Prologue Story

I could feel it myself—each day, I grew noticeably.

By the time I could walk and speak a little, I was already able to run.

It felt strange, even though it was my own body.

Well… I’d already experienced this once before, though.

And around that time… I began to feel magic.

This was actually quite surprising.

It was much earlier compared to other children my age.

How did I come to sense magic?

It all started with something insignificant.

Sometimes, when I was out of my parents’ sight, I would open the Pocket Dimension that the goddess had given me.

It was filled with items from my previous life, from trivial things to very precious ones—literally everything.

The contract I had with the goddess regarding the Pocket Dimension was quite special.

I could store items there myself, but generally, when I died, all the possessions I held at that moment would automatically move into this Pocket Dimension, except for things I consciously decided to leave behind.

So, that meant everything I had gathered in my past life was stored in there.

Thinking about that gave me a bitter feeling.

In my past life, I didn’t die a normal death.

It was an incurable disease.

For some reason, my cells kept deteriorating, and I would vomit blood.

Toward the end, I couldn’t even feel pain.

That’s how I died.

But even after such a death, I hadn’t left behind a single proper memento.

Wasn’t that just too cruel?

My parents… my family… and more than anyone else, that person—how devastated must they have been?

How did they feel when they looked at my empty house, without a single keepsake?

With those thoughts, I sometimes secretly stared at my items from my past life, without my parents knowing.

Then one day, while repeating this, I felt “something.”

That “something” was exactly that—just something.

An unfamiliar sensation, like a breeze blowing from somewhere.

It became clearer and clearer.

One day, I realized that it was magic.

It wasn’t something that belonged to me, something I could control with my will, but it was the source that operated the Pocket Dimension the goddess had given me.

Perhaps it was the power to manage the Pocket Dimension that the goddess had engraved within me.

The reason I was able to sense magic was all thanks to the Pocket Dimension.

Ever since I began developing my magic flow, I gradually realized that a foreign power was flowing from my body, opening the Pocket Dimension.

And from that moment, I started to sense the magic around me more vividly.

But that wasn’t the end.

Not long after, I was able to move magic as well.

At first, I could only feel it.

Even when I desperately tried to command it to move, it wouldn’t budge, and I let out a sigh.

Things don’t work as easily as you imagine… I felt a bit disappointed.

Imagery training was a habit of mine.

So instead of forcing the magic to move, I decided to imagine it.

After all, I was going to be a magician someday.

At least for me, that was a certainty.

So I imagined it.

I imagined the magic flowing around me and moving through my hands.

It was at that moment that the magic moved.

Suddenly, the magic vividly swirled around my hands and arms.

Of course, I was shocked.

And that’s when I realized something.

Moving magic wasn’t about giving orders; it was about will, belief, and imagination.

Just as moving my body felt natural, moving magic felt just as natural.

That was how it felt… or so I thought.

I stopped moving the magic and sat down quietly to read a fairy tale book.

Imagination.

Magic that is powered by imagination.

A magic that requires you to fully unleash your imagination… Right, I like that.

From that moment, perhaps, I had already chosen the kind of magic I would mainly use.

I just hadn’t realized it yet.

And time passed… Before I knew it, I had turned five.

☆

“Alright, hello everyone in the Sunlight Class.”

“……”

“Come on, you have to repeat after me. When the teacher says, ‘Hello,’ you say, ‘Hello.’ Let’s try again. Hello, everyone in the Sunlight Class.”

““Hello!””

I cringed as I watched the teacher smile broadly at the children.

Sunlight Class?

Why that name for a class?

Ugh, how embarrassing!

So childish!

I shivered in discomfort.

Well, I shouldn’t expect anything sophisticated from a kindergarten class.

I half-heartedly repeated the teacher’s greeting and looked around.

The kids, with their round eyes wide open, followed the teacher’s words with bright smiles.

Though I found their cuteness endearing, being surrounded by so many people after a long time made me feel strangely tense.

I frowned slightly.

I’ve always felt uncomfortable in large groups.

You could say I wasn’t very good at socializing with kids my age.

Sure, the kids in kindergarten seemed endlessly young from my perspective, but that didn’t change the fact that I was uncomfortable.

In simple terms, I was just shy.

The teacher told us a few things.

Nothing too significant.

Introductions, a tour of the kindergarten building… and then it was time for self-introductions.

The teacher had us introduce ourselves.

“It’s not hard. We’re going to be friends for the next year, so we should know who each other is, right? All you have to do is stand up and say, ‘I’m so-and-so, and I’m this many years old.’ It’s easy! And then you bow like this.”

The teacher demonstrated a proper bow while explaining how to introduce ourselves.

Ugh… ugh… seriously!

I looked at her, sighing.

Self-introductions… why this…?

Naturally shy, I absolutely dreaded introducing myself in front of so many people.

It was so embarrassing and awkward.

While I fidgeted, the teacher went around and assigned numbers to each desk, indicating our turn for self-introductions.

There were about five groups of desks, with four or five desks pushed together.

“Let’s go around from the front, starting on the right. Go ahead.”

Following that order, I realized I’d be almost last.

I was sitting in the fourth group with five other kids.

I gulped.

Well, I should at least try to memorize the names of the kids introducing themselves.

Honestly, I’m terrible at remembering people’s faces and names…

One by one, as the kids’ turns came, they brightly introduced themselves with beaming smiles.

Some were shy, too.

It was so adorable, just as you’d expect from kids, that I felt my eyes being refreshed.

Soon, it was my turn.

I suppressed my anxious expression, quickly stood up, and introduced myself in a light, fast tone before moving on.

“I’m five years old. My name is Yoo Eunha.”

After bowing my head and sitting back down quickly, I placed a hand over my chest, letting out a sigh of relief.

Whew.

Honestly, I must be the only one getting so nervous over introducing myself among these kids.

Right after me, the girl with her hair tied in two neat pigtails confidently introduced herself.

“I’m five years old, and my name is Lee Yumi.”

Lee Yumi.

That’s an easy name to remember.

I casually thought as I heard her name.

Fortunately, nothing else embarrassing happened after that.

The teacher gave us some free time.

Maybe it was because it was our first day, or maybe she wanted us to get to know each other better.

While the kids played with the toys around them, I headed to the bookshelf in the Sunlight Class (ugh, that class name is still so cringy…) and pulled out a fairy tale book to read.

For the record, hardly any other kids wanted to read.

In a way, I was an unusual case.

There was, however, one other unusual case: the girl sitting next to me, who had confidently introduced herself as Lee Yumi.

Free time passed quickly.

Once the kids had somewhat gotten to know each other, the teacher called us back together.

Holding up a large crystal-like orb, she spoke.

“Alright, today we’re going to play a game with this orb.”

“A game?”

The children, sitting around the teacher, began to buzz with excitement.

I, too, stared intently at the orb the size of a fist.

There was something… peculiar about it.

It wasn’t just that the orb looked pretty and had a mystical color; it was that I felt a strange pull from it.

A different sensation than I’d get from other objects…

While my instincts weren’t always right, they did tend to flare up in critical moments, so I couldn’t completely ignore them.

“Teacher, what kind of game is it?”

“It sounds fun!”

At the mention of a game, the kids grew even more excited.

The teacher smiled warmly and continued.

“Yes. This orb I’m holding is often used to help train people to sense magic. If you play with it, you’ll be able to sense magic more quickly. It’s a special magic-infused orb~.”

“Wow! That’s amazing.”

“Teacher! Give it to me!”

“I want it too!”

I was half-listening to the teacher’s explanation, but when I heard that, I realized why this orb had been bothering me.

The orb was radiating a peculiar magical energy.

I had sensed magic earlier than most kids my age.

I’d like to believe it was because I was sensitive to it, but the truth was that I had just been exposed to a lot of magic.

Specifically, the Pocket Dimension.

Mom and Dad still didn’t know that I could sense magic.

Being as shy as I was, I hadn’t even told them.

But I knew very well that I had been able to sense magic unusually quickly thanks to the Pocket Dimension from the goddess.

“Alright, let me explain the game! We’re going to play ‘treasure hunt’.”

“Treasure hunt?”

“Aww~ let’s play something else!”

“Okay, we’ll play something else tomorrow. But today, we’re doing a treasure hunt. The teacher hid this orb outside before you all came in. Today, you’re going to find it! And the most important thing is, if our class finds more orbs than the other class, the teacher will give you a prize!”

The other class?

“We’re competing against the Star Class next door!”

“A competition!”

“I want to win!”

The kids were even more fired up now, their competitive spirits rising.

The teacher smiled proudly.

Meanwhile, I was thinking to myself.

‘The class next door is called Star Class… ugh, that’s so cringy too!’

I felt a chill run down my spine.

I shivered again as the teacher held up the crystal orb and raised her voice.

“The class that finds the most orbs in 30 minutes wins! If we win, everyone will get one of these orbs as a prize, so let’s all do our best!”

“Wow!”

“Yeah!”

Well, no matter how cringy the class name was, the orb itself was beautiful.

In fact, it was exactly my style.

And since it was infused with special magic, I wanted it even more.

I clenched my fist slightly as I lowered my head.

Alright, I’m fired up too.

“If anyone can sense magic, they’ll be able to find the orbs more easily. Because this orb has the power to draw in anyone who can sense even a little bit of magic.”

“…….”

And just like that, my competitive spirit cooled off instantly.

…Alright, I’ll just search casually.

Sure, I wanted the orb.

But even if I didn’t win it as a prize, I’d probably have the chance to touch it a few more times in the future.

No matter how much I liked the prize, drawing attention to myself was something I absolutely loathed!

Especially in places like kindergarten or school, it was the worst.

Talking to strangers was hard enough for me, and I struggled to hold conversations with kids my age.

The thought of standing out and attracting the attention of the teacher or the kids just because I could sense magic earlier than others?

No way.

I quickly turned my head away.

…Still, while the desire to win was gone, I couldn’t deny that I was intrigued by the orb.

Even as I stood at the back, waiting for the teacher to open the door, I kept sneaking glances at the orb.

It wasn’t just me.

Everyone else was staring too, so it wasn’t weird or anything.

Soon, the teacher gave the signal, and the kids all rushed outside.

Of course, I joined them.

After all, I planned to enjoy the game in moderation.

‘It should at least be fun as a distraction. I’ve always liked treasure hunts,’ I thought.

…And then, ten minutes into the game, I let out a sigh, feeling utterly exasperated.

“…Oh, come on.”

This orb really did work as the teacher had said, drawing in anyone who could sense magic, even slightly.

I had intended to just pretend to search for a bit, casually looking around until I found one and then think, ‘Oh, I got lucky!’

But the moment I started searching in an obvious spot, bam!—there it was.

…I had become the first person to find an orb.

I couldn’t just ignore it and leave it there, so I sighed and brought it back to the teacher.

She patted my head and praised me with a cheerful, “Wow, good job!”

The kids got even more enthusiastic about finding orbs.

Well, I thought that was lucky, and shrugged it off.

But then, as I was walking by, roll, there was another orb…

And that wasn’t all.

As I was about to take the orb back, I saw something shining between the trees, so I checked it out, and sure enough, there was a third orb.

The moment I turned around, pretending not to notice anything, I spotted a fourth orb buried in the sand.

…I didn’t want to attract too much attention, so I decided to only take one or two of them back to the teacher.

But just as I made up my mind, I felt something under my foot.

I looked down, and there was a fifth orb…

There’s no way I’m this lucky.

It had to be the orb’s magic pulling me in, just as the teacher had said.

Reluctantly, I took two of the orbs I’d found and brought them back to the teacher.

In the end, I became the “lucky one” who had found three orbs in just five minutes.

And while many kids hadn’t even found one yet, there I was with three.

I handed the orbs to the teacher with a smile, but when I turned around, I silently covered my face with my hand in despair.

Ugh, I swear the teacher gave me a meaningful look just now.

You saw that too, right?

I pouted and raised my head.

…Well, fine.

I’ll just tell everyone it was pure luck.

From now on, I won’t find a single orb!

With that in mind, I checked under the slide and found yet another orb.

I kept smiling and pretended I hadn’t seen anything as I walked away.

In the end, I managed to avoid picking up any more orbs, aside from the three I had already been forced to hand over.

…Though, to be honest, I’d spotted about 15 or so.

The teacher said she’d hidden around 70, so I guess that’s still reasonable, right?

By the way, the girl sitting next to me, Lee Yumi, also had the ability to sense magic early like me, and she ended up collecting 17 orbs, earning herself the title of model student or talented kindergartener in the eyes of both the kids and the teacher.

Well, whatever, they’re just kindergartners.

That wasn’t the end of it.

During the game, a few other kids also came into contact with the orbs and awakened their ability to sense magic.

One was from my class, and the other from the Star Class next door.

In the end, our class, the Sunlight Class, won the game…

Ugh, I still hate the name Sunlight Class…

That day, on my way home, I received a beautiful, mysterious orb as a prize.

It had a blend of purple and blue hues, and it was slightly larger than an adult’s fist, about the size of a crystal ball used for fortune-telling.

As I walked home, I fiddled with the orb, marveling at it.

I could feel the magical energy inside, gently flowing through my hand and touching the space around me.

I tried channeling some of my own magic into the orb.

In response, it glowed with a radiant, mysterious light.

I was almost home when I realized something.

Oh no… I pressed the doorbell and then suddenly remembered—I hadn’t taken the kindergarten bus.

I had just walked home.

I froze in panic.

Oh… um… Mom said she’d be waiting for me at the bus stop, didn’t she…?