Prologue Story

We headed toward the high school grounds through the warp hole.

It took us 15 minutes to reach High School Training Room No. 5.

I briefly debated whether to use teleportation midway.

Soon, we arrived at High School Training Room No. 5.

“Ah, this is the place oppa used often.”

“Really?”

“You guys came here once before, remember? To give Eun-hee unnie a cheer-up gift…”

A cheer-up gift? In-ha and Han-soo’s faces lit up as if they had remembered something.

“Wasn’t it in our first year, before the rank exam? When Eun-hee unnie was still a C-rank…”

“That’s right.”

Only then did I remember too. But that was two years ago, so… it’s not strange that it didn’t come to mind right away. Their memories are just unusually sharp. Yeah, that must be it…

We opened the door to the training room. A narrow corridor appeared immediately.

Walking down the corridor, we reached the door at the end and opened it.

As the door opened, familiar faces came into view. Huh? We were briefly surprised to see the two people standing in front of Senior Ji-hyun.

“Yoo-jung unnie! In-ho oppa!”

Min-hee cheerfully ran toward the two of them first.

Yoo-jung unnie and In-ho oppa greeted us with gentle smiles and bright eyes.

“You guys came too. I thought so.”

“Thought so?”

Following Min-hee, the rest of us approached the pair. Han-soo, looking puzzled, asked a question.

“Didn’t the teachers mention it? The high school seniors will be helping with combat training. It’s a school tradition.”

In-ho oppa calmly explained, his demeanor much more mature than when we had last seen him. He seemed strikingly different from before.

Han-soo murmured with a slightly uneasy expression.

“So… it’s Ji-hyun hyung’s group that’s helping us?”

Feeling awkward, we glanced behind In-ho oppa and Yoo-jung unnie.

There stood Ji-hyun oppa and the current members of the high school student council.

Chunho oppa waved at us with a beaming smile, accompanied by Yoo Seojun senior, who was close with the two of them, and two seniors unfamiliar to us.

Including someone who recently graduated from middle school, there were five people in total.

Though we didn’t know them personally, we recognized their faces and names. Weren’t they Seo Minseong and Kim Yoora? They’d just joined the hierarchy and were already slated to become the next student council president and vice president. It’d be impossible not to know them.

“Oppa, so does this mean we’ll spar with you?”

At Min-hee’s question, Ji-hyun oppa smiled kindly yet muttered with a hint of reluctance.

“Yeah, sorry about this, but I’ve got a pretty good sense of your abilities already.”

It was uncomfortable, but inevitable. At this point, we weren’t worried about Ji-hyun oppa knowing our skills. The three years we’d spent knowing each other proved he wouldn’t betray our trust.

Even so, we had always kept our abilities under wraps when it came to him. In hindsight, we’d been so tight-lipped that it almost felt like we owed him an apology.

But the two unfamiliar faces did feel a bit awkward. Min-hee tilted her head.

“Why is the student council president teaching directly, though?”

“It’s a recommendation from the teachers. It’s a tradition for the strongest seniors to mentor the most promising juniors. Ji-hyun jumped at the chance when he learned it’d be you guys.”

“Even though he’s busy…”

Next to an excited Chunho oppa, Kim Yoora Senior sighed quietly.

However, Ji-hyun oppa didn’t seem to care.

“Because of that, we’re also super busy. We’ll train you three times a week, for two or three hours a day. Any objections?”

“Nope, none.”

Of course not. Even if the time was limited, having Ji-hyun oppa as our mentor was an honor.

Ji-hyun oppa pointed to Yoo-jung unnie and In-ho oppa beside us.

“These two will train with you as well. You’re already familiar with each other, right?”

Yoo-jung unnie and In-ho oppa had frequently visited Min-hee’s house during our first year. Naturally, they knew Ji-hyun oppa to some extent.

Seo Minseong Senior stepped forward and greeted us.

“Looking forward to working with you.”

I stared at him blankly.

“Don’t worry too much. When you reach middle school, you’re paired with high schoolers for combat training. This mentoring system is what you’re starting now, even though you’re still in middle school.”

Hadn’t my master explained this before? Ji-hyun oppa, nodding as if recalling something, smiled warmly.

“My mentor was Eun-hee Senior.”

…Ah.

For a moment, I felt a pang in my chest. Among my friends, I was the only one who knew Ji-hyun oppa’s feelings. His gaze said it all. “I still love her,” it declared.

I clenched my fists. It had already been a year and a half since Eun-hee unnie started dating Seonghu oppa. Which meant Ji-hyun oppa had been in unrequited love for over two years.

No, considering he’d been rejected four times, it might have started much earlier. Sighing softly, I let out a small laugh, recalling “that person.”

You’re as foolish as I am, I thought.

At that moment, my eyes met Ji-hyun oppa’s. He stared at me with a strange expression before smirking playfully.

Then, he ruffled my carefully tied hair. Ugh, my hairstyle was ruined.

“But you guys are quicker than I thought. Already getting mentoring lessons…”

“Right? We didn’t do this until our fifth year. Well, we were a special case.”

Chunho oppa chuckled.

“And also, didn’t you pester Eun-hee Senior to mentor you back then, even though it was supposed to be a high schooler?”

I blinked. Come to think of it, when Ji-hyun oppa was in fifth grade, Eun-hee unnie would’ve been in her first year of middle school. They were two years apart. It wouldn’t have made sense for them to be paired.

Still, did he actually beg for it? I suddenly froze, struck by an idea. Wait, could it have started then? No, surely not. For my mental health, I decided not to dwell on it.

Ji-hyun oppa scratched his cheek awkwardly, his face slightly red with embarrassment.

“Uh, anyway… I heard from Teacher Kang Junghyun about your training. Apparently, he’s one of your mentors too?”

Trying to change the subject, huh? Oh, really? But who’s Teacher Kang Junghyun?

Chunho oppa, watching Ji-hyun oppa, burst into laughter. Then, seeing our confusion, he leaned in and whispered.

“You didn’t know? He was actually our mentor too.”

“Sit over there for now. We’ll get ready.”

At Ji-hyun oppa’s instructions, Chunho oppa followed him toward the virtual devices in the sparring room.

Feeling bewildered, I watched their movements. Hyun-ho, Han-soo, In-ho oppa, and Yoo-jung unnie also seemed puzzled.

Who was Teacher Kang Junghyun? Honestly, I couldn’t recall.

“He’s my teacher.”

“Huh?”

“Kang Junghyun. He’s my teacher. I mentioned him before, didn’t I? Forgot already?”

“What? Did you forget his name? He’s In-ha’s teacher.”

The only ones who remained calm were In-ha and Min-hee, who answered in turn.

Oh, right. Cautiously, I tried to recall. Now that I thought about it, In-ha had mentioned her mentor’s name once. But since she hadn’t brought him up again… I’d forgotten.

“Ah, I see. In-ha’s teacher is the one who uses fire magic, right? The black flames.”

“Yeah. They call it Black Flame.”

“Black Flame…”

A strange feeling crept over me as I adjusted my bangs. It made me think of the middle-school phase. Black Flame Dragon… Yep, that’s what came to mind.

For reference, Yoo-jung unnie’s mentor is Teacher Min, and In-ho oppa’s mentor is my master, Teacher Jung Mina.

I was surprised when I found that out.

However, Yoo-jung unnie initially learned together with In-ho oppa under my master but later switched to Teacher Min.

The two of them also know that I call Teacher Jung Min-ah “Master,” just like they do with their teachers.

But they asked me not to mention it since they’re too embarrassed to say it in front of her.

Yoo-jung unnie laughed out loud when she heard that, saying it was amusing.

“Everyone, gather here now. We’ll decide the order for the one-on-one combat training.”

It seemed everything was ready, as Ji-hyun oppa called us over.

We stopped chatting and approached the seniors.

“Yes!”

Before starting the full-fledged training, they said we’d first assess our skills with ordinary one-on-one duels.

Even though we knew it would be a combat training session, hearing it confirmed still made us nervous.

The duel order was decided simply by drawing lots.

Unluckily for me, I ended up being the first one to duel, and my opponent was none other than Kim Yoora senior, someone I had never properly spoken to before.

I hesitated as I looked at her, and she raised her eyebrow.

“Stop dawdling and get inside. The others are waiting.”

“Yes.”

I entered the glass room with her.

As soon as we stepped in, the virtual system activated, and the surroundings changed.

It was a large city filled with skyscrapers.

However, it was only me and her in this space.

I silently faced her.

The virtual reality system always amazed me, no matter how often I saw it.

The empty glass room had completely disappeared.

Even the walls, which should have had windows, now appeared as buildings.

Still, I was a magician specializing in illusions, and I could see through the virtual setting to the truth.

I could see my friends outside.

They were mouthing the words “Good luck.”

I looked around again.

The virtual city overlapped with reality.

If I trusted the illusion, the area around me was a city full of skyscrapers.

If I trusted reality, it was just an ordinary cubical room.

I decided to use both.

As an illusion magician, sometimes you had to trust your own illusions, while also being able to use the truth to your advantage.

A sound echoed in the air.

It was the countdown.

I flinched as I prepared to move.

“Once it starts, move. Dodge or attack.”

I stopped in my tracks.

Beep. Beep. Beeeep───!

I immediately ran forward.

“Where are you going?!”

Powder scattered from her hand.

I had once read her magic information in the student records.

Was it powder magic?

It’s a magic that turns mana or spells into powder, infusing them with various attributes to attack or even disintegrate things into powder.

I decided to “trust” the virtual system and entered a building.

I immediately used light magic and darted up the building’s staircase at high speed.

Even though my view was blocked by walls, I could see the color of the mana chasing me.

That’s because my eyes could perceive mana directly.

Using the barrier surrounding my body, I erased my presence.

I floated in the air and took advantage of reality this time.

In reality, the distance between buildings was no more than 5 meters, but in the virtual world, it appeared to be about 50 meters.

I teleported to the other building.

I’m a defense-type magician who’s more comfortable fighting from a distance.

My strategy was to evade and wait for an opening.

I focused on the movements of the mana colors darting here and there.

Ji-hyun oppa’s voice echoed from above.

“I forgot to mention, the time limit is 20 minutes. Time flows the same here as outside.”

Twenty minutes felt like forever to me.

I tensed up and activated my illusion magic.

Recently, I had gotten more used to using illusion magic offensively.

But maintaining illusion magic, which constantly influences the opponent’s brain, was an exhausting task.

For now, it was still easier to attack using elemental magic.

I picked a point unrelated to me as the starting point of my magic and activated it.

First, I used my light attribute mana balls, which I have a strong affinity with, and scattered them using illusion magic.

Then, I fired beams of light in multiple directions for a sniper attack.

My elemental magic had already grown considerably aggressive.

Next, I used written magic.

『Automatic Light Tracking Barrage. Time limit: 1 minute.』

That completed the first wave of my attack.

But no matter how much I thought about it, there was no way a senior ranked in the top 10 of the high school could be defeated by something like this.

Winning was out of the question from the start.

Even landing one solid hit would be an achievement.

So, what should I do next?

Should I keep dodging and buy time? Or…

At that moment, I heard an explosion outside the window.

Something was flying toward me.

Instinctively, I sensed the danger of the mana.

It was powder imbued with a fire attribute—it would explode on contact!

I deployed a barrier on top of my shield.

The powder hit the shield and detonated.

Boom! Ka-boom!

At the same time, part of the barrier was turned into powder.

What a mess.