Yeowoo and I attend the Academy for free.
More precisely, it’s paid for with national tax money.
The country decided to cover every expense we incurred at the Academy until the day we graduated, based on our future potential.
From the first year to the seventh year.
Seven years of Academy education in total.
How much was the tuition again……? Was it fifty million won per semester?
I don’t know exactly how much money that is.
But judging by how shocked Mother was when she heard the tuition, it must be an enormous amount.
Fifty million won per semester means one hundred million a year, so over seven years, that’s a whopping seven hundred million won.
Since both Yeowoo and I receive national scholarships, that means a staggering 1.4 billion won in expenses will be covered for us.
It’s clearly an outrageous amount of money, enough that an ordinary family might not even be able to enroll their child because of the cost.
Not that it matters to us.
Then why?
Why do I need to attend the Academy for seven years?
Because the Academy also substitutes for an ordinary education?
No.
In the end, it’s money.
They say that after graduating from the Academy and attending another specialized educational institution, you can eventually become a Hero. Due to the nature of their profession, Heroes earn more than most people.
And the healing field I’m aiming for makes even more money.
Everyone has the desire to live a long life, so as long as my abilities are good enough, I can spend the rest of my life living in luxury by treating the illnesses of people who have more money than they know what to do with.
In between, I can provide free treatment for patients like Father and show some mercy to penniless patients who are already at death’s door by treating them too…….
“Hyunwoo!”
“Huh?”
Ah. You startled me.
Yeowoo was staring at me with her cheeks puffed out.
I scratched my head awkwardly.
“What?”
“Are you listening to me? You looked like you were spacing out.”
“Ah…… Yeah. Of course. I’m listening.”
Sorry, Yeowoo.
At my age, I was busy mapping out my future with worldly thoughts…….
“Did you hear what those guys from the Martial Arts Department were saying earlier? They were totally looking down on us! Those Muggles!”
“Muggles?”
Sia tilted her head, unable to understand what she meant.
I knew what it meant.
It was a word from Harry Potter for ordinary people without magic.
Yeowoo continued criticizing the Martial Arts Department.
Most of it was pointless chatter, so I let it go in one ear and out the other.
If anything, she was adorable.
No wonder Mom and Dad were crazy about her.
The sight of her grumbling while wearing a black robe trimmed with golden lines was as cute as a little child actress whining in a movie.
If I had to compare her to someone, she was like an Asian Hermione.
When I did nothing but grin, Yeowoo glared at me and shouted.
“Hey! Are you even listening to me?”
“Yeah. I’m listening. You know, Sis, you don’t need to worry about the Martial Arts Department.”
“……Why?”
I spoke in a playful voice.
“If the Martial Arts Department picks on you, I’ll protect you.”
“……Hmph! I’m still mad! I’m not getting over it today!”
Despite her words, the corners of Yeowoo’s mouth curled upward into a grin.
She’s so cute it’s killing me.
All my damn kids in my previous life were hulking sons, so I never got to enjoy anything like this.
“Hmm…….”
Beside us, Sia pursed her lips as though she wanted to say something, then bit them.
“Oh. The bus is here. Let’s hurry.”
Right on cue, the shuttle bus was waiting at the stop.
Without any of us needing to say who should go first, we quickly ran toward it.
***
A day passed.
It was five in the morning.
Yeowoo was sleeping beside me, breathing softly.
As for why I had woken up so early, something our homeroom teacher said yesterday had been bothering me.
I might only be eight years old, but I had entered the Academy now, so I at least needed to improve my physical stamina.
And as a mage, I knew a way to increase my stamina without exercising at all.
A secret technique of Ninth Circle mages that could make sweat pour down like rain and increase lung capacity while doing nothing more than sitting still.
First, I got out of bed and went into the bathroom to wash my face.
The cold water instantly cleared my head.
I smeared a heavily foaming cleanser all over my face, then washed it off with water.
Even the faint traces of fatigue that remained disappeared completely.
I wiped my face with a towel hanging from the rack and left the bathroom.
Yeowoo was still sleeping soundly.
Faint dawn light filtered in through the window, and Yeowoo sleeping peacefully on the bed looked like a scene from a painting.
“Hmm.”
Come to think of it, I’m hungry.
I should fill my stomach first.
I left the room and headed toward the kitchen, where a food storage container caught my eye.
When I opened it, I found piles of snacks, bread, and various kinds of instant noodles inside.
I picked out a cream bun, tore open the wrapper, and munched away.
“Ah. Delicious.”
Do people on Earth realize that this cream bun, something even ordinary commoners can eat here, would be such a precious delicacy in my world that even nobles who strutted around boasting of their status couldn’t normally eat it?
Probably not.
And it doesn’t matter if they don’t.
It isn’t merely another country.
It’s an entirely different world.
I wonder how the world I died in is doing now.
By the time I finished thinking about the world from my previous life, I had already eaten the entire bun.
My hunger somewhat satisfied, I returned to the bedroom and found Yeowoo sitting on the edge of the bed, rubbing her eyes.
“Sis, are you awake?”
“……Yeah. I need to pee.”
“……Ah.”
I scratched my head and sat down on the soft chair beside the bed.
Meanwhile, Yeowoo went into the bathroom and closed the door.
Ignoring her, I closed my eyes and drew all the mana remaining inside my body toward my navel.
At my command, the mana in my head, the mana in my feet, and the mana scattered throughout every other part of my body began gathering at my navel.
After waiting a little longer, all the mana had packed tightly together around my navel.
I gently set the mana gathered there into orbit.
The mana began rotating slowly but orderly…….
“What are you doing?”
At some point, Yeowoo had apparently finished in the bathroom, because her voice suddenly came from right beside me.
Without opening my eyes, I answered her question.
“Meditating.”
“What? Meditating?”
Yeowoo.
Please stop talking to me.
Grandpa’s busy right now.
“Stop doing weird stuff and go back to sleep.”
“Just five minutes.”
“Hyunwoo, you’re a good boy, right? Listen to your big sis~!”
Yeowoo spoke in a motherly tone as she tugged on my arm.
At that moment, the orderly rotation collapsed in an instant.
As my body tilted, the mana scattered in every direction.
“Ah, Sis. Come on. Pleeease…….”
“Good boy, Hyunwoo. Come here. Sleep with your big sis.”
With a body that didn’t even have a Circle yet, I had no idea what might happen if I moved around more than necessary in this state.
I gave up and let Yeowoo pull me onto the bed without resisting.
Yeowoo lay down beside me and pulled the blanket over us.
Then she wrapped an arm around my neck and snuggled closer.
I was too focused on bringing my mana back under control to complain.
More precisely, I couldn’t spare any attention for Yeowoo.
“Good boy. My Hyunwoo.”
Kiss.
“……?”
Apparently pleased that I had obediently stayed still, Yeowoo kissed me on the forehead.
Then she closed her eyes, stroked my head, and repeatedly murmured for me to go to sleep.
……Next time, I should do this on the living room sofa instead of in the bedroom.
***
It was past midnight.
The moonlight was unusually bright that night, and Yoon Sia kept tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep.
RUSTLE—
She turned onto her left side, then not long afterward turned onto her right again.
She tightly shut her eyes and tried to clear away all her stray thoughts so she could sleep, but instead, her mind only seemed to grow more awake.
“Haah…….”
In the end, Yoon Sia opened her eyes, got out of bed, and walked over to the window to look outside.
The Academy grounds, wrapped in silence, were dark except for the streetlights and the faint glow spilling from a few buildings.
“He really is a strange kid.”
Sia was looking at the buildings inside the Academy, but what filled her mind was a boy around her own age.
Lee Hyunwoo.
He was cute and handsome, but that wasn’t what mattered to Sia.
His Ability.
That boy possessed limitless potential as a mage.
Mana Sensitivity of 2,100.
For Sia, who had always believed that she was second to no one when it came to accepting mana, it was a shocking number.
Lee Yeowoo also had a Mana Sensitivity of 860, slightly higher than her own, but Yeowoo was a year older, so Sia thought she could catch up to her easily enough.
But Lee Hyunwoo…….
He was younger than her, and the gap in their Mana Sensitivity was far too large to overcome.
Catching up to him was out of the question.
He was at a level she could only look up to.
A boy her own age who was far more talented than she was.
She wanted to stay close to Hyunwoo and learn many things from him.
To do that, she would have to become even closer to him than she was now.
Closer than his own biological sister.
She needed to become someone Hyunwoo could freely tell his secrets to.
Wouldn’t that allow her to improve even more than she had already?
Whether in magic or something else.
<You know, Sis, you don’t need to worry about the Martial Arts Department.>
<……Why?>
<If the Martial Arts Department picks on you, I’ll protect you.>
Sia smacked her lips as she recalled the exchange.
She was jealous and envious of how much Hyunwoo trusted and followed his biological sister.
Maybe it was fortunate that Yeowoo was his biological sister.
After all, their relationship couldn’t develop into anything beyond that.
For a while, Sia thought about Hyunwoo with a faint smile on her lips.