“So, to sum up what you told me, Hyunwoo. You heard a loud noise, went upstairs through the stairwell, and found that red-haired girl fighting the teddy bears. Is that right so far?”
“Yes. That’s right.”
“And you helped the girl and stopped the teddy bears. Right?”
“Yes.”
An interrogation room inside the Academy.
Or rather, it was far too ordinary a classroom to call it an interrogation room.
Son Euna was questioning me as though she were trying to soothe me.
She gave me snacks and drinks, chatted with me about everyday things, then suddenly slipped in questions as though they had just occurred to her.
It was obvious that she was trying to be as considerate as possible because I was a child, which touched me a little.
In the world I used to live in, they would have started by yelling at me.
This place really is civilized.
“But Hyunwoo, there’s something I’m curious about…… How did you do it?”
“You mean stopping the teddy bears?”
“Yeah.”
“I learned it in Dark Magic class. The professor taught me really well back then….”
I told her the truth while leaving out the crucial part.
When my expression rapidly darkened at the mention of the professor, Son Euna hurriedly changed the subject.
“I-I see. Thank you for telling me. Then that was the first time you’d seen that girl?”
“Yes. I don’t know who she is.”
“Hmm…… I see. Want some more snacks?”
“Yes!”
Meanwhile, in the classroom right next door.
“Student Yu Huina. Keeping your mouth shut isn’t going to solve anything.”
“…….”
The interrogation there was somewhat more serious than Hyunwoo’s, and a little rougher as well.
“You’re not even in the Magic Department. How did you use magic?”
“…….”
“Was that some technique of yours? You’re in the Technology Department, aren’t you?”
The male investigator, wearing a serious expression, shook his head as though he were fed up with Yu Huina continuing to exercise her right to remain silent.
“Miss Huina. The longer you keep this up, the worse it gets for you. We’ll have to inform your parents about this too, and if you keep hiding it, you might even be expelled for fraudulent admission to the Academy. Do you understand?”
“Th-That’s…….”
The investigator’s expression showed that he knew he had gotten a reaction out of her, and he continued pressing Yu Huina with it.
“Think about how worried your parents will be when they find out. And expulsion isn’t the only problem. You’ll have to pay back every scholarship you’ve received so far. Do you understand? You deceived a government institution, so you won’t just have to return the original amount. You could be fined several times the scholarship money you received as an additional penalty.”
“…….”
Yu Huina closed her mouth again.
Unlike before, however, a deep shadow now hung over her expression.
“Just tell us exactly what happened. Then everything will be resolved. Even if it was fraudulent admission, the adults will take care of everything. As long as you tell us the truth.”
Yu Huina finally crumbled under the continued pressure of the interrogation and opened her mouth.
“The truth is…….”
***
Every loose end had been tied up.
Son Euna clicked her tongue as she looked over the comprehensive report on the incident.
“A mere student managed to do what a professor couldn’t. Really…….”
The Academy officials who had learned the full story of the incident, including Son Euna, could not hide their bitter expressions.
“And not even an upper-year student in the sixth or seventh year. A first-year student, at that. That’s impressive.”
“Is that child named Hyunwoo simply that extraordinary? Or was that professor…….”
Incompetent?
The speaker swallowed the rest of the sentence.
However, everyone understood what had gone unsaid and merely sighed.
“Let’s not be too harsh. If someone is suddenly ambushed at dawn, they can panic so badly that they don’t know what to do.”
The officials, wearing bitter smiles as they drank 300-won milk coffee, soon exchanged farewells and left.
***
A few days later, the incident received extensive media coverage.
The red-haired girl and I were presented as the next generation of heroes who would lead South Korea, while public opinion became divided over whether the dangerous Dark Magic classes should be abolished.
“Please rest in peace.”
At the funeral hall prepared inside the Academy for Dark Magic professor Lee Mijeong, I placed down a chrysanthemum and bowed twice.
The people around me praised me as a hero, but I did not feel at ease.
Because, in a way, I had killed Professor Lee Mijeong.
More precisely, she had been far too careless.
I had definitely canceled the life bestowed upon the dolls, yet for some reason, Professor Lee Mijeong had revived that doll again.
Among all the dolls, there had been exactly one that was saturated with her mana.
That could only mean the professor had revived a doll that had lost its life force.
My command had remained dormant within that doll, and although I did not know the exact reason, it developed malice toward Professor Lee Mijeong, awakened the other dolls, and went to take revenge on her.
It would have been fine if she had calmly canceled the Dark Magic, but she had failed to do so.
And like the plot of a horror movie, she was brutally murdered by the dolls.
I let out a sigh through my nose.
I could not bring myself to look directly at Professor Lee Mijeong’s brightly smiling face in the memorial portrait.
Then I left the funeral hall.
An unpleasant heaviness remained lodged in one corner of my heart.
A few more days later.
We had fully returned to our everyday routine, and we took a quiz.
The results were obvious.
I was first, and Sia was second.
Third place was closely contested.
Moon Mujin had taken third in the previous quiz, but this time Jeon Nayeon, who had been in the same group as me during the practical training, took third.
Yeowoo came in eighth.
She had gone up quite a lot.
Seeing that she was managing to keep up with the Special Education Curriculum without much trouble made me feel pleased.
A few more days passed.
Then I met the red-haired girl again, even though I had thought I would never see her after that.
“We meet again.”
“……Yes.”
We had not run into each other by coincidence, nor had we arranged to meet.
We simply both had something we needed to receive, so we had no choice but to be there together.
After sitting awkwardly in silence for a while, I spoke first.
“What you used back then didn’t seem like ordinary magic. Am I right?”
That violent torrent of mana.
And whatever she had used had seemed far too wild and alive to simply call Flame Magic.
Calling it magic did not feel quite right.
Rather than magic, it was probably closer to a spirit.
I casually hinted at what I meant, but she did not open her mouth.
Without even looking at me, she took out her phone and began reading some strange combination of characters on the screen.
She’s ignoring me. Tch….
It felt awkward to simply stop talking there, so I muttered as though speaking to myself and pulled out my own phone.
“It looked like a spirit to me….”
Then I opened a Blue Marble game app.
Before I could start playing, she suddenly grabbed my wrist.
Startled, I turned my head.
The red-haired girl’s eyes were wide open, and her face had turned red.
“W-W-W-Wait…… What did you say?”
What’s with her?
Just as I, startled in turn, was about to speak again, a student from the broadcasting room approached us.
“You two, it’s almost time for the awards ceremony, so get ready. Don’t be too nervous.”
At the student’s words, I put away my phone and shook off the girl’s tightly gripping hand.
Only then did she seem to come back to her senses and let out a dazed sound.
“Ah…….”
“That hurt. Why’d you suddenly grab my wrist?”
“I’m sorry. I mean, it’s not like I deliberately meant to…….”
“Stand by! Come in!”
In front of a camera broadcasting throughout the Academy, we received awards while the entire student body watched.
[Exemplary Hero Award] and [Safety Guardian Award].
Those two.
On top of that, we each received the enormous sum of five million won as scholarship money.
Naturally, my phone exploded with messages after the ceremony.
[Son Euna : Hyunwoo, congratulations! I heard you received an award? I’m sure our Hyunwoo will grow up to become a wonderful Hero someday ^-^]
[Mom : Son~! Can you answer your mom’s call? If you can’t answer right now, call me later. Make sure you do!]
<Five million won? You really are young and rich now. Buy your big sis some spicy rice cakes!>
<Sender – Super-Pretty Big Sis Jisun ^―^>
Oh Jisun had actually sent hers as a regular text message.
[Yeon Hyebin : Ohhh~ Hyunwoo. Congratulations!]
[Jeon Nayeon : If I come over to your place, I really do get something delicious to eat, right? Yeowoo said I should come visit.]
Man, there are so many….
There were so many messages that replying to every single one was difficult.
[Lee Yeowoo : My precious little brother whom I love most! Leave the five million won to your big sister. I’ll make sure to spend it very frugally.]
[Yoon Sia : Hyunwoo. You’re always one step ahead.]
[Moon Mujin : …Heh.]
“Excuse me.”
Her voice pulled me away from the messages I had been reading with a grin.
It sounded cold yet warm.
Indifferent yet somehow affectionate.
Yu Huina from the Technology Department.
The red-haired girl who was twelve years old and in the same year as me.
I looked up from my phone and at her.
“There are a lot of things I want to ask you. I’d also like to thank you for helping me and treating my injury, so I want to buy you a meal. How does that sound?”
“…Now?”
At my casual speech, her eyebrows briefly lost their balance before returning to normal.
“If you’re busy, enter your number. I’ll treat you when you’re available.”
Yu Huina handed me her phone.
I took it and tapped in my phone number.
“Here.”
“But…… your speech has gotten rather informal, hasn’t it?”
“You can talk casually too, sis.”
There was no particular reason I spoke casually to her.
If I had to give one, maybe it was because we were in the same year?
At my innocent response, Yu Huina sighed with an exasperated “Good grief” and shook her head.
“No. I do not carelessly use low speech with other people.”
“Low speech? What’s that?”
I tilted my head at the unfamiliar term, and she kindly explained its meaning.
“The way you are speaking is called low speech. Try using honorific speech from now on.”
She’s making fun of me, isn’t she?
I chuckled and changed the subject.
***
I told Yeowoo and Sia that I wanted to be alone because of what had happened to Professor Lee Mijeong, then snuck into the Dark Magic Material Storage by myself during lunch.
This was a place the professor had frequently visited while she was alive.
I pulled out some soju that I had gone through a great deal of trouble to obtain—I had even used magic on the supermarket clerk so I could buy it.
The soju had been carefully stored in a tumbler.
I also took out a paper cup I had crammed into my pocket, opened the tumbler, and poured the liquor into the cup.
Glug, glug, glug.
“I heard this is a Korean tradition, right? Well, I doubt your restless spirit would even be here, and I’m not sure there’s any point in doing this…….”
I let out a deep sigh.
“I’m only doing this because I don’t feel right about what happened. This is Korea, so I figured I should do it according to Korean tradition.”
To be honest, I was not even sure whether this really counted as a tradition.
I poured the soju onto the floor.
The sharp smell of alcohol began rising from it.
“Haaah. I don’t even know what I’m supposed to say. It’d be strange to blame someone else now that you’re dead.”
You reap what you sow.
Her death was unfortunate, but it was a disaster she had brought upon herself.
I poured more alcohol into the paper cup.
Glug, glug, glug.
“You died with so many regrets, so at least have a nice drink on your way. From your point of view, Professor Lee, this might look like I’m mocking you, but this really is me trying to be as considerate as I can.”
I poured the soju onto the floor again.
Maybe I should have brought something to eat with it too.
I sat down on a chair and looked around the material storage room.
The blue basket that should have contained the teddy bears was empty.
I stared blankly at it for a while before sighing again.
“There was one thing I decided when I came to this world.”
I continued talking to myself while tapping the table with my finger.
If anyone ever saw me doing this, I’d seriously bite my tongue and kill myself….
“I decided I wouldn’t kill innocent people anymore. But somehow, I’ve already broken that promise again. It’s not like I killed you myself, but I still bear some of the responsibility.”
Glug, glug, glug.
I filled the paper cup with soju again.
The amount remaining inside the tumbler gradually dwindled.
“Professor. I’m sorry. I don’t know whether you can hear me. Well, it’s fine even if you can’t. Just please don’t appear in my dreams.”
I stood and poured the soju onto another part of the floor that had not yet been splashed.
By now, the material storage room reeked of alcohol.
“The next cup is the last one. And I probably won’t ever come here again. Students aren’t allowed in here in the first place. Because you died so suddenly, Professor, this place got closed down too, so I barely managed to sneak in.”
Hmm….
I stared blankly at the ceiling.
What am I supposed to say now?
I had already said everything I wanted to say.
So I filled the paper cup one last time and poured it onto the floor.
I cleaned up properly afterward, using magic to remove the soju I had poured on the floor.
Then I left the material storage room.