Merlin plopped down on the couch in his dorm’s living room.

  His heart was still beating as fast as it had in the auditorium, during the reveal of the list of those set to participate in the tournament, but for a different reason at this moment.

  “Ugh… I was hoping to escape. How did I manage to get dragged into this?” Hakyun grumbled as he sliced Blue’s meal in bite-sized chunks while the dragon stared patiently, his wings twitching as he watched.

  They had left Blue in the room out of fear that he might lose his cool for whatever reason in the auditorium and expose himself. Merlin had never been scared of such happening before, but Hakyun, in particular, was on another level of paranoid. And since they had spent quite some time in the auditorium, it wasn’t surprising that Blue was very hungry.

  Perhaps he ought to teach the dragon how to open the fridge and take his meal himself, Merlin wondered.

  “Why do you have to complain about everything?” Chima clicked his tongue at Hakyun, sitting down on a cushion close to the window and breathing in the summer air as he relaxed.

  Hakyun slammed his knife on the chop board and bared his teeth at Chima.

  “How come you are fine with everything that happens, brute?” he voiced. “Sometimes I wonder if you’re human.”

  Chima scoffed. “You would be surprised.”

  Merlin smiled.

  His mood was a lot brighter than it had been these past few days, and it was because Prestige Academy had given him what he’d wanted the most ever since the start of the term. A chance to participate in the tournament. And it wasn’t only him. Chima and Hakyun too, and even Nora. The others were Lee Jaehyun, Kim Yiseo, Park Yuri, Hwang Man-Shik, Oh Jihye, and… Choi Sangook.

  Merlin’s mood plummeted in an instant.

  Choi Sangook being amongst those chosen to participate in the tournament gave him mixed feelings. And it became more pronounced at this moment as he let himself linger on his thoughts a little longer than he had in the auditorium.

  The first stage was a stage that required teamwork. Choi Sangook never did well when it came to teamwork. At least, that Merlin knew of. He had overhead the boy’s teammates grumble a few times whenever they were seated in class about how he liked to act on his own and force them to change their strategies to accommodate him. And it might even be worse now that he was on the same team as Lee Jaehyun, the son of his father’s rival. In fact, maybe Merlin shouldn’t subtract himself from the equation. He had quite the brief history with Choi Sangook as well.

  And then there was Hakyun. He glanced at the boy, and he could see a shadow of unease lying underneath the playful facade he displayed as a means to highlight his displeasure with competing in the tournament.

  Hakyun had mentioned not wanting to compete even before the Tower raid, but he hadn’t felt so strongly about it like now.

  Merlin could guess why.

  “Will it be all right?” Merlin blurted his thoughts with a sigh, and his roommates turned his way.

  “Of course it won’t!” Hakyun voiced, thinking that Merlin was in support of his complaints. “How can it? I’m not motivated. Someone else should take my place. I’m thinking about meeting with Professor Jung and asking her to swap me with someone else. That will be the best.”

  “I’m not letting you do that,” Chima argued. “Not on my watch.”

  “What is wrong with you? It’s my call to make.”

  “If you make that call, I’ll no longer be friends with you,” Chima groused, visibly annoyed as he shifted on the cushion he was seated on. “I don’t want to be friends with someone who gives up when the going gets tough. You have been given the opportunity to represent the academy. This is the first true test we’ve been handed as Mages. The academy trusts you to do well; your results up till now are proof of that. If you throw them into the mud, I’m really gonna stop being your friend.”

  Hakyun’s brows loosened. He jerked back slightly, opened his mouth to say something, and closed it once again. Then he lowered his gaze, clenching his jaw as he shifted the Blue’s meal towards him. The dragon didn’t bite into it. He too was staring at Chima. And so was Merlin.

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  Honestly, maybe Chima was being selfish with his reasoning. Merlin couldn’t say. Hakyun wasn’t the only one who didn’t want to be involved in the tournament. Sofia was one, for example. And Hakyun had an even deeper reason not to want to compete now that he would be forced to team up with Choi Sangook. However, there was no way Chima had missed this. So his words must be because of that.

  “It’ll be all right,” said Merlin after a few seconds of silence passed. “I’m sure it will. All we have to do is stick together. It’ll work out.” He paused and smiled. “Also, think about it guys. If we manage to win it all, we’ll become things of legend in Prestige Academy for years to come.” He gestured in the air like he was citing a headline. “The students who took Prestige Academy to rank first in the world’s Magic Academy rankings. Tell me you guys don’t want your name to be praised for years to come.”

  Chima scoffed. “I’ll take any praise I can get. I don’t know about four-eyes, though.”

  Hakyun left his head lowered for a brief moment longer. Then he heaved out a deep sigh.

  “Fine. You’ve convinced me.” He clicked his tongue. “Who wouldn’t be tempted by the prospect of being a legend? If anyone deserves that, it’s me. It’s not easy enduring you both’s antics.”

  Well, that was false. Merlin was the one enduring Hakyun and Chima, not the other way around.

  Regardless, he smiled. He appreciated the way they all managed to drag Choi Sangook into the conversation.

  The lad was best left out of it.

  Still, Merlin wondered how he would be able to get the guy to cooperate when push came to shove. It would be hard. That he was most certain of.

  A knock sounded on the door then, dragging the gazes of Merlin and his roommates towards the door.

  They all frowned.

  “That’s not the dorm master’s knock,” Hakyun noted.

  And the dorm master always made use of the doorbell first of all, only resolving to knock when he was ignored after three rings.

  “Who else could want to pay our room a visit then?” Chima shifted on his cushion.

  The answer to that was lost to them all. The dorm master was the only one who came to their room, and it was only to supervise that they were keeping it clean. They had never gotten any other visitor.

  Chima hurried to the door and looked through its peephole. He jerked back, and turned to Merlin and Hakyun.

  “We have an august visitor,” he said. “It’s one of Crown Academy’s students.”

  Merlin and Hakyun blinked owlishly for half a second. Then their gazes flashed towards Blue. Immediately, Hakyun swooped him up, putting an abrupt end to his meal, and rushed into Merlin’s room despite the dragon’s screeching.

  “Relax,” he pleaded. “I’m going to bring the rest of your meal for you.”

  Blue hissed gently at those words then stopped. A second later, Hakyun did as he promised, and the living room was now free of incriminating presences.

  Chima was already at the door, waiting for Hakyun to be done. So when that was concluded, he wasted no time in unlocking it. A figure appeared at their doorstep. It was a boy with short black hair and deep brown skin. And he still had the same confident smile he had worn in the auditorium on his face.

  He raised a hand, imitating a brief wave at Chima. “Yo.”

  Chima raised a brow. “Welcome, I guess,” he said. “Is there any problem?”

  The boy lowered his hand. “Nah. You’re cool. We’re cool, I hope?”

  Chima nodded. “Of course.”

  The boy glanced into the room slightly, perhaps expecting to be invited in. Hakyun and Merlin watched the events play out from the side, out of sight of the boy’s view, but the boy was not out of their own line of sight.

  The boy stretched his hand forward. “Name’s Marcus. Marcus Reed. What’s yours?”

  Chima received the handshake. “Ken. But you can call me Chima. I prefer that.”

  Marcus’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh, Nigerian. Nice. Nice. You should have come to Crown Academy, then. We’ve got lots of international students compared to South Korea. But all hope is not lost. You can request a transfer. At the end of the semester, though. You have good grades and you’re an A-Class Mage, so it should all go smoothly.”

  Chima’s eyes narrowed. “That’s an awful lot of research you’ve done on me.”

  “Eh. Don’t sweat it,” Marcus said. “You’ve gotta know the competition. And since I’m in your turf, it’s easier to find out details about you guys. You’re good, though. Crown Academy would love you.”

  Chima sighed. “You scouting for your academy?”

  “Not really,” said Marcus. “I just really like strong guys.” His smile spread even wider. And the silence between him and Chima stretched on for a second too long. Marcus gestured into the room after taking a few glances behind himself. People were staring it seemed. “Can I come in?” he asked. “I’m very uncomfortable out here, and I’d still like to talk to you a bit more. And your roommate, of course. Be a darling, would you?”

  Chima hesitated for a moment, then he shrugged and moved out of the way, inviting Marcus in.

  “Just as long as you put an end to your scouting,” he said. “We Prestige Academy students are fine where we are.”

  Marcus scoffed as he walked into the dorm room. “You’d be surprised to find out that quite a few have already agreed to defer. Some without even any nudge. Just out of pure love of the game.” He chuckled. “Thank you for welcoming me in.”