Chapter 10

I wonder if I’m a boy or a girl.

This must have been a concern I had in my previous life as well.

It’s fascinating how a person’s perspective works; if a man dies and is reincarnated as a woman, he would still perceive himself as a male, while a woman who realizes she was a man in her past life would still identify as female.

In short, it’s a matter of standpoint.

It would have been easier if the division were clearer, but memories do not divide so distinctly.

The self is imperfect and unclear, so sometimes I recognize my past life as me and sometimes as someone else entirely.

This is because, even if the memories of my previous life remain, the brain responsible for such philosophical thoughts is completely different at the neuron level.

As a result, there were things that my past life’s values continued to influence, and there were things that I couldn’t comprehend because of those values.

For instance, considering slavery as a violation of human rights was one angle, while being stuck in a defeatist mindset and hating the entire world was the other.

However, the discussion around gender was so incredibly ambiguous that, while I could acknowledge my biological sex as female, I was always withholding my stance on social gender.

And at that moment, it wasn’t a situation where I could comfortably think about such matters.

I definitely didn’t seem to like boys.

Hiasen Luminous Kaizen III was called the most handsome man in the empire, yet seeing that godly face up close did not evoke any feelings in me — just a tinge of jealousy, perhaps?

That said, I hadn’t particularly liked girls either. In fact, thinking of the troublesome ones only made my head pound.

If you’re wondering why I continually challenge questions I can’t seem to conclude, it was because of Arin. It’s you again, Arin?

“Isn’t your skirt too short?”

“It’s already long enough to reach my knees! Unni Boyeong wears skirts shorter than this.”

For certain, when it comes to clothing values, I can confidently say I adhere to the male perspective.

“I prefer pants.”

“Nama would look prettier in a skirt! The kids would think it’s weird if a girl wore school uniform pants.”

It’s true that as high school students, there would be more girls who wear pants, but the elementary school kids seem to adhere to stricter social norms.

On August 15th, unfortunately in this world’s Korea, Independence Day falls on Sunday, August 14th, meaning we had to go to school on Monday. I wonder where the substitute holiday got sold off to.

The enrollment process had already been completed by the nun, so there was nothing for me to handle.

Upon arriving at school, we would head straight to the staff room, accompanied by the homeroom teacher, and just enter the classroom.

In the blazing summer sun, Arin diligently explained to me about our classmates.

Who likes what, who dislikes what – she was quite enthusiastic.

The route to school was indeed long and arduous.

I could finally understand why Arin had such monstrous stamina.

If you walked this path every day, anyone would become healthy.

I silently cursed at the school set up on top of the hill as I tackled the uphill path.

“Hello, Mr. Guard!”

“Hey there! Good morning!”

Arin’s 90-degree bow elicited a smile from the guard.

We passed the wide playground and headed toward the first grade staff room on the second floor via the central staircase.

After three polite knocks, the staff room door opened.

“Hi, Arin!”

“Hello!”

“Oh, it’s Arin! Did you have a good vacation?”

“Yes! I had a great time!”

Contrary to my expectations, she was surprisingly friendly. It turned out Baek Arin was like a celebrity in the first-grade staff room.

The teachers were vying to give her a cookie at least once more because they thought she was cute.

After a brief greeting, a person presumed to be Arin’s homeroom teacher stood up.

“Is the friend next to Arin named Nama?”

“Yes, that’s right!”

Arin raised our clasped hands. She stepped forward and asked for a handshake.

“Hi, Nama! I’m Haseonhwa, the homeroom teacher for Class 1-8, and from today, you’ll be in the same class as Arin.”

I momentarily let go of my clasped hands with Arin and took her hand.

“Nama is really, really pretty, right?”

“Yeah, but it seems like Nama is still a bit shy, so could you walk with Arin to class today? The teacher will head to the classroom as well.”

“Sure!”

With Teacher Haseonhwa leading the way, the two of us followed behind her.

As we turned the corner, we saw signs indicating it was Class 1-8.

“This is Class 1-8. It’s a bit far from the main gate, so you need to find your way without getting lost.”

The hallway was filled with the distinctive chatter of elementary school children.

In the midst of it all, Arin closed her eyes and took a short deep breath.

“Hello! Did everyone have a good vacation?”

“Hello!”

“Today, we have a new student joining Class 8, so could everyone please take their seats while we introduce him?”

Despite her young age, the teacher skillfully managed the children, which was impressive.

The kids quickly found their seats and settled down.

“Looks like everyone is seated. Could you please introduce yourself?”

Arin was cheering for me from the back row.

Standing in front of the desk and speaking in front of elementary school kids made me incredibly nervous.

I only intended to simply state my name and sit down, but my mouth wouldn’t open.

“…?”

Even forcing my mouth open made my heart race and cold sweat form.

Suddenly, the kids’ faces blurred together and looked like monsters trying to eat me.

[Witch]

[Seed of the Demon Lord]

[Cursed]

[Die]

[Die]

My breathing became rapid.

[Why are you still alive?]

Just then, Teacher Haseonhwa placed her hand on my shoulder, and the surrounding scenery returned to the classroom.

“It seems our friend is a bit panicked since it’s his first time at school. Would it be alright if I introduce him?”

Nice baton touch. This person is truly a professional.

“The friend’s name is Noname. He couldn’t come to school during the first term due to illness, so I need everyone to take good care of him, okay?

Since Arin is the closest friend to Noname, you can ask her if you want to know more about him. Noname will sit next to Arin in the back row over there, okay?”

Arin looked at me with a worried expression.

I hadn’t anticipated that. I thought I had improved my social skills through conversation with Arin, but this wasn’t easy at all.

The morning homeroom session continued from there.

Since it was my first time experiencing elementary public education, it was rather fascinating.

The teacher called attendance, and the kids shared what they did during vacation.

They collected vacation homework, introduced the upcoming second-semester textbooks, and went over what they would learn next.

Time dragged on, and this session continued until the end of the first period.

Once the recess bell rang, the kids finally took a breath.

The children grouped in pairs and started chatting.

Most of them would glance at Arin and me while talking.

They thought they were sneaky glances, but for the first graders, it was painfully obvious.

One of them came over to us and asked.

“Did you say your name is Noname?”

When I didn’t respond, Arin affirmed it for me.

“Ah, yeah! That’s right.”

“Did he come from Merlin Orphanage too?”

“Well, uh… uh… no…?”

“That’s right.”

Of course, that wasn’t directed at the boy; it was directed toward Arin.

It seemed Arin didn’t want me to reveal my background.

The little boy returned to his group after that.

“Why did you do that, Nama?”

“What do you mean?”

“That… kids don’t like it when someone says they came from Merlin.”

“Let them not like me.”

“Eh?”

Kids my age would not understand, but forcing those who didn’t like me to like me was utterly pointless.

Among those children, some might avoid mingling with Merlin Orphanage alumni out of fear, and others would just follow their friends’ dislike because of social dynamics.

Of course, not having friends could have a significant impact since school comprises most of one’s social interactions, but I hope they understand that relationships are ultimately a matter of give and take.

Due to fun, good looks, athleticism, etc.

If they wanted to mingle with me, it would be enough to prove that Arin’s charm overshadowed the fact that she came from Merlin.

I whispered softly in her ear.

“Later, they’ll surely regret not becoming our friends.”

* * *

Elementary school classes were generally boring.

It was the first time my interest was piqued, and listening to materials I already knew was like torture.

This included all of us memorizing numbers 81 and 82 together and taking dictation from the homeroom teacher.

“Has Noname finished already?!”

Our math teacher had to leave due to urgent matters, and we were assigned the task of writing numbers 51 to 100 in runes.

Everyone earnestly copied from their textbooks, staring at them intently, while Arin looked at my paper filled with A4 sheets in disbelief.

Not wanting to be outdone, Arin picked up her pace.

I had previously underestimated Arin; she was smarter than I thought.

While some kids still couldn’t write up to 30, Arin could write up to 80 without confusion.

She possessed a competitive spirit and tenacity, and this trait naturally reflected in her academic performance.

“Arin got all but one right. You missed a dot in 79, here.”

“Eh? You checked already? How did you know so quickly?”

She hurriedly marked a dot above the letters.

It might have been better if Arin had just handed me an encyclopedia instead.

Whenever I got bored, I kept looking at the back of the textbook, but how much could there be in elementary school educational content? I read it thoroughly for a week, and now there was nothing I didn’t know.

As I stared out the window to alleviate my boredom, a boy sitting in front of me turned around and spoke.

“Could you help me check mine too?”

Was Arin feeling envious that I was getting checked? I casually glanced at his paper and pointed to three mistakes with the back of my pencil.

“Thanks!”

It was clear that runic characters, structured as a combination of ancient sexagesimal and modern hexadecimal systems, had many potential pitfalls for the kids.

For example, when writing 78, they had to write 60, 10, and 8 in parallel. This process often led to minor mistakes.

Of course, since they didn’t know the principles of numeral systems, most people memorized them.

“I want to be smart like Noname…”

Lately, Arin had been complaining more and more.

To put it another way, she was becoming cuter.

Every time she puffed up her cheeks, it made me think of a hamster and I couldn’t help but smile.

When I poked her cheeks with my finger, a little air escaped from her tiny lips with a ‘chu.’

“You’re already smart enough, Arin.”

“Sure, but not as smart as Noname.”

“Then I’ll tell you something interesting.”

I knew that for a curious child, nothing was more fascinating than a preview, so I drew a few pictures on the back of an A4 sheet and showed them to her.

“What are you drawing? Is this a magic circle?”

“It’s different from a magic circle. This is a conjuration circle.”

Unlike a magic circle that directly generates magic, this conjuration circle plays a supportive role in activating spells.

Intricate patterns crossed and intertwined at the pencil’s tip. Even if I were to rush, it would take me just over 2 minutes to draw.

“It’s a hidden picture game. I’ve placed ten characters within runic numbers from 1 to 100. Want to find them?”

“Got it!”

She immediately found the easiest character, ‘1.’

After approximately three minutes of wrestling with her paper, Arin successfully located the characters she had learned. She had sharp observation skills.

“I’m done!”

“Well then, could you line them up in order from the lowest number?”

“Let’s see… 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21… where else… 34, 55, 89. Oh? This is a star shape! So cool!”

“Now, look here.”

I laid the pencil horizontally to point out the four characters aligned in a straight line.

“How about these characters? They all have long vertical lines on the right, right?”

“Oh yeah, they do.”

I rotated the pencil at about a 36-degree angle to point to a different line.

“This time, there’s a round dot at the lower left.”

“Wow, wow, can I try it?”

“Go ahead.”

Arin became interested, attempting to figure out the commonalities of each character. What I’d shown was the “Arabesque Conjuration Formula.”

In the mathematical field, it corresponds to the relatively simple concept of the Fibonacci sequence, but in terms of magic, it was quite a complex subject.

Runic characters are not symbols created from social conventions like an alphabet or kanji.

It’s a kind of spell concept that inscribes the flow and laws of mana in the simplest form, and thus has the potential to overturn laws just by being characters.

Of course, even among runes, there were variations like Type A, Type B, and Omega, depending on who had simplified them, but the universally taught characters were undoubtedly the simplest Type A characters.

However, regardless of which rune character is used, it must satisfy the laws of this conjuration formula.

For instance, 1, 13, 2, and 3 all contain morphemes denoting the earth.

When it comes to spells belonging to the earth element, they show the highest efficiency when amplified by multiples like 2x, 3x, or 13x.

At this stage, it was too early for Arin to understand this background, but realizing that runes were not randomly created would be sufficient.

* * *

“Wow, kids these days seem really quick. Someone drew the conjuration formula as a doodle.”

“Was that one of the first graders’ homework from Teacher Ha? Oh man, something came up this afternoon, and I just threw it together as homework. If you’re not using it as scrap paper, just toss it there.”

“Still, I feel like I’ve seen this somewhere… Hmm… It seems familiar, but I can’t recall…”

Teacher Kang Cheolmin scratched his head while sipping his tea.

“Are you talking about the conjuration formula from the sixth graders’ presentation competition?”

“No, I feel like it was something I saw a long time ago. What was it… I think I saw it when I was preparing for law school a while back, probably in criminal execution law…”