Ch.1010 – The Executioner’s Knot

Am I a man or a woman?

It’s definitely a question I pondered in my past life too.

The human perspective is fascinating – if a man dies and reincarnates as a woman, they might identify as male, but if a woman realizes she was a man in her past life, she’ll still identify as female.

It’s essentially a matter of perspective.

If memories were clearly divided, it would be simpler, but memories don’t separate so neatly.

The self is imperfect and unclear – sometimes I recognize my past life as myself, and sometimes as someone completely different.

This is because while memories of my past life remain, the brain responsible for philosophical thinking is entirely different at the neuronal level.

Because of this, some past life values continue to influence me, while others I can’t comprehend at all.

For example, believing slavery violates human rights falls into the former category, while being trapped in defeatist thinking and hating the entire world falls into the latter.

But this gender discussion remains incredibly ambiguous. While I can accept my biological sex as female, I’ve always reserved judgment on my social gender.

And back then, I wasn’t in a position to comfortably contemplate such things.

I definitely don’t seem to like men.

Prince Hiasen Luminos Kaizen, the empire’s most handsome man, had a face crafted by the gods, yet seeing him up close stirred nothing in me. Maybe a little jealousy?

But I can’t say I’ve particularly liked women either. If anything, thinking about those troublesome women just gives me a headache.

If you’re wondering why I keep challenging myself with questions I can’t answer, it’s because of Arin. You again, Arin?

“Isn’t that skirt too short?”

“It already comes down to my knees! Young’s skirt isn’t even half this length.”

At least I can confidently say my values regarding clothing follow those of a man.

“I prefer pants.”

“NoName looks prettier in skirts! Kids will think it’s weird if a girl wears uniform pants.”

More female students will wear pants by high school, but elementary students seem to have stricter social standards.

August 15th – unfortunately, in this world, Korea’s Liberation Day falls on Sunday, August 14th, so we have to attend school on Monday. Where did they sell off the substitute holiday?

The Sister had already completed all the enrollment procedures, so I didn’t have anything to handle myself.

Upon arriving at school, I just needed to visit the faculty office, accompany my homeroom teacher, and enter the classroom.

Despite the scorching summer heat, Arin enthusiastically explains about our classmates.

She tells me who likes what and who dislikes what. Such dedication.

The walk to school was certainly long and arduous.

Now I understand Arin’s monster-like stamina.

Anyone would become healthy going back and forth on this path daily.

I mentally cursed the school built on top of a hill as I conquered the uphill path.

“Good morning, security guard!”

“Hello there! Good morning!”

The security guard responded with a smile to Arin’s 90-degree bow.

We crossed the spacious playground and headed to the first-grade faculty office on the second floor via the central staircase.

The office door opened after three polite knocks.

“Hello, Arin!”

“Hello!”

“Oh, it’s Arin? Did you have a good vacation?”

“Yes! I did!”

Contrary to expectations, she was surprisingly sociable. As it turns out, Baek A-rin was like an idol in the first-grade faculty office.

The teachers were all trying to give her extra cookies because she was so cute.

After brief greetings, someone who appeared to be Arin’s homeroom teacher stood up.

“Is that NoName next to Arin?”

“Yes, that’s right!”

Arin raised our interlocked hands. The teacher approached me and offered a handshake.

“Hello, NoName? I’m Teacher Ha Sun-hwa, who will be in charge of Class 1-8 starting today.”

I briefly let go of Arin’s hand to shake hers.

“Isn’t NoName really pretty?”

“Yes, but NoName seems shy today, so Arin, could you accompany her to the classroom? Of course, I’ll be heading there now too.”

“Yes, yes!”

Teacher Ha Sun-hwa led the way, with the two of us following behind.

After turning at a D-shaped corner, signs indicating first-grade classrooms appeared.

“This is Class 1-8. It’s a bit far from the main entrance, so make sure you don’t get lost finding your way here.”

The characteristic noise of elementary school students was audible even from the corridor.

Meanwhile, Arin closed her eyes and took a quick deep breath.

“Hello! Did everyone have a good vacation?”

“Hello!”

“We have a new student joining Class 8 today, so could everyone please take their seats?”

Despite her relatively young age, she handled the children skillfully.

The children promptly found their seats and sat down.

“Now that everyone seems seated, would our new student like to introduce herself?”

Arin was cheering me on from the back row.

Standing in front of the podium, I wondered why I felt so nervous just speaking in front of elementary school students.

I had planned to simply tell them my name and sit down, but my mouth wouldn’t open.

“…?”

Even when I tried to force my mouth open, my heart trembled and cold sweat broke out.

Suddenly, the children’s faces overlapped with nobles trying to devour me.

[Witch]

[Seed of the Demon King]

[Cursed one]

[Die]

[Die]

My breathing quickened.

[Why are you still alive?]

Thud

When Teacher Ha Sun-hwa placed her hand on my shoulder, my surroundings returned to the classroom.

“I think our friend is overwhelmed since this is her first time at school. May I introduce her to you instead?”

Nice baton pass. She’s definitely a professional.

“This friend’s name is No Na-me. She couldn’t attend school during the first semester because she was sick, so everyone needs to take good care of her, okay?

Arin is NoName’s closest friend, so if you want to know more about NoName, you can also ask Arin.

NoName, would you like to sit next to Arin in the back row?”

Arin looked at me with worried eyes.

I didn’t expect this either. I thought my mutism had improved after talking well with Arin, but it’s not that simple.

The morning assembly continued after that.

Since this was my first experience with elementary public education, it was quite interesting.

They called attendance, discussed what everyone did during vacation.

They also collected summer homework and distributed second-semester textbooks while introducing what we would learn.

Due to the time spent, this period extended into the first class.

When the bell rang for break time, the children finally caught their breath.

The kids gathered in their friend groups and chatted.

Most of them glanced at Arin and me while talking.

They probably thought they were being discreet, but at a first-grade level, it was actually quite obvious.

One of them came over to us and asked:

“Did you say your name was No Na-me?”

When I didn’t answer, Arin confirmed for me.

“Oh, yes…! That’s right.”

“Did she also come from Merlin Orphanage?”

“Well… uh… ah… no…?”

“Yes.”

Of course, I wasn’t talking to that boy. I was talking to Arin.

Arin seemed to have wanted me to hide my background.

The little boy returned to his group after hearing that.

“NoName, why did you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Well… kids don’t like it when you say you’re from Merlin.”

“Let them dislike it.”

“Huh?”

Kids this age wouldn’t understand, but there’s nothing more pointless than forcing people who dislike you to like you.

Among those kids, some might avoid Merlin Orphanage children out of fear of association, while others might dislike them simply because their friends do.

Of course, since school constitutes most of their social life, having no friends would be devastating, but I wish they understood that human relationships are ultimately a give-and-take.

Because it’s fun, because someone is handsome, because they’re good at sports, and so on.

In the end, if Arin wants to get along with the children, she needs to show that her charm isn’t overshadowed by her Merlin background.

I whispered softly in her ear:

“They’ll surely regret not becoming our friends later.”

* * *

Elementary school classes were mostly boring.

While interesting at first because everything was new, there’s no torture like listening to content you already know.

This included reciting numbers like 81, 82 together, and copying down what the homeroom teacher said.

“NoName, you’re already finished?!”

When the math teacher had to leave due to an urgent matter, we were assigned to write the runes for numbers 51 to 100.

Everyone stared intently at their textbooks, carefully copying each character. Meanwhile, Arin looked at my completed A4 sheet in disbelief.

Not wanting to lose, Arin increased her pace.

I had been wrong about something regarding Arin – she’s actually quite smart.

While some kids still couldn’t write up to 30, Arin could write up to at least 80 without confusion.

She had excellent competitive spirit and perseverance, which naturally reflected in her academic achievements.

“Arin got all but one right. You missed a dot here on 79.”

“Huh? You already checked it all? How did you know so quickly?”

She hurriedly added the dot above the character.

I think I preferred when Arin gave me the encyclopedia.

When bored, I kept looking at the back pages of textbooks, but how much could an elementary school curriculum contain? After a week of intensive reading, there was nothing I didn’t know.

As I gazed out the window to alleviate my boredom, a boy in front of me turned around and spoke to me.

“Could you check mine too?”

Was he envious that Arin was getting checked by me? I casually looked over his paper and pointed to three mistakes with the back of my pencil.

“Thanks!”

Rune characters were particularly confusing for children as they followed a hybrid system of ancient base-60 and modern base-16.

For example, to write 78, you had to write 60, 10, and 8 in parallel. This process often led to minor mistakes.

Of course, since they weren’t taught principles like number bases, most just memorized everything by rote.

“I wish I could be as smart as NoName…”

Lately, Arin’s whining has been getting worse.

In other words, she’s becoming cuter.

Every time she puffed up her cheeks, I couldn’t help but laugh as she reminded me of a hamster.

When I poked her cheek with my finger, air escaped with a “chu” sound from between her small lips.

“Arin is plenty smart.”

“But not as smart as NoName.”

“Then I’ll show you something interesting.”

Knowing that nothing interests a curious child more than getting ahead, I drew some figures on the back of the A4 paper to show her.

“What are you drawing? Isn’t that a magic circle?”

“It’s different from a magic circle. This is a synthesis formation.”

Unlike magic circles that directly generate magic, synthesis formations play a supporting role in magic activation.

Complex patterns intersected countless times at the tip of my pencil. Even trying to draw as quickly as possible, it took me just over two minutes.

“It’s a hidden picture game. I’ve hidden 10 rune characters from numbers 1 to 100. Want to find them?”

“Okay!”

She first found the easiest character, ‘1’.

After struggling with the paper for about three minutes, Arin successfully found all the characters she had learned. She has good eyes.

“I’m done?”

“Now connect them in ascending order.”

“Let’s see… 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21… where was it… 34, 55, 89. Oh? It’s a star shape! So cool!”

“Now look at this.”

I laid the pencil horizontally and pointed to four characters in a straight line.

“See how all these characters have a long vertical dot on the right?”

“Oh yes, yes, they do.”

I rotated the pencil about 36 degrees to point to another line.

“And these have a round dot on the bottom left.”

“Wow, wow, can I try?”

“Here.”

Arin showed interest and found commonalities between the characters. What I showed her was the ‘Arabesque Synthesis Formula.’

In mathematics, it corresponds to the relatively simple concept of the Fibonacci sequence, but in magic, it was quite an advanced field.

Rune characters aren’t like alphabets or Chinese characters created by social convention.

They’re a kind of magical concept that simplifies the flow and laws of mana, so the characters themselves have the potential to overturn laws.

Of course, even among rune characters, there were Type A, Type B, and Omega types depending on who simplified them and how, but the universally taught character was undoubtedly the easiest Type A.

However, regardless of which rune character is used, they all satisfy the law of this synthesis formula.

For example, 1, 13, 2, and 3 all contain morphemes that signify earth.

Earth attribute magic, or geomancy, shows maximum efficiency when amplified by multiples like 2, 3, or 13.

It was too early for Arin to understand this background, so it was enough for her to realize that rune characters weren’t created randomly.

* * *

“Wow, kids these days seem really advanced. Someone doodled a synthesis formula.”

“Was that homework for Teacher Ha’s class? Oh my, I had an emergency in the afternoon so I just assigned some homework to get by. If you’re not going to use it as scratch paper, throw it away over there.”

“But this looks familiar somehow. Hmm. What was it? It seems like I should remember… but maybe not.”

Teacher Kang Cheol-min scratched his head and sipped his tea.

“Are you talking about what came up at the sixth graders’ synthesis formula presentation contest?”

“No, I think I saw it much earlier. What was it… I feel like I saw it when I was preparing for law school, maybe in criminal enforcement law…”