The Main Characters That Only I Know

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.

-But Geomhu is not easy either. He’s been rising a lot lately.

-But he’s still a rookie. Don’t you know the difference in experience?

-Then isn’t it unfair?

-I don’t know. We just want to have fun.

People who came to enjoy purely

-Ah, really. This is annoying. I want to see our artist’s face up close, but the seats are too crappy.

-Did you see the face of the other sword master? She’s so pretty.

-What are you talking about? Collectors live by their skills anyway. Our Ju Kyung-soo is outstanding in his skills.

-Honestly, this is more like a lesson for a cheeky junior than a duel. I just want to see Ju Kyung-soo’s face.

-Totally agree. Isn’t that sword master girl a bit unlucky? I hope she gets ruined.

Ju Kyung-soo’s passionate fans who belittled Kang Hye-rim.

-Who are you rooting for?

-Of course I’m a sword master fan!

-Heh heh. Me too.

-Hey, honestly, what are we doing cheering for a guy? Besides, I didn’t like that artist because he was so slow all the time. I wish he just got crushed here.

-Right. Honestly, we should cheer for the pretty sword master instead of anyone else.

People who were anti-Ju Kyung-soo and supported Kang Hye-rim.

-This fight itself seems to attract a lot of attention.

-The spirits’ interest is already hot.

-Hmm. I’m worried that the Hesiodos clan might make the problem bigger.

-Well, what can we do? We just have to take care of what we need to take care of here.

-That rookie sword master, she has quite a skill.

People who came for business purposes.

‘It’s like all kinds of human beings are gathered here.’

Moreover, the entire stadium had already opened a huge library.

Perhaps because of that, in the sky above the audience seats, spirits were looking down at us and eagerly anticipating the duel that would start soon.

An unintended joint painting with the other teller that resulted from the joint painting with the spirits.

It was a situation similar to the Constantinople siege.

[The match will start in 3 minutes.]

As soon as the announcement rang out, Kang Hye-rim opened her eyes.

She got up from her seat.

“Are you ready?”

“…Yes.”

I smiled faintly at her hesitant answer and patted her shoulder.

“You’re nervous.”

“Sigh. Yes.”

It’s not unreasonable to be nervous. It’s a lot of pressure to have to fight confidently in front of so many people.

She had fought in front of spirits many times through paintings, but this was actually her first real fight with an audience.

“Well, it’s easy to say don’t be nervous or do well. But I guess that won’t calm you down much.”

I know well. If it was something that could be solved by saying don’t be nervous, why would anyone do that?

Cheer up or I trust you.

Those words are rather adding more burden to the other person.

So I did this.

Whack!

“Ow!”

I gave her a honey bomb on her forehead as usual. 

This time a little harder.

“Ouch!”

She was so surprised by the sudden honey bomb that she grabbed her head with both hands and shouted at me as if to protest. 

It was her real self without any acting from the sword master.

She didn’t say much usually, but this time she seemed really angry and glared at me with her eyes narrowed.

I chuckled and said.

“It hurts because I hit you.”

“Geez. You’re too much!”

“But how do you feel? You’re less tense than before, right?”

“Huh? Yes? Ah…”

If you scare them once, they naturally relax. Kang Hye-rim realized that and sighed ‘ah.’ Then she soon glared at me again with a faint smile.

“You should have told me beforehand.”

“It doesn’t work if I tell you beforehand.”

“But it hurt too much this time!”

“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.]