Chirp, chirp.
The sound of sparrows echoed from outside the window.
Si-woo, rustling awake, blinked blearily as he tried to shake off the lingering drowsiness and glanced around the room.
He murmured quietly to himself.
“Ah, I’m screwed.”
Behind the closed curtains, sunlight poured into the room, too bright for moonlight to be mistaken.
His body, which had felt like a heavy stone yesterday, now felt feather-light, as if all the accumulated fatigue had been thoroughly washed away.
No, it wasn’t just a feeling—his exhaustion had undoubtedly been erased during his sleep.
Somewhere between unease and resignation, Si-woo reluctantly picked up his phone, lying on the floor with its charger still plugged in, and checked the screen, holding onto a sliver of hope.
[9:25 AM]
“Haah…”
The last time he’d checked, it had been around 9 PM the previous night.
In other words, he had slept for a solid 12 hours without waking up even once.
It wasn’t surprising that he felt so refreshed after staying in bed for that long.
“I can’t believe I passed out so hard that I didn’t even hear the alarm.”
Checking his phone, he found numerous missed alarms.
His first lecture was at 10:30 AM.
Planning for preparation time and the distance to the Academy, he had set alarms to go off starting at 9:00 AM.
The screen was filled with missed notifications, prompting a sigh from Si-woo.
“Guess I’ll have to come back early today to deal with the housework.”
Muttering self-deprecatingly, Si-woo got out of bed and headed to the bathroom.
After showering and sitting at the table to begin his usual skincare routine, he noticed something odd.
“Huh?”
The number of skincare products had increased.
Products he had once cherished during his host days—male grooming items he hadn’t even unpacked, thinking he’d never use them again—were now neatly arranged on the table as if they’d always belonged there.
If that were all, it might have gone unnoticed.
But there was more.
“Did I take out these clothes too?”
The closet looked eerily familiar.
It mirrored his old wardrobe from before he’d moved here, down to the smallest detail.
Except for the black t-shirt and shorts he’d pulled out to use as pajamas, the rest of the clothes—ones he hadn’t even opened from the moving boxes—were now neatly hung in the closet as if they belonged there.
It was organized exactly the way Si-woo always sorted his clothes: by season and length.
Seeing the neatly arranged garments hanging on the rack, Si-woo’s instincts kicked in.
“No traces of an intruder, huh?”
The only evidence left behind was the fact that someone had unpacked his belongings.
Still, that alone was enough to make him fully aware of the subtle oddities he had overlooked earlier:
The ceiling light, which had turned off despite him not touching it.
The three boxes, now gone from his room.
The messy, disorganized space that had somehow been transformed into a pristine, tidy environment—almost as if some magical helper had come and gone.
But the most decisive clue was this:
“The alarm I set for a 15-minute nap didn’t leave a missed notification, huh?”
Missed alarms always left a record.
But alarms manually turned off by someone else?
Those didn’t.
The fact that the alarm had been turned off meant that someone had been awake to silence it.
Someone had entered his dorm.
Fully convinced, Si-woo changed into his usual clothes and grabbed his sword.
“There’s no good in getting used to this.”
He sighed at how familiar this situation had become.
The thought of someone trespassing into his space no longer felt strange to him, even though it should have.
As he was about to head out, Si-woo suddenly paused and turned his gaze toward the refrigerator.
On a whim, he decided to test something.
He pulled out a bottle of cola he’d left in the fridge, took a sip, and then placed the half-drunk bottle on the table with the cap loosely screwed on.
It was both a trap and an experiment.
If the uninvited guest—a strangely considerate stalker who not only cleaned but also unpacked his belongings—returned, he wanted to see what they would do with the bottle of cola.
Would they leave it as it was, or…?
“Huh, so it’s really been closed properly.”
The next time he opened the fridge, Si-woo found the same half-drunk bottle of cola he had left on the table.
It was unmistakably the one he had placed there in the morning.
To check if the carbonation was still intact, he twisted the red cap off.
Pshhh!
The crisp sound of fizzing carbonation greeted him.
The cola was as fresh as ever.
Moreover, Si-woo was now confident that none of those three women would attempt to overwhelm him anymore.
He had built enough trust with them.
That left the second possibility.
The culprit was likely one of the Academy students.
This, too, left him stumped.
If he had to pick the most likely suspect, it would be Saria.
She was the only person who had been fully exposed to Si-woo’s engraving from the entrance exam until now.
“No, that’s not it.”
But Si-woo dismissed that possibility outright.
He trusted Saria’s integrity and her abilities.
“There’s no way Saria could bypass the Academy’s security system without leaving a single trace.”
No matter how skilled Saria was, deceiving the dormitory’s security system was impossible.
The detection and alarm systems, powered by mana, were designed to catch even the slightest anomaly.
It would take at least an A-rank Hunter to stand a chance at bypassing it.
And that’s assuming the intruder only focused on avoiding the system itself.
Leaving no footprints, stray hairs, or any other natural signs of human presence?
That level of precision would require a Hunter with a stealth-related engraving and extensive experience in the field.
Thus, it was only natural to rule Saria out as a suspect.
“Hmm…”
Once again, Si-woo was left in doubt.
There was no one who came to mind.
Apart from Saria and a few former VIP clients from his host days, Si-woo had no real connections at the Academy.
After finishing course registration just the day before, the Academy was still in the orientation phase for each lecture.
Due to the Academy’s nature, it didn’t host typical university events like MTs (membership training retreats) or opening parties, leaving little opportunity to form close relationships with others.
“No matter how much I think about it, I can’t come up with anyone.”
Additionally, Si-woo lacked expertise in stealth-related abilities.
While he had learned basic techniques like concealing his presence and muffling his footsteps from Kitsunezawa, they were merely introductory skills.
Whenever it came to tracking down culprits, he always relied on others for help.
After pondering for a while, Si-woo finally came to a conclusion, moving his thoughts in the usual direction he took in such situations:
“I’ll just ask for help.”
However, seeking official help from the Academy wasn’t an option.
This wasn’t the kind of issue that would end after one or two incidents.
Recalling his past experiences, Si-woo shivered. If his instincts were correct, things like this would keep happening—not frequently, but regularly enough to be a problem.
It was a certainty born from experience.
“If I keep going to the Academy for help every time something like this happens, my reputation will take a hit.”
As it was, being a male Hunter with an engraving that made it difficult to join parties already made him stand out.
Relying on the Academy’s assistance whenever something happened would only lead people to view him in a negative light.
If it were just his own reputation at stake, he wouldn’t care much.
But Si-woo was no longer alone.
Thinking of Saria’s abilities, a faint smile appeared on his lips.
“If magic doesn’t work… then maybe a curse will.”
Now partnered with Saria, Si-woo decided to place his trust in her skills rather than seek the Academy’s aid.
“So, tonight, want to stay over at my dorm?”
“Huh?”