episode_0019

– Good~mor~ning~! Bba bba bba─

─Tak.

Instinctively, I traced the source of the noise. The alert from my smartwatch stopped.

I grimaced at the forced rising consciousness.

“Uh uh uh…”

I shook my body.

The pillow I was hugging and the blanket wrapped around my body. Warm and soft things were gently tempting me to go back to sleep in my just awakened state.

I raised my arm with difficulty and turned on the smartwatch.

[Saturday AM 5:30]

Yesterday, changing from sword to spear for training. Even in Siyolam, I usually don’t touch it on weekends.

It used to be the time when I would be sound asleep. If I happened to wake up early, I would enjoy the drowsiness I felt when I just got out of bed.

“Ugh…”

But that’s not possible now. With that determination, I fought off the temptation with tears in my eyes. I reluctantly raised my upper body, stretched my arms, and did some stretching.

I pushed away the drowsiness a little and got out of bed.

I grabbed a towel and clothes and went into the bathroom, carefully turning on the faucet.

I splashed cold water on my face. As the cold seeped into my facial skin, the drowsiness that resisted fled in terror.

“…?”

I started patting my face with the towel hanging next to me, then realized it was a bad idea. If there was a bruise, doing so would cause pain to rise.

There was no pain. Come to think of it, something is strange.

I tilted my head and looked at my face properly. It’s clean. Not a single scratch.

‘Huh.’

After a moment of silence, I pinched my face hard. It hurt. But it was a normal kind of pain.

The bruise disappeared overnight. I lifted my nightgown to examine my body. It’s spotlessly clean as if asking when the bruise appeared.

“?”

What’s going on?

It was definitely there just before I went to bed last night.

But now it’s completely gone.

I tried to figure out the reason, but… still don’t know.

Recovery training… it’s called that, but it’s a recovery method that Hong Yeon-hwa criticized as inefficient.

Professor Ahn also said not to receive external recovery, but if I couldn’t stand it, I should do it myself.

So I didn’t receive any healing. I’ve been accustomed to enduring pain since long ago.

I can’t help being in pain, but I endure it because it makes me stronger faster.

Artla’s teaching was certainly tough. I had heard from others that Artla’s method belonged to the harsh category.

But there were results. I could feel it directly. When it came to combat, my proficiency definitely improved steeply in just two days.

Like Professor Liana, she is a rookie professor who took office this year.

But the strange thing is, unlike Professor Liana, she hasn’t opened any classes?

At most, there are special admissions students in the afternoon… so I’m only in charge of my combat class.

If that’s the case, I don’t know why she holds the title of professor, but in Siyolam, it’s not that special.

From the beginning, Siyolam doesn’t seem to have a system that mixes various educational institutions.

When it was first established, due to the times, it regressed in a primitive way, and as time passed, it changed by adding this and that.

In fact, even the names are all mixed up. First of all, although it proclaims itself as a military academy, students are called cadets, and teachers are called professors, not instructors.

There is a system where you can choose the subjects you want like a university, but there are also cases where you have to take designated subjects like a free semester.

Also, while divided into classes by grade, during the free semester, lectures are divided by major and level in the afternoon…

It’s really chaotic.

-Duk

I finished a simple wash. After turning the tap carefully, I dried myself with a towel and came out.

I didn’t apply any cosmetics to my body.

Even in my original world, cosmetics were bothersome, and I ignored the importance of skincare, but due to Agapanthus’s nagging, I ended up applying moisturizer.

What was it again? Toner? Essence? Blah blah blah… They all seemed the same to me.

Anyway, in my original world, I roughly applied it, but here, I felt even less need for it.

I put on some clothes. Well, calling it clothes is an overstatement; it’s the daily wear provided by Siyolam.

Not a uniform-like design, but a clean design with a hooded tracksuit.

Put on socks and a wristband, and that’s it.

The wristband is now a feeling of a sock worn on the hand. I’ve been wearing it so much that it’s no longer uncomfortable.

I tucked an energy bar into my pocket and headed out.

While the elevator was going down, I mostly finished my nutrition bar. When passing through the lobby, I arrived at a bus stop next to it.

“Sigh…”

I stretched my arms up, extended my legs as well… and twisted my whole body back and forth while doing some stretching.

The stiffness eased a bit. I took a deep breath and pounded the ground. The cool morning air brushed past my face.

It would be nice to take the bus, but there’s no rush now, so I run directly with my legs. It’s a speed I wouldn’t have felt in the past.

It’s only been about four days. In that short time, my body has grown tremendously.

Just started growing like a superhero. Amplified by the protection of growth, and the accelerated growth rate due to special admission.

Now that growth has just begun, the perceived change in physical ability has become quite apparent.

I ran for about 20 minutes. I could reach the entrance to my destination.

It’s not an old-fashioned dusty playground full of hard dirt and sand. It’s full of green leaves.

One of the parks easily found within the Siyoram area.

As I crossed the entrance, the faint morning sunlight and the dense fog peculiar to the morning greeted me. The lake in the center is particularly surrounded by fog.

Following the walking path, I arrived near the lake. Checking the time, there was still some time left until the appointment time.

After wandering around, I sat on the nearby grassy ground.

This is a first-year section, and since it’s the time it is, there were no people around.

“…Sniffle.”

Sitting absentmindedly for a moment, the wind passed by. Unknowingly, I took in the scent. It was a behavior I often did as I used to like such a place filled with the scent of grass.

And there was no smell at all. Fresh grass scent? The coolness peculiar to the early morning? Nothing.

“…Ugh.”

Instinctively, I get annoyed for no reason. The slightly lifted mood was once again deflated.

I really don’t feel alive.

Thinking this way while reviewing yesterday’s training in my head, someone entered my spatial awareness range.

Tremendous magical power. Doubt arose as to whether such an amount of magic could gather in one person.

“Oh, are you already out?”

[No, I came out early because I had nothing to do.]

Even in this place full of green leaves, the green eyes that attract attention were elegantly curved.

A warm turtleneck sweater that wraps around the neck and a black long skirt.

It’s not a wizard’s robe that I always wore in the classroom, but everyday clothes.

Professor Liana smiled and reached out to me. What she offered was a picnic basket.

“?”

“I got a little late because of this. Let’s share it as a gesture of apology!”

After saying that, Professor Liana led me to a nearby table without waiting for an answer.

I followed Professor Liana after a moment of thought.

When I opened the basket on the table, neatly arranged sandwiches were revealed. There were also separately prepared fruit drinks.

“Here! It’s a special gift for you!”

She particularly picked out a plump sandwich and an orange-flavored drink and handed them to me.

[Thank you]

After expressing my thanks, I accepted the sandwich and the drink. After admiring the contents for a moment, I took a bite of the sandwich.

…Of course, it didn’t taste good. It was an incredibly depressing thing. As I hesitated, Professor Liana spoke up.

“How is it? Do you like it?”

[Yes, it’s delicious]

Maybe it’s delicious.

“You say it’s delicious, so I feel relieved!”

She said thankfully, smiling, and then took a bite of her own sandwich.

It was a chilly morning, perhaps because it was dawn. However, rather than feeling chilly due to the change in body, it felt refreshing.

Early morning. Sitting comfortably at a foggy park table, peacefully munching on the sandwich, it felt quite peaceful.

“After finishing this, let’s take a short break and go straight in.”

[Yes]

There was no particular reason for meeting Professor Liana.

For some reason, since our last introduction, Professor Liana had been feeling sorry for me and offered to help me with magic initiation.

Magic.

A symbol representing superhumans along with innate abilities.

Many superhumans do not possess innate abilities. Innate abilities are a very important power for superhumans, but not all superhumans have them.

It is a power that is congenital or developed through effort.

But almost all superhumans handle magic unless it’s an extremely rare case.

Just utilizing magic can cause a phenomenon that breaks the common sense I originally had.

I don’t know how to handle magic right now. Exactly, thanks to magic affinity, it seems like I could handle it, but I haven’t intentionally handled it.

No matter how unique my abilities are, I’m still an outsider with shallow knowledge.

I’ve been holding back until now because I thought it would be better to be taught by a skilled person like Professor Liana in front of me.

At first, I mainly touched on spatial perception to replace the role of the eyes.

After expanding my field of vision through spatial perception, I gradually touched on simple cooking books and miscellaneous skills to see the surroundings, and through training with Professor Atra, I am also touching on swordsmanship, martial arts, spear techniques, and archery.

Now is the time to start touching on magic affinity little by little.

The three unique abilities I have are all passive, not active. And most of them are versatile and somewhat peculiar abilities, so it’s efficient to touch them together.

A clue obtained at the freshman welcome party. If I touch these three together, I can expect synergy.

My heart fluttered with faint anticipation.