Prologue Story

When I opened my eyes, the living room I had seen once before greeted us.

A glass window took up one entire wall, and a desk and chair, bright brown as if sunlight had soaked into them, stood in place.

In front of the desk, the elegant woman with her long brown hair tied up sat as she had before.

The only difference was her attire.

This time, she was wearing a purple dress.

It was still a very antique outfit, adorned with flowing lace.

I lowered my head and greeted her.

“Hello.”

“Ah, you’ve arrived.”

She acknowledged my greeting and rose from her chair.

She glanced briefly at In-ha.

In-ha met her gaze and stood silent for a moment.

An odd atmosphere hung in the air.

Watching the two of them locked in silent eye contact, I leaned closer to whisper softly into In-ha’s ear.

“In-ha. Say hello.”

Ah, In-ha finally bowed her head toward the woman.

It seemed her curiosity had momentarily overtaken her manners.

“Hello.”

“So, you’re Kang In-ha, I see.”

The slightly stiff atmosphere eased up.

Moreover, the woman seemed to know who In-ha was for some reason.

As In-ha lifted her head, the woman brought the fan she had been holding to her lips.

“There’s no need to be surprised. I already know the faces of all five of you.

We selected the students most compatible with us directly, in consultation with your previous teachers, Joon-hwi and Min, so of course, I would know.”

I see.

We nodded in understanding.

When she stopped speaking, silence crept back around us.

For some reason, I still felt awkward around her.

After a moment, she led us to the table.

“Well then, have a seat. Let’s talk over tea.”

She ran her hand across the desk and summoned a tea set with magic.

Golden-brown tea poured from a white porcelain teapot into white teacups adorned with elegant golden patterns, making a soft sound.

Ah, so this is black tea.

Honestly, it was my first time seeing black tea up close.

I wasn’t particularly interested in tea.

“Do you dislike black tea by any chance?”

I was staring at the tea with curiosity when I shook my head.

Since it was my first time drinking it, I had no reason to dislike or favor it.

When I took my first sip a moment later, the tea tasted slightly bitter yet sweet.

Soon, she brought out some cookies.

We munched on the cookies with a crisp crunch.

She watched us eat in silence before speaking.

“I called you here today to ask a few more questions.

There are two things I want to ask right away.

The first is about your magic detection ability.

I’ve heard that you possess a unique talent for sensing magic. Is that true?”

That was something everyone from Class I knew.

I silently nodded.

“Oh… how do you sense it? I’d like you to explain it in your own words.”

I had already shared my insights on magic with her, and as my assigned instructor, she had the right to hear about my abilities through others.

Joon-hwi and Teacher Min also knew the details of my detection ability.

But she seemed to insist on asking me directly.

For some reason, it made me feel trusted.

After thinking for a moment, I spoke.

“At first, I simply… sensed magic faster than others.”

As I started talking, In-ha paused her tea-drinking to focus on me.

“And then, at some point, I began to see the ‘color’ of magic.”

“The ‘color’ of magic…”

She murmured thoughtfully.

Then she asked me to elaborate on what I meant by color.

After hesitating briefly, I continued.

“Well… at first, I could only see the colors of magic that people actively used.

But soon, I began to notice the colors of magic drifting through the air, even if no one was using it.

I could see magic naturally lingering around people, even when they weren’t actively casting it.

Sometimes, very rarely, I could see the source of magic lying dormant within their bodies.”

The source of magic—how could I explain this better?

Humans have a place where magic accumulates and converges.

It’s like a dragon heart in a fantasy setting.

The source of magic is the core, the origin of magic within a person.

It’s usually located around the abdomen, just slightly below the heart.

The fact that I had begun to see this “source” was a recent development, and the only person aware of it was In-ha.

Even to her, I had only mentioned it casually, saying, “I think that’s how it is.”

Her expression grew increasingly serious.

“And I can choose not to see the colors of magic when I don’t want to.

Most of the time, I turn it off because looking at it too much makes my eyes and head hurt.”

“I see… anything else?”

“Hmm… something else… this is also a recent development…”

I hesitated several times as I spoke, unsure how to explain.

“Should I say I can feel or even see the flow of emotions?

Through the fluctuations in magic, I can tell whether the emotion is strong or weak.

And when I consciously focus on sensing emotions, those feelings seem to flow slightly toward me.

It’s not entirely accurate, but I can get a vague sense of what the emotions are.

Lately, I’ve even started to see ‘emotional colors’ faintly shining around magic.”

I was the one who first wanted to sense others’ emotions.

Joon-hwi once told me that being able to grasp others’ feelings and thoughts was helpful for using illusions effectively in the mental realm.

Once I resolved to sense emotions, I began to feel them gradually drawing closer to me.

At first, I could only roughly discern emotions from the fluctuations in magic.

Now, I could even see colors.

It was fascinating to me.

“…”

She stayed silent, listening intently to my words and taking notes on a piece of paper.

She appeared deep in thought for a while before she finally raised her head and looked at me.

“About your combat training…”

“Ah, yes.”

“You won’t just be dodging and attacking anymore.

It seems like you’ll have to practice in a real-combat format.

I heard you’ve learned about the movement of magic in battle and some basic martial arts—is that correct?”

“Yes…”

“Then, alongside your magic training, you’ll also practice sparring and martial arts.

To get used to it, we’ll use a virtual system for real-combat simulations.

You don’t seem to excel in physical talents, but you have a knack for practical combat.”

I agreed silently.

I was the type who didn’t improve much through simple practice but showed better progress when competing against others.

Unlike my usual personality and tendencies, I seemed to shine during actual battles.

“I heard you were injured because of magic a couple of years ago.”

Her words brought up a painful memory, and I let out a quiet groan.

Ah, that time… was she referring to when I dislocated my shoulder?

Even now, I couldn’t help but chuckle bitterly at the memory.

Looking back, that incident seemed to have been the trigger for a major fight between In-ha and me later on.

Sigh…

“That makes it even more important for you to focus on martial arts for combat.

I’d like to personally guide you during magic combat practice, but the gap between you and I is too great.

At some point, a senior student will likely be assigned to help you all with your sparring.”

“A senior…?”

She had said “you all.”

In-ha and I exchanged wide-eyed glances.

“Yes. Daehyun employs various methods to train students in combat.

One of them is mentoring.

It’s a class where you learn combat by sparring with senior students.

It’s not just for you; other students will also take this class as time passes.

It’s usually offered during middle school level courses, but you’re an exception.

Once the mentoring starts, you’ll have less free time after school, so keep that in mind.”

I brought my fingers to my chin, lost in thought.

Seniors… seniors would supervise our sparring?

I felt incredibly uneasy at the thought.

Even though they were seniors, they were still students, not teachers.

They were too young to be truly mature.

Surely, they wouldn’t have elementary school seniors teach us… right?

I bit my lip.

Despite the rules and policies, this felt a bit unsettling.

However, In-ha seemed to find the idea exciting.

She asked eagerly, her face unusually animated.

“Which seniors will it be?”

“Normally, this class pairs middle schoolers and high schoolers, so your mentors will likely be high school students.

Don’t worry. Only trustworthy students are selected.”

“I see…”

While her assurances did little to ease my unease, In-ha seemed delighted, her eyes shining with anticipation.

Watching her, I smiled wryly, thinking, ‘Of course.’

“You’re going to do great.”

I meant it.

In-ha would excel at anything.

In-ha was so different from me.

Her talent for magic, her aptitude for combat, her intelligence—everything about her was far superior to mine.

Thinking about it this way, I realized In-ha was truly a cheat-level character.

To think someone like her was my friend—how proud that made me.

I smiled bashfully.

“You’ll do well at everything.”

—Unlike me.

I swallowed those words.

As she silently watched us, she finally spoke.

“Well, the mentoring part is settled… but Eun-ha, since you’re here, do you have any questions about magic for me?”

“Oh… well…”

There was indeed something I wanted to ask.

Hesitating a little, I opened my mouth to speak.

Lately, only one thing had been bothering me and filling my mind.

It was the problem of converting True Magic into Written Magic.

I wanted to analyze the patterns and symbols of True Magic, interpret them into text, and use that text as Written Magic, but I couldn’t seem to make it work.

True Magic, being a mixture of drawings and text, seemed academically compatible with me, but it was proving difficult.

Recently, I had been stuck in an endless loop of frustration.

While I could use True Magic by drawing the patterns or invoking it by name, deciphering it into sentences to activate as Written Magic was the one thing I constantly failed at.

This, despite it being the very essence of my Written Magic abilities.

When I explained this to her, she gave me an incredulous look.

“What kind of nonsense is that…”

“…Pardon?”

Surprised by her reaction, I stammered.

Beside me, In-ha frowned, sensing my confusion.

The woman sighed quietly, seemingly flustered herself.

“I see… I must have forgotten that you’re still just a child.

Sorry about that. You’re so mature that I…”

I blinked, puzzled by her response.

What was she talking about?

“Let me answer simply. It’s perfectly natural.”

She lowered the hand that had been resting on her forehead and answered my question with firm conviction.

“True Magic is a system of techniques refined and structured over a long period by magicians.

It’s designed to align with the laws of the world and the flow of mana in a systematic, logical way.

How could a ten-year-old like you grasp and interpret it so easily?

To understand True Magic and translate it into text, you need years of study and experience.”

—Oh!

It dawned on me then why she had called my words foolish.

I now fully understood how justified her reaction had been in calling me out.

Embarrassment washed over me as I felt my cheeks flush red, and I lowered my head.

Come to think of it, it was obvious… why hadn’t I realized?

Even though I had the soul of an adult, I had only been formally learning magic for five years.

The idea of converting meticulously structured magical principles developed over decades into text with ease was ridiculous.

These principles were discovered through the lifetime efforts of countless magicians.

And yet, I had thought I could simplify and achieve it.

The more I thought about it, the more absurd my attempt seemed.

I fell silent, weighed down by my realization.

Perhaps I had been arrogant.

I, of all people—who prided myself on knowing my own ordinariness—had tried to achieve the impossible.

It was only natural that I couldn’t succeed.

Had I believed that I was better than others simply because I could sense mana a little faster and create spells sooner than them?

Had I thought I could do anything with just a little effort…?

Ugh.

I felt my face heat up further, unable to hide my embarrassment.

Ah, you fool!

Aunt Suna and Uncle Jungmin had achieved their feats because they had studied magical circles so extensively…

I was grateful to her for making me realize this before I created any lasting black marks on my record.

I swallowed my embarrassment, raised my red face, and bowed deeply to express my thanks.

“Thank you for teaching me.”

From now on, I would study harder.

While I would continue to explore True Magic, I decided to put off sentence conversion indefinitely.

It seemed like I’d have more time freed up now.

What kind of training should I focus on next?

As I quietly planned my training schedule, I heard a clattering sound below.

It sounded like a door opening.

She turned her gaze toward the staircase leading to the lower floor.

“…What’s going on?”

She stood up and looked at both me and In-ha.

“I’ll be back in a moment.”

Leaving us with those words, she descended the stairs.

In-ha and I exchanged glances and silently returned to eating cookies and drinking tea.

“You know, I think that teacher is exactly as you described,” In-ha suddenly remarked.

I widened my eyes briefly, unsure what she meant, then nodded in agreement.

So, she thought so too.

“What did you say again? Noble, antique, and pretty?

I don’t know much about noble and antique… but it’s like that, right?

Like a princess, elegant and poised.”

“Exactly. That’s it.”

“She definitely gives off some kind of… pressure.

But doesn’t she remind you of someone?”

“Right? Who does she resemble?”

I agreed wholeheartedly.

I couldn’t place it, but she resembled someone I’d seen before.

In terms of atmosphere, she was a bit like In-ha, but it wasn’t quite that.

I furrowed my brow in thought.

“But I can’t quite remember who.”

“Same here.”

We crossed our arms and began pondering again.

Yes, she definitely resembled someone… but who?

As we mulled it over, footsteps sounded from the stairs.

Step, step.

We turned to look toward the sound.

We wondered if she was coming back.

But upon closer listening, it wasn’t just one person’s footsteps.

Moments later, we were startled by the sight of two figures appearing before us.

In-ha set her teacup down on the table with a thunk and leapt to her feet.

“Joo… Joon-hwi Teacher…?”

I muttered softly as I looked at the pair standing side by side.

Emerging from the corridor were two people.

One was my assigned teacher in her purple dress.

Behind her was Teacher Joon-hwi, wearing glasses.

Naturally, In-ha and I were shocked.

Why was Teacher Joon-hwi suddenly here?

In-ha was the first to speak.

“Why… why is Teacher Joon-hwi here?”

“What, didn’t you know?”

Teacher Joon-hwi responded in his usual nonchalant tone.

Even though it had been a while since we’d last met, he showed no sign of joy.

“This person is my older sister.

She and I are siblings.”

But as soon as Teacher Joon-hwi said that, she struck him on the head with her fist.

“Oh, come on! Referring to your older sister as ‘this person’—where did you pick up such manners?”

“…Ah.”

We froze on the spot at the sight.