33. No Wonder It Felt Harder Than Usual (1)
After Hong Biyeon’s Magic Analyze and presentation were completely over, Hong Si-hwa left the venue and went to a women’s restroom that was rarely used.
She turned on the faucet at the sink, washed her face in a rough yet delicate manner, and then looked into the mirror.
She was smiling.
Hong Si-hwa in the mirror was still wearing the mask called a smile, as though she never tired of it, to the point that the muscles in her face seemed ready to cramp.
Hong Si-hwa deliberately tried frowning.
Even so, because the corners of her lips were still lifted, it only made her look as if she were playing around.
At this Aslan Seminar, she had been thoroughly defeated by Hong Biyeon.
It was truly admirable.
That immature little brat had finally managed to beat her older sister.
Considering she had carried out her plans for years for the sake of today, it could indeed be called remarkable.
‘Mage Hong Si-hwa. For the next year, you may not participate in any academic presentation or seminar, and for the next three years, you may not request Magic Analyze. Furthermore, from now on…’
Hadn’t they said that Magic Analyze was a defamation of a magician’s honor? If the other side successfully proved that the magic was truly their own, then the one who had demanded Magic Analyze received the penalty of being temporarily expelled from the magical world.
And that was not all.
Before she was a magician, Hong Si-hwa was royalty.
A princess fighting Hong Biyeon over the right to the throne.
Once today’s seminar ended, it would probably be splashed across the papers in giant headlines.
[Hong Si-hwa! Defeated by Her Younger Sister!]
[She Demanded Magic Analyze from Hong Biyeon, Only for It to Be Revealed as Original Magic in the End…]
[Unjustified Magic Analyze? Did She Really Have to Nitpick?]
[The First Princess Even Turns the Aslan Seminar into a Political Battleground—Can This Really Be Allowed to Continue…?]
And so on and so forth.
She could already see it all plainly in her head.
That was how well she understood the media.
Maybe articles were being churned out even now.
She had lost a fight she absolutely should not have lost.
It was, in the truest sense, a perfect counterblow.
She had never known.
Never known that her younger sister had grown that much.
And yet, somehow, she did not feel especially bad.
Hong Si-hwa in the mirror was still smiling.
‘Hong Si-hwa. I think you’d look prettier if you smiled more. Why do you always go around scowling?’
Why was it that Hong Erin, her eldest sister who had already died, suddenly came to mind?
She had always used to say it.
‘I think I’m fortunate that I can die first. That way I won’t have to risk my life fighting my beloved younger sisters.’
‘I feel so sorry for you girls… If only you had been commoners instead of royalty, wouldn’t you have lived ordinary, happy lives? I find myself thinking that.’
Back then, Hong Si-hwa did not seem to wear the mask of a smile.
When had she started wearing it?
…Probably after the day Hong Erin’s entire body had burst into flames and she died.
Hong Si-hwa had not been there when her eldest sister was dying.
It just did not seem like a sight she particularly wanted to see.
Every time they met, that woman kept offering advice and counsel as though she were someone important, and Hong Si-hwa found it ridiculous and ignored her.
‘Treasure and look after your younger sister, Hong Si-hwa.’
‘There must be a way. A way for all of you to survive.’
‘You have to break free of this cursed fate of Adolevit… in your generation.’
‘You… all of you, can do it.’
How laughable.
There was no such way.
Because the bloodline of Adolevit was born with the Curse of Extinguishing Flame, before they could even fully pass the age of thirty, their entire bodies would turn into fire and they would die.
No one knew when that death would come.
The more talent one was born with for flame, the sooner that death approached.
Her eldest sister, Hong Erin, had been born with a heaven-given talent for flame magic…
and had died far too young.
Hong Si-hwa herself, thanks to having very little talent, had managed to hold out until nearly thirty, but Hong Biyeon, who had become far too close to flame, would probably…
be lucky just to make it past twenty.
Hong Si-hwa had realized all of this in the year she turned seventeen.
That both she and her younger sister, too,
were fated to die just like Hong Erin had.
There was only one way to escape the Curse of Extinguishing Flame.
To inherit the throne, and with it, the Crown of Flame.
Only that crown, crafted personally by Adolevit—their ancestor and one of the Twelve Disciples of the Founding Mage—could prolong their lives.
But there was only one crown.
Of the two sisters,
one of them was inevitably fated to die.
‘Hong Biyeon… you still don’t know this yet, do you?’
If Hong Biyeon were to learn that inside her chest, flames of unknown timing were smoldering away, slowly devouring her heart, what kind of reaction would she have?
Would she despair?
No.
Now Hong Si-hwa could be sure.
Her younger sister was no longer the child she had once known.
That girl would probably…
fight back against that fate and try to overcome it.
‘That’s right. Struggle a little harder, little sister.’
Only by doing that
could all of them survive.
Clap clap clap clap!!
At the fierce cheers and applause, Baek Yuseol, who had been nodding off, opened his bleary eyes.
“Ugh…”
His eyes were bloodshot red.
It was hard enough just to endure the sleepiness.
Honestly, a hundred-minute debate would have been more interesting.
No.
Had that even been interesting to begin with?
“I’m so sleepy I could die…”
Even after brewing strong caffeinated coffee during the break and drinking three cups, he was still sleepy.
Magic theory that could overpower even powerful caffeine and induce sleep.
If that was not real magic, then what was?
The Aslan Seminar demanded intense concentration.
Baek Yuseol’s mental force had received considerable correction, granting him exceptional focus, but because he could not understand the magic itself, he could not focus on anything.
He dared take pride in the fact that, while everyone else was communicating in boring alien language, he had at least made a serious effort not to just lay his head down and fall asleep.
“Incredible. Just as the rumors said.”
“Wow… that’s already the third one.”
“What exactly is going on this year?”
“Damn it, and it had to be the year I participated. Damn it. Why are these little brats presenting papers better than mine…?”
“Calm down. Just think of it as bad luck this year.”
Since the magicians were making such a fuss, his gaze naturally went toward the podium.
There, a small girl with short hair was smiling while gently floating a sphere of light in midair.
She carried herself with a dignity more fitting of a protagonist than anyone else.
Flame’s brilliant show of light was unfolding.
‘Ah, is it already Flame’s turn?’
As befitted the protagonist of this world, even at the Aslan Seminar she presented the most beautiful theory without anyone interfering.
Eizel and Hong Biyeon’s theories had been upgraded thanks to Baek Yuseol’s influence and ended up showing brilliance on Flame’s level, but that did not mean Flame’s paper lost its shine.
‘Systematization of Radiance-Type Magic.’
She was fundamentally someone who had no choice but to attract attention.
After all, she had come here having perfectly organized the angels’ Radiance Magic, something that was still a realm of mystery and the unknown for human magicians.
Just judging by the fact that followers of the Holy Order had secretly infiltrated this place in order to see her presentation, one could tell how extraordinary Flame’s level was right now.
“Impressive. Truly outstanding.”
Chairman Aryu Moon nodded with a face full of smiles.
For someone who almost never gave lavish praise, the fact that he was satisfied meant Flame’s paper could only be described as perfection itself.
“Thank you.”
Even after Flame stepped down from the podium, the commotion did not stop.
Eizel and Hong Biyeon’s presentations had also been incredible, but Flame had gone further and prepared an entire show by bringing in the atmosphere and knowledge of twenty-first century Earth, so it was full of things to watch, and the afterglow did not fade easily.
‘Should I say that’s just like Flame…?’
She really was incredible, but…
the problem was that Baek Yuseol happened to be next.
‘Sigh.’
He had not really prepared much. He had only brought an ordinary paper he had written during exam period.
From the beginning, the stars of the Aslan Seminar were the three protagonists, so he had never intended to stand out.
When he had asked Flame to review the paper itself, she had already given it the assessment, ‘This seems solid enough.’
Exactly the kind of presentation a genius attending the Aslan Seminar might give.
Something impressive enough that no one could dismiss it wherever he went, but pitifully thin compared to the trio of protagonists…
that kind of level.
‘Well, that was the plan in the first place.’
Baek Yuseol got up from his seat.
After the brief break ended, he had to go straight up to the podium.
As he was walking through the corridor, he ran into Flame.
“Oh, you were next, mister? Good luck.”
“There’s nothing to cheer for. I’m just going to do it roughly and come back.”
“The Aslan Seminar is something other people would kill to attend, and saying you’ll just do it roughly is kind of too much, isn’t it?”
“I don’t care. What a pain…”
“Anyway, do your best!”
Maybe because her presentation had gone so successfully, Flame trotted down the corridor in high spirits. Baek Yuseol briefly found himself thinking that even the way she walked felt childlike, but he forced the thought away.
When he headed to the main entrance of the podium, a staff member was waiting there.
As Baek Yuseol approached with a thoroughly unmotivated face, the man tilted his head slightly.
“Please wait here a moment.”
“Yes.”
Inside, the moderator was rambling on and on about the next presenter.
‘Stella Academy’s rising star! The magician who first succeeded in controlling Blink Magic, Baek Yuseol, will now give his presentation.’
“You may go in now.”
Baek Yuseol passed through the main door as it opened automatically and headed toward the podium.
With everyone looking down at him from above, it felt like he had become a gladiator in the Colosseum.
The shining eyes of the magicians poured down on him.
There had already been several remarkable presentations, but it was only natural that people would still look forward to ‘Cadet Baek Yuseol’s’ presentation as well.
‘The first magician to successfully control Blink.’
For hundreds of years, countless magicians had challenged that very spell, and all had given up.
And now the cadet who controlled it had attended the Aslan Seminar.
So it was only natural for them to think, ‘Baek Yuseol must be presenting a paper related to Blink Magic.’
But…
unfortunately, he had absolutely no idea about the principle behind how Blink Magic was controlled.
He simply used it because it worked.
For that reason, today’s paper might be rather disappointing.
“The subject I will present today is… ‘Prokitex’s Overlapping Circuit Design.’”
The moment Baek Yuseol opened with that, the magicians’ expressions filled with confusion.
Some even dug at their ears as if wondering whether they had heard wrong.
People began staring at him with expressions that plainly said, ‘Then what about Blink?’
But what could he do?
‘I don’t know either…’
He had expected them to be disappointed, but since he had already come this far, Baek Yuseol continued his presentation steadily.
Certainly,
his magic belonged among the impressive.
It was not easy for a seventeen-year-old magician to write a paper of this level.
But every genius gathered here had, on average, already reached around that level.
So the presentation could only be described as painfully ordinary.
No, maybe it was because their expectations had been so high.
Compared to the others, it felt even more disappointing.
‘Hmm, this is my chance.’
Meanwhile, Selien’s eyes gleamed.
She had never imagined Baek Yuseol would bring a paper that flimsy.
There were far more than one or two things worth criticizing.
Because his magic had completely ignored a premise that had been declared impossible in the past.
Apparently she was not the only one thinking that, because a number of the magicians watching his presentation looked dumbfounded.
From the start, it was absurd that he was presenting an impossible premise and explaining it as though of course it was possible.
And yet because he himself was presenting it as though it were so obvious, for a moment people almost found themselves mistaken enough to think, ‘Wait, was that actually possible?’
‘I’ve already completely seen through the magic Baek Yuseol designed.’
Starting with the impossible premise he was using as an example, she had prepared a whole pile of difficult questions that would be hard for him to answer.
If that was really the end of what he had prepared…
then his self-respect as a magician might completely collapse.
Eizel had brought a spell too extraordinary to touch.
But Baek Yuseol was different.
His magic was like a flimsy sandcastle.
As Baek Yuseol’s presentation neared its end, the dissatisfied magicians brought their hands to their buttons.
They were thinking of attacking him soon.
But they would not get the chance.
‘This time, I’ll use all four of my remaining chances to criticize.’
Before anyone else could even lay a hand on him…
she was going to bring Baek Yuseol down herself.
