Chapter 459: Cho Hyejin’s Instruction Manual (4) |
It had been quite a while since Jo Hye-Jin and I came to an agreement. The mages, including Jung Ha-Yan and Han Sora, were forced to work vigorously, and as a result, Rift Land was slowly becoming the place we had envisioned.
Now, there were more completed buildings than buildings that were still under construction. All this was the result of the mages and the workers’ hard work. Of course, they weren’t the only ones who were busy.
I had administrative tasks to take care of, so I didn’t have time to rest. I called for Kim Mi-Young, Lee Ji-Hye, Park Deok-Gu’s woman, Hwang Jung-Yeon, and even Sun Hee-Young to continue working and burning the midnight oil.
Elena, the rookie who had just joined the Blue Guild, was in charge of the elves and the other races who wanted to settle in Rift Land.
Yoo Ah-Young, the only blacksmith of the Blue Guild, hammered away all day because she needed to create items that were good enough to be used as rewards in the Rift Museum.
Yoo Ah-Young really shone. The items and equipment she had created with Salit’s bones or Dialugia’s scales were high enough in quality that they could be categorized as high-end items.
The epic and legendary-ranked players were interested in Yoo Ah-Young’s collection.
Aside from our potion business, it seemed that it was about time for us to dive into another business. I was sure that it would soon become one of the Blue Guild’s pillars, so I naturally got busy to help ease Yoo Ah-Young’s explosive growth.
We recruited many competent blacksmiths as guild staff members, but we still had no choice but to create a workshop system similar to the system we were using in our alchemy workshop.
Our primary targets were the rare-ranked adventurers. We were making quite a lot of profit with our high-ranked equipment, but the profit we were making with our low-ranked equipment couldn’t be scoffed at either.
At one point, the low-ranked equipment actually made us more money than the high-ranked equipment. They were cheap equipment, but we managed to entice buyers by stamping the Blue Guild’s emblem on those items.
The low-ranked adventurers’ buying spree had gotten so ridiculous that most of them would spend their investment money on Yoo Ah-Young’s collection before they even entered the Rift Museum.
Naturally, she wasn’t the only one who profited a lot from the new market. The potion collection, which did well from the start, was making us a lot of money as well. The other businesses were making us money, too.
However, even the party members had to help the guild staff members with the sheer number of customers. Of course, the work was exhausting, but the party members were happy because we were making a lot of money.
The Red Mercenary and the Black Swan Guild were managing Rift Land, and they were in a similar situation. Aside from her night visits, I hadn’t really spent a decent time with Cha Hee-Ra.
As for Park Yeon-Joo, I had no idea what she was up to because it had always been difficult to meet her. According to Lee Ji-Hye, her adjutant, it sounded like she was still looking for that pregnant woman.
Still, it seemed that she still hadn’t discovered that all information about the pregnant woman was a lie that Lee Ji-Hye had cooked up.
I had always been thankful to Lee Ji-Hye, but I got even more thankful for her recent work because she had basically created confusion in the Black Swan Guild, which was a guild known for its intelligence network.
On the outside, it looked as if everything was working out smoothly, which I was still amazed about.
However, the main issue was still there. The holy power recovery rate still wasn’t fast enough. Father Basel was contributing a lot, but his efforts weren’t enough to make up for the holy power that the incompetent Benigoa had lost.
I couldn’t help but think that perhaps it was because of the quality of the people’s prayers.
When there was still conflict everywhere in the continent, the people’s prayers were filled with sincerity and desperation, but now, they were only praying out of formality.
‘You have to pray with sincerity! Anyway, all this will be over someday.’
That was why I couldn’t consider it a priority. The demon dungeons and the Rift Museum couldn’t become a complete substitution for the loss of Quest Creation, but it was good enough as the bare minimum, so we could hang on just a bit longer.
Right now, there were two tasks that were of the highest priority—I had to make the pigs work a bit more passionately despite the peace that they were enjoying, and I had to take care of our internal affairs.
I already had some ideas on how I could handle the former, but none of those ideas were good enough. In the end, I decided to prioritize the latter because I was already in the midst of the issue.
Of course, one of the internal affairs I was talking about was obvious.
‘Hyun-Sung…’
It was obviously related to our lovely regressor. Of course, we still had a good relationship. Our meeting was quite touching, and as usual, he gave me a lot of gifts and attention.
I wonder if Kim Hyun-Sung felt the same as those men who were sponsoring a lot of girls whenever they showered those girls with gifts.
Kim Hyun-Sung still asked me how I was doing whenever he got the chance, and he also continued attending guild gatherings.
However, that was it…
I couldn’t hear his honest thoughts or any information that we would need in the near future. I wouldn’t say that there was a wall around him, but I felt kind of distant from him.
Of course, I could be the only one feeling this way because Kim Hyun-Sung was still acting like his usual self. I felt like we had gotten closer because he wasn’t as suspicious of me as before, so all this could just be my misunderstanding.
However, I still hadn’t made any progress on my greedy plan to develop our relationship to the extent that he would voluntarily tell me everything.
If possible, I would like it if we got close enough to the extent that he wouldn’t tell anyone else that he was a regressor, but I didn’t think that we could become that close.
In addition, I was sure that Kim Hyun-Sung had no idea that I was anxious because his one-track mind was still focused on finding Bitcherella to return her shoes.
‘I also never imagined that he would keep that a secret from me.’
I was kind of sad because I thought that he would ask me to find her. I knew that he had always been uncomfortable about personal favors, but my chance to take care of the situation was zero. He couldn’t rest his mind at all.
I had no choice but to think that to become closer to Kim Hyun-Sung and move on to the next stage of our relationship, I had to take care of this troublesome issue first.
That was why I chose Jo Hye-Jin…
I had to get rid of his interest in Bitcherella. It was a worthwhile effort that would ease his mind, even just a bit. It was a satisfactory endeavor because it was basically hitting two birds with one stone.
The foundation was there as well. Of course, I still had to figure out just what exactly their relationship was and what Kim Hyun-Sung thought about Jo Hye-Jin.
“She’s someone I can trust and rely on.”
That was his answer when I asked him what he thought about Jo Hye-Jin.
Jo Hye-Jin had spent the most time with Kim Hyun-Sung out of all of us. I had to spend time away from Kim Hyun-Sung because of the nature of my tasks, but Jo Hye-Jin was always together with Kim Hyun-Sung because she was his adjutant.
They trained together, worked together, rested together, and ate together.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that she was the one who could best support him, so it would be strange if they had not even a bit of affection for each other. It would be perfectly normal for them to desire each other physically during a short break.
‘Well, I think they desire each other physically...’
They spar every day, so Jo Hye-Jin should have long made Kim Hyun-Sung desire her physically, even without my help, because she was in the perfect position to do that. In addition, she wasn’t like Kim Ye-Ri, who was too young.
She wasn’t in Park Yeon-Joo’s shoes either.
In other words, Jo Hye-Jin was mostly to blame for why nothing was happening between them. Of course, Kim Hyun-Sung was partly to blame as well.
It seemed that Jo Hye-Jin herself didn’t see herself as a woman. She was just a competent subordinate, a reliable friend, and a trustworthy comrade. Naturally, the dense and slow-witted Kim Hyun-Sung wouldn’t have any feelings for her.
To make things worse, there was even a strange camaraderie between them, so Jo Hye-Jin was honestly in a bad position.
One thing I realized through the Bitcherella incident was that our lovely regressor wasn’t a eunuch. He was a regressor—yes, but he wasn’t any different from any other healthy young men in their 20s out there, so…
“The most important task is to make him see you as a woman,” I spoke cautiously.
“A woman?” Jo Hye-Jin asked with a grim look. We already had several meetings like this, but it seemed like she was still questioning the plan. Of course, I could understand her doubt. After all, she still hadn’t seen the results of our plan.
“That’s right. Making Hyun-Sung recognize you as a woman is the top priority. I’m sure he has been seeing you as a comrade, friend, subordinate, or junior at work because he has been seeing your warrior side more often than your feminine side,” I replied.
“I see…”
“You’re charming, Miss Hye-Jin. The issue is you’re already in the comrade zone quagmire. At this rate, I may have to use radical measures and force you to stay away from him in the meantime,” I suggested.
“What?” she asked, astounded.
“It’s a radical measure, so you don’t have to look so surprised. However, we do need to adjust your schedule,” I said.
“What do you mean…” she asked.
“Let’s take out your training time,” I answered.
“What?!” she yelled.
“It’s like I said. Tell him that you’re not feeling well, and then we’ll remove training from your schedule. Make sure you don’t train, no matter what,” I said.
“But that’s…!”
“Your fieldwork has to be decreased as well. Actually, take them all out. For now, I think it’s best if you only do administrative tasks without wearing that ugly-looking armor for the time being,” I told her.
“Ugly-looking…” she repeated.
“Do you even take off your armor?” I asked.
“What kind of absurd question is that? Of course, when I sleep—anyway, taking off my armor is ridiculous. Why are you even saying that when you know my duties…”
“I told you, didn’t I? You’ll be excluded from all training, fieldwork, and missions for the time being. There’s no reason for you to wear armor anymore. Do you really think that Hyun-Sung will like you if you wear the same armor every day?” I asked.
“I’m not wearing the same armor every day. I have another armor that I often wear as well,” she argued.
‘This woman…’
This was the reason why Hyun-Sung couldn’t see Jo Hye-Jin as a woman. When I recalled how he also couldn’t see her as a woman even in his past life, I realized that the situation was even worse than I thought.
It seemed that we would have to take more extreme measures.
“Didn’t you agree to listen to me?” I questioned.
“I won’t accept it if it’s an unreasonable request,” she replied.
“It’s a reasonable request. Anyway, just don’t wear your armor from now on. Wear your normal clothes for the time being. I’m embarrassed to say this myself, but you’re very pretty and charming, Miss Hye-Jin…”
“However, that ugly blue armor of yours that reminds me of Bonobono[1] is making you look worse. I think you’ll look better without it. Take it off right now,” I ordered.
“...”
“Give me your armor,” I demanded.
“...”
“You’ll look a lot better without it,” I complimented.
“What should I wear?” Jo Hye-Jin asked.
“I’ll prepare something for you to wear. I have a friend who is talented with this kind of stuff. Let’s change everything, starting from your makeup to your clothes,” I answered.
“This feels really official… I’m getting nervous,” she muttered.
“Of course, it’s going to be official. We can’t let a mysterious woman take our precious Hyun-Sung away. Aren’t you doing this with me because you don’t want that to happen as well? This is all for the guild,” I said.
“...”
“Now, then. Come in, Miss Ji-Hye,” I called out and saw a figure walking in.
Jo Hye-Jin was surprised. I was sure that she could have never imagined that Lee Ji-Hye would be here. Jo Hye-Jin knew that she and I were close, but she probably didn’t expect that we were this close.
“You made me wait for a long time…” Lee Ji-Hye complained.
She was a specialist in this field, and I saw her bringing something in.
“You’re a mess,” she remarked.
All of a sudden, Lee Ji-Hye started spitting facts.
1. Bonobono is an anime short that is focused on the lives of a few animals ☜