Episode 92. The Information Guild’s Expert

“Congratulations, Cadet Lee Hoyeon. 10th stage in 9 seconds, this is a new record. You’ve definitely secured first place in this practical monster training.”

“…Thank you.”

She’s happier than I am. What a kind Professor-nim.

“As expected of the Academy’s rising star. Keep up the great work!”

“Yes…”

Receiving the Professor’s encouragement, I came down from the sparring arena.

No way, that scarecrow was the ‘Nightmare of Hamel Dungeon’.

It certainly looked unpleasant.

“Lee Hoyeon! What the-!”

“Hoyeon-ssi, you’re, you’re amazing!”

As soon as I came down, Lucy and Lumi, who were waiting, greeted me.

“I got lucky. It was a good match-up for me.”

Of course, I would have won even if something else appeared, but I wouldn’t have been able to set the 9-second record.

A monster specializing in mental attacks appeared randomly, and a special ability I didn’t know the effects of well turned out to be immune to mental attacks.

This can only be called luck.

“Still, amazing is amazing!”

“Right… I was happy just clearing the 8th stage.”

“You guys will get stronger soon too. Shall we leave once all three of us are done?”

Since all three of us finished the exam, there’s no need to stay in the testing area.

“Eeng. Aren’t you going to watch the others?”

“Uh… watch?”

“Of course! Watching other people fight is so much fun.”

Honestly, I’m not really interested.

But there’s nothing to do if I leave early, maybe I’ll just go along with it.

The moment I was about to say okay, I caught sight of Nam Daeun in the corner of my vision.

Nam Daeun’s eyes met mine, her pupils dilated, and she quickly turned and bolted from the testing area.

‘Wait a second, should I follow her?’

Her face was pale, she looked unwell…

“Come watch with us, okay?”

“I- I’ll stay with you…”

“Uh…”

Lucy linked her arm through mine, holding onto me, and Lumi carefully grabbed the hem of my clothes.

Since they were both asking together, it felt awkward to refuse.

Nam Daeun had already disappeared long ago, so it was too late to follow her.

“Okay. Let’s watch together.”

“Yay!”

Anyway, she’s probably just going to call her little sister.

She wouldn’t be the type to lose her mind to that extent.

She held up well in the original work too.

---

Nam Daeun, who arrived at Lee Hoyeon’s sparring arena, faced reality.

[9sec]

The stopwatch shining above the arena showed 9 seconds, and the cadets were cheering for the new record.

“This practical exam, the first place might actually change, huh?”

“I know, right. Lee Hoyeon’s form is just too good.”

“Nam Daeun is really strong, but… how should I put it, she’s not progressing.”

She didn’t care about the harsh criticisms the cadets were spewing carelessly. That time for caring about such things had long passed.

The problem was that even the professors were praising Lee Hoyeon highly.

“His measurement is only 8th stage, yet he’s that strong…”

“Compared to his small mana pool, his mana control is outstanding, which means his potential for growth is huge.”

“The internet’s going to go crazy again.”

“I’m more worried about the guild scouts who will observe tomorrow’s 1v1 duels. Sigh…”

“That’s something Professor Kim Jin-hyuk should handle.”

Nam Daeun’s exceptional senses allowed her to hear the professors talking from afar.

Overwhelmed by complex emotions she’d never felt before, she turned her head this way and that, until her eyes met Lee Hoyeon’s.

Lee Hoyeon, despite setting such a record, was laughing merrily with his friends.

‘My life is on the line for this exam.’

Nam Daeun ran out of the testing area.

Jealousy towards Lee Hoyeon filled her mind.

‘He has just as much talent as I do, so why is he so happy?’

I’m living this kind of life because of this talent.

Why does he wear such a happy expression?

I wish everyone was as miserable as I am…

Negative thoughts followed one after another.

Slap!

Nam Daeun slapped her own cheek, trying to erase the bad thoughts.

“Sigh, let’s not be shamefully jealous.”

Lately, I’ve been having a lot of these pessimistic thoughts.

Especially at times like these, I need to try harder.

Nam Daeun turned on her smartwatch and sent a message to her hospitalized younger sister.

Her only source of healing and mental rest. Her younger sister, Nam Dahee.

The last time she called her directly via video call, she was scolded for being in the bathroom and asked what she was doing, so now she always sends a message first.

• Me: Dahee-ya. Is it okay to talk?

• My Dahee: Yep. It’s fine!

As soon as Nam Daeun received the reply, she video called Nam Dahee.

• Unnie! I missed you!

“Yeah, me too. What did you do today?”

“I drew a picture! Wanna see?”

Nam Dahee showed a picture of two crookedly drawn people holding hands and smiling.

• It’s me and you, Unnie. Pretty, right?

“…Yeah. It’s so pretty. You have a talent for drawing too?”

Watching her sister smile while holding the sketchbook, Nam Daeun couldn’t let her guard down.

If she relaxed even a little, she felt like she would cry.

Every time Nam Daeun talked to Nam Dahee, her heart ached.

Her little sister, who should have been playing with other kids at elementary school, was wasting away in bed all day, and seeing that was agonizing.

She resented herself for being unable to do anything, and she hated this world.

But still, she lived day by day, looking at her sister.

Leaving that child behind, she couldn’t leave alone.

If her sister wished it, she could kill all the Buyer Guild members anytime and die together.

Nam Daeun was struggling so much that such thoughts came to her naturally.

“Unnie! You’re going to get first place again, right? I’ll draw a picture for you in advance!”

“…Yeah. Of course. I’ll definitely be first place.”

“Mm-hmm! Ah, the nurse-unnie is coming. I’ll call you back later. Is that okay?”

“Okay. Send me a message.”

“I love you, Unnie! Muah muah.”

“Yeah, me too…”

Beep-

The screen soon flickered to black, and Nam Daeun lowered her head.

“I have to get first place. No matter what… I have to.”

“To protect that face, I can do anything.”

Nam Daeun started tearing at her hair again.

---

Alice was in a very bad mood.

She couldn’t break through the 10th stage today either.

‘If I had drawn the magic circle just a little faster at the end, I would have won…!’

The 9th stage was always manageable, but the difficulty spiked drastically at the 10th stage, causing her to always get stuck.

Nam Daeun had once again cleared the 10th stage in 30 seconds, and when she got in the car and checked Everiday, she saw that Lee Hoyeon had cleared it in 9 seconds, which only added to her stress.

Of course, thinking positively, she lost by a narrower margin than last time, so her chances of winning next time increased.

“Hoo…”

While enjoying the aroma of wine as a stress reliever, Sebastian, sitting in the driver’s seat, spoke.

“Young Lady. I will give you an interim report on Cadet Lee Hoyeon.”

“…An interim report? Is there that much to investigate?”

I clearly told him to just do a rough job since it was just a hunch, but isn’t he being too thorough?

“Well, as I got into it, I got really excited. He’s a friend whose depths seem endless the more you dig.”

Sebastian, holding the steering wheel and keeping his gaze fixed forward, continued the report without issue.

“Before I begin the report, this is quite embarrassing to say… but I let my guard down during the investigation and got caught. I apologize. After that, a bodyguard was assigned to him.”

“…You got caught by Lee Hoyeon?”

Does that even make sense?

An Iris Guild executive’s stealth could be noticed by a mere cadet…?

“It’s uncertain whether that was Cadet Lee Hoyeon’s ability. Perhaps there was another collaborator from the start. But what’s certain is that he has backing.”

“Hmm… And so?”

It’s not strange for him to have backing.

A man with that level of ability would surely attract someone’s attention and attachment.

Considering his closeness with Moon Surin, the Academy is a likely candidate, but perhaps someone like Baek Ahyoung or Professor Im Sol is backing him personally.

Or maybe it’s an entirely different guild.

“First, we obtained information that he needs to meet a Saintess periodically for treatment.”

“…Does he have a chronic illness?”

If he needs to meet a Saintess periodically for treatment, how severe must the illness be?

“Well, even before she was appointed as the school nurse, their relationship seemed quite close. They’ve been consistently maintaining contact for about a month now. And around the same time his relationship with the Saintess began, Cadet Lee Hoyeon changed his career path from Swordsman to Mage.”

“Changing career paths… That’s just a diversion tactic, isn’t it?”

Alice had also noticed the sudden career change. At the time, she ignored it because she didn’t know he’d be such a talent, but most cadets probably dismissed Lee Hoyeon back then.

“I think so too. Someone who supposedly only started learning magic a month ago shouldn’t be able to show that level of skill. However, if he had been practicing magic for a long time, his mana pool seemed extremely insufficient.”

“True, everyone seemed to be guessing it was because he hadn’t been practicing magic for long.”

“Yes. But that’s an illogical assumption in the first place. Additionally, using funds of unknown origin, we also learned he’s been purchasing top-grade magic stones.”

“Top-grade magic stones…? Why would a cadet buy those? They’re less efficient and more expensive than mid-to-low grade ones.”

Unlike mid-to-low grade magic stones used in daily life, top-grade magic stones are used for research or artifact crafting, so even active hunters don’t often get the chance to handle them.

They’re hard to obtain, so supply is low, but demand remains relatively constant, causing the price to steadily rise.

“The quantity is too small to be for market speculation, and too large to be for personal research. And regardless of the price, he buys them consistently about once a week.”

“I just can’t figure it out.”

This investigation, which I casually assigned, has become so complicated, I regretted digging into something I shouldn’t have.

Swirl.

Tasting the wine in her hand, she waited for Sebastian’s next words.

“This is just my speculation… but as you know, Young Lady, magic stones are used not only for artifact crafting or research, but also for treating mana disorders.”

“Wait a minute, then could it be…”

Hearing Sebastian’s words, a certain illness flashed through Alice’s mind.

“He consistently purchases magic stones, his mana pool is extremely insufficient compared to his magical skill, and considering he meets the Saintess periodically for treatment…”

“Congenital Mana Disorder…”

It’s the illness Alice herself suffers from.

Since she was born with a limited capacity to hold mana in her body, she needs to supplement it with magic stones to use mana.

“That’s correct. It is presumed that Cadet Lee Hoyeon was born with the same rare disease as you, Young Lady Alice.”

“Really, I couldn’t have imagined it. You’re amazing, Sebastian.”

Compiling each seemingly insignificant piece of information to reach such a conclusion.

It was indeed the skill expected of an executive from an information guild.

Sebastian’s claws had not rusted at all, even after all this time.

“Thank you. And, um…”

Sebastian hesitated, wondering if he should bring up Lee Hoyeon’s romantic relationships.

But it felt too soon to end it here.

His intuition, honed over decades, was screaming.

There seemed to be something more. Lee Hoyeon seemed to have a big secret.

“There’s something else?”

Alice looked forward to Sebastian’s next words.

It was impressive enough to learn one of her rival’s weaknesses, but there was more information?

“No. It’s not confirmed yet. I will investigate thoroughly by this weekend and report back.”

“Okay. Do your best.”

“Yes. I won’t get caught this time, so please don’t worry.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Alice felt a strange sense of kinship towards Lee Hoyeon.