NOVPUB[We apologize for the inconvenience caused by ongoing restoration across the Academy.]
[However, there will be no changes to the Academy’s schedule.]
[Please finalize your participation decisions for each event as soon as possible.]
An alert pinged—an official announcement that the festival schedule would go on unchanged.
Just like I thought. Exactly the same as it was in the game.
And of all the upcoming events, the biggest one was obviously the Academy Festival.
They’d bring in famous singers, host guest lectures from prominent figures across various cities, and set up booths—it was a full-blown celebration.
But, of course, in a game centered around an academy, it would never end with just that.
There was always one key gameplay element players latched onto: the Academy Festival Tournament.
You could enter it in one of two ways.
One: form a team with characters whose affection points you’d raised before the festival started and join the team battle.
Two: sign up solo for the one-on-one tournament.
Both routes offered their own rewards, so naturally, players had every reason to participate in both.
Especially because those rewards? Way better than you'd expect.
But that was back when the player was the protagonist of the world.
I’m well aware—I’m not the main character here.
Even among the core characters, someone like Yoon Siwoo has power that feels downright broken.
And even he might be out of my reach right now.
Strength, magic, traits—I fall short in every category. That’s just reality.
But...
I’m not giving up.
I’m sick of being poor.
Sure, it’s annoying when people start paying attention to me. But the festival tournament rewards are more than worth the trouble.
Which means the first ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) thing I need to do now is convince Charlotte.
It won’t be easy... but it has to be done.
Charlotte’s spellcasting speed is faster than any other mage in the entire game.
There’s a catch—you only get to see that power if you max out her affection points.
But as far as I know, she’s one of the highest-ceiling characters in the entire game.
Still, she’s not exactly suited for combat yet.
Her personality, her ideals, her dreams—none of it lends itself to hurting others. She’s too soft, too gentle. She wouldn’t last.
But I’ve brought her along as a core party member in nearly every single run. So I’ve already figured out another route.
If she can’t attack—then specialize her in defense.
They say the best defense is a good offense, sure—but that only applies when a single blow ends the fight.
In a team format, it’s way more efficient to split roles—let one person attack while another handles defense.
And in that realm, Charlotte is a goddamn monster.
She struggles with drawing complex magic circles from scratch. But when it comes to dispelling ones drawn by others? Instant.
Like how it’s easier to ruin a painting than to make one yourself.
That’s why so many players started calling her “The Queen of Counter-Calculations.”
If she’s seen a spell even once, it’s over. She recognizes the structure, runs the inverse, and dispels it before it even finishes forming.
And if Hellicia—the other genius mage—is expected to participate?
Then Charlotte becomes her direct counter.
I’m not expecting her to attack.
All I want is for her to break down the enemy’s spells. To defend like an impenetrable fortress.
Convincing her won’t be easy. But... I’ll try my damned best.
****
A small room, walls covered in a maze of geometric shapes.
At the center, a girl with chestnut-brown hair scrawled even more symbols and glyphs onto paper. Her eyes never stopped moving.
The way she perceived the world... was fundamentally different from others.
She saw everything—the shimmer of rain on the window, the pattern of clouds drifting across the sky, the hum of insects echoing before dawn.
And she remembered it all, quietly burying it deep in her mind.
Things others easily forgot—envy, jealousy, worry, rage, joy—Charlotte remembered.
When she opened her eyes each morning, the flood of information was relentless. A blessing, maybe, to someone else.
But for her, it meant nothing.
If I had a power like that...
Who the hell does she think she is? Showing off?
The first time she showed her ability to her mother, she’d smiled.
But Charlotte had seen it—the faint gleam of envy behind those eyes.
When she began to explain her theories and dreams using her gift, she saw how others turned away.
It hurt.
It was sad.
To remember everything you felt since the moment you were born... that kind of life was exhausting.
No matter how hard she tried to forget, the pain of loss—those raw sensations—never went away.
And that’s why she had no choice but to fall into magic.
The massive sea of knowledge, the infinite patterns of calculation—when she lost herself in it, she didn’t have time to recall anything else.
She calculated. She drew shapes.
Magic didn’t lie.
It didn’t hate, didn’t hurt, didn’t betray.
She simply existed there, unchanged.
And because she was unchanging, she began slowly filling the countless memories buried under time with the one thing she loved most—the one thing she truly cared about.
As she quietly let go of the rest of the world, withdrawing from all interaction, and began to be forgotten by others herself—
She met someone.
For the first time, eyes so pure, so radiant, looked straight at her without a trace of negativity.
Charlotte’s world had always been infinite—a vast space filled with restrained knowledge, yet ultimately hollow.
And that day, for the first time, someone else stepped into that space. A space no one had ever tried to understand before.
And maybe it was the first time in her life that someone had shown her such pure, intense kindness. Her voice trembled. She had no choice but to speak—to speak, after so long.
It didn’t help that her vocal cords were out of practice from barely using them.
It was a little overwhelming, too. The attention didn’t seem to be about magic itself, but about her. Still... to have a friend? A real friend, for the first time?
Her heart couldn’t help but race.
“Hehe... a friend...”
And more than that—Esha was someone who understood how beautiful magic circles really were.
The smooth arcs of perfect circles. The layered complexity of dozens—hundreds—of interlocking glyphs and patterns.
To hand-draw a magic circle was to sketch a miracle. As long as you had enough time, even someone with no talent at all could create something wondrous.
These days, everyone seemed obsessed with chantless casting or formless spells—faster, stronger, more efficient, they said.
But that wasn’t the essence of magic.
“...That’s not cool at all...”
A massive circle, the size of an arena, spread across the earth—binding a horde of monsters.
A second circle activates to seal them.
And a third unleashes a burst of fire that incinerates them all.
Then, applause. The roar of the crowd. A hero’s welcome.
“He... hehe...”
What could be cooler than that?
Sure, chantless casting was fast. Charlotte could do it too if she wanted. But without the grandeur of the circle—what was the point?
Of course... she knew she probably wouldn’t get the chance.
Even if she saved people, nobody would know.
But still, sometimes, Charlotte allowed herself to dream. Just a little. Of being a hero.
Screeeak—
Lost in her thoughts, imagining heroic grandeur, she heard the sound of someone entering.
Naturally, there was only one person who’d bother coming here.
“Charlotte! How’ve you been?”
“Ah... um... good...”
“First things first—here, take this!”
“...What is it?”
“The chocolate I promised! I got the best I could find—at least, as far as my wallet would allow!”
“Ooh...!”
A gift. From a friend.
She remembered the chaos of that attack, but she never thought Esha would actually follow through.
Charlotte’s eyes sparkled as she tucked the treat carefully into her pocket.
“Th-thank you... so much...”
“Honestly, for what you did back then, I should’ve brought way more.”
“N-no... Esha... I actually had fun...”
Esha looked apologetic, but the truth was, Charlotte had enjoyed drawing that grand spell circle more than she’d expected.
Normally, she’d have no reason to draw something like that—and even if she did, she wouldn’t have the courage to activate it.
But because Esha had asked her—no, because Esha believed in her—she’d managed to pull it off.
Then Esha pulled out a folded piece of paper from her pocket.
“Oh, right—have you heard about the upcoming event?”
“E-event...?”
“There’s a thing during the festival. A team tournament. And I was wondering... would you want to join me?”
“Uh... is it... like... fighting...?”
“If it sounds like too much, I totally get it. You don’t have to—”
If she were alone, she wouldn’t even consider it.
She was scared. Too nervous. The idea of people watching her—it was suffocating.
But if someone else was there with her...
If she could show the beauty of magic—the kind only she could draw, by hand...
“Y-yes! I-I’ll do it!!”
“...Seriously?”
“Y-yeah...!”
Maybe, just maybe... if it was with this person, she could do something she’d thought was impossible.
****
Wow.
“Y-yeah... I-I’ll do it...!”
“...Wait, seriously?”
That actually worked.
Way easier than I thought it’d be.
I just stood there, blinking, not sure whether to be amazed or concerned.
