The Support Ate it All

Items or skills that extract information about others, such as magnifying glasses, were classified as “mental interference” category.

This was because they worked by reading the necessary information from the target’s unconscious mind and displaying it.

And I possessed a trait that resisted such mental interference.

Monarch.

The mental barrier of a Monarch was particularly strong, making it nearly impossible to penetrate unless the one attempting interference had an exceptionally high rank.

They’d need to be at least two ranks higher just to have a chance.

The magnifying glass prepared by the disciplinary committee was, in all likelihood, B-rank, or A-rank at best.

When [Monarch] was C-rank, there had been a slim chance that an A-rank magnifying glass could breach my defenses.

But now that it had risen to B-rank, it would take an S-rank item to get through.

Even if they had one, they’d hesitate to use something so precious.

With all this in mind, I had placed my bet and easily beat the magnifying glass Song Cheon-hye used.

To be honest, I hadn’t intended to destroy it, but it must have already been on the verge of breaking.

“Se-Senior…”

Song Cheon-hye’s voice trembled as she glanced at Kwak Seung-jae; her eyes were welling up with tears.

She was probably feeling utterly defeated.

She had confidently brought up the magnifying glass, accepted the bet, and not only failed to use it but even ended up breaking it entirely.

I do feel a little bad.

After all, she had simply been trying to fulfill her duties as a member of the disciplinary committee but ended up bearing the brunt of the failure.

This was why you shouldn’t accept bets recklessly.

Especially when your opponent is me.

Meanwhile, Kwak Seung-jae had fixed his gaze on me ever since the magnifying glass was destroyed.

After a moment of silent observation, he finally spoke.

“Judging from your reaction, I guess you expected this to happen.”

“Yes, I did.”

I readily admitted.

If I didn’t have [Monarch], I would have flatly refused to use the magnifying glass, just as Dang Gyu-young had done.

“Looking back, there was a flaw in the conditions you set. ‘If the magnifying glass is used and you find no prohibited items’….”

If I had wanted to make it more precise, I could have worded it more precisely, such as, “if no prohibited items are listed”.

For the list to appear, the magnifying glass would need to function properly in the first place.

But instead, I had left it intentionally vague and phrased the condition as, “if it’s used and you find no prohibited items”.

It’s not technically wrong.

Failing to use it also meant no prohibited items were revealed, after all.

Kwak Seung-jae looked straight at me and spoke firmly.

“Kim Ho.”

“Yes, senior-nim.”

“I don’t like word games.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You’re aware, aren’t you, that we could play the same game if we wanted to?”

The first condition for allowing the use of the magnifying glass had been to reduce the number of observers.

Since there was no condition that they couldn’t talk about it, they could easily spread the word of what had happened here if they felt like it.

“However, that’s not my style. What happens here will remain here.”

True to his straightforward nature, Kwak Seung-jae chose not to act otherwise.

When Kwak Seung-jae sent a glance toward Song Cheon-hye, she nodded as if in agreement.

This condition had been set from the start while taking their personalities into account.

“And as promised, I won’t pursue the matter of the stolen prohibited items further. However…”

Kwak Seung-jae’s gaze grew even sharper.

“…Because of this incident, you’ve officially made it onto the list of people to watch. At the very least, the two of us will be keeping a close eye on you.” Ꞧ�

“I’ll be more careful in the future.”

Though the suspicion had been cleared, there was no escaping their watchful eyes.

If anything, the fact that the magnifying glass didn’t work on me would make me seem doubly suspicious.

It was something I’d expected ever since acquiring [Monarch].

Since it was inevitable, I had wagered on the situation to reap as much benefit as possible.

After staring at me for a while longer, Kwak Seung-jae finally shifted his gaze to Song Cheon-hye.

“Song Cheon-hye.”

“…Yes.”

Perhaps realizing what was coming, Song Cheon-hye tensed up and hunched her shoulders.

“I won’t hold you accountable for the broken magnifying glass. But I hope you’ve learned something from this incident.”

“…I’m

“Regardless of the lack of information, a bet is still a bet. Whatever Kim Ho demands with his wish ticket, make sure it’s fulfilled.”

“…Understood.”

Song Cheon-hye’s shoulders slumped dejectedly.

After saying his piece, Kwak Seung-jae opened the wooden door that had been closed until now.

When we followed him back into the Room of Truth, everyone fell silent and their attention turned to us.

Curious gazes were fixed on us.

No doubt they were eager to know the results of using the magnifying glass.

However, as he had said earlier, Kwak Seung-jae seemed to have no intention of sharing this incident with outsiders.

Even his report to Oh Se-hoon was concise.

“We’ve decided to let it go.”

“Okay.”

The phrase “we’ve decided to let it go” meant no prohibited items had been found.

Perhaps because of this, Oh Se-hoon responded with a faint smile and didn’t ask any further questions, and the others seemed to accept it without much reaction.

Only Dang Gyu-young appeared somewhat surprised, likely because she was the only one here aware of the existence of the Cube of Life.

If prohibited items had been inside, the statement “we’ve decided to let it go” could only mean that I had somehow neutralized the magnifying glass’s ability.

This was something to explain later when the opportunity arose.

Since the matters here weren’t fully resolved yet, I returned to my seat beside Dang Gyu-young.

At that moment, Kwak Seung-jae scanned the room before starting to speak.

“Even without the issue of prohibited items, I believe you all understand why you’re here.”

He continued listing the offenses:

Unauthorized use of surveillance crystal balls installed in the downtown area,

Causing disruption and damage with large-scale magic and spirit summoning in a busy district,

Trespassing into a restricted temporary storage facility,

And obstructing the disciplinary committee’s official duties.

“If you have anything to say, speak now.”

“No, nothing.”

The evidence was overwhelmingly clear, and most of these acts had been committed right under the disciplinary committee’s watchful eyes, so the club presidents had admitted their guilt without resistance.

Kwak Seung-jae glanced in my direction as well, as if to say, “Kim Ho, this includes you too.”

I also had to admit my crimes, which included trespassing in the temporary storage and slamming Song Cheon-hye into the ice wall. Like the club presidents, I accepted responsibility without objection.

While there was no immediate evidence or way to detect the possession of prohibited items, the other violations could not be denied. We had been caught red-handed after all.

Kwak Seung-jae continued speaking.

“Therefore, all individuals involved in this incident will receive penalty points and disciplinary action.”

“We’re really going to end up cleaning the sewers, huh.”

Jeong Chong-myeong smirked faintly.

As someone who had always been something of a model student, Jeong Chong-myeong had rarely faced disciplinary actions before. But now, after causing this incident, he was about to be dragged into the infamous sewer cleaning task.

However, unexpectedly, Kwak Seung-jae shook his head.

“This time, you’ll be assigned a different task. There’s a more urgent matter to handle.”

The club presidents’ gazes deepened.

It seemed the same thought had crossed everyone’s minds.

A matter that had recently become a hot topic, something the academy was eager to resolve quickly.

The witch of corruption lurking in the dungeon building, and the dark Oobleck she had widely scattered.

As if confirming their suspicions, Kwak Seung-jae drove the point home.

“We need your help cleaning the dungeon building.”

So that’s what this is about.

I had been wondering from the beginning.

Did they really need to activate the Ban Wave during such a chaotic time?

Wouldn’t it just add to the confusion?

Now it was clear. They intended to use the disciplinary actions as a way to clean up the dungeon building.

Requesting help from clubs or other groups would mean compensating them, but by confiscating prohibited items and issuing punishments, they could effectively get free labor.

On top of that, clubs involved in infiltrating the temporary storage could be forced to participate even more actively. So this approach was highly efficient in terms of cost and effort.

Dang Gyu-young grumbled as she asked,

“I figured it’d be something like this. When is it going to start?”

“You can start as early as tomorrow.”

“Is that even possible? This is the duel battles week.”

“We’ve obtained permission from the academy. The dungeon building will be opened for this week only.”

The sooner, the better, huh?

The dark Ooblecks, even at this very moment, were devouring everything in sight and growing stronger.

The more time they were given, the harder it would become to bring them down, so rather than waiting until the strategy battle week, it was better to deal with them as soon as possible.

Hong Ye-hwa and Jeong Chong-myeong nodded and made brief remarks.

“Well, sure. Cleaning a dungeon sounds better than cleaning sewers.”

“What exactly do we have to do?”

“I’ll explain everything now.”

Kwak Seung-jae began laying out the detailed plan.

***

By the time we were released from the disciplinary committee room, dawn was already breaking.

Everyone was visibly exhausted and returned to the dormitory, but Dang Gyu-young and I still had unfinished business.

It was time to distribute the prohibited items.

I separated my share, emptied the cube, and handed the rest of the items over to Dang Gyu-young.

At this, she forgot her fatigue and started grinning widely.

“Heheheh.”

“Are you that happy?”

“Of course I’m happy. We made a huge profit this time too~”

“You do realize it’s all thanks to me, right?”

“Of course~ I know~”

Dang Gyu-young replied with a big smile.

The prohibited items we had retrieved from the temporary storage were mostly highly valuable ones.

On top of that, we would also receive a commission from the White Magic Club, so a little dungeon cleaning as punishment didn’t seem like much at all.

If the disciplinary committee had kept pressing the issue about the missing prohibited items, our punishment might have been worse, but even that had been swept under the rug thanks to the magnifying glass bet I orchestrated. From Dang Gyu-young’s perspective, this was an undeniable win.

She waved the Book of Chaos in her hand.

“I’ll deliver this one. I need to meet with them anyway to collect the commission.”

“Please do.”

“No rush, right?”

“Yes, take your time.”

Thanks to the commission, I gained permission to borrow the Book of Chaos, though I couldn’t raid dungeons without permission for the time being.

The threat of the Witch of Corruption still lingered, and as a result, the dungeon building’s security had been tightened.

I planned to borrow it once things settled down.

Dang Gyu-young spoke with a hint of disappointment.

“I guess we can’t share the punishment. It’s fun when we go into dungeons together.”

“There’s nothing we can do about it.”

According to Kwak Seung-jae, the cleanup of the dungeon buildings would be carried out with selected people targeting specific dungeons as assigned by the disciplinary committee.

And unless the disciplinary committee had completely lost their mind, there was no way they’d put first-years and third-years in the same dungeon.

I replied casually,

“There’s still plenty of time. Let’s go together when things calm down later.”

“Let’s do that.”

Dang Gyu-young nodded her head with a smile, then asked again,

“When are you planning to go in?”

“After resting a bit. Maybe Friday or over the weekend.”

“What will you do while resting?”

“Even if I say resting, it’s more like training. Strengthening my foundation.”

While working on dungeon cleanup, there was a good chance I’d encounter Dark Oobleck at least once or twice.

This wasn’t just a simple punishment; it had ties to the main quest as well.

If that was the case, I needed to boost my stats as much as possible beforehand.

I have plenty of materials.

My inventory was already filled with various poisonous stuff.