CH 12

Late evening.

After finishing Hong Bi-yeon’s ‘Special Lecture’, I immediately left the academy site and headed for Arcanium.

It had to go to a bookstore.

“Does she really believe in all that?”

Thinking about what I had just done, I felt a sense of shame and guilt.

Hong Bi-yeon. She was obviously a good wizard and had a smart brain, but her disadvantage was that she had a stereotyped way of thinking.

But that wouldn’t help her in her growth.

‘Well, it doesn’t matter since she’s a villain anyway.”

I couldn’t help it. Right now, the Terifon magic sword was fluttering in front of my eyes.

I have to convert Terifon into a magic sword as soon as possible to increase what I could do at the academy.

‘Let’s stop thinking about it. I have to buy a book too.’

From tomorrow onwards, I had to purchase a book for my major because I was going to take practical classes and lectures in earnest.

As I walked through the streets of the magical city of Arcanium, a panoramic view of the colorful Mage tower and numerous magic academies unfolded.

A carriage led by a winged horse and a small floating island was floating in the air. The streets were quite crowded with students, including me, who came out to purchase books in haste until this morning. Men and women could be seen walking around in pairs.

These young ones.

The streets were beautifully paved, and colorfully lit buildings were lined up. As soon as I entered an alley while looking at the essence of magic engineering, I moved quickly using blink.

‘Is it here? I can’t remember.’

In the game, you could automatically press ‘listen to the lecture’, but in reality, you need a major book.

Another absurd thing was that the increase in grades differed depending on which major book was used.

At first, I remembered buying books at a fairly famous bookstore in the city. There are many kinds of books and there are many customers, so I thought it was better anyway. 

But no. It was later revealed by the players that there were hidden books all over the city that added to grades.

In particular, the bookstore where such books were most often hidden must have been the ‘nameless bookstore’. It got its name because its signboard was empty.

After wandering along the alley for a while, I arrived at an unnamed bookstore. It was a pretty old place.

As I creaked open the wooden door of the crumbling bookstore, which looked like it would filter out people and even ghosts, a smell of musty books greeted me.

There is an old man dozing off at the counter. That pervert old man pretended to doze off like that and observed guests with mana scan. Well, there’s always something unique about long-lived wizards.

Without hesitation, I walked inside. It was quite old, but there was a ‘Maela’s Handwritten Notes’ that said that he graduated from the Stella Academy as a top student 10 years ago. 

I didn’t know why it was being sold here…. But if you take a magic engineering class with these handwritten notes, you’ll get a perfect score almost unconditionally.

My grades may not really matter because I had copper glasses, but there were hidden recipes stored inside, so I might find something useful later.

‘As long as I have that, I can study the rest of it with just plain books.’

After all, I got a perfect score thanks to the glasses.’ Let’s see… I think I found it. No one has also touched it. Maela’s name was clearly written on a ‘Magic Engineering Theory Handwritten Notes.’ Some might say that having a lot of hand stains was annoying, but it was beneficial to me. Old books and notebooks, by the way, are always preferable.

As I reached for it, a white wrist appeared from the other side and grabbed the book I’d chosen.

“……?” 

“Oh?” 

I turned my head slightly and noticed a sky-blue-haired girl, slightly smaller than me, frantically removing her hands as if they were on fire.

While I recovered my hands, I was frankly bewildered when I saw her.

“Eh, Eisel?”

“What. Do you know me?” 

“Huh? Uh, you know you are famous.”

It was because Eisel Morph, also called the ‘Salty Mistress’, was looking at me with an old used book in her arms.

She flicked the back of her waving light blue hair and looked intently into my eyes.

“Oh, you… the one from before?”

“Uhh.” 

It’s good to remember me, but can’t you remember the other time we met before that?

Eisel stood like that for a while and then shook her head.

“I enjoyed the discussion earlier. …It was quite disappointing that you didn’t explain it to the end.”

Come to think of it, Eisel couldn’t solve all of those problems. So, while trying to solve the problem, there may or may not have been a story about building a relationship with Mayu-seong. 

“Anyway, it was nice to meet you,” she said as she turned her head coolly and went to the other side.

By the way, why is she in the thrift store?

I hurriedly pulled out Maela’s notebook. Still, Since I didn’t lose this, so it’s finally over.

Then I took out other books one by one and glanced sideways at Eisel.

She was taking out this book and that, but strangely, she seemed to care about the price tag.

‘Oh, that was it.’

This bookstore mainly dealt with second-hand books, so someone rarely comes here unless he’s a poor student like me.

However, admission to the Arcaneum’s five prestigious schools was only for the truly wealthy. It means that the few students with my background had to spend all of their life savings money accumulated throughout their life right before their parents died to raise their tuition fees.

In other words, coming to a bookstore where everything was collapsing… would mean he was as poor as I am.

‘It’s a bit sad.’

The family’s downfall. Eisel had to live a life far detached from her opulent past after losing everything.

She was looking through the price tags of old books at the thrift bookstore because she, who used to cut steaks for every meal, didn’t have enough money to buy a proper book.

Furthermore, even in the original novel, she has a tragic ending. Much less, in this world where Fuleim had taken over the role of the protagonist, she was doomed to die before she even reached a tragic end.

In the end, this woman would be unhappy for the rest of her life and will perish in everyone’s eyes.

‘Heh, I don’t know.’

As I chose the books I wanted at the bookstore, more than ten books had piled up as a result.

Place them on the countertop! The old man opened his eyes in surprise when I put it up.

What. I thought he had his eyes open.

“What is it… How did you bring it?”

“I used my strength.”

Looking to the side, Eisel kept her distance and with narrowed eyes, carefully examined the textbook I had chosen.

“why?”

I tried to add something, but Eisel gave me an answer, unexpectedly.

“No, it’s just… No, I thought you picked a fascinating subject.”

I think you were just trying to insult me.

“Like what?”

“Like everything. Why would you listen to advanced sealing theory?”?”

“Ah, this? It’s a subject with few prospects.”

Sealing was a very ancient magic that expressed magic based on objects. However, as the ‘Enchant’ technology was created through the development of alchemy and magic engineering, it became a technology that was lost naturally.

It was even said that it’s only achievement was inventing the ‘cane’.

The magic government cut off support for sealing studies, so while sealing scholars were losing their jobs, few students offered to take this course, and naturally, the course was on the verge of being abolished.

But I knew. The subject would not be abolished and survive to the end. One could spend less time compared to any other subject, and still get a high score.

“You know there are no prospects.” “that’s why I am listening to it.” “…?”

She looked at me with an expression, “What nonsense are you talking about?” I couldn’t explain that I saw it in the game, and it was embarrassing.

“Well everyone thinks like you. That’s why it’s easier to get grades.”

“Anyways, I should get going”

It was difficult to continue the conversation, so I dashed out of the bookstore, looking back to find Eisel staring at the Introduction to Sealing Studies with a puzzled expression on her face.

Her expression, on the other hand, did not seem promising.

* * *

{Eisle POV}

The next day. Today was the first day of class in earnest.

‘The first class…’

I checked the timetable. My first lecture at the Stella Academy was a subject called ‘How to Look into the Void’.

Rumors had it that it was easy to get good grades, so even though it was a non-mainstream one, I hurriedly applied for the course.

“Are you in the void class too?”

“Really? Oh… I’m doomed. You study better than I do.”

“Did you come here to get grades too?” “Isn’t it obvious? I thought only the kids I know knew, but there are a lot of kids. I am doomed from the first semester…”

However, as word spread that it was simple to get good grades, a large number of students gathered. Furthermore, students who did not receive scholarships because they did not reach the top of the list were compelled to make a decision.

‘Hmm… it’s difficult.’

It wasn’t very good for Eisel, who always had to stay at the top to get a scholarship. ‘I have to work hard on other subjects.’

Time was short, and there was a lot to study. There was no time to regret the past.

Eisel, who was striding along the hallway, suddenly overheard the students crowding around and talking about the lunch menu.

Her stomach rumbles, a signal asking for food. She took a bundle of 60 academic tickets out of her pocket.

With this ticket, you can eat at the academy 60 times, but there was no way you could survive with this for the whole semester, so you had to save it over and over again.

‘Today’s lunch doesn’t taste good, so I’ll have to buy some bread at the cafeteria.’

Of course, she could barely buy plain bread, which costs only 1,200 credits, but Eisel, who was walking to the cafeteria for a quick meal, abruptly came to a halt while passing by a lecture hall.

This was the lecture hall of Introduction to Schilling Studies, a lecture that a student named Baek Yu-seol, whom I met last night, had applied for.

I sneaked a peek inside just in case and noticed Baek Yu-seol in the distance, listening to a class with a blank expression on his face. He had transparent, black eyes that couldn’t tell what he was thinking or looking at.

Eisel looked at the other students.

‘Huh? Are there really so few students?’

The number of students was such that the lecture could barely be sustained, and perhaps as a result, the professor was biting his nails and conducting the lecture with an anxious expression.

Furthermore, the students who came to take the course were also in turmoil.

‘What if, if… if I also had applied for Introduction to Sealing Studies?’

‘…if I didn’t had to spend a lot of time, I could have improved my grades.”

And if I had studied other subjects with the time I saved, maybe I could have gotten more scholarships because my grades would go up. ‘Did he really know that this course was easy to get grades for?’

Eisel looked at Baek Yoo Seol. His eyes were still unsure of what he was thinking. He might be sleepy, or he might be meditating…

Could it be that he had his own course registration strategy carefully crafted?

Such a thought flashed, but Eisel quickly shook her head to disperse the thought.

‘What did I have such a thought? It must be a coincidence.’