Black Market (2)
At Oh Se-hun's request, the graduate rose to her feet without hesitation. She, too, had once served on the Disciplinary Committee, and she knew as well as anyone that in a situation like this, time was life itself.
Tying her long hair back into a ponytail, she asked,
"Blocked by a formation, you say?"
"That is correct."
"Then let's go. Seung-jae, open the door."
"Yes, Senior."
Gwak Seung-jae had finished chanting his spell long before — after all, their next destination had already been decided. When he reopened the wooden door he had shut, the scenery beyond it had changed.
The ponytail woman showered him with praise.
"This is so convenient. Seung-jae, once you graduate, why not come work with us?"
"I will give it consideration."
With a unique magic like his to his name, Gwak Seung-jae had already drawn recruitment offers enough to pile up like a mountain.
Before long, they stepped through the door and arrived before an empty building on a corner of the commercial district. Several Disciplinary Committee members had the area ringed in a tight cordon, both to control the comings and goings of ordinary students and to seal off any escape routes for those inside.
The ponytail graduate eyed the building.
"This the place? You're certain?"
"Certain. And as for what we have learned of the formation—"
"Ah, that's enough."
Waving off the Committee member on-site before he could explain, she trudged toward the building's entrance. Clearly, she meant to experience it firsthand rather than hear it described.
For the moment, nothing seemed amiss.
But just as she was nearly at the entrance, she abruptly spun a full 180 degrees and trudged right back to the Disciplinary Committee members. Without realizing it, she had moved exactly as the formation steered her.
The graduate soon came to her senses, blinking around at her surroundings.
"A Confusion Formation, huh. No wonder you lot couldn't crack it."
"Our apologies."
The third-year who had attempted to dismantle the formation bowed his head.
The ponytail woman asked,
"No civilians inside, right?"
"Not to our knowledge. Though... may I ask why you—"
"Step back. Further."
"……?"
The Committee members traded bemused looks, none of them sure why they were being ordered to retreat, but an instruction from a senior who had graduated carried enough weight that they obeyed without a word.
Next, the ponytail woman headed not for the entrance but for the outer wall, laying her slender hand lightly against it.
"No need to dance to those thieves' tune."
Her hand took on a blue glow, and from that point a tremendous ripple spread outward as the wall heaved like a wave. Cracks shot across it in quick succession and raced through the entire building —
— Rrrrumble...
— and the whole area began shaking violently, as though an earthquake had struck.
The students holed up inside Exchange B jolted in alarm.
"Wh-what the—!"
"Why is it coming down?!"
"Out, now, move!"
A dozen-odd students smashed through the exchange's windows and bolted outside — straight into the Committee's encirclement, where they were promptly subdued. Even so, they had made the right call. Being taken in by the Disciplinary Committee beat being buried under the rubble of a collapsing building.
— Rrrrumble—!
Soon the building collapsed outright, crumpling in on itself, and a thick cloud of dust swallowed the area.
"……!"
"……!"
The Committee members watching stood dumbstruck. They had called for help because they couldn't break the formation — and she had simply brought down the very building the formation was installed in.
They shot Oh Se-hun looks that plainly asked, Is this really acceptable? — but he only kept his gentle smile in place. Even the graduate's sudden rampage, it seemed, fell within his expectations.
In truth, he had requested assistance half intending exactly this. Armed with nothing more than a Committee Chief's authority, he could never have moved his own hand so boldly.
— Bam!
"Ugh!"
A Committee member slammed a resisting student into the ground, then pressed his scanner against him — and the crystal orb flushed red. The student was carrying banned items. Every one of the subdued was the same.
The ponytail woman swept her gaze over them and gave her orders.
"Take them in and start the interrogations. And if anyone held out inside and got buried, dig them out. This is the Dragon Slayer Academy, after all — surely they didn't die."
"Understood."
"Ah, and one more thing."
Just as she was about to head back to the Disciplinary Committee Room, she seemed to remember something, turned, and pointed at the crumpled wreckage of the building.
"Put that on my tab."
— Rrrrumble—
A heavy cloud of dust boiled up from Exchange B. Watching the scene, Dang Gyu-young clicked her tongue.
"Wow... those brutes. They straight-up flipped the whole table."
Now that the exchange's location had been pinpointed, we had expected the Committee to take their time — patiently cracking the Confusion Formation, then patiently unraveling the Throughwalk maze. As if to laugh at that expectation, they had simply demolished the building in a single stroke.
"Looks like the graduate stepped in."
"Wouldn't surprise me. Oh Se-hun or Gwak Seung-jae could never pull something like that."
It was firepower the second- and third-year Committee members simply could not produce — and from the Committee's standpoint, there were far too many factors to weigh before laying a hand on a building in the commercial district. Which lent considerable weight to the theory that a graduate had made her move.
"Even so, I'd guess this was a one-off."
"Probably?"
Reckless as that graduate was, even she couldn't go around smashing buildings to her heart's content. Besides, while Exchange B had been an empty shell, most of the other exchanges — Exchange E, where we had traded our skillbooks, among them — were borrowed from businesses still in operation. If there was even the slightest chance a civilian remained inside, the building was untouchable.
Which meant the rest would have to come the way Dang Gyu-young intended: patiently, formation first. They had landed one blow, yes — but the Thief Club still held the advantage.
And if that was so, our own task hadn't changed much either.
Time to keep interfering, then.
— Fwoooosh—pop!
I set off another Committee flare. These were reserved for emergencies, which meant they had no choice but to come running — all the more so to catch the wretches who had dared steal from the Disciplinary Committee itself. Sure enough, several presences swiftly began tightening the net around us.
"Off again. Grab on."
"Yep."
Hand in hand with Dang Gyu-young, I leaped for the building across the way. The gap was a touch too far for a simple jump, but combining [Levitate Zone] and [Wind Force], I took a second step off empty air — landing on the next rooftop, then hopping to the one beyond it.
Dang Gyu-young's eyes glinted with interest.
"The more I do this, the funner it gets."
"You're not the only fan."
Seo Ye-in had delighted in being hurled through the air any number of times during the Crystal match, and Cha Hyun-ju had been over the moon when I sent her flying during the PvP assessment. Such is Wind Force: to some, the most detested skill in existence; to others, an endless well of amusement.
A few more rooftop jumps, and we had shaken the Committee's pursuit with ease. We paused for a short breather — and Dang Gyu-young, who had been peering down below, tugged at my hand and jabbed a finger at a spot.
"Hey. Look at that."
A student was hurrying down an alley between buildings, glancing over his shoulder again and again — which suggested something was weighing on him. And whatever that something was, nine times out of ten it was a banned item.
"One of our customers."
"And it looks like he's been caught."
The next moment, two Committee members appeared and cut off the customer's path before and behind. One third-year, one first-year — both faces familiar. The third-year was the Hell Ax Senior who had guarded the Temporary Confiscation Storage; the first-year was Geum Johan, eldest young master of the Golden Lotus.
Geum Johan approached the customer and raised his scanner.
"We shall now conduct a brief contraband inspection."
"D-do we really need an inspection?"
The customer rolled his eyes uneasily — until a heavy bass voice rolled out from behind him.
"Cooperating quietly would reflect well on your record."
The Hell Ax Senior stood with his arms crossed, radiating an intimidating pressure. Cowed by it, the customer didn't so much as twitch.
The instant Geum Johan moved to press the scanner against him —
— Bam!
"Wha—?!"
Compressed air detonated, and Geum Johan's body was flung sideways, slamming into the wall. And before the Hell Ax Senior could even react, several butterflies that had stolen in on the sly wound themselves around him and bound him fast.
"Dang Gyu-young, is it?!"
Shadow Weavers within the Dragon Slayer Academy were few and far between, and the only one who used [Shadow Butterfly Flight] as her signature skill was, for all practical purposes, Dang Gyu-young herself. Naturally, she felt no obligation to answer the question.
"Hup!"
The Hell Ax Senior tore free of the shadows at once and drew the ax slung across his back. Geum Johan, for his part, had smashed face-first into the wall and was bleeding profusely from the nose — but he quickly steadied himself and drew his sword.
"……"
But we were already long gone from the scene. We had stayed only until our customer was safely clear. Dang Gyu-young stuck her tongue out in the Hell Ax Senior's direction.
"Fight you? What do you take me for, a madwoman? I'd lose anyway."
The single greatest goal Dang Gyu-young and the Thief Club had set for this Black Market was to drive the banned-item seizure rate as low as it would go — all to reclaim the credibility that had cratered after last year's Black Market fiasco. And our role as the reserve force was to obstruct the Committee's inspections and sweeps. For obstruction, a sudden strike at the unguarded moment followed by a swift retreat — just now, in other words — was more than enough.
Dang Gyu-young produced yet another Committee flare.
"Shall we pop off another one?"
But instead of answering right away, I hummed in thought.
"...Somehow, I've got a bad feeling."
"About what?"
"I have a feeling a certain wooden door is about to spring up."
We had fired flare after flare and kept slipping through their fingers; it was about time they stopped sending rank-and-file members and moved Gwak Seung-jae in instead. Dang Gyu-young seemed to arrive at the same thought, mulling it over briefly before nodding.
"Fair point. Then let's make this the very last one."
"Agreed."
I channeled mana into the flare, and a brilliant streak of light shot up into the sky.
— Fwoooosh—pop!
And ominous hunches never miss. The moment we used Wind Force to leap for the next building —
— Krrrrr...
— a wooden door burst up out of nowhere and barred our way, as if they had predicted our destination all along.
Dang Gyu-young and I looked at each other.
"It really came."
"See? I told you something felt off."
Gwak Seung-jae emerged the moment the door swung open, and two third-year Committee members followed him out, taking up positions at his flanks.
"Senior, such misconduct is unacceptable. Those flares are authorized for use by Disciplinary Committee members alone."
"Hm? What flare?"
Dang Gyu-young played innocent, feigning total ignorance. After all, we had merely been in the vicinity — there was no proof we had fired anything.
Yet.
This time, Gwak Seung-jae's gaze settled on me.
"Kim Ho. Did I not instruct you to keep whatever you do within the line drawn by academy regulations?"
"You did indeed. I merely stepped out for a stroll with this senior of mine."
No rule violations here.
I played innocent right along with her. Of course, both her lie and mine were the sort that would come apart in no time.
"For now, you will accompany us to the Disciplinary Committee Room."
An investigation would turn up everything. My inventory, for one, still held flares. And what would happen should we refuse was as plain as day — the two third-years stood poised to move at a moment's notice.
Dang Gyu-young and I exchanged a glance.
Play this right, and we might just slip free.
And just as the fight was about to begin —
— Whrrrrr—!
From who knows where, threads thin as fishing line came whipping through the air and lashed themselves around Gwak Seung-jae and the two third-years, binding them tight.
[173] The Support Ate It All