Prologue Story

At last, the long-awaited third period arrived.

From third period onward, we did something different from our usual classes; we practiced for the sports day.

In the third period, all the first-year students gathered in the auditorium to hear an explanation about the opening ceremony practice.

The explanation was very simple.

We would infuse magic into orbs larger than our fists, then throw them at a huge ball, breaking it with continued hits.

Since it was quite simple, we were told we would only practice twice before the sports day.

After giving us that simple explanation, the teachers informed us of other sports day rules, then handed out the magic orbs, telling us to use the remaining third-period time to practice.

The six of us, including Shia, grouped together and tried infusing magic into the orbs.

“…It’s so simple, there’s almost nothing to practice.”

“That’s true.”

“Hmm… I did it too!”

Honestly, for those of us who had already developed magic, it was as easy as breathing.

Shia also succeeded quickly.

I glanced at Shia’s magic orb.

It had turned a shade of purple, close to violet, just like Shia’s magic color.

“It’s really fascinating. Did you know? Having two magic colors like you, Eun-ha, is rare.”

As I was looking back at Shia’s magic orb, Min-hee, who had been inspecting my magic orb, said that.

Indeed, even I thought my magic color was quite mysterious and unique.

The inside of my orb was a vivid, mysterious navy blue, but the outer part shone with a silvery sheen whenever it moved.

Because of that, even the center of the orb appeared silver when it caught the light.

It was exactly the same color as my magic—navy blue with a silver outline.

Yet, no matter how you looked at it, the overall magic color seemed navy blue with only the edges appearing silver, which was fascinating.

In truth, it was navy on the inside and silver on the outside.

Like, say, a hard-boiled egg!

Oh, but way thinner than an egg shell.

So, there were times when even I found my magic intriguing.

Also, I loved my magic color immensely.

When I released my magic, the silver sparkled inside like stardust, and it felt like watching a night sky scattered with stars.

In other words, it was exactly my style.

While playing with the magic orbs, the bell signaling the end of third period rang.

At break time, following the teacher’s instructions, we split into teams and went to different classrooms.

The White Team gathered in Class 1, which was our original class, the Blue Team in Class 2, and the Red Team in Class 3.

In-ha, Shia, and I sat in our usual seats, while Min-hee, Han-soo, and Hyun-ho went to other classes.

Kids came and went, chattering noisily.

Some kids worried about where to sit, while others plopped down anywhere.

With a small number of first-year kids, it wasn’t uncomfortable, as we all knew each other regardless of which class we were in.

Soon, the bell rang for the fourth period.

Nothing happened immediately when the bell rang.

As I was killing time reading a book, suddenly, with a ‘beep’ sound, a large screen appeared near the blackboard.

On it stood seniors in blue and red ties, arranged in an orderly line.

In front of the screen, there was a man who seemed to be a high school senior.

Seeing his face, I tilted my head.

A strange feeling of déjà vu washed over me.

“Oh, it’s Jihyun hyung.”

Shia muttered, looking at the person.

Someone he knew?

I blinked, turning to ask Shia.

Who is that?

Min-hee’s older brother.

At those words, In-ha and I both widened our eyes.

[I’m Joo Jihyun, the White Team captain for this sports day.]

“Wow, he’s the top-ranked magician at our school!”

The kids around us grew noisy upon hearing Min-hee’s brother’s name.

Hmm, so Min-hee’s older brother is our school’s top-ranked magician…

I did hear about it from Eun-hee unnie, and I think I vaguely remember hearing that the top-ranked senior’s name was Joo Jihyun too…

‘Since I’m not interested, I can never remember these things. Especially names…’

Still, he’s a friend’s older brother, so that was careless of me.

Reflection, reflection.

Now that I looked, Min-hee’s older brother was very handsome.

I propped my chin on my palm, murmuring my dry observation to myself.

He glanced around at the noisy kids, frowning for a moment, then spoke again.

[Now we’ll pick participants for the events starting with the first years. Although first-grade elementary students can only join in the overall grade events, there are three events you can participate in: relay, scavenger hunt, and cheering. One person from each grade for the relay and scavenger hunt, and five people from each grade for the cheering. Let’s get this done quickly, so volunteer right away.]

He proceeded with an extremely annoyed expression.

He made a chilly face at the girls squealing at him, but gave a slightly kinder expression toward the boys who seemed impressed.

Right, I heard he only liked guys.

But actually seeing it, it seemed more like he just had a significantly lower tolerance for girls.

Of course, I only saw him once, so it’s just an impression.

One by one, kids raised their hands to volunteer.

Twelve for the relay, fifteen for scavenger hunt, and about ten for the cheering team.

The same kids tended to raise their hands each time.

You know, those kids who enthusiastically raise their hands for every event.

They’re always the first to raise their hands in class too, right?

[If you’ve chosen one, don’t raise your hand again. Pick just one.]

Min-hee’s brother made a quick decision.

With that, the kids pondered.

He gave them only thirty seconds to decide.

Soon, they raised their hands again.

Six for relay, ten for scavenger hunt, four for cheering.

[One more for cheering. You can withdraw from relay or scavenger hunt.]

One of the kids, looking around, switched to cheering.

However, relay and scavenger hunt still had too many participants.

[All fifteen of you, meet at the first high school field at lunchtime for a skill test. That’s all.]

The screen disappeared with a ‘beep,’ ending the sports day meeting in under twenty minutes.

“Hmm, is it good that we have more break time?”

“Haha. Jihyun hyung is still as blunt as ever…”

Shia muttered awkwardly.

But the moment of awkwardness was brief.

We soon laughed and began chattering about the sports day.

For example, In-ha would definitely win if she entered the relay, right?

But since she wouldn’t use her magic openly, that would never happen.

As for me, I hated standing out, so I wouldn’t want to participate even as a middle or high schooler, and sighed about it.

When lunchtime came, Hyun-ho, Min-hee, and Han-soo returned.

Hyun-ho and Min-hee wore big smiles, while Han-soo looked utterly annoyed.

“I’m on the cheering squad! Root for me!”

“Hahaha! I’m in the relay! Han-soo is in the scavenger hunt race!”

“I got dragged into this because of Min-hee… Damn, who asked you to raise my hand!”

“Of course! My choice!”

“Wow, Han-soo, you’re doing the scavenger hunt race? Lucky!”

“Shut it, Kim Hyun-ho!”

The three of them bickered cheerfully like that.

Phew, I was glad they were on the White Team.

I sighed in relief, looking at Han-soo and Min-hee.

Then I wondered and asked.

“Oh? By the way, did you have exactly the right number of participants?

For us, since we had too many, the ones who volunteered have to go and take a test later.”

“No, we had too many too…

But we had a senior we know there… so they just slipped me and Min-hee in. Damn.”

“Hehehe. Lucky to be on the same team as Chunho oppa!”

Hearing that, I looked a bit surprised.

Wow, another senior they knew, huh.

While In-ha and I nodded with mild admiration, Hyun-ho and Shia nodded in understanding.

Apparently, they knew him too.

For the record, Hyun-ho had nothing to do with any of that.

“I fit into the cheering squad perfectly!”

Hmm, I see~.

After that, there were a few more times when class time was swapped out for sports day-related activities.

Sometimes it was the whole class, but more often, only the selected participants were called out.

Except for the cheering team, that is…

For first-year students, simply running with magic reinforcement would be the best they could do.

Thinking that way, I tried not to pay too much attention to sports day preparations until the actual day…

But I did my best to cheer on Han-soo, Min-hee, and Hyun-ho, even though they weren’t on my team.

I gave them treats like candy and chocolate too.

Seeing them happy made me feel good.

Time passed like that, and the sports day finally arrived.

We left home wearing our gym uniforms.

Like our school uniforms, our gym uniforms also adjusted in size and color to fit our bodies and were enchanted with defensive magic.

They were far superior to our uniforms as protective gear.

I wore a short-sleeved, white summer gym top and long, dark navy gym pants.

Just in case, I tied a thin cardigan around my waist.

I wasn’t a fan of short clothes.

With the teleport badge pinned to my top, I got ready to go to school.

Our parents looked at us with apologetic expressions.

“Sorry! At least Mom should go!”

“It’s fine.

The first years don’t have many events, and we aren’t competing anyway.”

“Mom is busy, so just work hard.”

“In-ha, Eun-ha.

We’re really sorry.”

It’s really okay.

I’m not at the age to sulk over something like this.

And if mothers of kids who weren’t competing all came, how crowded and chaotic would it get?

Even though our student population is lower than other schools, it’s still a place where students from elementary to high school gather, along with members of our organization.

Maybe it’s better if the number of spectators is lower.

Firmly saying goodbye to our busy parents, we teleported to school.

While walking to the classroom, I mentioned to In-ha that I was looking forward to the last event.

“Why?”

At In-ha’s question, I looked around and whispered softly.

“Well, because a lot of people will interfere all at once, right?

Unless they’re a detection magician, people won’t even notice if someone uses magic right beside them; it’ll be that chaotic.

And with my kind of magic, there’s hardly any warning, so it’ll work well.

Meanwhile, others who haven’t revealed their strength will interfere and disrupt things too, they say.”

“Hmm.”

“And the entire city becomes the arena, right?

Everyone can scatter, hide, and interfere secretly.

It’s a chance to test our magic, isn’t it?”

Perhaps because I was a bit excited, my words came out a bit disorganized.

Finally, In-ha nodded as if she fully understood.

Right?

Yeah, I guess so.

After that, we walked to the classroom, chatting about trivial things.

When In-ha asked why I was wearing long pants, I confidently replied that I liked long pants.

In-ha accepted it with a nod.

Entering the classroom, I peeked at the neighboring class.

The hallway was still empty.

Today, instead of gathering by class, we gathered by team before heading to the main field.

Class 1 for White Team, Class 2 for Blue Team, and Class 3 for Red Team.

When the opening time arrived, they would teleport us to our designated seats.

When I heard that, I thought, as expected, magic school was really amazing.

“But since we have our student IDs, we don’t even need our phones.”

In-ha said, showing her phone.

Her white phone had a crown charm dangling from it.

I agreed with In-ha.

That was certainly true.

“But we can only contact other students, right?”

“Yep.

So, there’s no need.

We can still use message magic to contact Mom or your aunt.”

“True.”

Both In-ha and I could already use message magic.

It wasn’t that hard a spell to learn.

Nodding, I took a textbook out of my desk drawer.

Since exam period wasn’t far off, I planned to study a bit during free moments.

I wanted to carry everything in my Pocket Dimension, but none of us could use the student ID’s Pocket Dimension function yet.

While I read the textbook for a while, people started filling up the empty classroom.

『Sender: Joo Min-hee

Eun-ha, are you at school? What about In-ha? You’re always together.』

Right after Shia arrived, I received a message from Min-hee.

In-ha, who was lying on the desk beside me, sat up and looked at the message.

Wow, her spelling is still so bad.

I replied lightly, 『Yes. In-ha’s here too.』

『Sender: Park Han-soo

Ugh, annoying. Min-hee keeps pestering me because she’s bored.』

…Huh, guess it wasn’t just Min-hee who struggled with spelling; most first-graders still had trouble with it.

Come to think of it, we have a spelling test every week in Korean class, and hardly anyone gets full marks.

Still, misspelling names is too much, don’t you think?

It’ll improve as we grow up, though.

By the way, Han-soo’s message only came to me.

After checking his student ID, In-ha frowned at the message on my screen.

“…Why does he only message you?”

“Huh?

Maybe he’s embarrassed because you two don’t get along?”

“True, Han-soo and In-ha don’t get along.”

“Hmm.”

At Shia’s and my words, In-ha’s expression softened a bit.

But she still mumbled, “Even so, still,” under her breath, suggesting she wasn’t fully over it.

Oh, maybe she’s sulking because he didn’t send it to her too? Cute.

…Or, maybe it was jealousy that Han-soo messaged me, which might be more reasonable.

I tapped my chin with my finger.

Before long, the classroom was packed with kids.

I glanced at the clock once, watching the digital numbers change—9:15:35, 36.

I looked around and then noticed writing on the blackboard.

『Time left until teleportation to the High School Outdoor Training Grounds (Sports Day Venue): 10 minutes』

“Hey, look!”

“Look at that!”

An alarm message spell?

Just then, someone poked their head out the classroom door and shouted.

“Hey! We’re teleporting to the field in 10 minutes! Get in here!”

“Really?!”

『Sender: Joo Min-hee

In-ha’s so mean, Eun-ha. Even as rivals, you don’t even come to meet me.

Shia came with you, though.』

I let out an awkward laugh, seeing Min-hee’s message pop up again.

The time written on the blackboard was decreasing from 10 minutes.

Eventually, it started ticking down by the second, and soon everyone in the class was teleported.

When I opened my eyes, we were sitting on bleachers overlooking the field, which stretched out below.

In the air above the field, several large screens floated, showing the field from different angles.

“Hey! The first-grade elementary kids are here!”

“You guys, go down and line up!”

The main field, frequently used for whole-school training and events, was even larger than I’d expected.

It could easily hold all the thousands of students standing and still have plenty of space left over.

Following the upperclassmen’s instructions, we went down to the field and lined up according to the magic-marked lines and numbers.

Saluting the flag, magician’s pledge, singing the school anthem, the chairman’s speech, and then…

“Step back, other grades!”

“You guys, move forward.”

We were pushed forward by the seniors.

A large golden ball dangled from a string, lowering from above.

Holding the magic orbs passed to us from the back, we stood in the middle of the field, staring at the ball.

At the signal, without hesitation, we infused magic into the orbs and threw them.

Even the kids who were nervous managed to throw their orbs one by one.

Soon, the golden ball split in half, bursting with shimmering powder-like light.

The sparkles fluttered down like confetti, spreading across the field in a magical display.

「Blessings on this joyous day! And with that, we commence Daehyun Magic School’s 25th Sports Day!」

With a roar of cheers, the sports day officially began.

I blinked, staring blankly at the sparkling golden ball.

“Eun-ha, what’s wrong?”

At Shia’s question, I answered with dazed eyes.

“It’s dazzling…”

“…? The sparkles have already flown away, though?”

Without replying to In-ha’s question, I continued gazing at it. Around the golden ball, I could see pure silver magic scattering and fading. It was so beautiful, yet others couldn’t see it—it was a shame.

Even as I rubbed my eyes, I kept watching it.