A Good Person, a Good Seat

In a bar somewhere in Seoul, Dohyeon sat down for drinks with Byeongsu, just as they had promised. They went on about how the interview had gone and what the interviewers had said, and before either of them noticed, two bottles of soju stood empty between them.

"Looks like that interviewer likes you."

"See? I knew it."

Byeongsu was thoroughly drunk, and Dohyeon—face just as red—played right along.

"What are you even doing, sitting through a course? Just marry the old guy."

"Marry him, my ass. Still... I think you might have been right, hyung."

He had been humoring the nonsense in moderation. Now he rubbed his chin, and his expression turned meaningful.

"You really think the old man likes you?"

"...No. I told you they might back us in a big way. I caught a glimpse of it on the way out, after the interview."

"A glimpse of his heart?"

"One verse. That's all you get. Drunk or not, I will hit you."

The rebuke finally dammed Byeongsu's endless stream of nonsense. Looking bored, he knocked his glass back.

"Keuh— what interview in the world sizes a man up that blatantly? You just go in and work hard."

"You're not even curious what I saw?"

"What, they promising to stuff your pockets? A grand a month would be a sweet gig, I'll give you that."

Byeongsu answered like a man who had already seen how the movie ended, but Dohyeon only smiled, smug enough to be annoying.

"There's an A-Rank master among the instructors."

"Sure. I heard you can't even open a course unless an A-Rank Awakened signs on to teach it."

The lukewarm answer let the air out of him. Dohyeon fiddled with his glass for no good reason.

"What? That was it?"

"Don't get your hopes up. You think a government course is going to teach you something incredible? Learn what they bother to teach, keep your head down, and six months is gone before you know it."

"Did something happen today? Is the new assistant manager riding you? Or are you already drunk?"

Byeongsu was more cynical than the moment called for, and it struck Dohyeon as strange.

"Drunk? Who do you take me for... It's nothing. I've been running the numbers for a few days."

"On what?"

"The workshop."

Byeongsu turned his empty glass in a slow circle.

"The business is smaller than I thought. Just the right size for one man to eat alone. Keep on like this, split what we make between us, and all we'll do is sour the friendship."

"...You're only running those numbers now?"

"Who draws up a perfect business plan while they're still clocking in at a company?"

"You think we can't make a living at it?"

"We'd keep food on the table. Would that satisfy you? Or me? We've both been bringing in real money."

"Money matters, sure, but..."

Money wasn't everything. For Dohyeon, growing his skill and being recognized for it mattered more—and even so, he couldn't pretend money didn't exist. He was on his own. Byeongsu was the head of a household.

"If all you wanted was money, you'd have gone looking at other workshops a long time ago. I brought the workshop up because I know you're not that kind of man."

"..."

"And money's got a magic to it, hasn't it? The kind that keeps you from recognizing your own parents, if you haven't got any."

"Neither of us knows what our parents look like."

"...It's a figure of speech."

Dohyeon had needled him without thinking, but the seriousness of it sank in, and his own thoughts went deep.

"Sorry. I should have been thinking about this too. I was too wrapped ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠up in signing up for the course."

"Aish! We're doing this together. We just have different jobs. Your hands are absurd, and I'm the one who actually cares about running the place."

Dohyeon had gone glum, so Byeongsu laid it on thick and raised his glass.

"Anyway, between the training and getting a business off the ground, we've got more than half a year left. Don't rush it. We'll think it through slowly."

"All right. This wasn't the time to be sitting around drinking. One last round, and we head out?"

"That's not— I wasn't saying we should stop drinking..."

Dohyeon let the whining go in one ear and out the other, and broke up the table.

On the way home, the conversation from the bar kept circling in Dohyeon's head.

The best answer is to scale up, but...

If he opened a workshop, he wanted someone like Byeongsu beside him. But just as Byeongsu had said, the business they had pictured was smaller than expected for a B-Rank and a C-Rank to share. The original idea had been simple enough: a small workshop that made basic equipment itself, laid enchantments over it, and took on repairs besides. As those daydreams hardened into something concrete, though, problems he had never anticipated began to surface. More of them would come. And the way through them was simpler than he had thought.

If I can obtain the Equipment Crafting skill, most of these problems become solvable.

More often than not, a problem sorted itself out once you moved up a weight class. It might be the hardest road. Dohyeon still believed it was the surest.

Two days after drinks with Byeongsu, Dohyeon arrived at the classroom he had been directed to, there for orientation of the first session of the Government-Funded Crafter Training Program. The latch clicked. He opened the closed door and found seven people seated, spread evenly ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠through the room.

Fewer people than I expected.

He had cut it close, which ought to have made him the last trainee through the door, and yet—given everything the Association was footing the bill for—the headcount was painfully low. Nor were the trainees the only ones in the room. Camera shutters clicked, one after another.

"Looks like they're starting."

"Anything else worth shooting?"

First government-funded course in five years. Of course the reporters all showed up.

They did not look as if they had come to celebrate. They looked as if they were hoping for another Twin Blades Incident.

"The appointed time has arrived, so we will begin the orientation."

At the front of the classroom sat all three interviewers he had met at the interview. Around them were two men in their fifties who looked like instructors, and one old man in a modified hanbok.

The one in the modified hanbok must be the A-Rank master.

The ages are more mixed than I thought.

Looking around, he saw people who seemed to be in their twenties, and several who looked well into their forties. Among them was one person drawing every reporter's attention at once. The shutters went off again.

"The third son of Geumha Workshop, taking a government course..."

"Didn't see him back when they were fighting over the succession..."

"I hear it's because there's a big age gap with his older brothers?"

If Cheongeun Workshop had built its bulk on reasonably priced mid- and low-tier equipment, Geumha Workshop was the exact opposite: expensive gear that spent costly monster materials without a second thought. When it came to equipment aimed at high-ranking hunters, it was one of the most renowned names in the country.

Dohyeon let his eyes travel the room, quietly impressed by the talk buzzing among the reporters. Even someone born with a golden spoon doesn't let go of learning. By then the orientation had moved on to introducing the instructors.

"Allow me to introduce the chief instructor for this course. Master Choi Gwangcheol, who served as head of Baekcheol Workshop."

A murmur ran through the room.

"Baekcheol Workshop—isn't that the place even S-Ranks use?"

"Master Choi Gwangcheol is an elder even among A-Ranks. I heard the Association actually put some effort in. Doesn't seem that was wrong."

A few of the reporters had already known, and the reaction was quieter than he had expected. Applause broke out, and Master Choi Gwangcheol took the microphone.

"Good to meet you. I am Choi Gwangcheol. Spent my whole life at Baekcheol Workshop, beating iron."

Perhaps because he had handled iron all his life, his voice was as heavy as a lump of metal. He swept his eyes once over the trainees and went on.

"I will say one thing first."

The room buzzed.

"M-Master!"

"Same as ever, isn't he..."

The three interviewers' faces stiffened, but the other instructors only managed awkward smiles, as if they were used to it.

"Well. Over these six months, I will teach you properly how to read iron, how to hold a hammer, and the fundamentals of refining equipment."

"That is all."

Ignoring the eyes fixed on him with every kind of feeling, Master Choi Gwangcheol finished what he had come to say and sat back down in his seat.

"Yes..."

The host who took the microphone back lost his words for a moment. Then he glanced down at the script he had prepared and smiled as if nothing at all had happened.

"That was Chief Instructor Choi Gwangcheol, who will be overseeing all production and maintenance practice for the six months ahead."

The reporters' shutters rang out more gleefully than before.

"...I will now introduce the next instructor."

When orientation ended, Dohyeon left the Association and headed home. The moment the event was over, reporters swarmed Master Choi Gwangcheol and the third son of Geumha Workshop, clogging the entrance so thoroughly that it took him ages to get out.

"I'm completely wrung out..."

Rubbing his stiff shoulders, he boarded the subway and pulled out his phone.

"That many reporters showed up. There's got to be something on Hunternet, right?"

A search turned up a handful of posts with the reporters' photographs attached.

Perhaps because the event had only just ended, the reactions were still thin.

"Hmm. Opinions are split."

Rising and falling with a single comment would have been ridiculous, so he read them for the fun of it. The part that actually caught his interest lay somewhere else.

"Whoa. That guy was B-Rank?"

Even with the reporters making a scene behind their cameras, he had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠stayed utterly unfazed, so Dohyeon had figured he was no ordinary trainee. He had never imagined a B-Rank craftsman.

"He still looked like he was in his twenties. That's something..."

Seeing an Awakened of a higher rank than himself brought his old workplace to mind, but thanks to Byeongsu's comfort, he wasn't all that low. It would have been a lie to say he wasn't envious. More than that, though, he wanted to sit beside the man and watch, and learn, all sorts of things.

"Right. Day one is Introduction to Equipment Studies and basic forging."

Dohyeon slipped his phone into his pocket and grinned.

"I'm sitting next to that guy."