44 - Chapter 42: Intern
"Is this the place?"
I muttered, staring up at the sprawling mansion.
Once the internships were finalized, the cadets scattered to their respective workplaces.
I was no exception. Since Natalia didn't have an office, she had told me to come to her house.
"You're here."
A woman wearing glasses was waiting in front of the main gate.
"I'm Kang Jae-eun, Hunter Natalia's personal secretary. We'll be seeing a lot of each other during your internship, so I look forward to working with you."
"Likewise."
After exchanging brief pleasantries, I followed the secretary inside.
Once inside, she led me not to a drawing room, a living room, or an office, but straight to a bedroom.
Despite the sun being high in the sky, Natalia was still buried under the covers, fast asleep.
"Ma'am, the intern has arrived."
The secretary walked right up to the bed and shook her awake without hesitation.
"Mmm..."
Rubbing her bleary eyes, she blinked sleepily and stared blankly at me for a moment.
"You're here already?"
"Yes."
"Hold on."
Shuffling out of bed, Natalia headed straight for the bathroom. A moment later, I heard the sound of the shower running.
Once she finished, she disappeared into a walk-in closet packed with clothes and cosmetics, and didn't emerge for quite a while.
"Did you wait long?"
"No, not really."
When Natalia finally emerged, fully dressed and with her makeup done, she looked like a completely different person from the disheveled mess who had just crawled out of bed.
Come to think of it, this was probably the first time I'd ever seen her wearing makeup.
Of course, she was attractive enough bare-faced, and I knew "no-makeup makeup" was a thing, but this was the first time I actually consciously noticed she had put some effort into her face.
'Her clothes look a lot neater than the stuff she usually throws on, too.'
While I was lost in thought, Natalia spoke up.
"It's already lunchtime. Have you eaten?"
"Yeah. Since the internship starts in the afternoon, I grabbed a bite at the school cafeteria."
Natalia gave a slow nod.
"I see... I'm not really hungry either. Probably because I just woke up."
As she spoke, her secretary handed her a bottle filled with a thick, cocoa-like liquid.
"Still, considering how your magic works, you need to put something in your stomach. You just have to drink this, so it won't feel too heavy."
It looked like some kind of meal replacement shake.
"Fine..."
Surprisingly, Natalia obediently took the bottle from her secretary and chugged it.
"Happy now?"
"Yes. Thank you, Ma'am."
The secretary took the empty bottle and slipped out of the room.
Once they were alone, Natalia stood up and got ready to head out.
"Are we starting the internship work right away? What do you want me to do?"
Natalia slowly shook her head.
"No. Today, we're going to make you look the part."
"Look the part?"
"Yeah. It'd fucking suck if the intern working under me got looked down on."
Personally, I didn't give a shit.
But looking the part so I wouldn't get looked down on... I had no idea what she was planning.
"Follow me."
Before I could even guess what she meant, Natalia led me out of the house and ushered me into her car.
"Can I ask where we're going?"
Natalia gave a casual nod as she buckled into the driver's seat.
"The department store."
"What?"
Natalia started the engine and kept talking as she pulled out.
"Humans are surprisingly simple creatures. No matter how much they bullshit about looking at what's on the inside, people are always going to treat some bastard carrying a market-stall bag differently than a bastard carrying a luxury one."
"Ah. So we're going shopping?"
"Exactly. You've got a good build, so you'll look pretty sharp if we dress you right."
"I don't have any money, though."
Even if I did, I had no intention of blowing it on something so useless.
I wasn't the type to dump millions of won into clothes or bags.
Natalia chuckled at my cynical response.
"Why do you have so little desire for material things? Well, don't worry about that. I'm paying."
What was she playing at?
Ah, was this it? Was she trying to saddle me with a massive debt to force me into some kind of slave contract?
"Is this a scam...?"
Damn, I accidentally said that out loud.
Fortunately, Natalia just laughed even harder at my slip of the tongue.
"A kid your age sure has a wild imagination. It's nothing like that."
"Uh..."
"Think about it. When you were a kid, didn't you ever buy snacks from the corner store for a friend without expecting anything in return?"
"Yeah."
"To me, it's exactly like that. So don't sweat it."
Ah, right. An S-rank Hunter must make an astronomical amount of money.
With that, Natalia and I arrived at the department store.
Once inside, we headed straight for the luxury brands section.
"Ah."
Just outside the luxury section, Natalia suddenly stopped. I glanced over, wondering what was wrong, only to see her turning toward the restrooms.
"Hold on, let me take a quick piss. You can go in first and look around, or we can go pee together."
"Uh... yeah, sure..."
I nodded dumbly.
As she disappeared into the women's restroom, I stood there blankly for a moment.
Standing awkwardly in the hallway felt a bit weird, so I decided to head into the luxury section first.
Shoving my hands into my pockets, I was about to stroll into one of the stores when...
One of the department store employees blocked my path.
He scanned me from head to toe. With a critical, evaluating gaze, he asked,
"Excuse me, sir. Do you happen to have a reservation?"
A reservation?
Why the hell do you need a reservation just to buy some clothes?
Did Natalia make one? She probably did, which is why she told me to go in first.
Since I didn't know for sure, I just shook my head.
"I don't know. The person I'm with told me to go in first."
"Excuse me, but... could you tell me the name of the person you're with?"
His tone was blatantly suspicious. He looked ready to find any excuse to kick me out the moment I slipped up.
"Natalia Chae. She's an S-rank Hunter. You know her?"
"Ah..."
When I dropped her name, the employee reluctantly nodded. He clearly recognized it and realized I wasn't just talking out of my ass.
"I see... In that case, you'll have to wait a moment before entering. Would that be alright?"
His attitude was still dripping with suspicion and annoyance. I couldn't help but chuckle.
"Wait? Making such a fucking fuss just to walk into a clothing store."
Amused by the sheer absurdity of it, I snickered and was about to follow his directions.
Just then, a tan arm slung over my shoulder, stopping me in my tracks.
"Alright, let's go in."
Natalia, her arm still draped over me, playfully wiped her damp hands on my shirt.
The employee's eyes widened the moment he saw her.
The "wait" he had just insisted on vanished into thin air, and we were ushered inside immediately.
*
"Wow, fuck. Why does this look like one of those cheap shoe bags they sell in front of elementary schools?"
I muttered, staring at the bags on display from a luxury brand even I had heard of.
"Ahem."
Hearing someone clear their throat, I looked over to see the employee from earlier.
"Is there anything that catches your eye? Haha..."
Seeing his completely transformed, fawning attitude, I felt a sudden urge to mess with him.
"I don't know. Since you work here, you've probably seen a lot more of this stuff than me, so you must have better taste. Why don't you recommend something?"
"Oh, of course!"
The employee scurried off, returning with clothes, bags, and shoes to show me one by one.
"Hmm... looks fucking ugly."
"I-is that so? Just a moment..."
I rejected every single item he brought over without giving a shred of explanation.
Even after I ran him ragged like a dog, he never lost his smile. I actually started to respect the hustle.
"Wow, this bastard's acting completely fucking different now."
"Haha..."
Even with me saying that right to his face, the employee just forced a laugh, his eyes darting nervously toward Natalia.
While I was busy messing with the guy, Natalia had already picked out a bunch of clothes.
Most of the items she chose looked incredibly plain at first glance—not much different from the bag I'd compared to a school shoe bag.
When I asked her about it in the car on our way back, Natalia gave a crooked smirk.
"It's a trend among people with money to burn. Items that scream 'luxury' feel like showing off, or like something some middle-class person scraped together their savings to buy. So instead, they deliberately blow millions on plain-looking designs from luxury brands without batting an eye."
"Huh..."
From the perspective of a broke commoner, it made absolutely no sense.