episode_0029

“Haaaaaahh~ Is it over now?”

I stretched and stood up from under the desk. The space under the desk was cramped, so I couldn’t sleep comfortably.

“Hmm? It seems I dozed off without realizing.”

I looked around at the students still staring blankly at me. Even though I had just woken up, my good looks must not have been hidden, as all the students were looking at me.

“Loki, even so, you shouldn’t sleep during class.”

Professor Idra said, her tone chiding me. However, her expression showed an undeniable hint of amusement.

“It’s not that I intended to sleep, Professor-nim. It was just awkward to come out during class, so I hid under the desk, and I just happened to doze off, you see?”

Professor Idra placed her hands on her hips as if scolding me. But because of her petite stature and cute appearance, it wasn’t scary at all; she just looked adorable.

“I’ll only forgive you this once, alright?”

“As expected of Professor Idra-nim! Your heart is as beautiful as your face!”

“Ahahaha! Even if you flatter me like that, there’s nothing extra I can give you.”

“Flattery? What a hurtful thing to say, Professor-nim. I’m merely expressing what’s truly in my heart!”

“Hehehe, I wish there were more honest students like Loki.”

Idra giggled softly, pleased by my words. She looked even cuter when she giggled softly. Honestly, just based on her appearance, Professor Idra looked younger than the students here.

“Everyone must have thought Professor Idra-nim was beautiful, just like I did. They just didn’t have the courage to say it, unlike me.”

“Loki, you certainly speak beautifully.”

“It’s not just your words that are beautiful, Professor-nim, your appearance is too.”

While I was talking with Professor Idra, the other students were busy whispering among themselves.

“What? Since when was that guy under the desk?”

“Surely he wasn’t immune to the professor’s magic from the start?”

“More importantly, was that fake of him just now his unique magic?”

“I’ve never seen unique magic in my life.”

The students wondered when I had created the illusion, whether I hadn’t been affected by the magic from the start, or if I had escaped it.

Among the students, Clara was the only one who knew I had escaped into an illusion.

Clara was sitting next to me, so she had occasionally made eye contact with me from under the desk.

“Loki?”

Professor Idra crept closer, like a cat. We were already somewhat close, but now, if either Professor Idra or I took even one step forward, we would bump into each other.

“You bit your tongue, didn’t you?”

Professor Idra asked with a bright smile. Her tone was a question, but it was filled with certainty that I had indeed bitten my tongue.

“As expected, I can’t fool you, Professor-nim.”

I knew Professor Idra was amazing, but I never imagined she’d even notice that I had bitten my tongue. How on earth did she know?

“Biting his tongue?”

“Did that guy escape the magic by biting his tongue?”

“Is that even possible?”

Regardless of what the other students were chattering about, Professor Idra rummaged in her pocket, pulled something out, and handed it to me.

“No matter how much you want to do well, you still have to cherish your body. Drink this.”

What Professor Idra handed me was a plastic bottle containing a purple liquid.

“I’m not sure if I’m worthy of such a precious item, Professor-nim, but since you’ve given it to me, I’ll gratefully drink it.”

When I took the bottle and called it precious, Professor Idra asked with a surprised expression.

“Do you know what this is?”

“No, I don’t know.”

“Oh, Professor-nim, if you gave it to me, how could it not be precious?”

“Ahahaha! Hurry up and drink it.”

Hearing my reply, Professor Idra chuckled and urged me on.

“Then, I’ll drink it well!”

I drank the purple liquid in the plastic bottle. The purple liquid passed straight through my mask and into my mouth.

As the purple liquid entered my mouth, I felt the wound from biting my tongue disappear.

“Ooh! What’s that mask, is it an artifact?”

Professor Idra seemed fascinated by my mask and stared intently at it. With her innocent face and petite stature, she looked like a child who had discovered a new toy.

“Um… Professor Idra-nim? What does ‘biting his tongue’ mean?”

Unable to contain their curiosity, one student asked Professor Idra.

“Hmm.”

Professor Idra stared intently at me without a word. She was probably asking if she could reveal it.

Since it wasn’t a great secret, I nodded.

“As expected, Loki is a good student.”

After saying that, Professor Idra walked to the front of the lectern, seemingly intending to address everyone at once.

“Since everyone seems curious, I’ll explain it all at once.”

All the students, seemingly curious, fell silent and looked at Professor Idra.

“Loki didn’t simply avoid my magic. He was affected by the magic, but immediately bit his tongue to regain his senses, then created a fake using his unique magic and hid under the desk.”

Clap clap clap clap.

“As expected of Professor Idra-nim. You got every detail precisely right.”

After Professor Idra’s explanation ended, I clapped and said.

“What, that’s not so impressive after all.”

“I could probably bite my tongue to regain my senses too.”

The other students seemed to think what I did was easy, chattering among themselves phrases like ‘I could do that much too.’

Honestly, I thought so too. Biting your tongue isn’t exactly difficult.

But for some reason, the expressions of the special class students and Professor Idra were not good.

‘Why? It’s not like I said anything wrong.’

“Then, would you like to try it one more time? Those who endure this time will have their grades raised.”

“””Of course!”””

All students except those from the special class accepted the offer, while the special class students declined.

“Then, only the students who wish to challenge it, please step forward.”

As soon as Professor Idra finished speaking, quite a few students stepped forward. Honestly, there was nothing difficult about it, so I would have stepped forward too.

“Then, I’ll cast the spell.”

Professor Idra kindly informed them when she would cast the spell.

All the students who stepped forward prepared to bite their tongues immediately.

“””Aaaaargh!!!!”””

As the magic activated, the students clutched their heads and screamed.

‘Now the students who bit their tongues will be freed.’

“””Aaaaarghhhhhh!!!!!!”””

However, contrary to my expectations, the students weren’t freed from the magic, and instead, their screams grew louder.

Curious as to why they weren’t freed, I leaned in and whispered to Clara.

“Clara, why on earth are they failing?”

Clara looked at me with an incredulous expression.

“Are you really asking me because you don’t know?”

Clara even seemed to be beyond incredulity, almost flustered.

I genuinely didn’t know, which is why I asked. When the magic activates, you bite your tongue. Is that difficult?

Before I knew it, the screams had stopped. Thinking the students had finally succeeded, I looked forward, only to realize that Professor Idra had simply stopped casting the magic.

“””Haa, haa.”””

All the students were slumped on the ground, catching their breath.

I still couldn’t understand why the students had failed. Surely Professor Idra didn’t cast the magic more strongly, did she?

I was able to learn why the students failed through Professor Idra’s words.

“The magic I used is simply a spell that causes headaches. However, its power was amplified by a magic tool, and it’s not easy to bite your tongue while experiencing such a strong headache.”

Through Professor Idra’s words, I understood why the students failed, but I couldn’t comprehend it.

‘It’s just a headache, after all. Can’t they just endure it?’

After Professor Idra finished speaking, about three students raised their hands.

“We bit our tongues, but we still couldn’t escape the magic. Why is that?”

Only three students out of so many managed to bite their tongues?

What’s more, the other students were looking at the three who bit their tongues with admiring gazes. What? Is this a hidden camera prank?

“Loki, come forward for a moment.”

“Yes, Professor-nim!”

When Professor Idra called, I walked forward. The students’ gazes toward me had changed slightly.

“Would all three of you stick out your tongues?”

The three who had raised their hands earlier all stuck out their tongues as Professor Idra spoke.

From all three of their tongues, a very small amount of blood was flowing.

What, did a bug bite them? But can a bug bite your tongue?

“Alright, you can put them back in now.”

Professor Idra said that to the students with their tongues out, then spoke to me, who was still trying to understand the situation.

“Loki, how hard did you bite?”

How hard I bit, you ask?

“Well, of course, I bit with all my might, prepared for it to be severed, right?”

To escape a magic that causes headaches, it’s only natural to experience a greater pain than the headache itself.

Even if, by some bad luck, my tongue were severed, there’s a priest waiting in the infirmary, so it could be healed.

‘But why can’t they do it?’

Suddenly, I felt gazes on me and looked at the other students.

For some reason, they were looking at me with eyes full of fear.