Ch.4037 – Introduction

The textbooks distributed by the school form a tower on one side of my desk.

They’ve already easily surpassed my sitting height.

Cephiron Elementary’s curriculum is definitely more advanced than Arabyul Elementary where I was before.

The math textbook happens to be on top, so I briefly look through the table of contents.

Arithmetic with large numbers, properties of plane figures, fractions and decimals, and so on.

At most, it gets to common factors and multiples toward the end, but this still seems insufficient to properly implement even 1st Circle magic.

Maybe just “Light,” “Heating,” or “Cooling” magic at best?

Individual lockers are in another small room extending from the back of the classroom.

Opening the door reveals 25 lockers packed tightly together.

Since there are 21 students in Class A, there are more than enough.

Before break time, our homeroom teacher told us we could have free time after organizing our textbooks.

Moving nearly twenty textbooks would require at least three trips.

I tried carrying ten books at once initially, but my body wobbled, so I decided to be less ambitious.

“I’ll open the locker for you.”

“Thanks.”

A cute little girl with her hair in twin tails like mine kindly opens locker number 6.

The lockers have a triple-layer structure designed for convenient storage. This is how rich academies are different, I suppose.

As I’m neatly stacking books from the innermost part, the girl who just helped me doesn’t leave but stays beside me.

“What were you talking about with Yoon Si-hoo?”

“Huh?”

“You were talking about some wizard stuff earlier.”

“Oh, that you’ll die if you’re slow with magic.”

I realize now she was sitting right behind me.

She must have found our conversation quite interesting.

“Si-hoo is a genius. You have no right to give him advice.”

I guess I was mistaken about her intentions.

The girl snidely remarks with a sarcastic tone.

I have no idea why she’s looking at me with such displeasure.

Just as I finish organizing the remaining 13 books, the bell rings, signaling break time.

“Hej, Name! That means hello in Swedish!”

“Hi, Seo-ri.”

“You remembered my name! I’m touched!”

“It hasn’t been that long since we last saw each other.”

Led by Han Seo-ri, several students crowd around my desk.

Thanks to them, Si-hoo gets pushed aside, and his spot is naturally claimed by Seo-ri.

“Transfer student? New kid? Anyway, hello!”

“Hey, Han Seo-ri, why are you acting like you’re already friends with the transfer student?”

“We really are friends! And stop hitting my head!”

“Where is Arabyul Elementary? I’ve never heard of it.”

It’s quite chaotic.

The students surround my desk with all sorts of greetings.

Everyone seems to be here except for the red-haired little girl who snapped at me earlier and Yoon Si-hoo.

“Name looks overwhelmed, so could you ask one at a time?”

Seo-ri steps in to manage the traffic.

Even though we’ll get to know each other eventually, the kids are whispering among themselves, curious about all sorts of things.

“Where are you from? Did you come from another academy?”

“Dummy, she already said Arabyul Elementary!”

“Quiet, quiet! Why are you all being so noisy among yourselves?”

“It’s in Dobong-gu.”

It’s a small school with only one class per grade. No wonder these Gangnam kids wouldn’t know it.

“How do you know Seo-ri? Did you meet before?”

“I already told you we became friends while fighting.”

“How can we believe you, Seo-ri?”

Come to think of it, I don’t see Ji-hye. I thought she was Seo-ri’s best friend, but they probably got split into different classes.

“We’re neighborhood cousins. We met at the playground because we live in the same complex.”

“So is it true that you won against the older kids?”

“I didn’t fight them.”

I just subdued them and ran away.

“Name, you can’t say it like that! You cast super cool magic like whoosh and knocked them all down.”

“I knew Han Seo-ri was lying.”

“It’s true, ugh.”

I didn’t answer every question.

At this rate, not only would all my personal information be revealed, but they’d probably ask about my underwear color next.

Seo-ri cleverly noticed I was uncomfortable and asked the kids to stop questioning me.

Instead, we decided to do proper introductions.

That’s how I got to learn the names of my classmates one by one.

“Lee Ha-ru is super rich. His grandfather is the vice chairman of Samyeon Group! If you want anything, just ask him to buy it. He’s such a pushover, he’ll never refuse, so don’t feel burdened.”

“Why are you showing off on my behalf, Kim Han-gyeol? And I told you not to tell everyone about that!”

“Says the guy whose grandfather is the Raon Clan Leader. Rich kids always stick together.”

“Am I rich? I barely get any allowance.”

As expected of Cephiron Academy, the students’ wealth level is on a different dimension.

Unlike the high school division where students are selected based on individual talent and effort, perhaps elementary prodigies are mostly shaped by their parents’ early education.

Though we all wear the same uniform, they couldn’t hide their affluence in details like schoolbags and shoes.

It was in stark contrast to Arabyul Elementary, where kids couldn’t afford proper slippers and dragged around half-torn ones.

“If you all talk at once, the transfer student will get confused. We should introduce ourselves one by one!”

“No, it’s okay, I remember everyone. You’re Jeon Nu-ri, next to you is Hwang Hye-jung, and next to her is Go Kyung-won, right?”

“Huh? Yeah, that’s right…”

“Whoooooa, transfer student! You’re super smart! Si-hoo should be nervous!”

I could memorize a hundred Korean names on the spot if needed.

After dealing with Kaizen nobles with their ridiculous middle names and surnames, I’ve built up a tolerance.

In that sense, Korean names with their overlapping surnames feel comfortingly familiar.

“Then what’s the name of that red-haired friend?”

I pointed at the girl talking with Yoon Si-hoo in the hallway.

“Oh, are you talking about Jaewang…?”

Kim Han-gyeol narrowed his eyes.

He seemed to dislike even mentioning her, biting his lower lip firmly.

“Her name is Jaewang?”

That’s quite a bold name for someone with such a cute appearance.

Beside me, Ha-ru hesitated before leaning in to whisper in my ear.

“Not Jaewang but Jaewang… it means ‘annoying outcast.'”

* * *

“Are you really not going to eat? We’re treating you.”

Ji-hye said while licking her ice cream.

“No, it’s time for my medicine.”

The Melona ice cream looks really delicious, but I have to resist.

Seo-ri and I had joined Ji-hye from the other class and found a spot at the northern snack bar.

“Seo Yu-na? The girl who always follows Yoon Si-hoo around? She’s second in the whole school.”

While chatting about the academy, the name Seo Yu-na came up, and Ji-hye mentioned she knew her.

“Don’t you know her better than I do, Seo-ri?”

“She was in Class C in first grade.”

“She was always hanging around our class during breaks.”

“Was she?”

“You were too busy playing with the other kids to notice.”

Seo Yu-na… so her name is Yu-na.

“Earlier, Lee Ha-ru and Kim Han-gyeol in our class seemed to really dislike her.”

Seo-ri told Ji-hye about what happened earlier.

“Really? From what I’ve heard, Seo Yu-na has a bit of a strange personality.”

“Personality?”

“Now that I think about it, she did something to you last year too, Seo-ri. During the sports festival, you lent her your pants, but she returned them with milk stains without washing them.”

“Did that happen? I don’t remember well.”

She didn’t seem as bad as the rumors suggested.

She even went out of her way to open my locker for me when she had plenty of books to move herself.

“Does she like Yoon Si-hoo?”

“Nooo? If anything, she probably hates him intensely.”

Ji-hye shook her head vigorously at my guess.

“I think she dislikes people who are better than her. Plus, Si-hoo is number one.”

Is she trying to keep him in check? Seo-ri offered a cautious guess.

“Si-hoo is good at studying.”

“Right. Si-hoo and Yu-na are probably the only ones who’ve already finished all the elementary school material.”

“They’re both total monsters! I still make mistakes with multiplication and division…”

If Seo-ri is right and Yu-na was trying to keep me in check, her behavior made some sense.

It’s sad that now I’m getting this treatment even from an eight-year-old.

I never planned to become friends with everyone anyway, so if she acts like that again, I can simply ignore her.

“You two are lucky to be in the same class… I’m all alone in Class B, so it’s lonely.”

“Aww, our Ji-hye is lonely? Don’t worry, we’ll come find you like this every time. And there are nice kids in Class B too, I’ll introduce you later!”

“Name, what do you think of the academy? Is it different from other schools?”

“There are definitely a lot of rich people in this neighborhood.”

“Right? Especially in Class A, it’s even more extreme.”

Corporate vice chairmen, famous clan leaders, hospital directors, university presidents, and so on.

I wonder what it feels like to have family members you’d normally think you’d never meet in your lifetime.

“But the kids are all nice.”

The affluent have a different kind of composure.

Unlike the children at Merlin Orphanage who steal each other’s belongings and sometimes get into fights, the kids here probably won’t do that.

“Still, don’t underestimate it. We have an aptitude assessment test this afternoon, so your real academy life is just beginning.”

Ji-hye stood up abruptly and advised me to prepare myself.

She warned me not to take lightly the endless homework, exams, and practical evaluations.

Beside her, Seo-ri nodded and agreed, saying “That’s right, that’s right.”

“What’s this aptitude assessment like? Do we take it for all subjects?”

“No, just magic studies! 20 multiple-choice questions and 5 essay questions. There’s no specific scope since it doesn’t count toward your grades.”

“Then I don’t need to worry about it.”

“If you don’t make it into the top 20 twice in a row on the aptitude assessment, you might have to move to a different class in the second semester! And since the grade rankings are made public, it’s really important!”

“Come on, don’t you trust our transfer student?”

Seo-ri squeezed my hand tightly.

“Beat Yoon Si-hoo and Seo Yu-na this time. Push down those stuck-up noses!”