48 . School Reopens (7)
Just because Stella was the kind of place that seemed to get attacked practically every time practical training opened didn’t mean every episode actually went that way.
This training session was the same. Even in the original work, it wasn’t treated as especially important and was passed over rather simply.
Still, this episode served as a kind of turning point in the original game, because it let you encounter traces of the villains who would mainly appear in the second semester.
Black magicians, necromancers, witches, and so on.
Those dark magic users, each of whom belonged to a magic-affiliated type, all had distinct characteristics reflected in their hideouts.
Black magicians: “Black Magic Tower.”
Necromancers: “Graveyard or dungeon.”
Witches: “Hut.”
Of course, those characteristics weren’t absolute templates. There had been cases where witches gathered together and built a tower, and black magicians creating dungeons was also quite common.
But in the end, their hideouts always contained evidence by which that nature could be distinguished.
‘Near a black magician’s dungeon, there will always be rotten plants or animal corpses, or beasts driven mad…’
With sleepy eyes, Baek Yuseol casually surveyed the surroundings, then turned his head to look at Flame, who was crouched in a corner, rummaging through something.
“What are you doing?”
“Found it. The dungeon entrance.”
“Congratulations.”
“Why’s your reaction so lukewarm?”
Saaaah—!
A gust of wind swept through, rustling the grain of the trees.
It was unnaturally quiet.
Not even the usual cries of mountain birds could be heard, there was no sign of small animals rustling the grass, and even the insects had vanished. How could that not seem suspicious?
“The problem’s way too easy.”
“Mmm, that’s true.”
A real black magician would never make things this blatantly suspicious, so clearly this had all been arranged to suit student level.
But would every hideout really be like that?
Of course not.
The hideouts prepared specifically for S-Class would definitely have been hidden as tightly as possible to make them difficult to find.
But naturally, Baek Yuseol had no intention of looking for those.
Hae Wonryang was probably striving to get the highest score possible. Ma Yuseong would be trailing after him, looking only for anything interesting that might amuse him. Eizel and Hong Biyeon would each be fending for themselves.
No, wait.
Depending on the episode, didn’t Eizel also discover something a little interesting in this training ground?
But even that didn’t immediately lead to any major incident.
‘…This is boring.’
Nothing was happening.
It was just ordinary practical training.
The moment he thought that, all the tension drained out of him at once. In the first place, he had no intention of taking school lessons seriously, but even so, he still needed to collect his grades properly.
This wasn’t a matter of whether he’d get expelled from Stella or not.
If he stopped the destruction of the world—
If everything became peaceful, and Baek Yuseol himself also got to live a normal life—
‘When that time comes, how would you want to live, and with whom?’
Last night.
That question Flame had thrown out carelessly.
It was something Baek Yuseol had always thought about from time to time, but hearing it directly from someone else’s mouth had made his thoughts far more complicated than usual.
“Come on, follow me. Next time I’ll fill your quota too.”
“Yeah…”
That was why, at present, Flame was the one following Baek Yuseol around.
Because he usually carried everything by himself and suffered alone, she was helping him this time so that, at least at school, he could have it a little easier.
“Come this way. They say the professors can’t see into the forest where the red maples have turned. I’ll find things for you instead, so just follow me.”
A kind of system bug.
Apparently, in the original romance-fantasy story, that “system bug” setting existed so that the professors wouldn’t catch Eizel and another one of the sub male leads having a lovey-dovey date during this practical session.
“…Is that so.”
The softly swaying maple leaves, stirred by the wind, had something about them that oddly tugged at a person’s emotions, but to Baek Yuseol, whose sentiments had long since dried up, they were nothing more than annoying leaves.
He yawned widely as he watched Flame walking ahead of him. She was grinning from ear to ear and wandering here and there as she walked, apparently delighted by the maples for some reason. He found himself thinking that she really was young and overflowing with energy.
‘Hm?’
While blankly staring at Flame’s back, Baek Yuseol slightly turned his head at the sensation of a human presence from behind him.
The moment that presence appeared, it immediately erased itself again, but it couldn’t fool Baek Yuseol’s instincts.
‘What now?’
Whoever it was had exposed their presence, however briefly, so they probably weren’t a professional, but even so, the mere fact that he was being tailed irritated him quite a bit.
‘Normally, there shouldn’t be any incident at all this time, but…’
He glanced at Flame.
Right. This episode was supposed to have no incident at all. That was how it should be.
But had an “episode” ever once proceeded normally up to now?
Hadn’t they always been twisted, warped, and dragged forward, catching him off guard every single time?
This one could be the same.
‘I was being too careless.’
Picking up his pace slightly to catch up with Flame, Baek Yuseol spoke in a low voice.
“Someone’s following us from behind.”
“…Really?”
She closed her mouth for a moment.
“That just now was kind of thrilling. Like something out of a spy movie with a bodyguard.”
“Quit talking nonsense.”
He didn’t know who was trying to be a nuisance this time, but now that he had identified the target, he had no intention of leaving them alone.
“Go on ahead first. I’ll check it out and come back.”
“No. This time I’m helping too. We’re in the Stella Dome anyway.”
“What if it’s a dark magic user? You do know they can still hit people inside the Stella Dome, right?”
“I’ll just keep firing light from the back!”
“…Do whatever you want.”
Anyway, he didn’t think the opponent was seriously dangerous, so Baek Yuseol gave a perfunctory nod and pulled out his Terriphone.
The Terriphone that had been broken before had been repaired by Alterisha’s hands and reinforced a little further, so there was no problem using it now.
Baek Yuseol pressed close enough that his breath brushed Flame’s ear and whispered quietly,
“For now, act like you haven’t noticed the fact that someone is following us from behind.”
“O-okay. But, um…”
“Why. Is there a problem?”
“No, it’s not that, but…”
“Quiet. They got closer.”
The wind stopped.
The human presence suddenly became distinct, and taking that as the signal for an attack, Baek Yuseol activated his Terriphone and turned around—
“You two. What exactly are you doing right now?”
“…Huh?”
“…What?”
Standing there was not an enemy…
…but Pung Harang, his expression stiff as stone.
“W-what the…”
As Baek Yuseol hurriedly withdrew the Terriphone and asked in confusion, Pung Harang’s expression hardened even more.
“Why are you startled?”
“Huh? Well, I thought maybe an enemy had shown up.”
“The Stella Dome is safe. Didn’t the professor say the system had been thoroughly improved this time?”
“Well… I guess that’s true.”
Though regardless of that, it seemed the bug where the red maple area wasn’t broadcast to the professors still remained.
“Just answer the question. S-Class is required to act individually. But the two of you appear to have formed a team…”
Flame and Baek Yuseol looked at each other.
It wasn’t exactly wrong, so there wasn’t really anything they could say to refute it. All they could do was shrug at each other.
But if they let it go like this, Pung Harang would almost certainly report them to the professors, and they’d get an enormous point deduction.
“Haah…”
Already resigned to everything and imagining the deduction that was coming, Baek Yuseol let out a gloomy sigh. In the end, Flame had no choice but to step in first and make an excuse.
“Hey, I think you’ve got the wrong idea. It’s not like that.”
“…Not like that?”
“Yeah. Be honest. Who am I?”
“…Flame.”
“Right. Me. Flame, second in the year. And you think I’d go around getting carried?”
“Not you, but—”
“Then who is this?”
She jerked her thumb toward Baek Yuseol.
Since it was obviously Baek Yuseol, Pung Harang fell silent.
Even though his own grades only sat around the middle of the pack, Baek Yuseol’s name alone was enough to prove his worth.
How many times had a first-year Stella student already made it into the papers? How many dark magic users had he already hunted? Baek Yuseol had built up achievements superior even to many magic warriors already active in the field…
And that Baek Yuseol… would be getting carried?
“That makes no sense. You think so too, right?”
Even though he didn’t want to accept it, Pung Harang found that he already had, and slowly nodded.
Because some things had to be acknowledged.
Still, one final question remained.
It was a question he absolutely hated having to ask in this situation, but couldn’t avoid asking.
“In that case… why were you two sticking together?”
At that, Flame glanced sideways at Baek Yuseol. In the end, thinking there was no choice but to use this excuse, she blurted it out.
“Can’t you tell? We were secretly on a date under the maple trees, you clueless idiot.”
“…So that was it.”
“Yeah. So go on your own way. Do we look like the kind of people who’d do something as pathetic as cheating just to get points?”
Baek Yuseol felt a stab of guilt for no reason, but Flame was acting so shamelessly that he maintained the same shameless attitude.
“That’s true enough. I was rude.”
Having admitted that his own judgment had been wrong, Pung Harang dipped his head in a slight apology, then turned around and vanished among the maple trees.
Why did his retreating figure feel so heavy and bitter somehow?
The practical training ended.
First place went to Hae Wonryang by an overwhelming margin. Apparently, he had discovered the “ancient black magician’s dungeon” the professors had hidden with the full intention of making sure no one found it.
Second place was Eizel.
Like Hae Wonryang, she had found a “witch’s hut” that had been arranged to be difficult to locate, but…
While there, she had discovered something strange and reported it to the professors, only for them to wave it off lightly as nothing serious.
And third place was…
Pung Harang.
After desperately digging through the area in search of a dark magic user’s hideout, he had eventually discovered a graveyard hidden by a necromancer, and had even detected black mana and purified the graves haunted by the lingering spirits of the dead, earning an exceptionally high score.
And yet why did he still feel dissatisfied?
‘…She said it was a date.’
If Flame herself had said that much, then it was fair enough to take it as the truth. Baek Yuseol hadn’t denied it either.
Besides, just as she had said, those two weren’t so lacking in skill that they would need to cheat.
They probably had search abilities even better than his, yet the two of them—a boy and a girl whose final ranks were merely a reasonable somewhere in the top ten—
Why?
Obviously, because they hadn’t taken the training seriously.
He could understand why they would act like that.
During the first semester, rumors had spread around the school saying Flame and Baek Yuseol were dating.
Still, he hadn’t cared all that much back then.
So why were his emotions so shaken this time?
‘Let it go.’
He neatly came to understand his own feelings.
The day he saw Flame soar into the sky with angel’s wings spread behind her, he had fallen in love with her at first sight.
He had stubbornly refused to acknowledge that feeling, his pride flaring in protest, but that had been stupid and foolish.
It was true.
I really am in unrequited love with her.
But his father had told him something.
To covet a woman who already belonged to someone else was no different from being the worst kind of trash.
His father might not have accomplished anything particularly great, but to Pung Harang he was the person he respected most in the world, and he had never once gone against his father’s teachings.
Baek Yuseol and Flame had secretly gotten back together, and because they didn’t want rumors spreading, they were keeping it hidden.
If that was what the two of them wanted, then Pung Harang would respect it as well.
From a distance, he watched Flame and Baek Yuseol. Everyone else had gathered around the scoreboard to check the rankings, yet those two acted as though points had never mattered to them in the first place and were just fooling around among themselves.
“Hey, want to go eat after this?”
“You’re paying.”
“You’ve got lots of money. Buy me something.”
“You beggar.”
“Ah, fine. This Noona’ll treat you.”
Read only on MugenCodex.
For now, Baek Yuseol—that huge, overwhelming rival—was stuck firmly by her side, so he would give up.
But someday, if Baek Yuseol showed an opening and an opportunity came to him as well…
He would seize it without hesitation.
