Chapter 53
Ms. Rolendria could not hide her surprise when she saw me at the outdoor swimming pool.
“I’ve never experienced anything like this in my life.”
“It’s my first time as well.”
‘What, did you think I saw this coming as well? It’s my first supernatural power!’
Ms. Rolendria sighed.
“Coming to a supernatural power class with no abilities, and then gaining a supernatural power after just a few weeks...”
Of course, this was beyond rare, verging on the bizarre. The person who was trying his hand at everything, claiming that they could do anything, had actually become something all of a sudden. I must have been seen as a sure fail in her book, but to her surprise, I’d made a comeback.
“Today’s session is more of an assessment than a lecture, Reinhart.”
“An assessment?”
“That’s right.”
Superhumans were managed with great care. Since the power I possess hasn’t been properly characterized, there had to be a process to judge my ability precisely. Those with abilities deemed too dangerous or too uncontrolled were sometimes dealt with secretly. I remembered clearly establishing such a setting.
So, while they recognized my supernatural power that had manifested the day before, the Temple still needed to determine what kind of power it was exactly, and assess it in order to decide whether or not I could continue my education at the Temple.
That was why they let me be on Sunday, but as soon as the regular classes began on Monday, I was treated as an exception.
It was crucial to accurately judge my abilities first. They would not let me return to the class until they fully determined if I could control my supernatural power and what kind of power it was.
At this stage, my Self-Deception ability was not considered dangerous.
While I was unconscious, they must have assessed my physical condition, and as a result, they came to understand that I had been endowed with supernatural powers.
Self-Deception was the name of the supernatural power. The name of it didn’t seem to inspire much concern. If the name of the power had been something like “World Destruction,” the Temple would’ve taken immediate action.
Not that there even was such a supernatural power.
Ms. Rolendria sat next to me, skimming through the report about my ability. She must have already gotten a full understanding of it by now.
The outdoor swimming pool was probably chosen as the place for the exam due to the need for a spacious and relatively isolated area.
“According to the report, during a duel with a third-year senior named Mayaton, you seemed to struggle at first, but there was a sudden and tremendous surge in your physical abilities. Is that correct?”
“Yes.”
Mr. Effenhauser had likely written the report. He would have also been the person capable of most accurately assessing that duel.
“Can you tell me what exactly happened?”
“Initially, I was tired, and the pain made it difficult for me to even move properly. But then, I suddenly felt invigorated, and Mayaton’s movements, which I shouldn’t have been able to see, became crystal clear to me. Then my physical abilities started to increase as well.”
“Hmm... I see. If that’s the case, a more appropriate name for the ability would be “Physical Enhancement,” so why “Self-Deception”? Perhaps it’s related to the words you spoke during the duel?”
I knew Mr. Effenhauser’s report would be detailed. It would certainly include how I’d said I was going to “find a way to win somehow” as well.
There was no reason or need to hide my abilities. If my supernatural power had been listed as “Verbal Dexterity,” it might have been a different story, but at this stage, it was no more than physical enhancement.
“I was in an unfair situation, and as it probably says there, and I was helplessly taking a beating.”
“Yes, correct.”
Ms. Rolendria nodded. Clearly, she had already read through the entire report.
“First, I felt humiliated and indignant, and had the desire to win. Subsequently, it grew beyond that, until I knew for sure that I would certainly win.”
“... What?”
Ms. Rolendria cocked her head as though puzzled by what I was saying. It was one thing to have a hope of winning in a dire situation, but believing that it was a foregone conclusion that I would win was another thing altogether.
Of course, I had been pushed into a psychologically extreme situation, but I had also realized how to use my ability during the duel. Unfortunately, the teacher wouldn’t be able to understand it if I explained it that way.
So I decided to change my wording a bit.
“At the time, the only thing in my mind was that I absolutely had to win. I couldn’t lose to someone like that. So, I thought to myself that there was no way I could lose to such trash like him, and that I would certainly win.”
I slightly altered the “I will win no matter what” mentality that I had used to activate the Self-Deception power, saying instead that I believed that I couldn’t lose to someone like Mayaton. I packaged it by saying that I couldn’t let something so devastating happen to me.
“That’s what happened.”
“Huh...”
Ms. Rolendria still did not seem to fully understand it.
To activate the power, I first needed to believe that there was no way I was going to lose to Mayaton. It was when this strong belief existed that the ability called Self-Deception appeared. The way it worked was akin to hypnotizing myself.
It was a force that would only activate if I truly believed in myself.
“Okay, sure. Since no one knows exactly why or how supernatural powers manifest, your situation could very well be possible.”
Supernatural powers were an unexplained phenomenon. This premise also worked to my advantage.
A single phenomenon was enough to explain away the existence of supernatural powers, no matter how strange the circumstances of their manifestation might be.
It would be suspicious if I had suddenly used a top-level magic spell despite not having studied magic and utterly lacking in knowledge.
However, it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for me to suddenly use a supernatural ability, because the principles behind such powers were not yet fully understood.
That was why Ms. Rolendria was not suspicious of me, even though she might find my case strange. Moreover, the premise that I had “infinite aptitude” also worked to my advantage in explaining how I acquired a power, no matter what kind of power it was.
“In that case... Self-Deception is deemed a power that enhances your physique, and activating it requires you to convince yourself that something will happen. At least, that’s what it seems like to me.”
“Yes, probably... that’s the way I see it as well.”
I myself had to be vague about my ability, so I responded accordingly.
“But... this supernatural power of yours is really quite unusual. It’s not one bit intuitive.”
Indeed, she was true.
Supernatural powers like pyrokinesis, summoning electricity, teleportation, telepathy, and others were intuitive. They were supernatural abilities that could be explained in a single sentence.
But Self-Deception? That was a bizarre supernatural power, and the boundary between what it could and could not do was unclear. That’s why it hadn’t been included in my novels, as it would be a headache for a non-protagonist character to possess such an ambiguous ability.
“First of all, even though the initial manifestation was related to enhancing your physique, it might not stop there. Let’s say your ability manifests when you hypnotize yourself strongly into believing something else.”
“Okay.”
“For example, let’s say you strongly believed that your body would turn into water. Would your physical body then become water?”
Was this person out of her mind?
Putting aside whether that was possible or not, what would even happen to me if it did work?
“Teacher, if I really become water after doing that, there’s a high chance I might not be able to revert back. Would that be considered suicide or murder?”
The teacher jumped at my specific question.
“No, I’m just saying hypothetically, not that you should actually go and try that, you silly goose,” Ms. Rolendria hastily clarified, wanting to avoid any misunderstanding.
She then sank into deep thought. The curriculum for the supernatural power class was inherently about control, management, and enhancement of abilities. However, since my power was uncharacterized, she faced her own difficulties.
She pondered for a moment before her expression suddenly hardened.
“Reinhart, your power might actually be a very dangerous one.”
‘What?’
“If the power of belief could turn things into reality, wouldn’t that be incredibly dangerous, even if it only applies to yourself?”
“I’m not sure...?”
It was true that it was going to become a dangerous power later on, but it was nowhere close to that right now.
“What if you believed that you’re a god? You might actually become a god, no?”
Damn. This teacher really had quite an imagination.
“I really don’t think it works that way...”
“But still... since we don’t yet fully understand what your ability is...”
Although she had a point, I knew that my ability was not that insanely powerful yet.
“Hmm... hmmm...”
Despite this, Ms. Rolendria started to seriously contemplate what kind of trouble my vague ability could lead to if it became dangerous.
As amusing as the situation might be, this misunderstanding could be incredibly dangerous for me.
If my power worked based only on my own beliefs about myself, and all those beliefs became fact, she could begin to consider my power as no different from other world-ending powers.
Leaving aside the actual potency of it, that line of thought itself was logically sound, and that made my power dangerous.
“Teacher, I don’t think my power can manifest such surreal abilities, and I’m certainly not a big fantasizer myself. Me, a god?”
She did, in fact, have a point. I was, after all, the creator of this world, so it would be weird for me to disagree with her.
I’d even say that, when it came to this world, I was something even more significant than a god.
Hey, I even named the gods in this world myself.
Believe it or not, me being the creator of this world was a fact.
Ms. Rolendria was essentially asking me, the creator, if believing I was the creator would be dangerous.
‘Well, you’re right! I am the creator! But in this world, the creator is as good as nonexistent! Even if I believe in something, nothing happens here!’
I was the “Almighty Creator” who had died of high blood pressure from reading hate comments. Could there be any situation more bizarre than this one?
Ms. Rolendria furrowed her brow at my protest that I did not have such wild fantasies.
“Well, that phase has passed, so it should be fine, but...”
Phase? What phase was she talking about?
“You know, sometimes middle school students seriously believe they are gods... Not just any gods, but incredibly evil beings, or they think they are dragons who lost their memories for their own amusement or something... It’s a surprisingly common thing.”
Ah, was she talking about “eighth-grader syndrome”[1]?
“It’s just a phase young teenagers who are in puberty typically go through... but if a child with your abilities began to seriously behave that way... your power might turn out to be something very dangerous. That’s what I’m getting at.”
Ms. Rolendria was entertaining the fanciful thought that if I caught this eighth-grade syndrome, I might use my ability to bring about the end of the world.
‘I’ll admit, I did go through a rough patch in eighth grade, but I’m done with that! I swear, that phase is over! I was nicknamed ‘Grim Reaper’ for some reason, but that was a long time ago! I’m not like that now! You might think it hasn’t been that many years since I left my middle school years behind, but in reality, it’s been almost two decades!’
The sudden recollection of my cringe-worthy past was enough to make me shudder.
***
Apparently, this world—already so similar to Seoul—even had eighth-grade syndrome as well. Ms. Rolendria made it quite clear that, it might be okay for other students to have such a syndrome and entertain such thoughts, I was not to entertain such notions under any circumstances.
Well, technically, I was already a god in this world. It was just that nothing really changed because of it.
Eventually, we began an actual test to determine the limits of my abilities.
We climbed down a ladder to the bottom of the swimming pool, which was about two-and-a-half meters deep.
Snap!
With a flick of her fingers, Ms. Rolendria summoned a stone the size of a baseball. It made sense that she was a high-level mage, given that her role was all about controlling or subduing superhumans on a day-to-day basis.
“Here is a stone.”
“Yes, I can see that it’s a stone.”
‘So what am I supposed to do with this stone that’s come out of nowhere?’
“Try to crush this stone by convincing yourself with your Self-Deception that you can do it.”
Hmm. Crushing a stone with sheer grip strength, huh.
“Don’t we usually start with something like crushing an apple, and then gradually increase the difficulty?”
Right? Wasn’t that how it was supposed to be? Beginning with easy tasks and progressing to more challenging ones later on?
“You know we shouldn’t waste food like that.”
The teacher dismissed the idea of using an apple in an incredibly serious tone. To her, there was no good reason for doing that.
In any case, I took the stone and held it in my hand.
I had to believe it.
That I had the grip strength to crush this stone.
I sincerely believed it.
Ms. Rolendria looked at me with an intrigued expression.
“Mmph!”
However, despite my efforts, nothing happened.
1. ?2?/Eighth-grader syndrome refers to a specific set of behaviors or attitudes that often manifest during the second year of middle school. Individuals with this “syndrome” tend to adopt a self-centered and fantastical attitude, often imagining themselves as global heroes or protagonists. The term is commonly used to poke fun at certain behaviors exhibited by children or teenagers, depicting a somewhat exaggerated or whimsical stage of their pubertal development. ?
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