The Unsurpassed Maiden

"Are you sure it's fine that we leave Lady Ning Gwang there alone?" Mi Young questions while following her senior. "I mean yeah sure she's not helping us at all but she's still our teacher."

"She can handle herself very well. What we should worry about is us because we're not that powerful." The other boy says as he continues walking.

For some reason, Mi Young chuckled at what the other boy just said. This caused Kwang Soo to look at her weirdly, "What? What's so funny?"

It took Mi Young a couple of seconds to stop chuckling before she answered the other party, "I don't know about you but what I know is that the people at school would not believe you if they hear those words."

"What words?"

"You said something about not being powerful enough." Mi Young says, turning serious. She finds it odd that Kwang Soo doesn't know about what she's saying. "Wait a minute, you do know you're popular at school, right?"

"I'm the infamous Kwang Soo, of course I know about my bad reputation at school. What I don't know is why you're saying that the school would laugh."

"Well, they won't believe you. To the eyes of the school, you are a very powerful Mage who is born to make teachers and students alike feel inferior." Mi Young says. Then she added, "Plus, you are not a Jeon, which makes you even scarier."

"So the Jeon's are the only ones allowed to be powerful?" Kwang Soo asks. Mi Young noticed that the boy stopped walking. She also saw him clench his fist hard which confuses her.

"Do you have some beef with the Jeon's or something?" Mi Young suddenly asks, voice curious and confused at the same time.

Kwang Soo didn't give her any solid answer but his small grunt before he started walking was enough answer for Mi Young. So the girl had no choice but to follow him again.

When they reached the part where the stone was located they read the riddle once more.

"What the hell is this? What's a thing that when washed up, gets dirty—wait is there such thing as that?" The young girl wonders.

"I told you I suck at riddles, stop questioning me and think." Kwang Soo says, giving Mi Young another eye roll.

"Geez. I was just wondering." The girl answers.

Mi Young reads the passage again and again but nothing comes to her mind. So then she decided to slump on the ground instead and let her senior do all the thinking.

When the black haired girl was finally sitting and relaxing on the grassfield she was somehow reminded of the field back in her hometown.

To the young student, the grassfield which is just a few walks away from her home was something really magical. It grew lilies like the one's here. Aside from that, it is also a very peaceful place which is why Mi Young love staying there, just enjoying the breeze and the quietness of the field. But what made it magical to Mi Young was the fact that it can grow flowers despite the cold weather in their town. Their place never knew what the sun felt like because it was too cold out there. That is why, Mi Young treats the grassfield filled with lilies in their hometown a magical place. The only thing that reminds the black haired girl that magic is real and it can be everywhere.

Thinking about her hometown also made her think about the amazing river in their town which produces really cold but clear waters. Sometimes, when Mi Young washes her clothes there she can see some of the dirt coming off from her soiled shirt with how clear and clean the water was.

Mi Young freezes when she realizes something. She instantly stood up from where she was sitting and ran off towards where she left Kwang Soo.

"So now you decide to help?" Kwang Soo questions without sparing her any glance. Mi Young sees him scribbling something on what looks like paper.

"What's that?"

"I'm trying to answer the riddle, unlike you." The senior answers, still continuing on scribbling on his paper.

Mi Young beamed at him even though she knew that the boy couldn't see her face. "You can stop now. I already knew the answer…I guess?"

Lee Kwang Soo stopped his scribbling and finally turned to look at the other party. "What is it then?"

"I think it's water."

"Water? Why?" Kwang Soo asks. He turns around from Mi Young and reads the passage again. "Wash me and I won't be clean, don't wash me, and I'll be clean. What am I? How come it's water?"

"Well, back in my hometown, there is this river that's crystal clear. When it's laundry day I wash my clothes there and while washing I can see some of the dirt coming off from the shirt and mixing with the water, turning it dirty for a few seconds." Mi Young explains while chuckling lightly. "So maybe the 'wash me' in this passage didn't mean washing this thing up but washing something into the thing."

Kwang Soo hums as he finally gets what the other party was saying. "Water is the answer then. But how do we find the key?"

"Maybe the keyhole doesn't really need a key but a drop of water?" Mi Young suggested. She looks at the boy for a second, trying to see if the other party would listen to her suggestion.

When Mi Young sees Kwang Soo standing up from his crouching position, she somehow felt relieved that the other person is listening to her.

"Let's go." Kwang Soo says as he walks towards where they found the keyhole earlier, just a few feet away from them.

When they reach the area, Kwang Soo crouches down to inspect the keyhole. "You're right. It does need a key based on how small the hole is. Anyway, do you have any water with you?"

Mi Young shakes her head. Kwang Soo sighs, "Then, we have no choice."

The black haired girl cocks her head to the side, waiting for what the other party would do. Then, without wasting any time, Kwang Soo spits on the hole. The action made Mi Young's head stop working.

"What the hell…" Mi Young whispered to no one in particular after seeing what Kwang Soo did.

"Why are you looking at me like that? We don't have any water with us!" Kwang Soo reasons out. He glares at Mi Young before looking at the keyhole again. "Why is nothing happening?"

When the black haired girl finally regained her own mind, she laughs awkwardly before stepping forward. "You didn't let me talk at all. I mean there's another way though like this…"

After saying that, the young student immediately called out her mana power and produced a small bubble of water. She then controlled the water before pouring it down the hole where the keyhole was. Seconds later, a light immediately came out from the hole where Mi young dropped the water she had just produced. "Yes!"

Because of too much excitement that something has finally happened, Mi Young turned to look at Kwang Soo but when she saw the expression on the boy's face, her smile immediately faltered. "Why are you mad? Shouldn't we be celebrating now that we finally found something?"

It was for a moment before Kwang Soo replied through gritted teeth. "You should have told me beforehand so that I wouldn't look so stupid spitting on it."

"Well you didn't let me finish!" Mi Young shouts back at the boy with a glare.

Kwang Soo just scoffs at her before he starts to walk where they found the riddle. However, what they did not expect was Lady Ning Gwang already standing there.

"Oh hi there, children!" The white haired woman says with a wave and a huge smile plastered on her face. "I saw that the stairs have finally appeared so I immediately walked towards here."

"So you knew that there was a stair here?" Kwang Soo questions, sending a suspicious look at their teacher.

"Oopsie!" Lady Ning Gwang answers while putting a hand against her mouth. Then she looked at Mi Young and winked at her. "Let's go up before it disappears."

Kwang Soo scoffs again before he follows their teacher who was already walking through the stairs that lead up towards the entrance of the city. Mi Young sighed after witnessing what Lady Ning Gwang did. Then she shook her head as she followed the two up.

Seeing how high the floating city was, Mi Young believed that their walk could take them at least one and a half days before they reached the top of the stairs. She kept on looking around to see how high they still needed to walk but she couldn't see the top clearly because there were some clouds blocking the view.

However, her question was answered right away when after two hours of walking aimlessly, some sort of a mirror appeared in front of them. No, it didn't just appear. Mi Young noticed that they hadn't reached the gates of the city yet but the stairs had already ended and at its end was the mirror.

"What's that?" Mi Young asks, while eyeing the mirror. The three of them stopped in front of it to examine it.

Mi Young notices that instead of seeing their own reflection inside the mirror what she saw was a picture of something else.

"Is that a gate?"

"This is probably a teleportation device used by the people to get inside the city. Since it's way up and it might take one to two days before someone can reach the top with how high their city is, they put something like this so people can teleport right away instead of using more of the stairs." Lady Ning Gwang explains as she eyes the object in front of her. "Anyway, let's use it."

After that, she didn't even wait for her students' response before she entered the mirror and vanished.

"That old lady keeps on making rash decisions without even helping us." Kwang Soo whispered under his breath before following their teacher and disappearing in front of Mi Young.

When Mi Young was about to enter the mirror, she stopped for a few seconds to look behind her.

She sees nothing but some clouds blocking some of her view. However, the grassfield below them can still be seen clearly.

Mi Young smiles at how peaceful looking the place was. She closes her eyes to keep the memory inside her mind forever.

Then after that, she follows Lady Ning Gwang and Kwang Soo behind and steps inside the mirror and unto the new world waiting for her.