Prologue Story

We were watching Min-hee’s training with serious expressions, and at some point, our eyes widened.

From the beginning, we had a feeling that something was unusual.

Should I say that she seemed far more skilled than the others?

As this pattern continued, Min-hee suddenly surpassed Level 22.

Huh? How is she so good at her first evasion training?

It was an outstanding record among us, without question.

Initially, everyone was watching casually, but soon we were all startled and focused on Min-hee’s training.

Han-soo looked at Min-hee in surprise and praised her.

“Wow, Min-hee, you’re pretty good?”

“Hehehe. I’m a bit talented.”

“You always act like this when you get praised.”

“Min-hee, you’re doing well.”

“Thanks!”

In-ha and I patted Min-hee at the same time.

“Then, is it my turn now?”

Han-soo was up last.

Min-hee, Hyun-ho, and I watched him with eyes full of anticipation.

In-ha had an indifferent look on her face, but her gaze was firmly fixed on Han-soo.

Han-soo’s training was, how should I put it… ordinary.

He easily cleared Levels 1 and 2 of the evasion training, just like the other friends.

He dodged and dodged again, and his movements were very stable.

It felt different from Min-hee, who was bouncing around energetically.

“He’s doing well…”

“Yeah.”

In-ha nodded reluctantly with a dissatisfied tone.

Han-soo’s record was Level 15, the second highest after Min-hee.

At this, In-ha expressed her frustration.

“Next time, I’ll definitely beat you.”

“Hmph. Go ahead and try.”

I heard a crackling sound, like sparks flying. Fine, they could just date already. Hahaha.

“For now, let’s keep doing evasion training regularly. Make sure to keep up with your unique magic training on your own, and during the level-based class hours, start with evasion training and then move on to combat training. But don’t slack off on practicing your unique magic. Got it?”

At Teacher Joon-hwi’s advice, we raised our hands and responded sincerely.

“Yes!”

☆

We threw ourselves into our new training for a while.

During that time, the sports festival passed, and the first semester exam period approached.

Once the first semester exams were over, summer vacation would come soon.

I hummed a tune to myself as I read my textbook.

I had to study hard again this time, and even if I couldn’t get first place like last year, I wanted to get good grades.

Honestly, it was a relief that our scores were kept confidential.

If I really thought about it, Min-hee should be getting first place in written exams, but she always makes strange mistakes.

She’s so smart, yet she has no interest in studying…

“Hey, look at her. She’s studying so hard because it’s exam time.”

“Idiot, she probably has to work hard at studying since she’ll be last place in practical exams.”

“Is that so?”

I ignored the mocking voices I heard from behind.

Thinking about the report card I’d get later made me feel excited.

Unlike me, who had bloomed early and managed to keep up with my genius friends for a while, the talents of the other kids hadn’t yet fully emerged.

Whatever the practical exam would be, I was confident I’d place in the top ten in the entire school.

Although we were now in the second grade, only five students in our grade had fully awakened their magic talent.

Even Shia was still a bit behind.

Knowing the truth, I could ignore the sneers without a second thought.

If I were alone, it might be different.

But I wasn’t alone—I had friends, so the kids’ ridicule was just cute at best.

I decided not to pay it any mind.

But that feeling only lasted until the next day.

Whether child or adult, I really don’t understand why some people enjoy tormenting others.

It’s childish and annoying.

I stared in disbelief at my textbook, which had been slashed and was now in tatters.

A second grader in elementary school, all because they disliked someone, had ruined another person’s belongings like this.

I flipped through the shredded pages of my tattered textbook.
“Why is your textbook like that, Eun-ha?”

“Not sure. Looks like someone ripped it.”

My desk partner was shocked, staring at my textbook, now in tatters. This was a kid with whom I normally had a pretty decent relationship. My words made my desk partner look at me with concern.

“What? Someone ripped your textbook? Why?”

Although I was being ostracized by some kids, it was only a small group doing it. I was on reasonably good terms with most of the others. Another kid who heard the conversation looked at my textbook and then shouted loudly enough for the whole classroom to hear.

“Hey, look! Someone ripped Eun-ha’s textbook!”

“Really? It’s true!”

“That’s terrible… Who did that?”

“That’s just too much.”

Even if fourth graders see something like this and think of it as “bullying” and recoil… well, look at this. Second graders don’t even have the notion that they’re supposed to ignore something like this. And especially not when it spreads to everyone all at once like this.

I scanned my surroundings coolly, carefully examining the kids’ magical energy. I had been training to sense emotions regularly. I’d even visited all of my friends’ dreams at least once. And usually, nine-year-olds can’t completely hide their expressions in situations like this.

As I looked around, I quickly identified who was responsible for this mess. It was that girl who usually played the central role among the kids who mocked me. She was looking around at the classroom atmosphere, frowning as if she hadn’t wanted this kind of attention. It was unbelievable.

Honestly, I’m usually too timid and indifferent toward others to get angry at what they say. But it’s different when they directly harm me.

I rarely ever get mad at anyone. But if they keep pushing my patience, I might actually lose my temper. If I get truly angry, I do express it. And around highly emotional elementary school kids… well, they’d probably just brush it off like “that happens sometimes.”

However, I sighed. Although I was annoyed, I didn’t have the courage to confront them openly in front of everyone. Most importantly, I had no proof. Ugh, maybe I should just visit her dream and really torment her. I never thought I’d want to invade someone’s dream just to give them a hard time. What I can’t forgive the most right now is that they destroyed my book. As a former novelist in my past life, I loved books. It didn’t matter what kind of book it was.

“…It’s okay. I can ask someone I know to use a restoration spell. But they were really cruel to the book…”

I frowned and ran my hand over the textbook. The other kids looked relieved. But just then, the teacher walked into the room.

“Kids, it’s class time. Why aren’t you all seated yet…”

“…”

The teacher, who had entered through the front door and was surveying the classroom to see what the commotion was about, widened her eyes when she saw me standing at the center of it all. Or rather, when she saw the shredded textbook in my hands. Oh, no. I could sense it—this was bad.

Seeing my torn textbook, the teacher quickly deduced that someone had ripped it and that the culprit was among the students. From that moment, instead of having a regular class, we entered self-study time in a tense atmosphere. The kids glanced at each other and kept quiet. Standing sternly in front of the podium, the teacher encouraged someone to confess.

“I’m very disappointed that something like this happened. I know all of you are very good kids.”

“…”

“It’s okay to feel angry. You might get annoyed too. But ripping a textbook is too much. Besides, Eun-ha is a very diligent student. She always takes such thorough notes in her textbook that I feel proud every time I see it.”

…Oh, was that so? I knew I had a certain level of trust from the teacher as a model student… Now that I think about it, the homeroom teacher always encouraged kids who struggled with magic to practice, but she rarely said that to me. The kids she lectured were always the ones skipping practice and goofing off. She must have noticed my habit of taking notes in the textbook.

“So, the person who ripped the textbook, please confess and apologize to Eun-ha. If you come forward now, I’ll forgive you. Eun-ha, you’re okay with that, right?”

I nodded. Whatever my real feelings were, I was willing to let it go if they apologized. I hoped that, from now on, they’d remember that actions like this could lead to situations like this and restrain themselves. Now that I think about it, maybe this was for the best. Since I wasn’t the one who tattled, I didn’t feel guilty about it.

Standing in front of the podium with the teacher was nerve-wracking and made me feel incredibly tense, but if this bullying continued until the end of second grade, it would just get annoying. I hoped this would be the end of it.

I looked up at the kids. But despite the teacher’s words, no one came forward to confess. I glanced over at the girl I was certain was the culprit. She was clearly struggling to suppress her anxiety, but she only bit her lip and didn’t raise her hand.

“Is no one really going to raise their hand?”

The teacher’s words came down once more, but the kids remained silent. The girl was looking around as if blaming the situation, even though she was the one who caused it. Her reaction was so transparent that I sighed inwardly.

“…I really didn’t want it to come to this. I’ll give you 30 seconds to confess. If no one steps forward, I’ll use magic to read your minds. I trust you all know the difference between confessing voluntarily and having the truth forced out of you… 30.”

The teacher began counting from 30 as soon as she finished speaking. In a world where magic exists, things like this are handled differently. Even if someone tries to hide the truth, magic can reveal it. I was glad our teacher was fair.

“24, 23, 22, 21…”

“S-sir…”

It seemed that she’d finally realized there was no other choice. The girl trembled as she raised her hand, her lips quivering as she admitted her wrongdoing with a tearful expression.

“I… I did it.”

A murmur spread as the silence was broken. Really? Ye-seul did that? The kids whispered as they looked at her. Her face flushed with embarrassment, and she frowned as if confessing was humiliating. As expected…

At the same time, my heart ached. Did I say the wrong thing back then? What should I have said?

The teacher asked.

“Why did you do it?”

“But… she… the upperclassmen… ugh… Teacher, it’s just… too much…”

The child’s voice was mixed with sobs, making it hard to understand what she was saying.

Eventually, the girl blamed the teacher and then walked up to the teacher’s podium, slapping the textbook resting there onto the floor.

“A textbook like this… just because I ripped one…! Hic…! Blaming me…!”

“So, are you saying you did nothing wrong?”

“But! But she did something wrong too! I wanted to greet the upperclassmen too! I did! But because of that textbook! I…!”

The girl let out a groan and then finally burst into tears. Quietly, I picked up the textbook from the floor.

This was the textbook I had spent months diligently taking notes in. I have a habit of cramming all my notes directly into the textbook, rather than using a notebook. It’s faster, more convenient, and easier to refer to since it’s directly attached to the content. But a textbook is “just some book”?

I felt a surge of anger. I was a child too. Even if I had been an adult in my past life, I was a child now. So just because you cry, does that mean you’re off the hook? Just because you beg, it’s all forgiven?!

I got so angry that I did something I’d never done before. I yelled out in frustration.

“Damn it, are you done talking?! Did you just call it ‘just a textbook’?!”

The crying stopped immediately. All the kids turned to look at me with wide, surprised eyes. I shot a sharp glare at the girl, a look that other kids had sometimes said made me look intimidating.

For the record, I behaved very quietly at school. I was so silent that both the kids and the teachers often thought I was frustratingly reserved. Although some kids got scared of my intense gaze, my behavior itself was very calm. I had certainly never cursed before. But how could I, who once lived on a magicless Earth in the 21st century, not know how to swear?

“Damn it, you use the textbook, then! Did you completely ignore all the notes I wrote in it? Then why don’t you make your own textbook?! Can’t do that, can you? So now you’re disrespecting a book? Do you know that some books cost millions of won? There are extremely valuable ones, you know? This is so damn annoying; you use it then!”

“W-what…?”

“Maybe then you’ll realize how amazing it is! What? You say it’s just a book? You don’t even understand half of what’s in the textbook! And you’re looking down on books? You’re dumber than a book! Have you ever written a book yourself?!”

Let me say this again: I was a novelist in my past life. No one who doesn’t understand that feeling could ever comprehend how much I loved books, no matter how much I explain it. From the first life I remember, I loved novels, and more than that, I loved writing them. I wrote dozens of novels. Every novel I wrote was like a beloved part of me, like my own child.

I published those as books. Each time a reader left an encouraging comment, said they enjoyed it, cried because of my story, or even sent fan letters—do you know how happy I was? Every single letter, every single story that formed a part of my books was precious to me.

And yet, this girl had said this: that a book was nothing but something that made her cry. And then she ripped and threw it in front of me. It was like she was denying the life I had lived.

The girl flinched but then stepped forward aggressively, breathing heavily.

“W-what? A book? What makes you better than a book? You’re not even pretty…!”

“Did I say anything about looks? That’s why you treat books like this! You’re just an empty-headed fool!”

“W-what…? Did you just call me dumb…? Who do you think you are?! Why are you suddenly so angry?!”

“Hey! Do you think I put up with you because I liked you? Want me to do the same thing to your clothes? No, that would be too disrespectful to clothes! How about I rip apart that doll you love so much? You wouldn’t be able to blame anyone else! Why?! You did the same thing, didn’t you?!”

“U-uh, wahhhh!”

The girl burst into tears and lunged at me. She started pulling my hair. What, did she think she was the only one with hands? I grabbed her hair right back. “Stop it, stop it!” The teacher yelled.

It was complete chaos. Teachers and students from the next class rushed over, asking what was going on. “She ripped Eun-ha’s textbook… but then she threw the book!” Disjointed voices filled the air.

Honestly, if I’d used magic, the fight would’ve been over immediately. But I didn’t use magic. That would’ve been unfair.

“What makes you so great… the upperclassmen…!”

“Then why don’t you just talk to them yourself? People like you, always blaming others, are exactly why the upperclassmen are so annoyed with you!”

“You’re so mean!”

“Uh, Eun-ha?” Among the murmuring voices, I heard one I recognized. This was really the first time I’d fought with someone I wasn’t close to and didn’t get along with! Usually, I dealt with people I disliked by being indifferent. I tried not to care and ignored them. But there are times when you just can’t do that.

“Can’t even use magic!”

The girl screamed as she generated lightning in her hand. Damn, does she not have a brain? But it didn’t really bother me. I’d been training in evasion magic for a while now, and I could even see the flow of magic. I could just dodge it.

Even though I was furious to the point of bursting, I still had my wits about me. I still had reason. Who fights magic with magic at age nine? Are you crazy?