Ch.4848. Defense

In front of the Cordana Exchange.

The welcoming ceremony for the Hero had started at 7 AM.

At first, everyone expected a scene similar to what happened with former Prince Matthias.

A scene where angry people would spend hours throwing bricks, stones, eggs, and tomatoes to vent their anger.

The only difference was that people expected the stone-throwing party to last longer and be more brutal, given that the hatred toward the Hero was greater than toward Matthias.

However, the nobles gathered in front of the exchange showed an unexpected behavior.

Despite their faces twitching with anger and despair, they agreed to take turns meeting the Hero in an orderly fashion.

No one had specifically instructed them to do so.

They had simply reached an implicit agreement.

They all agreed that merely venting their anger wasn’t enough. Simply throwing stones and leaving would not alleviate their sense of despair.

From that point on, Hero Gwon Heejin had to face people who wanted to meet him one by one. Of course, this was regardless of the Hero’s own will.

All he could do was clutch the potion bottle Erick had given him.

The first visitor was a young woman.

She didn’t resort to violence right away. She just gripped the iron bars with both hands and pressed her face close, giving him a chilling look.

Her face still had baby fat but showed signs of hardship. She introduced herself as a student at the Academy’s magic department.

“The Empire waived my tuition. Quite gracious, isn’t it? Don’t you think?”

“……”

“…Honestly, I don’t hate you that much, Hero. I lost about 180 million, but I just think of it as spending my entire twenties paying off debt.”

“Then, why are you…?”

“A friend of mine committed suicide.”

Her tone was dry. The Hero avoided the young student’s gaze.

Instead, the Hero looked at the wand in her hand. She probably wouldn’t attack with magic in an open space with thousands of people, but he couldn’t be sure. The Hero’s breathing became increasingly rapid.

“Don’t be scared, Hero. I don’t specialize in attack magic. Besides, there are many people waiting behind me, so I shouldn’t seriously injure you, right?”

“……!?”

“Instead, I’ve prepared something.”

The Academy student carefully began to chant a spell.

She wasn’t as quick as Yuni from the Hero’s party, but she was still somewhat slow, probably because she was still a student.

The magic she used was a “pressure sensation” spell. It was a playful magic that subtly and persistently stimulated the skin.

The problem was that she cast it on the soles of his feet.

“…Pfft, wait.”

The Hero contorted his body inappropriately, his face twisting. It was because of the tickling sensation rising from the soles of his feet.

He desperately tried to hold back his laughter by twisting his body, but eventually, he started laughing with snorts.

“It should last about six hours. Too bad that’s all I can do.”

“Puhuh. Wait, just a moment. This…”

“Enjoy, Hero.”

“Heuk…!”

The Hero desperately pleaded for her to remove the spell, but the first visitor left as if she couldn’t hear his voice.

Meanwhile, the Hero began to tremble, his eyes welling up with tears.

“Puhuhuh.”

In the end, the Hero burst into laughter.

Only after hearing his own laughter did the Hero realize that this seemingly trivial spell might be the most lethal torture for him.

Unlike the first visitor who coolly cast a spell and disappeared, the second visitor’s face was stained with anger.

“Hero, is it funny?”

“No, …kuhup. That’s not it…!”

The Hero twisted his entire body trying to hold back his laughter. But the more he twisted, the worse the tickling became.

The Hero desperately raised his head, trying to explain his unavoidable situation, but—

Splat!

It was the sound of a raw egg hitting and breaking on the Hero’s face.

And it wasn’t just any egg, but a slightly rotten one. The Hero’s eyelids were smeared with sticky yolk and slimy white. The indescribable smell was an added bonus.

The smell was so terrible that even the tickling sensation temporarily stopped.

“You son of a—!”

Splat! A second raw egg exploded before the Hero could finish his curse.

The third and fourth eggs broke against the iron bars, but that was hardly any consolation. After all, there was a whole basket full of raw eggs.

The smell, the stickiness, and the tickling sensation that started to rise again.

It was perfect hell.

The Hero instinctively curled his body into a ball. It was to avoid getting hit in the face at the very least. It was also a two-for-one deal since he could hide his laughing face.

But that wasn’t a solution either.

The third visitor held a crossbow modified to shoot metal balls. They seemed to have judged that mere stone-throwing wouldn’t cause enough pain to the Hero’s sturdy body.

After that, there was a long line of visitors eagerly waiting for their turn.

The Hero finally began to sob.

***

While the Hero was receiving all this love and attention outside the exchange.

Although it was just before opening, more than 800 people were already crowded inside the exchange with no room to step.

Just like the first crash when investors first tasted despair, and the second crash when even the evidence of hope was erased.

This time, the situation was so precarious that it wouldn’t be surprising if the market itself disappeared, beyond just a crash.

“We might die,” one counter clerk muttered with a pale expression just before the opening.

Shortly after, as soon as the market opened, sell orders began to pour in.

The opening price was 26.4 million.

Most of those dumping their holdings were commoner investors who had only recently entered the market.

The nobles were already focused on the Hero. Most of them had invested when the price was 200-300 million, so they didn’t care about additional drops at this point.

In contrast, the commoners were terrified.

Their firm belief that Cordana, which had already fallen to less than 1/14 of its peak price, couldn’t fall any further had crumbled.

– “Shit…! Sell one at yesterday’s closing price! Shit!”

– “…Please be polite, sir. I’m a minor noble.”

– “Eh…? I’m sorry. A-Anyway, sell it quickly.”

– “Order received.”

Excited investors pushed each other around, competing for their turn.

Since most were commoners, they only held one or two shares at most, but for those aiming for modest profits, it was essentially all their spare money.

The imperial spies mixed in the dense crowd sighed, thinking everything was proceeding as expected.

The nobles were focused on the Hero, and the commoners were throwing their holdings in fear.

Meanwhile, the Cordana price was rapidly crashing, and the palace’s judgment was that it would eventually reach rock bottom.

‘Today is the end of Cordana.’

Within 30 minutes of the market opening, the spies were convinced.

However, the market flow didn’t go as they had expected.

Unlike the past when prices fell helplessly, a “support line” appeared.

It happened when there were about 19 sell orders accumulated at 20 million.

“I’ll buy all the volume available at 20 million.”

A young man in ordinary attire expressed his desire to buy.

It was the moment when the sliding price suddenly stopped. It was also the moment when everyone who had expected Cordana to hit bottom before noon was stunned.

Even the clerk who received the buy order was momentarily dazed.

“Um, there are 19… Is that okay? I’m sorry, but payment can only be made in gold coins or gold pieces.”

“I’ll buy them.”

He said, emotionlessly pouring out gold coins.

The atmosphere in the exchange, which had been on the verge of madness, grew even colder.

The merchant who was about to scream about his evaporating assets closed his mouth with a gulp.

The counter clerk who had been wondering about his next job if the exchange closed licked his lips in confusion.

The spies who had predicted the price would fall to the millions before noon had their pupils shaking anxiously from side to side.

But the investor who bought all 19 shares at once disappeared into the dense crowd after receiving his Cordana.

Although it was less than the price of one Cordana at its peak, he was now seen as either brave (or a fool, an idiot).

He wasn’t someone of uncertain status. According to the identification he presented at the counter, he was a resident from a domain quite far from the imperial capital. Naturally, a commoner.

‘But he’s spending hundreds of millions…?’

Due to this sudden event, silence fell over the exchange for a while.

Investors began to whisper again.

“Is it okay to sell now?”

“No, come to think of it, wouldn’t the palace also lose if Cordana’s price crashes…? Maybe, well, how should I put it… Anyway, they might be trying to prevent it…!”

“It might be someone hoarding since it’s already fallen as much as it could.”

Trading completely stopped. People were just offering various opinions with their limited knowledge.

However, this silence didn’t last long.

A noble who had faced the Hero entered the exchange with a liberated expression and put his holdings up for sale.

Being a noble, he offered 13 shares. He even seemed willing to lower the price if they didn’t sell, as if his goal was simply to cut his losses.

The clerk judging the market price nervously rolled his eyes and took a deep breath.

‘Surely no one else will appear.’

While everyone was glancing around as if saying, “Are you a fool?”, another buyer appeared.

“I’ll buy all the volume available at 20 thousand.”

Another buyer purchased all the shares available at 20 million and disappeared.

Thanks to this, the price remained fixed again.

It was clearly an abnormal situation to anyone watching. Commoners who had never shown their faces at the exchange before were suddenly spending 300-400 million each.

The personnel observing the exchange immediately assigned someone to follow them and reported to their superiors. They reported that there were people defending the Cordana price at the very ambiguous price of 20 million, when it had been expected to hit rock bottom instantly.