Chapter 74

It was a mentally confusing morning.

Thanks to going to bed late last night, I woke up late without hearing the alarm.

After managing to comb my messy hair, I hurriedly changed into my school uniform.

“Professor Cronicle, are you going out today?”

“Oh, I’m planning to stop by school to meet some colleagues. Do you want me to take you to the academy?”

“I’m meeting up with friends to go together. Just up ahead.”

“Haha, alright. Be careful not to catch a cold since the weather is still chilly!”

As I took the elevator down to the first floor, he headed down to the basement, and that’s how we parted ways.

Outside, the wind was howling and dark clouds were hanging in the sky, making for a gloomy day.

Many students, besides me, were chattering as they headed towards school.

“Hey, Name! Were you waiting long?”

Han Seori waved her hand and ran over.

“Hello, Seori.”

“No, no! Hey, Seori! This is how you do it!”

She brought her right hand to her head, raised it high into the sky, and stretched her arm out.

If she had brought her left hand to her stomach, it would have been a perfect Nazi salute, but thankfully, there was no history of Nazi Germany in this world.

Ji Hye, who showed up a bit late, greeted me as well.

“What if you run off first…! Hi, Name, did you have a good weekend?”

“Hi, Ji Hye. Yeah, I went to bed late yesterday, so I’m a bit tired.”

“Really? I also overslept today, and my dad woke me up when he was leaving for work. But I got in a lot of trouble…”

“Did you really get in trouble? Just for oversleeping?”

Seori’s eyes widened. Ji Hye pouted, showing her frustration.

“My dad is usually pretty strict… Don’t you think it’s too harsh to scold me?”

“Hmmm, I’ve never overslept, so I don’t know.”

“What do you mean! Seori, you oversleep all the time and come out late!”

“But I came out early today!”

“Ugh!”

Seori tickled Ji Hye’s neck and ran away.

Ji Hye, as if seeking revenge, dropped her backpack and chased after her.

“Hey, hey, hey! Running while using Aura is cheating! Aaaah!”

“If I catch you, I’ll tickle you just the same. I won’t go easy on you!”

I couldn’t help but marvel at the energy these kids had, running about without being able to contain their strength.

Should I just carry Ji Hye’s backpack to the main gate and save it for a while?

Ji Hye came into the apartment complex through the back gate, met with Seori, and then joined up with me. This routine hadn’t changed for two weeks.

Hearing Seori’s laughter, it seemed Ji Hye had finally caught her.

“Ugh, just the neck… just the neck! Not the armpits!”

“Not a chance! More, more!”

“Ji Hye, stop… stop! Name, help me!”

“Oh, wait, my backpack!”

“I brought it here.”

“Thank you so much! I feel so bad about this… Should I carry yours to school?”

“Nah, no need to go that far.”

“Am I not even in your consideration? How cruel!”

After passing through the main gate, we walked down the main road.

Since all the cars ran on electricity, the world without exhaust was pleasant.

While Seori and Ji Hye kept playfully bickering, I couldn’t shake my thoughts about Adella.

It seemed far more likely that Adella would become stronger than Professor Cronicle than for me to destroy 108 ice pillars.

But with so little time before the boss battle, was raising her really the right path?

I wouldn’t know until I tried.

“Hey, Name, what’s up?”

Seori stopped and asked as she noticed I had paused near the bus stop.

“I decided to go to school with a classmate. Should we wait for you all to go together?”

“Are you taking the bus?”

“Yeah, it’ll be here soon.”

“Then let’s wait! We still have plenty of time.”

“So who are you waiting for? Someone from your class?”

“I thought Name’s best friend was just us!”

Just as I was about to respond to them, the bus arrived, and people poured out of it.

Maybe because it was a stop for the subway station, it took a while for everyone to get off.

And should we really call that a bus…?

It was a double-decker articulated bus, capable of accommodating over a hundred people, connected by dual axles from two chassis.

A red-haired girl squeezed out from between a portly office worker and a long-haired male student, finally making it to the ground.

She surveyed her surroundings, checked her clothes, and retied her shoelaces.

“Yuna, good morning!”

“Hmm? Oh, Noname!”

Due to family circumstances, she had always carried a gloomy air about her, much like the weather today.

But today, a smile seemed to linger on her face.

“Hi hi! It’s been a while since I rode the bus at this time, and there were so many people I almost died. At this rate, it’d be better to walk to school instead.”

Yuna said with a brief sigh.

“What’s this, Seoyuna?”

“Oh, it was Yuna. Hello…?”

Seori and Ji Hye exchanged glances with expressions of reluctance between each other and me.

An awkward atmosphere flowed between the four of us.

Since we couldn’t afford to be late for school, I had no choice but to push everyone forward.

“Seoyuna, didn’t you say you didn’t like Name?”

“When did I say that? I really like Name!”

“Are you feeling okay? You passed out last week and went to the infirmary…”

“Yeah, I got treated by Name and it was fine.”

Seoyuna, who subtly emphasized our friendship, spoke coldly.

She suddenly grabbed my right hand and intertwined our fingers.

In response, Seori clutched my left wrist.

Before the atmosphere got worse, I shifted the conversation.

“What did you do over the weekend, Yuna? Is your mom feeling better?”

“Yeah, my family and I went on a picnic for the first time in a long time! The weather was clear yesterday, so my mom was really happy. Did you go straight home after being discharged?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“Discharged? Did you get hurt?”

“Nothing serious. Just a small cut on my wrist.”

“Let me see! I hope it isn’t on the left side! It can’t be on the left… I grabbed your wrist really hard earlier!”

“Look. It’s all healed now, see?”

I showed her my wrist, which had healed nicely without any scars.

This is the progress of modern medical magic, everyone.

“Be careful…! If the wound gets deep, it’ll leave a mark later. My dad has lots of scars on his back and arms because of that.”

“Right, Ji Hye, didn’t your dad say he was a detective?”

“Yeah.”

“Wow, having a detective dad must be scary if he scolds you lightly. Does he ever use judo techniques on you when he punishes you?”

“He doesn’t do that… He only scolds me with words. He has used judo techniques on me before, though.”

“Hmm?”

“Hmm?”

I left Seori and Ji Hye, who were momentarily buffering, and looked at Yuna’s expression.

Just then, I noticed, while her mouth was smiling, her eyes looked droopy.

“Are you feeling really down?”

“No, I’m just a bit worried… Were you really not in pain then?”

“If it hurts this much, you can’t become an adult. They say war mages fight even with holes in their stomachs.”

“Eh? Is a war mage really a thing? This is the first time I’ve heard of it?”

“Isn’t it?”

Back in my day, everyone fought like crazy.

But it seems that isn’t the case here.

“Anyway, from today onward, we’ll be going to school together like this—just the four of us. Got it?”

“Must we? I just want to go with Name.”

“What are you talking about? Name was the first to go to school with us! You came in later and tried to butt in.”

“From now on, I decided to be best friends with Name.”

“Who decided that?”

“Everyone, just stop and let’s walk quickly. We can still fight while walking, right?”

I didn’t know why we kept stopping in between as we walked.

Ji Hye seemed restless and tried to mediate, but I gestured that it wasn’t necessary.

“Why…?”

“Isn’t it supposed to be that you get closer while fighting?”

Especially the younger you are, the more so.

Once you become closer later, you won’t even remember what you fought about.

This is how I got close to Hiasen.

Most of the time, I ended up punching him, though.

“Well then, do you know what Name likes?”

“Of course! What about you? Do you know what your hobby is?”

“Let’s guess then, based on what Name did yesterday.”

“Okay, I’ll go first. Name, Name!”

Yuna asked me with eyes full of expectation.

“You practiced the otamatone yesterday, right? You promised to play it for me after school.”

“I did practice a couple of days ago, but not yesterday.”

“Whaaat…?”

“I played too much at the hospital.”

Seori could barely stifle her laughter as it spilled out.

“My name is Han Seori THE Nostradamus! I can figure out what Name did yesterday!”

“Nostradamus knows the future, not the past…?”

“Ji Hye, shh! Ahem, anyway, uhhh… I get it! Name studied magic yesterday!”

“Hey, that’s not even a hobby! That’s cheating; if you say that, I’ll guess too.”

“That’s a hobby for Name, isn’t it? Right? Say it’s right, Noname!”

Seori was surprisingly sharp, wasn’t she?

“But I didn’t study yesterday. I usually would have, though.”

“No way… Then what did you do yesterday?”

“I played a VR game.”

“A game? VR? Are you talking about capsule games?”

“Yeah.”

“You play games? Wow, I see you in a new light. That’s super surprising.”

Of course, Yuna was more astonished than Seori.

“What kind of game is it?”

“Have you heard of World of Arseria?”

“Yeah, I’ve heard of it. It’s the game that Kim Han Gyeol plays. He talks about it all the time, so I know. You need a capsule to play it, right?”

“Yeah. Are you thinking of playing it too?”

“No… Capsules are expensive…”

Yuna looked deflated as if she were a wilted reed, trudging along.

“Is she still trying to follow what Name does?”

“I think Yuna has a lot of persistence…! She got in trouble last week for taking the wrong medicine…”