Prologue 4 — Black Mana

The training ground seethed with uneasy murmuring.

Han Dohyeon, sword drawn against Jo Juhyeon, spoke quietly to Cheon Seo-hui, who stood frozen in place.

"Stay back."

"…!"

Seo-hui snapped back to herself, hastily gathered her weapon, and retreated a safe distance.

Juhyeon's gaze followed her as she withdrew. From the very beginning, Seo-hui had been her target.

"Jo Juhyeon."

But Dohyeon was not about to stand by and watch.

"When you fight, you look at the opponent in front of you."

"!"

He drove hard against the blade locked with his own.

Clang—!

Forced to meet his eyes, Juhyeon let out a snickering laugh and poured out her hatred.

"Yeah…. I never liked you either…. Always running your mouth like you're somebody, barking orders left and right…."

Pitch-black mana billowed thicker and thicker in answer to her rage and loathing — a sinister power no human should have been able to produce.

Facing that ominous mana, Dohyeon tightened his grip on his sword without thinking.

This is….

It was unmistakably the mana unique to demonkind. Mana no human could generate.

Which meant the Demon King had already begun to move.

Using a child like this….

Juhyeon, oblivious to the bleakness settling over him, grinned as she raised her blade.

"You're just the same."

Drunk on demonic power, she was already far past reason.

Fwaat—! Moving too fast for the eye to follow, she slipped behind Dohyeon and drove a dagger at the unprotected nape of his neck.

"Keeheeheek…!"

The black-mana-wreathed blade was a hair's breadth from tearing open his throat when—

"Kyaaaaah!!!"

"Teacher!!!"

"…!"

—screams erupted from the students watching the standoff from a distance.

"…Hah…."

Dohyeon's tight, weary sigh carried low beneath them.

And in that instant, every person watching the fight saw something they could scarcely believe.

Ssshk. Sword in hand, Dohyeon turned with almost leisurely slowness—

Whooosh—. He swung the flat of the blade and smashed it into the side of the charging Juhyeon.

As if he alone were moving inside a different flow of time.

KWAANG—!!!

An impact powerful enough to shake the heavy training-hall building slammed into her.

"Guhhk…!"

She was hurled away before she could even resist, slammed into the inner wall of the hall—

Thud…. Collapse!

—and lost consciousness on the spot, finally freed from the black mana that had held her.

The people who had watched a battle end in a single breath found themselves stunned all over again, for an entirely different reason.

"What the hell was that just now…? How did he even move?"

"Was it magic?"

"N-no. I barely felt any mana."

"…That's impossible…."

Having settled the situation with almost casual ease, Dohyeon hurried over to the teacher whose chest had been slashed open.

"Are you all right? First, we should call emergency services—"

"Th-that can wait…!"

The teacher clearly did not care about the pain.

"Th-that just now. How—how did you do that?"

"Pardon?"

"That movement…! What kind of ability was that? Did you use magic? An artifact!?"

He worked as an Academy teacher now, but there had been a time when he, too, had chased strength harder than anyone — as an Explorer.

"Uh…."

Unable to admit it was an ancient sword art discovered in another world, Dohyeon simply claimed it was a technique he had refined on his own, and dialed emergency services.

"Th-that was just… ordinary swordsmanship…?"

The teacher, who had not even been able to identify the technique, stared at Dohyeon in a daze.

Meanwhile—

"……."

Seo-hui, mixed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in among the other students, watched Dohyeon busily cleaning up the aftermath with a complicated expression on her face.

His skill in subduing Juhyeon in a single stroke was one thing.

But more than that, she felt a crushing sense of self-loathing — that even if her opponent had been mana-doped, she had nearly been taken down without landing a single blow.

I couldn't even counter….

If Dohyeon had been even a fraction of a second later….

She would not be standing here unharmed right now.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Once the Awakened Response Unit and emergency services arrived and the situation was more or less under control—

"What on earth happened here, Mr. Han!"

—I was summoned straight to the principal's office and had to explain everything all over again.

"It seems that student was under the effects of mana doping."

"M-mana doping? Are you certain?"

"We'll need the official test results to be sure, but from what I saw, yes."

Once he understood the full picture, the principal rubbed the back of his neck with the look of a man who was already exhausted beyond measure.

"Of all the times for this…."

Mana doping was already surging as a social issue. And now an Academy student under its influence had attacked a teacher and another student?

Handled poorly, the entire Academy's reputation could take a devastating hit.

"Urgh…."

As the principal groaned and clutched his head, an unexpected message crackled through from the secretary's office over the intercom.

"A news crew…?"

Already nursing a splitting headache, the principal snapped that they had no business showing up this fast on nothing but a rumor, and reached for the intercom—

"…No. Wait."

He froze mid-motion, something flashing across his face.

"A news crew?"

His gaze slid quietly over to me.

"……?"

And a short while later—

"All right. Just relax and give them a simple rundown of what happened."

—I found myself standing in front of a massive camera stamped with a broadcast network logo.

All because of the principal's request.

"Mr. Han! Please — help our students out here!"

He intended to put me front and center and use this incident to clean things up. The idea was to properly publicize the dangers of mana doping and make the case that the Academy needed additional support.

Is this how you climb all the way to principal?

Impressed despite myself by the man's unconventional foresight, I agreed to the interview without protest.

Principal's request aside, the dangers of mana doping genuinely needed to be made clear.

"All right, let's begin."

"Yes, sir."

"First — it's been reported that the student in question displayed symptoms consistent with mana doping. What kind of symptoms did you observe?"

"She showed far greater aggression than usual, and a complete inability to regulate her emotions. The doping did produce a mild enhancement effect, but…."

The interview itself was not particularly difficult.

"You personally subdued the student, correct? Could you walk us through that situation?"

"I had stepped out briefly. When I returned, I found the student in question attacking a classmate…."

The only real problem was the camera the size of a human face staring me down the entire time.

"All right. I think that will do. Thank you very much for the interview."

"Appreciate your time."

And so, somehow, I got through the interview as well.

"Mr. Han! Go home and rest."

"That's right. Classes aren't going to happen today anyway."

On the grounds that I had just been through a major incident, I was practically shoved out the door and sent home early.

I should talk to Yeonjeong first.

Unfortunately, going to see Choi Yeonjeong turned out to be impossible.

"Dad…!"

I had barely been home a few minutes when—

"Dad!"

—an unexpected commotion sent me out to the living room, where Nakyeong, who should have still been at the Academy, came bursting through the door in a breathless rush.

"What? Why are you here…?"

"What do you mean, why am I here!? I came because I was worried about you, obviously!!"

Apparently the moment she heard what had happened, she had filed for early leave and sprinted straight home.

"You're not hurt anywhere? You didn't get injured…?"

Watching her fuss over me with that anxious face, I felt a smile tug at the corners ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of my mouth before I could stop it.

"You know Dad doesn't get hurt by something like that. I'm completely fine."

"Ugh. Seriously…! Do you have any idea how scared I was!?"

She latched onto me like a cicada on an old tree and insisted we stay home and rest for the day.

For someone who still had things to do, that was a problem.

"It's not like I need to rest that badly…."

From my perspective, at least.

"…Don't tell me. You're not seriously about to ditch your daughter who just got the shock of her life and waltz right back out the door, are you?"

Nakyeong's expression went cold. She fixed me with a look that said, You're not actually saying that out loud, are you?

"…Right?"

I worked my mouth uselessly for a moment, then turned my head away.

"O-of course not…."

"Whew…. I was this close to following you out and getting a giant tattoo."

"…Don't say terrifying things like that."

It looked like I would be spending the day quietly at home with Nakyeong after all.

As expected, the Jo Juhyeon rampage kicked up no small amount of controversy.

This was not just any Awakened going berserk — it was an Academy student. Every news outlet latched onto that keyword and refused to let go.

With another major clash between civilian society and Awakened society already on the horizon, someone else was drawing attention entirely separate from the incident itself.

And that someone, unfortunately, was me.

I had already been drawing a quiet buzz under the bizarre nickname "Choi Yeonjeong's Guy Friend." The news interview only poured more fuel on the fire.

Forget rowing when the tide comes in — this was a full-blown flood.

This bad?

Caught off guard by the unexpected heat, I called Choi Yeonjeong for help.

"Hey…. I think doing that interview was a mistake. People I don't even recognize are blowing up my phone…!"

But all she offered was some idle remark about how well I photographed.

Some friend she was. Completely useless.

"Yeah. Find anything?"

Stuck at home, I had already passed Jo Juhyeon's information to Yeonjeong through a secure messenger I had signed up for earlier. Her suggestion that we prepare against possible wiretaps or hacks had paid off.

"Nothing serious, then?"

"Whew…."

"Something weird?"

"…What?"

The police had not taken Jo Juhyeon. Then who the hell had?

The very order that served the Goddess.

The Goddess of Prosperity!

The same goddess who had led me to Cheon Seo-hui.

In a back alley where the evening gloom had already settled thick, Seo-hui stood beneath a broken streetlamp and absently lifted her gaze to the sky.

Heavy clouds blotted out everything. Whether a moon hung beyond them, or stars — there was no way to tell.

"……."

She found herself replaying the events of the afternoon.

Her own pathetic self, unable to resist an attack steeped in clear murderous intent — and Dohyeon's back, appearing in the moment of crisis to shield her.

If I had taken Jo Juhyeon down myself back there.

Plenty of people would have recognized her. Dohyeon would have praised her for a job well done, of course.

Maybe she could even have planted the idea that she was not just some child.

"……."

But thinking about it now changed nothing.

She was weak.

An overwhelmingly weak girl who could not even reach the tips of Yeonjeong's toes — Yeonjeong, who stood shoulder to shoulder with Dohyeon.

Faced once more with the hard truth that she could never beat Yeonjeong, Seo-hui sank into a deep, crushing helplessness and stared blankly up at the sky.

"……."

The sky above remained pitch black.