You Must Be Happy With So Many Mo?ms (3)
You Must Be Happy With So Many Mo?ms (3)
* * *
A feather-light stimulus floated my consciousness to the surface.
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The ascent wasn't fast.
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Didn't seem like an emergency call from my split consciousness.
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I was still updating and cataloging the magic books... and the fully automated crisis observation I'd configured for emergencies was running fine.
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'Still clumsy and disorienting... but I'll get used to it.'
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Consciousness division. I attempted it last time using my knowledge of the original work, and it went better than expected.
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Plenty of rough edges, but even with those, the success itself is what matters.
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I'd originally planned to use Homogenization to mimic the consciousness-division Unique Ability, <ImagineBreak>... but I couldn't locate a manifestor for it, unfortunately.
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There were plenty of other Unique Abilities I wanted to look for.
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But I didn't find many.
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After all, the only places I'd really searched were parts of Scotland, a swath of China, and a quick foray around Seoul when I'd used a gate...
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'Unique Ability manifestors are rare. I have to account for that...'
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An extremely small fraction of the total population awakens as superhumans. And only a portion of those superhumans manifest a Unique Ability.
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Most of those Unique Abilities are physical types with no special traits.
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Swordsmanship and spear arts fall under basic technique categories.
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Then there are attribute types like fire, water, wind, earth, and lightning.
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Of course, you can gradually evolve them from there, but that's unavoidably difficult.
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Which means unusual and rare Unique Ability manifestors are bound to be few.
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'Most of the Unique Abilities I use through Homogenization I found at Siyoram.'
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There are so many Unique Ability manifestors at Siyoram it's almost dizzying.
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Even spreading Observation in every direction right now, nearly the entire student body seems to possess a Unique Ability. A small number have even manifested two.
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But outside, it's different.
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Even the people I ran into while poking around China were like that.
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Most were civilians who hadn't even awakened, and even among the assorted superhumans and necromancers I scuffled with, few had Unique Abilities.
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My consciousness rose gradually, and soon my senses reconnected.
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My cheek was warm and pillowed on something soft.
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I activated Observation.
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Ellia's figure came into clear focus.
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Ellia was sitting on the sofa, and I was lying with my head resting on her lap.
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A yellow blanket was pulled up to my chin, and I looked utterly content.
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"Baby? They said everyone's arriving soon. Time to get up~"
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A gentle voice settled in my ear. Slender fingers kneaded my cheek. She'd been trying to wake me like this for a while now.
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"Ahaha. That tickles, Ha-yul."
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- Hyaam...
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When I nuzzled my cheek, a bubbly laugh spilled out. Then a warm palm rubbed my cheek.
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A yawn escaped my mouth.
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To shake off the languor soaking my mind, I squirmed and pushed myself upright.
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More laughter sounded from above my head.
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"Ha-yul, you're like a caterpillar."
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[Hmph.]
[I'm not a caterpillar.]
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"That's not what I meant. I meant you're cute."
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[I don't like bugs...]
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"Oh? Ha-yul doesn't like bugs?"
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After settling me on the seat beside her, Ellia, who'd been playfully kneading my cheek, widened her eyes.
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"You didn't mind them at all during that Dungeon Raid class last time?"
That Dungeon Raid class?
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Ah... the one early in the semester? The terrain was forest back then, so bugs were unavoidable.
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[I couldn't exactly run away just because I hated them...]
[I don't like bugs...]
[They taste bad...]
[I hate cockroaches...]
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"Ah... ahem. I shouldn't have brought that up. I'm sorry."
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[It's okay...]
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A little time passed like that, me leaning back against the sofa.
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Just as the drowsiness gradually faded and my mind grew alert, a notification chimed from the door.
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[Cadet Baek A-rin, authenticated.]
[Cadet Hong Yeon-hwa, authenticated.]
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A familiar fragrance brushed my nose from between the doors sliding into the wall.
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The Sky Wing Feather fluttered about.
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Soon, Hong Yeon-hwa and Baek A-rin entered.
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I slowly opened my eyes and sensed Hong Yeon-hwa's figure, her brow faintly furrowed as if something dissatisfied her.
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My gaze met Hong Yeon-hwa's.
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I focused and moved my lips.
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"Yeon-hwa."
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Not a single stammer.
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Hong Yeon-hwa's eyes sparkled as she rushed over and scooped me up into her arms.
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"My Ha-yul. Nothing happened, right? That thing you had to do this morning—did it go well?"
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"Yes. Don't worry."
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My face was buried in her chest, which carried a sweet body scent. Overjoyed, I nuzzled my face against Hong Yeon-hwa's embrace.
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[Scent]
[Happy]
[Sweet]
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"Uh, ahem... I'm glad nothing happened."
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"What am I, an invisible person."
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Baek A-rin, who'd been standing behind her, muttered in disbelief as she abruptly approached.
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Her blue eyes stared intently into mine. I tried turning my gaze that way, but all I saw was a dense gray fog.
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"Looks like you really can't see me. And you won't even speak to me? Seriously, what principle is this working on."
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After confirming the focal point of my eyes, Baek A-rin tilted her head.
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[......]
'......'
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It's a curse... if I blurted that out, I might wind up on the brink of death again like last time.
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I tightly Harmonized the Confession Necklace so it wouldn't run wild again.
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"...Well, everyone has a secret or two they can't tell people. Isn't that right?"
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Baek A-rin shrugged her shoulders and asked me, still cradled in Hong Yeon-hwa's arms, as if seeking agreement.
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[Yes...]
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I nodded, feeling a bit awkward.
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*
.
.
.
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We sat around the circular table in the center of the room.
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I had no choice but the seat next to Hong Yeon-hwa.
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Ellia was beside me, and Baek A-rin sat across from us.
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"Am I a social outcast? I'm reporting this to Siyoram. Just so you know."
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"Don't be ridiculous..."
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[What held you two up, Ms. Hong Yeon-hwa and Ms. Baek A-rin?]
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I'd gotten a rough idea with Observation, but I hadn't measured the details precisely.
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Hong Yeon-hwa answered my question first.
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"I came from 『Comprehensive Combat Logic』 and 『Advanced Practical Swordsmanship』. Still just the introduction part, but it looks like there'll be plenty to learn."
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Comprehensive Combat Logic and Advanced Practical Swordsmanship...
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Exactly the kind of courses a combat-major like Hong Yeon-hwa would take.
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Especially Comprehensive Combat Logic—that was a subject I'd used quite a lot in the original.
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For weapon-skill proficiency, you had to take courses like swordsmanship or spear arts, but for overall brawling proficiency, Comprehensive Combat Logic was the most efficient subject.
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I recall the professor in charge was someone who once made a name for himself on the Demon Realm Frontline. He'd passed the top-grade examination, I think, but retired around then due to injury.
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I remember him as a figure with an achievement record worthy of an honorary top-grade hero.
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In particular, the 2nd Iteration had taken Comprehensive Combat Logic an awful lot.
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The Unique Ability the 2nd Iteration started with was <ImagineBreak>Combat Aptitude.
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Since it was, as the name suggests, a Unique Ability that provided all-purpose correction for combat, he'd truly squeezed every drop of benefit from Comprehensive Combat Logic.
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"I came from 『Advanced Magical Mechanics』. Honestly... it was so complicated my head's been throbbing."
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Baek A-rin replied, shaking her head like it was insufferable.
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She was a combat major too, but being so multi-talented, she was taking a variety of things.
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Advanced Magical Mechanics.
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A course where you intensively learn to analyze, interpret, and reconstruct constructed magical formulas, tearing them apart from rooftop to cellar.
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It's so difficult that if you go in half-prepared, your proficiency won't rise a lick and you'll just waste your time.
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[Did you also just attend the overview, Ms. Ellia?]
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"Yes, I only came from 『Curative Ability (Ⅱ)』."
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Ellia was a support-major cadet... and among those, she'd attended the major lecture that healing-type Unique Ability users take.
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'Hmm...'
Looks like everyone had already planned out their schedules.
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Well, since you can know the available courses in advance, they could have planned it thoroughly even during the first semester... or at least over the break.
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...I'd meant to plan mine over break while spending time with Seo-yul too, but things didn't go according to plan.
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I never imagined the Twin-headed Poison Dragon would revive, that I'd get beaten up, and wind up in this state.
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"You have to decide within this week too, Ha-yul. Do you have anything in mind?"
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"That's right, Ha-yul. Since you're a special admission student, you can apply for a huge number of courses, right? You can change mid-way, but you need to choose carefully right from the start."
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[Yeah.]
[There are a few I've thought about.]
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When I answered Ellia's question, I suddenly felt eyes on me.
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"What? You already decided?"
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Hong Yeon-hwa's eyes sparkled as she asked.
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[Yes.]
[I'm planning to take mainly magic courses.]
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Once I enter the Tower of Knowledge, I'll be able to study magic thoroughly.
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But ultimately, you can only study if you have the foundational knowledge. Until then, I intend to raise my magic level on my own.
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"Ma, magic...?"
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Hong Yeon-hwa's face, which had been filled with expectation, turned a bit sour.
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"Magic is good."
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In contrast, Baek A-rin brightened visibly and clapped her hands.
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"Do you have anything thought out in detail?"
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[I plan to follow the advice Professor Liana gave me.]
[I'm also considering Circuit Construction (Ⅱ) and Deployment/Reverse Deployment (Ⅱ).]
"It's definitely good to take Circuit Construction. It's used in every kind of magic. Same with Deployment and Reverse Deployment. Beyond that, courses I'd recommend are..."
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[Thanks for the suggestion.]
[I'll take those once I've completed the prerequisites...]
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For now, I planned to focus on magic.
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As for other subjects, I'd also learn crafting...
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"『Monster Taming and Response』? You're taking this too, Ha-yul?"
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Ellia, who'd been looking over my course list, tilted her head and asked.
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[Yes.]
[I'm interested, so I'm just dipping my toes in.]
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Monster Taming.
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It wasn't even a time-consuming course. Just a sort of elective you spend an hour or two on each week.
A course where you see various monsters in person and learn about training—commonly called taming.
It isn't a particularly popular subject, but it'll help with necromancy too, and since it might come in handy later, I figured I'd take just one.
There isn't really any homework either, so it shouldn't be a burden.
'Do they show unicorns here, too?'
Unicorn.
A high-ranking monster with a standard rank around 4th Rank. A rare specimen that even Siyoram only possesses a few of.
Ever since I blew away the bicorn's horn back then, I've kept thinking—what about a unicorn?
Surely a unicorn wouldn't hate me too? Honestly, I wasn't confident it would like me...
"Then I'll take it too."
"I'll take it too~"
[What?]
[But is that okay?]
Ellia and Baek A-rin adjusted their timetables right then. Taken aback, I asked again.
[Wouldn't it mess up your schedule?]
"It's fine. I have plenty of free time."
"I-I'll try it too."
Hong Yeon-hwa hurriedly modified her schedule.
"You, Yeon-hwa? Your approach is less about training and more about annihilation... Ack!"
"Quiet."
After a while, we sorted out the courses to register for.
I'd already received advice from Professor Liana.
Sharing opinions with the others made it fairly easy to organize.
Especially Baek A-rin's recommendations matched many of the courses I had in mind.
And there was some advice I hadn't thought of for the plan I had in mind.
Thanks to that, I was able to adjust things on the fly.
[...in mind...]
—Squish...
[Huh?]
A sensation reached my cheek.
The culprit was Hong Yeon-hwa.
Hong Yeon-hwa pressed my cheek with a sullen expression.
"Yeon-hwa?"
As I tilted my head, wondering what was up, Hong Yeon-hwa, looking a bit hesitant, asked softly:
"...Maybe I should try learning magic too."
"Could you, though?"
Baek A-rin across from her tilted her head and asked.
"The last time you opened an introductory text, you tore the book apart within two hours..."
"Aaaahhh! Shut up!"
Hong Yeon-hwa yelled. The sudden scream right next to me made me jump.
"Ah, ah! Sorry, Ha-yul...!"
[It's okay...]
My ears hurt...
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.
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"Hoo... we somehow finished."
Ellia beside me said, kneading her shoulder.
As she said, we were roughly done with the timetables. I'd still need a final review, but that would be quick.
"Shall we have some snacks? There's a lot laid out over there."
"Ah, I already checked. Lots of snacks, and various drinks in the fridge."
"What should I get for you, Ha-yul?"
[Ah, I'll...]
[Just one drink, please.]
"Got it~"
Hong Yeon-hwa and Ellia headed toward the refreshments.
"Oh, right, Ha-yul. Want to try some of this?"
[Hm?]
That was when.
Baek A-rin, who had been sitting quietly, clapped her hands as if she'd just remembered, and rummaged through the subspace pouch at her waist.
Soon, a black plastic bag emerged from her pale hand.
It was fairly large.
And it was a somewhat familiar sight.
As if affirming my thought, Baek A-rin pulled out the contents from the large plastic bag.
Soon, the contents were laid out on the table.
Long, pure white, with a glossy surface...
"What's that? Cylindrical rice cake?"
It was cylindrical rice cake. Perhaps because it was inside the subspace, it hadn't hardened and was still soft.
When Hong Yeon-hwa, who had come over with an armful of snacks, asked with a tilt of her head, Baek A-rin wagged her finger tsk-tsk.
"There's more than just that. Look closely."
As Baek A-rin said, the table held not only the cylindrical rice cake but all kinds of rice cakes, neatly arranged.
"Ah! I've tried this before. Isn't it songpyeon?"
Ellia, who was bringing drinks, pointed at round rice cakes in various colors like white, pink, and yellow.
"Yes, yes, that's right. But when did you try those? They wouldn't be well known in England."
Baek A-rin tilted her head and asked.
After the Great Cataclysm, cultures have become mixed in many ways, but many regional characteristics still remain.
Ellia's hometown was England... or was it Scotland? She didn't seem likely to enjoy songpyeon there.
"I tried it once before I first enrolled at Siyoram."
Ellia explained calmly.
"I once accidentally took the wrong gate and ended up in Seoul. While I was wandering around to kill time until the next gate, I tried songpyeon."
[Seoul? Enrollment?]
[When you met me?]
"Yes, yes, correct. That was the first time I ate it. There were lots of food streets nearby."
'Aha...?'
I nodded at Ellia's explanation.
Come to think of it, although Ellia's hometown is in England, the first place I met her was Seoul.
Since there was a gate terminal in England, she could have headed straight to Siyoram from England without going through Seoul.
At Ellia's explanation, Baek A-rin tilted her head in wonder.
"A mistake...? You can board the wrong gate by accident?"
"They said there was an error at the management center. You know, earlier this March, there were a lot of gate transfer mistakes."
"Ahh... that time? It was chaos. There'd never been an accident before, but then they happened one after another, causing a lot of talk."
"As for me, I had plenty of time and got generous compensation, so no complaints. And..."
Ellia reached out her hand to me. Her long, pale fingers tidied my hair neatly.
"Because if it hadn't been for that accident, I wouldn't have met Ha-yul. Whatever it was for others, to me it wasn't an accident; it was luck."
Ellia smiled brightly. At her genuinely relieved expression, my face also lit up.
[Meeting Ellia was my luck too.]
I meant that sincerely.
I truly consider meeting Ellia that day a stroke of luck.
In a way, maybe it was a fated? encounter.
At the time, I was in a state of crushing withdrawal, flinching and running away from any outside help.
It was then, of all times, that I met Ellia, who had spirit affinity, and received her help.
Her unfamiliar yet well-intentioned kindness gave me the opening for my crumpled mind to straighten out a little.
"Ahem... why'd you suddenly bring out all this rice cake?"
"Hm? Ha-yul likes rice cake, you know."
"What?"
Hong Yeon-hwa blinked.
"Didn't you even know that?"
Baek A-rin chuckled and picked up a piece of cylindrical rice cake.
"Here, try one."
Baek A-rin held out the cylindrical rice cake.
It was the same type of rice cake as the one I'd eaten before, ingredient-wise.
I opened my mouth slightly and bit the end of the rice cake. The cake broke off, and I chewed the chewy morsel.
"......"
"......?"
When I noticed the sudden quiet beside me and turned my head, I saw Hong Yeon-hwa looking somewhat shocked.
.
.
.
[But is it really okay for you, Yeon-hwa and Baek A-rin, to decide like this?]
"Huh? Why wouldn't it be?"
"No reason it wouldn't be."
[Eh?]
At my question, both tilted their heads. Their expressions of having no idea what I meant left me more flustered.
[Um...]
[Don't you need to coordinate with your friends?]
"Friends? Ahh..."
At my reply, Hong Yeon-hwa let out an exclamation.
Like, for example, Shin Seo-yul, who always mixed up names with Seo-yul... and some other friends.
Weren't they people from prominent families and factions who'd been close with Hong Yeon-hwa and Baek A-rin since childhood?
Even in the original... no, didn't they definitely hang out with those friends early in the first semester?
Lately, that didn't seem to be the case.
At my question, Hong Yeon-hwa and Baek A-rin looked at each other.
After a moment, they spoke at the same time.
"...Not really?"
"It's fine."
[...Really?]
Something about it made me tilt my head, but if they say so...
I roughly accepted it and went over the courses to register once more.
* * *
[Group Chat: Hong-Baek Team (6)]
▶Shin Seo-yul: Hey
▶Shin Seo-yul: Where'd Hong go?
▶Shin Seo-yul: I just saw her up front.
▶Yang Yoon-ha: Judging by how she bolted out, she probably went to meet Lee Ha-yul.
▶Shin Seo-yul: Ugh.
▶Shin Seo-yul: That girl didn't even share her course list.
▶Yang Yoon-ha: This year, it's not the first or second time we've been dumped.
▶Shin Seo-yul: You a genius?
...
▶Shin Seo-yul: But where did Baek go?
▶Shin Seo-yul: Actually, she didn't share her course list from the start either.
▶Lee Si-eun: I saw.
▶Shin Seo-yul: Where?
▶Lee Si-eun: She flew off with Hong.
▶Shin Seo-yul: So we got ditched by Baek too?
▶Yang Yoon-ha: Seriously, a Hong-Baek team without Hong and Baek.
[Group Chat: Room Without Hong-Baek (4)]
▶Shin Seo-yul: Baek is a fucking nutjob too.
▶Shin Seo-yul: Like that tournament, too.
▶Shin Seo-yul: Is she messing with what Hong had bid on right now?
▶Shin Seo-yul: Fuck, at this rate isn't it gonna be a war?
▶Lee Si-eun: War isn't some dick.
▶Lee Si-eun: Why not just say Taesan got involved too and the Three Great Families are having internal strife?
▶Yang Yoon-ha: Would a war break out over one guy, Seo-yul?
▶Shin Seo-yul: Don't you know reality is worse than fiction?
▶Shin Seo-yul: Huh? Don't you know 'ruinous beauty'?
▶Shin Seo-yul: If you see Lee Ha-yul's transformed appearance, you'd think they'd even go to war to steal him.
▶Lee Si-eun: I don't know about war.
▶Lee Si-eun: If someone leaks the chat logs, you'd be the first to get cut.
▶Shin Seo-yul: If I die, you die too, you fuck.
...
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