Deputy Manager

Two weeks flew past, and the second month-end evaluation came around before I knew it. Kwon Hyeri was running this one as well, and Teams 4 and 5 didn’t even get to sit down in the auditorium. About the only thing that had changed was my own title. Once a rookie staff member, I was now an Assistant Manager.

The evaluation hadn’t started yet and everyone was trading idle small talk when a familiar bulk came into view.

“Assistant Manager Ko. It’s been a while.”
“Huh? Oh— oh, Assistant Manager Im, you keeping well?”
“You’ve been hard to catch lately.”
“R-right. Hahahaha…”

Ko Hyeonsik held the same post I did, Assistant Manager on Strategic Analysis Office Team 5.

“You don’t look well, though. Are you all right?”
“…I’m fine, of course. What about you?”
“I’m fine, but you really do look bad.”

Normally I wouldn’t have dreamed of striking up a conversation with him, but today he looked far too rough. His bangs were soaked through with cold sweat, and his eyes wouldn’t hold still, as if something in his nerves had come loose.

Any other day he’d have slipped in a dig disguised as a kind word. Today he was already hurrying off.

“Let’s talk later! It’s about to start!”

“…”

I stared blankly at the back of his head.

He’s acting strange today, but… we’re not close enough for me to actually worry about him.

I could count on one hand the times I’d spoken to Ko Hyeonsik in those two weeks. Even when we crossed paths in the Villain Planning and Management Office it went no further than a nod, and what talking there was, he did. Fishing, dressed up as a friendly ‘how’s work going these days’.

The moment Kwon Hyeri took the platform, every eye in the room fixed on her. Ko Hyeonsik could wait. What mattered was what the evaluation actually said.

“Taeseung! I’ve been looking everywhere. So this is where you were?”
“Huh?”
“The month-end evaluation’s more fun watched together, right? Hehe.”

Yang Hayun had shoved her way through the crowd to plant herself at my side. Up on the screen, Team 2’s evaluation was already running.

Looks like that oily bastard bombed it this time.

Hong Jangwoo, supposedly Yang Hayun’s university senior, didn’t look happy at all. His numbers on the screen were lower-middle of the pack at best. He’d dodged demotion by a hair, but the step up from staff member to Senior Staff seemed to be giving him real trouble. Honestly? It was satisfying to watch.

The month-end evaluation, where joy and grief cross paths. For every promotion, a demotion.

I was waiting impatiently for Team 5’s turn when…

“…?”

At the words ‘Team Advancement Match’ I doubted my own ears for a second. An advancement ‘match’, of all things. What exactly were they supposed to do in one? Luckily, the one person who could clear that up was standing right next to me.

“Hayun, have you heard of a Team Advancement Match?”
“A Team Advancement Match? I have a memory of them covering it in the onboarding training… it’s hazy, but it’s there.”
“So what is it?”
“…Taeseung, don’t tell me you didn’t come on training day?”
“I forget things a lot. Help me out.”

Yang Hayun gave me a look reserved for hopeless little brothers, then carried on with the explanation.

“A Team Advancement Match is exactly what it sounds like — you win a chance to advance to the next team up. That person’s on Team 3, so they’d have their match against Team 3’s General Manager.”
“…??? You have your Advancement Match against the General Manager of your own team?”
“Yes. You didn’t know? Each team’s General Manager is a kind of gatekeeper.”

The news shut my mouth for me.

So if I want to advance, I have to fight an Advancement Match against General Manager Kwon Hyeri…?

I looked up at Kwon Hyeri on the platform and swallowed hard. No matter how I turned it over, I couldn’t see myself winning. How was anyone supposed to beat a woman who got through her workday drinking energy drinks like water?

“Hayun, do you happen to know what actually happens in an Advancement Match? And what happens if you lose…”

“!”

The icy voice snapped me out of my whispering. Kwon Hyeri was looking straight at us, and everyone else had followed her gaze.

“I’m sorry.”

I bent at the waist and apologized on the spot. Chatting in the middle of the month-end evaluation was my fault, after all.

Kwon Hyeri held her look on me a moment longer, then carried on with the evaluation. Small whispers kept reaching my ears in the gaps, though.

“What’s with him? Acting like a big shot just because he got a two-rank promotion.”
“It is a bit of an eyesore.”
“He probably thinks the world revolves around him.”
“Skill and character are inversely proportional, after all.”

The talk had a razor edge to it, and my ears burned. If this had been my first day… no, if it had been before I saw Cha Huigyeong’s true face. Their blatant backbiting might have hurt me then.

I’m used to it now.

The viper pit the competition system had built was always ready to sink its teeth into itself. Once I knew that, backbiting like this only sounded like wariness, people keeping watch for whoever was about to climb over them.

…Maybe I’d been stained by this company too.

No sooner had Kwon Hyeri finished than a security robot dragged someone away. They didn’t thrash or spit curses the way the others had. Just a blank stare at what was left of Teams 4 and 5. Looking into those hollow eyes gave me chills, and at the same time part of me was relieved.

— Pap-pap!!

Maybe it was because she’d only just been told to keep quiet. Yang Hayun kept her mouth clamped shut and let nothing but her eyes shine. The look she aimed my way plainly wanted something, so I leaned in and whispered ‘congratulations’ by her ear.

Kwon Hyeri worked the remote, and Team 5’s month-end evaluation came up on the projector screen.

Every eye turned on me again, and I smiled, perfectly at ease. Once is a coincidence; twice is skill. By now everyone in the Strategic Analysis Office would have caught on. When it came to Hero Gamble, at least, my ability was no bubble.

— Clap. Clap-clap-clap-clap.

I bowed amid the perfunctory applause. Eyes with unmistakable wariness in them. The vipers had their necks stretched right out, watching.

Next, the confidential results went up. The staff-member tier had none at all, since confidential results were only recorded from the Senior Staff tier up, and…

Then came the surprise. One bar on the graph stood higher than every other, and it carried a name too: ‘Assistant Manager Im Taeseung’.

The team leader did say the work mattered more than Hero Gamble.

The faintest smile had touched Kwon Hyeri’s lips.

She had told me plainly that the essence of a Villain company isn’t the gambling, it’s the company’s own work. In that sense my bar standing high was only natural, since I’d turned in real results on combat consultations. Quite a few Villains besides Hedgehoggirl had taken my advice by now, though not all of them came away delighted and grateful the way she had. Either way, I was thankful that advice that actually worked counted as a meaningful result.

With numbers like these, I couldn’t help looking forward to the performance appraisal.

“No!!”

Kwon Hyeri had barely finished when a huge body vaulted up onto the auditorium platform. Ko Hyeonsik, white with terror.

“Why— why am I being demoted?! I did the work, didn’t I! My results weren’t bad either, and sure, my gamble numbers dropped a little, but not enough to be demoted—”

“Answer me!! Why am I being demoted?! …Gyaagh!”

— Krrunch.

The security robot seized Ko Hyeonsik without mercy. One arm wrenched up behind his back, his head driven into the floor.

Kwon Hyeri’s sigh came through the microphone.

Kwon Hyeri set the microphone down and gestured to the security robot. A gesture like asking for a piece of luggage to be cleared away. It hauled Ko Hyeonsik off while he screamed and denied reality the whole way.

This is what comes of a man who couldn’t see the essence…

Ko Hyeonsik, who had thrown himself at Hero Gamble instead of his own job. Kwon Hyeri had summed him up as ‘only escaping demotion and dismissal because his gamble numbers are good’. Judging by the demotion, they hadn’t been good this time.

“Taeseung, congratulations!”
“…Oh, congratulations to you too. It’s Senior Staff Yang now, isn’t it?”
“Hehe, and I’ll have to start calling you Deputy Manager Im.”

After Ko Hyeonsik’s outburst, looking at Yang Hayun made me smile without meaning to. The one place to rest in this vicious snake pit.

I threw her a crisp thumbs-up.

“No more being run ragged with odd jobs now.”
“Right? But I’m a bit worried. From Senior Staff up you have to watch the Villains’ training footage and write combat reports too…”
“Better than odd jobs. You’ll be fine at it.”
“Thank you…! And congratulations on Deputy Manager. Let’s give it everything, together!”
“Sure.”

— Clap!

I high-fived Yang Hayun and steeled my will. There’s a saying, isn’t there, that even one good friend nearby makes for a successful life. Ending up in the same intake as Yang Hayun might be the greatest stroke of luck of my life, though that might just be because my life up to now had been such a gutter.

That was still running through my head as I turned to leave the auditorium.

“Deputy Manager Im.”

“…Ma’am?”

— Clack.

Kwon Hyeri was waiting for me in front of the door.

“There’s something I need to go over with you about the handover of your Deputy Manager duties. Come to the team leader’s office.”

“Understood.”

The setup was identical to the last month-end evaluation, right down to the déjà vu. Assistant Manager work hadn’t been easy either, and now it was Deputy Manager work. I was curious, too, about what would happen to my Villain management now, to Hedgehoggirl and the rest of them.

I set off after Team Leader Kwon Hyeri.

— Tug.

“…?”

Someone had caught my hand from behind and pulled. I turned to look and found Yang Hayun there, pouting.

“What is it? All of a sudden.”
“…Are you free today, Taeseung?”
“Today?”
“Yes. You bought the drinks last time, so this time I’d like to buy… How about this evening?”
“Hmm… sure, why not. The barbecue place from last time?”
“The barbecue place is fine. Or we could go somewhere else, somewhere expensive! I got my performance bonus this time.”
“Sure. Let’s talk about it later.”
“Yes! See you when you’re done!”

Yang Hayun laughed, bright as ever, and went past me.

Kwon Hyeri, gazing steadily in our direction.

Yang Hayun gave a start, as though only now spotting her, and bowed her head.

“Ah, Team 5’s team leader! I’m sorry. I was the one holding him up…”
“…It’s fine. Off you go. And congratulations on the promotion.”
“Hehe, thank you!”

She bounced out of the auditorium. The exchange hadn’t quite fit the moment, but maybe that offbeat streak was part of Yang Hayun’s charm.

I headed for the team leader’s office with Kwon Hyeri. Once we were inside, she sat down and fixed a level look on me.

“…? Is something the matter, ma’am?”

“Are you by any chance in an office romance, Deputy Manager Im?”

“An office romance…?”

“Staff Member Yang Hayun… no, Senior Staff Yang. You seem close with her.”

“No. It’s nothing like that.”

I shook my head firmly. I was close with Yang Hayun, but we were absolutely not a couple, and it wasn’t as though I had the room in me for that anyway.

“Hmm… simple rivalry, then?”

“?”

“It seems you don’t know a thing, Deputy Manager Im.”

“I’m not sure what you mean…”

“If you don’t know, never mind. When you’re drinking with Senior Staff Yang today, talk some trash about me. That I’m fussy, that I’ve got a foul temper, that I keep calling you in and it’s a nuisance…”

“???”

“Answer.”

“Sorry? …Yes.”

Badmouth her over drinks? Had I just misheard?

Kwon Hyeri tossed out a line I couldn’t begin to read, then went rummaging through some documents. …I had absolutely no idea what any of it was about.

“Moving on to the main point — let’s talk about your Deputy Manager duties.”

— Flutter.

A single sheet of paper, landing at my feet.

It set out the duties a Deputy Manager was required to perform. The work I’d be doing starting tomorrow.

Collaborate with the Villain Research Office on the production of new Villains.

“I’d like you to take on the research for the Villains Beyond Villain will be producing in-house.”