Chapter 81
“Today, I have a meeting with someone from the foundation, so we'll replace fourth period with free time. I'll hand out questionnaires instead, so answer every question without leaving anything blank and place yours facedown on my desk. Don't forget to write your name, either! You can't leave your seat until you're finished. Understood?”
““Yeeees!””
“Oh, one more thing: you have to answer the last page by yourself, so don't make a fuss about showing it to your friends. Once you're done, enjoy your lunch, everyone!”
Teacher Jacqueline Carroll handed the stack of papers to Hangyeol, who was sitting in the very front, then hurriedly left the classroom.
“Wow, free period! Free period!”
The questionnaire she handed over was roughly three double-sided A4 pages long.
The questions didn't seem particularly numerous, so everyone in the class was excited at the thought of finishing quickly and playing.
Yuna tapped me on the back, so I turned around.
“Let's fill out the questionnaire while we talk!”
“Sure. Are you saying that because it's boring to do it alone?”
“Yeah!”
Sihoo glared at us from beside us, but what could I do when Yuna wanted to do it?
No, wait, was I the one being oblivious? Just in case, I invited Sihoo, too.
“Sihoo, do you want to do it with us?”
“No. Besides, surveys are supposed to be done alone, you know?”
“But everyone else is doing it together right now. What, you don't like it unless it's just you and Yuna?”
“Ah... No...!”
“Why would Sihoo want to do it with me?”
When Yuna asked innocently, Sihoo answered with a flustered look.
“We won't interrupt, so go ahead and work hard together!”
“I was going to anyway.”
I turned my chair all the way around so that I was facing Yuna.
“Want me to switch seats with you?”
Our seatmate Yohan asked.
“No. The teacher said we can't leave our seats until we're finished. We should follow the rules.”
Because I was a stickler for following the rules. Adults were supposed to set a good example in front of children.
“There are a lot of essay questions, so it looks like it'll take longer than I thought...!”
“Yeah. It'll probably take fifteen minutes.”
“Mm-hmm. Let's finish quickly and play together, too.”
We wrote our names on the first page, turned it over, and checked the first question.
[1. What is your favorite subject?]
Without a moment's hesitation, I checked the box for ‘Magic Infusion.’
“Wow, you already picked one?”
“What about you, Yuna? Is this a difficult question?”
Why wasn't she choosing magic?
They had never lived in a world without magic, so they didn't seem to grasp how astonishing it was.
Although magic did technically follow the laws of cosmic physics in the broadest sense, that was merely what the theorists claimed. As far as I was concerned, magic was still an unknown phenomenon.
In a world without mana, launching even a single missile required countless scholars to rack their brains, write out every formula, and conduct thousands of experimental tests.
Otherwise, it might not work—or it could simply explode on the spot.
Magic, on the other hand, produced results that matched the caster's desired direction as closely as possible, so long as its basic framework was maintained.
Of course, the more concretely one formed a magic circle using proper mathematical and scientific knowledge, the greater the spell's power and accuracy became, but even this much was already a blessing.
In the end, unable to withstand my insistence, Yuna drew a circle around Magic Infusion just like I had.
What if she didn't? It didn't matter. I would make her like it.
“Let's answer the next question quickly, too.”
“What subject do you dislike? Physical education, for me.”
I didn't particularly like using my body for pointless things like dodgeball.
Not only was this body weak, but I had always disliked moving around in general by nature.
“I figured you'd say PE, since you sit out every class, Name. Mine is art.”
“Art? That's really unexpected. Most people usually like it.”
“My oldest brother is really good at drawing, but he teases me and says my drawings look weird every time I draw, so I don't like it much...”
“Haha... I can see why you'd dislike it.”
Crushing a child's innocent joy like that was cruel. Was that what siblings were like? I could understand it.
If someone living under the same roof was even around my age, I would feel like teasing them, too.
[4. How would you introduce your family?]
I almost wrote Professor Cheon's name in the space for introducing my family, but this question didn't seem to be asking in that sense, so I simply wrote two syllables.
‘Dad.’
It felt a little strange, as though I had finally gained a family that felt like a family.
[5. What is your personality like?]
It was a question I had never thought about before, so my pen paused for a moment.
[...You really are like this to the very end. How can a person think of nothing but themselves?]
“Hmm... Yuna, what do you think my personality is like?”
“I think Name has an angelic personality!”
“It would be too embarrassing if I wrote that about myself, wouldn't it?”
“But it's true, so what can you do? Name is a total angel.”
An angel? Even so, that was going too far. But writing ‘kind’ would look so perfunctory.
I turned my gaze toward the girls chattering in the neighboring section and asked them.
“Hey, what do you think my personality is like?”
I was curious, too, about how I appeared to other people now.
I had been so stressed about things like this as a child that, at some point, I had simply stopped thinking about them altogether.
Still, I was a little intrigued.
“Umm... I'm not sure. Haru, what do you think?”
“I... um...”
Nuri said she didn't know, while Haru hesitated and delayed her answer.
“If you don't know, I'll just write something roughly on my own.”
“I think you're like a mom!”
“...?”
What was that supposed to mean?
Haru's completely unexpected remark left me speechless.
“No, no, that's not what I meant...! I mean you're kind and cool, like a mom...”
Haru belatedly waved her hands and tried to explain.
“That's an original way of putting it, so I like it. I'll write that.”
“Why can't you be an angel...!”
“Still, calling my personality angelic is going too far.”
Yuna puffed out her cheeks in protest. But I couldn't do that.
After that, relatively easy questions followed.
My habits and interests, what I did in my free time, books or movies that had left a strong impression on me, and recent happy and sad events.
I answered each one carefully.
I hesitated for a moment at the question asking who had influenced me the most, but soon wrote down the name of the teacher I missed.
[Maria Euphrasia Terrarubi]
The last page had to be completed alone, so I had wondered whether it contained something important, but there was less to it than I expected.
Suggestions for friends, things I wanted to say privately to the teacher, things I wanted to say to the academy, and so on.
I quickly wrote answers to the bland questions and finished the questionnaire.
“You haven't finished yet?”
Yuna had been wrestling with the last page for several minutes.
“But... but... it's too difficult...”
“Why?”
“The third question from the bottom...”
[3. Who are the three friends you are closest to in class?]
Yuna let out a deep sigh and collapsed face-first onto her desk.
* * *
Jacqueline Carroll's work continued even after the children went home.
She had just finished grading, over the course of three hours, the mountain of reports piled up from the Magic Infusion performance assessment.
Of course, she could have finished in two hours if she hadn't watched VTube in between.
Whenever a new school year began, parent-teacher consultations were held. As soon as one ended, the next student's parents would be waiting.
‘Let's see... Who's next? Yuna and Yohan.’
Adjusting the consultation schedule at the beginning of the semester was also a real headache.
Parent-teacher consultations were mandatory at the academy, so she had to somehow drag even parents busy with their real-life obligations to the academy, shamelessly as that was.
Based on the aptitude evaluation, she explained exactly which areas the children had excelled in, and briefly conveyed what academy life looked like from a teacher's perspective.
Jacqueline had also conducted a survey directly with the students to find out how the class was functioning overall and what the children were thinking.
It had already been two days since the parent-teacher consultations began, but she still hadn't compiled the questionnaire results. Determined to do it without fail that day, Jacqueline placed the pile of papers in front of her on the desk.
The questionnaires contained varying numbers of questions.
They began with simple questions and answers, such as who they were usually close to and what problem concerned them most at present.
As Jacqueline entered their responses one by one into data cells, she grumbled about how, in this day and age, she still had to process something like this manually.
The Sephyron Academy students' main concern was grades, at 65%, followed by friendships, a lack of free time, and family relationships.
Organizing the answers to the question about the three students they considered their closest friends was even more complicated.
Still, after sorting them mechanically one by one, dozens of arrows appeared on the screen.
The more arrows converged on a student, the more central that student was to the class.
‘Han Seori’ naturally received the most arrows, while ‘Lee Haru’ and ‘Kim Hangyeol’ also drew a substantial number.
After checking every response, from what they most wanted or least wanted to hear from their parents to their usual study time and suggestions for the academy, Teacher Jackie turned her attention to the final question.
If there was anyone in the class whose usual behavior they wished would improve, who was it, and why?
Usually, the more popular a student was with friends of the same sex, the more likely they were to be disliked by friends of the opposite sex.
Proving that point, three girls said they disliked Kim Hangyeol because he teased them too much.
Four boys said that Lee Haru nagged too much.
There was nothing particularly problematic about either of those things, but she focused on another student.
Yuna had received only two arrows from the class, meaning that a majority of her classmates disliked her.
For acting conceited, being selfish, saying bad things, and refusing to share homework answers.
She had become isolated in Class A for all sorts of reasons.
Only then did Jacqueline realize how serious the situation was and look over Yuna's questionnaire again.
Now that she looked at it, in response to the question asking for the three friends she was closest to in class, Yuna had written the same name in all three spaces.
[No Name / No Name / No Name]
The student who ranked first, ahead of Yoon Sihoo, in the category of ‘the classmate most likely to be the best at studying.’
Name had also been chosen as the student everyone most wanted to become close to.
Jacqueline found Name's questionnaire and compared it with the others to see who Name had listed as friends.
[Seo Yuna / Han Seori / Yoon Sihoo]
“Fortunately, it seems Name has been taking good care of Yuna. But who is the remaining one?”