Academy’S Gumiho Is A Magical Genius [EN]: Chapter 251

Academy Gumiho is a Magic Genius – Episode 251

Mediocre Replica (1)

After a fierce battle, we finally had a moment of respite.

Of course, that break was for the children. As their guardian, I had to cooperate with several investigations. It was incredibly annoying, but I couldn’t refuse given my position.

The Cheonho Baekga family doesn’t exactly have a friendly relationship with the Leonhardt family.

That’s common knowledge. They’re historically famous rivals. Even a child on the street would know that.

Given the bad blood between the two families, why was the head of the Cheonho Baekga family staying at a lodging near the airport?

And why did a terrorist attack happen nearby?

Fortunately, the casualties were relatively low, but that was only in comparison to the collapsed buildings. The important thing was that people died in the middle of the city.

The German people were furious, and the Leonhardt family, who are practically national treasures, were also very angry.

They started investigating me, even without solid evidence. But since I always meticulously covered my tracks, and Leona, the eldest daughter of the family, spoke well of me, the investigation didn’t last long, especially considering my political standing.

As a result.

The conclusion was that I was innocent. They decided I was also a victim of the Mind terrorist attack. Well, I *did* burn down dozens of buildings belonging to a foreign villain with a bizarre name, .

That raised the question of what to do with that guy.

In the end, the Leonhardt side decided to welcome me as a VIP.

Even though I’m the head of a rival family they despise, they investigated me without any real proof. They were already dealing with a major headache because of the terrorist attack.

They couldn’t afford to escalate things further.

Eventually, I was given a large room in the Leonhardt family’s main residence, their massive castle. It had all the amenities of an ordinary house.

Several beds, a bathroom, a refrigerator, and a kitchen.

It had everything needed for comfortable living, but it also subtly implied that I shouldn’t cause any trouble while staying in Germany, since they were providing me with a place to live.

Of course, I completely ignored that.

As soon as I got to the assigned room, I summoned 「Doppelganger」 from the shadows.

I still don’t know why 「Doppelganger」 appeared there, or who the owner who ordered 「Doppelganger」 is.

But I managed to seize command rights.

Ultimately, 「Doppelganger」 is a type of skill.

It becomes the property of the registered person.

The process was more complicated than I expected, but it worked out in the end.

Just as a 「Doppelganger」 with my face was about to materialize.

Erzsebet spoke.

“…Um, that is.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Is this going to be our guardian?”

A slime-like creature in liquid form that hadn’t copied anyone yet.

Erzsebet poked the creature with her finger and continued.

“Then, maybe…”

“Maybe?”

“Could you… make it our mother?”

Mother?

It’s not that I *can’t* make one, but why a woman?

“It’s possible, but this thing will be copying my memories and experiences, so it would be better to perfectly imitate my appearance if you want to fight effectively. Is there a specific reason?”

“Well… we have a dad, so I wanted a mom…”

Erzsebet, unable to articulate her thoughts clearly, started trying to persuade me with a flustered expression. But it seemed like she was trying to convince herself more than me.

“No! It’s not that there’s any special reason, but even a young baby needs a mother, right?! So I thought a mother would be better than a father… That’s all!”

“Okay, then I’ll do that.”

“Yes? You’re agreeing so easily?”

“Yeah, I was looking for someone to be your guardian anyway. The technique might be a bit rough, but the form you like is the priority. I can adjust the technique later, so it’s a simple problem.”

The basic foundation is made with my body and memories.

Then, mold it into a female form.

It wasn’t a pleasant task, but Erzsebet’s words made sense.

Children need parents to grow up, and our household needed a female presence to take on the role of a mother. Transforming my body into a woman wasn’t easy, but thanks to my body’s slender build, it was relatively simple. There wasn’t much to change on the face either.

I simply made my face androgynous and lengthened my hair.

I changed the body hair to white to differentiate it from myself, and it suited her surprisingly well, causing unexpected confusion.

─You. Aren’t you actually talented in sculpture? People all over the world would kill for this kind of talent.

“I know I did a good job. Just shut up.”

In the end, I finished creating her. Even though I based it on myself, who is clearly male, a truly beautiful woman was created.

I wanted to sculpt a woman, but I didn’t intend to create someone so beautiful. Too much talent can be a curse.

Having gained this new realization, I adjusted the swordsmanship that 「Doppelganger」 unfolded with the copied memories and experiences.

“Even though it’s the first time using swordsmanship, the posture isn’t bad.”

The height of the waist and the angle of movement. The angle of the limbs moving accordingly was clearly similar to mine. Well, since 「Doppelganger」 was imagined and created as a female version of me, some parts felt awkward.

It wasn’t 100% perfect.

There are still many things to adjust and fix.

But if I had a day or two to work through those issues, I could overcome them without much difficulty. The technique that 「Doppelganger」 imitates is already complete.

I’ve paved the way, now I just have to follow it.

However.

‘The inner understanding isn’t complete. Is it because the body isn’t my own?’

Inner understanding (心得) [Shindē – a deep, intuitive comprehension of principles].

It refers to realizing the principles deep within one’s heart and striving for a higher level. Although it’s called inner understanding, anyone who has reached that level has oneness as a basic quality, so that realization must be engraved in both body and mind.

In other words, even if it’s impossible to reach 100% of my power.

To raise it to a level close to that, it’s not enough to understand my experiences and realizations only with the mind, but also to realize them with the body. 「Doppelganger」 needed training.

The amount of training time required is unknown. We don’t have much time to leisurely wait for that.

‘I have no choice but to be satisfied with this much.’

I feel a little disappointed, but.

In fact, this level was enough to be ecstatic. Above-average physical abilities and magical power that naturally replenishes like a real person without needing to be recharged every time.

In addition, she also possessed my skills, the experience gained from navigating the battlefield, and absolute loyalty. So much so that I even thought it was a waste to use her as a nanny for the children, which was her original purpose.

“At least a Ranker [a highly skilled individual in a specific field]. If you use compatibility well and fight with the determination to break through, it’s no exaggeration to say that you’re on par with a High Ranker [one of the top 100 individuals in a specific field].”

It was a generous evaluation.

It’s not that the 100 High Rankers in the world are easily dismissed, but not all of them excel in combat.

The selection criteria for High Rankers are achievements and skills in each field. It was the result of combining the two figures. Among them, there would be people who became High Rankers due to their great achievements despite their lack of skills, and conversely, there would be people whose skills were relatively buried due to their lack of achievements.

The current 「Doppelganger」 was qualified to be included among those 100 people.

Having obtained a truly satisfactory nanny, I watched 「Doppelganger」 playing with the children and fell into thought. My head was still full of complicated thoughts.

Especially the knowledge I received from ‘Baek Seung-woo’. Because it was so vast, analyzing and classifying all that knowledge was not an easy task. But when I heard the children laughing and chattering.

Those thoughts vanished in an instant.

“Baby. Come to your sister. Let’s play ball together.”

“Bba! Joa─!” [Baby! Good!]

“Oh, now you can talk well.”

In front of that clear laughter, my thoughts and worries felt infinitely insignificant.

The children’s laughter was so bright.

The children’s voices were so cheerful.

I stopped thinking and worrying and just stared at the children. Just by watching this short moment, I was filled with the will to reach the end of this world.

* * *

The children, who had been playing hard, ate dinner and fell asleep quickly when night came.

I think I read somewhere that young children can’t fall asleep easily in unfamiliar places, but our kids sleep very well anywhere. Maybe it’s because they’re tired, or maybe it’s just their nature to sleep well in unfamiliar places.

Either way, it was convenient as a guardian.

That children fall asleep early is synonymous with being able to invest time solely for myself at night.

I had brought a lot of books in the space inside the ring, so I devoured various books. At the same time as reading books, I also transferred the contents I read in the diary in the mental world to a notebook. I used my hands and time as efficiently as possible.

How many hours had I been working like that?

Slowly, my eyelids drooped.

“…!!”

I woke up with a start, probably because I was quite tired.

I was planning to stay up all night, but I have no choice but to get some sleep.

“…I’ll just finish the book I’m reading and the work I’m doing now and sleep for three hours.”

It was a short time to sleep, but in the current situation where there are so many things to deal with, protecting myself in the Leonhardt family, a hostile family, and sleeping is an arrogance beyond luxury.

But if I don’t rest more than this, I feel like I’ll fall asleep once and never wake up again. I finished reading the book I was reading and classified and organized the diary by time, type, and various other criteria.

The clock was well past two hours.

Light is slowly coming in from beyond the curtains. In the end, I stayed up all night.

“…In the end, I’ll have to endure with caffeine again.”

More caffeine, coffee and black tea are needed.

The brain is now begging for rest, but hold on a little longer.

I’ll definitely sleep tomorrow. Let’s just bear with it today.

Is my head strange from the excessive fatigue? It feels like my brain is screaming. Well, it’s understandable.

No matter how superhuman a body that doesn’t need sleep is, if it’s tired, it needs to get enough sleep to recover. Superhumans were beings far beyond humans, but in the end, their foundation was human.

The recovery process can only follow that of humans.

In that sense, I was overworking myself.

So much so that 「Doppelganger」, who was only created a day ago, made black tea for me.

“Drink this while you do it.”

“…I’m done though.”

“Really? Then drink it and do something else. Anyway, there’s a mountain of things to do, right? Isn’t that right?”

Yes, that’s right.

The things I just finished were also things to do today. Tomorrow had tomorrow’s things to do, and the day after tomorrow had the day after tomorrow’s things to do. There’s a mountain of work piled up, so if I do it in advance now, it’ll help even a little.

It’ll be just a little, literally.

Still, well, help is help.

I sipped the tea she brought and savored the subtle fragrance.

I didn’t get rid of my drowsiness in an instant, but as I enjoyed the subtle tea fragrance and spent time, I gradually began to wake up. Yes, let’s wake up quickly.

There’s still a mountain of things left to do.

For example, the deadly poison that spread through my body through the tea I was sipping.

Let’s detoxify this first.

“If you want to assassinate me, do it properly. What’s the point of using a deadly poison on someone who is resistant to poison? Are you really a 「Doppelganger」 made with my memories and experiences?”