The Manager's Gamble
I realized my mistake a second too late. This damn mouth of mine had gone and caused trouble again.
Kim Isol was so furious her voice cracked with sheer disbelief.
"Wh-what did you just say?"
She had clearly never heard anything so blatant in her life; her expression shifted dramatically. Her face flushed bright red, so much so that it reminded me of a Red Devil.
I fretted over what to do with this runaway mouth of mine and checked the faces of the other Awoken. Kim Isol was one thing, but if the rest of them got angry too, there would be no way out.
Just as I feared…
Jang Yong, Baek Hwayeon, even Lee Donggeul—every one of their faces had soured.
Fuck. I'm screwed.
I had to smooth this over somehow, or I was looking at getting fired.
"Say that one more time. What? Scraps?"
What the hell was I supposed to do? My head was a mess. I couldn't find an exit. Something was about to blow.
Still seething, Kim Isol closed the distance step by step. The way she moved was exactly like a beast stalking its prey.
Oh, shit. The company wasn't even the real problem anymore. Was I about to get beaten to death?
Lee Donggeul's healing was completely out of the question right now.
"Wh-what… what are you—"
The closer she came, the more my lips trembled. Why the hell was this woman walking right up to me? Was she actually planning to hit me?
"I-I'm… a… civilian…"
If you hit me wrong, I'll die. Even for an Awoken, murder is still a crime. That was what I wanted to say, but my knees and lips kept shaking together.
Kim Isol stopped right in front of my nose and flashed a wicked little grin.
"So if you're that scared you're shaking like a leaf, why the hell did you pick a fight?"
I swallowed hard. At least she hadn't swung a fist out of nowhere. Still, this was no time to relax. She shoved her face right up against mine, practically breathing threats into my skin.
That cute, pretty face of hers looked more like a gangster's than anything. If we'd locked eyes like this under normal circumstances, I might have fallen for her. Right now I was just a mouse trembling in front of a cat, my lower half shaking like jelly.
A few hours earlier, smoking in front of the convenience store, I had thought, Well, this isn't so bad. They're all pretty innocent, right?
That had been a mistake. A massive delusion.
Back when I'd gone into an F-rank dungeon as an assistant to a senior from the company, the Awoken I'd met then had been absolute bastards. Compared to those guys, these four had seemed like saints. Looking back, maybe those assholes were the whole reason I'd taken the third mana test, desperate to become an Awoken myself no matter what.
But this girl—Kim Isol—was barely any different from those bastards. No real skill, just arrogance, and that look that treated non-Awoken like dirt. Looks aside, she was exactly the type I hated most.
"Are you thinking about something else right now?"
Kim Isol stared straight up into my eyes without so much as a blink.
"I-it was a slip of the tongue. You insulted me first… so… we're even, right?"
"Calling a civilian a civilian is an insult, is it?"
"You said… 'a mere civilian'…"
I hated myself for even arguing. Back then, last night especially, and again right now—standing in front of an Awoken always made me feel infinitely small, and I hated that version of myself to death. If a god really existed, why the hell hadn't I been chosen? Trash like this all got to awaken, so why only me…
"Shut up and just kneel and apologize. I'll let it slide this once. Or do you want to take a clean hit and find out?"
Was I really supposed to drop to my knees in front of this fucking bitch?
I shot a look for help. Jang Yong. You called me hyung earlier…
Our eyes met. My gaze must have been too much for him; Jang Yong, who had been watching quietly, turned his head away. There was something hesitant in his expression. I caught it.
"We're a team for at least the next day. C-couldn't you at least treat me like the older one?"
"Hah. Older one? How old are you?"
"Twenty-two. You're all twenty, right? Jang Yong. Tell her. You called me hyung earlier."
Age was the only card I had left. I used to think Confucian society was complete bullshit, and now I was clinging to it—I felt so pathetic I wanted to throw up.
"What the hell. You're a dumbass. Only two years."
If some guy two years older than me had started pulling the age card, I probably would have felt the same. But a lot of people in Korea still took age seriously. My eyes stayed locked on Jang Yong.
Little brother. Say something! Are you just going to stand there and watch this crazy bitch bully your hyung?
"Just take the hit. That'll knock some sense into you."
Demon bitch. Just you wait. I'll get my revenge one way or another.
I gave up and squeezed my eyes shut. Then I clenched my teeth. I didn't know why, but I refused to kneel. Maybe it was the humiliation from last night. What had I been thinking while staring at the ceiling back then…
Just surrender. Kneel and beg. How is a civilian supposed to talk back to an Awoken?
In my head I had already submitted to her. I was scared. Terrified. I hated pain.
But the other me—the one who had gritted through the agony in my right hand all night—spoke up. Fuck it. A person only dies once, not twice…
The moment that thought landed, the tension that had been locking up my whole body suddenly drained away. Somehow I found my cool again. And the mouth that had already caused so much trouble started running free once more.
"If you hit me right now, what happens to your life?"
"What?"
"Bottom of the Academy rankings. You somehow graduated and landed at a tiny company like ours, and on day one you assault a civilian. Can you handle that? If you think an Awoken's immunity always works, you're dead wrong."
She didn't answer. She seemed to be turning something over in her head. Kim Isol was only mid-160s in height; standing in front of me she had been looking up the whole time. Those eyes that had been glaring nonstop started darting around.
I drove the spike home.
"You're the one who should apologize. I'm the team leader of this team. I may be a civilian, but I'm not someone you can treat however you want. If you don't fix your attitude right now, I'll fire you on the spot. Is there another company that will take an Awoken who got cut after an F-rank dungeon?"
Truthfully, there were plenty. Just being Awoken meant places would come calling. But I wasn't completely wrong either. Getting back into actual dungeon work would be extremely hard. Especially for Academy bottom-feeders like them.
Every company treated Awoken like princesses, but that didn't mean they had become their slaves. If raw power alone decided everything, the so-called big corporations in this industry never would have formed in the first place.
I switched back to a polite tone.
"Kim Isol. Are you going to hit me once and quit our company right this second?"
It was a gamble. One hit and my body would be wrecked somewhere, and I'd get kicked out of the company too. When the Awoken under your charge cause an incident, you go down with them.
But would fresh Academy graduates who had only just learned how to hunt monsters even think that far?
My heart pounded as I stared at Kim Isol's lips. Those small, cute lips had spat out venom like that earlier—the world really was full of mysteries.
Fortunately, Kim Isol did not seem like the type whose brain spun quickly.
"S…orry."
It came out in a tiny voice, almost like Baek Hwayeon's. Maybe she still wanted to keep a scrap of pride.
Whew… at least I heard that instead of a fist. I'd gotten the apology, so I decided to let it go. Scratching the pride of someone like her only created more trouble. How lucky was I that nothing had broken in that hair-trigger moment?
I hurriedly changed my own attitude.
"I apologize first. What I said earlier was a genuine slip of the tongue. I'll take any criticism you throw at me in your hearts. But let's stop this on the surface. If we keep going like this, we might not even clear the target zones we set inside the dungeon within one night and two days. I don't want your first expedition—an F-rank dungeon expedition at that—to end with a failure tag hanging over you."
I bowed at the waist and offered a proper apology to everyone. This was what being an adult looked like. Watch and learn, rookies.
Kim Isol watched me in silence and stepped back. I noticed her biting her lower lip. The others avoided my eyes the same way.
Haa…
Going through this kind of absurd situation two days in a row had left me mentally exhausted. Fuck. At least I didn't piss myself… I'd come that close. Thank god I hadn't drunk any coffee or anything at the café earlier.
After that, Kim Isol didn't speak to me again. I didn't say much either. Most of my orders went to Jang Yong, and he followed them well enough—at least on the surface. But because of what I'd said, my relationship with all four of them had already crossed some invisible river. Could I close that distance in the remaining night and day? I had my doubts, and my confidence was gone.
Haa… making money is fucking hard.
People who don't know anything always envy those who work at dungeon or Awoken management companies. Reality is nothing like that. Death always has a hand on your shoulder, and dealing with Awoken grinds your self-esteem into the dirt. The reason people still choose this job is simple: honor… and above all, money.
But for someone like me, that money is a story from a faraway country. To earn real cash you need at least D-rank dungeons, and who knew when that would ever happen.
Of course, at first I had joined this company full of dreams. My number-one priority had been becoming an Awoken myself. Even if that failed, I had wanted to help protect Korea—and the world—from the monsters threatening humanity. Plus money and fame on the side.
Reality was nowhere near that kind. My first team, and it was already like this… I had actually imagined discovering pearl-in-the-mud Awoken, growing together, and conquering unknown dungeons. I was embarrassed of that past self now.
No matter how the first button had been fastened, I still had to climb with these four. If we stayed stuck in F-rank dungeons forever, I would never escape minimum wage. Still… I had no choice but to try something.
The situation was finally under control. Now we had to head deeper into the cave. I had to act as if the earlier incident had never happened. That was what an adult—and their manager—was supposed to do.
I used the radar again to check ahead. No other monsters showed inside its range. Up to the fork, this was still the entrance of the cave, so that was normal.
But for a while now, Lee Donggeul—who had been standing closest to me—had been acting strange. She kept stopping mid-step and glancing back at me. Did she have something to say?
"Um… Lee Donggeul. Is something wrong?"
"I… um… that is…"
After everything that had just happened, maybe talking to me felt awkward. She still wouldn't spit out what she really meant.
"If something's uncomfortable, please tell me. Solving that is my job."
"No… it's not that… I…"
She even had tears welling up. This one seemed to be the type who got under my skin in her own special way. Frustration made my voice a little louder.
"Please just say it quickly. The next fight is going to start at this rate."
"T… ti…"
"Time?"
"No. P… pee…"
Only then did I catch on. The bathroom. Of course it would be hard to say that to a man. She was barely twenty.
"Please wait a moment. I'll go ask the company side whether the portable toilets have been set up yet."
I stopped the other Awoken from moving and was about to sprint back when someone grabbed me from behind. The sudden extra weight of the pack on my back made me land hard on my ass.
Even as a healer she was still an Awoken, huh. The natural gap in strength made me want to cry. But I wasn't the first one to show tears.
Lee Donggeul looked ready to drop tears any second. She wasn't bawling, but her eyes were brimming.
"What's wrong?"
I asked while still sitting on my ass, unable to get up. Don't tell me she was the type who couldn't go anywhere except a designated spot… or was she just embarrassed that she had told me?
I waited, wondering what was going on with this girl, until her mouth finally opened. She leaned in close to my ear while I sat on the ground and spoke in a voice so small it almost disappeared.
The sensitive tickle against my ear sent a shiver through me, but I held it in.
"I… I think I… peed myself…"
"What?"
Instinctively, my eyes dropped to her rear.