49 . Witch (6)
Most people have probably experienced something like this at least once.
You’re working on homework due tomorrow, and then you end up collapsing over your desk and falling asleep just like that…
and somehow, you fall into an unbelievably deep sleep.
To you, it feels as though you closed your eyes for only the briefest instant, only for a moment—
but when you open them again, the atmosphere is all wrong.
The chirping of sparrows.
Warm sunlight.
The quiet flow of the morning air.
It feels refreshing. Your mind gradually clears, and you find yourself thinking:
Have I ever slept this deeply before?
And then, a moment later, you realize it.
‘This is bad!’
I still haven’t finished the homework I have to submit today!
That was exactly what Flame was like.
‘Huh…?’
It took only an instant for her mind to sharpen into full wakefulness.
And then, at once, she became aware that something was strange.
‘What is this?’
She still couldn’t tell what it was yet.
Because the memories of the previous night had not fully returned to her. So Flame absentmindedly reached out—
and the moment her hand touched something warm, her entire body stiffened.
‘Ah…?’
Where had I been last night, and what was I doing?
She had not been drinking, but maybe because she had been so tired lately, she had fallen asleep in an instant, and now her memory was blurred.
But—
one thing was certain.
‘Did I go back to my dorm yesterday…?’
No. I didn’t.
According to her last memory, she had definitely sneaked into Baek Yuseol’s dorm room.
And while waiting for him, since he took so long to come back and the bed was so soft, she had thought it might be better to lie down for a bit…
…
Startled, she finally grasped the situation and tried to sit up—
but stopped when she realized something heavy was lying across her stomach.
It was Baek Yuseol’s arm.
“Khrr…”
“Y-you’ve got to be kidding me…!”
She had feared it, and yet there it was. Whether she was lying on the bed or not, he had not cared in the slightest and had simply lain down right beside her and gone to sleep. He had even changed neatly into his pajamas.
Carefully moving his arm aside, she slowly got up and crawled out of the bed.
Thunk!
“Kgh!”
She accidentally slammed her toe into the desk on the way, but fortunately, Baek Yuseol did not wake up.
‘Ugh, what kind of disaster is this…’
Flame liked wandering in and out of various dorm rooms, but that did not mean she had ever spent the night in a boy’s dormitory before.
And the fact that the other person was Baek Yuseol of all people made it bother her even more.
Click.
After opening the door as quietly as possible and slipping out of his room, Flame finally let out a breath of relief.
It was pointless either way, but if Baek Yuseol suddenly woke up right there, it felt like the atmosphere would instantly become unbearable.
“Phew… ughhh…”
She had no idea what this stupid mess even was. She almost raked her fingers madly through her hair, but held back because it might make it fly everywhere.
‘…I still have to go to class.’
No matter how embarrassing the whole thing had been, she could not forget her duty as a student.
She quietly turned to head back to her own dorm—
only to run into the worst possible person from the nearby room.
Pung Harang.
“…Flame?”
“Y-yeah. Right. Hi.”
He was wearing sports clothes and drinking water in the corridor. It looked like he had just finished his morning workout.
“Right now, you couldn’t possibly…”
As Pung Harang parted his lips to say something, Flame swiftly intercepted him and blurted out the first nonsense she could think of.
“Oh right! I’m really busy! So I’m gonna go! See you in class!”
“Ah, okay…”
Flame fired all of that off like a machine gun and vanished with quick steps.
Pung Harang stared blankly at her retreating back for a moment, then turned his head and looked at the place where she had been standing just seconds earlier.
Baek Yuseol’s dorm room.
Those two were tied together by some kind of special bond he knew nothing about.
So there was no need for someone who knew nothing to interfere for no reason.
Pung Harang soon left as well.
It seemed his morning exercise was not over yet.
Morning class.
“The lines that connect the branches of a magic circle must always be straight. As the angle of the circle deviates by 30 degrees, 45 degrees, 60 degrees, it has a major effect on the circulation rate of mana. If the angle is off by even a single degree, it will produce a serious error.”
Theory classes were always boring.
They said second semester would be centered more on practical work and training, but naturally, theory classes still held a slightly larger share.
The amount of practical training had increased a little compared to the first semester, but in the end, they still had to continue studying theory without pause.
Flame stared blankly at the blackboard.
She still could not forget what had happened that morning.
‘…Was I always like this?’
Her personality was generally very cool and straightforward.
That was not just how she described herself—everyone around her said the same thing, and after hearing it enough, she had come to accept that it was true.
Sleeping in the same bed? Something like that ought to be easy enough to laugh off and move past. It wasn’t as if they had done anything. They had just slept, that was all.
So why did it keep bothering her?
She truly had no idea.
“Now then, before we look at how a form distorts depending on the number of branches, I’ll ask one question first. What substance is known in the magic world to burn the most easily?”
“Me!”
“Correct.”
“Huh?”
Not a single bit of the lesson was sinking in.
As Flame stared vacantly at the blackboard, someone beside her lightly tapped her on the shoulder.
“Mm?”
“What’s with you? You’ve been staring blankly the whole time.”
“Huh? Ah, no… it’s just…”
“We’re all going to karaoke tonight. Want to come too?”
Flame was famous for being a good singer, so whenever her friends went to karaoke, she usually went too, and given her personality—she loved belting things out—she almost never turned it down.
“Hmm… I’m a little tired today, so…”
“Reeeally?”
But today, for some reason, she just didn’t feel like it, and when Flame refused, her friend’s face took on a very odd expression.
“Did you get dumped?”
“…No?”
“Then did someone confess to you?”
“What are you even saying?”
“You’ve been hanging around that Baek Yuseol a lot lately. You got back together, right? Didn’t you?”
“No, we didn’t…”
She had no idea where that rumor had spread from this time, but as far as Flame was concerned, it was not the sort of thing that should have bothered her at all.
‘…Shouldn’t it?’
Ding-dong-daeng!
When the bell announcing the end of class rang, Flame, as usual, headed out into the corridor in a noisy cluster with her friends.
They weren’t in the same class, and they didn’t even take all the same lessons, but moving around like this had just become a habit.
Stella students had all kinds of ways of spending their breaks.
Some strolled through the Sky Garden while chatting with friends.
Some girls gathered at the Starlight Terrace and enjoyed elegant tea time.
Others gathered in the gym to enjoy sports, or did brain training that required using their heads.
Flame belonged to the fairly ordinary side of things, usually preferring to gather in little groups in the garden or at a café and just talk.
“Flame? Did something happen today? Are you in a bad mood?”
“…A bad mood?”
Well. Not really, she thought.
Embarrassed, maybe.
Caught off guard, definitely.
But was she in a bad mood?
“Then why’s your face like that? You look super serious.”
“Really…”
Did I have something that serious to worry about?
Wasn’t what happened this morning just an awkward little incident?
‘…Just an awkward little incident?’
Come to think of it, the feeling was strange.
If an ordinary boy found a girl his own age sleeping defenselessly on his bed, would he lie down next to her and go to sleep too?
‘That Ahjussi…’
Normally, the right choice would be to move the sleeping girl somewhere else or to sleep on the sofa himself.
Of course, she knew very well that the entire situation had already become a huge imposition in the first place… but still, she had already made that mistake, and in that situation, Baek Yuseol had chosen neither of those options.
Or else—
‘Was it because he’s used to me sleeping next to him…?’
Just as that thought crossed her mind, her friends jabbed her in the side, snapping her back to the present.
“Hey, hey, look over there.”
“It’s the Stella Knights.”
“Huh?”
Wondering what they were talking about all of a sudden, she looked outside from the terrace of Sky Park and saw dozens of Stella Knights marching across the bridge that cut through the center of Stella in perfect formation.
Even the sight of the magically created horses flying above them, and the magical lights swirling around their bodies, was enough to show that they were equipped with impressive gear.
And because of that, one question came to mind.
‘What could the Knights possibly be mobilizing for at this time?’
Since there was no formal send-off ceremony, it looked like a small-scale dispatch mission, but had anything happened recently that would warrant that?
‘Well, it’s not like I know everything.’
No matter how thoroughly she had read the original romance fantasy, the story in that book had only ever been told through Eizel’s perspective.
She did not know every side story or outside event, so there was no need to dwell on a trivial detail like this.
And yet—
there was one person among them who stood out a great deal.
“…Hey. That’s Baek Yuseol, isn’t it?”
“I think so. Yeah, it is.”
“What? Really? My eyesight sucks, so I can’t tell.”
“Yeah. It really is.”
Baek Yuseol.
That boy in Stella’s school uniform was walking at the very front of the procession, leading the formation of knights.
It was already strange enough just seeing him moving together with the Knights, but for him to be at the front—
‘What in the world is going on?’
Flame’s head filled with confusion, unable to grasp the situation at all.
“…What did you just say?”
The girls holding their teacups froze in place.
How often had Princess Hong Biyeon ever spoken in such a cold voice?
She was always quiet and haughty, but not someone who frequently lost her temper, which only made it all the more necessary to tread carefully.
As the girls having tea with Hong Biyeon cautiously read the room, Yae Taerin inwardly regretted choosing this exact moment to make her report, and continued speaking.
“Yes. It appears Student Baek Yuseol has been temporarily attached to the Stella Knights and is carrying out a mission.”
“…Really? And what does that have to do with me? There’s no need to report useless things like that.”
As Hong Biyeon said that and closed her eyes, Yae Taerin lowered her voice.
“I thought it might be something that would concern Your Highness, but perhaps I was mistaken. In that case, I’ll omit the next part of the report.”
With that, Yae Taerin gave a small bow and turned as if to leave, and only after two beats did Hong Biyeon stop her.
“No. Wait. Since you already started, you should finish what you were saying.”
“…Is that so?”
Yae Taerin smiled faintly inside and gave the girls a look, at which point they all rose and left together.
They were probably feeling rather grateful to Yae Taerin at this moment.
“According to what I heard, Captain Arain personally requested his help in resolving the mysterious incidents that have been occurring recently in Arcanium.”
“Captain Arain himself…?”
Hong Biyeon trusted Yae Taerin.
Because Yae Taerin was the only person who had remained by her side since childhood.
Even so, no matter how much she trusted Yae Taerin’s words, there were some things one could believe and some things one simply could not.
And this report, for instance, made no sense no matter how she thought about it.
Arain—the monstrous mage of the age, the man expected to become the next 9th Class mage—asking a mere first-year student for help?
It was absurd.
Hong Biyeon had met him personally more than once. She knew his personality as well.
Arain’s pride was so high it knew no limit, and it would never bend before anyone. So for someone like him to entrust a student with resolving an incident…
“Does that mean it’s an incident he cannot possibly solve with his own strength, but that commoner can?”
“That does seem to be the case.”
“Hm…”
Hong Biyeon knew a certain amount about Baek Yuseol’s true nature, but other people did not.
That only made Arain’s eye for talent seem even more remarkable.
Because unlike her, he knew absolutely nothing about Baek Yuseol’s truth, and yet purely through his own insight, he had recognized the boy’s value and extended a hand.
But.
That was that.
“…I don’t like it.”
“What was that, Your Highness?”
“Nothing. I didn’t say anything.”
Hong Biyeon, who had been slowly savoring the fragrance of her tea, downed the rest of the black tea in one cool gulp, then rose abruptly and walked out.
‘…He hasn’t forgotten my promise, has he?’
Surely not.
That promise from that day was still engraved in Hong Biyeon’s heart as one of her strongest memories, and would remain forever as one of her dearest recollections.
Baek Yuseol would be the same.
At least, that was what she believed.
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