“Han-sol Kim.”
“Yes.”
“Naeyi.”
“Yes.”
“No Name.”
“…”
“No Name? Is No Name student absent in class?”
“Hasewon.”
“Yes.”
Why haven’t they called my name?
All twenty students had been called, yet my turn never came.
Counting the number of kids sitting in the classroom, there were a total of twenty-one, including me, but the count was twenty.
Since there were classes from A to D, I thought the class with the least number of people was probably where I would be, so I went in.
However, I didn’t consider that there might still be people coming back from the bathroom, so my guess turned out to be wrong.
I decided to raise my hand and honestly ask the D class homeroom teacher.
“I think I came to the wrong class. Can you tell me which class I belong to?”
“What’s your name?”
“It’s No Name.”
“Let’s see.”
The teacher looked through the entire list of names from the electronic device connected to the teacher’s desk.
“Not in A… not B either. Then C… nope? Can you repeat your name again?”
“No. Na. Me.”
I spelled it out again, but the teacher still tilted their head in confusion.
“That’s strange… is it a system error? No matter how much I look, I can’t find you. Do you happen to remember your student number from the entrance exam?”
“Entrance exam? I transferred here.”
What on earth is a student number?
“What grade are you in?”
“2nd grade… isn’t this the classroom?”
“This is 1st Grade D.”
Silence fell.
I glanced at the girl next to me who was sniffling just a moment ago, and I looked back at the boy behind me who was having fun playing with an eraser by himself.
Yeah, that doesn’t make sense.
Is this really the same 2nd grade as me?
I was about to miss Professor Cheon, who I was discussing the consistency of the Peano axioms and Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory with until yesterday.
They must be elite students selected through a rigorous screening process. Should I be relieved that I don’t have to worry about the future of my country?
I hurriedly slung my bag over my shoulder and asked about the class I was supposed to be assigned to.
“2nd Grade A. It’s in the building across, you need to go towards the skybridge. Can you go alone?”
“Just give me a rough idea of the path.”
Climbing up and down the stairs in my already poor physical condition while wandering through this building and that building had me panting.
I sat for a moment on the steps and took a sip of the potion I had carefully stored in my backpack.
“Ha.”
Was it Si-hoo?
It seemed like they viewed me as a 1st grader.
I was happy to be helped, but I could never have imagined being put through this kind of trouble.
[2nd Grade A]
After much struggle, I saw the sign indicating the end of my journey fluttering in the wind.
The chilly March wind was blowing through the hallway, so I closed the window.
At least I hope I got here right this time.
Creak, creak. Creak.
Why is it that while electronic devices and transportation have advanced to the cutting edge, classroom doors are still sliding types?
The squeaky door opened halfway, rattling as it got stuck.
My plan to quietly walk in and sit at an empty seat crumbled, and in an instant, all eyes were on me.
“No Name student?”
“Yes.”
“You’re very late.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Just go find an empty seat and sit down.”
Given that I was already fifteen minutes late, I didn’t bother to make excuses.
I could blame the 1st-grade class for calling attendance late.
A familiar face waved from a seat by the window.
“Hey hey! Na-me, hello!”
Se-ry looked at me with her bright blue eyes sparkling like a deer.
It seemed she was very happy to see my face again after such a long time.
But there was already another child taking up the seat next to her, so I had no choice but to look for another empty seat.
“Hello?”
“Ah… yes, hello.”
Si-hoo answered Na-me’s greeting awkwardly.
I thought Si-hoo did their duty as a model senior by coming to class on time without being concerned about a junior’s predicament.
[Is that a name I’ve never heard before?]
[No Name? Must be the transfer student! It’s our class!]
[Oh really?]
But as soon as the homeroom teacher mentioned her name, he realized the mistake he had made.
She was in 2nd grade like him, not 1st grade.
Fifteen minutes later, her appearance looked even more disheveled than before.
“Can you tell me the announcements?”
“Ah, it’s written here…”
“Thanks.”
Si-hoo showed her the notebook containing his notes.
While Na-me copied the contents, Si-hoo looked at her curiously.
Before the spring break started, Si-hoo had been one of those who heard about the identity of the transfer student from Se-ry.
There were rumors that she could knock out all the upperclassmen with just a wave of her hand or that she could conjure 4th circle magic in a direct spell.
How much of that nonsense could be true, he wondered.
She looked so small and fragile.
In fact, given Se-ry’s personality, I thought there was a 90%, no, a 95% chance it was just a boast.
For a 2nd-grade elementary school student to cast 4th circle magic was as ridiculous as the rumor that a transfer student had been raised by an anti-government criminal organization.
What era are we in?
“Here, you wrote well.”
Na-me finished her notes and handed the notebook back to Si-hoo.
Even though there was quite a bit of content, she finished taking notes quickly.
“You really write fast?”
“Speed is essential for a magician’s life. A slow magician is the first to die on the battlefield.”
“Isn’t that a bit extreme?”
Dying because your hands are slow?
Doesn’t that seem like a pretty unfair reason for death to be inscribed on a tombstone?
“Do you really think so? I’ve seen a lot of examples.”
“…?”
“Usually, people draw magic circles with their fingers, right? A person’s field of vision is only 140 degrees. Especially when focusing on drawing a magic circle, it gets even narrower.”
“And so?”
“If you’re attacked before you finish casting, you just have to go behind them and strangle them with a rope like this.”
With a cute squeak, the girl’s tongue stuck out.
Si-hoo dismissed her words as nonsensical fantasies.
“If you think you’re going to be attacked, a magician would just stop casting.”
“At that point, you can let the incomplete magic circle go wild. It’s at least 2nd degree burns if it’s 3rd circle or higher.”
Her face would melt away.
What a chilling thought.
Si-hoo decided to stop focusing on her for now.
Discussing combat magic was as absurd as it gets.
It was the area where practice and theory diverged the most, so there was no particular benefit to chattering about it.
The homeroom teacher was passionately announcing the schedule for the 2nd-grade classes.
The distribution method of textbooks, the location of the lockers, and important schedules for the midterms and finals were mostly things I already knew.
In the first place, what is learned in 2nd grade is not much beyond elementary school level, so there’s not much that would be different from 1st grade life.
There was no proper magic practice except during club or extracurricular activities.
But it seems that Na-me was getting bored during the overall announcement about 2nd-grade academy life, as the sound of her pencil tapping on the notebook was really annoying.
‘Is she doodling or something?’
As the sound whirled in my ears, Si-hoo inadvertently glanced at her notebook, and he couldn’t help but doubt his own eyes.
[Academy Invasion Route]
Her hand clearly circled the word “invasion,” and,
[Kidnapping]
The word “kidnapping” beside it couldn’t be ignored.
“What’s that?”
“Nothing! I’m sorry.”
Si-hoo quickly averted his gaze from Na-me.
“Really? Was it real?”
Is this kid a spy for a criminal organization?
Or how do you explain what you just saw?
Invading the academy, kidnapping someone…
I began to suspect that maybe her seemingly weak appearance was just a disguise.
“And today our 2nd-grade A class has a new transfer student. Na-me, could you come up to the front?”
Na-me naturally closed the notebook she had been doodling on and stood up.
Her steps were light.
No, above all, her footsteps were completely silent.
Now that I think about it, she wasn’t wearing sneakers, but dress shoes, yet I couldn’t hear a single squeak or click.
“Can you introduce yourself to the friends in A class?”
The homeroom teacher looked at Na-me with a warm expression.
The girl began to speak.
“Hello, my name is No Name, and I transferred from Arabel Elementary School.”
She scanned the class and calmly said,
“I hope to have fun school life with all of you.”
*
‘Should I wake up alone next time?’
While playing WoA with Lara, I suddenly hit a block in the story and wondered why, only to find out that entering “Nightmare” difficulty had an age restriction of fifteen years.
Since I wasn’t a formally registered account from the beginning, I wasn’t affected by such restrictions, but Lara was completely denied entry into the story.
In other words, it meant I had to start from scratch.
‘Should I just clear all the main quests myself and enjoy only side quests with Lara?’
We didn’t originally play to clear the game anyway; we started to teach Lara magic.
However, I found the story quite interesting as I went along, so I roamed around aimlessly and never expected to face such an obstacle.
“Maybe being alone is better.”
