Chapter 81

“Today, Teacher Jacqueline has a meeting with someone from the foundation, so the fourth class will be replaced with free time. Instead, I’ll hand out a questionnaire, so please fill out all the questions and place it face down on my desk when you’re done. Don’t forget to write your names! You can’t leave your seats until you’re finished, understood?”

“Yeeesss!”

“Oh, and one more thing: the last page must be answered on your own, so don’t even think about showing it to a friend. Everyone enjoy your lunch afterward!”

Teacher Jacqueline handed a stack of papers to Han Gyeol, who was sitting at the front, and hurried out of the room.

“Wow, it’s free time, free time!”

The number of questionnaires received was about three A4 pages printed on both sides.

There didn’t seem to be too many questions, so the kids in the class were all excited about finishing quickly and playing afterward.

Yuna tapped my back, and I turned around.

“Let’s talk while we fill out the questionnaire!”

“Sure, it’ll be boring to do it alone.”

“Yeah!”

Next to us, Si Hoo looked displeased, but what could we do if Yuna wanted to?

Wait, was I being oblivious? Just in case, I asked Si Hoo too.

“Si Hoo, do you want to join us?”

“No. And questionnaires are supposed to be done alone, you know?”

“But everyone else is doing it together! What, do you dislike it if it’s not just you and Yuna?”

“Uh… no…!”

“Why would Si Hoo be with me?”

Yuna asked innocently, and Si Hoo spoke flustered.

“I won’t disturb you, so just work hard together!”

“I was going to do that anyway.”

I completely turned my chair around to face Yuna.

“Do you want to switch seats?”

My friend Johann, sitting next to me, asked.

“No. The teacher said not to leave our seats until we’re done. Rules are there to be followed.”

Since I had a strong sense of rule adherence, adults should set an example in front of kids.

“There seem to be a lot of descriptive questions, so I think it’ll take longer than expected…!”

“Yeah, it’ll probably take about fifteen minutes.”

“Yup, let’s finish quickly and play together.”

We wrote our names on the first page and turned to the first question.

[1. What is your favorite subject?]

Without hesitation, I checked off ‘Magical Infusion’ in the subject column.

“Whoa, you already chose?”

“What about you, Yuna? Is this a difficult question?”

Why wouldn’t they choose magic?

It seemed like they had never experienced a world without magic, so they couldn’t grasp how amazing it really was.

While magic does follow cosmic physical laws on a grand scale, that was just a claim from theorists, and to me, magic still felt like an unknown product.

In a world without mana, even launching a single missile required countless scholars to gather, think, write out equations, and conduct thousands of experimental tests.

Without such effort, not only would it malfunction, but it could explode right then and there.

However, with magic, as long as the basic framework is maintained, the results come out in accordance with what the caster desires.

Of course, the more one solidifies the magic circle with correct knowledge of math and science, the greater the power and precision of the magic, but that alone was enough to feel grateful.

Eventually, Yuna could not resist my persuasion and also drew a circle in the Magical Infusion column.

What else could she do? I’d make her like it anyway.

“Let’s quickly answer the next question.”

“What subject do you dislike? I don’t like physical education.”

I didn’t enjoy exerting myself on things like dodgeball.

Not only was my body weak, but I also inherently disliked moving around.

“I figured Nane would say that since she skips PE all the time. I dislike art.”

“Art? That’s really unexpected; usually, everyone likes it.”

“My older brother is really good at drawing, and he used to tease me about how weird my drawings were, so I don’t like it much…”

“Haha… I can see why you’d dislike it.”

It’s cruel to stomp on a child’s innocence. Is this what being a sibling is about? I could understand it.

When you live under the same roof with someone your age, you naturally want to bully them a bit.

[4. Introduce your family.]

I hesitated to write down Professor Cheon’s name, thinking that wasn’t quite the intent of the question, and simply wrote two characters instead.

‘Dad.’

It felt a bit odd to have what seemed like an actual family for the first time.

[5. What is your personality like?]

This was a question I had never thought about, so I paused for a moment with the pen.

[…Are you really going to keep this up? How can one be so self-centered?]

“Hmmm… Yuna, what do you think my personality is like?”

“I think Nane has an angelic personality!”

“If I write that with my own hand, I’d be too embarrassed.”

“But it’s the truth! Nane is totally an angel.”

An angel? Even so, that’s pushing it. Writing ‘kind’ feels too insincere.

I turned my gaze to the girls chattering in the adjacent row and asked them.

“Girls, what do you think my personality is like?”

I was genuinely curious about how others perceived me.

I used to get so stressed about this as a child that at some point, I completely stopped thinking about it.

Now, I was slightly interested.

“Umm… I’m not sure? Haru, what about you?”

“Uh… um…”

Nuri said she didn’t know, and Haru hesitated, delaying her answer.

“If you don’t know, I’ll just roughly write it myself.”

“I think you’re like a mom!”

“…?”

What kind of remark is that?

Haru’s completely random comment left me speechless.

“No, no, that’s not it…! I mean you’re kind and cool, like a mom…”

Haru hurriedly waved her hands in a defensive gesture.

“I like the unique expression. I’ll write it just like that.”

“Why can’t it be an angel…!”

Yuna puffed out her cheeks in protest. But some things just can’t be.

After that, relatively easy questions followed.

What my habits or interests are, what I do in my free time, the books or movies that left an impression on me, joyful and sad events that recently occurred.

I answered each one earnestly.

I hesitated for a moment at the question about who had the greatest influence on me, but then I wrote down the name of the teacher I missed.

[Maria Euphrasia Terarubi]

The last page was supposed to be done alone, so I thought there would be something significant, but it was surprisingly trivial.

Questions about suggestions for friends, messages I wanted to convey to the teacher, and things I wanted to say to the academy, etc.

I quickly jotted down my answers to the bland questions and completed the questionnaire.

“Are you still not done?”

Yuna was struggling with the last page for several minutes.

“But… but… it’s too difficult…”

“Why?”

“The third question from the bottom…”

[Who are your three closest friends in the class?]

Yuna let out a deep sigh and collapsed onto her desk.

* * *

Teacher Jacqueline Carroll’s duties continued even after the kids left school.

She had just finished grading a mountain of reports accumulated from the practical evaluation of Magical Infusion over three hours.

Of course, if she hadn’t watched some V-tuber videos in between, she could have finished it in under two hours.

At the beginning of every new school year, parent-teacher consultations were held. When one parent consultation ended, the next student’s parent was waiting.

‘Let’s see who’s next… Yuna and Johann.’

It was quite troublesome to adjust the schedule for consultations at the start of the semester.

Since parent-teacher consultations are mandatory at the academy, she had to somehow bring busy parents to the academy, even if it meant being a bit shameless.

She had to explain precisely in which areas the children had shown outstanding performance based on aptitude evaluations and briefly convey how their lives at the academy appeared through the teacher’s perspective.

Additionally, Jacqueline personally conducted surveys among the class to grasp how things were going overall and understand what the students were thinking.

The second day of parent-teacher consultations had already passed, but she still hadn’t compiled the results of the surveys, and today she was determined to do so, placing a pile of papers in front of her desk.

The questions on the questionnaires varied.

They started with simple queries about who their friends were and what their current troubles were.

As she entered their responses into a data cell one by one, she felt frustrated about how in this modern age, such things still had to be handled analogously.

The primary concern among the students at Seviron Academy was grades, at 65%, followed by friendship, lack of leisure time, and family relations.

The process of organizing the question asking who they considered the three closest friends was even more complex.

Nevertheless, as she mechanically sorted through them one by one, dozens of arrows appeared on the screen.

The more arrows clustered together, the more it indicated that the child was central in the class.

‘Han Seori’ received by far the most arrows, with ‘Iharu’ and ‘Han Gyeol’ also showing significant numbers.

After thoroughly examining the things they would like to hear from their parents or would dislike hearing, their usual study hours, and suggestions for the academy, Teacher Jackie’s attention landed on the last question.

If there’s a friend in the class whose behavior they would like to see improved, who would it be, and why?

Usually, kids who are popular among same-gender peers often receive dislike from the opposite gender.

As a testament to this, Kim Han Gyeol had been reported to cause quite a bit of mischief among three girls, eliciting negative comments.

Iharu also received complaints from four boys about his nagging.

In fact, such matters weren’t particularly problematic, but she focused her attention on a different individual.

Yuna, having received only two arrows from her classmates, was disliked by the majority of the class.

Because she showed off, was selfish, spoke poorly, and didn’t share homework.

She had been isolated for various reasons in Class A.

Realizing the seriousness of the situation, Jacqueline took another look at Yuna’s questionnaire.

Now that I see it, in the question about who her three closest friends were, she had written the same name in all three boxes.

[Noname / Noname / Noname]

The child who placed first in the category of the friend who would likely perform best academically, surpassing Shin Si Hoo.

She was also chosen as the child most desired to befriend in the class.

Jacqueline found Nane’s questionnaire and compared it to see whom she had designated as a friend.

[Seoyuna / Han Seori / Shin Si Hoo]

“Fortunately, it seems Nane has been looking out for her. But who is the other one?”