Is Contract Dating the Latest Trend?
My suspension was finally over, and even the added punishment of on-campus volunteer work had wrapped up without a hitch.
After shedding the long stigma of being a delinquent student, it was time to return to normal student life.
Unfortunately, all the lectures on the day I was supposed to TA had been canceled.
As if by some collective agreement, every single professor had attended the Void Resonance Art seminar.
They couldn't miss the moment when a clan's secret art was dissected in detail—not as sorcerers.
Professors are usually collaterals who don't inherit secret arts, a job favored by them.
They're the final tech for so-called sorcery mudlegs who can only specialize in general-purpose sorcery.
But that's why their hunger for new knowledge like the Void Resonance Art runs deeper than anyone's.
They're probably holed up in their workshops right now, analyzing it more fervently than the students.
Having missed every lecture, I had no choice but to head back to the dorm.
A chunk of unexpectedly free time.
"…So you couldn't attend any lectures, huh."
After brushing off Ren, who kept tempting me to go out without tiring, I sat at my desk, glaring at the academy schedule.
Even excluding Professor Heo Taegong's spatial sorcery theory, the options were overwhelmingly vast.
Spirit possession, exorcism, astrology, and even physical combat courses like swordsmanship that incorporated sorcery.
The curriculum was packed with foreign sorceries too, like Ren's Onmyodo or Western black magic.
Compared to the tiny library at Gongmyeongdang, it was so extensive it gave me decision paralysis.
"Still, better to have too many than none at all."
I spent that day productively, sifting through worthwhile lectures.
I ranked them by priority and ruthlessly dropped any that overlapped in time.
Top priority went to sorceries that could help me and my mentor Estella.
More precisely, sorceries that could properly mesh with magic.
I pulled an all-nighter with satisfaction, selecting lectures Estella would love.
Starting tomorrow, it would be days of the academy's signature dull yet mystical knowledge grind.
"Siwoo… this isn't, right…?"
That was the plan.
"They announced that the Hwaseong Group chairman was attacked recently. The culprit supposedly leaped through space for a surprise assault from behind…."
Tsuchimikado Ren had shown up at my dorm first thing in the morning, knocking on the door.
I'd thought it was some Japanese rom-com excuse about wanting to go to school together, but the grave news she brought with a serious face was about Hwaseong Group's tragedy.
The front-page headline on today's newspaper she'd handed me screamed that the Hwaseong Group chairman was in a coma.
"…This wasn't me, right?"
"Siwoo, I understand your desire for revenge. Please be honest. That's the only way I can properly help you."
"No, I told you it wasn't me."
The article described the culprit as a spatial sorcery expert.
The assassin had suddenly appeared behind the chairman, split his defenseless skull with a sword, and fled.
The part about him miraculously surviving with half his head cleaved open made me think the vicious bastard had nine lives.
"If I'd wanted him dead, I'd have bisected him right there. I wouldn't have botched it like this."
"…You're really not the one, right?"
The timing was impeccable.
Me, the rising star in spatial sorcery after leaking the Void Resonance Art.
And right after I'd buried 58 sorcerers gunning for my life, this hits.
No matter how you sliced it, this was a setup aimed straight at me.
Gong Jin-cheol lacked the capability or guts for this, and Hwaseong Group wouldn't tank their stock by having their own chairman collapse.
Did that cult-like shadowy force make a move? Or did cornered Choi Taeseong go mad and order patricide?
Whoever orchestrated it, the result was an efficient, elegant ploy.
Currently, I'm the only one brazenly opposing a powerhouse like Hwaseong Group.
Label one person as evil using the banner of justice from external forces and crush them.
It was a perfect opener for taking me down without getting their hands dirty.
Since this alone wasn't enough to finish me, they'd probably prepared follow-ups.
And those follow-ups arrived faster than expected.
BOOM—!
As if reading my mind, the dorm entrance—where only Ren and I were—suddenly exploded.
Red joryeok scattered as sharp debris from the shattered door turned the entrance into tatters.
"Full breach! Seal the barriers tight—no letting the suspect escape!"
"This suddenly…?! They're moving way too fast…!"
Ren's scream of shock mingled with the intruders' crisp orders.
They stormed in without even removing their shoes, mud prints and all, swiftly encircling the sofa where we sat.
Clad in SWAT-like tactical gear, they aimed an array of personalized talismans at me.
Then, a figure entered late through the gaping entrance.
A woman in a crisp suit, one hand gripping a razor-sharp sword, her blood-red ponytail tied back.
Her heels clicked leisurely as she approached us.
"Hmm… a bit too rough, huh? Sorry about that. I'm an academy professor, but I'm also with the association."
"Professor Kang Seo-ah…? Why would a professor…."
"Tsuchimikado. This is work. Can't ignore it when a prime suspect is at the academy, right?"
The woman Ren called Kang Seo-ah twirled handcuffs on her finger playfully.
But her eyes were darkly sunken, belying the casual act.
Like she'd slice us with the sword in her other hand at the first sign of trouble.
"Gong Siwoo. I'm arresting you as a suspect…. Gonna resist?"
"You think I'd just let you take my fiancé on mere suspicion?"
"Unfortunately, we have evidence. Why else would we come in so aggressively?"
At her signal, the talismans aimed from all sides glowed red-hot.
A warning: resist, and they'd fire without hesitation.
"Stop. Resisting will just get us hurt."
Ren reached for a talisman in her bosom, unwilling, but I stopped her.
It wasn't an immediate kill order, and despite the force, they were still treating me as a suspect.
Now I was curious what evidence they thought they had.
I obediently extended my wrists.
No matter how they bound me, with Dimensional Arrival, escaping was no issue.
"I don't know what your evidence is, but do what you want. I won't resist. For now."
"For now? Cocky bastard."
- Cuff him.
With Kang Seo-ah's cold command, icy handcuffs snapped onto my wrists.
***
At this rate, maybe I was doomed never to escape my delinquent fate.
Suspension on day one of enrollment.
Added punishment before suspension even lifted.
Arrested as a criminal suspect right before normal classes.
Third strike already. Events a normal person would struggle to face even one of, back-to-back.
If it was karma, sure, but wasn't the world too harsh?
I was rambling such complaints to the interrogator sitting across from me.
"…Shut your mouth. Stick to statements relevant to the case."
"I told you it has nothing to do with me. I'm the aggrieved party. Killing that bastard was my job, and someone stole it."
BAM—!
The moment I finished, the interrogator furrowed his brow and slammed the desk with his fist.
"You threatening a crime right in front of the association?"
"You think I'm an idiot? Like the 58 before, I'll prepare ironclad justification first. The guy who disowned me and still hunts my life. Wouldn't you fight back?"
"Got a mouth on you."
The mass slaughter the president had dismissed was reinvestigated but ruled not guilty due to solid evidence I'd left.
The Sorcery Association's only hook on me was the Hwaseong Group chairman assault suspicion.
I still hadn't seen the evidence they were so confident about.
"So when do I get to see this evidence? Interrogation's hitting its limit, no?"
"…Still talking down to me, you rude orphan punk. Figures, with your background."
"You look pretty old too—parents already passed? Wife's a pipe dream…. We're in the same boat?"
"You little…!"
As personal attacks flew, the old interrogator clenched his fist again.
With my hands bound, no resistance possible—was he aiming it at me?
I thought interrogations banned violence, but what did I know.
I silently looked up at the approaching interrogator.
"Looks like your real parents who croaked need me to discipline you instead. You don't need limbs to talk, right?"
Seemed he wouldn't accept anything short of a confession.
I'd thought the association ran clean unlike the clans, but apparently not.
CRACK!
I ripped the handcuffs binding my wrists with raw strength.
I loomed over the recoiling interrogator instead.
"You don't need limbs to breathe either, right?"
"H-how…! Those seal joryeok, and you broke them barehanded…!"
"…Didn't do a background check? Lived ten years under a binding that blocked sorcery."
These handcuff talismans were laughably flimsy compared to an absolute binding.
I'd already commandeered them during transport, making them mine.
I extended my freed hand toward the ignorant fool who didn't know presumption of innocence.
"That's enough."
A voice stopped me.
The refined soprano I'd heard at the academy.
Kang Seo-ah, who'd personally dragged me here, had snuck up and pressed her sword to my nape.
"We messed up, but if you use violence too, it becomes a problem."
"Wouldn't have if you'd left me be?"
"Yeah… association's full of iron-ricebowl bureaucrats and trash."
Kang Seo-ah kicked the interrogator out with an annoyed grimace.
I sat face-to-face with Kang Seo-ah again.
Handcuffs still off.
She was as stunning as Ren, so I heightened my guard.
In this damn web novel world, beauties signaled major characters.
No telling what nonsense or nonsense she'd spout.
Kang Seo-ah just narrowed her eyes, staring me down.
Her gaze scanned my vitals like hunting weak points, then took in my whole body.
Like knights from the otherworld, evoking a swordmaster's scrutiny.
Finally, she nodded slightly and spoke.
"No evidence anymore. I got rid of it."
"What…?"
"More importantly, this."
Dismissing my kidnapping reason as trivial, she paused, face slightly flushing, then continued.
"You owe me, right? So break up with that fiancée and date me instead?"
The academy professor was hitting on a freshman.
"Not real dating, just contract stuff. Until things settle."
"…Is contract or fake dating trending with girls these days?"
Not reincarnated a century ahead or anything, but modern women's thinking was beyond me.