Friction (2)
By the time the entrance ceremony and the banquet that followed had ended, the sun had already sunk into a deep twilight. I parted ways with Yena and made my way to the dormitory assigned to me.
“Please refrain from making excessive noise. After midnight, ensure no light escapes through the windows. Bringing outsiders into the dormitory may result in disciplinary action, so please keep that in mind at all times. Especially if you’re caught with a female student, it could lead to expulsion. Ah, and despite these warnings, there are always a few who break the rules every year… heh heh…”
The elderly administrator walking ahead along the forest path recited the precautions in a gentle, steady tone. A cluster of glowing orbs floated before him, illuminating the dark woodland trail.
“Here we are. This is the dormitory assigned to Student Yu Jin-hyun. Please make yourself at home as if it were your own room. If anything urgent arises, simply press the call bell. Well then…”
Having finished his guidance, the administrator bowed politely and retraced his steps into the darkness. I returned the bow, then turned to examine the building.
The dormitory was a stone structure nestled on a flat clearing among towering ancient trees. Although the assignment was temporary, my recommendation-based admission had apparently earned me a private room. It stood at a comfortable distance from the neighboring dormitories, giving the place a tranquil, secluded atmosphere. At a glance, there seemed to be dozens of similar buildings. Just how vast was the academy grounds?
Still, the professor had mentioned earlier that room assignments could change at any time based on the upcoming rankings. Even without my specific goal of approaching Yeon Minha, it looked like I would need to maintain a high position regardless.
I was consciously suppressing the manifestation of my Authority, but the Director had warned that it leaked out around me while I slept. I had no desire to be discovered by those nearby and deal with the resulting complications simply because I closed my eyes.
Using the key I’d been given, I unlocked the door and stepped inside. Dark-patterned wooden floors and elegant antique furniture greeted me. The bed was large enough for two people to sleep comfortably, and there were two separate rooms that could serve various purposes. Just the size of this single room already dwarfed the modest house I had once shared with my mother. The quarters at the Northeast Garrison weren’t even worth comparing.
The luxury felt excessive and awkward, but I had no choice but to grow accustomed to it.
I surveyed every corner of the room. As I had requested beforehand, no mirrors were visible anywhere. The thick blackout curtains by the window appeared capable of completely blocking any reflection of light.
Knock knock.
Satisfied that all my requests had been accommodated, I approached the window to draw the curtains when a faint but solid tapping sound echoed from outside. I opened the window cautiously and peered toward the source.
“…Ah.”
Perched on the outer windowsill was a crow with a somewhat familiar appearance. The white feathers on its head immediately caught my eye. It was Mok Jinu’s crow—the same one I had encountered at the Silver Moon Pavilion in the capital last time. I remembered seeing it come and go from the Director’s office several times while I was still in the military.
Instead of a note tied to its leg, the crow clutched a thick, rolled-up document folder in its beak. The moment I opened the window, it hopped inside, fluttered onto the desk, and spat the folder out with a wet thwack.
Now freed from its burden, the crow looked at me, opened its beak—and instead of a bird’s caw, Mok Jinu’s rough, gravelly voice emerged.
“How’ve you been, kid? I compiled the materials related to the information you requested last time and sent them over. One is a summary of the introduction to basic spiritology, and the other is a copy of a certain journal the Information Bureau kept under separate lock and key. Spiritology is taught even at the cradle, so that’s fine, but the journal is Class-A confidential. Destroy it immediately after reading. And just like you asked, I didn’t breathe a word to Jaehyuk, so rest easy. If you need anything else, come find me anytime. If you’re feeling lonely out there all by yourself, I can even send a woman to—”
“…If you’ve delivered what you came to deliver, then leave.”
Caw!
The crow had rattled off Mok Jinu’s words nonstop like a recording device. But I had heard enough. I tossed the bird back outside the window and yanked the curtains shut with a sharp snap. It protested with a few more cries before vanishing into the dark sky.
“…Even without forming a long bond like you have, recording and transmitting short messages is perfectly possible. Mimicking human speech is easy for crows. They were remarkably intelligent creatures even before they became demonic beasts. And now that they’ve mutated under the influence of particles, they’re even more capable.”
The principal’s words from that day in the greenhouse suddenly came back to me. I felt a twinge of envy for mages who could tame crows. It had always been impossible for me. Taming a demonic beast required feeding it internalized particles over a long period, but I possessed none to begin with.
Come to think of it, the Director and my sister must have reached the east by now. The fact that he had refused to tell me anything about the mission left a slightly bitter taste in my mouth. If I had my own personal crow, I might have been able to keep in smoother contact with them.
I shook off the lingering regret and turned my attention to the document folder the crow had left on the desk. There was no point trying to sleep early tonight anyway; I might as well go over the information Mok Jinu had sent. Lying in bed would only lead to a night of tossing and turning, drowning in gloomy thoughts.
Honestly, I was also curious about what exactly the Spirit Mage’s Curse was.
I pulled out the chair at the desk and sat down, then released the lock on my mask and set it within easy reach. Even though I was indoors, removing it made the air feel strangely crisp and refreshing.
The folder Mok Jinu sent consisted of two distinct parts. I decided to start with the summarized introduction to spiritology. It seemed he had included it to help me grasp the basic concepts first.
Spiritology Introduction Summary
The exact origin of spirits remains unknown, but the prevailing theory is that they are an extraterrestrial species that arrived alongside Bessel particles during Falling Star Day and integrated into Earth’s ecosystem. Their atypical, invisible nature—which cannot be explained by conventional biological mechanisms—supports this hypothesis. Additionally, the fact that they are described as life forms that “swim” within particles, exhibiting extreme particle sensitivity, serves as compelling evidence for the theory…
Spirits have been reported in dozens of varieties within academic circles, with new species discovered at regular intervals. As previously noted, spirits are invisible and possess no physical form. They can even enter the human body without causing any effect. This is because they inhabit the ecological niche between the material world and the void.
However, a very small number of mages can perceive spirits and wield them to cast powerful spirit magic. Mages possessing such talent are collectively called spirit mages.
Spirit magic offers several advantages over conventional modern magic. Spirit mages essentially never experience particle exhaustion in combat, as the only internalized particles consumed are the negligible amount used to feed the spirits. While emission-type spells inevitably lose power over distance, spirit magic suffers almost no reduction because the spirits themselves act as the medium. Furthermore, because spirit mages maintain a direct link with their contracted spirits, their spell activation is vastly faster than that of ordinary mages. Even now, in the era of widespread particle array devices…
Of course, spirit magic is not without drawbacks. Due to its vast and complex structure, it cannot be imprinted onto particle array devices. As a result, spirit mages must inevitably use their own brains for calculation. This consumes most of their mental resources, meaning they often cannot use other types of magic or are markedly weaker in them. In addition, commanding a large number or variety of spirits can place a slight mental burden on the mage, occasionally resulting in mild nightmares or auditory hallucinations. However, compared to the many advantages spirit magic provides, these are truly minor side effects…
Unfamiliar terms kept appearing, forcing me to spend some time digesting the material. Falling Star Day. From what I remembered learning in school, it referred to the day roughly a hundred years ago when a massive meteor shower struck the planet. The impact caused more than a hundred and fifty nations to vanish overnight, and our own country lost control over significant portions of its territory. That same day marked the influx of Bessel particles carried by the meteors. Humans who mutated under their influence and gained sensitivity became what we call mages. Some native life forms also mutated, becoming the origin of the demonic beasts we know today.
I had known almost nothing about spirits before, but learning they were not mutated Earth creatures but beings from beyond the stars was genuinely surprising.
In summary, spirits were extraterrestrial life forms that had entered our world from the sea of stars. They were invisible and formless, so ordinary people—and even most mages—could not perceive them at all. However, certain mages possessed an “open passage” in a specific part of the brain. These individuals could see spirits and command them through spirit magic. That was what defined a spirit mage.
Yet even after reading this far, nothing seemed to warrant the grandiose label of a “curse.” The text mentioned possible mild nightmares or auditory hallucinations, but that hardly seemed severe enough for people to call it a curse. Moreover, the term “Spirit Mage’s Curse” didn’t appear to be in general use; it seemed reserved specifically for the Yeon family line.
I shifted my gaze. There lay the “journal” Mok Jinu had sent. Perhaps the answers I sought were written inside.
I opened the journal and began to read. Its original owner was Yeon Jayu, the second patriarch of the Red Fire Yeon family. Judging from the dates, he had lived several decades ago. The journal organized his research findings and questions from the period when spirit magic was first being formalized.
I now understood why Mok Jinu had insisted I destroy it immediately after reading. I had no idea how he had obtained it, but if anyone discovered that such valuable material was in outside hands, it would undoubtedly cause an uproar.
We describe it as an “open passage” or “spiritual eye,” but strictly speaking, it is a mental disorder occurring in a specific region of the brain. Spirits, to put it bluntly, are akin to parasites. They instinctively seek out humans with an open passage, latch on, and steal their internalized particles. This cannot be controlled by the host. If a spirit mage is a magnet, spirits are iron filings; they continue to cling regardless of the mage’s will. Spirit magic is merely the art of commanding those already attached spirits. There is currently no known method to drive them away or summon them at will.
Communication between spirit mage and spirit occurs through Bessel particles and is bidirectional. Just as we command spirits through the passage, they use it to plunder our particles. Moreover, they transmit the mental images they have witnessed and felt from beyond the cosmos.
For a spirit mage with only a small number of attached spirits, these images fail to bypass the unconscious defense mechanisms, resulting in nothing more than occasional mild nightmares or faint auditory hallucinations. However, the wider the bandwidth of the wave and the higher the Lubin Value—that is, the more talented the spirit mage—the more powerful spirits are drawn to them, exceeding the defense mechanism’s limits…
When that happens, the defense mechanism collapses under the strain. A hole is punched through the wall, and countless spirit images flood into our consciousness. This is the source of our greatest problem…
Our Yeon family was able to develop spirit magic and rise to the rank of a prestigious house thanks to our exceptionally keen spiritual senses. In exchange, we suffer side effects that ordinary spirit mages never experience…
Aside from slight precognition, there is not a single advantage. Preventing the collapse of the defense mechanism is the ultimate goal of our Yeon family…
A defense mechanism pierced by spirits can no longer fulfill its role. We are left completely exposed to danger—not only the bizarre landscapes sent by the spirits, but even things from other worlds that should never be seen. This is the fundamental reason we suffer from auditory hallucinations, visual hallucinations, and nightmares…
I too feel my nightmares and hallucinations growing worse. Recently I have begun dreaming of a woman standing upside down, a knife clenched in her mouth and her eyes hollowed out, chasing me. The distance is closing…
The journal ended with a calm description of the nightmare its author had experienced. The additional material Mok Jinu had sent listed the ages and causes of death for direct descendants of the Red Fire Yeon bloodline across generations. Dying in one’s thirties or forties was common; almost no one survived past fifty. Causes of death: suicide, suicide, mysterious death, heart attack, suicide, accidental fall, heart attack, mysterious death…
Yeon Jayu himself had died of a heart attack in his early forties—the day after writing his final journal entry.
Such side effects would naturally have been kept tightly under wraps. It made sense that outsiders, unaware of the truth, would look at the Yeon family’s situation and call it the “Spirit Mage’s Curse.” When members of a powerful spirit mage family began acting strangely and dropping dead at young ages, labeling it a curse was only natural. What’s more, the symptoms appeared only among the exceptionally talented members of the Yeon line, making it seem even more ominous.
On a different note, I now understood why the direct descendants of the Yeon family were infamous for their shattered personalities. If someone endured auditory and visual hallucinations all day and could find no peace even in their dreams, where could they possibly find mental stability?
Of course, their arrogant and abrasive attitudes seemed to stem from something else entirely…
At any rate, now that I had confirmed the information, I decided to follow Mok Jinu’s advice and burn the documents.
Crackle…
As I watched the pages burn, a sudden question flashed through my mind.
Even spirit mages of modest ability suffered mild nightmares. The members of the prestigious Yeon family experienced side effects far beyond that. The journal’s author, Yeon Jayu, had endured severe hallucinations, visions, and nightmares despite living decades ago. And now the current successor, Yeon Minha, was rumored to be the strongest spirit mage in the family’s history. The blood and talent accumulated across generations had finally blossomed in her.
But if Yeon Minha truly possessed such overwhelming talent as a spirit mage… what exactly was she seeing right now?
A faint moan escaped into the moonlit dawn.
“Ugh… ugh…”
From the bed beside the window, the sound slipped out softly at first.
“Hahk! Ha…!”
The girl’s eyes suddenly flew open after a long period of violent tossing and turning. Her sheets were soaked through with cold sweat.
“Haa… haa…”
Sitting up, the girl repeatedly wiped her face with dry hands, trying to calm her racing heart. It had been a long time since Yeon Minha had last slept properly. She could no longer even remember the last time she had dreamed without terror.
Her nightmares were always filled with bizarre, incomprehensible landscapes. Sometimes a gigantic pair of eyes floating in the sky glared down at her. Other times she saw something beckoning from an abyss that swallowed stars. There were nights when she wandered endlessly across an alien desert beneath two suns and two moons.
Yeon Minha lowered the hand covering her face and turned her gaze toward the darker side of the room. The wicked laughter that had been giggling in the shadows abruptly cut off.
She looked down at the floor. Among the many shadows, her own stood out—unnaturally long, as though something were hiding inside it.
The nightmares had begun to erode her reality. The antispirit medication produced by the finest pharmaceutical company had long since lost its effect. The cycle of hallucinations and auditory phenomena was growing shorter and shorter. The talent of a spirit mage had returned as a curse, tightening around Yeon Minha’s throat with every passing moment—just as it had with her ancestors.
But the dream she had just experienced felt distinctly different. It was almost too vivid to call a nightmare.
Yeon Minha replayed the contents of that lifelike dream.
She had been left alone in a primordial forest shrouded in thick fog. Her entire body was covered in blood. The particle suit she wore was torn and shattered in countless places, no longer functional. She was surrounded by sinister red shadows with no path of escape.
Before her stood a man, likewise drenched in blood. Every part of his body was broken and twisted; not a single inch remained unharmed. Yet his presence was still unshakable.
With his back to her, the man continued cutting down the endless swarm of red shadows. White wildflowers were dyed crimson, and viscous blood flowed across the ground like a river.
“…Afraid? The spirits…?”
Yeon Minha murmured softly.
The moment she recalled the man’s back, the fear transmitted by the spirits clinging to her washed over her like a wave. It was an intense reaction she had never felt before.
“Just who…?”
The unfamiliar response left even Yeon Minha bewildered. She desperately tried to recall the dream again, searching for the man’s identity. His face remained hidden from view.