Artifact Reading Inspector

It was magic. The man was using magic on everyone in the room.

“Wow…” Eunhae’s eyes widened and exclaimed as if she was seeing something extraordinary. However, Haejin could clearly see that the white porcelain pillow was fake.

Additionally, it wasn’t even made with great craftsmanship. It wasn’t crude, but it wasn’t that good.

Compared to the dish that belonged to the Yongle Emperor, it had no value at all.

Was he the only one who had the skills to recognize that? No. Each chaebol in the room was with his or her personal appraiser, but they were just admiring the pillow like Eunhae.

Haejin was feeling as if he was floating because of the mana that was filling the room.

He had never seen someone else use magic before, and he had never been the target of magic.

However, why was he not enchanted? He also didn’t know of any magic that had such an effect on so many people.

Haejin was also not sure why the young man’s magic didn’t work on him. That was good, but how was he supposed to take care of it?

Then, he heard Wang Mingwan’s voice through his earbud, “That’s… that’s what we have verified as fake.”

Haejin looked down and whispered so that people around him wouldn’t be able to listen, “Do you think it is fake?”

“Isn’t it? Do you think it is real? Then bid. I trust your eyes.”

“No, I think it is fake, too. Then I will not bid on this,” Haejin replied.

After hearing Wang Mingwan, Haejin knew more. The magic only worked on the people who were there.

“The auction starts now. The starting price is 500 million, and there is no limit to the price. Please bid freely.”

“One billion!” The buttery man, who had failed to buy Yongle Emperor’s dish, ventured again. He glared at Haejin, showing he was determined to win this time.

“Why are you not bidding?” Eunhae grabbed Haejin’s arm and asked. It was probably because of the magic, but Haejin could see the greed in her eyes.

The magic did more than just make people believe in the castor, it also filled their heart with greed.

“Not this time. That is fake.” The moment Haejin whispered to her ear, her eyes shook, and she stumbled back.

Haejin quickly got hold of her and turned around so that the castor wouldn’t be able to see them. Eunhae’s legs were weak. She leaned on Haejin and asked, “What… what happened? My body… I can’t move.” She was clearly confused.

“It’s okay. You’ve been working hard these days. You are just tired,” Haejin had spoken with mana to break the spell, but he didn’t know that she would get so shocked.

He stroked down her back, putting some mana into her body. Next, her breath returned to steady.

“I’m, I’m fine now. But why…”

“It’s okay. Just stay still.” Haejin held her hand just in case. Then, he turned back again and looked toward the front.

In the meantime, the price had gone over five billion, and Hyoyeon was watching this with joy from behind.

Did she know about the castor’s power? Or was she one of his victims? Haejin had so many questions.

What he wanted to know the most was whether the caster knew who he was.

Their eyes hadn’t met yet, but Haejin couldn’t be sure. He could be avoiding meeting Haejin’s gaze to make him lower his guard.

Haejin still didn’t know why he wasn’t affected by his magic. However, he recalled what Princess Hassena had told him.

She had said he was the chosen one… was it because of that?

“Nine billion! Is there more? If there isn’t, the auction ends here.”

This time, a handsome man, who was standing close to Hyoyeon, won the pillow.

He was extremely good-looking. He was tall and athletic, so he looked like he had just jumped out of a fashion magazine.

He smiled victoriously to the buttery man who had lost to Haejin. Then, he lightly touched Hyoyeon’s shoulder and kept talking to her.

It was as if he was announcing that he was the winner of the evening.

“Idiot…” Haejin couldn’t help saying that as the man was rejoicing for buying a fake porcelain at nine billion.

Eunhae then asked, “Who is the idiot?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine, thank you.” Her face turned red as she looked down. Haejin wondered why she was suddenly so shy, but then, he realized that he was still holding her hand.

Haejin had taken her hand because he was worried about her, but now, he didn’t want to let her soft hand go.

Eunhae couldn’t look up at him, but she didn’t pull out her hand. Then, she asked in a small voice, “Oh, but then, these people do not know that it is fake?”

“It looks like that,” Haejin replied.

“Shouldn’t you tell them? That man just spent nine billion on it.”

“Why should I? Hyoyeon will be responsible if things go wrong. There’s no reason for me to help her.”

“Yes, but…”

Haejin continued, “If I do tell them, they won’t thank me, and it would be better for them to buy it while thinking it is real. If they were ordinary people, I would think I should save them, but why should I help chaebols?”

“I guess you are right. Even if we tell them, they won’t dare to accuse Hyoyeon,” Eunhae commented.

Actually, right now, nothing could convince them. To make them change their mind, Haejin had to spend mana to break the spell as he had done on Eunhae. However, he would have to spend so much mana that he couldn’t afford to do it now.

After the man received his congratulations, Hyoyeon and the man with magic went into the bedroom again. However, this time only Hyoyeon came out while carrying a celadon dish.

“What about that one?” Eunhae asked.

“I don’t know… I need to take a close look.”

Haejin went forward with Eunhae, but Hyoyeon started to explain with a champagne glass in one hand, “Do you know that there was a kiln that operated for only 20 years in the Song period? I was so surprised to learn about it. Although it operated for only 20 years because of the war, it is one of the five greatest kilns in Chinese history. Additionally, as it was shut down so quickly, very few porcelains from it are now left…”

As Hyoyeon spoke, she looked around. She was asking if anyone knew, and of course, the appraisers knew what she was talking about.

One of them raised her hand, “Is it Ruyo?”

“Correct answer!” Hyoyeon pointed at the appraiser and smiled. Haejin really wanted to sigh, but he managed not to.

Regardless of how Haejin was feeling, Hyoyeon carried on with excitement, “This dish was made in that Ruyo. Dishes of Ruyo are great. One of them was sold at over 40 billion won at Sotheby’s of Hong Kong. Getting this was so hard… you do know that this will get me at least 30 billion if I let Korea Auction handle this? I really want to keep this to myself, but this is the first event I’m hosting after I got my gallery, so I made up my mind to be generous. So, you should spend some money on this one, okay?”

She winked and stepped back.

“Oh… do you think that makes you look pretty?” Eunhae criticized her and asked then Haejin, “Is that real?”

“Hmm… probably not…”

It couldn’t be from Ruyo. Its glaze was uneven, and the cracks of the glaze weren’t evenly spread.

It wasn’t an artifact hard to appraise, just like the previous object. Any appraiser, who knew about porcelains, would have doubted that. However, the spell hadn’t worn off yet. People’s eyes were still full of greed.

Haejin grabbed Eunhae’s wrist and stepped back. He was showing he wasn’t going to bid.

Eunhae whispered, very much confused, “Although Hyoyeon is stupid, she isn’t 100% idiot. She isn’t foolish enough to fraud these people so openly, even if she has a superior position than them. And look at her expression, she really believes it is real. She can’t put on such an act, she is too stupid to do that.”

Haejin agreed on that. Hyoyeon really looked triumphant, like she was really selling a good piece of porcelain.

Then, Wang Mingwan said, “That dish… we think it is from the Qing period, not Song. Although it isn’t worth that much, it is not fake…”

Haejin had assumed that. In short, although that dish was centuries old, it wasn’t made by a good craftsman.

“I won’t be able to buy it even if I bid. You are not planning to spend tens of billions on it, are you?”

“No. Hu… okay. We will give up on it.”

“You made the right decision,” Haejin commented.

But in fact, Wang Mingwan and her matters weren’t important to Haejin anymore. All he had to do about it was to raise his hand to bid.

The problem was that he hadn’t made up his mind on what to do with that caster.

Princess Hassena, the only person he could share his secret with, was now gone… was he supposed to talk to him? Or was he supposed to punish him? It was a hard decision to make.

The young man showed up only when the spell was about to wear off. Then, he cast the spell again and went in. By the time he did that for the second time, he looked pale as if he was about to die and his legs were wobbling. Haejin could see that the man’s mana was smaller compared to his own.

Haejin couldn’t decide what to do. He just picked and bought all the real artifacts until the auction ended. It cost more than 40 billion.

Haejin had spent less than he had expected as he had to give up the less valuable real artifacts. Wang Mingwan understood that was the only way.

“But… it is so strange. Are all Korean appraisers that stupid? Why were they so eager to get what our appraisers and you thought to be fakes or less valuable? Is there something we don’t know?” Wang Mingwan asked.

“Well, we cannot find out why they did that,” Haejin said.

“We didn’t make any mistake, right?”

“Yes, we didn’t make any mistake. We just missed a few of the less valuable ones because they were so crazy about it.”

“Okay, you’ve done well. Let’s have a meal together when this is all over.” Wang Mingwan didn’t say more. Haejin took Eunhae’s hand and was about to leave; however, Hyoyeon suddenly showed up from somewhere.

“Where on earth did you get that money? I knew you had some good skills, but how could you spend more than 40 billion? Who is your sponsor?”

“Hmm… let me ask you a question before I answer yours. How did you get those things?” Haejin asked.

“What are you talking about? I brought them from China.”

Haejin went closer and whispered to her ear, “Stop lying, be honest. Did that man with the piercings approach you? You know he is working with SH Global, right?”

Hyoyeon’s eyes shook slightly, and Haejin didn’t miss that.

“It was him,” Haejin said.

“No, no! I brought them myself… and I don’t know anything about any SH Global…”

“Enough. I told you everything you need to know. And as for who is behind me, you will get to find out in time.”

As he was leaving with Eunhae, she asked, “Did Hyoyeon know? That she has been fooled by SH Global?”

“No, she had no idea,” Haejin replied.

“Oh, she is about to go through a hard time, handling the consequences. Is it all over now?”

“Well…”

Then, Haejin’s phone buzzed. It was Mat Vellin. The moment he took the call, he heard Vellin’s voice.

“The Princess has sent you a message.”