The Butler Card

I stood there for a while, idly watching the Hong sisters walk away. Judging by the frosty glare Hong Ye-hwa had been leveling at her younger sister, a full-blown sibling war was all but guaranteed the moment they set foot back in the clubroom.

"……!"

Hong Yeon-hwa kept shooting me pitiful glances over her shoulder, but I had no standing to intervene in a quarrel between sisters. I didn't even know exactly what the fight would be about. This was, therefore, a problem Hong Yeon-hwa would have to resolve on her own.

So—was it comfortable, or not?

I had gone so far as to lend out my shoulder for a field test of the Kim Ho Pillow, but Hong Ye-hwa's entrance had cut the review short before it began. She had certainly buried her head in it deeply enough; whether it had actually felt comfortable was something I would have to hear from the party concerned. For now, I shelved the matter.

Instead, I called back up the notification that had arrived only moments ago.

First place in both allotted matches—the sub quest cleared at the highest possible rating. Which meant the E-rank Rank Up I'd earned already had its purpose decided.

It goes on Bestow, obviously.

Copy, Amplification, Sovereign, Bestow. Skills and traits so powerful that raising their ranks by ordinary means was brutally difficult—so much so that hunting down a Rank Up scroll often took less effort than grinding them by hand. Spending it here was unquestionably the best move.

Except I can't use it yet.

The Rank Up (E) I'd just obtained was an item that promoted an E-rank skill to D. In other words, it couldn't be touched until Bestow, currently sitting at F, climbed a single step first.

Come ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to think of it, Seo Ye-in is in nearly the same boat.

Seo Ye-in had likewise picked up Bullet Time at the downtown market—landing it at F-rank—then won an E-rank Rank Up at the game center. Just like me, she couldn't use hers until she escaped F.

Well, that works out nicely. With our conditions matching on every front, we might as well train together. The training would require a certain 'special arrangement,' but that was exactly what I was about to go acquire.

Time to play the butler card again, I think.

It was well after sundown when I saw Seo Ye-in again. Her hair was a complete bird's nest, one side sticking out like an antenna.

"Did you go back to the dorm and sleep?"

"Yeah……."

Seo Ye-in answered with a small yawn. Knowing the human sloth, I'd half suspected she'd spent the whole time asleep in the classroom, but apparently she had somehow managed to make it back to the dorm after all.

"You've rested enough by now, right?"

"Not enough……."

"Still? What's your percentage at?"

"Forty……."

She'd been sleeping nonstop since the weekend and still hadn't reached half charge. The sloth battery's fuel efficiency was looking dire.

Seo Ye-in gave my sleeve a little tug.

"Pillow……."

"Finish your nap later. Let's give the butler a call first."

"The butler?"

"Yeah. For our skill training. That okay?"

"Mm."

I led Seo Ye-in off to a quiet spot. The moment we sat down side by side, she slyly settled her head against my shoulder. Her eyelids were already sinking, but she had to stay awake at least until the call with Ahn Jungmi was over. So I said, in the firmest tone I could manage:

"You can lean all you like, but the second you fall asleep, I'm getting up."

"No……."

Perhaps she'd been counting on dozing off on the Kim Ho Pillow, because Seo Ye-in turned distinctly sulky.

I already had Ahn Jungmi's personal contact information from the mentoring period. I worked the communication crystal; a few tones chimed, and her figure appeared at once. The office visible behind her suggested she was working late. Ahn Jungmi bowed her head with courtesy.

"Kim Ho-nim. Agassi. I trust you have both been well."

"Yes, it's been some time since we last spoke."

Ahn Jungmi and I exchanged formal greetings while Seo Ye-in, head still resting on my shoulder, gave a tiny flutter of a wave. At the sight, Ahn Jungmi's face melted into open delight—though she swiftly reasserted her professional composure.

"I heard there was an unpleasant incident during the midterms. I'm relieved to see you both unharmed."

"Thankfully, we came through it without trouble."

I reported everything that had happened during the midterm, item by item. Ahn Jungmi's satisfaction index began climbing from the very moment she heard that Seo Ye-in and I had paired up. She was visibly delighted by the breadth of experience—supply boxes, securing Crystals, camping out—and when the news arrived that the final tally stood at four Crystals plus the bonus, an outstanding score of 2,250 points, a contented smile suffused her entire face.

"You've both worked terribly hard. Going forward, I will continue to entrust all matters concerning the Agassi entirely to you, Kim Ho-nim. Should you require anything at all, please tell me whenever you wish."

"As it happens, that's exactly why I'm calling."

"What shall I prepare for you?"

I tipped my chin toward Seo Ye-in and came to the point.

"As I mentioned before—she's learned Bullet Time."

"……Yes, so you did."

Ahn Jungmi had been considerably startled when she first heard that Seo Ye-in had learned Bullet Time from a random skill book, for even she—a high-grade gunslinger—had never so much as laid eyes on the skill. Naturally, from Hyeseong Group's standpoint, and from a butler's, the Agassi's combat power taking a great leap upward was welcome news indeed. All the better if she raised its rank and put it to proper use. And whatever resources that consumed, they would be ready to provide.

"You intend to have the Agassi train her Bullet Time, then?"

"That's right. It dovetails with my own skill training, so I'd like to run the two side by side. The problem is the long cooldown."

"You require a means of reducing cooldowns."

Whether she had guessed what I was about to ask, Ahn Jungmi's eyes gleamed. I nodded, confirming her suspicion.

"Yes. I'd like to borrow a Special Training Room access pass."

If the Special Meditation Room was the upgraded counterpart of the Mana Cultivation Room, then the Special Training Room was the upgraded counterpart of the standard training room—a place where training was possible by partially warping the laws the System had laid down. And the function I had my eye on was 'cooldown reduction.' The shorter the reuse delay, the more often a skill could be cast, and the more often a skill was cast, the faster its rank climbed. Of course, like the Special Meditation Room, the Special Training Room was not somewhere just anyone could wander into. Warping the laws of the System demanded immensely powerful magical apparatus, so the rooms were limited in number, and entering one of those limited rooms required either paying points or holding an access pass on par with a Season Pass. Hence my borrowing of Ahn Jungmi's hand.

Ahn Jungmi seemed to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠have accepted every word of this—yet at the same time, a question appeared to surface.

"Procuring one would be no difficulty, but…… would it not be better to simply use an ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠F-rank Rank Up rather than a Special Training Room pass?"

Her meaning being: if you just burned an F-rank and then an E-rank Rank Up back to back, wouldn't you reach D without any training whatsoever? It was a fair point, but I shook my head.

"It's the convenient road, I'll grant you—but in the long run it's a waste of Rank Ups. Proficiency stays exactly where it was."

"……That is certainly true. My thinking was short-sighted."

Ahn Jungmi conceded the point readily enough. A skill or trait's power grew with its rank, but proficiency was a separate matter entirely; the best way to build it was for the user to cast it over and over until it became second nature. Bullet Time above all demanded seizing a mere one or two seconds of chance in the middle of combat, so proficiency accounted for an enormous share of its effectiveness. Take, for instance, casting Bullet Time as an opponent drew their bow: activating it before the arrow ever left the string, or at the very last instant before impact, would be all but pointless. In the former case, the trajectory had yet to reveal itself; in the latter, there would be no time left to evade. Only by catching the exquisite timing between those two points could efficiency be maximized. For the sake of at least a baseline of proficiency, then, it was better to run the stretch from F to E in the Special Training Room.

Ahn Jungmi asked,

"And what duration are you considering?"

"This one week will be plenty."

Neither Seo Ye-in nor I possessed talent of the ordinary sort; a week would carry us ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to E-rank with time to spare. Ahn Jungmi sprang into action at once.

"I will dispatch someone immediately. Please tell me your current location."

"Thank you. We're here."

The instant I shared our position, Ahn Jungmi placed a call to someone. Then, a soft smile playing at her lips, she bowed her head with courtesy.

"I place the Agassi in your care."

"Of course. I'll be in touch again."

The connection closed, and Ahn Jungmi's image faded from the crystal. Before much time had passed at all, a female student came looking for us. Her tie pin marked her as a third-year senior. She asked, by way of confirmation:

"Kim Ho?"

"Yes, that's me."

She really did get here straight away.

Marvelling at Ahn Jungmi's bulldozer-like drive, I looked the senior over. Dragon Slayer Academy had no club directly affiliated with Hyeseong Group, but those receiving the group's backing—the so-called 'scholarship students'—were scattered across one club after another. They avoided acting against their own clubs' interests where they could, but briefly lending out a perk like this was hardly any trouble at all. Any losses incurred along the way would be covered in full by Hyeseong Group regardless. Perhaps that was why the scholarship senior handed over the rather precious Special Training Room pass with an air of perfect indifference.

"Train hard. And don't forget to return it by next week."

"Yes, senior."

I bowed my head slightly as I accepted the pass. Her business concluded, the senior gave us a brief once-over, then turned on her heel and departed. Waving the pass lazily, I turned to Seo Ye-in.

"Shall we head over too?"

"Magic Bullet lecture?"

"No."

I shook my head lightly, then corrected her.

"Kim Ho's Bullet Time lecture."

The Training Center. At a glance, the Special Training Room looked no different from the ordinary training room where I'd been wailing on wooden dummies and iron dummies. But the moment I operated the terminal, functions absent from the standard rooms revealed themselves. The one I'd been hunting for was—

—the cooldown reduction function. Whatever value was configured, the cooldowns of every skill and trait Seo Ye-in and I possessed would shrink by exactly that much. Without hesitation, I dragged the setting all the way to the top.

F-rank Bullet Time had a cooldown of five minutes. Cut that by ninety percent, and it could be recast every thirty seconds. Every condition for training was now in place.

"Then, starting this very moment, let the 'Return of Kim Ho' Bullet Time special lecture begin."

"Wow—"

Seo Ye-in cheered with a silent round of finger applause. I began drawing the items I'd prepared out of my inventory one by one. I set up a small makeshift desk in the middle of the training room, placed on it a tiny tin pot about the size of a single serving of ramyeon, and then—

Squeak!

—raised the toy hammer.

"Today's training event will be the Toy Hammer Game."

[199] The Support Ate It All