Academy’S Gumiho Is A Magical Genius [EN]: Chapter 241

Academy Gumiho is a Magical Genius – Episode 241

Academy Gumiho is a Magical Genius 241

Leonhardt (1)

“You. You’re not me, are you?”

That question overturned all my previous assumptions.

Until now, I thought that this body, the person ‘Baek Seung-woo’ himself, was an imitation of me.

That’s because the origin of this world is a novel.

The author of that novel was none other than my friend.

If she gave the character the same face, the same physique, and the same name as me, I naturally assumed the character was based on me.

Taking this for granted, I thought of ‘Baek Seung-woo’ as my alter ego.

I made judgments and analyzed everything with that thought as a foundation.

But that’s not it.

“You’re not me. No, you definitely *were* me, but from some point on, you stopped being me.”

“What kind of nonsense are you spouting?”

“…I’ve glimpsed your memories and emotions a few times while living in this body. Then you, who gave your soul to me in your body, must have glimpsed my memories too.”

“Yeah, I’ve seen it a few times. Even if I didn’t want to see it, it forced me to watch it like a movie that plays automatically.”

I glimpsed ‘Baek Seung-woo’s’ memories and emotions.

He glimpsed my memories and emotions.

We looked into each other’s heads.

Normally, I would be shocked by such an amazing experience, but I was the only one who was shocked.

As you can feel from ‘Baek Seung-woo’s’ dry tone.

He didn’t receive any shock or emotion.

Yeah, that’s right, that attitude right now.

It was that indifferent attitude, as if he knew everything, that allowed me to arrive at the question I just asked.

“You felt and experienced other people’s memories and emotions as if they were your own. But you didn’t feel any interest?”

“Why would I be interested in other people’s memories?”

“Because you’re a wizard.”

“!!!!”

Wizards are scholars who thirst for new knowledge.

They are not a race that can simply pass by a situation where they share other people’s memories and emotions as if they were their own.

“Wizards are wise, but they consider their knowledge insufficient. I know it well because I became a wizard too. They are thirsty for knowledge and dig wells to quench their thirst. But now, unprecedented knowledge, a well that no one has ever used, has appeared in front of you.”

The human mind is complex.

There are several spells that seem to manipulate the mind by adjusting hormone levels, but there is no spell that perfectly penetrates emotions.

Similarly, there was no magic that felt other people’s memories and emotions so vividly.

“It’s a golden opportunity to gain new knowledge about other people’s psychology and memories. But you’re kicking that opportunity away? You, who have studied magic for several years more than me?”

That’s like a person who has been starving for four days kicking away a bowl of meat soup in front of them. In other words…

That’s ridiculous.

Stop talking nonsense.

“Thanks to your answer just now, my question has gained certainty. Thank you.”

“What kind of absurd sophistry [a clever but false argument] is that? Of course, the experience of peeking into other people’s memories was amazing, but does it make sense to gain certainty from that?”

“Yes, it makes sense.”

I smiled at ‘Baek Seung-woo’, who was making an expression that he didn’t understand.

“Because that’s what I was so sure of.”

“!!!!”

The conversation doesn’t make sense.

The man in front of ‘Baek Seung-woo’ had an unwavering conviction. It’s not a state that can be explained in words.

A person with such a strong conviction.

It can never be broken or moved.

The only way is to break it with force.

But now, ‘Baek Seung-woo’ had no power.

He was just a soul. This was just his mental world, and he wasn’t confident in winning against his opponent even in a simple battle of mental strength.

He doesn’t even have the will to fight.

In the end, he gave up.

What can I do? If I can’t move him, I have to admit it and confess.

“Okay… you’re right.”

“That’s right. I’m right, aren’t I?”

“You’re right, so stop asking.”

‘Baek Seung-woo’ admitted his defeat.

The moment he raised both hands and took the action of losing, my expression finally drew a curve.

You frustrating bastard. You’re admitting it now.

“As I thought, my thoughts were not wrong.”

“That’s right. Your thoughts are not wrong. So, can you stop making that expression? It makes me feel bad for some reason.”

“Is that so?”

Groping, groping.

I touched my face with my hand and felt what kind of expression I was making.

Looking at the state of my facial muscles, it seems like I had been making an expression that looked down on people until just now. I must have been looking at ‘Baek Seung-woo’ with that expression.

Well, if I had that expression, I would have felt bad.

“Okay. I’ll stop.”

“……”

I apologized neatly.

But his expression was quite a sight to behold again.

No, he was making an expression asking why I was suddenly apologizing.

It was as if he had known my personality for a very long time.

Even if ‘Baek Seung-woo’ had been secretly hiding and watching all my actions so far, even if he had been peeking into my memories and emotions.

Normally, it’s not easy to make that kind of expression.

You have to be very old friends to make that kind of expression. The only person around me who can make that kind of expression is Eve.

In other words, ‘Baek Seung-woo’ would not normally make that kind of expression.

Normally.

“You. Now you’re even giving me hints with your face.”

“…What?”

“I’m talking about your expression. Take a look in the mirror. Ah, there’s no mirror here.”

“If there’s no mirror, you can just make one.”

This is the mental world.

For the most part, you can create things just by thinking and wanting them.

He reached out and imagined a mirror appearing at his fingertips.

As a result, a very small hand mirror was created.

‘Baek Seung-woo’, who looked at his face through the hand mirror, frowned.

“This is… an expression?”

“Yeah, you can definitely feel the change in expression from just now when you had no expression.”

You’re talking nonsense.

Because he is looking at his face immediately through the hand mirror, he knows best what his face looks like.

His face was not much different from before.

Always a cold expression.

However, the movement of his eyebrows and the movement of his lips were slightly subtle.

And you got a hint from seeing this?

Is he really crazy?

“You… ha, if you get a girlfriend later, your girlfriend will love you a lot.”

“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

“I’m saying that if your girlfriend asks you what’s changed about her, you’ll be able to guess it right away without any errors.”

This time, I thought the opposite.

What nonsense is that?

That much change is obvious.

“That. I think it’ll feel like you’re obsessed with your girlfriend, so she’ll hate it?”

“You can just meet someone who likes that too.”

“You’re full of crap.”

“But you have the face to do that.”

“…I can’t say anything because it’s the same as my face.”

If I say anything here, it’s like spitting on my own face.

I smiled softly at the strange conversation and immediately erased my expression.

Let’s get straight to the point.

“So, I said earlier. You’re not me.”

“You definitely said that.”

“If you’ve seen my memories, you’ll know. This world is just a novel, and you and your family are just supporting characters.”

“Yeah, according to your memories, that’s right.”

I thought this world was reality, but at the same time, I thought it was a world that was infinitely similar to a novel.

But at this moment.

As I faced him, I wondered if the cause and effect had been reversed.

“I took that for granted. But as I talked to you, my thoughts changed slightly. And one hypothesis came to mind.”

So.

A novel that has become reality. Not a villain who was motivated by me.

“This world existed before the novel was published, and you don’t resemble me, but I resemble you.”

Words that make your head complicated.

A statement that reverses the cause and effect so far.

‘Baek Seung-woo’ was silent at that statement. He didn’t give any affirmation or denial.

He just listened to my words silently.

“My memories are not perfect. I was born with a head that can remember most things, but I can’t even remember trivial things from a long time ago.”

A memory and memory that can memorize an entire book.

Even with such memory, it is not easy to recall parts of a conversation that happened years ago. It is natural for unimportant memories to be naturally organized.

But now I forced myself to recall those memories.

I forcibly pieced together the fragmented memories.

As a result, the tattered memories became one.

“Eve always asked me how to develop the scene. But she rarely asked about the settings. Even if she asked, my answer wasn’t very important.”

I said, retracing my old memories.

“At that time, she said that she couldn’t entrust such important elements to others. It felt as if the settings had already been decided long before she even started serializing the novel.”

Not simply decided.

It was as if it *had* to be that setting.

I didn’t pay much attention to it at the time, but now it feels a little different.

‘Baek Eun-ho said that Eve’s novel was very popular because it was too realistic and lively. The rich settings and descriptions that stimulate the imagination, as well as the vivid stories that made it seem as if she was actually observing another world, gave readers the impression of going on a trip.’

Anyway, I’m starting to feel confident.

“She observed this world and wrote the novel.”

That’s for sure.

However, considering that she asked me for advice on the development of the novel, I don’t know whether it is a story that 그대로 저술한 [directly wrote] the story of this world as it is, or whether it is a novel with her own adaptation.

My oldest friend.

Even though she is my only friend, there are still many things I don’t know about Eve.

Still, I understood one thing about her now.

“What do you think of my opinion?”

“Aside from what to do, judging from the circumstances, that’s probably right.”

“You’re talking very ambiguously.”

“There’s no such thing as talking ambiguously. The conclusion is up to you.”

“That’s too much. You can tell me a little bit.”

Well, we started from the same root, the same name.

You should tell me that much willingly.

“What?”

“I told you. At first, I said, ‘You’re not me,’ and ‘I resemble you.'”

You didn’t say anything then.

Why are you reacting like that? Have you already forgotten?

Is this early dementia [decline in mental ability]?

“You’re going to use some sophistry again… no. You’re just going to tease me with sophistry.”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“Aren’t you tired of it now?”

“No? Isn’t it thrilling every moment?”

It was quite fun to tease him.

“If that’s the case, just tell me. I’m too lazy to accept your words now. More than anything.”

The short time in this world is slowly coming to an end.

The mental world, which was full of pure white, was gradually turning black.

I instinctively sensed it. This world will not last long.

About 10 minutes from now?

That was the limit of this world.

“If you say that much, I can’t help it.”

Nodding, I opened my mouth.

“At first, I thought it was strange as I watched your actions. You had a lot of similarities with me when I was young. But, the moment I heard his words just now, the actions I’ve seen you take so far looked a little different.”

A child who is too mature from a young age.

Maybe that child wasn’t mature, but had already lived the years that suited him?

I had that thought, and the point where that thought turned into conviction.

“The reason why you didn’t feel any interest while peeking into my memories and emotions must be because of that.”

It was because of the emotion about my memories and emotions.

As a wizard, you couldn’t have any interest in the unknown?

That can never happen.

If you are a person who cannot feel interest in the unknown, you cannot even learn intermediate magic. The path of magic is such a place.

“The twists and turns that appear in the first movie you see are very interesting, but if you watch a movie you’ve already seen again, the twists and turns don’t give you much interest.”

‘The same goes for Baek Seung-woo.’

He has already experienced living as ‘me’. He already had memories and experiences as Baek Seung-woo. That’s why he couldn’t feel any emotion no matter how much he peeked into my memories.

A person who feels emotion and interest in his past.

It doesn’t exist anywhere.

Ah, it might exist somewhere.

“I had this and that thought, and the suspicion became a conviction. But there was a lack of evidence. So I decided to supplement the evidence.”

“Where did you supplement the evidence from?”

“From all directions. This is your mental world. If it’s information about you, wouldn’t I be able to find it somehow? That’s how I collected your information.”

“…How did you find that while talking to me? Even if your skills in wielding magic are inferior to mine, does that mean that your secrecy and precision surpass mine? My skills that were called 「Magic Castle」 are all dead.”

“Haha, what can I do if my skills and talents are outstanding. By the way, the story went off on a tangent for a while, but to put it bluntly.”

We are not the same person with the same name.

The same person, split into two from one root.

“We are each other’s doppelgangers [a ghostly double of a living person]. Or maybe it’s just a doppelganger to me.”

Ah, of course, the original is me.

It was just that even that was me. In other words, ‘Baek Seung-woo’ is not a villain motivated by me, but my alter ego that was differentiated at some point.

…It’s so complicated.