The trait quest Seo Ye-in had received this time was the kind she had to complete on her own, so we decided to train separately for the time being.
Dang Gyu-ri promptly swooped in to fill the opening.
After sparring with each other in the training room for quite a while, we headed to the school store for a break and a change of pace.
We each bought a cup of coffee and sat down side by side on a nearby bench.
As we leisurely watched the students coming and going, I spotted a familiar silhouette in the distance.
She seemed to recognize me as well and quickly made her way over.
It was none other than Song Cheon-hye.
The moment she arrived, she threw out a question.
“What are you doing here?”
“Having coffee with her.”
I gestured toward Dang Gyu-ri as I answered, and Song Cheon-hye’s gaze naturally shifted in her direction.
Her eyebrows rose in surprise.
“She’s… a freshman.”
“Hello, senior.”
Dang Gyu-ri politely bowed her head.
Song Cheon-hye introduced herself, then proceeded to ask the exact same questions everyone else had.
Naturally, the answers were the same too.
Q: What was her relationship with Dang Gyu-young, and how had she gotten close to me?
A: They were cousins, and we’d gotten close over winter break.
At that, Song Cheon-hye looked back at me and furrowed her brow.
“Just how many are you planning to add? Now you’re even making moves on a junior.”
“I don’t know about that. Isn’t whether we click more important than who’s a senior or junior?”
“How do you even know if you click? Winter break wasn’t that long.”
“You figure that out pretty quickly when you spend time together.”
“By that logic…”
Song Cheon-hye trailed off and closed her mouth, apparently having thought of something.
So I pressed her.
“By that logic?”
“…Never mind. More importantly, there’s something I want to confirm.”
Song Cheon-hye quickly changed the subject.
She regarded me with a highly suspicious look.
“Those messages you sent me over the past few days.”
“Yeah, what about them?”
“The timing was awfully convenient. They came right when I was out on patrol.”
“I just had a feeling you were working.”
“You even sent one right after [Black Death] was cleared.”
“Did I? That is quite a coincidence.”
I answered as if I were hearing about it for the first time.
Even so, Song Cheon-hye remained suspicious and continued questioning me.
“The day before yesterday, it took you quite a while to reply.”
“It was nighttime. Sometimes replies come late.”
“And around that same time, [Descent of the Feathered Serpent] was cleared too.”
“That’s quite a coincidence too. The problem is, it feels like you’re really reaching to make the pieces fit.”
I smoothly brushed off her accusation and even turned it back on her, leaving Song Cheon-hye momentarily at a loss for words.
Then, looking like she was about to die of frustration, she asked,
“Just be honest with me. You were the one who did it, weren’t you?”
“Maybe I was, maybe I wasn’t. But there’s one thing I know for sure.”
“…What?”
“The moment you had to ask that question, you lost.”
If she’d had any solid evidence in the first place, she wouldn’t have bothered trying to coax a confession out of me.
She would’ve dragged me straight to the Disciplinary Committee room by now.
A vein bulged on Song Cheon-hye’s forehead.
She opened her mouth to say something, only to shut it again, apparently realizing that anything she said would only put her at a disadvantage.
She let out a low sigh and suppressed her irritation.
“…Fine. I’ll admit I lost this time.”
“You didn’t lose. It’s not like we went down to the deeper levels.”
“Whatever! I told you, if you keep this up long enough, you’re bound to get caught.”
Even if Dang Gyu-ri’s stealth was better than Kwak Seung-jae’s detection, he could still catch us two or three times out of ten. In the same way, Song Cheon-hye might manage to catch us once or twice out of ten.
Though whether that would actually mean anything remains to be seen.
Kwak Seung-jae had said he’d make reasonable accommodations for us, after all.
I couldn’t be completely optimistic about it, but the odds were good.
Looks like he hasn’t told her yet.
Then again, from Kwak Seung-jae’s perspective, bringing in outsiders probably wasn’t something he could exactly be proud of.
Besides, all I’d said was that I’d “give it serious consideration”. I hadn’t actually agreed to anything yet.
Then I won’t tell her either.
That sounded more entertaining.
Soon after, Song Cheon-hye made one final declaration of war and stormed off in a huff.
But just when she’d gotten fairly far away, she suddenly stopped.
Then she hurried back over and asked,
“By the way, when are we training again?”
Apparently, separate from our game of cat and mouse on the underground floors, she still wanted to continue her private lessons.
Given how the conversation had gone, she seemed to realize she was being a little shameless herself, and a faint blush colored her cheeks.
Either way, she’s still a client as far as I’m concerned.
I had an agreement with the Song family, so it was only right to keep tutoring her at least until I received the Thunder Lord’s item.
It wasn’t like I had that much against her to begin with, and there was always the possibility that she’d become a powerful ally someday.
So I answered casually.
“Let’s see how your next duel goes first. I think that’ll give us a clearer idea of what direction to take.”
“That makes sense. All right.”
Song Cheon-hye left it at that and hurried away.
With peace restored, we went back to sipping our coffee and watching people come and go.
After a while, a group of freshmen caught my eye. To put it nicely, they had an air of refinement about them. To put it less nicely, they looked like sheltered flowers raised in a greenhouse.
So I casually asked Dang Gyu-ri,
“Are they promising talents?”
“That’s right.”
It seemed she’d already gotten fairly acquainted with them despite the semester having only just begun.
Though she might have known some of them beforehand.
Meanwhile, there was a girl among them who looked strangely familiar.
After searching my memory for a moment,
“She looks like senior Han Gyeo-wool.”
“Sharp eye. That’s Han Ga-eul.”
A promising talent from the Sapphire Magic Tower.
Just then, Han Ga-eul seemed to notice our gaze as well. She stopped just before entering the school store and looked over at Dang Gyu-ri.
It was a look I’d received countless times myself.
“She looks pretty suspicious of you.”
“Damn, was it that obvious? I thought I hid it pretty well.”
During the placement exam, Dang Gyu-ri had faced Han Ga-eul in her final match.
She’d deliberately lost both to conceal her identity and to adjust her score, but apparently Han Ga-eul had sensed that something about the match didn’t add up.
“……”
Han Ga-eul continued staring our way for a while before leading her group into the school store.
Watching her go, Dang Gyu-ri asked,
“…She’s not just going to let it go, is she?”
“One hundred percent.”
“It’ll be a pain if she picks a fight with me over it.”
“Still, there’s no need to worry about it already.”
“True. She’s still just a freshman, after all.”
Dang Gyu-ri seemed content to simply deal with it when the time came.
Then, as if something else had occurred to her, she raised an eyebrow.
“Speaking of freshmen, haven’t we been seeing a lot less of Eun-bi lately?”
“Now that you mention it.”
At the beginning of the semester, she’d practically been joined at the hip with us, but lately, we’d been running into her far less often.
Thinking back to when that had started, one possibility came to mind.
“She joined a club, remember?”
“Oh, that could be it. Alchemy keeps you crazy busy.”
“Once she gets settled in, she’ll probably start coming around again.”
“Yeah. We’ll just have to wait.”
***
Somewhere in the downtown area.
The Thieves’ Club had acquired this place for several of its “legitimate businesses”.
But for now, the place was still under construction, and they were taking advantage of that window to secretly use it as a laboratory and workshop.
“……”
Shin Byeong-cheol looked down at the table with immense satisfaction.
Finger-sized vials were lined up across it, each filled with liquid in dreamlike hues.
He picked one up and held it before his eyes.
After examining it from different angles for a while, he let out an exclamation of admiration.
“Wow… ‘Genius’ is the only word for it. How do you even make something like this?”
“It’s all thanks to your support, senior.”
Dang Eun-bi answered with deliberate modesty.
After entering Dragon Slayer Academy, she had begun studying alchemy in earnest and joined the Alchemy Club as well.
But as a first-year, she had access to very few materials. While she was growing frustrated with those limitations, Shin Byeong-cheol had approached her with an offer.
“I’ll let you use as much as you want, however you want. In return, work with me on one little project.”
In a sense, they had become business partners.
Shin Byeong-cheol procured all sorts of alchemical materials and covered the costs himself.
In return, Dang Eun-bi could use some of those materials for her own experiments while also brewing potions that “met his requirements”.
The potions before them were the result.
At Dang Eun-bi’s modest response, Shin Byeong-cheol waved his hand dismissively.
“No, no. You think anyone could pull this off just because you gave them the materials? Far as I’m concerned, even the Alchemy Club president and vice president couldn’t do it.”
If they could, something like this would have hit the market long ago, yet no one had ever created anything even remotely similar.
Shin Byeong-cheol gently swirled the potion bottle.
“You made it, so you know. The effects are insane. I guarantee you, once these hit the market, people are going to go crazy.”
“Thank you for saying that.”
After being showered with praise, the corners of Dang Eun-bi’s lips curled upward slightly.
But her pride lasted only a moment before she asked with a somewhat worried look,
“But… are the side effects really okay?”
Over winter break, her “Special Dang Eun-bi Potions No. 1 and No. 2” had caused Seo Ye-in no end of trouble, and this batch seemed to have similar effects.
If one had to guess at the cause, it was probably because her alchemy-related skills and traits were still low rank.
Or perhaps it was because she tended to toss in ingredients half by instinct.
No one wanted to eliminate the side effects more than Dang Eun-bi herself.
But ranks didn’t rise overnight, and changing the formula caused the potions’ effectiveness to plummet.
In the end, she’d given up and left some of the side effects intact.
Shin Byeong-cheol, however, brushed off her concern.
“It’s fine, it’s fine. You don’t have to worry.”
“Really?”
“I’m telling you, it’s fine. It’s not like anyone’s going to get hurt.”
If the side effects had been serious enough to get the potions classified as prohibited items for example, he would have been the one trying to stop her.
Getting caught “selling” them would result in disciplinary action or penalty points at worst, but “making” them was a much more serious offense and could even get her expelled.
Fortunately, the side effects of the “Special Dang Eun-bi Potions” weren’t even remotely serious enough to qualify as prohibited items.
That didn’t mean they could simply be ignored, but compared to their incredible effects, they were minor issues.
Nine out of ten customers… no, ten out of ten would probably be willing to overlook them as harmless quirks.
Shin Byeong-cheol thumped his chest confidently.
“Just trust me and leave it to me! I’ll sell every last one of these.”
“Okay, I’ll trust you.”
Dang Eun-bi slowly nodded, though a trace of concern still lingered on her face.
Rather than trying to reassure her any further, Shin Byeong-cheol decided to let the results speak for themselves.
This is guaranteed to succeed. Absolutely guaranteed.
The only question was whether it would be a smash hit or a massive smash hit.
Either way, he’d be able to recoup several times his initial investment.
And he planned to reinvest every bit of it into acquiring even more alchemical materials.
From here on out, all that’s left is to keep growing and growing.
The “Special Dang Eun-bi Potions” were only just taking their first step.
She had already accomplished this much with relatively low-ranked skills and traits. As she grew stronger, she would undoubtedly produce even more impressive results.
Things would only keep going up from here, and the same was true for him.
He could almost hear a narrator’s voice ringing in his ears.
– The legendary success story of ‘CEO Shin Byeong-cheol’ was about to begin! Right here! Right now!
CEO Shin Byeong-cheol…
It sounded absolutely perfect.
He nodded to himself and repeated the words over and over in his head.
CEO Shin Byeong-cheol. President Shin. Chairman Shin.
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