A Glimpse of the Past (2)
Months had passed since she enrolled in the academy without incident.
“Um… h-hi, Eline?”
A girl, accompanied by her friends, had approached Eline with visible caution. *Not again…* It was a conversation she had grown accustomed to, though she had lost count of how many times it had happened.
“What.”
“…I don’t understand this. Could you teach me?”
The girl tentatively held out the problem she was struggling with. Eline cast a fleeting glance at it. After staring for a moment, she scribbled a few things down without a word and immediately returned her focus to her own book.
“The formula at the top is wrong.”
“Oh… I, I see. Thank you!”
The girl expressed her gratitude while staring intently at Eline, but Eline simply remained absorbed in her reading. Many students had tried to strike up a conversation with Eline like this, but the result was always the same: indifference.
Eventually, the girl, looking half-ready to cry, spoke up carefully.
“I’ll… be going then?”
“Yeah.”
Eline answered listlessly. Having never made a friend, she couldn’t help but treat those who approached her with goodwill with the same cold detachment.
Just like this girl, many had tried to get close to Eline at the start of the semester, but she had brushed off every hand extended toward her.
To her, the concept of a friend was unnecessary. Or perhaps, because she had never made any since childhood, she had naturally ceased to see them as important.
In the end, those reaching hands vanished one by one, and no one was left around her. A scary person. That was the image Eline had acquired. She didn’t care. No, she didn’t have the luxury to care.
“Student Eline, this is an official document from the Magic Tower. Would you mind reading it?”
“Yes.”
“You did very well on this exam. The President has called for a meeting.”
“Understood.”
Proving the prestige of her family. Showing everyone what the Payless name stood for. That was the entirety of her life. Her father, her grandfather, and her own siblings—they were all the same.
She thought it was only natural for her to be the same, too. Her path had already been set.
Taking walks was her only joy. In quiet places, she could feel the beating of her own heart, and if she closed her eyes and stayed still, she felt as if she were becoming one with nature.
She loved feeling the scent of the earth, the soft breeze, and the warmth of the sunlight, which made her feel truly alive.
‘…’
She always spent her weekends walking alone, and on days she didn’t, she was always studying. That was Eline’s daily routine and her life.
Time flowed without incident until summer arrived, bringing scorching heat and the relentless chirping of cicadas. Then, the incident occurred.
“The trolls have escaped!”
Under the sweltering sun, the academy plunged into chaos, triggered by someone’s sudden shout. The news spread that the trolls—intermediate-level magical beasts kept for practical training—had broken out of their cages, whether due to the manager’s negligence or otherwise, and were running wild.
Though their destructive power and danger levels were lower than those encountered in the wild, they were still magical beasts. The academy issued an emergency evacuation order and canceled all lectures. Eline, in the middle of a class, put down the ancient text she was reading and joined the evacuation line.
“Everyone, follow your assigned instructors to the shelter!”
The sound of instructions being issued with military precision echoed loudly throughout the academy. The alarm, which she might have been hearing for the first time, the commotion of the students, and the heavy, thundering footsteps of the security personnel reverberated through the hallways.
The Academy Shelter—a place she had heard of in passing during her first tour of the academy after enrollment.
‘That place was built long ago, during the wars…’
Not long after Erasion Academy was founded, a massive civil war broke out in the empire, and the second President at the time had installed shelters throughout the academy to protect the students.
Of course, she had heard that it was rarely used afterward and now served only as a commemorative site, but no one could have predicted it would be used again like this.
‘…’
But that wasn’t a matter of importance to Eline. She walked on, mapping out her next schedule and revising her plans in her head. Given the academy’s capabilities, it would be resolved quickly anyway.
“Students, this way!”
She stopped dead. In front of her lay a set of rusted stairs she had to descend, and the smell of scrap metal, weathered by the passage of time, stung her nostrils.
*Thump.*
Even though it wasn’t that place, the smell and the structure were terrifyingly identical. *Thump, thump.* Narrow, dark, and damp—the place she hated most. Memories of the past.
‘Go inside. Think about what you did wrong.’
As the stern voice of her father—who wasn’t even here—echoed in her head like a reverberation, her heart began to race. The instructor leading the group was flustered by Eline’s sudden hesitation and urged her forward, but she couldn’t easily lift her feet.
“Get in quickly! The students behind you are waiting!”
“…”
Eventually, under the constant prodding, she had no choice but to take one step after another. She forced her feet to move, walking cautiously while trying to calm her mind.
*It’s in the past, this isn’t that place, I didn’t do anything wrong.*
Even so, she couldn’t stop her body from trembling. As she managed to descend the stairs, pitch-black darkness greeted her, illuminated only by a small, red mana stone inside the shelter.
“I’m scared…”
“It’ll be fine…”
“*Sob*…”
Inside the shelter, she could hear the whimpering of a few students who had entered with her, which finally dragged the memories of her childhood to the surface. The place she had been sent to countless times when she did something wrong or failed to meet expectations.
‘I’m sorry, Father.’
The solitary confinement room of the Payless Mansion.
‘…Please let me out.’
A place that was dark, where she could hear nothing but her own sobbing. *‘I’m scared.’* The trembling wouldn’t stop. Her hands grew damp with sweat, and the sound of her heartbeat echoed through her head. She stumbled and took a seat in the corner.
“…I didn’t do anything wrong.”
She muttered hollowly, fidgeting with her hands. As the students’ fearful murmurs began to swirl around her ears, she instinctively curled her body up and bowed her head low. Eline’s reason had fallen into the abyss far too easily.
‘What did I do wrong?’
Why did she come to a place like this? What mistake had she made? Her body began to tremble minutely. She simply squeezed her eyes shut, hoping for this situation to end quickly. Even if time passed, and even if this wasn’t that place, it was difficult to control the fear that had already been ingrained in her instincts.
‘…Please, just end it quickly.’
As the door opened once more and the sounds of students arriving from other areas and the urgent voices of the instructors filled the air, she curled up even tighter, wrapping her arms around herself.
Thud.
When she bumped into someone, she jumped in instinctual terror.
“…!”
“Ah, sorry. I couldn’t see.”
The voice heard in the darkness was calm and apologetic.
“Hey, hey, move over a bit. There’s no room.”
“There are people here too, don’t push, Ross.”
The voices of students. Because the shelter was small and narrow, bumping into each other was inevitable. However.
‘…’
The voice was familiar.
“Sorry, excuse me for a moment.”
The boy pressed right up against her side and, seemingly having found his spot, sat down next to her. He let out a light sigh and began to talk quietly with his friend.
“Why are there trolls all of a sudden?”
“Who knows? Thanks to them, we get to skip class, isn’t that great?”
“…I suppose so.”
It was an everyday conversation. Were they not scared? Their incredibly calm and ordinary dialogue seemed to be saying, *‘This is nothing.’*
“Did you say you were meeting that guy today… Valrod?”
“Yeah, he’s from the East. A real piece of work.”
Under normal circumstances, it was a conversation she wouldn’t have been interested in—or rather, wouldn’t have paid any attention to—but for some reason, Eline kept listening. Since fear is contagious through atmosphere, their conversation felt like it was diluting her terror.
“Hey, are you okay?”
The voice that had been heard in the darkness was now directed at her. Eline, not knowing how to answer the sudden question, remained frozen.
“You’re trembling so much, try taking a deep breath. You’ll feel a bit better.”
It was an extremely obvious thing to say. Advice that if she took a deep breath, she would feel somewhat better. It was such a simple method, yet it was a way she hadn’t even thought of, consumed as she was by fear.
‘…’
As if she had finally regained her reason, she followed the boy’s advice and took a slow, deep breath. How many seconds passed? Her heart, which had been pounding violently, and her lungs, which had felt stifled by hyperventilation, regained their stability.
The voice of her father that had been echoing in her head began to fade. And in its place, the voice of the boy talking normally took root.
She had definitely heard it before.
She couldn’t remember where she had heard it. But… it was definitely a familiar voice. It was too faint to be one of the students who usually spoke to her, so Eline decided to slowly retrace her thoughts.
“Hey, Lutes.”
“Yeah?”
“It’s too dark, you got anything?”
Since combustible materials were prohibited inside the shelter, matches and lamps were restricted. There was only the eerie red light of the mana stone at the entrance.
“Hmm… they said not to use magic, either.”
“Just do me a favor. My laces are tangled.”
The boy next to her pondered for a moment, then muttered something.
“Just for a second.”
"Mana, heed my call and banish the shadows."
⟨ Holy Light ⟩
Pa-at!
‘…!’
Light began to appear in the darkness.
‘…*Holy Light*.’
A spell that converts mana into light.
“What the…?”
“It got bright.”
Perhaps because the students were seeing light in the darkness they hadn’t expected, they naturally turned their gazes toward it.
“This should be enough, right?”
Eline remembered that voice. No, she remembered *him*.
Checking the boy’s face flickering in the light with a sense of disbelief,
“…”
It was that boy she had met during the entrance exam.
“It’s just right, wait a second.”
Just as the blonde-haired boy, who seemed to be his friend, bowed his head to tie his laces, the light began to flicker precariously. The boy’s magic was bright and warm.
“…”
Eline didn’t take her eyes off the light, watching the profile of the boy holding it.
“Hey.”
“Yeah?”
Perhaps because she had been staring too intently, Ross seemed to notice Eline and gave Lutes a quiet nudge. When he turned his head, his eyes met Eline’s.
“…Ah.”
The distance was very close.
“Uh… sorry, is it too bright?”
Lutes’s eyes, looking at Eline, darted back and forth, appearing flustered. Seeing him lose the composure he had just a moment ago, Eline wanted to speak first.
‘You passed the exam, too.’
Just as she was about to open her mouth,
“Hey, Eline… right? Are you okay?”
Ah.
Eline realized. When they first met that day, she had been wearing a mask. She had been covering her hair. It was only natural that he wouldn’t recognize her. From his perspective, this must have been their first meeting.
Feeling the warm light and the heat radiating from his side, Eline shook her head slowly.
“…I’m fine.”
“O… okay.”
Lutes, seemingly burdened by making eye contact with her, quietly turned his head away.
“You students over there! No magic!”
At the professor’s shout, who had entered late, Lutes dispelled the magic, and darkness engulfed them once again. But Eline didn’t tremble anymore.
The warm sensation she felt from his side, and the sound of his comfortable conversation—*“I wonder what’s for lunch today.”*—continuing to reach her ears, meant her fear had long since vanished.
‘…Lutes.’
Even in their second meeting, she still felt that warmth.
A short while later, the trolls were subdued, and the students in the shelter returned to their original places.
The troll escape incident, which ended as a minor commotion, left many stories for the students, and it left a small ripple in Eline’s heart as well. From then on, whenever she ran into him in the hallway, Eline would watch him.
‘…’
He still flinched when he saw her and stepped aside just like the other students, but that didn’t matter at all. Since when had it started? Eline found herself wanting to talk to him again. She became curious about that warmth.
Perhaps it was just a misunderstanding she had felt because she had encountered him in the depths of extreme terror? And if it wasn’t, what on earth was this feeling? In the span of two very short meetings, the student named Lutes had taken a deeper place in her heart than any other student at the academy.
‘I want to talk to him.’
How should she approach him? She didn’t know the way. She had almost never initiated a conversation before.
Furthermore, since she and Lutes were in different classes, different fields, and had different grades, such a situation was even less likely to arise. Time flowed by indifferently, unaware of her heart.
And then, winter arrived. The season when life in the mountains seemed to fade away, leaving only bare branches, as if to conclude the year. The season when the academy was covered in white, with snow piled high. Eline encountered Lutes once again.