“I never thought I would see you in a place like this.”
“I feel the same.”
I never expected to meet like this again.
It seems we have quite a connection after all.
I was originally going to scold you more harshly, but if it’s a familiar face, the story changes.
It seems like you’ve already reflected enough, so Luke steadied his emotions and spoke.
“What on earth were you in such a hurry for? It’s dangerous, you know.”
“I’m sorry… Did it hurt a lot?”
I heard that for Hyuns, the tail is one of their vital points.
If you were sitting down so grandly with that tail, it must have been incredibly painful.
Seeing you rubbing your waist while sitting now suggests it was definitely quite painful.
Marco started quickly putting away the contents that spilled from Luke’s bag with an apologetic look.
“At first, I didn’t recognize you at all.”
“Is that so?”
You have grown much taller compared to when I last saw you, and your horn has disappeared somewhere, plus your hairstyle has changed.
But more than that, the atmosphere around you now is so different from back then.
‘Is it because you’re in your growth period?’
Indeed, it seems children grow rapidly if you take your eyes off them for just a moment.
In the appearance of a little child pretending to be an adult, there seems to be a sense of becoming a bit more natural?
In the past, their pretentiousness was amusing and cute, but now they feel a bit more endearing as a child?
What a strange thing.
It seems like your manner of speaking hasn’t changed.
Is it the difference in intonation or behavior?
After finishing organizing the spilled contents from the bag, Marco reached out his hand to Luke and said,
“It seems like your voice has a little more emotion in it compared to before.”
“Well, that could be true.”
Nodding, Luke stood up and accepted the bag that Marco had organized.
Once Marco confirmed Luke was re-hanging the bag on his shoulder, he noticed a bus approaching on the road and spoke urgently.
“Oh, there’s a bus coming! I need to get on that right now! See you next time!”
“Okay, be careful next time. We’ll talk when we meet again…”
At that moment, Luke noticed a piece of paper that hadn’t been properly organized escaping from his bag and flying away in the wind.
He quickly reached out to grab the paper, but the shock from his tail still lingered, and his legs were not responding to his commands yet, so he could only slice through the air.
“Oh no, my research!”
“Huh?”
Marco looked back and forth between the bus he needed to catch and the paper flying away from Luke’s bag.
It seemed that Luke still couldn’t stabilize his legs from the impact earlier.
However, Marco felt like he could definitely catch it.
But if he didn’t get on the bus now, he would surely be late…
‘What should I do…?’
————–
Marco and Luke sat at the bus stop.
Come to think of it, it seems like I always meet Marco at the bus stop.
Luke was somehow reminded of the first time they met.
“So, you were so distracted like that.”
“Yeah… I ended up being late.”
Marco sheepishly laughed and scratched the back of his head.
Today was the day of his part-time job interview, and he ended up oversleeping, leading to this situation.
He had been running and messaging to see if he could postpone the interview time just a little, and now ended up in this predicament.
“I’m sorry. If I had paid better attention, you wouldn’t have lost your job.”
“No, this is all… my fault for oversleeping from the start. And I didn’t pay attention either…”
Marco sighed as if there was nothing he could do.
How could he be so heartless as to ignore a child in that situation?
“By the way, what on earth are you carrying so much in your bag? It looked like you were studying something earlier.”
“Well, that’s my research and task. I’ve been studying the laws of space.”
“Task? Research? Are you talking about an assignment?”
At Marco’s question, Luke paused for a moment, then nodded.
In the end, a problem to solve is essentially a similar concept, so it wasn’t entirely wrong.
“You could say it that way.”
“Really?”
Marco clicked his tongue.
Laws of space? You’re quite ahead of the curve.
Is it because it’s Tigr Academy?
That is basic material at the 4th class level, which you only start to learn in the 6th grade; it’s some seriously difficult stuff.
In many ways, it’s not something that should be learned at a lower grade.
‘That’s impressive. Do kids these days progress that far already?’
But Marco had no way of knowing.
The level of research Luke was doing was on a completely different dimension from the ‘basic level’ space calculations he was learning.
He simply thought that previewing material was an assignment given at Tigr Academy.
“Anyway, thank you for helping me with my assignment. It was quite an important part. If I had lost this, it would have taken a significant amount of time to organize it again.”
Luke expressed his gratitude again.
The research materials mixed in were ones that Yerna had organized instead of him.
And the fact that it was left undamaged on the desk meant it was already significant data.
Though he had memorized the general content, it was organized like a signpost to help prompt thoughts for easy recall. Losing it would mean he’d have to go through the trouble of rewriting it.
Especially since the mana sketches had to be written out by hand using a golden falcon’s quill, so it would take even longer.
Losing it would have been a big issue.
He had to finish this research before going to school so he could hand over the Moonlight Stone to Shirud without any hesitation.
“When is this assignment due?”
“This weekend.”
“Ah.”
If the only remaining time is the weekend, it would be tight to redo it.
Losing it would have been a major issue.
“Then how much of the assignment have you finished?”
“I don’t know, about half, I think… It’s hard to pick up the pace.”
“Hmm, really? What’s so difficult? Show me.”
Marco said confidently.
Although he didn’t reach the level of Tigr Academy, he had decent scores at Tenegan Academy.
He thought that a child’s class content wouldn’t be too much of a problem.
Since time remained, it would alleviate his boredom.
Moreover, since Luke was a child with a positive reaction, it felt rewarding to teach him.
“Hmm… Well, my research might be beyond your understanding.”
However, Luke’s response seemed a bit indifferent.
Marco was just an academy student, and what he was researching was far beyond that level.
Rationally, there wouldn’t be any meaningful suggestions.
Unless Marco was a genius who comes around once every thousand years, then it might be a different story, but if he were that kind of genius, he wouldn’t still be attending the academy at that age.
He would have already graduated early or quit to pursue his dreams and make a name for himself in the world.
But when Marco thought of Luke in that light, he just imagined his cute little cousin showing him an academy assignment that seemed incredibly difficult, thinking, “Huh? You can do this? It seems really hard; are you okay?”
With a smile on his face, he said.
“Come on, just show me? You won’t lose anything, right?”
“Well, that’s true. Alright.”
Reluctantly, Luke started taking out his research from his bag to show Marco.
“It’s written in a script that only I can understand, so it might be a bit hard to grasp. If there’s anything you don’t understand, just ask me.”
“Okay… uh…”
Marco, receiving Luke’s ‘assignment,’ suddenly stared at it as if he forgot to breathe.
A plethora of numbers and a feast of letters.
An array of explanations that he couldn’t decipher at all.
Yet, the equations were neatly organized in an overwhelmingly clear manner…
An overwhelming confusion struck Marco as if he was facing knowledge he shouldn’t encounter.
Understanding was put aside, and he felt dizzy.
“What… is this?”
No, the level is off the charts, isn’t it?
Do kids these days really study things like this?
“It seems this was too much to ask.”
Luke took back the assignment from Marco’s stiffened hands as if he expected it.
He hadn’t really expected much, so he didn’t feel any disappointment.
While Luke was organizing the assignment back in his bag, Marco finally regained his senses and muttered as he looked at Luke.
“Is this really what you call an assignment?!”
“Yeah, I have to finish this research by this weekend.”
Marco facepalmed in disbelief.
What on earth is Tigr Academy like?
He couldn’t believe it.
He felt immensely relieved that he hadn’t even considered going to Tigr Academy.
Well, it wasn’t like he could get in anyway…
“Oh, wait a second.”
Could it be that?
Is the assignment something like searching for formulas online?
“Is this assignment about looking up something online and copying it or something?”
“Um… yeah, there are parts that I did re-write based on information I found, but…”
Luke nodded lightly.
It was true that he had copied a lot of information found through search.
Although knowledge beyond 4th class wasn’t permitted, conversely saying, knowledge below the 4th class was allowed to be learned freely.
Thus, it was clear that he had copied or referenced material already prepared by others.
Upon hearing Luke’s words, Marco nodded as if he finally understood.
Ah, so that’s how it is.
If it weren’t for that, a 10-year-old kid couldn’t possibly write something like this!
The assignment Luke received was probably “copy interesting formulas from the internet, analyze graphs and circuit diagrams” or something along those lines.
That makes sense.
Still, the ability to organize and present information so neatly on paper was something to be admired.
Finally shaken from his shock, Marco suddenly asked.
“Then why are you writing it all by hand? Aren’t you allowed to use a computer?”
“Computer? I already use it well for searching.”
“You don’t only use the computer for searching and playing games, do you?”
-A jolt.
At the piercing question, Luke shivered slightly.
“…Recently, I’ve started being able to send emails…”
“Hahaha! Really?”
Marco burst out laughing at Luke’s awkward attempt to correct his words, avoiding eye contact.
“What’s so funny?”
As Luke muttered a bit grumpily, Marco calmed his laughter and said.
“Oh, sorry, sorry. So, do you not do any calculations or circuit simulations at all on the computer?”
“What? You can do that kind of stuff on a computer?”
