Chapter 761: Conditions for a Recommendation Letter (2)

President Seo Ok-hee, dragging her chilled body, instantly returned to the company.

Feeling the desperate need to maintain her body temperature, she entered the Ice Lord’s snowy mountains once again with me. This time, as soon as we entered the dungeon, I cast a warming spell on President-nim first.

“You know the warming spell’s effect weakens if you move away from me, right, President-nim?”

“…I know, so just follow quietly.”

Even though the warming spell should have prevented her from feeling the cold, President Seo Ok-hee’s profile, seen from behind, was strangely flushed. It seemed that even for President-nim, returning less than a minute after confidently entering was embarrassing. It was quite surprising that the President, who seemed capable of anything and everything, had a weak spot.

“What’s so surprising about that? Of course, there are things I can’t do.”

“But I haven’t really seen any until now. You’re overflowing with charisma at the company, acting like you can do anything, and seeing you fight in the dungeon, it looks like you can handle pretty much any monster.”

“…That’s just because I kept doing it until I could.”

“Huh?”

“When you grow up hearing things like ‘child prodigy’ or ‘genius of the century,’ a child naturally wants to live up to those expectations and pushes themselves to try harder. I didn’t want to disappoint the hopeful gazes directed at me. That’s how abilities awaken not just once but multiple times in succession, and skills that normally wouldn’t be usable in combat become applicable.”

“Either way, you ended up being able to do it. So it’s not that different from being omnipotent, is it?”

“That perception itself… No, never mind. What am I even saying to you, Taekyung?”

Shaking her head as if she’d said something pointless, the President forged ahead through the snow. It felt like I’d caught a glimpse of President Seo Ok-hee’s subtle worries, something I didn’t usually see. I never expected that a conversation sparked by an unintentionally discovered vulnerability would lead to her past.

It wasn’t hard to understand how the expectations she never wanted became a burden. Even the President must have occasionally wanted to throw everything away and rest somewhere no one could see. But perhaps because the company had been maintained for so long thanks to her charisma alone, she couldn’t easily step away.

Hearing her words made me vaguely understand why there was an item called 『Helplessness』 in her sexual fetish preferences. Perhaps the very situation of being unable to do anything was, for the President, the greatest happiness as a woman….

“…Taekyung-ah.”

“Yes, President-nim.”

“I wasn’t planning on restricting what you think about me in your head, but still, wouldn’t it be better to curb ‘those kinds’ of thoughts when the person is right in front of you?”

“…I apologize.”

“From what I vaguely hear in your head, Taekyung, it seems you have an ability similar to reading minds. If it’s controllable, please try to control it.”

I had been thinking so much about President Seo Ok-hee in my head that it seemed she’d found out about my lustful gaze. But come to think of it, maybe it doesn’t matter if she found out? We already shared bodies during a dungeon exploration before, didn’t we? Eventually, as we get closer, I’ll reveal things one by one anyway, so maybe it’s not that big of a deal if it’s revealed now.

Furthermore, for me to confirm President Seo Ok-hee’s detailed fetish preferences with my lustful gaze is a reasonable price to pay, considering I’ve already shown her my inner thoughts multiple times….

-Whoosh-

“Oof?!”

-Thump.

The moment I thought that, my legs tangled, and I face-planted onto the snow. It didn’t feel like I tripped over something. My legs clearly tangled and tripped ‘on their own.’ It didn’t take long to realize the cause was the President’s ability, right in front of me.

“Taekyung-ah.”

“…Huff. Yes?”

“I showed you before, didn’t I? That I can disrupt the electrical signals in your body to force movement. It doesn’t just work on monsters.”

“…Yes, it seems so, President-nim.”

“If you understand, then stop. I can tolerate you thinking about various things because you have strong desires, but when you clearly have ‘intent’ like that, I can’t just let it slide.”

“…I was wrong.”

Considering she said she couldn’t stand it, she was quite lenient, only giving a warning. If she had intended to discipline me, she could have made me face-plant into the snow. The fact that she didn’t do that and just let me fall gently into the soft snow made me realize again what a kind person she was.

At the same time, I truly grasped the power of her awakened ability. I fell without even being able to resist, so if the President had malicious intent, it would have been quite dangerous. Even among S-Class hunters, there was an insurmountable gap in class between President Seo Ok-hee, an SSS-Class hunter with over 20 years of experience, and myself.

I should probably stop messing around now. If she gets more annoyed, she might not write the recommendation letter. Perhaps because it was the first time seeing her in a while, I was a bit too excited. It’s only natural for a man to feel his heart flutter during a thrilling dungeon date with a strong, cute, legal-loli President….

-Thump!

“Oof?!”

…This isn’t allowed either?!

After exploring the B-Class dungeon, the Ice Lord’s Snowy Mountains, alone with the President, the first thing I had to do upon returning to the company was cleanse my snow-covered clothes. In the end, I ended up face-planting into the snow three more times before returning to the company, tumbling a total of five times in the snow over the course of an hour.

She said she’d only get angry about controllable thoughts, but she censored even the ones that popped into my head involuntarily, so it couldn’t be helped. Of course, after falling into the snow about three times, I started deliberately thinking disrespectful thoughts about the President out of spite, so I can’t say it was entirely her fault. Since I was going to be thrown into the snow no matter what I thought, I acted out of a desire to resist the President even a little. In the end, as a result of that action, I was attacked by the President more times than the dungeon boss, the Ice Lord Frostheim.

“You were doing it deliberately from the middle, weren’t you? If you kept falling face-first into the snow like that, wouldn’t you normally think about stopping?”

“On the contrary, it made me want to do it even more out of spite. Censoring thoughts in the first place is too much, President-nim.”

“…I really tried my best to tolerate it. You only thought it and didn’t speak it aloud. But no matter how I thought about it, there’s no way a man like you would think about a woman that much unless it was deliberate, so I concluded it was intentional.”

“Sexism isn’t good, President-nim. Some men can have strong desires just like women.”

“……”

President Seo Ok-hee quietly returned to her seat, as if she didn’t want to hear any more of my words or read any more of my thoughts. She gestured with her finger, indicating that I shouldn’t enter a certain radius around her.

As I melted the snow off my body with the warming spell and removed it with purification magic, the President gave a brief assessment of the dungeon we had just visited.

“The dungeon itself was fine. Considering we found it in a hurry, it certainly seemed profitable. If there’s no one who can use warming magic, there might be additional expenses for cold protection, but the materials from the monsters that appear are valuable, so the return on investment looks quick.”

“Right?”

“If I had to point out a downside, it’s a bit disappointing that the boss monster is just a lump of ice. But if the goal is dungeon maintenance rather than elimination, the boss monster itself doesn’t matter much. I also think it’s a profitable B-Class dungeon.”

“So, the dungeon category passes then?”

“Yes, for now. Still, having only one makes it difficult to cope if problems arise later, so it’s good to secure two or three more.”

“Yes, I understand!”

Securing additional dungeons was already part of my plan, so I nodded without hesitation. To maintain the guild, passing the profitability aspect of the dungeons was the most crucial. Problems in other areas could be resolved by my own efforts, but if a dungeon, the foundation of the guild, was deemed unprofitable, it would pose a problem for the guild’s very existence.

Hunter guilds were originally facilities built to utilize profitable dungeons, so my act of creating a guild first and then searching for dungeons was indeed unconventional. Still, it’s fortunate that things worked out somehow.

“Alright, that’s settled. What about the Hunter headquarters building?”

“As you mentioned last time, I plan to renovate and use the old Chuncheon City Hall building. I’ve already received the remodeling contract, and construction will likely start by the end of this year.”

“Do you have the documents with you now?”

“Yes.”

“Let me see them.”

Even though she told me to maintain distance, I couldn’t just throw important documents like paper airplanes. So, I walked over to her desk and handed her the documents from my subspace pocket.

“Here you go, President-nim.”

“…Dokyung Construction? They’re doing the remodeling?”

“Why? Is there a problem?”

“Dokyung Construction only handles large-scale construction projects. Companies that only build massive buildings or apartment complexes taking on remodeling jobs?”

“…I have an acquaintance in the Dokyung Group.”

“Really? Come to think of it, you were acquainted with the second child of the Dokyung Group last time, weren’t you? But the second child runs the new materials and bio subsidiaries, and I thought the construction was handled by the eldest….”

“…I’m also acquainted with the older sister, not just the younger sibling.”

“……”

“……”

Sensing something suspicious from my answer, President Seo Ok-hee observed my eyes intently before cautiously offering what sounded like advice.

“Don’t get too involved with the women from the foundation. It’ll become really tiresome later.”

“……”

“And stop having strange thoughts in your head. You’re not planning on building relationships with both sisters, are you?”

…Since I had already been deeply entangled with both of them for quite some time and experienced numerous troublesome incidents, I could only answer the President’s question with silence.