28. I Have a Boyfriend (1)
After I entered my twenties and got battered around by society, I would sometimes find myself thinking:
'Ah, I want to go back to those days.'
My school years, when every day had been free and carefree, spent together with friends.
The Flame of my previous life had not never thought that either.
At the time, she hadn't known.
That she would really end up living through student life again.
And in a world completely different from Earth, at that.
'This place is hell…'
There had once been a time in South Korea when all students were required to stay for night self-study, and Flame had belonged to that generation.
Thinking back on it now, that evening study time had really been happy after all. What was so hard about just sitting still and studying?
This damned practical training.
I'd rather not do practical training at all!
Stella's schedule gave not the slightest room to breathe, as though it were trying to push the human race to its limits.
Of course, part of that was because she was in S-Class, and part of it was because she had signed up for way too many lectures…
but anyway, ever since the familiar contract ceremony had ended, Flame had been experiencing the extremes every single day.
Even so, she could not help but think about the future.
Many things had already changed from the story of the original romance fantasy novel.
But even so, the broader skeleton of the story would surely continue.
Among those future events, one of the biggest would undoubtedly be the Dark Magic Erosion Incident that occurred in the Seventh Main Tower.
But even Flame did not know what would happen with that event anymore.
Because Meizen Tiren, who had originally been scheduled to seize the Seventh Main Tower, had died far earlier than in the future she had expected.
'But… those dark mage bastards aren't the type to give that up.'
The dark mages were acting right now. In order to keep convincing mage society, "We're still just barbarians who only know how to rampage stupidly," they deliberately caused incidents and disasters.
Then, behind the scenes, they would quietly infiltrate society and carefully carry out plans to slowly devour the magic world from within. They were cunning snakes.
And yet even those cunning snakes had opened their eyes wide at a certain object sleeping in the Seventh Main Tower.
It was to claim that object that Meizen Tiren had darkened and occupied the tower in the first place.
Even if Meizen Tiren had died ahead of schedule, the dark mages would never abandon that item.
'I do need to prepare somehow…'
At present, approaching the Seventh Main Tower was completely impossible.
It wasn't something as simple as the school issuing a no-entry order. The Seventh Main Tower itself was treated more like a rumor or ghost story than a real place.
So even if she suddenly ran around shouting, "The Seventh Main Tower is going to be attacked by dark mages!" people would not believe her. If anything, they might just think some more details had been tacked onto an old rumor.
'Well, that's still a little further off for now…'
Lately, at least, the practical lessons had been pretty entertaining, so while her body was tired, her mind was doing all right.
Magic Combat Practice.
To be completely honest, Flame had had no confidence in this practical subject at all. How often would you ever get into fights in life?
But unexpectedly, she discovered that she herself had a talent for strategy and tactics. She might not be able to exchange punches and grab people by the hair in some wild brawl, but measuring the gap in a psychological battle through magic, reading the other side's move, and thinking up a move even farther ahead than that came ridiculously easily to her.
"Ghk! I-I yield!"
After binding one male student from A-Class with a solid vine and then summoning three spheres of light in succession, a surrender signal came immediately.
Flame wiped away her cold sweat and smiled in satisfaction. She still couldn't completely shake the feeling that she was fighting children, but winning felt good either way.
Having claimed victory with ease, she turned her eyes toward Baek Yuseol, who was sparring in another corner with yet another A-Class student.
Shwaaaaaak!!
"Holy shit."
A small wave advancing while taking command of the entire field. It looked like the sort of thing that could never be blocked without wrapping oneself in an ironclad Shield.
And he simply cut it cleanly in half with his sword.
'So now he's just going to show it openly, is that it?'
Then again, he and Ma Yuseong had already hunted Meizen Tiren together, so there probably wasn't much reason left for him to hide his strength.
What he was truly keeping hidden wasn't so much his 'ability' as his 'knowledge of the future,' anyway.
Jjeojeojeong!!
While she stood there lost in thought, a loud sound of something shattering rang out, and Flame turned her head.
There, an enormous golden spear had been driven into the field.
"Wow…"
"Holy shit, what is that?"
Voices of admiration burst out here and there among the students.
'Golden Magic.'
A top-tier cheat magic in the setting, complete in both offense and defense.
In the original romance fantasy novel, it had been described as "the most expensive-looking magic," and it was the bloodline magic unique to Jeremy Scarlven.
Once mana ran out, the derivatives created by magic would naturally vanish, so you couldn't break off that gold and sell it, but because it was flawlessly balanced in both offense and defense and looked luxuriously splendid to the eye, it had gathered an enormous fanbase even among readers.
And on top of that, Jeremy Scarlven possessed the trait [Artist's Soul], so he would actually turn his Golden Magic into decorative art, attaching carvings and jewels to it and the like.
Jeremy, having defeated his opponent so effortlessly, brushed back his golden hair—so much like gold itself—and then happened to meet Flame's eyes.
He didn't miss the opportunity. His eyes lit up, and he waved his hand high in the air.
'Urgh!'
Jeremy's greeting was so purely sincere that ignoring it somehow made you feel like trash. Flame tried to turn her head away and pretend not to notice, but he had already come up to her first.
"Flame. You already finished too?"
"Yeah. I'm going."
"Wait… couldn't you spare me just a little time?"
"No."
Flame coldly cut Jeremy off and walked away quickly. She could hear him starting to chase after her from behind, but as luck would have it, at that exact moment she happened to run into one of the professors who had just come to the practice grounds.
"Oh, Student Flame. There you are."
"Hm? Were you looking for me?"
"Yes! The paper quiz response you submitted this time—On the Effects of Luminous-Type Magic on Plant Systems—has belatedly become a major topic in academic circles! Good heavens, increasing plant growth through photosynthesis. It seems even the elf mages want to meet you now."
"…Pardon?"
Come to think of it, she had scribbled something like that down on the quiz…
"This is unprecedented! The rule of the 'Twelve Rising Stars' has not changed even once in hundreds of years, but your astonishing thesis was discovered after the fact, and now that rule may be broken! If things go well, you could become the thirteenth Rising Star!"
The professor, seeming even more excited than she was, went on and on at Flame with his breath practically flaring.
She knew perfectly well that being one of the Twelve Rising Stars was one of the conditions for attending the Aslan Seminar, but she had never really cared about it in the first place, so she didn't feel any real excitement. Even so, now that it meant she could escape Jeremy, she nodded quickly.
"Wow! How exciting! Let's go right away, Professor!"
"Indeed, you must be delighted! Hahaha, of course you would be!"
Flame carefully glanced back.
Jeremy was still looking her way, wearing that gloomy expression he was putting on like an act.
The Scarlven Club room.
Returning to the lounge reserved for the club president, Jeremy leaned back comfortably into his sofa.
The expression on his face had gone cold and stiff.
Since there was no one else around, there was no need to force his facial muscles into overwork.
He stared quietly at the bookshelf, then crooked a finger. Magic cast without even a wand.
Shwaak!
A golden blade burst out from the wall, splitting the expensive luxury bookshelf in half and shredding all the books.
Numerous books dealing with common themes.
[17 Ways to Win a Woman's Favor]
[Traits of the Opposite Sex That Attract the Heart]
[Dr. Kim Palgu's Introduction to the Science of Romance]
And so on…
Unlike his usual self, he had tried a number of ordinary approaches in hopes of making some kind of effort, but in the end, they had been useless after all.
'How can every single one of them be so worthless?'
He had given the matter some serious thought in his own way, but he still could not understand it.
He was someone who could win everyone's favor simply by standing still, so conversely, the situation of having to approach someone in order to win their favor was profoundly unfamiliar.
And gradually—
he became irritated.
'Hmm…'
Wouldn't it be better to find another method instead? Flame had already formed many relationships within Stella and didn't seem especially lonely, and there were many men around her, so she also didn't seem like someone who needed to look at only one person.
He had considered forcibly restraining her, but the girl named Flame appealed to him too much for him to want to ruin her carelessly just yet.
If one was going to destroy something precious one wanted to possess, it was best done only after taking full possession of it. That was when the pleasure would double.
In that case…
Wouldn't it be better to construct the environment instead? A method that wouldn't seriously damage Flame, but would throw her surrounding relationships into disarray.
A method that would leave her with no choice but to look only at him.
'Hmm, I've thought of something good.'
Once he had a method, there was no reason to hesitate.
Snap!
The moment Jeremy snapped his fingers, one of the students who had been waiting in the club room entered.
It was Verajane, a second-year who had served as the Scarlven Club president until last year.
"Yes, young master. Did you need something?"
"Bring in one first-year girl who has some kind of connection with Flame."
Verajane felt uneasy about what sort of scheme her young master, black-hearted as ever inside, might be plotting this time, but she carried out his order without complaint.
"Understood."
Jeremy leaned back into the sofa in comfort.
He had no intention of breaking Flame before he even had her. But if he could not have her in an untouched state, then wouldn't it be acceptable to damage her just a little?
That was the rationalization that came to him.
Read only on MugenCodex
Late in the evening.
Flame dragged herself back to the dorm with hollow eyes, rubbing at them tiredly. The professor had enthusiastically rattled on and on about the Rising Stars and the schedule ahead. Honestly, she'd probably had the thought I want to escape this already at least a few hundred times.
'Damn it, classes were shorter today, so I thought maybe I'd finally get a break for once.'
When she returned to her room, her other friends were gathered together, chattering and playing around. She was in S-Class, but since she lived with friends, it was an ordinary sight for the others to come over and hang out among themselves.
"Ugh, it's a zombie."
"Flame! We heard too. They're saying you might get chosen as a Rising Star?"
"Bleeeh…"
She buried her face straight into the bed and only half answered, and the girls continued chattering excitedly among themselves.
'Ugh, but I still have to wash up…'
Flame dragged herself upright and more or less washed in a careless rush, splashing water over herself and coming right back out. She was in the middle of pulling on her pajamas when she noticed that the expression of a girl sitting quietly beside her didn't look normal at all.
"Hey, Ramilka. Why do you look like you're at a funeral?"
"Huh? O-oh… well…"
Ramilka, looking slightly flustered, fidgeted with the letter she was holding in her hands.
"I was supposed to deliver this today… but the timing got late…"
"What, is it a love letter for your boyfriend?"
"N-no, not my boyfriend! It's n-not a love letter either…"
"Then your crush? Or someone you're kind of seeing?"
"S-something like that…"
"Woooow~ must be nice."
Because smartphones weren't developed in Aiter World, love letters were an ordinary everyday thing that people exchanged all the time.
And their contents were quite ordinary too. It wasn't like people filled them with poetry or anything—usually they were just normal conversations.
But wasn't that the charm of teenage romance? Exchanging even ordinary conversations secretly, in the form of letters.
"Just go deliver it. It's not like anyone's going to say anything."
Dating wasn't forbidden at Stella.
To begin with, there were quite a lot of noble sons and daughters who came to Stella hoping to find a marriage partner, and plenty of commoners aiming for a rise in status too.
So although entering the dormitory of the opposite sex was officially forbidden on the surface, if the two were in a 'romantic relationship,' then briefly visiting each other and interacting a little was tacitly permitted.
Even Stella could not stop the marriage business of noble families.
"It's just, um… I'm embarrassed…"
"How did you usually deliver it?"
"I asked another friend to do it…"
"And the other person still accepted that?"
"Huh? O-of course… they accepted it."
Ramilka looked strangely flustered. Flame assumed that reaction was just because she was embarrassed, and grinned mischievously. No matter how tired she was, hearing little romance stories like this was one of life's pleasures.
"So anyway…"
Ramilka hesitated, then spoke to Flame, who had flopped spread-eagle across her own bed.
"Could you… maybe deliver this for me instead?"
"What? Too much trouble."
"P-please! I'm begging you. I have no one else."
"Ask them."
When Flame pointed at the friends crouched together on the dorm floor, sharing snacks, Ramilka shook her head.
"I've asked them too many times already, and now I feel bad…"
"Ugh, fine, fine."
To begin with, she wasn't even all that close to that girl, but when these little kids came asking with such innocent worries, it also felt awkward to reject them too harshly.
The boys' dorm was directly across from theirs, centered around the main hall, so it wasn't far. Flame casually threw a cardigan over her pajamas and stood up.
[S-109X]
'Hmm, what? This is the S-Class dorm?'
Whoever it was, seducing an S-Class boy… She'd thought the girl was ordinary, but maybe she was more capable than expected. Thinking nothing of it, Flame went to Room S-109 and knocked.
"Uh, is anyone here?"
Then—
…Click!
The dorm door opened.
And Jeremy, with his golden hair, revealed his face.
"Mm, hi, Flame."
He smiled brightly and greeted her as though it were the most natural thing in the world. Flame stared back and forth between the letter and Jeremy with a dumbfounded expression.
'What the hell, the guy she's had a crush on was Jeremy?'
Well, Jeremy was practically an idol among the girls, so she could sort of understand it. With his personality, he'd probably accepted all these letters one by one just to maintain his image too.
"What's that? A letter for me?"
Jeremy stepped as though he were about to come outside.
Sensing instinctively that this was going to become a pain, Flame quickly thrust the letter toward him.
"No. A friend told me to give it to you. I'm leaving, okay?"
She hated getting tangled up in things for no reason.
'Ugh, my luck's rotten.'
With that thought, she turned her steps quickly and headed back to the dorm.
"Hmm…"
Looking down at the letter Flame had handed him, Jeremy smiled faintly.
He was pleased because from the first day, the plan had gone just as he had envisioned. It was unfortunate that she had turned and left before he could even step out himself, but that was all right.
This much would already be enough evidence.
He quietly stepped outside the dorm and spoke toward the corner.
"You can come out now."
"…Y-yes, sir."
Then a male student who had been hiding behind a flowerpot came out, looking cowed, and handed Jeremy a Camera Crystal. It was an expensive device that captured a single moment in high resolution.
And within the film inside the camera…
there was, in perfect clarity, Flame's side profile as she opened the boys' dorm door and spoke with someone.