episode_0065

“I’ll go right away.”

[huh.]

Soon the call was disconnected.

Sera found a strange letter in the monsters’ hideout.

‘Was there a letter there? ‘Is it like letters exchanged with other youkai?’

As for the contents of the letter, all I had to do was meet Sarah in person and confirm it. I walked straight to Incheon Station. Finding Sarah in front of the station wasn’t that difficult. The silver-haired, mixed-race female student was noticeable no matter where she was.

I found Sarah standing near the subway station and waved.

“Jinwoo. Come quickly.”

Sarah looked at me and motioned for me to come here. At Sarah’s feet were two bags containing equipment such as a martial arts knife and a diamond sword. I left one bag with Sarah. It was inconvenient to carry a bag while carrying a child.

Sarah urged me by waving her finger.

“Quickly, quickly.”

“What on earth are you saying?”

I walked over to Sarah and grabbed the bag containing my gear.

Sarah took out two envelopes from her coat pocket.

“This is a strange letter. It’s faster if you read it yourself than if I explain it to you.”

“There are two letters? Can I read both?”

“They both have the same content anyway, so you only need to read one.”

Sarah handed me an envelope. I opened the envelope on the spot, took out the letter inside, and read it. I saw black letters typed on paper with a bright red background.

The letter was actually an invitation to someone else.

However, the contents of the invitation were extremely bizarre.

“Is there someone you want to curse? Or do you want the world’s most stealthy murder weapon? Either way, we can make your wish come true if you pay a reasonable amount.

We are planning to hold a curse auction this year. We sell curse tools. Anyone who receives this invitation can participate in the auction. Auctions are conducted anonymously, so there is no risk of your identity being revealed. You may wear makeup so that your face is not revealed. Of course, you must bring this invitation.

Date: May 5, 2 p.m. / Location: Haedong Abandoned Factory, Gyeongwol-ri, Goseong-gun, Gyeongsangnam-do

This was the content of the invitation.

The exact name of the organization that sent it was not written.

“… Curse auction?”

I couldn’t help but be perplexed after reading the invitation to the end.

A curse auction is scheduled to be held.

This is the first time in my life I have heard of curses being sold at auction. It was also said that a village in Korea was holding a curse auction on a certain day.

“Sera. Are you saying this invitation came from the monsters’ hideout?”

“That’s right. I think Gogoejo and Biduman were planning to participate in the curse auction. Looking at the two invitations, I guess they were planning to go together.”

“Now that I think about it, I think they were talking about an auction or something?”

“Right? I heard it too.”

Last night, Sarah and I were about to ambush monsters at a Chinese restaurant. At that time, Goheukjo and Biduman were talking about an auction. The auction the monsters were talking about seemed to refer to this cursed auction. There were two invitations according to the number of monsters.

Sarah said while looking at the invitation.

“Selling curses doesn’t make sense at all. There are actually crazy people who sell curses for money.”

“I know. Is there really a site on the internet that sells things like cursed dolls?”

I also knew that people selling curses were real. When searching on the Internet, there were times when I came across a site that sold items such as voodoo dolls.

Although they were curse products whose effectiveness had not been verified, it seemed that there were people who actually purchased them.

If you look at the site, there are reviews of people purchasing and using curse products. Most of the comments were fabricated by the site operator, but some of them were reviews posted by people who actually purchased them.

Sarah listened to me and nodded.

“As you have seen, curse products are sold online, sometimes through people they know, and sometimes cash-strapped psychics are asked to sell curses. But most of the people selling curses are small-scale. This is my first time seeing a curse being sold during an auction.”

“You mean the scale is too big?”

“Yes.”

Is the Curse Auction really happening?

We didn’t know that either. All we had was the invitation, which was the monsters’ belongings. If you went to the place where the auction house was held, you could find yourself in an empty field with nothing in it.

The way to check if it was true or not was simple.

All you have to do is go to the location written on the invitation and check it out with your own eyes.

“Shall we go here in person?”

“Is that so? Jinwoo.”

“Is that so? Don’t ask sweetly. You want to go too.”

Sarah smiled and nodded at my question.

“Of course I want to go. If you don’t go, I’ll be curious.”

“Let’s go. Since the auction is conducted anonymously, there is no need for anyone to know who we are. They say you can come dressed up.”

“It’s perfect for sightseeing. If it looks dangerous, just jump out.”

“Run?”

“Run.”

Sarah and I decided to go to the auction house without thinking about anyone else first. When we discover a mysterious phenomenon, we want to uncover the truth. There is a saying that curiosity kills the cat, but if that saying were true, we should have died a long time ago.

I turned on my phone and checked the date when the curse auction was held.

“May 6th is Saturday. There is a midterm exam before that.”

“Jinwoo, did you study for the test?”

“I have to do it now.”

“Hmm. I studied in advance.”

“I’ve already taken all the notes, right?”

Of course, there was one hurdle to overcome before participating in the auction.

It was about successfully passing the school midterm exam.

There are about 15 days left until the midterm exam period.

I had to focus on studying for 15 days.

*

After returning to Seoul by subway, we started studying for the midterm exam. Whether I was at school or at Hyehwadang, I studied using textbooks and reference books.

Before I knew it, there was only one week left until I took the exam.

As I studied, time passed very quickly.

“Jinwoo. Where is the grammar mistake in this English sentence?”

“Isn’t the tense here wrong?”

“Do you really think so? I’ll give you a chance to change.”

“I wonder if the answer is right. I will never change it.”

As childhood friends, we used to help each other study whenever we had to study for exams. The method was to check what each other had memorized or to ask each other questions to guess. This has been our study method since elementary school.

Studying with a pretty female student might be a romantic experience for male students. Like, you meet a girl by chance in a study group and end up dating her while studying together. But our study wasn’t that romantic.

I focused only on studying in the living room of Hyehwadang.

Because I had to beat Sarah in the test.

━━Scramble, squeak, squeak.

The sound of Sarah and I scribbling with pens echoed fiercely.

‘We have to win.’

Since long ago, I have been in fierce competition with Sarah every time I take a school exam. There was nothing to be gained by having a higher rank than Sarah. However, if your rank is low, your grades will go up for no reason. This was because Sarah had once provoked her with her grades when she was in elementary school.

‘I still remember it.’

It was when I was in the 4th grade of elementary school.

At that time, I was not yet very interested in studying. My grades in school weren’t that good. However, Sarah always maintained top grades. Sarah, who was an elementary school student, once said this when she saw my miserable report card.

━Jinwoo. Are you not studying?

━I don’t do it. I have to go see ghosts during my study time.

━Still, I have to study.

━Why?

Is there a reason why you need to study?

Sarah answered my question.

━The teacher told me in class that if you don’t study hard, the person you marry later will change.

━What? The face of the person you marry changes because of your studies? Is it a ghost story?

━I don’t know if it’s a ghost story, but it’s true anyway. If I don’t study, I’ll marry an ugly person later.

━Wow.

Sarah, who was an elementary school student, laughed and provoked me.

━Jinwoo, what should I do? You don’t study.

━Quuk.

━You feel sorry for me, so should I marry you? Hehehe.

━That’s it!

I still remembered Sarah’s face, smiling and telling the story as if it were a joke. Every time I think of Sarah, who was an elementary school student that day, I get really excited.

It was only after being provoked that I was able to study properly. I no longer wanted to be sexually provoked by Sarah. As I studied, I got surprisingly good grades, and during the next exam, I ranked higher than Sarah.

As an elementary school student, I made fun of Sarah.

━I won this time. Can you fall asleep that much? It’s Sarah.

━Keuuu. Are you done talking now?

━If you tease them, they compete based on grades.

From then on, the competition began. Whenever Sarah and I prepared for school exams, we studied hard to beat each other. Even though I was outranked by other kids, I couldn’t lose to Sarah. Sarah also studied hard so as not to lose to me.

Our grades fluctuated until we graduated from middle school.

Now that I am a high school student, the day of taking my first exam is approaching.

I felt like I could never lose.

It was Saturday morning.

From the moment I woke up in Hyehwadang, I started studying in the living room.

Sarah, who woke up late, came out to the living room.

But strangely, today Sarah did not study and just stared at me.

‘what?’

Why are you staring?

Are you really interfering with your studies with your gaze?

At first, I thought Sarah was keeping me in check.

However, when I heard the voice, I realized that it was not Sarah looking at me.

“Jinwoo. What are you doing now?”

huh?

Why are you suddenly using polite language?

“Are you really Princess Hongryeon?”

“Yes.”

Something unexpected happened.

While studying for an exam, Princess Hongryeon possessed Sarah.

“Why is the princess here?”

“I’m not coming because I want to either.”