I Miss My Sister
Honestly, there were plenty of areas where I lagged behind the students standing in front of me.
I hadn't accumulated so much as a speck of mana in my body, and even my basic physical ability and stamina were miles behind.
I'm training separately under Instructor Sayulcheon, but…
Tempering the body never came as easily as people liked to claim. I worked out diligently every evening after hours, yet grinding myself for barely two weeks was never going to produce some dramatic transformation.
Maybe it was the Ether in the air, but my body was definitely developing faster than it had before I possessed this world. Even so, the gap in years spent training from childhood meant I still couldn't match students who'd been at it their whole lives.
Give me another two or three months, and maybe then.
"No way—that can't be real!"
I'd been lost in thought, so it took me a second to notice one of the students jabbing a finger at me, huffing with indignation. My gaze flicked toward the sudden accusation—then an explosion bloomed, and a thick cloud of smoke swallowed my vision whole.
"…Is that seriously still alchemy?"
By the time the smoke cleared, I could see the female student who'd thrust her hand toward me, staring with a hollow look on her face. She was muttering to herself like her soul had left her body, and I was just thinking I'd better walk her to the infirmary after class when—
"Aaagh! Close range doesn't work either!"
A student who'd lunged in from behind me with a full-force punch went flying as if bounced off something, flopping onto his back and thrashing.
Performance confirmed.
I glanced around at the surrounding students and let out a quiet laugh. Barely a few minutes had passed, and already they were dividing roles among themselves and systematically trying to break me down. Impressive, as expected.
With that thought, I stretched a hand toward a tree trunk streaking toward me at high speed.
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!
The trunk, moving at something close to train speed, slammed into the Transmutation Barrier and instantly shredded into a spray of sawdust.
"Whoa—he blocked that?"
"The other instructors can all do at least this much."
When I smiled at them with easy composure, Jerie—who had been the most aggressive of them from the start—let out a dry, disbelieving laugh. The shadows across her face, paired with that decadent air of hers, made her look unnervingly cold. Still, I couldn't go easy on her just for that.
If anything, she was the one I needed to clash with the hardest.
Jerie's skill was high enough that even bringing in an Origin Academy graduate wouldn't guarantee a win against her. In other words, Jerie alone was roughly equal to the rest of the class put together.
If this were Instructor Sayulcheon's class, even Jerie would struggle to take the win alone right now.
But these students belonged to Instructor Ecclesia. Compared to the main cast who showed up constantly in the game's story, this room was packed with supporting characters and extras who only appeared now and then.
Even so, the students in this class are skilled enough to watch a fight and judge its level.
This was a battle between me and Jerie—someone who could go toe-to-toe with a graduate or better. Granted, it was unfolding as a one-sided curb-stomp in my favor, but it was more than enough for them to grasp just how high the exchanges flying between us really were.
A wall that couldn't be overcome even if everyone joined forces. That was how Jerie must have looked to Ecclesia's students—and yet against me, she couldn't land a single clean hit.
"You've been wrapping yourself in some kind of invisible barrier this whole time, haven't you?"
Dozens of tree trunks erupted from every direction around me, coiling into a sphere and tightening like a cage. The moment Jerie clenched her fist, the wooden sphere contracted with a violent snap.
BOOM!
This time, not even sawdust remained. Her attack decomposed and vanished completely.
"Anything material that comes within a certain range of you gets broken down. Non-material attacks get shoved away from the inside by some kind of energy."
I laughed at that. She really was on another level. While the other students flailed in panic and just kept dumping more raw power into everything they threw, Jerie calmly analyzed me.
"I have no idea how something like that is even possible."
"It's a slightly complicated form of alchemy."
"Figured as much."
It was something I'd developed while wandering the Destroyed Kingdom, testing just how far alchemy could interfere with the world. I'd named it simply—the Transmutation Barrier—but its operating principle was anything but simple.
"I decompose every threat approaching my surroundings while simultaneously generating a powerful repulsive force from the surface of my body."
"I've never heard of alchemy handling energy."
"That's only because no one has tried it before. If you transmute at the subatomic level, it's perfectly possible."
If all things in the world originated from elementary particles, then energy, too, rested on the concept of fundamental interactions. The strong force, electromagnetism, the weak force, gravity—those four alone could explain every form of energy in the universe. And those fundamental interactions could be artificially reproduced through the exchange of gauge bosons, particles in their own right. Since it used matter and energy that already existed, it didn't even violate the law of equivalent exchange. As long as an alchemist could handle the elementary particles found by splitting matter down far enough, any of them could do it.
"More importantly—are we already done?"
I stopped explaining and swept my gaze across the classroom. The place was a complete wreck, smashed and overturned in every direction, but I could fix all of that with alchemy whenever I wanted, so I didn't particularly care. The state of the room had only been a side observation anyway. What I wanted to see were the students.
Because while I'd been giving that brief explanation of my Transmutation Barrier, not a single interruption had come.
Did they actually give up?
I looked around. Every student was standing there with vacant expressions, letting out empty, helpless laughs.
…Yeah. They'd given up.
"Well then—will you acknowledge me now?"
Ten minutes were just about up. I took the Elixir bottle standing on the lectern, gave it a light shake, and spoke. Defeat and regret lingered in every pair of eyes, but the world of contests had always been merciless.
"In that case, let's fix the classroom first and get started with the lesson!"
For the record, I stashed the Elixir in the subspace pocket of my instructor's coat.
Once I learn a proper cultivation method, I'll have to save it carefully.
After the uproar had passed, class began as if nothing had happened at all.
"As you all know, alchemy generally relies on the assistance of a Transmutation Circle. In that case, the Transmutation Circle…"
Truthfully, the students of Ecclesia's class had expected either to relocate to another room, or for today's lesson to simply be canceled. The classroom had been pulverized—ceiling, floor, and walls all crushed and overturned. It looked so catastrophic that rebuilding the entire structure from scratch wouldn't have seemed unreasonable. Desks and chairs had naturally been destroyed in the chaos as well, so by any ordinary measure, holding class should have been impossible.
And he fixed it with alchemy. Like it was nothing—just stomped his foot once.
That was what things had looked like until the alchemist currently standing at the lectern, diligently explaining the fundamentals of composite Transmutation Circles, had transmuted the entire classroom back into shape.
Seriously… what even is this man?
Jerie sat in an empty seat, chin propped on her hand, studying Ryu Seojun at the lectern with a long, steady gaze. She'd already thought of him as an extraordinary person—someone whose train of thought was nearly impossible to follow. Their first meeting alone had been bizarre enough. Still, for someone with goals as large as his, having real skill was a good thing.
He said he'd free me from the Green Forest Dawn Society.
Jerie stared blankly at Ryu Seojun's face as he cheerfully ran through the lesson. Before coming to the classroom, back in Building 12 of the research wing, they'd exchanged a few words while he stuffed all kinds of materials into his pockets.
—I still don't get it. If you want the Green Forest Dawn Society gone, you could just storm in yourself and wipe them out.
He was strong. He wielded alchemy so abnormal that seeing it still didn't make it make sense. If he truly attacked the Green Forest Dawn Society's stronghold, not even an elf elder—not even an elf elder's grandfather—would stand a chance. You'd need something like the legendary progenitor just to make it a real fight.
—You're being way too obvious about looking out for me. You don't seem like a sucker, but you sure act like one.
—…Calling me a sucker is a little harsh. More importantly—is it that obvious?
But he hadn't done that. He'd gone out of his way to meet her, gone out of his way to talk her over with words, and drawn her onto his side. He'd even told her where he lived.
Jerie, well-versed in the methods of the back alleys, had been more suspicious of that kindness than anything else.
I was planning to just throw myself at him head-on and figure out what he was really after.
Objectively speaking, she was a fairly valuable asset. Not because of some trite story about a princess's noble bloodline—coldly assessed, her utility was simply high. Jerie tapped her fingers against the desk as she thought it through.
If someone took her hostage, they could negotiate with the elf elders from a position of strength. Those old men would never give up the progenitor's power she carried. That alone was more than enough reason for him to scheme against her—but after thinking it over carefully, another possibility had occurred to her.
He was a young man, after all. In the prime of youth. Looking at someone he found attractive, some baser impulse could easily take root.
So, half wondering, I even tried a little seduction.
She'd closed the distance without warning, shown him unguarded sides of herself. She'd teased him with words ripe for misunderstanding and invited him into her bed, and she'd even chosen the room right next to his for herself—just in case the only reason he'd helped her was that he'd taken a liking to her as a woman.
Jerie had heard that people blinded by love turned into fools.
I was pretty confident in my figure and my face.
She hadn't particularly worked at maintaining them, but her body was full and curved in all the right places. And with elven blood in her veins, her face was the kind that left ordinary beauties unable to even present their cards. Even the idiots in the back alleys had constantly tried to pull something on her.
If the reason he was helping her came from desire, Jerie had been fully prepared to use that.
But he never touched me.
He hadn't come into her room all night. He'd brushed off her careless morning appearance without batting an eye, and instead treated her with a strange look and a stranger attitude. That was when Jerie finally understood.
She understood what kind of feeling had made him bring her home, and why he was going this far to help her.
…How irritating.
What he'd shown her wasn't the kind of favor meant to win over someone he loved. It wasn't desire—it was pity. The face of someone trying to open the heart of a person he wanted to look after because he felt sorry for them.
—I said it back at the industrial complex too. As long as you're happy, that's enough for me.
Pity. Or whatever name best fit that emotion. It was a feeling she had always thoroughly despised.
Treating me like some poor little kid.
Whenever people treated her that way, Jerie's response had always been the same. Being looked down on for being young made her skin crawl, so she made sure they never thought that way again. And yet—for some reason—the kindness of the man at the lectern, of Ryu Seojun, was something she couldn't shove away like that.
He reminds me of my sister.
Offering kindness without conditions. Taking losses so blatantly it made him look like a sucker. In those parts of him, she kept seeing her sister's face overlaid on his.
Reason whispered to her.
Steal the Elixir. Steal it and run. Achieve your goal.
It wouldn't even be hard. Slip the Elixir out of his coat pocket, or snatch it the moment he took it out and bolt. That would be the end of it.
But—
…Maybe I should wait a little longer.
Jerie erased that temptation from her mind. There was still plenty of time, and she'd already confirmed he had the capacity to give her an Elixir.
That sucker still has more use left in him.
Calling herself a cunning fox, Jerie began to lay out a plan. Right now his kindness came from nothing but pity—but if that pity ever blossomed into romantic feeling, he'd hand over his liver, his gallbladder, everything he had. In Jerie's dictionary, there was no such thing as a loss. Sacrificing future gains for a single bottle of Elixir right now would be a loss in its own right.
In that case, the year she'd pledged by oath…
If she thought of it as a light investment, she could wait as long as she needed.
I can wait. Of course I can.
Before she knew it, Jerie's expression had softened into a warm smile and a gentle gaze.
Ah… I miss my sister.
…Though she herself had no idea she was making that face at all.