Week 5 Mentoring, PvP Assessment (8)
Tuesday.
The short break after lunch. I had found a quiet, out-of-the-way spot to talk with Go Hyeon-woo and Seo Ye-in, and the subject, needless to say, was the mentoring that had begun yesterday.
"So? How's your mentor?"
"Most satisfactory, exceedingly so. Our senior is a master of no small caliber, and I spy much to learn from the others in the group as well."
Go Hyeon-woo had been unable to mask his elation since morning. He'd apparently had the luck to draw both a highly skilled mentor and talented groupmates — enough to set any martial artist's blood racing.
"Really? Who's in it?"
"Miss Han is among my groupmates."
"Han So-mi?"
"The very same."
So that was why we'd been headed the same way yesterday. I'd wondered, and sure enough, we really had landed in the same group.
"That works out. Ask her to have a sparring match with you."
"I had already inquired, as it happens. She declined, however."
"Already? Why not?"
"She says she has no wish for unnecessary battles."
Come to think of it, I'd heard much the same on the train. She dislikes fighting, but she doesn't run from a contest — wasn't that how it went? If so, her reluctance to spar made perfect sense. A sparring match is not a contest. Still, seeing her hold a top-tier rank in the Disciplinary Committee's PvP assessments, I had to conclude that when fighting was called for, she fought.
"If you ask her nicely, she might relent. Try sweet-talking her with something tasty, maybe."
"Hmm, that may well be so. Only, I haven't the faintest notion what Miss Han might fancy."
"Then just ask Song Cheon-hye. She's in our group anyway."
"Is that truly so? Then I shall leave it in your hands."
Song Cheon-hye and Han So-mi were fellow Disciplinary Committee members, close enough personally that they were attached at the hip at all times, so she was bound to know at least the broad strokes of Han So-mi's interests. Whether she'd hand that information over to me of her own free will was another matter — but I had a plan for that as well.
With Go Hyeon-woo's situation more or less settled, I turned the conversation toward Seo Ye-in, who until then had been silently spectating.
"And you? How was the mentoring?"
"......Boring."
Figures. Of course it was boring.
I could already see her mentor's suffering stretching out ahead.
"Did the mentor say anything to you?"
"Wants to see you."
"Me?"
"Yeah."
What business could a gunslinger mentor possibly have with me?
The answer arrived before long.
"So this is where you were, my lady."
"?"
I turned toward the unfamiliar voice to find a woman standing there in a crisp, immaculately tailored suit.
The instant I laid eyes on her, instinct told me one thing: put her to any task whatsoever, and she'll deliver two people's worth of work, minimum.
This was someone formidably, almost frighteningly capable.
She didn't carry herself like faculty — the likeliest guess was that she was one of the alumni who'd signed on as mentors. And the fact that she addressed Seo Ye-in as 'my lady' meant the connection between them went back a long way.
The suited woman bowed to us first.
"Friends of the young miss, I see. My name is Ahn Jungmi. I have been appointed as her mentor this term."
"I am Go Hyeon-woo."
"Kim Ho."
We returned the courtesy in kind. And the moment my name left my mouth, Ahn Jungmi's eyes began to throw off an intense glare — verging on actual laser beams, which made them slightly taxing to stand in front of.
"......So you are Mr. Kim Ho. I have heard a great deal about you. Might I trouble you to spare me a moment of your time?"
Go Hyeon-woo caught on in a flash, rising from his seat with an easy smile.
"It would seem best that I step aside for this conversation."
"Your consideration is appreciated."
"Think nothing of it. Then, Brother Kim, Miss Seo — until we meet again."
And off he strolled, unhurried as ever.
With Seo Ye-in's mentor in attendance, the topic of conversation was effectively decided in advance. Nor was there any reason to send the girl elsewhere — we weren't about to discuss anything that couldn't be said in front of her. Ahn Jungmi held out a single business card.
"Allow me to introduce myself once more."
Upon the card, in flawless script, sat a title and a name:
Hyeseong Group, of course.
Hyeseong Group was one of the two great military-industrial conglomerates of Dragon Slayer Academy, forever contending for the top spot; magic guns and all manner of high-grade magitech equipment rolled out of its production lines. If Seo Ye-in was tied to them, it went a long way toward explaining why she was armed head to toe with top-shelf gear like the [Optical Camouflage Ghillie Suit] and the [Cloud Walker].
A team-leader-rank operative who came in person and addressed her as 'my lady' — she had to be the granddaughter of an executive at the very least, and quite possibly above.
Moreover, judging by the capable impression she gave off, Ahn Jungmi's duties did not appear to end at team leader, either.
Right on cue, Seo Ye-in pointed at Ahn Jungmi and added:
"She's our butler."
"Butler? This person here?"
"Yeah."
"Yes. The title is more than I deserve, but I do continue to discharge my butler duties alongside the rest of my work," Ahn Jungmi confirmed.
So this was that butler.
A conversation I'd shared with Seo Ye-in a few weeks earlier drifted back to me.
"Anything you'd like to have?"
"Where's this coming from?"
"They say if you receive a gift, you owe one back."
"Says who?"
"Our butler."
The fact that Seo Ye-in had gifted me those sneakers as thanks for the Magic Bullet lecture owed a great deal to the common sense drilled into her by her butler. I'd never known who the person was, yet every time the butler came up, a certain respect welled up in me all the same — and here stood that very paragon in the flesh.
And the object of my newfound respect proceeded straight to business.
"The reason I have sought out Mr. Kim Ho today is none other than to consult regarding the young miss's path going forward."
"I'm an ordinary student. For career counseling, surely you could find someone better qualified than myself?"
I feigned modesty and took a half step back, but Ahn Jungmi slowly shook her head.
"No. There is no one better suited than Mr. Kim Ho. I am told that in barely a month's time you taught the young miss [Magic Bullet] and [Ejection]. That is something neither I nor any of the countless tutors we engaged ever managed — which makes you, by any measure, a most excellent teacher."
The matter-of-fact certainty in her tone said this agenda had been drawn up long before she ever came looking for me.
But something in Ahn Jungmi's words snagged on my mind.
[Magic Bullet] and [Ejection] were, frankly, among the most elementary of gunner class skills — and not a single person had ever taught them to her properly? The tutors could hardly all have been incompetent, and it wasn't as if Seo Ye-in lacked talent.
Which left exactly one conclusion.
"Does she just not listen to a word anyone says at home?"
"......"
Ahn Jungmi's mouth clamped shut for an instant. I knew at once what an awkward question I'd posed — and yet even mid-fluster, she seemed to be rapidly sifting through suitable wording, the answer arriving within mere seconds. Her head clearly turned at quite a clip.
"......The young miss tends to invest her time in fields that hold her interest."
I refrained from asking, And which fields might those be? — no need to twist the knife. It was a sure bet the answer was napping.
What she truly wanted to say wasn't difficult to reconstruct, either:
'Yes. At home, she does not listen. Not one bit.'
And I was the one who had taught that very girl — small wonder she'd want to lay eyes on me at least once, if only to satisfy her curiosity. Nodding in understanding, I said,
"Understood. She's a friend of mine as well, so I'll do my utmost — as far as my reach extends."
"Thank you. When I verified the young miss's abilities a little more precisely yesterday, I found that she had raised Magic Bullet and Ejection all the way to C-Rank."
"Has she, now?"
Well, that's a surprise even to me.
I'd set C-Rank as her target purely on the theory that a lofty goal would make her apply herself — and she had actually gone and done it.
I shot Seo Ye-in a glance; facing me, she slowly raised her fingers and essayed a somewhat clumsy V sign.
Ahn Jungmi and I traded looks once more. Miraculously, our eyes alone carried the whole conversation.
'Does she do that on a regular basis?'
'No. Today is my first time witnessing it as well.'
But in the end, we were both professionals. We recovered our composure in short order and returned to the matter at hand.
"With both skills at C-Rank, I'd say her destructive power is now secured at the level she requires."
"That is my assessment as well."
If Seo Ye-in could simply keep landing Magic Bullets and dealing damage, she could send any first-year in the academy to an early grave. The keyword there was keep.
As she stood, Seo Ye-in's odds of winning plunged the moment two or three shots missed their mark, for the simple reason that she lacked the staying power to carry a fight forward. Her burst destructive power was superb, but she possessed next to no mobility or defense to sustain it — the instant a counterattack came, she would absorb every hit in full. Dragged into a proper firefight, a contest of endurance, she would be the first to drop.
The Hong Yeon-hwa and Baek Jun-seok duo from the two-on-two PvP assessment was a case in point: they had summoned a mana shield to shut down her sniping, pinpointed her position, and moved to counter. Had I not overturned the board right then, her health would have been bled dry and she'd have been knocked out of the fight in no time.
So the first thing to shore up, lest such a situation repeat itself, was—
"I believe she should look into learning a movement skill first."
"We think alike. Do you have a skill to recommend?"
Ahn Jungmi asked. She could certainly learn [Thief's Step], as any other long-range class might...... but if we were doing this at all, why not attach a premium?
I named a different skill.
"I'd say [Featherwalk] would suit her best."
Featherwalk. In that it lightened the caster's body and quickened their movement, it resembled Thief's Step. The difference lay in this: while Featherwalk was active, a mild turbulence swirled about the caster, deflecting and sliding aside a portion of incoming attacks. It was, in effect, a modest defensive skill folded into a movement one. Naturally, it also synergized beautifully with wind-attribute skills — and combined with the ones I intended to learn down the road, the bonuses would only swell further.
Its drawbacks numbered exactly one.
It cost a fortune.
The [Featherwalk] skill book was exceedingly scarce beside [Thief's Step]. Back when I played Dragon Slayer Academy, the going rate ran north of a hundred times higher; I couldn't say how prices fared here, but I'd wager much the same. Better than Thief's Step, yes — even granting that, the price was nothing short of absurd. Most people would rather learn the comparable Thief's Step and invest the savings elsewhere than pay a hundredfold premium for a Featherwalk book.
But then, these people were Hyeseong Group.
When the heiress of a conglomerate on Hyeseong Group's scale had finally deigned to learn herself a skill, what was a trifle of money? And sure enough, Ahn Jungmi nodded as though it were nothing at all.
"I will see to procuring the skill book immediately."
I tacked one more request onto that.
"For the time being, I'd also have her switch weapons."
My meaning: while she learned her movement skill, a line of magic guns geared toward mobility would serve her better than a sniper rifle that chained her to a single spot. This, too, was no difficult request for Hyeseong Group — firearms, they had stacked to overflowing.
"Yes. We will arrange it."
And with that, Seo Ye-in's training direction was settled for the foreseeable future. Whatever came after could be continued or revised as the progress reports rolled in.
Turning to Seo Ye-in, I spoke in a teasing tone.
"Study your skills hard, and start listening to your butler, you hear?"
Seo Ye-in stared at me blankly for a few seconds, then gave a slow nod.
"Yeah."
Ahn Jungmi, who had been watching the whole exchange, wore an expression that curdled into something quite strange. The look she aimed at me brimmed over with admiration and reverence; the one she leveled at Seo Ye-in seemed steeped in something like betrayal and hollow defeat.
I can see why.
Some inexplicable part of me understood Ahn Jungmi's position perfectly. Think of a cat: you coddle it and pour your very best into raising it for years on end, and it never spares you so much as a glance — then a perfect stranger shows up, and it instantly flops over, belly up. Something along those lines, I imagined.
But, as I keep saying, Ahn Jungmi was a professional. She gathered her expression back together in moments and carried on.
"This term of mentoring is one the Future Strategy Office itself is watching with keen interest. The aid you have rendered the young miss's growth in so many areas will not be forgotten, Mr. Kim Ho — you will be recompensed, without fail."
"Then I shan't decline. I have more needs than my appearance suggests."
"We will prepare something more than sufficient to satisfy you."
Promising me something good before I'd even asked for it, huh.
Truly, Ahn Jungmi was a woman who knew her virtues — benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom.
[86] The Support Ate It All