The Bullied Manager is now the Great Mage

CHAPTER 5

Ryan Lee blocked them at the office hallway entrance, his cronies flanking him like they'd rehearsed this scene. His smile carried all the contempt of someone who'd never faced actual resistance. Red magic power gathered around his limbs, violent and uncontrolled.

"A ghost coming back to slum with Unique?" His voice came sharp, designed to cut. "Even broken, you'd still earn more than any of us. That fair to the people who actually held the company together?"

Aria didn't answer. She just stood there, hair in her face, completely still.

Ryan took that as permission. He lunged forward, his magic-infused fist driving toward her chest with all the confidence of a B-rank who'd never learned to respect what he was hitting.

Aria stepped left without effort and drove her knuckle into his ribs.

The next ten minutes weren't a fight. They were a clinic. She struck the same spots on his body repeatedly, each hit landing with the precision of someone who'd spent years at S-rank learning exactly where the human body breaks. His ribs. His joints. The soft spots underneath his arms that made him gasp when she targeted them. Her technique was clean, economical, the kind of pure violence that came from muscle memory and experience overwhelming a B-rank who'd dropped his guard.

By the time she was done, Ryan was moaning on the floor and his cronies were staring at anything that wasn't her.

Director Hayes came running at the sound of the disturbance. He stopped in the doorway and took in the scene with the immediate understanding of a man who'd just watched the hierarchy of his company restructure itself. Conflict played across his face because Ryan was technically Unique's key asset for B-rank operations.

"Don't worry about it." Jason's voice came calm. "Aria Reeves will be representing Unique going forward. I'm confident the returns will far exceed anything Ryan brought to the table."

Hayes didn't argue.

Back at the estate, Aria sat on the couch with her feet tucked underneath her, being realistic about her actual state. "My stats are somewhere between D and E rank. Maybe. I can beat a careless B-rank through experience alone because he was stupid enough to attack without thinking. But I couldn't pass a formal evaluation at anything near my old level."

"There's no rush." Jason was on the other side of the living room, leaning against the bookshelf. "Your name still carries enormous recognition value. Three years of absence actually worked in your favor because now you're mysterious. That recognition is more useful to you right now than any ranking."

"So what, I'm just a brand?" She unwrapped herself slightly, her expression pulling tight. "I advertise myself and let the money come in?"

"I have other ways to generate income while your abilities recover. What we need is to refresh your public image." He shifted his weight. "Rebuild the narrative around you."

She grabbed a pillow and pressed it against her stomach. The quiet stretched between them, the kind that meant something was building underneath. Her fingers twisted the pillow's corner as she worked up to whatever was actually on her mind.

"Can we drop the formal way of speaking to each other?" The question came out awkward. "You and me. Just like, the first name thing. We're going to be seeing each other constantly and I've always preferred being casual anyway. My previous manager Maya used to talk to me the same way and it was better for both of us and—"

"Why?" Jason's question cut through her rambling.

She stopped. Her fingers went still on the pillow. "Because I'm going to be seeing you all the time and it's weird to keep being formal when you're helping me like this. It's just easier if we're relaxed about it."

"Start with me then." He watched her shift under his gaze. "Call me what you'd call anyone else."

"Actually, no." Her voice came quicker now. "I'd rather keep things slightly formal for now because I'm worried about what might come out of my mouth if I get too comfortable. Like. I just beat someone into the floor using their own body against them and I meant it. So I think I need to stay a little bit careful around you."

Jason's mouth curved slightly, not quite a smile but close. "That's probably wise."

"So." She looked down at her hands. "I call you Jason. You call me Aria. And we both understand this is weird but we're doing it anyway?"

"That works."

It didn't feel natural to either of them. It felt staged and strange and like they were both aware they were following a script neither of them had written. But it got accepted because the alternative was worse.

Across the city, Owen James was watching his ratings plummet like a stone through water. To the King Once You Log In had started strong as a gaming variety show, but the guest pool had run completely dry. Every celebrity with any connection to gaming had already appeared. The formula was exhausted. People stopped clicking.

Hunters would be ideal. A B-rank hunter appearing on the show would draw serious viewership. Maybe an A-rank if he could somehow afford it. But the economics didn't work. Anyone famous enough to draw viewers earned thousands from a single dungeon run. A small cable gaming network on GGN couldn't compete with that.

Lower-ranked hunters weren't recognizable enough to help.

It was a dead end.

Owen flipped through the stack of guest applications sitting on his desk, most of them from minor celebrities or desperate nobodies trying to build a career. He was halfway through when he stopped.

The application was from a 24-year-old woman. The photo showed slightly unkempt hair and a soft impression, like she hadn't expected the camera to click. But the listed achievements made Owen's breath catch.

Former S-rank hunter. One of the seven great mages in the country. Key member of the team that cleared one of the world's five Great Demonic Zones. One of eleven S-rank hunters worldwide to have defeated five or more S-rank monsters.

The title read Great Mage of Stars.

Aria Reeves had applied to appear on a small cable gaming show.

Owen read the application three times to make sure he wasn't hallucinating.