Episode 77

The rules we agreed upon were simple.

We would take turns asking questions, and the other person would answer.

The first person to be unable to answer would lose.

"I'll say this in advance."

Baek Seo-yul gritted her teeth.

"I'm the top student at Yonhee. If you're thinking of looking down on me with some mediocre skills..."

"What a coincidence. So am I."

"...Huh?"

She had seemed particularly proud of her skills, so it turned out she was the top student at that law school.

But you're not the only top student. I am, too.

She seemed to shrink back slightly for a moment, but then shook her head, as if to shake off that feeling.

"It's even better this way."

Her voice was resolute.

"If I beat you, it's the same as beating all of Korea University."

"It's good to have ambition."

"We'll see how long you can stay so relaxed."

'Her spirit isn't bad.'

I didn't actually have any particular animosity towards Baek Seo-yul.

I generally liked people who worked hard and were proud of their accomplishments.

When she suddenly turned her anger towards me, I wondered what she was doing, but considering the situation, it wasn't something I couldn't understand.

Rather, I had deliberately stirred her up, so I had to take some responsibility for her hostility.

'Right. It'll be a problem if she doesn't go all out.'

The reason I had made such a mess was ultimately because I didn't like what Jin & Ahn had done.

Rather than conforming to a blatant injustice, it felt better to at least compete based on skill and decide who was above and who was below.

Sucking honey based on academic background? I hated being treated like that.

Besides, unlike the others, I wasn't someone who had actually taken the entrance exam and earned my way in. I had just woken up in this body.

In that case, I had no choice but to show them what I could do with my skills.

"I can't lose...!"

I didn't dislike Baek Seo-yul's determination.

Honestly, I was curious about the skills of other law school students.

Besides, Baek Seo-yul was the top student at Yonhee, no less. She must have considerable skills.

"I'll go first. Do you have any objections?"

"Of course not."

However.

"Ah. The problem you just mentioned... it's about the legal theory of a quasi-manager."

"Huh."

Who am I? A former second-round passer of the bar exam. The top student at Korea University Law School.

Besides, I was the pro problem-solver, recognized by the bar exam channel, the God of Law.

I had solved all kinds of problems that had been sucked up from law school students across the country.

It was practically impossible for someone at the same level as a first-year law student to ask me something I wouldn't know.

"It's a case where the unjust enrichment of a person without rights is greater than the loss of the person with rights, so the issue is whether to return the special profit. It's something that doesn't come up often on exams because there's only scholarly theories and no precedents, but it seems like you have a professor who's very strong in theory."

Even in cases where the issue was a legal principle that was rarely tested, and was just skimmed over.

"It looks like the issue is about the acquisition in good faith, but in this case, the item acquired is a 'check.' Unlike the acquisition in good faith as a general principle of civil law, which requires the absence of negligence, the acquisition in good faith of a check under the Check Act is established even if the holder has minor negligence, as long as there is no gross negligence."

"No, how can you know this even though..."

"Are you surprised? Well, you brought up an issue of the bill and check law when we're just first-year students. You're quite mischievous."

Even with problems that completely went beyond the scope of what a first-year student should learn.

"Wasn't the precedent that a possessor's possession of real estate under a nominal trust doesn't interrupt the statute of limitations? The important thing for exam purposes is that part, so it's often just remembered, but in this case, since there was an acknowledgment of obligation by the nominal trustee, the statute of limitations should be seen as interrupted. They set a trap in two stages."

"Even this..."

Even with problems that appeared to be asking about familiar precedents but were actually designed to trap you with easily overlooked details.

There was no question that I couldn't answer.

'Of course. I've already seen them all.'

Especially the questions that Baek Seo-yul was asking. They overlapped a lot with the problems that 'FaithfulFollowerOfLaw1,' the number one contributor who had given me countless valuable materials, had provided.

'I guess her resources overlap a bit since they're both from the same Yonhee University.'

I glanced at Baek Seo-yul. I was expecting her to be stomping her feet with frustration by now.

"......Wow."

But her reaction was a little unexpected.

"Amazing..."

'Huh?'

As I answered each question, Baek Seo-yul's expression changed from wariness to bewilderment, from bewilderment to anxiety, and finally from anxiety to admiration.

Her eyes, which had been filled with hostility at first, now seemed to have a strange hint of respect.

'Did I see that wrong?'

But as the back-and-forth continued, her anger and hostility disappeared.

Before I knew it, Baek Seo-yul was listening to my answers with shining eyes, as if she had become a student asking for guidance.

"...I don't know."

Eventually, when it was her turn to answer my question, she surrendered.

"What's the answer?"

"In this case, a forced auction based on a lien is not an appropriate remedy. While you can exercise de facto preferential repayment rights in a forced auction based on a third party's mortgage, in this case, you have to participate in the distribution as a general creditor."

"Ah, so there was that blind spot...!"

Baek Seo-yul exclaimed unintentionally.

"Ah, no, that was."

Then, as if denying it, she hurriedly shook her head and hid her face.

'She's an interesting friend.'

She had been so hostile at first, but at some point, Baek Seo-yul had begun to enjoy this question-and-answer battle itself.

Putting aside her skills, she was definitely a serious law addict, just like me.

But she had also been very aggressive, and it was true that she had felt resentment at the things I had said to provoke her.

That was why she was probably embarrassed to openly show her enjoyment of learning.

"I, I lost this time. I admit it."

Instead, she admitted defeat without any hard feelings. Although her voice sounded somewhat frustrated, she had admitted it.

"But I'll definitely win next time. Let's see each other at the internship."

"Oh, are you giving me your blessings that I'll be selected, too?"

"Eek...!"

Baek Seo-yul left her seat as if she was running away.

"There's no way that someone who beat me wouldn't get into an internship at a low-level firm like this. If you don't get in, I won't forgive you."

And with those words, she left.

* * *

This "battle" was taking place sporadically in various places at the same time.

As a result, about 20% of the seats seemed to have been changed.

I could see a few new faces that I had never seen before sitting at the fancy tables with the Korea University sign.

Conversely, I could also see familiar faces that had been pushed back to the corner seats.

It was a large number if you thought about it, and a small number if you didn't.

But one thing seemed certain.

'They all seem relatively satisfied.'

Of course, the guys who had been pushed back looked frustrated, but it wasn't a big deal.

"You idiot. How could you lose that?"

"...I'll remember this. I'll become a reading room zombie from 7 AM to midnight."

My Korea University classmates who had succeeded in keeping their seats were teasing those who had been pushed out more enthusiastically than anyone else, and those who had been teased were gritting their teeth, vowing to study harder and improve their skills.

'Good. Don't forget that spirit, you guys.'

It was a competition where you could fall behind at any moment if you became complacent.

If they didn't want to give up their bloated pride, they had to work even harder.

I couldn't help but want to teach them that lesson.

I could also see Baek Seo-yul, who had lost to me, in the corner.

She was still sitting at the shabby table, but she didn't seem particularly dissatisfied anymore.

She had had an opportunity to compete based on skill, and she had lost, so perhaps she had accepted the result.

Rather, she seemed to be lost in thought, as if she was pondering something other than her seat.

"It seems like things have been mostly settled."

After a while, when the commotion had subsided, someone appeared on the podium and grabbed the microphone.

It was Attorney Sung Jin-tae, who had given me his business card earlier and introduced himself as a senior attorney at Jin & Ahn.

"Then... since it's about time, shall we start the briefing session for Jin & Ahn's summer practical training program? Is that alright?"

'Attorney Sung Jin-tae...'

His name was actually familiar.

In the original story, he had appeared as a character who tried to persuade Shin Seo-joon, who had applied for Jin & Ahn's summer internship, to join their firm, begging him to come.

Shin Seo-joon had played hard to get, making use of him by asking for all sorts of personal "favors."

In this world, Jin & Ahn was an unrivaled top law firm in the industry.

And Sung Jin-tae, who held a fairly important position within that firm, could do quite a lot.

He was a never-ending source of favors that could be used to move the story forward, a textbook example of a character who was eager to be used by the protagonist.

It was a popular episode with a proven cliche where a high-ranking person is eager to get the protagonist.

"So, I think there might be some bewilderment. Since it's still before the first semester report cards have even come out, I understand that you're bound to have questions about how we're going to select interns."

'Well, Shin Seo-joon isn't here today...'

In any case, it was his idea that you could just skip the briefing session and still get all the necessary information.

Of course, I agreed with him, but how could I pass up the buffet at Myeongjin Hotel?

'And I also have something I need to confirm with this Sung Jin-tae.'

"I think it's natural to suspect that we're just going to pick based on academic background, connections, or family background. But don't worry. I'm here to make sure we don't pick that way."

Jin & Ahn was a law firm where rumors of people clocking in at 10 AM and leaving at 4 AM were constantly circulating.

Of course, the number of zeros attached to their salaries were different, but it was a grueling schedule that was almost reminiscent of my past life.

"I'll give you a simple task."

He wasn't some neighborhood guy who would come running just because you called him; he wasn't someone who would readily make time for you.

"As some of you know, we at Jin & Ahn don't just do traditional litigation. Our main focus is on providing legal advice and review reports to companies and government agencies on legal issues."

'Oh.'

It seemed like the real story was finally about to come out, so I paid attention for a moment.

"For a set period of time, please write a consulting review report on the issue that we will announce and attach it to your practical training application. I'll say this in advance... it's a task that you won't be able to solve with just the knowledge you learned in law school."

Research. Improvisation.

Those two things were the most important abilities for a lawyer in practice, and Sung Jin-tae explained that he would be evaluating those points to find the right talent for the firm.

'It's the same as the original.'

In fact, Sung Jin-tae was spouting nonsense.

'A consulting report, huh?'

The area of corporate consulting was an area where even the juniors who had joined Jin & Ahn and worked for two or three years were constantly being yelled at by seniors.

That was because they had to research and review all sorts of special laws that they had never dealt with before, international treaties, internal company documents, and the practices and common sense of specific industries.

Even for practicing lawyers, it was difficult, so how could it make sense for law school students, who were just barely learning the basics, to do such a thing?

Of course, they wouldn't be demanding a perfect quality.

A brilliant idea, the ability to gather as much information as possible in a short amount of time, or even the skill to write persuasive sentences.

If there was even one thing that pleased Sung Jin-tae, they could get accepted.

'Thinking about it that way, it's not like there's no way to do it.'

I had thought about a way to handle this. So that wasn't what I was worried about.

What I was worried about was how to get a chance to contact Sung Jin-tae...

'Huh?'

"We look forward to the applications of all of you 'talented' individuals."

Attorney Sung Jin-tae, who was finishing up his explanation, emphasized the word "talented" and fixed his gaze firmly on me.