The Prince Becomes a Mentor
Asako Ukie was thrilled. Her family wasn't exactly well-off, so she'd always dreamed of landing a high-paying job at a top-tier company. After pushing herself through a demanding university and years of relentless effort, she'd managed to get accepted into the Taira Group—one of Japan's two corporate giants alongside the Minamoto. The moment she received the acceptance text, she and her mother had hugged each other and burst into tears. It was the first time she'd ever cried from pure joy.
She'd been so focused on preparing for this that she'd never once dated, despite all the introductions, pick-up attempts, and temptations that had come her way. She'd turned them all down. Now that she'd finally secured her dream job, she wanted to start looking for a good relationship if the right person came along.
And then she entered the Human Resources Development Center.
That's where Asako Ukie found her prince.
Sharp, handsome features. A face full of confidence in both expression and posture. A tall, powerfully built frame. In that instant, Asako Ukie realized that this was exactly the ideal type she'd never even known she had.
Would she get to see him again?
She knew it was unlikely. After looking into the center, she learned that the only people who interacted directly with the new employee trainees were the New Employee Education Team. And the odds that the man she'd fallen for worked on that specific team were slim. The Human Resources Development Center had many other departments, after all.
I should've at least tried to talk to him!
Asako Ukie felt a twinge of regret. If she ever ran into him again by chance, she swore she'd get his LINE ID no matter what.
“Hello, everyone in Group 74. I'm Taira Ryuta, your mentor for this group.”
A miracle had happened. Her prince had become her mentor.
The other nine members of the group all lit up with bright expressions. When they glanced at the mentors assigned to other groups, they saw only exhausted-looking middle-aged men and women. It really felt like the goddess of luck was following her around.
“Mentor~! Mentor, are you the grandson the Chairman mentioned?”
“Hehe, who knows?”
“Mentor, how old are you?”
“Mentor!”
“Mentor…!”
Her prince was already completely surrounded by the other group members. Asako Ukie felt a strange twist in her stomach. While other groups had a mix of men and women, this one was made up entirely of women. And every single one of them was stunningly beautiful.
Was it a coincidence? It had to be, right?
But Asako Ukie didn't have time to dwell on it. All she could see was her prince, encircled by these women. If she just stood there, she was going to lose him…!
“P-Prince— I mean, Mentor!”
Gathering her courage, Asako Ukie pushed her way toward Taira Ryuta, who was still surrounded by the other women.
Is this what it feels like when an insanely handsome guy gets sent to an all-girls high school for teaching practice?
I was finally freed after being surrounded by women firing off all kinds of questions. It was surprisingly exhausting. I guided the group members to the large cafeteria where the new trainees ate, then headed to the employee cafeteria where Mimata Chieri was waiting.
Mentors were allowed to use the big cafeteria with the trainees, but today I'd already made plans with Mimata Chieri to eat steak together, so I went to the employee cafeteria instead.
The cafeteria's menu was cod roe pasta. No contest—steak was clearly the better choice.
“Ah, Hubae-gun!”
“Senior. Sorry I'm a bit late. I had to guide the group members to the cafeteria.”
“That can't be helped. Still, since all the Education Team members are acting as mentors today, the employee cafeteria is actually pretty empty.”
That made sense. It was the first day, so the mentors from the Education Team were probably all eating with their respective groups in the big cafeteria. We received our steaks quickly.
As expected, I got the jumbo size that went beyond the usual portions the cafeteria ladies gave out. Mimata Chieri must have decided to eat a lot today too, because she ordered a medium size instead of her usual small.
We both shouted “Itadakimasu!” and started eating. As expected of a major corporation, they used high-quality beef. It wasn't quite as good as the premium meat our housekeeper prepared at home, but it was still delicious. The perfectly grilled steak came with roasted asparagus as a garnish and potatoes cut into cubes and fried until crispy. It was hearty and satisfying.
“Hehe, this is really good.”
“Yeah, it's pretty decent.”
At first we focused entirely on the steak, but once our stomachs started to fill, we began chatting casually.
“By the way, Senior, have you ever been a mentor before?”
“I've been here since the previous batch, but since I'm the youngest, they never assigned me to it. You seem to have connections with the Education Team, so if you ask them, they'll probably give you all the details.”
That was true. Mimata Chieri had only been at the Human Resources Development Center for a little over six months, so there was no way she'd know everything. It would be better to ask Kawaji Emiko later, just like she'd suggested.
After lunch, I stopped by the office and transferred all the necessary work files and mentor-related materials onto the laptop I'd bought in advance. When I told Sinoe Misano that I'd be working from the Group 74 conference room today and leaving from there, she simply replied that she understood.
“Go ahead. Even if things are light right now, it might get a bit tougher later on.”
“Still, since I said I'd do it, I have to give it my best.”
Sinoe Misano looked cheerful. Her husband, who was on a long-term overseas business trip, was coming back next week. That was why she'd been refusing sex with me lately and had gone into a period of abstinence. She'd even gotten a vaginal tightening surgery at the hospital because she was worried that if we kept going, her husband might notice something was off from how loose she had become.
I was curious just how tight it had gotten, but out of basic decency, I'd decided to let her husband have priority for now.
“I'll send you the work via email this week, so just commute from the mentor conference room.”
Sinoe Misano seemed to feel so guilty about not being able to do more for me that she was going overboard with kindness, which actually made it a bit burdensome. There were other team members watching, after all. Telling me to just work from the mentor conference room this entire week—what exactly did she think mentoring involved? Still, it worked out perfectly for me, so I thanked her, packed up my laptop and bag, and headed to the mentor conference room.
The mentor conference room felt like a university club room. It was a space where Group 74 could gather to plan group activities or work on tasks during the training period with the mentor's guidance. The Human Resources Development Center's grounds were enormous and there were plenty of empty rooms in the buildings, so even with nearly three hundred groups, each one could have its own conference room.
I'd specifically requested that our Group 74 room be placed somewhere with no other conference rooms nearby and close to the annex where I lived. The assigned space was essentially a small standalone office building designed for small teams on business trips. It had sleeping quarters and could function as both an office and lodging. While it was a bit isolated, it was several times larger than the standard conference rooms, so the girls would probably like it. It was actually closer to the women's dormitory than the main cluster of conference buildings, making it more convenient to go back and forth. And if I wanted to go anywhere, I could just take my car that was parked nearby. Of course I couldn't fit all ten group members in it, but if I used someone in the group who could drive and borrowed Taira Yukiko's car as well, we could go pretty much anywhere.
I sent the location of our conference room to the group chat and suggested we have dinner together followed by a simple get-together. Since it was the first day, there hadn't been any particularly difficult training. It had mostly been mental education sessions, with some time given for the group members to get to know each other.
After lunch it was more mental education, so I was able to handle the remaining work on my laptop without any interruptions. There wasn't much to do, so I finished everything in just thirty minutes.
“It ended faster than I thought. Should I go to the mart in advance and do some shopping?”
I muttered to myself as I closed the laptop and stepped outside. I walked to the parking lot, got into my beloved Chrysler, and drove to the mart about ten minutes away by car. I bought bottled water and drinks for daily use, along with some simple snacks and ramen.
“Since we're having a get-together tonight, I should buy alcohol too, right?”
I picked up several cans of different kinds. For snacks, I grabbed retort foods that could be heated in the microwave and some dried snacks. There was a freezer in the fridge, so I should get ice cream too… By the time I bought everything that came to mind, the total came to over 50,000 yen—well beyond the 40,000 yen mentor support allowance.
Did I buy too much? Well, I still had the allowance money from Grandfather Taira Danjo, so this much was fine. Besides, with the legendary month of June when Health Miracle would skyrocket just around the corner, this amount of money was nothing.
I drove back, parked the car in front of the office building, and started carrying everything inside. Most of it was food, so the majority went straight into the refrigerator. Since the building had been designed for overnight stays, the second floor had bedrooms and a shower room. The sleeping area wasn't Western-style beds but a tatami room where you laid out futons. It was quite spacious. If we arranged things properly, at least eight people could sleep there.
“Bigger is better.”
After all, a lot of things could happen in this place from now on.