At the outdoor pool, Ms. Rollendria couldn’t hide her surprise when she saw me there.
“This is the first time I have ever experienced something like that.”
“This would be my first time as well.”
If not, I would have had to have awakened a supernatural power twice in my life. At my remark, Ms. Rollendria sighed.
“I can’t believe the boy that came to my class with no talent at all awakened a supernatural ability in a matter of weeks….”
Of course, considering that such cases were rather rare, this was quite the bizarre situation. The guy who tried to take every lesson actually managed to get something out of it. That teacher probably thought I’d end up failing.
“Today is more like an inspection than a lecture, Reinhardt.”
“Inspection?”
“Yeah.”
Supernatural powers were handled with great care. Since it was a type of power that science couldn’t properly grasp yet, I would have to go through a certain process to get my abilities accurately judged. Those whose abilities were too overwhelmingly dangerous or uncontrollable are sometimes secretly disposed of.
So, although I figured out how to use this supernatural power that I awakened yesterday, Temple needed to know specifically what kind of power I held, so that they could decide whether they could keep me here or not.
They left me alone on Sunday, but as soon as Monday’s regular classes started, they exempt me from them.
They urgently needed to judge my abilities. I wouldn’t be able to return to class before it wasn’t fully determined that I could control my supernatural powers and what kind of power it was.
My Self-Suggestion wasn’t really a dangerous power at this stage.
While I was passed out, they probably checked my physical condition, and as a result, they found out that I awakened a supernatural power.
A supernatural power with the name Self-Suggestion.
If the name of my ability was something like World Destruction, they probably wouldn’t think twice about what to do with me.
Anyway, it wasn’t like I had that supernatural power, so it should be alright.
Ms. Rollendria was sitting next to me, reading the report on my ability. She must have already figured out what kind of ability it was.
The reason why they decided to use the outdoor swimming pool as the test site was probably because there were few people here and a spacious area was needed.
“According to the report, in a duel with an upperclassman named Mayarton, your physical abilities seemed to have suddenly risen dramatically after struggling for a while. Correct?”
“Yes.”
Mr. Epinhauser probably wrote that report. He would have been able to give the most accurate recount of the duel.
“What exactly happened?”
“At first I felt completely exhausted and I couldn’t even move properly because of all the pain. Then I suddenly felt like my body was filled with strength again and I was able to see Mayarton’s movements that I shouldn’t be able to see. And with it came the physical abilities to counter his attacks.”
“Hmm…. Okay. However, if that’s how it happened, then why is it called ‘Self-Suggestion’ when what you felt is ‘Body Strengthening’……? Maybe what you said during the duel was the trigger.”
Mr. Epinhauser’s report was very detailed. He must have included the words I said as well.
I’m going to beat you anyway.
There was no reason to hide my abilities anyway. If my supernatural power was written as Word Magic, maybe, but not at its current stage. It was only similar to body strengthening.
“I was placed in a pretty unfair situation, and as it is written there, I was helplessly getting beat up.”
“Okay.”
Ms. Rollendria nodded her head as she had already confirmed my statement by reading through the duel report.
“I was really angry and resentful, so I thought I wanted to absolutely win. It even went beyond the level of just wanting to. I suddenly though I’d obviously win.”
“……Huh?”
Ms. Rollendria tilted her head as if wondering what I meant by that. It wasn’t that I simply wanted to win in a situation where I practically already lost, but that I was completely convinced that I was going to win.
Of course, I was under extreme psychological pressure, but I even realized how to use my ability. However, the teacher probably wouldn’t understand the meaning of those words.
Let’s change the wording a bit.
“I thought that I, of course, had to win. I couldn’t just lose to a guy like that. So that piece of trash would never be able to beat me. I would absolutely win. That’s what I thought.”
Anyway, I won.
I just couldn’t lose to someone like that. That’s what I told her. I simply believed that it just shouldn’t be like that.
“And that’s what happened.”
“Huh….”
Teacher Rollendria didn’t seem to understand.
I couldn’t afford to lose to that guy.
I believed so strongly that I wouldn’t lose that eventually my ability, Self-Suggestion, awakened. It was an ability that somewhat worked like hypnotizing myself.
I would win for sure.
It was a power that would only activate if one absolutely believed in something.
“Yeah, well, no one is too sure why supernatural abilities appear, neither its process nor its reason for awakening, so this might have been the trigger in your case.”
Supernatural powers couldn’t be explained. That also gave me an advantage.
Because of that one sentence, no matter how one awakened their abilities, it could be explained away. It would be suspicious if I were suddenly able to use high-level magic. I had never learned anything about it, so I shouldn’t have had any knowledge about it.
However, it was possible for me to suddenly be able to use supernatural abilities. It was a power with unknown principles after all.
That was why, even if Ms. Rollendria found it strange, she wouldn’t find me suspicious. There was also the premise of my ‘infinite aptitudes’. That was enough to justify most powers I might obtain.
“Then…. Self-suggestion could be judged to be a kind of power that strengthens one’s body under the premise that one alludes oneself to have that power. That should be it.”
“Maybe…. I think so.”
I shouldn’t have much knowledge about my own ability yet, so I only answered vaguely.
“However…. It really is a very unique supernatural power. It’s not intuitive at all.”
It really wasn’t. Supernatural powers like Fire, Electricity, Teleportation and Telepathy were intuitive, because they were abilities that could be described in a single sentence.
Self-Suggestion on the other hand was a bizarre ability one couldn’t judge the limits of. That was why I didn’t actually include it in the novel. It was such a pain to have a vague ability like that on someone who wasn’t even the main character.
“So the first manifestation was physical reinforcement, but it might not end there. Let’s say you were to strongly suggest something to yourself and you completely believed in it, your powers would manifest.”
“Yes.”
“Then let’s say you strongly believe that your own body becomes water. Would you become water then?”
No, is that woman crazy?
Regardless of whether that was possible or not, what if something happened to me in that state?!
“Teacher, if I really became water, there’s a good chance I won’t be able to turn back. In that case, would that count as suicide or murder?”
The teacher jumped at my specific question.
“It was just a hypothetical. I didn’t tell you to actually do, you punk.”
Ms. Rollendria more or less told me not to misunderstand, and fell back into her thoughts again. Initially, the curriculum of the supernatural power classes included controlling, developing and enhancing supernatural powers. However, because the teacher didn’t exactly know how to test my powers, she was having some difficulties as well.
As she pondered, her expression eventually hardened.
“Reinhardt, your powers might be very dangerous.”
What?
“If what you absolutely believe in became realtiy, even if it only applied to yourself, wouldn’t it be very dangerous?”
“Well…?”
It was true that it would become rather dangerous later, but right now I wouldn’t say this power held that much danger.
“If you believe yourself to be god, you might actually become god, right?”
Shit.
She was damn creative.
“I don’t think that’s gonna happen though….”
“But still…. We don’t know the limits of your ability yet….”
I knew that it wasn’t such a crazy ability.
“Hmm…. Hmmmm….”
However, Ms. Rollendria began to deeply ponder about what could happen if my vague ability were abused.
This was a pretty weird situation, but that misunderstanding was actually pretty dangerous for me.
Even if it only applied to myself, if all the beliefs I held about myself became true, it might appear that my ability wasn’t any different from World Destruction.
Apart from its actual practical use, this line of thinking was indeed pretty logical making my ability seem dangerous.
“Teacher, I don’t think that my power would be capable of something as crazy as that. In the first place I’m not that delusional. How could I end up believing that I’m god?”
No.
Not believing that would actually be weirder, wouldn’t it?
I was this whole world’s creator.
I wasn’t a god, but something even above a god.
I even named this place’s gods, ya hear?
This wasn’t about believing it or not, it was actually true.
Before Ms. Rollendria it would be the same though, whether I believed to be a god or the creator. But I actually was the creator! However, this world’s creator was a pathetic one! So even if I used my ability, nothing would change!
Creator’s special ability) Dying from too high blood pressure after reading malicious comments.
Could one find an even more absurd situation than this?
Ms. Rollendria wrinkled her forehead hearing my defense that I wasn’t a megalomaniac.
“We, well, you’re already past that age, so it should be fine….”
What age? What did she mean?
“Well, you know? Sometimes there are some second year middle school kids who believe they are gods…. Seriously….. And if it isn’t gods it’s some great evil beings….There was one who thought he was a dragon who lost his memories…. It’s surprisingly common.”
Ah.
She was talking about the 8th grade syndrome!
“There are some teenagers who have these kinds of believes, but…. If someone with your ability came to really believe in such things…. Maybe that would cause a different set of problems…. Something like that.”
Ms. Rollendria was imagning that the world might collapse if I were to ever be affected by the 8th grade syndrome.
Actually, when I was in my second year of middle school, I had a pretty bad case of it, but not anymore! Seriously!
I did give myself nicknames like envoy of something, something, but that was in the past! I didn’t do these kinds of things anymore!
From your point of view, I might just have graduated from middle school, but it’s been more than 20 years since I sat foot in it!
I suddenly remembered part of my black history, which made me cringe.
* * *
So even in this world, in this place so similar to Seoul, existed this thing called 8th grade syndrome. Ms. Rollendria said that there were kids like that, but they were different from me.
No, but I was actually a god. Even if I “believed” to be a god, nothing would happen. I would just stay the same as before.
Eventually, she started the actual testing. About the limits of my ability.
We climbed down the ladder to the pool. The pool was about 2.5 meters deep.
-Tak!
As soon as Ms. Rollendria moved her finger, a stone the size of a baseball was summoned out of thin air. It was only natural that Ms. Rollendira, who had to be able to stop supernatural power users when their power went out of control, was a high-ranking wizard.
“Now, this is a stone.”
“Yes, it’s a stone.”
What was she trying to achieve by showing me that big stone?
“Try to self-suggest yourself that you’re able to crush this stone with your hand.”
Well.
Crushing a stone with my hand.
“At times like these wouldn’t we start with something like an apple and then slowly up the difficulty?”
Right. One should first start with something easy before moving on to something harder.
“You shouldn’t play with your food, you know?”
The teacher just bluntly cut me off and that she wouldn’t accept any excuses. Anyway, I just grabbed the stone.
Believe it.
My grip is strong enough to crush rocks.
I sincerely believe that I can do that.
Ms. Rollendria looked at me with intrigue.
“Huup!”
Nothing happened.
