episode_0022

Throughout her life, Riana was tired of hearing the word “talent.”

When she was born.

The innate capacity of magic far exceeded that of others by dozens of times. Her affinity was outstanding, and handling magic was an easy task.

Naturally, her manipulation abilities also increased. Although she was still at a young age and had not yet manifested her unique abilities, no one doubted that she would become an outstanding superhuman.

Manifestation of unique abilities.

It was extremely rare, to the point of being comparable to the fingers on one’s hand, the unique abilities of the spirit world. The expectations directed towards her soared without limit during that time.

Swept up in the atmosphere, she unintentionally became a hero, and before she knew it, she found herself fighting on the African front.

She had her own choices to make. She thought it was better to save people than to sit still. And she was making a lot of money, so she could retire later and live well, and so on…

Anyway, she had been living as a hero for quite some time, and even in that process, she heard the word “talent” countless times.

They were undoubtedly talented individuals when it came to blowing away their names.

Innate talent in magic, martial arts talent, unique abilities…

Talent, talent, talent.

She had heard it countless times. Talents emerged in all sorts of fields, and there were always talented individuals around her like piles of sand.

For a moment, memories from the distant past to what seemed like recent memories came flooding back.

The sky was still as blue today as ever. It was a different sky from the one over the African front.

Riana absentmindedly gazed at the sky and then turned her head.

A grassy field not too far away.

The initial upright posture was gone, and a boy was seen exhaling evenly without moving his body like a shrimp.

“Pfft.”

A chuckle escaped. He looked incredibly cute. Perhaps it was because of his appearance, but every action he took seemed adorable.

Was this harmful superficiality, or was it the charm of a mild personality?

Either way, watching him made her want to stroke his head.

Occasionally, he seemed to shiver. Come to think of it, Yuhul seemed to feel the cold particularly often.

Riana took out the outerwear she had brought just in case and covered it over Yi Hayul.

As the outerwear covered her like a blanket, she seemed satisfied, making a grumbling sound as she huddled her body even more.

Now she had completely buried herself in the outerwear.

At that sight, Riana suppressed her laughter and held her breath. She almost burst out laughing.

Gradually calming down as she endured, she thought back to the scene from a while ago, while gently soothing her still restless heart.

A modified crystal ball. A tool commonly used to cultivate basic magical abilities.

There are three stages in the process.

The first stage is contacting the crystal ball’s magic.

The second stage is breaking the resistance of the contacted magic, piercing a hole, and extracting the magic.

The third stage is absorbing the extracted magic as dominance.

For Yi Hayul, who was at the stage of entering magic for the first time, it was an even more difficult process.

Before the previous three stages, one must be aware of their own magic and know how to use it.

The crystal ball was the intermediary. It’s hard to know its characteristics with just one, but if you put two different ones side by side, it induces the characteristics to be well revealed.

In other words.

Yi Hayul had to be aware of and operate her own magic, contact it with the crystal ball’s magic, pierce holes through operation, and bring scattered magic to make it her own.

According to Riana’s judgment, she thought Yi Hayul must have talent in magic.

Special admission. A student of unprecedented status.

The principal, who had cut off all external activities except for communication through the contact book of the vice-principal for decades.

She had hidden her appearance somewhere in the cradle for decades, to the extent that there were conspiracy theories that she might actually be dead.

In the midst of all that, the vice-principal announced her testimony.

That they had selected a special admission student.

Thinking about the confusion at that time, her head still shook involuntarily.

After going through various events, what lay asleep in front of Riana was Yi Hayul, who had finally entered the cradle.

Even she was greatly surprised when she learned the circumstances.

Leaving aside the process or reasons, since the principal personally chose her, she thought there must be talent.

In fact, she heard from Artra that she has subtle talent.

Subtle talent? Not outstanding talent, nor modest talent, what exactly does it mean?

Literally. I didn’t grasp it properly either. Learning speed is fast, but… something’s strange.

Huh.

Artla’s evaluation. A peculiar talent…

I don’t know the meaning, but since she has talent in martial arts, I thought she might have talent in this area too.

It was a process of confirming that, and if she had talent, I planned for her to personally guide me.

So I planned to watch Yi Hayul whine with a tuning peg once. If you want to point out something, you need to know what the problem is first.

So when Yi Hayul held the tuning peg, I thought she was concentrating.

In the blink of an eye, she sucked it dry until the tuning peg was twisted. It absorbed it effortlessly for several days as if it were possessed by a starving beggar.

It was amazing. The original three processes… Yi Hayul completed almost five processes at once, including awareness and manipulation.

If it had been up to here, Leanna would have been completely amazed by Yi Hayul’s talent. “She has talent!” She would have been relieved and would have pondered how to teach her in the future.

Touching magic power at once, piercing a hole, extracting magic power, and absorbing the released magic power.

It’s amazing, but it’s not unprecedented. Leanna did the same thing. Yi Hayul was much faster, but it’s not impossible.

But there was a difference between Leanna and Yi Hayul.

The amount absorbed. Leanna barely gathered half at most. Yi Hayul gathered almost all of it. Overwhelmingly faster and took twice as much.

That’s not all. What made Leanna feel strange beyond admiration was after that.

Leanna glanced around. The grass on the ground seemed strangely lifeless.

At first, I thought it was because of my mood, but when I compared it closely with the grass in the distance, I could feel the difference.

Above all, if you examine the magic power closely, the concentration of magic power in the surroundings is clearly weakened.

The sphere of influence wasn’t very wide. At most, it was a radius of 2m.

The important thing is that she absorbed not only the magic power of the tuning peg but also the magic power of the surrounding space.

And even more importantly.

The most serious question in the current situation.

Rihanna raised her right hand. At the time when Yi Hayul was holding the crystal ball. The part that had been placed in his hand to give a signal.

Amazingly, unbelievably.

Yi Hayul absorbed Rihanna’s magic power.

Of course, it was possible because she was circulating magic power outside her body and did not resist.

If she had resisted, Yi Hayul would not have been able to invade her magic power at all.

…Did it really happen?

While Rihanna thought so, she couldn’t help but discard the thought in a corner of her mind.

Atra said. A strange talent. Something alien to ordinary talents.

Rihanna felt the same way. Regardless of the category, she also judged Yi Hayul’s talent as alien.

What should I call this…

Rihanna’s gaze swept over Yi Hayul, the colorless crystal ball, the surrounding bushes, and her right arm in turn.

Is it okay to liken it to this?

It felt like the access permissions were different. It seems different from ordinary magic affinity.

I understand why Atra insists on pushing it, and it takes time to grasp. It’s definitely alien.

Rihanna reached out with a wry smile. Her hand touched the smooth hair.

It was an addictive sensation.

* * *

Shin Seoryul is an early riser.

There’s no particular reason. He liked the unique air of dawn. It was cool yet not too cold, and it made him feel refreshingly cool inside. The sun wasn’t too hot, and it gave off a subtle feeling.

So, occasionally, when he woke up early, he went jogging.

He dressed comfortably, draped a slightly damp sports towel around his neck, and ran for a while.

Running at a moderate pace in the morning air gave him a thrilling sensation that pierced his chest.

After relieving stress in this way, sitting near the dormitory and enjoying some snacks was pure happiness.

After finishing jogging, the taste of the cool, lukewarm coffee pouring into his slightly heated body is a happiness that is hard to express.

“……”

The hand holding an 8,500 won (including tax) coffee trembled. She did not suffer from Raynaud’s disease. She was a healthy girl who had never experienced any separate illness.

But her hand trembled. Her face also turned cold. It could be attributed to the chilly morning air, but it was also because she felt chilly.

The park had completely transformed the atmosphere of the early morning. Her gaze was drawn to the rather picturesque park with a walkway stretching through the green trees.

And then she saw it.

Lee Ha-yul was curled up on the grass near the lake, fast asleep.

Cute.

It was her first impression. Doesn’t her appearance emphasize cuteness?

Her lines are thin and soft. Looking at her face, she seemed prettier than herself, which was surprising, and looking again, she was handsome, leaving one speechless.

The reason why the condescending looks about parachutes or special privileges for the disabled were gradually disappearing was clearly due in part to her appearance.

There really is no fairy like her.

Last time, Hong Yeon-hwa likened Lee Ha-yul to a fairy as she passed by.

Whether she unconsciously spat out those words, or realized her mistake immediately after, her face stiffened so impressively that it couldn’t be more memorable.

Right after that, she teased her friends about being enchanted by a fairy and ended up receiving a few blows each.

At that time, she was just showing off, but now, she can’t help but agree with the statement that she looks like a fairy.

But! However!

That’s not the important part.

Near Lee Ha-yul, lying near the mist-covered lake in the early dawn, there was a woman sitting nearby.

Even in her own eyes, the owner of the beauty was admirable.

Rihanna Velus.

The professor in charge of the Spring Class.

As an excellent student, Shin Seo-ryul, she was a professor without a face. At most, she greeted her a few times when she went to see Hong Yeon-hwa and Baek Ah-rin.

So she didn’t know what was going on over there.

Why were the two of them together on this weekend’s early morning?

Why was Lee Ha-yul so comfortably sleeping next to her… No, she even covered her with a coat? It clearly didn’t look like it belonged to Lee Ha-yul…

Why was Professor Rihanna stroking Lee Ha-yul’s head?

What could be the reason? One thing for sure is that Shin Seo-yul, as a divine spirit, doesn’t even know if there is a situation or not.

At that moment, Riana turned her head. Their eyes met. Riana, with widened eyes, raised her index finger to her lips, letting out a faint smile.

“Shh.”

At the sound that pierced her ears, Shin Seo-yul’s shoulders trembled. It was telepathy, directly conveying one’s intentions to the other through magic.

It’s not an ability belonging to the Chloride group in the backup team, but rather a technique occasionally used by quite skilled superhumans.

“……”

Shin Seo-yul nodded after a brief silence. At that, Riana smiled as if satisfied.

Shin Seo-yul turned away and left the park. He didn’t stop walking until the strange gaze disappeared.

Suddenly looking around, it was time to call it morning rather than dawn. People were starting to move around little by little.

Stopping in his tracks, Shin Seo-yul narrowed his eyes and thought of his friend.

A red friend who was hot-tempered and dirty, but once you got close, showed good points, and when teased, responded amusingly like a punching bag.

The girl who didn’t particularly suppress her personality in front of her parents, but acted ridiculously modest in front of Yi Ha-yul.

The incident where a friend made a mistake, and the guy asked what kind of candy he liked…

Hong Yeon-hwa’s gaze at Yi Ha-yul…

And the scene just now. Professor Riana covering Yi Ha-yul with her coat as he slept in the park, patting his head…

After compiling various information accumulated throughout life, he dared to predict one conclusion.

A feature film played out in his mind.

“Oh…”

In the end, shocked by the startling conclusion, Shin Seo-yul lowered his head, shivering.

“Damn… The opponent is a bit tough, even for her friend.”

No matter how much of a friend she was, this opponent was strong.