The immediate pressure of the exam was gone, but the long, slow burn of constant vigilance had begun.
Heuk-jae and Eun-ji settled into their rhythm: attending lectures with just enough focus to maintain their "C-average," and using their off-hours to study the Academy itself.
Heuk-jae's primary target remained the Restricted Arcane Archives. He knew such a vital resource wouldn't be protected by simple locks. It would be guarded by layers of social, bureaucratic, and arcane security.
The Library and the Lock
Their first step was the General Archives, the public library accessible to all students.
The Archives were immense, smelling of aged parchment and cool stone.
Heuk-jae, playing his "Lord Jae-eun" role, spent his time flipping through history texts on obscure minor noble houses, occasionally looking up with an exaggerated sigh of boredom.
Eun-ji, acting as the slightly studious assistant, was tasked with the actual information gathering.
"The Restricted Archives aren't a room," she whispered to Heuk-jae one afternoon, looking down at a map of the library she'd subtly sketched onto a blank page of her notebook.
"They're a section," Heuk-jae confirmed, without looking up from his book.
"Worse. They're a vault beneath the main Archive floor," Eun-ji corrected. "Access is controlled by a set of three elemental seals—one for each of the head proctors. It requires all three seals to be activated simultaneously."
"Good," Heuk-jae murmured. "A physical solution. We don't have to hack a network; we have to bypass a protocol."
The Bureaucratic Barrier
The next hurdle was understanding the social key to the vault.
Heuk-jae knew the names of the three key Proctors:
Master Zai (Arcane Logic and Exam Proctor)
Archivist Tremain (History and Theory)
Proctor Lyra's Mother (The Head of Elemental Studies, whose name was fiercely guarded and whose daughter was the top-ranked student).
The simplest way to bypass the three seals was to get a key from a student who already had access.
The most likely candidates were the Top 500.
"We need a friend in the Top 500," Heuk-jae stated later that night back in their room.
"Someone lazy, prone to boasting, and easily distracted by a noble social life."
"You want me to approach them?" Eun-ji asked, frowning.
"No, I will," Heuk-jae said, activating the Facial. His expression became one of practiced, affable camaraderie—the perfect drinking partner.
"You need to maintain your distance. You are the quiet, serious one. I am the easily bought one."
The Target
Heuk-jae chose Lord Kaelan, Rank 498.
Kaelan was a loud, boorish boy known for skipping theory lectures to attend illicit gambling rings in the city's pleasure district. He was exactly the kind of noble who would possess, and fail to appreciate, a high-level security clearance.
The setting was a required Elemental Seminar in the Academy's lush Courtyard Gardens.
Heuk-jae, as Lord Jae-eun, casually leaned against a marble statue near Kaelan, pretending to examine the statue's poor craftsmanship.
"Dreadfully boring, isn't it, Kaelan?" Heuk-jae drawled, using Kaelan's name without permission—a subtle display of aristocratic familiarity.
Kaelan looked up, annoyed but deferential to the assumption of equal status. "Dreadful. I'd rather be testing my luck with the cards tonight."
Heuk-jae smiled conspiratorially. "The cards are dull. The real thrill is in information. I overheard my father's valet talking about the old Arcane Mapmaker's Texts—they supposedly contain the key to predicting next season's elemental flares. Pure speculation, of course, but imagine the fortune..."
He trailed off, letting the implication of inside information hang in the air.
Kaelan's eyes widened, recognizing the lure of black-market profits. "The Mapmaker's Texts? They'd be in the... Restricted Archives."
Heuk-jae shrugged, adopting a bored tone. "Perhaps. Who knows? I'm too low-ranked to care about such things. But if you were going in, Kaelan, hypothetically... how would one bypass the Proctors?"
Kaelan, eager to prove his superior status and drawn in by the promise of illicit knowledge, leaned in close. He lowered his voice, unaware that every word was being cataloged by the Viper's strategist.
"It's not about the seals, Jae-eun. It's about the Access Card. It's a biometric lock, keyed to the Proctors' handprints, but if you get an administrator's card, you can bypass one of the seals. My cousin... she works in Registrar. She told me about the Midnight Protocol..."
Heuk-jae's eyes, hidden behind the mask of bored arrogance, gleamed with focused intent.
[Insight Gained: The Archives use a Biometric Access Card and are protected by a 'Midnight Protocol' bypass.]
The puzzle was starting to come together.