Chapter 108
In a dark, windowless room, three large doors glowed with different colors of light, giving her a mysterious and frightening feeling.
On each door was a short word in a different language.
Were they written by magic?
The question was…
“… Why does it all read?”
She nervously stared at the door.
[It was hard to pretend I didn’t know the answer when I saw the words “poor,” “unlucky,” and “positive”.]
She opened the “positive” door just to be sure, and three more doors appeared in the room.
This time, the same magical words appeared, but they were longer.
[Whoever opens this door is a fool of the world].
[Whoever opens this door is bald].
[In front of this, blessed].
“Bald? How could you put such an evil curse.”
For some reason, the magic in the words was off-putting.
“But why does it actually read?”
Come to think of it, she hadn’t had trouble reading anything since she remembered her previous life.
She used to swipe books from the library and read them because she didn’t feel any discomfort in reading the text…
‘Uh, come to think of it, I didn’t learn to read on my own, did I?’
Did she get a real language patch?
She opened the door to the blessing with a tinge of annoyance. She didn’t get a real blessing, but the next room came up.
Part of her wanted to get out of there quickly, but the curses on the door were getting more and more explicit, vicious, and poignant.
‘I recognize these characters. It’s Soviet.’
As the sentences grew longer, so did the language used.
Ancient divine languages, the basis of divine magic, and Selonian, the basis of the magic circle.
But she could read it easily enough.
“Hmm.”
She guesses she’ll have to drop out of this one.
She stared at the curse words, trying to decide which one was better.
Snap.
The sound of the door opening made her turn around and see a pink head.
“Oops.”
“Uh.”
Chloe.
Why is she here?
She blinked in confusion, not expecting to see anyone here, but Chloe greeted her first.
“Hi.”
“Hi.”
She’s so sociable.
She smiles back at her, and then stumbles over Arellin words.
The reason she felt uncomfortable even though she felt close to her because of the inner intimacy she had built up through the novel is because she’s ugly, right?
‘If Chloe were me, I’d act like she’s not afraid.’
Chloe is a ray of sunshine.
She envied her bright, bubbly personality, her unapologetic, unshadowed attitude and behavior.
She never envied or felt inferior to anyone in her life…
Strangely, standing next to Chloe, her shoulders slumped.
“We ran into each other at the palace the other day, didn’t we?”
“Uh-huh. I think we did.”
“I’m Chloe.”
“Arellin.”
Yes, this was especially true of this one, sneaking up on Arellin so quickly.
She guessed she’d felt the same way about Pession.
“I’m so surprised, I only came in because Master told me to, but I didn’t expect to meet anyone here!”
‘Why is she so friendly to me, someone she’s only met twice? Is it natural?’
She’s from a completely different race than her, who has to meet someone three or four times before she can say hello.
She wants to be like Chloe.
‘If I had that kind of personality, I wonder if I could have been loved by my mom…’
She smiled faintly at the passing thought.
It was a meaningless assumption now, but the ugly part of her clawed at it like an echo.
It was okay, Mehen liked her the way she was.
“I’m here with friends.”
“Oh, I see!”
Chloe smiled prettily.
It was the kind of smile that made the whole world seem brighter.
“You can feel the magic when you come this far! Maybe you can be a wizard.”
“I see.”
It was a strange feeling to be faced with an idealized version of herself that she couldn’t possibly be, even if she were reborn.
‘Was this who I wanted to be?’
“Are you a wizard?”
“Yes. I met my master last winter, and now I’m in my apprenticeship.”
Chloe excitedly told Arellin the story of how she met her master without Arellin asking.
‘Am I really supposed to be listening to this?’
She questioned herself, but she was also overwhelmed by a strange emotion because it was her first time talking to Chloe up close.
It was the first time she felt a vague longing.
Even as she read it in print, she remembered thinking many times that she really wished she had a personality like hers.
‘But…’
She knows now.
All those years of suffocating to death to conform to her mom’s ideal, the exhilaration of the moment when she was finally allowed to be her.
“Oh, sorry, that wasn’t fun, was it? I was so excited. I didn’t realize I was going to meet a friend here.”
“It’s okay.”
“Really? Arellin is so nice.”
Chloe blushed and said shyly.
“You know, since it’s such an amazing coincidence that we met, I’ll let you in on a secret.”
“A secret?”
“They say that if you can find the secret chamber here, you’ll get a great deal of treasure… and the chance to become the archmage’s apprentice!”
“Is that why you came in?”
“Yep. Master sent me, saying that such an opportunity only comes along once in a thousand years.”
She stood in the doorway with Chloe. Chloe asked.
“Which door are you going to go through?”
“I’m trying to decide.”
To be eliminated or not.
“Then can I choose first?”
“What if I see you and copy you?”
She ask in disbelief, and Chloe smiles brightly.
“Once a door opens and closes, it’s replaced by another door, so you don’t have to worry about that!”
“I see. Then you can choose first.”
“I want this one! I can feel a lot of magic in here.”
Chloe opened the door without hesitation.
“See you later!”
As the door closed behind her, the words changed.
[Sanctify us by thy truth].
“Hmm…”
Speaking of truth, she guess this is the right answer.
“I’m still bothered.”
She whirled around.
A door looms small at the far corner of the room.
The door, invisible unless she looked hard enough, kept catching her eye.
She’s sure she does, too.
“What do you mean, [save me], what do you want me to save you from?”
There’s no handle, but when she puts her hand to it, it opens as if it’s been waiting for her, and she swallows dryly.
She swallowed hard and stepped inside.
Her eyes widened at the sight of a completely new space, unlike anything she’d ever seen before.
“What? This must be…”
***
The lounge on the first floor of the Matap.
A group of kids gathered around, waiting for only one person.
“When is Arel coming out?”
Pession said, draining his new drink. It was one of those drinks they sell in the Matap that tasted like stars popping in your mouth.
“Sure, Arel. Takes a long time.”
“So you’re unexpectedly magically gifted?”
The twins, who had joined in late, had already entered once and were eliminated at the speed of light.
Words floated above the heads of all the rejects in the common tongue of the continent.
Fool above Pession’s head, Idiot above Aaron’s head, and Idiot above the twins’ heads flickered and glowed like special effects.
Ciel was irritated.
“Mr. Lee, how long is this going to stay up?”
Pession shrugged.
“As soon as you leave the tower, it disappears. They say it’s to distinguish between the losers. There’s a lot of kids who say they can’t admit it and want to do it again.”
“I feel bad.”
When Arellin comes out, he’ll get rid of this stupid letter.
Ciel stared at the words floating above his head.
Ddddddddd.
Suddenly, the building shook.
“What?”
Was there an earthquake?
They all froze and held their breath.
Ta-da-da-da-!
Everyone’s eyes widened as they heard a cheerful melody coming from somewhere.
At the same time, the pagoda suddenly became noisy.
