Suspicion (9)
I paused for a moment, turning over in my mind the reason for the hostility flooding those green eyes. It was incredibly annoying and irritating, yet at the same time, strangely puzzling. The animosity felt excessive if it stemmed from mere competitive spirit. If it was resentment over her loss in the previous ranking match, Jin Yeseo had already regarded me with distaste long before that. There was no clear point of contact to suggest personal or familial conflict. While the White Light family maintained close ties with the Tyrant Heaven family among the five great houses, they weren’t openly hostile toward the Black Lotus. Perhaps she had heard the rumors about my clash with that girl at the start of the semester. The incident had spread so widely across the academy that practically everyone knew of it. And Jin Yeseo was said to follow her with a devotion bordering on worship. Yet even those reasons felt insufficient. Beneath the unseen surface, it seemed something else was at play—something I didn’t know about. If anything, her feeling was less a craving for victory than a visceral hatred of defeat. What the hell was it?
I shook off the doubts crowding my head. Even if I uncovered the reason now, it wouldn’t magically resolve the situation before me. The task was clear, the solution simple: deliver an even more miserable defeat to this persistently clinging girl and completely break her. Make sure she never considered bothering me again. As a bonus, it would lend more strength to Yeon Minha.
“Still haven’t come to your senses after getting beaten like that?”
The moment the words left my mouth, the blonde girl ground her teeth audibly.
“Today I’m going all out.”
“Pretty sure you said something similar last time.”
“No. Today is different.”
“Different?”
Jin Yeseo stared at me with eyes still blazing as she murmured, “Because I’m stepping in here with the resolve to kill you.”
“…”
It was a declaration chilling enough to crawl down the spine.
“Both combatants, to your positions.”
At the judge’s command, Jin Yeseo spun on her heel and strode briskly away. I returned to my starting mark as well. Soon the resounding countdown signaling the start of the duel echoed across the arena.
Jin Yeseo stood at the opposite end of the dueling ground, one hand already resting on the particle arranger at her wrist. True to the standard approach of an Emission mage facing a Circulation mage, she looked ready to unleash spells the instant the match began.
“…Two! One…!”
Whatever her unclear motives, one thing was certain—she was approaching this duel with far more sincerity than before. Resolve to kill me. No matter how I considered it, the words didn’t sound metaphorical.
“…”
However, I had no intention of matching her resolve. On the contrary, I needed something entirely opposite. If I met her halfway like last time, she would only cling harder to her grudge. It was obvious that she would take that humiliation as fuel and come at me again like a moth to flame. Therefore, what I had to do was… carve a despair so profound it surpassed mere humiliation into her very bones.
“…Begin!”
A thunderous roar crashed over the arena the moment the judge gave the signal. Jin Yeseo completed her spell formula in less than a few seconds. Behind her, a black flame serpent writhed in the air, burning so fiercely it stung the skin.
“…?”
But soon a flicker of confusion crossed her previously tense eyes. A murmur spread through the crowd that had been shouting in excitement. Hundreds of pairs of eyes were now fixed on me.
I had not moved from my spot even long after the signal to begin.
Duels between Emission and Circulation mages always followed a simple, established pattern. A Circulation mage facing an Emission mage closes the distance as quickly as possible. They aim to seize the opponent’s vital points and force a surrender, or—if that fails—continually press for close-quarters combat. Emission magic at short range carries the risk of self-damage, and Emission mages generally struggle against the overwhelming physical reinforcement of Circulation mages in melee. Naturally, Emission mages therefore strive to inflict maximum damage before their opponent can close in, or to neutralize them outright.
Under those conditions, he should already have been charging at her. Their previous match had ended in crushing defeat, but the flow had been the same.
Yet now, the masked male student showed no intention of rushing in. He simply stood with his arms hanging loosely, power drained from his posture.
“…Hey. What the hell are you doing?”
Jin Yeseo called across the arena, her voice already laced with rising fury.
“…”
No clear answer came from him. Instead, he continued his bizarre behavior. He flipped his blade into a reverse grip and drove it straight into the dueling ground with a heavy crunch. The stone floor split apart as easily as soil. Only then did Jin Yeseo hear his voice.
“Doesn’t look like I’ll need a blade for this.”
“What…?”
His calm tone only stoked her anger further. For a Circulation mage to enter a duel without a stellite weapon was virtually unheard of. No matter how much physical reinforcement magic strengthened the body, there were clear limits. The only things that could protect the mage while closing distance were the anti-particle suit and weapons made of stellite, a particle-conductive metal. Moreover, the anti-particle suit alone could not provide flexible defense. Without a blade to deflect incoming spells, he would be exposed to danger in an instant.
In their last duel, he had ultimately subdued her with bare-handed combat, but he had still used his blade to deflect her spells until he closed the gap. The overload had been so severe that his blade eventually snapped. Therefore, the only situation in which such an unfair-seeming duel could occur was when the opponent’s skill was judged to be overwhelmingly inferior.
Having finally grasped the meaning behind his actions, Jin Yeseo’s face flushed crimson and pale by turns with humiliation and rage.
“You… you fucking bastard!!!”
She hurled the black flame serpents straight at him.
Lee Hyun focused his mind for a brief moment. Ripples spread through the surrounding atmosphere like waves, and then a certain sensation began pouring into his body through the ends of his limbs. He accomplished with the ease of drawing breath what was impossible for any other mage in the world. Tiny, invisible particles tickled the blood vessels throughout his body. Next, he manipulated the particle arranger to stack a spell formula using the gathered particles. Points were placed, lines drawn, and soon a multi-dimensional cubic formula of five hierarchical layers burrowed into his physique.
In the previous ranking match against Jin Yeseo, he had not even unfolded half the paths of his Predictive Eye. He had been forced to fight while still recovering from the damage sustained during the southern collapse incident. This time, however, he had been granted a relatively leisurely recovery period after the Red Flower incident. Unfolding the Predictive Eye up to the fifth path should pose no major problem.
There was no need to end this duel as quickly as last time. On the contrary, he intended to drag the fight out to the very limit of the time restriction. Jin Yeseo seemed to have taken the act of planting his blade as mockery, but soon enough she too would be forced to acknowledge the pure gap between them.
Boom!
The instant he finished activating the Predictive Eye, he leaped from his position. A massive wall of black flame had already swallowed the spot where he had been standing. Before he could even land, several fanged flame serpents shot toward his vital points. At the same time, a sharp arrow of flame—clearly aimed at his throat—streaked through the air.
Yet Lee Hyun evaded them all with instinctive precision and immediately moved to close the distance again.
“You got faster? What the—!”
Jin Yeseo ground her teeth in disbelief. She had spent the past several weeks devoting every single minute to training without rest. Moreover, in duels between Circulation and Emission mages, the first-move advantage always belonged to the Emission side. Yet far from narrowing the gap, he hadn’t allowed her even a single clean hit.
Jin Yeseo screamed, desperately clinging to her crumbling spirit.
“Die!!”
She scattered flames in every direction. Roaring black fire covered the dueling ground so completely there was nowhere left to step.
Hiss…
The moment Lee Hyun’s foot touched the floor, a sizzling sound rose from beneath his sole. He paid it no mind and continued closing in on Jin Yeseo at terrifying speed. The melted rubber of his soles left footprints behind him like tracks in snow.
Now Jin Yeseo could even see her own blurred reflection on his mask.
…No. I can’t lose like this again…!
With teeth clenched, Jin Yeseo formed a massive orb of black flame above her palm. She was prepared to drag him down with her even if it meant getting caught in the blast herself. But before the spell could finish forming, a brutal hand suddenly shot out and seized her wrist. Reacting to the movement was already impossible. Without the slightest hesitation, the masked student twisted her wrist in the opposite direction of its joint.
Crack!
“Ugh…!”
The unfinished spell scattered back into particles and dissolved into the air. Jin Yeseo tumbled across the dueling ground with a groan.
Boom!
She rolled sideways just as Lee Hyun’s weighted foot slammed down where her head had been. Scrambling up, she formed a long, burning black spear in her uninjured hand and swung it at his head with bloodshot eyes.
Boom!
Lee Hyun raised both forearms like a shield and deflected the blow. The gauntlet attached to his anti-particle suit shattered and flew away. From the impact, he felt a trace of puzzlement. The aura Jin Yeseo emitted was strangely alien. Come to think of it, the same thing had happened in their last match. Rather than creating distance when he approached, she always chose to fight head-on. It wasn’t as if there was no space to retreat or no way to avoid him. Whenever the fight crossed from judgment into the realm of desperation and instinct, Jin Yeseo always revealed the same side of herself. It felt less like a difference in style and more like an innate temperament. Add to that a body trained far beyond the norm for an Emission mage, and movements that instinctively struck at vital points. In some ways, she was even more threatening than when she wildly scattered spells.
“…”
Still, Lee Hyun quickly brushed the observation from his mind. Whatever her true nature, it did not change what he had to do now.
Whoosh!
He deflected her wide swing. Slipping inside her guard as if embracing her, he clamped both hands firmly around her temples. Before she could even register what was happening, Lee Hyun drove his knee upward with his full weight behind it.
CRAAAASH!!
A terrifying roar filled the dueling ground. When the dust cleared, Jin Yeseo was revealed slumped against the concrete wall. Her hair tie had come undone, leaving her golden locks disheveled. She lay half-buried in rubble, her limbs trembling pathetically.
“Kuh… hack… ugh…”
“Don’t worry. I won’t ask you to surrender this time.”
The masked student grabbed Jin Yeseo by the throat and lifted her as he spoke.
“Just stay quiet like that. Until the duel is over.”
Beneath the mask, his eyes gleamed with a piercing light.