Academy’S Gumiho Is A Magical Genius [EN]: Chapter 331

Academy Gumiho is a Magical Genius – Episode 331

Academy Gumiho is a Magical Genius 331

The Storm Rises (1)

I spoke with Ru… no, the Princess, whom I faced.

“Let’s skip the pleasantries, shall we?”

There’s no need for idle chatter.

I nodded at the Princess’s rather cynical tone.

“Let’s talk business instead of making small talk.”

“It seems you’re more interested in gathering information than in any actual business… wouldn’t you agree?”

I had been openly reading the Union’s data in front of Princess Luna without hesitation.

Perhaps with someone else, I would have pretended to be interested in various fields I didn’t care about, all to deceive them.

I was less cautious because my opponent was a child.

“…Indeed.”

Lying would be pointless with Luna; it might work with others, but not her.

She would know what truly interested me.

In that case, it’s better to admit it frankly.

“Frankly, I came here to find information.”

“Here? Are you referring to this place, where I reside? Or are you referring to joining the Union itself?”

“Joining the Union.”

The reason for joining the Union is to obtain information.

When I confessed this so plainly, Luna’s gaze became subtly sharp.

I don’t have mind-reading abilities, but her gaze seemed to suggest she hadn’t expected me to admit it so readily.

“Is that so?”

“I came to obtain information.”

“Weren’t you said to be a hermit hidden in the canyon? Why does someone who has severed ties with the world desire information so much?”

I considered the best response.

A complete lie would likely be exposed.

Moreover, the girl had been leading this massive organization for years.

She certainly wouldn’t be ordinary.

As if proving my hypothesis, the vines and petals wrapped around Luna’s body began to move stealthily.

I didn’t sense any magic from the plants’ movements.

It was a kind of authority that transcended the realm of magic or spells.

‘More precisely, it would be a byproduct of authority.’

She’s no ordinary opponent.

I seriously considered my words and finally spoke, hiding my face and expression behind my mask, relying solely on my tone of voice.

“Certainly, I once left the world.”

It’s not a lie or deception.

I really did leave the world behind.

After the war ended and an environment where people could somehow survive was established, I turned my back on everything and secluded myself.

I spent months in a place where no one could find me.

“Yes, but what I want to know is, why would someone who has already left…”

“Why shouldn’t someone who has left return?”

“Huh?”

“In my absence, was a law enacted stating that someone who has left the world once should never return?”

There was no such thing in my time.

Adding plausible words, I reminisced about the past.

‘Based on my experience, I immerse myself in the role completely.’

Su, a hermit who secluded himself in the canyon.

I tried to act like him as much as possible.

I don’t know his race, appearance, or history.

But if there are records and legends that he has secluded himself for a very long time in a place as difficult to live in as a canyon, he must have lived a harsh life.

“I don’t have time to waste talking to you like this. Tell me why you called me.”

“Tch. Do I look like someone with time to waste? I don’t have time either. Anyway, we’re just going to talk about the main point, right?”

“Yes.”

I’ve revealed my hand first.

The key is how she will react in this situation.

Just then.

“Okay.”

“What’s okay?”

“You clearly said you wanted information. Then, instead of reading through all the records haphazardly, it would be much faster to simply ask me.”

After that, she remained silent.

As if she wanted nothing in return for the question.

She waited for my question.

I wondered what she was thinking, but since there was nothing to lose, I pondered the question and opened my mouth.

“I need the exact identity of the enemy.”

“What other information?”

“Anything related to the enemy is fine. Frankly, I just want you to tell me everything that comes to mind.”

“Then, should I tell you the detailed map of our Union’s base or our supply methods? Hehe.”

“…Don’t joke around when we’re having a serious conversation.”

What she just said implied that the Union could become my enemy depending on the situation. It was an ominous thing to say.

“First of all, there are two main types of information about the enemy.”

“The Knights and the Fiends?”

“Oh, you’ve certainly gained some basic knowledge by reading books for a few days.”

She paused for a moment, lost in thought, and then spoke after some deliberation.

“Um… I think you know to some extent about the Knights and the Riders, so to briefly explain about the Fiends, there are no aquatic Fiends at all. There are 1,807 species of Fiends living on land, in the sky, and in the forest. The power level of each individual varies greatly, so counting the number of individuals is meaningless, but if you add them all up, there are probably about 700,000.”

700,000 Fiends.

I filed that number away in my head.

The white-armored Knights I fought in this battle numbered about 100,000, so if you add up the remaining Knights, it’s roughly…

“1 million.”

“There are many, right? Moreover, unlike the Knights, who don’t have the concept of reproduction, Fiends even breed, so there’s a possibility that they will increase further in the future.”

“Certainly, there are many.”

But it wasn’t an insurmountable number.

Hundreds of millions of Fiends in the air, land, and sea.

I still can’t forget the sight of them flying in all directions from the land, sea, and sky. Compared to that sight, 1 million is almost cute.

But the real problem is…

“Then what is that tree?”

“Tree?”

“The giant tree. The giant tree that seems to pierce the sky.”

I saw it when I first came to this world.

I looked at the distant scenery from the top of an incredibly tall tree to see what was in the forest.

It was one of the tallest trees I had ever climbed, but what I saw from that tree was an even bigger tree.

A tree so huge that it covered the sky.

The towering giant tree stirred memories dormant deep in my mind.

“Huh? What does that have to do with anything all of a sudden?”

She pretended not to know and denied it.

But I already know.

“That tree is the cause, isn’t it?”

“……”

It was the same before.

Even in the world I lived in, a giant tree came down from the sky, took root in the earth, and absorbed nutrients on a planetary scale.

“It’s clear that the magic life forms called spirits suddenly became corrupted and the Fiends formed groups because of that giant tree.”

I could be sure of this.

Because in the world I lived in, the analysis of that tree had already been completed. That tree greedily absorbs everything.

Yet, it cherishes the monsters as if it were a mother, and raised them into powerful individuals.

Scholars took motifs from various myths, including Norse mythology, and named that tree the World Tree.

However, the tree tormented humanity so severely that it was called the Demon World Tree, in the sense that it cherishes the Fiends.

“Demon World Tree.”

That’s what we called it.

“No!”

It seems to be different here again.

She was making a terrifying expression, as if she was angry that I called that tree the Demon World Tree.

That eerie expression was only for a moment.

She made an unavoidable expression.

“…I’ll send you the content about the World Tree in a book directly.”

“Didn’t you tell me to ask you anything just now?”

I clearly heard that.

At that question, Luna looked at the ceiling as if looking at the distant sky and said meticulously.

“It seems that our hero from the canyon has a misunderstanding about the World Tree. It would be several times better to look at the records written by our High Elves than for me to explain this part directly.”

With those words, she closed her mouth.

If the silence just now was a positive silence, meaning to ask anything, this silence was heavy, as if saying not to ask anything.

I felt like I shouldn’t say anything in this atmosphere, but there was one thing I needed to know, so I braved the atmosphere and opened my mouth.

“So, what’s the price for the information?”

“Pri…ce?”

“If there’s something received, there must be something given.”

I tapped my head with my finger and said.

It meant to tell me the price for providing the information.

At this, Luna rolled her eyes and shook her head.

“You’ve already paid the price. Rather, I paid the price. The price for saving us.”

“Then I’ll gratefully accept the price.”

“Ah, right. The story suddenly went off on a tangent because of the tree, but I actually called you because I had a proposal to make.”

A proposal?

Wondering what she meant, I stared at her, and then a document floated up and landed in my hand.

This is a list.

A list with the names and affiliations of soldiers.

Usually, such a list is…

“Usually assigned to the commander.”

“Oh, you seem to have roughly figured out my intentions with just one document.”

With a look of pure admiration, she clapped her hands.

“Actually, I want to give you a legion.”

“What? …What exactly is the legion?”

“The Undying Legion.”

“What, is it an army that doesn’t die?”

Like the undead, they don’t die even if you kill them?

Something like that?

“You seem to want an army made up of an undying race, but unfortunately, such a unit does not exist. But it’s not entirely wrong either.”

“……That means…”

No way.

A concept flashed through my mind.

But there’s no way there could be such a unit in a war that’s only been going on for 10 years.

“A legion made up of soldiers who are beyond prepared to die. Soldiers who have no regrets even if they die right now. I’ve only put in guys who would jump into the fire and the tomb of blades without hesitation if it served a bigger purpose, no matter how idiotic [병신 – byeongsin, Korean slang for ‘idiotic’ or ‘moronic’] the order is.”

“……Ha.”

I was so dumbfounded that I couldn’t even speak.

Why are such guys already popping up in this short war?

Even if people are crazy, they are usually afraid of death, but people who have been driven to the extreme don’t care whether their lives are used as pawns on a giant chessboard.

They don’t care whether they are used as gears in a giant machine.

But usually, even if people are crazy and exhausted in a 10-year-old war, only a very small number of them don’t care about their lives.

There are 5,000 of them.

They filled a unit.

‘It’s hard to find something like this even in a 20-year-old war.’

Devotion to the country and family, noble sacrifice.

There are often people who embrace these beliefs and willingly jump into the fire of death, even if the war has only been going on for a year.

But in a situation where their lives might be used usefully.

The reason why there are so many guys who use themselves as mere consumables like magazines and bombs is… Ah.

‘You said all the countries were destroyed.’

For a country to collapse is as different as heaven and earth from simply losing a place to live.

The foundation where you were born and live.

The loss of a home is just the beginning.

If you don’t have any savings, you’ll naturally go hungry.

The farmers who cultivate the farmland will also have lost their homes, so the food will become scarce [부족해진다 – bujokhaejinda, Korean for ‘become scarce’] without end. There are many mouths to feed, but there is no food to produce, so naturally the mouths to feed are reduced to match the food.

Many young people die during the war.

The level of medical care will be miserable, so epidemics will break out and death will be rampant.

Because there was at least the Union, this small fence, there were only 5,000 soldiers who were willing to die.

‘This is… miserable in a different sense from me.’

By talking to the most powerful person in this land, the visible field of vision has widened.

What is visible in the widened field of vision is a miserable wasteland stained with blood.

Nothing was left.

At that moment, I could feel a sense of solidarity in my heart and be sure.

That this world has also been destroyed.

“It’s really… ruined.”

However, unlike my world, I was also convinced that there was not even the slightest chance of revival.