Chapter 2
For the next few days, I carried on with daily life, doing my best to imitate the girl I had been before I came into her body.
Hmm. As expected, no matter what I do, I need mana first. Without it, I'm nothing but a young woman being consumed by an old man's memories and sense of self...
There was no mana on Earth, but that didn't mean there was no way to obtain any.
One way for non-mages to produce mana on their own is to harness a living being's vitality and convert it into mana. It's commonly known as the Vitality Conversion Method.
Using it was absurdly inefficient, but it was still a way to get my hands on some mana.
In the other world, it had all but fallen into disuse, overshadowed by the overwhelming efficiency of mana cultivation methods... But on Earth, where mana didn't exist in nature, this was probably the best method available to me.
The problems were... that the Vitality Conversion Method was horrendously inefficient and put a considerable strain on the body. And...
“Sweetheart, have you been dieting lately? Your face looks half the size it used to.”
It made me lose a tremendous amount of weight.
In response to my mother's worried question, I did my best to draw on the girl's personality and answer naturally.
“I'm fine. Even when I was holed up in my room, I made sure to eat properly. What's done is done.”
Before I came into her body, the girl had spent about a week shut up in her room after bombing the CSAT, so my mother was worried.
I did my best to answer her concerned words nonchalantly and picked up my chopsticks.
Since this technique burned vitality—in other words, the calories stored in my body—and converted it into mana, it was only natural that those calories were being used up quickly.
If I didn't force myself to replenish the calories I'd burned, I could collapse in no time. I had no choice but to eat plenty.
“Have some more. I made your favorite bean sprouts, too.”
At my mother's words, I tried to hide my bitter smile as I swallowed rice and bean sprouts.
Mmm. This taste. My mother's cooking, my favorite of all. The taste I'd missed so much.
Only then did I truly feel that I'd come home.
Even if it wasn't my original body.
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Now, as for what I should do from here...
Until I gathered enough mana for it to settle in my body, I'd keep squeezing mana out of myself with the Vitality Conversion Method, while doing the bare minimum of physical training... No, I couldn't really call it training. All I could manage was a light jog.
That was how weak and out of shape this body was. I'd lived a life far removed from exercise.
Even if I'd become a frail schoolgirl, there was no reason not to do what I could to stay healthy and avoid getting sick. I'd build up mana and exercise, too.
And... hmm. I'd like to separate the girl's personality from mine if possible, but mental magic consumed a lot of mana, so that was impossible in my current situation, even if I waited decades.
Mana really was the biggest problem. I couldn't use mana cultivation methods because I wasn't in a mana-rich environment like the other world. There probably weren't any mana stones, either, so boosting my mana with them was out. Ugh.
The mana issue was something I'd have to consider over the long term. For now, let's leave it aside.
Other than that... there was starting university. I'd bombed the CSAT, so getting into a university in Seoul was out of the question, but I'd gotten into a decent private university in Busan instead.
Why was my first thought, Do I really have to go to university...?
No, I knew that in this country, I needed at least a university degree if I didn't want to be looked down on. But from my perspective, having been dragged to another world before I could even get my diploma, I couldn't help wondering if I really needed one.
But if I said I wasn't going to university... I was worried my parents would be disappointed.
Hmm. Should I just retake the CSAT? Once I had enough mana, I could use it to improve my intelligence and wisdom.
Still, I wondered if it was right for me, an old man, to decide the course of the girl's life however I pleased. Maybe I could get past that by thinking of us as the same person, but... I didn't want to. I was more than satisfied just to have returned to my homeland, as I'd wished.
All right. Since I'm a tenant who's moved into this body, I should guide her toward as good a life as possible!
I'm over eighty, after all! I've got more than enough life experience!
Well, since my sense of self had merged with that of the young woman I am now, I seemed to have become a bit frivolous and immature... Still, my experience and memories were still there.
So...
“I was thinking I'd go check out the university I got into.”
“The university you got into? By yourself?”
“Yeah. I'm not a little kid anymore.”
Sure, I was a little sickly when I was young, but treating me like a little kid even now was a bit much, Mom. I'd even taken the CSAT.
Thanks to that, even when I was a man, I never rode an intercity bus alone before graduating high school.
“But will you be all right? Busan is pretty far...”
“It's fine. It's only an hour away by bus.”
If I dozed off for a bit on the bus, I'd be there before I knew it.
“I want to visit the university I got into and look around to see what it's like.”
And if it didn't seem all that great... I could retake the CSAT, cancel my enrollment, or do whatever. So...
“I'll go this weekend.”
“You will? I'd like to go with you, but...”
“You said you and Dad are going on a trip with your savings-club friends on Saturday. I can go by myself.”
My mother gazed at me with a worried expression for a moment, then reluctantly nodded.
“All right. If that's what you want. Do you have enough money?”
“I still have some allowance saved up, so I'm fine. Dad gives me plenty.”
When I was a man, I'd never gotten this much allowance... Was it because I was a girl? Dad gave me quite a lot of spending money.
Well, girls did have all sorts of things to spend money on.
“All right. Then promise me a few things.”
“A few things?”
“That's right. First, it's fine if you just look around the university and have some fun, but come back before it gets dark. And don't go with strangers if they ask you to hang out. Answer your father or me when we call, and don't do anything dangerous, and...”
“I'm not a little kid. Don't worry.”
She was treating me like such a child just because I'd spent about a week crying in my room after bombing the CSAT.
Well, spending a week sobbing while holed up in my room was definitely something to worry about...
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So, after leaving home, taking an intercity bus to Busan, and following my smartphone's directions to the university...
“It's a mountain... Completely...”
It would be more accurate to call it a hiking trail than a university.
I wasn't joking or exaggerating. Older folks in hiking clothes were actually climbing the steep slope alongside young college students.
Even if people joked that most schools in this country were nestled against mountains to draw on their energy... this was a bit much.
Well, the university itself didn't seem too bad... It seemed to have once been considered a prestigious university.
Hmm. I figured there'd be nothing wrong with going here... But I thought it was better to build up the best academic credentials I could for the sake of the girl's future.
I still had plenty of time. It would be best to take my time and plan for the future.
“Um... are you a new student?”
I turned around at the voice from behind me and looked toward where it had come from.
A young male college student was speaking to me with a small smile.
“I'd like to be alone, so please leave me be.”
Just by letting a hint of icy killing intent show in my eyes, I made the man flinch and slowly start putting distance between us.
If I were the girl, I might've been a little nervous but also secretly pleased that an unfamiliar man had spoken to me. But right now, eight-tenths of me was an eighty-year-old man.
I'd even been married and had a wife, after all. Some guy's interest was nothing but a nuisance.
After looking around the university briefly, I started walking.
It wasn't a bad place, but I still couldn't shake my regret over the better options. It wouldn't hurt to think it over a little more.
So, for now... it was a little late, but it was lunchtime. Maybe I should get something to eat.
I considered eating at the student cafeteria, but I couldn't be bothered. I'd buy a cup of spicy stir-fried noodles and a triangle kimbap at a nearby convenience store and fill my stomach.
I bought a spicy cup noodle without broth, added water, microwaved the triangle kimbap, then sat by the window and looked around as I waited for the noodles to cook.
The new semester hadn't started yet, but the university was full of energy, with young college students bustling about.
Maybe enjoying university life one more time in a place like this wouldn't be so bad. Its academic reputation might not measure up to a university in Seoul, but academic credentials weren't everything in life.
Spring hadn't arrived yet, but the weather was a little warmer, so it seemed like it'd be nice to eat outside. All right. Maybe I'll eat outside. There's an outdoor terrace, too.
As I idly thought about it, I took the thoroughly heated triangle kimbap out of the microwave, drained the cooked cup noodles, added the sauce, and stirred them together. Then, just as I was about to carry them outside to the terrace and eat...
“Kieeek...”
A grating, animal-like sound came from somewhere.
It came from near the convenience store's outdoor terrace, from a slightly secluded alley between university buildings.
There, something blackish and oval-shaped was floating in midair, and a very familiar creature was emerging from inside it.
A small humanoid monster with a short stature, hunched back, and green skin.
A goblin.
Before returning to Earth, when I'd just become an adventurer in the other world to earn a living, it had been a beginner monster I'd beaten up over and over.
That goblin was now appearing on Earth.
“Kieeeeeek!!!”
That pitch-black thing... Was it a Gate? It looked a little different from the one I'd come through.
I glanced around. Thankfully, since this was a secluded path, there was no one coming or going, and the convenience store employee seemed not to have heard the goblin because they were busy restocking the shelves.
Honestly, a goblin was something even a healthy adult could defeat with a powerful kick. Still, a monster was a monster. It could easily injure a person.
I drew out my meager mana and used it to reinforce the wooden chopsticks in my hand and my legs, then charged at the goblin, which still hadn't understood its situation.
They were ordinary wooden chopsticks, but once reinforced with mana, they were as hard as an iron dagger.
The goblin, having set foot in an unfamiliar world, had its brow pierced by the wooden chopsticks I thrust into it, and I kicked its body toward the Gate.
Then the goblin's body quickly turned into black ash and scattered, and the Gate shrank little by little before vanishing in an instant.
The unexpected encounter ended just as abruptly.
“Ah... my wooden chopsticks...”