Academy’S Gumiho Is A Magical Genius [EN]: Chapter 13

Academy Gumiho is a Magical Genius – Episode 13

Academy Gumiho is a Magical Genius Episode 13

First Episode (3)

Hell had arrived.

The lively atmosphere of the academy was gone, replaced by a scene resembling a battlefield.

“Seungho! Seungho! Save me!”

“Stay there! I’m coming to save you!”

“Get out of the way, you crazy bastards! Those who want to live, live!”

“Ugh, ughaaaaaaack! Where, where did my leg go?!”

Screams echoed from every direction.

Appeals for help and groans filled with pain permeated the academy grounds.

It was hard to believe that this place had been filled with laughter just an hour ago.

“…Ha, this is really messed up.”

I felt a pang of guilt, but I didn’t try to rationalize it.

Didn’t I already know this would happen?

I’d been standing by under the pretext that the protagonist needed to awaken.

The desire to live had blinded me.

The result was this disaster.

I had a responsibility to watch this scene without interfering. No matter how painful, I couldn’t turn away.

This was the scene I had allowed to unfold, and no matter how hard it was for me, it couldn’t be harder than it was for them.

“…”

I silently observed the chaos from the top of a tall building.

The rooftop offered a clear view of everything below.

The cold night breeze carried the metallic stench of blood.

“Contact the professors immediately! Tell them to return at once!”

“They’re abroad right now! Call the nearby guilds instead!”

“Support is coming from the nearest A-class guild! Hold on for 20 minutes!”

“Ha, damn it. I’m going to die without even confessing my love.”

“Save the kids! Forget about me and take care of the kids first…”

Looking down at the scene, something suddenly came to mind.

The original story mentioned that ten students died. All of them were students who accompanied the protagonist on missions outside the academy.

But what about the guards and teaching assistants? Did they all die, or did some manage to survive?

Well, considering the carnage before my eyes, they were probably all dead.

“Everyone seems so lost.”

From the rooftop, I could see all types of students.

Students prioritizing their own lives, students trying to save their friends, students fighting back with whatever weapons they could find.

The largest group by far consisted of those desperately trying to save themselves.

Students were running towards the shelter, their faces etched with fear.

In their frantic escape, many stumbled and collided. Fractures and bruises were common, and in the worst cases, they pushed classmates aside or fell and fainted.

“A disorganized mob.”

I understood their actions.

The desire to live was the most primal instinct. But to survive, they needed to think and act rationally.

At this point, the best way to increase their survival rate was to fight back, not run away.

But they couldn’t even make that simple judgment. I had held some expectations for Chilseong Academy, thinking it was an elite institution, but I was sorely disappointed.

“…Is it because this is their first real battle? Well, I’ve been there too.”

Watching them, I felt a sense of suffocation.

It was because their 모습 [appearance/behavior] reminded me of my own childhood. I also came from a child soldier background.

Long-forgotten memories flashed through my mind like a panorama. The children running away in front of me looked like me back then.

“…”

As my thoughts deepened, my gaze drifted downwards.

As I stared blankly, I suddenly sensed a presence.

Something was lurking in the long shadow cast by the setting sun. It was a decent camouflage, but not enough to fool the senses of an S-class [highest rank of magical ability].

The shadow began to creep closer.

Just as a huge maw filled with teeth and leathery wings burst forth from the shadow, attempting to strike me, thorns of flame erupted from the floor, impaling the monster’s wings. The intense heat seared through the wings, charring the creature’s gray skin black.

It was weaker than I expected.

However, the result of my attack was unexpected.

Thud───!!!

The massive monster plummeted from the rooftop.

The impact created a deafening noise, and the ground cracked under the immense weight, sending up clouds of dust. In an instant, everyone’s attention was drawn to the commotion.

“…I’m screwed.”

Everyone stared at the monster that had fallen from the rooftop.

Then, their gazes shifted upwards.

Of course, I was standing right there.

‘Why did it have to turn out like this…?’

My initial plan was to eliminate it quietly.

I was simply going to end its life and leave it on the rooftop. Instead, I had killed it in a spectacular fashion without even realizing it.

I scratched my head in frustration.

I extended my right hand.

Vast magical energy surged, and a massive fireball materialized in my palm.

Looking at the students who were stunned by my sudden appearance, I thought.

Originally, I had no intention of getting involved.

But now that everyone’s attention was focused on me, I had no choice but to fight.

‘It would be a huge problem if I were dragged into a class trial for standing by and doing nothing.’

So, this was something I was doing out of necessity.

It was definitely not my own desire.

I reminded myself of that as I leaped from the rooftop.

‘I want to live.’

As much as I wanted to live, the children who were about to die must also want to live.

That’s why this action was unavoidable.

“Someone’s falling!”

“Oh, isn’t that Teaching Assistant Baek Seungwoo? He’s the academy’s heartthrob.”

“Is now the time to be concerned about celebrities?! Catch him quickly!”

The ground below was a scene of chaos.

Teaching assistants and guards were preoccupied with battling monsters.

I landed as far away from them as possible to avoid hindering their efforts.

Normally, a fall from that height would have paralyzed my lower body, but I used telekinetic magic to cushion the impact.

Even with the magic, my ankles were still quite strained.

I shouldn’t do that again.

As soon as I landed, I scanned my surroundings.

I had tried to land away from people, which meant I had landed in the middle of a horde of monsters.

Ugh, the stench was even more repulsive than facing wild animals.

“Since you smell so disgusting, could you please keep your mouths away from me?”

As soon as I spoke, dozens of monsters charged towards me. What, do these things even have ears?

As they rushed forward, I stomped my foot on the ground.

Kooong!

Magical energy rippled outwards, creating a shockwave.

Then, flames erupted from the ground, ensnaring the monsters and soon transforming into massive thorns that mercilessly impaled them.

Dozens of monsters within the fiery range collapsed helplessly.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

High-ranking monsters with thick hides or those who avoided being impaled in vital areas barely managed to endure, but dozens of their comrades had perished in an instant.

The remaining monsters cautiously retreated.

People watched the scene unfold, swallowing nervously.

It was an incredible feat.

To take down dozens of monsters with a single stomp. It wasn’t easy to achieve such a feat in the midst of such chaos.

The person responsible, however, didn’t feel anything special.

“…Ah, that hurts like hell.”

While others might have been impressed, I was simply in pain.

My leg joints and several bones were screaming in protest from that stunt. I wouldn’t have done it if I had known it would hurt this much.

My body was really weak, far too weak.

How was I supposed to overcome this crisis with this body? I refused to stomp my feet again.

If I did, I might actually break my leg.

I glared at the horde of monsters and began to strategize.

Most of the monsters here were low-level creatures with weak defenses.

Their durability was so low that even the students’ ranged magic could easily kill them. However, the few stronger monsters scattered among them were the real threat.

If I could eliminate those, the people here should be able to handle the rest. Then, a good idea suddenly popped into my head.

If I just killed the stronger ones, the rest would be a disorganized mob, and I could leave without hesitation.

I finished my mental calculations and immediately began to put my plan into action.

Suddenly, flames the size of human heads danced in the air, obscuring the monsters’ vision. As the flames moved erratically, scorching their skin, I channeled magic power into the ground.

The chain reaction of embers that I had triggered in the training room last time.

I was going to recreate it on a much larger scale.

Whew, I took a deep breath.

As I unleashed the vast amount of magic power flowing through my body, my blood surged.

My blood pressure spiked, and my breathing became labored. My skin paled slightly, but I ignored it and completed the spell in my mind.

Creak, a monster that sensed the impending danger let out a shriek.

At that moment, a deafening explosion ripped through the air, and the ground buckled.

The monsters lost their footing, and a second explosion erupted among them.

Kwaaaaang──!!

A massive explosion and a cloud of smoke billowed upwards.

Most of the monsters were caught within the blast radius.

I couldn’t kill them all with this explosion, but I had concentrated the firepower at the feet of the powerful monsters, so they must be close to death.

With this, there was no need to worry about any major threats. I could leave now.

“Keuh, I guess I can leave this to them and get out of here.”

I started walking forward without hesitation.

I couldn’t run at all.

I was physically weak, and I was feeling quite dizzy from the continuous use of magic. Fortunately, there were few monsters in my path.

There were only one or two at a time, so I easily dispatched them with a few quick strikes.

‘…Something’s not right.’

The monsters I had just killed numbered only about a hundred.

It wasn’t a small number, but the original story mentioned that almost a thousand monsters had invaded. This was less than a tenth of that number.

Could it be that the other teaching assistants or guards had killed them? Or had the few 3rd graders who remained in the academy taken care of them?

I didn’t even entertain such naive thoughts.

‘That can’t be.’

The academy grounds were vast.

Even if there were a thousand monsters, they would appear relatively sparse. In the worst-case scenario, there would still be about 900 left.

For a moment, I felt a wave of dizziness, wondering if I would have to clean them all up myself. I could pull off the same trick one more time, but I couldn’t possibly kill all 900 of them.

I hoped the rest would be taken care of by the guards, teaching assistants, and the remaining 3rd graders.

I continued walking, lost in thought.

The presence of other people felt distant.

In a hurry, I increased my pace, and a fallen female student and a monster came into view. This wasn’t exactly a Beauty and the Beast scene, was it?

I reached out without hesitation.

Flames erupted in the air and quickly formed a massive hand.

The fiery hand easily lifted the monster. The monster struggled briefly at the sudden sensation of being airborne, but the hand of flame squeezed it tightly.

Then, its flesh was cooked in the intense heat and easily crushed.

I tossed aside the creature that was crumbling like overcooked fish and checked on the student’s safety.

She seemed to have injured her leg, but fortunately, she was conscious. I was planning to give her some basic first aid and be on my way.

“Why are you…?”

If the female student in front of me wasn’t Seo Yerin.

‘I always seem to run into her in the most inconvenient situations.’

I hadn’t expected to see her here of all places.

She looked like she had a lot to say to me, but I quickly administered first aid. I wrapped her injured leg with magic power, creating a makeshift cast.

At least this would prevent the wound from getting worse.

“Hey, Seo Yerin. Can you walk on your own?”

“…Yes.”

“Then get out of here quickly. There were no monsters on the way to the 1st grade dormitory, so don’t worry and just go.”

She looked at me as if to say, ‘You can actually say things like that?’

Well, my image had been a mess every time we’d met. But that wasn’t really important in the current situation.

I tried to send her to the shelter as quickly as possible.

Then, she grabbed my pants tightly.

Hey, my pants are going to fall down.

“…Where are you going?”

“…I don’t know.”

I didn’t know either.

After jumping into the battlefield out of necessity, I had just been running forward. There was no way I had a destination.

Then, she tugged on my pants even harder with her small hand.

Was she really thinking of reporting me for indecent exposure?

I had such a ridiculous thought, but her expression was more serious than ever.

She swallowed the pain in her leg and said.

“Th, then help me… My, my friend is over there.”

“…Where?”

“Near the 3rd grade dormitory.”

“…!”

That’s where the protagonist must be.

In the original story, the nearby 3rd grade dormitory was partially destroyed by a massive shockwave when the protagonist awakened.

…Huh?

‘Why do I know that?’

A question arose in my mind at the sudden influx of knowledge.

But that wasn’t important.

There was something more pressing at hand.

It seemed that Seo Yerin’s friend was about to become a victim.

A victim who had to die in order to awaken the protagonist.

When I didn’t respond, she clung to my leg like a cicada to a tree.

“Please help me… Please help me. My, my first friend ever…”

It was the first time I had heard her use honorifics since we met.

She was even speaking in longer sentences than ever before.

She was begging me.

Me, who had brazenly entered the training room where she was practicing, stolen the book she was trying to read right in front of her, and unintentionally gotten her caught up in an explosion.

What could I say to this girl?

That her friend had to die for a happy ending?

To put such nonsense into words.

I bit down on my teeth so hard they ached and stroked Seo Yerin’s head.

“…Okay.”

Her hair was long and beautiful.

However, it was matted with dirt and grime, and it felt dry and rough to the touch, probably from being exposed to the heat. But I could feel the warmth radiating from her scalp as I stroked her hair.

“I’ll take care of it. You go to the shelter.”

At first, I was going to stand by and say it was just a novel.

But now, I couldn’t stand by any longer.

Not just to avoid being dragged into a class trial.

There was a girl in front of me with tears in her eyes, begging me to save her friend.

She was pleading with me to save her.

How could this just be a world in a novel?

“…Please…”

“I know, so go quickly.”

I quickly sent Seo Yerin on her way and ran towards the 3rd grade dormitory.

My low stamina and agility held me back, but I somehow managed to increase my speed by reinforcing my leg muscles with magic power.

As a result, I could feel my ankles gradually giving out.

Now that I had made a promise, I couldn’t be late.

I ignored the pain in my ankles and sprinted across the wide academy grounds to avoid being late.

* * *

Meanwhile, near the 3rd grade dormitory.

“Ru, run away!!”

“There’s nowhere to run! Defend! Defend!”

“Kyaa, kyaaaaaaaaack!”

“Yura!”

The children screamed in terror.

One of the girls tripped and fell while running away. The monster, who had been watching the scene with amusement, slowly lumbered towards her.

The girl, named Yura, was lying directly in its path.

“Hey, Noh Yura! Get up quickly!”

“I, I sprained my ankle!”

“Damn it!”

Yura, who had fallen, tried to get up, but she couldn’t because of her sprained ankle.

Her friends tried to approach and help her.

“Ugh, ugh…!”

“Hey, what’s wrong? Are you okay?”

“Th, the pressure… My legs are trembling…!”

A friend turned pale and stumbled backwards.

He gasped for air and pointed.

At the end of his finger was a massive monster. The creature wore a grotesque smile that revealed nothing of its mouth.

“Th, that thing is pressuring us with its magic power…!”

“…What?”

I couldn’t believe it.

A monster was pressuring its opponents with its magic power alone.

This could only mean one thing.

“…Fear, by any chance?”

Fear, a signature ability of high-ranking monsters that allows them to paralyze opponents with magic power alone.

Only a select few monsters possessed this ability. If it could use such a high-level skill, it must possess considerable intelligence.

Intelligence enough to toy with its prey.

Heh, the monster grinned with its massive maw.

At the same time, all the students felt their knees buckle.

They couldn’t fight it. There was no way they could deal with something like that.

“Le, let’s run away! Quickly!”

“But Yura!”

“So?! Are we all going to die together? I want to live!”

“Are you even a friend?! That’s ridiculous!”

The group was torn apart by the monster’s overwhelming presence.

The monster seemed pleased with the scene, and it moved slowly, deliberately not interfering with their escape.

Until a cold wind targeted it.

──Swish!

Kyle, fighting against his trembling legs, swung his weapon.

It was a thin, portable sword.

Kyle, channeling a cold wind into the blade, was determined to bisect the monster.

The monster merely looked annoyed.

His sword couldn’t even scratch the monster’s skin. Not a single drop of blood was drawn.

It was an attack that was less effective than an A4 sheet of paper.

Kwaang───!!

The monster casually swatted its forefoot as if swatting away an annoying fly.

With that single blow, the sword shattered, and Kyle was sent crashing into the wall. He felt as if every bone in his body was breaking.

He barely clung to consciousness, but he was bleeding profusely, and his mind was clouded.

The monster, noticing his weakened state, seemed to have a sudden idea.

Immediately, its clumsy movements gradually accelerated.

Half a step, one step, two steps.

The stride gradually widened, and the speed gradually increased.

The students who were trying to escape were terrified by its 모습 [appearance/behavior]. The monster, not wanting to let them escape, unleashed its Fear.

The students, their ankles bound by the oppressive pressure, screamed and cursed.

Yura, who was lying on the ground, squeezed her eyes shut, tears and mucus streaming down her face as the footsteps drew closer.

Kyle, pinned against the wall, could only watch helplessly.

‘Move… Move!!’

Kyle screamed inwardly.

He felt disgusted with himself for being so weak and incompetent.

Why was he so weak?

Was it because he was admitted as 1,999th out of 2,000 freshmen? Because his biological parents had abandoned him? Because he didn’t possess even a glimmer of talent like his other siblings?

All of those were correct answers.

He felt self-loathing at that realization. It was sickening.

The friends he had made for the first time at the academy were in danger of being helplessly attacked right before his eyes.

Nevertheless, his arms and legs refused to move.

‘Please! Please move!!’

At that very moment, the monster reached Yura.

The monster raised its massive forefoot.

Then, it extended its foot.

The monster was going to crush Yura.

She tried to crawl away, but the monster’s forefoot was larger than an elephant’s. There was no way she could escape.

Then, the monster’s gaze shifted to Kyle.

“…!”

He could finally understand the monster’s intentions.

The creature was mocking Kyle. It intended to savor the game by killing Yura in front of his eyes and then slaughtering the rest of his friends.

Kyle felt something writhing in his heart.

He couldn’t identify it yet because it was indistinguishable from his anger. He would only be able to recognize it when all the friends in front of him were dead.

At this moment, the first episode of the novel was about to come to fruition.

Everyone dies, and only Kyle survives.

Thereby, the world would be saved, leading to a happy ending.

Except for the children in front of him.

「Pyrokinesis」[ability to control fire with one’s mind]

Could he simply watch that happen?

A man intervened in the battle.

At the same time, the burning desire subsided, and something else ignited. It was as clear and hot as the flame in front of him.

A kind of self-hatred, a burning question of why he was so weak.

“Wow, I almost missed it.”

The man arrived, his fox tail wagging behind his back.

It was a face I didn’t want to see.