42. Arcana Online

42. Arcana Online42. Arcana Online

"Oh my, is it this late already? I have meetings scheduled with the heads of each department. Would you like to come along?"

"Yes!"

We climbed the stairs heading to the upper floor, and upon opening the door, I saw angels with eight wings gathered inside.

As soon as they saw Michael-nim, they stood up and greeted her.

"Welcome, Michael-nim."

"Please, sit comfortably."

She smiled brightly and showed consideration, but no angel would take those words at face value.

Only after Michael-nim took the seat of honor did the angels sit down.

I sat in a chair in the corner, and the meeting began.

"We'll start with the report from the middle world."

The content was about resurrected monsters attacking travelers.

As I was sweating nervously and checking the atmosphere, Michael-nim smirked and moved on to the next topic.

"The demon realm has intervened in the middle world. This is clearly a violation of the treaty!"

At those words, I could only bow my head once again.

Michael-nim smiled brightly and said it was okay, but it felt like sitting on pins and needles.

"The afterlife is in an uproar because the number of souls doesn't match. Moreover, a key figure from the afterlife, known as one of the Three Gods, has arbitrarily intervened in the middle world."

"If it's that person, it's fine. Aren't they the guardian deity of all children?"

After the reports from the middle world, demon realm, and afterlife were finished, the report from the celestial realm should have followed, but it was missing...?

"Where is the celestial realm representative?"

"Well..."

An angel who looked like an aide standing in the back whispered something in Michael-nim's ear, and she pulverized the pen she was holding.

"A department head has escaped...? Bring them back immediately."

"We've sent a cooperation request to the afterlife. It should be handled soon."

So they ended up running away after all...?

*

*

*

"Rest well tonight, and I'll show you around other places tomorrow."

"Thank you, Michael-nim."

"It's nothing. Well then, sleep tight."

After Michael-nim left, I lay down on the bed in the assigned quarters.

The bed, which looked like a cloud, was softer than any bed that exists in the world.

Yong-yong seemed to like it too, lying on his back with his belly exposed, and isn't it just too cute!?

"Our Yong-yong likes it too!? Should we steal one?"

"Kyuung!"

He really seems to like it, saying we should take one.

I stroked Yong-yong's belly, said goodnight, and logged out of the game. As I took off the gear, an alarm rang.

Rea unni said she always contacts me at the time I log out, but it feels like I'm being monitored...

I answered the call and went next door, where Rea unni welcomed me with a bright smile.

"You're here? Then shall we start our happy exercise time today as well?"

"Um, I'm not happy though...?"

"It's okay! Your unni is happy!"

"What about me!?"

With those words, the hellish time began.

She said we'd start with stretching and then try exercises we could do with dumbbells, but she was overestimating me.

She handed me a pink dumbbell, but I dropped it because it was too heavy.

Rea unni was surprised by this.

"This is only 2kg..."

"I can't lift anything heavier than a cup of ramen."

After thinking for a moment at my confident voice, she started to correct my posture and teach me something called s, squat...?

I thought it would be okay since it was a bodyweight exercise, but that was my mistake.

I couldn't get up the next morning.

To be precise, I couldn't walk.

I got up from bed, crawled to the bathroom, barely made it back to my room, put on the gear, and logged into the game.

As I stretched, Yong-yong, who had been sleeping face down, opened his eyes and acted cute towards me.

It meant he wanted food.

When I took out a high-rank magic stone from my inventory and gave it to him, he looked at me with disapproving eyes.

"Kyuung!"

"Even high-rank magic stones are expensive!"

"Kyuuung!"

He whined, saying I was the only one who was serious, but I couldn't do anything about it.

When I took out a top-rank magic stone, he finally ate happily.

I'm worried he might start demanding something even better than top-rank magic stones...

After Yong-yong finished his breakfast, I hugged him and left the quarters to find Michael-nim waiting in front of the door.

"Were you waiting!?"

"I just arrived."

She smiled brightly and extended her hand to me, saying she'd show me around a different place today.

As I took Michael-nim's soft hand, her wings spread wide like when we first met, and in an instant, the scenery changed as we were transported to a place bustling with angels.

"Ta-da! This is the market that the celestial realm boasts about!"

Numerous angels were buying and selling goods or various foods.

From items that could only be obtained in the celestial realm to strangely shaped fruits.

There were all sorts of things, but suddenly Yong-yong screamed.

"Kyuuung!"

"Huh? What's wrong?"

Looking in the direction he was pointing, I saw an angel selling pure white magic stones.

As I approached to check, I understood why Yong-yong had screamed.

«Unique-grade Magic Stone»

A magic stone used in researching unique-grade magic.

While holding back Yong-yong, whose eyes had rolled back at the sight of a magic stone he'd never seen before, I asked the price to buy it, and it was no joke.

"Welcome, customer."

"How much is this?"

"It's 1 billion gold."

As I was shocked by the amount, Yong-yong said, 'Leave it to me. Just give me permission.' I tried to stop him and negotiate the price, but it failed.

"It's a hard-to-get item, so we don't accept haggling."

As I was rummaging through my inventory to check if I had anything good, Michael-nim approached me.

"This traveler is visiting the celestial realm for the first time. Could you give a little discount?"

"A-Archangel Michael-nim!?"

The angel was startled for a moment, then closed his eyes tightly and shouted.

"I-I'll just give it to you! Of course we should provide a good memory for a customer visiting the celestial realm for the first time!"

"Oh my, really? Thank you."

The angel handed the magic stone to me.

His expression looked like he was about to shed tears of blood.

More importantly, he gripped it so tightly that I barely received it.

"Thank you."

"Haveagoodday. Customer!"

He spoke through gritted teeth, and the moment I handed the received magic stone to Yong-yong, he swallowed it in one bite.

The angel watching this scene collapsed in his seat.

"Th-that was worth so much..."

While hugging our Yong-yong, who seemed satisfied and even burped, I followed Michael-nim as we set out, and I heard a scream from behind.

Must be my imagination?

As we looked at various items and I bought a few things that could be gifts for guild members, I found that the prices were cheaper than expected and there were plenty of good quality items.

"If you go further inside, there's a large building. The items there are good too, so let's take a look."

As we went deep inside, I saw a large building.

Entering, I saw various items catch my eye.

And in one corner, there were unique-grade magic stones like the one Yong-yong had eaten, spread out.

The price for one was 100 million gold!?

The merchant earlier tried to sell it to me for 1 billion gold!?

As I was staring with a bewildered expression, Michael-nim approached me and smiled.

"Even among angels, not all of them are pure and good beings."

There was sadness in Michael-nim's voice as she said those words.

I sold some items from my inventory that could be worth money to buy a few, as Yong-yong asked.

Items received from scenario quests or items I had collected from Atlantis before.

Thanks to them buying the items, I had money to purchase magic stones, and our Yong-yong, whose eyes were shining, begged me to give them to him quickly.

"No way. You already ate one, didn't you?"

"Kyuuung!"

"You're saying even humans eat three meals a day!?"

Come to think of it, he's right.

Our Yong-yong's tastes are becoming more and more picky, what should I do?

Now that he's grown to some extent, should I trust him and leave it to him next time a battle occurs?

Yong-yong always asks me to leave it to him, so it's about time he gained some real experience.

"Next time a fight breaks out, I'll leave it to our Yong-yong!" Searᴄh the nôvelFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

"Kyuung!"

As I pat our Yong-yong, who proudly says to just trust him, and hand him the magic stone, he swallows it in one bite.

He's licking his lips while looking at the other magic stones, enjoying it so much, but absolutely not.

*

*

*

Once, I had held the position of an Archangel in the celestial realm. But after falling, I spread my ten wings that had been dyed black and looked down at numerous wraiths.

Wraiths who had lost their physical bodies and were wandering the nine heavens.

Dead souls are taken away by the reapers of the afterlife, but the order is determined by the depth of their sins.

That doesn't make sense from the start.

If sin hadn't been created in the first place, humans wouldn't have committed sins.