II.

Chapter 2

Anyway, plenty of people in the world call themselves mages, but there aren’t many true magic scholars affiliated with a magic tower. Using existing spell formulas versus researching the principles to create new ones—the gap between the two is about like manufacturing noise-canceling earbuds versus building a theory of acoustics.

And the Eternal Phase Magic Tower was the most prestigious on the continent. Unless you had top-tier talent, you couldn’t even dream of getting in. That Larissa managed to enter should probably be called a victory for love. In short, the tower’s entrance exam was heavily focused on math. Even in a world with a magical force called ether, math remained a universal truth, symbols aside. And magic is the study of truth.

When Larissa was granted entry, the king and queen were overjoyed. They threw a festival across the capital and handed her a generous sum from the royal treasury for research funds.

She walked into the Eternal Phase Tower with a bright smile. Soon enough, she was getting worked twelve hours a day, seven days a week in the spatial transformation workshop, lamenting why she’d started this nonsense all over again.

And now here she was. Stuck in the workshop’s storage door, wearing her pajamas. Not wedged in the crack of the door, mind you. Her waist was stuck right through the middle of the door panel.

“Uwaaaa…”

Larissa couldn’t even manage a proper scream. She just let out a tiny imitation of one. The f**k… she wanted to curse in Korean.

Her backside felt chilly. She was wearing a thick nightgown, but from the feel of it, the hem had probably gotten caught in the door too.

All she’d tried to do was align the concept of the workshop storage door with her dressing room door and step through. The materials were pricey, sure, but it wasn’t even a difficult spell. She’d used it before when things were comfortable, like sending her nanny off on vacation. And she’d failed and ended up like this.

At least she was stuck inside the workshop. Or was that a good thing? If she’d been stuck on the hallway side, she could’ve yelled for someone passing by to help.

But honestly, that would’ve been mortifying. So maybe being stuck on the inside was the better outcome after all.

It was 1 a.m. Normally, at least one person would be curled up under a blanket in some corner of the workshop, catching a nap. But tonight, no one was there.

Come to think of it, she’d been home too these past few days. No experiments to monitor overnight, no papers due.

Which meant she’d be stuck here until tomorrow.

No. She had a breakfast tomorrow. A royal breakfast. With the family and diplomatic envoys from three countries. Unlike when she was just the unimportant ninth princess, she couldn’t quietly slip out now.

Too many countries wanted to get friendly with a mage from the Eternal Phase Tower, especially one from the spatial transformation school. She had to play the part of her parents’ pride and joy.

“Ugh. Hngh.”

She tried telepathy to reach a junior from the workshop, but the recipient wouldn’t lock. They were probably outside the tower. Perfect timing. The one time the newest member with no connections actually got to clock out.

Next she tried a senior. She knew this one wouldn’t work. The recipient locked, but all she got back was snoring.

Would she have to get out on her own? But her hands were buried too. Like this, she couldn’t even calculate the formulas she needed to separate her body from the wall, let alone draw a magic circle.

“S**t… f**k!”

It slipped out. A curse etched into the soul of every Korean.

It solved nothing, but Larissa felt her boiling insides cool down just a fraction. And then.

A voice came from behind her. From the direction of her a*s. Smooth and perfectly enunciated.

“And what exactly does that mean?”

“Hyeok!”

She flailed in shock, cramping a glute in the process, and curled her legs up in even more pain. It did nothing to help. She tensed her useless arms anyway.

“Lu, Lukenian…!”

The scream burst out of her on its own. Just like in her past life, the mid-tier mages in the workshop turned sleep into research material while the masters went home and passed out in their cozy beds. So why was Lukenian, the head of the spatial transformation school, here at this hour?

Tears welled up in Larissa’s eyes. She’d been flailing without thinking and now realized her exposed backside was wriggling right in front of his face. She forced herself still.

Of all the people in the world to get caught by, he was the last one she wanted seeing her like this.

Yes. He was her crush. The man who made her join this magic tower in the first place.