Merlin knocked a couple of times on the door to the disciplinary committee’s assigned room. But no matter how many times he did, no reply came from the other side. One would have thought the map had led him to the wrong location if only the words ‘Disciplinary Committee’ were not embzoned on a golden pte glued to the door.

  The members of the disciplinary committee were not fooling him. He knew they were in there, so he followed with an even harder knock, partially feeling sorry that the door—and his knuckles—had to feel so much pain.

  “Perhaps no one’s in?” Lee Jaehyun noted, not exactly as pressed to get in as Merlin.

  “They are,” replied Merlin, certain his surety was weird to Lee Jaehyun’s ears, which was why he decided to expatiate. “They always are—most of the time. At least, according to Professor Jung. She mentioned that they like avoiding their duties, so they pretend like they’re not in.”

  Lee Jaehyun nodded in understanding. “So they either think we’re here to report a case or a staff member that came to check-in.”

  “Yeah.” Merlin nodded. He was tired of pying their games though. He had somewhere important to be so he had to get this out of the way as soon as possible. “Hello! Is anyone there?! My name is Merlin Tyrrell, I’m here because Professor Jung recommended me for the disciplinary committee position. I choose to believe she must have mentioned something of such to you.”

  The only reply Merlin got, though, was silence, which forced him to take a step back in his mind, considering the possibility that Lee Jaehyun was right, and no one really was present.

  That would be a real bummer. He hated having to reschedule things he should have just gotten over with on the first try. Maybe he should have come during lunch break instead of spending that time going through cssworks with Nora and Kim Yiseo. That had not been his decision to make, however. Nora wanted to use her evening to catch up on her sleep (which was most likely Tower Raider, but who was he to say otherwise) and he couldn’t be a nuisance.

  Regardless of the logic behind his apparent wrong scheduling, it still hurt.

  “I guess you’ll have to come back,” said Lee Jaehyun, driving the nail into the coffin.

  “Yeah.” Merlin nodded solemnly. But as he turned around to leave, the door flung open and he was greeted by borderline bored bck eyes, which, honestly, sort of amazed him. Did Prestige Academy have that sort of effect on people? Like, rip them off of all the joy life had to offer and make them so significantly detached that it showed in their eyes? Or was it that it just attracted those sorts of people?

  Whatever the case, Merlin hoped he wouldn’t become that way—ever.

  Maybe I am that way too and don’t even realize it…

  “Yes?” the obvious second year standing on the other side of the door started, his voice not particurly lively. Merlin, however, gleaned something noteworthy from those simple words, though, or, rather, the tone they had been spoken with. Because his eyes widened softly then.

  “You’re English?!” He couldn’t hide the surprise in his voice, which was, in truth, unwarranted, actually.

  Lee Jaehyun, on the other hand, just watched, not sure if the conversation needed his contribution.

  “I am,” the senior said, not particurly as enthusiastic about meeting a fellow Englishman as Merlin. Merlin noticed that and reined himself in immediately. Enthusiasm was beautiful when shared, not otherwise. “Said you were here to join the disciplinary committee on recommendation?” the senior continued.

  “Professor Jung recommended I do,” Merlin replied with a nod.

  The senior said nothing and gnced at Lee Jaehyun. “And you?”

  Lee Jaehyun shook his head. “Just accompanied him.”

  “I see,” said the senior, then he walked back inside, motioning for them to follow him. They did—but not without gncing at each other and shrugging at the apathetic flow of the conversation.

  The interior of the disciplinary committee room was not as Merlin had pictured it to be—technically, he had not pictured anything, but that would be a jab at his imaginative capabilities. However, the room was a simple space that didn’t have much going for it, the only furniture present, or any substantial solid object, were two couches which were pced on the opposite sides of each other with a circur porcein table filled with stacks of comic book volumes in between.

  The presence of the comic books reminded Merlin of his and Professor Jung’s conversation, which had led to all that was currently happening, and his eyes followed the crossed legs that were dangling leisurely close to the porcein table, up to its owner’s waist, then chest (which prompted him to pick up the pace with his eyes), and, finally, the face of the senior who he believed had done the impossible when it came to studying.

  She sat silently, focused on the comic book she raised to her face, breezing so quickly through its pictures and dialogues that it would have been hard for Merlin, or anyone, really, not to notice her absurd reading speed. She was flipping through pages in seconds after all.

  That confirmed how she could clear a whole sylbus in a week.

  However, that was just one of the few things that kept Merlin’s eyes lingering over her. Besides that, there was her smooth and pale skin, which possessed not even the slightest of blemishes, and her silver hair that fell down in curls to her back.

  Merlin was perfectly sure she had not dyed her hair. It was common for people to be born with certain hair pigmentations. Usually, silver would be mixed with bck or some other naturalized color; but there were rare cases where one was born with only the silver.

  Although, Merlin felt like hers was more than just pigmentation. After all, her eyes were anything but normal too. They were cloudy grey.

  She gnced his way and he flinched, immediately pulling his gaze away, and finally taking note of one more person in the room.

  This one was seated on the other couch, a book over his face, seemingly in a deep sleep. And that proved true, until the senior who had opened the door for Merlin and Lee Jaehyun swiped the book off his face, and his blue eyes shot to life.

  “Why would you do that, Will? I was trying to sleep,” the sleeping senior grumbled. His hair was also of a weird color of bck mixed in with white strands, but nothing out of pce to Merlin. Although, he imagined for a second that the sleeping senior and the overly intelligent dy were twins. But he doubted that. The sleeping senior looked Japanese.

  “Those two are here to see you,” Will said, falling onto the couch with a deep exhale. “Do your job, Sakamoto. I already did mine by opening the door.”

  Well, that proved Merlin’s inference that the senior who went by Sakamoto was Japanese.

  That aside, he could practically feel the air of ziness oozing out of the three seniors present. He was already zy enough, wouldn’t being in their midst constantly be bad for him?

  Professor Jung had sent him into a den of lions. He hoped she was not expecting him to walk out unscathed.

  Sakamoto turned to Merlin and Lee Jaehyun, who had just been staring in silence, and sprouted a wide smile. It seemed to be that he was the more jovial of the three, and most certainly the president of the committee. He took to his feet.

  “How are you students doing this fine afternoon?” he said, his tone cheery.

  But…

  “It’s evening,” Lee Jaehyun corrected, freezing Sakamoto’s smile on his lips.

  “Afternoon, evening, same difference,” Sakamoto muttered in slight embarrassment. “Anyways, I heard you’re both here to join the disciplinary committee. Professor Jung managed to cajole you guys into wasting away your lives too, huh? I’ll never understand the dark arts she uses, honestly.”

  Merlin did understand. It was manipution, simple as that. She offered to give a student what they wanted for the small price of joining the disciplinary committee. A rather effective method.

  “It’s just him here to join,” Lee Jaehyun said, correcting Sakamoto—again. Was this going to become a routine? “I was just curious so I tagged along.”

  “Curious?” Sakamoto asked. “About what?”

  “Nothing in particur,” Lee Jaehyun said, gncing across the room with an unimpressed expression.

  Sakamoto didn’t seem to notice that as he just nodded and carried on. “I see. Well, there’s nothing special about joining the disciplinary committee. Rarely anyone’s interested, and I’m certain the reason is as apparent as the sun in the sky—”

  A giggle cut off the rest of Sakamoto’s words, drawing the gaze of everyone present in the direction it had come from and the culprit. The crossed legs of Merlin’s highly intelligent senior were now being kicked about in ecstasy. Sakamoto clicked his tongue at that.

  “Ignore Sun-Hee. She basically has nothing to do with her life.” Sakamoto’s words did not bring about any scuffle, and Merlin instinctively began to miss Hakyun and Chima. “As I was saying,” he continued, “students don’t want to join the disciplinary committee because—”

  “When are you going to offer them a seat, President Sakamoto?” Will said with a yawn as he y down. He had taken over the whole couch he was on, leaving only that of Sun-Hee free; and even if one didn’t consider the half gre she’d shot their way as soon as Will had said those words as some sort of ‘keep away’ warning, the couch could only take two more people, meaning one of the three standing would have to remain standing.

  Merlin decided to do just that. He was not really keen on sitting down like he had the time to wile away here. One thing bothered him, though, and it was if Professor Jung could actually end up convincing Sun-Hee to take him under her wings. It seemed like it would be rather tough from what he could glean from the young dy’s ambience.

  That didn’t matter, though. He was doing his part now. The rest was up to Professor Jung. She had made a promise, so she would have to find a way.

  Sakamoto cleared his throat then. “Please have your seats,” he said, still wearing his smile, this time, however, it was hiding the shame that he had not done something so expected.

  Merlin shook his head. “I’m fine. Where can I register for the committee? Do I have to fill anything? I really have somewhere to be, so I was hoping we could just get things over with.”

  Sakamoto nodded. “That’s fine by me.” He turned around, walked up to a drawer that was hidden from Merlin’s line of sight—no wonder he hadn't seen it at first—and brought back a form with him. “Fill this and bring it back tomorrow. I’ll take a look at it then and decide if you’ll be a good fit.”

  Merlin’s brows twitched. As if they had the luxury to be picky about who they got. They were starved of members. He almost ughed, until he gnced through the form and saw the section for what Css of Mage the person was and their Hex. He turned back to Sakamoto and pointed at those sections.

  “We’ll have a problem with these,” he said, eliciting a surprised frown from the president.

  “Huh? Why? It’s just your Css and Hex,” he said, unsure what Merlin was talking about.

  Merlin nodded. “That’s exactly the problem. I’m a Deficient Mage.”

  Those words dragged the gazes of all three of his seniors his way, including the uninterested Sun-Hee. He was no longer being taken by surprise by the attention what he was brought his way, instead he was now curious as to what the reactions following his revetion would be.

  Would they scorn him? Tell him to get out? Drive how useless he was further in?

  He was curious.

  Sakamoto tilted his head and sucked in air through his teeth.

  “Hmmm… And those darn students are already so stubborn, even to me. It’ll be hard to correct them if they find out you’re a Deficient Mage, especially if they’re your senior.” Merlin sighed. It was the same, huh? No one really believed a Deficient Mage could be useful in any way. “But…” Sakamoto continued. “The fact that you got into Prestige Academy must mean you’re exceptionally good at something. Tell me what that is and I’m sure I can find a way to make things work.”

  Merlin blinked owlishly, surprised that he had not been cast out of the room immediately and was actually being considered.

  Then he chuckled softly.

  Perhaps he was always expecting people to think the worst of who he was because he was yet to cast out the imposter syndrome that was dwelling within his body. He had to remind himself that he was the first Deficient Mage to have ever been granted admission into Prestige Academy. Regardless of the involvement of the System, he had put in the work, he felt like he deserved it.

  He really couldn’t keep bringing himself down. He couldn’t keep telling himself he wasn’t good enough. He couldn’t keep believing he had no pce here. Like Hakyun always said, he couldn’t keep being a killjoy.

  He smiled.

  “I do have something I can do that no one can,” he started, intentionally pnting dazed looks on his seniors’ faces. Which only got worse with the next words he uttered, “I can use anti-magic.”

  The room fell silent. No one spoke. No one blinked. It was as though time itself had stopped, and Merlin’s words had not actually found its way into anyone’s ears.

  Then the sound of Sun-Hee smming her comic book shut brought life back to the room. She stood up and walked up to Merlin.

  She was an inch shorter, but that did not stop her from dousing him in a bone-chilling aura as she narrowed her cloudy eyes at him, her gaze burning deep into every muscle on his face.

  Merlin had tried to stand his ground—not to take a step back. But if this went on, he would succumb.

  She was intimidating.

  “Anti-magic doesn’t exist,” she said, her voice both quiet and stormy at the same time. It was the kind of voice that announced one’s presence whenever they opened their mouth to speak—the kind that could never be ignored. The domineering kind of voice.

  Merlin finally took a step back, unable to pretend like he wasn’t intimidated. However, he did well to mask it from showing on his face with a half smile.

  “I’m living proof that it does,” he replied simply.

  Sun-Hee was silent for a couple of seconds, and without one more word, she left the room.

  Merlin exhaled immediately. “What was that all about?” he mumbled his thoughts. Then he realized that Lee Jaehyun also had a dumbstruck expression.

  Merlin had thought that with the boy’s standing in society he would have found out about his ability long before now, just like Kim Yiseo. But it was either he wasn’t interested in scouring through his cssmate’s files, or things reted to the Consortium stayed with the Consortium.

  Well, that didn’t matter. The cat had been let out of the bag again, and very soon it would be roaming freely.

  Sakamoto ughed then, perhaps trying to lighten the mood. He reminded Merlin of the headmaster quite a bit. “You’re not lying, are you?” Merlin shook his head. “I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting that. But if it’s true, then it would expin your admission and the disciplinary committee being recommended to you.” His brows then twitched. “Wait. Is this like a top secret thing we’re not supposed to talk about?”

  Merlin’s lips twitched. “No. It’s not. I just don’t go about announcing it, so it hasn’t spread all over the Academy yet.”

  Sakamoto nodded. “I guess that’s just a matter of time now.” He then fell silent, staring at Merlin as the questions that danced in his head leaked out. Then he exhaled, holding back as he turned around and fell onto a couch. “Like I said, I’ll have the form tomorrow. See you then, Merlin.”

  Merlin was satisfied with the reaction he had gotten from his seniors; not over the top and not discriminative.

  He gnced at Will who was staring at him with an appraising gaze and shuddered. Quickly, he turned around, but found Lee Jaehyun with the same curious look as Will. No one had to tell him that it was only a matter of time before he was bombarded with questions.

  Now, though, he had to take the chance to escape.