A land mine?

  Seriously?

  As my world grew increasingly white from the flash of the explosion, time seemed to freeze over as I was allowed to set my thoughts aclear.

  What led up to this?

  It was a sunny afternoon as I just finished my entrance examinations at Eunwol University, the top university of the Byeolha Province in Corea, where I live. Though, calling it the top university is kind of de rigueur, as it is the only magic university in the province, out of the nine throughout the country.

  But, exceptional it still is, accepting only a hundred students every year, it is a place where only the elite gather; such is the case with magic universities the world over.

  Education outside of that has always been highly limited, as advancement in the field only began to rapidly rise in the past few decades. Leaving many with outdated teachings to use along with the few crumbs that were shared from the top down to foster talent.

  I always believed myself to be talented and hard-working, knowing that alone isn't enough, of course I had only truly grasped the possibility of higher education in magic when I made a friend in high school whose father was an accomplished mage. Through their help and extreme sleep deprivation did I finally begin to grasp the chance at becoming the magician I had always dreamed of becoming.

  How futile that was.

  The entrance examinations were brutal. I'd heard before about how demanding they were, but it seems I had severely underestimated it. What I thought would be a dream come true turned into a nightmare.

  First came the practical exam, in the first part, to examine my focus and mana pool they had me maintain a spell for an hour; and it wasn't just some simple light magic spell but rather a telekinesis spell that didn't make use of temporary flooring. Meaning I had to hold concentration for the entire duration, and have a large enough mana pool to make up for any fluctuations or errors that occurred as I grew more and more exhausted, making sure not to drop the 5kg cube.

  Needless to say, I only lasted for 40 minutes. Not enough to pass, but high enough not to immediately be dismissed as talentless.

  They then handed me a magic stone to supplement my lack of mana, and had me showcase pre-prepared spells and how quickly and efficiently I could conjure them. They gave me no room to breathe after the first part.

  Next they had me improvise based on ridiculous prompts like 'Conjure a fire lizard that breathes water' or 'freeze an object in midair while keeping its momentum'

  Passing only half of those, I was pointed outside and given the date and contents of my written exams. Feeling dejected but motivated not to fail, I headed home for the day.

  A month later, the day of the written exams had arrived, and that finally sparked the idea that I should just give up.

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  Thirty questions, no calculators were allowed; if you wanted one you'd have to conjure it yourself. Never mind just making it in the first place being mentally taxing, constantly conjuring and dispersing a calculator would drain your mana reserves instantly, forcing you to constantly maintain the calculator while solving the questions of this exceptionally monstrous exam.

  The only saving grace was the fact that at least maintaining the calculator was significantly easier than the spell of the dreaded first exam. That small victory was completely nullified by the fact that just creating the calculator had been a month's worth of effort, and required a disgusting amount of memorization for it to be capable of arithmetic, calculus, and algebra and so on—to the point that I had started to recite the formula and code in my sleep.

  As I was finishing the tenth question, having skipped four already, it had finally dawned on me that seemingly no amount of preparation would allow me to pass this exam. It was only getting more and more difficult with every question, to the point that by the time I had finished question 20; the test was already over.

  I had completely and utterly failed.

  ...

  ..

  .

  Why a land mine in a place like this?

  Which brings me to the present.

  Utterly befuddled by the sheer absurdity of a landmine, with the unassuming appearance of a crossed over white, yet faintly glowing circle being seemingly completely randomly placed in the park of this peaceful cityscape, I cannot even begin to come to terms with the reality of my death.

  At that moment a portion of my vision gets blocked, as if I were holding a hand up to one of my eyes, yet both of my eyes are functioning perfectly, aside from the fact that I am incapable of moving them nor my body as time has frozen over.

  *?????aAH..!*

  A muffled shouting is heard from my right ear-no-from neither my right nor left ear, as if it's from a seperate organ entirely.

  As the new senses become clearer and clearer, time starts to move gradually, the light from the explosion gets clearer and clearer until my vision is completely covered in white, with my other eyes seeing black.

  Then comes the pain.

  Oh, the pain—as if the core of my being is being ripped apart—though—maybe it really is.

  I cannot even stifle a scream due to the sheer speed of this explosion occurring, but it's as if I am made to feel even more pain due to time only slowly progressing. I stand there in agony for what feels like an eternity, unable to even voice my suffering.

  Until one moment, when the dark of my vision suddenly gets filled with light, and the light of my vision fades into darkness; I finally obtain the ability to scream.

  "Waaaaaaah!... Waaah...Waaaah!"

  "Sheesh, what a loud boy he is."

  "He sure likes to whine... hah... hah... just like you..."

  "Heh, can't argue against that."

  Is that Anglish?

  As I feel my pain rapidly subsiding, as if it were never there, I stop my whimpering and slowly open my eyes only to find the world blurry and muted.

  From what little I can see, I seem to be in a hospital room. I can vaguely make out three people in the room, one of whom seems to be in the same bed as I, but why?

  "Come here Logan." A feminine voice calls.

  Who's Logan?

  I feel myself get picked up and handed to the other person in the bed, but they seem to be kind of big... don't tell me...

  The familiar room,

  the language,

  the baby shouting,

  my tiny size.

  I've been reborn... In Emerica?