chaapter 42
Lee Ha-eun clung to Ryu Ah-young with her characteristic friendliness.
Ryu Ah-young, flustered by her behavior, tried to pull away, but there was no way Eun-ha would just watch that happen.
After all, Lee Ha-eun even used magic to enhance her physical abilities in order to hold on to Ah-young, so there was no way she could escape.
‘…This feels strange….’
The Lee Ha-eun I remembered—Serenity—wasn’t someone with such an outgoing, friendly nature.
On the other hand, the Ryu Ah-young I remembered wasn’t this timid either.
‘If anything, it was the opposite….’
Serenity was always confident and dignified when she appeared in public or on the battlefield, but in her everyday life, she was shy to the point that even starting a conversation with others was hard for her.
Because of her personality, people even speculated that her self-sacrificing nature had been forced on her by those who expected it.
‘If I think back to before she entered elementary school, when she only ever spent time with me… this must mean my presence caused Lee Ha-eun’s personality to change.’
Meanwhile, the Ryu Ah-young I met at the academy had always been lively and sociable.
Not someone who timidly sat alone like now, but someone who was always surrounded by friends.
‘…Though, if she still hasn’t gotten over being bullied, then her timidness makes sense.’
Her twin, Ryu Ah-min, must be the same.
On the surface, it might look like he got close to people through soccer, but I’d heard he actually wasn’t very close with his classmates in elementary school either.
He only played soccer because the team lacked enough players.
That was what I was thinking when—
“Geon-woo! What’s ‘manifestation’?”
“Hm?”
“Ah-young says her ability is manifestation, but I don’t know what that means!”
“……”
It seemed that while I’d been lost in thought, Ha-eun had asked Ah-young about her ability.
And Ah-young had answered.
“It’s the power to project what you imagine into reality… though you probably don’t get it. Think of it as something like illusion magic.”
“Wow… isn’t that amazing?”
The Manifestation Ability.
From the way I explained it just now, it might sound like a very versatile power.
But that wasn’t the case.
The Manifestation Ability wasn’t as great as Ha-eun was imagining.
“But the thing is, illusions are obvious. You can’t really fool people with them.”
“Oh, that’s fake.”
Even people completely ignorant of magic or illusions instinctively sensed it.
That’s why the Manifestation Ability was often called nothing more than a cheap copy of illusion magic.
If the sole purpose was to obscure someone’s vision, it might be somewhat useful, but there were plenty of other ways to do that.
Illusion magic, on the other hand, didn’t just trick the eyes—it could deceive other senses too.
If Manifestation had any strength, it was that it was easy to use. But even that was limited, since its applications were so narrow.
At my words, Ah-young lowered her head.
…Now I just looked like the bad guy.
“…Then Ah-young can’t ever get stronger?”
Ha-eun asked on her behalf.
Well, I couldn’t just leave it at that.
Maybe I should reveal how, in the future, she and her twin would face off against hundreds of thousands of monsters on their own.
“If you use Manifestation by itself, yeah, it’s weak. But if you have another mage or esper supporting you… there aren’t many abilities with as much potential.”
“!”
“Really? How does that work?”
Ah-young, who had kept her head down, looked up at me in disbelief. Ha-eun, meanwhile, beamed with excitement as if it were her own achievement.
…Seriously, you two only just met today, right?
Thinking that, I dug into my memories of how Ah-young would eventually use her power in the future.
“For example… Ah-young could manifest a magic circle, and then use it to cast a real spell. Or manifest a building, then have it materialize.”
“…What do you mean by that?”
Ha-eun tilted her head, not understanding.
Ah-young was the same.
She knew her ability better than anyone, so she was quick to insist what I suggested was impossible.
“It won’t work… the magic circles don’t activate… and the buildings, people just walk through them….”
There were other Manifestation users in the world besides Ah-young.
They had surely tried to find ways to make use of it, but with no results.
And Ah-young knew this too.
But—
“Right. Normally, manifested circles don’t activate because they’re made of mental energy, not mana. And manifested buildings aren’t real because they’re built of thought, not matter. So they’re just illusions.”
That was only true for now.
“But if someone could inject mana into the manifested circle, or fill the manifested building with something physical, then it’s a different story.”
I asked Ha-eun to draw a shield magic circle.
She followed my instructions, drawing it out with mana. Once it was complete, I turned to Ah-young.
“You see the circle, right? Try manifesting it.”
“Uh… o-okay….”
She quickly manifested it.
Time taken? Barely half a second.
Since she was just copying what she saw, the speed was impressive.
Once her magic circle formed, I interfered with it.
‘Just like how I usually absorb ambient mana and convert it into internal energy….’
I converted the mental energy of her manifested circle into my own internal energy.
And though my internal energy wasn’t quite the same as mana, it was close enough to substitute for it.
Which meant—
Wooong….
The manifested shield naturally activated.
A soft glow surrounded Ah-young, and she just stared blankly at it.
I spoke so she’d hear clearly.
“This time, I only forced it to activate with Ha-eun’s help. But if you had an esper nearby who could convert mental energy into mana…”
At those words, Ah-young suddenly jumped up and bolted out of the room.
Of course.
Her twin, Ryu Ah-min, had the ability of Conversion.
He could transform different types of energy—mental power, mana, aura—into one another.
“…Um… I don’t really get it, but…”
Ha-eun, watching Ah-young dash away, turned to ask me—
“It worked out, right?”
“That’s right.”
…Still, what I’d given them was only the method for the twins to get stronger.
It wouldn’t solve the bullying.
All it meant was that Ah-young happened to encounter a fateful opportunity during this retreat.
That was all.
The training camp had a solid program prepared.
For me—someone who’d been through similar retreats in middle school and high school—it just felt recycled. But for elementary students who were new to it, it was surely a novel experience.
‘Especially things like drone-based games—you can only really try those here or in special drone-training programs.’
Later, in high school or at the academy, we’d go through Operator training and practice reconnaissance with drones.
Anyway, the program filled the afternoon quickly, and after dinner came recreation time.
It was held in the main hall where we’d first arrived, and included a talent show.
Our class won first place—me singing while other kids danced behind me—and the prize was fried chicken.
Which meant, after recreation, we got to enjoy chicken as a late-night snack.
“To our pride, Geon-woo!”
“Cheers!”
“Cheers!”
“…Where on earth did you kids learn that?”
It felt… way too inappropriate for elementary schoolers.
Granted, their cups were filled with soda, not alcohol.
Still.
I opened the window before the chicken smell settled into the room.
Cool night air flowed in, carrying the scent away.
Normally, that would have let in bugs—but—
Tak!
Pop!
I had already spread a barrier of internal energy over the window, burning any insects that tried to enter.
As I chewed chicken and gazed outside into the night breeze—
‘Huh?’
I spotted two figures with white hair out on the field.
Ryu Ah-young and Ryu Ah-min.
Flash!
Suddenly, countless magic circles bloomed across the ground.
Ah-young had used Manifestation.
‘She figured it out that fast?’
A normal mage could never create that many circles at once.
But Ah-young only had to imagine copying them.
Of course, her circles weren’t made of mana, so they normally wouldn’t activate—
Ziiing….
The circles began glowing in unison.
Light.
One of the most basic spells, useful in dark dungeons without illumination.
‘Spectacular.’
One circle just made a faint glow.
But dozens… no, hundreds of them together turned the pitch-dark field as bright as day.
This was why the twins became so powerful together.
Even the weakest spells, when multiplied by the hundreds, could rival high-level magic.
‘When they fought those hundreds of thousands of monsters, they unleashed hundreds of high-tier spells at once and scorched the battlefield.’
In my past life, I’d heard they only realized their potential after entering high school.
But now… they had discovered their path much earlier.
How far could they grow?
That thought crossed my mind as I watched the shocked teachers and staff rush outside to scold the twins.
Well, it made sense—no matter how harmless the spell, turning night into day with magic would definitely be a nuisance.
About two months after the camp.
I was at home, watching TV with my mother and Yeon Mirae.
[Our next story. Two children, only eleven years old, have received commendations for making a breakthrough in the esper community….]
‘…Hm?’
I wasn’t paying much attention—until I saw the photo of the children.
And froze.
Because they were the twins.
Ryu Ah-young and Ryu Ah-min.
[The twins, Ah-young and Ah-min, are espers with Manifestation and Conversion abilities respectively. Until now, Conversion espers had mainly worked in the energy industry rather than combat, while Manifestation espers struggled to find any use for their power. But thanks to the twins’ idea, the two types of espers discovered a way to substitute for powerful mages.]
“……”
[Their idea has provided employment for countless Manifestation and Conversion espers, and has freed up scarce mage resources for other uses….]
“……”
[Experts estimate that, thanks to the children’s breakthrough, humanity’s combat power will rise by roughly three percent….]
“……”
…Well.
That butterfly effect turned out bigger than I expected.
