Academy’S Gumiho Is A Magical Genius [EN]: Chapter 339

Academy Gumiho is a Magical Genius – Episode 339

Academy Gumiho is a Magical Genius 339

A Complete Mess Five Minutes Away (4)

Once upon a time, there was a tree that took root in the void and spread its roots throughout the archipelago. The massive tree absorbed nutrients from all living things on the islands – electricity and thermal energy. It didn’t even spare human lives.

Having absorbed all kinds of nutrients, the tree turned the land it had seized into a lush forest, building a small world where it was the center of the ecosystem.

Numerous monsters were born in this small ecosystem, and among them were four monsters guarding the cardinal directions, centered around the tree. The four monsters, with two legs like humans, ravaged people with massive weapons, wearing what appeared to be broken pieces of metal armor.

Having completely taken control of the archipelago, the tree pierced the land deep in the sea and extended its roots to the peninsula and various islands nearby. The tree seemed to have no intention of stopping its root expansion until it had absorbed the entire planet.

People called the tree the World Tree or the Demon Tree. It became one of the greatest disasters plaguing humanity. And all those events happened long before Seungwoo’s time, before the birth of the first-generation players.

* * *

“This reminds me of the old days.”

I looked at the giant tree and recalled what happened 10 years ago. Before I was even called by the presumptuous title of Sword Saint, I was just one of the promising talents who showed exceptional skill in swordsmanship.

‘Of course, even back then, I received more investment than other promising talents thanks to my skills.’ No matter how outstanding your talent is, a promising talent without achievements is just a promising talent. The event that made me receive attention from the public and be called a Sword Saint was right before my eyes.

─Your past stories are more interesting than I thought.

‘Don’t evaluate a past filled with painful days as interesting.’

─But I can’t help but find it interesting. From my perspective, it feels like listening to the most fascinating fairy tale in the world. A fairy tale where you are the main character.

You really have peculiar tastes.

It wasn’t a new thing for Tamamo to pester me to tell her old stories like this. Having learned about each other’s hearts and my memories, Tamamo often sat down with a fluttering heart, like a child next to a parent reading a fairy tale, when she heard my stories. Even if I didn’t want to tell her, if Tamamo insisted on not helping me, I had no way to stop her.

─So, hurry up and tell me about the event that made you be called the Sword Saint.

‘…Logging.’

─Logging?

‘The operation was named ‘World Tree Logging,’ a straightforward name.’

The mission at the time was carried out under the intuitive name of ‘World Tree Logging.’ In the process, we first spent half a year killing the four guardians. Millions of monsters summoned by the guardians who protected the tree and its branches. Only after killing them all did we finally reach the guardians.

But before the power of the guardians, who possessed strength beyond human comprehension, countless people fell like autumn leaves.

─Did only a lot of people die?

‘It’s not for nothing that there’s a term called human resources. We invested a lot of resources in the fighting process. We poured out one-time weapons like bullets and missiles without hesitation, and we consumed a tremendous amount of food.’

They were monsters that could only be caught by boldly investing a few percent of humanity’s total resources. Still, as a result, we created a path to the World Tree.

─Did you only create a path?

‘There were so many byproducts from catching tens of millions of monsters. Although somewhat poisonous, the monsters’ meat could be digested by humans, their leather was used to make clothes and armor, and their teeth and spines were used to make weapons. And above all…’

The biggest achievement was the four guardians. The four weapons created by melting down the massive weapons they had and their byproducts. That was the biggest achievement that humanity had obtained at the time.

‘The black guardian was melted down to make an axe. The white guardian was put into a mold to make a straight spear. The blue guardian was finely chopped to make dozens of daggers.’

And the last one remaining, the twisted, crimson guardian, whose face or chest was indistinguishable, was melted down in a furnace along with the sword he had wielded in his lifetime, becoming a very small sword. The name of that sword was…

‘The Red Knight’s Star Cloud Sword.’

It was a long, straight red sword. As the expression Cloud Sword [운검 – Un-geom, a ceremonial sword] suggests, it was a blade focused on ceremonial and ritual use rather than practical purposes. However, one peculiar thing was that the Cloud Sword meant a bodyguard or position that followed the king’s movements.

‘At the time of its creation, no one understood why it was given such a name.’

─Why was it given such a name? No, before that, who owned the sword? You were just a promising talent before the logging.

She persistently asks.

Oh. Haven’t I told you this before?

‘I think I remember telling you before.’

─Well. I might have forgotten because I wasn’t very interested at the time.

Yeah, well, what does that matter?

I said it right away without hesitation.

‘The sword is currently my property, but before that—’

“—Are you listening to me?”

“Ah, yes, of course. I was definitely listening.”

Suddenly, someone’s voice hits my thoughts and enters my head. I turned my head in the direction of the sound, and there was a high elf with a dissatisfied expression, puffing out her cheeks and glaring at me. Looking closely at her hand, it seemed she had made a cone with her hand [a way to amplify sound]. She must have brought that close to my ear and shouted loudly.

“Judging by the fact that there were no answers several times, I don’t think you were listening.”

As Luna said with a suspicious expression, I hadn’t been listening because I was deeply thinking until just now. I didn’t even know she had come in the first place.

“Well, that’s not important, so let’s move on.”

“It’s incredibly important because I brought two people who will be your guides in this urgent situation.”

Luna pointed to two men. It seems that what she said just now was an introduction to the two of them. Then she has a reason to be angry. To be lost in thought in front of people you’re meeting for the first time is like ignoring the person who introduced them.

“Nice to meet you.”

I readily gave a belated greeting.

There was no reply.

“……”

Looking at their expressions, it didn’t seem like they were upset. It just seemed like their job required them to have little emotional expression.

“Now that you’ve come to your senses, then, our elves’ Mother Tree. No… we shouldn’t call it that anymore.”

“……You can call it whatever you’re comfortable with, Princess.”

“Hmm, what expression would be good?”

The tree called the World Tree or the Demon Tree may have been the Mother Tree of the elves a long time ago, but now it was too cruel to call it Mother.

“If there isn’t a specifically designated name, let’s just call it the Sacred Tree.”

The old elders all called that tree that. The operation name was also like that.

“Sacred Tree? That’s a name I’m hearing for the first time. Does it have any special meaning?”

“……In my hometown.”

I looked at the tree with a lingering gaze, like an old man lost in old memories, and then I closed my eyes for a moment and said, lost in reminiscence.

“At least in my hometown, that’s what it was called.”

“Sacred Tree. Sacred Tree… It’s a name I’m hearing for the first time, but it’s an interesting name.”

Whether it was because the nuance wasn’t bad even though it was the first time she had heard it, she repeated the name of the Sacred Tree. She closed her eyes and called the tree by its new name.

“Sacred Tree. Sacred Tree. It’s not a name as affectionate as Mother Tree, and it’s not a tree of a species I’ve heard of, but Sacred Tree.”

After calling the name of the Sacred Tree several times, she opened her eyes. Luna, who had firmly imprinted the name in her head, looked up at the Sacred Tree and said.

“So, Mother… no, what are you going to use to cut down the Sacred Tree? Logically, there shouldn’t be a weapon that can cut it down.”

“Here.”

There are enough tools for logging.

Although it’s not an axe, in the first place, to log such a big tree with just one axe, you would need an axe that is far bigger than a building.

‘A burning sword would be better.’

Yes, of course.

I took out a sword from the air. This time, it was a sword taken out from the space in the ring, but this sword was not a weapon made by Gu Yaza, but a weapon I originally had. Like the earrings, it was something I brought from the world I was originally in.

“Why is the Red Knight’s presence coming from the sword?”

“Princess! Please run away!”

The surroundings became noisy as I took out the sword. Especially the warriors with good senses reacted strongly.

“What is that sword?”

Luna pointed at the sword with her finger and said.

“What kind of sword is it that I can feel the same presence as the guy outside?”

The guy outside meant the Red Knight. As I, who was facing the sword, flew away, the Red Knight was killing the soldiers one by one with his bare hands.

“If you don’t explain it to us soon, we will have no choice but to harbor impious thoughts.”

She directly demands an explanation from me. At those words, I stroked the wooden scabbard with my hand and replied.

“I must have told you that I’ve cut down a tree like that before.”

“……Yes?”

“If it’s such a huge tree, there should only be one of that species in all of creation.”

I didn’t say the answer with my own mouth. I said it in a slightly roundabout way. To have experience cutting down the same tree as that means that I logged something that is the same as what the elves call the Mother Tree.

“……!”

I don’t know how she took what I said, but Luna’s eyes flashed with many emotions in a very short time – shock, denial, fear, resignation, and resolution. Eventually, she approached me with a determined expression.

“Ah, Princess!”

“It’s okay. That sword is not something I obtained in the way you guys are thinking.”

Just as a soldier was about to grab her arm as Luna approached me, she brushed off the soldier’s arm. I don’t know what Luna, who no longer brings up questions about the sword, is thinking, as I don’t have abilities like mind reading.

‘But at least I can see people’s eyes.’

Resolution. The eyes of someone who is willing to die.

Whatever answer she got from my answer, Luna has now made a decision.

“Then, Hero, I will guide you to the Sacred Tree.”

“How do we get to the Sacred Tree?”

At my question, she covered her mouth with her hand and smiled.

“Well, we’ll move by running. We don’t have horses or carriages. Instead, I will open the path alone.”

“You’re going to open the path alone?”

“P-Princess, we’ll do such dirty work.”

“No. This is my job.”

She declared that she would be a pathfinder and a guide.