Prologue Story

Life in kindergarten passed leisurely.

Still, it wasn’t as boring as I thought it would be.

Watching the kids was fun, and doing things I used to do when I was very young wasn’t too bad.

Above all, there were a lot of toys in the kindergarten infused with magical energy.

Feeling and distinguishing those magical powers was one of the things I enjoyed the most.

Plus, I made a friend of sorts.

It was my classmate, Lee Yumi.

The reason Yumi and I became close was simple.

I liked books, and Yumi liked books, too.

When we arrived at kindergarten, without saying anything, we were the first two to head to the bookshelf.

Soon, I’d notice that there was another child sitting next to me reading.

That gave us a sense of affinity, a sense of closeness.

That’s how we started talking to each other.

We weren’t extremely close, but we were at least friendly enough to be called friends.

Thanks to that, the teachers were relieved.

I was such a shy child who stayed absorbed in my own world, so at first, I was somewhat isolated.

I barely talked to any of the other kids.

It was natural that my quiet and well-behaved kindergarten life was partly due to my personality, which disliked standing out.

For a while, the teachers were very worried about me.

They were concerned that I didn’t talk and was always alone, and they talked a lot about it.

But recently, after seeing me with Yumi, they seemed to be relieved.

Well, it was fortunate for me.

While blending into kindergarten life like that, I could take stock of my current situation.

I began to understand the average abilities of kids my age and where I roughly stood among them.

I realized that I had a faster talent bloom for magic than I expected.

In this kindergarten, there were only a few kids besides me who could sense magic, and most of them were 7 years old, about to enter elementary school next year.

From my detailed observations, I discovered that these 7-year-olds were not as skilled in sensing magic as Yumi.

In other words, Yumi also had quite an exceptional talent within this kindergarten.

Oh, how did I know that?

Well, it’s because my ability to see and sense magic has continued to grow.

By now, I could roughly estimate a person’s proficiency in magic by the amount and density of magic surrounding their body.

Yumi could barely see magic as a faint glow, while the 7-year-olds could only vaguely sense it.

From this fact alone, I could clearly see that I was quite ahead.

The 7-year-olds, who were two years older than me, were only at that level.

Moreover, my ability to sense magic didn’t stop growing there.

After seeing the colors of magic, I also realized that each color had a unique feel.

Recently, I could even faintly sense the attributes of the magic placed on objects.

By that point, I could distinguish between non-magicians and magicians as well.

I could make even finer distinctions.

Among the kids just learning magic, I could tell who only vaguely sensed magic and who could move it.

I could also differentiate between those who had accumulated magic within their bodies and those who hadn’t.

Even though magic isn’t necessarily tied to attributes, the feeling of it varies slightly depending on where it is.

As I experienced this, I found it very intriguing.

They say that the more sensitive a person is, the better they can feel magic.

Hmm, considering how sharp these sensations were becoming, it seemed like I was a very sensitive girl.

…What I think to myself is my own business, so don’t worry about it!

Of course, I hid my growth from others.

But even while hiding it, I was incredibly happy with every bit of progress I made in magic.

So, I secretly conducted a lot of experiments without my mom knowing.

These were experiments very much befitting a comic book addict.

For example, if I concentrated magic into my fist, my punch would become stronger.

If I focused it into my legs and jumped, depending on how I concentrated it, I could jump higher.

If magic gathered beyond a certain point, I could exert physical strength.

Attaching it to my shoulders like wings didn’t allow me to fly, but I did float a little.

And when I focused it into my eyes… I could see magic much more clearly.

As I played around with magic in various ways, the magic accumulating inside me grew by the day.

I could feel it with my whole body.

However, it seemed I wasn’t the only one who had noticed this growth.

One day, as those days continued, my mom was the first to bring it up.

She looked me in the eyes and said it was time for me to properly learn magic.

When I heard that, my eyes grew wide, and I cheered.

“Really? Really, really?”

My mom smiled softly as she watched me jump with excitement, which was unusual for me.

“Yes, really.”

I sat down on the living room floor, jittery, as my mom led me by the hand.

She said she had to grab something and went into the master bedroom.

I waited anxiously for her to return.

I was so excited that I was nervous.

After a short while, my mom came out of the room holding something.

It was a square-shaped plate.

My mom gently placed the plate on the floor.

It had an interesting design.

On the plate, a pentagon and a square were drawn overlapping each other, and a total of 11 jewel-like stones were embedded at the vertices of the two shapes, as well as inside the shapes.

There were letters written in Korean beneath the stones.

At the corners of the square were the words water, fire, wind, and earth.

On the pentagon, there were the words plant, lightning, spirit, special, and metal.

And in the very center were the words light and dark.

‘Oh, this is…’

It was an item I’d seen on TV several times before.

It was a common magical tool used to determine one’s magical aptitude.

“This is a gemstone plate?”

My mom nodded.

“Yes, I wanted to check your aptitude first.”

I blinked and then nodded in agreement.

Of course, that made sense.

In order to learn magic, you had to first know what kind of magic you had an aptitude for.

“Do you know how to use it?”

“Yeah. I just place my hand on it and infuse it with magic, right? Then the stones that correspond to my affinity will light up.”

“Exactly.”

My mom nodded with a smile.

“If you have no affinity, the stones won’t light up at all. The brightness of the light depends on how strong your affinity is. But since it’s hard to determine with just that, numbers from 1 to 10 will appear below the stones. The higher the number, the better that type of magic suits you.”

My mom placed her hand on the gemstone plate.

“Shall I demonstrate first?”

At the same time, my mom conjured magic.

Her entire body, including the palm that was the channel for magic, glowed red.

The red magic flowed into the gemstone plate.

The color was so vivid that it seemed as if the surrounding area was also turning red, though that couldn’t be.

Soon, some of the stones lit up.

“Mom has level 10 in Special.”

The attributes that lit up from my mom’s magic were light, fire, earth, special, lightning, and metal.

The light level was 6.

“Fire is 7.”

“Maybe that’s why I have no affinity for water. By the way, this is usually done in the lower grades of elementary school. There’s a more detailed test in middle school.”

Earth was level 4, lightning was 6, and metal was 3.

“That’s amazing.”

“Alright, now it’s your turn, Eunha.”

“Okay!”

I smiled brightly and placed my hand on the gemstone plate.

The dark blue magic flowed into the plate quite naturally.

A moment later, I lifted my hand from the plate.

“Oh?”

My mom looked puzzled.

I glanced over at the result.

“All of them… lit up.”

“Oh my, this is very rare.”

I rolled my eyes and checked the numbers below each attribute.

I saw the numbers below the stones in the very center, light and dark.

Both stones were brightly emitting black and white light.

The dark attribute was level 10, and the light attribute was level 9.

“And for both light and dark to have such high levels?”

For reference, both Special and Spirit were also at level 10.

“Spirit? Me…?”

I mumbled in confusion, but then I suddenly remembered something.

I had made illusion magic my main focus.

In a way, that was a kind of ‘spirit magic.’

‘I see… That’s why.’

Also, this result was favorable for learning space-time magic.

Though I wasn’t entirely sure, based on all the comics and novels I’d read, space-time magic seemed like it would involve a combination of Special + Light + Dark.

Somehow, the result from the gemstone plate seemed to be telling me that illusion magic, barrier magic, and written magic would all suit me well, and that made me happy.

I grinned and continued checking the other attributes.

Next was… water, which was around level 9.

In contrast, fire was only at level 6.

But lightning was 8?

Earth was level 5.

Plant was level 4.

Hmm…

And plant was the lowest attribute.

The most surprising thing was metal.

For some reason, it was at level 9.

Metal? What kind of magic uses that?

Lastly, the wind was at level 8.

I stared down at the gemstone plate, tilting my head.

‘Except for plants, everything is above average… right?’

Beside me, my mom’s startled voice broke the silence.

“This is… really… whew, suddenly, I’m reminded of Suna.”

“Huh?”

Auntie Suna?

I perked up my ears, and my mom nodded.

“Yes, she had level 10 in water, wind, and special attributes. It’s rare enough to have an affinity for all the magic types, but for them all to be at such high levels is even rarer. Usually, it’s hard to have more than two attributes reach level 10. And if you have more than two, the others are typically low… But Suna had 8 in both the spirit and dark attributes. You….”

My mom sighed as she spoke.

When I looked at her with curiosity, she shook her head and murmured.

“Perhaps this is a very rare talent….”

For a moment, my mom wore a dark expression, but soon she smiled and patted my shoulder.

“Alright, let’s start by learning the attributes of dark, special, spirit, light, metal, and water… though there are so many of them. After that, we’ll cover basic lightning and wind magic since your affinity for those is high. Ah, of course, I’ll only teach you what I know. Even if you don’t have an affinity, anyone can use basic magic to some extent.”

“Okay!”

I had been a bit down after seeing my mom’s somber face, but I perked up and smiled at her words.

She stroked my hair and asked.

“Are you happy?”

“Yeah, I’m happy!”

I really was happy.

Riding that wave of excitement, I asked something I had been curious about.

“Ah, by the way, mom, how do you create your own magic? I’m curious.”

“Hm? Well, I guess you’d be curious. You just imagine it. You infuse magic into it, then will it happen… Picture the magic you want forming before your eyes. The first step is to gather magic and infuse it with imagination and will.”

“Oh… that sounds simpler than I expected?”

“In words, yes. But imagining it is hard. If you’re not used to it, it’s difficult. Especially the first time you create a spell.”

I looked up at my mom silently.

For some reason, her eyes looked nostalgic.

“It’s such a difficult thing… but Suna managed to do it in the lower grades of elementary school. And she created two spells.”

However, within that nostalgia, I sensed a trace of bitterness that was hard to put into words.

I remembered something my mom had said months ago and closed my mouth for a moment.

Looking into the distance, my mom soon smiled and spoke again.

“Alright, let’s get started. Dark and spirit attributes can be dangerous, so let’s begin with light magic.”

“Eh~! But I want to start with other magic! How hard is clairvoyance?”

“Not too difficult. It’s a common spell most people can use. Why? You want to learn it?”

“Yes. I’ll make a list of all the magic I want to learn.”

“Alright, go ahead.”

I started writing down the spells I wanted to learn, recalling what I had jotted down in my notebook last time.

I left out all the attack spells and listed teleportation, levitation, healing, clairvoyance, telekinesis, tracking, light magic, psychokinesis, shadow magic, basic illusion magic, barrier magic, and magic circles.

As the paper filled with words, my mom’s face showed a hint of disbelief.

“You want to learn all of this?”

“Yes. Is that not okay?”

“Well… it’s not something you can learn in just a year… but wow, I see there’s not a single spell that doesn’t match your attributes. Then again, all the attributes lit up… Shaping magic? That might not suit you.”

“Ah, I thought so.”

“And memory magic… Alright, fine. But what should we do since I can’t use all of this? I’ll teach you as much as I can, though.”

“Yay!”

I clapped my hands and cheered in delight.

My mom smiled as she watched me.