Chapter 231. Internal Crackdown (2) (1/2)

The group arrived at Haramark. They didn’t go to Carpe Diem’s office right away, but instead went to the temple.

Kim Hannah, who requested to see the soon-to-be organization’s storage box, dropped her jaw at the mountain of wealth.

“This… is just a part of it? Not all of it?”

[No!]

Flone suddenly popped out.

Kim Hannah flinched, but she wasn’t all that surprised. It was because Seol Jihu had already introduced Flone to her on the carriage ride back.

Kim Hannah was shocked at first to see a ghost as a comrade, but she quickly got used to it, saying it probably wasn’t all that abnormal in Paradise.

[Do you think the Rothschear House was only living off a few hundred gold coins? At our prime, we made transactions worth tens of thousands of gold coins!]

But when Kim Hannah still looked doubtful, Seol Jihu opened his mouth.

“We’ll have to go there to know for sure, but I think the chances are high. If this information was false, we wouldn’t have found the inheritance we already did.”

“…Right.”

Kim Hannah agreed, then took out a small notebook and a pen from her upper shirt pocket. Opening the bags one by one, she hummed joyfully while moving her hand quickly.

“What are you doing?”

“Doing my job as the property book officer.”

Kim Hannah spoke while continually taking notes.

“We have to organize them now. It’ll be more difficult if we do it later when there are more things to organize.”

“Didn’t I show you the list Mister Kazuki came up with?”

Seol Jihu took out a paper and flapped it in front of Kim Hannah, but she shook her head.

“I trust his work, but that list doesn’t include your previous wealth. He didn’t convert items below number 4 either.”

When Kim Hannah started nitpicking, Seol Jihu quietly put the paper away.

“But there’s so much…”

“Don’t worry, I’m almost done.”

Kim Hannah spoke as if it wasn’t a big deal. This time, a look of doubt flashed across Seol Jihu’s face.

“You got 1,200 gems from the last expedition… that’s really a lot. Their quality and size is uniform, so that should be…”

Stealthily approaching Kim Hannah and peeking at her notes over her shoulder, he really saw most of the items written down.

Her calculation speed was truly monstrous.

“What are you going to do about the gems?”

Kim Hannah turned around and asked.

“Even though you have a lot, it won’t be difficult to find a buyer if you want.”

“Oh? Where?”

“Anywhere that has Magicians. You can just bring them to the Magician’s Guild and they’ll give you a good price.”

“Are gems in high demand to Magicians?”

Hearing this, Kim Hannah made a dumbfounded face.

“Of course. Paradise’s gems carry mana. On top of being an important medium in alchemy, they’re needed for the other six, no three systems.”

“Systems?”

“You… In Paradise, magic is categorized into seven systems, depending on their application method and discipline — necromancy, anti-evil, summoning, alchemy, elemental, white magic, and black magic. Among these, white magic and black magic were lost along with the Empire’s collapse. The heritage of anti-evil magic apparently disappeared a long time ago after being defeated by followers of black magic.”

Kim Hannah gave a clear explanation.

Seol Jihu scratched his head and spoke.

“Oh, so they’ll be perfect for recruiting Magicians and supporting them.”

Kim Hannah smiled bitterly.

In Paradise, Magicians were like the stars in the night sky. Just running into one was hard enough. There was no need to even mention recruiting them.

What Seol Jihu just said was counting his chickens before they hatched, but she didn’t dare to call it absurd.

Because if it was him, she really thought he would achieve it.

*

After the calculations ended, Seol Jihu held Kim Hannah’s hand and headed to Carpe Diem’s office.

“Come in. It’s a shabby place though.”

“…It really is.”

Kim Hannah gave her honest opinion without holding back. This reaction was expected as she had been living in a grand luxury mall and was now moving to a dilapidated building.

“This will be your room from now on. Even if you’re a little uncomfortable, just be patient until we move.”

Seol Jihu smirked after guiding Kim Hannah to her room. For some reason, seeing Kim Hannah unpack her bag made him laugh.

Next, Seol Jihu moved busily.

The moment he had been waiting for was finally here.

Now that he had an administrative professional, no one could stop him.

“…What are you doing?”

Kim Hannah asked seeing Seol Jihu pack up his belongings one by one.

“Oh, I’m going to Huge Stone Rocky Mountain.”

“Huge Stone Rocky Mountain? Why are you going there?”

“Isn’t it obvious? To train!”

“Traaaain?”

Kim Hannah trailed the end of her speech.

Her eyebrows also perked up, but Seol Jihu was too busy packing to notice.

“Yep. I became a High Ranker, but my Status Window is the same as when I was a Level 4. Not being able to train was driving me crazy.”

Seol Jihu spoke with a bright smile.

After packing up his bag, he placed his hand on Kim Hannah’s shoulder and shouted, “Take care! Let me know if anything happens!”

Kim Hannah was about to pass out from the absurdity of Seol Jihu’s statement, but Seol Jihu turned around with a cheerful smile.

Of course, Kim Hannah grabbed the nape of his neck before he could take a single step.

“What?”

“What? You said, what!?”

Kim Hannah’s hot-temper was ticked on.

“Hey, are you cra—”

Gulp.

But suddenly, her throat drew a huge gulp. Her face was shaking in anger, but she forced herself to smile.

She opened her mouth with a face that clearly said ‘I’m really angry, but I’ll let it go for now.’

“Jihu.”

“Yeah.”

“You said you’re going to make an organization. That’s why you brought me in.”

“Yeah!”

“And I just came. This is my first day here.”

“Yeah?”

Seol Jihu sure knew how to answer.

But his face seemed to say, ‘So what?’

“Then shouldn’t you at least— keuk!”

Kim Hannah groaned before finishing her sentence. The veins on her forehead popped.

I followed you and came all the way to Haramark…

Mumbling grumpily, she began to boil with anger.

“Listen, you twat.”

In the end, she threw off her nice-girl mask and grabbed Seol Jihu by his collar.

“Uek—”

“Are you mad? What? Train?? Call your common sense and tell it to come home this instant!”

“W-What’s up with you all of a sudden—”

“This is my first day here. You call yourself a leader and you don’t even know how to weigh the importance of a matter? Why isn’t formally introducing me to the team, telling me about Carpe Diem, and talking about how to make an organization the first thing on your mind?? Hmm? Hmm?”

Kim Hannah shook him angrily, unable to rein in her pent-up anger.

“Is talking the only thing you know how to do? What? You’ll make me happy? Tough words for someone who’s mistreating me before it’s even my first night!”

“Uuuuuek—”

Seol Jihu’s head flopped back and forth…

[Mueeeeeee—]

And so did his pendant.

*

In the end, Seol Jihu was forced to unpack his bag and explain every single thing about his plan and Carpe Diem to Kim Hannah.

‘She could have just found out slowly…’

Why does she have so many questions?

Kim Hannah nitpicked every single thing he said, and it wasn’t until the next morning that he was set free.

On the other hand, he was a bit worried.

When he finished his long story, Kim Hannah twinkled her eyes saying, ‘Iya~ So we have more places to extort money from. Great, let’s secure our funding first.’

Seol Jihu didn’t understand just who she planned to extort from, but decided to simply watch over her.

That morning, Seol Jihu summoned everyone to the office.

It was to officially introduce the new member of the team.

“I’m Kim Hannah. Team Leader Seol Jihu offered me a chance to join the team. Please take care of me from now on.”

Dressed formally as always, Kim Hannah gave a short introduction.

Everyone reacted pretty much the same way.

With a look that said, ‘Why did she come?’

Having heard the story yesterday, Jang Maldong opened his mouth calmly.

“Nice to meet you. I didn’t expect Sinyoung’s famous scout to come, so I’m a little taken aback.”

“To be honest, I feel the same way. It’s an honor to meet you, Master Jang.”

“Since I’ve already seen you a couple of times, I’ll save the long greeting. Do you mind explaining what happened…?”

“As I said before, I simply accepted Seol Jihu’s offer. Of course, there is an inside story, but it’s a private matter. I hope you can understand…”

“Mm, excuse me.”

Jang Maldong nodded his head and didn’t dig into it any deeper.

“I’m sure you all are wondering why I am here.”

Kim Hannah cleared her throat and addressed the room.

“It’s simple. Team Leader Seol Jihu wants to develop Carpe Diem into an organization and has asked me for help.”

No one reacted strongly. Seol Jihu had already explained during the carriage ride, and they had let the Yi siblings know about it too.

Jang Maldong knew beforehand as well.

“So, while helping Carpe Diem register as an organization…”

Kim Hannah enunciated each word clearly, like someone giving a presentation to board members.

“I plan to handle Carpe Diem’s future administrative duties. From little things to acting as the proxy leader when he is missing.”

She drew the line from the get-go.

Proxy leader. It went without saying that this was not a position that was given to just anyone.

“Does anyone have any questions?”