Chapter 75
“You can use magic in the game? That's pretty amazing?”
“Hmm... It does seem like it would help you study magic.”
“You have to study in games too? Ugh, I don't want to play a game like that... Ah, I'm going to Class B. See you at lunch.”
“Yes! Good morning, Sleepyhead Jihye!”
“I'm not a sleepyhead!”
Jihye went into Class B first, while Seori, Yuna, and I entered Class A together.
Since we'd walked at a slower pace than usual, it ended up taking much longer than expected to get to school.
My seatmate, Yoon Sihoo, had arrived first and was quietly reading a book. He was the very picture of a model student.
Even after I sat down, he didn't spare me so much as a glance.
Well, everyone had different people they wanted to befriend, so there was no need to pay it any particular mind.
But the instant he confirmed that Yuna was following behind me, his eyes subtly rose above the book.
“Hey, Seo Yuna!”
“Huh? Oh, why?”
“Are you okay?”
“All of a sudden? I'm fine.”
“Really? That's a relief.”
Yuna answered nonchalantly, and after confirming that, Sihoo sat back down with an awkward expression.
It was awkward just listening to them. If he was going to be like this, why had he even spoken to her?
After Teacher Jackie finished taking attendance and conducting the brief homeroom check-in, we had a short break before first period began.
“But is it really difficult?”
Yuna asked from behind, poking me repeatedly in the back.
“Yeah, because I can't be the only one getting stronger. It seems to place a lot of importance on cooperation.”
“Cooperation?”
“It means joining forces.”
“Ooh... I see. So Name is helping her?”
“I probably have to. She'll die if she doesn't get stronger.”
It was a game Yuna was years too young to play, especially since I was playing on Nightmare difficulty, but she was interested in the story of the game I was playing.
“Oh, right! I need to get the textbook for first period!”
Yuna, belatedly remembering the first-period subject, dashed over to the locker.
Just as I was about to set my chair straight again, Yoon Sihoo turned his head unnaturally to the other side.
“Were you listening to us?”
“Ah... No? I wasn't listening, not at all.”
“What? You heard the whole thing.”
“I told you I didn't!”
“Why are you getting angry? This is awkward.”
“Sorry, that's not what I meant...”
“Don't tell me...?”
Considering that Yoon Sihoo was the only classmate who looked out for Seo Yuna, and that he didn't usually show this much interest in the other kids...
My guess was certain.
“Do you like Seo Yuna?”
“Wha—? No, I don't!”
Look at him licking his practically parched lips. Yep, I was right.
Apparently I'd hit the bull's-eye, because Sihoo panicked and thumped his desk.
Given their age, it might not be romantic love, but he definitely had some degree of fondness for her as a friend.
People who don't talk much are usually good at reading other people's emotions. I was exactly that sort.
Sihoo vehemently denied it, but in my mind, the arrowhead of his feelings was already aimed at Seo Yuna.
Come to think of it, there was something I wanted to ask Yoon Sihoo, and I had only just remembered.
“Yoon Sihoo, do you go to an academy?”
“M-My academy? Why do you need to know?”
So he was going to be petty and keep it to himself, huh?
“Then I guess I'll have to go around telling everyone you like Yuna.”
“I really don't! I go... to a taekwondo academy.”
“That works out perfectly. Do you happen to know what they teach at a taekwondo academy?”
“They teach taekwondo at a taekwondo academy. What else would they teach, English?”
“Huh? Well, yeah...”
No, he did have a point...
I only asked because, as I remembered it, there seemed to be places that taught a wide variety of other things too.
“Do they happen to teach dagger techniques? You know, knife fighting.”
“Dagger techniques? What are you planning to use that for...?”
“I have a friend who needs to learn it. Maybe I should look for a dojo instead of an academy.”
“Ah... Anyway, I don't know, so stop asking! And I don't know what you're up to, but don't drag Yuna into your business.”
“Jeez, look at you taking care of your future girlfriend already.”
“@%##@ @!^@##!”
* * *
Sihoo's minor rampage was quelled when Yuna returned to her seat.
The first period was a subject called ‘Magic Infusion.’
Last year, the subject had been ‘Magic Recording,’ which the children shortened to ‘Magi,’ so they simply called this class ‘Maju.’
I found myself wondering how they could have named a subject so half-heartedly.
Come to think of it, back in first grade, I had seen textbooks titled ‘Autumn’ and ‘Winter’ and thought there had been a printing error.
But it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call Maju the most important subject in Sephyron Academy's second-year curriculum.
You could tell just from the fact that it was scheduled for two class hours every day without fail.
“Let's begin class! Everyone, open your textbooks to page 23.”
Teacher Jackie's bright voice rang throughout the classroom.
The sound of children turning pages came from all around.
As befitted the magic powerhouse that was South Korea, the textbook itself was quite systematic.
Rather than diving straight into theory, each chapter began with an experiment designed to pique the children's interest.
For example, they compared the results of infusing a small amount of mana into Light magic with those of infusing a large amount, allowing the children to discover the difference for themselves.
Once all the children had clearly understood the theory, they made their heads hurt again by presenting a counterexample in a new experiment.
Light magic was extremely intuitive. Infuse a little mana, and a little light poured out; infuse a lot, and a great deal of light came rushing forth.
But just as some magic followed linearity, there were bound to be types that didn't.
Some had a maximum value at a particular point.
Magic with a vector, or directionality—the polar-coordinate assignment I often used was a prime example.
Magic that transformed physical quantities so that an object designated relative to the caster reached the value I had initially set wasn't made more effective simply by pouring in more mana.
Thus, when you graphed mana efficiency, vector magic usually took the form of a downward-opening quadratic.
Of course, they wouldn't ask elementary school students to draw such a complicated graph; normally, they'd simply teach them how to infuse mana into the magic circle.
“I'll tell you about the first performance assessment for Magic Infusion. Everyone, listen carefully!”
After teaching for about thirty minutes, Teacher Jackie stood before the blackboard and announced the long-awaited details of the performance assessment.
Even mischievous Seori became serious at times like this.
“First, the performance assessment will be done in pairs. Once you've formed your groups, I'll give each of you five model magic circles. In case you've forgotten how to use them, I'll demonstrate now.”
Five palm-sized model magic circles emerged from a rectangular box.
Teacher Jackie picked one up and held it high so everyone could see, while an empty box dangled from her other hand.
“First, press the safety button in the center firmly. Then make sure the box's lid is properly facing the magic circle. After that, let mana flow into any part of the magic circle.”
The mana concentrated at the bottom.
Then the magic circle began to emit light with a resonant hum.
Beep-
A strange sound effect came from the empty box.
Teacher Jackie reminded us not to forget to press the button in the center again after using all the model magic circles, then showed us the box.
[8.6]
“Can everyone see the number here? This number indicates how efficiently the magic was cast. It ranges from 0 to 10. If 0 or 1 appears, what does that mean?”
“The magic didn't cast properly!”
“We infused the mana incorrectly!”
“That's right. The magic may not have been cast properly, or the mana may have been infused incorrectly. So starting next period, you'll spend time trying out different ways of infusing mana into the five model magic circles.”
After carefully putting the model set back in the box, Teacher Jackie opened a package and took out several identical products, placing them on the desks.
“From today through Friday, you'll experiment for 20 minutes each day. Class A, you'll work with your partners to infuse mana into the models and discuss what characteristics each magic circle has. Then, during sixth period on Friday, you'll write a full paragraph-style report on the characteristics of the magic circles you've discovered so far on the paper I'll hand out later, and turn it in. That will be your performance assessment!”
The children looked at one another with meaningful glances.
It was a performance assessment that let them coast through a full 20 minutes a day during the boring magic class.
On the other hand, they couldn't cheer yet, because they were already harboring the fear that something requiring so much time must be terribly difficult.
I thought carefully about the model magic circle I'd seen earlier.
It seemed they'd put considerable effort into preventing someone outside school from doing the performance assessment for them.
They had deliberately provided only magic circles without saying what kind of magic they were, preventing the children from searching for them online.
Since the model magic circles only conveyed the result of casting through the brightness of the light, their shapes also differed markedly from those of actual magic circles.
And since it was a performance assessment, there was no such thing as a correct answer for the report.
The future looked bleak for students who weren't gifted at writing.
Children this age in particular would be utterly flustered without grading criteria, so I was curious to see how they would overcome this obstacle.
“We'll take questions about the performance assessment for the rest of the time.”
“Teacher! Then what are we supposed to write about?”
“You can write about what you've learned in the textbook! Like how infusing a little mana into the center resulted in low efficiency, or how infusing a lot of mana into both sides of the magic circle increased efficiency. Those are all things we tried last time, right?
Besides that, if you can, feel free to analyze the runes or formulas in the magic circle itself! Compare them with the other four magic circles and write things like, ‘Magic circles that use this rune have these characteristics,’ or ‘When this formula appears, it has those characteristics.’ The content is entirely up to you. Understood?”
“Yeees...”
“The discussion is done in pairs, but you'll be graded solely on the report you submit at the end, so everyone needs to work hard! Got it?”
It must be difficult. It was training to identify magic circles through countless rounds of trial and error.
Of course, they didn't need to figure out the exact contents here, but this was also a preliminary step toward creating dispel magic—in other words, counter-formulas.
It was practical, which made it interesting too.
After hearing the details of the performance assessment, the children already looked like blind men trying to identify an elephant by touch.
But if you kept fiddling with an elephant for several days, wouldn't you eventually get a rough idea?
At least the elephant wouldn't report us for sexual harassment.