Attracting Investment
The next morning, when I arrived at the center for work, I found Lim Hana, Lamia, and Han Sul-ye gathered together at the café.
Lamia was an active idol, of course, and Lim Hana and Han Sul-ye both possessed looks that would make passersby turn their heads at least once. It was only natural that the gazes of people walking by would converge on a single spot.
As I stepped into the café to order coffee, Lim Hana spotted me and raised her hand high in greeting.
"Seha! Come on over!"
"Hello, Instructor."
"Hello."
When the other two followed Lim Hana's lead with their own greetings, the people watching them turned their eyes toward me and widened them in surprise.
I should have been getting used to this by now, but receiving those stares still left me a little awkward.
"You're all gathered early this morning. I'll go order my coffee first."
"Okay!"
Lim Hana's expression was unusually bright.
She had been brightening up little by little since we met, but there had always been an inescapable shadow lingering somewhere in her face. It had given her a bit of that frail-beauty vibe, yet today most of that darkness seemed to have vanished, if not all of it.
Could it be that she'd already heard about the stalker?
If she'd been a victim of stalking for a long time, she might have had at least one channel through which she could receive information about the person in question. It wasn't as if there were no possible routes to deduce.
The stalker had suddenly fallen into an unnatural sleep, and even without physical evidence, if a stalking victim lived nearby, the police would have to consider the possibility that this was a crime committed by an Awakener. That meant Lim Hana could potentially be named as a suspect in the process.
Of course, with no evidence, the investigation would proceed at the level of a person of interest for now, but to do that they would first have to inform Lim Hana herself of the facts. Normally, if things progressed this way, one would inevitably feel anxious about getting caught—but since the evidence had already been erased by her power, there was nothing to worry about.
She could simply enjoy the criminal's misfortune with pleasure.
"Today is when the full-scale practical training begins. Feeling confident?"
As I sat down and asked Lamia, her eyes sparkled as she answered.
"Yes. I'm confident."
"Oh? Did something good happen? Your confidence shot up overnight."
At my reply, Lamia hesitated for a moment as if she'd let something slip, then spoke in a small voice.
"Actually... I got a new skill."
"Really? Wow! Congratulations. What kind of skill is it?"
"It's a skill called Halcanus's Obsession. I'm not entirely sure, but it seems to enhance magic effects."
It wasn't that simple a skill. Yesterday I'd been too busy to explain the effects in the dream, but since I'd see her again tonight anyway, I could tell her then.
"That's a skill I've never heard of before. Well, it's not like I know every skill in the world."
Lim Hana suddenly seemed about to say something, then mumbled. She had probably been about to brag that she had also obtained a new skill, only to realize belatedly that the fact that such unheard-of rare skills had appeared only among these three people might feel a bit awkward.
Sensing Lim Hana's situation, Han Sul-ye, who had been watching from the side, smoothly changed the subject.
"Will you be participating in the practicals as well, Instructor?"
"If you mean going inside the Gate, no. If I go in, the tank can't do their job."
"Why?"
"Because all the aggro gets drawn to me. Leading a party myself is one thing, but stepping back a pace to simply observe is practically impossible."
Except for Lim Hana, who had already seen such a situation before, the other two looked shocked.
"That's... isn't that incredibly amazing?"
"I may not look it, but during training the major guilds were fighting over me. Ahem. The dual class messed everything up, though."
Only then did Lim Hana join the conversation.
"So if you wanted to, you could still join a major corporate guild even now?"
"I hate to say it myself, but I think so. At the time I was really disappointed, but now I feel like this isn't so bad either."
This time Lamia asked.
"Why? Those are places everyone else wants to get into."
"Thanks to that, I got to meet wonderful people like you. If I'd been in a major corporate guild instead of the Association, we never would have met like this."
At that, Lim Hana, looking moved, immediately threw herself into my arms.
"Seha!"
"Unnie!"
It was playful, but originally Lim Hana wasn't the type to make physical contact easily even with other women. After going through various things in the dreams, though, this much seemed to no longer bother her.
"So about what I mentioned before—you still remember, right?"
"The fixed party?"
"Yes. I really think it would be great if we stuck together. The personnel composition isn't bad either."
Moreover, our combat power had been greatly strengthened compared to when I first proposed it. A healer with Saintess skills, a mage with Demon King skills, plus a close-range fighter with buffer traits, and a tank whose aggro generation was second to none. We still lacked experience, but in terms of the traits we possessed, we wouldn't fall behind any average named party.
Lamia seemed to be deep in thought, and surprisingly, Han Sul-ye expressed a positive opinion.
"It doesn't sound bad. I haven't even received training yet, but if there's a spot, would you let me join?"
"Really? I'd be grateful if you would."
Lamia looked surprised at Han Sul-ye's reaction, but in the end she didn't say she would join the fixed party.
Was the agency the problem after all? I should look into it a bit.
With that, the morning coffee time ended, and after I went up to the support team and worked frantically preparing for the full-scale stat measurements starting today, before I knew it it was time for the afternoon practicals.
The practical training period for new Awakener training was an important event for the Awakener Center, so not only I but also Lim Hana, the medical team intern, had to be dispatched to the field. Perhaps considering my friendship with Lamia, the instructor assigned me to the site where she was going for exploration practicals.
While I was helping with field support there, Han Sul-ye quietly approached and spoke to me from somewhere.
"Oh? Sul-ye?"
"Please drop the 'nim.' There's no need to address me so formally."
"Shall I? Did you come to observe, by any chance?"
"I'd love to participate in the practicals myself, but in the end I couldn't get permission."
"Well, it's different from observing at the training center, after all."
We mixed a cup of instant coffee each and shared them while watching the monitoring screens.
As expected, Lamia was putting on a performance that made the expression "a crane among chickens" feel inadequate. Skillfully controlling two butterflies made of flame and sweeping away approaching magical beasts in an instant, she was clearly on a different level from the other newcomers.
As I watched the monitor quietly, Han Sul-ye suddenly spoke.
"Seha."
"Yes."
I tensed, wondering if she was going to talk about the recommendation, but the topic Han Sul-ye brought up was completely different.
"Have you ever thought about receiving investment?"
"Investment?"
"Even for a fixed party, I know gate exploration requires a certain amount of initial capital. Of course the Association provides some support, but wouldn't it be better to have abundant funds if possible?"
"Well, that's true."
As Han Sul-ye said, even a fixed party needed a certain amount of initial costs. Starting from the deposit when reserving a Gate, and since we wouldn't have a dedicated monitoring team, we'd need Association assistance, which also incurred a certain fee. Equipment and consumables went without saying.
"I don't know if you've heard, but my parents are quite wealthy. It's not money I earned myself, but if you're interested, I'd like to invest in Seha's party. What do you think—are you interested?"
Even when I first met her, she had given off the vibe of a rather wealthy young lady, and it seemed that was true.
If someone else had made this proposal, I might have politely declined for now. After all, you don't take money whose intentions aren't clear. But Han Sul-ye was already someone over whom I could exert influence through the means of dreams, so it was inevitably a better choice than receiving investment from some random other people.
Even so, I couldn't just accept the proposal right away the moment I first heard it.
"It's a bit difficult right now, but could we set aside some time later to hear more details?"
"Sure. I need to talk to my parents first anyway. Since they're the ones with the money, it might be good to arrange a proper meeting when we have time."
"Are you okay with this, Sul-ye?"
"With what?"
"Well, usually asking your parents for money like this feels a bit... off, doesn't it?"
Han Sul-ye smiled lightly at my words.
"If it were simply asking for a handout, yes. But this is an investment proposal. An investment in a promising party. If anything, I'm giving them an opportunity to make money."
"Haha. Is that so."
So she could think of it that way. Moreover, though she didn't say it, it seemed Han Sul-ye didn't consider an investment of this scale a big burden to begin with.
Fortunately, the field practicals concluded without major issues. And after compiling the results from each site, the atmosphere was solidifying that, just as the instructor had said, the top prospect of this cohort was indeed Lamia.
While the practicals were in full swing, I finally got the opportunity to speak with Han Sul-ye's parents.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Han Sang-yeon."
The person who appeared at the meeting place was a middle-aged man who, unlike the somewhat haughty Han Sul-ye, had a warm and affable appearance.
"I'm Lee Seha. Pleasure to meet you."
"I've heard about you from Sul-ye, and your looks are quite outstanding. Were you perhaps affiliated with an agency like Sul-ye?"
"No, I wasn't."
"Is that so? Looking at it, agencies really don't have an eye for talent. Leaving someone like you alone."
"You're too kind."
It might sound like he was praising me, but in reality it was probably a comment about Han Sul-ye, who had ultimately failed to debut as an idol.
The investment was concluded so easily that my earlier tension felt pointless.
By showing him my and Lim Hana's recent stat information, along with Han Sul-ye's stats that I had organized in my own way, Han Sang-yeon decided on the investment with surprising ease.
"What percentage of shares are you thinking of?"
It was perhaps the most important part, so I asked with some tension,
"About 3 percent should be sufficient."
"Pardon? Really?"
"Yes. Enough to request an accounting audit when necessary is fine."
"Isn't that too little?"
Honestly, even if he had asked for 30 percent instead of 3, I would have had no choice but to nod, so I even felt a bit dazed.
"I heard from Sul-ye. That if you had the mind for it, major corporate guilds would pay 3 billion won to recruit you."
There had been talk like that during the draft.
"This is a party created by such a talent. Demanding more than that share for a mere 100 million won investment would be going too far, in my opinion."
In terms of the ratio of 100 million to 3 billion, 3 percent was indeed correct. But that was previous business, and with a new fixed party being formed, it was hard to use as a reference.
In the end, I had no choice but to stand up and bow deeply to him.
"Thank you very much."
"Haha. It's fine. If it really bothers you, just take good care of Sul-ye."
"Yes. Leave it to me."
When I checked later, Han Sang-yeon turned out to be someone belonging to a collateral line of a certain major domestic conglomerate, and one of the mid-level executives in charge of a fairly large affiliate.
But as they say, those who have more give more—even someone from a chaebol family doesn't just toss out 100 million won like pocket money like this.
At any rate, with the investment secured, discussions related to the fixed party began to progress even more rapidly.