The next day, since I was given a ‘role’ as a student in this world, I went to school. But studying diligently in the class was another matter altogether.
“The reason for the formation of thunderclouds is…….. As the magical crystals of electricity cause a thunderbolt….. and the magical energy of the ice crystals is constantly in the upper layer with positively charged magical energy…”
The magic class in this world was generally boring. When I first took this class, I was excited at the thought of learning something new that was not present on Earth.
On Earth, magic was science and not an unknown supernatural phenomenon, and it could soon be proved by scientific and mathematical methods. But magic in the world of wizards used different concepts altogether.
It’s really hard for me to learn such a foreign concept out of nowhere because I was someone who was far from studying…. Well, It’s actually an excuse. The truth was, I’m just sleepy. It’s only natural because I had to go around patrolling all night long. Even though my superhuman body could function well without a few days of sleep, I would rather be prepared because I don’t know when I will fight the protagonist.
“Student….”
Besides, isn’t it a rule of thumb to make up for the lack of sleep in class after playing all night long? Although I didn’t have a normal school life in the past, at least I know that much.
“Student….”
Today, I’m going to take a closer look at that gloomy girl, Ahinal. From what I saw from her last night, her magical ability itself seemed to be at the level of 1 circle at most, so the reason for her high level still remains a mystery. Maybe there’s something I don’t know-
“Student Yoo Seodam.”
“….!
I raised my head and looked towards the voice who was calling me.
It was Aracelli. She was grinning in front of the blackboard as she looked at me.
Then, I realized. I slept too openly.
“Student Yoo Seodam. You look very tired. Did you have a very rough night?”
“Yes. I needed to maintain world peace last night.”
At my answer, other students giggled and laughed. Aracelli also showed nothing but her usual smile.
“When I teach you, you have to look at me.”
“Okay….”
It is true that I’m tired and I’m dying, so why did you wake me up? As I grumbled about her in my own mind, I stared blankly at Aracelli. Of course, I didn’t take this class seriously, but somehow, her voice, which sounded like a heavenly orchestra, caressed my ears and put my mind at ease.
My fatigue reduced as time passed by. It made me wonder whether she put some anti-fatigue spell on her face or not.
Oblivious to my inner turmoil, Aracelli kept smiling at me every time she looked at me.
Just why did she keep smiling?
Did she usually smile like that?
Time flew by as I kept wondering about that.
* * *
Because I don’t have any friends, I could only eat alone at lunch.
Of course, I was mocked and looked down upon. For these students, they wouldn’t look kindly at an ‘outsider’ who ate alone since friendships were considered to be very important to them. But I don’t give a damn, they were just teens anyway, and this is my person here.
*murmur murmur*
But there’s something I’m bothered about.
“Hello, Miss Araceli?
“Yes?”
“Why are you eating here?”
In this school, there is a separate cafeteria for students and staff members. The place I currently ate was naturally, the cafeteria where students eat. However, for some reason, Aracelli, the most popular teacher among students and teacher alike, was eating in front of me. I couldn’t help but stand out because of her.
“Fufu, what’s wrong? Would you like some more sausage?”
Sausage…. Each students was only given three, not even four! Even if I cut each of it into three parts with my spoon and eat it sparingly, I could only eat it 9 times! However, it seems like staff members could get as much as they want. Because right in front of me, Aracelli’s plate was full of sausages.
Feeling somewhat miserable, I nodded my head at her offer.
“Okay” Using her fork, Aracelli dumped all her sausages except a single one into my plate.
“Hey, what will you eat then?”
“I’m okay, Professor. It reminds me of the old days and I feel full just remembering it.”
“Old days? What is it about?”
“Back then, when I was too late to receive food, Professor gave me the plate you prepared in advance. I can still remember the menu back then.”
I don’t remember if I’ve done something like that… Then again, back then, I was too preoccupied with making plans to kill Fiolen as well as learning new knowledge called magic.
Fwoosh!!
Like a wind, Aracelli took the remaining 1 sausage with her fork and shoved it into my mouth.
“Say Aaa~”
“Is it really okay for a teacher to do something like this to the student?”
Her antics had been attracting attention since the first day. It was very burdensome.
“Whether it is okay or not, I don’t care, because I solved three difficult problems that wizards in this world couldn’t solve. They begged me to enter the tower, but I said I was just a teacher.”
“Is that so…….”
Wherever she goes, if the world involves ‘magic’ in it, Aracelli’s abilities almost seem like a cheat.
Unfortunately, in this world, magic alone couldn’t solve it. Although there were many enemies that could be solved by magic, ‘ghosts’ weren’t one of them.
In the case of zombies and skeletons, fire and light type magic works properly according to the cliché law, but in the end, they were not ghosts.
“Aracelli. Have you looked closer at a student called ‘Ahinal’?”
“Yes…”
Her position as teacher was a huge boost to me as my status as a student clearly prevented me from doing many things.
“There’s no student called Ahinal in high school.”
“I thought so.”
The high school ranged from grades 12 to 14. It was the limit of the information that Araceli could obtain.
“Ahinal is probably a middle school student. Because she looked like she was in her mid to late teens.”
“Is she really that young? Is there any chance that she was a returnee?”
“Well. At least it didn’t seem like that. She must have been just an old kid. Perhaps…”
“But still… She’s too young…”
When she hesitated, I said.
“Sorry. I don’t have any intention to force you to hunt the protagonist. In the first place, I can’t give you anything in return.”
“No!”
Contrary to my expectation, Aracelli got angry at my words.
“You gave me enough already, Professor!”
“Is that so? I don’t remember giving you anything, though.”
“No. I am receiving it even now, so let’s keep hunting together.”
What is it? Did she perhaps steal my mana? I don’t think she is….
As Aracelli lowered her face with a blush on her cheek, I continued.
“Aracelli, I have a firm belief in my job as ‘Protagonist Hunter’. And just like Kim Ha-soo in the last world, I believe in the future, there will be righteous protagonists, good heroes, young and old.”
“Yes…”
“…But, whatever protagonist appears in front of me, I must kill them. That is my belief that will no longer change since I killed Kim Ha-soo.”
She raised her head, and looked at me right in my eye with her clear eye.
“Aracelli. I will also kill Ahinal. Even if she’s nice, or if she can help this school… I will still kill her.”
Then silence descended between us for a while. As the sausage and rice cooled off, Aracelli nodded her head.
“It’s okay. Even if Professor leads the world to destruction, I will still follow you.”
I smiled bitterly at her. Whatever the reason, I will not lead the world to destruction…probably.
“Then… Should I do some research on Ahinal? Middle school is not within my authority, but… if I ask around, I believe I will get the information the Professor wants in no time.”
That’s right. Especially if they are male teachers, they will even reveal their darkest secrets to you.
“I have another question, do you know when exactly this bizarre phenomenon started?”
“I don’t know about it… It’s probably been a few years. There have been rumors of a lot of weird things happening since this school was first established a few decades ago. However, there were only rumors and records, and there were very few such cases in those years, but suddenly, about five years ago, the principal’s diary disappeared, and stories of ghost sightings began to circulate.”
“The principal’s diary?”
“Yes. Principal’s diary. She told everyone not to touch it, but it suddenly disappeared, so the teachers were very confused.”
“Diary, huh….”
Come to think of it, this school was also forcing all students to keep a diary.
“Well, it’s a well-known story that the principal, ‘Malea’ was able to survive in ‘Tutorial Tower’ in the past because of the diary. I wondered if she’s been reading it since then..”
“Tu….tutorial Tower?”
Aracelli nodded her head, as I stuttered because of words that came up suddenly.
“It is said that the Tutorial Tower is a giant tower that appeared in the world several decades ago. I don’t even know what happened there.”
Well, it was only natural since Araceli had only come to this world recently.
“The principal’s name, was it Malea? What is she doing right now?”
In this school, the vice principal was the one who was more active on the outside, the principal hardly showed her face.
“She was so tired that she couldn’t show herself to the world. Rumor is that she is very old…”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. The staff said that she was forcefully trying to prolong her life span, as if she’s waiting for something.”
“Hmmm…”
Does it have anything to do with this case?
The principal’s diary that suddenly disappeared, ghost stories that started to appear.
‘What if the diary that Ahinal has is the principal’s?’
I could feel a tremendous energy from the old dairy in Ahinal arms last night. I also felt an eerie and sticky energy from it. It was so different from magic that I couldn’t even describe it.
‘Perhaps the diary is related to Ahinal’s special ability.’
I need to be extra careful.
* * *
That night, I went on patrol just like usual.
There’s no need to rush. Aracelli will investigate Ahinal in more detail anyway. Rather, I felt like I should find out more about the bizarre things that were going on at this school.
Around midnight, as I walked down the hall of the dormitory, I saw a male student trembling with his hand supporting himself on the wall. I walked up to him, tapped him on the shoulder and said, “Hey!”
The student then fell to the floor.
“What’s wrong? Are you sick?”
“Gasp Gasp! N…No, I’m just surprised…”
The boy looked around him and sighed in relief. I could see cold sweat run down his face.
“Uh…. I need to show my manual to the advisor…”
“Why?”
“Until yesterday, I was sure it wasn’t there…….” He shook his head. There is fear in his eyes. “I mean ‘item 7.”
“…..”
It’s item 7!!
“Give me that. I’ll bring it to the advisor right away.”
“Re…really? okay? Hey, there’s a rumor that this manual is about ghosts…”
“I do not care. I like ghosts.”
“Ah…. are you also a ‘psychic research team’?”
“Nope, I’m not. It’s okay now, so hurry up and give it to me.”
“Yeah, yes. here! Thanks, anyway!”
The male student who handed the manual to me bowed his head to say thank you, and then disappeared into the distance. After looking at his running back for a moment, I checked the manual.
This manual had Item 7 in it. My manual didn’t have it.
‘Did this happen suddenly?’
If it was another school, I would wonder if someone was playing a prank, but the fact that it was the ’13th Stair’, that caught my attention. Because the title of the ongoing episode in this world was [The Thirteenth That Does Not Exist (1)].
‘It’s a staircase…’
After that, I checked item 17 again. It was written not to do what you were told in item 7. I wondered which one is the correct one. Actually, it doesn’t seem to matter that much.
‘Let’s check it out.’
I walk briskly to the stairs.
Ding-Ding-Ding
The bell rings. Students will be locked in their dormitories by now. Mysterious things were happening in the school. Someone went missing in the dormitory, and someone fainted in the middle of the night in the classroom.
“Well….”
The atmosphere turned strange. The world was illuminated in red hue. I feel like vomiting. Is it because the light is broken? It felt like the air itself had changed strangely.
The glass panes shook as the wind hits the window. Were we in the middle of the windy season now?
A faint shadow kept sneaking around the hallway. But once you look closely at it, it was nothing but a shadow of a tree.
Step!!
My footsteps become exceptionally loud.
Wooonnggg!!
Woooshh!!
“….”
Then I look up. There were thirteen steps on the staircase.
‘There were twelve originally.’
I know it well because I patrolled every stair in the dormitory every night and all of it had 12 steps.
‘Where did this 13th one come from?’
What an incomprehensible phenomena.
So, now I had to decide.
Should I follow item 7? Or item 17?
Item 7 told me to go up the stairs, and item 17 told me to ignore it and go back.
However, the teachers also told students to report to them if they found a manual with item 7 on it… The supervisor’s office was on the next floor. I would inevitably have to go up the stairs.
After thinking for a while, I quickly climbed the stairs three steps at a time.
‘I’ll try both!’
With such a simple heart, I reached the twelfth step with just four steps. Then, I heard a voice.
Why didn’t you memorize the spell as I told you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wooooshh!!
Step!! Step!! Step!!
A woman with her neck turned backwards, crawling on the floor with her elbows twisted backwards, rushed towards me.
I pulled out my ether blade from the inventory, activated my holy conversion and launched an attack towards it.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH IT’S HURTTTTTTSSSSS STOOOOPPP ITTTTT!!!!!
Tumble!!
The broken arm fell to the floor.
Woong Woong!
The holy power that coated the ether blade was emitting light like a glow stick.
“What is this bastard?”
I stared blankly at the ghost lying on the floor for a long time.