Under the Bridge (9)
Serpina lay on her side on the bed, gazing outside. “Hmm…”
“Mmm… ugh… uuuugh…”
From inside her cardboard house, she could see the stream bank. Ayoung was training in that not-particularly-spacious area.
Ayoung held a wooden stick with her eyes closed. She focused her mind, pouring her concentration into the magic engraved on the stick. A sudden flash of intuition struck her.
“…Hah! Now!”
Ayoung’s eyes snapped open. She raised the wooden stick high and brought it crashing down.
- Whoosh!
With a heavy sound, the wooden stick sliced through the air. Like a thunderbolt aimed to split a mountain, the tip of the stick hurtled toward a single pebble on the stream bank.
- Crack!
“KyaAAAAAAGH!!”
A cheerful sound followed immediately by a scream. The pebble remained perfectly intact. The shock that traveled through her palm made her drop the stick, which rolled across the ground.
- Meow.
Heemang circled around the unfortunate Ayoung, crying out. The sound somehow carried a distinct “this is hilarious” vibe.
“Pathetic,” Serpina dismissed the entire scene with a single word.
This ridiculous spectacle was all part of Ayoung’s training—smashing pebbles with a wooden stick. The stick rolling at Ayoung’s feet had been enchanted by Serpina. The effect was simple: just an increase in impact force. Anything more complicated than that was beyond Ayoung’s current ability to activate.
If Ayoung could properly trigger the magic on that stick, smashing a plain old pebble would be child’s play.
Serpina yawned as she approached and picked up the wooden stick.
“I’ll show you again, so watch carefully. This is how you do it. Imagine spreading it evenly from start to finish.”
Serpina channeled mana into the wooden stick and activated the magic. She deliberately made the mana visible so Ayoung could see it clearly. A blue glow wrapped around the stick, revealing the flow of power.
“Once the mana reaches all the way to the end like this, you can swing it however you want.”
Serpina literally swung the stick in the most half-hearted way possible. It was the lazy motion of someone swatting at a fly buzzing in front of their face.
- Crunch!
It was closer to a limp flail than an actual swing, yet the pebble shattered helplessly anyway.
“Or you can do it like this, too.”
This time she gripped the wooden stick properly with both hands. She raised the tip to eye level, then lifted it high above her head.
“The important thing is the trajectory. As long as the path is clean, you don’t need nearly as much force as you think.”
She brought the stick down in a smooth arc. Even to an untrained eye, it drew a picture-perfect curve. The tip struck another pebble with perfect precision.
- Thud.
This time there wasn’t even a loud sound. Like simply setting down an object she’d been holding, the pebble split cleanly in half as if it had always been that way.
Serpina tossed the wooden stick back to Ayoung.
“Either activate the magic properly, or use your swordsmanship skills. Whichever you prefer. Just break some pebbles with it. Don’t even think about moving on until you succeed.”
Ayoung tried channeling mana into the returned stick. No matter how hard she tried, the power only flowed unevenly. It refused to spread out beautifully like when Serpina had done it.
“Ugh~ This is way too hard.”
“So are you giving up?”
“No! Being hard is one thing, putting in effort is another!”
Even while whining, Ayoung bravely aimed the wooden stick at another pebble. No matter how difficult the task became, she had no intention of quitting.
Ayoung was not what you’d call lucky as a mage.
First of all, she was just an ordinary human. Unlike witches or vampires who were born with an innate sense for mana, she started from a completely different baseline.
She had no talent, either. The decent mana capacity that showed up during her initial registration had briefly raised hopes, but it didn’t take long for people to call her “a pearl necklace on a pig” due to her abysmal magical aptitude.
She had terrible luck, too. Every circle she knocked on to learn magic had turned her away. The one that finally accepted her had a senior who turned out to be a total thug. That guy Serpina had slammed into the ground last time was Ayoung’s senior.
Because her situation was this bad, Ayoung understood just how precious this current opportunity was.
One more time. Focus. Spread the mana thinly across the entire wooden stick…
- Riiiiiiing-!!
“Eek?!”
The sudden alarm made Ayoung’s whole body jump. Even Heemang, who had been playfully batting at foxtails nearby, leaped into the air with her.
Serpina glanced toward the source of the alarm and said,
“Hey. Isn’t that your alarm going off?”
“A-already? I really thought it was going to work this time!”
Ayoung made a face like she was about to cry as she checked her smartphone. Please let it be something else. She desperately hoped it was a mistake or spam, but the alarm was real. With slumped shoulders, she set down the wooden stick and grabbed her backpack. It was time for her part-time job.
“I’ll be back…”
“You don’t have to come back.”
“I’m definitely coming back, okay?”
Serpina watched Ayoung trudging up the slope, then turned her gaze away. Heemang walked over to the cardboard house and let out a small cry.
“What do you want now? Food?”
- Mrrraaow.
“Not that? Then what? You want to play?”
- Meow.
“Too much hassle. Tell that to your actual owner.”
- Mrrreow.
Serpina pressed down firmly on Heemang’s clinging head and pushed her away. Heemang seemed to interpret this as playtime and kept headbutting her fingers.
“By the way, haven’t you gotten fatter? Let me see.”
- Mrrraaaow!
The moment Serpina reached for her belly, Heemang twisted away and tried to bite her hand. Of course, even in human form, Serpina wasn’t about to get even a tiny scratch from a kitten’s teeth.
“Doesn’t look like you’re fat. Maybe you’re just getting bigger?”
Since she was a magic beast, did that mean she grew to a larger size too? Serpina narrowed her eyes, trying to gauge how much Heemang had grown.
The conclusion was…
“Yeah. No idea.”
Even back when she was a man, she had never raised a cat. She didn’t know how quickly kittens grew. Weren’t animals supposed to grow fast anyway? Still, changing noticeably in just a few days seemed a bit too quick, but she couldn’t be sure.
“Her owner can deal with it.”
Serpina gave up thinking about it and lay back down on the bed. As if she hadn’t tried to bite her moments ago, Heemang climbed onto her stomach and curled up into a ball.
…….
- Thud!
“Ugh.”
Serpina let out a sound before she could stop herself at the sudden impact against her abdomen.
“I’m back~”
Heerin’s voice came from outside. The impact just now had been Heemang kicking off Serpina’s stomach and bolting away at full speed.
“Heemang! Did you miss me?”
- Meow~
Serpina stepped out of the cardboard house, rubbing her stomach, and let out a dry laugh at the sight of Heemang rolling on the ground and acting cute.
“She sleeps with me, I feed her, but why does she like you more?”
“Our Heemang is smart, so she knows I’m her real owner!”
“Sure, sure. Since you’re here, why don’t you play with her for a bit?”
Serpina went back inside and lay down again.
“Huh? Sis, aren’t you eating the triangle kimbap today?”
“Just leave it nearby. I stayed out late last night so I’m sleepy.”
“At night? That’s not good! You said if you don’t sleep early you can’t become a proper adult!”
“I’m already a proper adult, so there’s no need to become more of one.”
“Huh? Uh?”
Taking advantage of Heerin’s momentary speechlessness, Serpina lay back down on the bed. It wasn’t actually that she felt sleepy after staying up one night—it was just a habitual action.
Heerin shook her head as she watched her.
‘If only this sis didn’t sleep all the time, wear torn-up clothes, mooch food, live in a place like this, and say weird complicated things, she’d be really cool.’
Huh? Heerin tilted her head. When she counted them one by one, there were actually quite a lot of bad parts.
- Meow.
“Ah. Sorry, sorry. Wait a second. I brought something fun today.”
At Heemang’s urging, Heerin rummaged through her bag and pulled out a frisbee.
“When I throw it, you go get it and bring it back. Got it?”
Heerin threw the frisbee with all her strength. Since it was her first time, it didn’t fly very far.
“Okay. Heemang, fetch!”
- Myang!
Heemang had been staring blankly at Heerin, but the moment the command came, she dashed off toward the frisbee.
“Is she a cat or a dog? I’ve never seen a cat play frisbee before.”
Serpina’s astonished voice drifted out from the cardboard house. Hearing it, Heerin felt secretly proud.
‘As expected, our Heemang is special!’
Heemang brought the frisbee back. Heerin petted her and threw it again. After repeating this several times, Heerin quickly got better at throwing the frisbee.
“Hiyah!”
- Whirr!
With a cheerful sound, the frisbee soared through the sky. Heemang ran after it, looking up. Her body was still too small to catch it in mid-air. She only managed to reach it after it had already hit the ground.
Panting as she ran back with the frisbee in her mouth, Heemang suddenly looked around and froze in shock.
- U…uwaeong….
She had gone too far. Far beyond the area under the bridge.
Under the bridge was safe. Thanks to the terrifying aura her caretaker gave off, no threatening beasts approached that area—Heemang had instinctively realized this. It was such a scary presence that even Heemang would have run away if her owner hadn’t been there.
From her experiences wandering around, Heemang had roughly figured out the boundaries of that safe zone.
But now she had gone past it.
Her instincts screamed danger.
Just as she was about to hurry back, an unfamiliar scent rode the wind to her nose. She whipped around.
A wild dog three times her size was baring its teeth at her.
- Grrrr….
Heemang’s tail puffed up massively in fear. Then she realized the wild dog was only growling and not actually charging at her.
- Mrrreow…?
Why? Had the safe zone gotten bigger?
She didn’t know the reason, but what she needed to do now was clear. Heemang quickly grabbed the frisbee in her mouth and ran back to her owner.
“Good job, Heemang! Then let’s do it one more—Heemang?”
- Meow.
Heemang set the frisbee down in front of her owner and returned to the house where her caretaker was sleeping. She batted at the food bowl and cried softly.
“Are you hungry? Okay, wait a moment…”
Watching her owner set the frisbee down, Heemang felt relieved inside. If she had thrown it again, she might have actually gotten bitten by that wild dog this time.
Heemang decided that playing with her owner was too much work.