Course Registration (2)
Course Registration (2)
Baek Ha-na stared down at the smartphone on the floor in hollow disbelief. Then, with a stiff, mechanical jerk, she scooped it back up.
[ Professor: Baek Woo-jin ∥ Basic Riftology ∥ Annex A-1 ] (50/50)
She refreshed the screen again and again, but it didn't shift an inch from that first state.
"This is a dream..."
She couldn't take his lecture. If this wasn't a dream, what else could it be?
Unfortunately, denying reality changed nothing, and Baek Ha-na knew it. Her response shifted accordingly.
"It's a brand-new lecture. Nobody knows how it'll be run. It's an elective, for crying out loud. So why... why is it already full?!"
It wasn't even the weekend yet, and the entrance ceremony had been only that morning. Naturally, no one had experienced how the lecture would operate. And yet, Baek Woo-jin's class had hit capacity.
"No. This can't be happening... If I miss this, I'll literally only see him on the weekends..."
Baek Ha-na started biting her nails anxiously. Then her eyes flashed as if she'd just thought of something.
"Right. If I tell Woo-jin, he'll let me in."
She quickly went into her inbox, her finger hovering over Baek Woo-jin's name at the very top—and then she turned off the screen.
"...Asking for something like this would disappoint him..."
Her desire to be around him, even a little, was genuine, but she didn't want to use her own desires to make that kind of request.
"Fine. I'll just see him on the weekends."
After mulling it over, Baek Ha-na decided to accept reality.
In a short span of less than five minutes, she'd cycled through a lot of emotions. The moment she finally calmed herself and recovered her composure—
"...?"
"...!!"
Her eyes met Lee Na-young's. Lee Na-young was lying on the bed across from hers, and when their gazes met, she flinched, her small frame shrinking back as she looked away.
Baek Ha-na blinked at the reaction before speaking.
"Sorry. I yelled all of a sudden—it must've been loud."
"Huh? Ah, no. I-It's okay... yeah."
Anyone could see it wasn't okay, and Baek Ha-na could see it, too. She'd just left a terrible first impression on her roommate for the coming year, and she placed the blame squarely on Baek Woo-jin.
...Idiot.
Baek Woo-jin had done absolutely nothing wrong, but Baek Ha-na grumbled about him inwardly anyway and then turned toward her roommate, who had frozen stiff.
"I'm Baek Ha-na. I'm twenty."
"Uh, um, I-I'm Lee Na-young... I'm twenty, too..."
Lee Na-young slowly sat up on the bed and introduced herself, stammering.
Just those few sentences were enough for Baek Ha-na to get a rough read on her roommate's personality.
Perk—
"Huh...?"
Lee Na-young spotted the fluffy white animal ears that had suddenly sprouted atop Baek Ha-na's head, and her naturally wide eyes grew even larger.
At that, Baek Ha-na pointed at her own ears.
"Like you can see, I'm a Transformation-type Awakened. What about you?"
"M-Me? Um, I'm Ability-type... b-but, I'm a non-combat class..."
"Ah, I see. Non-combat class, so... Alchemy?"
"Huh? Wh-what, how'd you know...?"
Seeing the genuine surprise on Lee Na-young's face, Baek Ha-na scratched her cheek lightly.
"Just a guess."
"Oh. I, I see."
In truth, she'd deduced it from Lee Na-young's small build and timid personality, but that wasn't really something to say to her face, so Baek Ha-na glossed over it.
After that, with Baek Ha-na leading the conversation, they chatted about this and that and exchanged contact info.
-Ding.
Baek Ha-na had just saved Lee Na-young's number when her smartwatch lit up.
[ Idni: dinner down ]
[ Maria: I'll wait in front of the cafeteria main entrance ]
[ Nam Seo-hee: k ]
The moment Idni posted, the other two in the group chat quickly replied.
[ Me: mind if I bring my roommate? ]
[ Nam Seo-hee: it's fine. ]
[ Maria: of course ]
[ Idni: go go but Nam Seo-hee why are u only dry to me lmao ]
Lowering her arm, Baek Ha-na asked Lee Na-young, "Do you have anyone to eat dinner with?"
"Huh? Ah, no. I don't know anyone here..."
Lee Na-young, who'd barely recovered, started to wilt again.
"Then do you want to grab dinner with my friends? Or just us?"
"Ah, um, uhh..."
"I'm not forcing you. Don't feel pressured."
Baek Ha-na's cold appearance belied her overwhelming warmth. Lee Na-young didn't want to turn down the offer from someone who'd approached her first—and the tranquilizer she'd taken that morning was still working, anyway.
"I'll go..."
"You sure?"
"Yeah. It's okay."
The medicine was still in effect, after all.
Lee Na-young left the room with Baek Ha-na.
**
The student cafeteria was the largest building on campus outside of the main hall.
It had to be big—it was responsible for feeding students through all four years, as well as the professors and staff who stayed late for research and overtime.
To keep meals running smoothly by year, the cafeteria had entrances on each of the four sides—east, west, south, and north—matching the dormitory placements, and the interior was divided accordingly.
Thanks to that, Baek Ha-na and Lee Na-young could walk the ten-minute route to the cafeteria without running into any upperclassmen.
"Over there. Those three are my friends."
"O-oh, I see."
Following Baek Ha-na's finger, Lee Na-young spotted three distinctive-looking classmates standing by the cafeteria door. Pink hair, beige hair, and hair that was inky black. Two of them were even wearing the pure white clerical vestments distributed by the temples.
As Baek Ha-na approached with Lee Na-young in tow, the pink-haired Idni reacted first.
"Roommate?"
"Huh? Ah, yes, yes. I-I'm Lee Na-young..."
Smack—!!
"Eek!!"
"You're making her uncomfortable."
Maria watched Lee Na-young try to slip behind Baek Ha-na's back and delivered a crisp slap to Idni's back.
"Hello. I'm Maria, same age as Ha-na. That's Idni. And the one over there is Nam Seo-hee."
"Ah, y-yes."
"You're twenty, right?"
Maria treated her like a child, keeping an appropriate distance and even bending at the waist to meet her eyes. When she offered a gentle smile, Lee Na-young crept back out and gave a small nod.
Nam Seo-hee and Idni, watching from the side, muttered.
"Apprentice Priest, all right..."
"Whole different world from you."
"The hell's that supposed to mean, brat."
Leaving the two of them to bicker, Maria steadily closed the distance with Lee Na-young.
"So, want to be friends with us, too? Feel free to speak casually."
"Yes—ah, no... yeah..."
Lee Na-young carefully took Maria's extended hand and shook it.
"Hey, hey. If that's done, let's go eat already. We can talk while we eat; it's not like we've got anything else to do when we get back."
Idni headed into the cafeteria first, and then—
"That pig... Ah, she's not a bad person even if she seems like it, so don't get the wrong idea."
"Huh? Oh, o-okay."
"Well then, shall we?"
The four of them followed Idni inside.
"Whoa..."
Lee Na-young let out an innocent gasp of admiration at the sight of rare dishes she'd never seen in her life displayed before her.
She'd done her research on the academy, and pictures and articles had given her some idea, but seeing it with her own eyes made her jaw drop.
The five of them, now including Idni, each took small portions of what they wanted—or wanted to try—and found an empty table.
The cafeteria had a hundred more seats than the total first-year enrollment, a consideration for students who might find group meals uncomfortable. Even though plenty of students were already seated, the atmosphere felt remarkably calm and unhurried.
"Alchemist?"
"Y-yeah."
"Oho. Don't they usually pair special-admissions kids with other special-admissions kids?"
Idni asked, spoon still in her mouth, and Maria nodded from beside her.
"Right. I thought they normally matched roommates by specialty track."
"Nam Seo-hee. Your roomie?"
"Dunno."
"Yeah. Figured."
Idni stared daggers at Nam Seo-hee, who was sitting next to Baek Ha-na and munching on a salad, then turned to Baek Ha-na.
"Hey, Ha-na. Did you manage to get into the professor's class?"
"..."
Baek Ha-na, who'd been about to eat a chocolate-slathered marshmallow, froze.
"You didn't...?"
"...Yeah."
When Baek Ha-na sulked, Nam Seo-hee, still beside her, froze mid-bite, her fork screeching to a halt.
"What about you two?"
"Us? Well... we didn't."
"We have our hands full just with the mandatory core courses."
That wasn't a lie. Apprentice Clerics had different required lecture tracks depending on their temples, unlike other students.
Still, the real reason they hadn't registered for Baek Woo-jin's class was because his adjunct was Claire. To them, Claire was still a source of terror.
But Maria and Idni were under a slight misapprehension—they'd assumed Baek Ha-na already knew that fact, and unfortunately, she didn't yet.
"Haaah..."
As Baek Ha-na, who'd just barely collected herself, began to sink into gloom again, Idni panicked and quickly added, "Hey, hey. Don't worry. Right now everybody's bewitched by the professor and signed up, but once the taster sessions start tomorrow, they'll drop like flies."
"Right. The professor is anything but ordinary."
"...You think so?"
The moment Baek Ha-na lifted her head, Maria and Idni nodded vigorously.
Then Lee Na-young, who'd been quietly nibbling a marshmallow Baek Ha-na had given her, spoke up from the side.
"Um... I don't know what kind of class it is, but if it's not your major, couldn't you just take a spot through a Cession Battle... ?"
"She's right. That method exists, too."
"Yeah, Ha-na. If all else fails, you can always grab someone and take their spot."
Cession Battle. The very reason the academy was called the Arena.
Just as the professors fought Cession Battles for their rings every year, so too did the students for any number of reasons. As Lee Na-young had just pointed out, that included elective lecture seats.
It was also the reason the first year had no Top Seat or Second Seat. On a past occasion, a student who'd performed well on the entrance exam and been granted the Second Seat title couldn't hold it for more than a few weeks before losing to another student and breaking down. From then on, Top and Second Seats weren't assigned until the second year, when solid metrics had emerged.
"Hehe."
"Good grief. She seriously loves the professor that much."
When Baek Ha-na's sulk flipped into a sheepish grin, Idni gave her a what-can-you-do sort of look and chuckled.
With Baek Ha-na's mood restored, the five of them chatted idly over dessert. At some point in the conversation, it came out that Lee Na-young was a veteran player of "The Guild," and Maria wound up relocating to the seat right beside her.
"Good work today."
"Sleep well."
"See you tomorrow, Ha-na."
The three whose rooms were elsewhere departed, and Baek Ha-na returned with Lee Na-young to the space they'd be sharing for the next year.
"Th-thank you."
"Hm? It's nothing. It wasn't even heavy."
On the way back, Baek Ha-na had carried Lee Na-young's luggage for her. There was just no way Lee Na-young looked like she could manage three suitcases.
"Books, huh?"
"Huh? Yeah. They're reagents and notes I put together from my experiments."
"Ah, got it."
Because the room had its own shower, they both washed up and then unpacked. At one point, Baek Ha-na pulled out her diary and showed it to Lee Na-young.
"It's nothing special, but I write in it every day."
"A diary..."
"Do you want to read it?"
"Huh? A-are you sure that's okay?"
"Yeah. It's fine."
"Then... it's too late tonight, so I-I'll read it when we get back tomorrow."
"Okay."
Baek Ha-na glanced at Lee Na-young lying in bed and turned off the light. Then she switched on a small mood lamp above her own bed and wrote today's entry.
The moment she finished, she clicked off the lamp.
"G-good night, Ha-na..."
A tiny voice—but it carried a weight that made the courage behind it unmistakable.
"Good night to you, too."
"...Yeah."
Lee Na-young couldn't keep the corners of her lips from curving upward, so she ducked under her blanket and fell asleep like that.
**
"See you at lunch."
"O-okay."
Lee Na-young said goodbye to Baek Ha-na and left, and shortly after, Nam Seo-hee walked up.
"Shall we go?"
"Yeah. First up is Practical Combat Arts..."
Baek Ha-na and Nam Seo-hee were both in the same close-combat track and shared several lectures, so they'd decided to stick together for the day.
They got through their morning schedule, and lunch break arrived right on time.
"Anyone registered for Basic Riftology?! Please, just come out already!!"
"Administration, check with the Administration Department..."
"Fuck, why isn't the roster public?!"
"Stop hiding and show yourselves, you bastards!!"
A large pack of students was dashing around radiating pure menace, hunting for the classmates who had snagged spots in Basic Riftology.
Baffled by the sudden chaos, a dazed Baek Ha-na blinked and then turned to Idni, who'd been avoiding her gaze for a while now.
"What's going on?"
"Well... you see..."
Basic Riftology. The lecture that had taken place that morning. And the person who'd shown up there: Claire Vin Asen.
The Executor of the God of Amusement, who'd completely withdrawn from outside activities four years ago, had appeared as an adjunct professor.
Word spread like wildfire, and the students' eyes had rolled back in their heads. They were now on a frantic rampage, ready to beat down the fifty classmates who'd enrolled and steal those seats for themselves—and their numbers were exploding by the minute.
"Ha-na, hey... ?"
Idni gulped audibly at the sight of Baek Ha-na's sky-blue eyes, which had gone chillingly flat. The usual bright, clear irises had deepened, transforming in an instant into those of a predator.
"Sorry. I think I need to go find some people so I can get into that lecture, too."
"Huh? Y-yeah. Sh, should I, help... ?"
"No, it's fine. You all enjoy your lunch."
Smiling, Baek Ha-na walked off. Idni stared after her retreating back and murmured to herself.
"...Note to self: do not screw around with Ha-na."
A mouth that smiled like always, but eyes that were completely, disturbingly unsmiling.
The three left behind silently nodded their agreement.