Aces, Heroes, Judges, Knights, Stars, and… an S-Class Hunter (1)
"Haaam..."
Maybe it was because he'd spent the whole night flipping through his notebook instead of sleeping.
The yawns came unbidden from the moment he started down the stairs.
And in the end, I came up with nothing.
He'd racked his brain all night, but the reason Liberation had refrained from launching terror attacks remained a mystery. It wasn't as though those bastards had suddenly had a change of heart and turned nice. There had to be a reason.
And one more thing.
Jeanne.
They'd said she was on her way now... but was it true? Well, those people had no reason to lie about it, so it was probably real. Still, surely they wouldn't fail to give advance notice of a visit this important—meaning she hadn't even departed yet. Which meant that once all the proper procedures were done... at least a week, probably.
"Haa..."
A sigh escaped him, born of his tangled thoughts. Just then, Seo Yoon popped out from the kitchen and greeted him.
"Good morning, sir."
"Morning to you too, Seo Yoon..."
He looked tired no matter who was looking at him. Watching his reaction, Seo Yoon asked carefully,
"...Did you have trouble sleeping?"
"Ah, it wasn't so much trouble as... I had some research to do. Next thing I knew, the sun was up."
"Perhaps you should rest a little longer?"
"Can't do that. Our trainee hunters are all up already."
The trainee hunters he meant were Seo Yoon... and the newly joined Choi Jeong-hyeon.
Tap, tap.
From the top of the stairs came the sound of bare feet brushing the floor. Apparently Choi Jeong-hyeon hadn't woken up at just the right moment by chance, either. With Seo Yoon gone, being alone with Lee Jun would have been awkward, so she'd clearly waited for his timing and come down along with him.
And sure enough, Choi Jeong-hyeon's face soon peeked out.
"Did you sleep well?"
"Oh! Yes, I slept great."
"Good to hear. You'll be staying here from now on, and if the bed doesn't agree with you, it takes ages to adjust to a new place."
Thankfully, she seemed to get along with the house just fine. So well, in fact... that she was dressed extremely comfortably.
"H-haam..."
Coming down the stairs with an awkward yawn, Choi Jeong-hyeon wore a light t-shirt and shorts. The ideal attire for lounging at home. The only problem was... since both Lee Jun and Seo Yoon were neatly put together, it created a strange sense of mismatch by comparison.
"Um... s-should I go change...?"
"No, your outfit's the normal one."
Was this that thing—the two-eyed man in the village of one-eyed people? Honestly, if anything, Lee Jun wished Seo Yoon would relax like that too. The dormitory was, at its core, a home. At home, of course you should be comfortable. That was how you maximized the quality of your rest, and better rest ultimately meant more energy in combat.
Well... if she says that's what's comfortable for her.
If she was comfortable, then it was comfortable. Interfere too much in this sort of thing and you started sounding like a fossil. Trainee hunter and CEO. Keeping exactly that much distance was for the best.
But there was something else about Choi Jeong-hyeon that caught the eye, beyond her clothes. Actually, this was the more striking of the two.
Her right arm. The prosthetic.
"You already put it on?"
"Ah, yes. I tried it on right away last night."
"It must have been hard to manage alone at first. Is it working properly?"
"Yes! Look at this!"
Whirrrr—
The right arm rose upward with a mechanical hum. As if to prove it had been a while since it last worked, the prosthetic let out a creaking groan. And that noise was quite loud. It was a rushed job, after all—the focus had been entirely on maintenance and functionality. Noise reduction had been completely ignored.
"Hmm... the sound is what it is. Any other problems? Anything inconvenient?"
"Honestly, it does feel a little stiff..."
"That just needs some oiling. I'll teach you how to service it later."
"Y-you'll do it yourself, sir?"
Her fluster was plain in the way she asked. Seeing a reaction like that made him want to tease her.
"Yes. Is that a problem?"
"No, no! It's just... you're someone so far above me, sir... I never imagined you'd teach me personally..."
Choi Jeong-hyeon waved her hands in a panic. With only Seo Yoon around for so long, it had been a while since he'd enjoyed this feeling. Teasing had its own flavor.
{...You have terrible hobbies.}
Consider it icebreaking. Part of getting to know each other.
{Just don't say anything.}
Anyway. Choi Jeong-hyeon was on day one, so the priority was figuring out her personality and the like through little moments like this. They could work through the basics slowly.
"Oh, right. And one more thing."
That old title didn't fit anymore.
"'CEO.'"
"...Pardon?"
"I think you should call me CEO instead of Vice-Chairman."
"CEO... sir?"
"Something else is fine too. You can call me by my name, or if you'd rather use a different title, that works as well. Anything except Vice-Chairman."
It had already been over two months since he'd set down the Vice-Chairman title. Sure, out in the world people still found it convenient to call him that—but for someone from his own management to do so was another matter entirely. If even his inner circle called him Vice-Chairman, ugly rumors could spread. That he was still clinging to his old seat. That he harbored some strange vanity. Or worse, that he was angling for the lottery ticket of a comeback.
"Haha, looks like the first thing you'll learn at this management company is how to worry about public opinion."
"Oh... I see..."
She seemed to find these aspects difficult. To be fair, ordinary hunters might well struggle to understand. This was territory for those higher up—guild masters and executive-level people. The domain of hidden struggles that never surfaced publicly.
Seo Yoon, being formerly the information chief of Seolwon, understood all of this naturally. And now that Choi Jeong-hyeon had joined Lee Jun's management, her time to worry about intricately tangled political factors would come too.
Especially if her class turned out to be a true Holy Knight job class... all the more so.
So consider this a rehearsal. In any case, sorting out forms of address was the first step. In a daily life where every word and action carried meaning regardless of sincerity, even the smallest details had to be considered and adjusted. Lee Jun intended to teach that judgment as well. Living as long as he had, he'd learned that it really did matter.
"Hmm... then... I suppose calling you Lee Jun...-ssi...? would be too familiar...? But CEO feels too stiff..."
"Call me whatever's comfortable."
Truthfully, no matter what she called him, his public image was already more than secured. That sort of thing was just a matter of stitching it together afterward.
"Then... for now I'll call you CEO, sir."
"Sounds good. Then once again—pleasure to have you with us, Jeong-hyeon."
"Yes! Yes, sir!"
Scrrritch—
With a mechanical whir, she extended her right hand forward. A handshake offered with a prosthetic arm. Lee Jun took that hard, cold hand in his own.
And in that profound, stirring moment—something he'd forgotten popped back into his head.
"By the way, what have you been up to, Seo Yoon?"
Choi Jeong-hyeon's question, tossed out casually. And at the very same moment, a delicious smell wafted over from the kitchen.
"...Huh."
What the—she was... cooking?
"Since the two of you were slow to come down, I prepared breakfast."
Come to think of it... Seo Yoon had been wearing an apron this whole time.
"Um... so, that is..."
"Please eat before it gets cold, both of you."
Right. The smell was good, wasn't it? Best to keep expectations up.
Gulp—
Lee Jun swallowed dryly and headed for the table. And before lifting his spoon, he first watched Choi Jeong-hyeon, who was forcing the food down with a smile plastered on her face.
"......"
"......?"
She lifted her head in confusion and looked at him. Then her eyes asked: is this right? Beyond giving a small nod, there was... nothing Lee Jun could do for her.
...So adapting to this is going to be her first trial after joining.
But what could he do? If you were a hunter, you had to endure any hardship. Even if that hardship was... a simple breakfast made by a comrade.
Once the meal—which had felt like an eternity packed into mere minutes—was over, Lee Jun used the break to teach Choi Jeong-hyeon about servicing the prosthetic arm.
"First, open this section and apply the oil here."
"I see."
"Then this part next. The bearings are rusted now, so you spread the lubricant on this area, and then here..."
He slowly opened the arm up, turning it this way and that as he serviced it. Lee Jun had no particular mechanical expertise—but for the past several months, this had been a daily routine for him. It wasn't so much that he understood it in his head as that his hands had memorized it.
"There, that's everything. How does it feel?"
"Mm... I've written it all down, so... I'll just have to practice a lot."
"Haha, no need to go that far. Since production on the real arm has already begun, it'll probably be done in a month. After that, you'll never have to use this one again."
At those words, Choi Jeong-hyeon looked startled.
"What? Already? You haven't even taken my measurements?"
"No need. It'll be built from the information registered in the Association's database."
That guy, after all, was in a position where he could look all of that up entirely legally. And even if it were locked down, he was the type who'd tear the place open to see it anyway.
"They'll craft it properly so it works with your combat style, physical abilities, stats, skills, everything combined."
He had also passed along a request to add a few functions she couldn't use yet. Since there was no telling when her job change would come. Better to prepare well in advance.
"I see...!"
Lee Jun nodded, watching Choi Jeong-hyeon's admiring expression. She looked like she'd carry a different kind of training difficulty than Seo Yoon. With Seo Yoon, the problem was fixing the multiple mana overload first; aside from that, her fundamentals were rock solid. Her stamina could stand to grow, of course.
Choi Jeong-hyeon's training, however, posed difficulty in a more general sense. She was a hunter without many years under her belt—just past brand-new. With no reason to enter any Reproduction Gates these days, she was purely a seven-month rookie hunter. Which meant there was a truly vast amount to teach her.
Of course, that could be the better situation. It meant he only had to teach her the right things before she picked up any bad habits. Meeting her now, while his management company had almost no trainee hunters, could be called luck. He'd be able to explain everything one by one, personally.
And on that note, Lee Jun had decided to share something with her in advance. Both from the various records and from what he'd observed of her directly, everything suggested she did better with hands-on guidance. Because she was diligent. In that respect, she was actually similar to Seo Yoon again.
With that thought, Lee Jun closed the prosthetic's panels and eased into a lead-in.
"Fair warning up front—training may get pretty rough."
"...That's fine. I came here... to get stronger."
"Oh, it's not just that. My goal is to pass on every last bit of the know-how I have to the trainee hunters of this company."
"Know-how...?"
"That's right."
Lee Jun possessed all kinds of know-how. And it wasn't limited to combat. The three years Lee Jun had lived, thirteen counting the regression, twenty-five if you counted only the passage of time. Roughly half of that long span had been spent outside the gates. If there were years spent as an Initial Awakener and a hunter, he'd spent just as many as a former Vice-Chairman—a has-been whose political skill alone remained alive.
"I've been giving this some thought."
"......?"
"If I'm going to raise an S-Class hunter, then the management agency has to make that person S-Class in every respect."
This connected to the question about S-Class hunters he'd once asked Seo Yoon. Back then, she'd said an S-Class was a superstar. A being who set people's hearts blazing, in every sense of the word. For that to happen, you first had to draw the interest and attention of others. Which meant skill alone wasn't enough—bearing and presence were required too.
"Now, you could also think it like this: we're hunters, so why does popularity matter? Shouldn't we just be good at killing monsters? Like that."
"......"
"But unfortunately, it's all connected."
Truth be told, the world had plenty of strong hunters. Unless you were at the very absolute peak, you had a fair number of competitors right beside you at the same level. Most of those people were A-Class hunters.
"There are more A-Class hunters than you'd think. But the ones the public actually knows? That number is almost identical to the number of S-Class hunters. In reality, the difference is tens of times larger."
"Now that you mention it, that's really true."
"So why do you think that is?"
"Hmm..."
Choi Jeong-hyeon pondered. Lee Jun waited through the silence for about five seconds before speaking again.
"Because those people captured the public's attention. That's why."
Hunters with distinctive personas drew people's interest. And within that interest, if you delivered a performance worthy of it, the public went wild for you.
"Let me put it more simply. What tends to follow a hunter that people are passionate about?"
"Ah...! Corporate sponsorships!"
"Exactly that."
Say there were two hunters of equal caliber, A and B. A had a quality that drew gasps of admiration from people, while B was just a hunter you could see anywhere. Now, what would happen if a hunter-related company noticed A's star quality and invested in him? Hunter A, backed by a corporation's full support, would kick his growth into overdrive with all manner of elixirs and expensive equipment. And B? He'd just go about his life—ordinary dungeons, ordinary monsters, selling byproducts... that sort of thing.
"So the gap opens up whether anyone wants it to or not."
At the end of the day, a hunter's first priority was skill. That was a standard that would never, ever change. But if there was a second priority you could choose, it would be star power.
And that star power would become the launchpad that carried an A-Class hunter toward S-Class.
"On pure personal talent alone, you can never become S-Class. That's how wide the gap is between the Initial Awakeners and everyone who came after."
For an A-Class to surmount the wall, an enormous level of investment was required. Elixirs, elixirs, and more elixirs. Raising hunting efficiency with top-grade equipment, spending overwhelmingly large sums just to rest properly. All of it interlocking—only then was a single S-Class hunter born.
"Everyone except the Initial Awakeners is the same, really. No matter how high your talent, there's a wall above you."
The wall called S-Class. The wall called the Initial Awakeners.
"To clear that wall, you need everything that comes with it."
Money. Overwhelming money. Lee Jun had plenty of accumulated wealth, but nowhere near enough to push someone through to S-Class. Which meant, naturally, he'd have to attract funding from outside. His personal connections could solve part of it—but fundamentally, what mattered was the potential of the trainee hunter herself.
"I'm going to make everyone in our company S-Class. You too, Jeong-hyeon. And Seo Yoon too."
Lee Jun's immediate, primary goal. Making Choi Jeong-hyeon and Seo Yoon S-Class.
"And to that end, I'll teach you everything—absolutely everything—that's needed."
What he said now was a resolution. Spoken to Choi Jeong-hyeon, and at the same time spoken to himself. A vow that he would see it done, no matter what. The harder the road ahead, the more you needed things like this.
"All right, the maintenance is done. Try putting it back on."
Lee Jun held out the arm with a smile. A wholly different atmosphere from the resolute air of moments ago.
"......"
But Choi Jeong-hyeon, taking the prosthetic in hand, still seemed to be turning his words over in her mind. Countless thoughts were surely churning inside her. And the light burning in those eyes—she had clearly found her motivation.
Yes. This was the reaction he'd wanted. Raising the morale of his trainee hunters. A CEO ought to be capable of at least this much.
And next. There was one area that had gone a little neglected these past few days, what with recruiting Choi Jeong-hyeon.
"All right, then now... Seo Yoon?"
"Yes, sir."
"Shall we take a look at your personal training results?"
This time, it was her turn.