“I’m sorry alright, I was excited and went a bit overboard, I didn’t mean to,” Woohyun whined, putting an arm on Sungyeol’s shoulder. They were sitting on the bed in their room – it was late night. Most of the guests in the bar were sleeping or gone for the night.

“A bit? You call that a bit? You basically told Sungjong everything!”

Sungyeol shrugged off Woohyun’s hand angrily. He was furious. Even though he had warned his friend not to divulge their mission to anyone, he had gone off and told a complete stranger everything. Even the bit about the Sacred Secrets and their quest.

Why did I bring him with me? He’s more of a hindrance than help.

“I’m sorry, but Sungjong promised he wouldn’t tell anyone and I thought he’s such a sweet person and so trustable -”

“Admit it, you were trying to show off in front of him!”

Woohyun lowered his head sadly.

“Okay you got me. I admit it. But please, I’m sorry, he won’t tell anyone.”

Sungyeol found that difficult to believe. It was already suspicious that Sungjong knew about the Sacred Secrets. Of course any mystic cosmologist would know about its existence, but only half of them knew about the quest that came with possessing the secrets. It was extremely fishy that Sungjong seemed to know almost everything there was to know about the book and the quest.

After Woohyun had been smart enough to blab everything to him, he had sought out Sungyeol and directly asked him to let him accompany them on the quest.

“I’m really interested in quests, and I could be of help. I overheard you talking to Dongwoo about finding a caster, and I know the one who lives in the western forest. Let me come with you.”

A lot of things had bothered him about this proposition. Firstly, he had wished to keep it a complete secret but now it was out in the market. No matter how much Woohyun vowed for him, Sungyeol didn’t trust Sungjong. He didn’t like how he always wore that seductive smirk, as if he knew your secrets. The knowing look in his eyes was disturbing too, and he didn’t like the fact how intimate and comfortable he looked with Woohyun.

The fact that he was eavesdropping on him and Dongwoo didn’t earn him any points either.

Some casters were up to no good, Sungyeol knew, and they loved to halt the progress of mystic cosmologists. Mostly, they didn’t interfere but there had been stories about casters who had even killed questers so that quests couldn’t be fulfilled. Some casters were jealous that they were never chosen to possess the Sacred Secrets and they sometimes killed to get their hands on the precious book.

Also, with every unfinished quest, the power of the book diminished so some of the casters, who were against the cosmologists benefiting from the knowledge the book provided, thwarted questers.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Sungjong is one of them.

His eyes were oddly green and he couldn’t understand how that could happen because he was definitely not wearing lenses. Inside, he was betting that Sungjong was an evil caster.

He hadn’t given him any straight answer and only said that he would think about it. Then he found Woohyun and almost ran to their room, where he started to plan on how to give Sungjong the sleep in the morning.

“He can help you know, he knows the mumbo-jumbo guy, and that’s whom we’re looking for right?”

After scolding him for a long time, Sungyeol had final revealed to him grudgingly what he had found out from Dongwoo. Even though he was now regretting it, they were a team.

“And you trust him? He could be lying!”

Woohyun put up his hands in surrender. His shoulders slumped asSungyeol paced the room heavily. He couldn’t decide what would be the best course of action. Refusing Sungjong probably wouldn’t be that easy, the sultry look in his eyes had told him that much.

But then what can we do? Take him with us?

That would be dangerous indeed, taking the enemy straight to the right place. And what was the guarantee that he wouldn’t do something to them on the way. He could easily cast a spell on them and steal the book.

Then again, if they left Sungjong behind, there was no telling who he would alert and what plans he would hatch to thwart them.

While Woohyun lightly snored in the bed, Sungyeol paced up and down the room, deciding on what to do.

When morning came, he woke Woohyun up.

“What’s for breakfast?” Woohyun asked, yawning widely.

“Go and call Sungjong, tell him he can come with us.”

Woohyun sat up.

“He can?”

Sungyeol huffed.

“What else can we do? Let’s just hope he didn’t lie about the caster.”

He was packing his bag. He had taken out everything and repacked, placing the Sacred Secrets and the other books at the bottom and covering them with clothes. He had already changed into a fresh pair of sweats and had his breakfast from the bar.

“I’ll go and find him.”

Woohyun jumped down from the bed and changing into fresh clothes quickly, skipped out of the door. Sungyeol watched him from the corner of his eyes.

Does he like him that much?

When he had come down to the bar with their bags, he found Woohyun talking with Sungjong. Averting his eyes from the scene, he looked around for Dongwoo but the man was nowhere to be seen. Sighing, he went over to the chatting duo.

“Morning,” Sungjong greeted him with a wink.

Again he goes with the seducing…

He nodded at him only and handed Woohyun his bag. Woohyun took it and beamed at Sungyeol.

“Good news, Sungjong said that caster doesn’t live too far away. We can be there by the evening.”

“Wow great,” Sungyeol replied briefly.

He had decided to keep a sharp eye on Sungjong’s every move. Woohyun would definitely not be helping him with that so he had to keep a lookout.

I just hope this works.

They set out from the bar and started walking due west. Woohyun and Sungjong were trailing in front of him. He kept a certain distance from them, hoping to keep a wide ark in his field of vision.

For all we know, he might have alerted his accomplices.

When they reached the borders of the forest, instead of taking the narrow road that lead into the thick bushes and trees, Sungjong turned right, ambling through some low undergrowth.

“Aren’t we supposed to go west?” Sungyeol hollered, eyeing the path Sungjong was following suspiciously. Sungjong turned back to look at him with a smile.

“This is a shortcut, we’ll get there much faster.”

He started walking and Sungyeol had no choice but to follow him since Woohyun was already bounding up the path beside Sungjong. But he brought out his compass. Casters gave off high mystic energy so if they were heading in the right way, the compass would show.

After walking for about three hours, Sungyeol felt his legs giving away. Woohyun had stopped as well, wheezing. Sungjong alone showed no signs of tiredness.

“I just – can’t go on – anymore,” Woohyun huffed, clutching at his chest.

“Of course you can,” Sungjong said and before Sungyeol could move or protest, he had taken something out from his pocket and shoved it down Woohyun’s open mouth.

“Woohyun!”

To his utter amazement, Woohyun leaped to his feet and looked around, a shocked expression on his face.

“Wow, I don’t feel any of it, the fatigue, the strain, nothing!” He stretched his arms and legs delightfully, then turned to Sungjong with a big smile.

“What was that?”

“A small trick I picked up from my caster friend.” He took something out of his pocket and extended his arm toward Sungyeol, who recoiled at the sight of the small yellow candy-like thing on his palm. “Go ahead, it’s great for the fatigue.”

Sungyeol was conflicted – accepting something like that from someone who was a potential enemy was utter madness of course but he had seen Woohyun getting healed right in front of him.

“Sungyeol, it’s not poison,” Sungjong said sweetly, the corners of his lips twisting into a sensual smirk.

Sighing, he accepted the candy and popped it into his mouth. It tasted like lemon and instantly, he felt energy wash over his body. He felt refreshed, as if he had just woken up from a deep sleep. He could run a mile.

Where did he get this? Is he just a mystic cosmologist?

Some mystic cosmologists did practice brewing potions but they were very few in number. Somehow Sungjong, so young and so y, didn’t fit in the description of a mystic potion-brewer.

Who is he?

“Shall we continue?” Sungjong didn’t wait for a reply as he strode forward, Woohyun and Sungyeol following him. The forest deepened and it was getting difficult to find their way through the dense bushes. Sungyeol’s legs and arms were scratched and scarred and he could barely see where he was going.

He had kept an eye on the compass as well but it showed no sign of any mystic energy nearby. This worried him. By now, the compass should have picked up something. Casters emitted large amounts of energy over a very wide radius. He was sure it was almost sundown and yet there was no sign of reaching the caster’s place.

“Sungjong, when will we reach the place? Isn’t it late already?”

Sungjong stopped in his tracks. It was very dark now and Sungyeol could barely see the outline of Sungjong and Woohyun.

Slowly, Sungjong turned around.

Sungyeol’s scream was stuck in his throat and Woohyun muffled his in his hands.

It was too dark to make out Sungjong’s face but that was not unusual.

Sungjong’s eyes were glowing an angry green.