purchase an omega rather than a crystal. In this pit, everything was on the table.

Geum Seoul collected deposits from the newly arrived patrons and processed their bidder registrations. While Bunhong occasionally filled in when he was overwhelmed, it appeared Bunhong had no intention of descending from the second floor today.

It was a precaution to guard against unforeseen incidents. While outsiders had always viewed gemstone omegas as bizarre novelties, the clientele had lately grown increasingly perilous.

According to Bunhong, it was because society was degrading into depravity. While pornography featuring omegas and alphas was widely circulated, videos deliberately torturing gemstone omegas had proliferated like poisonous mushrooms over recent years, cementing themselves as a perverse fetish category. Though such depravity had a long pedigree, Bunhong explained that what once lurked strictly underground was now creeping into mainstream demand, making their existence infinitely more hazardous.

“Hm. Long time no see?” Im Gyun-il drawled.

“…”

Having guided the clients into the building, Im Gyun-il tossed an offhand greeting at Geum Seoul. It was a rare occurrence. Im Gyun-il was foul-natured to the core; he typically restricted his advances to Bunhong or Rin, generally pretending Geum Seoul didn’t exist or hurling vile curses whenever their paths crossed. Because they were hardly on terms to exchange cordial pleasantries, Geum Seoul met him with flat silence. Smirking faintly, Im Gyun-il simply spun around and strolled back outside.

Clatter.

Geum Seoul looked up from the stairwell. “…What is it?”

Fastening the chain barrier across the entrance to the second-floor stairwell, Geum Seoul raised his head. Rin—who ordinarily would have remained hidden without showing a single strand of hair during such hours—had somehow crept halfway down the stairs, poking his head out. Thinking he might be looking for someone, Geum Seoul asked, only to see him shake his head.

“…No, nothing,” Rin whispered.

With that, Rin slipped right back upstairs. Geum Seoul securely fastened the chain into its latch and turned around. It was a safeguard against violent accidents. Though Park Gil-pyeong supposedly vetted his guests to an extent, everyone here knew the man was cut from the exact same cloth as the monsters outside. Indeed, so long as cash was paid, he would sell off anyone regardless of how many years they had lived under his roof. Dozens of omegas had vanished from this building through that very transaction.

By the time patrons filled the ground floor, Park Gil-pyeong dragged the appraisal console from his office and positioned himself before the far wall.

Park Gil-pyeong addressed the room. “Well now, look at this crowd despite the dreadful heat! Everyone got their bidding paddles? Welcome, welcome. We’ve got plenty of prime lots today.”

Hearing the opening pitch, Geum Seoul quietly rose to his feet. The dedicated Crevit e-wallet used for collecting deposits already boasted a balance exceeding six figures. Closing the ledger containing the registered paddle numbers and setting it upon the office desk, he stepped over the chain barrier and mounted the stairs to the second floor.

Moving in swift, quiet strides, Geum Seoul hurried down the corridor flanked by doors shut tight despite the suffocating heat. Sweat was already dampening his spine, but this was no moment for hesitation. Crossing the window ledge, he walked briskly along the exterior perch. The metal rod wrapped in clothesline that he occasionally gripped for balance baked hot under the sun.

Patter, patter.

Descending the ladder with delicate precision, he spotted Yu Jeong-ham standing along the alleyway. Though sporting dark sunglasses and engaged in conversation with another operative, Geum Seoul knew the man was watching his every movement.

*‘Lee Hee-joong will bolt if he sees a strange face, so we can’t approach him directly. That’s why we need you, Geum Seoul-ssi.’*

‘Yes.’

‘First, could you head to the abandoned house where you hid him before and check if he returned there overnight?’

That had been Yu Jeong-ham’s request. While hardly different from the mundane errands neighborhood folk assigned him, Geum Seoul ran with the determined urgency of someone entrusted with a vital mission. With the auction underway, the alleyways were nearly deserted, sparing him the need to dodge prying eyes. The soles of his feet burned against the baked path, and beads of sweat gathered thickly upon his brow.

Swish.

Weeds rising to his waist brushed against his elbows, yet Geum Seoul did not slow his pace. Just as Yu Jeong-ham had surmised, if Noki were still hiding in the vicinity, today was when he was most likely to return here. After all, Geum Seoul had told him the exact hour the shuttles would ferry patrons down the mountain after the auction concluded.

Finding not a single soul nearby, Geum Seoul parted the thick sea of weeds with his hands, swimming forward through the brush. Ahead lay the derelict ruin where all traces of human passage had vanished long ago. Spotting the narrow entryway, his mouth parted in a soft circle.

“Noki-ya?”

Whispering under his breath as he drew near the iron door, his eyes widened into twin circles. The door stood slightly ajar, and through a crack narrower than three centimeters, a dark silhouette flickered within.

It’s Noki.

He had barely seen Lee Hee-joong’s face and had spent almost no time with him, yet Geum Seoul still wanted desperately for him to reach his parents. In these ruined neighborhoods, people disappeared too easily. A person could be swallowed by poverty and never be found again.

“Noki?”

Crunch.

A cracked brick lay beneath the door like a crude stepping stone. Carefully placing his toes upon it as he called out once more, the flickering shadow inside froze. Geum Seoul gingerly pulled on the door. The metal handle was scalding from the day’s bake.

Creak.

“…”

The door swung halfway open. Yet the figure standing within was not Noki. It was not Lee Hee-joong at all. The man gripping a dark bottle, gulping liquor down his throat while wiping sweat from his face, was—

Im Gyun-il chortled through a drunken smirk, “Oh-ho. It really was true.”

It was Im Gyun-il. Reeling in panic, Geum Seoul stumbled backward, his foot catching on a large stone.