Do You Know Who I Am?

Open the inner door of the training room and you step into a shooting range.

There, the head butler had planned to give Jeong-Hoon a basic course in firearms.

"You're more skilled than I expected."

The way Jeong-Hoon turned the pistol over in his hands and checked the target, however, was nothing like a beginner's.

"Well, I learned it in school."

He shrugged as if it were nothing and set the pistol down in front of him.

"Huh? You mean you didn't know?"

"I was aware. I only remarked ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠on it because Gaju is far too proficient."

The world had changed overnight with the appearance of monsters. One of those changes was teaching students how to handle firearms.

Some called it a shortcut to militarism and opposed it, but it was an unavoidable prescription.

"Indeed. The system was put in place after the Bongak High School disaster."

Jeong-Hoon nodded in agreement at the head butler's words.

The Bongak High School disaster had shocked the entire world.

"I was still in middle school then. It scared me half to death."

There had already been a sense of crisis that monsters could appear anywhere. Compared to now, though, that sense of urgency had been mild.

Schools at the time kept armories on the assumption that monsters might appear. Teachers were supposed to hold the monsters off and protect the students until rescue teams arrived. That was the system they had built.

What happened at Bongak High School cast serious doubt on whether the system actually worked.

In the early stages of the incident, every teacher was killed, leaving only the students. Those who failed to escape were slaughtered to the last child. Even though they had guns, almost none of them knew how to use one properly. That was how the massacre happened.

"After that, the law was revised so students would be trained to fire weapons in an emergency. Naturally, Gaju would have received that training as well."

"My middle school was right near that one, so they drilled us even harder."

"That must have been difficult."

On top of that, Jeong-Hoon had personally been interested in hunters and had picked up a fair amount from videos. He deliberately left that part unsaid.

"So... can I actually shoot this?"

"Of course."

He had set the pistol down, but he had been itching to fire it from the moment he first held it. The grip felt so good it was obvious the weapon had been made to fit him. Having a gun like that right in front of him and only being allowed to fiddle with it was pure torture.

"In that case, I won't hold back."

Jeong-Hoon slipped on a pair of earmuff-style headphones, picked up the pistol, and snapped off a rapid series of shots at the target.

Bang!

The gunshots rang out, yet the head butler did not so much as twitch an eyebrow. He simply watched the target. Then his expression turned openly intrigued.

"Oh-ho. This is impressive."

Every shot was a bullseye. Not merely on the target—each round had struck the marked vital points with perfect precision.

"Whew. It's been a while since I used a handgun. My arms are tired."

"Most of the school training is done with rifles, after all."

Judging that Jeong-Hoon's marksmanship left nothing to teach, the head butler handed him a fresh magazine loaded with rubber rounds instead of live ammunition.

"Gaju, shall we return to the training room? It seems we can move on to proper self-defense techniques."

Wearing the gentle smile of a kindly grandfather, the head butler taught Jeong-Hoon close-quarters combat that combined a pistol and a dagger.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

After training and a shower, Jeong-Hoon staggered down the hotel corridor.

"Are you very tired?"

"Please go a little easier next time. At this rate I've already booked a full-body muscle ache for tomorrow."

It hurt worse than working at the logistics center, Jeong-Hoon grumbled. The head butler only smiled.

"Gaju performed so admirably that I got a little carried away without realizing it."

He said it as if he meant every word, but Jeong-Hoon knew better and simply shook his head.

If an SSS-class like the head butler had been serious, a single flick of the finger would have erased Jeong-Hoon from existence without a trace. In other words, the man had carefully adjusted everything to Jeong-Hoon's level. It was simply that "carefully" was measured by the head butler's standards.

"Haah... at least give me something for the muscle pain."

"In that case, simply snap your fingers the way I showed you earlier."

Hearing that the head butler did not have any on him, Jeong-Hoon snapped his fingers.

Instantly, the head maid in her maid uniform appeared in front of him as if she had always been standing there.

"You called for me, Gaju?"

"Ah, the head maid. Anyway, could you get me something for muscle pain?"

"I would like to say there is no medicine for muscle pain... but as it happens, Lumen does stock some."

She handed him a small bottle that looked like a fatigue recovery tonic and smiled faintly. Jeong-Hoon took it and stared at her intently.

"...Head Maid, was that just now a joke?"

"No. I merely stated a fact. More importantly, please speak more casually with me."

It was painfully obvious she had tried to make a joke and failed, yet she denied it outright. Jeong-Hoon ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had no hobby of teasing people over failed punchlines, so he smoothly changed the subject.

"Come to think of it, I never heard your name, Head Maid."

"...Gaju, I am merely a vassal. I would prefer that you speak down to me."

"I heard the same thing from the head butler, but I still feel uncomfortable talking casually to someone so much older than I am."

He figured he would drop the formal speech someday and simply shrugged.

"Gaju, you just called me 'so much older.' Why do you think that?"

"Head Maid, aren't you around thirty-four to thirty-six?"

Worried he might have guessed wrong, Jeong-Hoon glanced at them. Both the head butler and the head maid looked utterly bewildered.

Not because he had gotten her age wrong. On the contrary, she looked no older than her mid-twenties. The hair she wore pinned up with a hairpin and her stern expression only ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠made people assume she was deliberately trying to look older. Anyone who did not already know her real age automatically placed her in her twenties.

Yet Jeong-Hoon had seen through it without the slightest effort.

"I am exactly thirty-six. What I am curious about is how you knew."

"Oh, it's nothing special. Some Awakened age more slowly, right? Dungeons have been appearing for about ten years, and the head maid is at least an S-class Awakened. I just figured no one in their twenties would be given the position of head maid."

He briefly explained the reasoning that had led him to her age. The two of them nodded.

Jeong-Hoon lacked knowledge, not wisdom.

Realizing that fact left both of them deeply satisfied. Having a capable master was, after all, a pleasant thing.

"My name is Jeong I-Yeong, Gaju."

Having witnessed his insight, the head maid—I-Yeong—spoke her name in a bright voice. Jeong-Hoon nodded.

"Mm. I'll make sure to remember it."

He downed the medicine she had given him in one shot, decided it tasted as good as it looked, and handed back the empty bottle.

"I would prefer that you continue calling me Head Maid."

"Sure. I will."

The head maid took the empty bottle and vanished in an instant, leaving those words behind. Jeong-Hoon simply nodded in reply.

"Um, Head Butler? Once you reach S-class, can you do things like teleport?"

"Unless one specifically possesses a teleportation ability, it is impossible. What you saw was merely moving too quickly for the eye to follow, or ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠slipping into a blind spot in someone's vision."

Thinking that still firmly counted as a superpower, Jeong-Hoon took the opportunity to ask detailed questions about abilities in general.

As a Non-Awakened who could not use any powers himself, superpowers remained a pure object of curiosity. Even an F-class ability that could only spark a flame the size of a lighter's was still wondrous to him. Naturally, he had a great many questions.

He had asked plenty even when his parents were still alive, but they had only been F-class and could never fully satisfy his curiosity. The head butler, however, possessed vast knowledge of abilities and answered every question in meticulous detail.

"You looking down on me too?!"

That enjoyment was shattered by a sudden shout.

A middle-aged man seething with barely contained rage and a younger man crumpled on the floor, blood streaming from his nose and lips, came into Jeong-Hoon's view.

The two had appeared while Jeong-Hoon and the butler were on their way to the hotel restaurant for dinner.

The middle-aged man's face was flushed—not only with anger but with drink. Watching him kick the younger man as well as punch him, Jeong-Hoon turned to the head butler.

"That is the guild master of AP Guild, the core of the current joint raid force. Recruitment for the supply units supporting the raid has not been going smoothly, and it seems the stress has finally exploded."

"...If it's the joint raid centered on AP Guild, ah—the one they were talking about in the sauna back then?"

Jeong-Hoon recalled the day he first met the head butler and was surprised that, even after all this time, recruitment still was not finished. He had known those guilds had terrible reputations, but he had not expected them to fail even to finish recruiting.

"And he's taking that frustration out on a subordinate. That's a bit much."

"You deduced that much already. Truly sharp."

"That's basic. More importantly, aren't you going to stop them?"

He would not kill the man, but AP Guild was a mid-tier guild and its master was an A-class hunter. The man being beaten was probably a hunter as well, yet if left alone he looked ready to leave on a stretcher.

"We should. Having police cars show up over a violent incident would be bad for the hotel's image."

Normally Lumen staff would intervene in such cases. The corridor where this was happening was only one of many in the hotel. Even with regular patrols, there were always empty windows of time, and the incident had simply coincided with one of them. The head butler therefore prepared to step in himself and started toward the AP Guild master.

"What are you staring at?!"

But the guild master spun around and shouted at Jeong-Hoon even faster than the butler could intervene.

Startled by the sudden yell, Jeong-Hoon instinctively took a half-step back.

"Sir, would you kindly refrain from causing a disturbance in the hotel?"

The head butler smoothly cut in, covering for Jeong-Hoon's reaction.

The AP Guild master flinched for a moment, then deliberately averted his eyes from the butler and glared at Jeong-Hoon instead.

"Who the hell are you to tell me what to do? Do you know who I am?!"

Watching the man ignore the butler and bellow at the seemingly softer target, Jeong-Hoon could not help a snort of laughter.

He had flinched for a second, but he had never once found people like this frightening. A classic small man. That very fact gave him the courage to push back hard.