Academy’S Gumiho Is A Magical Genius [EN]: Chapter 274

Academy Gumiho is a Magic Genius – Episode 274

Academy Gumiho is a Magic Genius 274

Bite the Bait (4)

“So, how much are you thinking of offering?”

“Uh, how much, you say…?”

“Why are you acting like this? Didn’t you come to me wanting to collaborate?”

Seungwoo, dominating the atmosphere, spoke in a low voice.

It was definitely a pleasant tone, but for some reason, it sounded sharp, like nails on a chalkboard.

“That’s right…”

Choi Jun, feeling uneasy at the voice, opened his mouth.

He looked like a defeated soldier right now.

He seemed to be feeling considerable anxiety and intimidation.

“You don’t look so good. Should I get you some liquor?”

“Ah, no!”

“Is that so? Suit yourself.”

I was wondering if I should offer him some alcohol since he seemed so out of sorts.

There’s no reason to offer a drink to someone I don’t like.

“Do you have the documents you brought?”

“Ah, yes! Of, of course, I have them. Here are the seals and other documents for comparison…”

“I don’t need the others. Just the contract documents.”

As I flicked my fingers dismissively, Choi Jun hurriedly rummaged through his briefcase.

The bag was full of all sorts of paper bundles.

Among those bundles, the document Seungwoo received was the largest and thickest.

“Hey. You didn’t just hand over all the documents in your bag because you were too lazy, did you?”

“Absolutely not! How could I commit such a discourtesy to the Chairman!”

“Then how do you explain this thickness? Does this look like a normal amount of documents to you?”

A document with the thickness of an encyclopedia.

At this point, I can only assume you brought this document not to contract with me, but to cause trouble. I want to kill whoever made this document, seriously.

“This is the standard thickness of documents our guild uses when making contracts!”

“…Standard? This ridiculously thick thing is standard?”

“Yes!”

Standard, my foot.

There’s no way this thickness is average, logically speaking.

‘Who on earth would read this from beginning to end?’

Clauses of a length that are impossible to read, logically speaking.

Unless you’re someone like Seungwoo who can speed-read like he’s eating a meal, most people would give up halfway through.

Normally, companies or organizations that use documents of this thickness would naturally disappear, but since this is the largest guild in the world, it seems they’ve been able to survive even after doing this kind of thing.

“There are no unequal clauses.”

“Of course not.”

“But there are unfair clauses.”

“Yes?”

There are no inequalities, but there are unfairnesses.

Choi Jun was startled by that statement.

Seungwoo carefully observed Choi Jun’s expression and actions.

‘He really seems surprised, but is it an act? It’s too natural to be an act.’

He looked like he was hearing about the unfair clauses for the first time. I’d like to dig into that expression, but I don’t feel like investing that much time.

Just then, Choi Jun jumped up from his chair.

“What nonsense! No matter who you are, Chairman, there are things you can and cannot say!”

“Sit down.”

I’m sitting down, so why are you standing there so presumptuously?

As I emitted killing intent to make him sit down quickly, Choi Jun froze in place, still in the posture of kicking the chair. Did I release too much killing intent?

I heard he was the guild’s third tail [a high-ranking executive], so I released it raw without trying to suppress it, but even considering that, he froze too stiffly.

“What are you doing standing there? If you want to do performance art, should I just throw you out on the street like that?”

“…What did you just do to me?”

Choi Jun’s face, asking Seungwoo the question, was stained with cold sweat.

“Me? What do you mean? I didn’t do anything.”

“Don’t lie! I definitely felt a sharp blade on my neck. You did it! There’s no one else who could have done it.”

“…You’re just scared out of your wits and talking nonsense.”

“What?”

The overall level of this world was higher than the world Seungwoo lived in.

The standard of living, the development of magic, and its practical use. All of that had developed to a groundbreaking level, but perhaps because there hadn’t been a war in this world for a long time.

Everyone is too easily frightened.

“I haven’t done anything ‘yet’.”

“That means you’re going to do something soon.”

Yes, that’s right.

But the word ‘yet’ doesn’t necessarily mean I’m going to do something.

“So, what’s the result? I didn’t do anything. But you’re acting like a scared dog, sweating and trembling.”

“…Ah.”

“I know you have good instincts, but don’t be so noisy.”

If I wanted to kill someone like you, I would have done it already.

“!!!!”

I clearly didn’t say the rest of the words out loud, but Choi Jun reacted violently as if he had heard the unspoken threat right in front of him. His body trembled like a branch in the wind, unable to find its footing.

The reaction was so extreme that Seungwoo felt drained.

Ugh, whatever.

“What would I do with a low-level employee like you? Change the 17th line on page 72 and the 7th paragraph on page 188.”

“…I can’t arbitrarily modify the standard documents.”

“Really? You’re the third tail, so doesn’t that mean you have the third most power from the top?”

“The tails… all the tails except for the first one are equal.”

The power of the executives other than the Guild Master was equal.

One absolute power and the remaining eight divided powers.

“So?”

“…Yes?”

“So what? As a top executive, you can modify the documents, right?”

Power divided into eight.

That doesn’t mean the divided power is weak. Nine Tails is a group with a well-established power system, so vertical that it can be said to be the most vertical among the many guilds.

If you’re a powerful person in such a group.

You can modify these documents as much as you want.

Seungwoo knew that fact and was pressuring Choi Jun.

“Th, that’s because I’m not in charge of documents and accounting, but in charge of personnel and sales…”

“Can you modify it? Or can’t you?”

“If it’s a small-scale transaction, maybe. But collaborating with the Chairman’s technology, which is rumored to be an elixir of immortality, involves an amount of money that is far too large…”

“So, I’m asking if you can do it. Why are you beating around the bush?”

As I applied this much pressure, Choi Jun realized what the other party wanted.

‘He’s trying to threaten me to modify the documents in his favor!’

He realized the other party’s intention.

But after realizing it, there was nothing he could do.

The page that Seungwoo pointed out as unfair really did have unfair clauses written on it. Now that I see it, I understand.

The sentences are vaguely written, so that in the event of legal problems, a large number of skilled lawyers can be hired to win the trial.

‘Second Tail. That crazy bastard! He’s trying to deceive the Chairman, of all people?! I’m the only one getting hurt because of you!’

Most of the guild’s administrative work, including the standard documents, was the responsibility of the Second Tail, Jerry.

He was competent and wise.

But at least in this situation, the Chairman seemed much wiser than Jerry. He tilted the board in his favor and drove me to the edge with overwhelming force and justification.

“I’ll give you one more chance. Can you do it? Or can’t you?”

“…”

I want to lie and say I can’t.

But if I did, something really bad might happen. My trained body and instincts were warning me not to do anything unnecessary.

Choi Jun was constantly agonizing.

Seungwoo spoke to him.

“You’re not going to say it? Then I guess you’ll just get beaten until you do.”

“Wh, what?”

“Just don’t say anything. Guys like you originally grow up getting beaten.”

It’s good to use your head, but Seungwoo also prefers to use his fists in a rough-and-tumble way.

As I raised my fist, Choi Jun, who eventually said he could modify it, modified the documents only after getting hit once. Even if he wanted to protest or threaten, it would be a headache for them if Seungwoo grabbed onto the ambiguous sentences written in the documents, so in the end, Choi Jun and Seungwoo stamped the modified documents.

Of course, Choi Jun repeatedly checked the sentences before stamping them.

He was relieved that Seungwoo didn’t make any big demands, but there were two things he had forgotten.

The first was that it wasn’t an exclusive contract.

And the second was that he had only stamped the collaboration on the so-called ‘Elixir of Immortality’.

He didn’t check exactly what principle it worked on or how it was applied and acted.

He was so caught up in the atmosphere.

He didn’t have time to properly ask what Seungwoo’s research was about.

In the end, Choi Jun, who had stamped the documents and returned, was beaten to a pulp when he showed the documents to the Second Tail, who was in charge of the office, upon arriving at the guild.

Meanwhile, Seungwoo, who didn’t care whether Choi Jun was being beaten or fainting.

He smiled as he looked at the documents given to him. The Nine Tails Guild is too much.

‘What’s the point of being strong? You can’t even raise your head in front of someone stronger than you, and you can’t use your head.’

Choi Jun. He was definitely strong.

He was probably one of the few strong people in the country who had almost no one to oppose him.

The problem is that I reached the realm of the Archmage and poked my head out among those few strong people.

Maybe Choi Jun will realize that something is wrong by now. He’s just not good at using his head, which he doesn’t need to use because his body is excellent. He doesn’t seem like a stupid guy.

‘Still, he took the bait properly.’

The first big fish was caught in a big way.

The start is smooth.

* * *

After that, the meetings continued.

Clearly, the Nine Tails Guild was the only meeting and contract scheduled for today, but I don’t know where these guys heard the rumors, but they all came with contracts in tow.

Most of the situations were led by me.

Occasionally, there were crazy bastards who didn’t respond to setting the mood.

I could clearly feel that those guys came to rip me off.

That was the case with the man who came from the A-class guild, for example.

“These guys are asking to be beaten.”

“Keuk!”

Thud!

The large man collapsed to the floor. There was a trace on his back as if something had pressed down on him, but the trace soon disappeared in an instant.

Seungwoo put a bottle of alcohol in the man’s mouth and left the scene.

‘Now he’ll just look like a guy who got drunk and fell down on his own.’

Tap, tap, Seungwoo shook off the dust on his hands.

He wore an expression that he had touched something dirty, but he couldn’t hide the smile hidden inside. I made a lot of money today.

There were a lot of annoying guys, but fortunately, there were more suckers.

‘Seriously, how many people… no, how many fish did I catch in one day?’

I’ve been fishing for people all day today.

They all have human bodies, but their heads are at the mackerel level, so their thinking is simple. If you dig into that simplicity, catching them is instantaneous.

Really, I can’t even fish this well.

“Two whales, four tuna, and about eleven blue-backed fish. At this point, I can put them all in one pot and boil them thoroughly.”

The Nine Tails Guild and the large company were whales.

The A-class guild or the equivalent small and medium-sized enterprises, and the 8th Elder were tuna.

The rest were miscellaneous fish.

These names were classifications based on size and importance, but Seungwoo was already treating them like real fish.

Fish in an aquarium that only move their mouths when given food.

The ones I met yesterday and today were blinded by the round bait.

With such narrow vision.

‘I don’t know if they can survive in the harsh nature.’

Even more so here, where survival was more harsh than nature.

─Everyone seems to have very low intelligence.

‘I used expressions like whales and tuna to compare large sizes, but I didn’t know they were actually fish heads.’

─It’s proof that they’re more focused on the present than the distant future.

‘The distant future, the things they don’t expect are going to happen in the near future.’

The bait that the fish in the tank ate was actually a bomb.

The fish that swallowed it without knowing it were only satisfied with the immediate sense of fullness. It won’t be long before the disguise of the bait is peeled off and the bare bones of the bomb are revealed.

─When are you planning to start the plan?

‘Next Monday.’

─Today is Wednesday, so there’s less than a week left.

I’m going to burst the bellies of those fish heads this time.

The scattered pieces of you will give other children the ability to grow, and it will give me the opportunity to stand above you.

That moment, I’m so looking forward to it.