“That’s completely absurd!” Hakyun grumbled as they took care of their dorm room, dusting whatever needed to be dusted, and wiping whatever needed to. “Why should a competition determine the rankings of the Academies?”

  Merlin cocked his head. “I thought you would be happy?” he asked. “If we win, we get to be the number one Mage Academy in the world. This is an easier path than the usual which is, well, the upper bodies deciding based on the number of top class Mages produced.”

  He had been quite curious as to how rankings worked, and, as such, had taken it upon himself to ask Professor Jung for an answer to his questions.

  “He’s afraid of the pressure,” Chima said with a scoff.

  “No, I’m not afraid of the pressure,” Hakyun sneered. “It’s just, reason with me now, what if we end up dropping down the rankings instead? What if we end up third? Oh my, I don’t even want to think about it.”

  “You really need to start being optimistic, four-eyes,” said Chima as he bent over and wiped the underneath of the table in their living room. “Repeat after me: ‘we can win!’”

  “My toes, we can,” Hakyun grumbled as he picked up the dishes he had washed and rinsed them one by one before setting them in their respective shelves.

  Merlin sighed. He didn’t have anything to say in contribution to the current topic of discussion; after all, the whole talk about competitiveness and losing and winning was bringing back his memories of how the last term had ended and the rankings.

  Cohort Spearhead had finished the term first with three-hundred-and-sixty-five points, while coming in second was Cohort Dragon Eye with two-hundred-and-eighty points. And it would have all been perfect if only the academic rankings hadn’t seen him pushed down to third, coming behind Park Yuri and Nora, the second and first on the rankings respectively.

  Well, it was obvious that he wouldn’t have stayed first for long. It was even a miracle he had only dropped to third in the first place. Technically, it was his hard work, surviving Senior Sun-Hee’s cold stares, and Nora’s grumbles while teaching, just to make sure he didn’t fall too behind.

  Hopefully, he could keep it up in the current term.

  Merlin clicked his tongue as he finished his task of taking care of the windows. For a combination of different reasons pressing down on his mind, he was now somewhat pissed.

  “I’m going to unpack,” he said to Chima and Hakyun, and he was met with a nod and a hum as a reply. Satisfied with that, he vanished into his room. And…his eyes widened. “Blue…” Merlin screamed as he rushed at his little dragon preparing to heave out a breath of ice at his luggage. He scooped the dragon from the floor and set his hand in front of its mouth. Flaky breaths touched his skin, and for a moment, Merlin felt all his nerves lose function. He instantly activated Reader Mage and deconstructed Blue’s Ice Breath, and fell to the bed.

  Blue purred, cocking his head obliviously to Merlin’s furious stare.

  “Be more discreet, will you?” Merlin growled, keeping his voice low. “I’m trying to keep your identity a secret here.”

  The dragon snorted, turned around on the bed as though circling his nest, and fell down to sleep once again. Merlin could only picture Nora’s happy face when she’d realized that Blue would no longer be her responsibility.

  Maybe he would sneak the dragon back to her one day, Merlin thought. That way he could take a break. Otherwise, how would he survive?

  He also thought about telling Chima and Hakyun about the dragon, but, just like with every other strange thing about him, that would result in them finding out about the System. He trusted them well enough now, but he was still waiting for that click. When the time was right, he would tell them everything.

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  Merlin huffed as he jumped up from the bed. He took one more glance at Blue to confirm that the dragon wouldn’t be stirring awake anytime soon, locked his room’s door to prevent any unprecedented occurrences of it being suddenly flung open, and then set to unpacking and arranging his things.

  At that moment, one thought crossed his mind: how Sunny was faring.

  ###

  Sunny sat on the edge of his motorbike, clad head to toe in the same black color that it had as he pulled off his helmet. He stared straight at the bustling scenery of the club before him, watching as people lined up to get in, while some were hurled out like they were sacks of potatoes.

  Club Spiral. He had heard of it a couple of times. It was said that it was owned by a young man who looked like he was still in his early twenties, but no one ever saw him. Which was why those words were dismissed as mere speculations. After all, how could a person in their early twenties own such an establishment? For a club to win the hearts of many in a city like Seoul, it either had to be in the hands of a chaebol, or be building its name for years on end. Unless the young man being talked about was the son of a chaebol, which would be very obvious and not hidden, then there was no way he was the owner of the club.

  A front? Sunny guessed, his ginger hair soaked in sweat, falling wetly over his forehead. Or could just be a baseless rumor. He wrung his nose at that notion. A baseless rumor could never have spread so far. There must be some sort of truth to it.

  Sunny had spent the days since he’d told Merlin he would take care of finding the drug being sold at the club traversing through the holes of the internet in a more reliable way than Merlin had. And, still, he had not found anything that wasn’t the club’s location or its glowing reviews, and so on. Nothing on its owner, when it had been built, and, even worse, the drug itself.

  One thing he did find out was how to get into the club, and that was through a QR code which was sent to their customers after they had made a reservation. Sunny confirmed that now from where he was hidden in an alley. Those who had the QR code were scanned and let in, those who didn’t were chased away.

  However, it was hard to find a means of making a reservation, and the available slots always ran out fast. Sunny, though, didn’t have a problem. But now was not the time to pay Club Spiral’s interior a visit. All he had come to do was survey; he would return when he was well aware of how to proceed.

  “Not going in?” a voice said from behind, snapping Sunny’s attention its way. It was a female’s, calm but dominant, and bore a lot of pressure. “Are you scared of clubs? Club-phobia, maybe?”

  Sunny had a very potent ‘stay away from them’ detector, and even without turning around, he knew that the lady behind him was not someone he was to get all cozy with. And that was why he didn’t show that her sudden appearance had caused his heart to almost leap out of his chest. He made sure he was composed, and reached for his helmet.

  “I’m not feeling it today,” he replied, glancing over his shoulder to see a lady dressed in all leather resting her back on a wall.

  “Hmmm…” She walked towards him, rubbing her hand on the headlights of his motorbike as she did. “Honda CB125 Hornet,” she said. “Good choice. You must be rich.”

  Sunny’s view was blocked by the lady. She was strikingly beautiful, with short, black hair and purple makeup. But her eyes…they were cold. They were those of a murderer.

  “Sadly, I’m not,” said Sunny, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to escape from the lady if she wanted to take his life away. The best he could do was engage her and pull away gently. “Are you planning on heading into the club?” he asked.

  The lady took a glance at Club Spiral before turning back to Sunny. “Oh. I work there.” Her eyes narrowed as she smiled, giving her a predatory look.

  Sunny swallowed. His hands were sweaty as he held onto his helmet, despite the cold wind of night.

  “I see…” he said, simply.

  The lady peered into his soul for a second more before shifting away.

  “You’re handsome, handsome,” she said. Then stretched forth a hand. “I’m Mouse. If you ever want to get into the club, just let me know, I’ll hook you up.”

  Sunny glanced at her outstretched hand and took it. He knew better than to leave a lady hanging, and the one before him was no ordinary lady. However, he was not giving her his name.

  “I can handle myself,” he said in response to her offering him club-entrance help.

  “Oh, yeah?” She chuckled. “We shall see about that, handsome.”

  And with those ominous words, she turned around and walked back into Club Spiral.

  Sunny instantly put on his helmet and zoomed off from the scene. The hair on his nape and arms had stood erect during his brief interaction with the lady, and it was only when he was a good distance away did he stop his bike and take a moment to breathe.

  He realized at that moment that things would be a lot harder than he might have thought, and would have to think twice about proceeding in the initial way he had intended.