Chapter 150
No matter how notorious the Academy’s exams were, the elementary division was still the elementary division.
There were exactly seven subjects: Magic Infusion, Runic Language—Type A, and Fundamentals of Transmutation in the magic division, along with Korean, mathematics, social studies, and science, just like at other schools.
Of course, the first three were overwhelmingly important, and starting in second grade, every subject other than magic was graded on an absolute scale, so all the students were busy drawing magic circles.
And right now, the children in my class had each brought a notebook and were sitting in a circle around the spot where Sihu and I were seated.
Someone had even pushed the desks around us over to one side of the classroom so they wouldn’t get in the way.
“Sihu, have you been doing this since last year? Impressive.”
“It’s nothing...”
“Next. Se-bin, what didn’t you understand?”
“Yeah, this one.”
It was the final sprint right before the midterms.
“This is about basic infusion. Anyone who doesn’t understand it, come over here and listen. I won’t explain the same thing twice later.”
At that, three or four students got up and sat down right beside us.
I sat in a chair, looking down at the children, and began giving supplementary explanations with the textbook in hand.
Although the Academy was attended by students with outstanding academic abilities, and Class A was limited to the top twenty-five percent of them, it was only natural that not every student could follow the homeroom teacher’s lessons.
If some children yawned or became distracted because they already knew everything, there were bound to be others who could only blink blankly because they didn’t understand a thing.
Still, all the children were eager to learn, so Sihu told me that until last year, he had gathered the students in his class to study before every exam.
The fact that his efforts hadn’t been in vain was clear from the current members of Second-Year Class A. Apparently, a full half of them had come from First-Year Class A, where Sihu had been.
This year, I decided to help Sihu with the children’s midterm studies.
“See how the optimal infusion graph appears all squiggly in the textbook? What would happen if Se-bin infused this magic circle with mana at the same intensity everywhere?”
“Um... I’m not sure.”
“You see this part sticking out here? All the mana equal to this amount is lost. Take a good look. The test question will probably be something like this. If you’re given a graph like this, first draw a straight line here.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“But if you draw it straight like this, you waste far too much mana, right? So you rotate this line counterclockwise, like thiiiiis.”
Assuming the fifteen-centimeter ruler was an infusion-equivalent line, I placed it against the textbook and rotated it diagonally.
“See? Much cleaner than before, right? They might ask for the area of this protruding section, or they might ask for the starting and ending points. To figure those out...”
This was originally a unit that required learning functions and linear regression beforehand.
But here, all of that was skipped and they jumped straight into applications, so it was a section that children whose fundamentals were still lacking might not understand.
They should have taught all the mathematics first and proceeded step by step, but whoever had designed this curriculum must have been in such a hurry that they skipped everything and did nothing but rush through the magic lessons.
What good was it if a problem could be solved without knowing functions? In the end, the students couldn’t understand it and simply moved on to the next unit.
Why did people always place so much importance on results alone?
It was simply frustrating that, even as the person teaching this, I could only explain it to this extent.
“Whew, that’s more or less done.”
“Name, this too!”
Seori called out loudly after belatedly opening her Runic Language book and coming over to us.
“Runic Language?”
“Yeah. I can’t memorize it.”
“I can’t help you with that...”
“Aaaah, make me memorize it! I feel like my head’s going to explode!”
Memorization was something each person had to do for themselves.
Han Seori immediately grew dejected and trudged back to her seat. But there really was nothing I could do.
Sihu seemed to have finished organizing things as well, because he stretched, twisted his body from side to side, and loosened up.
“Do you have any intention of skipping a grade, Yoon Sihu? This looks way too easy for you right now.”
At my question, Sihu tilted his head.
“...? I’m going into fourth grade next year.”
“Oh, really? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You didn’t apply to skip a grade? The deadline was last week.”
“Really?”
“Whoa.”
So there was such a thing.
“It’s fine. I didn’t particularly want to skip a grade anyway.”
Whether I studied elementary-school material or high-school material, there wasn’t much I didn’t already know.
The others might not understand, but living a life appropriate for one’s age could surprisingly be a pretty good way to live.
The Academy wasn’t necessarily a place one had to attend just to learn, and if there was something I was curious about, the internet was so well developed these days that it was easy to look it up by myself.
Professor Cheon, an authority in Korean magic studies, was at home too.
“Why? You seem like you’d adapt just fine to the middle-school division right now.”
“What, middle school?”
I immediately put my arm around Sihu’s neck and squeezed it tight.
“Do I look like I’m only at a middle-school level? I’m a little disappointed.”
“No, the upper-school students learn really difficult things!”
“High school? That’s all?”
“What answer do you want from me!”
“Who knows? Maybe you should think about that yourself.”
It was a lifelong regret that I couldn’t freely use real magic.
In my previous life, I would have put on one magnificent display of Hellfire on the athletic field. Of course, with this body, my mana capacity was too low, so it would have been a little difficult.
“Sihu, if you move up to fourth grade by yourself, what will Yuna do all alone? Don’t you feel sorry for her?”
“...I can’t help it. My mom keeps telling me to graduate from the elementary division as soon as possible.”
“Cheer up. First love usually doesn’t work out.”
“Oh, please, that’s not it...!”
The way he flared up was oddly cute. I shouldn’t tease him any further, so I decided to end things with some encouragement for the upcoming midterms.
“Anyway, good luck on the exam.”
“Oh, right, NoName, you too...”
Why was he opening his eyes like that? Why did Sihu hate me so much?
I spun my chair around and called out to Yuna, who had been diligently memorizing Runic Language.
“Yuna. Sihu told you to do well on your exam.”
“Huh? Me...?”
“Hey, when did I say that? I never said anything like that!”
“You never did? Then did you hope Yuna would do badly on the exam?”
“No, that’s not what I...”
“Then good luck, everyone.”
* * *
The participants in the Win-It-Back Tournament would be announced on Wednesday, May 17.
I had about three weeks to get at least somewhat familiar with the rules of WoA.
After story mode, even seeing the word WoA for a while made my head throb, so I didn’t even launch the game or stream. I played a little LoL, though.
If I hadn’t posted updates about myself on Tged, someone might really have used all kinds of underhanded methods to break into my home, just as Sia had said.
[Private Room]
“Hi, Adela. What were you doing?”
“Eheheh. Heheh. Oh, hi, sis! Did you do well on your exam?”
When I entered the private room, the first thing I saw was a cat plastered to the bed, vigorously scratching its thigh.
“What are you watching?”
“A web drama! It’s right at the kissing scene, but you shouldn’t watch this, sis! You said I was seven, after all!”
“I’m not really interested.”
“Does your playlist only have documentaries? I don’t know how you can enjoy watching things like Fermat’s Last Theorem...”
“They’re interesting, okay?”
Wasn’t she adapting a little too quickly?
After I saved her from the brink of death, Adela had evolved into a full-fledged unemployed person who did nothing but consume in-game currency.
“Why did you change the interior again?”
“The room was too gloomy! I like bright colors. Especially yellow and pink!”
“It’s my money.”
“Come on, I know you’re rich now! I saw it all on V-Tube. Gasp...! It’s happening, it’s happening! Eeeeeew, I can’t watch them smash lips together! Aaaah!”
How could she be artificial intelligence? She was basically human.
Human adaptability was frightening. I had to get her doing some kind of work soon, at least something productive. At this rate, she’d become a useless person in no time.
I hadn’t logged into virtual reality today to lecture her.
“I’m about to start streaming. Is that okay?”
“Huh, now? Yeah, sure, start it.”
“What do you mean, okay? Who told you to throw your underwear carelessly onto the floor?”
“Oops, when did this fall here?”
The space had expanded from three pyeong to ten, but with one more member of the household, it didn’t look particularly empty.
It even felt better than before because it smelled lived-in... though I wasn’t sure.
[Streaming begins: 0:00:01 – NoName]
[World of Arseria – Placement]
[Broadcast time - 0:00:01]
[Viewer count – 1]
For once, I didn’t play any music and simply waited for the viewers to arrive.
Instead, I took the whiteboard I had grown accustomed to from my inventory, held it up in front of the camera, and wrote down an equation.
[x! + 1 = y^2]
It was an equation I had happened to come across on V-Tube, and it seemed like a suitable brain teaser before the game, so I brought it along.
The viewers trickled in noticeably more slowly since I had turned on the stream without making an announcement, but the chat’s firepower was no different from before.
-How many days have you gone without streaming?!
-I missed youㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
-Big Name! Mega Name! Ultra-Mega Name! Gigantamax Name!
-Please do a daily stream! We’ll give you lots of money!
-Middle-school Challenger! Middle-school Challenger! Middle-school Challenger! Middle-school Challenger!
-Is she a Challenger? She’s still unranked.
└ She apparently queued Legacy of Legend unranked games during her break from WoA and hit Challenger.
└ What the hellㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Why is she playing LoL instead of WoA too?
-We don’t need interaction, so please just turn on the stream when you play!!!!!
“Hello, everyone. Feels like it’s been a while, right?”
“Yeah! Nice to see you too, guys.”
My greeting was followed by Adela’s alluring voice. Keeping her gaze fixed on the screen, she casually raised one hand in greeting.
-It’s been fucking forever, teach!
-I nearly died from missing you^^
-As expected, Adela’s the best.
-Wow, kya, pya.
-What the heck, Adela’s wearing dolphin pants!
-This is streaming, and this is sex.
-What are you watching so happily?ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Seriously, your posture is exactly like someone who’s been unemployed for ten yearsㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-What’s with the math problem all of a sudden? Are you lecturing today too, teacher?
└ A lecture by a middle-school girl ㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷ
-Why are there so many foreigners here~ 30%?
└ I’m not a foreigner.
└ Me neither, and I also like kimchi.
└ Sorry, I’m actually Ukrainian~
└ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
“Would you like to try solving it too? The answer is easy.”
-44444444
-Are they all integers?
-Right, x is 4.
-x can be 5, and y can be 11 too?
└ Her mental arithmetic is insanely fast ㄷㄷ
-How many answers are there?
“Oh, by the way, x is 4, 5, and 7.”
-Ah, spoiler!
-Kkebi.
-Oh, 7 works too.
-Then isn’t that it?
-What? What?
-What the heck is that symbol?
“The point isn’t the integer solutions; it’s proving that there are no other integer solutions besides those three.”
-Profound number theory.
-It looks incredibly easy.
-NoName, can you prove this?
-She’s a middle schooler, and she knows number theory too? ㄷㄷ
└ If it deals with integers, it’s all number theory;;
-But why are there more English letters than numbers, teacher...?
[Broadcast time - 0:10:19]
[Viewer count – 1803]
“Hmm... It’s taking longer than I thought.”
Even after filling the entire board, it felt like I hadn’t even reached the halfway point.
The solution had clearly seemed simple in my head.
“I guess I’ll have to solve it by splitting it into two cases.”
I wiped the board completely clean, and black board-marker brushstrokes began filling the fresh white canvas again.
“Define nonzero coprime integers A, B, and C, and split them into these two cases. Aha.”
Since I was writing everything by hand instead of drawing magic circles, it took a little time, but it was easier from there.
All I had to do was copy down the equations whose calculations were already complete.
[Broadcast time - 0:19:37]
[Viewer count – 4913]
“Then we solved the problem without using the Stirling approximation, right? As expected, there were no solutions besides 4, 5, and 7.”
[‘I Like Mornings’ donated 10,000 won!]
-Teacher, please play the game already! I’m getting dizzy and I feel like I’m going crazyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
“As it happens, I was planning to start ranked games today. I guess I have to take the placement test.”
The five placement matches used to determine my tier.
My exam had only just begun.