New Employee - 5
It is a common thing, loving something and being good at something—rarely do the two go hand in hand.
Back in middle school, I dreamed of becoming the Pirate King, or firing off Kamehameha waves, or at the very least running a ninja village of my own. Or else, with a black flame I'd been raising in my left hand, I wanted to appear at the perfect dramatic moment, rescue a beautiful girl heroine, and shout at her not to tell a soul.
Reality, of course, was that I wasn't even a manga protagonist—just an extra passing by in the background.
The Shadowless Divine Thief, Lim Hayeon, was no different.
I already knew Lim Hayeon wouldn't win the competition.
Even if I helped her submit her paperwork past the deadline, even if the judges waited until the very last moment so she could enter her work, her ending would not change. Even if I pulled strings to carry her into the final round of judging, it would be the same.
She does not win the competition.
She never becomes a writer.
Because.
The Lim Hayeon of the future is the Shadowless Divine Thief and a courtesan—not a writer.
Not once have I seen the word writer in her character profile.
My own profile says author and office worker, and says nothing about raising a black flame in my left hand—but that doesn't mean I can suddenly throw a black-flame punch. By the same logic, if she were truly meant to be a writer, it would have been written into her character profile. So why wasn't it?
Because in the original future, she simply failed to submit anything to the Yichang competition? Folded up the dream right then and there?
I had watched Lim Hayeon's desperate longing to become a writer from close at hand.
For someone who dreams of being a writer, the urge to create is not something that snaps easily. Whether you're worrying about tomorrow's meal, or a courtesan selling her songs and dances, or a corporate drone grinding away at a small company—as long as you have the strength and the yearning, writing is something you can do anytime, anywhere.
If Lim Hayeon's original profile holds no writer setting, no writing hobby, then only one conclusion remains.
In the original story, she must have failed as a writer and put down her brush.
Because what we love and what we're good at are different things. If loving something guaranteed being good at it, the first skill I'd have mastered was the Shadow Clone Jutsu. One of me would be getting chewed out by his boss at the office, another would be writing novels in comfort without surrendering a wink of sleep, and another would be happily playing through the games that had been gathering dust on his shelf for years.
If Lim Hayeon had grown discouraged through failure after failure, given up, and let her dream of writing slip away, I could understand that.
"Is that the end?"
"Aigoo. Another failure this time, then."
Amid the wailing of writers who had failed to win, I searched for Lim Hayeon. Her head was bowed so low she looked ready to pay her respects to the Earth Mother herself.
"Ordinarily, the awards ceremony would end here—but it is not over yet! Do not despair, everyone! Lift your heads!"
The Literary Society Chairman bellowed at the writers stirring restlessly in the dispirited atmosphere.
"Does it not end with the grand prize?"
"The details will be explained by Manager Kang Yunho, a judge for this event and the architect of a new system."
The Chairman nodded toward me.
Finally, my turn again. I rose from my seat and stepped up onto the stage.
"Greetings. I am Kang Yunho of Daseogak, speaking on behalf of the Literary Society to introduce a new system."
"We have heard the introductions already. A new system, you say? And what might that be?"
Instead of answering at once, I drew out the silence and let it pull every eye toward me—and for a moment, I looked at Lim Hayeon, whose head had peeked back up on the faint hope that something yet remained.
The Shadowless Divine Thief, left with nothing but despair.
What do I give her, now that her one and only hope has vanished?
Obviously, it's time to dangle a new fishing line.
"It is a system called the work-study scholarship."
A fishing line dressed up as a rope of hope—one that leaves her with no one to look to but me.
What becomes of Lim Hayeon, once her last remaining hope is gone?
Whatever happens in between, I know the ending that awaits her.
The Shadowless Divine Thief, Lim Hayeon.
In the end, she becomes both a courtesan and a thief.
Granted, she becomes such a magnificent thief that the world calls her a Divine Thief—so you could say she found something she's good at. But was becoming the Shadowless Divine Thief truly the ending she wanted?
— "No one dreams of climbing over someone else's fence."
It was never the future Lim Hayeon wanted.
If she gave up her dream of writing only after failing, faltering, and despairing to the very end, then couldn't I hold out a rope of hope?
I rekindle the embers of her dream, and in return I gain an employee called the Shadowless Divine Thief.
Nobody has to lose out. Isn't that a fine arrangement?
Though if I want her to grab that rope, a little groundwork comes first.
"A work-study scholarship? What is that?"
One of the audience raised a hand and asked.
"I understand that many of the entrants who left the Yichang Literary Society's event without an award are not blessed with comfortable means. The Yichang Literary Society intends to select several of them and help them keep their dreams of writing alive despite their hardship."
Step one: erase any resistance toward me.
I couldn't wipe away overnight the fact that this was the agenda of a father she despised, or the misconceptions she held about me. So what was the answer?
Simple. I step into the background and let the Yichang Literary Society take the lead.
If Lim Hayeon balked at receiving help from me, I would simply change it into help from the Yichang Literary Society.
Either way, the conclusion was the same: she would be working at Daseogak.
"Sponsorship, you say? And yet the words you spoke just now most certainly contained the word work."
Sharp one, this.
"Yes, that's right. Work-study scholars will work at Daseogak and receive sponsorship funds larger than an ordinary bookstore employee's wage."
"Are you saying they are to become shop boys?"
Exactly.
"No. Shop boys, you say. Are you comparing our bookstore staff to common shop boys?"
I raised my voice, feigning offense.
"Is the work not similar?"
"If recommending the right books to those who seek the joy of knowledge and writing makes a person a shop boy, then are the literati gathered here today not writers, but common innkeepers and tavern-keepers?"
"……"
At my rebuke, both the ones who had called them shop boys and the ones who had grumbled about it fell silent, struck to the quick.
"The road to becoming a writer is hard on anyone. But it is hardest of all for the writer who must think about tomorrow's meal."
With no one able to rebut, I pressed on, laying out the purpose of the work-study scholarship.
"Some here must care for an ailing mother with nothing to their name; others must feed a wife and children. They wish to become writers, but reality is merciless. If they do not work, their mothers fall ill and their families go hungry."
Deliberately courting sympathy, I met the eyes of the shabbily dressed writers. Sure enough, several of them nodded along quite naturally.
"Even living such grueling lives, they take up the brush with weary bodies. Where anyone else would lack the strength to write a single line, they summon superhuman stamina and keep writing, driven by nothing but the dream. Because they want to become writers."
A dream of writing is not so easily broken. Just as it wasn't for a certain black-haired barbarian.
More and more heads nodded in agreement.
"The Yichang Literary Society and I wish to offer hope to exactly such people."
So that the aspiring writers trudging home with burdened shoulders might one day stand tall again. I spoke with all the conviction of a man who meant to become their hope.
"And this work-study scholarship is that hope, you say?"
"A bookstore is indoors, so one is spared the heat and the cold. The work is not strenuous, so it is not overly taxing. For those with dreams of the pen, it is the ideal occupation—earning one's living while writing."
"Would it not be better to simply grant them the sponsorship outright?"
A fair point. But then I couldn't reel in Lim Hayeon.
"Today's winners receive their sponsorship from the Literary Society. For those who did not win to receive the same would not be fair. The work-study scholarship is a system prepared for those who have yet to bloom because of their circumstances."
"Well reasoned, indeed."
"Now that I hear it out, it doesn't sound half bad?"
Favorable reactions bubbled up around my explanation.
"How much is the monthly wage?"
"We intend to pay roughly the average wage a porter earns in a month of labor."
Lim Hayeon has no money right now.
If she goes on like this, she will either turn to thieving, or crawl back to the Gyobang she fled, suffer a harsh reckoning, and become a courtesan.
But what if Daseogak paid a porter's monthly wage?
What if a job existed that let her keep dreaming of becoming a writer?
Could she really turn it down?
"Ridiculous. That much for errand work at a bookstore?"
"If it actually happens, isn't that incredible?"
"I will take that as understanding, and now announce the list of work-study scholarship candidates selected directly by the Yichang Literary Society."
I read out the list of candidates I had chosen after reviewing their personal information. Two people cannot run a bookstore alone, so these people would surely prove helpful as well.
As I announced the names, I stole a glance at her.
A face sunk deep in deliberation.
She's a little wary of me, but since it's the Literary Society providing the support, maybe it's fine. Still, the fact that she'd be working at Daseogak itself gives her pause.
That's what she's agonizing over, right?
But it won't go the way you expect.
"Excellent! If I can just work at a bookstore, I'll never have to do backbreaking labor again!"
"Sister! I made the work-study scholar list too!"
"That concludes the list."
Because your name isn't on the list I called.
Hearing her name left out, Lim Hayeon's mouth fell open in bewilderment.
What? Did you think that man built this whole system because of you?
You're right—but no. If I said it outright, you'd only keep agonizing.
You thought it was a rope of hope—but it was never a rope let down for you.
Time to give her one small disappointment.
"Among the candidates whose names were called……"
I have no interest in you, Lim Hayeon. I tried to carry on as if nothing were the matter.
The face I secretly watched was flooding over with despair. Doesn't matter.
"You forgot the additional list!"
Because I planned every bit of it in advance.
"Ah, of course. I was just thinking that with Daseogak's staff this shorthanded, they would end up as true shop boys after all, rather than work-study scholars."
"Hahahahaha."
"I shall call the additional names now. ……Lim Hayeon, Seong Jung-bang……"
I called her name in a flat, mechanical voice, as though she were no one of any importance.
And as I watched her expression bloom wide open, I smiled quietly to myself.
This system was never for you, Lim Hayeon. I wasn't thinking of you at all.
It's a program run by the Yichang Literary Society, not by me. That strips away as much of her resistance toward me as possible.
And that single moment—leaving her name off—doubles her despair and makes her desperate.
"The work-study scholarship list is, I must stress, merely a list of candidates. If you do not come to Daseogak by tomorrow at sundown, I will take it as a refusal and strike you from consideration."
"Yes. Understood."
I watched her, careful not to be caught.
Why did Lim Hayeon refuse my help?
I aimed at her weakness and cast out the bait.
It wasn't that she didn't want to take my bait. She simply wanted a tastier meal.
And now the meal she craved has vanished.
So—can she still turn down the rope I'm holding out?
If she truly despised me, she would have refused the Literary Society's help as well. But now, she will agonize.
She wants to become a writer. I know how desperate that wish of hers is.
So what final touch does it take to make her a Daseogak employee?
"For those selected as outstanding work-study scholars, Daseogak will provide two additional benefits."
All I have to do is stoke Lim Hayeon's desires.
"And what might those be?"
"Daseogak will publish your work."
"Good heavens?!"
"Daseogak itself will publish?"
At my words, her eyes went wide. Well? An offer that's hard to refuse, isn't it?
But that is not where it ends.
Stir up the desire she craves, then pile on an offer she cannot refuse.
"Furthermore, those chosen as outstanding work-study scholars will have their drafts read—and their revisions guided—personally by the author Hopil."
Now all that remains is to reel her in.