112 Event

Spring Mass Outbreak Season.

The breeding season for magical beasts, which takes place between April and May.

During this period, they become especially ferocious, and many beasts intent on expanding their territories tend to appear.

Even for our Meracle, which calls itself a hunter-specialized matchmaking agency, this was a period requiring considerable caution.

- Hunters are a little……

- Ahem, I'm sorry, but please put hunters on hold.

- Are you kidding me?

A time when matching hunters became impossible.

A time when even asking whether someone was all right became an imposition.

A time when we regretted calling ourselves a hunter-specialized agency.

“Ah, this damn company shows no sign of improving.”

After calling our customers, I let out a long, deep sigh.

I knew this was how things were during this season, but talk about terrible timing.

Other matchmaking agencies were proclaiming May the month of marriage and launching one event after another, after all.

“Th-the lack of customers isn't…… I-I mean, that's not it.”

“She's right. We're incredibly busy.”

Kim Yang and Baek Yeonhwa were right.

The problem, however, was the steadily growing pile of hunter customers.

“We have to arrange their matches somehow. Hunters tend to dislike being matched with other hunters.”

As I stretched with a sigh, a message from Raichen arrived.

- Raichen: Consultation Room 2. Styling client.

“Kim Yang, go.”

“O-okay. L-let's go.”

“Yes!”

Baek Yeonhwa grabbed her makeup tools and followed Kim Yang as she rose from her seat.

The styling service was unexpectedly booming.

Not only could clients receive makeup and styling directly from Kim Yang, who was famous as a social media influencer,

but hadn't everyone imagined at least once how dramatically different they would look if a true professional styled them?

The desire to see whether ‘I'd look a little different if I dressed up’ had clearly paid off, and the reviews of Kim Yang's styling were good.

I suppose that was what did it.

So lately, Baek Yeonhwa had been separately learning makeup as Kim Yang's assistant.

She was a wealthy martial heiress anyway.

Who knew how long she'd be here, but she trailed after Kim Yang and learned makeup.

Judging by how she'd even started attending an academy lately, she was taking it more seriously than I'd expected.

‘I wonder if Cheongryong will approve?’

She would have to succeed the Taeguk Eumyang Sect someday. Was it really all right for her to be learning makeup here?

“…….”

Taeguk Eumyang Sect.

It had definitely been helpful.

During the Vichakos incident, I had learned about the Taeguk Eumyang Sect's principles, and they had clearly influenced me when I cut down Rhino too.

The Taeguk Eumyang Sect was a sect centered on internal energy, so external martial arts were barely more than a superficial treatment, but its principles had clearly helped in that fight.

A fight without using the Law.

Perhaps I needed to prepare for one.

“Haa.”

I had been sighing a lot lately.

Housing prices, running the company, stocks, and so on.

There was already so much to worry about in reality.

“Hee-hee, hmm-hmm!”

“…….”

Renea had somehow entered the office and was mopping the floor. I envied how carefree she looked, humming with headphones on.

Then I suddenly became curious.

How had that elf become so strong?

She was currently cleaning with her butt wiggling stupidly, but

in truth, she was a veteran who had fought in both the Lajesta Continent Liberation War 1,500 years ago and the Interfloor War fifty years ago.

The Elf Queen hadn't earned that title through a game of ddakji, had she?

“Move your legs.”

“Ms. Renea.”

“I said move your legs.”

I reached out and removed her headphones, making her tilt her head.

“What is it?”

“Who said you could wear headphones while working?”

“They say this is what the young people do these days? Wear earphones at work. It makes me feel young.”

“That's just your imagination.”

“Move your legs!”

She smacked my legs repeatedly with the mop handle. I finally pushed my chair back and asked again.

“Ms. Renea, how did you become the Elf Queen?”

“Huh? Why all of a sudden?”

“I was just curious.”

“Hmm…… It was just my turn, wasn't it? All the elves above me died, so it came to me.”

Ah, I shouldn't have asked.

……Wait a minute.

“Then are you the oldest elf alive, Ms. Renea?”

“No way, that's not it. All the elves who met the minimum qualifications to become queen died.”

“……You say that awfully casually.”

“That was 1,500 years ago. I've grieved enough already!”

Her smug expression was almost a little pitiful, though she genuinely didn't seem bothered.

“Then how did you become so strong, Ms. Renea?”

When I got to the point, Renea tilted her head, as if wondering why I was suddenly curious about that.

“What, are you going off to fight somewhere? Don't. Now that I'm older, I realize it was all—”

“Ah, yes.”

“……I'm talking here.”

Renea cleared her throat and continued her answer.

“I never did any particular training. I just shot my bow every day because I was bored, and this is what happened.”

“…….”

“So I don't really know.”

Well, that made sense.

There was a saying that even a village schoolhouse dog could recite poetry after three years.

If an elf shot nothing but a bow for 1,900 years, I suppose they could even knock gods from the sky.

“You're a living stalactite.”

“A stalactite?”

Pretending not to notice Renea tilting her head, I glanced at the clock.

It was lunchtime already.

I sighed as I stretched.

“Let's go get something to eat when the kids come back.”

“Yaaay!”

* * *

The Meracle crew came down to the gukbap restaurant on the first floor.

The place was doing well, so it was bustling with customers during lunch.

“Look at that person. He's on his fifth bowl of gukbap.”

“There must be a reason ogres are so popular with restaurant owners.”

“A black cloak and sharp fangs. How can a member of the Night Clan be out during the day—”

“Th-that. C-cosplay.”

“I hear vampires have started selling them directly through online mail order.”

Perhaps because the blood sausage hangover soup here was famous, people in vampire cosplay came often.

They were a little gloomy, but the owner liked them as regulars, so whatever.

I sat down and ordered immediately without even looking at the menu.

“I'll have blood sausage hangover soup.”

“I'll have the giant short rib soup!”

“M-me too.”

“I'll have the giant short rib soup as well.”

“I'll have bean sprout gukbap.”

All right.

“Boss, one bean sprout gukbap and four blood sausage hangover soups.”

“…….”

“…….”

“…….”

The female employees' eyes turned toward me, but I quietly rose from my seat.

“I'm going out for a cigarette.”

Blood sausage hangover soup and bean sprout gukbap cost 8,000 won, while giant short rib soup cost 12,000 won.

Why were my employees so utterly lacking in tact?

When the restaurant owner says, “I'll have jjajangmyeon,” why can't they come up with a creative answer like, “I'll just mix some rice into the leftover sauce”?

“Cheap bastard! The boss is such a cheapskate!”

“S-stocks. G-go down.”

“……Giant short rib soup.”

When I came back from smoking, the gukbap had already arrived. I suppose it had been prepared right away because the restaurant had a high turnover.

“Ah, what the—”

I sat down with a sigh as I watched the three of them eating giant short rib soup.

They'd changed their orders while I was gone.

“Thank you for the meal, Great Hero!”

“……Sure. Eat up. The moment you leave even a drop of broth, we'll have a talk.”

“C-cheapskate.”

I had to be a cheapskate to make money and buy an apartment, didn't I?

Fortunately, the landlady sliced up some boiled pork for us as a complimentary service, which soothed me somewhat.

“Now that everyone’s here, let’s have a meeting too. May is normally peak season for matchmaking agencies, but it’s the opposite for us. You all know that, right?”

“B-but…… I want to eat.”

“L-lunch break. T-talking about work. W-worst boss.”

“Meracle is in serious trouble. You employees need to help.”

At my words, Kim Yang glared at me with half-lidded eyes and asked,

“A-a sword. E-expensive.”

“How did you know?”

When I asked how she knew about Danya, Baek Yeonhwa cut in.

“I told her, Great Hero! The sword made by Master Jang Mukheon is impossible to obtain even with money, so where did you get it?!”

“Ahem, that’s a private matter. Danya has nothing to do with Meracle. It’s my money, not Meracle’s.”

I returned to the subject.

“We need to come up with a way to overcome this. Hunters are a dangerous profession, and this is a difficult season, but it’s not as though they all recklessly throw themselves into danger.”

On the contrary, most of them worked while taking every possible precaution for their safety.

The important thing was how to let our customers know that.

“If you have any ideas, speak up.”

“What about this, boss?”

Raichen suggested it as he mixed rice into his gukbap.

“Internally, we divide hunters into categories. City defense, rescue and evacuation, tracking and reconnaissance, and so on. We split them into more specific divisions. Then wouldn’t customers realize that the hunters they meet work in safe jobs?”

It was a good idea.

I added some meat to it.

“Good. And add a frontline or external-expedition category, too. There needs to be a category that obviously looks dangerous, so by contrast they can tell that their match works somewhere safe.”

“……I hadn’t thought that far, but it seems like a good idea.”

To do business, you had to know how to exploit things cleverly, too.

“M-martial artist matching. T-they’re always risking their lives over there.”

“That’s true. Matching them with martial artists could work too.”

Kim Yang’s idea was good as well.

Just match martial artists with hunters outright.

After all, sword fights were an everyday occurrence over there.

The important thing was that customers from the Old Murim were rare.

They were rather conservative, after all.

“I have an idea too! We should run an advertisement! An advertisement showing that hunters are people too! When I was queen, many elves mistakenly thought we had no private lives!”

“The advertising costs might be a little steep…… but marketing expenses are always part of the business.”

Hunters didn’t only fight, after all.

The way they looked shopping for groceries after work.

The way they sent their younger siblings’ tuition money.

The way they made plans for after retirement, and so on.

Highlighting that they were people no different from anyone else was a decent strategy.

“Great Hero! What about educating hunters?”

“Educating hunters?”

Baek Yeonhwa’s eyes sparkled as she held her spoon.

“Yes! In the Old Murim, the weak are often blamed when things go wrong. We could at least teach them self-defense so they can protect themselves.”

“Tsk, I think the hunters would hate that.”

There were so many hunters proud of their abilities. If a matchmaking agency suddenly offered to teach them outright, wouldn’t they just snort?

“Oh, is that so?”

Just as Baek Yeonhwa’s shoulders began to droop in disappointment,

Raichen cut in, pushing up his glasses.

“What if it were a place with enough prestige to justify it? If they were mages from Lajesta, I could teach them some magic.”

“Ooh! Then I can teach them archery too!”

“M-me. H-headbutts.”

“Ah! Then I can teach them the basics, at least.”

Their names carried quite a lot of weight.

Just being able to learn from a grand mage’s disciple and the Elf Queen already put this far beyond the level of a matchmaking agency, though.

“No. You’re employees. I didn’t hire you to do things like that.”

I knew it would be an excellent means of attracting customers.

But didn’t I have my pride as the boss?

“Listening to you all gave me a good idea too.”

The idea of educating hunters was sound.

‘One person handles guns. Should I send requests for swordsmanship or martial arts?’

A few people who could serve as excellent bait products came to mind.

* * *

The Old Murim on the Fifth Floor.

A wooden building adorned with restrained patterns appeared majestically through the mist.

Pillars and eaves bearing the marks of time.

At its center.

A large signboard hung above the tightly closed double doors.

Namgung (南宮).

The most prestigious of the Old Murim’s martial clans, a place said to have reached the heavens with the sword.

Among martial sects, this place placed especially heavy emphasis on external martial arts and demanded solid fundamentals.

There was one spinster.

“Haa…….”

Namgung Hwaryeong, the Heartless Sword Maiden, twisted the corners of her mouth as she looked down at the letter Meracle had sent.

“An event instructor? Active matching? What a joke.”

The letter’s contents were simple.

It was an offer asking whether she would participate as an instructor in Meracle’s “Hunter Training Event.”

The problem was the promotional copy appended below.

[A chance for natural encounters while teaching stalwart men as their instructor.]

[A chance to skillfully raise the man of your dreams.]

[A sweet romance with a pupil who eventually surpasses his teacher.]

“Crazy bastard.”

It was an absurd slogan.

Utterly ridiculous nonsense.

“…….”

Even so, Namgung Hwaryeong couldn’t bring herself to put the letter down.

“Ahem, perhaps I should at least ask the clan head.”

Of course, the Namgung Clan’s sword could not be casually passed on to outsiders.

But if it was only the basic principles of martial arts or foundational conditioning, surely teaching them externally would not cause any major problems?

With faint hope, Namgung Hwaryeong went to Clan Head Namgung Pacheon and held out the letter.

To be honest, she had half given up.

More precisely, rather than expecting permission, she was merely throwing an internal tantrum.

His daughter was this serious about getting married, so what exactly was her father doing?

Whether he knew her feelings or not, Namgung Pacheon slowly read through the letter before speaking.

“There is one condition.”

An unexpected answer.

And an unexpected condition.

“This man, Kim Juseon.”

Namgung Pacheon slowly closed his eyes.

Kim Juseon’s movements still remained vivid in his memory.

A man who concealed far more, and far deeper, than what appeared on the surface.

Namgung Pacheon had seen through the power he was hiding after only a single encounter.

“Before teaching him.”

His heavy voice settled over the room.

“Tell him to come here and learn in person.”

A talent too precious to waste on merely establishing a small company and lingering on the Third Floor.

This time, Namgung Pacheon wanted to properly ascertain the depth of the man named Kim Juseon.