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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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Today’s pair class took place in a corner of Namsan Park.
“Alright. I’ll finish it quickly, so how fast we end depends on your abilities.”
The homeroom teacher declared as if he clearly knew the students’ minds were already filled with thoughts of seeing the flowers after class ended.
“Even outdoor classes are still classes, so there needs to be some content.”
The homeroom teacher took out something from his bag and showed mana stones one by one from his pocket.
“Does anyone know what this is?”
A student raised his hand and answered.
“Mana stones!”
The guys who were usually indifferent no matter what question was asked couldn’t be more active when he said he’d end it early.
The homeroom teacher also smirked with an expression of ‘if you’re like that, then so be it.’
“Yes. Good answer. Can’t you be like that normally? Kids.”
It was an absurd thing to say.
I thought such voluntary participation in education was structurally impossible in South Korea.
“Now, there are a total of three types of mana stones prepared today! The bigger the size, the more mana it contains.”
It was obviously a piece of cake.
This was definitely going to be a practice to improve mana detection skills.
“The big ones are 10 points! Medium size is 30 points. The smallest size is 50 points. Those who earn the most points will get extra credit. Does everyone understand?”
In short, it was a game where the person who collected the most of those stones would be the winner.
And the key was to gather as many 50-point mana stones that were difficult to detect as possible.
Ha-rin nodded her head as she listened to the explanation, then glanced up at me.
“In-wook. Do you have anything to do after this?”
Actually, I had played too much unintentionally recently.
Although I did train intermittently on weekends or when I had time, compared to my previous life, I was no different from a bum now.
At this pace, it would take much longer than the time I had set as a goal to regain my previous life’s form.
In fact, I thought it didn’t matter, but after the brick-breaking incident last time, I felt the seriousness and judged that I couldn’t postpone training any longer.
“Yeah. Even if we finish class early today, I’m going to go train.”
“Tsk…”
Ha-rin seemed dissatisfied with my answer and kicked the ground.
“Then there’s no choice.”
Ha-rin, who had been looking at me, turned her body and walked in the opposite direction.
“Follow me. This is my expertise.”
Indeed. Ha-rin was a prodigy in mana detection.
She was someone who could easily find a 100-point mana stone even smaller than a 50-point one.
“Yeah. Let’s try to get 1st place again this time!”
I answered her with a smile.
“Of course~ I told you to believe only in me! Come on, you just have to go where I tell you to, okay?”
“Got it!”
It’ll be over soon anyway.
* * *
…How should I accept this?
Even though almost an hour had passed, the only mana stones we had in our hands were two of the largest 10-point ones.
“Um… Ha-rin…?”
“Yeah~ What is it?”
“That… Are you sure that’s the right direction?”
Of course, there was no doubt that Ha-rin was a talented child, but I was also confident when it came to mana detection.
And the direction she was heading was exactly…
A grass field where I couldn’t feel anything.
“In-wook. Are you doubting me now?”
“Of course not, but… I think this way is…”
Ha-rin frowned.
“I’ll be disappointed if you say it like that.”
“No~ I believe in Ha-rin. Yeah. Okay. If we go that way, we’ll find it soon, right?”
“If you ask one more time, I’ll really get angry.”
I tried to suggest going the other way where there was a 30-point one not far away, but it became a situation where I couldn’t say those words out loud.
I closed my eyes and tried to detect again, but as expected, I couldn’t feel even a speck of mana here.
“Oh! I definitely felt it here!”
She looked at the grass field where there were only ordinary stones and said.
“Hehehe. I think I made a mistake. Sorry, In-wook!”
She apologized while slightly hitting her head.
“Ah. It’s rare for me to make a mistake in mana detection, but it’s strange today~”
“Then now let’s go to the place I found…”
“In-wook! You have to give me a chance to make up for my mistake!”
Honestly, 30 minutes was enough time to find two 50-point mana stones.
Since we had already wasted about an hour and 30 minutes, I didn’t want to waste any more time.
“No, no. You must have worked hard concentrating too. I’ll do it this time.”
Ha-rin seemed to have some complaints, but she eventually accepted my suggestion.
“Okay. But there’s a condition!”
She’s already made a mistake, and now she’s setting conditions. Isn’t that too much?
But I couldn’t completely ignore my pair.
“Tell me first.”
“You have to find only 50-point ones and pick at least two for me!”
Well, it would be good to secure that much for our grades.
“Alright. I’ll give it a try.”
Fortunately, I succeeded in detecting two very small mana not far away.
The distance between the two mana stones was not even 50 meters.
I judged that even if Ha-rin’s condition was a bit strange, it wouldn’t hinder the search at all.
“Ha-rin. Can you feel the mana stones over there?”
She closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them and nodded.
“Yeah! Judging from the faint feeling, I think they’re 50-point ones, right?”
“Great. Then I’ll bring the mana stone on the other side. You go and pick up the one over there.”
“Okay! No problem! Oh~ You’re pretty good~”
Despite being much shorter than me, she patted my head a couple of times and walked in the direction I told her.
Then let’s get it done quickly.
I arrived at the spot where I felt the mana with quick steps and fumbled through the grass.
It should be around here… Come out quickly…
And not long after, I found a golden mana stone slightly larger than my fingernail.
Phew… I wonder if Ha-rin has found it by now?
I put the mana stone in my pocket and moved in the direction I sent Ha-rin.
“Ha-rin?”
It should be around here?
“Kyaaa!”
I heard Ha-rin’s urgent scream.
“What’s wrong!”
I instinctively started running right towards the direction of her scream.
And the moment I tried to push through the grass where she was supposed to be.
Suddenly, I felt like someone was pulling my leg, and I fell forward.
The place where my outstretched hand landed to regain balance was…
“In… In-wook?”
The distance between Ha-rin’s face and mine was a finger’s length. No, maybe even shorter than that.
“…Are you okay?”
“Ah… Yeah.”
“You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?”
I knew that she wouldn’t get hurt in the park, but I asked just to make sure.
“Yeah. But In-wook.”
“Yeah?”
“…It’s too close.”
Ha-rin, with her face flushed, turned her head away and spoke to me in a small voice.
Only then did I realize that I was talking to Ha-rin in a position that looked like I had pounced on her.
“Ah! Sorry!”
I got up from my spot and held out my hand to her.
Ha-rin didn’t refuse and grabbed my hand to get up and dust herself off.
“But what was the screaming about earlier?”
“…A bug.”
She answered me with a disgusted expression.
The Ha-rin in my previous life also had a fit whenever she encountered a bug.
[No, Ha-rin. How can you easily beat up monsters but can’t even move in front of a bug?]
[Bugs are gross, you know?]
No matter how you look at it, aren’t the monsters that look like bugs magnified hundreds of times more gross?
[…Then what about monsters?]
[Monsters are big!]
…I gave up trying to understand.
“That can happen.”
I comforted Ha-rin, who kept explaining how vicious and disgusting the bug she saw was.
“So. Did you find the mana stone?”
“Yeah!”
She handed me a golden mana stone that looked the same as the one I had.
“Good job. Then we now have a total of 120 points… I think this should be enough, right?”
“Right! I think it’s sufficient!”
Ha-rin nodded her head with a satisfied expression.
We returned to where the homeroom teacher was and submitted the mana stones.
“Hmm… It took quite a while for a pair that ranked 1st in the last practice. You two.”
I wanted to point my index finger and say ‘…It was because of her.’ but I held back.
“Still, 120 points is definitely in the upper ranks, so good job. Now go and play.”
“Yes~”
Since Ha-rin didn’t have any other plans like me, we moved to the bus stop while chatting.
But I remember Ha-rin never took the bus…
She always had a chauffeur, so she rode the bus and subway for the first time when she dated me.
Does the Ha-rin of this life use public transportation too?
“Ha-rin. Are you taking the bus too?”
“Yeah, yeah. It takes a while for the bus to my house to come. You go ahead and take it first.”
Her natural answer felt a bit unfamiliar.
“Okay. Then I’ll take this one.”
“Yeah~ Be careful on your way home. Thanks for today too~ In-wook!”
* * *
“You took all the photos, right? Mr. Butler.”
“Of course. Miss.”
I received the photos and started checking if each one was taken properly.
As planned, the photos contained an image of In-wook looking as if he had pounced on me.
And in the next photo that followed, there was In-wook looking at me with a deep gaze and me slightly turning my head with a flushed face.
Anyone who saw it would think I was a young lady whose first kiss had been stolen.
Good. I think this is enough?
“You’ve worked hard. Then please send these photos as they are to the address I gave you.”
I’m telling you, there’s no chance of winning against you.
Yoo Si-hwa.
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