Became a Dark Merchant in the Academy

171 – Guild Internship_2

“The reason I called you so suddenly is because of a special invitation to an internship from Cadet Lee Seong-hyeon.”

“Because of the special invitation?”

“To be exact, it must be because of the ‘special invitations’.”

After a brief commotion, I arrived at the chairman’s office as scheduled.

“Even throughout the history of our academy, a special invitation of five is a very rare case, let alone one or two.”

Snow White, sitting on the sofa across from me, looked a little surprised and began to explain why she had called me.

As expected, it was because of a special invitation.

“Is this a rare case?”

“It seems like you don’t have a good sense of humor.”

“I’ve heard a lot of rumors and stories and I think it’s really great… but, yeah, I don’t know exactly.”

“I see. Well then, I guess we need to talk about it a little more clearly.”

When I made a vague expression, Snow White began to explain in more detail.

“Do you know about the five major guilds, Seonghyeon Cadet?”

“I’ve heard the names. Lotus, Shinhwa, Labyrinth, Hwarang, and Ssaul Abi, right?”

“You know a lot. Then do you know what they do? Their business areas?”

“I think the main job was managing and mining gates within South Korea, and researching monsters. The secondary jobs included military work, mercenary work, escorting and protecting key figures, hero work, using gate mining products or monster byproducts…”

“It’s amazing to see you coming out so smoothly. Do you have a guild in mind for your employment goals?”

“That’s not it. I just looked it up because I was interested in it before.”

“Is that so…?”

Snow White gave me a very subtle and mysterious expression in response to my answer.

And although he seemed to be thinking about something, his expression soon returned to normal.

‘…hmm.’

The five major guilds have nothing to do with my current goals, but I have not been lazy in gathering information because they could pose a threat to me if things don’t go well.

But what I just said is just very simple information that can be found by looking at their homepages, newspapers, and informational magazines.

But I didn’t understand why Snow White had that kind of expression.

I might have come to my senses after thinking about something else.

‘I’ll have to find out.’

Even if it wasn’t related to me, I couldn’t be lazy in gathering information.

Because for the best results, you always have to be skeptical of everything.

‘─ has too many worries.’

It’s a loud nagging.

“Anyway, since you know it so well, I don’t think I need to explain it in detail. Then, I’ll give you a problem.”

“Is there a problem?”

“Yes, the answer to this question is closely related to the reason why I summoned Cadet Lee Seong-Hyeon. Hmm, then here’s the question. What is the most important thing to the five major guilds, or rather to the guilds?”

“What’s the most important thing?”

“I’ll give you a time limit of 10 minutes. I’d like to give you more time, but I have plans later.”

Snow White smiled faintly.

‘It’s important…’

Looking at that smile, I fell into thought for a moment.

Since a guild is a type of business that is run to make money anyway, if you think about it simply, it was money, but even so, there is no way that Baek Seol-ha would have brought up the issue so easily.

I don’t think it would have been too difficult.

‘Come to think of it, I asked you about the business area.’

If so, the hint must have been in the question I asked earlier.

‘Gate, Hero…’

After much thought, I finally got the hang of it.

“It must be a person. To be exact, a high-quality mana ability user.”

If you think about the guild’s business area, the answer is simple.

The structure was such that all tasks related to gates, monster research, military affairs, and escorting key figures and heroes could only be done by people, that is, people with mana abilities.

What that meant was that the guild was, in common parlance, a business that dealt in people (manpower).

And this industry was one where exceptional mana users could easily overwhelm the majority of mana users.

Of course, it wasn’t the same in other industries, but here, the difference was even more evident because an S-class mana ability user could easily take on over 100 A-class ability users.

For example, didn’t the current #1 guild in South Korea, Yeonghwa, jump from 30th place to #1 in just 5 years due to the promotion of her guild leader, Seo Yeonhwa, to S-rank?

And nothing has changed, the guild leader has simply changed from A-class to S-class.

As these changes show, this industry cannot help but value people more than any other industry.

That is understandable, because people are the future, people are the present, and people are everything.

How could I neglect it?

It was a natural conclusion.

“That’s correct. If we look at it more closely, it’s not that he’s good, but he’s an exceptional mana ability user.”

Snow White added a few corrections.

“That’s why the five major guilds, no, all guilds, are obsessed with securing talent. That’s why in the past, there were even murders. But it can’t be helped, since one exceptional mana ability user can literally feed an entire guild.”

“okay.”

“Of course, it may not make sense now, because these things happened in the past, and these days, society generally tries to refrain from talking about these things and instead tells children about them.”

Don’t they say that the time when people are most defrauded in society is when they first become adults?

The reason is that I haven’t even gotten out of bed yet. It’s because I’ve been through a lot of crazy things.

Now that I think about it, it kind of makes sense to refrain from mentioning it.

‘I don’t think stopping it will be a good idea.’

“anyway…”

After that, Baek Seol-ha’s explanation continued.

The contents were as follows.

As competition among guilds to secure talent intensified, various problems arose, which grew into social issues and eventually led to the government’s intervention.

This led to a two-sided agreement between the state, guilds, academies, etc.

To summarize, it was a ban on ladder kicking and special invitations.

The ban on ladder kicking means that all guilds have the freedom to recruit all talents, and the minimum and maximum conditions for recruiting must be above and below the line set by the country.

Special invitation is…

“That’s a pain in the ass. The reason it was created was because the upper guilds with many conditions to show off could be discriminated against by the lower guilds due to the line set by the country….”

This meant that the maximum condition for recruiting this talent was eliminated.

So, the rumor is that special invitations came from all five guilds…

“It means that indiscriminate competition among all guilds has begun towards Cadet Lee Seong-Hyeon.”

“Not just the five major guilds, but all guilds?”

“It’s rare to get one or two, but five is quite unusual.”

“Even so, all guilds…”

Aren’t the five major guilds the ones that sent the special invitation?

If that’s the case, then why do all the guilds come from here instead of just the top 5 guilds?

“The only places that remove the maximum recruitment requirements are those that have written special invitations, but the freedom to solicit recruitment remains intact. If there’s something appealing to a person’s mind, you want to try it even if you can’t eat it. And if it’s an appealing feeling that’s been certified by the five major guilds, it’s even better.”

When I made a puzzled expression, Snow White added a brief explanation.

It was as if they thought of me as some kind of lottery ticket that would make them rich overnight.

It wasn’t wrong, but it was unpleasant.

“So─”

“Did you hear, Meimei? Of all the guilds, the senior is…”

“Be quiet, I’ll listen to everything.”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. When the door is this thick, it’s a rule of thumb that you can’t hear anything at an event. Mei Mei is still a long way off.”

“That can’t be true. Wait… Wait a minute…”

And just as Baek Seol-ha was about to continue speaking with a pretended serious expression, a whispering sound was heard outside the chairman’s office.

The noise grew louder and louder, and soon the door squeaked open.

“Gyaaak─”

Two people are dragged out while holding onto the handle as soon as the door opens.

These were familiar faces.

“Hehehe.”

“ah…”

As my gaze turned to Baekseolha, Xiaomei covered her face with her hand as if she had failed, and Yukina smiled awkwardly.

‘What are you doing?’

Enough to make me sigh.

If such a stupid thing is acting, I think there must be about 10 snakes inside him.

If not, then you’re a huge idiot.

‘I’m not some kid who doesn’t know anything about the world.’

But that couldn’t be the case.

It’s not like a guy who seems like an outsider would keep spending his days in a hospital until he got that old.

‘But we should still keep the possibility open.’

No matter how trivial or meaningless it may seem, doubting everything is what drives me.

Suspicion #$%$#^%$#

[─does.]

“I’m sorry!!”

Xiaomei quickly lowered her head and hurriedly closed the door with Yukina.

“Senior, please tell me the story later!”

“Be quiet, I can’t live because of you.”

No matter how I looked at it, it felt like the brain was pure white.

How could you suspect such a person?

That doesn’t mean I’m going to dispel my doubts, but it doesn’t seem like there’s any need to worry too much.

“You guys are energetic students. Come to think of it, you came with me earlier. Are you acquainted with me?”

“Because of various connections.”

I gave an awkward smile.

There was a difference in that one side was a relationship that I forced upon myself, and the other side was a relationship that came about on its own.

The saying ‘fate’ isn’t completely wrong.

“I see. Especially, the relationships you made during your school days are precious, so please treat them well.”

Snow White had a somewhat hazy expression on her face.

It was almost like I was drawing someone who had left.

[Were the two of you seniors and juniors?]

[…]

I asked with sincerity, but Ines did not answer.

“Anyway, since the story has become long, let’s wrap it up. I don’t know how the guilds will react, so I don’t have anything to say properly, but I’ll add this anyway. The Lee Seong-Hyeon Cadet Guild is no pushover.”

For a moment, the haziness subsided, and Snow White stared at me with a very serious expression on her face, different from her usual expression.

“And be persistent. The competition for talent outside of the academy is fiercer than you might think. So I hope you make a good choice.”