Merlin decided to drop by the disciplinary committee’s office first thing in the morning before he made his way to css. Now, though, he wished he had reconsidered it before the door had flung open. Because he was in the room alone with the gloomy silver-haired and cloudy-eyed—but beautiful, make no mistake—Senior Sun-Hee. And she was staring at him like he had missed his way.

  “Good morning,” he waved at her, deciding to rip apart the stifling air. He was getting tired of it. However, she only turned away, returning to her seat to resume reading her comic book.

  Merlin’s lips twitched. There went trying to be amiable. He would have to visit Professor Jung to see if he could find a different teacher. This one was going to make him even more lost, it seemed.

  Merlin walked forward, the form he had filled in his hand. He did not have any intentions of returning during his lunch break or in the evening, since he wanted to use the former to go through his notes, and he had a library appointment with Nora for the tter, which was why he wanted to hand it over right this minute.

  “I don’t see President Sakamoto here,” Merlin said as he pced the form on the table. “If it’s not too much of a hassle, please let him know that I came.” Sun-Hee didn’t reply, only flipping to another page of her comic book and crossing her legs. Merlin took that as a positive answer. She didn’t say no, so she was saying yes. He nodded. “Thanks.”

  However, as he made his way towards the door, she said, “Professor Jung made a request to me.” Merlin turned around. She was still not looking at him, but there was obviously no one else she would be talking to, and regarding that particur topic too. “You need help with theory.”

  Merlin cleared his throat. “Yes, I do. I would be in your debt if you could help me.”

  Sun-Hee closed her comic book, folded her arms, and gnced his way. Merlin felt a cold shiver crawl down his spine. She was just as intimidating as the headmaster’s maid. Merlin had thought Nora was scary, but she did not hold a candle to either Sun-Hee or Maid Eun-Wol. They were the two he would have loved to avoid the most, but also the two he would have no choice but to meet with regurly.

  “Anti-magic. Show me,” Sun-Hee said in a tone that sounded more like a threat than a request. Merlin’s brows twitched at that.

  For one, he couldn’t just show her. It needed someone to cast a spell for him to be able to perform any kind of trick. Also, he was not of the mind to willingly subject himself to a world of pain this early in the morning. There was no way she was anything less than an A-Css Mage. His instincts had never been wrong. And, sure, he could deconstruct an A-Css Mage’s Novice, Tier I to III spells, but he had only tried that against Mages on, well, his caliber—if he was allowed to put it that way. He had never tried deconstructing the spells of a Mage on a different pedestal. He still wasn’t exactly certain how the System worked, but there was no way deconstructing a first year’s spell was the same as deconstructing a second year’s. Those two were from different worlds.

  On the bright side, though, it seemed she believed he really could use anti-magic now, probably because of Professor Jung.

  “I’m sorry, but I can’t.” Merlin bowed in apology as he apologized.

  Sun-Hee was silent for a few seconds. “Why?”

  He straightened. “First of all, to use anti-magic one has to cast a spell—”

  “That’s not a problem.”

  No. It definitely was. That was against the rule of the school, and they were meant to be enforcing that rule not going against it. What was wrong with this dy?

  “Secondly,” Merlin went on, not bothering to put his thoughts into words, “you’re probably an A-Css Mage. I’ll get injured if I use my anti-magic on your spells.”

  Merlin wasn’t exactly certain what her Css was, but he had no choice but to say something pusible so that she could leave him alone. He could have sworn that he saw her eyebrow twitch at those words though. Merlin grimaced slightly. Was she higher?

  “Who told you I’m an A-Css Mage?” she said, her voice still wearing the same cold robes it always wore.

  Merlin swallowed. “No one. I just guessed.”

  “Well you’re wrong. I’m a B-Css Mage, so you’ll be fine.”

  Merlin couldn’t stop himself from grimacing now. One, because he had guessed wrong. He had not expected a B-Css Mage to be so intimidating. It was not that they were not Mages to be feared, but compared to an A-Css and S-Css Mage, well…

  Secondly, why was she still so pushy? B-Css or A-Css, it didn’t matter. As long as she was his senior, there was still the possibility of him getting injured. It was better to be safe than sorry.

  “I’m sorry, but I still can’t. I still bear the risk of getting injured,” Merlin said, praying deep in his heart that this wouldn’t stop her from teaching him if she ever considered it. Not that he wouldn’t be gd to escape from her, but he needed his theory scores to have some meat to them.

  “I see…” Sun-Hee blinked pcidly before turning away and picking up her comic book to resume her reading. Merlin was nagged by the feeling that negotiations concerning his studying had broken down. He decided to see if he could salvage something.

  “But since I’m joining the disciplinary committee, you could get to see me in action, you know?”

  “I’m not interested in following you around,” she replied coldly. But Merlin was not giving up.

  “Then maybe you can pay my css a visit when we have practicals ongoing. Surely, that wouldn’t be boring for you.”

  Sun-Hee paused. “I’ll think about it.” She paused again. “And your studies too.”

  Jackpot!

  Merlin smiled. “Thank you. I’ll be taking my leave now.”

  He got no reply, but he was more than happy with that.

  Merlin was not sure how his current situation had come about. It had all happened so quickly he was unable to come to a reasonable enough reason as to why he was seated together with a lot more people than he remembered being close to.

  All he had wanted was to continue with his lessons with Nora at the library, and then Lee Jaehyun had tagged along, which prompted Oh Jihye to do so too—of course, having no idea that she would be seated at the same table with her archnemesis. Then they had met Hakyun and Chima on their way, who, surprisingly, were with Nikoi. And now, they were all seated together at the same table as Nora, Kim Yiseo, Kim Minji, and a girl with blonde hair, green eyes, who Merlin recalled to have introduced herself as Kim Yiseo’s roommate back during the physical assessment: Park Yuri.

  He was overwhelmed, but he could not even dare to cim that he was the most troubled about the gathering. After all, Nora was seated directly opposite Oh Jihye, and both of them were making it known that they were not exactly on good terms despite being roommates.

  Oh, and there was Lee Jaehyun too. The boy couldn’t even hide his infatuation with Nora. He kept stealing gnces at her.

  Merlin, however, took this moment to study how exactly the different facets of individuals at the Academy reacted around strangers—well, not strangers exactly, seeing as they were cssmates, but that sort of detail was not exactly needed.

  Hakyun, for one, was rather meek in the presence of the opposite gender. His usual pompous tone was nowhere to be found, and his gaze fixed onto the book he was reading—if he was even reading its words. Chima was going to be teasing him a lot ter on. He should be prepared.

  Lee Jaehyun was the center of attention. Nora, perhaps due to Kim Yiseo’s influence in her life—thank God—had apologized as soon as she had seen the boy, concerning the misunderstanding on their day of the orientation. Lee Jaehyun had reacted cooly, which Merlin was not shocked about. The boy was a rather amiable person. While Oh Jihye had taken that moment to snort, as a means of telling Nora that she needed to change her manner of leaving first impressions. And even though Merlin was in support of Oh Jihye, she wasn’t exactly out of the woods with that either. She was just as guilty of bad first impressions as Nora.

  Kim Yiseo was quite silent in the midst of a rge gathering, only occasionally speaking to either her roommate, Park Yuri, or Nora, and, sometimes, Lee Jaehyun, which was more of an interrogation than a conversation actually. But most of the time, she was fully focused on trying to finish the sylbus, which, of course, had sounded crazy to everyone present when they had found out.

  Chima, on the other hand, surprised Merlin. The boy was quite good socially. There was no one at the table he hadn’t introduced himself to, and of course, kept a good chunk of conversation with. But, as, they were not exactly here to discuss, so he focused on his reading not long after.

  Park Yuri was silent most of the time. And from her introduction, Merlin had found out that she was not just another random student like he was. No. She was the daughter of Park Ilseong, one of the greatest S-Css Mages, who had ventured into the Primordial Tower during the Cataclysm with Kim Yiseo’s father, the Guildmaster of the Consortium Guild: Kim Hyeonki, and conquered it. He was also the son of the Guildmaster of the Silver Dragon Guild.

  For a mere Deficient Mage, he kept being pulled towards royalty.

  Nikoi mostly only talked to Hakyun. And then there was Oh Jihye, who, as usual, was glued to Lee Jaehyun, who seemed rather uncomfortable, considering how he kept trying to put some distance between themselves. Perhaps he was hoping Nora wouldn’t get the wrong idea about them. He needn’t worry about that. She wasn’t even taking any second gnces his way. The one he had to be worried about was Oh Jihye. She seemed to have noticed that he had a thing for Nora, and had taken it upon herself to decre war. Because she was closer to him than ever.

  Merlin held himself back from ughing, but a whisper of a snort escaped.

  “I’m sure you listened to all I said, right?” Nora shot him a gre and he ramrod himself straight.

  “Yes, ma’am,” he replied.

  Kim Minji chuckled. She was seated beside him, sandwiching him in the middle of her and Nora, who had Kim Yiseo to her right and Park Yuri to the end of the seat. Basically, he was surrounded by dies.

  Goodness, he’d so badly wanted to switch seats ever since he’d gotten to the library, and he had never been so happy about a lecture ending before. Well, besides the Creation 101 css he had been loath to attend in the morning. Professor Jung had not been kidding when she’d said she was a bad teacher. In fact, she had been doing herself a favor with that word. If there was a word that was worse than ‘worst’, that was what had to be assigned to her for the atrocity she had put the whole Css A through. More than half the css had slept not even five minutes into her lecture.

  Merlin had had it worse. He couldn't even understand the teachings of normal teachers, so Professor Jung’s had turned his brain into goop.

  Thankfully, he had Nora, and now he was well learned on what Creation as a category of spell casting entailed.

  Creation simply involved bringing something entirely new into existence. The Mages who made use of this method had had their DNA in itself modified by their mana to assimite the knowledge of a part of the universe that it was born with.

  In Construction, for example—focusing on the greater number of the Mages who used this mode of spell casting who were elementalists—their mana had the knowledge of the elements present in the atmosphere and how reconstructing molecules in the environment could bring about their production. But Creation Mages were a lot different. It was like their bodies were bio-engineered to align with the knowledge their mana possessed so as to ensure it could produce the substances of whatever attribute their mana was tied to.

  Kim Yiseo, for instance, was a Mage with the ability to use spider silk. Once she became an Enkindled, awakening her mana, her DNA was reconstructed and her inner system modified into that of a spider so that her body would be able to produce spider silk.

  Basically, she was half-human, half-spider. And where others might find it gross, Merlin found it awesome.

  He stole a peek at her, watching her as she neatly tucked a strand of hair that had fallen over her face behind her ear. He didn’t know what sort of perception she had, but she seemed to notice his stare and gnced his way. Unluckily for him, his perception was not yet at the level where he could perceive the thoughts of another, and was caught. He instinctively turned away, beating himself internally at his pathetic response.

  “Say, Merlin, I heard you’re joining the disciplinary committee. Is that true?” Kim Minji asked, pretending to be reading, while obviously looking for a means to strike a conversation. The table had been silent for a while now. After all, they had received two strikes for being rowdy not long ago.

  That aside, unless Kim Minji was a government agent acting as a spy, Merlin could not seem to understand how she could have come about that information. Unless either Nora or Kim Yiseo had told her, and he had not thought of them as tattletales—Nora wasn’t. He was certain about that.

  Well, Kim Minji’s question did well enough to drag the attention of the rest of the students at the table his way. Well, those who hadn’t known of his exploits, which were basically those he wasn’t talking to—at least until this moment.

  “I don’t mean to be rude, but aren’t you a Deficient Mage?” Park Yuri was the one to ask.

  “Exactly the same thing I said,” Oh Jihye supported, inciting a gre from Nora. “What? It’s the truth, isn’t it?”

  “Does being a Deficient Mage stop one from joining the disciplinary committee?” Nikoi chimed in. “I don’t see any reason why it should.”

  “Are your eyes for show?” Oh Jihye snorted. “A Deficient Mage can’t use magic. There’s no way students would listen to him.” She waved her hand dismissively.

  Merlin gnced between his roommates, as well as Lee Jaehyun, and sighed.

  Well, he was not thinking about revealing his anti-magic ability here. For some reason, he was just more excited about the reactions he would get on the day of their first practical css. The looks of all those who kept dismissing his capabilities just because he couldn’t use magic. How would they look at him from then on when they found out he was their counterforce?

  “Professor Jung asked me to,” he replied, deciding not to be rude to Park Yuri who had asked. The fact that she didn’t know about his ability to cancel magic was evident to how information was distributed within Prestige Academy. Unless Merlin openly revealed his abilities, it would never leak from the mouth of another. It was honestly superb.

  Kim Minji’s eyes widened slightly. “Oh, I see.” She paused. “Maybe I’ll join too.”

  Uhm… Why?

  Oh Jihye, on the other hand, recoiled at that answer. “Professor Jung? Why?”

  Merlin shrugged. “Bckmail,” he said simply, prompting stares to burn through his skull from every angle. “I told her I needed to get my theory scores up, and my payment was joining the disciplinary committee. They don’t have many members, you know?”

  Oh Jihye hummed. “That kinda makes sense.”

  Well, that was because it was the truth, just missing some key aspects. He was not sure bringing up the part about Senior Sun-Hee was warranted. After all, he was unsure if she would even accept him in the first pce. It would be best if the conversation just died there.

  “How is Professor Jung going to get your scores up, though?” Nikoi asked.

  Dammit!

  “I don’t know,” Merlin lied, trying to escape from that line of topic.

  “Don’t tell me…” Oh Jihye narrowed her eyes at him. “Is she pnning on handing you test questions?”

  What an absurd train of thought. Merlin had to channel all his willpower to stop himself from frowning. From Oh Jihye’s point of view, he was merely a Deficient Mage. Why would a professor want to help a Deficient Mage so much that she would freely hand him test questions when S-Css Mages existed?

  Well, there was the possibility that they were family members, but that would be a reach. He was English, she was Korean. Even a blind person would be able to deduce that from their manner of speech, not to talk about someone with working eyes and ears.

  If that wasn’t enough to dispel that reasoning, Kim Yiseo’s reply surely rendered some help.

  “This is the second ranked Mage Academy in the world,” she said as she raised her eyes slightly from her book. “It’s preposterous to even consider such a thing happening.”

  Oh Jihye flinched. “Yeah, yeah. I get it.”

  Merlin felt like that was enough about the whole conversation. And since he was done with his lectures for today, what more was there to do than head back and have a rest.

  He gnced at his smartwatch, noting that the time was well past six in the evening. It was time to take his leave, he decided. He was still feeling the after effects of his duel with Hakyun and Chima. And since he was not like Kim Yiseo or Nora, racing one another to clear the sylbus before a week ran out—which was obviously impossible; they were not even halfway there yet, and it was already Wednesday—more rest was always welcome.

  He was just about to make known his intent to head back to his dorm when he turned instinctively and locked eyes with Park Yuri. His forehead creased.

  Merlin had never seen a stare such as this. It was like she wanted to gouge out his eyes and pry into his brain through them.

  He shivered.