After school.
I had to part ways with Yeowoo because of the Hunting Club.
“Hyunwoo. Listen carefully. You have to answer your phone, okay?”
“Okay.”
Recently, as part of a national scholarship program, I had received a cell phone.
It wasn’t the latest smartphone, but an entry-level phone.
An ancient model that had already been on the market for four years.
My parents had even put some weird restrictions on it, so I barely had any data and couldn’t watch as much YouTube as I wanted. It was a pathetic phone.
Even so, I held it tightly in my hand as though it were a treasure.
It was still my first phone, after all.
“You have to, okay? You have to! Don’t wander off somewhere else, all right? I’ll come straight to you as soon as my club ends. Got it?”
“Yeah. Got it.”
Yeowoo was worried sick.
This was the first time since entering the Academy that she and I had gone somewhere separately, so she seemed extremely anxious.
“Noona. But it’s fine. I can go by myself. You have to go to your club too.”
“No. I’m the one who’s worried.”
Yeowoo was even accompanying me all the way to the Hunting Club.
She had also joined two clubs. One was, naturally, the Archery Club.
The other was the Reading Club.
Yeowoo had Reading Club today, and the Reading Club and Hunting Club were on completely opposite sides of the Academy, so I somehow felt bad about making her come with me.
Still, if it could put her mind even a little more at ease......
“Unni, don’t worry. Instead of doing this, why don’t we just meet in front of the dormitory building? I’ll bring Hyunwoo with me. Hehe.”
It was Sia.
Sia had also joined two clubs. One was the Archery Club, while the other was the Music Club.
The Music Club and Hunting Club were located fairly close to each other.
“It’s fine, Sia. You can go by yourself. I don’t want to inconvenience you.”
Yeowoo spoke with a sharp glint in her eyes. She said she didn’t want to inconvenience Sia, but there wasn’t even the slightest trace of such an emotion on her face.
...At least, not from what I could see.
“Oh, come on~ It’s fine. We’re always together anyway. You think I can’t even do a little favor like this?”
“No. I’m uncomfortable with it. It’s fine. Just go ahead.”
“No, Unni~”
Then Sia suddenly went, “Ah!” and looked at my face.
“Hyunwoo. Can I borrow your phone for a second?”
“Huh? Why?”
“I haven’t saved my number on it yet.”
Smiling, Sia snatched my phone, opened the dial pad, entered her number, and saved it.
She saved her name as ‘Sia Noona’.
Yeowoo’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets as she watched.
“W-W-W-What’s with that heart?! W-Wait. Where did I put my magic wand?”
“It’s just a sign of affection. It’s cute.”
As I watched Yeowoo and Sia bicker, we somehow arrived in front of the Hunting Club building.
“Hyunwoo. I’ll call you, so make sure you answer. Got it?”
“Yeah.”
Even at the very last moment, Yeowoo reminded me to answer her calls. Still apparently anxious, she kept turning her head to look back at me as she walked away.
“Noona, aren’t you going?”
After Yeowoo disappeared around the other side of the building, I looked at Sia and asked.
Sia nodded.
“I should go now. See you after club activities~”
“Okay.”
Sia left as well. I entered the building where the Hunting Club was located.
***
Perhaps because it was the first day since clubs had begun, we didn’t start by exercising or hunting.
Instead, everyone introduced themselves and practically gave speeches about their future aspirations.
“Hello. I’m Kwon Jinyoung, a third-year student from the Martial Arts Department......”
Since the club was literally called the ‘Hunting Club,’ everyone who had joined except for me belonged to the Martial Arts Department.
There were only thirteen members, including me.
Only thirteen people had come from this enormous Academy. That meant this was an extremely unpopular club......
How disappointing.
Maybe the students didn’t want to be active even during club activities?
It was finally my turn to introduce myself.
I rose from my chair and walked toward the front, my Magic Department robe fluttering behind me.
Everyone stared at me in surprise.
Why was I so young?
And why had someone from the Magic Department joined the Hunting Club?
Their expressions seemed to be asking those very questions.
“Hello. I’m Lee Hyunwoo, a first-year student from the Magic Department. I’m eight years old now. I joined the Hunting Club because I wanted to learn how to hunt. I look forward to getting along with everyone.”
“Hyunwoo from the first year. Nice to meet you~!”
The club president accepted my greeting with an awkward smile.
The others also clapped and cooed over me.
“The kid speaks so clearly. He looks pretty smart too.”
You guys are kids too....
“President. Isn’t it really rare for a first-year to join our club?”
“Hmm. Now that you mention it, yeah. The last first-year was...... Jisun, who’s a third-year now, right?”
Everyone’s gazes turned toward the girl called Jisun.
I followed their gazes and looked at her as well.
Brown hair and pale skin. Vacant eyes that seemed utterly free of thought, a reasonably high nose, and lips slightly pursed as though something had annoyed her....
Even while spacing out, she was quite a beauty. Perhaps because she was still young, there was an odd coexistence of maturity and full-bloomed poise in her face.
But something about her was strange.
Even with everyone staring at her, she didn’t so much as blink and merely gazed into empty space.
Couldn’t she feel everyone looking at her?
“Jisun? Jisun?”
“...What?”
“You joined when you were a first-year too, right?”
“...Yes.”
“R-Right.”
The president withdrew with a flustered expression.
The girl named Jisun seemed to be quite taciturn.
“All right. Shall we have a little question time? If anyone has a question for Hyunwoo, raise your hand and ask away.”
Several people immediately raised their hands.
The president pointed to the person whose hand had gone up first.
“You’re from the Magic Department, so why did you join the Hunting Club?”
“I wanted to learn hunting as a hobby. I’d like to try shooting a bow and handling things like daggers too.”
“A mage using bows and swords?”
Murmur, murmur.
Another student took advantage of the opening to ask a question.
“Are you that kid? I heard rumors that you beat a professor......”
A flood of questions poured down on me.
It seemed like I was receiving several times as many questions as the other students had.
The barrage became so heated that the president eventually cut off any further questions. Once everyone had finished introducing themselves, the Hunting Club’s first meeting ended just like that, rather anticlimactically....
“Oh, right. Everyone needs to bring their own weapon next week!”
The club ended much sooner than I had expected, so now I had no idea what to do.
Yeowoo was in the Reading Club, so she was probably still busy reading. Likewise, Sia was in the Music Club, so wasn’t she probably listening to music or playing an instrument right now?
Then what am I supposed to do with the time I have left...?
If I go back to the dorm by myself, Yeowoo will definitely say something.
As I wandered aimlessly in front of the Hunting Club building, someone grabbed my shoulder.
I flinched and turned around.
It was Jisun from the Hunting Club.
Oh Jisun.
She was fifteen years old this year and a third-year student in the Martial Arts Department.
“What are you doing here? Club’s over.”
“Ah...... I was waiting for my noona. I have some time left.”
At my answer, Oh Jisun’s eyebrow twitched ever so slightly.
“Noona? What noona? Are you Lee Seung-gi?”
“......Huh? What did you say?”
“Nothing. I was trying out a joke.”
I had noticed it during the club meeting too, but this girl was a little strange.
She seemed kind of crazy.
“So who are you waiting for?”
“Just... my noona.”
“Your noona? Could you mean...... me?”
“What...?”
Oh Jisun suddenly snickered.
She was getting scarier by the second.
“Sorry. I’m kind of an otaku. You said you were a first-year in the Magic Department, right?”
“Yes.”
“Give me your phone.”
“Why...?”
“Come on. Noona will buy you something tasty later.”
She practically snatched my phone away, her fingers moving so quickly that I could barely even see them before she handed it back.
As I took the phone, I asked in surprise,
“Why are your hands so fast?”
“You’ll get faster too if you use social media a lot. Anyway, see you next time. Do you like tteokbokki?”
I remembered eating it before.
A pleasantly spicy and delicious snack.
I nodded.
“Yes. It’s good.”
“Okay. Hehehe.”
Oh Jisun vigorously ruffled my hair before walking away.
She had been so quiet during the club meeting.
Had I misjudged her?
She really was a strange girl....
A few minutes after Oh Jisun left, I heard Sia’s voice from afar.
“Hyunwoo~! Over here!”
Sia came running toward me, waving happily.
She looked so cute that a grandfatherly grin spread across my face.
I waved back and greeted her.
“Yeowoo Unni hasn’t called yet, right?”
“Uh...... She just did.”
Right on cue, a call from Yeowoo came in.
I answered her call, met up with her along the way, and the three of us headed back to the dormitory together.
***
The next day, during Professor Kim Namwoo’s General Magic Studies class.
Ever since I had beaten Professor Kim Namwoo, he had started sneaking sideways glances at me more and more often.
I knew exactly what he was doing, but I was pretending not to notice.
“You all need to start engraving your Circles now. But don’t get too impatient. On average, these Circles are......”
Yaaawn.
I quietly yawned.
Professor Kim Namwoo rambled on about the basic theory behind Circles before finally beginning to explain what was probably the most important thing to the students: how to create one.
“First, close your eyes and focus your mind. A Circle isn’t something that can be engraved easily, so......”
They said he had studied magic for thirty years.
Why did he sound like a con artist to me?
“All right, everyone. Now try to engrave a Circle using the method I explained. It’ll be difficult to make one immediately, but you have to pour the concrete foundation before you can put up a building, don’t you? I’ll give you...... about ten minutes. Everyone, begin!”
At the professor’s words, everyone closed their eyes and concentrated.
The classroom instantly became as silent as a graveyard in the middle of the night.
I, however, didn’t close my eyes.
Instead, I thought,
Should I start making my Circle too?
It was about time.
If I wanted to cure the Dark Magic clinging to Father like a leech, refining my Circles wasn’t optional. It was essential.
“Hmm? Hyunwoo.”
Apparently bothered by the sight of me sitting there blankly, the professor approached.
When I looked at Professor Kim after hearing him call me, he continued whispering with crescent-shaped eyes.
“Why? Is it not working? You look gloomy. Engraving a Circle isn’t easy, is it?”
“......Just a moment.”
Talk about showing off to an expert—flaunting wrinkles in front of a pupa.
Drawing on the insights I had accumulated across nine Circles, I quickly began forming a Circle around my navel.
A single ring was an incredibly easy stage for me.
Even someone without talent could probably form at least one ring if I personally taught them.
First, I set the mana orbiting around my navel.
Mana Orbit.
By now, it had become something I did every dawn.
As the familiar mass of mana swirled around my navel, I felt it gradually condensing and adhering into a solid form.
I simply let it happen.
Soon, a fragile Circle had formed around my navel.
If I left it to settle for a few days and repeated the Mana Orbit, it would firmly take root.
I smiled back at the professor, who was still grinning at my face.
“Done. I made a Circle.”
“What? Haha. Hyunwoo. Lying is bad. Didn’t your kindergarten teacher teach you that?”
“Check for yourself.”
The professor had been silently sneering at me with a grin nearly splitting his face, but my confidence made his expression stiffen slightly.
Then he reached out toward me.
......Did he really have to reach out with his hand just to tell whether I had a Circle?
Yeowoo and Sia, who were sitting beside me, seemed to sense that something was happening and quietly opened their eyes, glancing back and forth between the professor and me.
Professor Kim Namwoo had formed four Circles and studied magic for thirty years.
His face gradually turned ashen.
The mocking expression that had once lifted his cheekbones as though they might ascend to heaven was nowhere to be seen.
Professor Kim merely stared down at me as though he could not believe what he was seeing.
“H-How in the world......? I-In such a short amount of time?”
I stepped close to the professor and whispered into his ear.
“Ah. Just so you know, Professor, I’m only telling you this. The method you taught us was so lousy that I came up with one myself. It only took me a minute.”
But my whisper was loud enough for every student in the classroom to hear.
First Circle spell, Expansion.
It was a spell that amplified one’s voice.
Since I had just made my Circle, I immediately put it to use.
The students heard my voice and jolted in surprise, opening their eyes like bears waking from sleep.
The professor also realized what I had done, and his face began turning as red as a carrot.
Just as he had done to me, I narrowed my eyes into crescents and gave him my widest smile.