I've Come to Propose
"I missed you. I've come to propose."
"What... are you talking about?"
"Didn't you miss me, Isol?"
She hadn't even refused him, but he put on a deliberately wounded expression anyway. Kim Isol looked thoroughly flustered. This girl really was fun to tease.
"W-what are you saying all of a sudden?!"
"So you're turning me down, then..."
"Th-that's not it — it's just so sudden!"
"What's so sudden about it? You quit your company because of me."
"......?!"
"I'm proposing that you join my company. What exactly did you think I meant?"
Kim Isol's face flushed a deep, furious red in an instant.
"My arm's going to fall off. Take it already — assuming you're not rejecting me."
Without answering, she snatched the bouquet from his hand and spun around, turning her back on him. She clearly didn't want him to see her face. Too bad. He fully intended to look.
He stepped in close, bringing his face to the nape of her neck. She felt his breath and shrank in on herself at once. When she tried to flee, he caught both her arms.
"Wh-what are you doing? This is my house... My mom's upstairs."
"You think I'm going to eat you or something? When did you get so skittish?"
"But... I'm all sweaty..."
He drew in a long, deliberate breath.
"Mmm... ahh... You smell wonderful."
Her ears went scarlet all the way to the tips.
"Pervert..."
This time he pressed a light kiss to her neck. A faint tremor ran through her whole body. Another kiss. Then another. He pushed aside the hair she'd tied back for training and kept brushing his lips along the slender line of her throat, working his way around until he finally turned her to face him.
The kisses that had been confined to her neck climbed higher — to her jaw, and at last to her lips. Mouth met mouth, lightly. Their eyes locked.
"Nothing still hurts from before?"
"Mm..."
"Good."
Her gaze lingered on his mouth. But he had no intention of going further. If he did, he wouldn't be able to stop — and Kim Isol's mother would catch them. That would be... inconvenient.
"You'll sign the contract, then?"
"Mm..."
"Let's head upstairs. You can finish training after I leave."
"I'm going to... wash up first."
"Hearing you say that almost makes me want to join you."
"......"
Her personality really had changed a lot. Or rather — the personality was the same; it was only her attitude toward him that had shifted. Back when she'd been a wild little terror, the fun had been in taming her. Now she was almost girlish. Cute.
Kim Isol bolted upstairs without a word. Soaked in sweat as she was, of course she'd want to wash. Watching her go, he licked his lips without meaning to — then shook his head.
No. Absolutely not.
Today was for contracts. He still had two more places to visit. From now on they'd be entering dungeons together under the same company, on the same team. No need to get impatient already.
He'd promised her the best terms in the industry. She was a Transcendent in her own right — even if he was the one who'd essentially made her one. This level of treatment was only natural. Plenty of companies would have thrown bigger signing bonuses at her, and foreign outfits would have been climbing over each other to recruit her. The fact that she was a Transcendent still hadn't leaked to anyone, though. He'd even dialed her mana back down to A-10 for now.
"A five-year contract?"
"Yes. I'd prefer longer, but apparently five years is the legal maximum. Is that a problem?"
"No... but the signing bonus...?"
"There isn't one. In exchange, you can leave whenever you want. You seemed to have a hard time with the penalty fees when you quit your last company, so I deliberately left them out. If you want a bonus, just say the word — name any amount. But then the early-termination penalties will scale up several times over, so decide carefully."
He intended to offer every Awoken in his company the same simple terms. He didn't want them bound to his side by contracts. He wanted them to stay because they chose to. That way, when something went wrong, he'd be able to trust the people around him. Conversely, it would also make it faster and easier for traitors to betray him. No penalty fees meant anyone who wanted out could walk. If they left cleanly, fine. If they tried to make a mess of things, he'd just strip their mana and be done with it.
He had no interest in clinging to anyone out of regret, and no desire to bury himself in complicated contract clauses out of fear of betrayal. He wouldn't need to bother with any of that. They'd all be desperate to stay by his side anyway. In his hand he held the ultimate carrot for any Awoken: mana enhancement so potent it would make their eyes roll back in their heads. Women only, of course.
The only two who no longer needed that carrot were Senior An and Kim Isol. Both of them had already maxed out their Synchronization Rates. Senior An's mana was pushed to its absolute limit, and Isol had become a Transcendent under her own power — so either of them could decide they no longer needed him. But he trusted them both. Senior An was Senior An, and as for Isol — watching her wake from that long sleep last time had settled any remaining doubt.
"This is fine as is."
"You're sure you can decide that easily? Shouldn't you go downstairs and ask your mother? Or your father?"
"Doesn't matter. I'm doing what I want."
He was certain of it now. This girl would never, ever betray him.
"I just sign here, right?"
"Yes."
Kim Isol finished signing. She had formally contracted with him — or more precisely, with his company.
"Kim Isol. It's an honor to have you with us."
"W-what... that's so stupid..."
"I'm your boss now, you know. You're an employee of my company. Can't you show a little more respect?"
"......"
In the end she took the hand he held out. Fresh from the shower, her skin felt even softer than usual. He brought that hand to his mouth, kissed the back of it, and said:
"You're mine now."
"Idiot..."
"I'll see you next Monday, then. I've got a mountain of work to get through."
"That soon?"
The company existed, but the work ahead of him was still a mountain. He still had to contract with Lee Donggeul and Baek Hwayeon, and meet the staff and Awoken who'd been there since the Shinbaram days.
"I want to go on a dungeon expedition with you as soon as possible."
"Mm..."
Just one person. Only one so far had become his.
"That Pervert Transcendent is our boss? Ugh... I hate this..."
"So we just have to sit here and watch the company get handed over?"
"What choice do we have? The shareholders and the higher-ups already decided."
"I'm fine with it, honestly. A Transcendent. An actual Transcendent. We'll be able to run B-rank and even A-rank dungeons now. Money's going to roll in by the truckload."
"But it'll get that much more dangerous, too..."
The eleventh floor of the Shinbaram Building. Today was the day he would meet the people of his company for the first time. Staff in the morning; Awoken in the afternoon. He stood just outside the office door, eavesdropping on the conversation inside. As expected, their opinion of him was thoroughly negative.
"Money isn't everything. If my parents find out I'm working under a pervert boss..."
"But it wasn't that bad, was it? I heard his clothes just tore during training..."
"Still, though. Doing something that shameless in front of minors. And he didn't even cover up while people were filming on their phones."
"Maybe it was confidence? He was packing something impressive, from what I heard. Heh. Heh."
On one side, the women had clustered together to gossip.
"God, this sucks. Maybe I should just quit. I don't want to work under some kid... The Awoken are already enough of a pain in the ass, and now we've got a baby-faced Transcendent for a boss? Imagine the power trips."
"That's what I'm saying. I joined because this was Shinbaram. If it'd been some brand-new, pissant little support company, I wouldn't have given it a second look."
"You never know, though. The benefits might get better."
"Better? I heard all the Awoken are saying they're going to quit."
The men were no different. All the Awoken were threatening to quit? That was the best news he could have hoped for. He'd been fretting over how to cut the talentless ones — the men especially. If they walked out on their own two feet, he'd be grateful. No penalty fees — please, just leave.
No. Wait. Why wouldn't he take the fees?
A brilliant idea struck him all at once.
He couldn't stand out here eavesdropping forever. He was about to head inside when something poked him repeatedly in the back. He turned and found Senior An and Hong Eunyoung beaming at him.
He was the one who'd called them here. He intended to hand the entire day-to-day running of the company over to the two of them. He planned to spend his time in the dungeons, so of course he needed people to fill the gap. Neither of them had real management experience, though, so they'd have to lead the company alongside the existing deputy managers and department heads. Today the two of them would personally choose who those people would be.
As for him? He had other work to do.
"What are you doing out here? Why haven't you gone in?"
"I was waiting for you two."
"Well, we're here. Let's go, boss."
"I'd appreciate a little more respect in that tone. And let's go with 'Representative' rather than 'boss.'"
"What's the difference?"
"Just the sound of it."
They walked in. The employees who'd been clustered in their little conversational groups all bowed in greeting. The talk dried up instantly, and the sheer brazenness of the about-face was almost chilling. Still, none of them looked ready to oppose him openly. At least they understood that a Transcendent was someone to fear.
"Good morning. I'm Kang Junghyeok. I've taken over Shinbaram's Dungeon Expedition Division."
Everyone returned the greeting. From the women's side, whispered comments drifted over — something about him looking even better in person. Whoever that was, he was going to make sure they got a generous bonus.
Unfortunately, the first thing he had to tell them was devastating news. He was sorry, but he simply couldn't take nearly fifty people with him.
"I'll be conducting individual interviews starting now. I'm afraid I can't bring everyone here with me. Severance will be paid according to your existing contracts, so please don't take it too hard."
"That's... so sudden..."
"This is ridiculous. How is this even allowed?"
"You ran the division into the red so badly that upper management had to sell it off. You should take responsibility for that, don't you think? I don't intend to cut everyone, so I'll only hear complaints from those who actually receive termination notices. Please come into the conference room one at a time, starting with the oldest."
It might have looked cold, but he had no choice. Fifty was far too many, and there were people he absolutely had to fire.
He took Senior An and Hong Eunyoung into the conference room next to the office. It was glass-walled, so everything outside was visible. They could see him too, but he had no intention of drawing the blinds. Sound didn't carry either way, from the looks of it.
The first to enter were the heads of each department. Unless they turned out to be hopeless dinosaurs or incompetents, he planned to keep them. The three of them had no institutional knowledge of running a company, so they needed these people.
"So — what are we short on right now? There must be functions Shinbaram used to handle for you. Accounting, for instance."
"No, sir. We already have a finance specialist on staff. Of course, once the business grows we'll need to hire juniors, but..."
"No need to be so tense. Wipe that sweat off... We've already decided to keep you, Director Baek, so you can relax."
"I-is that so? Haha... That's a weight off my shoulders."
Having been spun off from a massive corporation, they had plenty of gaps. Auction operations, for one — they'd need to build a dedicated team from scratch. Shinbaram had offered to send people over, but who knew how that would pan out.
On the other hand, there were areas that absolutely had to be cut.
"Go outside and bring all the Supporters in. We'll talk to them all at once. The assistants too — every last one."
The male Supporters could not come with them. The reason was simple. He intended to turn every single Supporter in his company into an Awoken. That meant the male Supporters still on the books were completely unnecessary. On top of that, any female Supporters who had no intention of giving themselves to him would have to go as well. The ones who fell wildly outside his tastes, too.
They filed in as a group. Cutting people who did the same work he once had left a bitter taste. But reality was cold.
"I'm sorry, but every one of you is fired."
My apologies. The severance will be generous — so please, go in peace.