“Kids. Over here.”
Mother held back her tears as she led us to the hospital room where Father had been admitted.
Yeowoo burst into tears and ran toward Father, who had tubes inserted all over his body.
“Dad!!”
But Father didn't get up to greet Yeowoo like he always did.
He remained lying on the bed with his eyes closed.
I tightly held Mother's hand and slowly approached him.
His condition was more serious than I'd expected.
This was definitely Dark Magic, and it was extremely high-level.
I couldn't even begin to guess what kind of monster could use Dark Magic like this.
“Mom. Dad…… won't be able to wake up anymore?”
When I looked up at Mother with a gloomy voice, she gently stroked my head.
“Of course he will. Your dad's a Hero. I'm sure he'll overcome this.”
“…….”
But I could tell.
This wasn't Dark Magic that could simply be shaken off.
Without proper treatment, Father would spend the rest of his life being cared for with his eyes closed, trapped in a vegetative state.
If its level were measured in Circles, this magic would fall somewhere between the Fifth and Sixth Circles.
…I don't know whether I should say something like this.
I don't even know why I'm thinking this way.
Perhaps over the seven years—which could be considered a long time—I'd developed something called ‘affection.’
“I'll…… help him. I'll learn magic at the Academy and heal Dad.”
“Really? Your dad would be so happy to hear that.”
Mother held back her tears and caressed my cheek.
All this time, my parents had showered Yeowoo and me with devoted love.
Even if I had several dozen snakes coiled inside my heart, there were still certain lines a person had to observe.
I couldn't simply turn a blind eye to this situation.
“I mean it. I may not look like it, but I'm good at helping people.”
And this body had an exceptional talent for Healing Magic.
“I'll make sure…… Dad gets back on his feet.”
That was my vow.
I didn't want to use magic anymore to kill people, torture them, force confessions out of them, or crush them to pieces.
I'd committed more than enough of those atrocities in my previous life.
This life would be the complete opposite of the last one.
I'd originally planned never to deal with magic again, but after seeing Father lying there, my mind had completely changed.
Father wouldn't be the only one suffering like this.
There would be fathers from other families.
Innocent patients.
People afflicted with incurable diseases.
I had the talent to heal them, and with my knowledge, I could develop that talent far enough to do so.
“Then I'll protect Hyunwoo at magic school! Because I'm his big sister!”
Yeowoo shouted through streaming tears.
“Sis….”
“Hyunwoo, you protect Dad! I'll protect you!”
Tears suddenly welled up in eyes I'd thought had long since dried out.
“Um…… Are you the family of Hero Lee Jisang?”
Just as I was about to cry, a man in a black suit approached Mother with a dark expression.
…My tears vanished so completely that it was almost embarrassing.
“Yes. I am.”
“There is something important I need to discuss regarding the Hero's living arrangements. Could we speak somewhere else?”
“…Yes. Kids, stay with Dad for a little while. Mom needs to go talk for a bit.”
“Okay.”
“Mhm. Sniff.”
I watched Mother and the man in the black suit leave the hospital room, then moved closer to Father so I could get a better sense of just how severe his condition was.
The life-support equipment beeped at steady intervals, while Father breathed in and out evenly with a peaceful expression.
From the outside, nothing seemed particularly wrong except for the black substance clinging tightly to his body.
But…….
“Dad.”
I held Father's hand and quietly murmured.
The Dark Magic within that black substance was steadily sucking away Father's vitality.
If it was left alone, there was no telling what that black substance might eventually give birth to after consuming all of Father's nourishment and growing.
Of course, there was a way to resolve the situation.
If an extremely high-level Healing Magic user appeared and devoted themselves to treating him, this Dark Magic could be cured, and Father would open his eyes again.
But would someone like that come?
No.
Did someone like that even exist on Earth in the first place?
Earth's history of magic was too short to hope for a high-class mage.
Perhaps Father was…….
I sighed and tightened my grip on his hand.
Of course, with a child's grip strength, it amounted to little more than a slight squeeze from Father's perspective.
I swallowed and sent a portion of the mana inside my body into Father.
This was all I could do right now.
This body was different from my previous one.
It had talent for Healing Magic.
It wasn't particularly outstanding in combat magic, Dark Magic, or the other branches of magic, but it unquestionably possessed talent in healing.
So I trusted that talent and sent mana into Father.
Perhaps even something this small might alleviate his condition a little.
……Not a chance.
Instead, the malevolent energy of the Dark Magic surged toward my body.
At that moment, I immediately cut off the flow of mana and released Father's hand.
It had been a brief and feeble attempt at treatment, not even lasting very long, yet I'd nearly become infected by the Dark Magic myself.
“Hyunwoo. Why are you sweating so much? Are you sick?”
“……No. I'm going to the bathroom for a bit.”
“Okay. Come back quickly.”
Cold sweat covered my entire body as I stepped out of the hospital room.
That had been far too dangerous.
I'd forgotten that I was no longer a Ninth-Circle great mage.
Right now, I was nothing more than an ordinary Zero-Circle brat.
My talent for Healing Magic might be exceptional, but charging in recklessly without even forming a single Circle was practically suicide.
“Phew. Get a grip.”
Muttering self-deprecatingly, I started toward the bathroom when I heard Mother's furious voice coming through the gap in the door leading to the stairwell beside the corridor.
“You expect me to accept that?! Do you have any idea how much my husband has devoted himself to the guild?!”
After my initial surprise passed, I cautiously moved closer and eavesdropped on the conversation.
“I understand that this is extremely disrespectful. But…… ahem. The Chairman is insisting on it very strongly. Everyone around him tried to dissuade him.”
“I don't care whether your employees tried to stop him or not. I can't accept this. Are you seriously asking me to agree to that right now?”
“Let me say this in advance. I'm not threatening you.”
After saying that, the man began making an obvious threat.
“I've seen many cases like this. And every person who refused eventually settled for less than half of half the amount they had originally been promised.”
“What you're doing right now is a threat! Is this how Leviathan treats someone who ended up hospitalized while working for the guild? I'm going to report this to the media! I'll put it on social media and everything else I can!”
“……Your children were very pretty and handsome.”
“……!”
“I hope you won't make the wrong choice. Our lawyer will visit your home in a few days, so please have a proper consultation with him.”
I hurried away and returned to the hospital room.
“Sniff. Daaad….”
Yeowoo was still crying as she leaned against Father's body.
Clutching my pounding chest, I gritted my teeth.
People are the same everywhere.
Here or there…… there are backstabbing bastards wherever people live.
Anger surged inside me until it felt as though I were burning.
Those human-trash bastards.
But ironically, there was nothing I could do right now.
Because at the moment, I was nothing more than a worthless little brat.
I sighed and walked over to Yeowoo.
But then…….
“Huh?”
The Dark Magic substance that had been clinging to Father's body had weakened slightly.
Only faintly—so faintly that you wouldn't notice unless you focused closely.
But it had definitely weakened.
I covered my mouth, doubting my own eyes at the unbelievable sight.
At the very least, the rate at which the Dark Magic substance was draining Father's nourishment should have slowed somewhat.
I let out a sigh of relief.
***
After that day, I looked up all sorts of things on the internet.
Dark Magic on Earth.
Healing Magic.
The history of magic.
Anything I could possibly learn.
But despite this supposedly being the information age, the internet was filled with nothing but useless information.
There was nothing definite.
Everything was speculation.
The most plausible information I found was that magic had to be learned at the Academy, and that the Academy's library contained an enormous number of books related to magic.
Even that was nothing more than an unverified rumor.
Still, the Academy's promotional website listed ‘a treasure trove of knowledge’ among its advantages, so it probably wasn't entirely wrong.
In the end, there was nothing I could do outside the Academy.
Especially not at the age of seven.
All I could do was quietly wait until I enrolled.
Time passed.
Mother eventually seemed to accept the guild's settlement, because she drank alcohol and cried every night.
Yeowoo went to sleep without knowing anything, but I knew.
Mother only did it during the hours when she thought we were asleep.
Time passed mercilessly, and eventually a notice arrived for Yeowoo.
It was a notice saying that her admission to magic school—or more precisely, to the Academy that the magic school belonged to—had been approved.
Out of consideration for us becoming their youngest-ever students—the previous youngest had been eleven—the Academy had decided to place the two of us siblings in the same class.
…At least, that was what the notice said.
<The ages of students entering the Academy vary considerably, but on average, students tend to enroll between the ages of thirteen and fifteen.>
I thought as I read the notice.
So I'll be taking classes with kids anywhere from five to seven years older than me.
From my perspective, they're still little babies anyway.
“Hyunwoo. Watch carefully. When we go to the interview, I'm going to show them this, okay? Diminuendo~!”
“…Wouldn't it be better not to?”
Mother had taken a day off work for our Academy entrance interview.
As though she'd forgotten about Father's situation, Yeowoo sat in the back seat, waving her self-proclaimed magic wand around like a conductor's baton and playing at magic.
Our admission had already been approved, so the interview was purely a formality.
Apparently, throughout the Academy's long tradition and history, there had never been a case where someone had been accepted without even undergoing an interview, so they seemed to have forced one into the process.
Not that it mattered.
Even if Yeowoo and I stripped off our clothes and sang songs in the interview room, our admission was already guaranteed.
Mother must've known the situation too, because she perfectly hid her gloomy expression and smiled.
“Kids. Is there anything you want to eat for lunch after the interview?”
“Pork cutlet! Pork cutlet! Cheese pork cutlet!”
That was Yeowoo.
I nodded as well.
Mother saw my answer through the rearview mirror and smiled in satisfaction.
“Good. Then let's go eat pork cutlet after the interview!”
“Waaah. Sounds delicious. I'm already hungry, Mom.”
“You? How long has it even been since breakfast…?”
“Hehe.”
After pushing through the traffic, we arrived at the interview venue.
The people sitting in chairs with numbered tags attached to them all wore tense expressions as they used their remaining time for last-minute interview preparation.
There didn't seem to be anyone around our age.
They were all upper-elementary students and middle schoolers, with the occasional high school student or adult mixed in.
In a place like that, the moment the two of us—obviously far younger than everyone else—entered the interview waiting room, every eye turned toward us.
“Babies take the interview too…?”
“But they're cute.”
“Yeah. Seriously.”
I can hear every word you're whispering.
Pretending not to notice, I held Mother's hand and sat down at the far end of the waiting room to wait for our interview.
Waiting for our turn was incredibly boring.
People were definitely leaving, but the line was so long that it barely seemed to shrink.
It was just like the queue for a popular roller coaster at an amusement park.
Something like Neverland's T―Express….
“Hmm….”
I'm bored.
So bored.
If I'd known it would be like this, I would've brought my Japanese workbook.
If I had a phone, I could at least watch YouTube, but perhaps because I was still too young, I didn't have one.
Of course, Yeowoo was sitting next to me happily watching YouTube on her own phone, but the video was far too childish for me to watch with her.
It was an animation titled ‘Magic School Arpia,’ perfectly matching Yeowoo's interests.
The characters had eyes as large as earmuffs, while their mouths were tiny, and their noses were……
“Hi?”
A voice calling to me pulled me out of my thoughts, and I lifted my head.
A pretty little girl who looked around my age was staring into my eyes with a smiling gaze.
“What are you doing, Hyunwoo? You should say hello back~”
Mother urged me on with an amused expression.
I nodded awkwardly.
“Yeah. Hi.”
“My name's Yoon Sia. What's yours?”
“I'm Lee Hyunwoo.”
By this point, Yeowoo seemed to have noticed as well.
She stopped looking at her phone and began glancing back and forth between the girl and me.
“How old are you? I'm…….”
“Glacius!”
Just then, Yeowoo suddenly stood and struck the top of the girl's head with her magic wand while shouting an incantation.
“……Ow.”
The girl who had introduced herself as Yoon Sia stared blankly at Yeowoo.
Apparently it had hurt quite a bit, because tears soon welled in her eyes.
She looked ready to start crying at any moment, so before Mother could intervene, I stood up and rubbed the top of Sia's head.
“Are you okay? That must've hurt.”
“Mmm….”
Sia naturally leaned against my shoulder.
I turned my head toward Yeowoo.
“Sis. Why'd you do that? Why did you suddenly hit her?”
“I didn't do it. My magic wand did.”
What a very nine-year-old excuse.
Mother seemed fairly shocked as well and joined me.
“Yeowoo. Apologize right now. What you just did was very rude.”
“But Mom. She was flirting with Hyunwoo!”
“What are you saying……?”
Mother jumped in surprise and looked around.
Everyone nearby was already staring at us as though they'd just found an entertaining spectacle.
Mother's face soon turned as red as a beet.
In the end, she apologized in Yeowoo's place, then grabbed Yeowoo's hand with a furious expression and took her somewhere.
“Nice to meet you, Hyunwoo. Are you here for the Academy interview too?”
“…Huh?”
Sia, who had been leaning against my shoulder, was already looking at me with a bright smile.
There wasn't even a trace left of the tears that had been filling her eyes.
Emotions really do change dramatically at this age.
I answered with a reluctant expression.
“Uh… yeah.”
“Which class are you applying for?”
“Magic.”
“Wow! I applied for magic too. But Hyunwoo, how old are you? This is the first time I've seen someone my age here.”
“I'm seven.”
“Huh? Then I'm your big sister. I'm eight.”
“You're eight?”
“Yeah!”
Well, I'll be.
Even without us siblings, the record for youngest student was destined to be broken.