Everyone Else is a Returnee

(Translation change: thoughts -> thought-souls, cuz ‘thoughts’ sometimes doesn’t cut it)
“The auction will start soon, please remain silent.”

Central plaza, a charming elf in tight black suit was speaking into the microphone. As that elf was using an artifact from Heaven, the hundreds of people gathered in the plaza could understand what he said in their own respective languages.

“I repeat. The auction will start soon, so please be seated. Those whose items haven’t been appraised yet should have it done as soon as possible.”

The honey-sweet and spring-calm voice spread out to all the people in the plaza through modern technology.
Perhaps due to that, everyone listened well. Well, in fact, they were all enchanted by the absolute beauty of the elves.

“Is it the legendary elves? My G.o.d, to think I’d see an elf with my own eyes.”
“To think he’d treat those n.o.ble elves as mere servants…… and such a beautiful one too.”
“There were elves on Earth? Looks like it will get dangerous once this gets into the ears of elf hunters. Don’t we need to do something about it?”

They were treated as ‘mankind’ in Dareu, but multiversally, elves seemed like they were a pretty rare race.

In truth, most of the races here were human, and although there were variations of them, such as being 2.5m tall, or less than 140cm tall, or had a small horn, or had three legs, there were no elves to be seen.

“As expected of Pate, you are the most elf-like amongst the four of us.”
“But Pate is a man though…”

The other elves were also acting as support in the auction like Pate, in their suits as well. Just that, due to a fair, and objective vote amongst them, they came to the conclusion that Pate had the prettiest face, and he was chosen as the head.

“No matter how pretty he is, he’s still a man. Why do those human men have slack jaws right now?”

Mirey, who was a female warrior, but was decorated with tight blouse and a short skirt to emphasize her healthy curves for today, tilted her head. The s.h.i.+eld warrior, and the most muscled of the four, Jirl, solved her doubts while laughing.

“Mirey, do you care whether the fish you eat are male or female?”
“But fish are fish though. They just need to be tasty.”
“That’s it! Regardless of gender, if they’re tasty, it’s all……. ugh!”

The lightning-fast jab from the female thief, Phiria, knocked Jirl over at that time. Her eyes had turned scary.

“Shut up, Jirl. I don’t care about you getting into dire straits due to your absurd words, but if it influences His Majesty……”
“Okay, I get it so put your dagger away!”
“Thanks for the work, Phiria.”
“Nah, it was easy since there was less rejection than I thought.”

She had just finished handing out auction coins, by appraising the items that the partic.i.p.ants brought.
The master-level smith, Yu IlHan, would see through the value of an item he saw for the first time with absolute accuracy, then he would set a price for it. Ericia would hand the coins out, while Phiria would support that process.

Although she thought that some may not accept the price and try to rampage, there were unexpectedly none of such occurrences.
That was because, first, Yu IlHan’s appraisal was ridiculously on the mark, second, he told them that they were welcome to not trade if they did not want to, and just take them back. Yu IlHan now vaguely grasped on how to wield his absolute authority.

“Fu, His Majesty is so cool for overwhelming those crowd.”

While Phiria fell into another delusion, Mirey asked.

“If it’s only possible to buy items with the supplied coins, is anyone able to afford a legend-ranked artifact?”
“If so, then they wouldn’t be sold in the first place. But it looks like a history of an entire world is quite impressive. There were precious metals that were unheard of, and there was even one person who brought a box full of 200 4th cla.s.s magic stones.
“Whoa? 200? That’s amazing! Even we only got about 20 after cleaning up an entire world.”

In fact, it wasn’t that surprising. Humans growing up to 4th cla.s.s was very difficult, yes, but 4th cla.s.s monsters appeared quite often in worlds after the 3rd Great Cataclysm.
Although hundreds, and thousands of people would die in the process of hunting such monsters, they would eventually end up getting hunted, and despite the low probability, magic stones would appear as well.

Unless they could process that magic stone, those magic stones would forever sleep in the treasury of those in power. Fast forward hundreds of years and 200 4th cla.s.s magic stones wasn’t unacceptable.

“A single coin is a 4th cla.s.s magic stone’s worth. It’s nothing to get surprised about.”
“So that means only those who can trade in 4th cla.s.s magic stones are allowed to partic.i.p.ate in this auction…?”
“That’s really amazing…….”

The elves once again bathed in enlightenment after realizing how great their ’emperor’ was.

Well, yes, they did admire him before, like how he made legend ranked weapons like it was nothing, and even bestowed an epic-ranked bow to Pate, but somehow, they considered legend-ranked items as ‘natural’ from some time onwards…… but seeing the scale of the people who gathered here to buy such things, they newly felt his ‘greatness’.

“I’m Kang MiRae, in charge of the auction. I’ll immediately start from the first item.”
“It’s starting. Everyone prepare.”
“Okay.”
“Roger that.”

The presenter was Kang MiRae. although there was an idea to bring a professional auctioneer, they came to a decision that Kang MiRae, who was already quite famous on Earth, and had a clear distinction of power to boot, was better. The neatly decorated elves also helped out.

Of course, the crafter of the items, Yu IlHan, wasn’t present. For him, auctioning was impossible even if he died and came back to life, and as he knew that well, he volunteered as the security.

Pate steered the cart onto the stage. On top of the red cloth was a pair of gloves covered in thousands of small, red scales.

“The first item is a set of battle gloves, made of three different types of leather from 3rd cla.s.s monsters, and dragonkin scales. Rank is unique, attack power is 4,100. The auction will start from 1 coin.”
“1 coin.”
“2 coins.”
“3 coins.”

The first item was, in a sense, an appetizer. Although the attack power was higher than the official Vanguard items, they were still of unique rank.
Since the price rose despite all of that, it could be seen how cheap Yu IlHan had sold his crafts to the people of Earth.

“Sold at 7 coins. Then, we’ll go over to the next item straight away.”

The people of Earth, who could partic.i.p.ate without any items corresponding to a 4th cla.s.s magic stone’s worth, were flabbergasted after seeing how the gloves were auctioned off at 7 coins.

“Insane!”
“Did that just get sold for 7 4th cla.s.s magic stones just now? There are no 4th cla.s.s magic stones at all on Earth right now…….”

Whether they were here in person, or was watching through a TV, or other forms of media, the global attention was focused on the auction in the central plaza in the Gangnam trade center right now.

When they saw the broadcast about how a unique ranked artifact was sold for a price corresponding to 7 entire 4th cla.s.s magic stones, they were almost knocked out.

“Sold.” (Kang MiRae)

The second item, a unique ranked full plate armor, was even more expensive at 11 coins. Everyone who watched that scene, gulped.

“That’s f.u.c.king insane!”
“So it’s really the powers gathered here. And they’re prepared for all of this…..!”
“Looks like Vanguard will take all the magic stones over all worlds at this rate. It wouldn’t be strange if he made a country!”

As the auction progressed to the 3rd and 4th items, the final price kept getting higher. Despite knowing that the latter items would be better in quality, the people could not help but bid because the items shown were too good.

“So Vanguard is collecting wealth in real-time.”
“How would the Korean government think? Wouldn’t they scheme to take taxes off him?”
“I wish they did. He’d leave Korea that way. I’ll definitely make him our citizen.”

“Sold.” (Kang MiRae)

There were a total of 30 items. 28 of them were bid off instantly, and at that moment, Vanguard had gathered a total of 841 coins.

No one was surprised anymore. The people of other worlds were happy to acquire such exceptional items, and Yu IlHan slowly prepared to go out while looking at the magic stones and metals that would become his soon, in satisfaction.

Then, Kang MiRae took a short, deep, breath.

“Pate.”
“I’m going.”

Pate, who introduced the first item, drove the cart again. On top of it was a single longsword. With an extremely sharp blue-tinted blade, a luxurious design that went along the entire length of the weapon was immaculate and undoubtedly impressive.

“That looks like it’s on a completely different level.”
“Who’s the one that crafted such a thing? I felt a chill run through my neck just by looking at the edge of that sword.”

The majority of the people of Earth only thought of it as a pretty sword, but the people from other worlds, who were comprised of at least 3rd cla.s.s beings or above, immediately realized that the sword was not ordinary.

“This item.”

Kang MiRae took another deep breath before speaking.

“is a longsword crafted by sharpening the bones of a 4th cla.s.s monster with the ability to freeze the land. It was mana crafted with the original monster’s magic stone, successfully transferring the original ability of the monster and its attack power is 5,500.”
“What?”

All the partic.i.p.ants whispered to each other after finding out a mere longsword had an attack power of 5,500. What was even more amazing was that it even had a special ability! What that meant was that……

“It’s a legend ranked item. This will start from 100 c-”
“Now!”
“Hah!”

The moment the word ‘legend’ escaped Kang MiRae’s mouth, there were some people who, hidden at the very back of the stage, jumped onto the stage, They were hiding their presences using artifacts!
What more, was that they scattered magic smoke by throwing more artifacts along with their appearance. They were really prepared for this ambush.

“Heh!”

Pate and the other elves, whose senses wouldn’t be affected by mere magic smoke, attacked the perpetrators with weapons hidden on their bodies, but they were already prepared for it. They had considered human sacrifices and made them block the elves with a wall of fles.h.!.+

Meanwhile, one of the attackers, extended his hand, and grabbed at the item!

“Kergh!”

Then froze on the spot, never to move again.

“This side is clear.”
“This side is clear as well.”
“Can’t I kill these things?”
“Although His Majesty will take care of everything, we do need to some of them as evidence.”

Not long after each of the elves completely suppressed the attackers, the smoke dissipated. and the partic.i.p.ants, who prepared for a potential battle, felt odd after seeing the perpetrators on the ground, and a frozen man grabbing the sword.

“It shouldn’t be some low-levels that attacked… To think they’d capture them so fast.”
“So they aren’t just pretty flowers.”

Although unintentional, this served as an opportunity to let the others know that Vanguard had fighting power as well. Of course, there would still be some idiots who would aim for Vanguard’s items.

“Fuu.”

Kang MiRae checked that there were no more attackers around, and let the elves move back, before continuing her explanation while pointing towards the ice statue, which was once a man.

“As you can see, it also has an ability to freeze anyone who does not have permission to touch it from the master.”
“Pfft.”
“What, so this was all planned out beforehand? Quite the foolish show there.”

Seeing how she explained like this was all a performance, some of them even laughed. However, the next moment, their smiles froze – Kang MiRae smashed the statue into smithereens with her staff.

“Hup.” 1

Of course, as a result, what was once a man, shattered and fell onto the ground.

“Whoa?”
“She killed him…..!”

If this was a rigged game, no one would have been killed. The people finally realized the faint fury on Kang MiRae’s face. They were all overwhelmed by the strange aura she gave off, and turned silent.

“The auction will start from 100 coins.”

The sword was sold for 214 coins. The most common weapon, and with exceptional abilities. If the partic.i.p.ants had any more wealth, it probably would have been sold for an even higher price.

Then the final moment came.

“Next is the final item. It’s a necklace created by mixing tens of different types of mana-reactive jewels, and 4th cla.s.s black dragon’s tooth. It accelerates mana recovery speed and magic incantation speed, raises the scale of the magic, and has the ability to create protective s.h.i.+elds by reacting to the crisis afflicting the user. The rank is legend. This will also begin from 100 coins.”
“Dragon!? 110 coins!”
“Oh my G.o.d, just what dragon did they kill and from which world!? 135 coins!”

The necklace, which any mage would sell his soul to acquire, was sold at an even higher price for 350 coins. The one who acquired it was of course, Irma An Ill’ta, the first imperial princess of Palladia empire from the world of Lanpas, who came herself!

“That necklace is now mine! I can do whatever I want with it!”

She rejoiced and jumped around the moment the necklace was auctioned to her, and the other partic.i.p.ants, who missed the artifact that would represent that world once acquired, could only clap in bitterness. Although they wanted to cause a mess since the auction didn’t go as they planned, any such thoughts were vanquished once they thought about the attacker that was shattered to smithereens right in front of their eyes.

The auction ended like that. The ones who successfully bid stood up to get their items, and the ones who didn’t, stood up to trade back their coins, when the realized one more thing.

“Kyak!”
“Co, corpses!”

The attackers weren’t just those that a.s.saulted the stage. The ones who schemed to attack, in fact, planned to cover the entire venue!

How they knew that, was because there was a mountain of thousands of people who all died due to an attack ‘that pierced their hearts’ on one side of the plaza. As if it was a show.

“How can this……”
“We didn’t even know there was a battle outside.”
“That’s obvious. This is no battle, but a one-sided ma.s.sacre. They were all killed in a single strike.”

What was more amazing was that they were all 3rd cla.s.s beings, and one was even 4th cla.s.s! They should have hunted exotic monsters with this kind of force, but justice was hammered upon them while they tried to acquire profit for no work!

However, Yu IlHan, who was the sole perpetrator behind that scene, was moving in order to give the items to the bidders, without a single drop of blood on him. In his head, various thought-souls, that came with lifeforce of various people, were crying loud.

“Orochi.”

Said Yu IlHan as if humming.

“Begin.”
[I can eat them once I am done, right?]
“Of course. Oh, there’s a 4th cla.s.s one too! You’ll be having a feast today.”
[Hmph.]

Orochi snorted at Yu IlHan’s words, and began interrogating the thought-souls. His interrogation techniques were developing by the day, so Yu IlHan moved in light steps without any worries.

The attackers did not take Earth lightly, and attacked after a meticulous planning. They failed despite that, and they were severely punished. And from this moment onwards, ‘they’ would be in an even more sorry state.

Whether ‘they’ be the country that didn’t manage their gates properly, or the world that planned this attack, and any people of Earth that helped out!

‘I need to make it so that they won’t even dare to think of such things again.’

Yu IlHan’s eyes turned sharp for a moment, but calmed down immediately after. In front of him were the treasures that had become his!

Author"s notes
Although it"s quite easy to forget because of the higher existences, the elves are one of the most beautiful beings in this novel. only people at the level of Na YuNa would be a match.
The power of time is frightening. Just 1 4th cla.s.s magic stone per year means 300 in 300 years!
….And then there"s Yu IlHan who collected more than twice that amount in a single day!

Translator"s notes
(To early readers) Only one chapter today
Daww, Kang MiRae"s acting so cute.

Special thanks to Matthias S for two sponsored chapters!