Chapter 374: A Temporary Return, and Putting Things in Order (9)

The next day, around lunch, a call came in from my sister.

No explanation. She told me, point-blank, to come to the company, said her piece, and hung up. When I went to her office, she was there to receive me alongside a woman who looked to be in her mid-twenties — plain-featured and innocent-looking, and yet with a strangely intense light in her eyes.

I stepped off the elevator, and my sister rose from her seat. The innocent-looking woman stood as well and turned toward me.

"Allow me to make the introductions. This is Chairman Jung Seoha, Master of Grand Blue. Chairman, this is CEO Choi Yoon-chang of Sanjinsundo."

Huh? The CEO was a woman?

She stood straight in a women's suit, and something about her put me in mind of a person wearing a size too small. A quick look told me why. Arms, shoulders, abdomen — all of it packed with working muscle. So it wasn't the clothes. It was that solid muscle. Knotted enough to chew through your average man, and concentrated mostly in the right arm. A real artisan, then.

"Pleased to meet you. I am Choi Yoon-chang of Sanjinsundo."

She was plainly nervous, gone stiff as a board, and the hand she offered first was an artisan's hand, full of scars and calluses. I was quietly studying it when the hand suddenly drew back. I looked up and found her clutching it, startled and flustered.

Ah. Customarily, the senior is the one who offers a handshake to the junior. She'd realized that putting her hand out first had been a breach of etiquette, and the sight of her faintly sun-browned face bleaching white was, admittedly, a little entertaining.

"Looking at those hands, you really do seem like a true artisan. It's good to meet you. I'm Jung Seoha."

I smiled and held out my hand. Choi Yoon-chang took it carefully, only just, stole a glance at my smiling face, and let out a sigh of relief she might not even have known she breathed.

That said, the name was remarkably masculine. Her voice was low and husky for a woman, and her hair was cropped short like a man's, so she could easily have been mistaken for a man with slightly finer features. And the innocent looks were the real finishing blow. Run into her outside in ordinary clothes and you'd never take her for an artisan. People who've earned the title of master craftsman usually wear that upright, solid character right on their faces.

...Or so I was thinking as I went to the head seat and sat. My sister and Choi Yoon-chang sat as well, and the moment she was down, Choi Yoon-chang fixed me with a hard light in her eyes and spoke.

"Thank you for choosing Sanjinsundo rather than Crafters Maestro. In mass production and in the sheer breadth of fabrication, Crafters Maestro surpasses us in many respects. But I give you my word that the quality and performance of the arms we forge will not fall short of theirs."

That strange harmony — the innocent face, the husky voice, the intense eyes — wiped away the country-girl look she'd worn a moment before, and the bearing of an artisan and a chief executive rose off her of its own accord.

I heard her out to the end, then opened the documents my sister passed me.

"Creator of the Grund Spear and the Grund Stiletto, the two weapons formally supplied to Germany's nationally designated raid team. Winner of Germany's 186th National Arms Development Competition... and, tallying the rest, twenty-two awards from contests judging the design and practicality of weapons and armor of every kind. Quite a record."

"At the time I was young, a nameless nobody without a sponsor, from a small country in the East. The simplest and most efficient means of proving my ability was to place in competitions."

She said that even at a company professing to put ability above all else, she — a foreigner, and a young girl at that — had endured a great deal of territorial hazing. And even after her ability was proven and she'd built a career no one could dismiss, she'd been sat through blind dates with locals, arranged by the vice president of Balmung Enterprise, for no reason but that she was a woman. Which told me everything.

"At the time I still had a great deal left to learn, so I had no choice but to go through with them. I had no intention of living in Germany, and so I refused them all..."

"Hmm. If you'd stayed on at Balmung Enterprise in Germany, you'd have risen to a higher post within a few years, and then you could have forged arms in a better environment — as many as you wanted, as many as you felt like making. Why go out of your way to come back to Korea and found an arms-crafting company yourself?"

"Our family opened a forge in the middle of the Joseon dynasty and began by making farm tools, and from that start we carried our history forward by crafting weapons of war during the Imo Mutiny and the Gapsin Coup of the late Joseon period. But at the end of 2010 we could not withstand the tide of globalization and corporatization, and we had to take down a signboard that had stood for a very long time."

That old? A storied house going back nearly seven hundred years? Startled, I looked at Choi Yoon-chang's face, and she gave an innocent smile. My sister heard her out as well, then nodded quietly and spoke.

"By the twenty-first century the very idea of the artisan had all but vanished in our country, so it must have been a difficult time to keep a small workshop forge running."

"That is correct. The elders tried everything they could to keep making cold weapons and carry the family's history on, but judging that the family's future was uncertain if things stayed as they were, they launched several ventures. Every one of them failed, and they had to close their doors leaving nothing but enormous losses... After that, our fortunes declined little by little, until we could no longer even claim to be blacksmiths."

"The appearance of the Phase World, and the revival of this notion of the artisan, must have been a blessing in disguise from your point of view."

At my sister's words, softened by a gentle smile, CEO Choi Yoon-chang flushed faintly and nodded. Hmm. A smile that worked on women, too.

"Yes. After that the family line continued down to my birth, but the blacksmith's renown had withered completely. I had loved making things since I was small, and on the day I happened to confirm our family's history in the storehouse of the main house, I understood the role I was meant to play. So, for the revival of the family and for my own satisfaction, I went to Germany to study the blacksmith's craft."

So that was it. No habit of fumbling or letting her words trail off — she looked me straight in the eye and spoke cleanly, word by word — and the muscle packed onto her body, the hands blotched with scars and calluses carved by smithing, all of it gave me reason to trust her.

One question remained. Same as yesterday: the documents said that the moment she graduated high school she'd gone straight to Germany and joined Balmung Enterprise. How had she gotten into the finest arms-crafting company in Germany at that age? From the sound of her story, that world was pretty harsh about foreigners, and about women, too.

I was fairly curious, but this seemed less like business and more like her privacy, so I couldn't bring myself to ask. I held the upper hand; if I asked, she'd have to answer. It felt too much like throwing my authority around, and I didn't like it. Leave it turning in my head and I knew I wouldn't be able to hold the question in, so I brought the talk around to the work.

"I've heard you out. Do you know what materials you'll be receiving, and what you'll need to make?"

"I understand that I am to forge the Chairman's arms from the bones and hide of an imugi."

The moment the materials came up, light seemed to surge from Choi Yoon-chang's eyes again.

"Are you confident?"

"If it is confidence you mean, it has never once left my side."

"Good. I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of armor you'll make me. I'll be counting on you."

"I will forge arms that please you completely. I am in your hands!"

I was thinking this had felt less like finding a business partner and more like a simple interview when my sister, having seen Choi Yoon-chang off, came back, sat down across from me, and spoke.

"So. What's your read?"

"Don't think we need to worry about anything confidential leaking. Innocent face, but she looks like she's got a strong sense of self and a real sense of responsibility. Judging by the muscle showing through the clothes, and the scars and calluses on her hands, the crafting skill ought to be solid too, right? You've already vetted her, so she looks good to me."

"Yeah. I was curious whether her ability was skewed entirely toward crafting, or whether she had a talent for business as well, so I tested her a little — told her that if she wanted investment, she should submit a business plan. And she brought in something beyond anything I'd imagined."

Recalling the plan, she folded her arms and wore a faintly impressed look. A proposal that could surprise a genius like my sister. Now I wanted to know how good it actually was.

"How good are we talking?"

"The more competent a president is at the actual work, the more stable that company's future tends to be. A president doesn't need to be familiar with the work of an ordinary employee, but they do need to understand, structurally, how the company runs."

She wasn't taking a sideways swipe at me for ignoring the company, was she? I settled back onto the sofa, narrowed my eyes, and stared at her, and she waved a hand and laughed.

"This company only stands because you're here, so you don't have to glare at me like that. Anyway, I don't know whether she'd prepared it in advance, but I got the email the same day I called and looked it over. It wasn't just peering a few years down the road. It examined the Phase World, ability users, and the phase market formed around them from every angle, brought the long term to the front, and looked fifty years ahead along the road Sanjinsundo ought to walk. So long as Choi Yoon-chang remains CEO of Sanjinsundo, it's good enough that we could keep investing and name them the company supplying arms to our raid team — and some of the ideas were good enough that I caught myself thinking we might apply them here."

"A blacksmith and a businesswoman both. She's a real talent."

The thought crossed my mind that we might as well swallow Sanjinsundo whole. Hmm. No need to decide that this instant. Still, I ought to put a hand out, enough to keep any of the big corporations from laying a finger on the place.

"If she's that good, a major corporation might try to merge Sanjinsundo. We should put some protection in place, shouldn't we?"

"We should."

"You know company business better than I do, so I'll leave it to you."

At that, my sister shot me a pretty glare and let out a soft snort.

"Hmph. And when, exactly, have you ever not left it to me? The moment anything comes up that needs a brain or a pair of hands, you dump the whole of it on me and Aunt Hyeryeong."

As she said it, she sank her back into the plush sofa. She was wearing a white shirt cut like a short dress, and a culotte that looked like pants and skirt fused into one — white thighs half bared, strap heels on her feet, the line of her legs on full display. That infamous fashion of the vanished lower garment. Rather hard on the eyes.

While Choi Yoon-chang had been here she'd sat with her posture locked in place, but now that it was just the two of us in the office, she seemed to loosen, and even her tightly closed legs parted a little. In that instant my eyes went between them before I could stop myself. The moment I thought I'd glimpsed something pure white through the gap in that jet-black culotte, I shut my eyes and sighed.

Ah, seriously... I couldn't tell whether ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠she'd done it on purpose or not, but I couldn't stop noticing, and if I stayed like this... this would not do.

"Ahem. You know that line of yours. Talent ought to be placed where it belongs. I'm the captain — all I need is overwhelming power. Anyway, I'm heading back..."

"Wait a second. Talk with your sister a little."

I was quietly starting up off the sofa when she shot out a hand and caught my sleeve. When she came close I very nearly flinched... but I managed, just barely, not to let it show. I looked down at her. Her cheeks were faintly flushed, and she flicked her hand at me, telling me to sit, and quickly.

"...What is there to talk about?"

"You going to live there until the mansion's finished?"

"Yeah. Can't leave Franc there on her own."

As if she'd expected exactly that, my sister frowned slightly, then stared at me as though she meant to miss not a single shift in my face.

"When are you planning to enter the Phase World with me?"

"Huh?"

"When you came back from the Floating Sky Islands, you told me not to enter my own Phase World, and to wait until I could go in with you! You forgot, didn't you?!"

"Ah. Right. I did say that."

"You little..."

At my perfectly brazen face, irritation rose in hers, and she lifted a dainty little fist. It looked as if that fist might actually fly if I riled her even a little further, so I got both hands up in a hurry and opened my mouth.

"You're someone the company absolutely needs, so I hadn't been thinking about that side of things. And you're pretty, and capable on top of it, so because you were here I could come and go from the Phase World with an easy mind. That's why it slipped."

"...And so?"

A little buttering-up, and the irritated look vanished. A smile rose quietly in its place.

"In three days, when the cooldown on the Return Point ends, I'm going back in to search for the Rogue Imugi. After that's done, let's go in together."

"That's a promise?"

"Yeah."

"Then when the mansion's finished, I'll live in Shinchon-dong too. I can stay there, can't I?"

...What?!

I looked up, stunned, at my sister as she rose from the sofa with a sly little smile. Wait — how had the conversation ended up there?

"Why?!"

"Why do you think? If I'm not going to be a burden on you, I have to train too. Auntie said she'd be living there and training as well, didn't she? Four B-Classes on their own, and then Franc, and Miho, and Hiarid, and Darky on top of that. Where in the whole world, Korea included, is there a raid team like that? I want in."

Th-this was what she'd been aiming for!! Damn it...!

Refuse, and it would be why Yeongeun got to join the training and she didn't. Then she'd drag out every argument I hadn't seen coming and pin me in a corner. And I'd fold, frustrated, and give in whether I liked it or not!

I watched her turn her back on me, stretch long, and smile like a cat, and the thought landed clean. I'd been had.

I had lunch with my sister, who looked to be in a fine mood — the first time in a while — and when I stopped by the penthouse on the fortieth floor, staff from Grand Blue's facilities department were surveying the hole in the ceiling. They fidgeted like employees who'd just caught sight of the company boss, unable to keep their minds on the work, so I told them not to mind me and to get on with it, and stopped in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠at the Phase Stone storeroom.

High Grade and Superior Phase Stones adorned the whole of the room, and at the center, kept like treasures, the silver Summoning Conch and the Mermaid's Pearl caught my eye.

The conch was a simple calling device Album Cetus had given me, with the promise that he would help once if I called... Should I take it along when I entered the Phase World in a few days? The place where Album Cetus, the white whale, could help me was obviously the Phase World where I'd gotten the thing. Work from that premise, and there wasn't much point using it anywhere else. So perhaps it would be better spent while I was searching for Baekcheong...

I set the thought aside for the moment, took a Superior Phase Stone charged past ten million, and went back to Shinchon-dong.

I Space Leaped to the front of the ultra-luxury camping trailer, and a noisy commotion carried over from Franc's dwelling beside it. Looking in, I found Miho sparring with Franc. It was only the second day, but every time she hauled her ability out hard, the Phase Power that used to wobble so anxiously had settled a great deal; a lot of the waste had come out of her movements, and I could feel, clear as anything, that she wasn't just charging in blind. She was thinking about attack and defense as she threw herself at Franc. Here and there she raised elemental power to check and to blind, and the growth of it reached me right through the skin.

...And the fact that Miho, after two days of this, was already better ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠than I was after nearly a year left me, somehow, with a sour little sense of defeat.

"Hiyah!"

Miho fired elemental rounds of fire and wind at Franc's face to kill her view and tried to slip around behind her — but Franc simply stopped the rounds with a hardened palm and countered. Miho, who'd been about to commit everything to the strike, thinking this one's going in!, took the palm and went flying past me.

She shook her head hard, throwing off the dizziness, and shouted as if indignant.

"Auuu! Does Franc have eyes in the back of her head too?"

"Hehe. When you attack, you must always be reading two or three moves ahead. An improvised feint like the one just now might work on an opponent of about your own level, I suppose."

"Sheesh! You're just too fast! I'm busy enough chasing you — where am I supposed to find the room to think about that!"

"Get hit enough times, and the room will come."

Watching Franc say something so chilling with a gentle face, Miho wore a creeped-out look, then clenched her mouth shut again and launched herself at her.

Honestly, for Franc, who could run Spatial Perception out to five hundred meters, wasn't close combat simply child's play? Spatial Perception, technique that already overwhelmed Hwayeon and Yeongeun, and now a powerful body on top of it — I couldn't picture her losing to anyone. Not in a fight between people, at any rate. Just now, too, I'd seen a faint smile touch her lips at the sight of Miho ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠circling behind her while she blocked those rounds.

Thinking about it, that was only to be expected. After awakening on her first forced summoning, Franc had even torn herself free from the midst of several High Grade and Superior aberrants. Her body had been left in ruins as the cost, of course, but put plainly, it meant she had escaped — in the body of an ordinary Physical Reinforcement awakener — from monsters a raid team would have had to slam itself against. Which was to say she had already stepped past human limits.

Perhaps there were no spare clothes; either way, Franc was assisting the training in her underwear again today. I took a moment with the view of her figure, then went over to Hwayeon, seated in a corner of the living room with Ispect in hand and her lips stirring, and to Hiarid, standing behind her still as a screen.

What she was murmuring was a dharma verse carrying the concept of the Miniature Art.

A pass of Spatial Perception over her body showed her Phase Power had climbed to the very brink of A-Class. When she'd told me, before, about what happened to her in Britain, Aaron Tempest had come up, and between that and yesterday's conversation it seemed she was searching the esoteric art of the Miniature Art for a clue to crossing into A-Class.

I sat down near her and was openly staring at Franc's swaying breasts and backside — even bringing Spatial Perception into it to take the figure in — and Franc glanced my way, her face gone a little red.

"Unyaaaang!"

Miho must have caught me getting distracted as well. Pride wounded, she swung her claws without a pause, but unfortunately it didn't so much as register on Franc. Then, as if she'd worn herself out, she opened the distance and stood with both arms dangling, panting, and I felt sorry enough for her that I called out, thinking I might offer a piece of advice.

"Miho."

"Nya?"

"The underwear Franc's wearing is cloth, right?"

"Mm."

"And cloth burns nicely."

"...Mm?"

"Ah."

Franc seemed to have caught on, and reached out a hand to stop it.

"Burn the underwear clean off her, and won't the openings show while she's busy covering up? Franc might shut down even a trick like that, but worst case, you're back where you started, right?"

"Aaaah. Seohaaaa..."

"Oho?"

At the sight of Franc looking at me with a troubled face, Miho grinned like a little imp, as if to say well, look at this.

"Wait, Miho? This is sparring. That sort of method..."

"It's efficient. Out in the real world, stirring a human woman's sense of shame to make her body go sluggish counts as a tactic."

"Okay!"

And Miho began calling on three abilities at once: the tail that handled physical reinforcement, the tail that governed wind, and the tail spewing an energy like red flame.

"Take this!"

"Aah— honestly!"

Thinking a wide blast would do more than a small fireball, Miho didn't close in. She harried Franc from a distance, trying to set her underwear alight, and Franc shot me a glare, her face flared with indignation. But she had a means of defense as well. She shaped her hand like a fan, poured Phase Power into the swing, and a gale rose — the fire Miho had launched reversed, and set Miho's own clothes ablaze.

"Ack! Hot! It's hooot!"

Watching her flail and roll around on the floor, trying to put out the fire that had caught on her clothes, I opened my mouth, dumbfounded.

"You handle blue fire and everything, and fire's hot to you?"

"...It's not hot?"

Miho looked down at herself with a vacant face, then promptly sprang up and tried once more to burn Franc's clothes, raising the flames again. That she wasn't affected by fire was proven well enough by her hair and the fur of her tails, perfectly fine even though the clothes had burned away. More than anything, there was the time she'd climbed a hundred kilometers above the ground, swearing she'd drop a magic cannon on Japan, and kept her body temperature with her whole body wreathed in flame. Just now, she'd been living like a human among humans, and so she'd unconsciously given a human reaction out of a human way of thinking.

"Nyaaaat!"

"Miho! Don't! This is sparring!"

"You're the one who said not to be picky about means and methods!"

"Oh, honestly!"

"Heh. Just as planned."

A lovely young woman in nothing but her underwear, and a seven-tailed fox girl whose chest had, tragically, failed to keep up, tangling together bare — a spectacle no sum of money could buy you a look at. I was recording it on my Certifier, wearing a thoroughly rotten grin, when I glanced to the side and found Hwayeon there, her meditation finished at some point I hadn't noticed, staring at me with an expression of pure, speechless disbelief.