I got us another round of tea and returned to the table in front of the cabin. We needed to get back to looking for a solution to our performance evaluation problem.
“I’m so sorry about all of this. I’ll do everything I can to get the inspection canceled.”
Karumi took a sip of the tea, which seemed to soothe her nerves. Well, by now I was certain I’d been on the right track when I first noticed she was a bit of a dork.
“I’m going to find a senior instructor to support you. Truth be told, I was hoping to let things settle down around here before doing that, but it doesn’t seem we can afford to wait.”
“Sorry, a what now?”
“We have a mentorship system in place where labyrinth managers with at least two years of experience help guide new managers. Technically, you should have gotten one as soon as you finished the training period, but Labyrinth #228 has some special circumstances.”
“I’ll take all the help I can get.”
Given the utter lack of progress on Labyrinth #228, it wasn’t like I was going to learn much about how to deal with employees or how to do anything of value, except maybe cook. Maybe if the mentor was a gardener, or a bonsai enthusiast or something, they could give me some advice on how to tend the vegetation. But honestly, there was nothing remotely labyrinthine about this place.
“Sound advice will improve your odds of success dramatically.”
Karumi gestured with her hand, and a window appeared. She pressed a few buttons with her long, slender fingers.
Communication restrictions have been lifted. You may now contact a senior instructor.
Lines of text scrolled by as Karumi flicked through the UI window.
“The instructor hasn’t been on the job long, but she’s been producing great results over in Labyrinth #370.”
I felt like I remembered that labyrinth. Had I bought something from there on Tundra? Oh, right, that was the place that sold the salt and fish paste. Man, they were a lifesaver! Karumi pressed a button on the UI, and a large window opened up in the air, with just the word “Calling.” I bet it made a sound like a phone ringing on the other end. I mean, I hoped it did, at least. I kinda liked the sound of digital ringtones.
“Hello, Labyrinth #370 here. Katou speaking.”
A girl dressed in a skirt suit just like Karumi’s appeared on the screen. Her suit looked a little cheaper than Karumi’s, but then again, Karumi’s looked like it had cost a fortune. Her eyes and hair were a very Japanese shade of black, and her long hair was held in place with a hairpin. My first impression was that she was a fashionable, peppy girl.
She was obviously shorter than both Karumi and I, and I suspected she was even shorter than Ann. Honestly, she looked very young, but she sounded composed enough. She had to be, what, a middle schooler? I wouldn’t have believed her if she said she was in high school. I just managed to stop myself from muttering, “A little kid?”
“Hello, it’s me, Karumi. Do you remember the senior instructor arrangement we discussed a few days ago?”
“Oh, yep, sure do.”
She glanced my way.
“I’m Aoi Kousaka, manager of Labyrinth #228.”
I kinda wished I was in the sort of game where I could throw out a snappy military salute. Reality is so boring—just normal greetings and bowing all the time.
“I’m Suzu Katou. Since I’ll be mentoring you, we’re gonna be talking a lot, so let’s keep it casual, okay? You can call me Suzu, and I’ll just go with Aoi for you.”
Dropping the formalities right off the bat, eh? Worked for me.
“Sounds good. Nice to meet you, Suzu.”
“Heh, how about that. I’d have thought a cutie like you would be a little more uptight.”
Suzu grinned at me.
“Well, I guess I’ve been through a lot.”
I figured the reason I wasn’t as ‘uptight’ as she was expecting was the fact that I’d spent most of my life screaming into a headset.
A lot of multiplayer games had voice chat, after all. Whenever I landed in a game with foreigners, it’d be “fuck this,” “that’s bullshit,” and so on, nonstop. If I wasn’t careful with my language, I slipped into that kind of thing pretty easily. I owed a lot to a guild leader from an FPS game I’d played back in the day. When you were talking to him outside the game, he’d be totally calm and courteous, but once the game started, he’d be cursing like you wouldn’t believe, laughing like a madman the whole time. And it wasn’t like I was practicing being super polite while playing single-player RPG games or management sims or whatever to make up for the foul-mouthed multiplayer time, so I kind of got out of the habit.
All that aside, I had mixed feelings about this middle schooler calling me cute. And what was with that smug look? She had her chin tilted up and was looking down her nose at me with this absolutely unbearable grin on her face. Was it intentional? To be honest, I knew a few guys with certain questionable proclivities who would’ve been turned on by it.
“A DL for your thoughts.”
“Oh, uh, it’s nothing.”
Oh shit, she was definitely onto me.
“Kousaka.”
Karumi pressed another button and gestured for me to look at the display.
“Suzu Katou, Female, 22. Graduated from a private college. Joined the company immediately after graduation. Three years of service.”
Twenty-two? No way, she didn’t look a day over ten. And I didn’t mean that as a compliment. So she’d been working there for three years, huh? I was always seeing products from Labyrinth #370 pop up in the Tundra catalog, so it seemed like she was making the most of her time. I could see why Karumi had chosen her to help me out—there was no questioning her competency.