Chapter 73:

Chapter 73:

Chapter 73

The day of the duel had arrived.

Outside, the atmosphere was already festive and heated.

Not only the ordinary citizens who were eager to watch the duel between famous collectors, but also the media, clans, and association who could not miss such a large-scale event were on alert.

“There are so many people here.”

I tried to break the tense mood with a casual remark, but there was no reply.

Kang Hye-rim was busy maintaining her character as Geomhu with a blank expression, and Baek Seoryeon was clutching her stomach as if she was feeling sick from the sudden attention.

I scratched my head with my finger.

“Are you nervous?”

“Is that what you call it?!”

Finally, Baek Seoryeon snapped at me. She seemed to have no idea that the situation would get this big.

“I thought it was just a decent duel, but what’s with this crowd? And why are the major media outlets coming to watch our fight? And did you hear? Other clans also came to see!”

As Seoryeon said.

We had planned to hype up the event for three days, but the result was that it got too big.

We originally only thought of spreading some rumors through Singareung, but seeing how dramatic the reaction was, it was clear that that Casanova bastard had done more than we expected.

‘Actually, even without that, people were already pretty excited.’

This duel was something that rarely happened.

It usually occurred among lower-ranked collectors, and from the middle rank and above, they would avoid each other’s bodies and not act rashly.

It was not surprising that people were bored without any action from the first or second rankers.

In the midst of that, the announcement of a duel between named collectors was enough to attract people’s interest.

It was too much fire for just igniting a spark, which meant that there were plenty of fuels ready to burn on the ground.

The current place was the waiting room inside the dueling arena provided by the association.

As someone who had a similar experience not long ago, I was not very impressed, but it seemed different for Seoryeon.

“Ugh. I’m so nervous, my stomach.”

“Do you want to go to the bathroom?”

“How can you say that to a lady! It’s just a stomachache!”

“Well, don’t be like that. It’s already done, right? Rather, we should use this opportunity to promote our White Flower Management more.”

“You can’t even talk.”

Baek Seoryeon glanced at me and said that, but what I said was not empty words.

This was really the best environment to raise the name value of White Flower Management.

Even normal major managements could not face this situation, so it was nothing less than a blessing for us.

[It’s ironic that the one who helped us get this blessing is Casanova, a trash.]

I smiled bitterly at Baekryeon’s remark.

It was ironic that the one who brought us this opportunity was not a benefactor or a colleague, but a villain who wanted to use us.

‘But since we can use him too, we have to do our best.’

I quickly scanned the outside of the waiting room.

The seats of the very large arena were already filled with people.

‘Wow. They gathered a lot.’

It was not just ordinary people.

There were many people sent by large clans in the first-class seats, and even some famous collectors were seen.

‘There are also people from major media outlets. Oh, is that person a senior member of the association? Well. The association provided the place, so they must be interested in this duel too.’

That showed how much weight this duel had.

People with heavy names in this field came to see it, so there was a lot of pressure to succeed.

It was understandable that Seoryeon felt sick from nervousness.

[I don’t see you being nervous at all.]

‘I’m nervous too. I just don’t show it.’

[Sure.]

‘Really? And more importantly, this fight is not mine. It’s Geomhu’s.’

I glanced at Kang Hye-rim who was sitting quietly and gathering her energy.

She had her eyes closed and was meditating with a blank expression, but seeing her doing something she didn’t usually do, she seemed to be quite nervous too.

Unlike the quiet interior of the waiting room, the outside atmosphere was almost at its peak.

-Everyone! Please take your seats! The duel will begin soon!

The announcer’s voice echoed through the speakers throughout the arena.

‘Baekhyo. Can you hear everything?’

Hoot.

Baekhyo was currently wandering around outside and checking around.

Thanks to his ability as a celestial owl, I could share his vision.

I listened more carefully to the reactions outside.

-Hey. Who do you think will win?

-Idiot. Of course, Artist will win. He has a higher rank to begin with.

“It hurts so you can wake up.”

“Geez. You just wait until you get nervous later. I’ll do the same thing to you.”

“Oh. I’m looking forward to it.”

But my not-so-supportive support seemed to work, as Kang Hye-rim’s expression softened a bit more than before.

I gave her a light hand and made a fighting pose.

Kang Hye-rim smiled and then managed her expression again and left the waiting room.

[The players are entering!]

At the same time as the announcer’s shout, two people appeared above the stadium.

One was a handsome artist with a flashy outfit and appearance, Ju Kyung-soo.

The other was Kang Hye-rim, the sword master who looked plain compared to Ju Kyung-soo, but that made her look noble and pure.

Both of them were excellent in appearance, so the citizens’ reactions were extreme.

“Hye-rim unnie will do well, right?”

“Yes. She will do well.”

I didn’t take my eyes off the stadium with my arms crossed.

First of all, the composition and background of the fight itself were similar to the painting contest I had experienced a while ago.

It was natural that it was similar because this duel between collectors was derived from the painting contest.

The difference would be that the audience in the seats were not spirits but people.

The spirits were watching us from above, outside the library.

[The spirits are eagerly looking forward to the fight between the two.]

[The spirits are praying for the sword master’s victory.]

The viewing spirits from our side of the library flocked to cheer us on.

The number of spirits gathered through the joint painting was about 4,500.

It was breaking a new record again since the last painting contest.

And whoever wins here will monopolize the interest of the spirits gathered here.

***

The two faced each other above the stadium.

“Ha ha. Lady. Long time no see.”

“It’s only been three days.”

“For me, three days without seeing you were like an eternity.”

“...”

Kang Hye-rim showed no reaction to Ju Kyung-soo’s teasing words.

He clicked his tongue inwardly at her indifferent appearance.

‘She’s still so arrogant.’

It was normal for any collector to be nervous by this point.

Ju Kyung-soo was used to this kind of attention, but Kang Hye-rim wasn’t.

‘Is that because she’s so confident? Or is it innate?’

Maybe she was desperately hiding her emotions.

Ju Kyung-soo thought she belonged to the latter case.

He looked around.

The stadium was a space that was completely isolated from the surroundings so that the fight would not be disturbed, so there was no leakage of their conversation.

Ju Kyung-soo thought he didn’t need to hide himself anymore.

“It would have been nice if you had come when I asked you nicely in the first place.”

He said with his usual sleazy smile, but his words were hostile to Kang Hye-rim.

If you looked from the outside, it would look like he was smiling and making small talk.

“But it seems like you’re proud of yourself for rising up recently.”

“Is that a problem?”

He nodded at her defiant question.

“Yeah, it is. It’s not good to see someone who doesn’t know their place running around.”

He said that and Kang Hye-rim’s eyebrows twitched slightly, but soon returned to normal.

Ju Kyung-soo didn’t care about her reaction and continued.

“But you still have some pride in yourself for coming this far. You’ll regret it for sure.”

“We’ll see who regrets it soon.”

“Wow. You really don’t back down until the end.”

“I learned that from someone precious to me.”

“Oh. Do you have someone you like? Heh heh. This makes me more fired up?”

His greedy eyes scanned Kang Hye-rim’s body.

“Let’s see how long you can keep that cool attitude.”

Their conversation ended there.

It was because the referee announced the start of the match.

[It will start soon. Please get ready.]