Chapter 101
“Oh my gosh. I didn't even get a wink of sleep.”
Actually, I think I slept for a bit, but it's not exactly a super-refreshing morning. How should I put it—my body's feeling kind of crummy. Not as bad as when I first moved here, but anyway.
ㅡclick
“Ophelia....”
“Princess, have you awakened?”
“Yeah. I don't think I slept properly. Maybe I should've taken a sleep aid yesterday.”
“Sleep aids build up tolerance over time, so it's best not to use them if possible.”
If you asked whether there was some huge reason I couldn't sleep properly, then yes. There was an absurdly huge reason.
“Breakfast is ready. I prepared gimbap so you could have something simple.”
“Ah, then I'll go brush my teeth first.”
“Yes, understood.”
With Dangdang, who was dozing on the bed, tucked under my arm, I went into the bathroom. After patting Dangdang's little butt to wake it up, it was 7:11 a.m. The reason I got up this early was...
“Phew. It's the second time, so why am I so nervous?”
Today was the opening ceremony.
It was the day a new semester began at Seoul Aegis Academy. In other words, as a new student, I had to go to school too.
“Dangdang, set the timer for me, okay?”
ㅡbeep....
Ding-ding. A three-minute timer ticked behind Dangdang's face. After finishing my brushing, I washed my face and wiped the water away before coming back out, where the gimbap Ophelia had made was neatly cut into bite-sized pieces and arranged beautifully.
“Ooh. Gimbap.”
“I would be delighted if it suits the princess's taste.”
“It looks absolutely delicious.”
ㅡclick!
It was the breakfast Ophelia made for my first day at school. I took a photo in case there came a day I'd want to remember it, but maybe it would be better to take one every day.
“Yum.”
Seoul Aegis is a combined elementary, middle, and high school, so even elementary school students wear uniforms. Outside, the Seoul Aegis uniform also functions as a kind of ID.
* * * * *
On Cheonggyesan, which borders several districts of Seoul, stands Seoul Aegis Academy, a private school founded in 2001 that specializes in training underage Hunters and ranks among the world's top 30.
It had originally been planned to open in 2000 with the idea of building a Hunter academy to lead the new millennium, but the construction scale was so large that it was delayed; that's a story only a few people know these days.
The curriculum is divided into general academic classes and special academic classes, with the special classes being what people commonly call Hunter classes. From the full elementary course to the full high school course, everything can be handled within one school, and because the campus is enormous and security is strict, it can even look like a fortress from the outside.
“Ooh.”
It feels less like a school built on a mountain and more like the mountain was remodeled.
In the early days of the Gate/Awakening crisis, China was practically thrown into a Five Hu and Sixteen Kingdoms-style upheaval by the show of force from awakened groups in Xinjiang and by the appearance of the Shin Dalai Lama—a hereditary title meaning the supreme leader of Tibetan Buddhism—who wielded the power of an S-rank Hunter and gathered scattered Tibet under one banner.
Around the same time, seeing Japan suffer from all kinds of immoral acts by awakened criminals and awakened yakuza while reeling from the bubble burst, Korea quickly put together a number of preferential laws for Awakened people.
As part of that, and on the premise of teaching underage Awakened people character and letting them learn upright morals through the guidance of senior Awakened, they gathered Awakened people from all over the country and built a structure on a nearly impossible scale for the era.
The week-long period for taking in students from outside the Seoul/Gyeonggi area into the dorms had already passed, and on entrance ceremony day, the relatively nearby metropolitan-area students start arriving, officially marking the beginning of the new semester.
“Princess, are you nervous?”
“U-umm.... A little? Not too much.”
Some expensive vehicle is driving up into Seoul Aegis Academy along the spiral road designed to reduce the incline while effectively blocking outside intruders.
ㅡbeep....
“Y-you're the one trembling, aren't you?! You were the one shaking.”
* * * * *
“This is pretty strict.”
“This is already a fairly abbreviated procedure. Because we had the recommendation letter from Nova.”
“I see....”
Apparently, after passing through the military-like checkpoint procedure, only students are allowed to enter. Even though it's entrance ceremony day, there are no parents here to observe, and there isn't even space to park that many cars to begin with.
“Princess. From here on out, you have to go alone. Is that all right?”
“Yes! I'm fine! I'm an adult.”
“I see. Then I will trust you, Princess. Please remember well what I told you in advance.”
“Umm....”
It's about the summoning skill. For now, I must not summon Ophelia. I don't know what Ophelia might be doing outside, and besides, since Ophelia is legally registered as a person, it would count as an outside intrusion.
When it comes to the basic Hunter subjects, only Minyum or Suri. Grandpa Galahad would cause a lot of trouble because of movement, so it was best not to use him unless absolutely necessary.
It was basically saying that I should use this chance to get more skilled at fighting with Dangdang.
“Ophelia, thank you for your hard work. I'll do well!!”
“Yes, Princess. Do your best. Your bag strap has slipped down your left shoulder.”
“Ah. Hehe, got it.”
Ophelia gave a final nod and slowly got into the vehicle, driving away into the distance. Now I really am alone.
ㅡbeep!
“Ah.”
Oh right, Dangdang is here.
From the middle checkpoint onward, giant buses shuttle students back and forth between the school building and the checkpoint every few minutes. Not long after, I also boarded a school bus painted yellow and headed to the main building.
“It's huge....”
As expected, the main building is gigantic and incredibly wide. I was worried my white hair might stand out a little, but once I actually came here, it was practically no different from white chalk. There are also foreign students, so there are plenty of blondes too.
But those are mostly upperclassmen, and among elementary school students the proportion of Awakened is drastically lower. I think the ratio was around 10 percent.
Of course, as time goes on, there are more and more Awakened, so by the time they reach high school the ratio tends to exceed 60 percent.
“Eve? Here, this is your student ID. There's a necklace type and a pin type. Which would you like?”
“Ah, please give me the necklace version.”
“Yes~ Just a moment~”
Right before the school gate, there was a bit of a line, and people who looked like teachers checked the students' names and compared them with the faces and fingerprints they had taken in advance. Once identity verification is finished, they hand over the student ID and roughly tell you which direction to go.
Honestly, I was too nervous to hear it, but you can just follow where the people in front are going.
“The Nest....”
If you go in wearing the necklace student ID and enter through the main gate, you cross the playground diagonally and enter the huge main auditorium called the Nest on the left.
With about 3,000 students total and around 800 faculty and other staff stationed here, this place is indeed enormous. Still, 3,000 people isn't nothing, so we sat by grade in seats packed rather tightly and waited. Since I arrived almost right on time, I sat in the back and didn't have to wait long.
ㅡbeep....
“It looks like it's starting.”
That's the sound you hear when a microphone is first turned on. The murmuring around me quickly fades, and light begins to pour brightly into the inside of the dome-shaped building, which had been kept slightly dim.
ㅡrumble-rumble-rumble....
The Nest's dome-shaped lid opens by spreading apart left and right. The dark interior brightens under the blue sky, and in an instant the indoor temperature drops as it meets the chilly air outside, waking me right up.
“If they do it like this, there won't be anyone falling asleep.”
Afterwards, the center of the stage in front split open, the podium slowly rose up, and then, as though the space itself were warping, the back of the podium rippled and one person appeared.
ㅡclick
A gray-haired old man. He's a bit too far away to see his face properly, but I can still tell he's tall and wearing a dark brown suit that suits him well.
“Welcome. Returning students who were here last year and will be here again this year. Transfer students who have just awakened their abilities. And even students in the general curriculum. I am Han Baek-ryeong, the principal of Seoul Aegis Academy.”
Han Baek-ryeong, a quasi-S-rank Hunter who has remained as formidable as ever from the early days of the Gate incident to the present, and the president of Seoul Aegis Academy. A wielder of a spatial-type unique skill, one of the rarest abilities in the world.
“From today onward, you will be reborn as students of Seoul Aegis Academy, which has a history of about 50 years—”
I could've sworn the drowsiness had just gone away a moment ago.
‘Is it because I didn't sleep properly? I need to hold out as long as I can..!’
ㅡzzz....
* * * * *
“Oh my gosh.”
I skipped the boring cutscene. If this were a game, it'd probably be a feature you could use for around 49 cash.
“Ew, I drooled.”
There would've probably been a staff introduction and stuff too, but I just zonked out and didn't hear any of it. Looking to my left, I saw first graders moving to their classrooms following their guides.
“Next, the 4th grade will move~ Please slowly stand up from your seats and line up in order~”
The noise of the kids moving must've woken me up; just as it was time for me to get up, I rose from my seat....
ㅡbolt upright!
“W-what... I can't see..!”
Why are 4th-grade elementary schoolers so tall? I didn't notice while they were all seated, but once they stand up, they look like high school students. Being the only one who's short is incredibly inconvenient.
“Hey, you over there. Are you really a 4th grader? Did you come to the wrong grade?”
Even the kid behind me went so far as to ask whether I had come to the wrong grade.
“N-no, I'm not. Look, I'm a 4th grader.”
“For real.”
On the student ID hanging from my necklace, it clearly says that I'm a 4th grader at Seoul Aegis Academy.
To have to endure this humiliation..! I am an adult! You little elementary school brats. I'll flatten you all.
“So cute~”
“What do we do? She's so tiny.”
Because of the auditorium layout, if you line up and head out through the front gate, you end up moving closer to the high schoolers sitting in the center, and I could hear the high school students in the back laughing as they looked this way.
‘Tch..! Today I'm Toxic Eve.’
Just like that, everyone entered the elementary school section while lining up rather clumsily.
“Don't run, walk slowly~ You can each find the class written on your student ID~”
“Umm....”
I headed for 4th Grade Class 3 as written on my student ID. The upper-grade and lower-grade buildings are separate, and since 4th grade uses the entire second floor of the upper-grade building, I only had to walk up one flight of stairs.
“Dangdang, you're nervous.”
ㅡbeep?
“R-really? I'm not nervous either.”
It's true, I'm not nervous at all. Anyway, most of the kids here are general-curriculum students... General-curriculum classes only go through second period, and the Awakened students all move to different classrooms for the special subjects..!
“Phew, 4th Grade Class 3. Let's go in.”
ㅡcreak....
Maybe because I was sitting in the back, a lot of the kids were already in the class. The very last seat was already taken, and there was still a window seat open around the middle.
‘Almost all of them are black-haired.’
In upper elementary school, 4th grade—the lowest grade—is the first class that takes in Awakened students. Admission itself does accept Awakened among the lower grades, but special Awakened classes only start from the upper grades.
It's only natural that there aren't many Awakened. Still, some kids have hair colors different from everyone else's, and they look like Awakened students.
Of course, not all Awakened people have different hair colors, but anyway....
“Wait. Are you going to sit there? There's already a seat there.”
“A-a seat...?”
There isn't even a bag there and nobody's sitting there, so whose seat is it?
“That's Yu Choa's seat. She's an Awakened.”
“I'm an Awakened too...”
“Really? Then do whatever you want. Work it out with her.”
What kind of word are elementary school kids using these days to mean "work it out"...? I really have no idea.
In the end, I hung the bag Ophelia had made on the hook beside the desk and sat down safely.
Just as I finally had a moment to catch my breath and was about to take out my phone after putting Dangdang on the desk.
ㅡcreak-thud!!!
“Hi, everyone!”
The girl's voice rang out brightly from the back door of the classroom.
‘Red hair.’
Her hair shone red, as if announcing that she was an Awakened, and her face had a catlike look.
‘The classic fire-mage look.’
Unlike me, the transfer student, she greeted a few kids in the same class, said things like how glad she was to be in the same class, and made small talk to build up a friendly atmosphere.
“Oh right, did you save my seat?”
“Ah, Choa, your seat is over there. That kid sat there.”
‘Ugh... she's coming.’
Yu Choa—the ultimate extrovert with a huge network, a talent for forming cliques, and plenty of experience purging dissenters—came up behind me.
ㅡtap tap
Feeling the tap-tap of a finger against my shoulder, I slowly turned my head and answered as if nothing was wrong.
“W-w-w-w-what is it..?”
“Are you going to sit there? You're an Awakened, huh? Hmmm~”
Yu Choa stared at me, unable to say much in response to my haughty, elegant answer, her head turning this way and that as she looked me over.
“Then... Kim Minseo, give me your seat.”
“Eek~ I got here super early and had a hard time snagging this seat.”
“Go grab the one next to you and sit there. Heehee.”
And just like that, Yu Choa's clique formed behind my seat.
“Oh my gosh.”