Chapter: 16
Ding ding ding~ Good morning~ Ding ding ding~ Bye-bye!
Gyaaaaaah!!!
I let out a silent scream as I fumbled around to turn off the alarm clock by my head.
Seeing that I had to handle that, it was clear that I had been completely out of it.
Maybe it was because I had been kicking my blanket around all night.
I needed… I needed bean sprouts.
Quickly cooking and tossing the bean sprouts into my mouth, I felt comforted.
The taste was extremely stabilizing.
With an om nom nom sound, I devoured the stir-fried bean sprouts deliciously.
*
Since I had something to discuss with the class president, I arrived at school a bit earlier.
Even if I thought I had come quite early, the class president was always there before me, cleaning the classroom.
She had been there even earlier than me last Friday, truly diligent.
“Good morning, Scarlett.”
“Good morning to you too, Class President.”
I returned the greeting to the class president and took a broom from the cleaning supplies to help her.
We didn’t really talk during the cleaning.
Not because it was awkward.
It was just that there was a vibe where it felt okay not to say anything.
On the contrary, I felt like any clumsy conversation might break the current atmosphere.
The president seemed to have the same thought since she quietly focused on cleaning without saying a word.
By the time we finished cleaning, students started to arrive.
As I nodded to the greetings from the Shield Guy and the Window Guy while tidying up my spot, there was a moment when the noisy classroom briefly went quiet.
It was the silence announcing Sylvia’s arrival.
Her silky hair cascading down her shoulders and back shimmered silvery like her name, and her brilliant blue eyes sparkled as if stars were embedded in them.
With slightly longer and pointier ears than humans, she radiated a mystical aura befitting her High Elf lineage.
She seemed even prettier after not seeing her all weekend…
After that, when Yoon Si-woo entered, there was a brief silence as well, but who cares?
Sure, he was somewhat good-looking, very much so, but anyway, he’s just a classic case of middle school syndrome.
White hair and black-and-white heterochromatic eyes, whoever came up with that character design deserves an award.
I stared at him thinking I’d ignore him if he greeted me, but today, unlike usual, he just sat down silently.
His face was a little flushed, as if he had a fever.
Was he behaving that way because he wasn’t feeling well?
Then I’d wish he would feel unwell every day.
*
Today’s class with Eve was held in the gymnasium.
The gym was so large that it was bigger than an average soccer field, with various students taking different classes here and there.
In front of us, there were enough mats spread out to fit all the students lying down, and a chair was placed next to Eve’s folding chair for class.
As some senior students ran nearby, they glanced at us with sympathetic looks before speeding off when Eve smiled at them.
What was that about?
To gather the children’s attention, Eve clapped her hands.
“Today’s training is a fear-overcoming training! This time, you’ll experience my special unconscious stimulation magic! It’s magic that shows you the very things you fear or dread the most without you even realizing it!”
Oh… Oh no… I remembered.
This was the training mentioned in the novel.
There’s a magical creature called ‘Boggart’ in a novel with a wizard who has a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead.
This mysterious creature hides in dark places and transforms into the thing that the person passing by fears the most.
So the readers had named this training ‘Boggart Training.’
Eve’s magic felt like an enhanced version of that creature, creating not just a singular frightening entity, but an entire situation that would make the person feel truly terrible—making it a very frightening magic.
It was a course created with the intent that a hero, even in the worst situations, should be able to overcome buried fears through mental strength, but, let’s be honest, is that really easy?
“Today, the magic is a bit complex, so we’ll do it one by one! This projecion reflects your unconscious, so I won’t know what hallucinations you see, so rest assured about privacy! Now, let’s start with Jessie, who agreed to have training for insect resistance last time! If you really hate bugs, I think there will be plenty of them!”
At Eve’s mention, the face of a female student turned pale.
It was the girl who almost fainted seeing bugs during the last training with Yoon Si-woo.
Trembling, the girl walked to the chair in front of Eve and, turning her head towards her, pleading, said,
“U-Um… Ms. Eve? Could you maybe let me off?”
Eve replied with a big smile.
“Sure, that’s not happening!”
Snap! — as Eve snapped her fingers, the girl’s body stiffened.
Soon, the stiff girl began to tremble all over and screamed as if having a seizure.
“Iiihhh!!! Cockroaches!!! Everywhere!!! No, don’t stick to me! I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I was wrong, help me #@$%#%#%$#^&!!!!!!”
A scream resembling the last desperate cry of someone being dragged down to hell by a demon.
The faces of the other students froze as they witnessed the girl drop, foaming at the mouth.
From a distance, life looks like a comedy, but up close, it’s a tragedy.
Realizing that soon we would have to go through the same thing, we felt that our lives were now definitely screwed.
It was only then that we understood the looks of pity from the seniors and the significance of the mat on the floor.
As the other students carried the fainted girl onto the mattress, Eve began to call out students one by one.
The students, like lambs led to the slaughterhouse, one by one approached Eve with expressions of despair.
Their performances were horrific.
Some students, like the girl earlier, fainted due to overwhelming shock, others cried with tears and snot before collapsing, while some were stuck in a daze, frozen in panic.
As the victims piled up, finally a student managed to overcome the magic with mental strength.
It was the class president.
With a pained expression, biting his lip hard enough that blood dripped down his chin, the president suddenly took on a determined look, clenched his fist, and opened his eyes.
Wiping the blood from his chin with the back of his hand, he bore a relieved expression, as though he had broken free from something that trapped him.
“The first to pass is Mei! I don’t know what you saw, but overcoming it means you’ve taken a huge step forward as a heroine. Great job!”
As Eve smiled brightly and patted the president’s back, he bowed to Eve and then walked over to stand next to me.
Turning slightly to glance my way, the president smiled.
“Thank you. It’s all thanks to you.”
The president’s chin was completely red with blood, which was terrifying.
I trembled and nodded awkwardly.
After the president, a few more students were sent to the mats before it was Sylvia’s turn.
She sat up straight in front of Eve, closed her eyes.
This scene was also described, albeit lightly, in the original.
She would likely see illusions used only as tools to uphold her family’s name throughout her life.
However, with a strong ego that wouldn’t allow her to present herself in a disgraceful manner, she was supposed to overcome the illusion without faltering… or so it was described.
Yet, in reality, Sylvia, lost in the hallucination, furrowed her brows, displaying a displeased expression.
She was a far cry from being unfazed.
Sylvia, with her face crumpled, took a few deep breaths before opening her eyes with a furious look and staring at me.
It was somewhat perplexing.
I didn’t do anything!
Sylvia clicked her tongue once, as if dismissing the earlier scene as an illusion, and gracefully got up from her seat to return to her spot.
Although there was a slight feeling of confusion, it was now Yoon Si-woo’s turn.
This one, I really remember!
The only thing Yoon Si-woo truly feared was seeing Lucy disappear, the person he considered family.
However, no matter how high-level an illusionist Eve was, she could never conjure an illusion that would completely sever the connection between Lucy and Yoon Si-woo, who were tied by a contract.
Even if he felt like his sword was disappearing, Eve couldn’t prevent them from communicating, resulting in merely pointless illusions.
With the Radiant Holy Sword, as long as he recognized it as an illusion, he could easily wake up.
Originally, he was supposed to wake up from the illusion without a single change of expression.
But Yoon Si-woo looked like he was in the most difficult state I had ever seen up to now.
At this point, I was starting to think I was just being a complete fool, misremembering the novel’s content.
Yoon Si-woo, his face pale to the point of sweating coldly, bore an expression of someone holding back something.
After a while of struggling, Yoon Si-woo seemed to grit his teeth and then broke free from the magic.
Once awake, Yoon Si-woo looked confused for a moment, then stole a glance at me, his face turning as red as a real tomato as he bolted back to his seat.
Is this a practical joke or something?
Was there some mission where you had to look at me every time you overcame an illusion?
—
While I was dazed by the unexpected reactions, Eve called my name.
As I sat in the chair, I began to feel nervous.
My heart started racing, shaking uncontrollably, like I was standing on a bungee jump platform.
What would I see, and with my heart racing, I heard a snap near my ear.
—
It was a ruin.
What was once a city was left with only fallen buildings and debris scattered on the ground.
The ominous wind whistled sharply as it blew through the broken windows of the crumbling structures.
The only sound I could hear was that wind.
A desolate and lonely cityscape, devoid of human presence, meant, indeed, destruction.
Thinking this way, I suddenly felt a sense of discomfort as I realized ‘myself.’
I’m not here, so what am I?
As I thought this, poof, my figure appeared in the deserted ruin.
When I tried to remember what I was doing, a thought came to mind.
Ah, yes, I was right in the middle of the ‘Boggart Training.’
It was a little fascinating.
Is this, then, what I feared the most?
I thought I would see something much more terrible.
I decided to imagine the most horrendous thing I could think of.
Maybe, a world filled with anger, hatred, and malice.
A world where every chocolate contains mint, and every pizza always comes with pineapple.
I felt chills down my spine.
That’s downright hell.
Just thinking about it made me sweat cold and my breath quicken.
Before I realized it, the world flooded with mint chocolate and Hawaiian pizza was rushing towards me.
Gyaaaaaah! Gwaaaaaah!
I completely lost consciousness.
—
“Scarlett, are you okay?”
As I opened my eyes, the president was looking down at me with a worried expression.
…So I must have fainted.
As I lifted myself from the mattress, the president took my hand to help me stand up.
“What did you see? You looked like you were struggling a lot.”
“…Everything just went dark in front of my eyes.”
I lied to the president when he asked what I had seen.
How could I say I passed out because of mint chocolate and Hawaiian pizza?
The president gently held my hand.
“…I see. If it gets tough, tell me anytime. I’ll help you.”
Then please, get rid of all the mint chocolate and Hawaiian pizza in the world.
I wanted to tell that to the president, but I held back.
As I got up and looked around, Yoon Si-woo was staring at me with a complicated expression.
What’s with the staring?
—
After lunch, Sylvia was sending out signals wanting macarons, so I rushed to the snack bar to buy some.
Normally, receiving macarons would put a little smile on my face, but today, Sylvia maintained a sulky expression every time she looked at me while receiving them.
I felt like Sylvia’s friend corruption gauge wasn’t going up today, leaving me feeling a bit down.
—
After school, I returned home, took a quick shower, and changed into my pajamas.
When I feel a bit gloomy, bean sprouts are definitely the best.
I stir-fried them a little more than usual, then stuffed my mouth full and chewed.
Delicious as always.
I love bean sprouts.
After finishing my meal, I flopped onto my bed and decided to quickly fall asleep.
I hadn’t slept well last night, so I would go to bed early today.
With that thought, I lay down and closed my eyes.
As soon as I closed my eyes, the landscape I had seen in the hallucination resurfaced in my mind.
A desolate city devoid of any presence.
A place filled only with the debris of collapsed buildings.
Among the rubble, something jutted out, shaped like a large shield.
Written on it, in a familiar handwriting, were the letters A, E, G.
Every time that single letter, which I had intentionally avoided looking at, came to mind,
my breath would quicken,
and I slammed my forehead forcefully against the wall with a thud.
My previously quickened breathing returned to normal.
Shit, that hurts like hell.
I grimaced in pain as I rubbed my sore forehead.
But at least feeling pain was better than not feeling anything at all.
Taking a deep breath eased the overwhelming nausea I felt a little.
I need to sleep quickly.
If I sleep, I won’t think of anything.
Though I had the feeling that if I closed my eyes again, the scene would return, I kept murmuring that to myself until I was about to fall asleep.
Don’t think about it.
Only think positive thoughts.
You’ve done well up until now.
Tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, and the day after that, if you keep going like this, surely,
you can survive in this world.
I don’t want to die.
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