Merlin was the first to arrive at the disciplinary committee’s office. Or so he had thought.

  “Merlin! Hi!” Kim Minji was dutifully stacking together Senior Sun-Hee’s comic books as she tried her best to keep the room tidy. Merlin knew she had good intentions, but she really was gutsy, touching that cold woman’s books like that. Didn’t she consider the possibility of freezing to death? “How are you doing? Are you all better now? You should be resting?” She poured questions upon questions, overwhelming Merlin as she crossed the room to bob up before him where he was standing. Too closely too, that Merlin had to lean back to put some space between both of them.

  “I’m fine,” he replied. “What about you? I don’t think we’ve actually talked since that day at the ward.”

  She wrung up her nose, seemingly annoyed—at the question? Merlin wasn’t sure. He blinked.

  “I kept texting you and got no replies,” she said. “Even after Monday’s and Tuesday's csses, you just vanished. I thought you were avoiding me.”

  Merlin blinked. “What? I wouldn’t. My phone got spoiled so I was unable to reply to my messages, and I’ll be honest, I’m not really good at keeping track of things like that. It’s kinda overwhelming sometimes.” He then stretched a tote bag at her. “Thank you for the humidifier. I know it took too long to return and I apologize. I promise I didn’t use it after that day at the ward, I just didn’t get a chance to bring it over to you. And I totally forgot on Monday and Tuesday.”

  Kim Minji stared at him for a second and chuckled. She took the tote bag and said, “Messages scare you?”

  Merlin’s forehead creased. “Erm… Not exactly. It can just be overwhelming sometimes.”

  She pursed her lips in thought. “Ah. So you must prefer calls instead. Noted.”

  He hadn’t said that, but he didn’t mind receiving calls from her. Sometimes he always thought his phone was too dry to be a phone. Maybe that was why he never really considered checking his messages. After all, it was not that messages were overwhelming, it was just that he barely received any so he thought there was no point in checking them and just muted the app totally so that he didn’t feel depressed about the whole thing.

  “Oh! The freshmen are here!” President Sakamoto’s voice poured into the room as he sauntered in. Merlin was about to turn around to give his greetings when an arm wrapped around his shoulder. “Are you feeling better now? It was nasty back then, and then again after.”

  Merlin’s lips twitched because he understood what the president was talking about with those vague words.

  He sighed. “I’m better now. Thank you for stepping in when you did.

  “No big deal!” President Sakamoto spped Merlin’s back, sending him sauntering forward. “Well, you guys aren’t on duty today, so why are you here?”

  Merlin was about to give his reasons when Senior Will and Senior Sun-Hee walked in as well. He bowed to them in greetings, but their eyes lingered on him far longer than was normal—at least to them.

  That video had done a lot to change how others viewed him, hadn’t it?

  “No reason in particur,” Kim Minji replied to the president’s question. I just came to tidy up the pce.

  “Oh, tidy…” President Sakamoto nodded. Then his nods slowed. And then his face paled. “Tidy? Say, Minji-chan, you didn’t touch Sun-Hee’s books, did you?”

  Oh, shit…

  Merlin’s breath froze. He shifted his eyes slightly towards Senior Sun-Hee, and even if no one could figure it out, he could. She was silently fuming. He had only guessed it earlier, but she really didn’t like anyone touching her books.

  Kim Minji, however, was still oblivious to what exactly was going on.

  “Ah, yeah,” she said with a smile. “They were all littered about and—”

  President Sakamoto pounced on her and grabbed her by the shoulders. “No~ She keeps it that way because it’s easier for her to figure out which she was reading and at what time before putting it down.” He gnced over his shoulder at Sun-Hee who was still silent but obviously fuming. Merlin wondered how that functioned. If he got angry, the world would know in an instant. People were weird. “I’ll make sure she doesn’t do it again, Sun-Hee,” President Sakamoto pleaded. “Just let her be this once?”

  Senior Sun-Hee stared at her books, then at President Sakamoto, and at Kim Minji who was still blinking obliviously. Then she shot a gre at Merlin, startling him and prompting him to point a finger at himself.

  What had he done?

  She pounced out of the room a second ter.

  Well, Merlin wasn’t letting her leave just like that. He bowed at his other two seniors, waved Kim Minji goodbye, and hurried after Sun-Hee.

  “Senior Sun-Hee,” he called. “Hold up!” She didn’t stop. “Wait!” Then she did.

  “What is it?” she asked as she turned around. “Don’t you have csses?”

  “They start by eight,” Merlin replied, bobbing up before her. She would have known the answer to that question of hers if only she dutifully attended csses like a student was supposed to. He wondered where she was even headed now; after all, someone who preferred to read comics than studying had limited pces in the Academy to go to.

  “So? What do you want?” she went on.

  Merlin straightened on his feet. He just noticed that he was a bit taller than her.

  “You didn’t come to the practical like you said you would,” he started. She had not believed in his ability to use anti-magic, so he had brought up the option of her coming to watch him in action. Of course, he was well aware as to why she might not have done that, but he couldn’t just jump right to the real reason why he had stopped her, so he decided to beat around the bush first. Otherwise it would have been rude.

  “I never said I would,” Sun-Hee replied, her tone the same impassive one as always. “And, besides, I already saw what I needed to see.”

  Merlin nodded. Good. “Then… Have you thought about teaching me?” he asked, his real intentions for approaching her now brought to the surface. “Time is flying by and I don’t want to g behind my mates.”

  As expected, Nora and Kim Yiseo had been unable to clear the sylbus like they had been intending, showing how superior Senior Sun-Hee was to them. They had tried their best though; Nora had gotten halfway, while Kim Yiseo got a quarter through it. They were not giving up, though. Now they were gunning for clearing the sylbus before the end of the term, so they could kick back and rex in the second term.

  “It’s weird, though,” started Sun-Hee, prompting Merlin to arch his brows. “In the video, you fought like someone well versed in the theory.”

  Merlin blinked. “I’m sorry?”

  She eyed him from head to toe, folded her arms, and angled her body. “Fighting isn’t completely brute force, especially when battling against monsters, and smart ones like the Ice Wyverns. To be able to do what you did, regardless of anti-magic, one has to be well aware of the mechanics surrounding monsters and how to use the terrain to their advantage, which are all theoretical aspects. One who gs behind in theory shouldn’t be able to apply something they don’t know about in the heat of battle.”

  Merlin’s eyes twitched. “Have you ever thought that maybe it was just pure luck?”

  Senior Sun-Hee raised a brow. “Didn’t seem like that to me.”

  Well, she was right. It was not that he was abysmally bad in theory, his learning process just differed from other students. Big words hurt his brain, so they had to be dumbed down for him, which was why fictional terms and analogies helped in his understanding greatly. His application during the battle all came from reading Singurity Mage, but even it didn’t focus on all the theoretical aspects of magic. So, if he only depended on it, he would be heading for a swift failure at the end of the term. And he knew the headmaster wasn’t joking when he had said his admission would be revoked if he didn’t meet up.

  “That’s why I’m begging you to help me,” said Merlin. “I am actually bad at theory, but not very bad, so I’m mostly hovering around average. But average isn’t good enough for Prestige Academy. I need to become better. Which is why I need your help.”

  Senior Sun-Hee was silent for a few seconds. “You know, I still don’t understand why I’m the one you approached to teach you. Is it simply because Professor Jung recommended me? Or because I finished the whole sylbus in a week? I’ve been putting you off, I’d have thought you would have approached a different senior by now.”

  Oh, that was right. He had never mentioned why he was so hellbent on her help. He nodded.

  “Because you’re the only one who can dumb things down for me in a way I can understand,” he said, she blinked. “Fiction,” he added. “You’re the only one amongst my seniors who can teach me using fictional terms.”

  Senior Sun-Hee paused, then she immediately turned around. “Fiction, huh?” she said. Merlin frowned. Had he just heard a chuckle? “All right. Every Friday after your disciplinary committee activities. I’m not a good teacher, though, so it’ll be very hard.”

  Merlin shrugged. “I sit through Professor Jung’s csses, I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

  Senior Sun-Hee snorted, then quickly cleared her throat as a means to hide that she was still human and could be amused.

  “Okay.” She nodded. “Fridays, it is.”

  Merlin perked up with a smile. “Thank you!”

  “Monsters are shrewd,” Dr. Elias Namgoong expined as he fyed his eyes over the students before him. He was once again dressed in another overly exquisite attire, this time like a vampire. His clothes consisted of a wine vest, a bck fur coat, and a wine cravat. Of course, he had his cane in his hands too. He never went anywhere without the thing. One would almost be forced to think he couldn’t walk without the thing.

  “Doesn’t he sweat?” Hakyun whispered into Merlin’s ears as they listened to Dr. Elias’s expnation of what the practical course they were about to take on entailed. Merlin hoped it wouldn’t be too stressful as he was still feeling quite exhausted from his exploits with his mana, but he really wasn’t certain. They were standing in the Open field after all.

  “Vampires are immortal,” Chima chimed in. “He probably doesn’t.”

  Hakyun clicked his tongue. “I’d do anything to be immortal.”

  “You must be a fool. Who wants to live in this world forever?” Chima snorted, and Merlin sighed. They were at it again.

  “Mr. Anozie Chima Ken, and Mr. Han Hakyun. Do you have something to say to the css?” Dr. Elias called from where he was leaning on his cane. It was either those two rascals had been shouting, or the man just had sharp ears. Merlin hoped it was the tter, because the former would mean that he was getting so used to his roommates’ continual battles that he couldn’t even differentiate low voices from high pitched ones. In other words, his ears were gone.

  Chima and Hakyun ramrod themselves straight and replied, “No, sir!”

  Dr. Elias exhaled. “One more word from both of you and points will be deducted.”

  “Understood, sir!”

  Dr. Elias resumed his expnations. “Like I said, monsters are shrewd. C-Rank monsters and above are smart beings. They do not just brute force their battles like, for example, Trolls do. They think and set traps. Which is why today’s practical course will be focused on how well you lot can locate, disarm, and set traps. There will be no monsters. You will be going against each other. Am I clear?”

  “Yes, sir!!” the students answered in a chorus.

  “Good.” Dr. Elias Namgoong nodded. “Since each Cohort is made up of twenty students, I will be dividing each into two sets, ten each. The cohort points will be allocated as a batch, not personally this time; academic, however, will still be personally allocated. You will be set to different regions of the open field, and all have two hours to complete the test. If everyone understands that, then let’s get this underway quickly. I’ve not had lunch yet.”