Summer Festival (1)
Summer Festival (1)
The long, long rainy season finally ended.
The sky, once choked with dark clouds, cleared into a dazzling blue, as if it had been a lie.
And it happened at dawn, right as the festival began.
As though someone had granted permission to enjoy it.
"I'm off~!!"
-Byeee!!
Baek Ha-na and the Fairy, who had only her head poking out of Ha-na's pocket, waved their hands energetically as they left the mansion. Claire, who had come out to see them off, quietly turned back inside.
The master of the mansion, Baek Woo-jin, had claimed business early that morning and left after sending a mysterious power flowing into the sleeping Fairy's body.
And so, Claire was now alone in the mansion, left to watch over it.
"Hm."
Back when Baek Woo-jin used to leave to give lectures, the Fairy had also frequently wandered about outside, so Claire often found herself with solitary moments like today.
She entered the kitchen and checked the time again on the wall clock.
"At least twelve hours, then."
Claire took the colorful Fruit Cereal from the cupboard and filled a bowl to the brim. In the past, she had favored it for its convenience and balanced nutritional content, but as time passed, it had become one of the few snack foods that actually suited her palate.
"Hm, hmm~♪"
As she poured fresh white milk over the heap of brightly colored cereal in the bowl, Claire hummed a little tune she couldn't quite identify.
It was the same hum that Vuar had once needled her about, and the same hum that had naturally spread to Baek Ha-na as well.
Cheep-cheep.
Pleasant birdsong drifted through the open window along with the gentle sunlight, delighting Claire's ears.
She sat down in a chair and placed a spoonful of milk-soaked cereal into her mouth.
Crunch, crin-crunch.
Each time her closed lips moved to chew, the soft sound of cereal crumbling escaped. Perhaps because she had avoided such quick meals ever since beginning her life at the mansion, this small act felt, oddly, like a tiny indulgence.
The moment she opened her mouth wide for another large spoonful, savoring the subtle fruit sweetness spreading across her tongue—
-Oh dear me.
"Pfft—!!"
A voice that absolutely should not have come through the window she had opened for fresh air reached her ears, and the cereal that had been piled on her spoon scattered across the table.
Claire hastily set the spoon down and turned her head.
-I would be most grateful if you would open the door~
In front of the slightly open window, Lee Ye-sol in plain clothes stood smiling and waving.
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"Hmm~ How intriguing. I can't feel any particular magical force at work, yet it's so refreshing. Ah, would it be all right if I had a cup of coffee?"
"......."
Claire nodded toward Lee Ye-sol, who had entered the mansion and was wandering about the kitchen, and quietly chewed and swallowed her cereal.
Lee Ye-sol moved about as comfortably as if she were in her own home, neatly cutting open an instant stick and pulling a small tumbler from her pocket. She had visited the mansion thoroughly prepared, ensuring she would not mistakenly use any cup she wasn't supposed to.
"Did... the Professor send you?"
"Uhu-hu~ Indeed he did~? How could I possibly pass through the maze without the Professor's permission?"
Cr-crack.
Answering Claire's question, Lee Ye-sol scooped ice from the water dispenser and took a seat.
"...Everyone must be busy."
"No matter how busy one is, how could one refuse the Professor's request?"
Claire fixed Lee Ye-sol with a slightly sulky stare for answering without the slightest hesitation. Lee Ye-sol just smiled faintly at her superior's gaze.
'You've truly changed so much.'
The superior she had once known would never have worn such an expression. More than that, she had been a person so devoid of visible emotion that it made one wonder if she had any at all.
"...What request did he make that brought you all the way here?"
And now, that same superior was making an expression that would draw a smile from anyone, even another woman.
Of course, it was a subtle change that only those who had spent a very long time with her would notice, but at least, that was how Lee Ye-sol felt.
"It seems the Executor was concerned about you being alone."
"......?"
When Claire raised one eyebrow, Lee Ye-sol took a sip of her coffee as the ice slowly melted.
"He entrusted the Executor to me for three days."
"Entrusted?"
"Yes. So please finish eating quickly and get changed."
As she spoke, Lee Ye-sol pulled an exceedingly rare camera from an old era out of the bag she had brought with her.
"Uhu-hu~ If you had taken up photography as a hobby, it would have been lovely if you'd given me a hint."
"......."
While Claire chomped her cereal, her earlobes flushed slightly. She had never imagined that he would even mention that.
"Ah, our great and revered one informed me of the Executor's new hobby."
"You f—......"
A clipped word fell from Claire's lips, and the spoon in her grip bent slowly like taffy.
"Naturally, the Professor did give me a word of warning as well."
"......."
As soon as Baek Woo-jin's name was mentioned, Claire's trembling hand stilled.
She composed herself and pushed the remaining cereal into her mouth. Then, as she cleared away the empty bowl, she asked.
"But why three days? The festival is four days long."
"Ah, about that."
Lee Ye-sol covered her mouth with one hand and laughed at her superior's question.
"The Professor said he would come and take you himself on the final day."
"......."
Watching the nape of Claire's neck flush red as she turned away, Lee Ye-sol quietly rubbed her stomach.
'I feel like my stomach is going to burst.'
To think she could spend three days with such an adorable superior.
**
-Here we go~ A chance to win a high-grade healing potion for just a thousand won!!
-Try our special grilled swamp toad~!!
-So close, but it's a miss, huh?
The vast grounds of the academy.
Along the paths, upperclassmen had set up their own stalls and were busy calling out to passersby.
'Has it been six years since I graduated...?'
Kim Gyeong-tae, a freezing-type mage from the 3rd Raid Team of the Galaxy Guild—one of the Top 10 Guilds—let out a short sigh as he looked around at the bustling students and invited guests.
'Maybe I should have just turned it down.'
A few weeks ago, a letter had arrived under the Chairman's name, inviting him to the academy festival. Since it was an invitation sent personally by none other than that Chairman, the proper thing to do—barring truly exceptional circumstances—was to attend, even if it meant taking time off.
Kim Gyeong-tae had attended partly for that reason, but the other half was because of a single line written at the very end of the letter.
【Repay the kindness shown to you by an old friend.】
At first, he hadn't understood what it meant.
He knew the Chairman was an extremely eccentric person, so he even considered the possibility that it was just a meaningless sentence meant to tease him.
But he found himself repeating that line. Once, twice, three times...
He read it over and over to a degree that even he couldn't comprehend, and a memory he had long forgotten flickered vividly before his eyes as if it were real.
-Peep?!
-Wh-what is that?!
Fall, first semester of his second year.
It was a tiny, adorable girl sitting on the lawn in front of the old building, nibbling on chocolate and chirping like a chick.
Startled, he had let her go from his grasp, and the little girl quickly fled to a nearby tree. But perhaps because she still wanted the chocolate, she kept lingering around the area, and that sight was so endearing that he left the rest of his chocolate there and walked away.
The comfort she had brought to his weary mind and body, exhausted from competition, was more than worth the price. He didn't regret it in the slightest.
After that encounter, whenever he felt mentally drained, he found himself returning to that spot with chocolate, wondering if he might meet her again. And perhaps his luck was good, because after a few repetitions, he was able to meet the girl once more.
-Here you go.
-Peep....
The second meeting closed the distance between them.
-Peeep!!
-Hey, hey, don't peck me. I'll open it for you.
By the third meeting, they had grown reasonably close.
-Peeeng.
-...What is this? Are you giving it to me?
-Peep!
At the fourth meeting, he received a mysterious gift.
It was a small sphere made from the light that emanated from her body.
The moment he received it, he knew—instinctively.
That he had stumbled upon one of the Fortuitous Encounters rumored to exist throughout the academy.
Without hesitation, he swallowed it.
It was perfectly sized for swallowing, after all.
Fortunately, his guess proved correct, and a student who had been utterly unremarkable managed to rise all the way to the Second Seat in the second semester Grade Evaluation. Strangely, though, the feeling wasn't all that pleasant.
Because after receiving that shining sphere, he never met the little girl again. Autumn passed, winter came, and even when vacation began, he stayed and waited instead of going home, but the little girl never appeared.
And so he convinced himself.
That perhaps the little girl had merely been an illusion conjured by that shining sphere.
Otherwise, there was no way a girl who had appeared without fail once every few days would suddenly vanish. That was what he told himself.
"Damn...."
Kim Gyeong-tae clicked his tongue quietly and scratched the back of his head.
'Impatient bastard.'
He cursed himself.
If the little girl hadn't been an illusion—if she was a real, living being—then giving up after a mere three months made him look utterly pathetic. To abandon so easily the girl who had granted him the Fortuitous Encounter that had changed his entire life.
If the 'friend' written in the Chairman's letter really was that little girl he had once met, Kim Gyeong-tae had come to this festival prepared to do anything he could.
'...I hope it's really her.'
If it turned out to be nothing more than a simple prank by the Chairman, he felt it would leave him feeling more unpleasant than angry or empty.
"But what am I supposed to do for the remaining three days...."
If he had a girlfriend, he could have enjoyed browsing the festival together, but Kim Gyeong-tae was still single, his life consumed entirely by work.
-Aaagh!!
-Goodness, I told you it's not about brute force.
-I swear I barely touched it?! Hey!! If you're just gonna backseat-game, then you do it!!
-St-stop fighting....
Even amid the overlapping noise, the clear, distinctive, and ear-catching voices of girls made Kim Gyeong-tae's gaze naturally turn that way.
'Whoa, are they exchange students?'
A girl with hair as pure white as the first snowfall of winter, a girl with hair as pink as cherry blossoms blooming in spring, and a girl with hair in a shade of beige that almost seemed to glow faintly.
There were two more girls beside those three, but those two had ordinary black hair.
'It's a mana-molding game.'
A game where you molded special glass—glass that only melted when exposed to mana—into a shape matching a fixed mold.
Inject too much mana and the glass would melt completely. Too little, and it would harden in an awkward, half-finished state. Moreover, without secondary processing, it would shatter from the smallest impact, making it a game of considerable difficulty.
-Hey! Baek Ha-na!! You do it!! I've already blown 30,000 won on this!!
-You were the one who said it looked fun.
-Argh, whatever!! If I lose any more, I'm taking a total loss!!
-I got it, so stop clinging to me.
Kim Gyeong-tae watched the girls, who looked unmistakably like Enhancement-type underclassmen, for a moment, then casually turned his steps in their direction.
If a bunch of rough-looking guys had been carrying on like that, he would have turned his back and gone elsewhere. But seeing lovely juniors—even if they were from a different department—looking so distressed, he couldn't simply ignore them as an alumnus.
'Well, they won't mind if I hang around for a little while, right?'
He figured he could win them a prize, reveal that he was an alumnus, and pass the day reasonably well.
"Excuse me...."
THWACK—!!
Along with a dull impact, Kim Gyeong-tae's eyes rolled upward.
"......?"
"Hey!! Pay attention!! Why are you looking behind you all of a sudden?"
"No... it's nothing."
At Idni's impatient call, Baek Ha-na tilted her head briefly, then refocused on the game.