The Bait Takes a Stroll
After finishing breakfast, Kang Yeomyeong moved toward the entrance of Dongbang-gwan with perfectly natural steps. Tucked inside his robes was the cloth-wrapped fragment of the restraint device. His face wore the expression of a leisurely international student thinking, "The weather's nice today—maybe I'll go read a book." It was the perfect bait's attire.
And standing at the entrance with her arms crossed was Shin Seol-ah.
"Library."
Shin Seol-ah spoke.
"The secluded path behind it. Alone."
"……Huh. Do I need to report even going for a walk?"
"Last night, you asked the caretaker whether the path behind the library is usually deserted. That's not a question you would normally ask. You're not the type to ask for directions. You're the type who memorizes every route in advance and only pretends not to know them."
Kang Yeomyeong fell silent for a moment.
……This young lady has quite the observational skills.
The instincts of someone who had lived her entire life surrounded by false smiles. This time, they were aimed squarely at the back of his head.
"You're planning to use yourself as bait to catch whoever's after the fragment."
"……I won't deny it."
"Are you going to break the promise you made yesterday, just one day later?"
Shin Seol-ah's voice was cold. But the nature of that coldness was different from usual. It wasn't the chill of anger, but closer to an ice wall someone puts up right before getting hurt.
Kang Yeomyeong let out a deep sigh inwardly.
It's basic escort protocol to keep the VIP out of dangerous operations. ……But.
The moment she's hidden behind his back, something inside this young lady will break. That thin, taut thread that believes she'll be abandoned if her weakness is proven. And there are those who target the emotions that pool in that broken place.
"……Very well. However, there are conditions."
Kang Yeomyeong held up two fingers.
"First, you will follow my instructions during the operation. Second, you will act out the expressions. From now on, we are two leisurely international students heading to the library to study for exams. With that icy face of yours, even a passing squirrel would find it suspicious."
"……I'll try."
Shin Seol-ah cleared her throat and awkwardly pulled up the corners of her mouth. It looked less like a smile and more like the precursor to activating an ice spell.
"Young lady. That's not a smile, it's a threat."
"Shut up. Let's just go."
The path behind the library was as deserted as rumored. Rows of old oak trees cast deep shade, and moss grew green between the paving stones. It was a blind spot of the academy, untouched by the noise from the main building.
Kang Yeomyeong deliberately slowed his steps. He casually adjusted the front of his robes so the fragment inside would be more visible, then added a yawn for good measure. Defenseless. Leisurely. The perfect opportunity.
Come on. The cheese is right here.
He had spread his senses like threads across the surroundings for some time now. At last, he felt a faint, sticky presence following him. It wasn't on the roof or in the trees. It clung to the ground, moving along the shadow of the library building. The distance was closing. Just a little more.
That was when it happened.
"Found youuuu!"
The bushes exploded. More precisely, a head of red twin-tails burst out from the shrubbery beside the path. Seria, leaves stuck all over her hair, raised her notebook triumphantly and shouted.
"I knew it! You were planning to secretly practice that footwork in a deserted place! My fourth hypothesis was correct! Now there's nowhere to run. Slowly—very slowly—show me just one step!"
"……."
"……."
Kang Yeomyeong and Shin Seol-ah froze at the same time. Even the sticky presence that had been following them stopped.
Don't tell me this person was lying in ambush?!
A cold sweat ran down Kang Yeomyeong's back. A civilian had planted a flag right in the middle of their trap—and a loud one at that.
"Seria, now isn't really the time……"
"Oh, Shin Seol-ah is here too! Are you two training together? Then I should observe the ice magic as well……"
The moment Seria came bustling closer, sound vanished from the world. Birdsong ceased. The wind that had been rustling the leaves died. The air along the path solidified as if trapped inside a glass bottle, and an ashen, translucent membrane rose like a dome over the paving stones.
"This is……!"
Seria's expression changed instantly. The academic excitement in her amber eyes sharpened in a heartbeat.
"An Isolation Barrier. And a 4th Circle one at that…… The caster must have pre-installed it. This isn't an impromptu chant!"
"Both of you, get behind me."
Kang Yeomyeong spoke quietly and stepped half a pace forward. Inside the barrier, the shadow along the library's outer wall rippled. From within that shadow emerged a single figure wearing an ash-gray robe pulled low over their head. Their face was hidden behind a plain white mask.
"……The fragment."
The voice that came from behind the mask was eerily flat. No inflection, no emotion—just the tone of someone reading from a page.
"Hand it over."
"Good grief, sir. You must have had a rough night up in that tree yesterday."
Kang Yeomyeong smiled calmly and took out the cloth bundle from his robes, holding it up for show.
"I assume this is what you're looking for. How about we make a deal? Just tell me the name of the item's owner……"
"Hand it over."
Same pitch. Same speed. As if those were the only words they knew.
Kang Yeomyeong's eyes narrowed.
Conversation is impossible. This isn't the attitude of someone here to negotiate.
The masked figure raised a hand. Ashen mana swirled, and dozens of glowing chains floated into the air.
"Binding magic……! That's a high-level spell meant for subduing people!"
At Seria's cry, the chains shot forward. Their targets were all three of them.
"Seria, I'll handle this."
Kang Yeomyeong's figure blurred. In the next instant he stood in front of Seria, grasping the bundle of chains aimed at her with his bare hands.
Crack—!
The mana chains screamed like shattering glass inside his grip. The binding spell, woven from atmospheric mana, tore apart the moment it touched the qi of the Ilwol Sect pouring from his body. To any mage, it was an unthinkable sight—the restraint spell unraveling because it could not find the "target's mana" to bind.
"Th-that's impossible. A 4th Circle binding spell, with bare hands……"
Seria reached for her notebook, then realized this wasn't the time and stuffed it back away. As for Shin Seol-ah—she did not dodge. Staring straight at the chains flying toward her, she drew a single, deep breath.
Don't waver. If fear takes hold of you, it will take your power too.
It wasn't something Kang Yeomyeong had said in the tearoom yesterday. It was a phrase she herself had repeated dozens of times before falling asleep last night.
From her outstretched white fingertips, a wave of cold burst forth like a tidal wave.
Crack-crack-crack—!
The incoming chains froze solid in midair. The spell, now a pillar of bluish ice, could not withstand its own weight and crashed onto the paving stones, shattering into pieces. It was no uncontrolled outburst. It was a precisely controlled chill that froze only what she aimed at.
"……Oh?"
A genuine note of admiration escaped Kang Yeomyeong's lips. Even as Shin Seol-ah panted for breath, she stood tall and glared at the masked figure.
"Kang Yeomyeong. I said beside you, not behind you."
"Yes. You did."
Kang Yeomyeong chuckled and moved to stand shoulder to shoulder with her.
"Seria, I have a favor to ask. This barrier—can you break it?"
"Breaking it is impossible, but……"
Seria's eyes rapidly scanned the barrier membrane. Light refraction, mana flow, knot positions.
"I can find the anchor stones. Pre-installed barriers always have four of them—north, south, east, west. ……There! The roots of that oak tree! The soil color is different!"
"As expected of a genius. Then—"
Kang Yeomyeong turned his head toward the masked figure.
"I'll block their escape. Young lady, take the eastern anchor stone. Freeze it cold."
"Leave it to me."
Shin Seol-ah's cold energy slammed into the oak roots. Something buried in the soil froze and burst with a sharp crack, and one corner of the ashen dome warped like a broken mirror. As the barrier trembled, the masked figure showed the first sign of agitation. Escape. Without hesitation, they turned and sprinted toward the distorted gap in the barrier.
"Sir."
But blocking that gap was Kang Yeomyeong, already waiting.
"You can't leave without settling the bill."
Kang Yeomyeong's hand blade struck the back of the figure's neck with perfect accuracy—the same light strike he had used on the wolf the day before, like disciplining a neighborhood dog.
Thud.
The figure collapsed from the knees. Kang Yeomyeong caught the falling body and laid it down, then removed the white mask.
"……This person……"
Seria drew a sharp breath. Beneath the mask was the face of an ordinary man in his forties. Embroidered on his chest, alongside the academy crest, was a familiar department name: Magical Tools Management Office.
"The staff member we asked to appraise the restraint device yesterday……?"
The moment Shin Seol-ah muttered this, the unconscious man's body arched like a bow.
"Kuh, hck……"
A dark red mist began to seep from the man's mouth, nose, and eyes like threads. The same sticky, murky energy that had been embedded in the fragment's cross-section. It was abandoning its host and escaping.
"Step back!"
Kang Yeomyeong pushed the two women behind him and gathered his qi. The dark red mist seemed to coalesce in the air for a moment—then it looked at them. It had no eyes or form, yet all three present felt it clearly: that thing was observing them. Especially over Shin Seol-ah, the gaze lingered, sticky and one beat longer than the rest.
Frost formed unconsciously at Shin Seol-ah's fingertips. Then the mist scattered. Inside the barrier, with no wind, it seeped into the cracks between the library's bricks—more precisely, toward the ground below—and vanished.
Underground. Deep beneath the library.
"……Just now, that……"
Seria's voice trembled for the first time.
"That wasn't mana. Mana doesn't possess will. But that thing…… it was definitely looking at us……"
"Yes, it was watching."
Kang Yeomyeong answered quietly while checking the fallen man's condition. He was breathing, but the half-open eyes of the unconscious face held only the emptiness of someone who had no idea what they had just done. A puppet. The strings had been cut, and the hand holding them had disappeared underground.
If the management office staff was being controlled, then the restraint device we submitted for appraisal yesterday is no longer usable as evidence. And furthermore……
Kang Yeomyeong's gaze traveled up the library's massive outer wall. His younger sister's voice brushed through his mind once more—what was sealed in the deepest part of this building. Dark Magic that preyed on lonely children. And the living forbidden archives where it slumbered.
At that moment, the crumbling Isolation Barrier scattered its final fragments and completely vanished. The sounds of the world returned—birdsong, the wind. And—
Footsteps. Footsteps.
From the far end of the path came the hurried sound of multiple footsteps approaching.
"The barrier reaction is this way! Hurry!"
It was the voices of the security mages. The main building's watchtower had detected the barrier's activation and destruction.
Kang Yeomyeong's mind raced. An unconscious staff member from the management office. A destroyed 4th Circle barrier. And standing in the middle of the scene: two Eastern international students and one commoner mage. He didn't need to imagine how the conservative professors would twist this picture.
"Both of you."
Kang Yeomyeong tucked the fragment deeper into his robes and put on his usual good-natured smile.
"From now on, we are kind, chance witnesses who heard a scream during our walk and found a collapsed staff member. I'll handle the story. Can you follow along?"
Seria swallowed dryly. Shin Seol-ah gave a short nod. The footsteps turned the corner.