A Sweet? Deadly Wish Bet
I waited a while, but no reply came.
I smirked.
Of course they'd be flustered — I'd just struck a raw nerve out of nowhere.
I thought back to the first time I met Baek Sejin at the academy.
I'd sent a clone to a location just in case, and that was where I ran into the mysterious assailant.
It had been a fierce battle.
Fortunately, both I and that assailant shared the goal of preserving the Philosopher's Stone, so the Philosopher's Stone remained unharmed.
If the Philosopher's Stone had been destroyed, things would have gotten quite exhausting.
Of course, at first everything would have seemed quiet, as if nothing had happened.
The reporters who still wanted to live in Korea would all have kept their mouths shut.
No matter how mouthwatering a scoop it was, almost no reporter in Korea was ignorant of the fact that if the entire country became a wasteland, they themselves would be in danger too.
Reporters who didn't know that sort of thing lacked the connections and ability to access this kind of information in the first place.
So while the surface of the water stayed quiet, beneath it there would have been tremendous chaos.
But if even that failed to resolve things quickly, the reporters would catch the scent and swarm in.
Eventually, one or two would start publishing articles, and Korea would have thrown a full-blown frenzy of a party.
And I would have had my credibility shredded by the public and government officials for failing to protect the Philosopher's Stone, and been thoroughly cursed out for it.
Just thinking about it made me sigh.
Thankfully, thanks to Baek Sejin showing up, none of that happened.
At the time Baek Sejin barged in, I genuinely didn't think that person was Baek Sejin.
A suspicious stranger suddenly crashing in and asking to talk wasn't exactly a normal situation.
Yes — precisely the feeling of a mastermind who'd orchestrated everything from the shadows.
The moment I saw him wield black mana, I was half-convinced.
Later, when I investigated him, I became certain he really was half a mastermind.
Investigating him was considerably difficult.
Even for me, the one called Korea's strongest spirit mage.
He'd buried everything so thoroughly that no matter how deep I dug, information barely came out.
But what kind of world is this now?
A world where every kind of supernatural ability runs rampant.
In the end, I managed to obtain a few pieces of information.
That he was the president of a certain company.
That the company had taken advantage of legal loopholes to do some rather interesting things, and had only recently stopped.
And that Baek Sejin, the president of that company, usually disguised himself with a different face when conducting business, concealing his identity.
What was funny was that despite all that, he used his real name as-is.
Someone who didn't know better might not have cared about the name of a company president like that and simply assumed it was a coincidence of names — but I could tell.
That he was the same person as Baek Sejin, the boss of Heuksa.
So I sent him a text to probe a little, and it seemed my hunch was correct.
I'd mistakenly written "chief" instead of "president," but he'd probably brush that off without a care — just a typo, after all.
Anyway, it looks like I'll need to keep an eye on Baek Sejin going forward.
I still don't know where he got his information about the Philosopher's Stone.
If I hadn't obtained even a little information about him, I probably would have imposed private sanctions.
…That's what I felt like doing, but realistically speaking, it would have been impossible.
No need to poke an opponent who isn't moving, after all.
Instead, I would have put massive surveillance on him.
Whether through familiars, summons, or hired people.
He looked stronger than most third-years despite being a freshly enrolled first-year, so the possibility was more than sufficient.
He was worth pulling over to my side.
I drifted in thought for a while before snapping back to myself.
It was almost time for the drama I'd been watching lately to air:
I Was So Tormented by Hearing Other People's Inner Thoughts That I Never Even Tried Dating, but Then I Realized Foreigners' Thoughts Sound Like a Foreign Language to Me, So Now I'm Going to Fall in Love with a Foreigner.
Several weeks had passed since the incident where Kang Ha-seung tailed me.
Which also meant that the first exam period at Warna Academy was already right around the corner.
"As you all know, the first midterm exam period starts next week. Today being Wednesday… that leaves about five days. I hope you all prepare diligently and achieve good results."
With that, Lee Gil-young left the classroom.
Lately, I could feel Lee Gil-young gradually changing.
Becoming more faithful to his role as a teacher, you could say.
Even when entering or leaving the classroom, he no longer transformed into a shadow — he opened and closed the door normally.
A positive change.
It meant Lee Gil-young was getting used to teacher life.
But it wasn't good for me.
Lee Gil-young getting used to teacher life meant time was passing, and in creative works like novels or comics, the passage of time means the plot is advancing.
And the original work of this world I'd transmigrated into was full of incidents and accidents.
On top of that, it was an academy story.
Academy stories have a few clichés.
The kind where monsters or something invade on entrance ceremony day.
The original wasn't any different.
This damn academy — every time there's an event, something happens.
To the point where you can't tell if it's the protagonist's fault or if the academy is just like that.
Unless someone with a grudge against the academy had maliciously cast a curse on the entire place, it didn't make sense for things to happen this often.
The academy isn't even an environment where you can cast a curse in the first place.
Because the Philosopher's Stone is here.
The main body of every Philosopher's Stone deployed nationwide is located here.
If you cast a curse on the academy, it would inevitably affect the Philosopher's Stone as well.
After all, the Philosopher's Stone is also a building inside the academy.
If that happened, people who noticed something wrong with the Philosopher's Stone would launch an investigation, and the shaman or black mage who cast the curse would be identified immediately and either killed or imprisoned.
So the academy being like this is probably the protagonist's fault.
Lee Gil-young left the classroom, and Lee Yeonsul approached me.
"Sejin, have you been studying for the exams?"
"Ahaha, studying for the exams, you say? I'm working hard at it. I made a bet with Miss Gabyul, you see."
"A bet?"
At that, Lee Yeonsul's head turned toward Kim Gabyul.
Kim Gabyul was studying hard.
Seeing Kim Gabyul studying, Lee Yeonsul asked,
"What kind of bet did you make?"
"The loser grants the winner a wish."
Kim Gabyul, who had been studying, said in an indifferent voice.
When Lee Yeonsul's attention focused on her, Kim Gabyul lifted her eyes from the book and looked at Lee Yeonsul.
That was right.
Kim Gabyul and I had made what's called a wish bet.
The circumstances leading to the bet went like this.
Kim Gabyul, who'd kept losing to me in our usual spars, was filled with competitive fire.
If she'd won at least a few times it might have been fine, but constantly losing to me had instead sparked her stubbornness.
And with exams approaching, it was only natural that Kim Gabyul's eyes would start spinning with ideas.
So Kim Gabyul proposed we bet on our exam scores.
I readily accepted the proposal.
Of course, since it was a bet, I added the condition that the loser would grant the winner a wish.
That's what makes a bet fun, isn't it?
"Grant a wish?"
I don't know what she was thinking, but Lee Yeonsul looked back and forth between me and Kim Gabyul with a sly grin.
Kim Gabyul saw Lee Yeonsul's expression, shook her head, and went back to her book.
"But how do you decide who wins and loses? There are a lot of subjects."
"We'll add up the scores from every written and practical subject and compare them."
Lee Yeonsul nodded with an "Ahh," still not wiping the sly look off her face as she opened her mouth.
"So, what kind of wishes are you each thinking of?"
"Haha, it wouldn't be fun if I said that in advance."
"That's true too."
I smiled along with the slyly grinning Lee Yeonsul.
But seeing my smile, Lee Yeonsul's expression hardened, and she carefully asked,
"Just in case… you're not planning to make them do something criminal… right?"
"Ehh, that kind of talk is a little hurtful."
"Ahaha… of course not, right? Sorry."
Lee Yeonsul laughed awkwardly.
"Hmm, if you call it a crime, it might qualify as one."
Lee Yeonsul froze with that awkward smile still on her face.
Kim Gabyul, who'd only been pretending to study while listening to our conversation, stared at me seriously.
"…What?"
"Haha, of course I'm joking."
"You are, right?"
"Of course."
"…Haa, you really startled me."
Having double-checked, Lee Yeonsul let out a sigh of relief.
Then Lee Yeonsul looked around.
"Hmm? Why is it so quiet?"
At those words, the classroom suddenly grew noisy.
"Well now, how does it feel to have become the center of everyone's attention?"
Marbas teased me with a snickering laugh.
Hearing Marbas's words, it seemed the others had gone quiet because they were listening to my conversation with Lee Yeonsul.
It wasn't particularly important talk, so I didn't mind them listening.
"…Coincidence, maybe."
"Indeed. A true coincidence."
"Huh?"
Lee Yeonsul tilted her head.