My Magic Was in the Sky
When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was an unfamiliar ceiling.
No.
Calling it unfamiliar at this point felt a little unfair.
I'd seen it yesterday, after all.
From the very first day of enrollment I had become a lunatic walking around with her heart outside her body, gotten marked by the Red Dragon princess, called down rain in a duel, and then gone out in a blaze of glory at the hot spring.
No—passed out.
It had been a good dragon life.
It just wasn't over yet.
I stared blankly at the ceiling for a while before slowly pushing myself upright. I was on my dormitory bed, and someone had already changed me into nightclothes.
Hold on a second.
Who?
I reflexively clutched the blanket to myself—then decided not to think about it at all. Digging into that particular truth right now could put me right back on the floor before I even made it to class.
On the small table beside the bed sat my Yeouiju and two sheets of paper. One was a schedule. The other was a note written in neat, careful handwriting.
Miss Cheongha.
I was quite startled when you suddenly collapsed yesterday.
I checked your condition and found nothing seriously wrong, but I thought it best for you to rest well through the morning, so I didn't wake you.
There is a basic mana manipulation class this afternoon. If you aren't feeling well, please don't push yourself—resting is perfectly fine.
I left the Yeouiju by your bedside. I thought you might feel anxious without it.
Please make sure to eat a proper meal, and dry your hair thoroughly before you go.
— Lydia Aurelia
I stared at the note for a long time.
Terrifying.
It was so kind it was terrifying.
When exactly had the Saintess become my mom?
Had the word "Mama" actually slipped out of my mouth yesterday?
If it had, I wanted to die.
I pressed a hand to my forehead and looked at the magic clock hanging on the wall.
Silence.
The clock looked back at me.
It probably had.
Time left until the afternoon class: fifteen minutes.
"I'm screwed."
My body launched itself out of bed on pure instinct. I practically tumbled off the mattress—and in that same instant my tail snagged on the blanket.
"Aaaah!"
Defeated right out of the gate.
I yanked my tail free, scooped up the Yeouiju, and threw open the wardrobe. The uniform was clean and dry. The problem was that today I had to put it on myself.
Buttons.
Ribbon.
Skirt.
Tail hole.
Why did a single school uniform need a walkthrough?
Someone had helped me yesterday—I was pretty sure—but since I had decided not to remember that, I was on my own. Clutching the Yeouiju in one hand, I wrestled the uniform into submission. The moment I finally got dressed, the next boss was waiting for me.
My hair.
The blue-green strands fell all the way to my waist and were tangled into a complete disaster. The comb jammed halfway through.
"Ow."
A girl's body, a girl's uniform, girl's hair, and tail maintenance—all of it brand new—and class started in ten minutes. Someone get me the admin.
I glared at the mess of hair and let out a long sigh.
"Could a little wind just blow through and untangle this for me?"
That was when it happened.
A soft blue light rippled inside the Yeouiju nestled against my chest.
A faint breeze stirred through the closed room. It slipped between the strands of my hair, gently shaking the knotted locks free. The comb slid a little farther down.
I froze with my hand still raised.
"Huh?"
The wind stopped. The room fell quiet again.
Coincidence?
The window was shut. I wanted to test it—but there were only eight minutes left until class.
"Later!"
I tied my hair into a rough bun and bolted out the door.
The corridors of Drakenheim Academy were wide and splendid even in the middle of the day. The problem was that "wide and splendid" also meant "excellent for getting lost." The schedule said Second Training Ground, but I had no idea where the Second Training Ground even was. The maps posted on the corridor walls looked less like campus guides and more like dungeon blueprints designed by a dragon.
Why were some passages restricted to students who could fly?
Have a little consideration for the wingless dragons.
In the end I ran on pure instinct. Running on instinct usually ends in disaster. This time, luckily, I arrived right before class started. The moment I appeared at the training ground entrance, every gaze in the area swung toward me at once.
"That's the one who made it rain on the training ground yesterday, right?"
"I heard she blocked Erika Rubellion's breath."
"There's a rumor she even filed for an official duel."
"She's the one who walks around carrying her Dragon Heart outside her body, yeah?"
Rumors traveled fast. Too fast. Less than a day had passed since Erika announced she would submit the form, and I still hadn't stamped my seal on anything—yet the atmosphere already treated the duel as a done deal. What kind of academy network were they running? 5G?
The stares were different from yesterday, though. It wasn't just people gawking at a weird new student. Mixed in were eyes that looked eager to see what kind of power this breath-blocking freshman would show next.
Pressure.
Still… I didn't exactly hate it.
I squared my shoulders a little more than necessary and walked inside.
"Cheongha."
Kyle came over.
"You feeling okay?"
"Fine. Passing out at the hot spring wasn't because I overused mana."
"Then why did you collapse?"
"There are truths in this world better left unknown."
Kyle looked like he didn't follow, but he didn't push. Uncharacteristically sharp for the original protagonist.
"Calling down the rain yesterday was really amazing."
"Don't you start too. If someone told me to do it again, I might not be able to."
"But you did it once."
I had heard almost the same line from Erika yesterday. The belief that if you succeeded once, you could do it again. Zero evidence—and yet listening to them, I was starting to feel a little of it myself.
"You're here."
Erika walked over with her arms folded.
"I submitted the form."
"Why are you reporting that like attendance?"
"The student council president said it just needs a signature."
"I'm not signing."
"You will."
Where did that confidence even come from?
Lydia must have caught the exchange from a distance, because she came straight over.
"Miss Cheongha still needs her condition checked. Save the duel talk for later."
"I'm not saying we do it today."
"Then say it even later."
Erika's mouth shut. When the Saintess dug in her heels, even a Red Dragon took a step back. From behind Lydia I gave a tiny nod of approval.
As expected of the Saintess. Reliable as ever.
Selene was there too, watching us with a brand-new notebook in her hands. I had no idea what had become of the soaked one from yesterday, but the appearance of a replacement told me everything I needed to know. The possibility of the recording stopping had officially died.
The mana manipulation professor was a young man with short grey hair. He raised a hand, and a tiny light gathered at his fingertips.
"Today you will train to draw out your elemental mana at will."
A small mass of mana slowly rotated above his fingers.
"A dragon's magic begins in the Dragon Heart. Feel the mana circulating inside your body, convert it into the attribute you desire, and bring it outside. That is the foundation."
One by one, students raised their hands. Flames. Ice crystals. Sparks of electricity. Blue droplets of water. Small magics bloomed at every fingertip. Erika rolled a flame across her fingers like a toy.
That was basic?
Unreal.
My turn came. I cradled the Yeouiju in one hand and held the other out. I closed my eyes. Gather mana at the fingertips. No need for fire or ice. Wind. Just enough to stir hair the way it had in my room that morning would be plenty.
Nothing happened.
My palm was clean. So clean I almost thought it wasn't mine. The fact that I still hadn't adapted to this body hit me all over again.
"Student Cheongha."
The professor stopped in front of me.
"I'm doing it."
"I haven't said a word yet."
"I heard it in your face."
His eyes narrowed. Why did everyone narrow their eyes around here? Was that the default dragon expression?
"I heard you brought rain down on the training ground yesterday."
"I don't know how I did that either."
"Did you create water from your fingertips?"
"No."
"Any sensation of drawing mana out from inside your body?"
"None."
His gaze dropped to the Yeouiju nestled against my chest.
"Then what did you feel?"
I thought back to that moment yesterday. Erika's breath. The soaring column of water. Storm clouds packing the sky. The Yeouiju surging like a wave in my hand.
"It felt like something moving… outside."
"Outside."
The professor considered for a moment, then pointed toward the edge of the training ground. Multi-colored flags used for elemental training hung there, all flapping in the same direction under a breeze from the left.
"Ordinary dragons draw power from the Dragon Heart inside their bodies and send it outward." His eyes returned to the Yeouiju. "But in Student Cheongha's case, the starting point itself may be different."
Not a Dragon Heart—a Yeouiju. I almost said it out loud, then held back. Right now the method mattered more than the name.
"Stop trying to create something that isn't at your fingertips. Move the wind that is already outside with your will." He indicated one of the blue flags. "Make only that flag move the other way."
Simple enough words. But the flag was enthusiastically flapping to the right with the wind. To send it left, I would have to change the wind's direction first.
I wrapped both hands around the Yeouiju and glared at the flag.
Left.
Move.
Nothing happened. Students' stares dug into my back. It felt exactly the same as when I had tried to force power into my fingertips—squeezing something that simply wasn't there. This wasn't it.
That morning I hadn't tried to create wind. I had just thought, please pass through my hair. Yesterday had been the same. I hadn't tried to make water. I had wished for the fire to go out.
I let the force drain out of my hands. Instead of staring at the single flag, I looked at everything around it. The wind shaking the cloth. The air brushing the ends of people's hair. Something sliding like a current over the damp floor of the training ground.
I couldn't see it with my eyes. But through the Yeouiju, I felt it—a slender, stream-like flow. Grab for it and it slipped between my fingers; ease up and it brushed my fingertips again.
Very carefully, I nudged the side of that current.
"Go left."
The blue light inside the Yeouiju rippled like water. The flag that had been flapping right stopped. The limp blue cloth slowly tilted the other way.
Left.
Against the wind.
The training ground went quiet. I stared at the flag without breathing.
It moved.
I moved it.
No sneeze. No breath attack flying at me. The wind moved because I wanted it to.
"It work—"
Joy broke my concentration.
Whumph!
The wind that had been shoved to one side burst all at once. Not just the blue flag—six neighboring flags flipped over together. The professor's papers shot into the air. Students' hair whipped wildly. Erika laughed. Lydia looked at me with wide, startled eyes. Only Selene caught a flying sheet with one hand while scribbling in her notebook with the other.
The professor peered at me through his mussed bangs.
"Student Cheongha."
"I think that was a success."
"You failed at control."
"But success comes first, doesn't it?"
A brief silence. The professor picked his papers off the floor.
"Fine. It was a success."
That single word made my chest flutter.
"See?"
Erika grinned with her arms still crossed.
"You can do it."
"Don't act like you knew from the beginning."
"I did know, though?"
Infuriating. And this time it was hard to argue. Erika had believed from the start that I could call rain again. Lydia was beaming as if she herself had succeeded. Kyle kept looking back and forth between me and the flag with a stunned expression. Selene's pen still hadn't stopped.
"External mana-flow interference. Wind-direction reversal. Control immature relative to output."
"Leave the last part out."
"It's a fact."
The professor spoke.
"Do it once more."
The smiles froze.
"Right now?"
"We need to confirm whether it was a fluke."
He wasn't wrong. Still, couldn't I enjoy the afterglow of success a little longer?
I wrapped my hands around the Yeouiju again. This time I didn't try to move the whole flag. Just the single current brushing the tip of the blue cloth. I tugged it, ever so slightly.
"This way."
The end of the flag trembled. The other flags stayed put. Only the blue cloth slowly tipped left. Weaker than before—but precise. The professor's papers stayed on the ground.
I looked straight at him.
"I think control succeeded this time too."
He checked the flag, then nodded.
"So it seems."
"And the praise?"
"I just said it was a success."
"That was for the first one."
"Do you plan to demand something every time you receive praise?"
"If possible."
Laughter broke out around us. The stares that had felt so heavy a moment ago softened. I looked at the flag again. Twice. Both times, without question, I had moved it.
Yesterday's rain had been an unexplainable accident. This was not. Even a small, pitiful breeze—I had called it with my own will.
The professor looked from the Yeouiju to the flag and back.
"Student Cheongha is closer to interfering with flows that already exist than to generating mana and projecting it outward."
Dragons pushed power from the inside out. I moved what was already outside. The method was different. It wasn't that I had no power.
I just wasn't a dragon.
I was a dragon—of the Eastern kind.
The corner of my mouth lifted on its own.
"By tomorrow, find that sensation again on your own," the professor added. "If you can move a single cloud, even better."
A cloud. Wasn't that a massive jump in difficulty after one flag?
But just a little while ago I had believed I could do nothing at all. Now it was different. I had moved the flow of the wind twice. Then maybe, just a little, a cloud was possible too.
"I'll try."
The answer came out before I could stop it.
Erika looked thoroughly satisfied.
"Good. Get at least that far before the official duel."
"I still haven't said I'm dueling."
"I submitted the form."
"So you submit the form alone and the duel takes two people?"
"Once you sign, it takes two."
Who said anyone was signing?
Before I could get the words out, Lydia rested a hand on my shoulder.
"You mustn't overdo it. Today was the first time you used that power properly."
"Moving a flag twice isn't exactly overdoing it, is it?"
"The first time you sent the professor's papers flying."
A fair point.
Selene stepped closer with her notebook open.
"Official duel application received. Cheongha's signature unconfirmed. External mana-interference ability successfully reproduced."
"Don't pack good news and bad news into the same sentence."
Erika talking about the duel. Lydia fretting over my body. Selene recording my ability. All three of them had their eyes on me. Belatedly I looked around. Kyle was watching from among the other students. He was smiling as if everything had gone well—except the person surrounded by the three heroines wasn't Kyle.
It was me.
In the original story, that place belonged to Kyle, not me. The one receiving Erika's interest, Lydia's worry, Selene's observation—all of it should have been the original protagonist.
Ah.
I had found a way to use my power. And somewhere along the way I had also stolen the original protagonist's seat.
I looked at the blue flag still swaying contentedly. Then I looked back at Kyle and the three heroines.
Wait.
Didn't I need to put the original story back where it belonged before I worried about any clouds?
