Chapter 51

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Translated by Sylph

Read only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net.

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Evi recalled the mana stone she had received from Professor Sian.

Last night, too, she had fallen asleep comfortably without fear, thanks to the light of that mana stone.

The mana stone emitted a soft light and warmth by Evi’s bedside until morning.

It wasn’t just that she could fall asleep easily.

When she occasionally woke up at night wanting to go to the bathroom, the light was just enough to see her surroundings, making it easy to move about.

It was a fascinating stone the more she looked at it.

When she touched it, it would glow, and when she touched it again, the light would disappear. So when she went to class, she left it with the light turned off.

Irene had told her that glowing all day wouldn’t be a problem for the mana stone’s magical power, but she still worried about what if the power disappeared.

‘Come to think of it, I should finish writing the letter to the Professor.’

She had received a precious gift, so she couldn’t just be happy about it.

‘The Director said that if you receive a gift, you must say thank you.’

So she thought she should go find Professor Sian.

However, no matter how much she searched the Gifted Center’s guidebook, she couldn’t see Professor Sian’s office, let alone his name.

As if he were a person who didn’t exist.

‘That can’t be.’

The person she met in front of the graveyard in the forest definitely said he was Sian Roshen.

Furthermore, that name was on her guardian list, and he even sent a gift. Along with the handkerchief she had forgotten.

All of that couldn’t be a dream.

‘The people at the academic affairs office also said they didn’t really know.’

“Hmm… he is a professor who is registered, but his office and address are not clear. It probably happened because he hasn’t been in the capital for long and his address isn’t definitive. I’ll let you know as soon as it’s confirmed.”

Evi, agonizing over what to do, decided to write a letter.

She intended to send it as soon as she received the address later.

Returning to her room, Evi took out the paper she had put in the drawer.

It was the wrapping paper that had packaged Irene’s gift box.

“You want this? Giving it isn’t a problem, but… what are you going to use it for?”

Irene looked at her with eyes that seemed to ask what on earth she was going to do with the wrapping paper.

Paper with various types of flowers and trees printed on a beautiful base color.

Evi pressed it with a thick book to flatten the wrinkled parts, and the next day, she cut it to the size of a notebook.

‘It was perfect to use as stationery.’

The Gifted Center provided stationery as well, but she wanted to write and send a letter on prettier paper.

Evi, who had taken out the paper, sat at her desk.

“Ummm…”

She saw the letter she had stopped writing yesterday.

After looking at it for a long time, Evi put the paper she was using yesterday back in the desk and took out a new sheet.

However, the hand holding the pen could not move easily.

It was a strange thing. Letters to the Director were written easily and smoothly as if she were speaking.

So hadn’t she written as many as three pages yesterday?

She tried to write a letter to Professor Sian again, but it still didn’t write well.

Just in case, Evi took out the stationery she was using to write to the Director yesterday and tried to continue writing it.

Today was also full of stories to write.

The story of how not only herself but also Irene, Arcel, and Ruska came to take Professor Malles’s class together.

The story of having a meal with them and trying dishes she had never seen before, and how Arcel and Ruska eat an incredibly large amount compared to how they look.

The white paper was filled with writing in an instant.

A letter to the Director was written so well, so why did the letter to Professor Sian barely progress?

Time passed while Evi was struggling with the paper.

In the end, she put down the pen, approached the bed, sat on the edge, and looked at the mana stone.

When she reached out and touched it, it emitted light as if it had been waiting.

Evi picked up the mana stone, held it in her chest, and lay on the bed.

Even though it had only been a few days since she received it, it had become familiar as if they had always been together.

To the point where she worried if she could fall asleep without it now.

Evi, who was fumbling with the mana stone, sat up at the feeling of her hand becoming hot.

“…!”

A strange mark had appeared on the back of her hand again.

Startled, she hurriedly covered the back of her hand with her sleeve and looked around.

Even though she knew very well it was her room, Evi only carefully examined the back of her hand again after confirming several times that she was alone.

As expected, she hadn’t seen wrong.

The mark on the back of her hand had become dark enough that anyone would immediately say something was on it.

‘Why is it doing this? It was definitely very faint when I saw it last, and it seemed like it would disappear soon.’

Evi tried to rub the back of her hand with her clothes. But there was no way it would be erased like that.

“What should I do…”

She had forgotten for a while that she had such a thing, so why did it suddenly appear again?

When she lived at the inn, there was a person who got a disease and marks like stains appeared on their body.

At that time, the innkeeper spat at that person, saying it was disgusting and dirty.

If the people at the Gifted Center find out I have such a thing, will they curse at me like that person? Will they spit?

‘I hate that.’

The image of Irene, Arcel, and Ruska, with whom she had lunch, came to mind.

They treated her so kindly and warmly, but if they find out I have such a strange thing…

Evi looked at the mark on the back of her hand resentfully and agonizing over how she could erase it.

‘It used to appear when I was sick or went to a scary place.’

Why did it appear now when it’s not even like that?

Evi, who was distressed while agonizing for a long time, lay on the bed while hugging the mana stone and curling up.

‘Please…’

Wishing that this wouldn’t appear when she was with other people.

When Evi’s eyes closed, the pattern on the back of her hand flashed for a moment and began to take a precise form, not just a simple stain.

After taking its shape on the back of Evi’s hand for a long while, it began to fade gradually as if its strength had been exhausted for today.

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“Ummm…”

Evi raised her body from where she had been lying face down.

It seemed she had fallen asleep before she knew it.

Looking out the window, the sky had already begun to be dyed red.

Recalling why she was sleeping in her room, she remembered that the mark on the back of her hand had appeared.

“Huh?”

She checked hurriedly, but the back of her hand was clean as if such a thing had never existed.

“What a relief…”

She didn’t know why, but Evi let out a sigh of relief at the fact that it had disappeared for now.

Perhaps she had had a dream.

Rising from the bed and looking at the clock, it seemed there was about an hour left before Irene returned.

While she was thinking whether to preview other classes or read a book, the wind came in through the open window.

At that moment, Evi remembered the day she met Professor Sian.

‘It was this time then, too…’

The moment she thought that far, Evi jumped up from her seat.

Evi, who went out of the dormitory, ran toward the place where she had met him.

A cool breeze brushed Evi’s parched hair. The hair fluttering in the wind tickled her cheeks.

Somehow, it felt like the wind was pushing her back.

As if telling her to go quickly.

After entering the sparsely populated walking trail, she found the small path she had seen.

‘It was around here…’

Soon, Evi easily found the path in the bushes like a small tunnel.

Shortly after Evi popped inside, the bushes shook in the wind, and the path that had been there until a moment ago disappeared.

As if no others could pass now.

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Clois was busily moving his hand.

*Scribble, scribble.* In the midst of the room filled only with the sound of a pen moving over paper, the Minister of State, who was preparing the next documents next to him, coughed briefly.

At that sound, Clois finally looked up and looked at the Minister of State.

“Why don’t you take a rest?”

“I am fine. It was just a brief tickle.”

“Don’t be like that and sit down. Since a person of advanced age stands next to me and prods me every day, even if I am the Emperor, my heart is not at ease.”

When Clois urged him to sit again, only then did the Minister of State bow his head once, put the documents down on a nearby table, and sit.

Then he said to Clois.

“All sorts of things happen.”

“What do you mean?”

“Usually I was the one who suggested rest to Your Majesty, but today it is the opposite.”

“Was it so?”

“Yes. But you rarely rested.”

“My, my. Saying it like that makes me sound like a tyrant who ignores all of your loyal advice.”

At Clois’s retort, a smile hung on the Minister of State’s face.

Lately, Clois looked very much at ease.

‘Until a few weeks ago, he looked truly precarious.’