Chapter 76
When first period ended, the children hurried around looking for partners to work with on the performance assessment.
Sihoo and Seori were popular with everyone, boys and girls alike, of course.
“That's so mean. Is this really okay...?”
“Then you should have formed a group before us.”
“Sorry, Sihoo! We'll borrow your seat just for this period.”
I had already promised to work with Yuna, so I sent Sihoo elsewhere and seated Yuna beside me.
But Yuna must have been very anxious, because even after sitting down, she kept shaking her leg.
“Are you nervous?”
“Uh-huh, a little...”
“Magic is fun. You don't need to be so nervous.”
“I wish I could think like you, Name.”
Though the performance assessment wasn't worth a particularly large portion of the grade, it still affected their semester grades.
The obsession with grades that had bound Yuna for so long wouldn't disappear overnight, no matter how much her circumstances had improved.
I had also promised her mother that I would help Yuna enjoy school life, so it was something we could gradually work on.
“Hey, don't bite your nails.”
“Ah, sorry. But isn't the classroom a little cold?”
Now she was trembling all over, as though she were getting chills.
I felt terrible for her.
In the end, it seemed the time had come to draw my secret weapon.
“Yuna, sit facing to the right for a moment.”
“Huh? Like this?”
Yuna had no idea what I was planning, but she obediently followed my instructions.
Every now and then, she glanced back at me, unable to hide her curiosity.
It was a little early for elementary school students, but from middle school onward, everyone carried one as an essential item.
It was known as a ‘tail comb.’
“From now on, your hair belongs to me.”
“What does that mean?”
“Don't turn your head. Keep looking straight ahead. You mustn't move.”
“Eek!”
Before brushing all her hair, I gently worked out the tangled sections one by one.
Yuna's hair wasn't particularly thick, so it came undone easily with just a few strokes.
“You should only brush your hair when it's dry. Brushing it right after washing isn't good for your hair or scalp.”
“Really? I always brushed mine while drying it!”
I brought the tail comb to the back of her neck.
Starting at her nape and working up to her crown, I unraveled the red strands against the grain.
“How does that feel? Refreshing, right? Brushing upward from below helps shake loose the dust and dead skin that build up on your scalp.”
“Ooh, that's fascinating. But is brushing it normally bad for you?”
“If you start at the crown, it stimulates the sebaceous glands too much and could make you lose your hair later.”
“I don't want to go bald...!”
As I continued brushing, the tension gradually left Yuna's shoulders.
It was proof that she was beginning to feel comfortable.
I carefully tidied even the side hair that was easy to miss, and finally stood up to style her bangs into the see-through bangs that were fashionable these days.
I didn't have any hair rollers, so I couldn't make the perfect shape I wanted. But making do with what I had, I layered several pencils and rolled Yuna's hair around them.
[Quick Cast: Heat Transfer]
To keep the teacher from noticing, I used a small magic circle to set her hair with just enough heat.
“All done. Want to look in the mirror?”
I led Yuna to the full-length mirror at the back of the classroom.
Yuna's eyes grew as round as saucers.
“Whoa! It's so pretty! I look like a princess.”
Naturally, she had to be impressed. Even the finicky princesses of the Empire had showered this handiwork with praise.
Yuna didn't dare touch the bangs I'd worked so hard on in case she ruined them, and could only stare intently at herself in the mirror.
“Want me to do it for you every morning from now on?”
“Really? No, no, wouldn't that be too much trouble for you, Name?”
“No, I want to. I like brushing your hair.”
I meant it.
Hair should normally be brushed between fifty and a hundred times per session, for around five minutes.
If I added another five minutes for styling, that made ten minutes in total.
From now on, I could enjoy ten rewarding minutes of peace and relaxation every day.
I'd had a nightmare on top of everything else, so I hadn't been in a good mood. But Yuna's adorably goofy grin completely melted my stress away.
“Then should I do yours too? I'll brush Name's hair!”
“...I'm fine.”
“Why...?”
“My hair is too long. It'd probably be better for me to do it myself with magic.”
I felt bad for the dejected Yuna, but allowing anyone to touch my hair was a little difficult.
* * *
The long-awaited performance assessment period arrived.
The teacher handed out one set of ten model magic circles to each of the twenty children, paired off in twos.
The exterior looked like an ordinary magic box.
But every box was a different color, and the children were all clamoring to get the color they wanted.
The contents were going to be identical anyway, so what made the color so important?
There were aspects of children's minds that were difficult to understand.
“Since all the sets are different, remember what color you received so you don't get them confused. Does everyone understand?”
““Yeees!””
“If you think you'll forget, write it down on your desk or in your notebook. Now I'll hand them out one by one, so open them and start experimenting.”
Teacher Jackie walked between the desks, handing out the colors the children wanted.
“What color do you want, Name?”
“I don't care which one.”
“Just pick one! Just one!”
“Then red?”
“Is red okay?”
I had simply answered with a random color, but Yuna asked worriedly when she heard me.
“Why? What's wrong with red?”
“Everyone hates really bright red. It's not very pretty, either...”
“Your hair is red too. I like this color.”
A person's character didn't change with their hair color, after all.
But the corners of Yuna's mouth turned upward at my words.
“My hair really isn't weird? Really, really, really? Last year, all my classmates hated it because they kept asking why I dyed it red all the time... Even though it's natural and not dyed, nobody believed me.”
“I used to have blond hair too, so I can say this: bright colors suit people with pale skin better.”
“Blond? Did you dye your hair back then too?”
“Something like that.”
“Kids, can you choose already? I need to hand them out to the other students too!”
Teacher Jackie interrupted us in the middle of our chatter, so we had to quickly choose one of the four boxes left.
Unfortunately, Sihoo's group had taken the red one first, so it was gone.
As our second choice, we picked a black box the same color as my hair.
“Ugh, I hope we get an easy magic circle. Name, do you know how to use the model magic circles?”
“Teacher just told us.”
“No, I tried them a few times last year, and they're harder than you'd think. Sometimes, even when I held them straight in front of the box, the number wouldn't come out properly.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, yeah. Sometimes, even when I activated the magic circle correctly, it would only show a 0. I'll demonstrate first!”
Like a child excitedly explaining to their parents what they had learned at school, Yuna eagerly opened the box.
Even though she had been trembling before the performance assessment, seeing how much she enjoyed herself now confirmed that magic suited Yuna perfectly.
“Hmm... What should I try first? They all look so complicated. Should I start with the smallest one?”
Up close, the model magic circles looked like dull teal disks.
The disks, reminiscent of the Nebra Sky Disk, were studded with glittering crystals here and there.
All five were between 20 and 40 centimeters in diameter, and as Teacher Jackie had said, each had a red button in the center that somehow made you want to press it.
Yuna took a short breath and pressed the button to activate the magic circle.
With the rattling sound of gears, the teal cover hiding the front of the disk was absorbed into the sides and disappeared.
The disk took on a proper form, making the name ‘model magic circle’ feel quite real.
There was another circle inside the outer ring, making this a second-circle spell.
The runes engraved at the four cardinal directions served as fuel for the magic-circle circuit.
“Whoa... I really don't understand any of this. What do I do? Should I just inject mana somewhere?”
“Yeah. Want to try?”
“Okay...! Then I'll put in 10kE from the north.”
“Will that be enough?”
“Should I use more?”
Since it was a second-circle spell, the appropriate amount would probably settle somewhere around 100kE.
I shouldn't keep giving her hints this easily, but I was itching to tell her.
Like taking a niece or nephew to the movies and barely suppressing the urge to spoil the ending, I made Yuna a suggestion.
“Let's raise the output a little.”
“Okay! Then I'll trust you and start at 50kE?”
Yuna closed her eyes and read the mana currents of the world.
To understand how she handled mana, I focused my senses and closed my eyes as well.
Mana waves were rippling throughout the world.
Yuna plunged her hand into those waves.
Just as humans couldn't control the waves continually rolling in from the shore, it was impossible for our feeble strength to alter the mana currents.
But we could use the waves.
We could ride a surfboard and let our bodies follow the motion of the waves.
All humans could do was skim the waves with their hands while riding the board, but even that was enough for each individual.
And those who conquered every wave were respectfully known as ‘Great Sages.’
Beep-
[0.3]
“Hwaaah, what did it come out as?”
Yuna, on the other hand, was apparently still a novice surfer with a long way to go.