Hurry Up and Work! (5)
The interviews went incredibly smoothly and ended in triumphant fashion.
What surprised me a little was that there were more talents like our Team Leader Kim Miyoung than I’d expected.
Of course, there was no reason to avoid them.
I figured desperate slaves would work harder.
That said, several of the people I’d asked those bizarre questions purely to weed them out had reacted with a great deal of indignation.
Still, I’d thrown out questions with no objectively correct answer, so that reaction seemed perfectly reasonable.
“All the members of Blue Guild have fallen into the water. Who would you save, and why?”
“You’ve been commissioned to clean every guild in Lindel. What amount would you charge to be considered a fair price?”
“You’ve set out to explore a dungeon with your companions. If you must assume that one person will definitely die during the expedition, would you proceed with the dungeon raid or not?”
“If you were to explain what alchemy is to your five-year-old child, what would you say?”
Questions of that sort.
Utterly absurd questions, clearly designed to create an image of innovation.
It didn’t really matter, since they were only being asked to people I intended to reject anyway, but there were a few applicants whose answers were decent enough to make me reconsider.
Of course, I’d only borrowed them from the interview questions used by famous companies on Earth, but the effect was pretty good.
Blue Guild, as expected!
That was the kind of response it got. There was criticism too, of course—people wondering what a collapsing guild thought it was doing, pretending to be an innovative company—but the image of a dream workplace that everyone wanted to join helped quiet that down.
More than anything, the post-interview follow-up was probably the decisive factor.
“For the final rejects, please arrange separate interviews.”
“What kind of interviews?”
“They’ll want to know why they were rejected. Skim their résumés and give them a half-decent answer. Ah, and send them a letter thanking them for their application and all that nonsense. I’m sure it’ll mean a lot to them.”
“Yes. Understood.”
“Good.”
Blue Guild cared even about the people who had failed. It was a dazzlingly benevolent guild, very different from the others, whose rejected applicants had to trudge home without even knowing why they’d been turned away.
Of course, I also made sure not to forget my eternal friends in the press.
They ran an interview-style article titled Why Is Blue Different?, and it drew a response so heated it was almost surprising.
The innovators and innovation parrots were starting to unfurl their wings, one by one.
Of course, this was nothing more than image management for the combat jobs that would follow the noncombatant interviews.
By then, even the would-be traitors who had coldly abandoned Blue after the incident started reaching out again.
Of course, I could refuse their re-entry without hesitation.
We don’t need birds of passage.
Honestly, it was better to hire a few lovely workers than to work with people who flitted from place to place.
The newly recruited slaves seemed to like Blue quite a lot.
They were busy, of course, but they were thrilled by the guild’s facilities and threw themselves into their work like maniacs.
Performance brought rewards.
That simple logic was like pouring oil into the crater that held Kim Miyoung and the others.
After they’d settled in, they became so absorbed in their work that they were practically challenging the employees who had already been there, and a strange competitive spirit took root, creating a real synergy effect.
Everything was going smoothly.
And yet…
I feel like I’m dying.
There was no denying that I was busy.
My daily routine was simple.
Under the excuse of visiting Jung Hayan, who for some reason still hadn’t woken up, I’d sneak into her room and catch a little sleep there.
If I didn’t do even that, I honestly thought my body would stop functioning altogether.
I’d even reached the point where I was sleeping right beside Jung Hayan’s bed.
If Jung Hayan had woken up, she probably would have been happy about it, so I had no choice but to comfort myself with that thought. Still, after waking up, I couldn’t help feeling a vague sense of self-disgust.
After a brief rest, I’d head into the workshop and spend some time researching the Illusion Potion, which would soon go out as a product.
The newly formed alchemical planning team was working hard, but there was only so much they could do in the first place, so it would be hard to say my burden had lessened.
They were still only at second advancement, after all, which made them a little short of what you’d call real researchers.
After that came meetings, where I sorted out guild affairs and gave detailed work orders.
I especially assigned more work to Hwang Jeongyeon and spent some quality time resenting Kim Hyunsung.
Then, in between, I rotated through publicity strategy, future planning, and imperial legal affairs, while also wrapping up personnel planning for the combat division.
I handled as much as I could on my own, taking care of the work the interns still couldn’t do.
Of course, I couldn’t skip the time spent organizing the things that required the hated approval of Kim Hyunsung.
“Kim Hyunsung… that bastard….”
I muttered it without even realizing I was thinking aloud, and a voice immediately came from beside me.
“Pardon?”
“It’s nothing, Ms. Miyoung. I hear you’ve been doing very well lately.”
“Ah. Thank you, Vice Guild Master.”
“How are your children doing?”
“Th-thanks to you, they seem to be having a wonderful time. I, um… I don’t even know how to thank you properly… I’m so grateful for your kindness.”
I should be the one thanking her.
For someone who just took care of my kid, being able to use labor like this was a truly beautiful thing.
Among the people I’d hired, Kim Miyoung was basically the ace.
At the interview, I’d only tossed the question out once, but now I was starting to think that within a year, Kim Miyoung might really become Team Leader Kim Miyoung.
“No. We’re the ones who should be grateful you came to our guild.”
“Yes. For now, I’ll just….”
“Ah, thank you for your hard work. Please go home for today.”
“But the revisions still need to be….”
“I need to go get approval from the Master myself right now. And besides, don’t you need time with your children now and then?”
“Ah. Thank you.”
I gave her shoulder a light pat, and her face turned faintly red.
“Then I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Yes, Vice Guild Master.”
After Kim Miyoung left, I sorted the documents and got to my feet, naturally enough.
The matters I judged too difficult to handle on my own required the permission of the guild’s highest authority.
To be honest, these approvals weren’t even necessary, but if things went badly, I needed the highest authority to be the one who took the blame in my place.
In other words, it was only right to get approval for anything with a high degree of risk.
That was what I was thinking as I slowly made my way up to the office.
“Huh?”
What caught my eye were members of the Red Mercenary Guild—the ones Cha Heera had stationed around me in case another assassination attempt happened like the last one.
Just as I was wondering why they were here, one of the mercenaries standing in front of me spoke up.
“It’s been a while.”
“Yes, it has. What brings you here?”
“The Master is here.”
“Heera noona is?”
“Yes. She’s currently speaking with Kim Hyunsung, the current Master of Blue Guild.”
The moment he finished speaking, the office door flew open.
As if she’d sensed I was coming, her reaction was incredibly fast.
Standing in the doorway was Cha Heera, whom I could fairly call someone I hadn’t seen in a while. Her grinning face felt strangely unfamiliar.
“You’re here, baby?”
“Noona?”
“Perfect timing. I was just talking about you….”
“Please come in, Kiyoung.”
“Ah. Yes.”
I had no idea what was going on, but feeling uneasy seemed only natural.
Usually, Cha Heera didn’t speak to Kim Hyunsung alone, as far as I knew.
Most of Blue’s negotiations had in fact been centered around me. Of course, if you considered that Kim Hyunsung was now the guild master, there was nothing strange about the two of them meeting. And yet, seeing the look on Kim Hyunsung’s face—as if the sky had just collapsed on him—made me genuinely nervous.
What the hell happened?
I’d looked at our regrettable regressor’s face plenty of times up to now, but I’d never seen that expression before.
The most fitting description was probably a man whose country had fallen.
What was strange was that Cha Heera didn’t look unhappy at all. No, she looked almost pleased.
“Did something happen?”
I couldn’t tell what had brought about this atmosphere, so naturally I was on edge.
When I gave a tentative look around, Kim Hyunsung answered my question.
“Nothing has happened. We were merely discussing an invitation.”
“An important invitation?”
“Yes. You may have heard of it, though perhaps not. No, it would be better if I explained from the beginning. Strictly speaking, we don’t need to know about this yet, but apparently every year in Holy Empire Benigore, they host an event where the masters of major guilds belonging to each free city are invited to enjoy a party. In other words, it’s a social gathering.”
“I see.”
I had definitely heard of it before. I couldn’t remember the details, but I was pretty sure Cha Heera had told me about it.
Obviously, it wasn’t really about us.
The invitation was for large guilds like Red Mercenary and Black Swan. Blue, on the other hand, was basically just a freshly started guild.
And yet, looking at Cha Heera’s expression, I could kind of guess what she was about to say.
As if waiting for the cue, she spoke up.
“Naturally, Red Mercenary and Black Swan both received an invitation from the Holy Empire again this time.”
“Ah….”
“The Mercenary Queen has formally requested that Blue Guild bring Lee Kiyoung to this meeting.”
“Request might be putting it too mildly. It was more like a heartfelt plea.”
“Ah!!”
Boombayah!
I understood what was going on in an instant.
And I also understood why Kim Hyunsung looked like a man whose country had fallen.
Holy shit! Heera noona, I love you!
Nothing else mattered.
The important thing was that a chance had appeared to escape this hell of work.
I was even starting to feel a kind of love for Cha Heera that I’d never had before.
It was almost impossible to hold back the urge to kiss those luscious red locks of hers, and I couldn’t conceal the corners of my mouth, which kept trying to rise on their own.
“So… I see.”
I wanted to keep my expression under control, but it wasn’t going very well.
The thought of entering the capital of the Holy Empire, partying with Cha Heera, and enjoying a leisurely wandering life there alone was enough to make me practically wet myself.
Especially since I’d been craving a break so badly.
Heera noona….
“Truth be told, if Kiyoung, who’s currently handling the overall work in our guild, were to leave… the situation could get pretty rough. But going into the capital and meeting other people, or important figures, would probably be helpful too.”
Kim Hyunsung kept talking, and his expression looked absolutely miserable.
I wasn’t so deluded as to think I was irreplaceable, but the truth was that the reason the guild was functioning at all right now was because of me.
It was basically a trade: Lee Kiyoung exchanged for labor.
If I left under these circumstances, it was obvious what would happen.
That enormous pile of work would probably fall on the guild master.
Justice will prevail.
From Kim Hyunsung’s perspective, it was only natural that he wouldn’t want to send me away. And yet, if this was my chance to step into high society, then it wasn’t a bad trade at all.
That was probably why his expression was becoming so strangely complicated.
“The Mercenary Queen did say that if Kiyoung refuses, she won’t force him to come….”
“I’ll be grateful to go.”
“Yes… that would be the right choice.”
Considering how often Blue received help from Red Mercenary, it was only natural to accept a simple request like this.
It wasn’t as though I was trying to dump all my work onto Kim Hyunsung.
“So it’s settled, then? Hyunsung?”
“Yes. In fact, we’re the ones who should be thanking you. Ms. Cha Heera. Opportunities like this don’t come around often.”
“For all that, you look pretty bitter.”
“Well, Kiyoung’s role in the guild is quite extensive… haha. If Kiyoung steps away, I’m starting to get a headache thinking about how to handle everything.”
Handle it how? You’ll be the one getting ground down in my place.
Justice was destined to win, one way or another.
That was the moment I understood it.
You’re in for a rough time, old man.
My work as the supporting spouse was over.
It was time for the wife who’d been suffering all this time to enjoy life for a little while.
* * *
“Is our lady all right? Lady Heeyoung?”
“Yes. I don’t know why he still hasn’t woken up, but there’s nothing wrong with his body.”
“……”
“Well, it’s good to hear he’s healthy, but it’s still a little worrying that he won’t wake up like this… though judging by how steady his breathing is, he really does seem to be healthy.”
“You don’t need to worry. He really is healthy.”
“……”
“By the way, did you hear? It sounds like our brother is going to the imperial capital or somewhere like that this time.”
“Ah. Thanks to that, the guild’s been thrown into chaos. Didn’t he say he’d be gone for quite a while?”
“I think so. Sounds like he’s going with that Mercenary Queen. That fox of a woman might not try anything with our brother, right…?”
“Ah… n-no!!”
“Huh?”
“Ms. Hayan?”
“P-please explain in detail!”