abcnovels
Chapter 90:
Chapter 90:
Chapter 90:
Chapter 90
The group looked surprised by the sudden arrival of a guest.
They stared at me with wide eyes, as if they didn’t expect anyone to visit.
And it was not just anyone, but my guest who came.
“Well, you’ve come this far, so you must have made up your mind, right?”
Nod.
Instead of answering, Kwon Jia lightly nodded her head.
That action felt a bit rebellious, as if she was desperately trying to preserve her pride.
It was somewhat cute to me.
She followed my guidance and entered the office.
She sat down on the empty seat across from me.
Baek Seoryeon and Kang Hye-rim’s eyes were glued to her and didn’t seem to budge.
I asked Kwon Jia right away.
“Do you want some coffee?”
“…Then, Americano.”
When I sent a look to Baek Seoryeon, she answered hesitantly.
“Uh… We only have Maxim in our manager’s office. Americano is expensive…”
What, where did all the money you made recently go?
I swallowed the words that came up to my throat.
She probably spent it all on paying off debts.
Kwon Jia closed her mouth tightly as soon as she heard that.
It seemed like the atmosphere would only get awkward if we continued like this, so I quickly took out some cash and handed it to Baek Seoryeon.
She threw me a look that asked what this was.
“Go buy it.”
“Me? I’m the representative manager, you know?”
“Use the leftover money as your allowance.”
“I’ll be right back!”
I wondered if it was really a proper behavior for a social person to manipulate the manager representative with a few bills.
But let’s postpone that reflection for later.
That’s how Baek Seoryeon left the office with light steps.
Now, the only one left was Kang Hye-rim.
She met my eyes and sent me a firm look that said she would never leave this office.
Who cares what you say?
I immediately handed Kwon Jia the contract.
“Read it and see if there are any clauses that you don’t like.”
“Hmm.”
Kwon Jia scanned the contract with a stern expression.
But she couldn’t find any fault with it, as it was something I carefully wrote.
No, she didn’t even seem to have any intention of finding fault.
“It’s fine.”
“I’m glad to hear that.”
“…Yu-hyun-ssi. Who is this?”
Finally, Kang Hye-rim couldn’t hold back her curiosity and asked me.
Her eyes hadn’t left Kwon Jia since she sat down across from me.
It was a mixture of wariness and displeasure.
“She’s the collector I’ve newly recruited.”
“Oh. She’s the… second one?”
Was it my imagination that she emphasized the word second?
Kang Hye-rim joined the conversation, and Kwon Jia naturally looked at her.
She recognized Kang Hye-rim with her knowledge of the future and widened her eyes slightly.
Then she quickly turned her gaze to me.
Did you do this?
Her eyes asked me that.
I nodded silently and answered yes.
Did she not like us exchanging looks?
Kang Hye-rim came out a bit more prickly than usual.
“You didn’t tell me anything.”
“It was a sudden decision. And didn’t I tell you that I would bring a junior soon?”
“I thought it would take longer. This is too abrupt…”
She glanced at Kwon Jia for a moment and then stopped talking.
I pondered for a moment at that sight.
Hyerim-ssi’s reaction was worse than I expected.
I didn’t even think she would oppose it before, but maybe she felt threatened?
I was wondering how to start a grand sermon on having a generous attitude as a senior when Kwon Jia spoke first.
“Am I making you uncomfortable?”
“Huh, what?”
She didn’t expect her to ask so directly, and Kang Hye-rim visibly flustered.
Even if there was a third party here, even the mask of Geomhu that she usually wore had completely lost its effect in this situation.
Kwon Jia didn’t seem to care much about that and casually continued.
“That’s understandable. You might think your position is being threatened. Especially if you’re a famous collector like yourself.”
“No, I’m not, that…”
“I’m sorry if I caused you any trouble. You don’t have to worry too much. I’m used to being hated.”
Both Kang Hye-rim and I were surprised by her words.
Actually, I think I was the most surprised here.
The regressor apologized?
I couldn’t believe that.
What is a regressor?
They are the kind of people who would smash the other person’s bowl if they even picked a small fight with them.
The ones who would naturally say ‘I’ll kill you’ or ‘Get lost’ instead of greetings at the first meeting.
Especially someone like Kwon Jia, who wasn’t even on her second time, but close to infinite regression.
‘But she apologized sincerely, which means she’s serious.’
Did she have some change of heart?
When I sent her a look that asked that, Kwon Jia met my eyes and then quickly turned her head away.
I didn’t know what was going on, but it was a good sign of change for me.
I nodded and agreed with her.
“Hyerim-ssi. She’s saying that, so don’t be too harsh. Let’s make peace.”
“I’m not… angry.”
She said that with a slight glare at me.
She seemed to resent me for not taking her side in this situation, but more than that, she felt like she was the bad person here because Kwon Jia apologized confidently.
I whispered to her so that only she could hear.
‘You know, right? It’s not your fault. Don’t take it to heart. She’s also embarrassed and doesn’t know how to deal with you. As a generous senior, please understand her.’
‘A generous… senior?’
‘Yes. You’re a respectable collector now, so you should get some respect from your juniors. I trust that you’ll do well in that role.’
I wondered if this almost lie-like consolation would work, but looking at the relaxing expression of Geomhu, it seemed to have worked very well.
A woman who was endlessly weak to compliments, her name was Kang Hye-rim.
“I’m back!”
Just as the atmosphere was getting better, Baek Seoryeon, who had left earlier, came back with Americano.
She seemed to be in a good mood because she got some allowance, and she quickly handed us each a cup.
“Hmm.”
Kwon Jia looked around the office and realized that it wasn’t bad.
She looked back at the contract.
She scanned the contract and then looked up at me.
I didn’t know what her eyes were saying this time.
But one thing I was sure of was that there was a desire for change growing somewhere in her heart.
“I’m signing the contract. It’s done.”
Kwon Jia quickly wrote down her name.
It was neat handwriting without any hesitation.
As soon as the contract was completed, it scattered like powder with a flash of light.
It announced that the contract between the collector and the teller was perfectly established.
“Everyone. This is the new collector, Kwon Jia-ssi. Please take good care of her.”
“Kwon Jia……”
Kwon Jia seemed a bit embarrassed and closed her mouth tightly.
Maybe it was because her heart had softened by the apology earlier, but Hyerim-ssi let it go lightly.
And Seoryeon-ssi only expressed her admiration for the unique person who had joined us.
The recruitment of Kwon Jia, which I thought would be the biggest obstacle, ended successfully like this.
***
Kwon Jia and I visited Ghost Land’s World of Thought again.
The difference between then and now was that Kwon Jia and I had made a proper contract, and that Kwon Jia’s appearance had changed quite a lot.
It wasn’t that she wasn’t, but she had tidied up her messy hair a bit and wore decent clothes.
‘Hmm. As expected, I noticed it from the moment I heard her voice, but she’s quite a beauty.’
She had a different charm from Kang Hye-rim.
If Kang Hye-rim was born with a playful nature and tried to hide it by acting haughty, Kwon Jia was much more serious and heavy.
She was like a hawk soaring in the sky compared to Kang Hye-rim’s crane.
Sharp eyes and an icy expression.
And more than that, charisma that overwhelmed the other person.
Thanks to the power of her trait, that aura was even more synergistic.
‘The spirits will definitely like this.’
More than anything, Kwon Jia’s physical condition wasn’t very good until now, so I used my blood-like points to buy all kinds of stories and fed them to her forcefully.
Thanks to that, Kwon Jia’s physical specs had risen tremendously compared to before.
I remembered when she asked me when I gave her stories.
‘Here you go. You need to do some exercise first before you can go to the World of Thought with your current state.’
‘Don’t tell me, is this free?’
‘Of course not. I’m lending it to you. You have to pay me back later.’
Of course, I didn’t lend it to her for free.
I planned to get back what I invested in her later.
Of course, there was no interest.
I’m a clean teller after all.
The advantage of being a collector was that they could increase their physical abilities like this.
They didn’t need to go through a long process of building their body through physical training.
After finishing the basic preparations, I was able to obtain detailed information about Ghost Land by sharing information with her beforehand.
“I’m going to open the library now. Are you ready?”
“Anytime.”
She must have given permission already, so I opened the library right away.
As soon as the news of my storytelling started spread out, spirits flocked to my library.
[100TP donation!]
[Daeha! It means great in Korean!]
[1000TP donation!]
[Kang Yu-hyun teller-nim. I heard you got promoted to Assistant Manager. Congratulations and please accept this as my modest gift.]
“Thank you. Thank you for your donation.”
[100TP donation!]
[What? You’re already a Assistant Manager? Wow, that’s crazy.]
As soon as I opened the library, some of them greeted me and congratulated me on my promotion to Assistant Manager.
I bowed my head repeatedly and thanked them.
I was probably the only teller who got congratulated like this for being promoted.
The shower of gifts didn’t end here.
There were still gifts from the real big shots of our library.
[The one who laughs in the darkest place donated 10,000TP!]
[Congratulations. I expected this to happen soon, but it’s more surprising to see it in reality. I’ll give you a separate gift later as a token of my congratulations.]
“Yes. Thank you, the one who laughs in the darkest place-nim.”
[The one who resembles the brilliant light donated 10,000TP!]
[I sincerely congratulate you too. And this is my personal gesture, please accept it.]
“Thank you so much. Really.”
Satan and Michael kept sending me personal emails with gifts, as if they were competing with each other.
They were not ordinary items, since they came from those two.
I wanted to open them and check them right away, but now was the time to focus on my work. I would look at the gifts later.
‘Besides, I notice some new faces among the spirits.’
There were more spirits than before, ones that I had not seen until recently.
It was natural, of course, but more than that, their presence was not insignificant.
They caught my attention.
‘There are only two first-generation spirits, but the number of second-generation spirits has increased a lot.’
And all of the second-generation spirits belonged to a certain Great Pantheon.
Due to the recent consecutive Story Wars and the duel of the collectors, my popularity had increased.
And the spirits of the Great Pantheons who were interested in me started to show up slowly.
‘But they are still second-generation, even if they belong to a Great Pantheon.’
They could not move rashly.
Satan and Michael were standing firmly in front of them.
If they wanted to compete with them, they had to send at least a first-generation spirit from their side.
‘So until then, they will just watch and wait?’
Then it would be easy.
I would show them what they wanted to see.
[The spirits belatedly realize the existence of a new person.]
The fact that I had been promoted to an agent was so big that the spirits only noticed Kwon Jia now.
Everyone’s eyes turned to her.
[100TP donation!]
[Wow. I thought it was Geomhu, but it’s someone else? Who is she?]
[100TP donation!]
[Kang Yoo-hyun teller dumped Geomhu! No, but she is also very pretty, right?]
[100TP donation!]
[No, where did our Geomhu go! But I like this one too. Hehe.]
The spirits were surprised by the fact that someone other than Geomhu was standing there, and curious about Kwon Jia’s appearance, which was quite attractive.
I smiled at them and explained the situation.
“Ah, by the way. This lady here is Kwon Jia. She is a new collector that I signed a contract with after I became an Assistant Manager.”
Naturally, the spirits’ reactions were hot.
They made some silly jokes like did I dump Geomhu, where did Kang Hye-rim go, and so on.
They wanted to see Geomhu’s story, but more than that, they were curious about what kind of person the new collector that Kang Yoo-hyun teller chose was.
They had high expectations for me since I had discovered Geomhu as a collector.
“So I thought you might be curious, and today I will present you a story of the new rookie. Of course, don’t worry too much. She is someone I personally saw and picked. I can guarantee that she won’t disappoint you.”
I added some wind to their sails, and Kwon Jia whispered cautiously in my ear.
‘Is this okay? It seems like you are hyping up the atmosphere too much.’
‘It’s fine. And we have to do this much. Isn’t this your debut?’
And we had prepared everything for that.
“Come on, let’s go in.”
I received the eager eyes of the spirits and led Kwon Jia into the world of imagination.
The Hell Island where terrible demons dwell.
To find another hidden piece hidden there.
‘But.’
As soon as I entered inside, I narrowed my eyes at the scenery inside.
‘What is this?’