An Exorcist Magical Girl! – Chapter 92

Author: Dakku-san

The bus stop.

Charang nervously picked at his fingernails.

“I’ve never seen you act like this before an evaluation.”

“Yeah, why? I’ve never been this nervous either.”

“Nervous? You are? Wow, I’ve heard the word nervous coming out of your mouth all my life…” Seon-yeo muttered in disbelief.

“What’s so funny, it’s my second year and my first official evaluation, is it weird to be nervous?”

“No, because this is the first time I’ve seen you do this.”

“Hey, I’m human too.”

Yin Charang giggled at Seon-yeo’s expression.

“Uh, the bus is here. I’ll go first!”

“Take care. See you tomorrow.”

There was no time for further conversation as the bus he was waiting for arrived shortly after.

Once on the bus, he waved enthusiastically at the window until the stop was out of sight.

Then he went back to picking at his nails. The smile faded from her face, replaced by nervousness.

Yin Charang wasn’t nervous because he was worried about the grade he would get tomorrow.

“Of course I will do well this time.

He knew that he would come out on top in the official evaluation that would be held in front of all the first and second graders from all eight branches, and that was the only thing he was unwaveringly confident about.

Therefore, the anxiety he felt now was caused by something other than Yin Charang himself.

“How high will Baek Iri’s score be tomorrow?”

How well will Baek Iri do in the June evaluation?

He was afraid that one day he would have to recognize Baek Iri as Seo Jun’s partner.

Not right away, not tomorrow.

Sometimes he envied Hwang Hanju. He never said it out loud in front of others.

Of all the people he’d ever met, he’d never seen anyone as indifferent to competition as Hwang Hanju.

He didn’t really care whether someone caught up with him or not.

That’s not to say that he was tearfully jealous of Hwang Hanju’s audacity.

It’s just that every now and then he would wonder, “Wouldn’t it be easier to live with this attitude as a standard? I don’t think I ever really coveted Hwang Hanju’s competitive spirit.”

Yin Charang was well aware that my nature was one of favoritism.

***

It was 1:20 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon.

Hwang Hanju and Yeo Seon-yeo were the first to arrive.

“Huh? Didn’t you say yesterday that you were going to miss it?”

“Me? When?”

I asked playfully and Hwang Hanju smiled shamelessly.

In Hwang Hanju’s hand was a bag from a bakery and in Yeo Seon-yeo’s hand was a bag from a grocery store.

There was no place to eat near the training center, so they had offered to buy sandwiches and chocolate milk.

“Let’s go to the classroom first.”

“Where do we send the money?”

“We’ll pay the bill later, when we get home. It’s a lot of work.”

Yin Charang and Seo Jun arrived at the half hour mark.

“Huh? Why isn’t it a couple of hot pots?”

“Hot pot? Oh, I was saving that for later evaluation.”

“Ah.”

Charang muttered, “Right,” and tore open the sandwich wrapper.

While eating the sandwiches, they continued their small talk.

“So where is the third grader going this time?”

“I don’t know.”

“I know. Some kind of folk village.”

“Wow, crazy. That sounds like fun.”

“Is the senior evaluation today?”

“No, tomorrow. That’s why we’re in class over there in the training room.”

“Oh, right.”

It wasn’t until the food was almost gone that we started talking about our evaluations.

Yeo Seon-yeo was the first to speak.

“Yin Charang, you’re going for the questions from start to finish, right?”

“Yes. I’m going to pick the hardest questions and crack them all.”

“Okay, you’re out. How about the rest of us help each other out?”

Hwang Hanju said, pushing away the giggling Yin Charang.

“Okay. When we meet, we’ll team up and tackle the harder questions together.”

Yeo Seon-yeo chimed in, and in an instant, there was a giggling atmosphere.

“When the three of us meet, we’ll play rock, paper, scissors, and the loser gets the coolest exit.”

“Call.”

Teaming up in groups had more disadvantages than advantages when it came to distributing individual points.

Still, the C and D kids often teamed up with three or four others.

Of the five of us, the lowest talent level is a B. Their argument was that one partner was enough.

“Hey Hanju! If you want to play genius, like Yin Charang, make a big X over your head when you meet him, because you don’t want him to be disappointed in you.”

“Guys, did you hear that? If you see Hwang Hanju, make an X and run away from him from afar.”

“Oh, Yin Charang and you, be quiet!”

“Does anyone feel motion sickness? If not, let’s sit in the back of the bus.”

“Is the bus here yet? I’ll get you a seat, they’re always popular.”

Before they know it, it’s almost time to leave.

As they were doing the head count before boarding the bus, the upstairs window opened and the seniors poked their heads out.

Well, next year I’ll be doing that with the juniors.

Some of the kids who were close to the seniors replied, “Tomorrow it’s your turn.”

After all the excitement before boarding the bus, the bus ride to the evaluation center was quieter than I expected.

Everyone decided to sleep quietly to conserve their energy.

After about an hour of driving, they arrived at More Green Phytoncide Island.

“Everything on the campground map is an evaluation area. From the tent zone to the playground to the pool to the woods, they’re all assessment areas, and oh yeah, you can go inside the bungalows and trailers.”

As the students gathered in the parking lot to eat their lunch and participate in the evaluation, the association explained.

Exorcist Shin Ji Woon and the other exorcists from the association were busy handing out rings, maps, and flashlights to the chapters.

“Students, please pay attention to safety first and foremost, and make sure to check.”

After all the ritual explanations, it was 18:25.

And soon the doors to the June Assessment Center opened.

***

It is 23:32 UTC.

It has been five hours since the assessment began.

“Another 300 points for this one.”

I had just solved a problem in the bungalow. It took me about 30 minutes to stop a ghost from starting a fire.

I would have gotten 200 points just for exorcizing the ghost, but I also found and broke the fire curse it left behind, which earned me an extra 100 points.

I was able to detect the faint traces of the curse because I used my sense of smell instead of my visual and auditory senses.

I headed into the woods in search of my next problem.

The forest behind the bungalows was growing tall and dense with pine trees.

I thought to myself, “Wow, I picked a great place for an evaluation.”

The woods at night can be quite eerie, even with well-marked trails.

In this dark forest, only the flying insects under the streetlights were as vivid as in daylight.

I thought to myself, “I’ll follow the trail to the playground, and if it’s clear, I’ll take a side road.”

As I walked along and looked around, I heard footsteps coming from the path behind me.

“Is there someone there?”

I asked aloud as I turned around, and the person following me let out a surprised “Ugh!”

“Oh, come on, it’s Baek Iri, it was so dark that I didn’t even realize there was a person in front of me.”

The footsteps belonged to Yeo Seon-yeo.

“Is there something over there?”

“No. There’s just a drinking fountain and a photo zone, and it’s a very short way.”

“Oh, really? I think I’ll just walk all the way to the forest playground.”

“Huh? Me too!”

Seon-yeo raised her voice, happy that we had the same destination.

She told me that she had gotten lost on the back trails because she had heard that there was a shortcut to the playground off the main trail.

“I thought there might be a problem with not being able to take a picture in the photo booth and having to deal with a ghost. Was there really nothing?”

“Oh, that’s ridiculous. You should be the July examiner. You’ll nail it.”

We walked on, deciding to go to the next one.

“Did you get your quota?”

“I filled it as soon as I got here. And you?”

“I’m glad I did, because I put everything else aside to catch them. Look at this forest. It’s so empty, without a single ghost.”

“Yes. They’re gone.”

“Maybe it’s because we’re so far from the spawning ground.”

The spawning point was the location of the amulet that attracted the spirits from outside to the test site.

“Where did you say is the spawning ground?”

“Do you remember the place by the campfire where you pitched your tent?”

“Ah. That place.”

“Have you ever teamed up to do a moonpool?”

“I haven’t. You’re the first person I’ve met from our branch.”

“Oh, I see. I teamed up with Hwang Hanju once, around ten o’clock.”

Purr, purr, purr, purr—

I kept my mouth shut, hoping for something to jump out of the blackness of the forest. The only sounds were the crunching of dirt and the chirping of grasshoppers.

“Oh, wait, let’s see what this sign says.”

She paused and shined her flashlight on a large sign hanging from a tree.

“Do you know how to tell the difference between a pine tree and a pine tree…? Eh. I thought it was a description of a tree.”

I thought the sign would say something like, “Only a few hundred meters to go.”

But I’m glad I stopped. There was a path right next to it.

“It must be Zen. There’s a monk here.”

There were two Jangseung’s side by side at the beginning of the path, and it looked like there was something to it, even looking back.

“I don’t know if there’s a playground or a photo zone waiting for us at the end, but let’s go.”

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous.”

Seon-yeo patted me on the shoulder and led the way.

Fortunately, the path didn’t end abruptly, but meandered inward.

The path was only a little narrower than the main trail, but it didn’t feel unkempt because it wasn’t heavily traveled.