Episode 74. cake (3)

Weekend morning when the sun rises in the middle of the sky.

The laughter of the students returning from breakfast was in full swing, but it was time for Mina’s roommates, who always enjoyed escaping until late at night, to be in a deep sleep.

“Ooh… . Someone left the window open.”

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Ji-on, who had a bed right next to the window, turned his head away as if running away from the sunlight penetrating the curtains.

I could hear the chirping of birds from the wide open window, and with it the scent of summer grass and fresh air.

Such things were nothing more than disturbers who disturbed Ji-on’s oversleep, scattered in the dark and muddy Agoge Room 2-17.

“Ugh, I went to bed at dawn yesterday… . I don’t know who it is, but I’m just closing the window right now?”

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Ji-on buried her face in the pillow and stretched out her foot to close the window.

It was a skill he learned after living in the same place for over a year. After blocking out the noise outside the window, Ji-on tried to fall asleep again, but… .

Chi-i-i-i-i-i-i… .

‘… What?’

I was concerned about the constant noise right in front of me, so I finally removed the pillow covering my face and looked around.

“Baby, are you awake?”

“… Harin? why are you already awake And what are you doing now?”

Harin was blowing steam in front of the mirror, adjusting her red hair.

Every time she put her hand on her wet hair, steam rose with a chiik sound.

Harin, who belatedly noticed Ji-on’s gaze while concentrating on the mirror, smiled and showed her right hand, which was red with high fever.

“Jam, it’s a magic iron.”

“You use magic too, don’t you? Do you really think I’m seeing you for the first time today?”

“Whoa, do you know how hard I practiced and studied by myself while you weren’t looking?”

People who don’t know Mina well are jealous of her monstrous talent and spread nonsensical rumors, but her roommates who lived with her in school knew very well that she had always studied fiercely.

Before Mina and Professor Ian met, when I couldn’t get out of E class even though I worked hard.

All of her roommates said that hard work meant nothing at this school and didn’t even pay attention to the magic book because everyone was upset as they watched her fall apart.

However, ever since the day Mina opened her eyes to her own magic, she has always been alone in the library since her first year, watching the basic skills she has built up silently shine right next to her… .

Even in No. 2-17, friends who gradually changed along with the diligent Mina were born.

“I can feel the mana now too. There is something even more surprising, can you tell me?”

“What?”

“I am going to the Central Library now. Are you going to study from the morning on the weekend?”

“The real sun will rise in the west.”

“right? Do you want to go too?”

“No, I want to sleep some more. hey, but… .”

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Ji-on looked at Harin, who had been putting on and taking off various decorations on her hair, as if she was dumbfounded.

“They said they were going to the library instead of going anywhere, so why are you giving them so much energy?”

“Hey, you idiot. Do you really not know why I am doing this?”

“… Why are you doing that?”

“I’m not doing this because there’s a boy right there who’s doing well these days! Oh, but. I heard that the lover I met at the library will last forever, what should I do?”

“What’s wrong? Where are the kids in this school who don’t know your personality? Don’t try too hard and go as usual.”

“It’s only in Agoge, but Master Paideia probably doesn’t know that I’m such an Ann. Come on, look. Doesn’t a calm aristocrat look like a young lady?”

Harin, who took out glasses without prescription from a drawer, had a bag of all kinds of snacks piled up at her feet.

It must have been annoying to throw it in the trash after forgetting it on the bed, so I threw it on the floor.

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Ji-on sighed and stood up. As I watched Harin holding a book and acting as a calm female student in a place that seemed like nothing to say even if I called it a garbage dump, my sleepiness went away.

“Okay, perfect. Even my mother wouldn’t recognize me.”

“I’ll be thrilled, really… . What is it, where did Yuka and Carly go? Mina said she had to go run for a part-time job today.”

“Carly is sleeping with me on Melia’s bed over there. I heard that Yuka goes out to practice magic in the morning?”

“… Him too?”

Carly and Melia, who don’t read a single word of a book, but are more eager than anyone else after the exam, are asleep in the same bed, and socks and slippers thrown carelessly around are rolling around.

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Ji-on, who was frowning at the smell of alcohol wafting from across the table, paused at the thoughts that passed through her mind.

‘Is there anything different between me and them?’

Until last year, Ji-on was proud of himself for only hanging out with friends. From the beginning, I thought there was nothing shameful about refusing to run in an unfair race.

But now, even if I wanted to get out of the E class, there was no way to get out of it, it wasn’t the same situation as a while ago.

Professor Lee Ahn’s office, which even lower-ranking students don’t mind, is always open, and he shares the same room with Mina, who became the head of the year integration… .

Now I can’t even make an excuse that there is no way to catch up with the students who are ahead of me.

‘Harin and Yuka are so eager… .’

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Ji-on looked around the room 2-17, which was cluttered like a devil’s den, and stopped at Mina’s bed, which was neatly arranged by herself.

Wouldn’t I be a hindrance to my friend who is trying to live a sincere life like that?

When he reached that point, Ji-on grabbed Harin by inserting his feet into the slippers.

“… Wait, come with me.”

“Will you? But, you need to bring your student ID to borrow books there.”

Changing from her pajamas to her school uniform, Ji-on made her first study plan.

Since I had never opened a book before, I thought it would be a good idea to borrow some basic magic books from the library and ask Mina which one to study first.

Weekends where I wouldn’t have moved a single step in bed if it was like usual.

He had just made up his mind to go to the library starting today, but Ji-on couldn’t control his trembling heart as if he were walking on a path he had never seen before. It’s strange.

“Harin, how about going to practice magic with the kids here later?”

“OK! It’s gonna be fun.”

Room 2-17 of Building 6, where the most famous problem child lives in Agoge.

A bright light radiated in front of Jion’s eyes, who came out of the dark place with Harin.

At first, I thought it was the sunlight shining brightly on my future… .

‘Take twenty steps to the left!’

“… What is this?”

I was telling you the route out of nowhere.

* * *

It wasn’t long after Karin arrived at Saint Stica Cathedral.

She still vividly remembers the sound of snow accumulating on the window sill.

Karin, who spent every night alone in the white-painted tower, could not fall asleep easily even if she closed her eyes for a long time and put her head on the floor.

I was so tired of enduring long nights alone in a solitary cell with no clock.

If the sore throat bothers you, or on days when even the moonlight seeps into your eyelids… . She would put her ear to the floor or window and wait for the slightest sound.

It wasn’t that I was waiting for the song I heard often in my hometown or the voice my parents were desperately looking for.

Karin only listened to the chirping of the crickets, the steps of the guards, the flapping of the wings of flying flies, and the anguished sighs of the devotees.

A 9-year-old who wanted to forget the loneliness that came in the darkness and silence even if he leaned on those things.

Karin still remembered those little sounds that made her spend the night together when she felt like she was lying in a coffin… .

For a moment like that, Karin recalls the world created by small sounds.

ridge-! ridge-!

‘… !’

Suddenly, the sound of drums that reached the sky burst from all directions, as if to destroy the world that had imprisoned her.

‘ah!’

Her head rang and her toes shrunk as if thunder struck close by, but soon after, instead of covering her ears, Karin vigorously waved her arms toward the sail of a ship approaching from afar.

Eugene, who didn’t know anything about Karin’s life, asked her, holding her hand as she was overjoyed in the sunlight reflecting off the blue river.

“Karin, do you like that?”

A strong wind blew. Jun smiled at Karin, who responded by jumping into Eugene’s arms.

‘If I knew you’d like it this much, I’d bring you out a long time ago.’

The ships that looked like dots gradually drew closer, and onlookers flocked to hear the sound of drums.

There were already merchants sitting in camp at the marina holding customers and touting them.

Illis, the capital city where the Kiruna Magic School is located.

The Kayla River, which runs through the middle, is the core of the imperial waterway, and this place is located where the Kayla River waterway and the railway line meet. The Oppe commercial district was famous for trading anything and everything imaginable that money could buy.

Not only Karin, but also Jun had only heard what kind of place it was, but this was the first time I had actually been there.

“There are so many people… . I can’t count.”

After hearing Jun’s words, Karin looked back and saw an overflowing crowd.

Merchants from all over the place were inviting guests with all kinds of goods.

Silk with a beautiful color, blue blades, fruit with a strong scent, exotic food, alcohol, clothes, and many other things that Karin has never seen before in her life are constantly coming and going.

Not only the main road, but also the maze-like alleyways were full of people and objects, and Karin’s eyes were disturbed by various colors that could not be seen in the pure white cathedral.

In this place where all the paints in the world seemed to have been brought, the scent, which had become unknown due to the mixing of all things, vibrated.

Karin shuddered at the energy, passion, and desire that swayed throughout the commercial district surrounding the blue river.

‘It feels like my heart is squirming!’

It’s been awhile since I’ve been soaked in that impression. It was only after ships arrived at the ferry on the Kayla River and lowered their sails that the first-year girls, remembering that the time given to them was short, set off to find ingredients for the cake.

Ina and Sepia, who had been watching the scene all along, quickly caught up with them.

* * *

‘Take twenty steps to the left!’

In front of door 2-17. Ji-on stared blankly at the sparkling magic phrase in front of his eyes and then said to Harin.

“Looks like someone is playing a joke.”

“right? I think I even know who I am.”

“… Would you mind going over it at least once?”

Every time Ji-on took a step to the left, something counted with a ringing sound.

At the corner of the hallway after walking 20 steps along the magic phrase, Yuka, wearing a hoodie, calmly waved her hand.

Harin and Yujin, who knew that they were originally like that, weren’t surprised anymore in that Yuka was waiting at the end.

“Hi guys. Oh, did Harin transform?”

“Yuka, didn’t you go out for magic training?”

“It’s magic training, right? I was practicing magic. If you guys move like this… .”

“uh? Five… . Well.”

Zeon narrowed his eyes to read the magic phrases that started multiplying frantically in front of his face.

‘Go straight forward 100m!’

“So what the hell is this?”

“Treasure hunt-!”

“Ah, I did something… .”

Sometimes there are notes with simple instructions written on them in places like playgrounds and vacant lots.

It usually consists of the content of asking where to go or to dig the ground of a certain place.

If you move as written on the note, you can find another note with instructions written on it, and if you continue the process, it was a kind of game where you eventually find a treasure hidden by someone.

“Wow, when I was 7, this was something the kids often did.”

“Will it be fun? Would you like to finish?”

“I will not. Are we kids?”

“Why dear… . I have to check to see if the conditions for activating the magic have been set correctly.”

“You can do that yourself… . We decided to go to the library. I will come and do this.”

“Sheesh.”

And then.

T-ring- T-ring-

He said he was practicing magic, and he shook his head, asking if he had been making something like this since morning.

“What, what kind of idiot gets caught up in such a childish prank- huh… !”

“who? Hey, please… .”

After clearing the frozen Harin, Ji-on, who had only poked her head out in the hallway in the direction of rooms 2-16, also froze.

“yes? These are Mina’s friends.”

There, Princess Frill was caught by Yuka’s prank and fluttering around.