Chapter 101

While Haru was asleep, I decided to watch “Frozen 4” with Yuna alone.

“Will Haru be okay…?”

Even while watching the movie, Yuna seemed worried about Haru, who had just finished treatment, and covered him with the blanket up to his neck.

“He’ll be fine. It seems he didn’t take as much medicine as he thought.”

“Was Haru really taking medicine to make him smarter?”

“Accelerating thought isn’t necessarily a magic that makes you smarter or makes you study well.”

“Really?”

Haru had acceleration on his occipital lobe.

Well, it might have made it easier to understand the structure of magic circles, but ultimately, while he could see the magic circle well, interpreting it was a function of the frontal lobe.

Perhaps due to excessive use of the brain, it led to problems with the optic nerve, ultimately causing Haru to become completely color-blind.

“But it seems Haru’s mother wanted him to study better.”

“That’s too much. That’s why Haru’s eyes got hurt…”

“Maybe that wasn’t considered a significant problem.”

“I’m really glad that my mom is a good person. But will you really tell Haru the truth about everything?”

“That’s a bit of a dilemma.”

Above all, Haru was still young.

He had a lot of affection for his mother, and like Yuna, he was quite prideful about his academics.

If she realized that her mother continually urged her to take illegal drugs, which led to her injuring her eyes, what benefit would that bring her?

I still didn’t know.

“Shouldn’t we ask Haru’s older sister first?”

“Does he have an older sister?”

“Yeah. But I think Haru would really dislike it if you talked about his sister.”

Hmm…

If it was about taking something to achieve high academic performance at the academy, there was no reason for his sister not to have taken it as well.

It might also be a good idea to contact him later through Haru.

“But doesn’t it feel somewhat satisfying?”

“Why?”

Yuna smiled broadly, her mouth reaching her ears.

“It just means I’m way smarter than Haru. I took an exam without taking any of that medicine!”

“Yeah, you’re great.”

“Ah, why! That’s true…! Say it’s true!”

“Aren’t you going to watch the movie?”

“Yeah, the movie isn’t very interesting. I’d rather just talk to you while eating snacks.”

Based on the content, it seemed more interesting than I expected. It was the story of Elsa’s daughter, Resa, who had only learned ice magic since birth and incidentally encountered flame magic.

The protagonist, who struggled with low self-esteem for failing to meet her mother’s high expectations, had a twist where the one who taught her flame magic turned out to be a prince from an enemy nation.

Even someone who loved princesses like Yuna had different preferences.

“Are you sleepy right now?”

“Yeah. I’m still wide awake!”

“What about me? I’m already tired.”

“Not allowed…! Namé, you secretly slept earlier. If you fall asleep now, I’ll be upset.”

“Yawn—”

“I’ll really be upset! Are you going to make me upset?”

Even though I had used magic with the wand, being an Alchemist was still a 5th Circle magic, which consumed quite a bit of energy. I wished she would understand that, but the energetic child showed no signs of tiring.

I couldn’t just put Haru beside me to sleep, so it was time to show Yuna an example as she fidgeted with my limbs.

“Should I tell a scary story instead?”

“A… scary story…? If I hear something scary, I really can’t sleep!”

“Shh. You’ll wake Haru.”

“I don’t want to hear it! I absolutely won’t!”

“Then I have to tell it even more.”

I immediately moved behind Yuna and sat her on my lap.

Scary stories had to be told up close to feel real.

To keep her from escaping, I wrapped my arms around her waist and didn’t let go.

Yuna seemed to realize I wasn’t going to give up and spoke in a small voice.

“Make it as not-scary as possible…”

Yuna tightly gripped the blanket, pulling it over her head.

“The thing is, what I experienced last week. Listen well. Living in Seoul, it gets noisy sometimes at night, right? I woke up due to a car horn. When I looked at the clock, it was exactly 4:44 AM. I went to the kitchen to get some water, but there was a strange object.”

“Why 4:44…! What was it?”

“Sneakers. The sneakers that should have been by the entrance door were on the dining table. I found it strange and was going to turn on the light when suddenly someone covered my mouth from behind, like this!”

“Ugh! Mmm!”

I pretended to cover Yuna’s mouth with my hand. Yuna was surprised and flailed her arms. It was cute.

“Hey, from now on, I’m going to eat all the food in the refrigerator. A mysterious voice that I couldn’t tell if it was a ghost or a robber said this to me. I opened the fridge and found apples, pears, and even radishes. So I had no choice but to eat the fruits without peeling them. And just when I was about to eat the radish, something suddenly choked my neck.”

“Ugh!”

“My airway slowly closed up, and I couldn’t breathe. I asked why they were doing this to me. And it said, ‘Radishes are tasteless, so don’t eat them!’ When it heard that, the radish felt sad for not being eaten.”

I removed my hand from Yuna’s mouth. A liquid that might have been spit stretched between my palm and her mouth before it finally broke.

“Is that the end…? Isn’t there more?”

Yuna tilted her head, trembling in fear at the strangely anticlimactic ending.

“Yeah. The radish felt sad. So it’s a scary story.”

“…”

“That was a really scary story.”

“Is that it? That’s not scary at all!”

“Eh.”

“Namé got weird!”

It seemed it had been less impressive than I thought, as Yuna’s reaction was rather underwhelming.

Suddenly—

“Ugh!”

We almost fell over in surprise when we heard a hiccup sound from beside us.

Now that I looked closely, Haru was peeking at us while sleeping soundly.

“When did you wake up?”

* * *

Haru said he woke up around the time I started telling the scary story.

“It was fun!”

“Is this fun? Iharu, are you out of your mind?”

“It’s a sad story for the radish. So it’s a scary story, hee-hee. Namé, you’re a genius.”

Haru chuckled. His brighter expression reassured me a little.

“See, Yuna? Haru said it was fun.”

“What if a scary story isn’t scary and is fun?”

“But you were also scared and drooling.”

“Ah… I wasn’t!”

“Then is this on my hand water?”

“Ugh…”

Enough teasing Yuna for now, and it was time to check on Haru’s condition.

“Can you see colors well now?”

“Yeah. I can see the red light over there well.”

He pointed to a scene in the movie shown by the beam projector.

The protagonist Resa was awakening and had set fire on ice. It was applause-worthy to see a supernatural ability that defied physical laws, not some gas hydrate. You take the title of the strongest in the worldview.

“I’m glad. Since you’re taking in a lot of aura at once, you might be tired, so you can sleep again.”

I checked Haru’s physical condition through diagnostic magic, and there weren’t any additional issues.

Our bodies always have the homeostasis to return to their optimal state, so as long as artificial rune techniques were broken, Haru’s body would revert to normal again.

Haru shook his head.

“Is my sight really okay now?”

“Yeah. There wasn’t really a problem before.”

“Really… I thought I wouldn’t be able to see again…”

Haru was still looking around with a look of wonder.

When asked how I did it, I had to remain silent.

Instead, I felt I needed to give Haru a good warning about the medicine, so I turned the question back to him.

“Haru, about the medicine your mother gave you. Do you still have any left?”

“No. The last of it was with Mom. Even the little bit that was there was all thrown away by my older sister.”

“That medicine is really bad for you, so if there’s anything similar, you shouldn’t take it. You promise?”

“Yeah… But isn’t it just a nutritional supplement?”

“Depending on who takes it, medicine can become poison. It seems like your mother might not have known well and gave it to you.”

“Still, I’m so glad I could see Mom… Thank you… And sorry for yelling earlier…”

Haru spoke to Yuna in a small voice this time.

“Seoyuna.”

“Why?”

“Your hair… It looks pretty when I see it again…”

He suddenly complimented Yuna, especially seeming to like her vividly colored hair.

“Oh, really… Thank you.”

Of course, Yuna looked quite flustered.

But seeing her constantly fiddling with her hair didn’t seem like she was displeased.

“By the way, Yuna, you said you wanted to play this, right?”

The reason Yuna called me from the bathroom earlier wasn’t because Haru had woken up.

It was because she had asked if she could try playing the otamatone I had mentioned before.

In the middle of the conversation, I had forgotten about it, and it came to mind again as the movie was almost over, so I told Yuna.

I took out the otamatone from the bottom drawer of the desk.

“Wow! This is amazing!”

She rushed at me, eager to touch it.

I was thinking of lending it anyway, but her enthusiasm made me want to keep it away from her even more.

“Wow, isn’t this the otamatone? It was super popular on TikTok before!”

Haru seemed to know the instrument too. I must have been the only one out of the loop?

“Namé, then play a song for us!”

“Just wait a second. Can I record this on video?”

Yuna pressed me, and Haru took out her phone and pointed the camera at me.

How many camera lenses does she have? One, two… five? It makes me uncomfortable looking at it.

“Sure.”

“Is it okay to post it on TikTok?”

“Then just make sure my face doesn’t show.”

“Wait a second. Okay, done. We’ll start on three, two, one. Ready, three, two, one.”

* * *

The song that Namé played for her friends was Paganini’s Caprice No. 24.

Usually, her preferred tracks were slow-tempo classical pieces, but since the children generally liked fast pieces with lots of techniques, she chose this one.

The fast arpeggios repeatedly present in Caprice No. 24 had enough elements to excite even those who weren’t familiar with music.

After Namé finished her selection, Yuna bravely attempted to play, but she quickly became disappointed when it didn’t sound as good as Namé’s.

Knock—

When the pajama party of the three girls was reaching its peak, Professor Cheon peeked in with a knock.

“Hey, are you kids having fun?”

“Yes!”

The two girls sitting happily beside Namé answered brightly. Their appearance stuck together like gum gave an even more intimate feel than before.

“I’m really sorry to disturb your fun, but I just got a call from next door saying it’s noisy. Since it’s night, I think it would be good to play a little more quietly.”

“Yuna, did you understand? Let’s play quietly now.”

“Eh? Why just me…? Namé, you were playing too!”

“I don’t remember that; it’s a bit hazy.”

Even against Yuna’s protests, Namé played dumb.

“It’s true! Namé started first!”

“I’ll make sure the friends behave quietly. Professor Cheon, good night then.”

“Mmm…!”

Seeing Namé not only covering Yuna’s mouth but completely wrapping her in a blanket made Professor Cheon’s smile bloom.

In moments like these, it was apparent that Namé was just another little child.