Karim began speaking a few moments later.
"Um….. He's just really nice to me. He just really cares for me in a lot of ways. Last time, my dorm roommate hyung told me to make his bed for him, right? But Swan hyung saw the whole thing happen, and, um…."
"…..?"
"Never mind. I'll just tell you up to there. Nuna, you can't ever mess with Swan hyung, okay? He's so scary that I respect how scary he is. He's a good person, but he's scary. He's usually completely expressionless but he smiles whenever he sees me."
He did the same to me too. Since Swan came last year, we always greeted each other. Whenever we did that, Swan's face would morph into a smile. It was actually kind of scary.
If you looked at his smile without a thought, it was truly the smile of an angel. But if you knew who he was, then that smile really wasn't one of an angel at all.
Karim explained that he didn't dislike Swanhaden. He was quiet about it before he opened his mouth to speak again.
"My friends are super jealous. That I have a bunch of hyungs taking care of me. Cory hyung takes great care of me, and Hylli hyung too. Oh, and sometimes, Yves hyung from the senior school takes care of me too. Last time, Yves hyung gave me a tiny plushie of a puppy. It even makes sounds when you shake it."
"There's a bell in it?"
"Mhm, it looked like he thought I was super young."
My younger brother was super popular. It sounded like they'd realized how adorable my younger brother was. That's right, my Karim was the cutest in the entire universe. It would be strange of others not to realize that.
Karim just blankly stared at Swan's vicinity. Swan was busy floating the blue class student onto a tree branch and making him hold tight onto it. The student sat atop of the branch and shook as he yelled curses at him, but Swan just mockingly laughed and tried to cast a few more spells on him.
Karim looked on at Swan's figure and sighed deeply.
"But Swan hyung is really great at magic, I'm jealous. I can't even do swordsmanship or magic…."
"Our Karim is smart so it's okay. You know how they say that the pen is mightier than the sword."
"...."
"…..your nuna is very sorry."
I tried to comfort Karim, who looked despondent, but honestly I still think the sword is mightier than the pen for now. But honestly, the pen was growing in strength so it's okay, Karim.
As if my words didn't help at all, Karim continued to look down.
Karim had a frail body, so he couldn't exercise however he wanted. He would start to cough as he swung his sword, and he didn't have enough magic to do basic spells.
But Karim was scarily intelligent. He was taking care of our family's finances from a very young age. If he was this intelligent without any memories of his past life, that meant he was just incredibly smart.
Karim was probably entering puberty right now. That was probably why he was jealous of his friends. It was easier to make friends if you had a specific facet that you were studying, like magic or swordsmanship. Karim didn't like how he was only talented in his studies. He didn't like being called a nerd.
Karim was probably a bit more sensitive because he was in the same class as Cory's younger sibling. Cory's sibling and Karim were rivals, but Cory's sibling was smart, and was able to wield the sword slightly and do a bit of magic.
Although they weren't some kind of cheat character like Cory was, apparently they were above average in both magic and the sword.
"Karim, if you could choose between the sword or magic, which one would you prefer to be better at?"
I asked, suddenly curious.
"Magic!"
"Why? You didn't even hesitate."
"I want to fly in the sky with magic! It sounds so exciting! Cory hyung let me float around before and that was so fun!"
Karim said, excited. It sounded like he had a lot of fun.
"I want to fly around everywhere that I want….. pi."
But Karim became sad as soon as the conversation ended.
Honestly, flying or floating magic took an incredible amount of magic and extremely complicated magic spells, so it wasn't something that anyone could do even if they had magic. But Karim, who didn't know too much about magic in general, just seemed in awe of the idea.
Well, it sounded more like the magic was an excuse and he just wanted to fly.
Don't worry, Karim. I'll make it so that you can fly.
I stood up from my seat and headed to the club room to collect a few materials.
As soon as I arrived in my dorm room, I began to work on a magical device for Karim. I had begun to work on it in the early afternoon, and had finished it when it was already night.
"Great."
I looked on at my own creation in awe.
I had created it in the shape of a broom, but I had also fixed up a seat to make it more comfortable for Karim.
I took the idea of a broom from the cartoons and movies I had watched before.
Honestly, this was something that I had kind of idolized. I had wanted to fly on a broom before, but I never had time so I threw it to the back burner every time. I had no idea that today was the day I would create my flying broom.
I cleaned up the other materials and stared at the clock.
The time was just before curfew. It was pitch black outside.
I decided to test out the broom immediately. If I waited until noon, then others would be able to look and I'd get too much attention. This was the perfect time to try it. Moreover, just imagining flying on a broom through the night made me feel like a witch, just like the ones I'd seen on TV when I was younger. Whenever the opening of the show came on, the witches would fly across the crescent moon and winked on the screen. I wanted to smile at the camera too. Just like a character in a cartoon.
'It's immature, but I want to try it anyway.'
I grabbed my flying broom and snuck out of the dorms.
I was able to control magic circles however I wanted. For me, sneaking out of the dorms was as easy as lying down and eating rice cake*. No, wait, if you ate rice cake when you were lying down, it got stuck in your throat. It was as easy as lying down and watching TV. I headed to a large, empty area on campus without an ounce of suspicion.
There really wasn't a single soul out here right now. I stood alone in the large, empty space. This was about the time when everyone was turning off their lights and going to sleep, so it was obvious that I was going to be alone.
The moonlight shone down from above me, and the campus and the school garden was just so pretty that I couldn't help but get a bit melancholy. The night view of the school was truly a sight to behold. I couldn't help but be in awe as I grabbed my broom.
It was time for me to test it out.
I hoped it worked. I made a quick prayer before putting Cory's magic stone in the small hole I made near the top of it. When I inserted the magic stick into the broomstick, the broom began to activate the circle I cast. A bright light began to shine through it.
I placed myself onto the seat of the broom. When I did that, the broomstick began to slowly make its way upwards.
"Uh...….Oohhhhh....Oh."
The further I went up, the more stunned I became.
There was one thing that I forgot to consider. On TV, the witches on screen were always flying around on their brooms without an issue, but this was surprisingly hard to balance properly on.
It was something that needed a lot of practice. I tried my best to keep my balance on the broomstick as the ground got further and further away from me, posture completely unstable. I definitely needed to add some balancing magic and some emergency fall spells on it before I handed this over to Karim.
Now, I was somewhat far away from the ground. I swallowed my spit and decided to go to the next step. Now, I needed to check if this broom would fly as I wanted it to. I used a lot of my magic to make sure that I wouldn't fall off of it.
Now that I had some sort of relief, my moves became bolder. I tilted to the left, and tilted myself to the right.
"E, Eyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...…"
When the broomstick moved around the way I wanted it to, I couldn't help but cheer quietly. I couldn't be loud. It was too embarrassing.
I was so excited that my face felt warm. I bit my lips slightly and scrunched my nose.
But the fun didn't last for long. There was a large gust of wind just then. The wind made me lose my balance. At first, it was just a bit of a waver, but then I completely lost the feel I had and fell in trouble.
I ended up flipping upside down. I was supposed to have fallen completely, but because of the fall prevention magic, I had just flipped over.
But being upside down wasn't the problem.
The problem was me, riddled in fear.
"Euuhhhhhhhhhh..... Uuhhhhhhhhhh...… N…..eugh....."
The broomstick was moving the way I wanted it to, but I had lost my sense of balance. The broomstick couldn't figure out where I wanted to go, so it went completely haywire.
Wow, I'm dead. I was stupid for not thinking of all of these possibilities.
I tried my best to calm down my broom, which was completely panicking out of its own volition. It didn't work because I needed to calm myself down, too. The broom was moving too violently and I was feeling sick.
The broom was heading towards a building. It was the boys' dorm.
The broom got closer and closer to the dorm. I ended up crashing through a window and breaking into a dorm room.
Crash!
The sound of glass breaking filled the room.
As soon as I ended up in the building, I removed the spell that had me stuck to the broom. The moment I got off, the broom calmed down. I ended up rolling two or three times into someone's room and hit a wall. I felt something warm dripping from my head and assumed it was blood.
First, I thanked the heavens that I was alive. Cough, Shushu, next time, when we try something new…let's call Cory to keep us safe and then try it out. This was really dangerous.
But I ended up trespassing into the boys' dorm, so I didn't think I would be able to avoid a warning and a punishment. Damn it.
I was upside down, so I couldn't really see whose room it was. So I flipped myself upright and looked to see who it was.
I looked at Swanhaden who had just woken up from the noise, and Yves, who had a small lamp on his desk and was working on documents.
The both of them stared at me, eyes wide in shock. It looked like it was Swan and Yves' dorm room.
"Goo, good evening."
I greeted, internally dying inside.
The supervising teacher heard the ruckus that I had made and began heading over. The sound of footsteps became louder and louder.