Ch.4340 – Interlocked Fingers

“I’m done for.”

Yuna stroked her disheveled hair while washing her face.

Getting on the homeroom teacher’s good side was important for good grades, but she was already dreading what the teacher would think after she suddenly ran out of class. The thought alone made her feel like her world was crashing down.

If she lost points because of this incident… she didn’t even want to imagine it.

Plus, she had promised herself she wouldn’t cry so pathetically again, but looking in the mirror, her eyes were already bright red.

She firmly believed that the source of all her problems was the transfer student everyone was talking about, NoName.

The fact that Si-hoo got 84 points and she got 82 was frustrating, but she could look forward to doing better next time.

But seeing the transfer student confidently score a perfect 100 made Yuna feel like what little self-esteem she had left was crumbling away.

How on earth did she live her life?

What kind of privileged home environment did she grow up in?

What amazing teachers must she have learned from?

How could she be so overwhelmingly good at magic?

Yuna gasped for breath as pain constricted her chest.

She envied the other kids.

She wished she could learn magic without any limitations, from a family with wealth that would last generations.

She wanted to worry about the distant future, not about today and tomorrow.

But she couldn’t, because she was her family’s only hope.

After all the effort it took to get into this academy… That’s why Yuna couldn’t put down her pen even in the middle of the night.

Her reflection stared back at her from the water-filled sink.

Dark circles had formed heavily under her eyes.

The result of several days of catching only brief naps while preparing for the aptitude evaluation.

If she just smashed her head right here…

“Are you okay?”

“Who’s there! Oh…”

Yuna turned around in surprise.

At first, she thought it was a ghost, but when she lowered her gaze, a small girl was staring up at her.

“Get lost.”

“I don’t want to.”

“I said get lost!”

“I came to take my medicine too. You don’t own the bathroom, you know.”

Yuna couldn’t believe this was happening.

But regardless, NoName entered the bathroom and dumped several empty potion bottles she had been carrying onto the sink.

Then she took the only bottle that still contained liquid, uncapped it, and downed it in one go.

A clean shot.

Then she calmly went to the adjacent sink and rinsed the glass bottles thoroughly.

Black murky water bubbled down the drain.

“Hey.”

“What now! If you’re done, just leave already.”

“Your forehead is bleeding. Come here.”

It was a wound Yuna had gotten when she hit her head hard against the mirror when she entered the bathroom.

NoName grabbed Yuna’s head with both hands and forcibly lowered it to her eye level.

“What are you doing?”

“Stop squirming and hold still.”

[2nd Circle Casting: Tissue Regeneration]

‘When did she…?’

A warm sensation transferred from NoName’s hands to Yuna’s forehead.

Yuna hadn’t noticed NoName preparing to cast magic, let alone actually casting it.

And it wasn’t even pre-written magic but direct casting.

This was a spell she’d never seen before.

From the green color, she could vaguely guess it was related to life activities, but even that wasn’t certain.

Unlike the confused Yuna, NoName remained calm from the start.

As if she was simply doing what needed to be done.

Yuna opened her eyes slightly to look at NoName.

She hadn’t gotten a good look at her face before because of her short height.

Now she noticed her eyelashes were really long and pretty.

It was amazing how all her features fit so neatly on such a small face.

Especially her attractively upturned eyes,

They reminded Yuna of the Siamese cat she had when she was young.

“Don’t get hurt.”

“Are you showing off that you can use magic or what?”

Despite wanting to thank her, Yuna’s words came out harsh instead. It was an old habit of hers.

“Do you want to learn it too? Come here.”

“Huh?”

NoName’s hand overlapped Yuna’s.

Yuna tried to pull away from the sudden physical contact, but their fingers were already interlocked.

“You already know the 2nd Circle runes, right? Then I’ll just teach you how to draw it. Remember this well.”

NoName’s mana flowed into Yuna through her hand.

An alien sensation.

Yuna felt a bit dizzy and her body growing hot.

“For tissue regeneration magic, never draw the outer circle first. That makes you adjust all control formulas to the outer circle size, which is tricky. Start by drawing the triangle first, like this.”

Slowly but gently, their overlapped hands moved together.

Additionally, NoName kindly explained each detailed element of the magic circle.

Each time she spoke, her breath tickled Yuna’s shoulder.

“If you want to maintain the magic circle, using just a quarter of the initial mana input is enough.”

“Okay… got it.”

“Want to try it?”

“You want me to try? Now? This?”

Does she think everyone’s a genius like her?

But Yuna couldn’t let herself be looked down upon, so she desperately recalled everything NoName had taught her.

“First draw the triangle… then at each vertex, place ‘Maben’ three times, no, twice… and one ‘El’. Then calculate the area to draw the circle, and write the control rune like this, right?”

“Yep, that’s perfect.”

Yuna gently infused mana into the completed magic circle.

The magic circle vibrated, identical to the one NoName had created earlier.

“You’re a genius too, huh.”

“Of course…! Wait, why are you teaching me this?”

“Childhood injuries last forever. Use it well in daily life.”

NoName left behind those meaningful words, which momentarily confused Yuna, but she quickly figured out why.

“You talk like an adult even though you’re just a kid.”

“I am an adult.”

“Whatever.”

Looking closely in the mirror, Yuna’s wound had been healed perfectly without a trace.

Having personally experienced the wonder of healing magic, Yuna asked NoName about its source.

“Where did you learn this magic?”

“Learn?”

“Someone must have taught you. Your parents, or a private tutor.”

“I taught myself.”

“Stop lying.”

“Magic is best learned on your own from the beginning.”

“But your parents must have helped you.”

“Both of them are gone.”

“You’re lying ag… wait, you’re not?”

“No. It’s not a lie.”

“…”

Yuna fidgeted with her fingers, suddenly at a loss for words.

How could she have known her parents weren’t around?

The academy was full of rich young masters and misses without a single hardship in their lives, so Yuna hadn’t considered it.

After racking her brain, she finally said:

“I’m… sorry… I don’t have a dad either, so we’re even.”

* * *

‘This is bad…!’

It had been 15 minutes since NoName went to find Yuna, and she still hadn’t returned.

Si-hoo was growing increasingly anxious.

For good reason—he had discovered that NoName’s backers were not ordinary people, and Yuna had provoked such a person.

There was such a complete lack of news that he wondered if NoName had locked Yuna in a cleaning closet somewhere and was beating her up.

‘Should I go check now?’

But Yoon Si-hoo had no legitimate reason to go after them.

Of course, what teacher would believe that their student was a spy?

Si-hoo himself decided to dismiss it as an absurd thought.

No, but still, what if,

There was always that tiny possibility.

Even if NoName wasn’t actually a spy, she had more than enough reason to harbor ill feelings toward Yuna.

If, as Seo-ri said, NoName truly had the skill to take down upperclassmen with a single gesture, then even someone like Seo Yuna could be subdued in an instant.

She might be trapped in the last bathroom stall with her head submerged in a sink full of water.

*Slide*

“…!”

Contrary to Si-hoo’s concerns, they both looked perfectly fine.

NoName entered through the back door first, with Yuna following behind her.

But the Yuna who returned was much more docile than before.

‘What happened in that bathroom?’

“Sorry, Si-hoo, Johan. We prevented you from doing the group activity, didn’t we?”

NoName apologized.

“No, it’s fine! Hey Seo Yuna, are you okay?”

“Huh? Yeah, I’m fine…”

Was this really the same Yuna who had been spewing unspeakable curses just moments ago?

Not just Si-hoo, but Johan seemed to feel the same way as he sweated profusely.

The Korean language class, not a particularly important subject at Cephiron Academy, eventually ended without much progress.

As Yuna had worried, it wasn’t a subject where attitude scores mattered; she just needed to do well on the midterm and final exams.

“NoName!”

As they rearranged the desks back to their original positions for break time, Seo Yuna scurried over to NoName’s desk and called out to her.

“Can you show me that thing from earlier again? I forgot how to do it.”

“Come here.”

“Okay.”

“Your hand.”

“Here.”

Yuna knelt beside NoName’s desk and placed one hand on top of it.

The scene looked exactly like a dog trainer working with a day-old puppy.

Si-hoo felt like he might faint right then and there.