Chapter 29
“Hi, Jihye! Did you have a good vacation?”
“Wow, Seori! It’s been ages! Yeah, yeah. How about you?”
“Hehe, I had a good vacation too. We went skiing last week, remember?”
“I’m so jealous. My dad always wants to go hiking, even in winter.”
At Sefiron Academy, the snow that had been frozen solid throughout winter was gradually melting beneath the stirrings of its lively young sprouts.
Unlike the high school division, where only the biting cold still lingered, the elementary division was so heated by the children’s energy that even passersby felt as though they were warming up.
It was the awkward two-week start of the school year wedged between winter vacation and spring vacation.
Most schools had combined them into a single winter vacation, but a handful of schools, including the academy, still maintained the February school-opening system.
Instead, the schools conducted a variety of activities unrelated to academics, providing the children with hands-on opportunities to consider their future paths.
To the elementary students, a school without classes was little different from a huge playground.
Children who had not gotten acquainted over the past month and a half greeted one another and eagerly opened up their respective bags of stories.
Since it was the first day of the new term, the teachers of each class had no particular intention of restraining the children’s commotion.
The programs that had been planned were to begin in earnest tomorrow, so there was no particular schedule today beyond the announcements.
The children’s innocent minds held no thoughts except for recess arriving soon so they could go have a snowball fight.
“Is that kid late? They’re just walking onto the athletic field now?”
“Where, where?”
“Over theeeere. They’re just coming in through the back gate.”
“Oh, you’re right. Who is it?”
At Sefiron Academy, it was impossible to imagine anyone being late.
That was why the child leisurely strolling across the athletic field naturally attracted a great deal of attention.
“All right, children, quiet down and take your seats. I hear there’s a transfer interview in Multipurpose Room 126 on the first floor today from eleven to twelve, so don’t go anywhere near there, all right?”
““Yeeeeeees.””
“Teacher, what does ‘transfer’ mean?”
“It means transferring to our academy in the middle of the school year. Then you have to take the same test as everyone else, right? That’s why there’s an interview exam today.”
“Teacher, is a new student coming? What grade are they in?”
“I can’t tell you what grade they’re in, because we’re not allowed to say until they pass.”
Ding-dong-dang-dong.
The homeroom teacher of First-Year Class A at Sefiron Academy heard the recess bell, cautioned the children to play carefully, and emphasized once again that they must not go to Room 126.
“They looked really young. Aren’t they in our grade?”
“Right? Then they must be transferring into second grade, right?”
“Want to go take a look? If we hurry, maybe we can see their face.”
“No! Teacher said we’d get demerits if we went.”
Unlike Seori, who was already excited by news of a transfer student who had not even been confirmed yet, Jihye calmly tried to dissuade her.
But Jihye could not help being curious about the rumored transfer student, either.
“Really? Our class teacher didn’t tell us anything like that!”
“Maybe because we don’t normally have any reason to go to Room 126.”
“What do they look like? Are they a boy or a girl?”
The transfer student was a hot topic among all the first-years, not just the students of Class A.
There were rumors ranging from a daughter of a famous imperial family from overseas coming here to study to a spy secretly raised by an obscure criminal organization and sent to Sefiron Academy on a mission!
In just ten minutes of recess, the children began putting their creativity to work and speculating about the transfer student’s identity.
While the teachers of each class were called to the auditorium for an announcement about the career program, the one who mustered the courage to meet the transfer student in person was Han Seori, the action leader of Class A.
Han Seori led her assistant out with grand declarations that she would become a detective herself and expose every detail of the transfer student’s identity.
And so, Jihye was dragged along completely helplessly.
“Seori, it’s fourth period today, and it’s supposed to be self-study. Teacher told us not to leave the classroom until the bell rang. What if we get caught?”
“It’s fine. All the teachers are gathered in the auditorium, so they won’t know.”
“We’ve already been waiting for thirty minutes...”
“Shh...! You’ll get us caught! Huh? Someone’s coming out over there! Hide, hide!”
Demerits were nowhere near enough to suppress Seori’s curiosity.
“I think that’s them. Can you see them too?”
“It’s too far away, so I can’t see well. Oh, now I can! But what are you going to do now? Are you really going to go talk to them?”
“Of course! Why else did we wait?”
“Aah, I really don’t know!”
Seori dashed through the back gate without a moment’s hesitation.
Jihye ran as hard as she could to catch up, but Seori had already gotten far ahead and was just about to encounter the student.
“Hi! I’m Seori! Han Seori!”
“...?”
“Hi! I’m Seori! Han Seori!”
“You didn’t have to say it twice. Do we know each other?”
“No, I’m seeing you for the first time!”
“Oh. Are you a student here?”
“Huff, huff... Seori, you dropped your scarf.”
“Oh! When did I drop it? Thanks!”
“Oh, hello...? I’m Jihye.”
The late-arriving Jihye handed Seori her scarf and introduced herself as well.
The transfer student was smaller and frailer than Jihye had imagined. Compared to Seori, who was tall for her age, they were shorter by an entire head.
Unlike Han Seori, who had curly blond hair and blue eyes because she was mixed-race, the transfer student had black hair like Jihye’s, so Jihye guessed they were Korean. Even so, the student could not hide a certain exotic air.
“I’m Han Seori, a first-year at Sefiron Academy! This is my friend, Ma Jihye. Did you transfer to our academy? What’s your name?”
But despite Seori’s exuberant greeting, reminiscent of a retriever, the transfer student chose to ignore her and walk past.
“Uh... huh...?”
“They just walked away?”
Seori had never imagined she would be ignored, so her mouth hung open even wider.
“Yeah, they just walked away...”
They stared intently for a long while in case the student turned back, but the transfer student never once turned around.
The only thing they saw was the student’s back as they took a headband from their pocket and neatly tied up the hair on either side of their head.
* * *
They say that sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic, don’t they?
The same was true of extremely advanced brainwashing magic—it, too, was difficult to distinguish from reality.
Especially in a barbaric age that had thrown the ethics of magic to the dogs, the joke that black magic could command even a stray cat no longer sounded like a joke.
Sometimes I wondered whether I was really reincarnating over and over, or whether I was actually under the effects of a tremendously powerful hypnotist.
The so-called brain in a vat, or something like that.
But whenever I truly faced reality, that thought would eventually vanish deep into the abyss.
“Hey, big sis, big sis! My mom said that people who don’t live in this apartment complex aren’t allowed to play here!”
“Who made that rule?”
“Ummm... I don’t know? Wait a minute, I’ll go ask my big brother and come back!”
The world is constantly developing.
Humanity discovers fire and defeats mammoths and wyverns.
The concept of nations is established, and wars of conquest are waged.
Slavery is abolished, and democracy based on the principles of freedom and equality is built.
Mana is refined without end, and magic advances as well.
And now that the world has even acquired the means to rationally control all of these things, is this a brave new world?
“Hey, where do you live?”
“...”
“I don’t think I’ve seen you in this complex before. Outsiders aren’t allowed in here. If you want to play, go to another playground.”
“I live in Building 102, Apartment 3903.”
“Oh, really? Then go have fun.”
The world developed through human selfishness, and that driving force would probably never disappear until humanity went extinct.
As long as money and honor remained the forces driving the world forward, it was an unfortunate reality that humans could not resist capitalism and the hierarchy of power.
It was the kind of day when I had botched the academy interview, had no one at home to spend time with, and did not even want to connect to the capsule.
I sat on the swing and kicked my feet, trying to share the same feelings as the children my age, but my restlessness still would not go away.
“Get lost, you beggar!”
“Ugh, you stink!”
Behold.
There is no absolute evil or absolute good in this world.
There must have been reasons for banning outsiders from the playground of a wealthy apartment complex.
Perhaps it was difficult to hold outsiders responsible when they damaged the facilities, or perhaps it was due to genuine adult concerns such as property values.
The children were provided with a good environment through adult control, but conversely, this young child who had merely wandered into the playground by chance was now being ganged up on.
The children either joined in or deliberately ignored it, while the adults simply looked on.
“Aaaaaaagh!!!”
“Aren’t you leaving already? Go back to your own homes!”
Disgust. Yes, it was disgust. I had been wondering for a long time what this unsettled feeling was.
The memory was so old that I had completely forgotten it long ago.
When the hero party, having set out on a journey with the destiny of defeating the Demon King, encountered their sponsors exploiting the common people wherever they went, what were they supposed to do?
Under the noble cause of defeating the Demon King, should all the common folk be sacrificed? Or should they ignore the people dying in the borderlands even at that moment and focus on providing immediate relief?
How had they responded again...?
“Hey, what are you doing? Why are you hitting that kid!”
Anyway, my disgust reached its limit, and just as I finally got off the swing, there were children who acted before I did.
“Who do you think you are?”
A little girl whose face was already covered in dirt and grime barely lifted her head. Her white dress had been so thoroughly dirtied that its original shape could no longer be recognized.
There were five children who looked at least three or four years older than her. They had been bullying the girl in a place beyond their parents’ watchful eyes.
Just when no one seemed capable of stopping them, two familiar figures appeared and bravely stood up to them.
They were two first-year students I had happened to meet on my way home from school.
“We live here too, you know? Aren’t you ashamed of ganging up on one person? If it were me, I’d be so ashamed I’d bite my tongue and kill myself!”
“What? Did your mom teach you to talk like that?”
“Then your mom taught you to go around bullying innocent kids!”
It was a battle of wills between children, with neither side willing to give an inch.
Their vocabulary might have been less refined, but when it came to spirit, they were inferior to no one.
Eventually, a large child who seemed to be the leader of the group of five stepped forward.
“You think we did it because we were bored? She’s being stubborn and refusing to leave. Wouldn’t it have been nice if she’d just left when we asked nicely?”
“No! I was waiting for my mom... I mean it! Mom told me to keep waiting here... Sob... Waaaaah!”
“Can’t you shut your mouth?”
“Hey! I told you not to hit her! If you hit her again, we won’t stand for it!”
“What are you going to do? Want to throw down? You confident?”
“Yeah, I’m not scared.”
This was utter pandemonium.
I mean, if this was a wealthy neighborhood, shouldn’t there at least have been a security guard around?
Where had all the adults gone?
“Eeeeeek!”
The friend who had introduced herself as Han Seori earlier was shoved and rolled across the ground.
“You act up one more time and you’re dead.”
“You’re using aura? You crazy bastard... You guys are the ones who’ll end up dead against Jihye.”
“What are you talking ab—huh?”
“Die!!!”
The moment Seori fell, Jihye charged straight into the group of boys.
I had wondered what Han Seori could possibly be relying on to charge out so boldly, but it turned out that her friend was no ordinary girl.
Jihye wrapped aura around both her legs and arms and literally charged in, executing a body slam.
“Aaaaaaagh! Is this crazy bitch for real?!”
“Die! I said die!”
“Get this bastard off me, quick!”
Then, whether she got hit or not, she persistently focused on just one of the fallen children.
But one of the children picked up a thick wooden stick from somewhere and tried with all his might to strike Jihye on the head while she was completely absorbed in beating the fallen boy.
Just when it seemed things might be resolved, as expected...
“That’s enough.”
[Cast: Adjust Friction Coefficient]
[4th-Circle Joint Cast: Adjust Gravitational Coefficient]
[Write: Rotational Transformation]
All the children who had been trying to beat Jihye lost their balance and fell.
Their limbs, faces, and every other part of them were pressed completely against the ground, forming a perfect prone position.
In the end, it was time for me, an adult, to step in.