“Uh…”
“Hey….”
“Ho, this brat.”
-Bang!
“Get up, you scallywag!!”
“Gahk!”
I flail my arms back to barely manage stopping myself from falling backward.
Still half asleep, I clutch my groggy head and look around to find dozens of cold gazes returned.
“It’s your turn. Troll.”
The male student who woke me points coldly to the front.
Following his finger, I see the professor standing by the lectern glaring at me.
Only then do I remember what I have to do.
“Ah, yes.”
As I rise from my seat and head toward the lectern,
“Whoa!”
-Klang!
I trip over something and fall hard to the ground.
“Ow…”
Looking behind me, I see another student swiftly pulling his leg back inside the desk.
Though it was clearly deliberate,
I didn’t have the courage to face the professor’s scolding if I delayed any longer, so I clutch my throbbing knee and stand up again, heading toward the lectern.
The professor stands tall, staring down at me coldly.
“Hold out your hand.”
In his outstretched hand lies a small crystal orb.
As I lightly place my hand on the orb, it begins to glow.
The soft light soon forms into a single-digit number.
A number with only one syllable. And the professor pronounces it.
“Zero (0)”
“Phewk…!”
The sound of laughter echoes simultaneously.
Though I managed to suppress it, what had to burst has already burst.
Yet the professor didn’t bother to stop it, as if being mocked was deserved.
“You’re refreshing the lowest score every semester. Arthur.”
With my head bowed low, I listen without a word, unable to refute his statement.
“Don’t think you’ll be able to continue staying at this Academy with zero magic power.
The practical test period is coming around soon, right? If you fail there too, you’ll be expelled for insufficient grades.”
“Yes? But with the comprehensive score, including the written test, it’s above 50 points…”
“No, it’s different this time. If you had even 1 magic power, it would be a different story. Even ordinary people have at least 5 units of magic power. But you? Zero (0) after more than a year. No matter how intelligent you are, that knowledge is useless if you can’t use it.”
As the professor waves his hand through the air, a small trail of light summons a scroll.
“It’s the principal’s approval.”
Inside the scroll is the principal’s emblematic red stamp.
“Our Academy is aimed at training outstanding ‘mages.’ A mage who can’t use magic? Absurd, isn’t it?”
There was no refuting his cutting words, as they were all true.
I attend the Royal Magic Academy.
I proudly passed the immensely difficult written exam with full marks to enroll here,
but the problem is with my constitution.
Since I was young, magic power hasn’t congregated within my body—not even a bit.
In this country, called the Magic Empire, at this Magic Academy designed to cultivate elite mages,
I am the only person who cannot use magic.
Even commoners, farmers from the countryside, can use very basic magic with enough effort.
But not me.
“You don’t fit at our Academy. It’s better to leave voluntarily rather than facing forced expulsion.”
With those final words, laughter erupted from all around.
“Hahaha!!”
“Pheh… Isn’t Professor’s comment a bit harsh?”
“Hohoho!”
The laughter fills both of my ears completely.
I barely resisted the impulse to cover my ears.
—-
“Hmph….”
As soon as I entered the dormitory, I walked straight to my bed and collapsed onto it.
“Ah….”
All that comes out of my mouth is a sigh.
To someone who can’t use magic at all like me, how could a practical test based on using magic even be possible?
Receiving a failing grade is already a foregone conclusion.
Thus, expulsion is as good as decided.
To other students, the word “expulsion” must be terrible, but for me, the implication is even heavier.
Outside this Academy, there’s nowhere else I can go back to.
I grew up in a very strict orphanage where I was deserted by my parents and gained admission to this Academy through the support of someone who saw potential in me.
But the sponsorship ended a few months ago, and I heard the orphanage closed as well.
Using an eastern expression, I’ve now become a rejected duck egg in the Nak River.
“….My life is over.”
Yeah, as of today, my life has been given a death sentence.
They’ve disconnected the breathing apparatus from a life already on life support.
With heavy-hearted thoughts, I sprawl across the bed.
Unlike my deep concerns, my eyelids slowly close.
“Ah, I shouldn’t have stayed awake studying all night….Anyway, it was all meaningless….Cough…”
—-
I had a dream.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been having a similar dream.
Though the beginning varies slightly, it always leads to the same staircase.
This time was no different.
While walking down an empty Academy hallway, where there should have been a grand door, there was a staircase instead.
The staircase, leading downwards, was completely dark without any lighting, preventing me from seeing even a step ahead.
An intense desire to descend it dominated my body, and I slowly stepped down.
My body felt as though it was submerged in water, experiencing an odd sensation of buoyancy, but my mind remained sharp. The number of steps automatically registered in my head.
Descending exactly seventy steps, there stood two men with dark skin and ears twice as long as a normal human’s.
They were blocking the continuation of the staircase, forming a human wall.
‘Uh, may I pass?’
The two facing ahead simultaneously turned their heads toward me as soon as I spoke.
Their eyes, far older than any human’s, scanned me thoroughly.
Then, with movements sharp like a blade, they moved aside.
‘Uh, thank you.’
Passing between the two figures, who didn’t even glance at me, I continued down the staircase.
This staircase seemed to go on endlessly.
Even after surpassing three-digit numbers and passing much more time, finally stepping down the 700th step,
I found myself amidst a dense forest.
‘Here again.’
It was the fifteenth time I’d entered this forest via the same staircase.
Verifying my body’s freedom of movement, unlike the constraints within the staircase, I walked along the familiar path through the forest.
Making my way through the forest, I finally arrived at my destination.
“Hello, Cat?”
Beneath a large rock nestled in the forest was a small kitten in a crevice.
-Meow~
“Ah, you’ve gotten much better. Soon, you’ll probably be able to walk.”
This kitten is the one I first encountered when I came to this forest.
I found it with severe injuries, its blood staining the earth red.
Dream or not, after a while, the bleeding stopped. However, the kitten trembled pitifully and struggled to regain consciousness.
Every time I returned to this forest, I diligently cared for the kitten by bringing various fruits.
“Let’s check your wound, shall we?”
-Meow~
Understanding my words, the kitten immediately flipped over to show its white belly.
The wound on its belly had faded so much that it was almost unnoticeable unless you looked closely.
“You’re almost fully recovered. That’s good.”
-Meow~
As I pet its head, the kitten happily purred and twisted its body.
“Adorable.”
Holding the kitten snugly in my arms, I lay down on the grassy patch.
“…Cat, I had an incredibly tough day today.”
-Meow?
“Remember last time when I mentioned I can’t use magic?”
-Meow.
“…The Academy says if I fail this practical test, I’ll be expelled.”
-Meow?
The kitten tilted its head.
Just like it’s asking, “What’s the problem with that?”
“I have nowhere left to go. I don’t have my parents around, my support has been cut off, and the orphanage is gone too.”
I could feel a faint heartbeat as I held the kitten closer to my chest. It provided a comforting presence.
This warmth felt healing.
“If I get kicked out of the Academy, …in this magic-focused country, there might be no way to survive. Haha… I could starve to death on the streets.”
-Meow!
“Yes? Stop saying that? I’d like to, but…this is a situation without any real solutions. No matter how positive I try to think, I can’t help but fall into negativity.”
-….
“Yes? Why aren’t you saying anything?”
Looking down, the kitten seemed deeply contemplative.
“Hmm, a thinking cat? That’s quite the stretch, even in a dream.”
I chuckled softly to myself, turned over on the ground.
“Imagine if I could use magic…how wonderful would that be?”
I mutter this phrase, repeated hundreds or thousands of times, once again.
When I do so, then and there—
“Would you like me to help you?”
“………Yes?”
A voice comes from somewhere.
Springing up, I look around but see neither human nor any shadow.
“….What’s this?”
Was it a hallucination?
“Over here, over here.”
The voice comes again.
This time, the source is clearer.
I slowly bend my head, finding the cat staring straight up at me.
“Would you like me to help you?”
The cat’s triangular mouth moves adorably.
Strangely, instead of the expected “meowing,” a neutral voice emanates.
In that moment, my mind races.
‘Dreamworld. Endless cave (staircase). Dense forest. Talking…cat. Could it be?’
I mumble faintly.
“Alice?”
“….Who’s that?”
