Chapter 106
First and second periods were a ritual that was carried out like clockwork at the start of every semester.
“Take only one each~ There’s no taking one for your friend~”
-“Yeeees.”-
Since I was taking Hunter class, I kind of wanted to watch, but anyway, we’d been handed our textbooks. We got a whopping thirteen of them, and our school uses lockers installed in a space called Home Base.
Meaning there aren’t any lockers in the classroom. Back in the day, some of my classmates’ lockers used to turn into cheese factories and the smell was terrible, but I guess that won’t happen anymore.
“You all got your textbooks, right~? These are textbooks you have to use carefully for the whole year, so treat them with care~”
Once all the textbooks were handed out, second period was already over, and I also said goodbye to my regular-student friends, with whom I sometimes still had time to talk when I sat down.
“Eve, why are Awakeners so weak?”
“I haven’t gained any strength at all….”
“That’s really weird. Can that happen if you’re A-rank?”
“I know, right….”
Choa saw me stacking textbooks one by one and grunting beside her, then lifted mine too in one go and put them in my locker.
“Let’s hurry up. Did you bring your gym clothes?”
“Ah, yeah. I brought them.”
“The changing room is over there.”
At Choa’s words, I froze for a moment.
Okay, I’m a grade-school girl.
I don’t really know, but if you asked whether my current body was that of a grade-school girl, I could say yes. But so what? You want me to use the girls’ changing room with actual grade-school girls?
My body is a grade-school girl’s body, yes, and that means I’m supposed to use the girls’ changing room too, but from Choa’s point of view, wouldn’t it be a little awkward to share it with me, a slightly off-kilter grade-school girl, when she’s been a grade-school girl since birth?
I’d said “grade-school girl” too many times, and now the word sounded weird. While a storm raged in my head, Choa grabbed my wrist and dragged me straight into the changing room.
‘R-right..! If it’s just Choa, then I can just turn around..!!’
I’m not some game character; I can’t see people standing behind me. Thank goodness this isn’t a third-person perspective.
“Hwaeek!!!”
“Why are you screaming all of a sudden? Honestly.”
“Ah, uh….”
But there were at least ten girls in the girls’ changing room.
“Ah! Lee Sejin! What class are you in?”
“Yoo Choa! How long has it been!? I’m in Class 6 now. We have gym in third period.”
The reason was that Class 6 had gym in third period, so there were tons of kids here to use the changing room besides me and Choa.
“Really? Ah, I’m jealous. I want to play dodgeball too.”
“You’re banned from dodgeball. Last time you hit Kim Daehun with a dodgeball and broke a bone.”
“Right. But anyway, I have to go to Hunter class now.”
“But who’s that behind you? A Hunter?”
“Ah, her? Say hello. This is Eve.”
No way..!! Don’t make me stand face-to-face with a girl in her underwear and introduce myself, Yoo Choa..!!
“Your name is Eve? Are you a foreigner?”
“N-no, I’m Korean….”
“Why are your eyes closed? You have to look at her face when you talk to her.”
“B-but nice to meet you…. I think I got dust in my eye….”
“You can’t get it out if you keep it closed, you know? They say you have to open your eyes wide and cry to get it out.”
The girl called Sejin said that, then suddenly poked my eyelid with her index finger and flipped it open.
“Hiiik..!”
“Now, hooo-….”
“H-heeh..!! S-sorry!! I need the bathroom!!”
I couldn’t handle a girl in only her underwear coming right up to my face, puckering her lips and blowing air at me. In the end, I clutched my clothes to my chest and bolted for the bathroom.
“Uh….”
“Huh.”
Choa and Sejin, left behind in the changing room, blinked in confusion.
“Choa, if you’ve got a mental illness, you can’t be a Hunter.”
“Maybe she likes girls after all? Pretty girls like that usually are into GL.”
“Damn it, if she were in my class that’d have been nice. I should try to get along with her.”
* * * * *
“Oh my gawd…. I’ve used up all my strength….”
“You’re out?”
“Hyaa!!?”
In the end, by the time I changed clothes in the bathroom and came out, Choa was standing guard right at the entrance. Somehow she must have some kind of stealth skill or something, because I didn’t notice her at all until she suddenly popped out from behind me and scared me half to death.
“What are you freaking out so much for? Let’s go.”
ㅡBeep!
“O-okay….”
I’d run off to a restroom that was far away for no reason, so a lot of time had already passed. Looking at the clock on the wall, there were only two minutes left in the break, and the doggy I’d abandoned in a panic was now in Choa’s arms.
And once I came outside, I realized the gym uniform itself was absurd too. Where on earth do they make shorts this short? Every time I walked, the cool breeze brushed against me and it felt really weird.
“We’re late, you know? Eve, you’re slow at running, right?”
“Y-yeah..?”
“Hop on. We have to get to the auditorium fast.”
“W-wait—?!”
And just like that, at age twenty-seven, I got princess-carried by a grade-school girl and headed straight for the auditorium. The doggy on my stomach looked like it was having the time of its life, shaking its butt like crazy.
She leapt down the stairs like they were a cliff, skipping over twelve at a time. Yep, this is probably what an Awakener’s physical abilities are supposed to look like.
ㅡCreeeak
“59 minutes! We made it!”
“H-heugh….”
Being on time came at the cost of something inside me getting shattered to pieces. If it had been the older girls carrying me, I wouldn’t even complain.
“Eve’s here.”
“Good timing.”
“Senior Binho..? Senior Gyeongwon..? Why are you still doing the push-up position..?”
But before class even started, the two seniors were already in the push-up position again. I feel like I only ever see these seniors in the push-up position except when they’re eating.
“They said they don’t like my face.”
“Apparently I was told to follow Binho.”
“I-I see... Hang in there.”
“Yep, thanks.”
“Go on ahead.”
Leaving behind the two seniors being punished for what looked like a very controversial reason, I joined the A Class students gathered together. Today the G Class was also using the auditorium, so they were splitting the large auditorium in half.
“Don’t go wandering around so early. Already skipping class at the start of the semester, huh?”
“The bell hasn’t rung yet, teacher~”
“Oh-ho, such a rotten seed. When your teacher scolds you, you have to answer yes, sir.”
Today too, it was Daramong... no, Teacher Baek Sangjun, going around picking fights with students for no reason.
“Hm….”
“Got something to say? Hurry up and go sit down.”
“Yes….”
Even after I stared at him for a while, he didn’t really react. He really is Daramong, isn’t he..? The atmosphere is completely different from what I see in the Gallery.
“Choa, is Eve here?”
“Ah, unnie. Hello.”
“Hello….”
“Yes, let’s sit.”
And so we huddled together and sat down on the glossy green gym mats. Teacher Baek Sangjun tapped the baton against his palm a few times, swept his gaze over the students once, nodded, and then spoke.
“All right, from today on you’ll do whatever the teacher says. Otherwise, just like those two over there, you’ll be staring at the floor from third period until you go home. Of course, only on the days I’m teaching.”
-“Yes~”-
“Today we’re not doing anything too special. Each of you will come up one by one, tell us your class and rank, and we’ll form raiding teams. Understood.”
After saying that, the teacher turned his gaze toward Senior Na Binho and Senior Ahn Gyeongwon, who were still in the push-up position. At that time, the seniors were...
“Hey, Ahn Gyeongwon, look at this.”
“Ah, this idiot is up to something again.”
Without even realizing the teacher was watching, Senior Binho suddenly flipped his prone body over so his stomach was facing the ceiling, then planted his hands and feet on the ground and started walking around on all fours.
“That’s freakin’ badass.”
“Dammit, I’m in too.”
“Come in if you can.”
The moment the two seniors, crawling around on all fours and kicking at each other as they fought, made eye contact with the teacher.
“Binho, I think we’re screwed.”
“What the hell. Ah.”
“You two Dragoons, get over here.”
“Yessir.”
“In that position.”
“Ah, come on, sir.”
Even when you’re fooling around with each other and doing stupid stuff, the rule is that you don’t want to show other people because it’s embarrassing. In the end, under Teacher Baek Sangjun’s orders, the two seniors crawled all the way up to the front on all fours, got kicked flying far away by the teacher, stuck into the wall, and then came back.
“All right, hard to believe though it may be, these two will be the raiding team captains.”
“Seriously, sir.”
“That’s insane.”
“For real.”
According to the teacher, these two seniors joke around a lot but still function as people, so they’ll be the raiding team captains and pick teams in order. A raiding team has twelve people, so splitting twenty-four people into two teams fits perfectly.
The two seniors, who had suddenly switched into serious mode, moved the students in the center of the mats off to either side, then plopped down in the middle and decided to watch the A Class students’ self-introductions.
“There are a few friends I saw a couple times last year too.”
“These are all familiar faces.”
There are about one to three students from each grade, nicely spread out. The reason they don’t have each grade learn separately and instead do all grades together is because, after all, they’re all learning the same thing.
And that’s just how Hunters are. It’s not that Hunters with the same amount of experience are gathered together and form a raiding team; each person’s experience is longer or shorter than the next.
The juniors learn by listening to their seniors and finding ways to cover their shortcomings, and they’re taught how important it is to follow the raiding captain’s or a superior’s commands properly during a raid.
The seniors, meanwhile, have to make sure they get the best results while leading the juniors who can’t quite keep up. Or so goes Aegis Academy’s founding philosophy, something about a senior teaching a junior and guiding them onto the right path.
“I’m a first-year high school student, and I’m a tanker with a Barrier skill. My rank is B-”
“I’m a second-year middle schooler, C-rank healer. My main thing is wide-area healing-”
“I’m a third-year middle schooler mage. Think of me as an earth mage if that’s easier-”
The simple introductions ended once everyone had roughly stated their strengths and weaknesses. Near the end, it was Yeonwoo unnie’s turn to introduce herself.
“Mm, I’m a second-year high school student…. Ugh, I really don’t want to get old. My main skill is an A-rank single-target curse.”
This was the first time I’d heard of Yeonwoo unnie’s ability. When I hear “curse,” it sounds kind of bad, but I guess you can just think of it as a debuff or long-range targeted bleed damage.
Next was Choa.
“I’m a fourth-grader. My main skills are a B-rank self-healing ability and a B-rank body enhancement ability.”
“What, she has two skills?”
“A promising one. I’ll take her.”
“I think Gyeongwon oppa is better than Binho oppa.”
“You hear that, Binho?”
“The world really is unfair.”
So far, everyone had been talking about their skill ranks rather than their Hunter ranks. I guess that makes sense since none of them had been issued Hunter licenses yet...
‘What am I supposed to do...? Should I say I’m EX-rank...?ʼ
If I told the truth, they’d instantly treat me like some weird nutcase and ask what nonsense I was talking about. I guess I’d better just say I’m A-rank too.
“I-I’m... an A-rank golem mage, and my golems fight for me. I’m not very good at fighting myself….”
“Eve’s going to have to make a lot of money.”
“By any chance, is that friend in your arms the only golem?”
“N-no! I have a few more, but….”
“Really? You can’t show us those?”
“You probably just left them at home.”
“I can bring them here right now, though….”
How was I supposed to handle this? Could I summon them right now? Ophelia said it’d be fine to summon Suri, but now that I thought about it, she had gotten huge yesterday, so I wasn’t sure if it was okay.
“S-sir..?”
“What is it?”
“Can I summon my golems right now..?”
Then Senior Gyeongwon asked a question.
“You mean you summon golems? Not make them?”
“Ah, well… I have a skill that lets me bring out golems I’ve already made…?”
“That’s convenient. Can’t you show us?”
“Do whatever you want. I’m not forcing you.”
“A-alright. Then, just a moment….”
I turned around for a moment and spoke to the doggy I was hugging against my chest.
“Doggy, can you contact Suri right now..?”
ㅡBeep?
“Tell Suri to quickly make your body smaller….”
ㅡBeep!
A message-sent emoticon popped up on Doggy’s monitor screen. After the little circle spun around for a moment, Doggy nodded as if to say the message had been sent.
“I-I’ll show you!”
“Ooh, Eve looks so cool~”
“Looking forward to it~”
I closed my eyes tightly, held my hand out in front of me, took a deep breath, and opened my mouth.
“Su-Suri..! Answer the princess’s summons!”
“Snrk.”
“Hey, Ahn Gyeongwon. D-don’t laugh... khh...”
And before long, Suri appeared in a flash right before my eyes.
ㅡChirp....
“Ah, n-no... it didn’t need to be this small..?”
Sparrow Suri had been summoned.