Long ago, though it felt like just yesterday.

The sheep obeyed the shepherds and the ranch owner.

Trapped in their pasture, they worked tirelessly to grow the wool their masters desired.

When ordered to fight other livestock, they fought. When told to endure pain, they endured. When commanded to stifle their cries, they swallowed them.

"Why can't you do it? Why not?!"

"Do you know how much blood and sweat of our people was poured into making you?"

Was it because of that so-called patriotism?

"This is your last chance. I'll give you three seconds."

"Complete the blessing. The Saintess succeeded in just one second!"

"If you fail this time…"

Were they driven by fear of their whips?

"Subject 112 has been terminated. It's your fault."

"Subject 31 has been terminated. It's your fault."

"Everything is your fault."

Did they succumb to torture?

No, that wasn't it. The sheep's obedience to the shepherds wasn't born from any grand reason.

The sheep simply didn’t know what freedom was.

They didn’t understand the purpose of the collars around their necks, nor the extent of what the shepherds could do with them.

So, they obeyed.

And so, they lost.

"There are five of them. Losing just one…"

On the day the ranch owner grew disappointed with the sheep, the shepherds dragged away a white sheep. It never returned.

Only then, after losing one of their precious family, did the sheep grow angry.

For the first time in their lives, they resisted the shepherds. Then they flailed, and finally, they despaired.

Because the collars around their necks allowed them no freedom.

"Foolish creatures. Did you think we wouldn’t put safeguards on you?"

It was only after experiencing the searing pain from the collars that the sheep began to smell the stench rising from them.

Blood, tears, and rotting flesh.

The black sheep, who had resisted the shepherds the most fiercely, couldn’t bear the smell.

She hid in a corner of the pasture where the shepherds’ eyes couldn’t reach and hung herself with her collar.

Despair. Suicide. Freedom.

Death came for the black sheep, but she could not die.

Because the collar around her neck wasn’t hers alone.

The collars of the sheep were intricately connected, binding them to one another.

The moment one sheep tried to hang itself, the others would suffer the same agony.

The black sheep realized this was the ranch owner's final safeguard. And she knew she could never break it.

"Never forget why you were born."

"For the nation, for the people."

"Obey."

And so, the sheep obeyed once more. No, they submitted.

On a ranch where even death could not provide liberation, they buried their heads, using each other's lives as collateral.

But not everything remained the same.

Because the sheep did not forget.

They remembered what the shepherds had done to them, the cruelty of the ranch owner, the stench on their collars, and…

[10-11-16]

The number of the shepherd who took the white sheep away.

 

Seti’s trembling hand hovered over the phone’s call button.

Before she could press it, Yeomyeong, who had silently approached her side, snatched the phone from her hand.

“W-wait….”

By the time Seti looked up in shock, Yeomyeong’s hand had already clenched around the device.

Crunch.

The phone shattered in his grip, shards of plastic and fragments of the screen spilling through his fingers.

“Worry about it after the job’s done,” Yeomyeong said, meeting Seti’s gaze. His golden eyes glimmered with unyielding determination.

“Don’t forget why I came all this way… Whatever’s coming here, it’s not too late.”

Seti’s eyes quivered.

Her past self, berating him for sneaking into the women’s dormitory, flashed through her mind.

In truth, the one deserving scolding was herself.

She hadn’t been thorough. She’d let her guard down and wasted precious time.

If Yeomyeong hadn’t come to the dormitory, she and her sisters…

She pushed aside the dark thoughts welling up in her mind. There was no "if" in this moment.

Yeomyeong was here. For her and her sisters.

Realizing how much risk he had taken, Seti pressed her lips together and lowered her head.

Yeomyeong patted her shoulder gently and said, “It’s okay. Everything’s going to be fine. So, lift your head.”

“…Alright.”

As the tense atmosphere loosened slightly, Siri, who had been watching from the side with a sullen expression, let out a sigh.

“That was my phone….”

Startled, Yeomyeong offered Siri an apologetic smile.

Something about the ease radiating from his expression made even Siri feel her tension lift.

Well, somewhat.

Her expression softened, but her trembling hands betrayed her lingering anxiety.

“…You’ll be in trouble later, sis.”

“What?”

“That guy is totally going to be a scoundrel someday.”

“….”

As Siri’s playful jab hung in the air, footsteps approached from beyond the rooftop door.

It could only be the rest of the sisters they’d been waiting for.

Just as Seti breathed a sigh of relief, the footsteps stopped right outside the door.

“…Seti? Siri?”

A husky voice, reminiscent of a rock star.

It was a voice so familiar that Seti immediately opened the rooftop door.

 

“What’s going on at this hour…?”

The first to step onto the rooftop was a tall girl with unkempt short blue hair, her height nearly matching Yeomyeong’s.

“…A man? What the fu—!”

Her light blue eyes, starkly contrasting with Seti’s, met Yeomyeong’s, and a voice thick with shock almost escaped her lips.

But Seti interjected first.

“Nety. You already know him, right? The transfer student who fought alongside me at the shelter. His name’s Chun Yeomyeong.”

“Uh… Okay?”

“Yeomyeong, this is Nety. Park Nety, the third of my sisters.”

…Park Nety?

The name caught Yeomyeong off guard, but already accustomed to unusual names, he extended his hand without missing a beat.

“Nice to meet you, Nety. I’m a friend of your sister’s, Chun Yeomyeong. You can just call me Yeomyeong.”

Nety hesitantly took his hand, shaking it. Like Seti’s, her palms were rough with calluses.

“Oh, so you’re my sister’s friend. Uh… Nice to meet you. You can just call me Nety too.”

Their brief introduction ended, and as Nety opened her mouth to ask something, another girl peeked out from behind her.

“…Just a friend? Or is he…?”

Without warning, the girl wiggled her pinky suggestively.

This sister exuded an entirely different vibe from the others.

She looked like a sculpture carved from melted jade, with soft green hair tied up in a ponytail and slanted eyes brimming with curiosity.

Like all the sisters, her eye and hair colors were anything but ordinary—features no earthly human could possess.

Yeomyeong, aware of their secret lineage, suppressed a bitter smile and replied, “Just a friend.”

The green-haired girl’s eyebrows shot up, seemingly dissatisfied with his answer.

“A friend, yet you came to the women’s dormitory? Oh, are you upgrading from a friend tonight…?”

Before she could finish her sentence, Seti cut in again.

“Yeomyeong, this is Sis. Isis. She’s our youngest.”

“….”

“…Relax your face. It’s obvious you’re thinking about her name.”

Yeomyeong looked away, trying to hide his thoughts.

As Isis observed them with amusement, Siri broke the silence.

“Sis, I think introductions are done now. Since we’re all here, can you tell us why you called us?”

At that, all eyes turned to Siri.

“This late at night, what’s the reason for gathering us? It can’t just be to introduce your friend, right?”

Now, the attention shifted to Seti, who cleared her throat awkwardly before speaking.

“…Tonight, we’re going to break the curse in our heads.”

The sisters’ reactions weren’t what Yeomyeong had anticipated.

Instead of joy or surprise, they laughed dryly.

Only Siri, who understood the gravity of Seti and Yeomyeong’s relationship, narrowed her eyes and observed quietly.

“What are you talking about…? Sis, have you been drinking?”

“Breaking the curse is impossible. We’ve tried countless times.”

Nety and Isis both voiced their protests sharply.

“Girls, wait…”

Seti tried to explain, but they didn’t give her the chance.

“Last time, we almost died! The specialists who tried to help us were all killed by the government!”

“Sis, even if we try to remove the collars, the shepherds will notice immediately.”

“…”

“Sis! I get that you’re frustrated, but let’s just endure a little longer. It hasn’t even been six months since we entered the academy. If we find the staff of Haejoo before graduation…”

“We’ve already decided who to free first with the staff. Sis, as long as you’re freed, the rest of us can die, so…”

As their voices grew heated, Yeomyeong debated whether to step in. But before he could, Seti raised her hand and struck each of their foreheads in turn.

“…Why me? I didn’t say anything!”

Siri, clutching her forehead, protested, but Seti met each of their gazes with a resolute expression.

“Nety. We don’t have time until graduation. That woman is already here at the academy.”

“…”

“Isis. Stop being so negative. Do you think I haven’t considered all this? And Siri, you…”

“…Me?”

Seti hesitated, chewing her lip before abruptly turning to Yeomyeong.

“…Yeomyeong, when can we start?”

“Whenever you’re ready. Miri already finished the magic circle.”

Yeomyeong smiled faintly as he pulled out a golden seal.

The moment the sisters saw the rectangular artifact shimmering with golden mana, question marks seemed to pop up above their heads.

The mana emanating from the seal was extraordinary.

“Sis, what is that…?”

“I’ll explain as we go. First, let’s all take our places inside the magic circle.”

Seti spoke firmly, guiding her sisters into the positions within the magic circle that Soemiri had prepared.

“It’s a magic circle designed to prevent mana from leaking outside. It’s not Earth-style magic…”

“It also includes light-blocking spells.”

“…What does this have to do with breaking the curse? None of these spells seem related.”

The sisters, all knowledgeable about magic, quickly shared their impressions.

While their words could have sounded dismissive, Seti glanced nervously at Soemiri.

Contrary to her expectations, Soemiri showed no displeasure.

In fact, she didn’t even seem to notice the sisters.

She simply stared at Yeomyeong and the golden seal with an unreadable expression.

…What is she thinking?

As Seti tilted her head in confusion, her sisters settled into their places within the magic circle.

Yeomyeong took his place at the center of the circle, raising the seal high.

With a brief moment of resolve and a deep breath, he infused mana into the artifact.

Flash!

In an instant, golden mana filled the circle.

 

Outside the magic circle, Soemiri’s eyes widened as she observed.

“…Unbelievable.”

The meticulously crafted magic circle, designed to conceal mana and light, was trembling.

It wasn’t hard to figure out why.

Clearly, the amount of mana pouring out of Yeomyeong and the golden artifact far exceeded her expectations.

The question was, what kind of curse required this much mana to break?

“They said it was a curse… but what kind of curse needs this much mana?”

Yeomyeong had described it as a complex and powerful curse, but still…

A curse was just a curse.

It wasn’t as if they were sealing away a dragon. What kind of curse could possibly—

-Crack!

Her thoughts were interrupted as the magic circle began to crack under the strain of the mana.

Quickly, she raised her wand, summoning the spirits in her mind.

“Relin, Leon! Stabilize the circle!”

At her command, the spirits clung to the magic circle.

She also channeled her own mana into the weakening structure, suppressing the escaping light and mana.

But she couldn’t stop one brilliant beam of light from shooting into the sky.