When Five People Gather, One of Them Is Bound to Be...? (3)

The room was closer to a little stage than a classroom.

Five honor students selected for the Seven Asterisms special lecture had gathered in Seonggwan Academy's audiovisual hall.

...Having a failing student like me mixed in with them was pretty awkward.

"Hello! I'm Hwi Eunha, the Greedy Wolf Star. The dorm food was delicious, by the way? Try not to overeat!"

Eunha had shown up later than promised, having washed up in my room and even eaten breakfast there. She flashed a bright little laugh and hopped straight up onto the podium.

The Greedy Wolf Star of the Big Dipper—Dubhe. A sorcerer of the highest rank, granted that name.

It had been two years since my childhood friend had taken her seat among the Seven Asterisms, the height every sorcerer in the world aspired to. At first, plenty of people had resented how young she was and doubted her ability. She was already fourth in the rankings.

Her growth was so much faster than in the original Jujutsu Gwi-hwan it was downright ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠terrifying.

"I may be your specially invited professor, but! We're the same age, so I'd love it if we could all get along—."

Eunha waved as if she were genuinely delighted to see them.

Applause should have broken out. The room stayed quiet.

Flustered, Eunha cleared her throat with a little "Ahem" and glanced down at a compact tablet.

"Yeees~. Then I'll take attendance! Star of my life. Pillar of my existence. I tap the roof of my mouth twice with the tip of my tongue and say it— Kim Beom!"

"Could you please not make a circus out of it today, Eunha."

Shame flooded heat into my face. I was already under suspicion of having been picked through connections. This was the confirmation shot.

"Beomie and I are practically a married couple, you know. Oh, wait~ that was supposed to be our little secret. Don't go spreading it around?"

Nah. More like a well-trained pet and its owner.

I grumbled that strictly on the inside—if it ever slipped out of my mouth, a supernova would come flying—and was just about to stop her when a pair of dry claps shoved the stale air aside.

"A well-matched pair. A match made in heaven, indeed."

A boy in horn-rimmed glasses spoke in a voice far too grave for his age. The sarcasm was thick enough to spread on toast, but Eunha spun toward him with her eyes sparkling.

"Really—? It looks that way to you too?"

"Hmph. Street mutts getting fawned over as a Seven Asterism and a Great Clan disciple—now that's a pair that suits each other. I shall soothe this midwinter chill in my gut with a warm cup of tea."

A tea set drifted through midair of its own accord and began brewing black tea. Qian-Kun Psychokinesis. A simple, brutally effective Innate Cursed Technique.

Wi Do-woon, first-year Class A, member of the disciplinary committee. He was also the heir of the Wi family, one of the Twelve Great Clans.

"You wouldn't claim not to know me, I trust?"

"──? I don't, though? Why would you assume I do. Overestimating yourself?"

Wi Do-woon made no effort to hide how thoroughly that offended him. Eunha answered with the blithe rudeness of someone who had no idea she was being rude. I shook my head and spoke up.

"You don't remember? During the Great Clan pilgrimage, he was the kid who got beat up by you the second-most after the Yongso young lady."

"Haa. I remembered Yongso Yu-whatever because lizards are creepy, but the plain glasses boy is a bit—."

"It's Yulha. The young lady would cry if she heard you."

We kept talking as if Wi Do-woon weren't even in the room. A blue vein stood out on his forehead. He looked ready to boil over.

An elegant flick of his fingers, and the teacup came whipping toward me. If that steaming tea hit me in the head, it would not end with a simple ow, hot.

A tiny star beaded in Eunha's palm. The moment she closed her hand around the light, it collapsed in an instant, folding in on itself until it became a black sphere.

The black sphere drifted forward and swallowed the incoming teacup whole.

"Tsk. No drinks during the teacher's class! Confiscated!"

Wi Do-woon made a choked sound and crossed his arms, his face tight with humiliation. A muscle jumped in his cheek, but in the end he seemed to accept that he was not even in Eunha's weight class.

"...Just as Mother said. She really is a crazy person."

Hair like the finest raw silk, white as snow. Slightly upturned blue eyes. A girl of cold, striking beauty delivered the line like a shard of ice.

Kyaaeng.

Ho Baekgu, the fox-scarf object wrapped around her neck, chimed in on cue.

This one was Seol Miho, also born of a Twelve Great Clan—the Seol family.

"Honestly! Miss Miho. The professor is not crazy!"

Eunha said it and rapped the podium for emphasis. Then she lifted a finger and added, as if it had only just occurred to her,

"A girl who's crazy in love, though—that I am. Ah, I like the sound of that. It feels infinitely close to the correct answer—."

"Unbelievable. To be more precise, this feels like holding a conversation with a boulder."

Seol Miho turned her head, white hair sweeping through the air. Realizing she was dealing with someone she could not talk sense into and backing off that quickly was the smart move, at least.

"Ehh~. Let's not fight like a bunch of kids, 'kay~? We're filming, after all."

A girl with vividly colored hair tied into two tails pointed at a crystal tablet floating beside her. When she smiled, a pair of sharp fangs showed in the gap between her lips.

Eunha's attention swung, a little too eagerly, toward the extravagantly dressed girl.

"You're BJ MiraMiracle, the three-million Jujutuber, right? I watch your streams! Aha, they're so ridiculously loud I put them on whenever those stubborn old geezers come barging into the office to complain."

"—Whewee~, the Greedy Wolf Star herself subscribes to this great me's channel? I'm honored~? Real name's Rumira. Pleasure to meetcha."

"Miss Mira, want to swap Jujustagram IDs?"

"Wow, oh my gosh~! Completely welcome."

The third member of the special lecture, Rumira, clicked with Eunha so well the two of them plunged straight into influencer small talk. She was the only one among the selected students with no tie to the Twelve Great Clans, which was probably why she treated Eunha without the slightest reservation.

"Fwaaahhh... nnngh. I'm with you on getting along."

Dongbaek Rinje of the Dongbaek family—the same girl who had knocked me out of the exhibition duel in the second round—rubbed her eyes as she spoke.

Roughly two hostile toward Eunha, two friendly, and one neutral, huh.

AI Hesed threw up a three-dimensional projection, and Eunha launched into the outline of the special lecture.

"Haha, I'm pretty terrible at teaching people, you know. I've been the strongest since the day I was born."

Bottomless confidence in her own power. Lecture skills that inspired considerably less faith. When I first heard the plan I hadn't known what to make of it, but this seemed to be the compromise she had come up with.

"So I thought about it, and I decided the special lecture will be a Seaside School! It kind of feels like a field trip~."

Her eyes sparkled as she pointed at the foreign landscape on the screen. Palm trees. An emerald shore. A stretch of blinding white sand. A southern country with the atmosphere of real-world Hawaii.

"It's an island severed into another world by the influence of a V-class Nephilim in the past—Lost Paradise. A divine beast that appeared there 'bound time,' so they say the climate has stayed as warm as it was in the distant past."

"Lost Paradise. A hidden hotspot~! My subscriber count is going to explode."

Rumira said it in a rush of excitement. Wi Do-woon, still sour, knit his brow slightly and pressed her.

"And why omit the Nephilim that appear there? The place is inhabited by fiends commonly called 'spirits.'"

The Nephilim of an ordinary barrier dungeon were chimeras stitched together from animal traits. The Rank-Gap barrier dungeon Lost Paradise, though, was a habitat for the kind of elemental spirits people pictured when they thought of a fantasy world.

"Mm—. That's right! You catch as many spirits as you can, and whoever collects the most Eunha Points becomes the special lecture MVP—the Best Student. And since we're ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠going all that way, we'll play at the beach, and beach volleyball, and have a barbecue party! Is that not allowed?"

Even an idiot could tell where your real interests were pointed.

"Why should we play along with the Greedy Wolf Star's amusement?"

Miho's eyes sharpened, and a cold breath slipped from her lips.

"That hurts my feelings. I merely wished to spend a youthful vacation with all of you."

Eunha put on a wounded little act, all two-faced sweetness, but the young lady of the Seol clan drove a pointed wedge straight into the gap.

"If there's nothing to gain ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠from the special lecture, is there any point in attending?"

"──!"

"Heh. I am in agreement with that statement."

"───!!"

"A Rank-Gap dungeon is beyond our level. An otherworld, no less. I shall withdraw."

"─────!!!"

"Nya-ha~. Even with the Greedy Wolf Star's guarantee, it's hard to just throw your life on the line, y'know."

Even Mira, whom she had thought she could count on, turned her down. Tears actually started to show as Eunha launched herself at me and crushed me in a hug.

This hurts every single time.

"Beom, they're being so mean, aren't ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠they? They have no respect for their professor—. Cheer me up!"

"They're not wrong, though. LostPa is dangerous. Think it over again."

"You're doing this to me too? Fine. Then we'll do it like this."

She shoved me aside, stood, and drove the Seven Asterisms blade at her belt into the lectern.

The endless night sky—her Domain, Honcheonsegwae—unfurled once more, and a small star-shaped fragment dropped into her hand.

"What?"

"To this special lecture's MVP, I'll award an object that grants any wish invoked under the authority of the Seven Asterisms."

In a heartbeat, the air around them began to take on a dangerous hue.