iling’s eyes moved down the ssage her father had sent.
The ssage wasn’t long, but by the ti she finished reading it, her face had gone deathly pale.
She pulled up her contacts list and found the entry labeled Father.
“……”
Her finger hovered stiffly over the holographic call button.
She was afraid.
Afraid that hearing his voice again would drag her back into the person she used to be.
But after reading that ssage, she had no choice but to respond.
With trembling hands, iling pressed the call button.
Even as the dial tone rang, her whole body grew colder, like ice water was running through her veins.
[Did you read the ssage?]
iling flinched.
The voice. The tone. Exactly the sa as before.
Even after months without contact, there was no greeting, no preamble.
“…How did you find out?” she forced out in a strained voice.
[So this is what you’ve been doing after running from —murder? How laughable.]
“I asked you how you knew!”
Her panic flared, her voice rising to a shout.
[Watch your tongue.]
Kai’s voice dropped lower, colder.
[Unless, of course, you want your little squadmates expelled from the Academy and thrown straight into an Awakener prison.]
“Ugh…!”
The fury boiling in her chest escaped as a strangled groan.
[Co ho. Now. We’ll talk afterward.]
“Wait—!”
The line went dead.
Staring blankly at her smartwatch, iling’s knees buckled. She collapsed to the floor, powerless.
An hour later.
iling stood before the gate of the mansion.
The place she had sworn never to return to lood before her, and her body felt as though every ounce of strength was draining away.
Then, without her touching the bell, the gate creaked open.
“Welco back, Miss iling.”
“……”
She looked up at the man standing before her.
Miller.
Kai’s subordinate, once her personal attendant.
The sa man who had co to drag her back when she fled Guangcheon, disobeying Kai’s orders to spy on Yein and Lumina.
“Lord Kai is waiting. Please, co inside.”
iling’s feet refused to move.
But if she turned back now, Yein, Lumina, and Yui would be cast out of the Academy.
Taking a deep breath, she followed Miller through the gate.
Clang.
iling flinched.
The sound of the gate closing behind her weighed heavy in her chest.
Miller led her to the second floor study.
“You’re here.”
Her eyes lifted.
Chen Kai sat at the desk, gaze fixed on her.
“Let’s not waste words. From today onward, you’ll leave the dorms and live here at ho.”
“!”
iling’s eyes widened.
“And you’ll follow my orders, just like before. Refuse, and I’ll report your little cris to the Security Bureau imdiately.”
“If you push that far, I won’t stay silent! I’ll expose everything you’ve done to the world!”
“Do as you please.”
“…What?”
“I said do as you please.”
She froze.
She had never seen a man cling harder to reputation and appearances than her father.
Yet now he spoke as if those things ant nothing.
“Better to go down together than leave my daughter at the side of a murderer.”
Shock piled upon shock.
Kai’s muttered words echoed in her ears.
“iling. Tell Nam Yein yourself—you can’t stay in the squad. That you’ll be leaving, of your own will.”
Her heart jolted.
“What nonsense is that…”
“I’ve already arranged your transfer to Magica Academy for this break. With your grades, they’ll accept you even from Gwangcheon. It’s the best institution for magic in the world—better than here.”
“Don’t you dare make that decision for !”
“iling.”
Kai stepped close, locking eyes with her.
“Think carefully. Your choice decides their future.”
“Kh….”
She bit down hard on her lip.
“Prodigies chosen as HAUT candidates, condemned as murderers overnight. Do you know what kind of life they’d be left with? Forget graduation, forget a Hunter license—they’ll never escape the stigma.”
His words were calm, but heavy.
“But if you obey , they’ll graduate without issue. They’ll live as Hunters. So choose. Will you follow my orders—or will you brand your friends with a mark that will never fade?”
iling’s pupils quivered.
[The person you’re calling cannot be reached. Please leave a ssage after the beep—]
“…Hmph.”
I ended the call and slipped out my wireless earpiece.
“She’s not answering again?” Seo Yui asked.
“Yes.” I nodded.
It had been about forty minutes since iling had gone back to her room.
Now, Seo Yui and I were standing at the fork between the n’s and won’s dorms.
I’d sent a ssage suggesting we et for lunch, but only Seo Yui had shown up.
Even after several calls, iling never picked up.
“Is she mad because you said we won’t go into dungeons until Lumina gets back?” Seo Yu-i asked.
“Unlikely.”
That wasn’t it.
‘Her reaction was too strange to be sulking over a dungeon ban.’
As rotten as her personality was, iling wasn’t stupid. She’d understand the risk of running dungeons without Lumina.
“Senior, could you check her room for ?”
“Alright.”
Seo Yui went inside the girls’ dorm. A few minutes later, my watch rang.
[She’s not here.]
“What?”
[Her door panel says she’s out.]
A bad feeling tightened in my gut.
“Got it. I’ll check the guard post.”
[I’ll et you there.]
I hurried to the gatehouse and asked the guard to check the log of students leaving campus.
“Who are you looking for?”
“Chen iling.”
“Ah, Miss iling. She left earlier.”
“How long ago?”
“About thirty minutes, I’d say.”
“…Thank you.”
Soon after, I t Seo Yui outside the gatehouse.
“They said she already left campus.”
“Just to eat by herself, maybe?”
Possible. But unlikely.
If it was just food, iling would have dragged along. For all her sharp tongue and sour temper, she couldn’t stand being alone. She always insisted on bringing or Lumina along whenever she wanted to go anywhere.
And besides—
“Yein. Her face earlier… it’s been bothering ,” Seo Yui said softly.
“Yes. too.”
The image of iling’s expression when she’d checked her smartwatch flashed through my mind.
Her face had gone stiff, drained of emotion.
‘My bad feeling’s proving right.’
And if there was soone who could make iling look like that, there was only one man.
‘The question is—will she even co back?’
If Chen Kai had summoned iling, then his purpose could only be one—
To turn her back into a tool for his own rise in status.
‘But how?’
iling had already told him: if he ever tried to use her again, she would expose everything—his corruption, his violence, even the murders he had orchestrated.
‘To Kai, iling is like an unexploded shell sitting in the fire. Touching her should only risk detonation. Why would he dare provoke her?’
No… looked at from another angle, this could be his attempt to defuse that shell safely.
‘The real question is—what card does Kai hold?’
A card strong enough to gag iling and fasten his leash around her again.
If I could figure that out, I could plan my move.
But first—I needed to share what I knew with Seo Yui.
“Senior, have you ever heard who iling’s father is?”
“Chen Kai, right? President of Forward Magic Engineer. I heard so classmates ntion it.”
I nodded.
“iling is estranged from Chen Kai.”
Seo Yui’s eyes widened.
“I won’t go into every detail, but to summarize—Kai tried to use iling as a tool for his own gain, and she refused him.”
“That explains it. No wonder she stayed in the dorms even during break. So that’s what she was running from.”
“Yes. And I believe her strange behavior earlier is very likely connected to him.”
“You an Kai is trying to make her his tool again?”
“That’s my guess.”
“……”
The lazy, half-drowsy look in Seo Yui’s eyes faded, replaced by seriousness.
Raised as a warrior in Valhalla, she knew better than anyone the agony and rage of being forced into soone else’s hands, used like an object.
“Yein. You can handle this, right?” she asked.
“If you need my strength, use it anyti. I’ll fight with everything I have. No one in this world should ever be turned into another’s tool.”
I was struck by her words—and by the earnest light in her eyes.
That soone who had grown up in a hell where you killed or were killed could still be this upright, this kind, was nothing short of astonishing.
If I had t her in the real world, she would have been soone I could trust with my back for life.
But her last words stabbed uncomfortably at my chest.
“…Thank you, Senior. I’ll take you up on that.”
“Good.”
“Still, before we cause trouble, we should fill our stomachs. What should we eat for lunch?”
“You’re right. Let’s get at.”
“I’m in.”
Together, Seo Yui and I went to a restaurant and ordered rice bowls heaped with marinated pork. After eating our fill, we returned to Gwangcheon to check if iling had co back.
“Nope, not yet. By the way, why do you keep asking instead of just calling her yourself?” the guard at the gate asked.
‘Because she’s not picking up.’
And then—
Buzz.
My smartwatch vibrated.
“!”
I stiffened when I saw the caller.
It was iling.
I pulled Seo Yui aside, far enough that the guard wouldn’t overhear, and answered on speaker.
“iling?”
[…]
Silence on the other end.
“iling. Where are you?” Seo Yui leaned closer to the watch and asked.
A faint gulp of breath ca through.
Then, after a pause—
[I’m sorry.]
Her voice trembled.
[From today… I’m leaving the squad.]
Seo Yui’s eyes flew wide, darting to .
“Kai told you to say that, didn’t he?” I demanded.
[No. This is my decision.]
“Don’t make laugh.”
That was impossible.
“You told Lumina you were glad she’d be back soon. Now you suddenly don’t want to stay with us? That doesn’t make sense.”
[No! It was my choice! I don’t want to be in your squad anymore! I don’t even want to see your faces! So stop interfering with !]
Her voice thundered from the speaker.
So it was on speakerphone on her end too.
Which ant—
“Even if you don’t want to see our faces, you’ll still have to once school starts again.”
I kept my tone deliberately calm.
Seo Yui shot a look of disbelief. Now is not the ti for jokes, her eyes said.
[Th-that’s…]
The malice in her voice had vanished, replaced by fluster. She hadn’t expected that.
“You can stay at ho during break, sure. But unless you’re planning to transfer schools, you’ll be back here eventually.”
[…]
[That’s right. I’ll stay ho. And I’ll leave Gwangcheon altogether. So stop caring about .]
Her reply told two things.
First, she really was at Kai’s house.
Second, he was preparing a transfer to cut her away from us completely.
“I see.”
I answered brightly.
The path forward was clear.
“Wait, Yein—!” Seo Yui called in alarm.
But I wasn’t finished.
“Mr. Chen Kai. You’re listening, aren’t you?”
[…]
Silence. Of course.
“You’ve already ddled in our Academy life once. I overlooked it then, since I had my own share of fault. But this ti, I won’t.”
My aning was obvious: if he broke our agreent, I’d release the recording.
The recording of Chen Kai threatening to make iling first in class.
The sa recording where he all but admitted using his daughter as a ladder, and even hinted at involvent in Jin Cheongwang’s crew’s deaths.
[Nam Yein.]
Then iling’s voice ca again.
[Please. Don’t get involved.]
“!”
The difference was clear in an instant.
Not the lie she’d shouted before. Not the fake venom.
This was her true voice.
[This is what I want. My choice. To walk away from you. So please—don’t do anything. As your friend… I’m begging you.]
“……”
[Answer .]
“……Haa.”
I let out a long breath.
“Fine. If that’s what you want… for now, I’ll leave it at that.”
[…Thank you.]
The line disconnected.
I turned off my screen and looked at Seo Yui.
“Senior. There’s sowhere we need to go. Please co with .”
“Where?”
“Where else? To where our friend is.”
Seo Yui blinked, then gave a sharp nod.
(End of Chapter)
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