Chapter 79

[What if the teacher catches us!]

[Why? It’s not even a real cigarette.]

[Still! But…]

Yuna couldn’t hide her anxious feelings about Name’s bold behavior.

Although it was based on the principle of inhaling a potion and expelling only the bitter parts as smoke, the sight resembled that of smoking a cigarette so closely.

At first, Yuna had her doubts, but after Name insisted that the principle was the same, feelings of guilt for being a bystander to her friend’s transgression began to overwhelm her.

Understanding that it was hard for her to take potions and yet believing that students should maintain at least a minimal standard clashed within her, causing Yuna’s insides to feel scorched black.

‘We shouldn’t be using magic recklessly on school grounds in the first place…!’

Name seemed to have truly gotten a taste for it, as it had become her daily routine to head to the backyard every lunch.

Yuna imagined the worst-case scenario: if she were caught by a teacher from another class or an academy staff member, she could even be expelled.

Originally, lunchtime had always been Yuna’s study time.

She would eat quickly, return to class, and review or memorize runes while shaking off sleepiness.

However, leaving Name alone was out of the question.

It was always Yuna’s responsibility to keep watch and ensure she wouldn’t get caught.

“Is it okay to use magic like this?”

“It seems fine up to the 2nd circle. Look, she hasn’t been caught so far. By the way, isn’t the 6th period the last assessment time?”

Name said, nonchalantly exhaling smoke.

Normally, she had a rather emotionless face and was just seen as a beautifully doll-like girl, but looking again, she resembled the scary tough girls from the back alleys.

“Yeah, thanks to you, I think I’ll do well on this performance assessment.”

Yuna wasn’t coming back empty-handed either.

Every time she was alone with Name, she explained the model magic circle, and now Yuna felt confident that she could draw the magic circle with her eyes closed.

“What’s your favorite fruit, Yuna?”

“Fruit? Out of the blue? Hmm…Apple?”

“Apple. Right, what was the code for that?”

Name took out her phone from her pocket, searched for something, and modified the engraved magic circle.

With a satisfied smile, she asked again while holding a pen tightly.

“Will this be somewhat similar to the smell of apple?”

A sound like a whirring came as heating and vaporization took place inside the pen.

The acrid smoke burst out from Name’s mouth once again.

“Apple scent…?”

However, when the mist tickled Yuna’s nose, she couldn’t help but show a puzzled expression at the sweet fragrance.

The bitter smell that used to burn her throat was nowhere to be found; only the sweet apple scent remained.

“Ugh… The taste is the same. It’s just the scent that changes.”

“What? How did you do that?”

“Does it smell good?”

“Yeah! This is really sweet.”

“Thank goodness. I thought you didn’t like me smoking this.”

“Is it… really that obvious…?”

Yuna asked with a voice barely above a whisper.

It was then she remembered that Name was adept at reading people’s emotions.

Even during the times she had antagonized Name out of jealousy or remained silent due to guilt for being a nuisance, Name acted as if she could see right through her.

Name approached Yuna, who was sitting on the bench, and took a seat beside her. Yuna, feeling awkward, averted her gaze.

“Professor Cheon said she could make it in pill form soon, so I’ll only do this until then. It’s kind of a bother for you to keep following me.”

Professor Cheon had apparently been working hard with the food and nutrition department professors, and a prototype of the pill-form potion would be ready soon.

As Name stroked Yuna’s head to seek understanding, Yuna’s head turned back towards Name.

“No, it’s really not a bother…! It’s not that… Ugh… Why am I crying…?”

Yuna rubbed her eyes, desperately trying to hide her tears.

Having tried the potion herself, she knew just how absurd that liquid was.

The moment it touched her tongue, the burning pain and nausea would surge forth; there was no way she could consume it nonchalantly like Name did.

Name didn’t show any signs of suffering, so Yuna assumed she had gotten used to it.

She realized that Name’s previous comment about it being manageable on the bus was solely meant to reassure her.

Saying that it was fine as long as she had the potion essentially meant that without it, she was living on borrowed time.

‘Name doesn’t want to eat it either… Why am I only thinking about myself?!’

With each passing thought, negative emotions like self-hatred and pity mixed within Yuna, causing tears to stream down her face.

“I’m not crying! I really am not…”

At that moment, she also felt the shame of showing her tears to a fellow friend her age.

By now, she had lost count of how many times she had cried in front of Name.

Before she knew it, Yuna had found herself in Name’s embrace.

Of all times, the scent emanating from Name today was the apple fragrance Yuna loved the most.

Before she melted further into the sweetness, Yuna barely managed to gather herself and shake off the tears.

“I want to try it too. No, I will.”

“What, this?”

“Yeah. I’m going to try it too. It’s not even a real cigarette anyway.”

She reassured herself that this wasn’t a transgression, but merely a preparatory step to empathize with her friend’s pain, and pressed Name for how to use the magic circle.

“Since it’s your first time, try it with 0.5 ohms. You know how to calculate the proper amount now, right?”

“Yeah. I can do it well by myself.”

She was already quite familiar with the harmonic mean.

However, Yuna was a little greedy and chose to increase the coil’s resistance.

If she was going to do it, she decided to show more smoke than Name.

“Hey, if you do that much…!”

“Huuh…? Cough! Whoa, this feels… Cough! A bit weird.”

“It’s a kind of concentrated mana treatment, so you might feel an initial high. But it’s not addicting like mana crystals, though.”

“Whoa, look! I’m still smoking out of my mouth!”

Yuna, as if she had never cried, puffed up her cheeks and huffed excitedly.

Seeing her cheery demeanor, Name smiled and took back the potion flask.

“Alright, that’s enough for now. Wasn’t it less than you expected?”

“Yeah. It feels a bit like eating peppermint candy. There’s a tingling sensation in my throat.”

“What are you going to do now that your clothes smell like apple?”

“It should be fine since it smells the same as yours, right?”

“Wow, you’ve gotten bold all of a sudden? But you absolutely mustn’t smoke real cigarettes later. If you do, I’ll be sure to tell your mother.”

“I will never smoke!”

Yuna stood up from the bench and shouted.

It was unimaginable for a model student to smoke!

On the other hand, Name seemed to be smoking for the first time as well, and Yuna was curious how she could be so skilled at it.

Huff—

Hoo—

Name held the potion in one hand while keeping the other in her uniform pocket.

Yuna continued to gaze curiously at Name, who was munching absentmindedly.

After feeling the continuous stare, Name made eye contact with Yuna again.

“By the way, your eyes got really red from crying. Do you want me to blow some wind on you?”

“Huh? I’m really fine!”

“Really? Can I go into class like this?”

“Is it really that red…?”

Name tiptoed up to check Yuna’s eyes closely.

With the distance suddenly so close, Yuna instinctively averted her gaze.

And then, Yuna’s face suddenly stiffened.

“What’s wrong?”

Following her gaze, Name turned and saw a boy stuffing his mouth with his hands at the corner of the building, looking dazed.

“Shin Si Hoo…?”

Yuna’s flustered voice slipped out.

“What’s No Name doing to Yuna right now?”

“Uh… Where did you start watching?”

“Are you guys smoking?”

*

Yuna rushed over to stop Si Hoo from running away.

Though she insisted that it was just a misunderstanding and spat out her grievances, Si Hoo still looked at them with a suspicious gaze.

As they returned, Teacher Jackie greeted them with a wave.

“Hey kids, did you have a good lunch? Whew, what a sweet smell! Did you put on perfume?”

“Cig…cough! Mmm!”

“Yes…! I sprayed apple-flavored perfume!”

“Thanks to you, the class is filled with a wonderful fragrance. Let’s get ready and sit down since class will start soon!”

Nice blocking, Seoyuna.

Before Si Hoo could reveal anything he seemed about to say, they managed to return to their seats.

While Yuna went to her locker to grab her textbook, Si Hoo spoke to me curtly.

“Can we lie to the teacher?”

“Since I added the fragrance magic formula, can’t this be considered a type of perfume?”

“You smoked, didn’t you?”

“A cigarette has to be made from tobacco leaves to be considered a real cigarette. This is a potion.”

Since he was right, I didn’t have a solid rebuttal. It was true.

“Don’t keep teaching Yuna bad things.”

“I only taught her about the performance assessment.”

“What kind of performance assessment is this!”

“If you don’t want to believe it, fine.”

“What are you going to do if the teacher catches you?”

There were indeed penalty rules at Seviron Academy.

However, I didn’t particularly need good grades; I just needed to be able to use magic within reasonable limits.

I was experimenting daily with the amount of single-casting mana to see if I would get caught or not.

And finding a decent way to consume potions this week was a significant gain for me.

If only I could give Yuna, who provided the initial idea, a hundred praise stickers.

“Are you wanting to try it too?”

“No.”

“If that’s the case, do you prefer girls who don’t smoke? I once thought like that a long time ago. Just so you know, Yuna promised me she’d never smoke in her life, so you don’t have to worry.”

“No! That’s not it at all!”

“What were you and Name talking about that was so interesting? I want to know too!”

Before long, Han Seori, smelling the scent, approached us with bright, sparkling eyes.

“Seori, what are you doing? Don’t lean on my shoulder; it’s heavy!”

“We were having a serious discussion about Shin Si Hoo’s preferences. Seori, you won’t believe it…”

“Oh, seriously, No Name!”

“Si Hoo’s preferences? Oh wow, I’m super curious!”

“Oh please, nooo!”

Oh, teasing them was so much fun.

Their reactions were just the same as Hiasen’s when she was younger.