The Being Trapped in the Ancient Tome
Dozens of footsteps tangled behind me as I slipped out of the Seongun Academy auditorium.
"There he is! Do Jae-hyun's heading that way!"
"He's from the White Night Guild! Let's have a quick chat!"
"This is the Korea Hunters Association! We'll match any signing bonus—blank check!"
Scouts, they called themselves. To me, they looked like a pack of starving hyenas. The same ones who'd sneered at the 0.1% on the display board, flipping their attitudes the instant the machine exploded and charging in. Revulsion surged up my throat.
"Jae-hyun! Over here! Let's take my car!"
Seol-ha flung open the door to the car she'd parked in the lot. But it was too late. A few guild members with the enhanced physical abilities unique to awakeners had already blocked our path.
"Excuse us for a moment. We've got orders from above to protect you until the Association investigators arrive."
A burly man reached for my shoulder. In that instant, the Ancient Tome in my arms emitted an unsettling heat.
"Ugh, seriously. First some junk heap rudely wakes me up... and now I have to stir for a lowlife like this? Oppa."
...Who the hell are you?!
"Ahem. Things are hectic, so I'll keep the intro short. I'm Iris, the beautiful great archmage! Right now, I'm just a pitiful soul trapped in this tome..."
No time to panic. Iris's purple mana seized my right arm, yanking it like a puppet on strings. My arm extended gracefully into the air.
"Watch closely. Space isn't something you handle like a brute. Like this! Just a little 'fold'?"
Ripple—
The space around me warped like a refracted lens. The man's hand, which he'd sworn grabbed my shoulder, sliced through empty air, grazing past my body like light through glass and slapping the ground.
"...Huh?"
"Now's our chance, Jae-hyun!"
Seol-ha grabbed my arm and shoved me into the car. The engine screamed as we peeled out of the academy. In the rearview mirror, the scouts stood dumbfounded, shrinking into the distance.
I was just starting to catch my breath when Seol-ha, eyes fixed on the road, asked, "What was that back there? You twisted the space around you to dodge."
Her profile was rigid as she gripped the wheel. I stared out the window, brushing it off. "No idea. Just felt light on my feet. You sure you didn't see wrong, Seol-ha?"
"Do Jae-hyun, you keep hiding stuff? The machine exploding, dodging that hunter—none of it's coincidence."
She sounded pissed, but dropped it. To shake the pursuers, she looped through downtown Seoul a few times before pulling into the alley toward home. But when we reached the front gate, we slammed to a halt again.
There, under the flickering old streetlamp, stood an elderly gentleman. Black luxury coat, snow-white hair neatly combed back, golden eagle-headed cane in hand. No awakener pressure, but the air around him hung still as a frozen lake.
"Who are you?"
I stepped out and asked. He turned slowly, his eyes dark as fathomless abysses.
"You're late, Do Jae-hyun. Or should I say, Successor?"
My heart plummeted at the word from his lips. Successor—the secret term from the Ancient Tome. This old man knew it.
"No idea what you're talking about. I'm just a regular guy."
"Heh, a regular who smashes machines and bends space to escape. That's quite the joke."
He approached, cane tapping deliberately. Seol-ha stepped in front, mana surging, but a gentle wave from him stifled her flow.
"Step aside, Miss Baek Seol-ha. I share a long bond with this boy's parents."
"You... knew my parents?"
He smiled faintly. "You have no idea how much blood they shed guarding that book. It's no fake. It's the key to the magic that underpins this world—space."
His gaze pierced straight to the tome hidden in my arms.
"Even now, shadows hunt you. The academy gauge exploding wasn't mere accident. It broadcast your 'awakening' worldwide."
He pulled a small metal pendant from his pocket and handed it over. "I'll invite you properly soon. The 'truth' behind your parents' accident—I'll tell you then. They gave me this pendant. Said to pass it to their son if they died."
With that, he melted into the shadows. Astonishingly, after a few steps, his form blurred like heat haze and vanished like a mirage.
"Where'd he go?"
Seol-ha muttered blankly. No mana ripple from him at all. As if he'd never been there.
She whipped around, glaring at me. "Do Jae-hyun, we've got a lot to talk about...?"
"..."
I sighed, gauging her mood. "I don't know the full story either, but I'll explain inside."
"Hmph. You better. You have any idea how shocked I was earlier?"
As she stormed ahead, I clenched the cold pendant in my palm. My parents' accident. This cursed, overwhelming power in my hand. What connected them?
If not for this damn book, maybe they'd still be alive.
Head spinning, I trudged after Seol-ha into the house.
*
I laid out the whole story—the rundown old book, the magic I'd learned. Seol-ha's eyes welled up as she hugged me tight, overjoyed like it was her own victory. Seeing her care like that warmed my eyes too. Knowing someone thought of me that way kept me going.
Back in my room, I collapsed onto the damp mattress. Opening the Ancient Tome, Iris rustled the pages mockingly.
"Hmph, oppas got a handsome face, but skills like trash? Whatever. I'll mold you into a true space successor."
"Great archmage? Isn't that granny territory? Why 'oppa' so creepily?"
"What'd you say—?! Eeeeek! I'm a genius—I was a great archmage since my beauty days!"
Then, the pendant in my pocket resonated. Black script bloomed across the blank page.
Chapter 1: Track the Shadow that Covered the Sun.
"That grandpa's gift reacting to my book... Wild."
Suddenly, my expanded spatial senses caught a malicious intent. Someone on the roof beyond the window was watching me.
"Who the hell...?"
"Some faction after you, probably... After flashing 'I'm here' at the test, of course they're watching."
I went to snap my fingers. But Iris hijacked first, revving my mana like a runaway train to my fingertips.
"You're not used to this spell yet, so I'll inject the Space Compression formula straight into your brain~ Might hurt a bit, bear with it!"
"Gahhh!"
Skull-splitting pain as the formula embedded. My finger snapped with a crack.
Crunch—!
The result was brutal. The space atop the roof crumpled like paper, pulverizing the intruder's lower body whole. Like a newbie flooring it through a wall.
The figure plummeted screaming into the yard. I clutched my convulsing right hand, gasping. Another shadow snatched him from the dark and vanished.
Their movements were chillingly mechanical. Hope they've got a top healer. Didn't wanna kill—just blew the legs off...
"Oppa, I Space Teleported his lower half to sub-space, so full recovery's unlikely. How's the brain injection? Okay?"
"Iris... Ask me first next time. Couldn't even react..."
"Ugh... Fine. I was just helping...! So inconsiderate."
I slumped to the floor, sighing. Die as the bottom 0.1% loser, or rise to top 0.1% world-shatterer with this self-proclaimed beauty Iris.
"Just watch. Soon I'll wield space magic on my own, no help needed."
"Hmph! If you want help, I'm there anytime. Just no granny talk."
"Pfft... Got it. Looking forward to working with you."
And so, learning magic from my new family member Iris, the day I entered Seongun Academy drew near.