Chapter 35
“El... Ras... Mnya... Mbeum..”
“Name, you need to wake up.”
“Mmmmmm... Just a little longer... I want to sleep.”
“If you get up this late, how are you planning to get to the academy next week?”
Name wrapped herself in the blanket and rolled halfway around the bed.
Professor Cheon smiled softly at Name, who had turned into one enormous gimbap roll.
Before long, Name's eyes opened halfway.
“Is it today? The day we get my uniform fitted?”
“That's right. Hurry and get ready.”
“Ugh, I don't want to go...”
“Good grief... Honestly.”
Even the loud ringing of the alarm clocks was not enough to wake Name in the morning.
But leaving her alone would obviously mean she would sleep all day, so even this morning, Professor Cheon had no choice but to get Name on her feet and urge her toward the washbasin.
Professor Cheon asked Name as she came out after washing her face.
“What about breakfast?”
“This alone is enough to fill me up.”
“All right. Let's leave right away.”
The potion bottle in Name's hand sloshed softly.
Looking at Name, Professor Cheon once again found himself admiring how she took such bitter medicine every day without even wrinkling her face.
He wondered how she managed to drink it so well when even a single sip was difficult to swallow.
As soon as she finished the portion meant for breakfast, Name scurried to the entrance and put on her shoes.
Of course, she did not forget to bring her scarf.
“It's quite cold outside.”
“It's still winter, after all.”
“Are you sure you don't want to take the car?”
“I wanted to walk for once. At this rate, I'll forget how to stand up.”
Just as Name said, she never moved from her room except when she went to see Laura.
Her arms and legs were so frail that he wondered whether she could even manage the walk to the academy.
She really did need to move her body, at least at times like this.
The March air was still too cold to breathe in all at once.
Name buried her face in her scarf and tried to warm her chilled cheeks with the heat of her breath.
"Haa. Haa."
When Name blew out her breath, the cloudy air spread in all directions.
Professor Cheon suddenly stopped walking, saying that he had thought of something fun.
"There's an interesting spell. Would you like to see it?"
He took a portable magic-circle drafting device from his pocket, slipped it onto his finger, and began writing out the formula.
[Cast: Local Crystallization]
A magic circle made of concentric rings formed around his hand.
He carefully brought the magic circle in front of Name.
"Would you like to blow your breath again?"
There was no reason for Name to refuse, so her cheeks puffed up with air.
"Huuu."
The air she exhaled became breath, passed through the magic circle, and, as the circle rotated, ice fragments came raining down from the opposite side.
Before they hit the ground, Professor Cheon caught the crystal fragments in his hands at just the right moment.
"They're ice flowers. What do you think? Pretty, aren't they?"
Name's face, which had always remained expressionless, gradually softened.
“Oh...!”
“My mother used to make this spell for me every winter. I loved seeing it so much that whenever the cold season came, I would pester her to go outside with me.”
Professor Cheon closed his eyes as he reminisced.
“It's really beautiful.”
“Isn't it?”
“You partially blocked the other physical forces interfering with the quasi-liquid layer to maximize the freezing-point depression effect observed in the microscopic world.”
“Huh?”
“The way the two runes mesh with the magic circle's two axes and intersect without colliding is a truly brilliant idea.”
“Ah... So that's what you meant was beautiful.”
Good grief.
A sigh escaped Professor Cheon's lips.
Leaving aside the pretty hexagonal ice pieces, he had never expected her to get this excited over the magic circle.
He might have been a person with little sentiment himself, but this little girl was on an entirely different level.
And yet, the eyes with which Name watched the magic circle spinning round and round still sparkled brightly.
'Maybe liking something is all that matters.'
With that, the little incident between Professor Cheon and Name came to an end, and before they knew it, they had arrived at a specialty school-uniform shop.
Jingle-jingle
Rather than an AI-generated voice, a bell that still stirred an analog sensibility rang out through the shop.
"Welcome!"
"Hello. We came to have a child's school uniform fitted."
"Did you make a reservation in advance, or would you like to have her measurements taken here?"
"No, this is our first time here."
The shop clerk kindly explained everything to Professor Cheon, who knew absolutely nothing about children's school uniforms.
Apparently, these days people could take their measurements at home and send the information to the shop, then simply try the uniform on and pick it up right away.
"So these days, there's no fun in dressing children in their uniforms. In the past, we would at least check whether the size fit before they left, but the results are so accurate now that people just take them home without even trying them on, don't they?"
"Oh, I see. Is that so?"
The petite clerk lamented.
She immediately bent her knees slightly to bring herself level with Name's eyes.
"Hello! Did you come to get your school uniform fitted? You're going into first grade now, aren't you?"
"Ah, she's in second grade."
Professor Cheon cut in and corrected her.
"She's in second grade, but she's getting a new uniform?"
"She transferred schools this time, so apparently she needs a new uniform."
"The elementary school uniforms around here are almost all standardized. You must have moved here from far away?"
"That is part of it, and she'll be attending Sefiron Academy."
"Wow, Sefiron Academy? And you're a transfer student? You must be really smart, little one!"
The clerk's voice rose.
And with good reason. Even the students attending Sefiron Academy were objects of envy in this area.
If someone asked whether elementary school was not very important, most parents would get angry and demand to know what they meant.
With the Magic Foundation's support, on a level entirely different from public education, six years was more than enough time to create a gap between its students and everyone else.
It was also easier in terms of difficulty to advance steadily from the elementary division than to break through the fierce entrance examinations for the middle and high school divisions.
And the connections formed with other parents through attending the academy were hardly worth mentioning; merely bringing them up would make one's mouth ache.
The fact that even an academy that had not selected transfer students in the past several years recognized her qualifications proved that she was far more extraordinary than she looked.
"She's an exceptional child. Once our Name goes to the academy, I'm sure she'll turn the whole school upside down."
Professor Cheon spoke proudly.
Naturally. Name was no ordinary child, after all.
Even compared with the students at Korea University whom he taught, she did not fall short in the slightest.
Name tugged on Professor Cheon's collar, telling him that she had had enough of the measuring, and he gave in to her urging and addressed the clerk.
"Then I'll leave her in your care. She's very shy, so please understand if she doesn't say much."
"Haha, of course! Then, Name, would you like to come over here? Let's hang your outerwear here for a moment."
While Name straightened her clothes, the clerk fetched a tape measure from the desk.
"All right, like this. Now, hold your arms out for a moment."
A constant smile spread across the clerk's lips as she watched the child obediently follow her instructions.
“I'm sorry for mistaking you for a first-grader earlier, ma'am.”
“It's nothing to worry about.”
“Our young lady is going to grow up beautifully! I've got twenty years of alteration experience. I can tell at a glance.”
And with good reason. Although she was smaller than her peers, Name's arms and legs were longer than most people's, and her head was so small that she would not have looked out of place beside a child model.
What caught the clerk's eye, however, was Name's long hair.
“Your hair is really long. Do you not cut it on purpose?”
Normally, when hair grows past a certain length, nutrients fail to reach the ends, and the tips inevitably split.
But Name's hair was not dry or brittle; it flowed smoothly from her scalp all the way to the ends, which the clerk had found quite remarkable.
“I'm scared of putting scissors to my hair. I cut it myself.”
“Ah-ha.”
Name answered in a subdued tone.
There were certainly children who were afraid of hair salons.
They had all sorts of reasons, but usually it was because they were very ticklish or afraid of sharp objects.
While measuring the sleeve length, Name's hand moved toward her head.
When Name suddenly stroked the crown of her head, the clerk looked puzzled.
“Is something wrong?”
“No...”
But all she felt was the texture of her hair. She calmly held out her arms and helped with the rest of the measuring as though nothing had happened.
* * *
“Are you feeling unwell?”
“It's nothing. Let's go home.”
I stroked my head again with a troubled expression.
Right. This body had no horns.
Memories of all the hardships I had suffered in my previous life because of that one horn came flooding back.
I used to wake up before dawn every day and file down my horn with a metal file so no one would discover it.
After leaving the academy, though, I had gotten lazy and simply left it alone.
At the Mage Tower, I usually stayed holed up by myself in my laboratory, and whenever I had to meet someone, I could hide it temporarily with magic.
During the war, people did not care whether those walking along the streets were human or demonfolk, so there had been no particular reason to keep it hidden.
I had once truly hated my horn, but perhaps I had grown attached to it. Now that it was gone, I found myself feeling a little regretful.
For demonfolk, horns served a great many purposes.
They had no use in daily life, but they assisted with spell calculations and did an excellent job of detecting abnormal mana currents.
I had spent so much time living without horns that I did not think their absence had caused me any major inconvenience.
At most, it was like taking an exam without a calculator.
Even so, I still found it a little difficult to allow a sharp object near my head.
And for good reason. Just think about it.
A hairdresser is not merely someone who cuts your hair.
Once you put on a salon gown, both your hands are immobilized, leaving you defenseless, and then they seat you in a chair that makes it difficult to turn around and look behind you.
The hairdresser stands directly behind the customer and swings scissors from extremely close range.
If the hairdresser ever made up their mind to do it, cutting the customer's throat with those scissors would not be difficult at all.
Personally, I considered it a reckless act that placed one's life in someone else's hands.
Hair was not a problem, since wrapping aura around a finger until it was razor-sharp made cutting it alone fairly easy.
It had not been a long journey, but after such an exhausting outing, I was glad to see the house again.
Warmth rose through the soles of my feet, as though the heating had already been turned on before we came inside.
“Let's go pick up your uniform this Friday.”
“Professor Cheon, may I ask you for one favor?”
“Sure. What is it?”
“Laura's birthday is tomorrow. I was wondering if I could invite her over to our house.”
“Of course! She's welcome anytime. But there's nothing much to play with at home. What are you planning to do?”
“You know, that.”
Name pointed at the capsule.
“Laura really likes magic, you see.”