Ch 154
Became a swordsmanship instructor at the academy
Chapter 154
"What do you mean? You sent her to another company?"
"I had no choice. I never thought Se-byeol would have Kim Se-jin as an acquaintance, but she suddenly showed up..."
"Kim Se-jin?"
"Don't you know Kim Se-jin? Hunter Kim Se-jin who won this year's WHCU competition was Se-byeol's acquaintance."
"So what? You're going to make an enemy of me now because of some measly hunter?"
"Some measly hunter? Kim Se-jin's father is S-rank Hunter Kim Dae-chan."
"So what about that? He's just a butcher who makes a living killing monsters anyway."
For a moment, I doubted my ears, wondering if I'd heard wrong.
Calling an S-rank Hunter a butcher...
Even if he's a chaebol, isn't he too ignorant of how the world works?
"Not only Kim Dae-chan, but when Kim Se-jin came, Hunter Kang Shin-hyeok accompanied her as well."
"Kang Shin-hyeok? I've heard of him too. Isn't he also an S-rank Hunter? Why was he there? Is he Park Se-byeol's sugar daddy or something?"
"That's not it. Kim Se-jin said she was going to invest in creating an entertainment agency... When Kim Se-jin came to the company, she was accompanied by Hunter Kang Shin-hyeok."
"Haa... This is driving me crazy. So you're telling me to give up now?"
"Well, considering who we're dealing with..."
"Representative Lee! This is Lee Ji-hoon. Does it make sense for me to give up what I want because of those butcher bastards?"
Lee Ji-hoon threw a tantrum and hung up the phone, saying he'd handle it himself.
He keeps dismissing them as butchers, but honestly, if he had heard the stories I heard about Kang Shin-hyeok, he wouldn't be able to not change his mind...
Lee Ji-hoon might just be talking big because he's too embarrassed to tell me he's giving up, and he might actually give up.
But knowing the guy I've observed so far, he'll never give up, and then there'll definitely be friction...
Whichever side wins, I just hope I don't get caught in the crossfire.
***
Things went better than expected.
Thanks to appropriate negotiation, I was able to break Stevia's contract without spending a single penny.
"Teacher, you're really good at acting."
"Acting? What acting?"
"The Shadow Reaper story earlier. It was so realistic, like you'd actually done it before."
"Ah, I've never actually done it, but if that representative bastard had been uncooperative, I was planning to do exactly that."
"What?"
Se-jin looks shocked.
"Why are you so surprised?"
Is it because I said I'd kill him?
He's a bastard who deserves it anyway...
Se-jin is really too soft-hearted.
"It's a bit awkward to say this when I'm receiving help, but still... I don't like seeing you get blood on your hands, Teacher."
As expected, my prediction was right.
"Don't worry. I wasn't actually planning to kill him."
The aversion to murder isn't something only Se-jin has.
I've never actually killed anyone either.
"Then..."
"There's a saying that rolling in a dung field is better than the afterlife, but sometimes being alive can be more painful than dying."
I was worried she might feel uncomfortable with this too, but fortunately Se-jin seems to think similarly and nods her head.
When I returned to the car and opened the door, I saw Se-byeol sitting with a very tense expression.
"H-how did it go?"
"It went well. We agreed that our Se-jin would take over the existing contract."
It might be cleaner to completely break the contract and make a new one, but you never know with people.
If we go through the trouble of getting them out of the company and then they say they won't sign with us and want to go their own way, the situation would become difficult.
"R-really? Th... Thank you. Thank you so much."
She bows her head repeatedly with tears welling up in her eyes.
Well, Se-byeol probably wouldn't, but the other members might think differently.
Honestly, I wouldn't lose anything by not helping them.
It would actually be nice not to deal with troublesome matters, but if that happened, Se-jin, who tried to help with good intentions, might get hurt.
"Thank you so much."
"Sister, it's okay now."
"Everyone buckle up since we're departing."
I drove to our next destination.
"Teacher? Why did we suddenly come to a hospital instead of going home?"
"Ah, I think we came because of me. Our brother Sang-cheol is hospitalized here."
"Ah..."
Right. This is the hospital where Stevia's manager is admitted.
"The other kids will be here too. Thank you for bringing us. Oh? You don't need to park, just drop us off..."
"I'm planning to go up and meet them too."
Even though I know about the entertainment industry to some extent from writing novels with entertainment themes, it's only surface-level knowledge.
I don't know well how things work in detail or... No, even the big picture, and Se-jin is the same.
It doesn't make sense for us to directly operate an entertainment agency.
Therefore, we need someone who knows the industry well to manage the company.
I parked the car and we all got out together.
"Um... Teacher, shouldn't we buy juice or something?"
"What juice? Let's just go. The shop is way over there anyway."
"That's right. You can just go up."
"Still, how can we go to a hospital room empty-handed? How much could juice cost? I'll go buy some and come back."
Really, it's not necessary...
No wait, maybe this way is better?
"Se-byeol? The manager's room is 307, right?"
"Ah, yes."
"I'll go up first, so come up after you and Se-jin stop by the shop."
"Ah, yes."
I took the elevator up to the 3rd floor first.
"Oh? Hunter Kang Shin-hyeok?"
Some young woman recognizes me.
At first I thought she was just a regular person who recognized me and smiled as I passed by, but she followed me.
"Are you by any chance a Stevia member?"
"Yes. I'm Min-seol."
Looking again, I think I saw her before.
I did check their faces online again yesterday, but there's quite a difference since she's not wearing makeup.
"Sister told me about it. That you visited the company today."
"Yes. Se-byeol and Se-jin came with me too. They'll be up soon, but the matter... well, it would be better to explain when we're all together, right? Which way is the hospital room?"
"This way."
I followed Seol to the hospital room.
There was the manager lying down with casts on his arms and legs, and two more members named Hee-jin and A-hyeon.
Seeing them all gathered, it seems the five including the manager have quite a close relationship.
"I... I heard from the kids. I should properly thank you, but my arms and legs are like this..."
Fortunately, his neck and torso weren't seriously injured, but bones in both arms and both legs were severely shattered.
I heard they're treating him by performing surgery to remove bone fragments one by one and then applying recovery magic, so he'll need to stay in the hospital for two months.
"That's actually why I came. Um... Could the others step back a bit? If anyone has a weak stomach, please turn your heads away."
After giving the warning, I approached the manager lying on the bed.
"Wh... What are you going to do?"
"It will hurt a little."
As I spoke, I raised my right arm, generated Sword Energy, and cut off his arm.
"KYAAAAAAHHH!"
"KYAAAAAAHHH!"
"What, what are you doing?"
Everyone screamed and panicked, so I immediately used regeneration magic.
Green light appeared and the arm regenerated, soon creating a completely smooth arm.
"Huh? The arm..."
"Try moving it once, see if anything feels strange."
"It's... It's fine."
"How is this..."
"Haven't you heard of regeneration magic?"
"Ah... I think I saw it on the news."
"I'm the developer of that magic."
I couldn't explain properly because I was trying to finish quickly so as not to show Se-jin a cruel sight.
"Now, should we do the right arm next... Or the leg first?"
"No, even without doing this, I can be discharged in about two months..."
"We just finished talking with the old agency and are on our way back. Don't you need to get better quickly to support the kids again?"
I'm planning to entrust not only the agency management but also the practical work to the manager, so it would be troublesome if he's lying in a hospital bed like this.
The manager made a reluctant expression but eventually nodded.
I also cut off the remaining arm and legs and recovered them all with regeneration magic.
While everyone was looking at the manager standing perfectly fine with amazement, I used magic to clean up all the debris and traces.
"It's really amazing."
"How is something like this..."
Just as I was about to tell them to stop being amazed and go handle the discharge procedures, the door opened and Se-jin and Se-byeol came in.
"Brother? How..."
She makes a shocked expression seeing the manager standing perfectly fine on both legs.
"Hunter Kang Shin-hyeok here treated him."
"The doctor said he'd need to be hospitalized for at least two months and have at least three more surgeries..."
"Well, it's nothing special. Now we need to handle the discharge procedures first and then discuss business, right?"
***
Establishing the entertainment agency wasn't too difficult.
The manager registered the business and became the representative, but Se-jin and my corporation invested to acquire shares.
Honestly, it's grandly called an entertainment agency, but the only entertainer under contract is Stevia.
Since we have ample capital, we immediately secured a dorm for the members, an office, and a practice room to have the basics, but the problem is work.
Of course, we asked the previous agency to lift the pressure they were putting on the broadcasting industry, and the manager is also said to be working hard using his network connections, but I heard there haven't been significant results.
Stevia wasn't that popular a group to begin with.
Moreover, while they used to belong to HS Entertainment, a major agency, now they belong to the unheard-of JH Entertainment.
"Teacher, really won't it work?"
So the method Se-jin came up with is bundle selling.
Currently, JH Entertainment is known as a new agency that the manager established independently, not as a company created with investment from mine and Se-jin's corporations.
The idea is to leak this fact to the media and have me and Se-jin appear on broadcasts to bundle-sell Stevia as well...
"I don't think it's a particularly good idea."
First of all, as a civil servant, it's not easy for me to appear on broadcasts.
It's likely not possible, and even if it is, I'd need to get permission and the procedures would be quite troublesome.
Most importantly, it's obvious that the school kids would find out and bother me asking to see the celebrities.
Besides, it's questionable how effective such bundle selling would be.
"If they're singers, they should compete with songs."
"We are producing an album, but since we're a new agency, they say there aren't any good songs. Famous composers all want to give their songs only to successful singers..."
"Right, before the manager... No, he's the representative now. Anyway, the reason he kept wanting the songs I sang was that even though they weren't girl group songs, if he gave those songs to other singers, he'd get a deal from other managers to bring songs his kids could sing."
Even now, if I gave the songs I sang, we could probably get songs, but is there really a need to do that at this point?
I think it would be a hundred times better for me to give them a few girl group songs directly.
"Tell Representative Kim that I'll prepare a few songs for him."
"Teacher, you can make girl group songs too?"
Honestly, in my previous life I didn't particularly like girl group songs, so I can't say I know that many, but I was a soldier once too.
There was a time when I knew every weekly music broadcast by heart and watched them without missing a single day.
Even aside from my military days, I know most of the big hit songs anyway.
"Of course. It'll be difficult since I'm departing the day after tomorrow, but I'm returning over the weekend, so tell him I'll give him a few songs that day."
"Ah, yes."
Vacation is next Friday, but I'm scheduled to depart for Sweden the day after tomorrow to receive the Nobel Magic Prize.
"Um... But Teacher, that Lee Ji-hoon bastard contacted Sister Se-byeol again..."
"Don't worry. I'm planning to handle it when I depart this time."
Since no one except Se-jin knows I can use Warp Magic, it'll be a perfect alibi.
Honestly, I'm more worried about the Nobel Magic Prize ceremony than dealing with those two bastards.
Not because I'm worried I won't receive the award, but because the ceremony itself is burdensome.
Since the regeneration magic paper was published under both mine and Teacher Kim's names, they must have sent Teacher Kim an invitation too...