Surprisingly, Kim Minji had not been kidding when she had mentioned her possibly joining the disciplinary committee. After all, Merlin was standing in the room, looking straight at her, a smile on her face as she put on the same golden armband with the Academy’s insignia he wore that came with the position.

  Merlin was bamboozled. Who in their right senses was fine with going about making students their enemies? He knew he wouldn’t have wanted to join the committee if he had not been forced to because of his theory scores; but Kim Minji was different. She’d had a choice, and she had made the wrong one.

  He sighed when she turned to him, her smile even wider.

  “Since you both have the most free time on Fridays, then I’ve decided that your duties will be assigned to it,” President Sakamoto began as soon as he was done with Kim Minji. “The job’s simple really. All you have to do is go around the Academy, cautioning anyone who doesn’t adhere to the rules, be it cssmates or seniors. Don’t worry about the tter, you have been bestowed with the power to speak to them as their equal. Still, do it with as much respect as you can spare in the situation.”

  First of all, the Academy was the size of a whole estate. There was no way they could cover every nook and cranny of it; that was, unless they wanted to have leg cramps.

  Secondly, if the power President Sakamoto was talking about was the armband, then what would happen when they weren’t putting it on? Their enemies could just come after them then. It was easy for him to say because he was also a senior.

  Merlin didn’t even want to think about how it would go if he walked up to someone like Sun-Hee and told her to stop spell casting. He gnced at her. She wasn’t looking at him, but, for some reason, he felt like she was. His inner self shivered and he turned away.

  “Here,” President Sakamoto handed over a clipboard to Kim Minji as well as a pin sheet of paper. “Anyone who doesn’t listen, put their names and csses down here. Professor Jung will take care of the rest.”

  “Okay,” said Kim Minji simply as she took the clipboard and paper.

  Merlin, though, wasn’t satisfied just yet.

  “They won’t just give us their names and csses, you know?” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “What do we do then?”

  President Sakamoto blinked and turned to Will, who was lying on the couch, scrolling through his phone. “They give us all the time, though, don’t they, Will?”

  Will nodded as his reply, only forcing out a ‘hmmm’ when President Sakamoto didn’t look away.

  Merlin shook his head. These guys couldn’t see that he and Kim Minji were different from them. They were seniors, for one, and if Sun-Hee was with them, they would come off as rather intimidating. No one in their right state of mind wouldn’t give them the information they requested.

  Also, Merlin was certain that President Sakamoto and Will were not just ordinary Mages as well. Prestige Academy rarely had ordinary Mages.

  If the second ranked Mage Academy in the world is this way, I wonder what sort of Mages are in Crown Academy. Must be crazy for those guys over there.

  Back to the matter at hand, they really couldn’t do what was being asked of them.

  “We’ll try our best,” Kim Minji said at that moment, stopping Merlin from continuing to ramble on about his qualms with the whole thing. He gnced at her, noticing the resolve burning in her eyes and decided to take a step back.

  There was no use in trying to convince President Sakamoto that it would be hard for them to enforce the w in the same manner as they did. It was not like anything would change. They still had to head out into the field either way. Merlin was certain, though, they would be coming back with a bnk paper.

  “Also,” President Sakamoto continued. “This is a secret, but I can tell you guys now since you’ve officially joined. Members of the disciplinary committee earn extra points for their Cohorts for every w they enforce.” He smiled. “So, take it from me, you won’t just be wasting your time.”

  Merlin’s expression brightened. Now that makes things a lot better.

  “This is horrific…” Kim Minji grumbled, her hands swaying nguidly at her sides as they trodded through Prestige Academy’s outdoor. “No one is listening to us.” She looked at the bnk paper in her hands. “And we’ve not gotten a single name. We’re not going to earn any points, are we?”

  Well, they most likely wouldn’t, that much was obvious. They had been at it for more than an hour now, and besides the fact that students were actually more diligent than Merlin had thought—which made their search for the bad apples annoyingly hard—the ones who didn’t listen were always in obscure locations. And the few they’d come across were mostly their seniors, who shooed them off with sneers and threats.

  Their cssmates, on the other hand, would see Merlin and turn them into a ughing stock instead of just listening. No one wanted to be told what to do by the Deficient Mage after all. All that made the activity exhausting, along with him holding back so as to not come off as wanting a fight.

  But there was no room for that any longer. Merlin decided now to begin to use Reader Mage to caution the students. He had been of the mind to actually talk to them like sensible people, and not just jump straight into blowing their spells off their palms, since he saw that as harassment, but no one was listening, and there was only so much mockery he could digest in a day.

  More importantly, he needed those points. President Sakamoto and Will were students of Cohort Dragon Eye—in their year, as juniors and seniors weren’t fixed together—while Sun-Hee was a student of Cohort Spearhead. And that had brought about a deal Merlin had not exactly been keen to be part of. Between him and Kim Minji—as she was a student of Cohort Dragon Eye—who could caution most students.

  Kim Minji hadn’t exactly been interested in the mini-battle since they would practically be working together, but Merlin had had no choice but to take her on. After all, Sun-Hee had decided that if he couldn’t even win something on such a level, then he was not worthy to be taught by her.

  What was that? Some initiation speech for being let into an inner sect? Merlin had been shocked that Sun-Hee could say such a thing. But, on second thoughts, it wasn’t really surprising, considering she spent her days flipping through comic books. She was probably just as big of a nerd as Hakyun.

  “So you’re not going to be taking the Hero basics course?” Kim Minji started with a sigh, perhaps as a means to brush away their atrocious start to being disciplinary committee members.

  “No,” Merlin replied to her question, his hands in his pocket. “I’ve decided that I don’t care for soap opera shows and lotion commercials.” Kim Minji snorted into a ugh. Merlin gnced at her and shrugged. “What? It’s true. Isn’t that what they do?”

  “Of course not.” She spped his elbow—which surprised him for a moment. They were getting really close, weren’t they? “That’s not all they do,” she continued. “Well, true, they’re mostly just moving from shows to shows and all that, but they help catch the bad Mages.”

  Merlin clicked his tongue. “The Consortium Mages do well on that front.”

  “They can’t do it alone, though,” said Kim Minji. “They already have their hands full with the portals and Spawns. If the bad Mages are dumped onto them, they’ll burn out.”

  Merlin did know that, but if he had not acted oblivious the conversation would have died before it had even started, and he had wanted it to go on—for Kim Minji’s sake, because she looked like she was on the verge of breaking down because of their failure.

  As for his decision not to take the Hero course, well, it was rather simple, really. His life was no longer headed in the direction he had pnned for it, so he did not have the liberty to kick back and be nothing more than a magical superhero. The world was his to protect now, and being a Hero Mage wouldn’t do that for him.

  “What’s that?” Kim Minji said with a halt, snapping Merlin’s attention back to the direction they had been walking in.

  They had walked the length of the Academy and had found themselves rather close to the Open field where they had had their Dungeon raid exam. He followed her pointed finger and was graced with the beauty of frozen white petals dancing gently just a few centimeters above the ground. The sight was breathtaking, pulling one subconsciously to its ethereal gracefulness. But Merlin knew better than to let himself get trapped by the beauty of magic. Whoever was casting that spell was going against the rule of the school. They had to be reprimanded.

  “Let’s go,” he said.

  “O-Okay,” Kim Minji stuttered, having been dazed by the beauty of the petals.

  Coming upon the culprit, though, changed Merlin’s whole demeanor. After all, the person who hid behind a tree to go against the Academy’s rule was a certain brown curly-haired boy who Merlin had come to harbor a certain loathing for: Choi Sangook.

  “Huh? What are you doing here?” Choi Sangook narrowed his eyes at Merlin and then at Kim Minji, before he noticed the armbands they wore. He clicked his tongue. “Disciplinary Committee?” He once again looked at Merlin, then snorted into ughter. “You? Disciplinary committee? A Deficient Mage? You must be out of your mind.”

  “Uhm… We’d like it if you stopped using magic on the Academy grounds,” Kim Minji said, drawing Choi Sangook’s ire her way. “There are training rooms in the dorm if you want to practice. Please do that there.”

  “Shut your mouth!” Choi Sangook growled at her, his ice petals still dancing in the air. “When I’m talking to someone, don’t interrupt. And it’s none of your business where and how I decide to train. Learn your pce.”

  Kim Minji flinched and retreated into herself for a brief second. But she immediately reined her easily frightened self in, and tried to do her job once again. Merlin, however, saw this as the perfect opportunity to forcefully enact discipline on a stubborn student, and, well, relish in the look of confusion Choi Sangook would put on once he deconstructed his spell.

  Killing two birds with one stone was making sense to Merlin for the first time.

  “Listen to her, Choi Sangook,” he began, his expression tightening as he took a step forward. “Stop with the spell or I’ll have to forcefully stop you.”

  Choi Sangook’s eyebrows twitched. He tilted his head as if he had not heard Merlin clearly. “Are you actually out of your mind, Deficient Mage, huh? Is it that armband? Is it getting to your head? What do you think you can do to stop me?”

  Merlin raised a brow, silently gd that nothing about the bastard had changed. “I take it you will not be listening.”

  Choi Sangook’s fingers tightened, and the ice petals that formed his spell went from a graceful dance to a violent swirl.

  “You know, I’ve been really looking forward to the chance to beat your smug face into the ground ever since Monday. I’m not pnning on letting this opportunity pass me by. Do your worst, Deficient Mage.”

  For the first time, Merlin was not concerned about the injuries that might come from deconstructing a Mage’s spell. He took a step forward, his brows arched and his eyes ced with a tinge of anger. He activated Reader Mage, channeling a lot more mana than he usually did towards his finger tips so as to make sure he left no room for Choi Sangook’s spell to even survive for a brief second. And that action of his caused the air around them to turn erratic, sending cold shivers Kim Minji’s way.

  “Guys. Please stop,” she called, obviously anxious about what the end result of the stand-off could be. But Merlin wasn’t listening. He’d had enough of the boy.

  [Perk: Reader Mage Activated]

  [Analyzing spell…]

  [Analysis complete]

  [Spell: Snowfkes.Category: Novice, Tier IIISpell Wielder: A-Css Mage.Spell Description: A spell formed by dropping the temperature of the water vapor in the atmosphere below its freezing point.]

  [Deconstructing Process: Water vapor cannot be frozen if its temperature is above 0°C. Fuel your mana with your body heat and tamper with the temperature of the spell. Do be careful, though, it is unadvisable to channel out excessive body heat at once.]

  It had been a while since Merlin had received a warning from the System for deconstructing a spell. But he couldn’t back down now. If he didn’t do something to tone down Choi Sangook’s antics, it would only get worse. For Hakyun’s sake, he had to show this guy that he wasn’t all that.

  [Deconstruct?]

  [Yes?]/[No?]

  Yes…

  In an instant, Merlin felt his body turn cold, like he had been dropped in the middle of Antarctica naked. His mana swirled and poured out of his finger tips, its usual blue color nowhere to be found, as it was smitten by the red hot color of molten iron. Choi Sangook’s brows dropped, dazed, as he watched his ice petals turn into steam in nothing more than a quarter of a second. It was not until after a few blinks did he have an inkling as to what had happened. He shot Merlin a stare as cold as his spell itself.

  “What did you do?”

  Merlin, however, couldn’t answer. Because as soon as he was done deconstructing Choi Sangook’s spell, the whole world spun, a sharp headache hitting him like hammer to steel. He lost a considerable chunk of his energy and dropped to one knee, breathing heavily while his skin turned eerily pale so quickly it was arming. He couldn’t even shiver as he was way past that point.

  He might have done too much.

  “Merlin!” Kim Minji rushed to his aid, trying to hold him up by his arm, but as soon as she touched him, she yelped and shifted back, her fingers shaking like she had dipped her hand in cold water for an extended amount of time. “You’re freezing.”

  “I asked you a question!” Choi Sangook, though, didn’t care about his situation. His eyes bzed as he lunged at him, seeking to grab him by his tie and pull him up. But he was unable to go through with it as a figure snapped into view before them and grabbed his hand, putting a swift stop to the altercation before it had even begun.

  “That’s enough,” the person said, their voice an echo that swirled around in Merlin’s ears.

  Merlin tried to look up to see who it was, but his eyes could only make it as far as the red bzers they wore before he fell sideways to the ground and passed out.