Reader Mage 165-The Greater Evil

Sunny sat quietly on K’s bed, the squeaky sound it made lost to his ears as he was deep in thought.

Four days, give or take, had passed since he’d taken pictures of the suspicious man who had walked into Club Spiral and sent the pictures to rlin. K had done a reverse search on the internet, and with her skills it had taken her only a second to confirm that the man really was a professor at Prestige Academy.

Sure, there were many reasons for anyone to visit a club in broad daylight. Who was he to judge? The problem ca from the fact that K’s search had also given Sunny the man’s na. He went by Dmitri Volkov.

Sunny had heard that last na from sowhere else before. And it was from the mouth of rlin when he was speaking about his friend who had fallen into a coma after running riot in the academy. Nikolai Volkov.

Sunny’s stomach churned at the thought, and he leaned forward placing his forehead on his knuckles.

If the professor was truly the relative of the boy, and was involved with the villains who had stuffed that boy full of drugs, then he was a sick man.

How could anyone do that to their own family?

A crunch sound broke Sunny out of his reverie, and he looked up to see K with her hair packed into a ssy bun swiveling on her gaming chair, her legs tucked into each other and dressed in nothing but a black tank top and joggers. She pulled out the stick of the sweet she had crushed with her teeth and tossed it to the ground. Then she heaved out a sigh.

“This is boring,” she mumbled. “Don’t ya have anything for to do, Sunny?”

Sunny narrowed his eyes on her. “Really?”

She inclined her head. “Oh, give it a rest, will ya? It’s been bloody four days already.”

“That doesn’t make it any less disgusting.”

“The kid’s alive.” She tutted. “Not like he’s dead. And what’re ya gonna do about it anyway? Huh?”

Sunny stared at K for a second. She shrugged, and he realized that he had made a mistake lounging at her place.

What was he even thinking? He had avoided her for years, and now he was suddenly using her dumpsite of a place as his second ho. He had to snap out of it. He had figured out who the traitor was and had sent his pictures to rlin. Hopefully with that, the boy would finally be able to give the whole revenge thing a rest.

Whatever the case was, his work here was done.

Sunny stood up.

“What?” K asked, her eyes following Sunny as he walked to the door.

He glanced at her. “What do you an ‘what’? I’m leaving.”

She frowned. “Why?”

Sunny blinked. “Because I have no reason to stay here any longer?”

“Fucking brat,” she spat. “Yer so fucking ungrateful, d’ya know that?”

Sunny pursed his lips. “I guess.”

She gave him the middle finger. He sighed and turned the door handle, but then she added, “We’re not done, by the way.”

Sunny turned to her. “How co?”

“Well, there’s no evidence that D’s the spy, ya know? He could’ve been at the club for anything.”

Sunny turned around and folded his arms. “Anything like what?”

“For one, he could’ve been there to do the sa thing that kid of yours is doing.”

“Have revenge for his brother?” Sunny implied.

K snapped her fingers. “Exactly.”

“You’re insane.”

“What?!”

“That’s a very stupid conspiracy theory.” Sunny shook his head. “I just told you about what happened with his own relative.”

“But do ya have any evidence he was the one who led his brother to the club?” Sunny paused. “See. I’m not saying it couldn’t have been him, but there’s also the possibility that it wasn’t. And besides, one more thing, even if he was involved in what happened with his brother, I doubt he was the spy.”

Sunny’s brows pulled in. He shifted back into the room.

“Under what grounds?”

“Think about this, he’s a professor, right?”

“Right.”

“Well, how would he have gotten classified information that the Consortium Guild was going to be infiltrating the club, and what ti and day that would happen,” said K. “Doesn’t make any sense, does it, Sunny-boy?”

“Don’t call that.”

Sunny retreated into his thoughts. He hated to admit it, like always, but K was right once again. During his first visit to her, their discussion was solely focused on that particular perspective. How Club Spiral had managed to prepare just in ti for the arrival of the Consortium Guild’s Mages. If he thought about it rationally and not from a place of emotional disgust at the man, then there was little chance that the professor could have gotten hold of that information.

Unless…

“Did he have ties with anyone from the Consortium Guild who could possibly have access to that information?” Sunny asked.

K shook her head, licking her lips. “Nope. Already ran a bit of a background check. He knows literally no one in Korea. Not academically at least.”

“Then it couldn’t have been him,” Sunny mumbled. “Dang it. We’ve wasted four days on the wrong thing. This is a dead end.”

It wasn’t a dead end exactly as pushing the man into the lilight would an he would be punished for his actions against his own family, and information on the club and the drug could be siphoned out of him. However, if the real spy wasn’t caught, Club Spiral will always be able to evade the advances of the Consortium.

“I ssed up,” Sunny apologized. “It’s obvious that the spy is in the Consortium Guild. I let my emotions get the better of .”

K was silent for a few seconds. Then she snorted and burst into laughter.

“Oh, shut up, will ya?” she said. “Like I care about any of that nonsense. Ya’ve always been a dunce.”

Sunny pressed his lips into a fine line, holding himself back from heading over to her and dishevelling her hair. But that would be hardly any punishnt to K. She was already ninety percent towards a total ss of a woman after all.

“So? What’s the next course of action? I don’t think I’ll be able to figure out much from stalking Club Spiral, honestly. We’ll have to take things a step further.”

Honestly, Sunny was unsure why he was still here trying to act the hero he was not. Sure, he had not caught the spy, but this was Mage business. He wasn’t a Mage. He could get hurt. And yet, he couldn’t bring himself to walk away. So kid sowhere might be stuffing himself with that drug at this very mont, and not all would be as lucky as Nikolai to survive the ordeal. He couldn’t turn a blind eye to the events.

Was this how rlin felt? Was this what it ant to have a proactive sense of justice?

“I must say. K likes this new you,” K said with a snort as she turned towards her monitors.

Sunny sighed. That kid was a bad influence on him. He couldn’t recognize himself anymore.

“Just answer my question,” he said. “How do we go about this?”

K smiled and booted her computer, revealing a website that looked more and more like sothing that was not ant to be exposed to the public the longer Sunny looked at it.

“I hacked into the Consortium Guild’s database,” she said, and Sunny’s world spun.

“K,” he mumbled. “That’s a criminal offence.”

“Only if yer caught,” she said. “Anyways, darn thing took a long ti, but, yeah, success at last. I’ve compiled a list of possible suspects that could have access to any confidential information the guild has, and these are them. What yer’ll do is tail each and everyone of them.”

Sunny winced. “That sounds a bit extre.”

“Gotcha,” K said. “Then this is what yer’ll do.” She pointed at the picture of a lady among the list she had compiled. “et up with her, ask her out, date her, and use her to gain information on the rest, including herself. All in a week.”

Sunny pressed his eyes together and pulled away from K, resisting the urge to smack her on the back of her head.

“Ya gonna have to do one or the other, Sunny,” K said.

“Forget the absurd tiline for a second. You want to break her heart?” he asked.

“Well, there’s the possibility that she’s the spy, ya know? That would be poetic justice.”

“And if she’s not?”

“Ya could end up marrying her?” Sunny frowned and K raised her hands. “Co on. People get their hearts broken everyday. Think about the dying kids.”

Sunny glanced at his childhood friend, and then at her monitor’s screen, and scratched his scalp.

The whole thing was a ss.

“The greater evil, huh?” he mumbled.

“Exactly,” said K.

Sunny took a deep breath and exhaled. “All right. But you’ll help out. Find everything you know about her. Her likes and dislikes, so I don’t ss it up. Got to hit all the right notes.”

K smiled. “Aye, aye, captain.”

She turned to her screen and got to work. Sunny could see how much she was enjoying this whole vigilante ruse, but it wasn’t a child’s play.

Whatever, she was good at what she did.

At that mont, his phone beeped and he turned his attention to the ssage he had received. His eyes almost fell out of their sockets.

“Fuck!”

K yelped and turned to him. “What’s ya fuckin’ problem? Ya scared .”

Sunny turned his phone’s screen to her.

“Fuck!” she yelled as well. “I-I thought she was in Germany?”

Sunny bit his lower lip. “Well, she’s back.” He turned his eyes back to his screen. “And, just like before, we can’t escape her eyes.”

[Noona Haneul: Sunny, what are you and Kyu-Ri up to, huh? Spill it. Now!]