Determination
Determination
『August 24, 2030. Thursday.
One month since revealing my relationship with Claire.
Baek Ha-na has changed since that day.
She no longer clings to me, and her demeanor has grown cautious. More precisely, it feels as though she is consciously trying to keep her distance.
It bothers me—over and over again.
But there is nothing I can do.
I can only quietly watch, allowing her to sort out her feelings for me as quickly as possible.
That is likely the best I can do for now.
Aside from that, her growth...』
Bzzzt—
My brow furrowed at the faint vibration of my phone in my pocket.
I set down the pen in my hand and pulled out my smartphone.
[ Chairman: The semester starts next week, doesn't it... ]
An email with no clear objective.
One that didn't even warrant consideration.
"Tsk."
As if he wouldn't manage the restoration work on his own.
I sent him a reply—an email telling him to convene a full faculty meeting the day after tomorrow.
The reply flew back instantly.
[ Chairman: If you restore only the barrier, I could call the meeting as early as tomorrow.]
That damned barrier.
Over a month should have been more than enough time to devise a replacement for it.
Not bothering to hide my irritation, I ended the exchange by replying that I would restore it tomorrow, then powered off my smartphone.
"...Hoo."
I let out a short breath as I went to pick up the pen again, but instead turned my chair around.
A night sky filled with stars and moonlight.
It was certainly beautiful, yet now it stirred no emotion in me. Perhaps because I was alone.
The absence of the child who was always beside me whenever I looked at the night sky.
Then again, if not for her, I wouldn't have been idly staring at such a thing in the first place.
I turned back around, suppressing an emotion that had become as hard to handle as this damned body of mine. Then I opened a drawer, took out a notebook stored in a case, and flipped it open.
The first page was filled with things that could not be called writing or drawings.
Only after turning several pages did letters I could actually read appear.
Characters that had barely taken shape.
【Kim Woo-jin】
My eyes swept over the names packed tightly onto the page.
Compared to the night sky I'd just gazed at, they were utterly insignificant. Yet looking at these insignificant things brought a smile to my face unbidden.
- Gim U-jin...
I could vividly picture her clambering stubbornly onto my lap, gripping a pencil with some bizarre hold, and scrawling letters as crooked as drawings.
A dry laugh escaped me.
The emotions untouched by the Fairy, the ones that reacted solely to her, slowly filled my body.
When they had fully saturated me,
...Ssssssssh.
I dyed the surrounding mana with my will.
The mana, gradually transforming, cascaded like a chain reaction across the entire academy.
It soon took the shape of Ha-na's massive barrier and settled over the academy.
'No one was caught in it immediately, I see.'
Whether the outsiders had guarded it well, or whether those bastards still lacked the nerve for it. I would be able to confirm that in two days.
"Hoo..."
Perhaps it was because I had separated a part of my consciousness while my equilibrium was still unsettled. A mild headache irritated my nerves.
I gradually dulled my senses and closed the open notebook, storing it back in the glass case. The Fairy's drawing settled over it. A truly absurd combination.
As my senses dulled, the headache naturally lessened.
I pushed my pen aside for a moment.
If I resumed writing the halted journal now, this mood would surely break.
Instead, I flipped through the journal's pages, slowly descending into the past.
'Come to think of it, I've never reread it.'
There was no need to read it, since I remembered every detail about her without missing a single one. Still, I opened to the very first page and read through the journal, one entry at a time.
The day I rescued her from the underground auction house.
The child who would climb onto my stomach at every opportunity.
Her awful sleeping habits, even drooling, which led me to stick a pacifier in her mouth for a while.
Like that, I turned page after page.
And when I returned to the half-finished page, I felt relieved.
'I still... remember.'
The piece of my soul that had broken off.
A part of my memory that would have resided within it.
At the very least, I would never realize, on my own, what memories I had lost. But fortunately, it seemed the days I spent with her were not among the memories that had broken away.
It was probably the memories 'Baek Woo-jin' possessed before entering this body that had broken off.
'Though it will only be a slight delay.'
I picked up the pen I'd pushed aside.
The child was trying to keep her distance from me.
Do not let it bother me.
Wasn't this what I had wanted?
'Do not forget your objective.'
A roof to briefly shelter from the raging storm.
That alone is enough.
And once the fierce storm has passed and the light returns to the sky once choked with dark clouds...
"She will find a proper home and start walking again."
A dull throb—
I had clearly shut off all sensation, yet a faint warmth pressed against my back.
"...Right."
I was probably smiling right now.
Because the child who will leave this roof and walk again will not be alone.
That is enough.
So, I will.
'Sweep away everything in the way.'
Starting with the Underworld bastards who are an eyesore.
I moved my halted pen once more.
***
Baek Ha-na's Room.
"The semester starts next week, huh..."
"Come to think of it, Ha-na, Seo-hee. Did you two finish your assignments?"
The children, slowly growing accustomed to training, were chattering away even at a late hour instead of sleeping.
"I'm Top Seat, so I don't have to do them."
"Ah, that's right."
"That's so damn unfair."
At Idni's sincere complaint, Maria, who was lying beside her, cracked her eyes open and turned to latch onto her friend.
"We don't have assignments either, so what's unfair about it?"
"Well, not the assignments... she gets loads of elixirs and stuff. And she's not bound by curfew either."
"Don't we get loads of elixirs too? And what would you even do with curfew freedom that makes you jealous?"
"Hmm..."
Idni couldn't easily answer Maria's question.
Maria let out a short sigh and pressed Idni's cheek firmly.
"See? You've got nothing to do, yet you get jealous for no reason. What am I going to do with you?"
"If I do anything else around here, I'll break my back, so cut me some slack."
"Goodness."
Maria sighed a little dramatically and turned over. Propping herself on a pillow, she looked toward Baek Ha-na, who was seated at her desk writing in her diary.
'...I can't tell at all whether she's okay or not.'
The small change that had come over Baek Ha-na was so subtle one might easily miss it, but Maria had noticed it in the end.
The time she spent visiting the study each morning had grown shorter.
Her spot at the dining table had shifted slightly.
After showering, she had started tying up the hair she always used to leave loose.
And...
'She doesn't chat with the professor anymore.'
To be precise, she no longer clung to him like she used to.
She made light conversation or asked for things when needed no differently than usual, but that was all.
'She does seem okay, but...'
Maria sincerely hoped that this change in her friend was a positive one.
To be honest, wasn't the relationship between Baek Ha-na and Baek Woo-jin closer to that of a parent and child?
No—one of them certainly thought so.
This wasn't to say she didn't support her friend's love.
She simply didn't want the friend she loved and cherished to get hurt.
"Ha-na?"
"...?"
Baek Ha-na, who had been writing in her diary, blinked and turned her head.
Maria mustered her gentlest smile and spoke.
"Did you finish your assignments?"
"...Assignments?"
From her beloved friend's reaction, Maria instantly knew.
'She didn't do them.'
It wasn't just that she hadn't done them; she had completely forgotten they existed.
"As far as I know, the Basic Transformation-Type lecture, the Mana Control lecture, and the Monster Dissection lecture all definitely assigned homework."
"You don't even go to the lectures, so how do you remember that?"
Idni asked with a fascinated expression, but Maria cleanly ignored her.
"...Ha-na didn't do them either."
"Yeah. I thought so."
Though she sighed outwardly, Maria felt a small measure of relief that Baek Ha-na hadn't done her assignments.
"Well, if everyone here pitches in, we can knock it all out quickly, so don't worry too much."
"Why would I help—"
Smack—!!
"Agh?!"
Idni, whose lips had been struck squarely by Maria's palm, thrashed and rolled across the floor. Yet, astonishingly, even tender-hearted Lee Na-young paid her no attention. Everyone had simply grown far too used to it.
"Right, Ha-na. I'll help you."
"Uh, yeah. I'll help you too!! I know a lot about monsters!!"
Unlike Idni, who was rolling on the floor, Nam Seo-hee and Lee Na-young actively offered their help.
"...Thanks."
Baek Ha-na scratched her cheek and expressed her gratitude to her friends.
Watching Baek Ha-na, Maria continued speaking.
"But I recall that the assignment for Monster Dissection requires actually entering a Rift."
"...Tsk, can't we just ask the professor for that?"
Idni said that as she rubbed her slightly reddened lips.
"He strictly separates personal and professional matters. You don't even know something that obvious?"
"...I bet if Baek Ha-na asked, he'd just do it."
To be perfectly honest, Maria couldn't deny that entirely.
But for the sake of lifting her friend's spirits, that path was off-limits.
"Ha-na?"
"...Even if I asked, he wouldn't do it."
A smile that looked somewhat lonely.
Maria's eyes widened, and she quickly continued.
"See. So while we're out doing the assignment, let's do some shopping and watch a movie before coming back."
Because the barrier had vanished, going out had been impossible, and all of the academy's convenience facilities had also suspended operations. They had effectively been confined to the mansion for over a month.
"Oh...!! Going out!! I'm for it!!"
"I-I'd like that too."
"If Ha-na is okay with it."
Starting with Idni, the children nodded and looked at Baek Ha-na.
"Ha-na?"
"I'd like that too. I'll treat you that day."
"Yay~!!"
Idni cheered that she had saved money, overly delighted.
Watching Baek Ha-na's smile, which didn't seem as bright as it used to be, Maria thought.
'But will the professor even let us go out alone...?'
Haunted by the feeling that she might have done something unnecessary, Maria spent another restless night.
