"Look at me."
I didn't look.
"Look at me."
I muttered "Oh, hold on." and gently took his hand off of my arm.
Cory stared at his hand for a moment, then let out a deep sigh.
He shifted his fingers as he looked at me, still in my weird state. Then, he made me hover midair. I stopped thinking at the sudden change of gravity and opened my eyes wide.
Then, he proceeded to wrap his blanket around me. The blanket was larger than I thought, and it wrapped around me from head to toe like a mummy. The blanket, wrapped around me and even covering my face, smelled like candy.
I floated in midair as a strawberry mummy. When I asked him what he was doing, he didn't respond. My body just floated there, still mummified with the blanket. I couldn't see what was going on because the blanket was blocking my vision.
I heard Cory put down his book and come closer.
"Heave ho."
It felt like he had undone his magic. My body slowly floated down into someone's arms. Cory was holding me. Cory slowly patted my back and walked over to the sofa. After hearing him mutter, 'I didn't see you like that, but you're heavy…' I wriggled around to get out, but he was stronger than expected and didn't let me go.
He continued to pat my back with a steady beat as he laid me down on the sofa.
The cushion that had been on the floor just a moment ago was already on the sofa. The sofa was incredibly soft.
"You should sleep for until club activities are over."
Then, Cory put my magic notebook into his bag. I couldn't see very well, but I could see his back through the small slit between the blanket.
He sat down on my chair and began to work on what I had been working on just before.
"Calm yourself down."
His tone, which was nonchalant yet consoling, made me feel like a child. Everything had happened so long ago, but the sadness kept on coming back.
I could feel a lump in my throat when I thought about how old my mental age was and how much this was affecting me now. The blanket covered my face and it felt like tears would spring up. But I didn't cry. I didn't make a sound.
As the days passed, I began to dream about my past more often. And because of that, I felt that my memories of my past life were becoming stronger. I was still living in past memories. It was still incredibly vivid, as if everything had just happened yesterday.
I could feel my emotions as I had died. I had tried to grasp onto my consciousness as hard as I could to not die, but in the end, I couldn't take responsibility for everybody. I tried as hard as I could, but I couldn't accomplish anything. I could only close my eyes without any compensation for my difficult life, leaving behind my younger siblings.
Whenever I missed my past life I always stayed sad for the entire day, but I had never shed tears.
I closed my eyes, annoyed at myself for being comforted by a kid who was younger than my current and past life combined.
And just as Cory had said, after sleeping my shaky emotions were all organized, and I could return to normal.
These days, Cory was an incredibly helpful member of the magic circle manipulation club. I decided to make him another product to thank him. It wasn't much: just a piercing that would make it easier to work with magic.
As I had always done, I added my signature to show that it was my product.
I didn't realize that my signature had an incredibly high value to Cory.
After eating, I pat my stomach and decided to take a walk. The direction I was headed to was the building where our club room was.
I walked as I munched on a chocolate chip cookie that I had taken from Cory.
I thought about what had happened last time when I thought of heading to the club room. After I had taken a bit off the depression fruit, Cory's behavior towards me had changed slightly. He became slightly more careful around me. However, the difference was so small that I couldn't really put it into words.
To be honest, I thought it would become a bit more awkward because it felt like a dark secret of mine had been brought to light but it was okay. If I excluded how Cory's attitude had shifted slightly.
Just as before, he had a villainous face and a gentle personality, acted immaturely at times, and played jokes on me.
Our club project for this semester was going very smoothly. We had worked consistently on it and it was now properly taking shape. Cory kept asking what we were making, but I thought it was too early and didn't answer.
Cory continued to try his best as I directed, even without knowing what we were making.
Then, to make some faster progress, I gave him a general outline of what we were making.
Augran Academy was placed in the center of the capital, so people generally didn't think we would be surrounded by mountains and forests, but the entire city was surrounded by mountains so it was just a bit away from the academy entrance. Thus, Augran Academy was named after the Augran Mountains that surrounded us.
What we had been working on until now was a model of the Augran Mountains. We had tried out best to make it as similar to the actual mountains.
I had thought that we would be finished within the week if we worked on it for the next few days, but when I entered our club room, the model was already finished.
"You're here?"
Cory hovered midair, upside down as he read the newest release of the 'Today's Magic' magazine.
When I lent out my magic tip notebook to Cory, he had learned it enough to use it on the daily. If you were able to mix and match your magic circles into what you wanted, you were able to use magic the way you wanted easily.
Cory really enjoyed how his skills had improved recently, and was constantly trying out new magic in the club room.
Originally, Cory was famous for being able to manipulate magic as if it was as easy as breathing. He was born with more magic than usual, he was talented, and he enjoyed magic so he was originally a cheat character to begin with.
And after adding my magic to the mix, everything was basically in Cory's grasp.
The first magic Cory had created was floating magic, and it was what he was using the most recently. He used it last time to make me float in midair, he used it to bring snacks over to him, and now he was using it to make a mess of the club room.
Last time, Cory had apologized to me after he saw how the sofa was now dirty with magic circles and snack crumbs and wrappers.
After that, Cory had changed his happy place to midair. He would make a mess in midair, and would hover his trash into the trashcan all at once as he left the room. It was kind of cool.
Anyway, now that he was able to manipulate magic circles into what he wanted them to do, it seemed he had finished the model with it. I felt a bit betrayed.
No, Shushu. Think about it: Cory has zero swordsmanship skills. It was fair.
I held the piercing that I was about to give him, but hid it because I thought he wouldn't need it.
But Cory, who was incredibly sensitive to magic, saw the magic item in my hand and asked.
"Did you make something new?"
I nodded at his question. It was kind of hard to make, and I didn't want to throw it away. I decided to just give it to Cory.
"Here. It's a gift."
"...?"
I threw him the wrapped piercing. I threw it wrong and it flew astray, but Cory used magic to bring it over to him.
"Is today some kind of special day or something?"
"It's not that, but I just wanted to thank you for helping out so much."
Cory looked at me with an awed gaze, as he was incredibly surprised. Then, he grumbled, "What, now I feel like I have to prepare something too," then thanked me. Seeing the smile on his lips, it seemed like he liked it. Thank goodness.
"An artifact that helps with magic control? Isn't this difficult?"
Cory muttered a short comment. Then, as if he had found something, his eyes grew wide. But his eyes had grown so wide and round that my eyes also went round.
Thud.
As if he had suddenly lost strength, he fell from the air and onto the floor. He was upside down when he was hovering, and he fell in that exact position. He didn't make a single sound of pain. He just stared at the piercing, eyes incredibly wide.
Even as he fell, he held his arms out to make sure that the piercing did not get damaged in any way. Cory stood up and walked over to me.
"Where did you buy this?"
"What do you mean where? Buy what?"
Cory's face was wooden. I had thought that I was used to his face now, but seeing his stiff expression and his hounding question made me just a bit frightened.
"The piercing. Where did you get this?"
Where did I get it….. I made everything. In the equipment I had brought in, I had a needle and a gem that I could use as a centerpiece and had just put the two together. Then, I had just added magic…..
If he asked where I got it, I didn't know how to respond. Was he talking about the gem? Was he asking where I got the needle?
He was too clos. I took a step back.
"No, I told you that I made it. What are you trying to ask?"
At my expression, Cory's face grew even stranger. Cory shoved the piercing at me and pointed at the signature I had engraved on the piercing. My signature, by the way, was an 'S' based off my first name and slightly modified to make the '$' figure like the U.S. dollar.
"What about it, you don't like my signature?"
"Your signature?"
Cory's face stiffened. What, if you didn't like that much you could just say it. Why are you making such a big deal out of my signature? I turned around from today's weird Cory and opened the magazine he was reading.
Coincidentally, the page I had opened to had an incredibly familiar picture and name.
It was about 'Shunivalen'.
"Mm, I don't think I'm famous enough to be on something like this."
The article in the magazine was featuring the product I had made and sold over to the merchants, which was a 'long-distance contact device' that allowed our merchants to communicate with the Eastern continent.
Aside from that, there was a small feature article about the different products I had created before. I mainly worked high-paying, underground jobs so I didn't know that I would be covered by a major publication like this one.
Moreover, it wasn't even an official product that I had sold over to the merchants.
I read the special article that focused on 'Shunivalen' just a bit more carefully.
I checked to see the author of the article, and saw that it wasn't a magic professor, a professional reporter, but just someone who was interested in me.
Thankfully, 'Today's Magic' was a magazine that was published for amateur magicians and their interests, and wasn't something too official.
But I couldn't lower my guards just yet. I thought I was still a mysterious figure, but publications like this were dangerous.
I didn't want the underground jobs to be in the open. I thought to be more careful from then on.
I had always worn magic robes that altered my appearance and had always wiped out anything that could be recorded. I had never thought that my identity would be in danger. Knowing that there were people who were interested in my activities like this, I thought that I would be unable to use my signature in my current form from this point onwards.
"You're Shunivalen?"