Chapter 92: There's No Such Thing as a Bad Trait (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 92: There's No Such Thing as a Bad Trait (1)
After all the classes had ended for the day.
Shin Yu-jeong, Im Na-eun, Son Seo-yeon, and me.
The four of us gathered at a quiet café on campus.
“I-It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“……”
Ah, right. It wasn’t four of us, but 4+1.
The original plan was for the four of us to get together and figure out who to pick for our last team member.
“I am your t-team member candidate… Elena Mi-Mikhailova Dobreva… it is.”
I had secretly called Elena here without the other three knowing.
The reason?
Obviously… to introduce her to everyone and pitch her well enough for them to accept her as our new teammate.
But why was this woman so nervous?
I leaned in close and whispered to her.
“Elena, why are you so tense? Just relax, be comfortable.”
She replied.
“Ugh… This is an unexpected situation. Do-jin Kim, you looked innocent, so I was even more innocent. I never imagined you would fall for my leaflet-distributing act….”
“……?”
What’s this all of a sudden about being innocent, and what the hell is a leaflet-distributing act?
Judging by her tone and inflection, it didn’t sound like a compliment.
Leaflet-distributing act… like the people outside who get paid to hand out flyers saying, “Come to our store.”
Ah, no way.
“By ‘leaflet-distributing act,’ do you mean… soliciting?”
“Yes, that. Solicit…? Sucker? Act. Do-jin, you fell for it.”
“……”
I pretty much got what she meant.
So… she was poking around here and there looking for a team, happened to run into me, and decided to take a shot in the dark by pitching herself to me—soliciting, that is—and I naively fell for it.
“However, I did not know. I thought since you were so innocent, Do-jin, your teammates would be just as innocent… but they were not.”
“No, Do-jin is my name.”
“Who does not know that? You are strange today, Do-jin. Coming Back to when you were kind and innocent, you must.”
“……”
I’m not even going to bother.
I turned my head and looked at my teammates.
Every single one of them had a face scrunched up in suspicion and trouble.
I could see why they were worried.
Unlike me, the three of them looked like they wouldn’t let this go so easily.
“Hey, Kim Do-jin.”
Shin Yu-jeong, whose eyes met mine, called out to me in a low voice.
“What do you think you’re doing right now?”
“…A brief conversation?”
“That’s not what I mean. This woman… Huu, I’m asking why you called Elena here, you bastard.”
Then you should have asked more clearly.
“Didn’t you hear Elena introduce herself? She’s a team member candidate. I called her for an interview, just like she said.”
If I filled the spot on my own, I had a feeling I’d get a serious earful.
Excluding our angel Na-eun, the other two had personalities that were a real handful.
One was an active volcano that looked ready to erupt at the slightest touch, and the other was so blunt and cold you’d freeze on the spot if you got too close.
“Aha, is that so? Then I’m against it.”
Jeez, she’s being so difficult.
“Yu-jeong.”
“What!”
“Even if you’re in a bad mood, don’t you think you shouldn’t act like that with the person right in front of you?”
As I questioned her point by point, a hint of anxiety crept into her pouting expression.
She’d changed a little since the Kim Jeong-hun incident.
She was usually the same, but when I spoke to her calmly like I was reasoning with a child, she’d quickly back down.
It seemed she was still carrying around some guilt.
“Hey… It’s not like I’m the only one who doesn’t like this, so why are you only picking on me?”
Why do you think, you brat?
“You’re the only one making a fuss right now.”
The first one to step up is the first one to get hit.
In that sense, she really had a personality that was prone to losing out.
After glancing to her sides, Shin Yu-jeong shut her mouth with a sullen look.
She gets sulky surprisingly easily.
“Yu-jeong.”
“…What now.”
“Do you really think I would bring Elena all the way here without any thought?”
“……”
Her lips trembled, but in the end, she didn’t say a word.
It seemed she was a little worried about saying “yes,” but her pride wouldn’t let her say “no.”
“I put a lot of thought into calling Elena here, so let’s at least hear her out first.”
Shin Yu-jeong’s face turned slightly red.
“I’ll listen. I said I’ll listen, so can you just stop talking like that?”
“Like what?”
“Stop talking to me like I’m a little kid!”
“Oh, I see~ So our little Yu-jeong doesn’t like it when I talk like this…”
“Ugh, seriously!”
If I teased her any more, she looked like she’d explode, so I decided to make a temporary retreat. I stood up and said, “Let’s order some coffee first. Americanos for everyone?”
“Yeah, a hot one for me.”
“Me too…”
“If I drink something hot right now, I feel like I’ll burn up from the inside out, so make mine iced.”
Unlike the gentle replies from Im Na-eun and Son Seo-yeon, Shin Yu-jeong answered while huffing and puffing.
Right, iced is probably best for you.
You need something to cool you down.
I turned to Elena, who was still slightly frozen, and asked.
“What would you like to drink, Elena?”
“I will have…”
After a moment of thought, she rattled off her order.
“An Iced White Chocolate Mocha Frappuccino, please. Ah, with only half the chocolate mocha sauce, and please substitute the sugar with Zero Sugar Vanilla. Thank you.”
“……”
She doesn’t hold some kind of grudge against me, does she?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
After barely managing to order the coffee, we began our discussion in earnest.
I might have called it an interview earlier, but it would be more accurate to call this a time for persuasion.
After all, Elena and I had to team up to convince the other three.
“Alright, first, let’s take a look at this tablet.”
I placed the tablet on the table.
Displayed on the screen was a list of the remaining tankers.
The top-ranking tankers had already been snatched up, and even the decent, cost-effective ones from the mid-to-low ranks were all gone.
To be honest, all the tankers left on this list had clear, undeniable flaws.
“The reason I chose Elena is simple. Among everyone left here, she’s the best option.”
Shin Yu-jeong’s expression clouded over slightly.
“There are this few left already…? Damn, they work fast.”
Shin Yu-jeong grumbled as she scanned the names of those remaining.
Me, Na-eun, and Seo-yeon were special admission students who had just enrolled this semester, so we didn’t know, but she did.
She knew exactly what kind of people were left.
“I happened to see Elena training, and her stats are quite impressive. Not just her stamina and strength, but she’s not even slow while using a tower shield.”
“Hmph…!”
Elena, who was listening beside me, snorted loudly.
Our eyes met for a second, and her gaze seemed to say:
‘Excellent, Do-jin. Appeal for me more strongly!’
Wait, why can I read that?
“But… Elena has a flaw, too.”
Seo-yeon, who was next to me, spoke up quietly.
Surprisingly, that was the first thing she’d said since we all gathered.
What am I going to do with you…
As if she’d been waiting for it, Shin Yu-jeong pounced on the opening.
“Yeah, that’s right. That trait of hers. What are you going to do about that?”
Putting my thoughts about Seo-yeon aside for a moment.
The question I’d been waiting for had finally come.
The one about her Area of Effect CC trait that hinders friend and foe alike.
“About that trait… I’ve experienced it myself, you see.”
“And?”
A slowing field that spreads out from her.
Everyone who’s experienced it says the same thing.
That it’s an effective trait, but it has the fatal flaw of not distinguishing between allies and enemies.
But that’s wrong.
“Elena’s trait is working perfectly fine, without any issues.”
Shin Yu-jeong frowned.
“What do you mean? You’re saying a trait that slows down everyone, friend or foe, is working fine?”
“Yeah, it’s working fine. Perfectly, in fact.”
From the moment the trait manifested until now.
Elena’s trait had always been working properly.
And it was even distinguishing between friend and foe with absolute certainty.
Elena, who had been happily sipping her white chocolate… whatever-ccino, looked at me with a shocked expression.
“Is that… really true? My trait, this is its normal state?”
“Yep.”
At my firm answer, her face filled with despair.
“Good heavens, I am ruined…. If this is normal, then there is no hope of fixing it. Then Elena, Elena will…!”
Her face instantly crumpled as if she were about to cry.
It seemed she was already picturing herself graduating with the lowest marks, unable to earn any real money, and returning to her home country in solitude.
I lightly patted her slumped shoulder and said to everyone.
“Like I said before, Elena’s trait is working perfectly.”
I circled my finger, pointing to everyone except Elena, before speaking again.
“Because it recognizes all of us as enemies.”
There’s no such thing as a bad trait in the world.
Only a problematic owner.