Chapter 23
**CHATPTER_TITLE: The Morning of the First Combat Class**
The hallway in the dusty biological classroom was quiet.
Liana bowed slightly at the waist, adjusting her skirt with a graceful, refined curtsy.
Then she said, “I’ll be going now.”
Arin smiled faintly. “Yeah, go on. I know your talent, so I expect great things from you.”
“Thank you, then…”
Liana lowered her head with a small bow and disappeared down the stairs.
The footsteps that had faintly echoed earlier had completely vanished.
I turned to look at Kama, who was standing quietly beside me.
No, not me. Kama.
At the moment, I was in Aria’s form, so she didn’t need to know who I was.
“Hmm, that was pretty good, Mu. You can be completely trusted.”
“Thank you, Mother!”
“Now you speak fluently. No need to worry.”
Mu. Her real name was Muite.
Until yesterday, she had been nothing more than a newly created homunculus without a name.
Now she had grown into a homunculus who could receive my name, study, and perfectly handle my stand-in role in just a few hours.
I praised Mu for her perfect performance acting like an spoiled younger sibling during the standoff with Liana, and Mu rubbed her head against my hand like a child.
It was a childish action, but that was only natural since she had been created less than a day ago.
Even though her body was adult, her mind still hadn’t fully matured.
So simply doing exactly what I taught her was enough.
But of course, I couldn’t let her spoiled behavior continue forever.
I checked the clock. It was almost time.
I removed my hand from Mu’s head and spoke softly.
“Avatar.”
A semi-transparent window appeared in front of me.
I touched the character with light-green hair.
[Combat Specialist – Do you wish to select Yujia?]
“Select.”
The moment I said it, my body changed instantly.
The height was almost the same as Aria’s. The face was sharp and energetic. Light-green ponytail. Amber eyes, not the golden ones of Liana’s. And on both hands were light-knuckle gloves, clearly showing the Combat Specialist class.
This body hadn’t changed much here either.
I moved several awkward steps in the slightly unfamiliar Yujia form and fully separated from Mu.
“I have to go to class. You can do well on your own. Change into a comfortable body and go to the appropriate teacher’s room.”
“Yes! I’ll go to Mother Meiel’s body then.”
Today’s class was only combat training.
The class would start soon, so I told Mu to fill one seat and promised to praise her after class.
Mu nodded without hesitation and changed her body.
Unlike me, who was wrapped in light for a moment, Mu’s body swelled and shrank like it was inflating.
When the adjustment was complete, Mu’s appearance was identical to yesterday’s Meiel.
Since Meiel was the first person I had seen since birth, perhaps changing into Meiel’s form was better.
Without any hesitation, I watched Mu transform into Meiel and gave her an awkward smile.
Then I checked the clock and realized it was really time to go.
I sprinted down the stairs.
“Leave it to me, Mu!”
“Yes, Mother!”
Mu answered brightly to my waving shout.
The proper plan for what to do next would be told to Mu after class.
It was really close to class time, so I had to hurry.
I would be late again like during the sword training class and get scolded.
***
Arin stood with her hands slightly tense, clasped together, and looked around.
It was the practical training ground for the combat class.
There were some students who looked weak, but also quite a few who looked very strong.
The ones who looked strong were probably Liana from the same class and the dark-blue-haired boy.
I heard rumors he was named Park.
But the reason Arin was tense wasn’t because of them.
Arin was tense because she was looking forward to seeing another younger sister of her respected teacher Aria.
That was why her body trembled with tension.
Arin had only seen the younger sisters of Aria as Yeonha, who worked in the cafeteria.
Even Yeonha was gone after lunch.
And Aria was the same. She had disappeared as if she had never existed, so the expectation of meeting her new younger sister couldn’t be erased easily.
What kind of person would she be? How strong would she be? How special?
There were already precedents with Aria and Yeonha, so the expectations and questions continued to grow.
“I’m looking forward to it…”
Arin murmured softly to herself without realizing.
In response, the door of the closed practical training ground was violently smashed and flew into the training ground.
Kwaaang——!!!
“Kyah?!”
“W-what is this all of a sudden?!”
“Uwaak!”
The door that suddenly shattered and flew in.
Of course, Arin’s head was full of countless thoughts in the situation that was no different from an ambush.
It was the day of the demon invasion yesterday.
The demons who invaded had been killed by Yeonha.
So, was she here for revenge on her comrades?
‘If she’s really a demon like yesterday, what’s the chance I win? What about the other kids here? Or are they even really demons?’
Her hand moved slowly toward the sword at her waist.
If she really was a demon, Arin would have rushed in and swung the sword.
But the moment she saw the person walking in with her hand in her pocket, she had to let go of the sword.
The light-green ponytail swaying slightly below her shoulders.
The amber eyes holding the students.
The tight-fitting outfit that accentuated her figure.
She had her hand in her pocketed outer jacket.
Arin had let go of the sword the instant she saw her.
‘I must have been too sensitive.’
The aura she had felt from Yeonha yesterday.
The aura that felt homologous to Aria’s.
She had felt that same aura from her.
In other words, the aura that said, “I am Aria’s younger sister!”
It was pouring out strongly.
She had been overly cautious because of what happened yesterday.
Arin concluded that and stood normally again.
The girl who smashed the door and came in still had her hand in her pocket and smiled widely at everyone.
And then the words that came out of her open mouth.
“Everyone, nice to meet you. I am Yujia. From today, I will be teaching you all the combat techniques.”
Arin’s expectations, which had been dormant for a moment, were reignited strongly.
***
“Mother Meiel’s body… is really soothing…”
While Yujia was teaching her combat class in the classroom, Mu, who had been asked to wait in the teacher’s room, was walking toward the classroom wearing Meiel’s appearance.
“Hey, over here, Meiel Professor.”
“Oh, it’s really you. This is the first time I’ve seen you when there’s no class…”
“Are you going to the teacher’s room?”
While walking, some students pointed at Mu and whispered, but Mu didn’t turn her head and continued walking with her short legs.
They were probably students who heard Meiel’s magic class, so there was no need to pay attention.
If it was something really important, they would have come closer instead of whispering from afar.
So Mu opened the main gate and entered the building.
Only then did she let out a small sigh at the reduced gazes.
“Mother always receives such burdensome looks…”
Mu had been created as a homunculus by Meiel and received knowledge of the five of them through the blood.
But that was only knowledge about their bodies.
Mu hadn’t inherited the memories of the mothers.
So Mu always thought they had lived under such gazes and felt admiration.
If someone asked why a homunculus could feel emotions, Mu would have answered without hesitation.
Although she firmly recognized herself as a machine that listens to commands, Mu was an existence capable of autonomous thought born through Meiel’s consideration.
Aria, Yujia, Kama, Meiel, Yeonha, and Mu herself.
Six bodies, but the mind that was conscious was strictly Mu’s own.
“…No more complicated thoughts. I have to go protect Mother’s words…”
Mu, who had thought too much and was starting to get a headache, rubbed her head and resumed walking.
The target was still Meiel’s classroom.
Her short legs were becoming uncomfortable.
Yujia, who had been about to fly there with magic like yesterday’s Meiel, raised her hand to the staff.
But at that moment, Mu’s hand froze at the sight of a girl’s face far outside the window.
“That girl…”
The words hadn’t been said properly yet, but Mu remembered it from last night’s lessons from Mother.
The girl who was on the list of the most important students at the academy that would start working today.
Mu’s own memory couldn’t be wrong.
The girl’s name was Kana.
Mother had said she was a girl who had lost her self-esteem due to yesterday’s class.
At the same time, she was carrying a magic parasite, which made her eyes indistinguishable from the demons’.
And about the other important students, the so-called representative characters.
Mu had heard how to respond to Kana.
So Mu lowered the staff and opened the main gate again.
Then she entered a place where no one was visible and cast any unknown wards.
The changing form was Yeonha.
Once the bubbling body boiled, Mu’s appearance instantly changed to Yeonha’s, not Meiel’s.
“Hmm, shall we go?”
Feeling the body lighter without the robe, Mu moved her feet toward the distant Kana.
There was still time until Mother’s class ended.
If she finished the work early, she would be praised again.