Chapter 96

Some people sleep lightly while others sleep deeply.

In my past life, I often woke up at the slightest sound, so I always thought of myself as someone who sleeps lightly.

However, considering the times I nearly overslept for the Academy because I couldn’t hear the alarm, I started to think that maybe, unexpectedly, I was the type who struggled to wake up unless someone forcibly stirred me.

I suddenly recalled what my master had said long ago: human brains remember experiences of deficiency.

For example, intermittent fasting, where you only eat one meal a day, might be an effective diet method in the short term, but our bodies adapt to a reduced amount of food, gradually increasing calorie absorption.

I’ve heard that becoming more susceptible to yo-yo phenomena is partly due to compensation psychology and this reason.

Was it because I couldn’t sleep much as a baby?

But I can’t really recall feeling lack of sleep back then.

Rather, I might have suffered from insomnia due to anxiety about not waking up the next day.

Of course, being in this body had its advantages.

Being able to drift off to sleep as soon as I lay down on the bed was one of the blessings a person could have, along with not being picky about food.

I was forced to wake up because someone was shaking my body so vigorously it made me feel nauseous.

It was Yuna.

“Oh… Sorry. I must have dozed off. Did you have dinner?”

It seemed she came in quietly without turning on the lights in the room and woke me up.

I apologized for showing the disgrace of a homeowner, who prepared for a pajama party but ended up holed up in my room sleeping.

“If you’ve eaten, would you like to watch a movie? I have ‘Zootopia’ and ‘Inside Out’ downloaded.”

“……”

Why is everyone being so quiet? I deliberately chose animated films considering their age; are they not to their taste?

Haru, who had been watching the situation, spoke up first.

“Nameya… are you still tired right now?”

Tired, huh?

I did wake up early in the morning and felt tired, but after a short rest, I felt refreshed.

I felt like I had ruined the mood by falling asleep while everyone was having fun, so I tried to make excuses.

“I was just setting up the projector and dozed off. It’s not like I went to sleep because I didn’t enjoy playing with you guys. I really looked forward to the pajama party and woke up early for it.”

“No Name…”

Yuna gently pinched my pajamas with a voice full of tears.

Did those two fight or something?

It was too dark in the room to see their faces properly.

When I sat up and turned on the room light, I saw Yuna frowning heavily.

“Why are you about to cry again? Did you fight with Haru while I was gone?”

She shook her head rapidly.

Yuna’s red hair swung wildly side to side.

I tried to comfort her by hugging her as usual, but Yuna pushed me away.

“Is it because I went into the room without saying anything?”

She shook her head again.

I pinched her soft cheek lightly, but she again pushed me away and even pouted.

“I can’t know all your hidden feelings just because it’s me. If something is bothering you, I want you to talk about it instead of hiding it.”

Especially children’s emotions are incredibly complex.

For adults, feelings of joy are joy, sadness is sadness, and disgust is disgust.

Simple emotions clearly show on their faces, but children often don’t even know what they feel, making it incredibly challenging to read their thoughts.

The only thing that was clear was that Yuna’s eyes were glistening with grievance.

“You’re the one hiding things, No Name.”

This time, Haru spoke up in an angry voice.

“Me? I am?”

“Yeah. You… you have things you hide from us too! Why are you telling Yuna to be honest!”

“I feel like I’m missing something here; could you explain what’s going on?”

I felt extremely flustered right now.

It was as shocking as the feelings of an elementary school student witnessing art and PE teachers exploring each other’s lips in the art room when I just wanted to retrieve my pencil case that I forgot after after-school activities.

I won’t reveal who it was for the sake of privacy.

Yuna pressed her forehead against my thigh and hugged me tightly around the waist.

“Your nightmare… it was so scary… You kept mumbling runes and suddenly said you were in pain, asking for help, and… and… that you felt like you were dying…”

As Yuna confessed what she saw, the girl in pig pajamas came over to my side.

“If you’re in pain, just say so! I hate it when people say they’re fine when they’re really hurt… You’re the worst of liars.”

Iharu clenched her fists tightly.

She looked like she would burst into tears at the slightest touch.

I could only sigh as I embraced the two girls running towards me.

On the first night of the pajama party, instead of making peace between the two girls, I ended up making them cry.

* * *

As the full moon hung brightly in the night sky and dusk fell,

Name was packing the two girls’ jackets for heading out.

“Are you going out at this hour? For what?”

Professor Cheon asked in a surprised tone.

“To see the stars.”

With a short answer, Name opened the entrance door.

However, the professor’s question remained unresolved.

In the city with the brightest nights in Korea, the stars shyly hid their trails.

“On a night like tonight, there are likely a lot of clouds, so you won’t be able to see anything, right?”

“It’s okay. I remember where they’re hiding. Can I borrow this?”

The party headed toward the playground of the apartment complex.

Gone were the traces of children scurrying around, replaced only by a desolate silence.

I took Yuna and Haru by the hand and sat them on the swings.

“It’s hard to see stars in the middle of the city. The reason is light pollution. So, if you want to see the stars, you need to go to a dark place.”

“I can’t see anything…”

Haru was rambling with too much TMI, and Yuna still didn’t seem to have recovered from Name’s sleep talk.

They shot suspicious looks at me for dragging them here without even telling them why.

“I didn’t have a nightmare like that.”

Name, who was at the top of the slide, said.

“Then what was it?”

As if to express Yuna’s whining, she stomped her feet hard, making the swing move.

No Name was a girl filled with mystique from head to toe.

She seemed to know everything about herself, but Yuna knew nothing about her.

So it was frustrating; whenever she took a step toward wanting to know more about her, No Name would take two steps back.

If she tried to murmur even once more, Yuna was determined not to allow it.

“Have you ever had the happiest moment in your life?”

The dream that Name had was a nightmare, yet not a nightmare.

It was indeed the most difficult and desperate moment of her life, but at the same time, it was a struggle of someone yearning for the return of their happiest moment.

“Today, here, I’ll show you how many stars are in this world.”

She pulled out the portable magic writing device she borrowed from Professor Cheon.

It was a Wandry product that allowed you to write runes and magic circles in the air without any physical contact.

One drawback was that the entire process of recording, injecting, and activating was carried out by “writing,” making it impossible to modify midway.

However, where there were disadvantages, there were also advantages.

The computing speed, reflecting the thoughts of the caster into the magic circle, was excellent, and it injected mana with optimal approximation values, resulting in lower mana consumption.

Given that a lot of runes and formulas would be used for the magic Name would cast in the future, it was an essential item.

“There are really a lot of weirdos in this world. I wonder if there are still people who are curious if a magic circle can be created using every rune at least once.”

You can omit the rune that means an empty set, ‘null’. But this time, she wanted to cast it properly, so she created 128 empty slots in the magic circle.

The girls still didn’t understand what Name was doing.

Until the light began to come from the northern side of the magic circle.

“Null. El. Ras, Maben.”

She began reciting with the most commonly used runes for casting first and second circle magic.

As the runes were inscribed at the top of the magic circle, lights flickered one by one.

“Sutra, Arhen, Gerunum, Psyche.”

The related circuits mobilized five gears.

With each tick of the second hand, the outermost tracks gradually illuminated.

“Ishtanya, Lumiere, Preshan, Fantasia, Nelimelo, Samatra, Bestial, Hyphrit.”

Yuna’s mouth slowly opened as she was overwhelmed by the magnificence of the magic circle that surpassed mere wonder.

The amount of mana being injected through the writing device was endless.

Squeezing out golden mana revealed new runes that ravenously consumed it.

A massive magic circle spanning a diameter of 8 meters, centered on Name, revealed its grand appearance.

Five layers of gears, brighter than streetlights flickering on and off, illuminated the playground.

But only half of it was lit at that point.

As the swing came to a sudden halt, Name inhaled sharply, preparing to unleash the last 64 seven-syllable runes in one breath.

“Sigmund Asente, Resha Ikbar, Sale An Tirumon, Harayetreika.”

The name of the magic circle used 128 runes commonly employed in standard magic circles without fail.

[Cast: Alchemist]

As soon as Name’s words ended, all light in the world vanished around the three girls.

“…!”

Just as they were startled, the North Star twinkled first and greeted them.

From the east, thirteen stars shone a bluish hue.

From the west, nine stars glowed in red.

Stars began to form above Yuna’s head and under Haru’s feet, enveloping the entire world in starlight.

Before they knew it, they realized they weren’t standing on the ground anymore.

“How does it feel? Like you’re at the center of the universe?”

Name, who had somehow slid down the slide, approached the girls.

Realizing that even the swings they had just been sitting on had disappeared made Haru’s heart race.

“What kind of magic is this…?”

“Aren’t the stars beautiful? You won’t find a place like this anywhere else!”

It was only a natural statement.

Haru could undoubtedly say that he had never seen a scene filled with thousands and tens of thousands of stars crowding a black canvas.

“Nameya, so what you mumbled while sleeping was…”

“Yeah. I think I was using this magic. It’s my favorite magic.”

What kind of magic is this?

Is it really for the sake of simply seeing the night sky?

But Yuna’s question was soon answered.

Her gaze was automatically drawn to the point Name was pointing at.

A shooting star sliced through the northern sky.

“The stars are falling…!”

As if saying it was too early to be in awe, Name laughed.

Soon, two, three stars fell.

The sky was still dotted with hundreds of stars.

This time, ten, twenty stars fell all at once.

Yuna gripped Name’s hand tightly, terrified that they might fall in this direction.

Haru felt the same way.

The spectacle of falling stars adorning the night sky made Haru’s heart swell. Likewise, he did not let go of Name’s empty hand.

Following the path the stars traced, cracks began to form in the black sky.

If the world the girls saw was the interior of an egg, that egg was about to break.

Crash—!

When the 128th star had fulfilled its role and fell, the black dome collapsed entirely, revealing the outside world.

A clear blue sky with not a single cloud and a vast plain filled with life spread out before them.

Amidst the lush green grass, red flowers bloomed splendidly, adding color to the earth.

With the warm spring sunlight and fresh grass scent mixing together in the wind, it was as if nature’s perfume was wafting through the air.

Petals carried by the refreshing breeze stuck to the girls’ cheeks as if welcoming them.

“Great, let’s go.”

“Um… where to?”

Name pointed to the edge of a hill.

On the grass filled with the scent of the earth, two of their companions were already set up on a neat mat.

One was a blond boy with a cold demeanor, and the other was a slightly younger girl full of smiles.