Chapter 73
—Don’t you think that we deserve to rest today? It’s the last day of the holiday, you know? Your body may keep up but if you keep training like this, you’ll start losing hair and start balding. Do you even know how scary that is?’
—‘Balding...?’
—‘That’s right. If you exercise too intensively, your hair starts to fall out. You have to realize that your hair roots are much more important than your life. Now, come with me and get some rest before you regret it later.’
—‘Are you balding?’
—‘No way! Definitely not! I’ve never balded in my life! I’m just telling you this because it’s better to be careful now, when you’re still young. You’ll thank me later!’
After finishing up morning training on Sunday, I dragged Ellen out to Main Street without much of a plan. She didn’t seem to believe my nonsense theory about hair loss but seemed to resign herself to going along with me due to my nagging.
Still, she would have flatly refused it in the past, and the fact that she was reluctantly following along now made it feel like we had grown much closer. Anyway, one needs a change of scenery every now and then.
No matter how you looked at it, I was a person with many faces.
If we turned back the clock a week, I was involved in planning a terrorist attack on the imperial city. After successfully carrying out the attack, I had then returned to the Temple, where I was now whining and nagging at my classmates to go out and have fun on the weekend.
What was I doing?
“What do you want to eat? It’s on me.”
Since we skipped lunch at the Temple kitchen, we planned to eat first. Going outside the Temple was forbidden, but roaming around inside the Temple grounds was always allowed.
“Anything but cheonggukjang,” Ellen stated decisively, knowing that if she said ‘anything’, I might choose something horrible for her to eat.
‘What a shame!’
“... I thought you liked cheonggukjang.”
“I only ate it because I was hungry.”
“No way...”
She clearly did not want to eat it. Strange, I would have thought she might have started to like it by now. Maybe she just needed more exposure?
Tsk.
It looked like I needed more time to develop her taste buds into adult ones.
“So, anything but cheonggukjang is fine?”
Ellen looked at me sharply. “I don’t like weird things,” she stated plainly.
Since we both had swordsmanship classes on Tuesday, we tended to eat lunch together. Because of this, she had often suffered through many of my weird food suggestions.
The durian fruit was a prime example. I wasn’t sure why it even existed in this world, but it did. After trying it, Ellen, who normally would keep her composure, spat it out onto the street. She even braced herself against a wall and retched.
“What? Weird things? Come on, it’s all part of the experience.”
There were probably dishes like stinky tofu here too, and I really wanted to have her try a variety of exotic foods like that.
“No. I don’t like it. You only like weird stuff.”
What I actually enjoyed wasn’t the weird food itself, but her reactions to eating them.
Keeping up this act for a day or two was fine, I supposed, but if I kept it up, she might actually start hating me.
“I want to eat beef.”
Ellen decided she couldn’t leave it to me to choose, and went ahead and picked the menu herself.
“See, you’re finally overcoming your indecisiveness.”
I framed it as if my constant suggestions of exotic foods were for her own good, and Ellen started walking ahead of me as if telling me to stop spouting nonsense.
***
“I’m still hungry. This is not enough.”
“Then just order mor-... no. Actually, let’s not do that.”
I was about to tell Ellen, who had devoured a 400-gram sirloin steak in a flash, to order more when I realized how expensive it was and stopped myself. I felt like my allowance would evaporate if l let her continue eating more.
“You’re crossing the line if you start gobbling down ten plates of food here.”
“...”
This restaurant we were in was on the Temple’s Main Street and was on the pricier side. Although my allowance was substantial, satisfying her appetite was not just a decision, but required a preparedness on my end to empty my wallet.
Although she always appeared to have the same expression to anyone else, I could tell that Ellen was disheartened.
When you actually spent time observing her, she became surprisingly easy to read.
“Alright, alright! Have another one!”
“Okay. Then I’ll have a porterhouse.”
“... You really know how to push it.”
I regretted taking her out to eat.
***
“You’re buying dessert. That’s the unspoken rule around here.”
“Okay.”
After polishing off a very satisfying amount of steak, Ellen nodded readily when I suggested we get dessert. Main Street wasn’t just lined with restaurants; it also had cafes and entertainment facilities.
I had only established the setting and hadn’t detailed everything that was in it, but now that I was seeing it in person, there was plenty to see.
Clang!
And for some reason, I could hear a place that sounded like a batting cage.
‘A batting cage? Really? What’s being used in place of a pitching machine?’
Don’t tell me that they used mana stones as a substitute for pitching machines. Well, that would be quite convincing actually.
And that was not all.
Whoosh!
I wondered what that noise was, and then I realized it was the sound of a bowstring being released.
—Bullseye!
There was a shooting range, with bows instead of guns. And it seemed there was also a version with darts.
How was this any different from the modern world? It felt as if the creators just slapped on the most cliched things they could think of, due to a lack of imagination.
On second thought, I guess it was me who wrote it, so never mind...
Every time I realized that this world was built in an odd medieval-modern fantasy genre, it was like giving myself a scolding.
“I don’t think this is the right way.”
“Yeah, you’re right.”
We were looking for a dessert shop, but found ourselves walking around the entertainment district, which was full of various different activities. As we were about to turn around and leave, I heard a voice that sounded somewhat familiar, but not one I knew well.
—Ughhh! No! This can’t be right! Why?!
From a nearby shop came the exasperated voice of someone young. I could only see their back, but they were visibly trembling as they strained to pull the bowstring back, little by little.
Twick!
“Ugh! I missed again!”
They appeared so frail while attempting to draw the bow without even knowing how to do it properly. It looked both pitiful and frustrating, and it seemed like that person was just wasting their money.
I moved closer to get a look at the person’s face, and indeed, it was someone I knew.
“Hey, senior.”
“Ahhh!”
The petite individual was clearly startled by me calling them out, and accidentally released their hold on the bowstring.
“What are you doing here?”
“You, you... you’re?”
It was the little brat of a senior, Rudina, who I had once insulted by saying something like her neck would snap if I smacked her.
“Did you come here alone? Why aren’t your older brothers and sisters around?”
It looked for certain that she was wandering around by herself. Had she been with anyone, they wouldn’t have let this little one tremble and struggle all alone, especially since there seemed to be absolutely no hope for her when it came to archery.
“They’re not my older brothers and sisters, they’re my friends!” Rudina yelled back at me.
“Why are you yelling?”
Truth be told, I owed her an apology. Not only for my harsh words when she was clearly a vulnerable person, but also because of the duel incident, especially since I’d heard from Adriana how worried she had been about me possibly getting hurt.
I had been meaning to apologize, but there hadn’t been an opportunity to do so. And yet here we were, running into each other in such an unlikely place.
I was curious about what she was doing. Taking a closer look, the shooting range booth I was familiar with had been transformed into something resembling an archery range. Ultimately, the concept was the same: score points by hitting targets and winning prizes.
However, the targets were quite far away, and it seemed like this little child would need about two years before she could actually hit them.
‘... Did you actually think you could win this game or something?”
“What’s it to you?!”
It was obvious that no matter how hard she tried, she was not going to win. Rudina was still attempting it stubbornly, which was one thing, but the owner who allowed her to continue the game despite her clear lack of skill seemed to be more problematic.
The prizes were all stuffed animals. She had such an obvious taste.
“It’s none of your business, so stop bothering me and just go away!”
Rudina pushed me away as if I was disturbing her.
“Look, I don’t know which prize you’re trying to get, but I can get it for you if you want to.”
Rudina’s expression changed slightly.
“Hm?”
“Yeah, I was sorry about what I did before. Truth be told, I’ve heard a lot from Adriana. I’ve been meaning to apologize, but the timing never seemed right. So, as an apology for what I said, I want to get the prize for you. Just tell me what you want, and I’ll win it.”
“... Are you good at shooting a bow?”
I wasn’t sure how good I was, but I was confident I could shoot better than her.
Rudina reluctantly handed me the bow, clearly still feeling skeptical.
“Which one do you want?”
“That one.”
Rudina pointed to an enormous bear-shaped stuffed animal. She hadn’t been the nicest to me until now, yet when I asked her what she wanted, she pointed it out immediately.
‘Kids will be kids, I guess.’
Anyway, not only was that bear huge, it was also the first prize...
“Uh, well...”
I paid for one try and pulled back the bowstring.
‘I am an archery master.’
Zing!
Obviously, that wasn’t the case.
***
I needed to get 1000 points, which meant that I’d have to hit the 100-point target ten times out of ten shots. Essentially, the prize Rudina wanted required a perfect score.
“...”
“...”
“... I don’t think you’re any better than I am...”
I ended up with a total score of 120 points, which was only good enough to win some basic prizes. It wasn’t much better than zero.
Rudina couldn’t even pull back the bowstring properly, and while I could, I still ended up with such a pitiful score.
If it wasn’t for my supernatural power, I wouldn’t have even hit the target. Since it was my first time shooting a bow, hitting the target even a few times felt like an achievement that I wanted to regard as significant.
“Uh... hmm! That... didn’t go so well, did it?”
“What the...? Why did you act as though you were some archery master, then?”
Rudina was frustrated at how cocky I’d been when I wasn’t really anything special.
“Hey, that was just a warm-up, the real deal starts now.”
I paid the owner to go another round.
“I just have to win the prize for you right?”
I didn’t expect to win the top prize on my first try anyway.
“Hey. Show her how it’s done.”
“Huh?”
I abruptly handed the bow to Ellen.
***
Thump!
“... Wow.”
Rudina’s eyes were wide as she stared dumbly at the tenth arrow, which was precisely stuck in the 100-point target.
“... My goodness.”
My reaction was no different.
“... Whoa.”
Even the owner had the same reaction.
Ellen gauged the draw weight of the bow with just a few pulls, and with a casual flick of her wrist, each arrow lodged itself into the 100-point target.
“Have you ever shot a bow before?”
“A few times.”
The talent she possessed, weapon mastery, encompassed aptitude with all weapon types. Even so, how was it possible to hit a perfect score with barely a few shots? Wasn’t this cheating? That target wasn’t even that close!
The owner, with a hesitant expression, handed over the first prize—the large teddy bear—over to Ellen.
“Hey, kid. This stuff isn’t for professionals. I’ll let it slide this time, but not again. Got it?”
“... Okay.”
Certainly, if someone with a talent in archery were to play, they’d sweep all the prizes, so I understood where the owner was coming from. Of course, Ellen wasn’t really one with an archery talent.
Ellen stood there emotionlessly, holding the teddy bear which was almost as big as she was. Rudina looked in stunned envy at the teddy bear, and then at Ellen.
Without a word, Ellen handed the large stuffed bear to Rudina.
“Oh, what? You’re giving this to me?”
“I am unable to take care of it, so I’d be grateful if you could take care of it for me.”
“W-wow! Thank you, sweetie! You’re such a good person!”
Ellen was perfectly polite and respectful to her senior as she handed over the teddy bear, and Rudina seemed extremely moved. Hugging the teddy bear that was larger than herself, she tottered but wore an expression filled with jubilation.
“Hey, even if you were the one who shot the bow, I was the one who paid, so shouldn’t she be thankful to me?”
“... I suppose so.”
Rudina glanced at me as if looking at a pest.
“You have so many problems, but the biggest one is talking too much and saying unnecessary things,” she said.
“That’s my biggest problem? Just that? I’ll take that as a compliment, thanks!”
Rudina’s face flushed with a mix of pleasure from the gift and irritation at my provocation. Then after a brief moment, her eyes lit up as she turned to Ellen.
“Hey, junior! Can you play that one for me too?”
“What?”
Rudina was pointing to the darts game on the other side. I wasn’t sure what the first prize over there was, but it was surely some kind of stuffed animal as well. Ellen nodded slightly, as if to say why not.
‘These kids... You’ve got to be kidding me.’
“Hey, you’re already struggling with one giant stuffed bear; how do you plan to carry another one?”
“Oh... I guess you’re right...”
She looked pitiable just carrying one stuffed bear—what was she planning to do if she had another? Of course, I could carry it for her, but that would be a hassle.
“Forget the game, let’s just go get something sweet,” I told her.
I quickly grabbed the teddy bear that Rudina was holding and secured it to my side.
“Hey! Give me my bear back!”
***
At a nearby dessert cafe, the three of us settled down and each picked our desired beverages and sweets. The table was laden with cakes, macarons, and ice cream—a real sugar fest.
Initially, it was supposed to be Ellen’s treat, but since Rudina was with us, I decided to pay for dessert as well.
I ordered some black tea.
Rudina took a bite of her cake and shuddered with joy, while Ellen, true to form and without much reaction, began diligently eating her share.
I didn’t really touch the desserts and just quietly sipped my black tea. Rudina seemed to find my lack of interest in the sweets odd and tilted her head.
“Is the tea good?”
“It’s okay.”
I was no tea expert and had ordered black tea for no reason. There was coffee available too, but I didn’t particularly want it. Rudina stared at me sipping the presumably-tasteless tea as if she was studying something bizarre.
“Why drink it if it’s just “okay”?”
“Because I’m not fond of sweet things,” I said.
I disliked sweet things, and the tea was not bad.
Rudina gave me another look, as if I had become even more weird.
“If you don’t like sweet things, why come to a dessert place?”
“I came to buy you guys dessert. Both of you look like you’d enjoy sweets.”
At that, Rudina’s eyes rounded slightly, perhaps slightly touched by the notion that I had come just to treat them, even if I wasn’t planning on eating myself.
“I don’t really like sweet things either,” Ellen chimed in, to which I snorted.
“Yeah right. Even if you don’t like sweets, you seem to love eating just about anything, so it doesn’t matter, does it?”
“...”
“Can’t argue with the truth, can you?”
In reality, despite what she had just said, she was the one who was eating the most. Rudina was nibbling away as well, but she paused to watch Ellen blankly, who was devouring everything nonstop.
“You’ll get fat if you eat like that, junior.”
There was a hint of concern in Rudina’s comment, to which Ellen blandly replied, “It’s okay. I don’t gain weight.”
It was the perfect answer to make someone angry, especially a girl. Rudina glared at me with a hardened expression.
Her eyes seemed to be asking that question, “Is this girl being passive-aggressive toward me?”
“No damn clue what kind of metabolism she’s got, but she’s a gym freak. She’s basically exercising all day. It’s true, she really won’t get fat.”[1]
“Ah... she has talent in combat, I’m guessing? I suspect that she would. And why do you keep speaking so informally to m—... Never mind. Forget it.”
Rudina shook her head as if acknowledging that I was not going to listen to her any time soon.
“Anyway, I wanted to say sorry.”
As I turned the conversation back to what I really wanted to say, Rudina sighed as if she were getting an apology she didn’t necessarily want.
“Forget it. It’s fine. You won the duel, after all.”
Since the nonsensical duel had concluded with my victory, Rudina didn’t really care much for an apology.
She grinned at me. “Honestly, I don’t like you, but I disliked that senior even more.”
It seemed that Mayaton, with whom I had dueled, did not have a good reputation. Rudina seemed to take delight in the fact that I had beaten him.
“Is that guy really that bad?”
“He was the one who insisted that I ‘educate’ the first-years. I don’t even want to talk about the other things he’s done. I just don’t like him.”
She was the youngest in her class because she had skipped grades, and was also the most gentle in the second-year Class A. And so she had been pressured to discipline the juniors.
But if she was so naive and bad at speaking ill of others, why had she thrown so many verbal barbs at me, calling me crazy and perverted? Not to mention, she wasn’t that friendly to me earlier on as well.
Of course, I may have done things deserving of all the insults from her, so I really didn’t have anything to complain about.
“By the way, how old are you, senior?”
“Me? I’m fifteen.”
Regardless of whether she skipped grades or not, she was obviously much younger than the real me. However, she was also two years younger than the first-years.
‘Fifteen years old, huh.’
Was I really living amongst these kids as equals?
The reality of just how many youngsters I was surrounded with suddenly hit me.
“What’s your major?”
“Ah... you don’t know, do you?”
“How could I know if you’ve never told me?”
What kind of ability did she have to skip three grades?
“My major is magic.”
As she said this, Rudina spread out her hand.
A small flame emerged above her palm. It appeared above her hand without any incantation or gesture.
“... That’s a supernatural power, isn’t it?”
It looked like pyrokinesis.
“No, it’s magic.”
Crack! Fizz!
The small flame vanished, and tiny sparks began to dance over her palm. Ellen stared at Rudina’s hand as well, utterly stunned.
“What... was that...?”
A flame had appeared without warning above her palm, followed by electricity. She then made a spoon levitate without even touching it.
‘What? Multiple supernatural powers? Is that even a thing?’
“It’s all magic,” Rudina repeated with a laugh.
She took the levitating spoon, cut a piece of cake with it, and placed it into her mouth.
A talent that was related to magic...
“They call it No Casting.”
Now I began to understand why it looked so much like a supernatural power.
One would normally expect a casting process when it came to magic, but she showed no sign of that. Of course, right now she was only demonstrating low-level magic, and high-level mages could conjure such basic spells without casting as well. However, Rudina would eventually be able to cast high-level spells without any incantations or preparation.
‘Wait, I don’t remember putting anything like that in the story’s setting.’
“I’m Number 1 in the second year of Class A.”
Adriana, who could use divine power on cue, and had incredible talent on top of her extraordinary physical abilities, was ranked A-2.
And here before me was a kid who had even greater talent: the top-ranked student of the second year.
1. The difference in formality here is much greater than English allows it. Reinhart should be addressing Rudina more formally due to their senior-junior relationship which is based on the Korean seniority culture. ☜
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om