Discipline (1)

White Magic Club.

The president's office.

Jeong Chong-myeong sat facing two guests.

The guests, of course, were Dang Gyu-young and Hong Ye-hwa.

All three of them had earned disciplinary penalties together thanks to the infiltration of the Temporary Confiscation Storage, yet a surprisingly warm atmosphere hung among the three club presidents.

Because what they'd gained far outweighed the punishment.

Jeong Chong-myeong and Hong Ye-hwa had managed to recover the Book of Chaos along with most of the banned items their members had confiscated.

Dang Gyu-young, in turn, had received ample compensation for her services, and she stood to profit handsomely from disposing of the remaining banned items as well.

Of course, had Kim Ho and Dang Gyu-young not smuggled the banned items out by some means or other, they would have walked away with nothing but a pile of penalties on their heads.

And so Jeong Chong-myeong chuckled softly as he recalled that night.

"When I saw you two getting caught, I thought it was all over."

"Same. I'd half given up, but they never actually took them in the end."

Hong Ye-hwa chimed in.

As club presidents, they'd had their pride to protect, so they hadn't let it show — but when Song Cheon-hye had thrust the banned item detector at the two of them, their hearts had been in their throats.

And when the magnifying glass came out on top of that, they'd truly believed it was over.

Yet a short while later, Gwak Seung-jae returned wearing the magnifying glass and said only one short thing.

Besides, Song Cheon-hye's face had been practically the color of dirt.

What on earth had happened beyond that door?

The two presidents' eyes gleamed with curiosity.

"How did you pull it off?"

"Secret. We have to keep some of our tricks up our sleeves too."

Dang Gyu-young parried the question with perfect composure.

Inside, of course, she was wondering the exact same thing.

'I want to know more than anyone.'

Granted, the banned item detector could be written off to the Life Cube — but how on earth had the magnifying glass been dealt with?

She'd even asked Kim Ho directly,

and only ended up with more questions than answers.

Still, she trusted she'd find out eventually, so she shelved the questions in a corner of her mind for now.

The two presidents seemed to feel that endlessly prying about skills would be poor manners, so they let it pass.

Of course, even setting the banned items aside, there was still plenty to say about Kim Ho.

"That kid is a real piece of work."

"The more I look at him, the more I think he's wasted a whole year sitting still."

"Right? I'm not the only one who thinks so, then?"

It was a rare moment of unanimous agreement among the three presidents.

Jeong Chong-myeong in particular was all praise, to the point of seeming excessive.

"The kid's calm. Nerves of steel."

Even in situations that had spiraled into sheer chaos, not a trace of tension showed on him.

He'd been dragged into the Room of Truth, the magnifying glass had come out, and instead of being frightened he'd stayed perfectly composed — even turned the tables by placing a wager, and won it.

Hong Ye-hwa added a remark of her own, as if in agreement.

"He does look like he could make it big as a mage."

"See, see. Told you."

Dang Gyu-young beamed and nodded along.

Kim Ho was the one receiving the compliments, yet somehow she found herself feeling good about it too.

Then Jeong Chong-myeong adjusted his glasses and spoke up.

"So, Dang Gyu-young."

"What?"

"Kim Ho specializes in wind magic, right?"

"...Probably?"

Dang Gyu-young answered a little vaguely.

From everything she'd observed, he seemed to throw out one skill after another, but wind magic was most likely his main focus.

Jeong Chong-myeong nodded slowly, as if that was what he'd expected to hear.

"So he's not a black mage, in other words."

"...Hey, hold on. You."

Don't tell me he's about to bring that up.

Dang Gyu-young narrowed her eyes, seized by an ominous premonition.

Not being a black mage meant he met the conditions for joining the White Magic Club.

As if to confirm her suspicion, the corners of Jeong Chong-myeong's mouth curled upward ever so slightly.

"I was thinking of extending a recruitment offer. How about—"

"No way!"

Dang Gyu-young cut him off so decisively that Jeong Chong-myeong blinked and asked again.

"Why not?"

"He's mine."

"...Yours?"

The two presidents exchanged a strange look.

Dang Gyu-young replayed her own words carefully and realized her phrasing had been, to put it mildly, unfortunate.

Still, she ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠corrected herself in a deliberately casual tone.

"That's not what I meant. We've already got our hooks in him. We've done all the legwork — it wouldn't be right for you to swoop in out of nowhere and snatch him right up, would it?"

Jeong Chong-myeong could have pushed back plenty, but he chose to hold his tongue.

He judged there was no need to ruin a good atmosphere.

Instead, he dropped one fact to Dang Gyu-young, seemingly offhand.

"We allow multiple club memberships."

"Still no."

"Why not?"

"Because it puts me in a bad mood."

It might have looked trivial, but it was actually a critical matter.

There was an enormous difference between Kim Ho joining the White Magic Club first and the Thief Club second, versus joining the Thief Club first and the White Magic Club second.

In most cases, even when a student held multiple memberships, they grew more attached to the club they joined first and threw themselves into its activities.

Jeong Chong-myeong understood that point as well, but—

'Still, her reaction is a bit extreme.'

Was there something between the two of them that he didn't know about?

And if so, how was Kim Ho's continued lack of affiliation supposed to be explained?

Jeong Chong-myeong fell silent for a moment, turning various hypotheses over in his mind.

Then he reached a conclusion.

"Fine, understood. We'll hold off on the recruitment offer for now."

For the time being, he would take a step back and watch.

Of course, it wasn't as though he'd made this decision merely to humor Dang Gyu-young's feelings.

'There's no reason to place a bet with no odds of winning.'

Kim Ho was surely aware of the White Magic Club as well — and of the fact that multiple memberships were allowed.

If he'd been interested, he would have filed an application long ago.

In other words, extending a recruitment offer now would stand little chance of acceptance.

With odds that low, was it worth pressing the issue at the cost of friction with the Thief Club?

Jeong Chong-myeong ran the numbers and decided to take a step back.

Still, he added one remark.

"Just be aware that we'll be watching him with interest."

How his evaluation of Kim Ho would shift going forward,

and whether the judgment he'd made today would hold later — only time would tell.

Even after absorbing the lovely little poison, I kept up the cycle — eat poison, cultivate mana, eat more poison, cultivate mana.

And just as I was about to swallow the next dose, I noticed a notification had appeared on the screen.

Looks like I'd been so deep in a state of no-mind that I'd missed it.

At long last, my core had broken out of its plateau and reached B-rank.

'I figured it was about time.'

An unexpected result, but not an entirely unexpected one.

I'd been downing elixirs like meals and practically living in the Mana Cultivation Room day after day.

On top of that, I'd absorbed the energies carried by every lethal poison in existence — effectively consuming an even greater abundance of elixirs.

'My body feels so light.'

I could clearly feel my mana capacity had expanded dramatically.

The confidence that I could do anything was a bonus.

And it wasn't just a feeling — the range of what I could actually accomplish had genuinely widened.

I could now learn considerably higher-level spells, and the mana burden had lightened as well.

Take the recently copied [Ice Wall], for example — a B-rank spell with heavy mana costs, so I'd planned to save it for critical moments, one cast at a time.

Now I could spam it freely whenever the need arose, no second thoughts required.

And if I pushed my core one more step, all the way to A-rank,

'advanced magic would unlock.'

The simplest example: spatial magic.

The [Blink] Oh Se-hun had shown off during the chase sequence fell into that category.

Of course, reaching an A-rank core would be incomparably harder than reaching B-rank, so I'd have to keep grinding for a long while yet.

'Shall I get back to what I was doing?'

I'd taken my eye off the ball for a moment, but my original purpose hadn't been the core.

So I tipped the next poison into my mouth and resumed my mana cultivation.

......

How much time had slipped by in that no-mind trance this round?

Just as the poisons stored in my inventory were running toward empty, another notification printed itself out.

Thousand Poisons Immunity.

I had reached ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the point where even the nastiest of common poisons could no longer inflict so much as a status ailment on me.

This alone would let me hold my own reasonably well against the Witch of Decay.

In difficulty terms, she'd just dropped from Hell Mode to Normal Mode.

That said, a few of the spells the Witch of Decay wielded were A-rank, so the danger hadn't vanished entirely.

To lower the difficulty all the way down to Easy Mode,

'I'd need Ten Thousand Poisons Immunity, at minimum.'

And I was just one step away from that as well.

The moment I locked my poison resistance in with a Fixing Pin, it would be complete.

So where would I get my hands on that all-important Fixing Pin?

The reward would come if I kept grinding through the linked quest chain.

I pulled a tiny test tube from my inventory.

It had been provided along with the quest — I was supposed to take down a Dark Oublek and collect a sample in it.

And to take down a Dark Oublek, I'd first have to sweep this dungeon and that dungeon until I flushed the things out,

'which would be perfect to do while serving my disciplinary punishment.'

A blessing in disguise, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠really.

What made this disciplinary punishment exceptional in a number of ways was that it presumed entering dungeons.

No matter how badly a student had broken the rules, the academy couldn't just shove them into dungeons — places where lives were lost every day — without any preparation.

And since there was a meaningful chance the search would bring me face to face with Dark Oubleks, thorough preparation was all the more necessary.

Accordingly, the Disciplinary Committee didn't simply order, "You're going into dungeons starting tomorrow, no excuses!" — they showed some flexibility and worked out a schedule with me.

The date we settled on for my punishment to begin was today, Friday.

After school.

While the other students streamed out of the classroom in a rush, I ambled over to Song Cheon-hye at a leisurely pace.

......

She was just rising from her seat, and sensing my gaze, she turned to look at me.

Her glare wasn't pretty in the slightest, but I asked without batting an eye.

"What's the lineup look like?"

"Four members. You, me, and two more."

Just as I was about to ask who the other two were, an all-too-familiar voice came from behind me.

"Well, well, if it isn't somebody I know!"

Shin Byung-cheol, the promising young talent of the disciplinary world himself.

Not content with having a mountain of banned items confiscated off him during the Ban Wave, he'd gone and raided the Temporary Confiscation Storage without a shred of remorse.

'It's a miracle he didn't get expelled.'

I didn't know the details, but he was certainly confirmed for discipline for the rest of the semester.

Despite that grim future stretching out before him, Shin Byung-cheol simply grinned ear to ear and said,

"You ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠could've told me we were getting punished together."

"I only just found out myself."

"Is that so? Well then, please take good care of me."

"Don't 'take care of me' me — pull your own weight."

"Aiyo, obviously I will. My fair one-person share."

Song Cheon-hye watched the two of us with clear disapproval before cutting into the conversation.

"This is not a sightseeing trip. Take it seriously."

Shin Byung-cheol and I froze our expressions into gravity, as if on cue.

"Isn't that just a given?"

"Can't you see how serious we are right now?"

"Wow, why is your face so ridiculously serious."

"Right back at you."

With a common enemy before us, we clicked effortlessly.

Song Cheon-hye gave up on the conversation and shook her head.

I turned and threw the same question at her again.

"So who's the last one?"

"It's me, ta-daa!"

This time too, the answer came from somewhere else entirely.

Appearing along with the bright, sunny voice was Han So-mi.

It was almost as if a triumphant ta-da! sound effect was ringing through the air.