Do Not Negotiate with a Strategic Nuke (1)
Do Not Negotiate with a Strategic Nuke (1)
Rewind a little, to when the two sisters were conducting their sex-education practicum under the guise of brushing their teeth.
The Chairwoman's quarters. The living room.
Yujin and the Chairwoman sat in an unusually serious atmosphere.
"First, Chairwoman, what did you want to discuss with me?"
"You speak first. You were the one who said you had something to tell me."
The two faced each other across the table.
At first glance, they seemed to be politely yielding the floor to each other...
In reality, they were locked in a fierce battle of nerves.
It was a battle born from how well they knew each other.
'If this old woman had something to tell me, it had to concern Winterer. She was laying the groundwork because she wanted a favor.'
'If he had something to tell me, my Sixth Sense said it wouldn't be anything wholesome.'
The Chairwoman possessed Sixth Sense.
Yujin had worked closely with her for nearly ten years before the regression.
For that reason, both reached the same conclusion.
Whatever the other wanted to discuss while the children were away...
could not possibly be wholesome.
This was a battle in which the first person to speak would be at a disadvantage.
"Age before beauty. How could I possibly speak first? If you have business with me, I’m all ears."
'If I asked my favor first, it'd be much harder to reject hers afterward...!!'
A situation where each had something to ask of the other.
But what happened if one of them made the first move and asked for something?
It became difficult to refuse the second person’s request.
Refusing someone who had just done you a favor was several times harder than refusing under normal circumstances.
The person who moved second, however,
could weigh the first request against their own.
Ah, I was going to make a request with 1,000 attack power, but theirs was only worth 800?
Hell yes. What a bargain. I could accept without hesitation.
In other words, this was a fight where you absolutely had to secure the second-mover position.
Yujin had every reason to be serious.
"You speak first. Unlike you young people, I’m past the hot-blooded age. I’ll sip my tea and wait as long as necessary."
'Look at this young brat already working his little brain. How cute.'
Unlike Yujin, the Chairwoman was utterly at ease.
After all, there was an overwhelming gap in experience between them.
She thought manipulating one inexperienced youngster would be effortless.
In response, Yujin...
"What are you talking about, young lady? You’re still so pretty and youthful."
"Pfft—!!"
A surprise attack.
Smiling with his needlessly handsome face, he launched his “young lady” attack.
The Chairwoman's composure wavered.
"Cough, cough... Hoo. You nearly made me choke, you damned brat."
"......."
'My conscience was killing me, though.'
The triangle in Yujin's mind was also furiously scratching at his conscience, but anyway.
Thanks to it, Yujin seized the upper hand.
"Sorry, young lady. Should I get you something to wipe that up?"
"Stop calling me ‘young lady.’ It gives me goosebumps."
"Come on, it’s just the two of us right now~ Let me address you a little more casually. Please?"
He pulled out several tissues and wiped up the ssanghwa tea she had spilled.
As he did, Yujin naturally sat down beside the Chairwoman.
He knew far too well that he couldn't give this old monster an opening.
"Oof. Excuse me for a moment."
"No, with all these seats, why here...."
—Plop.
"Anyway, what did you want to discuss? My ears are wide open."
Yujin followed with the second hit of his combo: an assault with his eyes.
He gazed up at her from immediately beside her, an advanced technique.
The way he had lowered his line of sight by nearly reclining showed that this was far from his first attempt.
'Whenever I did this, she treated me like a grandson and went easy on me.'
It was a trick he'd often used before the regression.
Back when Yujin was around thirty and Seol Hayeon was finally preparing to retire.
He'd used it whenever he refused her half-joking attempts to make him her successor.
Except the problem was...
"......."
'This damned brat. It wasn't as though he would take responsibility if he made my heart flutter.'
The Seol Hayeon of that time had already celebrated her seventieth birthday.
She had also regarded Yujin as a slick young man who seemed too unreliable to inherit her position.
Whatever he did, she could laugh it off with an indulgent, “Oh, you brat.”
But what about now?
She was still only sixty. She might be sixty, but she still looked young—young enough to wonder whether she could find herself a bachelor.
Worse, she currently regarded Yujin as the successor who'd inherit her position.
So of course she was having a rather different reaction than before the regression.
—Reach.
"Oh? A man acting this way toward a woman—are you trying to seduce me?"
The Chairwoman placed a hand right on Yujin's chin.
Instead of an indulgent grandmotherly smile, she gave him a surprisingly seductive one.
As though asking, What was this? Was he hitting on her?
Yujin took a direct hit.
"No, of course not. Please don’t misunderstand me."
—Whoosh.
'She fired a nuke without warning? Was this not a violation of the Geneva Conventions?'
He abandoned his all-out offensive and rapidly scooted to the far end of the sofa.
One hit had taught him that he could not oppose a Strategic Nuke.
Only then did Yujin remember:
Right. This old woman was still sixty.
Unlike before the regression, she could still fight back verbally.
'...I lost.'
'I won. That was what he got for attempting such a half-baked seduction.'
Seol Hayeon won the battle of nerves.
* * *
After the brief farce,
Yujin adapted quickly.
He accepted the reality that he'd been completely crushed and would only look more pathetic if he did not speak first.
His lips stirred weakly.
"Haa... Fine, I'll speak first."
"Good. Let’s hear what was important enough for you to drag this out."
"May I raid an S-rank Gate with Công?"
Yujin wanted to discuss the S-rank Gate raid that the Church of the Lord had proposed through Công.
He asked permission to accompany Công into an S-rank Gate that would appear later and reap the benefits.
"If that's all...."
"Together with Alice, Sia, and my master."
"Mm."
Except that he now wanted to bring his wives as well.
The Chairwoman's expression stiffened.
'A Gate Công would raid was probably overseas. Huh... taking Ninomiya into another country?'
Alice and Sia posed no particular problem.
Công would protect them, and with Ninomiya there as well, they were unlikely to be injured.
The real problem was Aika Ninomiya. A walking strategic nuke.
Someone as powerful as her naturally made foreign governments wary.
Yes, an S-rank Gate had appeared in our country and created a disaster. Even so, allowing Ninomiya onto our soil was another matter...
That was how every government would react.
'Yujin knew that, which was why he was asking me. Mediating between them would be a tremendous nuisance.'
The Chairwoman began weighing the costs and benefits.
The cost was accepting a mountain of troublesome work.
She could already see the overtime and late nights ahead.
'Still, giving Yujin safe experience in an S-rank Gate—and overseas training at that—was very tempting.'
What did she stand to gain?
S-rank Gate raid experience for Yujin, whom she'd chosen as her successor.
And the experience would be first-rate, with Công, a Gate specialist, and the Vietnam Liberation Army accompanying him.
It was the finest field training a cadet could receive.
The lack of any serious safety concern made it even better.
'Most importantly... hm. It would be worth the trouble.'
After a short deliberation, the scales in her mind tipped toward approval.
A smile spread across the Chairwoman's lips.
"It’s an excellent opportunity. I have no reason to refuse."
"Oh, really? Thank...."
"However, for that to happen, all of you will need to work a little harder first."
"......Excuse me?"
"Who would send cadets into an S-rank Gate unprepared? I’ll train you until you can look after yourselves."
Her smile resembled a snake that had caught its prey.
It was playful, as if to say, I had you now.
A sense of foreboding crossed Yujin’s face.
"You don’t mean...."
"As it happens, I was thinking that Seo Yujin, Alice Littenwood, and Yoo Sia were too talented to waste on the standard curriculum."
Yujin paled as he realized what she intended to say.
Seol Hayeon did not betray his expectations.
"From now on, every class you take except basic general education will be replaced with practical training, Yujin. For Alice and Sia, any class I deem unnecessary will likewise be replaced."
"The course will be called Field Practicum I. I, Seol Hayeon, will be the instructor, and the Cheonhwa Clan will cooperate."
"Its content will be Gate fieldwork conducted in teams of two."
"To complete it, you must be capable of joining Võ Chí Công’s S-rank Gate raid without holding his forces back. That is all."
In other words, the three of them would raid Gates instead of attending class.
Yujin bristled at having his exciting campus life abruptly taken away.
"Wait. Gate fieldwork as freshmen? That makes no sense...."
"Didn't your master solo an S-rank Gate when she was a freshman?"
"......."
He weakened immediately when she mentioned his master.
Yujin slumped into his seat.
'Sia, Alice, I was sorry... I had ruined your academy life...!!'
Yujin himself was fine.
Swinging a sword in a Gate was hundreds or thousands of times better than sitting through a boring lecture.
But what about his wives?
They were young women in their early twenties who'd only recently awakened.
He didn't want to push them into musty places like Gates so soon.
No, he'd rather they never entered dangerous places like Gates at all.
That was the reason Yujin couldn't help but be dejected.
"...Just to make sure, I’ll be one member of each two-person team, right? You won’t send Sia and Alice together without me?"
"Greedy brat. I’ll only assign each of them once a week, and their days won’t overlap. Don’t worry."
"That's a relief, then."
His expression brightened slightly at that hopeful news, but...
A weekly two-person Gate practicum with each of his wives?
'I felt sorry for them, but if I treated it as an officially sanctioned date...?'
'That would not be bad. No.'
Of course, he'd have to prostrate himself and apologize to both of them.
That thought made his heavy heart just a little lighter.
"Understood. Then I can raid alone on the other two days, right?"
"Hm?"
"Excluding required general education, every day but Monday is free for me. I already made arrangements with the other professors."
He asked after doing the simple calculation.
He had four free days each week.
Sia and Alice would each partner with him for one day, leaving two days for solo raids.
Yujin smiled at an extremely simple bit of arithmetic...
———And, as it happened, the Chairwoman smiled too.
"I said this was a two-person-team practicum. Where do you think you’re going alone?"
"Huh?"
"I’ll assign Winterer as your buddy. Spend the remaining two days with her."
"......You old hag!!!?"