The Support Ate it All

Basically, the [Monarch] trait was something that required extremely difficult conditions to obtain.

I am a special case.

Thanks to the perk from the reincarnation quest, I had merely “retrieved” what I originally possessed. But when I first acquired it, I had gone through quite a struggle.

One of those difficult acquisition conditions was—

Leading a group.

Moreover, the group’s size and fighting power had to surpass a certain threshold.

In that regard, the chairman of Hye-seong Group far exceeded the requirements. Even when playing the game, various chairmen had qualified as Monarchs.

This time was no different.

The chairman’s gaze sharpened, as if he had instantly recognized me as a Monarch.

“Greetings. My name is Kim Ho.”

“Welcome. When I first heard about you, I assumed there must have been some exaggeration. But seeing you in person, that doesn’t seem to be the case.”

“You flatter me.”

We exchanged a few words in a fairly amicable atmosphere, and then I took the wooden box out of my inventory.

When the chairman received it and infused it with mana, the engraved spells simultaneously emitted a brilliant blue light.

Fwoosh!

The next moment, the tightly sealed wooden box opened, revealing a small device that resembled a USB and a rolled-up piece of paper inside.

Surprisingly, the chairman focused on the piece of paper, which I assumed to be a letter from the principal.

“…….”

He stared at it intently for a while before nodding to himself.

“I’ll arrange another meeting soon. Let’s have a serious conversation then.”

“Understood.”

“Take this with you. It seems to be meant for you.”

With that, the chairman returned the wooden box to me.

Even though the inside was empty, the engraved spells on the surface would still function properly.

The more insurance, the better.

Being outside the school meant anything could happen at any time.

I carefully stored the wooden box in my inventory.

Next, the chairman’s gaze shifted to Seo Ye-in and his face immediately lit up.

“Ye-in, you’re here!”

He looked like a completely different person compared to when he was speaking to me.

Even the chairman of a huge corporation like Hye-seong Group couldn’t escape the fate of being a doting grandfather.

With both hands slightly extended forward, he approached Seo Ye-in, as if he was about to lift her up and pretend to fly her like an airplane.

“…….”

But Seo Ye-in slowly stepped back and then hid behind me.

The chairman froze in place and was visibly shaken.

“……!”

Judging by his reaction, it seemed like she had always let him carry her like that in the past.

But now, after spending several months at school, she had returned with some random guy.

And instead of letting him pick her up, she was hiding behind that guy?

Yeah… I’d be shocked too.

Out of curiosity, I glanced over at Ahn Jeong-mi to see how she was reacting. She had taken a step back and completely suppressed her presence.

She had blended in so seamlessly with the furniture in the chairman’s office that I almost didn’t notice her.

Truly, not just anyone can be a butler…

Admiring her skills internally, I turned my attention back to the chairman.

The shock on his face had now been replaced by a quiet loneliness.

“My little Ye-in has grown up… Time really does fly…”

Seo Ye-in stared at him for a moment before rummaging through her bag and pulling out a packet of cookies. She held it out to him.

“A gift for you, Grandpa.”

“……!”

At that, the chairman’s face lit up again, as if he had never been feeling lonely in the first place.

It was truly baffling.

What was it about that granddaughter of his that sent the old man on such an emotional rollercoaster?

Fortunately, the chairman quickly composed himself.

He seemed to have decided that it was time to wrap things up and get back to work.

“Team Leader Ahn.”

“Yes, Chairman.”

“I’ll leave the rest to you.”

“Understood.”

Ahn Jeong-mi bowed deeply.

Although she was a team manager, she also served as a butler. During the break, she would be overseeing both my and Seo Ye-in’s daily lives.

As we left, the rustling sound of the cookie packet echoed behind us.

Ahn Jeong-mi and I exchanged a quick glance, but neither of us said a word. We didn’t want to ruin the old man’s moment.

The moment we stepped into the elevator, Ahn Jeong-mi silently began pressing the first-floor button multiple times. The elevator swiftly descended.

Feeling a slight floating sensation, I thought to myself—

Will he really be able to handle Inferno-flavored cookies?

***

The next destination was unexpectedly decided by Seo Ye-in.

She looked at Ahn Jeong-mi and asked,

“What about dad?”

Well, it made sense. If she had come home after a long time, visiting her family first was the natural thing to do.

I might as well take the opportunity to greet him too.

Ahn Jeong-mi answered Seo Ye-in’s question.

“As always, he’s at the workshop.”

“I want to go.”

“I’ll take you there right away.”

On the way, Seo Ye-in gave me a brief rundown of her family background.

Of course, since Seo Ye-in gave short answers, Ahn Jeong-mi had to add a bit more explanation.

Her father didn’t actively participate in running the group but instead worked in the field of magic engineering, developing various items.

As for her mother, she was currently away. She was traveling across different parts of the continent.

Looks like I’ll only be meeting one of them this time.

I had been curious about what her parents were like, but for now, I would only get half of my questions answered.

There would be another opportunity later.

There were plenty more vacations ahead, after all.

Before long, we stepped inside a sleek building that seemed to be somewhere between a workshop and a research lab.

The security inside was quite strict, but as soon as Ahn Jeong-mi showed her employee ID, we were immediately allowed through.

Since she was the team leader of the Future Strategy Office, hardly anyone didn’t recognize her. Plus, she had given them a heads-up in advance.

We took the elevator up a few floors, walked down a hallway, and soon arrived at a large room.

Peeking through the half-open door, I saw that the floor and tables were cluttered with all sorts of magic engineering gadgets.

Even so, every single item looked highly advanced.

You could probably put together a B-rank item just by picking up a random piece and tweaking it a little.

Anything he worked on seriously would likely have an even higher rank.

At the center of the room, a man wearing something similar to a welding helmet was completely focused on his work.

Judging by how his hands were glowing blue, he was in the middle of casting some kind of magic engineering technique.

I didn’t want to interrupt, but we couldn’t just wait forever.

So, Ahn Jeong-mi knocked as lightly as possible.

Knock, knock.

“……?”

Even though it was barely audible, the man immediately stopped casting.

He turned to look in our direction, then took off his welding helmet and set it aside.

They definitely look alike.

The gray hair and gray eyes were identical, and he had the same indifferent, slightly dazed expression.

Aside from the difference in age, he was practically a copy of her.

Seo Ye-in walked toward him with slow, steady steps.

“Dad.”

“Daughter.”

Without a change in expression, the man gently ruffled Seo Ye-in’s hair.

It seemed like she was a bit closer to her father than to her grandfather.

Next, his gaze shifted toward me and Ahn Jeong-mi, and Ahn Jeong-mi introduced me.

“This is the young miss’s classmate.”

“Hello, I’m Kim Ho.”

I bowed my head, and the man stared at me silently.

Then he pointed first at Seo Ye-in and then at himself, and then he spoke.

“Father.”

Judging by the flow of the conversation, he was telling me to address him that way.

He too had a habit of compressing long sentences into a single word.

Next, he casually extended his right hand. When I took it, he slowly shook it up and down.

The atmosphere wasn’t bad, and since he had even offered a handshake, it seemed like I had made a decent first impression.

Soon, his gaze dropped downward, settling on my shoes.

“That. I made those.”

They were Cloudstepper, the sneakers Seo Ye-in had given me as a gift after I taught her a special lesson on magic bullets at the beginning of the semester.

I had even upgraded them once using Rainbow Gap-doo’s scales.

[Cloudstepper (B+)]

▷ Bonus to movement skills.

▷ Inertia Ignoring (C) applied.

▷Automatic durability recovery

▷Multicolor Defense (C)

▷Upgradeable

“I’m using them very well. Thank you.”

“I see.”

He gave a slow, indifferent nod.

However, after spending the first semester training myself to read Seo Ye-in’s expressions, it wasn’t difficult for me to interpret his emotions.

He’s proud.

Perhaps that was why he then looked at Seo Ye-in and me and said,

“I’ll upgrade them.”

He meant he would fill the last remaining upgrade slot.

And judging by his skill in making these shoes, there was a good chance he would add a highly useful enhancement.

So, along with Seo Ye-in, I entrusted him with the Cloudstepper set.

Seo Ye-in’s father then said,

“It won’t take long.”

“Yes. I’ll come back to pick them up once they’re done.”

But he slowly shook his head.

“Come often.”

“……Yes. I’ll visit often.”

Did he take a liking to me?

I didn’t know which part he liked, but he gave a small nod regardless.

Since I had already greeted him, I figured it would be best not to disturb him any further and was about to leave the room.

However, Seo Ye-in didn’t seem to be done just yet.

“Dad.”

“Daughter.”

“Upgrade.”

“What.”

Seo Ye-in rummaged through her inventory.

Moments later, she pulled out a dented, battered tin pot.

I held back a chuckle.

She actually took that out.

Back during the final exams, her frying pan had been sacrificed in close combat against Sa Gong-wook’s gang. It seemed that experience had left an impression on her.

She must have decided that the Kim Ho Kim Ho Pot couldn’t be destroyed so easily either.

And the solution she came up with…was an upgrade.

She wanted to reinforce its durability to withstand even attacks infused with aura.

“……”

Her father silently looked down at the pot, then pointed at the dented part with his finger.

He seemed to be asking how it had ended up like that.

In response, Seo Ye-in also raised a finger and pointed at me.

Her father glanced between me and the pot, then asked her,

“You hit him?”

“Mhmm.”

“How many times?”

“Kim Ho Kim Ho.”

Two times, then.

He wasn’t going to ask why she hit me?

Maybe he simply assumed I must have deserved it.

To be honest, even I had to admit there was some truth to it.

Before long, her father began examining the pot from every angle, as if trying to see whether it held some hidden secret.

But it’s just a pot.

A pot borrowed from the kitchen for the toy hammer game.

If I had to rate it objectively, it wouldn’t even qualify as an F-rank item.

It didn’t have any slots to begin with, so “upgrading” it was, of course, impossible.

Still, if someone was truly determined to save it, there was a way.

It seemed that Seo Ye-in’s father had come to a similar conclusion.

“We’ll make a new one.”

A completely new item, created based on the Kim Ho Kim Ho Pot.

Then he pointed once again at the dented part and asked,

“Should I fix it?”

“No.”

Seo Ye-in firmly refused.

The two exchanged glances for a moment before her father nodded.

“We’ll make a new one.”

“Mhmm.”

After leaving the Kim Ho Kim Ho Pot in his care, Seo Ye-in also handed him a bag of cookies, saying it was a gift for him.

Then, as if their business here was done, she turned and walked toward me.

As we all left the workshop together, I found myself feeling somewhat conflicted.

Just what is he planning to make with that…?

***

TN: Just noticed something. I could be wrong, but from the beginning of the academy till now…. Kim Ho was never hit with anything (or anyone) but that Pot. And the pot hit him two times.