Prologue Story

After leaving the training room, we played outside for a while before deciding to visit Min-hee’s house with Yoo-jung unnie and In-ho oppa, something we hadn’t done in a long time.

The place we usually gathered had always been Min-hee’s house.

It wasn’t just because it was familiar and convenient.

Min-hee, an elementary school student, usually came home around 2 or 3 PM, but Senior Ji-hyun didn’t return until after 6 PM.

Sometimes, due to his practical training, he wouldn’t come home at all.

During those times, Min-hee was alone.

Because of this, we often visited her house, knowing how much she disliked being lonely.

When we arrived in front of Min-hee’s house, a guest was already there.

Shia, who had been pacing in the front yard, noticed us and widened his eyes.

He seemed particularly surprised to see Yoo-jung unnie and In-ho oppa.

“Ah? Shia, what brings you here?”

“Oh, um, my mom told me to bring some side dishes to Min-hee. But since she isn’t home yet, I was wondering what to do.”

“I see. You should go in; the house should recognize your magic signature, right?”

“Y-yeah, that’s true.”

It felt like it had been a while since I last saw Shia’s face.

I hesitated slightly, looking at him, feeling strangely awkward.

Was it because I had realized our relationship had become distant?

It wasn’t just me; Shia seemed to feel the same way.

I shifted my gaze away as Shia glanced at me and then quickly looked elsewhere.

“Since you’re already here, why don’t you hang out with us? Yoo-jung unnie and In-ho oppa haven’t visited in ages! We haven’t spent much time together lately, right?”

At Min-hee’s suggestion, Shia seemed to ponder for a moment.

When our eyes met, his gaze faltered briefly, but then he smiled.

“Okay, sure.”

“Yay!”

Together, we entered Min-hee’s house.

For a home occupied by just two people, it was surprisingly tidy and spacious.

Well, it made sense; they had a cleaning robot.

Though the robot’s thick pincers couldn’t cook well, it excelled at cleaning and laundry.

Sometimes, I found it fascinating.

Apparently, some companies were even developing androids.

But for now, they were astronomically expensive.

I took off my shoes at the entrance and neatly placed them in line.

The others kicked off their shoes haphazardly and rushed into the living room.

Only In-ha followed my lead, arranging her shoes neatly.

Meanwhile, Shia had already been dragged inside by Min-hee, oblivious to such things.

Seeing this brought a strange sense of nostalgia.

I thought of how this was a sight I had seen almost daily just last year.

Walking down the hallway, I called out to the friends who were already seated in the living room.

“Should we eat something while we chat? Min-hee, what do you have at home?”

“Huh? Hmm… There’s no soda… Oh, right! We have green tea! It’s cold outside, so let’s drink that. There are snacks in the cupboard up there and tangerines in the fridge.”

“Got it.”

When I headed to the kitchen, Min-hee returned her focus to chatting with the others.

Whenever we hung out at her house, I usually prepared the snacks.

Not that this was my house or anything.

Even without snacks, hosting usually involves setting out something, right?

Plus, conversations feel a bit empty without something to munch on.

So, as I started preparing, In-ha often trailed behind to help, and it naturally became our job.

I didn’t mind, though.

Sometimes, I even snuck an extra bite while rummaging through the fridge.

Honestly, I have quite an appetite.

No joke—after finishing a bowl of ramen, I’d still have room for rice.

For a kid, my stomach was pretty remarkable.

I prepared the snacks while In-ha got the drinks ready.

I piled tangerines into a bowl, stacking them into a small pyramid.

It took some time, but it was fun.

In-ha poured hot water into teacups and added tea bags to make green tea.

He turned to me and asked, “This looks about right for green tea, doesn’t it? Though they’d drink anything, really.”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

We carefully placed the snacks on a tray and stepped out of the kitchen.

Thankfully, Min-hee’s house had no thresholds between the hallway and the rooms, but we still had to be cautious not to trip.

Since we were small, carrying a tray like this made it hard to see ahead or below, making walking quite tricky.

Just as we were leaving the kitchen, we heard the front door creak open.

We paused in the hallway and turned to look.

Walking in were Senior Ji-hyun and Chunho oppa.

I was reminded of the intimidating aura I felt earlier from Senior Ji-hyun and involuntarily flinched.

“Oh, Eun-ha and In-ha are here. Didn’t know you guys were over.”

Chunho oppa waved with a smile.

In-ha and I quietly nodded back.

Senior Ji-hyun strode toward us.

I thought he might be heading to his room and stepped aside, but instead, he took the tray from us.

“…Huh?”

I blinked in confusion.

“Snacks, huh? Who else is here?”

“Oh… Han-soo, Hyun-ho, Shia, In-ho oppa, and Yoo-jung unnie.”

“Quite the crowd. I’ll bring this over.”

“Oh, thank you.”

“No need to thank me.”

He chuckled at my gratitude, his demeanor so usual that I felt reassured.

Carrying the tray, he opened the door to the living room.

Our chatting friends turned to look at us.

“Oppa, welcome! Sorry, we were so caught up talking that we didn’t notice.”

“Huh, look at you using fancy words now. Quite the change for someone who hates books.”

“Hehe, I learned it from Eun-ha!”

“Figures.”

“Yeah, it’s amazing! Eun-ha uses lots of difficult words, so we’ve picked up on them too. We even got praised during Korean class! Other kids didn’t know the words, but we did because Eun-ha uses them often!”

“Is that so?”

I scratched my cheek.

Well, I did read a lot of books, and as a former novelist, my vocabulary was broader than most.

Since I was so accustomed to these words, it was hard to understand why others didn’t know them.

Saying something like that might get me hit, though…

In-ha and I found spots to sit down next to our friends.

Senior Ji-hyun patted Han-soo, Shia, Hyun-ho, and In-ho oppa on the head affectionately before heading to his room.

He ruffled my hair on the way out too.

I reflexively tidied my hair, now used to it.

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen In-ho hyung and Yoo-jung noona. What brings you two here today?”

“Huh? Oh, we’re taking a level-based class together now.”

Yoo-jung unnie hesitated briefly before answering.

Shia looked surprised.

“Level-based class…?”

“Yeah.”

Yoo-jung unnie nodded and fell silent.

Shia hesitated, watching her closely.

“Oh! That reminds me—Shia, I never told you, did I? We have personal tutors now,” Min-hee said, her voice rising as if she had just realized it.

“Yeah, I know…”

“The training we’re doing right now is combat training. But to practice properly, you need sparring partners, right? But there’s a huge gap between us and the teachers.

“Practicing only with virtual opponents isn’t enough. So, they started something called ‘mentoring’.”

“Mentoring? What’s that?”

“It means older students teach us. High school seniors, to be precise. Turns out, the student council seniors are our mentors! So, our oppas!”

“Ah…”

Shia nodded vaguely.

Min-hee, thrilled, continued.

“That’s how we got to meet unnie and oppa again! We’ll probably keep seeing them regularly now since we’ll be training together!”

“That’s nice.”

Shia looked like he wanted to say something but hesitated, giving a faint smile instead.

He seemed as timid as I had become.

I stared at him quietly, a sudden unease creeping in.

…Was that really the case?

“Good for you.”

“Yeah!”

Min-hee beamed.

The sparring sessions continued whenever we had time.

We were called out after school, on weekends—practically anytime.

For something that was supposed to just build our basics, it was quite intensive.

It almost felt like they were in a hurry.

Come to think of it, this time of year is a busy period for adult magicians.

Not only do they need to prepare for the Mage Rank Exam, but the student council also has to handle its leadership transition.

They must be trying to teach us the basics of sparring before the real busy season begins.

By the way, after that sparring session, specific seniors were assigned to guide each of us.

And my assigned mentor was, frighteningly, Senior Ji-hyun.

“You should focus on practicing applied techniques rather than direct attacks.”

“Applied techniques?”

“For example, like this.”

Whoosh! I widened my eyes as I saw Senior Ji-hyun suddenly appear in front of me.

Startled by his sudden approach, I felt scared, but contrary to my feelings, my eyes meticulously observed his magic.

Instinctively, I stepped back quickly.

If nothing else, my master had been particularly strict with evasion training.

Combining my vision with my sensory abilities, I had become quite adept at dodging.

Senior Ji-hyun’s foot attack swept past the spot where my leg had been moments ago.

For a moment, he seemed surprised, then grinned.

“Do you get it now?”

“Um… Oh, is it about breaking balance?”

Though I only had basic martial arts skills, I had picked up simple combat knowledge through comics, novels, and movies.

Senior Ji-hyun nodded.

“That’s right. You hit the core point.”

Unexpectedly, I received a compliment.

“But it takes quite a bit of time to internalize techniques like these.

I’ll personally show you how to unbalance your opponent physically, and you’ll try to dodge and land attacks on me using your ‘unique magic.’ Got it?”

“Um… Well, my unique magic isn’t really for direct attacks, though…”

“How to make it work for attacks is also part of a magician’s capability.

Your magic can be used for attacks, right?”

“Well… Yes.”

After hesitating a bit, I nodded.

Using illusion magic for attacks?

And calling that a direct attack?

For now, I decided to mimic other elemental magic instead.

Although elemental magic might be more efficient, I chose this approach.

And… I rolled around a lot.

Senior Ji-hyun wasn’t exaggerating or joking about being a Spartan trainer.

It wasn’t an overstatement.

I lost count of how many times I rolled on the floor, enduring both his techniques and magic.

Though my magic landed some impact, Senior Ji-hyun was so skilled that it barely affected him, leaving no bruises or injuries.

However, it was mentally and physically exhausting.

No matter how much I’d practiced before…

That was just ‘practice.’

It wasn’t about clashing bodies or turning theoretical concepts into reality by forcing out magic.

Of course, using magic drains physical energy, but it doesn’t compare to actual physical exertion.

On the first day, I couldn’t land a single successful attack and just kept rolling.

Defensive magic was only allowed to block magic, not physical techniques or martial arts, making it hard for me to time its use.

But through this, I came to recognize one more thing.

‘The movement of magic when someone tries to use it differs slightly from when they’re just gathering magic power.’

Using my sight and sensory perception, I noticed and distinguished this difference.

With time, I managed to deploy defensive magic at the right moments.

Seeing this, Senior Ji-hyun whistled.

Though I mentioned rolling, the training wasn’t daily but occurred every few days.

The student council was busy, after all.

So, what did I do on days without sparring?

Obviously, magic training.

Even while the sparring training continued, my master frequently called me for training for various reasons.

After discovering I had won a gold prize for a short story I’d written, my master sometimes called me for non-training purposes too (asking me to try writing a scenario).

But putting that aside, my commitment to training was also strong.

To me, my friends were like younger siblings I had to protect.

But when I first saw In-ha and Han-soo sparring with the seniors, I was shocked.

Even when we sparred together before, I thought, ‘Amazing. This is what talent looks like.’

And once again, I felt the same way.

‘Ah, that’s what talent really is….’

Despite being physically and mentally young, In-ha and Han-soo had incredible magic sense.

I felt it with my entire body.

And that made me even more determined not to fall behind.

If I had any talent, I needed to hone it.

Why?

Because I wanted to stand on equal footing with everyone.

Even a moment of hesitation could leave me lagging behind.

While skill and talent might not always be equal, our hearts shouldn’t be unequal.

And… I also felt competitive.

Would I want to become a powerful combat magician?

Not necessarily.

But seeing my friends made me want to use magic more skillfully.

Because I loved it and didn’t want to lose, I wanted to improve even more.

So, I decided to train harder.

I didn’t want to look back one day and find myself left behind.

And most of all, I still loved magic.

I wanted to keep honing it in my own way.

Then, for the first time, I had this thought.

‘What kind of magician do I really want to become?’