“…Ugh… why, why is this happening… I was fine just a moment ago… what on earth… why is this happening again…”
“…Senior?”
Hik…! Sniff… “W-who…?”
With a shiver, Yeon Minha lifted her head.
And her completely tear-soaked eyes met mine.
On that mess of a face, not a trace remained of the vibrant energy from the morning just two days ago.
She managed to recover her trademark haughty expression, which briefly twisted my mood, but deep down, I felt a small sense of pride in her recovery.
But what on earth is this… what kind of situation is this?
“You… you…”
With a bewildered face, Yeon Minha just flapped her lips, muttering softly. Her nails, bitten to shreds, were still being chewed away.
“…Wait…”
Then, as if realizing something, her pupils slightly widened, and with watery eyes, she focused back on me.
“You… could it be…?”
There was a madness in her gaze that had not been present before.
“Could it be… it’s you?”
…This feeling of looming anxiety is just too much.
“Yes… it’s you, isn’t it?”
“What do you mean…”
“I’m sure of it. You’re the only one. It must have been you…!”
With a still crying voice, Yeon Minha finally stumbled to her feet.
Hhik… give it back… please…
That face, already losing focus, had not a shred of reason left in it.
Please… return my dream… Hhik… please…!
“What nonsense are you talking about? How could I possibly…?”
“Don’t lie!!!!”
Kwaang!
Clang!!
With Yeon Minha’s anguished scream, the noise of the dormitory’s belongings crashing and breaking filled the air.
“You don’t get it… ever since the day you left, the nightmares started again! Hhik… what have you done…? What did you do…?! Ugh…”
Slowly turning counter-clockwise, Yeon Minha began to close the distance between us.
Because of her strange gait, I found myself backed up against the wall before I knew it.
Hhik… please… give it back…!
Tears continuously dripped from her face as she approached me, looking as if she would cling to me desperately.
The thought of being caught in those outstretched hands struck me abruptly, and strange reactions began to arise in me.
Just thinking about it made my blood boil and my breath tighten. I already felt something crawling on my skin. The mask I wore was restricting my already narrow field of vision even further.
Ugh… please…
Even amidst all this, she kept advancing towards me on her wobbly feet.
“Senior. Stop…”
“Give it back…!”
Just before Yeon Minha was right in front of me, about to grab my arm.
Before I even realized it, I threw a punch at her belly.
Puhak!
“…Kehk.”
Was she already exhausted? That single hit sent her tumbling sideways to the ground.
Hah… hah… heh…
I reflexively checked my mask’s fastening. Only after confirming its tightness could I finally feel relief.
I had to make a considerable effort to calm down the heat rising throughout my body. It wasn’t until I took a few deep breaths and regained my vision that I could finally assess Yeon Minha.
Cautiously, I approached and lightly touched her nostrils with my fingertips.
With every exhalation that brushed against my touch, I let out a sigh of relief.
“Hah.”
Tears continued to glisten in her deep-set eyes.
Even if I would clean up later, I couldn’t just leave Yeon Minha lying on the floor like this.
As I suddenly looked away, I noticed her bedroom door at the top of the stairs on the second floor.
Until now, I had refrained from entering her bedroom out of respect, but today there seemed to be no other choice.
I turned my gaze back to Yeon Minha, who lay slumped on the floor.
She looked feather-light, so her weight shouldn’t be a problem.
But… how do I move her?
“…”
After a long contemplation, I couldn’t think of a better way. Why does her bedroom have to be on the second floor…?
In the end, I slipped my hands under her shoulders and calves and cautiously lifted her.
“…Ugh.”
With a faint warmth felt, an unpleasant sensation crawled up my arms from where I touched her.
My face instinctively scrunched up at that.
It had been quite a while since I had been this close to a girl, since the last time I embraced my sisters when I left the northeastern garrison.
Back then, I had tried hard to hide any discomfort, but at least now, there was nobody around to see it.
I slowly moved, climbing the stairs. Finally, Yeon Minha’s bedroom door came into view.
“…”
I hesitated for a moment in front of it, but it was a decision I had already made.
I carefully turned the doorknob and opened the door. A sophisticated, sweet scent filled the air and almost made my head spin. Since this was where Yeon Minha had been, her body scent permeated every corner of the room.
I turned my head to check my final destination for the day.
I could see a large, plush bed in the center of the room, illuminated softly by the moonlight streaming through the big window above the headboard.
I stepped over and gently laid Yeon Minha on the bed, then tidied her pillow. After lightly shaking her blanket, I pulled it up to her neck and covered her gently.
“…?”
I was surprised by the fluidity of my actions. A familiar, regretful sigh escaped my lips as the same obvious reason sprang to mind.
I had done this countless times in the past, so why was I so flustered?
“Hah…”
As I took a moment to breathe, the room’s scenery naturally caught my eye.
The overall setup seemed ordinary, but the massive bookshelf taking up one wall stood out strikingly.
Books of all kinds were crammed in there, all of them covered in fingerprints.
A very brief glimpse was enough to infer the essence of her past life.
“Hhik… I hate it…”
As I returned to check on the bed, I saw Yeon Minha shaking her head, tears falling.
Was she having another bad dream that no one else could see?
I unconsciously let out a sigh and tried to pour out the turbulence that had gathered in my heart.
Being right next to her, just a bit of release would suffice.
Krk… snore…
“…”
Perhaps I had indeed misjudged things.
I had only used the sealing spell for three days and had only left for two nights.
Yet, just tasting the brief sweetness of tranquility had made it impossible for me to endure my previous life…
“…”
When I first accepted the principal’s request, I never imagined I would face such a situation.
Nonetheless, my decision to break into the dormitory using a reckless method didn’t seem so bad.
If I had only been confronting her well-packaged exterior, I would’ve never known the fragile sides of her that can only be felt up close.
These defenseless and vulnerable aspects could be said to be the very essence of the problems she’s facing now.
As I confronted this rawness, the feelings of hatred and resentment towards her seemed to morph instead into a human-like sympathy and compassion.
But along with that, the inferiority complex I had hidden behind the mask also began to rise to the surface.
“…”
When I was little, I learned in school that our country was a republic without class discrimination.
But truly, how many people would take those words at face value?
We divided ourselves by all kinds of standards, the foremost being magic.
A person above a person, a wizard.
And above wizards, the wizards of the thirty-seven families and the original five clans.
I was on the very bottom of that neatly arranged food chain.
By sheer chance, I met good people amidst the unfair storm that hit me like a bolt from the blue, managing to cling to life.
Now I’m pretending to be a recommended student from a prestigious family, but my essence hasn’t changed at all.
The person behind the mask is still an orphan with nothing to his name and no notable background. I was merely surviving by clinging to an unknown ability I had unwittingly acquired.
And here’s Yeon Minha.
The wizard above all wizards, of the noble Jeokhwa family, one of the original five clans.
If I’m at the bottom, she’s at the very top.
Had she not been shoved into a cradle by a patron, this close encounter would have never happened.
Is it really right for an orphan like me to pity and feel sympathy for someone like her…?
“Hah.”
A sigh escaped me, and a tingling, heavy sensation settled in my chest.
It was undoubtedly because I had experienced a similar situation in the past.
They say people learn from their mistakes. But why am I about to make the same mistake again?
Why is this orphan, struggling just to maintain a future, trying to meddle in someone else’s affairs?
Krk… kuul…
The soft sound of her breathing only deepened my worries.
Krk…
Yet still, I felt sympathy and sorrow for her.
*
Yeon Minha was dreaming. She was sinking into a pit filled with black, sticky mud. Around her, dozens of skeletal arms stretched out, pushing her back into the abyss as she flailed.
She cried and screamed for help, but there was no one to save her. Only the mocking laughs of the reaching arms surrounded her.
Just as she was about to give in to despair and be swallowed by the depths…
A beam of bright light shone down upon her, causing the black walls and skeletons to dissolve in an instant.
And in the moment she reflexively reached out to the one who saved her…
Chirp chirp!
“Huh…?”
She suddenly saw the familiar ceiling of her bedroom.
And the sight of her delicate right arm stretched out toward the ceiling.
Feeling oddly disoriented, Yeon Minha wiped her damp eyes with her fingers.
Then a sharp, pulsating pain began to radiate from her abdomen.
“Hah… what is this…?”
The unknown pain made her frown involuntarily.
As she gently stroked her aching belly, she clumsily tried to sit up.
But just then, a low, quiet voice from the doorway stirred her from slumber.
“Are you awake?”
“…Hhik.”
Her spine jolted straight, and Yeon Minha forced herself to turn her head to locate the source of the voice.
What entered her sight was a creepy, grotesque mask leaned against the wall next to the doorframe.
“You, you, you, you…!”
She was so startled that she couldn’t even form proper words, accidentally biting her own tongue in the process.
Instinctively, Yeon Minha checked her own state. The thin camisole she was wearing left her feeling vulnerable, and she grew giddy for a moment.
Then the figure that got up began to walk toward her, closing the gap between them.
“Get, get away…”
So that dreadful thing had finally revealed its true colors.
It wasn’t even the middle of the night, and here it was, shamelessly doing this broad daylight in the morning—it had to be a pervert, no doubt about it.
Her tear-streaked eyes instinctively searched for something to defend herself with.
And in a moment of instinct, instead of a spirit, she chose the large, plush pillow she had been craving for.
She swung the pillow trying to chase away the intruder, but the masked boy was already right in front of her, unfazed.
This was it. Yeon Minha squeezed her eyes shut.
Swish!
But the next moment, she felt the warm touch of a shawl covering her defenseless shoulders.
Thud.
And the sound of something flopping down.
In complete bewilderment at the unexpected turn of events, Yeon Minha slowly opened her eyes, trying to suppress her racing heart.
The first thing she saw was the familiar draped checkered shawl that always wrapped around her shoulders, and then she looked forward.
“Hih… Hhik.”
She soon spotted the masked boy sitting on the stool next to her bed, staring at her, and she let out a small squeak without realizing it.
“Hah.”
“…Hik.”
Seeing the masked boy let out a deep sigh made her reflexively swallow her light hiccup.
“Let’s have a little chat.”
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