Chapter 213 |
The chill of spring woke me up.
I must have tossed and turned a lot during the night; my feet were poking out from under the blanket.
…For some reason.
I wrapped myself tightly in the blanket.
Since there was still time left, I decided to sleep a little longer.
Mother would wake me up if it was time—…
“Ha.”
An unfamiliar ceiling.
An unfamiliar space.
It had already been two weeks since I left home.
Even as I got used to this unfamiliar life.
Still, he wasn’t accustomed to this life.
He had grown too attached to the home where he lived with his family.
There was no other choice.
It was his own decision.
To become a player.
To enter the academy.
Regretting it now was too late.
But he had no thoughts of regret.
“Starting tomorrow, I should wear a cardigan or something when I sleep… no, actually, I should just turn the heating up high.”
All of this was being operated by the nation’s taxes and the group’s sponsorship.
Reaching for the cardigan he was about to grab, he extended his hand to the heating remote instead.
Deciding to heat the room moderately, he got up from his spot and stretched.
Outside the window, bird songs could be heard.
And amidst the clear sound, there were voices raised in excitement.
It was the shouts of academy students starting their training from early in the morning.
Ever since he moved into the dormitory, he had heard these sounds every day without fail.
[“I’m fine!”]
The smartphone he had left charging near his bed made a sound.
The latest model smartphone received from Sirius Group’s second chairman, Han oYoung.
It was a smartphone equipped with the ability to store some of the data from the player library and it had been ringing vigorously since early morning.
The only person who set notifications to make a sound was his family.
Quickly reaching for the smartphone, he saw the messages:
Sis: Hey~ Awake? (6:45 AM)
Sis: Eunhaaa? Get up!! (*｀ω´)ゞ (6:47 AM)
Sis: Today’s the entrance ceremony! (6:49 AM)
He couldn’t help but chuckle.
Euna had taken on the role of waking him up instead of their mother after he moved into the dormitory.
Sending a quick reply, he decided to take a shower.
“I can’t afford to oversleep on a day like this.”
The Player Secondary Academy’s entrance ceremony.
This day held significant meaning for him.
Since resolving to become a player, he couldn’t count how eagerly he had awaited this day.
How he had restrained his anticipation since moving into the dormitory in mid-February.
“…I should try to tidy up as much as possible, do I need to shave… nah, maybe I can skip it for now.”
The room was comfortable enough for two people to live in, and it had a bathroom attached.
Checking his face in the mirror after washing, he raised his chin to see if there was any stubble.
There wasn’t any stubble.
After all, he had just turned 14 this year.
“Hmm….”
Today was the day he would meet Yi Yujung.
As neatly and smartly as possible.
If possible, to make a good first impression.
As if he had made a big decision, he abruptly stripped off his pajamas.
There was still time, so he decided to take a warm shower.
Even though he had soaked in the tub for a long time yesterday.
“The uniform…”
Drying his hair and opening the closet, he found several school uniforms.
There were a few sets of uniforms.
A black blazer with gold lines against a black base.
And a white blazer with red lines against a white base.
The black blazer was the uniform for daily wear at the academy, and the white blazer was reserved for ceremonial occasions.
The academy provided one of each uniform, while the rest had to be bought with personal money.
As the uniforms were enchanted, they boasted not just sweat-absorption and ventilation spells but also cleansing spells to remove most stains and shock absorption to prevent tearing, making them high-quality items that wouldn’t tear unless in intense combat.
Although the country could provide minimal support to academy students, they couldn’t offer the maximum support.
That’s why sponsorship was necessary, and being heavily sponsored by Sirius Group, he had enough uniforms in his closet to fill it with academy uniforms and gym clothes.
Nothing strange there, right?
He felt unfamiliar with the pure white color.
In his previous life, he had worn predominantly dull colors, considering it natural even if blood stained his clothes, so he wasn’t used to wearing clothes with such vivid red tones running through clear, white fabric.
He wasn’t sure if it suited him.
Having long given up on the eye features inherited from his father, he stared at the mirror for a while before sending a distress message to Euna.
“Sis: You look suuuper good! You’re the best, my bro! (7:57 AM)
“If my sister says it’s fine, then it must be.”
Euna was quite picky about fashion.
Especially when it came to his fashion.
If Euna approved, there was no need to worry anymore.
Having finished getting ready, he opened the door and headed downstairs.
“Hey, Captain!”
“Why are you coming down so late? Did Noh Eunha oversleep?”
There was a cafeteria on the first floor of the boys’ dormitory for the dormitory residents to use.
Parang and Eunhyuk, who had finished their breakfast, were sitting by the window.
He headed to the table where the two were seated after picking up his ordered food.
“…Hyung, are you going like that?”
“What’s wrong with this?” “Didn’t you get your hair done?”
“I did it yesterday, jeez. You know, if you cut your hair twice a day, it’s not good for your scalp, man.”
“At least brush it.”
Ah, and Eunha sighed.
Jin Parang, who had tied his hair up messily, shook his tail as if he was annoyed.
Even his tail seemed somewhat disheveled.
“You don’t know how hard it is for Ain to manage their fur.”
Asking Ain, who was picky about fashion in particular.
Especially when it came to his own.
“…Would Seona be doing that too? Must have been hard to prepare every morning.” “No, it’s just that he’s lazy.”
It was the day of the entrance ceremony at the secondary academy. Three people in crisp white blazers chatted animatedly while having breakfast.
☆
The entrance ceremony for both the junior and senior divisions was underway at the academy. Students gathered in the auditorium and were seated according to their respective departments and classes.
There were a total of 300 students in the 031 cohort. The 027 and 027 cohorts combined made up around 1500 students. The seating arrangement radiated out from the center, with the seats getting higher as they went up from the ground level.
It meant that the lower floors accommodated junior academy students, while the upper floors seated the senior academy students.
Being in a different class from my friends was disappointing, but I vaguely expected this due to different class assignments.
The class distributions for Hayang and Minji were 5th grade, for Parang it was 8th grade, for Eunhyeok and Seona it was 10th grade. He was in the 6th grade.
While it was frustrating not to be in the same class as his friends, he somewhat anticipated this considering the hierarchy in the academy.
Would they put the top and second-ranking students in the same class? Hayang was at the top, and he was second. Even the other students had scored highly in the entrance exams.
If it were a smaller institution like the Doan Elementary School sponsored by the Alice Group, perhaps. But in an academy backed by a major conglomerate, it would be tough for them all to end up in the same class.
Regardless, they’d still see each other in class. But more importantly…
Sitting at the front of class 6, he scanned the surroundings. Although the instructor assigned to class 6 approached him amiably, he remained indifferent and focused on surveying the area.
Class 10, class 9, class 8…
Then the other side would be class 1, class 2.
His gaze paused somewhere near class 2.
There was Yujeong.
In his second life.
He still remembered it vividly.
Every time he talked about the days spent in the academy with Yujeong, there was a recurring story.
“I was always in class 2. Isn’t that interesting?”
“What’s interesting about it?”
“Since elementary school… I’ve always been in class 2, class 2, class 2, and even in the secondary academy, class 2… At first, it was so boring, you know?”
“But?”
“But, you know… Maybe it was all for the sake of meeting you. Do you remember when we first met?”
“First year of the secondary academy.”
“Right, the first year of the secondary academy, class 2. At that time, when I first met you, I thought, ‘Why is there a person like this in the world?’ Even at a glance, you emitted a dark atmosphere.”
“…I’m sorry.”
“You never avoided a confrontation, always tried to win over someone you didn’t like, didn’t care about the other person’s background… Even thinking about it now, you were quite clueless, weren’t you?”
“…Yeah, really.”
“But… meeting you changed my life back then. When I was struggling with why I should live, even though life was so tough, you changed it all for me.”
“…”
“Thank you, Eunha. If I hadn’t met you back then, I wouldn’t be who I am now.”
Yujeong, who was once a promising student from the secondary academy. And Eunha, who entered the academy without any background.
Two individuals who wouldn’t have crossed paths under normal circumstances became close due to a chance incident.
She inadvertently became a witness to the violent incident he caused, which led to her being branded as a problematic student by the academy staff.
Their personalities, behaviors, mindsets… Nothing seemed to match, yet as they continued to meet, they became special to each other.
So he hoped that in this life, she would become something special to him once again.
“From now, in the year 9 of the Sun Calendar, we will proceed with the Player Academy’s entrance ceremony. First, we will observe the National Rite. All academy students, please stand up and face the Taegukgi on the platform.”
He missed her so much. There were so many things he wanted to say when they met. Why did she dedicate herself so much? Why did she love him so much? And why did she gift him with a new life, even to the extent of sacrificing herself?
“Nice to meet you, but I can’t say I welcome your admission to the academy. I don’t think any of you came here to be welcomed.”
The principal’s words during the ceremony didn’t register with him at all.
He kept staring at class 2, still lost in memories.
Even in this life, he needed her. She was the only partner he could trust wholeheartedly.
He needed her help on the thorny path ahead. For the protection of Ha Baek-ryeon.
So, she was the first person he planned to approach.
After the ceremony ended, he rushed through the crowd towards class 2.
“Huh? What are you doing? How can you cause a ruckus in class 2?”
The class 2 instructor grabbed his wrist.
The instructor was taken aback. It was as if his grip on Eunha’s wrist was made of steel and wouldn’t yield.
“Instructor.”
Eunha shrugged off the instructor’s grip and firmly held his shoulder. In a tone requesting a favor, he asked while gripping his shoulder so tightly that it caused a spasm in the instructor’s face.
“Is there someone named Yujeong in this class?”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“…In this class, is there… no one like that?”
“…No.”
With a puzzled expression, Eunha peered down at the list.
The instructor tried to reclaim the list, but seeing Eunha’s darkening expression each time he checked the list, he couldn’t say anything.
Eventually, when everyone almost left the hall, Eunha managed to check every single list.
“She’s not here.”
He couldn’t find the name he had been desperately searching for in any of the lists.
“…Absent.”
Yujeong was nowhere to be found in any of the lists at the academy.
TLN: Welcome Readers!! This is the new project that I am taking over from my friend Bibell! I am new translating from Korean and I don’t have all the names memorized so please bear with me and leave any mistakes in the comments. Thanks everybody! Im going to try to update this novel once a week as it takes a lot of time. Donation rules apply of course but these chapters will take time. If I get into a groove I will try to go twice a week. Monday and Friday.
Further Notes: First, what do you guys think of the perspective changes? Going from first person to third like that seems jarring to me. Should I actively correct it? Second, I know the numbers are off. The site we (the one given to me by Bibell) has her last chapter as 213. Im not sure why she had it as 212 on her site but I’m going to match the host site for the sake of ease. You haven’t missed anything that I’m aware of.