Magic with Professor Lim Sol!

Victoria Academy held a faculty meeting every Monday. Even as a visiting professor, Lim Sol was still technically staff — which meant she had no choice but to show up.

"So this time, the Chairman..."

As far as Lim Sol was concerned, the whole thing was a waste of time. They called it a faculty meeting, but it was really just a social hour. The actual agenda lasted maybe thirty minutes. Everything else was idle chatter.

"Ahaha, the Grade Director is just too funny!"

"Professor Park's sense of humor is no joke either, huh? Hehehe."

Laughter rolled through the conference room. Some professors played along and fed the atmosphere. Others, like Dr. Kang Hyo-rin, made no secret of doing their own thing on the side. But not a single person dared to stand up and walk out. After all, these were the people who signed their paychecks.

"Haa..."

Lim Sol sighed at the spectacle. They all wore the titles of professor and doctor, yet here they were, kissing up to people who just happened to have picked up a piece of chalk a few years earlier and calling them "seniors." She despised this kind of culture. And honestly, she had no reason to play along. She was a visiting professor personally invited by the Chairman and the Headmaster themselves.

She'd planned to wait the meeting out — she had a field-trip proposal to put forward, after all — but at this rate it didn't look like it would ever end.

"Grade Director."

In the end, Lim Sol cut straight through the chorus of polite laughter.

"Oh, yes, yes. Professor Lim Sol. Did you have something to say?"

"I'd like you to review the materials I submitted for tomorrow's field trip as soon as possible."

"Ah... I take it this is urgent. Just a moment, please."

The Grade Director kept his good-natured smile even at her abrupt request. He rummaged through the stack of papers, found hers, and nodded as he read.

"This looks excellent. Cadet Lee Ho-yeon is the pride of Victoria Academy. I think it would be wonderful for Professor Lim Sol to supervise him personally."

"Then I'll take that as approval."

"Mm. Of course."

Hoo. So she'd sat here for two hours just to hear that.

"Then I'll be heading out. I have a lot to prepare for tomorrow's visit to the Magic Expo."

She addressed the Grade Director who was running the meeting.

"Mm-hmm. Of course. Get some rest, Professor Lim Sol."

The Grade Director, who'd been chuckling along, widened his eyes for a moment, then nodded.

"Thank you."

She bowed. The Grade Director was the type to soak up flattery without a shred of self-awareness, but he wasn't a bad person. That was why Lim Sol still observed the bare minimum of courtesy. She kept her head down, avoided meeting anyone else's eyes, and slipped out of the conference room.

The room fell quiet for a beat after she left. Then the whispering started.

"What's gotten into her? Going to the Magic Expo? Normally she wouldn't even glance at magic she considers beneath her."

"Right? A professor who never paid anyone around her the slightest attention?"

"They went and hired someone with zero social skills and called her a professor... tsk tsk."

"That's what I'm saying. If you want to call yourself a mage, you should at least show some respect to your seniors..."

Most of the voices belonged to the magic professors. They still resented the fact that Lim Sol had the entire second floor of the Magic Hall to herself, and they couldn't stand what they considered her lack of manners. The truth was far pettier — they simply couldn't accept being outclassed by a young woman. But most of them looked away from that inferiority complex and attacked Lim Sol instead.

And Lim Sol, who'd heard every word from outside the door, slowly walked away.

She hadn't always shut people out like this. Conversation wasn't hard for her. It wasn't that she was wrong and they were right. They were just different. The same way she'd been born with a gift for magic, other people seemed to have been born with a gift for talking.

The mage community was incredibly small. Lim Sol had tried, at first, to fit in with the other mages. But regardless of her intentions, at some point most of the people she talked to would start frowning. Then they'd turn around and call her insufferable, say she acted like the world revolved around her — things she'd never said. Things she'd never even thought.

In the end, Lim Sol gave up on communicating with most people. It was easier to leave only the unusual ones — Baek A-young, Min Yeji, Lee Ho-yeon — and stop trying with everyone else. It was a survival strategy born from countless attempts and long experience. It wasn't that she didn't care about other people. They were the ones who'd shut her out.

Of course, there was a way to communicate. All she had to do was give up everything. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Swallow her meager pride, bow her head to her seniors, defer to her elders, and show reverence to the old guard. In a world where you weren't allowed to tell a talentless person clinging to magic, You have no gift for this — maybe try something else, that was how you survived. Hide your true feelings. Wear a false mask.

But Lim Sol hadn't been born that way.

She hadn't loved magic from the start. After they excluded her, magic was the one thing she could use to get under their skin — and luckily, it was also the thing she was best at. In the end, magic was all she had left.

And so she came to love it.

"Haa."

Lim Sol sighed again today and headed for her lab. She still had unfinished research waiting for her.

"We're heading out!"

"Daehee, don't yell."

Tuesday morning. Nam Da-eun and Nam Daehee were putting on their shoes at the front door.

"Thanks, Scarlet."

"It's no trouble. This is my job."

For the Nam sisters to leave the men's dormitory, they needed Scarlet's help. When she wasn't around, I usually walked ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠them out myself — but I had somewhere to be today. I was going to the Magic Expo with Lim Sol.

"Scarlet, you'd better come back soon. I'll get bored."

"Understood. Don't worry."

"Hold down the fort, Liliana."

I ruffled Liliana's hair as I spoke.

"Don't worry. I've been doing a great job so far."

"You're not going stir-crazy?"

"Nah, I'm fine. Scarlet's here too."

"It's okay if you go out with Scarlet when you get bored."

Unlike the Nam sisters, Liliana never went anywhere. I worried she'd go crazy cooped up in the house.

"Mmm... not really? Outside's not my thing."

"Alright. Buy whatever you want to eat."

"The card's mine, so don't even think about taking it."

Still, I was glad the dorm was so full of people. At least Liliana didn't look bored or depressed.

"You two have a good day too, Da-eun, Daehee."

"Okay, oppa!"

"You're not coming to the Academy this afternoon?"

Nam Da-eun asked as I said goodbye.

"I probably will. But just in case."

I wrapped up the goodbyes, waved to Liliana in her sweatpants, and left the dorm first. I needed to head straight to Professor Lim Sol's lab.

This is the first time I've legally skipped class.

I'd told Lucy and Rumi during yesterday afternoon's class, so they wouldn't worry if I wasn't there.

Elise... she probably won't worry, right?

I watched the cadets heading to class as I made my way to the Magic Hall. And in front of the building, I spotted a familiar silhouette.

Shimmering silver hair. That familiar sky-blue robe. Someone standing with her hands clasped behind her back, gazing up at the sky in an outfit I'd seen a hundred times. She must have sensed me approaching. She turned around slowly, a faint smile on her lips.

"Oh, my disciple's here?"

Naturally, it was Professor Lim Sol.

The Magic ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Expo. The name made it sound tedious — the kind of place where you'd find mages who'd never left their research dens — but it was surprisingly nothing like that. Held at regular intervals, it was a high-quality event where mages hunting for new magic circles or research leads shared information with one another. Of course, that also meant it was a bit removed from the general public. But that was to be expected. It was a Magic Expo, after all.

Lim Sol and I arrived at just such a place. In the middle of the bustling crowd, I looked at her and spoke.

"You're wearing that again?"

"What do you mean, 'again'? I change almost every day."

"...Almost?"

Lim Sol was dressed exactly the way she always was in her lab. An oversized pink blank t-shirt and black leggings — a fashion philosophy of maximum comfort. On top of that, she'd thrown on a single sky-blue robe and shown up at the Magic Expo like she was popping down to the convenience store. Granted, I wasn't in any position to lecture anyone about fashion while wearing my cadet uniform... but I had class in the afternoon, so I was off the hook.

"Yeah. If I'm not too busy with research, pretty much every day."

"...Ah. Got it."

Fair enough. Whether she changed her clothes every day or not wasn't really the point. What mattered was that she looked good.

"Where should we start? Magic tools, or magic circles?"

"Let's go wherever my disciple wants. I don't really care."

"Alright. Then let's do magic tools."

Lim Sol's expression was hard to read. She looked like she was in a good mood, or maybe a bad one. Somewhere in between.

I nodded after checking the status window.

"...Alright. Let's try this way."

"Yeah. Let's go."

Something must have soured her mood. Still, I was glad she was listening to me.

A short while later, we arrived at the magic tool exhibition.

"This one... even accounting for the useless formulas, the efficiency is decent. Especially this explanation over here..."

And there she was — Professor Lim Sol, her eyes sparkling.

She said it was boring, but look how much she's enjoying this.

I allowed myself a small smile behind her back. Leave it to a mage to get completely absorbed in this kind of thing. I stared hard at a magic tool labeled 3USJ2-JI5FUJ beside her.

I have no idea what I'm looking at.

It looked impressive, sure. But the magic I used was more efficient anyway.

"But this one's a real shame. The computational power dropped during the process of inscribing the magic circle. If it were me, I'd take the core formula and... ah, I haven't published that yet. Then if you make them resonate with each other..."

I supposed there was something to learn here if you looked at it through a mage's eyes. I was good at using magic, not at understanding it. Academically, I still lagged far behind Lim Sol.

"Professor. Let's go look at something else now."

I grabbed the arm of Lim Sol, who was muttering to herself about how to improve the magic tool, and dragged her away. The mage who'd submitted it was staring at her with increasingly wide eyes as he listened. I couldn't just let her give away this kind of valuable information for free. She was my teacher, after ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠all.

"There's still so much more..."

The professor's eyes were still locked on the magic tool. This woman was weirdly sincere about anything related to magic. Anyone watching would think she was the ghost of someone who'd died without finishing their magical research in a past life.

"We've got plenty of time. It's hot — want to grab a café for a bit?"

I had something I needed to talk to her about anyway, so this worked out. I grabbed Lim Sol's arm and tugged her along, straining.

A faint ripple—

Huh?

The moment I glanced away, a suspicious thread of mana caught my eye. Something murky — if I had to put a word to it, it felt malevolent.

Is this... or is it not? It's a little hard to tell.

There was so much mana swirling through the exhibition hall that the malevolent trace vanished in an instant, too fast to track down.

"Professor. Did you happen to sense anything strang—"

"This one uses a newly discovered method, doesn't it? Even though the structure of the magic circle is different, the activation method..."

"Ugh, seriously. Just come this way first."

Calming down the professor next to me took priority. If Professor Lim Sol hadn't said anything, I'd probably imagined it. I led her toward a café with a sign that read Iced Coffee.