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I am sorry for the late upload. I just dozed off on my desk while translating the chapter. The college has been hectic this days since final exams are coming.
Let me know what you think about the third POV in this chapter? I will translate the next Chapters based on your preference.
Chapter 10: The Underachiever of Class S (3)
Stella Academy’s campus was ablaze with commotion, and there was only one topic on everyone's mind.
“Did you hear that there were two students this year who resonated with upper-intermediate grade staff?”
“Crazy. Throughout the long history, there have only been five, and two more have appeared together in a single year."
“I heard the five of them went on to become grand mages…”
The two mentioned by them were none other than Ma Yu-Seong and Baek Yu-Seol.
“By the way, did you hear the story of Baek Yu-Seol?”
“He was said to have used flash in the magic skill demonstration Test. Isn’t that basic magic?”
“I didn’t even learn Flash. My parents said that flash is a kind of forbidden magic skill. It is said to be a rare trash skill with 99.99% chances of killing the mage who dares to use it.”
“I didn't learn it either. Isn’t it true that none of the professors teach that magic skill anymore? Recently, all uncontrollable magic skills have been labeled as forbidden magic.”
“…”
Hearing such rumors, Flame continued to rush through the hallway.
After academy hours, the ‘Self-Study Hall’ building was swarmed with students heading to the Training Facility, but they were only talking about Ma Yu-Seong and Baek Yu-Seol, which made her nervous.
“Flame! Are you going to study on your own?”
Upon hearing a familiar voice, she hastily masked her expression and turned around to find several girls with bright smiles approaching her.
Flame said with a mischievous smile, “You little ones, do I look addicted to studying?”
“Isn’t that the case? You always study as if you have nothing else to do.”
“I can’t believe it. These little brats have the guts to confront me.”
“We got it, right?”
“Ahaha! But why do you always look at us and call us little ones? We’re the same age.”
The words seemed to have stabbed Flame's heart. She turned stiff for a fleeting second but somehow struggled to remain calm and smiled gently.
“Well, I guess it might be because I am used to being an older sister back home."
After realizing she had transmigrated into a novel from a modern world, she could hardly act like a child.
“Then are you going to study alone today?”
A tall girl asked.
Flame leveled a gaze at her. The tall girl was named Jecky, and was someone she had known briefly in middle school. Upon entering Stella, they quickly became friends because Jecky was a commoner like her.
‘But how come you dress like me?’
She remembered the old Jecky as a timid kid with chubby cheeks and round specs, but after entering high school, Jecky started imitating her hair, tone, and fashion.
Flame was slightly concerned, but she moved on, thinking it might be the teenage hormones messing with her brain.
“Well, there’s no end to studying. I’m not alone,” Flame said. “There’s a special study class, so I’ll attend it.”
“St-Study session? You work so hard…”
“Anyway, I’m off.”
“Yes. Let’s go to a cafe together next time!”
After sending the girls away, she quickly turned around, intending to walk away, but someone's gaze happened to clash with hers.
It was Hae Won-Ryang, a boy with a sharp mind and crimson hair that oddly matched his purple eyes.
He was the heir to the Class 9 mage, the Tower Master of the Full Moon Tower, and an excellent mage on par with Ma Yu-Seong.
As soon as he found her, he came over right away.
“Are you going to study?”
“Uh.”
“You don’t look good. What’s going on?”
It was rare for him to be so genuinely concerned.
“Well, nothing really.”
Flame shook her head nonchalantly. Then, by chance, as she turned her head, her gaze happened to fall on a girl who had not yet left and was poking her head out of a wall to pry.
It was Jecky.
‘Her? Why is she still…?’
Jecky vanished so quickly that the eye contact felt like a short-lived dream. Flame, who was about to call her, awkwardly summoned back her outstretched hand and stroked the back of her head.
She had no choice but to walk in the hallway chatting with Ryang Hae-Won about worthless topics.
This hallway they were in was called the territory of Class S by the students as a joke because there was a dedicated Class S self-study hall and training facility.
“You’re going to the training facility, right?”
“You should not neglect your daily training.”
“You’re strangely diligent. If you work so hard, you might not live that long.”
“I don’t intend to live long.”
“Is that so? If you die, don’t call me to the funeral.”
“… Why?”
“I don’t like Yukgaejang. Prepare rice soup instead.”
“Hmm... I’ll do just that.”
After responding, Ryang Hae-Won's silhouette vanished into the training facility. Students who wanted to get some practical training skipped study sessions, as they were believed to be a gathering place for students with poor grades or individuals with more passion for studies than actual battles.
Of course, Flame did not go to the special study sessions just to study.
Princess Hong Bi-Yeon and Eisel were scheduled to attend the study sessions according to the original romance fantasy novel.
Perhaps there would be a confrontation between the protagonist and the villain. In addition to watching the show, there was one more reason for her visit.
This was because a new character, Baek Yu-Seol, who did not appear in the original novel, was scheduled to appear there.
‘Baek Yu-Seol…’
A boy who became a hot topic after conquering an upper-intermediate grade Teripon and a character that did not exist at all in the original novel.
‘Who the hell is that kid?’
She had read the original story three times and knew the setting in detail.
However, the name Baek Yu-Seol did not appear even once in the novel.
Even Teripon was said to be ownerless in the original story.
Also, the boy got the so-called devil's three questions right too easily.
As if he was trying to show off to someone.
'Hmm…'
‘… Maybe it was meant to be shown to me.’
'At the Staff Inheritance Ceremony, why did he talk to me? What on earth was he thinking behind that relaxed and sly expression?'
With that in mind, she arrived at the lecture hall where the special study sessions were being held. More than fifty students were already gathered there.
She slowly looked around.
The study session was organized by Kyle, a 17th-ranked boy who was theoretically among the top students in the academy.
Class A Kyle held study sessions for his classmates who lacked grades for a certain purpose, but since many students from Class S were attending the lecture, he had a dark expression.
Cold sweat dripped down Kyle’s signature specs, which were shining so brightly that Flame could not see his eyes.
‘… Is Ma Yu-Seong also attending?’
Eyes twinkling, Ma Yu-Seong sat beside Baek Yu-Seol who seemed bored. Eisel was sitting in the far corner, and Princess Hong Bi-Yeon was on the other side, maintaining her lofty personality.
Perhaps Hong Bi-Yeon came here to learn about the devil's three questions, and Eisel solely intended to study.
'I never thought that Ma Yu-Seong would come all the way here…’
If there were a male lead in this setting, it would have to be a person blessed by the world to a ridiculous extent; it could only be Ma Yu-Seong.
Yet Ma Yu-Seong seemed deeply interested in Baek Yu-Seol.
‘It’s not a coincidence.’
Clearly, Baek Yu-Seol was moving deliberately and very thoroughly.
He had even come to show her that he resonated with Teripon. It was clear that he was aware of her existence.
‘Besides, I heard that he did not touch any other questions except for the three questions in the Class Placement Test…?’
'How did he know that he could enter Class S by solving only the devil's three questions?'
‘Dangerous..’
With that thought in mind, she also took a seat, and Kyle, who hosted the event, slowly put on his specs.
‘Damn, why are these monsters in the special study sessions?'
Although Kyle was a commoner, he had gotten a very high rank. He thought he would use his position to live appropriately, so he tried to form connections by teaching the nobles of Classes F to D who had poor grades.
However, five students from Class S ended up attending the lecture.
‘… No, it’s not a bad thing. Rather, it is an opportunity.’
Among the five Class S students, that young boy, Baek Yu-Seol, especially stood out. He was known to have received the worst score in the Class Placement Test.
His grades were so poor that Kyle could not comprehend how he got into Class S.
What if he proved that he could teach the Class S students? The other students would have no choice but to surrender.
'Phew..’
Baek Yu-Seol exhaled a sigh. Next to him, Ma Yu-Seong pretended to be humble and spoke in his usual friendly tone.
“Yu-Seol, why are you here?”
Baek Yu-Seol did not want to come here either.
“You don’t need to listen to this. There’s a special reason, right?”
There was no such thing.
Baek Yu-Seol was compelled to attend because it was a warning to low-ranked students who performed poorly on the Class Placement Test.
'This is not the time…’
The [Episode 3 Staff Inheritance Ceremony], which started suddenly, was completed in a very special way, and receiving a lot of EXP was good news.
However, the worst thing was that it attracted unnecessary attention from the people around him.
Baek Yu-Seol’s peaceful academy life had been ruined.
What was even more annoying was that damn Teripon, which had put the limelight on his head, was now completely useless.
‘Why did you even come to me?’
Baek Yu-Seol had never seen a case where someone other than Flame was the owner of Teripon, so he was clueless about the intent of that wand.
“Come on. Let’s end the chatter and start the study sessions from now on.”
As Kyle knocked on the blackboard, some commoner students raised their heads, and the nobles pouted their lips as if displeased.
However, since his position was supported by professors, no students could challenge Kyle.
“Today, we’re going to check the problems on the Placement Test. As you know, in this placement test, there were infamous problems that have already been nicknamed as devil's three questions, and I solved one of them.”
Hong Bi-Yeon’s eyes twinkled at those words. It was the only reason she came to this place.
How the hell does one solve those three questions?
Only a student who succeeded in solving them could tell her, and as there was no one else she could ask, she simply came to this lecture.
The other students were also quite interested in the matter, so they too focused on Kyle. He was very satisfied with all the attention and raised his specs.
“Then, I will show you how to solve the problem first. This problem is actually close to a trap. It was created to induce incorrect answers by accident, but first of all…”
Some students took their notebooks and started taking notes, and Kyle’s solution was very plausible.
However, it was only plausible and not a proper solution. Ma Yu-Seong caught that point, blinked his eyes, and quietly tapped on Baek Yu-Seol’s shoulders.
“What do you think? Do you think that’s right?”
Baek Yu-Seol could not tell if that explanation was correct because he was not wearing Sentient Specs.
‘The devil’s three questions? What are you on about?’
Baek Yu-Seol did not come here to study, so keeping up with the conversation was difficult.
As a result, he gave a superficial response.
“I’m not sure.”
Baek Yu-Seol spoke softly, but the room was so quiet that most students heard him.
“Who is he?”
“It’s Baek Yu-Seol.”
“Ah… Him?”
The strange student who got all the other questions wrong but only got the devil's three questions right.
The fact that Baek Yu-Seol said, “I’m not sure…”
‘That…’
'… Are you saying that Kyle’s interpretation is wrong?’
That was what it meant.
In fact, Baek Yu-Seol got all three questions right, and although Kyle entered the academy with a perfect score in theory, didn’t he get only one question correct out of the three devil's questions?
Thud!
Kyle accidentally crushed the chalk he was holding.
Baek Yu-Seol looked at Ma Yu-Seong with complicated eyes. Although he was the one who created this atmosphere, he was smiling with his eyes, pretending not to know anything.
‘You bastard, did you do that on purpose?’
The character Ma Yu-Seong was originally like that.
Displeased, Kyle doubled down.
"Is my interpretation wrong, Baek Yu-Seol? Then why don’t you explain it yourself?”
“Ehhh…”
Baek Yu-Seol knew it would go like this. He looked at Ma Yu-Seong with resentment before putting on the Sentient Specs.
The devil's three questions.
Although they had been nicknamed as such, they were very close to being nonsensical.
To put the problem mildly, [The mage says, ‘Great Earth, conjure on my call!’ When he chanted this spell, the earth's mass doubled. What is the reason?]
The answer to this question was simple.
The earth elements clustered together, so the earth's mass was doubled.
It sounded absurd, but that was all there was to it.
However, Kyle analyzed the problem very mathematically.
When the spell was activated, the elements quickly bonded together under the catalyst, which was mana, and blah blah… then the earth has increased mass as a result…
That was the conclusion he arrived at.
Whatever the solution, it did not matter as long as the answer was correct.
It was a solution that would definitely help solve that one problem right away. However, the issue was that it would bother them again if a similar problem came up another time.
“I can’t show you how to solve it; I can only point out the mistakes.”
“… What?”
With the help of Sentient Specs, he pinpointed the mistakes in Kyle’s solution.
“The problem was presented with earth, but what if it was water or wind? Do you think your formula would apply then?”
“That’s… When that time comes, you can apply a different formula.”
“That’s the problem. Why do we have to apply different formulas for problems of the same nature? Shouldn't the solution be changed instead of trying a myriad of formulas?"
“Your solution was a pure fluke. To be honest, it’s an interpretation that doesn’t fit the examiner’s intentions at all. No formulas or runes are needed to solve this problem. But you forced your knowledge into it.”
Baek Yu-Seol knew little about magic, so he pointed out only the core part marked on the Sentient Specs.
“If you change this part here, your solution is complete nonsense. How would you explain it?”
At that moment, he did not know if Kyle succeeded in solving this problem by coincidence, but he would not be able to solve it when another similar problem arose.
There was no need for complicated explanations.
Because he just had to prove that Kyle’s solution was wrong.
“Ah…!”
“That’s true…”
The intelligent students understood Baek Yu-Seol’s words and began to note them down.
Flame was also quite surprised, but she remained as calm as possible. Instead, she looked at Eisel and Hong Bi-Yeon.
'… Shouldn’t there be a confrontation?’
Originally, they were going to have a fierce quarrel in that place. However, since neither Eisel nor Hong Bi-Yeon could solve the problem he had just pointed out, they were distracted by the solution.
'Is it really okay to think positively about this situation in which the villain and the protagonist do not fight?'
‘…No, let’s think positively.'
Kyle stood there in shock, his mouth hung wide open.
‘Am I… wrong…?’
Kyle realized that his explanation was wrong, so he bowed his head.
And he honestly admitted it.
“Your words… You’re right."
“Is that so?”
Even though his explanation had been completely debunked, Kyle didn’t get angry and appeared to be overcome with self-doubt.
“Maybe I was lucky enough to solve this problem…”
The special study sessions were over shortly after that, and Baek Yu-Seol left the classroom faster than anyone else.
Not only did he not want to be in this stuffy and damp space anymore, but being with Ma Yu-Seong was too burdensome.
“I’ll see you tomorrow!”
Leaving behind Ma Yu-Seong’s energetic farewell, he walked down the tattered hallway.
‘If I get caught by a guy like him by mistake…’
He didn’t know how the situation escalated just by holding a staff like Teripon.
As people slowly became scarce, Baek Yu-Seol was about to return to the dormitory, but in the corner of the hallway leading to the men’s dormitory, someone was standing with her back leaning against the wall.
Princess Hong Bi-Yeon Adolevit.
‘What?’
Baek Yu-Seol tried to pass by, pretending not to know her, but she stopped before him.
“What?"
“Back there, why didn’t you explain the solution?”
It was not that he did not want to explain it. It was just that he couldn’t.
‘How on earth does someone logically explain such a nonsense question?’
In fact, the solution he revealed could not be applied to other problems.
“I just didn’t have anything to say…”
“I see. I understand. You didn’t want to reveal your solution in such a place, did you?”
'Eh.'
It was not like that. However, Hong Bi-Yeon nodded her head as if she understood him.
“Okay. You need a price, don’t you?”
“What? Price?”
“Yes,” she said, tapping herself on the head.
“I’ll give you a fair price, so show me how it’s done.”