Lunchtime and the Curious Mask
The bell signaling lunchtime rang out, and the time to respond to Professor Magran’s summons arrived.
Of course, this was my choice alone. I could accept it or decline it.
But the disadvantages that came with any choice were entirely mine to bear. Moreover, Professor Magran was the professor of the mandatory subject “Mana Theory” at the academy. So whether I liked it or not, in terms of academy life, I had no choice but to attend.
Knock knock knock.
“Professor. This is Cheon Seong, the one you called for at lunchtime.”
“Yes, come in.”
As I opened the door to Magran’s office, the scent of fragrant mana herbs mingled with the earthy aroma of damp soil and the distinctive medicinal smell of dried fungi.
In the witch’s workshop-like office of the game-like academy, green liquid boiled inside flasks and purple smoke rose slowly, swirling and dispersing repeatedly.
“Welcome. Sit anywhere comfortable.”
I scanned the interior of Professor Magran’s office and chose a chair that seemed usable enough to sit on. As I sat, Professor Magran handed me something that looked like tea and asked while I was glancing around his office.
“You seem to have thought differently from what I expected.”
“Yes. It feels more like a workshop than an office. Especially with Mana Theory—”
“Very alien?”
“Honestly? Yes.”
Professor Magran smiled at my bold and straightforward words and replied while watching what he was creating.
“The student today is as bold as the place you saw. Student. What do you think mana is? I think mana is the mystery that comes from nature.”
Mana, which allows us to perform magic, martial arts, and swordsmanship, is itself the epitome of mystery.
No one has ever figured out why it was created, why it exists, or why humans are born with it. Everyone simply explained that mana is like oxygen that appeared alongside the Earth’s birth.
Apart from that, mana was explained as an abstract existence bestowed by gods—a divine miracle or blessing. Because of this, research on mana continued to advance.
Thinking this way, Professor Magran’s view of the mystery from nature was similar to the hypothesis that it emerged with the Earth’s birth, yet it offered a completely different perspective.
The hypothesis that it arises as a byproduct of things categorized as “nature,” rather than being created alongside the Earth’s birth.
“…That sounds plausible. Mana comes from nature…”
There was no way it was impossible.
It was a complex hypothesis, but certainly plausible enough to research, different from the unknown from which the truth of Earth’s birth had been impossible to learn in a lifetime.
“It’s truly fortunate that you also think so.”
Professor Magran approached with the sound of shoe heels, smiling at me who hadn’t yet drunk the tea he handed over and asked.
“So, I have a proposal I’d like to make to you, student Cheon.”
“If that proposal is to become a disciple, I’m sorry, but I must decline.”
Hearing that Professor Magran had a proposal, after I had already heard the one from my disciple Aren, I refused without listening. But Professor Magran shook his head and continued.
“Of course, it would be wonderful if I could take you as a disciple, but you are far too grand for me to handle. So, I’d like to propose joint research to you.”
“Joint research? You mean…”
“Yes. An academic conference.”
The research of an academy professor.
Globally recognized academy professors’ research materials were gathered with scholars to hold academic journals and conferences.
This was not an ordinary academic journal and conference. It was a place jointly supported by many world powers, where registered papers received ongoing research funding and drew the interest and attention of many people worldwide—a sort of Olympic Games for scholars.
Interest and attention. These were things I could not afford. Yet an academic conference, the scholars’ Olympics, was nothing less than absolute poison to me, as both could be received simultaneously, even worldwide.
But even so, an academic conference was not only disadvantageous.
First, research funding would continue to come in as long as I registered papers, no matter how much research I did.
Of course, once one year became two, the research funding excluding the papers would stop. But that simply meant I would have no money worries for two years.
No matter how much money I had earned from stocks and coins in the past, recently I had many necessities and often overspent. Moreover, the stock market had changed so much from what I remembered of the future that I could no longer touch it carelessly.
And if I received a high grade in the academic conference papers, I would receive research funding along with rare elixirs, and although not many, superior-grade mana stones.
At this point, most elixirs were useless to me, but since I wasn’t the one who would eat them anyway.
Now I needed to start preparing to leave little by little, and one of those preparations was the growth of my adopted daughter Hana.
Hana’s talent was far superior from the start compared to someone like me, a half-wit. Probably after only five or six years of training, she could reach Upper rank.
Considering her race, when thought of in terms of age, it was almost on par with Seol Si-yun’s talent.
Elixirs could push her growth a little faster, and even without them, the mana stones would permanently increase my mana capacity, which I could barely benefit from anymore. For Hana’s growth, they were necessary.
Of course, since I could obtain mana stones by clearing high dungeons I knew, I didn’t need to participate in the academic conference for elixirs and mana stones. It was merely preferable if I had them; it didn’t matter if I didn’t.
Even considering Hana’s outstanding talent, if I didn’t have elixirs, just training with Beatrice would be enough for her to grow fast enough…
‘Now I can’t protect her forever…’
It was sad, but I was a human who could no longer stay by Hana’s side.
That was why elixirs to quickly raise her growth were necessary, and the quality of elixirs given at the academic conference was better than anything I could obtain myself.
‘So for Hana’s sake…’
Lost in thought, Professor Magran quietly observed me and waited for my answer. After continuing for several minutes, I answered with a slightly sad smile.
“I—”
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
“Then I will take my leave.”
“Please do. I’m truly sorry for making you miss lunch because of me.”
Professor Magran’s words that he was sorry I had missed lunch made me shake my head and say it was fine.
I didn’t care about lunch if it wasn’t Yuna’s cooking, and I was used to going hungry anyway.
Even if it weren’t that, now that I had free periods, eating lunch at this time was no problem at all.
“It’s fine. As I said earlier, now it’s free periods.”
“Really, I’m grateful for that. Then go carefully.”
Leaving Professor Magran’s office, I briefly thought about stopping by Yuna, but seeing the time for classes to start, I headed back to the dormitory.
If I wanted to eat lunch, I could just go to any nearby restaurant. But there was no particular reason to go to the dormitory.
There was nothing I had to do urgently right then, so I simply wanted to sleep deeply and forget my worries during the time until the next class.
‘Hunger is fine, but strangely I can’t stand feeling sleepy.’
I didn’t have nothing to do. It was just work outside the academy, and even leaving without a trace was difficult enough. Keeping watch while I secretly slipped out would be even harder.
Moreover, from tomorrow or the day after, commuting to and from the academy outside would be possible anyway. In other words, I didn’t need to force myself to work right now.
So for now, I wanted to sleep without a care in the world.
But sometimes on days like this, this sort of thing happened.
“…Hello. You’re all here.”
“…”
“Dormitory, that side? It was my room right in front.”
Stare.
How did I end up meeting the person I hated in such a relaxed way.
***
Seol Si-yun found today fun.
Dolls that took the shape of the human who had always clung to him.
He had always lived among dolls. Between dolls whose faces were grotesquely mixed like when a nightmare occurred.
Some had specific body parts like that, some the whole body, some even their voices grotesquely distorted like nightmares.
Not everyone was like that, but among them, those whose many body parts remained intact were also there.
Yoo Hwa-young, daughter of the Shrine God; Dang Hwa-ran, the only daughter of the Sichuan Poison Clan; and even the reason I first saw today, Lee Yuna.
There were a few others, but the ones that came to mind now were these three.
Ah, and by the way, Cheon Yu, Cheon Yu-seok? Cheon Yu-sik? What was his name again? Anyway, he was also like that.
Excluding those specific few, to me they were just grotesque dolls.
Even those few weren’t completely whole; most of their bodies were normal.
Yoo Hwa-young’s head, precisely the forehead, had gone insane; Dang Hwa-ran’s center of the chest; Lee Yuna near the heart; and that Cheon guy near the lower abdomen.
While I lived only among dolls and spent days without excitement in life, one day someone appeared among those who made my world wider while amusing me.
The masked man I met in the dungeon that suddenly appeared that day when I climbed Seoraksan Mountain to train after asking my father.
A person whose whole body and voice looked normal for the first time in his life.
His own father was just a doll like that, and a few others had specific parts gone insane, but he was the only one who looked completely normal with me.
And the only man who looked my age and defeated me.
I was interested in the man who gave me my first defeat, and I investigated as my hand reached, but the people who entered Seoraksan that day were only the ones from the Yeomwang Guild, the son of the Cheonwang Guild Master, and me. Just those three.
So, in fact, the person who entered Seoraksan without permission from the Association and was swept into the randomly created dungeon—how low was the probability of that?
I could calculate it, but it was bothersome, so I let it go. Anyway, it was an extremely low probability.
Moreover, that person was the only one who looked completely normal and strong enough to surpass me.
Thinking that, for the first time in my life, interest in a man arose in me.
So I waited only for the day I would go to the academy. I couldn’t tell his face because of the mask, but I was able to find the man I was looking for much more easily than expected.
In the same class, among the dolls with insanity, a simple man with disheveled hair talking with certain others.
I didn’t know exactly if it was the same person from the dungeon because of the mask, but I took interest in the ordinary man I discovered again and watched him carefully. The more I did, the more I became convinced. That girl was the man I saw that day.
It was so fun and exciting. It was the first time I felt this excited in my life.
I was looking for a person who would make me ordinary and widen my world.
So I, for the first time, approached first and suggested becoming friends, but I was harshly rejected.
That too was the first time, so it was too fun.
I had rejected all the suggestions from dolls who always approached me first to build rapport with me, and now I was the one who was rejected.
How could it not be fun.
And now.
The eyes looking at me without hiding disgust.
That was fun too.
Why did he hate me so much? Because of the Seoraksan dungeon incident? Or had he and I met before that?
I wanted to know more, more about you.
‘Cheon Seong. I want to know you.’
The man living right in front of my dormitory, Cheon Seong. I was extremely curious about this man.
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