Chapter 16 \n<h1>I Don’t Want to be an Ojakgyo (16)</h1>\n
“But these days, it’s nice that they’re not scared of me. I’m used to it, but it still hurts when someone obviously avoids me.”“Really.”
I didn’t really understand what he was talking about. Cory sat upright from his face-down position on the table. He poured himself a cup of milk and drank it, pausing to think before speaking.
“I’m not going to your class because of Hestia.”“I know, it’s because you have no friends.”
Cory spewed out his milk at my words. He glared.
“….I told you I have the prince.”
He said, as if giving an excuse. I nodded. Then, Cory glanced my way and responded.
“I have you too.”“And Hestia too?”“Stop teasing me.”
Cory wiped off his milk moustache and glared ferociously, but I didn’t find him scary at all anymore. Had I already gotten used to his face?
I huffed out a laugh at Cory’s cute actions, which were just second to the prince. I even comforted him.
“It’s okay, I don’t have a lot of friends either. That’s why I had such a hard time finding club members.”“Yeah. It looked like it.”
Y….you…..?
As if this was payback, Cory laughed as he responded. I smiled at his petty revenge, which was just about as effective as a bunny kick.
After finishing everything that I asked of him, Cory picked up a notebook with my notes on magic. I watched him.\nHe pulled out a worn notebook and a fountain pen with a warped tip, then drew out the magic circles in my notebook.
Cory didn’t hold his fountain pen properly, but instead grabbed it with a fist. Because of that, Cory seemed to be bad at drawing too. The magic circle resembled a bent potato, but because of his magic skills it seemed to work regardless.
A blue light emanated from his magic circle. Then, the magic circle drew itself midair, still emanating light. It looked like he had practiced this before: with ease, he stretched out the magic circle with both hands.
The enlarged magic circle was filled with ancient letters and math equations. He easily rearranged the information to make it easier to read.
Then, he wrote down the information from the magic circle on an empty piece of paper he had ripped from his notebook.
“You’re really doing your best.”
I felt proud watching as he studied. Cory was already almost done reading through my magic how-to notes. He definitely had a main character buff with how fast he was catching up to me.
Cory furiously scribbled down his notes, then nodded to himself. He held up the book that I had given him and opened his mouth.
“This thing is amazing.”
After complimenting me, Cory completed analyzing the magic circle and returned the circle to its original state. Then, he combined the water ball magic circle he knew before with the magic circle in front of him.
The magic circle, which was originally blue, turned red. The new circle in front of him was a muscle strengthening magic circle.
Cory took out a rock from his pocket and engraved the circle on it. When he gripped the circle in his fist, his skinny arm slowly grew bigger and more muscular.
He put down the stone after finding that he had succeeded. The magic on his arm slowly disappeared.
“There’s probably nobody else in the history of magic who would think to break down and rearrange magic. That means you can control basically every property within it. After figuring out the tips you gave me, it became easier to understand the magic circles created by my favorite magicians, too.”
In awe, Cory pocketed the stone back.
“Well, yeah. The only difference with magic is that the layout is different. It’s all the same in the end, though. If you know the principles, even complicated magic circles look easy.
Cory stared a hole through my face and then whined as he muttered.\n“Why did you go into swordsmanship? Class would be really fun if I could take it with you.
He pouted. I just laughed at his statement. Why did I go into swordsmanship….? Obviously, it was because I wanted a steady paycheck from the country.
My dream was to become a magic knight. I could study magic on my own, but because I wasn’t naturally born with physical talent, I had to put in just as much more effort.
I could enter the royal magicians’ research group, but because they were paid based off performance, it wasn’t as stable as a job. Moreover, royal magicians just didn’t receive the same treatment as knights.
And most of all, knights just looked cooler than magicians.
“Magic knights earn more money.”
When I gave him a short summary, Cory chuckled.
“I was curious about this since you talked about club money…. From what I know, the West family isn’t that poor. Why are you so concerned about money and your future?”“Oh, that’s….”
Why was I so concerned? From what others could see, my family really was fine, and so was my environment.
But situations could always change. There was no guarantee that tomorrow would be the same as today.
“That….. Well.”
I was about to respond to Cory’s question, but for just a moment. For a moment, I found myself caught in my past. Everything was based on my past life.
Even for me, I wasn’t trying to survive since birth.
In my past life, I had a pretty luxurious childhood. The child me had everything that I wanted. Even if I didn’t care about it, there were people who cared and loved me.
I grew up being loved by the people in my life, and I believed that the peace would last forever.
But everything changed in an instant.
At the age when I preferred chocolate milk over coffee, my country suddenly had an economic recession, and my father’s company went bankrupt.\n“………”
I recognized Cory’s voice calling me, but I couldn’t seem to move my mouth as I was deep in thought.
He could tell that the atmosphere had grown heavy. Cory had a strange expression on his face. He stared at me, suspicious, then sighed deeply.
“…..was my question too thoughtless?”
Cory mumbled to himself, voice too low for anyone else to hear. He scratched the back of his head, tangling his hair.
Once I was deep in thought, I couldn’t seem to stop thinking. It felt like I was in a deep ocean with no end in sight. My heart grew heavy as both my past and present coolided.
Suddenly, I thought of my younger siblings in my past life. I left them alone when I died. I felt pinned down by responsibility.
When I stayed deep in thought staring at the ground, Cory opened his mouth as he grabbed my shoulder.