Cryomancer
Cryomancer
The day I first realized my past life was none other than my 5th birthday.
The trigger for my realization was a car accident.
It wasn't a car accident where anyone died or was severely injured.
It was just that due to Omma's poor driving skills, we lightly bumped into the car in front, and after my forehead went Kong!, my past life came to mind.
With 25 years' worth of past-life memories suddenly rushing in, I had no choice but to stay dazed for a while, and Omma, perhaps mistaking it for a concussion, had me hospitalized for about a week.
When I was first admitted, I was completely overwhelmed by the flooding memories, but looking back now, it seems to have been a good thing as it gave me time to organize my memories.
In my past life, I was an ordinary office worker.
A corporate slave and solo-since-birth guy who graduated from an all-boys middle school, all-boys high school, and engineering college before landing a job at a black company...
Sseup... Thinking back to it again makes my eyes sting for no reason.
Even now, thinking about it, I had lived a gloomy life without a single ray of light, until I died one day at the age of 25 due to a sudden natural disaster.
Not an accident caused by someone, nor my own mistake, but a natural disaster.
I died watching the surrounding space shatter into pieces like glass fragments along with a shock that felt as if the entire world were shaking suddenly—so if this wasn't a natural disaster, what else should it be called?
Even right after I recalled the memories, I had no idea what on earth that was, but during the week it took for my past-life memories and current-life memories to become completely one, I was able to figure out what killed me in my past life.
The natural disaster that killed me in my past life was what the people here called 'Erosion'.
A phenomenon that suddenly appeared about 20 years ago, occurring when space from another world collides with Earth's space and attempts terraforming.
The eroded land becomes bizarrely twisted, and to restore it back to normal, one must enter the gate at its center and eliminate the cause of the Erosion called the core.
However, on the eroded land, there are monsters summoned through the power of the core and beings called Guardians guarding the core, making it no easy task to eliminate the core through conventional means.
In the early days of the Erosion phenomenon, numerous soldiers were deployed to eliminate this core, but due to monsters possessing overwhelming physical abilities and various mysterious powers, countless nations had to taste defeat.
However, the pushback against humanity was only temporary, as beings emerged who adapted to the energy called mana that appeared alongside the Erosion, utilizing it in various ways...
They claimed to have gained power through awakening on their own, and as if proving those words, they demonstrated using powers akin to those used by monsters with human bodies.
Returning to the present, the people of this era have come to call those who specialize in checking or eliminating these cores 'Hunters'.
"...Now, did everyone understand well?"
"""Yes, Seonsaeng-nim!"""
At the explanation accompanied by proper comments and the video shown by Seonsaeng-nim standing beside the screen, everyone nodded with sparkling eyes and faces full of interest.
It has already been 20 years since the Erosion phenomenon appeared.
Now, it has reached the point where even elementary schools provide basic education about Erosion.
And as mandatory education at that.
After all, Erosion is something no one knows when or where it will suddenly appear, so no matter how young they are, it's only right to educate them on basic information and coping methods.
However, with the education being emphasized and repeated like eating meals as if cramming it into our heads, I've reached the point of gradually getting sick of it.
I know it's dangerous, but I can't help thinking: Is it really necessary to go this far?
A proud young man of the Republic of Korea... I was, but it has been 6 years since I awakened my past life.
Right now, I am not a young man who completed military service, but merely an 11-year-old cute-looking girl.
In other words, I'm an elementary school student.
The thought that I have to spend my school years listening to education like this for at least another 8 years gives me a migraine.
Even while I pondered whether to walk the path of a delinquent student due to the unbearably boring class, Seonsaeng-nim's lesson continued.
"And occasionally, there are people who hide their awakening and use that power to commit various bad deeds, so everyone, please be careful too. If you see people like this, what did I say you should do?"
"""We must call the Hunter Association or the police!"""
"Yes, everyone answered well."
Smiling and nodding at the children's answer was the basic Erosion studies Seonsaeng-nim dispatched from the Hunter Administration Bureau.
Lip-syncing what the kids around me were saying while letting it go in one ear and out the other, time passed much slower than I thought.
Waiting eagerly for class to end and break time to come, I turned my head and looked out the window.
At least it's a privilege that only a student sitting in the back window seat can enjoy.
'Must be nice to be a cloud... Not having to listen to classes or anything.'
Listening repeatedly to basic education about things I already fully know is harder than expected.
Still, since I couldn't just not listen, I enviably gazed at the floating clouds for a moment before sensing some movement in the corner of my vision and lowering my eyes slightly.
There, despite the weather gradually warming up, a man wearing a black hood pulled down was crossing the playground and coming toward this way.
Although his appearance hiding everything from sight was suspicious, I was about to ignore him thinking that if he were truly a suspicious person, the guards protecting the school would have already taken action, when...
The man, who had approached right in front of the school, reached out his hand toward the school.
Between his wide-spread palms, a gradually shimmering haze...?
Kudangtang-!
"Student? What's the matter all of a sudden?"
"Th-there. That!"
As I slammed my desk hard enough to knock my chair backward and stood up, everyone's eyes gathered on me.
Flustered by my sudden action, Seonsaeng-nim found it odd and asked, and I stuttered while pointing at the man outside the window and shouted.
At that, Seonsaeng-nim frowned upon hearing informal speech from a student they had no prior acquaintance with, but still turned their gaze toward the outside of the window, where there was a man with the entire surrounding space beyond his palms shimmering like heat haze as if still gathering power.
"?!"
At the extraordinary man's appearance, which anyone could see was full of intent to attack, Seonsaeng-nim was also flustered and froze.
It was a situation where they had to tell the students to run away right away, but it was already too late.
That man had already gathered enough power, and could discharge it toward this direction at any moment, and in that case, something terrible would probably happen.
"...Whew, while Seonsaeng-nim buys time, everyone run away as far as possible."
Deureureuk-
Seonsaeng-nim, having steeled their resolve for something, told us to run away, opened the window, and threw themselves outside.
Were they planning to sacrifice themselves for the students?
"Kyaaaa!"
"I-It's a real villain!"
"Let's run! Seonsaeng-nim told us to run!"
The inside of the classroom instantly turned into chaos.
The kids who had been enjoying the lesson just a moment ago were vying to flee out of the classroom, and the same seemed true for other classes as the hallway could be seen bursting at the seams.
This... evacuating outside right away will be impossible.
Having judged that running away immediately was impossible, I instead kept my eyes fixed on the scene outside the window.
The teacher who went outside was indeed a Hunter after all, pressing hard against the villain who gathered scorching heat above his hand with fierce momentum.
But why was it?
Watching that scene, I felt a sense of incompatibility.
'What is it? Why am I so anxious?'
What on earth am I missing?
Because the feeling that I was missing something wouldn't fade, I retraced my memories from the moment the villain appeared until now.
And....
"Ah!"
Thinking about it, that villain crossed the playground and came here as if appearing suddenly without rumor or sound.
A suspicious person like that appeared, yet there was no restraint whatsoever?
It feels a bit odd to put it this way, but the elementary school I attend is a private elementary school recognized even in South Korea.
Meaning it's a school attended by many children of those commonly called high-ranking people.
Being such a school, the school security is solid enough to employ active Hunters, even if their rank isn't high.
Yet even until now, when battle broke out so openly, the guards haven't made a single move?
I hurriedly opened the window and shouted.
Deureureuk-
"Seonsaeng-nim! Watch out! The enemy isn't alone!"
"!!"
Being part of the Hunter Association in their own right, Seonsaeng-nim seemed to understand my words right away and tried to widen the distance from the villain, but unfortunately, it was already too late.
Behind Seonsaeng-nim's back, as if wriggling inside the shadow, another villain's hand sprouted up.
And by the time Seonsaeng-nim realized it, the hand that emerged from the shadow was already thrusting a dagger toward Seonsaeng-nim's flank.
Pook-
"Keok?!"
The flame villain, who had only been dodging attacks until now, kicked Seonsaeng-nim, whose flank was stabbed with the knife, sending them flying sideways.
Seonsaeng-nim, who tumbled several times along the grass ground as they flew, collapsed on the spot and couldn't get back up.
And the villain duo who brought down Seonsaeng-nim.
The gazes of the flame villain and the shadow villain turned toward this way.
Although they were hidden by their black hoods and couldn't be seen, somehow I felt as if those two villains were laughing while mocking me.
The flame villain who took care of Seonsaeng-nim seemed to exchange some words with the shadow villain standing next to him, then spread his palm toward this way again.
The heat shimmering even more turned into vermilion flames and radiated toward this way like a wide net.
"Ah ah...."
Am I going to die like this?
Who would have thought my second life would end in burning to death.
How unlucky.
At the very moment I was about to close my eyes while facing the rapidly approaching death.
-Ttirring!
[You have awakened.]
[Name: Han Sia]
[Age: 11]
[Class: Cryomancer]
[Unique Trait: Mahabaltukma (EX)]
A chilly coldness enveloped my whole body.