「 episode 6; arc 3.2 」 —tenebrous awakening//red velvet— 「 hyejoo ii 」

“Okay, here we are! Make yourselves at home!”

Hyejoo found herself standing in front of a large suburban home situated on the corner of a silent street. On the outskirts of a bigger town not far off into the horizon, the small neighborhood was as quiet as she would have expected given the local time of nearly midnight.

Seulgi held the front door open with a smile as Joohyun stepped inside. Jungeun and Kahei followed her closely, and Chaewon proceeded after, leading a curious Hyejoo by an interlocked hand. As Seulgi closed the door behind them, the four sorceresses found themselves stepping onto the jade-colored carpet of a lofty foyer of sorts.

The walls all around them were littered with shelves tightly packed with all types of books and reading material. The center of the area was adorned with an oak coffee table surrounded by dark green couches. The layout somewhat reminded Hyejoo of Sunmi’s office. At the far end of the room, a flight of stairs lead to the second floor, and above them hung an ornate chandelier of beige glass.

“Seungwan! Joy!” Joohyun called out as she approached the stairs. Receiving no response, she wordlessly began to ascend towards the second floor.

Seulgi showed her guests a smile as she motioned towards the couches. “Take it easy, guys. You can sit down if you’d like. I’ll get some snacks.”

Following their host’s suggestion, the travelers seated themselves after Seulgi disappeared behind a nearby door. The four of them set their bags down on the floor beneath them as they got comfortable.

Jungeun and Kahei shared one couch as Chaewon and Hyejoo shared another, though the women of fire and earth sat at opposite ends in contrast to the other pair’s close snuggle.

Similar to Hyejoo, Jungeun brought her legs up onto the sofa in an act of maximum comfort. She looked to her teammates with a small smile as she placed an elbow on the arm of the couch next to her, resting her chin in her palm. “They’re good, huh?”

“Yes, quite,” Kahei ascertained with a nod, crossing her legs and resting her hands atop her knees. “They have a visible degree of experience handling fiends and it shows. They even employ strategic usage of tanking. If they decide to join LOONA, their skills would be a massive boon to our efforts.”

“No doubt about that,” Jungeun replied in agreement. “We’d be lucky to have them. Hopefully things work out like that…”

“You think they might not want to join us?” Hyejoo questioned with her eyes locked onto Jungeun. Jungeun returned the glance in full with a slight grimace.

“Difficult to say. Gonna depend on what exactly is going on with them in this timeline,” the gray-haired woman reasoned, her gaze wandering about the room. “They’ve clearly got a nice place to stay, if this really is their home...in the end, some people just aren’t comfortable with the thought of abandoning everything they know, and there’s nothing wrong with that.”

“Regardless, let’s do what we can to help them,” Chaewon chimed in, giving her teammates a warm smile. “It sounds like someone close to them was taken away. If nothing else, we can assist them in getting her back.”

“Yeri, was it?” Kahei spoke mostly to herself as she pushed up her glasses, remembering Seulgi’s words. “I wonder what the circumstances of her capture were...how have things developed in this world where a magus would be kidnapped?”

“What’s a magus…?”

A fifth voice entered the atmosphere with a question. Surprised eyes looked up and were met with the sight of Seulgi holding a silver platter. Hyejoo briefly scanned it as it was set down on the table. Four frosted glasses of cold water accompanied a carefully organized plate of crackers and cookies.

Seulgi seated herself fully on one of the single chairs as her guests helped themselves. Kahei reached for a glass of water and Jungeun grabbed a small handful of snacks. Chaewon took two cookies, biting into one while offering the other to Hyejoo next to her. Seulgi smiled as she watched Hyejoo lean forward and bite into it while it was still in Chaewon’s hand.

“A magus is…” Kahei began after a sip of her drink, stalling as she deliberated on her choice of words. Before she could continue, the sound of steps from above interrupted her.

“Yeah...alright, see you soon. Love you too.”

From the second floor, Joohyun emerged with a strangely calm yet serious expression set about her face. Pulling a smartphone away from her ear, she tapped on the screen a bit before sliding it into her back pocket.

Approaching the group, she sat in the single seat across Seulgi. Similar to Kahei, she sat upright with crossed legs as she looked towards Seulgi. “They’ll be here in five. They know where Yeri is.”

“They didn’t go after her?” Seulgi wondered, voice slightly muffled from her ongoing munching of her own assorted snacks. “There’s a lot of them, then?”

“That seems to be the case. We were being naive to expect otherwise. Should’ve figured most of the clan would show up for a sacrifice,” Joohyun lamented, her eyes falling to the table below. “We don’t have much time to act. These rituals are always done before sunrise.”

The room quickly found itself encompassed in a blanket of silence.

The four sorceresses seemed to be unsure of how to proceed, and Joohyun quickly caught wind of it as she looked to Jungeun. “What were you all doing in that church? I can tell by how you fight that you’re no beginner thaumaturges, so you should have known to stay away from churches.”

“If we should keep away from churches, why’d you run right into one?” Jungeun calmly asked back. Joohyun didn’t flinch even as her own inquiry was blatantly ignored. “Was there some reason to corner yourself against that many fiends?”

“Truth be told, I was trying to lure them in there so I could wreck the building entirely and drop the roof on all of them at once,” Joohyun revealed.

Her crimson eye came to life with a soft light as a small cloud of red mana floating in front of her materialized into a gentle orange flame. Joohyun peered into it for a moment before looking back to Jungeun.

“Would’ve worked out, I think, but you guys just happened to be there. Convenient and lucky for Seulgi and I, but equally just as strange to try and imagine what four thaumaturges were doing on the upper levels of a church that far out of town.”

“What’s making this all the more confusing is your dialect,” Joohyun continued, her eyes shifting between Jungeun and Kahei. “Fiends, magus...I’d really like an explanation. It’s difficult to be fully appreciative of your help when I’m left with only vague ideas because I can’t properly understand what you’re talking about…”

Kahei opened to speak, but Jungeun beat her to the punch. “We’re gonna get to that part. Your friends should be here for that, though. All I can really say for now is that we’re not from around here. Can you tell us what’s going on with Yeri?”

Hyejoo watched in silence as Joohyun and Seulgi looked to each other with an intense sort of consideration. The quiet in the room didn’t last long, however, as Joohyun sighed lightly after Seulgi gave her a solemn smile.

“Yeri’s my little sister. She’s been kidnapped by religious extremists. At this point, most people refer to them as cultists. The cult itself...they’re called Red Velvet.”

The four travelers gave Joohyun their undivided attention as she continued. “Red Velvet believes that miscreations are a direct result of the fury that their god has brought upon the world. They kidnap thaumaturges and sacrifice them in a sick ritual, placing faith in the idea that offering their dead remains to their god will appease them. They truly believe that by killing thaumaturges in cold blood, those mannequins will stop appearing all over the world.”

Hyejoo shuddered, reflexively edging closer towards Chaewon. The girl of light reciprocated warmly, bringing her free arm around Hyejoo. Chaewon’s embrace did wonders in combating unpleasant images coming to life in Hyejoo’s mind.

“I understand why you were surprised to find us in a church, then,” Kahei said with a nod as understanding took root in her mind. “People like us don’t want to be seen by members of Red Velvet, and I can only assume that it can be difficult to exactly tell which houses of worship would have attendance from their members…?”

“Yeah. It’s more or less a secret society,” Joohyun clarified. “Supposed to be, anyway. At this point, they’re too big to really be considered a secret. Regardless, members don’t exactly disclose their affiliation to Red Velvet in public or anything.”

“Yeri was just going to hang out with some friends this afternoon, but…” Joohyun continued before her voice trailed off. Hyejoo caught notice of the woman digging her nails into the black denim of her jeans.

“...it turns out that her friends had been messaged by someone claiming to be from the cult. They were threatened with harm against their families if they didn’t lead Yeri to them. Out of fear, they complied with Red Velvet’s demands and brought Yeri to some shady spot in town, and…”

“The claim was real, then,” Jungeun surmised as Joohyun paused again, discomfort showing itself on her face. “Resorting to blackmail against uninvolved third parties...unbelievable…”

“The worst part is that they didn’t even bother to do their research,” Joohyun remarked with a disgusted scoff. “They were only made aware of Yeri’s existence by proxy of seeing me with her. They’ve been after us for a while. They knew she was my sister, and they knew I was a thaumaturge, so they assumed further similarities and made her a target. What they don’t know is that she isn’t like me. She isn’t like us.

“Yeri isn’t even a thaumaturge. They’re sacrificing an innocent human girl.”

Joohyun’s words hung over the group with a melancholic pause.

As everyone sat on the information and processed it, Kahei was the first to respond. She brought her eyes up to Joohyun, though Joohyun remained focused on the ground below her.

“Red Velvet...are they like us as well?”

“No,” Joohyun promptly responded, her eyes narrowing. “They don’t know the first thing about thaumaturgy. They’re just regular people blindly following the concept that some in the sky would be happy to see them murder us.”

“Are they all like that?” Hyejoo’s small voice came into being. Joohyun looked to the younger girl as she spoke. “People from here, I mean...religious people. Do they all think that…?”

“Thankfully not,” Seulgi replied with a sigh, bringing eyes towards her. “Red Velvet is definitely as extremist as it gets. I mean, pretty much every school of faith and religion looks down on us and what we can do as blasphemous or whatever, but they don’t, y’know...hunt us down and kill us. They let us live so long as we don’t bother them—which we don’t!”

“We relocated here a few months ago in the hopes that Red Velvet’s reach hadn’t extended this far out yet,” Joohyun explained, “but it didn’t take long for them to find us. Ever since they first learned about us, it’s felt like they’ve had a branch solely dedicated to hunting us down specifically. No matter where we go, they eventually find us and force us to seek out yet another place to call home.

“All I want is for Yeri to live in peace,” Joohyun murmured, exhaustion set deep within her eyes. “I’m tired of making her change schools all the time, tired of making her say goodbye to every new group of friends she settles in with…”

“How old is she?” Jungeun asked cautiously.

“She recently turned seventeen. I’m her older sister by fourteen years. I’m also the only family she has left,” Joohyun revealed. She brought her attention to Seulgi across the coffee table. “We’re all without our families now. Most of them were taken by Red Velvet and sacrificed.”

“For a few years now, it’s just been the five of us,” Seulgi explained with a wistful smile. “Myself, Joohyun, Yeri, Seungwan, and Joy. We were all friends growing up, and now...we watch each other’s backs and live as best as we can.”

“Unfortunately, our ‘best’ life involves dropping everything at a moment’s notice the instant Red Velvet finds us again,” Joohyun said in a low tone. The scorn within her voice drew Kahei’s attention, bearing similarity to a certain frozen swordswoman. “If I could get away from it all, settle down somewhere that would let Yeri live in peace...I wouldn’t hesitate to do so.”

The four sorceresses exchanged glances between one another. Kahei nodded to them, all of them bearing no doubt that their thoughts were aligned. She remained quiet, however, and the silence in the room continued. A minute passed before it was broken by the sound of the front door opening.

“Seungwan! Joy!”

Seulgi’s beaming smile was a beacon of light against the dark mood of the room as she jumped up from her seat.

She approached two figures that entered the home from behind Kahei and Jungeun. The two turned their bodies and heads as Hyejoo and Chaewon looked on beyond them.

The first woman Seulgi approached was shorter than her, standing at a height equal to Joohyun. Embracing her in a hug, the woman smiled as her gaze traveled from Seulgi in her arms to the seated Joohyun. Heterochromatic eyes of hazel and ocean blue met Joohyun’s. “We’re back. Everything alright?”

“Yeah. Welcome home, Seungwan,” Joohyun stated as she slowly stood up from her seat. Seulgi released Seungwan from her hug, allowing the woman clad in a black and white plaid dress shirt and black slacks to approach Joohyun.

Seungwan shared an embrace with Joohyun, much closer and tighter than the one she had with Seulgi. A content smile showed itself on Seungwan’s face as the taller girl parted the bangs of her wavy dark blonde hair. Seungwan’s forehead revealed, Joohyun gently kissed it before holding the girl close for a second longer.

“Giving away our food, Seulgi?”

The question posed by the second woman was met with soft laughter from Seulgi. Hyejoo gazed upon the sight of the much taller woman drawing Seulgi in close for a hug of deep affection similar to Joohyun and Seungwan’s. She looked up to the four guests with inquisitive eyes of dark brown and bright green.

“They’re the ones that helped you out, then?” Joy asked.

“Yeah!” Seulgi affirmed, breaking away from her embrace with Joy. Her hand found one of Joy’s, their fingers interlocking as she led her towards her seat. Joy sat first, fixing her neatly straightened locks of ebony to her right side as Seulgi sat in her lap and rested on her left.

Opposite to them across the table, Seungwan took a seat where Joohyun had been sitting. Joohyun half-seated herself on the armrest of Seungwan’s chair. In a similar manner, their hands found one another as they calmly intertwined their fingers.

Hyejoo became oddly fixated on the sight of the two couples holding hands. Her eyes fell to her hand holding onto Chaewon’s. Even as Seungwan spoke, Hyejoo couldn’t help but get lost in her own sea of thoughts as she looked at Chaewon’s hand interlocked with hers.

“Thank you,” Seungwan announced in earnest, looking to the four sorceresses with great appreciation. “You helped us in a time of need without reason and without hesitation. We’re in your debt.”

“Please don’t worry about it,” Kahei stated with a shake of her head. “We were only doing what we could to help.”

“Sounds like this isn’t the end of our assistance, either,” Jungeun added. “Joohyun’s little sister was kidnapped, yeah? We’re on board to help out with that, too.”

“Wait, really?” Seungwan replied in surprise. Joy was equally shocked, looking to both Joohyun and Seulgi. Seungwan’s eyes met Joohyun’s above her. “Are you sure you want to involve them…? Miscreations are one thing, but the cult…”

“Well, they say they have something they need help with themselves,” Joohyun explained, inciting Seungwan and Joy to look back towards Jungeun and Kahei. “Though we still don’t know what it is, I think we could give it a shot after we get Yeri back.”

“So what is it you guys need help with, then?” Joy asked, confusion and uncertainty clear in her eyes. “Do you need a place to stay? Is Red Velvet hunting you down too?”

Kahei’s allies all found themselves looking at her expectantly. The woman of earth showed the group a small smile as she nodded. Pushing up her glasses, she addressed the thaumaturges.

“It’s…a little more involved than that. It'd be best if I started at the beginning. Joohyun, Seungwan, Seulgi, Joy...have you heard of the multiverse theory?”

「 ➤➤➤ ★ ➤➤➤ 」

“Thank you for coming, Hyuna.”

“Archmagus Lee…”

“Oh, forgive me once again. Grandmaster Hyuna. Your fellow officers from your timeline have graciously allowed me the privilege of referring to them in casual contexts without titles. I’ve grown quite comfortable with the practice, so I apologize for failing to adhere to your preferences.”

“Jinsol’s brainwashed everyone by now, I’m sure.”

Two voices shared in light laughter within Sunmi’s office. The Archmagus was seated behind her desk, and in front of her, a woman equal to her in height stood on the other side.

Her well-maintained dirty blonde hair hair fell well past her shoulders as she ran a hand through it. With mismatched eyes of hazel and a prominent crimson, Hyuna focused on Sunmi as she dropped a manila folder on her desk. Removing the ped leather jacket she was equipped with, Hyuna hung it over the back of her chair before sitting down, appearing comfortable in her black tank top and white jeans.

“The results?” Sunmi questioned, gently grabbing the folder and lifting it. Opening it, she was met with the sight of various detailed reports showcasing all sorts of charts and graphs.

“Mostly inconclusive,” Hyuna revealed, crossing her legs as she leaned back into her chair slightly. With her elbows on the armrests, she placed her hands in her lap. “You can imagine how obscenely difficult it is to discover whether or not some form of consciousness can lay dormant within the manastream, especially after only two months of research.”

“Yes, quite,” Sunmi agreed in understanding, her eyes still dutifully scanning the papers in her hands. “Unfortunately, however, there is no other way to accurately describe the phenomena that has been afflicting Hyejoo.”

“Care to explain it to me properly, Archmagus Lee?” Hyuna inquired, tilting her head with a playful smile. “You can’t ever seem to fully divulge the information I need whenever we speak over the phone, and summoning you from this building only works when the council in Mobius requires you.”

“I hope my lack of attendance hasn’t proven to be a nuisance to you and the other council members,” Sunmi apologetically remarked with a sigh as she set the papers down. “Ever since our Master line managed to rescue Yeojin as our twelfth, we’ve been extraordinarily busy here in an effort to fully prepare LOONA for proper operations.”

“We understand, but Grandmaster Chungha might be losing her patience with you,” Hyuna teased with a smirk, evoking a chuckle from Sunmi. “Grandmaster Jieun does seem to be rather upset about her inability to help out on this front, though.”

“Please tell her this isn’t something she should worry about,” Sunmi quickly countered, visibly uncomfortable with the sentiment. “Her role as a council member is just as important as the roles our sorceresses here at LOONA are fulfilling. Your combined efforts keep Mobius running as a safe haven for all elementalists.”

“I’ll be sure to relay that information,” Hyuna said with a nod, gratitude towards the Archmagus clear in her eyes. “So what’s the story with this girl, then? Hyejoo, right?”

Sunmi didn’t answer Hyuna immediately. Inching closer to her desk, she propped her elbows up on it and folded her hands, placing them in front of . Hyuna watched with quiet intensity as the Archmagus underwent careful consideration of her words. After a brief period, she spoke.

“There truly is no easy way to summarize it, so I suppose my only option is to be realistically blunt,” she surmised. “When we found her, Hyejoo’s manastream was corrupted to a degree beyond measure. It was so severe, in fact, that she should have long been dead.”

Hyuna remained silent as Sunmi collected her thoughts for another moment. “We’re still not exactly sure how she’s survived as long as she has with that level of corruption. What’s even more shocking is that her manasystem didn’t completely rupture from aneurysms as is common with cases of extreme manapoisoning like hers. The only clue we had left was the fact that she wasn’t entirely the person we ended up bringing back.”

“She wasn’t entirely the person you brought back?” Hyuna parroted with a cocked eyebrow. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“The Hyejoo that is courageously fighting for LOONA in an effort to save magi across the multiverse right now is not the same girl that Chaewon and the others initially found,” Sunmi clarified, her eyes settling upon Hyuna’s. “She is only half of that girl. I believe the most apt way to put it would be to say that Hyejoo is suffering from some form of dissociative identity disorder.”

“Like a split personality, then?” Hyuna reasoned, inciting a nod from Sunmi. “You think that’s a hint behind why she managed to survive?”

“Even if only because absolutely nothing else could explain it, yes,” Sunmi said in defeat. “After all the testing we’ve performed and all of the possibilities we’ve ruled out, it’s the only remaining point we can logically pursue. As strangely unfathomable as it may be, with no other leads and an inability to understand the problem further, we’re left to assume one final possibility as truth.

“The corruption within Hyejoo’s manastream has manifested in the form of a self-aware alter ego that lies within her subconscious. It regulates itself so as to not destroy Hyejoo’s body or her manastream, as it understands that doing so would bring an end to its own existence.”

“Are you serious, Archmagus Lee?”

Hyuna’s response came after a moment of silence. Disbelief filled her eyes, and Sunmi could only return her look with a solemn nod. “I’m aware of how absurd it sounds, and I apologize if it seems as if this is all in jest. However, with no other explanation behind her survival possible, this is the conclusion we have arrived at.”

“Hold on...she’s naturally aligned to darkness, isn’t she? The report mentioned her having a level sixteen affinity towards it,” Hyuna inquired. Sunmi nodded in response. “We know the manastream mutation that leads to a natural alignment towards darkness bears a higher tolerance towards the effects of corrupted mana. That tolerance even scales with the level of affinity, so...isn’t it entirely possible that her body is simply able to handle it?”

“Such a straightforward answer would be ideal, but we don’t have a proper frame of reference for how much corruption such a high level affinity to darkness could withstand,” Sunmi revealed. “So, while that is a possibility, we cannot yet accept it as truth. Unfortunately, even if that were the case, it still doesn’t solve the matter that led to this theory of an alter ego in the first place. When they found Hyejoo, she did not refer to herself as such. She called herself—”

“—Olivia Hye.”

Hyuna finished Sunmi's statement for her. The Archmagus watched Hyuna quickly skim through the reports in the manila folder. “Once she had awoken from the comatose state Chaewon's purification had initially brought about, she then said her name was Hyejoo. That part makes enough sense now, I suppose. The circumstances under which they found her, however…”

Hyuna sighed as she closed the folder, placing it back on Sunmi’s desk in front of her. She brought her eyes up to the Archmagus', visibly troubled by something.

“Archmagus Lee, you’re claiming that Hyejoo has a split personality living within her...and that it came about as a direct result of her manastream becoming impossibly tainted, correct?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“You do also understand that dissociative identity disorder is usually the result of severe childhood trauma or some type of post-traumatic stress disorder?”

“Naturally.”

“Which means you’re implying that the traumatic event Hyejoo experienced directly correlates with the onset of her manastream becoming so helplessly poisoned?”

“That’s correct, Grandmaster Hyuna.”

“Yet, knowing this...you still refuse to share what exactly happened to her?”

Sunmi’s eyes fell slightly. Waiting silently for a proper response, Hyuna was met with only a sigh from the Archmagus. “I'm sorry, Grandmaster Hyuna. It isn’t my place to say.”

“I understand respecting the girl’s past, Archmagus Lee, but I hope you realize how that’s going to affect my team’s continued research into this matter,” Hyuna explained with a grimace. “If we knew her circumstances, we might have gotten something far more concrete by this point.”

“With no offense meant to your researchers, Grandmaster Hyuna, I’m not sure you would have,” Sunmi declared with careful respect. “Truth be told, I don’t believe the event itself that led to Hyejoo’s corruption would reveal much in the way of her other self. Now, you said your findings were mostly inconclusive, correct? Might there be hope for some understanding, then, even if minor?”

“Only basic anatomy telling us that the manastream’s path throughout the body encompasses the brain much like the bloodstream,” Hyuna began, holding Sunmi’s attention with ease. "We’ve known that much for a while, so...if you really wanted to be technical, some form of consciousness could manifest in the manastream as it passes through the parts of the brain that give us consciousness. That is a very conditional ‘could,’ though.

“Not to mention actually testing for this sort of thing is another trial in and of itself,” the Grandmaster continued. “There’s clearly something different between the samples of Hyejoo’s crystallized mana that you provided and those of other darkness-aligned magi. Whether or not we can discern how those differences might equate to the presence of a consciousness within her mana, however…”

“It’s still beyond our understanding, I know. My apologies.”

Hyuna took a breath as Sunmi apologized. “I can only hope your hardworking team understands that failure is acceptable. These ongoing studies are merely preliminary. Not to mention, should all of my theorizing prove true, all of this will simply cease to be an issue in due time.”

“Chaewon’s purification, you mean?” Hyuna asked.

Sunmi nodded. “If the source of Hyejoo’s dissociative identity disorder indeed lies within her corruption, then I believe that we can rid her of her condition once Chaewon fully purifies Hyejoo’s manastream. If that truly ends her plight, I will consider it a great victory in and of itself.”

“And if it doesn’t?”

Hyuna's question cut deep into the air between the two of them. For as impactful as her words were, however, both of them remain composed. Hyuna was relaxed in her seat, her eyes locked onto Sunmi’s. “Do you have a plan if it doesn’t work out like that, Archmagus Lee?”

“To continue research into Hyejoo’s mana would be the only acceptable course of action from that point,” Sunmi admitted. “Whatever we can glean from your team’s research in the coming months will prove vital for such a scenario. For all we know, it may even result in some evidence leading back to him…”

“Maybe that’s where you should’ve started before coming to me,” Hyuna announced as she rose from her seat. Sunmi’s eyes followed the woman upwards as she pushed her chair in towards the front of the desk.

“If he really is the source of the corrupted mana destroying timelines left and right, and that corrupted mana is what gave birth to Hyejoo's split personality in the first place…surely an answer or two would be more easily found through him.”

“Would that I could, Grandmaster Hyuna, but YG’s whereabouts continue to be an elusive mystery,” Sunmi conceded. “We’re doing what we can, much like your team is doing what they can.”

“Sadly, that seems to be all anyone can ever do,” Hyuna lamented, giving the Archmagus a pained smile. “Better to try and fail than to not try at all, though. Now, Archmagus Lee, if you’ll excuse me, there’s a council meeting I must attend to.”

“I remember you saying you didn’t have much time today, yes,” Sunmi recalled as she stood up from her own seat. Extending an arm, she gently shook Hyuna’s hand with a smile. “Thank you for your continued work, Grandmaster Hyuna. I’ll read these reports in full and get back to you when I can.”

“I can only hope that our next conversation will involve a proper explanation behind Hyejoo’s past,” Hyuna whined in a half-joking manner as she retrieved her jacket from her seat. She equipped it with a slight roll of her eyes accompanied with a playful grin. “You can’t keep it in the dark forever, Archmagus Lee. It’ll just get spoiled eventually.”

“My sincerest apologies. Please, send my regards to the other Grandmasters,” Sunmi said towards the departing Hyuna, bowing slightly as she looked back to her while opening the door.

“Take care, Archmagus Lee.”

With the door to her office closed, the Archmagus took her seat once again. Grabbing the manila folder, she retrieved the stack of papers from within it. Taking a deep breath, she began to read carefully, digesting the information in full.

Sunmi's focus faltered as her mind wandered, however. She found her thoughts stuck on Hyuna's point of contention.

"If only I could skip ahead and give you the answers you seek, Hyuna. How much easier all of this would be if I could simply speak the truth...but I can't. Not yet. It's still much too early. The main events of the twelfth instance have only just begun..."