Chapter 69
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 69
Chapter Title: Fake Know-It-All
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After Rimon had put on that not-quite-miraculous display of replicating Julia's performance after hearing it just once...
The rigid curriculum, the stagnant atmosphere of endless repetition with no progress—many things about Rimon's intensive lessons had changed dramatically.
But the most striking shift of all was in Julia's gaze and the pace of the lessons.
"Hmm. So, connecting the notes smoothly without any breaks in sound—that's what you call that leg-a-something technique?"
"Legato. It's a bowing technique where you keep the bow in close contact with the strings."
"That sounds like it implies there's also a technique where you don't keep the bow on the strings."
"Are you seriously asking because you don't know? You've used techniques like saltato and arpeggiando plenty of times in performances."
"I'm not doing it because I know what it is. I'm just roughly mimicking your playing."
"...Ri, if you say that in front of other violinists, you might get shot."
"If they're pissed, tell them to try it themselves. Mimicking technique is something anyone can do with enough time and effort."
The black-haired young man spoke indifferently.
Julia gave a wry smile as she looked at Rimon.
In the past, she would have sharply rebuked him for such arrogant, almost insolent words.
She knew all too well how many violinists spent their entire lives striving to master even a fraction of those techniques.
But in the end, she couldn't say a word.
As a performer first and a teacher second, she had to admit he had every right to say it.
'How could a genius who mastered almost all my techniques in just a few days possibly understand?'
Julia recalled it.
A few days earlier, after Rimon had perfectly replicated her performance.
She had kept playing, entranced, until spasms wracked her arm and she could no longer hold the bow.
And Rimon's talent—not just matching every performance flawlessly, but absorbing every single technique used in them.
'It's a monstrous talent.'
And it wasn't just techniques where he showed monstrous learning ability.
As the saying goes, seeing once is worth a hundred hearings.
Building on Julia's techniques he'd already absorbed, he was now devouring the theory and knowledge she taught at a terrifying speed.
Even she, hailed as a once-in-a-century genius who had taught countless others, felt chills at his ability.
It even stacked up to players with rare skills—maybe even surpassing them.
'No wonder the previous teachers ran after hearing him play once.'
She'd thought they fled from his disastrously awful playing before.
But now she understood.
They'd given up teaching him not because he was hopeless, but because they lacked the confidence to handle his monstrous talent.
His gift was that astonishing.
A jewel so beautiful and radiant it was terrifying to even touch.
Of course, it wasn't entirely flawless.
"But Ri still can't read sheet music, right?"
God's balance patch, perhaps.
Or the mystery of talent.
He could mimic even the tiniest physical movements perfectly on the first try, yet sheet music stumped him.
Rimon replied indifferently to her puzzled expression.
"Try getting older yourself. You'll find using your body easier than your brain."
"...I've always wondered, but how old are you to say stuff like that?"
"You don't ask a man's age carelessly."
"First time I've heard that."
"Learn it now, then."
Rimon chuckled as he organized his notes and stood from his seat.
"Leaving already?"
"Yeah, I said I had something today."
"Just personal curiosity, but what's this 'something'? Seems like you get these gigs pretty regularly."
"Hm, well."
He stroked his chin thoughtfully for a moment.
Recapping the 'work' he'd done these past few days, Rimon shrugged and said,
"Something like nodding along to words I don't understand?"
"...Where does stuff like that even happen?"
Julia stared at him in disbelief at what sounded like a joke.
But she didn't know.
Rimon's words weren't a joke at all—they were the most precise and concise description of his duties.
Right after the lesson, that was exactly what he'd done meeting with Wailing.
"We posted the job listing, but as expected, no applicants. So we've arranged to borrow manpower from Leviathan as needed."
"Mm."
"To avoid external rumors, we'll have to pay service fees each time. I've estimated the additional budget at 57~58p."
"Mm."
"Unifying the security systems we were preparing faces strong opposition, so implementation looks difficult. Whether to scrap this 'Guardian System' or apply it externally through affiliates for commercialization is still under consideration."
"Mm."
"Dissatisfaction is also rising faster than predicted. A discreet survey shows over 70% doubt and resentment toward the Guardians' utility. Detailed stats are..."
"Mm."
Wailing paused while reading the report.
She fixed her icy gaze on Rimon, who sat nodding solemnly in his chair, and asked bluntly,
"...Do you even know what any of this means while nodding away?"
"Nope, no clue."
His refreshingly honest answer did it.
Wailing's eyes turned to ones you'd use on trash.
Not a look a secretary should give her company president, but as the practitioner who'd slaved over the report and briefing, it was understandable.
Even the bluebird dozing atop Rimon's head gazed down at his crown with a 'Have you ever seen such a shameless team leader?' expression.
Of course, Rimon wasn't speechless.
"Why not just summarize it? How am I supposed to know what's going on from this? This isn't a report—it's a deadly weapon."
He grumbled, tapping the encyclopedic tome that wasn't even a mere book.
But Wailing's response was cold.
"This is already condensed to the bare minimum a president needs to know."
"...If this is condensed, how much was the original?"
"If you want to see, I can cart it in."
"Hard pass."
Rimon raised the white flag.
Cartloads—not even stacks—meant it was a mental weapon. Or a plot to overwork him to death.
"The man aiming to be the princess's consort whining over this much?"
"I've always found paperwork rat poison."
Rimon brazenly shrugged off Wailing's icy jab like it was nothing.
[Why is the shame always mine...]
Yuna Kyung, unable to bear it, covered her face with her wings and sighed.
But Rimon didn't bat an eye. Instead, he casually issued an order with innocent shamelessness.
"So, summarize simpler next time. Ideally around 10 characters or so."
"You call that an order?"
"That's what capable secretaries like you are for. The princess assigned you to me because you can."
"..."
"What, can't do it?"
Rimon grinned provocatively.
Wailing glared at the old monster's impudent face with cold eyes, then crumpled the report stack in her hand and spoke.
"Fine. I'll explain the situation as briefly as you want."
"Oh!"
"At this rate, Guardian goes under."
"...Huh?"
Rimon's face, smirking in retaliation to the report bombardment, turned blank in an instant.
As if doubting his ears.
He blinked vacantly for a moment.
Regaining his senses, Rimon hurriedly demanded,
"Wait, what? My company's going bust? It hasn't even been long since we started—why?"
Even a puppet president had some sense of responsibility.
Wailing smirked coldly at his panic but explained coolly.
"To put it bluntly: no work."
"No work? You've been busting your ass on stuff, right? We've gone over plenty of task reports."
"What I've done so far was just prep to take on work."
"Work to do work?"
Rimon looked baffled.
"...Think of it like sharpening your blade before battle."
"Aha. So you sharpened the knife to play human butcher diligently, but once ready, there's no war to fight?"
Yuna Kyung stared in disbelief as Rimon finally nodded in understanding.
[...Team leader, what's your brain structure like to only get these violent metaphors?]
'Live a few hundred years swinging a sword. You'll start thinking of everything in terms of slashing.'
[That's not magic; it's a curse.]
Rimon brushed off Yuna Kyung's retort.
Instead, he rested his chin on interlaced hands and stared seriously at Wailing.
"So, who is it?"
"Who what?"
"The one cutting our gigs. Unless someone's scheming, a solid company doesn't just get no jobs."
Rimon judged coldly.
If sabotage threatened the company, find the culprit and crush them.
"Nothing like that."
"What?"
"I told you: no signs of anyone deliberately cutting our work or interfering."
"...Then why no jobs?"
Wailing's answer to Rimon's dumbstruck question was clear.
"Because Guardian isn't a solid company."
Guardian was a brand-new outfit from the start. With only Rimon and Wailing as staff, it was practically a ghost company.
No sane Black Dragon Clan executive would entrust security and guards to such a place.
Especially not with Rimon as president.
"No one outsources security to an audit firm in the first place."
"So it's normal to get no jobs, hence no jobs?"
"Exactly."
Wailing replied coolly, as if to say 'get it now?' Then, belatedly, offered comfort.
"No need to worry. Until I build performance and hand it off to you, the princess will cover operating funds generously."
Reassuring words for a sinking business owner.
But Rimon neither relaxed nor rejoiced. He just eyed Wailing oddly and spoke up.
"Hey, you audit firm... no, have you ever actually run a proper business?"
"What do you mean?"
"No need to answer. At your age, Black Dragon Clan elite? You've probably just obsessed over psychics and studies."
Rimon sank deeper into the chair.
He drummed fingers on the desk thoughtfully, then sighed deeply.
Thanks to Wailing's competence, he'd missed it—but now realized why Li Chingwei assigned her: not as a capable aide, but a fake know-it-all needing teaching.