Chapter 15
“Uuugh...”
“Are you awake?”
The girl woke up at a perfectly opportune moment.
It was a little contrived that she woke up right after I defeated the wolves, but I suppose that was how the program had been designed.
So this girl is supposed to be the guide now?
“Wh-Who are you?!”
“Why are you asking me that? Hurry up and let me use magic.”
“...?”
Was this not how it worked?
The interaction didn't seem to be working properly.
I must have been doing something wrong, so I decided to ask the chat for help.
-How did the streamer just use magic?
-???????????
-Is that a nuke?
-Looks like even the NPC is lagging lol
At least, I could tell that the situation wasn't proceeding as it should.
“Did big sis save me from the wolves?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you going to take Arseria's laurel from me too?”
“What's a laurel?”
When I instead expressed my confusion, the girl's face grew even more bewildered.
-What Repi has is Arseria's laurel.
-This world is under the Demon King's curse, so ordinary people can't use mana.
-But if you possess the laurel, it's a divine relic that lets anyone use magic without any restrictions.
Why had they piled so much lore onto a simple magic-experience program? It was nothing but a nuisance.
“All I care about is being able to use magic.”
“So the laurel is what you want after all!”
“I don't need some leaves.”
“This isn't just some leaves!”
Before Repi could get angry, we heard signs of someone approaching from far away.
“There are tracks over here. Search every inch!”
Repi's face turned pale, and her hands began to tremble. It seemed the people pursuing the laurel had caught up with her. I offered Repi my help.
“You were running from them, weren't you? Want me to help?”
“Though it feels awkward to call you ‘big sis,’ how exactly are you going to help me?”
Repi's gaze briefly fixed on the top of my head.
Is she ignoring me just because I'm shorter than her? This was making me lose the will to help her.
I could make a magic circle just by finding ten more wolves, so there was no reason to waste time arguing over something as trivial as magic.
“Give me the laurel.”
“I can't!”
“Suit yourself.”
“Ah! Don't go! Please help me!”
Repi handed me the item called the laurel—or whatever it was—that would let me use magic.
[‘leviatan’ donated 1,000 won!]
-With this level of laurel synchronization, you'll only be able to use missile magic exactly once.
The trackers arrived right in front of us.
-Three enemies, but only one use of magic. What a miraculous tutorial.
-You don't actually have to take out all the trackers. The story moves on anyway.
-That was how it worked? I kept rerolling infinitely for no reason.
-Typical Korean temperament lolololol
So I'm supposed to show it here, right?
The enemies were closer than expected, but not so close that I couldn't draw a magic circle.
“Advanced First-Circle Cast: Polar Coordinate Assignment.”
Using the method I'd been shown earlier, I generated a guided missile from scratch.
The reason guided missiles are a Third Circle spell is that they are three-dimensional spatial magic lacking the dimension of time.
But even a First Circle magic circle was enough to borrow that authority.
Since this was a guided missile (physical), it had no explosive power whatsoever.
Receiving mana from the laurel, the lump of metal viciously struck one of the trackers, then shot toward another the moment the first one fell.
Fwoooosh! KABOOM!!!
“Easy enough.”
-???????????
-How did you do that?????
-Are you some kind of hook-collecting master? But what is the actual principle behind it?
-Tell us!
-Mom, why can't I fire guided missiles? Mom, why can't I fire guided missiles? Mom, why can't I fire guided missiles? Mom, why can't I fire guided missiles?
Beep beep beep
An alarm went off while the chat was in complete chaos.
Was it already time to leave?
“I'm sorry. I have another prior engagement today, so I think I have to end the stream here. I'll cancel today's unanswered donation questions for now, so send them again tomorrow and I'll answer them then.”
* * *
[Beep! This is a child.]
When I tapped the disposable card against the reader, I heard a familiar voice.
On the surface, it was meant to remind people that the passenger was a child and required caution, but
in reality, it was an elaborate device for publicly calling out and humiliating people who weren't children when they used it improperly.
This absolutely wasn't a thought I was having because I felt self-conscious hearing a child's announcement at my age.
[This stop is the entrance to Hanguk University Administration Building.]
The campus was quiet on the weekend.
Even more so when it was the dead of winter in January.
I had never gotten along with educational institutions of this sort.
Even in my first life, I had ultimately been unable to attend for more than one semester, and at the academy in my previous life, I had dropped out before completing two years.
In fact, ever since Arin transferred, I had been attending elementary school alone the whole time.
My name was still registered at Merlin Orphanage, so it seemed the teachers didn't know the details of my circumstances.
I wasn't learning anything, and there was no point in going to school.
If anything, Professor Cheon Gyu-jin's lectures were more fun.
Sometimes I skipped lunch and slipped out of school without anyone noticing so I could attend the make-up lectures.
No matter how advanced technology became, or how over-technological the era was, they still didn't put tracking devices on elementary schoolchildren.
I had made a few friends while attending the lectures as well.
University students were generally quick to catch on, and rather than resent the fact that Professor Cheon favored me, many of them were eager to squeeze even a little more knowledge out of me.
Whenever that happened, I willingly became the foundation for their grades.
Even after getting off the bus, I walked for quite a while before finally reaching the building the professor had prepared for grade checks and appeals.
I explained to the reception desk that I wasn't an undergraduate at this school, so I couldn't check my grades online, and that I had come in person both to check them and because of a personal request from Professor Cheon Gyu-jin.
Of course, I didn't mention the former.
“Professor Cheon Gyu-jin, huh... Yeah! Just go to Room 306 on the third floor. It's a small auditorium, so you shouldn't have much trouble finding it.”
Fortunately, they didn't seem to think I was a strange person.
When I took the elevator and reached the auditorium door, lively voices spilled out from inside.
Among those voices was one I recognized from class.
Judging by how heated they sounded, they seemed to be engaged in a spirited debate over the exam questions.
“But Professor, isn't this formula worth partial credit? Even if it wasn't the part you intended, it was necessary to derive the correct answer using my solution process.”
“I understand your argument, Hoyeon. But look carefully.
If you derive the answer using the dimensional transposition method, you need three formulas instead of two.
With only these two formulas, the equation becomes indeterminate, so it can't yield a single definitive answer.
You only happened to arrive at the correct answer. I won't deduct points for the final answer, but I don't think I can award partial credit for this solution.”
It looked like a fairly constructive exchange of opinions, but the professor had launched a terrifying attack: if the student didn't agree with him, he would even deduct points from the correct answer.
In the end, perhaps unable to find a better alternative, the student left the auditorium with drooping shoulders.
I sat in the very front row and blankly waited until everyone else had finished asking their questions.
I wasn't simply thinking about nothing. From time to time, I became sentimental as I felt the joy of those who received points and the despair of those who had even lost points they already possessed.
“Hi, hi. Who are you waiting for? Are you the professor's daughter? Or maybe his niece?”
“Hey, don't just talk to her like that—you'll scare her! Just sit quietly.”
“We're friends with the person over there, but it's taking so long that we got bored and decided to come talk to you. That's okay, right?”
“Sorry about that. He's still immature.”
The boy and girl sat down side by side in the row behind me. I stopped the girl just as she was about to smack the boy on the head.
“No, it's okay. I'm waiting for the professor too. I'm not family.”
“Oh, I see. You're really cute. What's your name? How old are you?”
“I'm seven. This is my first time meeting you in person, Mr. Baek Jeong-ho and Ms. Song Ga-yeon.”
“Huh? How do you know our names? Is there a name tag somewhere?”
While the two students were left bewildered, the last student came down from the podium.
“You've worked hard for two months. And my name is NoName.”
Leaving their expressions twisted by surprise and shock behind me, I finally made the meeting Professor Cheon had been looking forward to happen.
“Hello.”
I greeted the professor casually.
“What brings you here?”
“Would there be any reason for me to come other than to check my grades?”
I answered a little mischievously and watched his reaction.
A little bewilderment. Curiosity.
But unlike the others, he didn't grow impatient and ask me a question in return or jump to his own conclusions about me.
He simply waited quietly for me to add something.
As expected, I liked this man.
Even though I knew that sounding people out like this was a great discourtesy, I had never managed to break the habit I'd picked up in the imperial palace.
I didn't know how this world would take it, but if I'd treated a duke's minister or a commander of the directly subordinate staff corps that way, I wouldn't have kept my head.
“I'm late introducing myself. My name is NoName, and I've come to check my grade for the Micro-Nano Transmutation Circle Hermeneutics course.”