Lindel became noisy and it was worth it to put our focus on innovation, and I was sure that these people were used to the Blue Guild’s current system. A dream company that considered the comfort of their employees with many additional benefits. Even the people back on Earth probably dreamed of joining a company like this, but it didn’t take long for them to realize that the benefits that should naturally be offered weren’t necessarily offered in other guilds. 

The many professional managers that studied business administration knew what kind of company talented people would apply to, but knowing and doing were two different things. The majority of the companies that I knew didn’t carry out the methods that they knew because of their selfish greed or maybe it was because they had slaves lined up and overworking them wasn’t really an issue or there could be an internal issue within the company. It was also possible that the company didn’t have enough funds or the company was in a bad situation to the point that they couldn’t recruit people. Earth was filled with smart people and there wasn’t a single company that took care of their employees like we did and it was even more true in Lindel where danger was a norm. Large guilds like the Red Mercenary Guild and the Black Swan Guild were in a good position, but for the other small to mid-sized clans, their reality was basically hell.

My actions from the beginning couldn’t be considered innovative because using interns wasn’t exactly the greatest idea, but there was fair compensation, which would make them work even harder.

‘As long as they become full-time staff members.’

This possibility would make the slaves work even harder. If I had to explain, the word ‘innovation’ was basically sugarcoating and using word play about the job. Once the image had been planted into everyone’s brains, it would become fixed and every time that there was a change within the Blue Guild, our followers would become parrots that would shout the word, ‘innovation.’

‘Our image is important.’

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that creating an image through public opinion and the press would influence everything about the guild.

I heard a voice while tapping my finger on the desk.

“There are only a few successful candidates,” Park Joong-Ki said.

“I guess it’ll take some time,” I said.

“It will. Despite the fact that a lot of people got disqualified during the first test, there are still a lot of them here. It’s great that there are a lot more competent candidates than we thought, but… maybe you should meet them separately…”

“No, I’ll see them all myself,” I said, cutting him off.

It would be more comfortable that way since I would be able to see their status windows.

“I’m worried that you’re overworking yourself,” he said.

“I’m fine. They’ll be working for the guild, so it’s best if I see them myself,” I told him.

“As expected…” he commented.

“It won’t take long anyway.”

It was easy to weed out people. There was nothing more effective than a test when weeding out the random Tom, Dick, and Harry. I decided that giving a test about imperial law or tax management was good enough and the people that applied to the alchemy planning department should be given a test about alchemy, which turned out to be effective.

We blocked the people that came here simply because of the rumor. The unfortunate part was that there were candidates that were eliminated because of a mistake that they had made at that moment, but sadly, we didn’t have the time to take care of them. The most important thing for us right now was to have people that could work right away.

“Have all the candidates gathered for an interview?” I asked.

“Yes,” Park Joong-Ki answered.

“Please send them in one by one and I’ll be the only one doing the interview,” I told him.

“Okay, I understand,” he said.

As soon as I sat on the chair, a nervous-looking man entered the room and he looked as if he had to go to the bathroom. I guess he didn’t know that I was going to be the one doing the interview. I could understand why he had that kind of expression since he was doing an interview with a powerful man in the city.

When I smiled lightly and checked his status window, his overall stats were low and his nature…

‘A lazy egoist.’

I believed that I had to weed out people like him because if they got caught by Sun Hee-Young, they would simply become dust. Looking at the document in front of me, his experience wasn’t that bad, but people like him would end up becoming a cancer within the guild and there was no reason for me to bring back those crazy gramps. I was sure that he was one of the people that wanted to take advantage of the guild’s benefits after becoming a full-time staff member after a year.

“Mr. Kim Chul-Soo?” I called out.

“Yes, it’s nice to meet you,” he said.

“Oh, no need for an introduction since it’ll be different from your normal interview. You applied for the crisis response team…” I said.

“Yes, I did. I’m not sure if you heard, but I was the team leader for a short period of time at the Guardian Tree Clan,” he explained.

“Oh, I see. I’ve heard it before. That’s pretty impressive,” I said.

Guardian Tree my ass! I had never even heard of it so it was possible that it was one of the clans that had suddenly disappeared. Even though his eyes were filled with passion, the system wouldn’t lie about his nature.

When I glanced at him and spoke, he looked slightly embarrassed.

“I’ll ask you a simple question.”

“Sure.”

“Please design an evacuation plan in the event that a disaster sweeps across Lindel,” I said.

“Right now?” he asked.

“Yes, it doesn’t have to be perfect. You need to evacuate all the citizens of Lindel, so if it were you, how would you evacuate the people?” I asked.

“Well… I… I believe using magic first is the best thing to do…”

He was rambling, but it was far from the answer I had in mind.

‘Idiot.’

The way he answered my question without knowing what kind of disaster was happening was amusing to watch. Because of his nature, I was already looking at him with a judgemental look and honestly, I didn’t like this candidate.

“Lindel’s third castle gate is…”

“Okay, thank you for that. It was a satisfactory interview, so you can leave now,” I told him.

“Oh… okay. Thank you,” he said.

“We’ll let you know if you passed the interview. Your answer was impressive. Thank you for your time,” I said.

“Oh! Th-Thank you,” he stuttered.

As long as the perfect candidate still hadn’t appeared, then it wouldn’t be a bad idea to use him for a year. After he left with a smile as if he had given me the correct answer, the next person entered the room.

“Hm…”

The woman looked pretty neat on the outside, but the wounds all over her body showed that she went through a lot.

‘She looks old too…’

When I looked at her status window, I saw information about her.

‘Her name is Kim Mi-Young, age is 39 and her nature is a hard-working lawyer.’

Her intelligence wasn’t bad and even her magic stat was 30. Even her experience looked interesting. She previously worked in a mid-sized guild and retired when she turned 30. After getting married, she opened a small general store in the plaza… but there wasn’t anything written after that. I had an idea about what kind of life she lived, so it wouldn’t be bad to hear her story.

“Miss Kim Mi-Young.”

“Yes?”

“You applied for the imperial legal department,” I said.

“I did.”

“Your background is pretty interesting, so could you tell me about them like how it’s written here? You got married… and you took a pretty long break. You were on break for five years,” I pointed out.

“Yes… I did,” she said.

I noticed how her face turned serious and I was certain that she felt uncomfortable talking about it. As such, I thought that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to ask her a question.

“About your husband…”

“He passed away,” she answered.

“I see. I’m sorry for your loss. Do you have any children?” I asked.

“I have two, but it won’t affect my work,” she said quickly.

“I guess you were treated unfairly in your previous guild,” I said.

“...”

I could imagine how she got this far. While working at the guild, I was sure that she met her husband, got married, and had kids almost at the same time. After feeling a lot of pressure, she must have left the guild and started a business with the money that they had saved, but when the business wasn’t doing so well, her husband must have gone out to hunt. It was none of my business whether he died because of a disease or because of his injuries after a hunt, but it was most likely that she had a hard time getting by after her husband died. She couldn’t apply for a job at other guilds and clans because she had kids to take care of and since she had taken a long break, guilds started avoiding her. I wasn’t sure how she raised her kids by herself, but I was confident that it must have been difficult. Whether she was doing odd jobs, physical labor, or day labor, I was certain that the days she spent were unimaginably difficult.

“Not only did I try different jobs during my break, but I did various activities and worked on developing my abilities,” she said.

That was a lie…

“I see.”

But I didn’t have any reason to care about it because she was the type of talented person that I had in mind.

‘This is great.’

The fact that she had children could be seen as a flaw, but if we helped her with her children, then she could become a slave that would pledge her loyalty to the guild. Moreover, her smart children would also become workers for our guild. Her flaw was that she had taken a long break, but she could quickly adapt to things by working and above all, I liked her nature.

‘Being hard-working is a good thing.’

Mothers were strong and they were stronger than I imagined.

“Do you think that you’ll be able to actively serve?” I asked.

“Yes, of course. I continued studying while taking a break and I have a level 1 certificate in imperial law. I’ll probably have to update it, but… I should be able to handle the necessary tasks,” she answered.

“I’m sure you know the current situation of our guild,” I said.

“I do…”

“Could you tell me why you decided to apply for the imperial legal department?” I asked.

After a short silence, Kim Mi-Young started talking. “I thought that you needed people who are knowledgeable in imperial law and considering the recent event that the Blue Guild had experienced, I thought you’d make a formal complaint to Celia even though the imperial law doesn’t permit disputes with other free cities. Of course, this is under the condition that the Blue Guild has proof,” she explained.

“I see. If we don’t have proof, what would you do?” I asked.

“I can think of a way to put pressure on Celia that won’t go against the law. Just like modern laws have loopholes, I’m sure the imperial law also has loopholes,” she answered.

“Is there a way?”

She lightly nodded without answering. This was probably her way of saying that we should hire her if I wanted to know more and I kind of liked that.

“I see. Hmm, it’s interesting. Actually, I like it. I like it a lot,” I commented.

“...”

“I think we should work together,” I said.

“Excuse me?” she asked.

“I’m saying that I’m going to hire you. I’m sure you know already, but you’ll have to work for a year without pay, but that doesn’t mean that we won’t be paying you at all. I guess you can say that you’re a special case, so we’ll at least provide you with basic living expenses, and later on, we can discuss your pay. Oh! If it’s okay with you, I want you to be the team leader of the legal team, but… that’s only possible if you show results while you’re still an intern,” I explained.

“Sorry?”

“You can leave your children at the daycare in the guild when you come to work. Where do you currently live?” I asked.

“Well… it’s on the outskirts…”

I guess she must be living in the slums, but that shouldn't be a problem since it was a lot better for me if she didn’t have any place to go.

“It would be best if you lived in the guild house, so I’ll provide a room for you and your children,” I said.

“Oh…”

When I searched under the desk and threw her the employment contract, she looked at the document with a dumbfounded face. I was certain that she knew better than me and that she was more knowledgeable in this field.

“You just need to read it over and sign it,” I said.

“Oh, okay…”

Kim Mi-Young was reading through the contract slowly and it didn’t take long for her serious face to turn into a bright smile.

“You’ll be busy and I’m telling you this ahead of time, but you won’t be able to see your children for a few days. Of course, the guild will provide you with everything you need and that includes education and future career advancement. If you provide good results, we may be willing to send your children to study abroad in the capital of the empire, but this is under the condition that your children join the Blue Guild. It’s written in the contract, Miss Mi-Young,” I explained.

“Oh… yes, okay!” she answered excitedly.

“If you or your children want to receive training as an adventurer, the guild provides basic swordsmanship and magic classes, so the three of you can attend them if you wish,” I told her.

“Thank you. Th-Thank you very much,” she stuttered while expressing her gratitude.

There wasn’t a reason for her not to sign the employment contract because living here was more advantageous than living in the slums. Actually, if she cared a lot about her children, then she had to sign the contract no matter what. Living in the comfortable Blue Guild was better than living in the slums where anybody could come in at any time. It didn’t take her long to sign the contract with a calm expression. I couldn’t help but smile.

“Then when do I start…”

“Right now,” I told her.

“Excuse me?” she asked.

“Go to the guild lobby and after finding a person named Park Deok-Gu, you can come to the guild house with your children. You can clean up your belongings and after going to your office, you can rewrite the employment contract you’re holding since I’m not very knowledgeable when it comes to the law. I wrote it by referencing the previous contract, but it still sounds strange,” I explained.

“Oh…”

“Please finish it before you’re done for the day and hand it over to me, Miss Mi-Young,” I told her.

Kim Mi-Young looked at me as if she was asking if she had made a mistake, but it soon became clear that she didn’t have a choice and her slightly happy face was proof of that.

“Okay!” she said excitedly.

Ideally, when using workers, it was best that they had no idea that they were slaves.

I couldn’t help but smile when I saw her determined expression.

‘Let’s do this.’

“If you show satisfactory results, then you’ll become a full-time staff member without having to work as an intern for a year, but your results have to be satisfactory,” I told her.

“Okay, I’ll do my best,” she said.