“You made quite a show today.” Hajin said as he, Cristopher, and Rachel sat on a grass field outside of the Underground Plaza.

The Mock Artifact Scramble already ended, and now cadets were outside of the place resting and getting treated by some medics from Cube. Mostly with potions.

“I don’t know what you mean.” Cristopher shrugged as he laid down on the grass with his head resting on his hands. “I just took care of Kim Suho and Yoo Yeonha.”

“What?” Hajin turned to him with a frown. “You took down Shin Jonghak too.”

“You have such a bad memory, man.” Cristopher shook his head. “I didn’t take him down. You and Rachel did. Both him and Chae Nayun.”

“That was only possible because you beat him.” Hajin said with a sigh.

“Details, man. Those are not more than simple details.” Cristopher said.

Rachel could only chuckle at his answer.

“Either way, it’s great we won.” She said as she looked around. Mostly, those being treated were from Team White. Because of their stunt of eliminating Team’s White strongest members from the get-go, the other members of Team Black got it easy to remove most of the remaining members.

Close to the end of the class, only 6 members from Team White were standing, and that’s only because they were hiding and the time finished before they could be found.

A group of ten cadets from Team White grouped and tried as hard as they could to get at least one artifact, but they couldn’t do much about Rachel’s onslaught, as she commanded the members from Team Black.

Cristopher stopped involving himself in the class in the middle after he ‘trained’ Olivia in guerrilla tactics. As a result, the latter was currently pouting with her head between her knees, muttering insults against Cristopher with her weakest voice possible, not knowing that he could actually hear her, causing him to start plotting another training session for her.

Even as he stopped fighting, the fact that he practically finished the most important members of the enemy team by himself, earned him enough points to reach the MVP position alongside Rachel.

Hajin, on the other hand, went with Rachel and started attacking the groups from Team White. Without knowing it, he made cadets believe in Tomer’s rumors more vehemently by following Rachel around.

“Yeah, it was an easy win.” Hajin said as he nodded.

“It was boring after those guys kicked the bucket.” Cristopher said with a sigh.

“What were you hoping for?” Kim Hajin said with an awkward smile and then turned to look at Chae Nayun, who was glaring at them with red eyes. “...What?”

“What happened?” Cristopher asked.

“Chae Nayun’s glaring at us.” Hajin muttered.

“Really?” Opening his eyes, Cristopher quickly got up as he looked for Chae Nayun. He smiled widely once she found her. “Whoa… It’s true. Yo!”

He waved at her, which made the latter glare even more intensely.

“Hahaha.” Cristopher chuckled at her. “Such a loser, what’s she angry for? It’s not our fault that Rachel’s stronger than her.”

“...Thanks, master.” Rachel smiled shyly at the unexpected compliment. “But she was frightful too, her magic-power sword was really heavy.”

“As expected from a brute.” Cristopher chuckled. “Still, she might have that insane amount of Magic Power but she is not able to wield it properly… that’s what’s dragging her down.”

“Ha...” Hajin shook his head. “Come on, man. You’re being too harsh on her. Also, stop bothering her that much.”

“Don’t wanna.” Cristopher said with a smirk.

“Jamer, is Jamer not out yet?” As they were talking, Kim Soohyuk passed by them asking other instructors if they’d seen Tomer, who was also one of the surviving members of Team White.

“Pfft...” Cristopher, who knew what happened to her, tried his best not to laugh.

On the other side of the place, Chae Nayun was grumping as she saw the group of Rachel, Kim Hajin, and Cristopher.

She lost. And it was quite a direct loss, no excuse to live apart from her lack of technique with the sword.

She was angry at herself for losing against Rachel of all the people, she would even feel better if Cristopher helped Rachel at least a bit, but he didn’t bother to do anything more than stop others from interfering in their fight. In a sense, he made sure it was a perfectly fair fight in a place where group tactics were the way to go.

But that’s not what bothered her the most. From the cadets around her that were also in Team White, she could hear that both Rachel and Kim Hajin went around the Underground Plaza together almost all the time, there was even a time when Cristopher simply disappeared and stood out of sight, leaving Rachel and Hajin alone.

Sure, there were other cadets, but those were simply members of Team Black. They weren’t as close to Rachel as Kim Hajin.

{This is all Yi Jiyoon’s fault...} Chae Nayun thought grumpily, her glare intensifying.

She has been thinking that the rumors going around were just that, rumors. But with what happened in the combat class, she couldn’t be that sure anymore. She couldn’t help but feel slightly fearful, and that made her even angrier, not knowing the reason she felt afraid.

“Are you bothered?” As Chae Nayun was glaring at the group, she heard a voice coming from behind. It was Yoo Yeonha.

“...What would I be bothered by?” Nayun grumpily answered.

“Oh, really?” Yoo Yeonha nodded. “I just thought that you would be bothered about that rumor.”

“W-What!? Are you crazy!?” Chae Nayun got flustered as she turned to look at Yoo Yeonha. “Why would I be bothered by that!? It’s not even my concern!”

“Mm? Really?” Yoo Yeonha smirked. “But… you know? I didn’t say what rumor I was talking about?”

“!” Chae Nayun froze.

Yoo Yeonha couldn’t help chuckling at her.

“You know~? I’ve been thinking.” She said as she glanced at Rachel and Kim Hajin. “At this rate, he might be taken away~.”

Actually, Yoo Yeonha knew that the rumors were quite improbable to be true. But for her, teasing Chae Nayun was always a fun thing to do.

“W-What...? Taken away? Can you stop spouting shit? He was never mine, to begin with.” She said sternly, but her clenching and trembling fist betrayed her.

“Well.” Yoo Yeonha smiled. “I don’t believe in those rumors either, but he might be searching for someone else because you keep pushing him away.”

At her words, Chae Nayun once again turned to look at Cristopher, Rachel, and Kim Hajin, the latter was sitting next to Rachel, who was in the middle. At this sight, she furrowed her brows and looked away with a snort.

“...If his feelings change this easily, he isn’t my type, to begin with.” She said in a mutter.

“Pfft.” Yoo Yeonha chuckled at her words.

Chae Nayun wanted to say something, but Yoo Yeonha spoke first.

“Nayun.”

“What now?” Nayun answered with a frown.

“Between Kim Suho and Kim Hajin, who is it?” She asked with a smirk.

“You...!” Chae Nayun opened her eyes wide and shouted. “It’s not like that!”

Yoo Yeonha couldn’t stop laughing at her reaction, while the cadets around them gave curious glances at Chae Nayun and her.

“Then is it Jonghak?” After a few moments, she finally stopped laughing and Yoo Yeonha asked.

“Are you crazy?” This time, Chae Nayun’s reaction was cold, a lot colder than before.

“I’m jealous...'' Somewhat relieved by her reaction, Yoo Yeonha blurted out a few of her feelings.

“About what?” Chae Nayun tilted her head.

“I have no one, but you get to choose from three.”

This time, Chae Nayun only sighed.

***

After the end of classes, Cristopher went alone to Eluveitie and sat at one of the tables by himself with a cup of hot chocolate.

He was currently looking at his smartwatch. Specifically at the Devil’s list.

{I got five out of eighty...} He thought as he looked at the list. {That’s not enough.}

“U-Um… Excuse me?” As he looked at the Devil’s list, someone approached Cristopher.

“Leave it on the table.” He said shortly, without turning to look at the waitress that carried a trail with a chocolate-chips-cookie cake along with some other sweets made of chocolate.

“Y-Yes...” The waitress, frightened, left the order on the table and quickly ran away.

Looking at this scene, a lot of the other customers were left with distaste in their mouths, but even those that were trying to court favor with the scared waitress didn’t dare to say anything to the disrespectful guy.

Unperturbed by their glances, Cristopher just stayed there, drinking from his cup of hot chocolate, while taking a bite or two of the cake and sweets from time to time.

{Russia could be a good place to start, it has a lot of places where Djinns can form cities. There’s also Pandemonium, but I’ll leave it for now.}

“Ha...” He let out a sigh. “Still… There’s something I must solve first...” He muttered to himself as he grabbed the cup of chocolate.

{I guess I could leave Evandel with Hajin, but… he’s probably going to be occupied working with Jeronimo and Chameleon Troupe. And leaving her in the orphanage isn’t a good idea either… Should I just…Mm?}

As he thought about the coming future, his smartwatch vibrated.

[Kim Hajin: Check the news.]

{What’s this guy going on about?} He thought, but still chose to look at the news.

Soon, his expression, which until a second ago was cold and numb, turned into an amused look.

An interesting news story made it to the trending topic.

[New guild Packhorse Master conquers Suwon Devil’s Nest!]

{Ho… Does this make me a millionaire?} He thought with a smirk.

Until now, he invested as much money as he could into Packhorse Master’s stocks. Every time he went out hunting he put most of the money into stocks, to the point of staying with only some ‘pocket change’ most of the time.

He ended up investing more than 10 billion only in Packhorse Master’s stocks. Which now returned in the form of 70 billion won.

{I should probably re-invest as much of this as I can into the other stocks that will make it big.} Cristopher said as he remembered there were some stocks that hadn't still gone public, and that would grow insanely quickly.

{Oh well, I still have to help the orphanage too. And save enough to get somewhere to crash after the second year starts.}

He quickly finished the chocolate and the desserts on his table, before standing up. And just as he was walking towards the exit, he stopped. Close to where the waitress was standing.

“Hiii…!” The waitress took a step back in fright with her arms crossed as Cristopher turned to look at her.

“Here.” He said as he took out a couple of bills from his wallet. “Thank you for your service, the cake was good.”

The waitress took the 50.000 won bills with trembling hands, and after tipping her Cristopher just went out of the place.

***

Thursday, a couple of hours after classes ended.

Kim Hajin was standing in front of the girls’ dormitories. He took a deep breath as he walked into the dormitory’s entrance, going through the main hall between all three buildings and towards a pavilion that was close to room 201’s building.

The person that he was going to see was already waiting for him there.

“You’re here.” Yoo Yeonha waved at him lightly as she spoke with a bright smile.

“Yeah.” Kim Hajin nodded as he walked closer.

“So? Why did you call me?” Yoo Yeonha asked as he got close.

Kim Hajin looked at her. She was being her usual self, even with her usual black attire consisting of a black blouse and black skirts.

“You made a pharmaceutical firm, right?” He asked, making her flinch at his straightforward question.

Her building a pharmaceutical firm wasn’t a really big secret. Even inside of Cube, everyone knew that she was doing business at her age already.

“...It’s been about two months.” She finally said after a second. “My close acquaintances all know about it. What about it?”

Her pharmaceutical firm was destined to succeed, even while growing among some of the strongest conglomerates in Korea and the world.

But right now, it wasn’t going that well. While she had the technology, and the researchers to grow it, she still needed one important ingredient for success. Materials.

She didn’t have the connections required to find expert ginseng diggers, as the most skilled ones already have exclusive contracts with giant pharmaceutical companies. True giants that wouldn’t flinch in front of Essence of the Strait.

Even then. She wouldn’t give up. And thanks to her connections, she would finally succeed in less than ten years.

“Here.” Hajin said as he threw her the five-year-old ginseng he found in Suwon.

Yoo Yeonha caught the ginseng with a confused face, but her mouth opened wide when she finally realized what it was.

“T-This is...” She muttered as she looked at the ginseng, while Hajin smiled.

“It’s a five-year-old ginseng. Use it for research, and you can pay me back later with a high-quality medicine.”

For Kim Hajin, giving this ginseng to her was a great opportunity. Not only will he receive high-quality medicine, but he will also form a connection with Yoo Yeonha.

She looked back and forth between the ginseng and Kim Hajin a couple of times, before finally putting the ginseng away.

“Where did you get this?” She asked. “Ginseng doesn't appear often in the market these days...”

After talking she flinched, as she was referring to Violet Banquet, a black market. Once she noticed her slip off, she started to sweat.

“It’s possible, right?” Hajin answered as he smirked.

“...Ah, yes.” She finally nodded. “I’ll even pay you back with interest. It will take a while though.”

“That’s fine.” Hajin shrugged.

“...By the way.” Yeonha said after a little pause. “Have you prepared for the singing competition?”

“Yeah, I picked a song, and went to rehearsal this morning.” Hajin nodded.

“Rehearsal...?” She tilted her head.

“Yeah, that’s why I wasn’t in class for the morning announcements.”

“Huhu, then can I look forward to it?” She asked with a small chuckle.

“Yeah. Look forward to it.” Hajin smiled. “It’ll go beyond your expectations.”

It wasn’t a lie, after all, he did waste some SP to create a singing art.

At that moment, Yoo Yeonha’s smartwatch vibrated. It was a call. She looked at her smartwatch before turning to look at Kim Hajin.

“I’ll take my leave now.” Hajin said as he stared back at her.

“Yes, thank you. I’ll return today’s favor two… no, threefold in the future.” She said with a nod.

As Hajin turned to leave, Yoo Yeonha picked up the call with earphones. As he started to walk, curiosity took the best of him, so he activated his Gift.

[...Yes, I’m in Daehyun hospital. Nurses are saying that Chae Jiyoon’s finger just moved. I stopped by to check if it was true.]

As the news reached his ears, Hajin quickly turned around to look at Yoo Yeonha.

“Really?” Yoo Yeonha asked before she noticed Hajin’s gaze.

[Yes, but-]

“Ah, hold on a minute.” Yoo Yeonha interrupted the person at the other side of the call and put it on hold as she looked at Hajin.

“...What is it for?” Hajin asked.

“Uh, well, just networking.”

“...I see.”

“Um… what’s up with that face?” She asked as she stared at him.

Without answering her, Kim Hajin turned around. A pulsating pain invaded his temple as he walked away.

He walked for a while until he finally reached a bench where he sat down.

He stared forwards with a lost gaze for a moment, before an idea came to his mind and he summoned the Book of Truth.

{When will the Devil’s Seed in Chae Jiyoon germinate?} He asked, but no answer came, meaning that the current Magic Power on his Stigma wasn’t enough.

Thinking for a little while, he asked something different.

{Give me an approximate estimate on how much the Devil’s Seed in Chae Jiyoon has developed.}

This time, the two streaks of Stigma were completely emptied, and an 89% was engraved on the page.

89%.

Assuming that a Devil’s Seed took five years to incubate. This meant that there was only half a year left for the seed to germinate.

Time was coming close. Only six months for the seed to germinate.

This time, Hajin turned on his smartwatch and looked directly into it.

[Boss: When will you contact me again?]

Boss’ message shone on the holographic screen.

***

[Cube’s first-year Class Competitions begin now!]

It was now Friday, and with the announcement, Class Competitions began in full. Today’s class competition would be mostly non-combat, while Saturday and Sunday would be used for individual and group competitions.

“Whoa...” Hajin said as he looked at the field in front.

He was spectating the soccer match between Veritas Class and World Class alongside Cristopher, Rachel, and Olivia.

“Mm? Are you amazed by this?” Cristopher, who was listening to music while looking at the field and drinking from his non-transparent bottle.

“Yeah...” Hajin nodded. “I mean, it’s like looking at some wuxia or xianxia novel in real life.”

While cadets were forbidden to use Magic Power during the match, they were still superhuman beings, and their physical abilities were far over what a normal human was capable of.

“Oh well, if you say so.” Cristopher shrugged as he focused on his music once again.

“I mean… It’s something pretty normal to see, isn’t it?” Olivia, who was eating popcorns beside them, asked as she tilted her head.

“I guess that’s true...” Hajin nodded.

“Haha.” Rachel chuckled. “It’s like you never saw a game like this, Hajin-ssi.”

“Well… Something like that?” Hajin smiled awkwardly as he scratched the back of his head. “I was just thinking that’s amazing for them to be able to play like that without using Magic Power.”

“Is that so?” Rachel nodded. “By the way, did you already choose a song for the competition?”

“Yes, actually.” Hajin nodded. “It’s called ‘If’, have you heard of it?”

“‘If’?” Rachel tilted her head for a second, before shaking it. “No, I haven’t.”

“Oh well, I guess it’s normal, it’s quite an old song. From 2008 actually.” Hajin nodded.

“Woah, that’s a really old song.” Olivia said.

“Have you heard of it?”

“No, but it’s from 2008, it’s amazing you even know about it...”

“Haha… Well, let’s say that I heard of it by coincidence.” Hajin smiled wryly.

At that moment, the public cheered as Kim Suho celebrated a goal. Turning to look at him, Kim Hajin noticed Chae Nayun at the front of the seats, she was also cheering loudly for the goal.

Hajin stared at her absently, which in turn made her turn around, meeting his gaze.

He smiled weakly before looking away. Only to meet Cristopher’s eyes.

After a couple of seconds, Cristopher just nodded, before he sipped on his drink and turned to look at the match with a disinterested look.

After 90 minutes passed, the game was finally over, and Veritas Class won with three goals from Kim Suho and two from Shin Jonghak. On the other hand, World Class couldn’t mark a single goal, as both Yi Yeonha’s savings on the goal and Kim Horak’s defense didn’t allow them to mark any goal.

Just like that, the outdoor events and some others like the Quiz Event continued until 5, when everyone went to an indoor auditorium for the last event of the day, the singing competition.