Chapter 96
Chapter 96
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 96
Chapter Title: 18. Hard Worker
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I hate mornings. Or rather, I’m the type who sleeps in a lot. In my past life, it was because I didn’t have a regular schedule, but even now that I go to bed early for the sake of growing taller, I’m still weak in the mornings.
On school days, I get up early, but if there’s no reason to, I don’t want to even when the alarm goes off.
That only happens at home, though. When I’m not at home, it’s uncomfortable, so I end up waking up early. Even after I started adjusting the dream world with illusion magic, it was the same. So today, when I opened my eyes, it was around 5 a.m.
“Haaah…”
I stared blankly at the time with bleary eyes and thought it was way too early. But once I’m awake, it’s hard for me to fall back asleep. Naps are something I maybe take once every six months.
Since I was already up, I decided to do some stamina training with a jog. I threw on a cardigan over my thin clothes and headed outside. As soon as I stepped out, I saw a light mist hanging around. Dawn mist and jogging—it felt like a poetic combination. Above all, I liked how quiet everything was. The sounds of the wind, rustling trees, and birds in that silence were pleasing too.
I jogged slowly along the hillside. As I ran, I focused my mind and began releasing a steady amount of mana around my body, circulating it. This is how I practice controlling mana while jogging or going about daily life. Doing it repeatedly makes me feel like my mana capacity grows faster.
After running like that for a while, I heard noisy voices from somewhere. The voices sounded familiar. I turned toward them, and sure enough, there were the faces I expected.
“Ah, what did I do!”
“I don’t know, you jerk!”
“Argh, I was just being honest!”
“Idiot! Where’s your sense of delicacy?”
“Ah, it’s just one thing and you’re making a huge…”
“What are you two doing?”
When I asked, Hansu and Inha, who had been arguing, jumped in surprise and turned to look at me. I stopped running and looked at their faces.
Listening to their bickering made it feel oddly subtle. Like a newly dating couple fighting… Of course, that couldn’t be it.
Inha rushed over to me as soon as she saw me. She pointed at Hansu and grumbled.
“There’s this thing, Eunha. This guy, I messed up my pronunciation earlier because I wasn’t fully awake, right? And he’s been teasing me about it nonstop. He’s such a jerk.”
“Whoa… Hansu, that’s not cool.”
I patted Inha’s back as she hugged me and looked at Hansu. He flushed red with an indignant expression.
“W-what! What’s wrong with laughing at a slip of the tongue? I just said it was cute!”
“You were holding back laughter!”
I watched them for a moment, then whispered to Hansu with a mischievous glint in my eyes.
“Yeah, yeah. Was it that cuwte?”
“Hey…! That’s not what I meant… I was trying to comfort her!”
“How was it cuwte?”
“Hey!”
Hansu’s face turned beet red. Inha blinked in surprise. Huh. So now he’s even telling Inha she’s cute? Pretty smooth.
Well, I was a little worried he’d only learned how to flirt with girls while hanging out with us. For the record, I don’t get flustered because I’m a kid.
In the end, I stopped jogging and went for a walk with the two of them. So what was the slip-up? Apparently, she just mispronounced because she wasn’t awake yet. After a leisurely stroll, Inha and Hansu blocked me when I tried to start jogging again. That morning, the three of us just laughed and chatted.
Before I knew it, it was time to get up officially. I swallowed my regret and went to wash up and eat breakfast.
“Where were you?”
“For a walk. Ran into Hansu and Inha along the way.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. They were fighting… For a second, I thought someone was being jealous.”
“Hmm… They’d make a great couple. Both so handsome and pretty.”
“Right? Heh.”
We gossiped in tones that were obviously teasing. After eating, we played a bit more before heading out on schedule for the training camp. Following the teacher’s instructions, we did 30 minutes of meditation, then hiked a course around the mountain for about an hour and a half—similar to yesterday but a bit different. Today was attack training instead of evasion. It involved hitting moving dolls or robots floating on the lake with magic. Me? …I hit quite a few.
Truth be told, my magic aiming is pretty unconventional compared to other kids. Normal people aim by throwing or shooting toward the target… but I generate the mana right at the target location. There’s no precursor, the attack path is hard to see, the time from activation to impact is extremely short so most don’t notice until it hits, and above all, since I aim with my eyes and senses, it’s easy to land hits.
I started attacking that way because I wasn’t good at throwing to aim—bodily aiming, basically. But that seemed pretty unusual to others. The teacher and friends who were used to me were fine, but the other kids looked shocked when they saw my magic burst like that. I only realized it was unusual this time.
I heard that my method is way more advanced than throwing to hit. Magic usually weakens the farther it travels from the user.
But to me, it felt the same either way. Thrown mana weakens as it travels toward the target too. Stronger up close, weaker far away. No difference in the end, right?
So it doesn’t matter which way you do it.
After lunch, the first afternoon session was a big deal. Sparring training, and as expected, it was with the sixth graders.
“Teacher! Isn’t this a bit unfair?”
“Yeah, Teacher~!”
“It’s fine. Fifth-year skill or sixth-year skill, it’s all the same.”
No, it’s not. A year’s difference is huge for kids. That only doesn’t matter for adult mages…
Ugh, seriously.
“Don’t worry. It doesn’t have to be different grades. Just pair up appropriately.”
Hmm, sparring. Free sparring. I pondered who to pair with. Friends would be most comfortable, but also tricky. Sparring them with magic… I’d have to go all out.
Minhee immediately went to ask Hyunho for a spar. As I wondered what to do alone, someone grabbed my hand from behind.
“Hey, Eunha.”
“Oh, Yujeong Sister.”
I turned to Yujeong Sister with a slightly bright smile. She had her short black hair, reaching just below her shoulders, tied with a ribbon headband. It suited her perfectly.
“Hey. Long time no see.”
“Yeah. Long time.”
“Is Inho Brother here too?”
“Yeah, over there. Oh, but hey.”
Yujeong Sister smiled brightly at me.
“Wanna spar with me?”
“…Huh?”
I looked at her in surprise, then shrank back a little.
“Um, but… Aren’t you hiding your skills?”
“That’s beside the point. It’s okay, right?”
“Yeah… Sure.”
She beamed happily at my answer.
“I’ve wanted to spar with you. Unique magic only?”
“Yeah. Sounds good.”
I readily agreed. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’d ever sparred with Yujeong Sister or Inho Brother. Actually, this might be the first time.
We stood in a corner of the sparring field. In an unobserved spot, we synced up and started. Right after the start signal, as I was about to probe slowly, I flinched in surprise. In an instant, Yujeong Sister’s ice shards surrounded me.
I expanded my vision. I fired character magic at the incoming ice shards.
『Melt』
I knew Yujeong Sister was using magic in earnest. So I didn’t hold back and attacked. I blew illusion wind to scatter the remaining shards.
“…!”
At that moment, chains rose from the ground and wrapped around me. I looked in shock at the chains binding my body. Cold began emanating from them, freezing me.
The surroundings felt quiet. I glanced at the chains, then looked up at Yujeong Sister.
“Yujeong Sister. Is this okay?”
“You guys already showed your skills. So Inho and I figured it’s fine too.”
“…I see.”
If they thought that, it was okay. I gazed calmly at the chains trying to freeze me. Then the ice shards began cracking and falling off one by one. The cracks spread along the ice to the chains. Fractures appeared, and metal pieces broke off. Yujeong Sister hardened her expression and poured more mana into the chains.
“It’s useless. That’s illusion magic, right? I know my own magic best. It won’t break from that.”
“Yujeong Sister.”
I smiled brightly at her. But regardless of her thoughts, cracks continued forming in the ice and chains. Everything binding me shattered like glass—except for one.
Clang!
“…!”
“If you just don’t believe what you see, how easy would that be.”
As Yujeong Sister said, it was an illusion. But I’d materialized it for that instant, shattering the magic.
I grabbed the one intact chain left—deliberately spared. I shouted a character spell.
“『Lightning』!”
Crackle!
Lightning gathered in my hand and surged through the remaining chain. “Kyaa!” Yujeong Sister let go before getting shocked.
As soon as the chains fell off, I erected a thin barrier around me. I also spread my unique magic mana outward.
I raised my hand and opened an illusion notebook. It was filled with characters I often used in combat training. Floating in the air, it flipped pages on its own. The round barrier protected the book.
“Hyah…!”
Yujeong Sister rapidly generated ice shards and launched them at me. I pulled out a character from the notebook.
『Nullify!』
Crack! Shatter! Clang!
The incoming shards shattered noisily. They scattered around.
“Kyaaah!!”
Yujeong Sister got hit by a large rebounding shard and collapsed. But actually, that was an illusion too.
I’d nullified the shards but hadn’t made them shatter so spectacularly. Why would I do something that dangerous? Even without intent to harm, we’d both get hurt.
Yujeong Sister, collapsed and bracing for pain, looked up when nothing happened. She widened her eyes at the empty air and my face. Ugh… She realized it was an illusion and bowed her head for a moment.
Kneeling means defeat in sparring. Yujeong Sister pointed at me with a frustrated look.
“Again! One more! This was too anticlimactic!”
She was right. For a spar, this was too quick. I accepted the rematch.
Lost in the fight, we didn’t notice the crowd gathering. We clashed magic again. I shattered rising ice with illusion quartz, sliced incoming attacks with illusion swords, reflected remaining ice with character magic, and even when Yujeong Sister braced against large-scale illusions, she fell to mixed-in mana shots.
So… total victory for me.
After four straight losses in follow-ups, Yujeong Sister swallowed her frustration and muttered emptily.
“At least I’m stronger than Inho.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Never lost to him.”
I unconsciously compared their mana from what I’d seen recently. Hm, mana isn’t everything, but Inho Brother’s is stronger… Though he might be disadvantaged in offense.
But something told me that wasn’t all. Inho Brother’s like me in some ways, and…
…He doesn’t like Yujeong Sister?
Hm. Recalling his face, it clicked. Oh, so that’s it.
While talking with Yujeong Sister, I glanced around and startled. I realized it right before the fifth round, after the fourth. Everyone was watching us. Aaaah!!
I whipped my head forward to Yujeong Sister. My expression must’ve been stiff because she asked curiously.
“What’s wrong?”
I subtly pointed to the side. She looked, then froze and turned back with a troubled face.
“Should we… stop here? For today…”
Yujeong Sister had a timid side like me. We nodded together.
But slipping away into the crowd would just draw stares following us. I grabbed her hand and teleported near Inho Brother, who wasn’t sparring. He jumped at our sudden appearance.
“What are you guys doing? Sudden teleport?”
“The stares were too much… We escaped.”
Inho Brother nodded like he got it.
“You two were amazing. Mana storms swirling around you. The noise was huge—everyone was watching.”
My mistake for not checking during the spar. I scratched my head. Should’ve put up a barrier.
…
On second thought, that might’ve been weird too.
“But Yujeong, you didn’t get hurt, right?”
“Y-yeah. No? Not at all. I know Eunha’s magic is illusions. Just flashy.”
“Still…”
Inho Brother scanned her body worriedly with tender eyes. Watching, I nodded, thinking, yep. They should just date already.
Once he confirmed Yujeong Sister was unharmed, Inho Brother turned to me.
“Eunha, you okay?”
“Yeah. Totally fine.”
Truthfully, I’ve never gotten hurt sparring peers. Not even a graze. Makes sense—I always layer a barrier before starting. I hate pain.
“Oh yeah, there’s another attention-grabbing spar. Wanna watch? Hansu and Inha have been wrecking the area.”
“Huh?”
I looked where Inho Brother pointed. Sure enough, Hansu and Inha were fighting spectacularly. Inha smashing trees with light and setting them ablaze, Hansu generating branches to block and countering with unique + attribute magic combos…
Boom! Crackle! Huge sounds echoed with every spell. Watching, I muttered.
Even fights that balanced are rare at that level.
Ardell watched the scene in stunned silence. Not just her—the kids who usually badmouthed Yoo Eunha with her were the same.
It was completely different from when she faced other kids. The atmosphere alone was worlds apart.
Clang! Boom!
The Yoo Eunha Ardell knew always seemed gentle and hesitant. Her blank face looked coldly aloof at times, but Ardell saw her as just a timid girl. Never strong. It all tied to that ‘vibe.’
But not now. She felt like a ‘true powerhouse.’
Unlike with peers, her eyes coldly scanned surroundings with detached fairness. An icy blank expression unreadable.
Above all, the mana pressure was different. Their clashes whipped up storms.
Even though Eunha deflected most attacks just before impact.
“No way…”
Ardell clearly felt it then. An ‘overwhelming presence,’ like an adult mage seeing her.
Not just Eunha—the girl opposing her was the same. Never heard of a sixth grader that strong. Other sixth graders murmured in confusion. They were the center of attention.
‘No way…’
Ardell clutched her face and bowed her head.
Self-loathing surged. Ardell had magic talent, raised by a dark organization. But reaching her level meant brutal torture and training. Her childhood memories were pain and rage. She cried endlessly, trained till vomiting blood.
Yet… the strength she barely gained, this peaceful, oblivious girl had it effortlessly.
With superior talent, no desperate effort like hers, no struggle to survive, she stood there casually.
Ardell dropped her hands, clenched her fists, and bit her lip. What was my past suffering for? She wanted to demand of God.
‘What are you, really.’
The terrifying mana hidden by her usual timidness showed now.
‘Why appear before me?’
That day, Ardell was a mess. She dodged instinctive attacks but couldn’t call it a proper day. Everywhere she looked, Eunha. Seeing her smile from afar blinded her painfully.
To Ardell, Eunha was a girl born into privilege, taking everything. Talent-earned skill, loving family, friends, admirers.
A blessed person—the inferiority, love-hate proving it…
After training, Ardell sat on an empty lobby sofa, skipping dinner. After endless turmoil, she clenched her fist and resolved.
‘Then I’ll get stronger.’
Her eyes blazed.
‘Let everything go to a girl who does nothing? At least in skill, I’ll crush her.’
Ardell shot up.
‘She doesn’t even try anyway.’
Resolved, training urges flooded—putting aside relaxed life thoughts. Exhausted from camp schedule, but she wanted to train now.
‘This retreat has a few magic training rooms, right?’
Recalling, she headed for the full facility map. She found training rooms—all open, unrestricted. None jumped out, but several available.
Pondering, she traced the map downward. She spotted a large one on the outskirts, hard to see.
‘Out of sight. Perfect.’
Excited, she memorized and headed there. Far, different building.
She got lost briefly but found the isolated spot.
Entering the distant building’s interior, Ardell paused. Sounds from the training room—breathing, breaking?
‘Someone here first?’
This late? Curious, she tiptoed to peer through the high window. On tiptoes, she saw inside clearly.
Someone was there. A girl with long dark brown hair tied high. Sweating profusely, bent over, panting from long training.
Familiar face. Of course— the girl Ardell stalked yesterday and today.
Yoo Eunha.
‘Why… is she here?’
Reason obvious: training. What else?
But why? After exhausting day. No camp kid would want more. Except Ardell and Eunha.
Ardell bit her lip as her assumptions crumbled.
Blessed girl with talent, no effort. Ardell thought that. Even upgraded post-camp. Initially, just lucky, loved girl with mediocre skill.
But no poison, blank face fierce but timid. Such a pampered girl… secretly training?
‘This is weird.’
Feeling pathetic, Ardell held back tears, biting her lip hard.
‘Weird. That’s not right.’
She stared blankly at Eunha. Panting, then grinning, firing magic. Clearly character and barrier magic, but now wind attribute—immense power. Couldn’t see details through wall, but felt it. Her eyes sparkled.
‘She looks… happy…’
Ardell trudged back to her dorm. No more thoughts.