"Yeah, that isn't happening, our posture here is that we are generously considering accepting nonzero professional entanglement with him and our - Jaeha, what's Korean for 'BATNA' -"

"BATNA," he enunciates, with a Korean accent.

("She'll know what it means.")

"- okay then. Our BATNA is frankly amazing! We're espers, we can do whatever the heck we want. We don't need any of his stuff. If he makes a nuisance of himself here about it, we can live anywhere in the world, I just moved here recently and pulling up stakes again doesn't scare me. The default is that we get absolutely everything we really want, and none of it happens to be a ridiculous corporate conglomerate, that's fine, when I was a kid I wanted to be an epidemiologist not a magnate. If he wants any deal he must improve on the state of us getting absolutely everything we really want."

She smiles slightly, eyes flickering to Jaeha for a fraction of a second.

("Kang Jaeha-shi is quite lucky to have found you.")

"I do still worry about the possibility of him getting some other child, somehow, and trying to raise them, and I would feel... not quite as responsible, but at least somewhat."

"Kang Jaehyuk is likely to settle for sufficient assurances that his heirs are given the opportunity to grow into people who will grow his legacy. A higher number of them increases the likelihood that any one of them would be suitable, also.

"Which parts of your ideal world would you be willing to trade for parts of his?"

"...giving our children as good an education as we possibly can is a given."

"There's good and then there's tailored, what would the tailoring of an education toward this end look like?"

"I had tutors for etiquette and manners, I was taught how to pay attention to what people are communicating beyond what they're saying, I was taught how to lie without saying anything false, he tried to teach me accounting long before I was able to follow it, he had me sit and watch meetings he was in and not say anything and then wanted me to produce thoughtful and correct opinions about the people who had been in the meeting," ("and of course if I didn't give the right answers I was punished"), "I had to memorise the names of all important people in Korea..."

Dal-seo looks at him, eyes widening as he speaks.

"...Kang Jaehyuk was perhaps more intense than I would expect works best," ("which certainly explains at least some of the searing hatred you seem to feel for him"), "but that would be the general flavour of it, yes. An heir of his ought to excel at, as an example, business school, because of what they were taught at home."

"...I don't object to tentative forays in these directions per child but would not tend to relish insisting on them if they happened to mesh poorly with some particular kid's personality."

"Mm."

("That's certainly a very Western view of such things.")

"I don't know what he would do to sweeten the deal, nor sour its absence, I'm afraid, but the worst thing in the world to him would be for his legacy to be picked apart by outsiders or split between squabbling relatives."

("You can just say that?")

"I assume his cousins have all been watching this situation unfold with some interest over the years."

("I assume my extended family must be perched around him like vultures waiting for him to die so they can feast on his corpse.")

"Indeed."

("They would quite hate to see you actually step into the shoes of your father's heir.")

"Do we need to worry about nuisance cousins?"

"Not for the moment. Given your inclinations about raising your own heirs, you might find allies rather than enemies in them. If you do not share Kang Jaehyuk's desire to see the power of Kang Moon-il Group concentrated in the hands of his direct line of descent, that is also an opportunity for them."

"Well, to answer your question more completely, Nam Hee-seo-nim, we are not willing to have any children of ours indoctrinated in the same way Kang Jaehyuk wished to do for me, but we are willing to accelerate timetables, and to provide any such children with the opportunity to take up the family business, as it is, if they feel called to it. I am completely unwilling to budge on the homosexuality and on marrying a partner of my own choice, and if he has alternative proposals for us it will be on him to offer them to us; as Haru said," handsqueeze, "our BATNA really is quite attractive as it is."

"And I am, yes, willing to take on a more active role as a manager of people and resources, and to work out the best way to fit that into my life as an esper. Haru feels similarly."

"Back in Japan I was only doing about three dungeons a week, and it'd be a bit disappointing to have to scale back quite to that level again, but I do have a healthy respect for capitalism as the engine of human prosperity and expect there's lots of excellent work to be done behind a desk as well as in the field."

"Then I believe this is good enough to get going, though I can't imagine this will be our last meeting. We'll have more to discuss once I know more about what he wants and can share it with you."

("Alright, now that that's settled, let's discuss your side of the deal.")

"Well, this conversation has been very one-sided so far. How about you, Nam Hee-seo-nim, how can we help you?"

"I believe I've heard you speak of a 'network' of yours. I would love to hear you say more about that."

"Right. Well, I've been an esper for quite a while, now, and I've been international for almost as long. You meet people, and in my particular line of work you meet quite a lot of different people. Not just espers and support staff; I've met politicians and celebrities and capitalist magnates, and I've been to their parties and fundraisers and events, and I've introduced them to each other and gotten them to like me. I've managed to get quite a number of them to owe me favours."