“Hey Ji-hye! Did you have a good vacation?”
“Wow, Seori! Long time no see! Yes, I did! How about you?”
“Hehe, I had a great time too! We went to the ski resort last week!”
“I’m so jealous! My dad always insists on hiking even in winter.”
Sephiron Academy was gradually thawing out as lively sprouts began to emerge, melting away the snow that had been frozen solid throughout the winter.
Unlike the high school division, which was still pierced by the biting cold, the elementary division was filled with the warm buzz of children, making bystanders feel hot, almost like a hallucination.
The ambiguous two-week period of school starting between winter vacation and spring break.
Most schools had consolidated into a single winter vacation, but a few schools, including the academy, still maintained a February start system.
Instead, schools held various activities unrelated to studies, providing opportunities for children to consider their future paths.
For the elementary kids, a school without classes was nothing less than a large playground.
Children who hadn’t exchanged greetings for a month and a half began to chat, eagerly sharing their stories.
As it was the first day of school, the teachers in each class had no intention of curbing the kids’ excitement.
The originally planned programs would start in earnest tomorrow, so there was no particular schedule for today besides announcements.
Purely innocent kids had only one thought in their heads: they couldn’t wait for break time to go out and have a snowball fight.
“Is that person late? They just walked onto the sports field!”
“Where? Where?”
“Over there, coming in through the back gate!”
“Really? Who is it?”
Imagining someone being late at Sephiron Academy was almost inconceivable.
Thus, a considerable amount of attention was on the child leisurely strolling across the playground.
“Okay, kids, everyone quiet down and take your seats. There will be transfer interviews from 11 AM to 12 PM in the multipurpose room 126 on the 1st floor, so you mustn’t go near that area. Understood?”
““Yes!””
“Teacher, what’s a transfer?”
“A transfer is when someone moves to our academy mid-year. Then they’ll have to take the same tests as you, right? So that’s why we have interviews today.”
“Teacher, is a transfer student coming? What grade are they in?”
“I can’t tell you what grade until they pass.”
Ding dong ding!
The homeroom teacher of 1st Grade A class at Sephiron Academy reminded the kids to play carefully during break time and reinforced the caution about not going to room 126.
“They looked super young, didn’t they? Aren’t they the same grade as us?”
“Right? So they should be transferring to 2nd Grade?”
“Should we go take a look? If we hurry, we might see their face!”
“No way! The teacher said we’ll get demerits if we go!”
While Seori’s excitement about the rumored transfer student was rising, Ji-hye calmly urged her to refrain.
But Ji-hye was also unable to shake her curiosity about the rumored newcomer.
“Really? Our homeroom teacher didn’t say anything like that!”
“Probably because she rarely goes to room 126.”
“What do they look like? Is it a boy or a girl?”
Not just the students of A class, but speculation about the transfer student became a hot topic among all the 1st graders.
Rumors ran wild, claiming everything from the daughter of a famous foreign royal family studying abroad to a spy raised by a nameless criminal organization on a secret mission to Sephiron Academy!
In just 10 minutes of break time, the kids began to creatively theorize about her identity.
While the teachers of each class were called to the auditorium for an announcement about the career programs, it was A class’s leader Han Seori who bravely decided to meet her directly.
Seori boasted that she would become the detective who uncovers the truth about the transfer student, leading her minions along.
And thus, Ji-hye became a helpless victim of the plan.
“Seori, today’s 4th period is a study hall, the teacher said we can’t leave the classroom until the bell rings. What if we get caught?”
“It’s okay! All the teachers are in the auditorium; they won’t know!”
“We’ve already waited for 30 minutes…”
“Shh! You’ll get us caught! Huh? Someone’s coming out! Hide, hide!”
Demerits would not even come close to dampening Seori’s curiosity.
“I think that was them just now, right? Can you see?”
“It’s too far to tell. Oh! I can see them now! What are we going to do? Are we really going to go and talk to them?”
“Of course! Why else would we be waiting?”
“Ah! I really don’t know!”
Without a moment’s hesitation, Seori dashed out the back gate.
Ji-hye ran after her as fast as she could, but Seori was already just a step away from meeting that student.
“Hi! I’m Seori! Han Seori!”
“…?”
“Hey! I’m Seori! Han Seori!”
“You didn’t have to say it twice. Are we friends?”
“No, we’ve never met before!”
“Oh, a student from this school?”
“Gasp! Seori, you dropped your scarf.”
“Oh! When did that fall? Thanks!”
“Oh, hi…? I’m Ji-hye.”
Ji-hye, who joined later, handed Seori’s scarf while introducing herself.
The transfer student was smaller and more delicate than Ji-hye had imagined. She was practically a head shorter than the tall Seori.
Unlike Seori, who had curly blond hair and blue eyes due to her mixed ethnicity, the transfer student had the same black hair as Ji-hye, leading her to assume she was Korean, yet there was an undeniable exotic air about her.
“I’m Han Seori from 1st Grade at Sephiron Academy! This is my friend Ma Ji-hye. Did you transfer to our academy? What’s your name?”
Despite Seori’s exuberant introduction, reminiscent of a retriever, the transfer student chose to ignore her and continued on.
“Uh… huh…?”
“She just walked away?”
Seori never even imagined she might be ignored, and her mouth opened wider in surprise.
“Well, she just left…”
Watching to see if she’d come back, they stared for a long time, but the transfer student didn’t show any signs of returning.
The only thing they could see was her pulling out a headband from her pocket and tying up her hair neatly.
*
Didn’t they say that highly advanced science becomes indistinguishable from magic?
Similarly, extremely advanced mind control magic was also hard to distinguish from reality.
Particularly in this barbaric age, where notions of magical ethics could be tossed aside, the jokes about dark magic being able to control even passing cats didn’t seem so far-fetched.
Sometimes, I wondered if I wasn’t reincarnating endlessly, but rather caught in a powerful hypnosis.
You know, something like “brain in a jar,” right?
But facing reality truly made such thoughts fade deep into the abyss.
“Hey, you girl! My mom says that unless you live in this apartment, you can’t play here!”
“Who made that rule?”
“Uh… I don’t know? Hold on, let me ask my brother!”
The world is constantly evolving.
Humans discover fire and conquer mammoths and wyverns.
The concept of nations is established, leading to wars of conquest.
Slavery is abolished, and democracy is built on the foundation of freedom and equality.
Mana is continually refined, and magic advances as well.
And now that the world has also developed ways to rationally control these, is it a brave new world?
“Hey, where do you live?”
“…”
“I don’t think I’ve seen you in this complex before. No outsiders allowed here. If you want to play, go to another playground.”
“I live in 102 Dong, 3903.”
“Oh, really? Then have fun playing!”
The world progresses under human greed, and that driving force likely won’t disappear until humanity itself becomes extinct.
It’s a sad reality that, as long as money and fame remain the power that propels progress, humans cannot escape the hierarchies of capitalism and power.
Having wrecked the academy interview without anyone to connect with at home, and not wanting to log into the capsule, that day, I went to the swing set and tried to swing my feet, seeking feelings of camaraderie with other kids, but the lingering feeling of unease wouldn’t go away.
“Get lost, you beggar!”
“Ew, you stink!”
Observe.
In this world, there is clearly no absolute good or evil.
There must have been reasons behind the restriction on outsiders at the rich apartment complex playground.
Maybe because it’s difficult to hold outsiders accountable for damage, or perhaps due to the real-world problems of home prices that adults deal with.
While providing children a good environment through adult control, that poor young child who merely wandered into the playground by accident was now being beaten up.
Kids either collude or pretend not to see, while the adults turn a blind eye.
“Ahhh!!!”
“Don’t you get out of here? Go home!”
Disgust. Yes, that’s it. I’d been pondering over what this unsettling feeling was when—
How long ago was that? I had almost completely forgotten.
What should a hero party, destined to defeat the Demon King, do when they encounter their patrons, who pillage the common people everywhere they go?
Must the commoners all be sacrificed under the grand aspiration of defeating the Demon King? Or should they turn a blind eye to the people dying in the border regions even now and focus on immediate rescues?
How did they respond back then…
“Hey! What are you guys doing? Why are you hitting that kid?”
Anyhow, as disgust reached its peak, I finally stepped off the swing when a couple of familiar figures acted before me.
“What’s your problem?”
A girl covered in dirt barely lifted her head. Her once-white dress had become so filthy it was unrecognizable.
And there were five kids, noticeably older, who had been troubling her away from adult supervision.
When no one thought to stop them, two familiar figures appeared and boldly stood up against them.
They were those 1st graders we had randomly bumped into on the way home.
“We just came here because we live here too! Isn’t it embarrassing to gang up on one person? If it were me, I’d be too ashamed to live and would swallow my own tongue!”
“What? Did your mom teach you to speak like that?”
“Then did your mom teach you to bully innocent kids?”
The kids’ standoff was intense, with neither side willing to budge.
Though their vocabulary might’ve lacked, their spirit certainly didn’t fall behind anyone else’s.
Eventually, a big kid acting as the leader stepped forward from their group.
“Do you think we’re doing this out of boredom? They won’t leave, so wouldn’t it be great if they just went away when we asked nicely?”
“No! I was waiting for my mom! She told me to keep waiting here… Waaaaah!”
“Can you please shut up?”
“Hey! Didn’t I say don’t hit her! If you hit her again, we won’t just sit back!”
“What are you gonna do about it? Wanna throw down? Think you’re tough?”
“Yeah, not scared.”
It was absolute chaos.
If this was a rich neighborhood, shouldn’t there at least be a security guard around?
Where did all the adults go?
“Ahhhh!!!”
That friend who introduced herself as Seori was pushed back, rolling on the ground.
“If you mess around one more time, you’re dead.”
“Using aura? You crazy… you guys are gonna get wrecked by Ji-hye!”
“What’re you talking about? Huh?”
“Die!!!”
As soon as Seori fell, Ji-hye dashed into the group of boys.
I wondered what in the world Seori was relying on to act so boldly, but there was something unusual about Ji-hye’s side.
Ji-hye charged in, draped in aura on her arms and legs, and performed a literal headbutt.
“Ahhhh! Are you crazy?!”
“Die! Just die!”
“Someone get this dude off me!”
And she focused her attention intensely on just one of the fallen boys, regardless of whether she herself was hurt.
But then one of the kids picked up a thick wooden stick from somewhere and aimed at Ji-hye’s head with all their might.
Just when it seemed like it would turn out well, surely…
“Enough!”
[Cast: Adjust Friction Coefficient]
[4 Circle Unified Cast: Adjust Gravity Coefficient]
[Creation: Rotational Transformation]
The kids aiming to beat Ji-hye all lost their balance and fell over.
Everyone completely collapsed to the ground in a perfect prone position with their arms and legs spread out.
