After finishing her shower and feeling refreshed, Oh Jisun dried herself off and picked up her phone out of habit.
Then, as naturally as flowing water, she opened the Chatter app.
Its logo depicted a blue bird flying through the sky.
It was one of the world’s three largest social networking apps.
Oh Jisun was something of a celebrity there. Under the name Jini, she was a Chatterian with an impressive 350,000 followers.
[Jini]
[Midterms are almost here…… Fuck. (Photo of a Shiba Inu with its mouth open in shock)]
The post she had uploaded before her shower already had dozens of comments.
[Queen Dasom]
[Aaaaaaaaaah I hate it so much T_T]
[My Home Is Hannam The Hill]
[Home – school – cram school, an endless loop…… Jini, let’s hang in there together~]
[Ripi]
[I got a pimple on my cheek from all the stress too (^_^;)]
[Warm Chilled Jokbal]
[But what kind of exams do you take at the Academy? Do they make you do, like, thirty-six standing somersaults or something??]
“What’s with this person……?”
It was an unfamiliar username, and while the question might have been asked out of curiosity, Oh Jisun found it rather unpleasant. Frowning, she blocked ‘Warm Chilled Jokbal.’
Thirty-six somersaults, seriously……
Did they think the Academy was a circus troupe?
WHIRRR—
As she dried her hair with a hair dryer, Oh Jisun continued browsing Chatter.
True to form for hardcore Chatterians, the stream of posts seemed endless no matter how far she scrolled.
Jini had plenty of followers, but she also followed quite a few people herself, so she dutifully tapped Like on their trivial posts one by one and occasionally left comments.
[Jini]
[Ueki needs to be embraced with love…….]
Ueki was an anime character.
The anime itself was already several decades old, but the character was still fairly famous in that crowd, so she had to pretend to like him.
After mindlessly scrolling through Chatter while drying her hair, Oh Jisun put her phone down on the table and sighed.
“Whew…….”
Her thoughts had been complicated lately.
And it was all because of a boy named Lee Hyunwoo.
At first, it had simply been curiosity.
He was only eight years old, had a cute and handsome face, and even carried a subtly mature air that did not suit his age.
He seemed exactly like the sort of character she could enthusiastically become a fan of, so she had wanted to get closer to him.
The problem was that Lee Hyunwoo’s father……
“Leviathan.”
And then, once the rabbit was caught, the hunting dog was discarded.
It was exactly the same as ten years ago.
Oh Jisun felt anger boiling up from somewhere deep inside her.
It was only recently that she realized Lee Hyunwoo was not merely a cute child she could dote on as a fan.
That boy……
Not yet, perhaps.
But with a little more time……
There was a very real possibility that he would become a victim just like her.
“And that little Yoon Sia brat. Ha…….”
The complicated relationships made her head throb.
She stopped thinking about it and collapsed spread-eagle onto her bed.
Why did I ever investigate them?
Regretting her past actions, Oh Jisun closed her eyes.
It was time for a short meditation session to ease her pounding head.
***
Weekends at the Academy were always peaceful and leisurely.
At least, they had always been that way until exam season approached.
But now, with only a week remaining until the midterms……
Even though it was Saturday, the outside was bustling.
Some students practiced jogging and pull-ups for Physical Education, the only practical subject included in the midterms, while others stuffed so many textbooks into their bags that they bulged and headed for the study hall.
Among them, Yeowoo and I were doing surprisingly little exam preparation.
Yeowoo was already following a special education curriculum, so for these midterms, she had nothing in particular to study except her specialized subjects─her magic subjects─.
For Yeowoo, the midterms were essentially a test of how well she had kept up with that special education curriculum.
Perhaps that was why she did not look particularly worried.
She would probably manage just fine on her own.
As for me, I had a far more important task than the midterms─treating Father’s Dark Magic─so I had to keep visiting Dawnlight Library and searching through books.
Perhaps influenced by me, Yeowoo merely read light novels instead.
The one among us preparing most seriously for the exams was Sia, who had somehow gotten into the habit of coming over to our place after classes whether it was a weekday or a weekend.
At first, Yeowoo had been uncomfortable with Sia coming over and treated her sharply.
But Sia was naturally sociable, and she had plenty of advantages as well, such as teaching Yeowoo problems that Yeowoo, despite being the older one, struggled over and could not solve.
By now, Yeowoo had more or less accepted it.
“Um…… How do I solve this?”
“Yeowoo, for this problem, you shouldn’t approach it that way. Instead…….”
Yeowoo and Sia sat at the living-room table and diligently studied together.
Judging by what they were discussing, they seemed to be studying their specialized subjects.
Then what about me?
What am I doing right now?
I was lying on the sofa studying advanced Divine Magic.
Confusing illustrations and geometric figures filled the pages, along with so much text that the paper looked black, almost like it was covered in Braille.
It was so difficult that people of average talent would struggle to understand it even if they sat down and studied it seriously.
But to me, it was easy.
As expected, the level of magic in this world was simply far too different from that of my previous life.
Or maybe the books were low-level because they were stored in a library that every Academy student could access.
I was not sure.
I had heard that there was a separate library that only faculty members could enter……
But it would not be too late to worry about that after I had finished mastering everything in Dawnlight Library first.
“Hyunwoo. Aren’t you studying for the exams? Why are you reading something like that?”
Apparently taking a break, Sia sat beside me and peeked at the advanced Divine Magic book I was reading.
Yeowoo was nowhere to be seen, so she had probably gone to the bathroom.
“Yeah. This is more important to me than the exams.”
“Why? It looks really difficult just from looking at it……?”
“There’s something I need it for. It’s a little hard to talk about.”
“Ah…… I see.”
Sia did not press me any further and returned to her seat.
A little later, Yeowoo came back from the bathroom and resumed studying.
The dormitory remained quiet except for the sound of pages turning, pens scratching across paper, and the occasional exhausted sigh.
***
Time passed and passed until the day of the midterms finally arrived.
There were fourteen subjects in total, ranging from ordinary subjects such as Korean, mathematics, social studies, and science to the Academy’s specialized courses.
There were four exams each on the first three days.
On the final day, there were two.
That made it a four-day examination schedule in total.
The first and second days consisted entirely of integrated subjects taken by students from the Magic, Martial Arts, and Technology Departments alike.
Thinking about the exams, I entered the classroom and immediately noticed how different the atmosphere was from usual.
Everyone had books open and was preparing for the midterms.
“Ugh. I’m nervous. It’s my first exam.”
Sia sat down while dramatically trembling all over.
I hung up my schoolbag and was just about to look through a textbook to match the atmosphere when Sia spoke to me.
“But Hyunwoo, are you going to be okay? You barely studied for the exams.”
“Yeah. It doesn’t matter.”
“Why? Are you not going to care about your exam scores?”
“That’s not it…….”
“Hmph! Our Hyunwoo doesn’t need to study. He’s already that smart.”
Yeowoo suddenly cut in.
Sia muttered with an incredulous expression.
“What does that even mean, Yeowoo? No matter how smart someone is, they can’t improve their grades without studying. And I’ve never once seen Hyunwoo study for an exam…….”
“Tsk, tsk. You really don’t know Hyunwoo at all.”
“……What?”
Yeowoo proudly placed her hand on the top of my head and continued.
“This kid, you know, is so smart that he can even have a natural conversation with an American in English. And…… he’s good at math too. Right?”
“Sis. More importantly, could you take your hand off my head?”
“No.”
Way to embarrass me.
Tsk……
“Everyone, close your books.”
I had not even noticed when our homeroom teacher, Kim Jongseok, entered.
He was standing in front of the teacher’s desk, looking at us.
Startled, we stopped chatting and put our books inside our desks.
“I trust that all of you studied diligently. I would like our class to place first.”
“Sir, that might be a little difficult.”
Hahaha!
The children burst into laughter.
Kim Jongseok gave a faint smile as well.
I thought that man did not know how to smile.
Apparently he does.
After a little casual conversation, the exams officially began.
The first subject was Korean.
After receiving the test paper, I focused and picked up my pen.
It was fairly difficult for an ordinary eight-year-old, but I had spent decades reading nothing but complicated books.
To me, a first-year Academy exam was laughably easy.
Full of confidence, I began answering the Korean exam questions.
***
The first day of exams ended.
Yeowoo and Sia declared that they needed to study properly for the next exams and abandoned me to go to the study hall.
<Hyunwoo! It’s right nearby, so you can get home by yourself, right?>
<Actually, why don’t you come study with us?>
I finally managed to obtain permission to go home alone.
In exchange, I was given Yeowoo’s card.
Apparently it was a card she had gotten from Mother, and Yeowoo asked me to buy some snacks and ice cream on the way home.
As a result, both of my hands were now holding bags stuffed so full they looked ready to burst.
This should probably last us a month.
While I was waiting for the elevator in the dormitory building, someone placed a hand on my shoulder.
A question mark practically appeared over my head as I turned around.
The person with her hand on my shoulder was Oh Jisun.
She was wearing the Martial Arts Department uniform, and her expression was frozen cold.
She stared at me with the eyes of a dead fish.
“What are you doing here?”
“I-I’m going back to my dorm.”
“This is the girls’ building. Boys aren’t allowed inside.”
“Ah. I live here.”
“What?”
Just then, the elevator arrived.
A crowd of female students poured out.
Some looked surprised to see a boy there, while others were already familiar with me and simply passed by.
“Oh. Hyunwoo! Hi!”
Among the girls getting off was someone I knew.
Jeon Nayeon, who had been in the same group as me during the practical training.
Apparently she was also heading out to study, because she had a schoolbag slung over one shoulder and was dressed in comfortable casual clothes.
She waved at me.
I happily greeted her back, and Jeon Nayeon looked at Oh Jisun behind me.
“But who’s the senior behind you?”
“She’s a senior from my club. We just happened to run into each other.”
“Aha. Hello, Senior.”
“Uh…… Yeah. Hi.”
Oh Jisun awkwardly returned Jeon Nayeon’s greeting.
“I’ll get going, then. I need to study. Hurry up and get on. The elevator’s going to leave.”
“Okay. Thank you.”
Following Jeon Nayeon’s advice, we stepped into the elevator.
I was going to the eleventh floor.
Oh Jisun was going to the twenty-third.
The elevator doors closed and we began ascending.
“Which room on the eleventh floor do you live in?”
“Room 1103. Why?”
“…No reason. I might come visit sometime if I get the chance. That’s okay, right?”
“Uh…… Y-Yeah. Of course. That’s fine.”
Even if it was not fine, I had to say it was.
She was definitely the type to hold a grudge.
“If I go there, will I get to see your sister too? Her name was Yeowoo, right?”
“Yes.”
Oh Jisun hummed thoughtfully before letting out a small laugh.
“Not bad. Two cute little kids.”
“I-I’ll get off first, then.”
“Wait.”
“Yes?”
Oh Jisun grabbed me and began squishing and pinching my cheeks.
“Ow. Stop iiit…….”
“Hehe. Sorry. I just can’t resist. They feel way too nice.”
Jeez. Know when to stop.
Does she have to pinch hard enough to make me tear up……?
I barely managed to escape from the elevator, returned home, and began putting away the bags I had brought with me.
***
Throughout the entire exam period, I did not study for the exams at all.
I only read books on magic and medicine.
And in doing so, I discovered one critically important fact.
Within human civilization, science and magic were inseparable academic disciplines.
In books on Divine Magic, almost every healing-related branch had extremely poor efficiency when used by itself.
But once it was combined with science, that changed completely.
In areas impossible for modern science alone, adding magic could easily increase treatment efficiency by several hundred percent.
The problem was……
“There’s absolutely no resistance to Dark Magic.”
Haaaaah.
I let out a sigh deep enough to make the ground cave in.
With the help of magic, humanity had made significant advances in medicine when it came to external injuries, internal injuries, and even psychological conditions.
But when it came to magic itself─especially Dark Magic─humanity was practically illiterate.
To put it clearly, if someone in modern humanity was afflicted by Dark Magic, even low-level Dark Magic could leave them hovering between life and death if they did not have money.
There were already very few mages to begin with.
And among them, mages who studied Divine Magic exclusively were rare even within the overall mage population.
In other words……
“I have to develop the magic myself.”
My head started hurting.
Combining what I had read in the books with what I had questioned professors and instructors about, modern humanity could treat Dark Magic up to the Third Circle─and even that was limited to the wealthy.
But once it went beyond the Fourth Circle, there was no mage capable of treating it─more precisely, there were no Divine Magic mages above the Fourth Circle─so no amount of money could buy treatment.
Even if a person managed to remain alive, they would either suffer forever until they died……
Or simply die.
Humanity’s magical development……
It had advanced in a bizarrely distorted way.
I pressed hard against my brow and did nothing but sigh.
From now on, I would have to forge the path myself.
It would not be particularly difficult for someone like me, who had personally developed, refined, and mastered numerous forms of Dark Magic and Combat Magic.
What I disliked was the fact that it meant taking even longer before I could treat Father.
Since things had turned out this way, I might as well develop a truly proper Healing Magic spell.