The Extra Works Hard - Chapter 14

Nathan believed Professor Michael’s words. He thought it would be different if he tried harder. It wasn’t such hard work to catch up with an unfamiliar class, but Nathan worked tirelessly. He cut down his sleeping hours, stayed up all night, and almost lived in the library. Fortunately, he was able to read the writings of this world. And if he wasn’t a nobleman? He didn’t know for sure, but he thought he would have been more miserable than he was now.

While studying, he also looked up things about the original ‘Nathan’ from time to time. There was not much information, but there were some results. It was not as miserable as he thought, so should he say it was fortunate?

‘Nathan’ inherited the Baron title at the early age of seventeen.

Because he had no other relatives. He was completely alone, but there were some unrelated adults to help him. His house was half-destroyed, the barony’s small village was now in a state of disrepair, and the people who lived there also moved to the nearest Viscount Lasilla’s dominion to live. Therefore, there were no more than 30 people remaining in the barony, including the servants living in the castle.

It was also mostly people who remained loyal to him. Only the family-like people who took care of ‘Nathan’ since childhood decided to help Nathan until he graduates from the academy after adulthood. This was learned from a letter sent from the Barony Norbert house to him.

It was only at the age of 18 that a single adult was recognized for their coming of age ceremony. With less than a year left, no one expected Nathan to keep his title properly after that. In fact, when the accident happened, wouldn’t ‘Nathan’ think of returning the title to the royal family? But even when they fell apart, they kept the title because poor nobles were better than poor commoners.

Tuk, tuduk. (T/N: The sound of drops falling on a flat surface.)

Red dots appeared on the paper. Nathan familiarly covered his nose.

“Haha… If I studied this hard in the other world, I could have gotten into college.”

His room was filled with magic formulas on papers he had drawn and undid. Occasionally, his nose began bleeding, so there were red bloodstains. There was no day when his hands were clean of pen ink. Nosebleeds had become a daily occurrence. Nathan had a book open to one side while eating, and he devoted himself to practicing his magic, sometimes even forgetting to eat.

So this was an expected accident.

It was a day like any other day. Nathan went to class as usual. However, from the moment he woke up in the morning, he was not feeling well. Did he overdo it these days? It has been a while since he slept properly. There were more times when he skipped meals because he didn’t have much of an appetite.

His class was in full swing and his head was dizzy. His eyesight flickered. The hand holding the quill pen trembled. Thanks to this, the ink splattered and stained the paper badly.

“Ah.”

With a sigh, Nathan rubbed the corners of his eyes. He was tired. He tried to concentrate in class, but he couldn’t think of anything. Nathan slowly closed his eyes. Let’s take a break. 5 minutes.

But when someone woke him up, it was after class.

“Hey, wake up. Practical class is next.”

“Ah… thanks.”

“…are you okay? Isn’t your complexion pretty bad?”

“It’s okay, it’s okay. It’s just because I didn’t sleep well.”

Nathan smiled awkwardly at the girl who woke him up. He thought her name was probably Etton or something. Nathan ruffled his hair roughly. It was only Etton and Nathan in the classroom. Perhaps she was just about to go but woke him up before she left.

“So that’s why… Norbert, right?”

“Oh, was it Etton?”

“Right! I didn’t expect you to remember!”

“..Why wouldn’t I know your name?”

“Well, of course, I know your name. Everyone does, you know? We’ve all known each other since childhood. And when someone that we don’t know suddenly appears, wouldn’t we be naturally curious?”

“That’s true…”

There was a practical class today in the morning. The two had a brief conversation as they walked to the gymnasium. In fact, Nathan couldn’t quite remember what she was talking about.

Before he knew it, almost three months had passed since high school started—the cold had disappeared and warm weather was in full swing. Here, the four seasons didn’t show as clearly as in Korea. The winters were long and the weather in spring and autumn seemed to continue on and on, so the hot summers like those of Korea were seldom.

The sky was blue. It was the sky that reminded him of someone’s eyes. Upon arriving at the rehearsal hall, Etton crossed over to a group of students huddled together. Nathan looked at Etton and headed towards a corner of the rehearsal hall.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to make friends. He was lonely. Loneliness ate up Nathan, but that didn’t make him willing to reach out for them. When he made friends with children far younger than his original age, he became awkward and reluctant. As a result, Nathan had not made any friends so far. He knew children occasionally glanced at him, but Nathan pretended not to notice. It was because he didn’t have enough social intelligence to make friends and he still had a lot to learn. As he devoted himself to his studies, he naturally developed a sense of distance.

In addition, the students here could be said to be childhood friends. A person who suddenly fell from the sky was naturally isolated from the bonds of people who had been together since childhood. Of course, he could be a new friend if both parties were proactive, but Nathan wasn’t. The kids weren’t bad. They talked to him over and over again, appealing to him that they wanted to get along. However, for various reasons, he could not receive such an appeal hastily. In short, all of this came to its own end.

“Come on, let’s start class. Everyone gather!”

“Oh? Professor Pan!”

“Professor Pan, you’re done with your business trip!”

“What about Professor Michael?”

“Professor Michael has some business to do for a while. Today, I will take care of your class.”

Seeing the man called Professor Pan, Nathan thought he looked a bit sloppy.

The practical class continued as usual. Even though he had studied magic for a long time, he still could not use it easily. If elementary and middle school students mainly studied theory, high school was full-fledged practice.

“Today, I’m going to use two magic circles to create one type of magic. Watch carefully and follow along.”

“Yes!”

Professor Pan took out his magic tool. At first glance, Professor Pan’s magic tool was a spear that could easily be mistaken for a wand. The tip of the spear was pointed. Professor Pan used mana to gather mana at the tip of his spear and wield it. A magic circle with blue light was drawn on the floor of the rehearsal floor. At first glance, simple strokes were drawn at slow speed so that everyone could see.

“Let’s start with a simple one. What I am drawing now is a type of magic circle that is often used as a simple defense. It’s also painted on your robes. And here’s the new formula. This is a kind of magic circle using wind. Now, what do you get when you put these two things together?”

“It’s a shield made of wind…?” The student pointed out by Professor Pan answered cautiously.

“Right!” Professor Pan praised them and drew the magic circle.

“Well, look here. Something is missing, isn’t it?”

“Yes, something is missing.”

“Okay, now I’m going to engrave another formula here. This is a formula to fuse the two magic circles. It’s all in the book. I’ll show you later.”

“Hey, what is it!”

“A lot depends on what formula you put in. What I wrote, it would be quicker to see it with your own eyes.”

In the final stroke, Professor Pan swung the spear in his hand with a light hand gesture. A beautiful blue light flashes. A sudden wind blew around the plate. The hem of the robe fluttered in the strong wind. Nathan couldn’t take his eyes off the figure.

“[Wind, be the shield to protect me!]”

Then the wind became a strong wind and wound around the plate. It became a hard shield made of wind. Nathan’s heart pounded with excitement. As expected, magic was the best. It was splendid, beautiful, wonderful, and mysterious.

“Now, you all do it. Aim for success, but don’t overdo it, and focus on properly drawing the magic circle with your magic.”

Professor Pan broke the magic he had created, talking to the students with twinkling eyes. Everyone spread apart to distance themselves and took out their magic tools.

Nathan drew the magic circle alone in a corner a little far from the others. There was no blockage of mana while drawing the magic circle, as the efforts of the past were not in vain. Nathan felt good in his heart, feeling thrilled every time he used mana. He drew the magic circle in the air and added strokes one by one. At the end of his last stroke, he licked his mouth to chant a spell.

“…Oh?”