The Support Ate it All

Flash!

The teleportation magic circle shone brightly, and Kim Ho appeared.

The same thought flashed through Jeong Jong-myeong and Hong Ye-hwa’s minds when they saw him.

He’s calm.

He’s so calm.

Though a fair amount of time had passed since the semester began, Kim Ho was still a first-year student.

This was an operation involving numerous seniors, and he was tasked with a critical role. It would have been natural for him to feel the pressure, yet there wasn’t the slightest sign of it. His expression remained calm and composed.

He even approached them directly, met their gaze, and said what he needed to say.

“Please prepare the next teleportation.”

Jeong Chong-myeong’s eyes deepened.

The fact that he was urging them immediately upon arrival meant that the situation in the temporary storage area must have grown urgent.

He was curious about what exactly had happened, but that could wait until later.

After exchanging a glance with Hong Ye-hwa, Jeong Chong-myeong infused the teleportation magic circle with mana.

At the same time, he sent a communication to Dang Gyu-young.

“Dang Gyu-young, we’re activating it again.”

– Hurry! Quickly!

A desperate voice responded.

The two mages focused their minds even further, and—

Flash!

Dang Gyu-young stepped out of the brilliantly glowing magic circle.

When he saw the slight frown on her face, Jeong Chong-myeong asked her,

“Should we prepare another teleportation?”

“No, that’s enough.”

Dang Gyu-young shook her head.

The disciplinary committee members had been released from Choi Han-gil’s Dimensional Severance and started fighting the thieves who were rummaging through the temporary storage facility.

In the midst of it, even the coordinate stabilizer had been destroyed.

Hong Ye-hwa asked,

“What about the others?”

“…We can only hope they make it out on their own.”

Of course, the chances of those left behind safely escaping the C-Exchange building were exceedingly slim.

The opponents were two third-year disciplinary committee members, and on top of that, there were defensive formations set up everywhere.

Dang Gyu-young said,

“Still, they’ll buy us some time. They’re pretty good at slipping away.”

“You’d know your people best.”

Jeong Chong-myeong nodded his head and moved on to the next topic.

“The book is with Kim Ho, right?”

“Yeah. Want it now?”

“After it’s all over.”

Taking it now would be meaningless if they got captured by the disciplinary committee.

Leaving it with Kim Ho and Dang Gyu-young until the very last moment to focus on assisting their escape was the better option.

The problem was the escape itself…

Jeong Chong-myeong glanced lightly beyond the rooftop and remarked,

“Most of the escape routes are blocked.”

The original plan had been to raid the temporary storage, slip into the downtown area, and return after the disciplinary committee withdrew.

With Cha Da-bin providing vision, it would have been possible to move unnoticed.

However, with the control tower now occupied, that plan was no longer viable.

The disciplinary committee was also steadily tightening their encirclement.

And so, there was only one option worth considering.

Jeong Chong-myeong infused mana into the teleportation magic circle once more.

“No time to waste; both of you get on.”

Dang Gyu-young asked in confusion.

“Wait, can this thing even handle two people at once?”

“It can’t, but we’re going to try anyway.”

Teleportation was a long-distance spatial movement spell.

The number of targets you could move, with the distance, accuracy, and such, increased with rank.

However, due to the extreme difficulty of mastering it, even a president of the White Magic Club like Jeong Chong-myeong was only at C-rank.

At his current level, teleportation was highly unstable without using tools like the magic circle and coordinate stabilizer, and it was barely capable of transporting one person at a time.

But they didn’t have the luxury to use it twice in succession.

With the disciplinary committee possibly storming in at any moment, they had no choice but to risk sending two people at once.

Dang Gyu-young also understood that fact, so she grabbed Kim Ho’s arm and tugged him closer with an uneasy expression on her face.

Then, as if determined not to let go, she locked arms with him.

When he saw this, Jeong Chong-myeong’s expression shifted slightly.

There’s no need to cling that tightly…

Standing on the magic circle together would have sufficed.

He glanced at Hong Ye-hwa who wore a similarly strange expression on her face.

Still, it wasn’t the time to focus on such trivial stuff, so they concentrated solely on powering the teleportation magic circle.

Before long, the ground beneath Kim Ho and Dang Gyu-young’s feet lit up brilliantly and—

Flaaash!

The two vanished without a trace.

Hoping they had been sent as far as possible, Jeong Chong-myeong turned to the remaining mages and gave an order.

“Get ready. We’ve got company.”

Ruuuumble…

Sure enough, it wasn’t long before a wooden door suddenly sprang up in a corner of the rooftop.

When the door opened, Kwak Seung-jae stepped out. He was accompanied by the senior members of the disciplinary committee from the second and third years.

Jeong Chong-myeong let out a wry smile without realizing it.

The world really is unfair.

Some people struggled to teleport just two others even as third-years, while others could summon dozens with a single door.

Of course, he wasn’t entirely envious. He had his own specialties, after all.

Setting aside such idle thoughts, Jeong Chong-myeong calmly spoke.

“Seung-jae, you’re here.”

“Good evening, senior. I apologize for visiting at such a late hour.”

Kwak Seung-jae bowed politely as usual, but there was a sharp edge to his words.

It was as if he were saying, “I’m only here because you broke school rules.”

Jeong Chong-myeong didn’t seem to care and continued in his usual casual tone.

“Indeed. It’s late, but you’re working hard.”

“There were surely many other ways to retrieve the confiscated items. Did you really have to team up with a thieves’ club?”

“Sometimes, I think a little change of pace isn’t so bad.”

“I would have preferred it if that change of pace stayed within the rules.”

Jeong Chong-myeong’s lips curled slightly upward.

“I apologize. This isn’t something we’re proud of either, but this time, we had our reasons.”

“I don’t know what those reasons are, but it doesn’t seem like a good choice. If the thieves’ club fails, won’t you just end up with penalties for nothing?”

When Kwak Seung-jae said this, he turned his head slightly to the side.

His gaze settled somewhere far off, toward the forest between the downtown area and the academy.

It seemed he had found traces of Kim Ho and Dang Gyu-young.

Ruuuumble…

Kwak Seung-jae closed the door he had summoned earlier and conjured a new wooden door.

Just as he was about to lead the committee members through it—

Whoosh!

The door was suddenly engulfed in flames and reduced to ashes in the blink of an eye.

When he lowered his gaze slightly, Kwak Seung-jae saw a red magic circle glowing brightly beneath him.

He then turned his eyes to Hong Ye-hwa who smiled brightly and remarked,

“You can’t use that here.”

Not only that, but hidden magic circles began to reveal themselves one by one, gradually brightening the rooftop.

It was clear they had fortified the area in anticipation of the disciplinary committee’s arrival.

Though they had clearly walked into a trap, there wasn’t the slightest hint of unease on the faces of the disciplinary committee members.

In fact, most of them wore amused smiles.

“This is more like it. Makes things interesting.”

“Catching petty thieves is just too boring, you know?”

Their confidence in their own abilities was absolute.

Kwak Seung-jae spoke calmly.

“You might be able to buy yourselves a little time, but the outcome won’t change.”

“Still, isn’t it better than doing nothing?”

At Jeong Chong-myeong’s subtle glance over his shoulder, the mages immediately activated their magic circles.

The downtown area in the middle of the night became as bright as day.

***

Fwaaash!

A brilliant blue light filled my vision before it was abruptly swallowed by pitch darkness.

My body spun round and round like I was on a carnival ride.

The ride quality left a lot to be desired though.

Using a single-person teleportation spell for two people was bound to cause instability.

Moments later, I collapsed onto a patch of grass with a thud, and right after me, Dang Gyu-young tumbled down as well.

Not onto the grass. She fell onto me.

“Ugh, Kim Ho, you alright?”

“I’m fine.”

Dang Gyu-young quickly sat up, but for some reason, she paused and muttered,

“…Huh? Wait a second?”

Then, without warning, she lowered herself back down onto me.

Not only that, but she began shifting her position this way and that.

At this point, I was being treated like a Kim Ho mattress.

“Hey, Miss Dang Gyu-young. Is this really the time to be lying down?”

“Just a moment. Seriously, just a moment.”

“What now, again?”

“Hey, this… feels kind of comfortable?”

Test Subject No. 4, Dang Gyu-young, seemed to find the Kim Ho mattress quite comfortable.

With this, everyone except Test Subject No. 3, Hong Ye-hwa, had shown positive results.

But now wasn’t the time to leisurely conduct experiments. Ignoring the fact that Dang Gyu-young was on top of me, I raised myself up.

“Save it for later. For now, let’s move.”

“Mhmm, you’re right.”

With Dang Gyu-young suddenly serious again, I began making my way through the forest with her.

Thanks to the two-person teleportation, we had skipped a considerable distance and managed to escape the disciplinary committee’s encirclement.

But it’s never truly over until it’s over. There was still a chance someone was lying in wait in this forest.

Until we reached the dormitory, we couldn’t let our guard down.

As expected, after advancing a little further, a familiar face came into view.

Song Cheon-hye.

Song Cheon-hye looked a little bored, probably from having to spend time in such a remote place. But she still kept a serious eye on her surroundings, as if she considered this her duty.

Though her skills were significantly inferior to Dang Gyu-young’s, she had no idea we were hiding nearby. Still, it didn’t look like we could slip past her easily.

Fzzzzt,

Thin strands of nearly invisible electrical currents filled the area, drifting around like a web.

Lightning Thread.

She had used that skill to catch Seo Ye-in’s invisible ghillie suit in the placement test.

As expected from a mana monster. She had spread it over a ridiculously wide area. No matter how well we hid, the moment we brushed against just one of those strands, we’d be exposed.

Circling around wasn’t an option either, so I turned to Dang Gyu-young and said,

“Let’s take her out.”

“That’s probably the best option.”

The best option was to subdue Song Cheon-hye and move past her.

It would cause some commotion, but that was a risk we had to take.

Soon, two black butterflies fluttered from Dang Gyu-young’s hand.

[Shadow Butterfly]

The butterflies soared high into the sky and started flapping gently, before plummeting straight down onto Song Cheon-hye’s head.

“!!”

Song Cheon-hye flinched in shock and tried to react, but by then, the shadow butterflies were already exploding.

When she glanced at Song Cheon-hye who was now tightly bound in shadowy ropes, Dang Gyu-young spoke.

“Let’s go.”

“Mhmm.”

We began running across Song Cheon-hye’s designated area.

The strands of lightning brushed against us and crackled constantly, but this level of interference wouldn’t affect even Shin Byeong-cheol.

After all, it wasn’t magic designed to harm or restrain anyone.

But before long—

“Stoooooooop!”

Song Cheon-hye’s shout rang out from behind us.

We exchanged glances as we kept running.

“Why did she get free so quickly?”

“…I have no idea.”

Even if it wasn’t for very long, it should have held her for at least three to five minutes.

It seemed she’d managed to acquire some high-rank item or skill.

Fzzzzt!

With her entire body covered in lightning, Song Cheon-hye charged at us with ferocious speed.

Just like during the 4 vs 4 mentor duel, it looked like she was aiming for a full-on lightning tackle.

She was surprisingly fast, and the distance between us was shrinking little by little.

Dang Gyu-young glanced back over her shoulder and asked,

“Looks like we’ll have to take her down completely.”

“I’ll handle it.”

I had been running at a steady pace when I suddenly turned my body and reached out toward Song Cheon-hye.

[Ice Wall]

Boom!

In an instant, a wall of ice rose in front of Song Cheon-hye’s eyes.

It was the Ice Wall skill I had copied from Han Gyeol-woo.

It was a B-rank skill, so it was remarkably thick and sturdy.

“!!”

Song Cheon-hye looked startled by the wall that had appeared so suddenly, but it was already too late for her to react.

She had gained too much speed to stop or change direction.

In the end, she crashed directly into the Ice Wall.

Bang!

A loud impact echoed through the forest in the dead of night.

Dang Gyu-young glanced back again.

“That must’ve hurt.”

“I do feel a little bad, but hey, we’ve got to survive too.”

Whoosh!

At that moment, something faintly white flew toward us from up ahead.