Chapter 20 – Apologies Should Be Heartfelt
by Polar Bear
It’s ironic for me to say this, given that I created this situation.
“A first-year? You’re a first-year. You must be crazy.”
“…Yawn…”
Rest in peace, Park Shinwoo.
He seems pretty pissed that his most confident magic, “Sleep,” didn’t affect two people, including me. Veins are bulging on Park Shinwoo’s forehead. His tone is sharp too.
To be fair, I did keep provoking him on the way here, but that’s not something I’m supposed to know.
But I’d be angry too if I were him. A mission that was about to be completed is about to fail because of some random person who suddenly appeared. And that person keeps dropping obstacles while running away slowly.
If you think about how two mere candidates, not even heroes, weren’t affected by the “Sleep Magic” he’s spent his whole life perfecting, and now a weak underclassman is defying him.
I’d be angry too. I couldn’t stand it. Yeah.
But there’s one thing he doesn’t know. Park Shinwoo is an elite spy, a specialist raised by the Magic Association. Of course he’s basically stronger than Justitia’s students. Of course they’re no match for him.
That guy and Kim Taehyun are exceptions. Especially that brown-haired guy who’s just yawning with sleepy eyes no matter what’s being said in front of him.
That guy, you know.
He’s the second most dangerous being in this world after demons. He’s the one human you should be most careful around.
“Are you done with your bullshit?”
“Bull… what? You bastard.”
But Park Shinwoo has no way of knowing that. He probably didn’t care about any first-years except Ishia, who was assigned by the Anti-Magic Association. He’s the type to spend that time drawing one more line on a magic circle instead.
That’s probably why he came to that conclusion.
“…What are you doing?”
Magic power condenses in Park Shinwoo’s hand. Not the invisible, transparent magic circles he usually uses, but a brilliant and flashy magic circle meant to threaten and intimidate enemies.
He probably realizes that things have already gone wrong, and if he doesn’t catch Ishia here, it’ll be a big problem. It seems he intends to subdue me by force and then search for me.
It’s the worst choice he could make. He was already going to get beaten up for disturbing that guy’s sleep, but now he’s even deploying magic circles like this for what could have ended with just a light beating.
The future is as clear as day. I watched the situation with sweaty palms.
The most entertaining things to watch in the world are:
First, watching a fire.
Second, watching a fight.
“If you’re scared, why don’t you tell me about the man who surrendered and ran away here?”
Behind Park Shinwoo as he says this, dozens of magic circles are deployed. Magic circles that would make an ordinary person wet themselves and collapse on the spot. There were so many that even an active hero would have trouble dealing with them, but.
Snap—
With a crisp sound of fingers snapping.
“Huh?”
They disappeared. The magic that was waiting to be fired, the magic that was shining brilliantly, returned to nothingness.
Park Shinwoo, left with nothing, tried to draw magic circles in confusion, but his hands just moved through the air, nothing appearing.
“I have no idea what’s going on.”
Oh Seungjin approaches. Slowly, with his fist clenched.
“I’m already in a bad mood from being woken up, and now you’re threatening me with magic while talking nonsense?”
Seeing this, Park Shinwoo also took a combat stance. The fact that he immediately tries to engage in close combat when magic fails shows he’s certainly well-trained.
Magicians usually focus on magic and don’t even learn close combat. But Park Shinwoo is a spy, and close combat is basic for him. There are probably only a handful of first-years who could beat him in close combat.
But what can you do? I’ve said it many times, but that’s Oh Seungjin.
“Let’s get this over with.”
And what I hear is a dull sound. A sound that you can’t possibly imagine is from hitting a person. It’s such a one-sided beating that he can’t even resist, I turn away feeling sick.
What I see then is a black-haired beauty. A woman with long straight hair reaching down to her waist.
Well, at least we’ve saved our meal ticket, no, maid, no, heroine, so that’s good, right?
Let’s think of the guy getting beaten up over there as karma.
More importantly, if Ishia wakes up now, won’t I be treated as a kidnapper?
“Don’t wake up. Just don’t.”
If she wakes up now, it’ll be troublesome. Wake up after this incident is over.
Did my prayer reach?
After the beating sounds that had continued for several minutes quieted down, and Park Shinwoo couldn’t even make groaning sounds anymore.
“Mmm…?”
Ishia rubbed her eyes.
Ah. Please.
“Where is… Oh.”
And our eyes met. Her vision rolling quickly. Her consciousness returning. The last scene she remembers. A narrow space for just the two of us.
Ishia suddenly sat up, hugging herself and crawling into a corner.
Her expression is like she’s looking at trash, which hurts a bit. I saved you, you know?
She’s mumbling, trying to say something. I can guess what she’s going to say without hearing it, but I ran over and covered her mouth.
This really makes me look like a kidnapper. But I have no choice.
If she screams now, Oh Seungjin’s wrath might reach us here.
“Mmph—!! Mmph!! Mmph!!!”
I don’t know what she’s saying, but it sounds like she’s calling me trash! No, please.
I always wonder about this. Why do I always try to restrain people with strength when I’m weak? Maybe I lack learning ability.
Ishia, who pushed away my hand quite easily, suddenly stood up, covering her face with her arms and backing away.
And then she opened her mouth.
“You trash!! I knew you’d do this!!”
It was loud enough to fill the entire rooftop. Her voice was so resonant, I thought she’d swallowed a train whistle.
“I knew it from the moment you asked me to be your maid!! You pervert!!”
She keeps saying things like “You’re finished now!! Our association will—!!” Please. Please stop.
At this rate, Oh Seungjin might—
I stopped moving. I was trying to quiet Ishia down, but there was no need for that anymore.
Because I met lifeless brown eyes.
“Did you think I was easy because I lost once?! I have enough power to protect myself—”
Ah. Please.
“Could you be quiet for a bit…”
Please, just…
* * *
“Where’s your apology?”
“I’m sorry.”
“Again. With sincerity.”
“I’m sorry…”
“A bit more. Put more feeling into it.”
“I’m… I’m so sorry!!!”
I nodded at Ishia’s bowing. Apologies should be heartfelt. Yeah.
We’re currently standing in front of Park Shinwoo’s corpse (not really). Oh Seungjin looked us over once and then left.
The reasons are probably complex, but the biggest reason is likely that he couldn’t be bothered. I’m really glad he’s moody.
It took quite a while to make the damn black-haired girl who kept bowing in front of me understand. Actually, making her understand was quick, but calming her down took a long time.
She thought I was a criminal and even deployed magic, I thought I was going to die without Lachesis.
I even saw my grandmother waving at me from the Jordan River.
“If you’re sorry, do what I tell you from now on. Got it?”
“…That’s a bit… Huh? What are you doing?”
“Autopsy.”
“That’s something you do to dead people?!”
Well, he’s half-dead so an autopsy is appropriate. I fumbled around Park Shinwoo’s body, which had turned into a bloody pulp. I absolutely don’t have this kind of preference. I’m just searching to see if he has anything useful.
Don’t look at me like that, Ishia.
After fumbling around for a while, I felt something on his chest. When I took it out, it was an artifact that looked like a magic tablet.
“Oh.”
Jackpot. This must be heaven acknowledging my hard work, right? I grinned and put the magic tablet into my [Inventory].
This is an escape artifact from Park Shinwoo’s organization called “Reverse Summoning Magic”. It’s an artifact that teleports you to a pre-designated place, but if you ask why he didn’t use it just now, it’s easier to understand that it was because of Oh Seungjin’s unique magic power.
Anyway, I got a one-time life extension ticket. It’s a structure that I can’t help but be happy about. I can probably ask Lachesis or Benia to modify the coordinates. Since Benia is sleeping, Lachesis will have to do it.
“What did you just do?”
Ishia asked. Ah. How annoying. I thought about telling her to go over there and stand with her hands up, but she’s not a kid, so I couldn’t do that. I didn’t answer and continued searching the body.
I thought I might find something else useful, but what came out was an unexpected item.
The item that came out of the back pocket of his pants was a symbol. It was the symbol of the Anti-Magic Association, a pendant with the Grimoire pattern, the symbol of the Magic Association, crossed out with a red X.
This would be useless for me to keep, so I tossed it to Ishia.
“Looks like he was from the Anti-Magic Association. Seems like he infiltrated with a plan, tell them to pay more attention to security.”
“What? Anti-Magic? Really? Huh?”
Ignoring Ishia who was looking at me with a confused “How?” expression, I got up. I had saved Ishia and searched Park Shinwoo’s body, so there was no reason to stay here anymore.
“Where are you going?”
“To call someone. Stay here.”
According to the original story, Park Shinwoo would fight Kim Taehyun, lose, escape with the artifact, and plan to attack the academy again later.
But this time we subdued him, and his identity was revealed earlier than originally, so the association will prepare accordingly.
Well, Ishia’s dad is a daughter-con. On the surface, he’s cold and only says terrible things, but actually, he loves his daughter more than anyone according to the setting. He’ll probably assign some bodyguards or something.
That means I don’t have to get directly involved anymore. I wouldn’t get involved in the first place if it wasn’t for a situation like today.
Long live the association. Long live daughter-cons. Long live my brilliant mind.
* * *
After going to the faculty office and telling the awakened teacher that something big happened on the rooftop, I returned to the cooking club to pick up Raphael and Lachesis, and headed to the dormitory.
Quite a number of people had woken up, but since the duration of the “Sleep Magic” varies from person to person, there were still many who couldn’t wake up. One of them is our angel.
[Nyaaaa. I slept well, meow.]
“If you slept well, why don’t you carry yourself?”
[If I transform in the building, I’ll stand out, meow.]
“This is the way to our dormitory, you know? It’s the street, you know?”
[Nyaaaa.]
Why does this damn cat pretend not to hear? I’m dead tired. It’s partly because I ran around carrying Ishia, and partly because I’m now carrying Raphael on my back as I head home from school.
This guy was unexpectedly light too. Compared to how much he usually eats, he’s incredibly light. Where on earth do all those calories go?
On the way back, I could hear conversations around me like:
—Ah, I slept well. I suddenly got so sleepy, it was weird, you know? I fell asleep without realizing it.
—You too? Me too. That’s strange~
—I saw on the bulletin board earlier. They say it was because of a magic that someone deployed wrongly while researching magic?
It had already become a happening that somehow occurred.
Justitia covers up incidents well. As expected of an academy made in Korea. It’s scary.
I struggled into the dormitory and laid Raphael on the bed. After that, I collapsed onto the bed too.
It was a disgustingly tiring day. To the point where I wondered if it’s okay to be this tired. I decided never to get directly involved again from now on.
From today, I have a new motto.
Kim Taehyun interferes. Kim Taehyun also rolls.
Good. I like it. It’s a good motto.
I was about to naturally close my eyes, but suddenly remembered something and opened them.
“I’ll have to hide tomorrow.”
Since it was an incident related to the Magic Association. The person I’m thinking of will probably come to investigate. Because they’re troublesome. I need to hide to avoid getting involved.
“Lachesis.”
[Meow?]
“Make sure I don’t meet the person I’m about to describe if you see them.”
[That’s impossible, meow.]
Tch. I clicked my tongue and tried to close my eyes and sleep, but.
“Wake up!!”
Thanks to the angel who woke up late and had been napping all day, I couldn’t sleep until late.
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