/
I should probably just leave. It was a little sad, but I was still bad at controlling my strength, so if I went to help, the gangster would end up disabled. Honestly, it was also a bother.
I was sorry for the white-haired boy with a blue complexion, but it’s intuitive in a civil servant’s to ignore annoying things. Forgive me for being a powerless small citizen.
“Is it over if you are sorry!? Since my arm is broken, hand over 3000 pelks!”
The gangster, who was muttering something that sounded familiar, threw a punch towards the boy. In an instant, I came in between the boy and the gangster, and with one hand deflected the punch and lightly pushed the gangster.
Boom!
The gangster slammed into the wall and bounced off while vomiting blood.
“Ack!”
One gangster looked at his mate who had flown into the wall, while the other gangster cried out while pointing a finger at me.
“What-what’s happening! Where did you come from!?”
Dang, things just became bothersome! Still, the condition of the gangster who threw up blood and fell down seemed much better than the ones I met at Granwell.
When I didn’t answer, the bully who had yelled at me spat out a curse.
“This XX is ignoring me?”[1]
Huh, it seemed too much to curse considering I’m the lifesaver of that nameless gangster who threw up blood and fell. The reason I came in between the white-haired boy with a black umbrella standing behind me and the gangster was purely out of concern for the gangster’s life.
Just as the gangster tried to swing his fist at the white-haired boy, the boy clenched his eyes shut as if he were scared, and tried to punch. If I hadn’t stepped in, the gangster who fell onto the floor would have been killed by the white-haired boy. That fist contained enough power to kill the gangster in front of him like an insect.
To reiterate, I am that gangster’s savior. And you are pointing a finger at me like that.
I grabbed the finger of the gangster who pointed at me and bent it.
Snap!
“AHHHH!”
Oh, I was going to bend it only a little, but I broke his finger. But it was his left hand, so it’s ok.
If you’re left handed, then sorry. Please become right handed.
I turned my attention away from the gangster holding his left hand and sobbing, and towards the other gangster who had been looking at the fallen gangster.
“Hiik - !”
The gangster that panicked in response seemed familiar. Where have I seen that gangster again?
Ah! Granwell!
Yeah, I thought I had seen this gangster somewhere. He was the one I met when I’d disguised myself as the middle-aged man with the scar. He’s the gangster who promised to sell me his acquaintance, but ran away without introducing him.
His pupils violently trembled in response to my shout. That gangster was definitely the one I met in Granwell. As I happily took a step towards the gangster, he peed his pants.
“Please spare me, please spare me, please spare me!”
As if I’d triggered a traumatic experience, he muttered, pleading for his life with a desperate face. As I walked another step towards the gangster, he was stunned, returned to his senses, then ran away while screaming.
“Ahhhhhhh!”
I tried to chase after the fleeing gangster but suddenly someone grabbed hard onto my clothes.
“Heuh, heuk, thank you very muuuuch!”[2]
Behind me, a white-haired boy with a black parasol cried and thanked me.
Could you just pick one- either cry or say a greeting? No, but first, could you let go? I need to go make the guy, who doesn’t keep promises, one with the wall.
I swallowed what I wanted to say, and instead took out a piece of candy from my pocket and handed it to the white-haired boy.
“Do you want to eat it?”
“Yeeessss!”[3]
Could you just pick whether to cry or reply?
The white-haired boy put the candy in his mouth even as tears kept falling. I think giving him the candy was a good thing. Even if a little, he became quieter.
Oh, come to think of it, where did the sobbing gangster go? Aha, he is crawling away over there.
Realizing he had been found, the gangster got up and started running. He was running well even though it probably hurt his broken finger to run.
“Taaans. Iwasfraid. Thaaan-.”
You can’t even talk properly because you are crying, and now you have a candy in your mouth. What are you even saying?!
“Hey, can you take the candy out then talk?”
Maybe the white-haired boy didn’t want to spit it out because he chewed and then swallowed it.
“Thank you very much. I was suddenly surrounded by scary people. Heuk.”
It was my first time seeing such a crybaby. He had almost as many tears as a sea sponge. But besides that, I wondered if he was even sane to get intimidated by people weaker than himself.
“All right, then since it’s been resolved, I’m going to go now.”
I was planning to go after the gangster that I met again, but the white-haired boy grabbed my clothes again.
“What now?”
The white-haired boy replied hesitatingly, “Um, um, the knight school… Which direction is it?”
“The knight school?”
Turns out, this crybaby and I were heading towards the same destination. I was thinking of ditching him because it was a bother, but the way his eyes looked at me so pitifully made me sigh.
“I’m also on my way there, so I can guide you. Follow me.”
I took the lead after telling him. On the way, the white-haired boy curiously asked about a bunch of things.
“Um excuse me, are you also on your way to take the knight school entrance exam?” The white-haired boy asked a ridiculous question.
I couldn’t understand how he would think that such a frail person like myself would try to enter a macho school that stank of sweat? Of course, an intellectual magic school was a different case. Also, he used the informal ‘you’.[4]
“Huh? No I’m not. Also, the ‘you’ was informal. Why don’t you just decide if you want to speak formally or informally?”
The white-haired boy replied with a bright smile, “Ok, I’ll speak informally.”
“No, I didn’t mean you should speak informally… Ehew, whatever!”[5]
Although I was a little confused, it didn’t really matter since I spoke informally first. Especially since it didn’t seem like we would meet again after I showed him the way.
“By the way, how are you so strong when you aren’t even trying to get into the knight school?”
I debated whether or not I should answer the white-haired boy. Even if I were to reply, I couldn’t just say, “Yea, it’s because I’m a member of the Crow Tribe, one of the battle races, so I was born with the ability to slaughter others.”
“— It’s hard to listen when you say I’m strong for taking down three barely third-rate gangsters.”
I answered vaguely to make it seem like I was fully answering, without revealing the truth. Like an ambiguous relationship of more than a friend but less than a lover. But it didn’t seem like the white-haired boy accepted that answer.
“But they seemed dangerous, and scary, and, and—”
The white-haired boy, saying the same words while searching for others, seemed to lack a lot of vocabulary.
“And there are more of them?”
He clapped his hands, saying that was what he also thought. “Yea! More of them! Anyways, how are you so strong?”
It started to become quite burdensome when he asked with sparkling eyes.
“It’s not that I’m strong but that those gangsters were weak. Besides, you’re probably stronger than those gangsters too?”
Like a startled rabbit, he stared at me with startled eyes.
“I am?!”
His red eyes made him seem more like a rabbit.
“Yes, you seemed stronger than them.”
The punch thrown out with closed eyes didn’t look strong, but the magic power naturally contained in the fist made it powerful. But his punch was a mess, like someone who only trained and didn’t have any real experience.
“Strong? I am?”
The white-haired boy was happy but didn’t seem to know what to do from embarrassment. He looked as if he had just been recognized for all that he had.
“Hey, perhaps, do you think I can get accepted in the knight school?” he asked with a nervous face.
I answered honestly. “Maybe? I don’t know.”
To be exact, it was none of my business. A disappointing aura surrounded the white-haired boy as he looked depressed. Because it seemed like I’d killed the spirit of the guy taking the exam today, I felt a twinge in my conscience.
“However, if you’ve worked hard and don’t get scared, I’m sure you’ll get in.”
With a guilty conscience, I added more. Then, the surrounding disappointing aura disappeared, and the white-haired boy looked at me with a bright face.
“Really?”
“Well-”
“Really, really, really, really!?”
The white-haired boy suddenly shoving his face towards me like an excited puppy made me panic and push his face away.
“Yes really, so, back off!”
What! His face being shoved towards me was unexpectedly strong? Is this brat perhaps a battle race?
“Oohk!”
The pronunciation became squished as I pushed his face but he smiled brightly.
While we were talking about random stuff, we arrived at the front gate of the knight school. I went through the front door while waving my hands in order to finally part with this bothersome guy.
“Find your own way from here.”
I went towards the magic school. Although the school was attached to it, I had to go around a little as the school ground was large. Right then, the white-haired boy stopped me.
“Wait!”
He struggled in embarrassment.
How should I describe it? It was like watching a rabbit that had fallen into water.
“Excuse me, um, so, please become my friend!”
What the white-haired boy barely managed to say was something like what a mixed-race transfer student would bravely say in a cartoon. To think that I would hear something like this in real life.
“What’s your name?”
The embarrassed white-haired boy brightened up and replied, “Ah, Alphonso.”
What are you supposed to say in a situation like this? Well first, let’s try something that I saw in a cartoon.
“I’m Den. Let’s meet again if fate allows.”
For some reason, it was very embarrassing. I felt like a squid placed on a stone stove. My pace got faster in proportion to the shame. Becoming friends is something that happens without knowing. If fate allows, then we will become friends, but it doesn't, then we won’t. I headed to the magic school library.
It sounded like the white-haired boy shouted “Okay!” with a delay, but I was already far away so I wasn’t sure. Rather, I should get away quickly from the dark history that I had just created.
When I arrived at the magic school library and looked at the clock, there was still quite some time before the magic school’s entrance exam. It seemed like I could leave after leisurely reading a book or two. The magic school was mostly made up of children of nobility or members of the magic tower, so security was strict.
Entering the library required two identity checks (once when entering the school and once in front of the library), and one check for weapons and other dangerous items.
It felt like an immigration check at an airport. After barely stepping into the magic school library, I scanned the inside. I was expecting a scene like that of a magic school library somewhere in England, but the scene inside was pretty ordinary. Still, compared to the average college library in my previous life, the size was 4 to 5 times bigger.
1. The author just uses “XX” for curse words.
2. These are kind of just emotional/weeping sounds that Alphonso made in response to being helped.
3. Alphonso says yes while still crying so it sounds funny.
4. Although he is speaking formally, Alphonso used the informal ‘you’. In Korean there is the formal/honorific form vs informal (casual) form for words.
5. Ehew is like a sighing sound.