episode_0017

Professor Atla was hit hard enough to leave a bruise on his body. It was evenly marked all over, with no part left untouched.

It was fine on the way back to the dormitory since there weren’t many people around, but with the situation of having to attend classes again tomorrow, unnecessary attention would be drawn due to the bruised face.

Pressing the ice pack against it made it subside a little, but it was still noticeable.

At first glance, it seemed like a random beating, but upon closer inspection, there were no specific injuries.

Although bruises were visible on the surface, pressing with an ice pack showed that there were no major wounds.

The next day, the bruise had subsided even more. At this rate, it seemed like it would completely disappear soon.

Still, the bruised face remained, so I wondered what to do. I thought about wearing a bandage or something, but I decided to just go out as is.

It seemed too pretentious, and either way, attention would be drawn.

I decided to just endure showing my bruised face. It wasn’t such a shameful injury, and it was a wound received while taking a class from the professor.

Throughout the journey to school, I felt everyone’s gaze on me, and I arrived slightly late to the classroom.

“Ha-yul! Hello… Oh my goodness!”

Elia, who had arrived early, turned her head with a happy expression. She waved her hand in greeting, but her gaze stopped at my face.

As if she had seen something she shouldn’t have, her eyes widened, and she quickly stood up, covering her mouth with both hands.

“Ha-yul! Ha-yul! What happened?”

She pushed her chair back and hurried over in a panic.

Her exaggerated reaction drew everyone’s attention towards me.

“What happened to this wound?”

She examined my face closely, looking worried. When she saw that the bruise wasn’t just on my face, but also elsewhere, she looked shocked.

“It happened during the major class.”

“Uh… What kind of lecture was it…”

Elia, who had shivered, clasped her hands together.

The magic that gathers in the meantime. A certain flow of magic manifested within the body was felt, and it grabbed Tuk-Ellia’s hand.

“Ha-yul?”

When Ellia looked puzzled, she shook her head, making an even more questioning expression. After letting go of her hand and stepping back a few paces, she tapped her smartwatch.

[You shouldn’t recover.]

“??”

The doubt on Ellia’s face did not dissipate but rather increased.

“Don’t recover…? Why?”

[Recovery training is not allowed.]

“??”

Ellia furrowed her brow and tilted her head. Her friends who had followed the suddenly standing Ellia also raised question marks above their heads.

“Recovery training? Is there such a thing?”

“I have a different major, so I don’t know.”

“No, no, are there many people who do that kind of training?”

“…At least I haven’t seen anyone.”

Whether she heard the humility or not, Ellia’s expression became even more subtle.

‘Wasn’t it a widely used training method?’

The method used from the second round, which started in earnest after suffering a defeat in the first round.

A system where if you intentionally lower the character’s vitality (HP) and leave it alone, the stamina, endurance stats, and vitality recovery speed gradually increase.

It was a frequently used nurturing method in the early stages when every minute and every second were lacking.

If you lowered it too much, the vitality would decrease permanently, and if you were too afraid to lower it too little, there would be little effect, so it was important to find the middle ground.

I was skeptical at first, but I’m currently practicing what Professor Atla said something similar.

It was then that Hong Yeon-hwa came into my spatial perception range.

As she crossed the corridor within the narrowed range, I felt Hong Yeon-hwa heading towards the classroom.

– Squeak

Before long, the back door opened. Hong Yeon-hwa, wearing the same red jumper as yesterday, walked into the classroom.

After looking around inside, her gaze turned this way. Hong Yeon-hwa, with a faint smile, approached.

“Ha-yul. Good, uh… chi…”

– Thud

Her words stumbled. The unfinished sound dispersed emptily into the void. It felt like a chilly wind blew in from somewhere.

“……”

Friends who followed along with Hong Yeon-hwa chattered nervously, their expressions frozen in the sudden change of atmosphere. They alternated between looking at me and Hong Yeon-hwa, lost in contemplation.

The murmurs that filled the classroom gave way to silence. The once bustling room turned into an eerie quiet, not a single sound breaking the stillness.

The cause was right in front of me.

An unsettling aura emanated from Hong Yeon-hwa. Everyone knew it. It was like standing on the brink of an explosion. That’s why everyone held their breath.

I, directly in front of Hong Yeon-hwa, held my breath even more.

A chillingly stoic expression. Occasionally, a sinister friction could be heard between her teeth and clenched jaw. Contrary to her expression, her eyes blazed like hellfire, a fiery crimson.

If I had dared to meet her gaze while she was in this state, it would have taken immense courage.

Like a firmly shut gate, Hong Yeon-hwa’s mouth, which had been closed off, opened. The barely contained anger surged in her voice.

“Who is it?”

“[N? E]”

“What the hell… Who did this?”

For some reason, Hong Yeon-hwa restrained herself from using harsher language in front of me.

But now, whether she had the luxury to care about that or not, the expletive burst out of her mouth.

“…Uh.”

I knew that Hong Yeon-hwa’s attitude towards me was gentle. I didn’t know exactly, but I knew she was subtly concerned about me.

So, I had thought about what kind of reaction I might get when I acted nonchalantly, but I wasn’t particularly worried.

I hadn’t expected such a strong reaction.

Through spatial perception, I sensed her expression. The friction between her tightly closed teeth, the distortion between her clenched fists.

And the fiery energy within Hong Yeon-hwa’s body, fueled by her affinity for magic.

Due to her unique ability, “Flame Manipulation,” the nature of her magic, which resembled a blazing fire, was always distinct.

It’s not that there aren’t others with fire-based magic, but there was a clear difference between them and Hong Yeon-hwa.

While others may possess a torch, Hong Yeon-hwa was a raging inferno that could engulf even the owner of the torch.

There was an unmistakable difference that couldn’t be mistaken.

Hong Yeon-hwa’s Geop-hwa is special. Among the unique abilities of Geop-hwa, there has been no one like her in the past, and her Geop-hwa is exceptional.

It’s even more so now. The flames, which were already raging fiercely, were now burning wildly as if anticipating a storm.

“Who did this…!”

The flames were burning. In her eyes, the Geop-hwa that could engulf everything was raging. There was a flame burning with emotions as its fuel.

“Oh, ah…”

Her face turned pale. The flames were raging right in front of her, as if about to engulf her at any moment.

Her right arm throbbed.

– …!

Memories from childhood suddenly surged. It was a memory filled with complex emotions.

– …Ah!

That day, the flames were raging. It was a day when the black ash rising to the sky obscured the hazy view. It was a day when the already blocked throat felt even more constricted.

– Aaaah─!

It was the day her parents, who were unlike parents, burned to death.

The smell of burning flesh filled her nostrils, a refreshing day.

It was the day she felt relief that they had died well.

It was the day she considered it a punishment.

It was the day she thought even though my arm was also engulfed, it was still a happy day for you to die.

– Damn it! Why is the fire suddenly…!

– Aaaah! H-help me─!

…It was the day her parents, whom she once looked upon with affection, burned to death.

That day.

As she collapsed on the stone floor, struggling to shake off the fire clinging to her right arm, the flames she was watching and the flames before her overlapped.

Why did they overlap? Because of the commonality of fire, memories came flooding back?

It was a moment of feeling disoriented.

The raging Geop-hwa trembled and then gradually reduced its swelling body. The fierce flames slowly subsided.

‘Uh.’

It was too late to realize, lost in recalling the past. At some point, the perspective of spatial perception had changed.

Before the change, it was a point of spatial perception like a radar. It was a moment when only the burning Geop-hwa in front of her was felt.

Nearby, large and small magical powers were gathered, and the aura of water and ice presumed to be Baekarin was also felt.

The spatial perception trembled. The perspective gradually changed.

The fierce burning Geop-hwa subsided, and Hong Yeon-hwa, who didn’t know what to do, took over the spot.

“Oh, ah…! I’m sorry! I’m sorry…!”

Hong Yeon-hwa waved her arms in Busan dialect. She was sweating profusely with a mix of anxiety, restlessness, and guilt in her eyes.

“I’m sorry for getting angry…! I wasn’t mad at you…! It’s just that I got too excited…!”

The tense atmosphere that had just evoked thoughts of a recent sinister incident seemed to have disappeared, and it was unbelievable to see her in such a state, but there was nothing one could say.

She nodded her head while catching her breath. Her heart was pounding. She pressed her hands against her chest. To be honest, she almost fainted standing there.

Facing the raging fear head-on with a combination of spatial awareness and affinity for magic, I felt it more keenly than others.

[It’s okay]

As time passed, her heart calmed down.

Despite repeatedly expressing that everything was fine, it took some time to calm Hong Yeon-hwa down.

What was frightening was that somehow she seemed even more anxious.

“…Recovery training? Are you still using such a makeshift method?”

Since there was still time before the lecture began, there was room to explain the situation.

After sitting down, I calmed Hong Yeon-hwa, who was digging herself into a hole by calling herself trash, and explained the situation step by step.

“Make-shift? Yes. It’s not like I’ve never used that method before…”

She scrunched up her face.

“It’s totally inefficient, you know? Yeah, so… no, no! I misspoke! It’s not very effective, so it’s a training method I’ve abandoned.”

[Yes]

Hong Yeon-hwa, who grumbled as if suppressing her emotions, was taken aback after saying “inefficient,” then glanced over here and picked up her words, saying she misspoke.

I wondered if it was necessary to change “inefficient” to “not very effective.”

It would be fine to speak casually. Instead, speaking with such filters seemed very uncomfortable.

I continued to encourage her to speak comfortably, but for some reason, Hong Yeon-hwa continued with an oddly polite tone, citing misspeaking as her excuse.

“Improving recovery? It’s not nonexistent. But is it such a meaningful figure…? No, it’s not. In fact, when injured outside, it didn’t have much of a good effect.”

[I see]

So the early training methods were not very efficient.

Also, if your body gets hurt… it’s similar to the original where your vitality could permanently decrease. Certainly, there wasn’t much effect later on.

“Yeah. There’s not no effect here. Surely, there will be an effect after receiving growth correction. But if you ask if you have to do it, I won’t.”

After finishing her explanation, Hong Yeon-hwa let out a deep sigh.

“Phew… I’m sorry just now. My emotions weren’t under control… But is it really okay? It doesn’t hurt…?”

[It’s bearable. It’s not that painful.]

It hurts enough to make tears fall. I want to run away. I also have doubts whether I need to do this.

But they are more of an expert than me… They’ll teach better than an outsider like me…

“…So? What’s the professor’s name?”

Seems like she’s finished organizing and preparing for the lecture, she was looking at the opposite side while organizing her belongings. Hong Yeon-hwa asked.

[Professor Atla Clyde]

“Atla, Atla… Yeah. Thanks for telling me.”

As I reflexively replied, Hong Yeon-hwa nodded without looking this way.

…Even though she turned her head, her expression was felt in spatial perception. For some reason, Hong Yeon-hwa with a chilling expression was muttering something.

I shivered inexplicably at the chilliness.

You mustn’t ignore your instincts.

Just before coming to this world, I remember desperately screaming not to press character creation.

I felt a strong intuition from Hong Yeon-hwa’s frightening muttering.

During every break, I desperately clung to the fact that Professor Atla did nothing wrong.

He taught me his best over the past two days and taught me how to handle weapons well.

He repeatedly emphasized that this recovery training was something I agreed to do.

“Oh, I see. I just asked out of curiosity about the name…”

As she kept grumbling steadily, Hong Yeon-hwa’s momentum, which had been chilly, inevitably subsided.

Continuously nagging, she distanced herself sharply as if she was angry.

The intuition that was screaming faded away.

I don’t know why I had this intuition, but if I had left it alone, it would have been a big problem…

I let out a small sigh of relief.

A wide and long traditional sword.

Professor Atra handed me the long spear. In the other hand, he held a wooden shield.

“Today, we’ll use spears.”

I accepted the spear with a helpless expression.

The weaponry changed in just one day.