Academy’S Gumiho Is A Magical Genius [EN]: Chapter 303

Academy Gumiho is a Magical Genius – Episode 303

Academy Gumiho is a Magical Genius 303

Mastone (3)

Clang!

Glass met glass.

The red wine in the glass sloshed.

“I knew I liked the main family. I can drink so much good wine here.”

My sister and I enjoyed an early dinner.

A large table and numerous chairs. Overflowing food and expensive wine.

It was an environment perfect for enjoying a banquet, but only my sister and I participated in this meal.

“……Then why don’t you come back home?”

“Where I am is my business.”

“……Okay.”

Awkward conversation went back and forth.

Because we had both changed so much compared to the past.

We didn’t know how to talk to each other.

‘It’s completely different from the diary. Conversation isn’t easy.’

Baek Seolha.

She was my older sister.

If you read the memories vaguely remaining in my head and the diary, you could see that Seolha and Seungwoo were closer than you might think since childhood.

Unlike ordinary siblings and ordinary families.

Seungwoo and Baek Seolha were born with duties.

Regardless of who becomes the head of the family.

The other person must support the person who will become the head of the family and lead the family.

“When I, the eldest son, was chosen as the Young Lord, my sister became my shadow.”

“……That’s old news.”

“It’s not old news. I’m just curious now, belatedly.”

After our parents died.

Seungwoo and Baek Seolha’s lives changed 180 degrees.

From the surrounding environment to lifestyle. Even their personalities changed.

‘The sister who was always cheerful and loved her younger siblings closed her mouth.’

Although we received a lot of love from our parents, as direct descendants, our future was half-determined. We had no expectations for the future, but our siblings tried our best to enjoy the present.

However, that future.

The future where one of the direct descendants becomes the head of the family and the remaining siblings support the head of the family happened abnormally quickly.

Because of responsibilities and duties, we could no longer enjoy the present.

There was no hope for the future from the beginning, and all that remained were memories of the past.

“The sister in my memory isn’t like this.”

The memories of my sister in the diary.

Most of them were focused on being bright and warm.

She didn’t hold back her words like now, and her face wasn’t dark.

The future ahead would be difficult, but she was a girl who didn’t lose her smile and tried her best to enjoy the present.

“……In those days, you, me, and the youngest were too young.”

“We were too young to know society and the world.”

“……I thought while watching my father, who worked hard every day, and my mother, who helped him. Someday we will live as fiercely as Mom and Dad, but if we leave behind a lot of beautiful memories, it will be okay.”

Gulp.

Baek Seolha, who drank the wine in the glass without even savoring it.

She poured wine into her glass recklessly, as if she was drinking not to enjoy the expensive wine on the table, but simply to get drunk, and continued to speak.

“But it wasn’t. After the two of them passed away, you went crazy, and the youngest was buried in the obsession that she had to inherit her parents’ will.”

“That’s……!”

In an instant, my mouth opened, but I desperately held back the words that were trying to burst out.

That I pretended to be crazy on purpose.

I couldn’t bring myself to say it. I didn’t want to say it.

Because the person who should hear these words no longer exists in this world.

I held back my words.

“……No. Keep talking.”

“……You two didn’t have enough memories to reminisce about. Compared to me, I realized that the position of head of the family and the Saintess were too heavy a burden for you who had relatively no memories to look back on.”

The eldest son was the only son of the family, so he naturally became the head of the family.

The second daughter, the youngest, was born with unprecedented divine power, so she became the Saintess [a woman of great holiness or spiritual power] in charge of the family’s events. At the time, the two were only middle and elementary school students.

“You guys were too young. So I was going to take care of everything.”

To drive out my younger siblings and become the head of the family.

I was going to get rid of the position of Saintess itself.

She had been working hard until now to do that.

But the changes in her younger siblings were as sudden as the sudden death of her parents.

“But you started to change.”

For the elders, Seungwoo was an eyesore.

He had no real power, but he had nominal authority, so after various packaging, they sent him into exile as an assistant at the Academy. The moment Baek Seolha first heard that news.

Baek Seolha was angry.

How dare they send her younger brother into exile without permission.

At first, deep anger surged.

But when I thought about it, it wasn’t bad.

“I thought you could buy time if you were at the Academy.”

In fact, Baek Seolha greatly expanded her power while Seungwoo was at the Academy.

Based on her unique political sense and quick calculation of profit and loss, she succeeded in increasing her power almost five times. However, the fact that she had only managed to build a force of the same size as the elders after increasing it five times held her back.

Baek Seolha was now only at the starting line.

The elders had already built a force of the same size as her and were slowly growing in size. As a latecomer, there was no way to grow her power unless a brilliant idea or good fortune followed Baek Seolha.

It was Baek Seolhui who stepped in at that time.

“Your exile wasn’t just an opportunity for me.”

“Baek Seolhui, that child, also participated.”

“That’s right. You know that child has been praised as a Saintess since she was very young, right?”

“Of course.”

Among the contents written in the diary.

Most of the items related to my younger sister were related to the Saintess.

“As the head of the family, I can’t help but know.”

“Well, things about Saintesses or Shamans are old traditions.”

Saintess or Shaman.

The name changed depending on the era, but the value and power contained in that position remained unchanged.

A Saintess is a kind of honorary position.

Cheonho Baekga is made up of family units, and since it is a prestigious family that has lasted for 1,000 years, there are all sorts of traditions and events.

In order to preside over the event, a vast amount of divine power is inevitably required to carry out the traditions written in ancient books.

Some events require rain and wind.

And some ceremonies require lightning storms.

In order to carry out all those minor traditions without missing a single one, the direct line who is born with all these powerful divine powers takes charge.

That is Baek Seolhui in this era.

“There must have been a big ripple.”

“Of course. The elders wanted to leave the youngest as a Saintess who only presides over events, but the followers who followed her didn’t let that happen.”

“Did those old men still have influence?”

The Saintess’s power is small but not weak.

Because there are old men who are so-called followers and follow Baek Seolhui. Those who are close to death were the main power figures of the family’s previous generation, and they had enjoyed everything that a living person could enjoy during their lifetime.

But maybe it’s because they are people of a generation that believes in superstition.

They followed Baek Seolhui, who also presides over the family’s funerals and farewell ceremonies to send off souls, and took care of her convenience.

To believe in the Saintess and have a good afterlife.

That was the identity and principle of action of the old men.

“They are radical people. They have all stepped down from the front lines now, but they used to serve as elders or manage the family’s business a long time ago, so they know how to use the connections they built at that time without hesitation.”

“That’s how they are. From ancient times, forces armed with tradition, death, and religion are scary.”

Originally, people armed with beliefs are a bit scary.

“You came to your senses, and Seolhui built her own power.”

Baek Seolha looked at me and said.

“So I’m saying.”

I didn’t beat around the bush anymore.

Baek Seolha was staring straight at me.

“I don’t know why you brought up the story about the head of the family, but you should remain the head of the family.”

“……Are you trying to say that neither of us is qualified?”

“Our sisters were turning a blind eye to our father’s choice. If he was a responsible father, there must have been a reason why he put you forward as the next head of the family.”

Baek Seolha felt the limits of her own capabilities.

The tendencies of the forces that followed Baek Seolhui were not suitable for the head of the family.

If it was the time when Seungwoo was called a hoodlum.

Putting aside competence and tendencies, they would have both tried to become the head of the family.

But from some point on, when I stopped hearing the label of hoodlum, they stopped walking.

“So. I’m going to trust you and support you now.”

“……Does that girl think the same way?”

“The youngest? Of course. Because Seolhui brought up this story two days ago.”

It seemed like the siblings had resolved their issues well.

I thought it would take a long time to understand each other because it was an entangled relationship like a tangled skein, but unexpectedly, the tangled skein was completely untangled at once with a single quick stroke.

But this is troublesome.

“Um…… Actually.”

What should I do?

I clicked my tongue and pondered, and finally opened my mouth.

“I might die soon?”

The end of the scenario was slowly approaching.

This was the same as saying that my death was approaching.

Of course, Baek Seolha, who was hearing this for the first time, widened her eyes.

* * *

“Ouch, it hurts.”

My face was swollen.

I stroked my face and muttered.

“……Isn’t that usually the time to worry?”

My younger brother might die.

I don’t know why she’s throwing punches there.

─……Are you saying that?

“Why. What did I say?”

─What you said. Anyone who hears it will think it sounds like a suicide attempt.

Does the fact that I might die soon sound like a suicide attempt?

And in the first place.

“It’s probably a suicide attempt. Sooner or later, I’ll end up dying anyway.”

─Is that something you can say so easily?

“It’s not something I say easily. You’re starting to know, right?”

How great my desire for death is.

“I want to rest soon.”

─……Can’t you just sit in a rocking chair like an old man in the back room, play with the kids, and rest?

“Hey. You’re prejudiced against old men in the back room.”

─Anyway, don’t you have any intention of living peacefully and dying?

Of course, she was aware.

She watches my actions most closely and knows me better than anyone else because she can communicate with me with just thoughts.

“Um, it wouldn’t be bad to live with children as you said.”

It’s not a bad idea.

But I couldn’t nod in agreement.

Because I’ve lived that kind of life once.

“But living like that doesn’t make you peaceful.”

The war was over and I took a long break.

A long, long break to stabilize my tired and wounded mind and body.

No matter how much I rested, I didn’t become peaceful.

Nevertheless, I took a break.

Even after several years, my wounds did not heal.

That’s because my wish was denied from the root.

During the war. Most of the soldiers wanted the end of the war and peace.

However, war was a perfectly natural background for me, who spent my adolescence on the battlefield.

What I wanted was not the end of the war or peace, but people.

My teacher, my mentor. All the people I loved.

I wanted to live with them.

But they all sacrificed their lives for the cause of peace, and I also tried to sacrifice my life, but in the end, my turn never came.

I ended the war with my own hands.

And ridiculously.

The fact that I couldn’t die like others eventually became my regret.

The battle that will take place at the end of this world, at the end of the scenario, will surely be perfect for fulfilling the cause by sacrificing my life.

I have come to this moment to be with those I have respected and loved. It’s just around the corner.

There’s no way I can give up now.

But.

“If there comes a time when I reverse my choice.”

That’s definitely.

“Wouldn’t it be the moment when I love someone more than the people I’ve loved so far?”

Someone I love so much that I give up my only regret.

Well. At least until now, I can’t think of a single person.