Eventually, Ellen swallowed it by pressing hard on her mouth, too afraid to make a fool out of herself by spitting it out. Perhaps because of the savory taste of the cheonggukjang, Ellen drank from her water several times.
“Why…. Does it smell so much….”
Ellen continued to drink her water, while I continued to eat without being fazed. Ellen looked at me strangely as well as the other people eating it.
You would end up like that as well if you ate it a few more times.
Seeing me and the other people eat it with such fresh expressions, Ellen scooped up another spoonful and took it to her mouth with a slightly puzzled expression.
“…….”
Then, with a regretful expression on her face, she was unable to spit it out again, forcibly chewed it and swallowed it.
“Am… I the strange one…?”
Ellen muttered blankly to herself, her lips trembling slightly.
She couldn’t eat it, but other people around her were eating it normally, so she was wondering if something was wrong with her.
It’s fine.
That was just the type of food it was to begin with! I hated it as well as a kid!
It tasted like shit, but then one day I suddenly…
Ah. Cheonggukjang.
Do I want that? I do!
Everyone around my age is eating it after all!
That was how it started, man.
Ellen wasn’t exactly normal either.
Even though she ate it and greatly regretted it, she still went on to eat half of her portion though she couldn’t finish all of it after one or two sips of water, as if she was confused as to how people could eat it so easily.
‘Wow. This is so incomprehensible.’
‘Argh! Maybe like this? Will it taste delicious this time? Do I have to eat it again?’
“Urg….”
‘Every time I put it in my mouth, urgh!’
That’s how her thought process probably looked like. The face she pulled was just too funny.
What. Did she have a child’s palate?
It was a bonus that the humble owner of this shop halved the price for us, impressed that children were eating choenggukjang so well.
* * *
“I’m not eating that again.”
After we left the restaurant, Ellen returned to her usual chic expression.
Oh my.
“You ate well for that.”
“There’s a strange smell…. coming from my mouth….”
“Does it smell like shit?”
“……”
Ellen glared at me for a moment at my shameless remark.
Ellen narrowed her eyes as if she could smell her own breath. Yes, and one day, this moment would suddenly flash past her as part of her black history, wouldn’t it?
“Why does it smell like that?”
Ellen was deep in thought, as she couldn’t understand why people would eat something that smelled like that, but what came out of her mouth was a more basic question.
“You aren’t supposed to eat this, right?”
“Hey, why would they sell something one isn’t supposed to eat and actually have a lot of people pay for it?”
“….…Right.”
“It’s edible, so I ate it.”
Did I look like such a perverted bastard? My novels were all innocent, you know?
No.
If one thought about it, the genre already changed after I took a beautiful 17-year-old girl to eat cheonggukjang which she had never tried before. That in itself made me seem like a crazy perv, didn’t it?
If someone caught me doing this, wouldn’t they call this torture? No, but I didn’t force her to eat it. She ate it willingly. She later even ate more and did this to herself.
Not caring about me suddenly scaring myself like that, Ellen nodded blankly. She didn’t say anything for a while. Maybe her curiosity had been sated. I was starting to worry that her character maybe collapsed….
No, what would happen if something like that collapsed? Wouldn’t the entire main story get completely destroyed?
“I’ll go that way.”
After walking for a while Ellen pointed to the tram route she had to take to get to her next lecture. I had to go somewhere else.
“Ah.”
Then Ellen turned around and pointed her finger at me.
“Be careful with your head.”
“Oh.”
Said the culprit who whacked my head.
As such, the 17-year-old beautiful girl disappeared from my view, leaving behind the savory smell of cheonggukjang.
* * *
My next class was Magic Theory. There were 4 students of Royal Class present in that lecture. A-10 Cayer, B-2 Louis Ancton, B-5 Christina and B-6 Anna de Gerna.
As soon as Cayer saw me, he turned his head away as if he hadn’t even noticed me and I wasn’t acquainted with any of the students from Class B.
That B-2 Louis Ancton guy, was a jerk who had a knack for being a snitch, so he probably told the teacher about that fight yesterday.
I just let it go. I wasn’t really that fond of fighting and he wasn’t that bad of a guy, now was he?
Currently five of my classmates were majoring in magic. Three of them were attending this class. Three of them were here right now, so why were there four people listening to this lecture?
B-2 Louis Ancton had no talent for magic. He was an unusual guy who studied magic even though he knew he wouldn’t be able to become a wizard.
I did mention that there were people like that.
People who couldn’t use magic but studied the science behind it.
Those people were called magic researchers.
Louis had the talent ‘Academic’ which was the highest talent in the field of research. He wasn’t that physically capable, but he was smarter than no other.
So he couldn’t become a wizard, but he still pursued the study of magic.
The magic class was quite different from what I expected.
I first thought I wouldn’t be able to understand a thing, but it wasn’t that difficult to understand the proper terms, including jargon, because my knowledge seemed to be on the middle school level.
The formulas were a bit difficult for me, but it wasn’t like I couldn’t keep up at all.
What? Were there maybe still hopes for me to become a wizard?
Magic was said to be the study meant for geniuses, but did it maybe feel easier for me because there was already an intelligence correction applied to me?
Come to think of it, that might actually be the case.
Would I have been able to grasp this with my original level of intelligence?
Or did Ellen’s hit to my head have some effect on me? Surprisingly, I had no idea what happened. Maybe it would be a bad idea to aim to become a wizard if I already had intelligence correction applied to me while only barely being able to understand magic….
“Of course, this is only the basic level, but keep in mind that moving from theory to praxis will be much harder than just grasping the concept. You have to think carefully if you want to join the magic major. Also keep in mind the other students before you that have chosen this major. The Magic major brings forth a lot of failures as well.”
Ah.
That’s right.
I guess this was comparable to me thinking that Seoul National University would be a piece of cake while solving some elementary school tests.
So, I was taking notes with the mindset that I would try as best as I could for the time being. It was better to use my head here, then do physical training at least.
Then after a while.
The teacher started explaining the existence of other types of magic systems.
“…As a typical example, demons implement magic in a completely different way from us because their mana system is completely different from ours. We still have to do more research on the subject of the demon’s magic. However, even if we were able to learn how to use magic like them, we cannot be sure that we would be able to use it exactly like them.”
Hearing that, my mind went blank.
What was I even doing up until now?
Come to think of it, even if I were to learn magic here, I wouldn’t be able to use it at all, right? I had to go to Eleris to learn magic, and not to this place, didn’t I?
Why was I even staying here knowing it would be fruitless?
“Oh, student? Where are you going?”
Let’s make a clean cut.
“Ah, I don’t think magic’ll work out for me. Teacher!”
I decided to drop it!
* * *
The next day.
The first lecture.
Magic Sensitivity Training.
“Gather the consciousness all over your body…. Clear the mind….”
I was lying on a mat with my eyes closed. I could faintly hear the teacher’s voice reaching my ears.
-Now…. Imagine the Universe is you.….
What?
-Take a deep breath…. Breath in…. Breath out….
Spirit treatment?
-Put your mind at ease….
Wasn’t this yoga?
– Your body is becoming one with the univeeeeerse….
Wasn’t that similar to the first line? Huh? No matter how I looked at it, that guy was just some charlatan.
-Feel iiiiit….
The teacher’s languid voice, sounding as if he drank alcohol starting this morning, made my whole body feel tired and relaxed, as if he was using hypnosis.
-Now…. The world is you…. And yooou are the woooorld….
Oh.
-Feel it….The origin of this world…. Maaaaagic…. Ahh….
-With your whole body…. Accept it…. You feel so comfortable…. Your mind… feels heavy… It’s going to siiiiink….Oh… Like this….
– Your consciousness…. Is gradually…. Getting further away…. You feel sleepy….
After the Magic Sensitivity Training, conducted by this teacher that looked exactly like the head of a yoga class, was over, everyone looked like they had just woken up.
“That would be all for today. I hope you all have a magical day.”
However, the teacher didn’t really say much to us after we woke up and just told us to go out as the class was over.
This Magic Sensitivity Training was an exclusive class for the Royal Class. Wednesday’s lectures were usually only classes exclusive to the Royal Class. They were classes effectively taught in smaller groups.
Except for supernatural power and divinity majors, it was normal for everyone to receive Magic Sensitivity Training. So with the exception of a few, every student of Class A and B were gathered here.
“What…?”
“I know….”
“Huh, what the-?”
Everyone looked as if they just were possessed by a ghost. I was just listening to what he said, but everyone seemed to have fallen asleep.
“I heard that this class was very satisfying. I bet something will happen.”
Bertus also yawned as if he had just woken up, and then laughed.
I didn’t think that a class that only required one to sleep would have a low satisfaction rating, but….
I didn’t really know if this had anything to do with magic sensitivity.
Anyway, it was an easy class, so it was fine.
* * *
The next class was Meditation, it wasn’t a class exclusive to supernatural power users, but many with supernatural powers attended it. It was important for anyone to be able to keep one’s composure. So, of course, it wasn’t just for supernatural power users.
Four of my classmates had supernatural powers.
A-3, Liana de Grantz, Electrokinesis.
A-6, Heinrich von Schwarz, Pyrokinesis.
A-8, Kono Lint, Teleportation.
B-7, Ibia Telepathy.
There was one more person who took the meditation class even though they didn’t have supernatural powers.
He had white skin as dry as anchovies, which made one feel bad for him.
However the look in his eyes seemed a bit dangerous.
B-8, Dettomolian.
His talents were witchcraft and spirituality.
He came from a primitive tribe calling the northern snowfields their home. A guy who got admitted with a talent for an ancient form of magic called witchcraft.
However, there was no way for Temple to have a curriculum on something like witchcraft only few practiced. However, Dettomolian wanted to enter Temple under the pretext of studying witchcraft on his own. He said he wanted to study in a safe and well-maintained environment.
He looked insidious and was actually shunned just like Scarlett.
He could also see ghosts.
He was currently doing meditation not to control his mind, but to communicate with the spiritual world.
There should have been only five people in total….
“Charlotte de Gardias.”
“Yes.”
Charlotte also signed up for the meditation class. They called us for attendance, which was rather fast as there were only few attending this class in the first place.
This suggested the possibility that Charlotte had a supernatural power. I had no contact with Class B, so I still didn’t know what talent Charlotte had.
Of course, her taking mediation classes didn’t mean that she absolutely had supernatural powers.
I wasn’t exactly a supernatural power user yet either.
But Trauma.
Awakening supernatural powers under extreme psychological pressure.
Obviously, if Charlotte had a latent supernatural ability, she definitely would have awakened it in the Demon Realm.
However, if she had supernatural powers, why didn’t Charlotte use them then? She was in immediate danger, so wouldn’t she have used it in that situation, even if it was on accident?
Or did she awaken, but didn’t know how to use it or couldn’t control it?
No, maybe she really didn’t have supernatural powers to begin with?
The meditation class went on, and I went into meditation with such questions spinning in my mind.
Only
-Tak!
“Ouch!”
“Focus.”
Of course, I couldn’t properly meditate with such things floating around my mind.
