Acting Instructor
Bam!
The door to the Dean's office burst open with force.
The Dean frowned over the documents he'd been reviewing at his desk. "There's a wonderful custom called knocking. Apparently it hasn't reached you yet."
"Dean."
Baek Da-eun ignored his sarcasm and strode straight up to the desk.
It was far too informal an attitude to show before the Dean of Daehan Seodang, but the two had once worked side by side as mentor and student in the same laboratory, back when he had still served as an instructor. He was long used to her behaving like this. After all, he had brought her here on talent alone, so he'd always turned a blind eye to her lack of social graces.
"I want you to appoint Han Dohyeon as an instructor."
"…What?"
The Dean set down his teacup.
He had overseen all seven academies of Daehan Seodang for nearly ten years now, and yet the words he had just heard refused to make sense. "Appoint whom?"
"Han Dohyeon."
"The same brat who lounged in here not long ago demanding special student admission?"
"Yes."
The Dean stared at Baek Da-eun for a moment.
It hasn't even been that long since a full-grown adult threw a tantrum in my office begging to be admitted as a special student. And do you have any idea how much grief I took from the other families over that?
Swallowing the surge of irritation, the Dean attempted to continue the conversation calmly. "Baek Saseong."
He pressed a finger to his temple and spoke as though the mere topic gave him a headache. "I know you know nothing outside your research, but surely you understand what an instructorship is?"
An instructorship at Daehan Seodang was no mere teaching post. It meant founding a laboratory under one's own name, taking academy students on as disciples, and bearing the responsibility of judging whether those disciples would ever disgrace the Seodang's name once they walked out into the world. And the graduates who left under an instructor were bound to him as disciples for the rest of their lives.
Even the scions of the most illustrious families needed years of research achievements and prestigious recommendations just to be considered as candidates.
"And you want to promote a menial laborer to instructor overnight?"
"He is not a menial laborer."
"Oh, so he's a laborer who isn't a laborer—!"
The Dean steadied himself with a deep breath.
By all rights he should have been proud; his genius disciple had done a great deal to raise the Seodang's standing. But every so often, a simple conversation with her made his emotions impossible to contain. He had even tried breaking her spirit with a surprise inspection this time, but true to form for her breed of genius, she had only gone and completed a brand-new purification spell, leaving him no choice but to concede the round.
Maybe I've coddled her too much.
"Then at least take a look at this spell."
Baek Da-eun placed a stack of documents on the desk. "Han Dohyeon developed a spell without ever having been properly taught Taoist magic. It covers only a fraction of the art, but the principles within are wholly original. It will unquestionably drive the entire Taoist community forward!"
The Dean read through the papers slowly, and his eyebrows rose a fraction.
He couldn't parse the spell in its entirety, but the structure was unmistakably unlike anything else out there. This much, at least — it's the caliber of talent that could found its own school.
"Fine. I'll grant that he has ability. But that alone doesn't make him an instructor."
Brilliance alone was not enough to earn an instructorship at Daehan Seodang. Baek Da-eun had risen at least partly because he had pulled her up along the way — but this Han Dohyeon had no such backing, and the Dean had no intention of stepping forward to absorb the backlash himself.
"Dean. If you bring Han Dohyeon in, wouldn't the budget grow as well?"
"Well, well. You of all people playing that card. I truly have lived to see everything."
Did she think she was going to fail otherwise? Baek Da-eun's face was awkward as she raised the matter of funding.
She had been the loudest critic in the academy of the practice of accepting donations from families in exchange for special admissions — yet for the sake of Taoist magic's advancement, she was willing to set her principles aside for a moment.
"We've been losing applicants to Seseong Seodang lately, haven't we."
"The top families still choose us first."
Gaining entry to Daehan Seodang required not only exceptional spiritual power and talent, but years of systematic education beginning in childhood. Naturally, nearly the entire incoming class was filled with children of spell-caster families. The academy advertised that its gates were open to commoners, but for those without proper training, actually passing through that gate was another matter entirely.
"Han Dohyeon is a man who worked as a laborer with no background whatsoever, until his talent was discovered."
"Hmm."
Hearing only that much, the Dean had already assembled an entire story in his head.
A menial laborer at Daehan Seodang. A hidden genius who picked up Taoist magic by osmosis and conquered ruins with no backing whatsoever. And the Seodang, recognizing his talent, had embraced him without regard for his origins. With a little polish, it would make a rousing success story.
And the people who witnessed such a meteoric rise would surely think: could such luck find me too? That hope would flow directly into Daehan Seodang's applicant numbers.
"True. Our admission standards have fallen far below what our reputation deserves."
The corners of the Dean's mouth curled slowly upward.
Seseong Seodang had been steadily poaching common-born applicants. The heirs of the great families still preferred Daehan Seodang, but that alone wasn't enough. Fewer applicants meant lower admission cutoffs. Lower cutoffs meant less revenue from application fees, poorer marks on the government evaluations tied to admission standards, and dwindling external sponsorship. And above all, he would go down in history as the Dean under whom Daehan Seodang's prestige declined.
"A school where even a mere laborer can earn recognition, so long as he has talent."
The Dean stroked his chin. He could practically see the rosy future unfolding already. The Dean of Seseong Seodang had been needling him about admission standards recently, and the memory still stung — this was the perfect opportunity to put him back in his place.
"So as an instructor—"
"No. Not a full instructorship."
The Dean drew the line at once. If the man was essentially a mascot to inflate admission numbers, what possible reason was there to grant him a permanent post?
"I'll appoint him as an acting instructor."
Baek Da-eun stopped mid-breath. "Acting instructor, you say?"
"Yes. A position where his research and his teaching are evaluated over one year before any permanent appointment is decided."
It wasn't a full instructorship, but he would still be able to run a laboratory under his own name. Limited, yes — but the authority to take on students and train them would remain intact.
Of course, the Dean hadn't done it out of any such generosity. If the stunt produced no measurable effect on admissions, the man would simply be one more mouth to feed. The other families and the sitting instructors would object, so he needed an excuse ready. The acting position was a failsafe: if it didn't work, he could cut it instantly, and if it did, he could tell everyone else to just bear with it for a year.
"If he has the ability you claim, there shouldn't be a problem."
"That's true, but…."
Baek Da-eun eyed him with suspicion. He's not a man who gives in this easily. Considering the battle it had taken to secure a single special student admission, this was going far too smoothly. "There's a condition, isn't there."
"Of course there is."
The Dean pulled three student records from his desk drawer — three students who had been thorns in his side for as long as he could remember. "Three students who are long overdue for a laboratory but have found no one to take them. They go into his lab."
The moment Baek Da-eun read the name at the top of the stack, her expression froze.
Kwon Na-yeong.
Kurahashi Shion.
Seo Yu-ri.
"You're dumping all three of them on him?"
"Well, it takes this much for the others to swallow it."
From the Dean's perspective, the trade cost him nothing. If she refused, he simply withheld the appointment; if she accepted, he rid himself of three headaches at once. Seo Yu-ri was tolerable enough, but the other two were so shielded by their families' influence that he couldn't even expel them despite their falling short of their reputations. If I sent them down to the laborer ranks, their pride would drive them out on their own — one could only hope. And here they were, worrying over which academy would take them, when a solution had simply walked through the door. The Dean concluded, once again, that he was a fortunate man.
"If he succeeds, it proves his ability. If he fails, it proves he lacked the caliber — and the acting post was a mistake."
"So if he fails, you intend to shift all the blame onto him?"
"If he's the talent you say he is, he won't fail."
Baek Da-eun deliberated. If her judgment was sound, then Dohyeon was a genius who could carry out his research no matter who walked into his laboratory. In that case, was accepting those three really such a problem?
"Then I'll take him into Soeun Academy for now."
"Exactly what I was hoping for."
"Prepare the acting instructor appointment papers."
"A wise choice."
The Dean was already wielding his brush in midair, drafting the publicity strategy and the documents to be circulated outside. Baek Da-eun watched him with distaste, then turned to leave.
"Ah — Da-eun."
Baek Da-eun stopped with one hand on the door. He had called her by name, the way he used to, instead of her formal title — which meant the official business was over. Is he trying to comfort me? Wondering if he was too harsh on me, when I'm practically his own child?
Keeping her face carefully stiff, she turned her head. "What is it."
"Is the fellow easy on the eyes?"
"…I beg your pardon?"
"We'll need to take photographs for the publicity, won't we."
Baek Da-eun didn't answer. She slammed the door behind her.
Bam!
Left alone, the Dean clicked his tongue and looked down at the paperwork. "Such a temper."
Even so, his hand kept moving, drafting the directive. "And apparently a decent-looking one, at that."
The Dean had noticed it keenly. The instant Baek Da-eun had recalled Dohyeon's face, her answer had come half a beat too late. His disciple — who had never once spared a thought for anything beyond research and spell formulas — had hesitated, picturing a man's appearance.
"Excellent. If the face is marketable too, what more could I ask for?"
The Dean nodded in satisfaction and added a line to the directive.
In his mind, Han Dohyeon had already become the new banner of Daehan Seodang's revival.