Gabyul, I'll Definitely Save You! (4)
I opened my closed eyes.
The world I had been watching through a crow's eyes snapped back into ordinary human vision.
Unable to contain my feelings, I furrowed my brow.
"How dare she... not knowing her place..."
That insolent bitch who had the gall to tail Sejin-nim without knowing her place.
The moment I registered her presence, I began investigating her.
In less than an hour I had gathered quite a bit of useful information.
That blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman—Kang Ha-seung, was it?
President of some Divine Magic Club or other, and a holy mage contracted to the Archangel Camael herself.
But what did any of that matter?
The fact that she had tailed Sejin-nim was undeniable.
If I hadn't been watching Sejin-nim's daily commute through crow's eyes, I might never have noticed her at all.
Had someone put her up to it?
Or was it simply the usual prejudice holy mages held against dark mages that drove her to this?
Either way, it made no difference.
If she continued the tail, I would have no choice but to punish her.
I was already uneasy enough with just Kim Gabyul around.
I did not want yet another holy mage getting tangled up with Sejin-nim.
I hesitated for a moment.
Should I report this to Sejin-nim?
Of course the hesitation was brief.
If I didn't report something like this, what on earth would I ever report to him?
The moment Sejin-nim gave the order, I was fully prepared to thoroughly punish that insolent woman.
I dialed Sejin-nim.
He should have arrived home long ago by now.
"Yes? What is it?"
"Ah, Sejin-nim. I contacted you because I have a report to make."
"A report..."
"Yes, Sejin-nim. I have confirmed that a student is secretly tailing you. That student is..."
"Is that student's name Kang Ha-seung—a blonde, blue-eyed holy mage?"
To my surprise, Sejin-nim already seemed to know about Kang Ha-seung.
"Yes, that's correct. If you simply give the order, I will thoroughly punish that student so nothing like this ever happens again—"
"Ah, I don't think that will be necessary."
Sejin-nim's leisurely voice stopped me from intervening.
"...Is that so?"
"Yes. I've already subdued her."
"Pardon?"
My thoughts froze for an instant.
Kang Ha-seung had clearly been tailing Sejin-nim, hadn't she?
Had he already noticed and caught her?
"As expected of Sejin-nim. You are truly remarkable."
"Huh? Well, understood for now. As for Kang Ha-seung... I'll handle her myself."
With those words the call ended.
I closed my eyes at once.
In a single heartbeat I became a crow soaring through the sky.
Most of the students only managed to compress the flame down to roughly the size of a palm.
What surprised me was how little difference there was between the students who had originally studied magic and those who had trained in martial arts.
In the end, whether magic or martial arts, both were about handling energy—so for something this basic, the gap between them was negligible.
Once they moved into more complex magic the difference would steadily widen, of course.
Excluding me, Lee Ye-rin had compressed hers the smallest.
"Next is Kim Gabyul. You're the last one."
Last to step forward was Kim Gabyul.
Standing before the water scarecrow, she stretched out her hand.
The flame that formed in front of her palm shrank rapidly as it compressed.
In moments it was no larger than a finger.
Brow furrowed, she focused her mind.
The finger-sized flame began to shrink even further—down to the size of a single finger joint.
When she finally flung it, the flame expanded violently and shattered the water scarecrow.
"Excellent. Gabyul did the best in the whole class!"
Kim Gabyul came back, looked at me, and grinned.
"I won, huh?"
"Heh. That earlier magic wasn't my full power, you know. If I were to go all out..."
"Yeah, yeah. So who lost? Admit your defeat already."
She cut me off, looking thoroughly pleased with herself.
She must have been stewing after losing so many spars to me lately.
"...I admit defeat. That makes it seven to one."
Her eyebrows twitched.
"It's six to one, okay? It was never seven to one."
"Ah, my apologies. I've won so many times I honestly can't remember the exact count. And whether it's six to one or seven to one, I don't see much difference either way. Hahaha."
"...Childish."
"Ehh? You started it first."
Having gotten as good as she gave, Kim Gabyul turned her head away from me.
After academy classes ended I headed home.
Suddenly I don't feel any gazes.
For the past few days something had been watching me constantly, leaving an unpleasant prickle on the back of my neck.
Yesterday and today, though, that sensation was gone.
After feeling eyes on me for so long, their absence was almost more unsettling.
Well, good news was good news, I supposed.
That thought didn't last long.
Even without the gazes, I still had the distinct feeling that something was following right behind me.
It felt filthier than being watched.
At this point it was hard to dismiss as mere imagination.
Someone with a clear purpose was targeting me—that was the only reasonable conclusion.
"Marbas, is there anyone tailing me?"
Would it not be more amusing to discover such a thing for thyself?
Marbas answered in a laughing voice.
So was there a tail or wasn't there?
I couldn't tell.
With Marbas's personality he would answer exactly like that whether someone was following me or not, so his reaction alone told me nothing.
I decided to trust my instincts.
If someone really was tailing me, catching them would solve the problem.
If no one was, then no one was targeting me in the first place—which wasn't a bad outcome either.
Pretending to head home, I deliberately moved toward emptier streets.
The fewer people around, the stronger the sensation of being watched became.
A gaze that had been hard to pick out in a crowd growing clearer in deserted places meant the tail was following me quite well.
But why tail me in the first place?
Was I really that valuable a target?
I was valuable, yes.
I was the boss of the mercenary company Heuksa, after all.
But according to Seo Jia, whenever I appeared as the company president my face had been different—altered by magic.
Only the executives knew my true face.
So no outsider should have been able to identify me...
Which left the people I had met at the academy.
At the academy I lived with my real face.
Yet the people I had actually spoken with there weren't many.
At most: the executive Lee Gil-young, the rich kids Seong Hyeon and Lee Yeonsul, Hwang Ju-hyeon and Lee Ye-rin, Moon Seyeon, Lee Jiwoo, Kim Gabyul—that was about it.
Lee Yeonsul's side, maybe?
She was the daughter of a famous company president; that could explain it.
Or Seong Hyeon's side.
It could also be someone connected to Kim Gabyul.
I was fairly close with her, after all.
If some dark mage started hanging around Kim Gabyul, even I would take an interest—especially if I already knew her from before.
In that case the culprit was likely someone who had known Kim Gabyul previously.
...There was no point fretting over it any longer.
Catch the tail and everything would be solved.
I slipped into an empty alley.
Deep inside, I climbed onto the outdoor air-conditioning unit on the third floor of the neighboring building and completely erased my presence.
After a short wait a blonde woman carefully approached the spot where I had been.
She stepped lightly, trying not to make a sound, and held her clothes so the fabric wouldn't rustle.
Shoulder-length blonde hair, blue eyes—her face was cute, yet one particular part of her body was rather... substantial.
Huh? This woman looks familiar...
Looking closer, the one who had been tailing me was the same girl I had spoken with in the library earlier.
Wearing an extremely serious expression, she scanned the area around my hiding place, then slowly walked past me down the alley.
Without a sound I dropped from the third-floor unit and closed the distance.
"Surely there isn't really a workshop in a place like this...? I really hate spots like this... It feels like ghosts are going to pop out.
...What? No, what am I supposed to do about being scared? But... yeah. For Gabyul's sake..."
As I drew near I caught her soft muttering.
So it was the Kim Gabyul connection after all.
I hesitated for a second.
Talk first, or just subdue her?
The hesitation didn't last long.
She had tailed me in secret— a little punishment was perfectly fair.
Just from her muttering I could tell she was terrified of places like this.
Fortunately I still had the "token of affection" Moon Seyeon had given me.
She had said it was the one she liked best of all.
What Moon Seyeon had handed me was going to prove extremely useful.