A Dragon Prepares to Welcome Guests
"The evaluation results are out, right?"
"They finish grading everything in a day. Honestly, I don't even get why we have to wait another whole day. Watching you cast magic, Ha-yan, is enough to give anyone the answer. You're skipping the awards ceremony again this time, aren't you?"
"I never go to those things anyway. Why start now? And this time especially, I think it's better if we stay away. Outside of three people, I doubt anyone's looking at us with anything resembling kindness."
"...Then maybe we should just attend?"
"Why?"
"So I can snap the necks of every last bastard staring at us with those weird eyes—sn-sn-sn-snap!!!!!!"
"There you go again!! Stop saying creepy things!!"
Lately those damn mages kept poking at my temper so much that I was ending up pinched and smacked by Ha-yan more often than not.
One way or another, we had suddenly ended up taking on students who weren't exactly disciples, but at least we had managed to squeeze every last drop of enjoyment out of our trip around Osaka and the surrounding areas.
Whenever something more comfortable than the train was available, we just took taxis, so the physical toll hadn't been that bad.
Japanese taxis expensive? My wallet was far more expensive.
Anyway.
Once we finished the final magic evaluation and heard that Ha-yan had once again taken first place, we began getting ready to head back to Korea.
But there was still one more thing we needed to check first.
I turned to Yang Ho-jin, who was diligently sorting through the evaluation documents in Rhea's place beside me.
"What about that mana stone? Ha-yan was first, so she never went near it. Did you have the average kids try casting magic on it?"
"Mmm. Nothing much happened, apparently. It just greedily sucked up the other kids' mana, that was all? They said it didn't even feel different from a normal mana stone."
"Tch. So the research period just gets longer. All right, I understand."
I told Yang Ho-jin to look into it again later.
And then we came back to the main issue.
Those three students would already be back in the underground city, diligently attending class by now. Ha-yan had given them her personal contact info, so there wasn't really anything I needed to worry about—
"What do you mean, nothing to worry about? We have to find them a place to live. It's not like we can just put them up at our house."
"They're not as loaded as we are, but those kids come from money too. Why do we have to—"
"Because we chose them, so we have to look after them properly. And I don't plan on teaching them magic alone, you know."
"'Magic alone'?"
"Heh heh. Since they came all the way to Korea to learn, wouldn't it be fun for them to experience school life too? They're not the same age as me, so they can't be in the same class, but I think those three would do just fine as first-years at our school."
"You're going to bring them to school? Those kids? Th-then how are you going to explain the fact that they're the same year as us?"
Ha-yan and I were the same age. Our appearances were similar enough too. But in the wizarding world, the known relationship between me and Ha-yan was that of master and disciple.
If word got out that a master and disciple were attending the same school—not even as teacher and student, but as classmates in the same year—I had a feeling some rather unpleasant rumors would start flying around.
"Don't worry about that. I already told the kids, and they all just nodded and went, 'Yeah, that can happen.'"
"...Huh?"
What was she talking about now?
I stared at Ha-yan with a completely blank look, and she beamed as she filled me in on the backstory I had somehow missed.
"You're known in the wizarding world as an ancient great mage, right?"
"Yeah. The character I set up is someone who existed even before the mage headquarters in Antarctica was founded."
"But no matter how much people poke and prod and inspect your appearance, you still look about the same age as me, don't you?"
"Well, I am that age."
"And the only place you and I are known as master and disciple is inside the wizarding world, right?"
"Right?"
"So in regular society, we can just do whatever we want and it shouldn't be a problem, right? We can say you're protecting me, or that you spent so long in hiding that your social sense is about the same as mine."
"And that actually works on those old fogeys?"
"It worked way too well. Some of the kids even asked me what it was like going to school with you."
"Heh heh... this whole society of theirs has its head cracked wide open."
I shook my head as I said it, but there wasn't really anything bad about the situation.
Even with that fact out in the open, my power and reputation in their society were still perfectly intact.
Of course, if Ha-yan had thought it would diminish any of that even a little, she never would have brought it up here.
"Anyway. Everyone already knows, so you don't have to worry about it. We can just keep doing what we've always done. All we need to do when we get back is set up a place for those kids to stay."
"Tch. That sounds like a pain."
"You're just going to dump it all on Rhea anyway, aren't you?"
"Well, yeah."
I wondered if Rhea was scratching her ears back in Korea right about now, complaining that they were tingling.
"You were talking behind my back, weren't you, Master?"
"...Did you develop precognition while we were gone?"
Once we returned to Korea, life slipped back into its ordinary rhythm.
It was still summer vacation, so Ha-yan, determined to make up for the two weeks she hadn't been able to play, started tearing around the city with Do Ji-yeon like a pair of lunatics.
I headed to the company to deal with the work that had piled up over those same two weeks, and the very first thing Rhea said the moment she saw me was that.
I let out a long sigh at the mountain of documents that had somehow grown even taller in my absence, then felt a tiny prick of guilt at her words and shot the question back at her.
"Why are you saying random things out of nowhere? Did something happen while we were gone?"
"...That is an extremely suspicious attempt at changing the subject, but I shall let it slide this once. After all, you have returned after doing something that finally pleased me."
"Something that pleased you?"
I couldn't remember doing anything that would have made her happy this time.
Rhea plucked a specific set of papers from the pile on my desk with perfect accuracy and held them out for me to see.
"Please take a look. These are three proposals that arrived from foreign industries."
"Three... of them?"
Ever since that Osaka summer trip, I had developed something close to a neurosis about the number three.
No matter what I did, I found myself unconsciously avoiding it.
All because of those damn three students.
Anyway, I took the documents from Rhea with a slightly dubious expression and began reading them carefully.
Before long I was pressing hard on my temples and asking her,
"The other human secretaries didn't see these, did they?"
"I am not certain how urgently they sent them, but they came through as ordinary fax documents, so I was forced to apply a light memory-erasure spell. Fortunately it was an intern who always has one homunculus shadowing them. If a regular employee had stumbled across these papers while working alone, I shudder to think how thoroughly everything would have gone to hell."
"Ugh. Right. It's my fault for not being able to stop Ha-yan."
"Please speak correctly, Master. My Lady Lee Ha-yan always makes the right decision. You, I, and the rest of us merely support her. Allow me to restate: she is always correct."
"Yeah, yeah. I get it. Please take good care of the children... if they want any particular materials we'll send them no matter what... we're also interested in investing... they're basically offering to hand over their livers and gallbladders, aren't they?"
"The alchemy group appeared ready to hand over not only gold but every last one of their patented techniques as well. I put that part on hold—accepting it would only invite interference from the Magic Department and create a headache."
"Good call."
I continued speaking while looking over the other documents Rhea had already processed in the meantime.
But the problems weren't limited to just those papers.
"These are from the commerce group, and these are business-agreement documents from the Magic Department. It seems the three students arriving this time come from rather well-connected families."
"Ha-yan must have chosen them carefully so it wouldn't be too burdensome. Too high and the Magic Department would throw even more obstacles; too low and outside forces would try to push them around."
"As expected. Our lady appears to have anticipated every last detail before moving forward."
At my words, Rhea launched into yet another round of Ha-yan worship.
I handed her the signed documents while she gazed at an imaginary Ha-yan with sparkling eyes and said,
"First, find them a house. Somewhere roughly between Ha-yan's place and the school. At least four bedrooms, more is fine."
"Shall I arrange a lease, or purchase?"
"Just buy it. It's not like it's that expensive. And get all the appliances and whatever else people need to live like actual humans. There's a homunculus in charge of that stuff, right? Tell her to stock it with furniture and daily necessities that match modern kids' tastes."
"Would it not be better to ask first regarding cosmetics and personal items? They are modern teenagers, after all."
"Tell Ha-yan to ask them on their personal numbers. They're probably still buried in leftover studies in Osaka, but the moment we contact them they'll drop everything to answer."
I left that entire matter in Rhea's hands. That was half the reason I had created these kids in the first place.
"You seem to be putting a surprising amount of care into this already. Quite unlike you, Master."
Seeing how much attention I was paying to the three students, Rhea looked at me with genuine surprise.
I just shrugged and answered her with the weary resolve of a ten-year married man.
"Losing is winning. I don't want Ha-yan to hate me."
"Correct. If you do not wish to be thrown out of the house, please continue obeying Lady Ha-yan's every word for the rest of your life. I shall take my leave now."
After landing that completely unfiltered finishing blow, Rhea swept out of the office. I stared after her with a vacant expression and muttered to myself,
"So who exactly is your master—me or Ha-yan...?"
I was single-handedly dragging the dignity of every dragon through the mud.