Chapter 37: Elementary School

A cold, chilling wind wiped away my sweat in the dark night.

“Huff… Huff…!”

Five hours of lifting pink dumbbells was over.

To think I have to do this again next time…!

“Is it that hard?”

“Muscle monsters like you don’t know the struggles of ordinary people….”

I only lifted a 1kg dumbbell, but now both of my arms feel like they’re going to go crazy from muscle soreness.

So I whimpered about how hard it was, but….

-Muscles grow when they tear!

-Just one more set!

That’s how the 5 hours of lifting pink dumbbells ended, and I was on my way home.

“So, are you going to grant Rona’s request?”

“Well, I need to think about that…”

Rona asked me if I could come to the guild to help with a Lizard problem after the workout.

It’s impossible right now, but I think I have to go.

“While you’re at it, my request…”

“No. I’m tired.”

I frowned.

‘Where is this freebie coming from?’

‘I also want to take a break from broadcasting, but it doesn’t work out as I wish, which is frustrating…!’

“Pleaseeeeee~!”

“You won’t regret it!”

“It’s a place Oppa knows too!”

Haim grabbed my arm and started badgering me.

She doesn’t usually do things like this, so I was curious.

Shall I go once?

“…Tsk, fine. I’m curious, so let’s go.”

“You’ll be surprised when you go.”

I followed Haim, and the place we arrived at was an old school (closed school).

“Where is this?”

“Where else, it’s the elementary school we graduated from.”

“……?”

The only elementary school we graduated from was Hwayeon Elementary School.

I checked the school again.

The beautiful appearance of the past was nowhere to be seen.

“It really changed a lot, huh?”

“They said they rebuilt the elementary school. They abandoned the old building and built a stylish new one.”

She pointed with her index finger at the school built far away, saying it was the new building.

Just when I thought it was too much, a question came to mind.

“By the way, why did we come here?”

“It’s a request from our old teacher.”

“They said ghost type monsters seem to be appearing here.”

“From our old teacher?”

Our old teacher was our elementary school homeroom teacher and Department Head Lee’s college friend.

“Are there ghost type monsters too?”

“Of course.”

“If there are plant type monsters, why wouldn’t there be ghosts?”

Then I can guess what the favor is, but I really hope I’m wrong.

“You’re not asking me to defeat that ghost, are you? Then you’re dead.”

“…….”

Haim turned her head and avoided my gaze.

This bich?

To convey the rising frustration, I pulled Haim’s cheeks.

“Aaaaah!!!! Why the sudden change?!”

“Are you asking because you don’t know?! What kind of thing are you asking me to do?! Am I some kind of exorcist?!”

If I were a real exorcist, I wouldn’t feel this wronged.

I’m just a fortune-teller, and ghosts are not my area of expertise.

“Yoo kin jus use ahn amulett!”

She was even being cheeky, it was too outrageous.

I pulled her cheeks harder.

To only ask for help at times like this!

I let go of her cheeks and turned around.

“Do this by yourself.”

“I can’t do it by myself! Physical attacks don’t work on ghosts?!”

“Yeah~ Whatever.”

You should have been more selective about who you received favors from.

Anyway, figure it out yourself, I’m leaving-

“It’s our old teacher’s request, are you really not going to do it? We owe them a favor, too!”

I flinched.

I stopped walking at the mention of the debt.

To bring up that matter even now…!

“…Sigh.”

A genuine sigh escaped my lips.

“Just this one time. This will be the last, and then we owe our old teacher nothing more.”

“Okay! Let’s go in quickly!”

We walked across the playground side by side and slowly looked around.

From the terribly rusted slide and jungle gym to the swing with chains on the verge of breaking, the management was a mess, fitting for a closed school.

“Heh! You confessed to your first love in front of that swing.”

“Ah, bich, why are you talking about that!”

“Because you cried all night back then, I remember.”

Of course, I didn’t offer any comfort.

I just teased her.

Now, it was all memories.

We turned on our flashlights and stepped inside the school.

Haim huddled close to me, shrinking her body.

‘Hmm, I can see a few ghosts, I guess.’

But the time was the problem.

“We could just do this in the morning. So troublesome.”

“C-Can’t we come at night?”

“Of course not. When night falls, the ghosts’ power gets stronger.”

When night falls, the Yin energy becomes strong, increasing the ghosts’ power, and in the morning, the Yang energy becomes strong, weakening the ghosts.

To not even know such basic things, how are you going to live, she scratched her head, perhaps embarrassed herself.

“I thought I wouldn’t see ghosts well in the morning, so I thought I had to come at night…”

“Do you think I would be limited by something like that?”

“…I didn’t think of that.”

Ghosts are seen better at night?

That’s a thought only third-rate people have.

First-rate fortune-tellers like me can see ghosts well even in the morning.

We ignored the bugs and rats passing by and continued straight ahead.

Walking like this was very troublesome.

“It’s just annoying, can’t I just burn everything down?”

“Absolutely not! Burning down a place filled with memories! Are you a psychopath?!”

“Tsk!”

At the mention of burning it down, Haim nagged until her ears bled.

It was really regrettable that burning it down was the most effective method in times like this.

Having no other choice, I took out a few amulet papers from my pocket, bit my finger slightly, and scrawled amulets, pasting them all over the walls.

“C-Can you do it this roughly? The papers are just torn or crumpled?”

“Since there are only minor spirits anyway, there’s no problem.”

If they were intelligent ghosts, they would see the amulets and run away on their own.

Of course, if they were intelligent, they wouldn’t have become ghosts in the first place.

Next, we entered the men’s restroom.

As I tried to open the door, Haim trembled all over.

“D-Do we have to go even into a place like this…?”

“You’re an A-class Awakened One, and you’re scared of ghosts?”

“B-But attacks don’t work on ghosts, and at night like this, my abilities are useless!”

Shadows are formed only when there is light, and shadow weapons can be created only when there are shadows.

But a place like this, with no light and only ghosts, was completely opposite to her.

That’s why she asked her Oppa to come with her.

Haim grabbed my shoulder and trembled for a long time, but I didn’t pay any attention to such things and opened the door.

Screeeech.

[Kieeeek!]

“Kyaaaaaak!!!”

As I opened the door, a ghost screamed at us and rushed forward, and Haim screamed.

It was enough to drive me crazy with her doing that right next to my ear.

But such a scream was meaningless; the ghost couldn’t reach us and was purified.

“You’re really pathetic.”

I don’t know how a kid like this became A-class.

Now that she seemed to have calmed down, she started looking around.

“U-Uh, what happened? A ghost definitely rushed at us….”

“Tsk, did you forget there are amulets?”

“…….”

As long as there are amulets, ghosts won’t attack us, and even if they attack, they’ll be purified the moment they try to touch us.

So we went through the school floor by floor from the 1st to the 4th.

We put amulets everywhere ghosts might be, and the last remaining place was none other than the Principal’s office.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been to the Principal’s office.”

“Is the Principal doing well?”

“Hey, it’s been 8 years, hasn’t it? He was probably 84 years old back then.”

Looking at the Principal’s office, I definitely felt nostalgic.

“It was really fun when we chased that Principal out.”

“What were his crimes?”

“Embezzlement, tax evasion, abuse of power, I think?”

During the summer vacation when we were in 4th grade, 11 years old, my sibling and I went to school because of our summer homework.

There was no special reason.

It was because we had to write a diary but had nothing to write about, so we went to school to play.

While looking around the school, we accidentally found the Principal’s office door open, and unable to suppress our childhood curiosity, we went inside the Principal’s office.

But even as children who were only in elementary school, there was nothing we could do.

So as a souvenir, we stole a random piece of paper that was on the desk, and it turned out to be important evidence of embezzlement and tax evasion, and in the end, we couldn’t do our summer homework, so instead of homework, we submitted that paper to our homeroom teacher.

When the homeroom teacher saw the paper, they realized that the principal had committed embezzlement and tax evasion and immediately reported it to the police.

And after that, our old teacher was blacklisted in the education field and eventually had to quit being a teacher.

Thinking about it now, it’s a little surprising.

It would have been better to use that evidence to threaten the Principal and live a life of luxury….

We pushed the door open and entered the Principal’s office.

“This place hasn’t changed.”

A typical office desk and sofa, and bookshelves filled with trophies.

It looked exactly the same as when I saw it during the 4th grade summer vacation.

“Wow! There’s even a trophy Oppa won here?”

“Huh? Really?”

Haim took a trophy from the bookshelf and showed it to me.

National Elementary School Writing Contest Grand Prize Lee Sung-woo

It’s real.

It was the trophy for the Grand Prize at the National Writing Contest I won in elementary school.

‘I donated the trophy to the school….’

Because the Principal strongly suggested, almost demanded, that I donate it to the school, I had no choice but to donate it.

“Let’s take it back! They’ll be happy if you show them!”

“No. What’s there to brag about winning something in elementary school.”

“Tch! You have no romance. No romance…”

Haim put the trophy back on the display stand, and in the meantime, I casually stuck amulets here and there.

“I’ve put them all up, let’s go out now…”

Bang!

The door that was open closed again.

For your information, only the two of us were in the school.

“Hey, this is…”

Thud!

“……?”

Turning around, just as I was about to ask Haim a question, she collapsed on the spot.

Surely she didn’t faint from something like this?

-…Where do you think you’re coming?

“…….”

A cold and sharp voice was heard from somewhere.

Soon after, a translucent ghost appeared in front of me.

And the moment its identity was revealed, I felt deflated.

“What, it was the Principal?”

Somehow, it felt cliché, so it wasn’t interesting.

-Tsk, such disrespectful language.

-Did your parents not teach you to show respect to elders?

Insulting my parents here?

No, more importantly, why is there still a ghost here?

“How are you still here? I definitely put up amulets?”

-Hmph, how absurd.

-Do you think you can do anything to me, who received power from the Great King, with such poorly managed paper?

‘Tch!’

I should have managed the paper better.

What should I do?

I don’t have any paper left.

-Hey, just leave that woman and go.

-I have no business with you.

“……?”

I roughly understood why he was telling me to leave her.

But he had no business with me?

I pointed to myself with my finger.

“Uh, you don’t know me? How would I know a girl like you?

Ah.

He didn’t recognize that I was in a female form.

‘…What should I do?’

I was out of amulet papers and wanted to set up a formation or something, but this guy wouldn’t just stand by.

Moreover, the girl who’s a physical powerhouse had fainted, so I couldn’t break down the door or walls to escape.

I lowered my head and held my forehead.

Still, I should ask, right?

“What are you going to do taking this kid?”

-Of course, I’m going to enter her body, play around, and then kill her.

-With her neck tied to a rope.

“What happens if I refuse?”

-You’re making a foolish choice.

-Watch closely, the power granted by my King!

I just asked a question, and he suddenly started escalating.

The Principal suddenly raised his hand.

-Spirits bound to me!

-Answer my call, huh?

The Principal uttered lines overflowing with chuunibyou (eighth-grader syndrome).

‘Isn’t he ashamed at that age?’

-…Uh, why aren’t the minor spirits gathering?

The Principal started panicking when the minor spirits didn’t come.

I sighed.

The ghosts in this school were already long gone due to the amulets.

“…….”

-…….

We stared at each other.

The Principal couldn’t control the ghosts and thus couldn’t attack us, and I couldn’t attack the Principal because I had no amulets.

A truly hopeless situation had been created.