Am I a guy or a girl?
It’s definitely a question I pondered in my past life as well.
The perspective of a person is quite fascinating; if a man dies and is reborn as a woman, he would perceive himself as male, but if a woman realizes she was a man in a past life, she would still identify as female.
In short, it’s all about differing perspectives.
If only things were neatly divided like that, it would be easier, but memories don’t split that clearly.
The self is imperfect and vague, so sometimes I recognize my past life as me, and other times I perceive it as someone else.
Because even if the memories of my past life remain, the brain responsible for such philosophical thoughts is entirely different at the neuron level.
As a result, elements of my past values continue to influence me, while there are things I can’t quite understand.
For instance, thinking that slavery is a violation of human rights is one perspective, while being stuck in a defeatist mindset and hating the whole world was another case.
However, the discussion around gender is incredibly ambiguous; while I can acknowledge my biological sex as female, I always withheld judgment on my social gender.
And back then, I certainly wasn’t in a position to express such thoughts freely.
I definitely didn’t seem to like boys.
Hyasenn Luminous Kaizen III was called the most handsome man in the empire, but even seeing that divine face up close didn’t stir much in me. Maybe I felt a bit jealous?
That said, I hadn’t really liked girls either. In fact, just thinking of those troublesome ones made my head throb.
If you’re wondering why I persistently challenge questions that I can’t conclude, it’s because of Arin. Oh, here we go again, Arin?
“Isn’t your skirt a bit too short?”
“It’s already down to my knees! Bo-young unnie’s is less than half this length!”
At least when it comes to value on clothing, I can confidently say I follow the male viewpoint.
“I like pants.”
“Na-me looks prettier in a skirt! The other kids will think it’s weird if a girl wears school pants.”
Even when you get to high school, there are usually more female students in pants, but since they’re elementary students, there’s still that strict social standard.
August 15th came, but unfortunately, in this world’s Korea, Liberation Day is on August 14th, which falls on a Sunday, meaning we go back to school on Monday. I wonder where they decided to sell off the substitute holiday.
The enrollment process was already handled by the nun, so I had nothing left to do.
Upon arriving at the school, all I needed to do was drop by the teacher’s office, head into my classroom with my homeroom teacher, and that’s it.
Despite the scorching summer sun, Arin didn’t falter and energetically explained about my new classmates.
She even shared who liked what and what they disliked. Such enthusiasm!
The commute to school was definitely lengthy and arduous.
I now understood why Arin had such monstrous stamina.
Walking that path once a day would make anyone healthier.
I cursed the school built on top of a hill as I climbed the steep path.
“Hello, security uncle!”
“Hey there! Good morning!”
With Arin’s 90-degree bow, the security uncle responded with a smile.
We passed through the spacious sports field and made our way to the first-grade teacher’s office on the second floor via the central stairs.
With three polite knocks, the teacher’s office door opened.
“Hello, Arin!”
“Hello!”
“Oh, it’s Arin! Did you have a good vacation?”
“Yes! It was great!”
Unexpectedly, she was quite affable. It turns out Baek Ah-rin was like the idol of the first-grade teacher’s office.
The teachers seemed eager to give her cookies just because she was cute.
After brief greetings, the presumed homeroom teacher of Arin stood up.
“Is the friend beside Arin Na-me?”
“Yes, that’s right!”
Arin held up our clasped hands. She approached me and offered a handshake.
“Hi, Na-me! I’m Ha Seon-hwa, your homeroom teacher for 1st Grade Class 8 starting today.”
I released our clasped hands for a moment and took hers.
“Isn’t Na-me just super cute?”
“Yep, but since Na-me seems shy, can Arin take her to class today? Of course, I’ll go to the classroom too.”
“Okay!”
With Seon-hwa leading the way, the three of us followed her behind.
As we turned a corner, we saw signs indicating we were at 1st Grade.
“This is Class 8. It’s a bit far from the main gate, so make sure not to get lost on your way here.”
The hallway was filled with the inherent chaos of elementary students.
In the midst of that, Arin closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
“Hi everyone! Did you all have a good vacation?”
““Hello!””
“Today we have a new student joining our class, so can everyone take their seats?”
Despite being a relatively young teacher, she handled the kids with remarkable skill.
The children promptly took their seats.
“Now that everyone is seated, can you introduce yourself, student?”
Arin was cheering for me from the back.
Why was I so nervous speaking in front of a bunch of elementary kids?
I thought I’d just say my name and leave, but my mouth wouldn’t open.
“…?”
Even when I forced myself to open it, my heart raced and cold sweat formed.
Suddenly, the kids’ faces overlapped with the images of my enemies ready to devour me.
[Witch]
[Demon King’s Seed]
[Cursed Being]
[Die]
[Die]
Breath coming in ragged gasps.
[Why are you still alive?]
Thud
When Seon-hwa placed her hand on my shoulder, the surrounding scenery returned to the classroom.
“I think our friend is a bit flustered since it’s their first day at school. Can I introduce them instead?”
Nice baton pass. This person is truly a professional.
“This friend’s name is NoNa-Me. They couldn’t come to school in the first semester due to health issues, so everyone should take good care of them, okay?”
Since Arin is Na-me’s closest friend, if anyone wants to know about Na-me, just ask Arin!
Maybe Na-me can sit next to Arin in the back seat?
Arin looked at me with a worried expression.
I honestly didn’t expect this. I thought I had good conversations with Arin, and that my mutism was fixed, but it seems to be far from easy.
After that, the morning assembly continued on.
Since it was my first time experiencing elementary school education, I found it quite fascinating.
They called roll and shared what they did over the break in conversation.
Taking advantage of this time, they collected vacation homework and introduced the second semester textbooks, telling us what we’ll learn.
Since we had dragged on for a while, it extended all the way until the first period.
When the break bell finally rang, the kids finally took a breather.
The children grouped up with their friends and chatted away.
Most of them glanced over at Arin and me every now and then.
They probably thought they were being covert, but at the first-grade level, it was honestly too blatant.
One of them walked over to us and asked.
“Did you say your name was NoNa-Me?”
When I said nothing, Arin confirmed for me.
“Oh, um…! That’s right.”
“Did she come from the Merlin Orphanage too?”
“That’s… um… ah… no…?”
“That’s right.”
Of course, that wasn’t a reply directed at that boy; it was a response to Arin.
It seemed Arin hoped I wouldn’t reveal my origin.
The kid, having wrapped up that question, returned to his group.
“Why did you do that, Na-me?”
“What do you mean?”
“That… kids don’t like when you say you came from Merlin.”
“Let them dislike it.”
“Eh?”
This age group might not understand, but forcing those who dislike me to like me is utterly meaningless.
Some of those kids probably fear being associated with those from Merlin Orphanage, while others just dislike me because their friends do.
Of course, since school occupies most of human relationships and social life, not having friends could be fatal, but I hope they understand that relationships are also a give-and-take situation.
Whether it’s because it’s fun, because you’re handsome, because you’re good at sports, and so on.
Ultimately, if I want to mingle with the kids, I just need to show that Arin’s charm doesn’t get overshadowed by her being from Merlin.
I whispered softly into her ear.
“Later, they’ll definitely regret not becoming our friends.”
*
Elementary school lessons were generally boring.
If something was interesting, it was probably the first time; hearing things I already knew was the worst kind of torture.
Singing numbers from 81 to 82 along with everyone and copying what the homeroom teacher says were all part of it.
“Did Na-me finish already?!”
Our math teacher had to leave suddenly, and we were given the task of writing the numbers 51 to 100 in runes.
Everyone stared at their textbooks intently, carefully copying each one. Meanwhile, Arin looked at my paper, filled with A4 sheets, as if she couldn’t believe it.
Not wanting to lose, Arin picked up the pace.
I realized I had been mistaken about Arin; she was smarter than I thought.
While some kids couldn’t write past 30, Arin could write up to 80 without mixing them up.
She had a competitive spirit and tenacity, which naturally reflected in her academic achievements.
“Arin got all except one right. You missed the dot on 79.”
“Huh? You checked already? How did you figure it out so quickly?”
She hurriedly marked the dot above the letter.
To be honest, it seems better when Arin was given an encyclopedia.
Whenever I was bored, I would constantly review the back pages of my textbook but how much could an elementary school curriculum cover? After a week of reading it thoroughly, I had learned almost everything there was to know.
As I was staring out of the window to alleviate my boredom, a boy in front of me turned around and started talking to me.
“Can you check mine too?”
Was Arin jealous that I was checking his? I casually glanced over his paper and pointed out three mistakes with the back of my pencil.
“Thanks!”
For sure, rune letters are based on a mix of the ancient base-60 number system and the modern base-16 system, which means lots of confusing bits for the kids.
For example, when writing 78, they had to write 60, 10, and 8 in parallel. Little mistakes often got made in this process.
Of course, I was teaching without knowing what base systems meant, so most just learned them by rote.
“I want to be smart like Na-me…”
Recently, Arin has been whining more and more.
In other words, she’s gotten cuter.
Every time she puffs out her cheeks, I can’t help but remember a hamster and laugh.
When I poked her cheek with my finger, a little air whooshed out between her tiny lips.
“You’re plenty smart already, Arin.”
“Yeah, but not as smart as Na-me.”
“Then let me share something interesting with you.”
Knowing that nothing was more interesting to a curious child than studying ahead, I drew a few pictures on the back of an A4 sheet and showed them to her.
“What are you drawing? Isn’t this a magic circle?”
“It’s different from a magic circle. This is a transmutation circle.”
Unlike a magic circle that directly generates magic, this transmutation circle serves as an aid for magic activation.
Complex patterns crisscrossed from the tip of my pencil. Even I couldn’t draw it quickly, taking just over two minutes.
“It’s a hidden picture puzzle. I hid ten of the rune letters from 1 to 100. Want to try and find them?”
“Sure!”
She immediately found the easiest letter, ‘1’.
After about three minutes of grunting and wrestling with the paper, Arin successfully identified the letters she learned. She had sharp eyes.
“I found them all!”
“Now, link the numbers in ascending order.”
“Let me see… 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21… where was I? Oh! 34, 55, 89. Ooh? This looks like a star! So cool!”
“Now check this out.”
I lay my pencil horizontally and pointed to four numbers all in line.
“See, all the letters here have a long vertical dot on the right?”
“Oh yeah, they do.”
I turned the pencil about 36 degrees, pointing to another line.
“This one has a circular dot on the left bottom.”
“Wow wow, can I give it a try?”
“Sure.”
Arin seemed excited as she discovered the commonalities among the letters. What I showed her was the ‘Arabesque Transmutation Formula.’
While in the math domain, it corresponds to a relatively simple concept known as the Fibonacci sequence, in the realm of magic, it’s quite a difficult area.
Rune letters aren’t letters that arose from societal agreements like alphabets or characters.
The runes are a kind of magical concept that simplify the flow and laws of mana into their most basic form, thus possessing latent power to break the laws within the letters themselves.
Of course, different forms of runes are categorized into A-type, B-type, and Omega-type depending on who simplified them and how, but the easiest A-type characters are undoubtedly the ones learned universally.
However, no matter which rune letter is used, those transmutation laws hold true.
For example, 1, 13, 2, and 3 all contain forms meaning ‘earth.’
Earth-type magic exhibits its highest efficiency when amplified into multiples like 2x, 3x, or 13x.
Understanding this background was too advanced for Arin, but just realizing the runes weren’t randomly created would be enough.
*
“Oh wow, kids these days are really fast. Someone doodled a transmutation circle here.”
“Wasn’t that Ha-sensei’s homework? Oh dear, I had a sudden issue in the afternoon, so I hastily handled it as my homework. If it’s not for landfill paper, throw it away there.”
“But I feel like I’ve seen this somewhere, hmm. I think I might remember it, or maybe not.”
Teacher Gang Cheol-min scratched his head as he sipped his tea.
“Are you talking about that transmutation circle presented at the sixth graders’ event?”
“No, it was something I feel I saw way earlier. What was it… I think I saw it back when I was preparing for law school, maybe through criminal procedure law…”
