#Regressor's Notebook Episode 10
Endex (2)
The library at Endex is perfect, whether in the past or present. Open 24/7 year-round, its three-hundred-pyeong reading room is packed with books, and it has all kinds of facilities like group study rooms and copy rooms.
And of course, the cost is completely free.
[We Do It For You]
: Item procurement, delivery, transmission, etc.
: From simple errands to complex assignments.
: We help with everything.
: Please contact us at #05 001-3021-4302. A secure number where neither party's phone number is revealed.
"Intuitive and nice."
Thanks to that, I printed hundreds of flyers for free.
The concept is simply "We do anything—" but the targets are the Endex kids. Naive brats with lots of money who don't know the ways of the world.
Right now, just the students from grades 1–4 total three thousand. Add in the attendants like chauffeurs and managers that noble students bring along, and even commoner families moving in entirely, and the floating population within the campus alone would exceed ten to twenty thousand at any given time. So if I put these up everywhere around Endex, the calls will come on their own.
"Hmm……"
I checked the clock.
1 AM.
"Since I made them, should I put them up?"
I didn't have anything to do anyway, and today I was unusually wide awake.
I've said it time and again, but my sleep pattern is abnormal.
Sometimes I'm sleepy beyond endurance, and other times I'm fine as if I've never known sleep.
"Guess I will."
I went outside with the thick stack of flyers tucked under my arm.
…….
"Yaaawn."
It was already 10 AM.
For nine hours, I had put up flyers between library bookshelves, on toilet bowl shelves, in alleyways between Endex buildings, between park benches, gym locker rooms, classroom ceilings, the center of the clock tower, cafeteria window frames, stadium seats, hallway lockers, the magical power research lab, club rooms, and so on…… in almost every place in every academic building of Endex.
"Now I'm sleepy."
My body was stiff, and sleep was slowly coming.
Ding—
Just then, my phone suddenly rang.
It was a text.
Thinking it might be a client already?! I hurriedly checked, but.
[College Board Opening Notice]
Monday, March 3rd, the College Board begins. We wish luck upon all Endex students challenging university.
Location: Endex Bahalla Hall
Time: 11 AM
Please be careful, as tardiness may result in severe disadvantages.
It was a text announcing the College Board opening next Monday. Since today is Friday, it's exactly three days later.
"College Board, huh……"
The start of 4th year.
I've never done it before, but I'm not without confidence. I have techniques and physical skills I naturally picked up while scraping by at the bottom for ten years.
However, I won't call 'Perion'—a future artifact remembered by the [Notebook]—into my body if I can help it.
Why?
Because I have cancer.
* * *
Selenacio.
A prestigious academy headquartered in the wealthiest district of the Edsilla capital, where the scions of continental powers flock with money in hand.
A place that finely measures not only its students' wealth but also lineage, talent, honor, and their families' social authority, selecting only the 'real' ones——
"Final duel. Elize Petra wins!"
——Elize had finished the last test before entering the College Board, the 'duel'.
Waaaah———!
Since today's final match was open to all academy students, hundreds of cheers and applause poured down like rain.
At the center of that brilliant spotlight. Though receiving everyone's admiration in full, Elize merely extended her hand to the loser with an expressionless face.
"Take it."
"……How come you never let me win even once?"
Her opponent was Mel, 2nd place at Selenacio.
He clasped Elize's gloved hand and stood up.
"Good thing I didn't go to Endex. I heard even you struggle there?"
It was a deliberate provocation. Even Elize, 1st at Selenacio, was engaged in fierce competition with Gerken and Solliet at Endex.
"It's Endex. There, you wouldn't even make the top ten."
Elize quietly retorted, and Mel's expression stiffened sourly.
"Good work."
Just then, the headmaster of Selenacio appeared.
She presented a certificate to Elize with a bright face.
[2013 Selenacio High School Division, 113th Class, 1st Place]
[Elize Petra]
Elize quietly looked at it.
Honestly, she had learned more from famous private tutors hired with the Petra family's financial power than from Selenacio itself, but the true value of Selenacio lay not in learning but in 'connections' from the very beginning.
"Congratulations, Elize."
"Thank you."
Elize bowed her head slightly at the headmaster's words.
"The reporters are waiting."
Below the dueling stage, many scouts and reporters had gathered.
As the final public training of a continentally renowned 6-star prospect overflowing with star quality, it would probably make the 9 o'clock news too.
"Would you mind saying a few brief words?"
"Yes. Of course."
Elize was somewhat curious about what kind of reporting and articles they would write.
She trudged down the stairs of the dueling stage. The moment she did, countless microphones surged toward her.
"Ms. Elize. You've been 1st place all three years in Selenacio High School Division, any thoughts—"
"How do you predict your final College Board results? Several betting sites have Gerken as 1st place—"
"Gerken and Solliet from the same school are expected to be strong competitors—"
The questions were the same as always. Gerken and Solliet for three whole years.
It had been quite annoying in her first year, but now she had grown somewhat used to it.
"My results will be exactly what I make them. No more, no less. After all, the real competition begins after entering university."
Elize spoke with a composed, expressionless face.
…….
—My results will be exactly what I make them. No more, no less. After all, the real competition begins after entering university.
On the TV news, Elize answers indifferently and dryly. Wanting 1st place more than anyone, yet pretending not to care about other competitors. Pretending to have no interest at all.
As expected, she's pretentious.
"171 cm."
Just then, the old man spoke the height he had measured with a tape measure.
"So you really did grow? I just thought you looked tall at a glance."
His eyebrows twitched as if surprised.
"I told you."
I had grown 3 cm in just a month, but my growth is a one-year course. Since I was 196 cm before the regression, I'll probably stop around there.
"I won't recognize you in a year?"
Not only would my arms and legs grow longer, but my bones and muscles would also become sturdier than they are now. The magic power radiated by the dantian cancer would naturally temper me.
"Then, I'm off."
I stretched lightly after tightening my school uniform tie.
"Go or don't."
The old man added a gruff remark.
"You confident?"
"Of course."
I immediately answered and placed my foot on the basement stairs.
"1st place…… would be overdoing it, but shouldn't I be able to manage around 15th place?"
"……."
Had the old man been impressed by my confidence?
He said with a somewhat blank face.
"Crazy bastard."
* * *
Monday, 11 AM. Bahalla Hall.
Of Endex's many academic buildings, I was walking toward the one that most resembled a temple.
—Ah~ how's your condition? I'm not feeling so great.
There were already many students at the entrance.
—Stop jinxing it, you bastard~ just wait for today's round. I'll…… oh, it's Sion.
As I slowly approached, a somehow slimy voice mentioned my name.
—So he's really doing it too. Ah~ suddenly lost my nerve.
It was Essher, as expected.
I quickly scanned the two of them. Cain and Essher were carrying golf bags on their shoulders.
"Ah~ I guess you came to carry our golf bags."
Essher approached, having caught my gaze.
"Thanks."
He looked down at me and hung the golf bag on my shoulder. Then he twisted the corner of his mouth as if smiling.
"……Sion. But do you seriously think you can do this? What the hell are you thinking……. Piss off."
Just then, the person in charge came out of Bahalla Hall. Essher pushed my chin aside and then smiled brightly again.
"Thanks. I'll come get the golf bags later. Hey Cain, you okay? Our Sion here says he'll carry them?"
"Fuck off. That Sion bastard might steal them."
"……."
They were openly treating me like a porter, but honestly, this much was laughable.
Because the days that bastard could look down on me were numbered.
"Attention."
The person in charge spoke.
For reference, that man's name is Chadreck. He was dispatched to Endex from the University Association, and you could say he acts as the homeroom teacher for the 4th years for one year.
"Endex College Board participants, total 133…… that's right."
He counted our numbers and nodded.
"We will now begin the first assignment of the College Board. Come inside."
At that, the students entered Bahalla Hall. I followed behind, shouldering the golf bag.
"……What is this place?"
I stood in the hall and looked around the interior.
The corridor extending in one direction seemed endless, with countless doors at regular intervals.
"Stand in front of the doors, one each."
The 133 of us moved in unison. The high-ranking guys took the front numbers, and I, burdened with a golf bag as big as my torso, naturally ended up at [Room 133].
"Now everyone go in. The assignment will begin exactly at 11 o'clock."
The seniors opened their doors almost simultaneously. Beyond was a space of roughly 8 pyeong, exactly the size of a studio apartment. A clock hung on the wall, and in the center of the table, a transparent triangular pyramid gleamed.
I know what that is.
'Prism.'
"……Ah, wait."
Just as I was starting to feel uneasy for some reason.
Tick——.
The hour hand announcing exactly 11 o'clock rang especially loud.
Soon, a voice descended from the ceiling.
—From now on, we begin the first assignment of the College Board, the 'Qualification Review'. As announced in advance, failure will result in the forfeiture of the very right to challenge the College Board.
A rigid tone and low voice.
It was Chadreck.
—You 133 are all in spaces of identical structure. First, you will see an object in the center.
"Mana Prism."
Then Chadreck said the same thing.
—It is called a 'Mana Prism.'
"……Tch."
I clicked my tongue.
I had a feeling I knew what kind of test this was.
—The first week's assignment is that prism.
A properly made Mana Prism has the property of absorbing magic power and physical force.
—The test ends exactly two hours from now, at 1 PM.
Therefore, if the test is what I'm thinking it is, it's quite troublesome.
It's a difficult problem I couldn't solve, whether in the past or present.
—Any method is fine. Success is leaving even the smallest 'scratch' on the Mana Prism.
"I'm fucked."
Suddenly the back of my neck tensed.
A Mana Prism is like a very tough onion, so to speak. Because it possesses powerful resistance to external impacts, unless you analyze and interpret the internal mana flow first and break its 'structure,' even most experts can't destroy it.
It does have a weakness of being weak to physical force, but even that has about 99% magic resistance and 90% physical resistance, so there's hardly any difference.
—Begin.
However, the current me isn't even an expert.
All I have is my body, and my magic power overall—mana utilization, control, coordination, adaptability, resistance, etc.—all fall short.
"Sigh……."
I exhaled deeply and sank into the chair. I scratched my heated nape.
"……Shit."
Is it already over? This futilely?
So, even after dying once and coming back to life, I can't get past a mere Mana Prism?
Then just how many times do I have to die and come back to life?
This is absurd…….
"Wait."
Just then, a thought suddenly flashed through my mind.
I looked up at the ceiling as if craning my neck.
"I have a question."
I shouted toward the camera in the corner of Room 133, to someone I couldn't see.
"Is it permissible to use tools?"
—……It is permitted.
At the definite answer that it was okay, a lightbulb went off in my head.
Let me think.
I have Perion.
To be exact, Perion is [Remembered] in the [Notebook].
However, I must not call Perion into my body.
After all, I couldn't break the prism with my bare fists, and my health problems are too serious.
In that case.
Couldn't I apply this not to 'my body' but to an 'object'?
"……Who knows, shit."
I'll know if I try.
No, I have to try it to know.
Fortunately, I already have a weapon.
Something a very good friend very kindly lent me in advance.
Swish— I pulled out the thickest driver from Essher's high-quality golf bag.
I don't know if this will work or not.
But it's my only method, so I don't want to assume failure prematurely.
"……."
I closed my eyes. With a calm mind, I called forth Perion.
[——Summon.]
In that instant, magic power was consumed with a whoosh. My dantian felt like it would cave in, but I didn't know if I had succeeded. The exterior of the golf club remained unchanged.
I'd know if I hit with it.
"Huu……."
A deep breath.
Creak— I gripped the golf club with both hands.
Someone might analyze this prism's internal structure and interfere with the mana circulation circuit to exquisitely disassemble it, but not me.
I simply took my stance. Both arms above my head, the golf club as if touching the ceiling.
And twisted my entire body.
"——!"
I struck the prism with all my might.