The Academy (1)
The room was pure white. It was a strange space that felt as if the word pure white had been defined right there. Countless soap bubbles drifted through the air. Each bubble had something special inside it—moving images playing within their translucent walls.
Nearly half of the bubbles showed nothing but gray static, crackling with noise. The other half, however, displayed crystal-clear footage. Curiosity pulled me toward one of the intact bubbles.
It was a first-person view. A girl was happily eating a delicious-looking meal. Having watched plenty of mukbang videos back in my original world, the scene felt strangely familiar. I kept watching as the girl in the bubble finished her food and turned around.
That was when I realized who she was.
My name was Kim■■. I was a thirty-seven-year-old office worker… and I was also the girl inside that soap bubble.
I stared at the bubble so hard I practically shoved my face into it. The moment I did, I felt my consciousness shoot upward, as if my soul were rocketing into the sky. Then I woke up.
Consciousness transfer complete. Memory synchronization in progress…
“Haaah…!”
I bolted upright, kicking the blanket off. It fluttered through the air before tumbling to the floor.
“A dream…?”
I touched my damp forehead. My fingers came away wet. I licked them to figure out what it was—salty.
“Ptooey, ptooey… It’s just sweat.”
I’d had a weird dream. Was it a nightmare? I wiped the sweat off with my sleeve and looked around. An unfamiliar room greeted me.
“Where…?”
This definitely wasn’t the research institute’s private room. Then where the hell was I?
While I was tilting my head in confusion, the door suddenly swung open.
“Oh, Miss Plea. You’re awake.”
“Director…? Right?”
“Correct.”
The old man nodded with a gentle chuckle. Hearing his voice and seeing that familiar smile, I was sure it was him. Still, I couldn’t figure out why I hadn’t recognized him immediately…
“Why do you look so old…?”
He looked noticeably older than the Director I remembered. My eyes trembled as I spoke. The Director stroked his beard with a troubled expression.
“Miss Plea, do you… remember what happened yesterday? Or rather, the events of that day?”
“Yesterday…?”
What had I done yesterday? I woke up, ate a special breakfast, took my final lesson from Dana, and then…
“Ah.”
It came back to me. Yesterday—no, two years ago—I had fought Dana and let my ability run wild. I summoned the sun from inside my inner world and knocked her out. And then…
“You knocked me unconscious, didn’t you, Director?”
“Well… yes.”
“You’re stronger than I thought.”
Even Dana, one of the 5 Greats, had been overwhelmed by me while I had the sun out. Yet the Director had overpowered that version of me with a single knuckle to the head. Still, I had technically won the bet to escape the institute.
Hehe.
“What’s with that creepy grin all of a sudden?”
“Nothing… Honestly, being locked up in that institute sucked ass. I’m just really happy I finally got out.”
I grinned mischievously at him. The Director frowned in displeasure, but eventually let out a sigh and sat down on the chair beside my bed.
“I see… So you still have most of your memories up to that day. Then I won’t need to explain everything again.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Ask away.”
“So… why do you look so old?”
Had fighting me accelerated his aging? Not that it was any of my business, but since we had some history, I looked at him with genuine curiosity.
But the Director’s answer completely blew past my expectations.
“Because you’ve been asleep for nearly two years.”
“…Excuse me?”
“Now that I think about it, you’re technically an adult now. According to the records, you’re twenty…”
“Wait, wait, wait—”
I quickly cut him off and tried to process it. Me, twenty? What kind of nonsense was that? I had woken up in the institute at age seven. Add the seven years I spent there and that made fourteen. Even if I’d slept like some forest princess for two years, that would only make me sixteen, right?
“How the hell did you calculate my age to get twenty?”
“Hm? Ah, you didn’t know…”
“Know what…?”
“The day you first met the Secretary and signed the contract, you were put into a capsule and slept for four years. So when you woke up in the institute, you weren’t seven—you were eleven.”
“That’s complete bullshit…”
I stared at him with my mouth open. The Director gave an awkward laugh.
“It’s the truth. What can I say?”
“My beautiful high school girl life…”
“If you had any special longing for the high school girl experience, I’ll comfort you personally.”
Comfort? Comfort? The very person who had folded up my youth like a paper airplane and tossed it away was offering to comfort me?
Furious, I jabbed my finger hard into his side.
“Ow! Miss Plea! Stop that!”
“Comfort? Comfort? You wanna die? You threw away someone’s youth like it was nothing and now you’re offering comfort?”
Stab. Stab. Stab.
My relentless finger strikes made the Director’s side cave in and bounce back repeatedly. Soon, cold sweat began dripping down his forehead.
“Ughhh… Have you calmed down yet?”
“Calmed down my ass… But you didn’t even resist, so I guess you know you messed up?”
Watching him grit his teeth in pain, I decided that was enough and stopped. He clearly knew he’d said the wrong thing, and I had zero interest in listening to an old man moan.
“I’ll let it slide this once.”
“Thank you…”
The Director clutched his aching side and groaned. I suddenly felt a little bad for tormenting an elderly man.
“By the way, Director, I get that I’m twenty now, but how old are you this year?”
“Me? I turned eighty-five this year.”
“Whoa… I really did commit elder abuse.”
I’d guessed he looked about sixty from his face. I never imagined he was already in his mid-eighties.
“It’s fine. I’ve lived a long life. This much is nothing… Anyway, do you have any other questions?”
“Other questions… Oh, right. What about my academy admission? And where exactly are we?”
“Calm down. I’ll answer one at a time. First, the building we’re in is the staff dormitory on the surface level of the institute. You were originally in the cultivation chamber, but since your treatment was finished and it was about time for you to wake up, I had you moved here.”
“What’s a cultivation chamber?”
From what I remembered of the fight with Dana two years ago, the entire basement of the institute had melted down. It should have taken years to restore…
“There was another basement level?”
The Director looked impressed that I had figured that out and nodded.
“You’re quite sharp.”
“…I’m not that stupid.”
“Well, you did half-ass your mandatory education, so I didn’t expect—Ack!”
He made another verbal slip. Without hesitation, my finger dug into his side again.
“Ugh… Ahem… My apologies. At my age, my tongue tends to slip.”
“Yeah, well, you’re practically on death’s door. It’s understandable if your brain’s a little scrambled.”
This time a vein actually popped on the Director’s forehead… but the victim talking back to the perpetrator? Besides, I was about to leave the institute anyway. He couldn’t punish me even if he wanted to.
“Haa… Anyway, after we treated the side effects of your ability going berserk, we moved you to the Secretary’s bedroom when it was almost time for you to wake. Let’s move on from this room. I’ll tell you about the academy.”
The Director pulled several A4 sheets from inside his suit jacket and handed them to me, telling me to read them.
“This is…”
“Yes, your academy admission documents. I managed to get this year’s set.”
I looked over the papers. They bore the official academy seal, my admission date, and all sorts of important details. Since I’d always found the academy fascinating, I read the documents with the same excitement one might have while reading a setting book. Before I knew it, I had reached the final page.
“Entrance exam ranking…?”
The last page was a ranking list of new students from 1st to 99th place. Naturally, my name wasn’t on it.
“Director, why isn’t my name on the entrance exam ranking?”
“Why ask something so obvious? You were asleep, so you couldn’t take the test.”
“Then does that mean I can’t go to the academy…!”
“Don’t worry. That’s exactly what power and connections are for. I used a few strings and got you admitted as a special student. Just do well on the basic placement test when you get there.”
“Ah…”
I let out a sigh of relief. Of course. The Ten Commandments contract wasn’t that weak, and there was no way the Director would let something as minor as missing an entrance exam ruin the plan. In the game, there had been characters who entered the academy as special admissions around the second semester anyway.
“That’s a relief. The entrance ceremony is in early March. What’s today’s date?”
“There’s one week left until the ceremony. By the way, may I ask you something as well?”
“What is it?”
The Director’s expression grew serious, as if he were asking something very important.
“How exactly did you force me into a second negotiation?”
“Oh, that?”
It wasn’t that complicated… but I figured it was fine to tell him.