Academy’S Gumiho Is A Magical Genius [EN]: Chapter 107

Academy Gumiho is a Magic Genius – Episode 107

Temil Village (2)

“Okay, see you later, everyone!”

“Bye~ Oppa. Let’s play again tomorrow.”

“Hey, aren’t I your friend, not your oppa [older brother or male friend]?”

“Is that so? Then, see you tomorrow, friend!”

Lee Ji, who had been playing with elementary and middle school-aged kids, waved goodbye as they parted ways.

It was pitiful to see him shout, ‘I’m 17!’ when the kids called him a friend. They didn’t even listen and just left.

Poor guy.

“Ah… that was fun. Now I need to find the others before it gets dark.”

“Yeah, you should find your comrades. But usually, people think about that before playing, right?”

“I guess… playing was more important than finding my comrades.”

But feeling sorry for him doesn’t excuse his behavior.

Lee Ji froze at my and Isis’s words.

He stiffly turned his head back and was startled when he saw us.

“T-Teacher?! Isis, how did you get here…?”

“We came to find you, of course. Right, Teacher?”

Lee Ji’s face turned bright red as I nodded without a word.

So, you do know how to be ashamed.

“Then, d-did you see me playing with the kids earlier…?”

Ah, so that’s what he was embarrassed about?

I was mistaken again.

I turned my head away from him and looked at the distant sky and mountains.

‘The scenery is beautiful.’

For the record, the blizzard had stopped, but it was still snowing lightly.

The sky was as white as a blank canvas.

A scene with nothing in it.

Yet, the reason I found the scenery beautiful was…

“You, come over here.”

“Sis, l-let’s talk without the magic gathering in your hand. Okay? I’ll come over.”

“It’s okay. There won’t be any pain. One step is enough.”

Lee Ji was playing with Isis this time, as if playing with the kids wasn’t enough.

It was nice to see them playing tag.

Eventually, after 20 minutes of tag with no end in sight, I forcibly grabbed them and urged them to move quickly.

It’s going to get dark at this rate.

‘Where are the others?’

I’ve found two of them now.

But I couldn’t find the other four even after searching the village for hours. The village wasn’t small, but it wasn’t that big either.

“Could they be outside the village?”

“That’s unlikely. I checked all the possible places while coming down the mountain.”

[Mapping the terrain of the village-level otherworld, ‘Frozen Ruins, Temil’!]

[28.1%…]

[33.8%…]

…

[Captured all the terrain of the mountains and village.]

[Identified 49.9% of the otherworld!]

Completion rate of 49.9%.

I searched half of the otherworld and scanned all the places where people might be.

No matter how far away they were, my “Yoma’s Eye” and made it possible.

‘The fact that I haven’t found them until I’ve mapped half of the world means… there’s only one reason.’

[Using the skill ‘Yoma’s Eye’ to see through each house.]

My vision scanned the quiet village scenery, especially each house.

I could feel faint signs of life inside.

However, the strangeness of not burning firewood even once in houses with chimneys, despite the blizzard stopping, caught my attention.

The people living here.

Why are they hiding in their houses?

I couldn’t understand it at all, but I could easily infer that my students were among those groups of people.

* * *

“Teacher, are you sure the kids are really in this village?”

“Now… Teacher, I don’t know anymore. Are we even in the right place?”

We walked around the village for two hours after that, but no one came out.

Now, I can’t even see kids running around.

Lee Ji expressed strong doubt.

Isis, who had been following without complaint at first, also began to doubt after two hours of no results.

An ordinary person might have given up by now.

But my will was firm.

“Yes, unless they’ve already been defeated and returned to reality due to the safety device, some of them must be here.”

“What’s the probability that they’re hiding in the houses scattered everywhere and won’t come out?”

“It’s possible to consider that, but we’ve been walking around making noise, and they haven’t even shown a doll behind the window, so it’s almost impossible.”

“What, isn’t that the same as saying they’re not here?”

Yes, that’s right.

The kids aren’t in those houses.

However, when we narrow down the places where the students might be using the process of elimination, only Temil Village remains.

So, if they’re not in the houses…

“There’s a high probability that they all went outside.”

“…You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Assuming that there is a hunter among the students, the most likely one is Noh Yoora. She would probably be hunting people or animals using her firearms skills.

Her practical skills shown at the auction house before would be enough.

‘Well, I haven’t heard any gunshots, but I’m sure she’s doing well on her own.’

I’ve found almost all the students who would be anxious if left alone out of the six students.

Noh Yoora, who is addicted to SNS [Social Networking Services], is surprisingly smart, so she will be fine even if she is left alone in another world.

Isabelle is the brain of our team, so I’m not worried about her either.

The only ones I’m worried about are Sung Yeonhwa and Seo Yerin.

‘Both of them have the ability to survive alone in this environment. Still… I’m worried.’

As heroines with strengths in martial arts, I’m not worried about their safety.

However, I was worried about whether their personalities would cause any incidents.

At that moment.

Rumble, rumble!!!

I heard people talking to each other.

The voices were coming from the village entrance, which was on the opposite side of the village from here.

We ran straight towards it.

Of course, we hid in a place slightly away from the village entrance, where we could see the situation at a glance, in case something happened.

“People!”

“Shh. Be quiet.”

Lee Ji was very happy, but he soon realized that the atmosphere was unusual and covered his mouth with his hand. My giving him a look also played a part.

I could see people gathered together in the distance.

They were waving something at each other and then fell to the ground with a thud.

“What’s going on? Is it a group fight or something?”

“The movements are too intense for that. It’s like they’re really trying to fight.”

No.

That can’t be expressed with words like a group fight or a real fight.

It’s a battle to take each other’s lives.

“Teacher?”

My body leaned forward.

It was to understand the situation and the aspects of the battle in more detail to figure out what was happening.

I could see it when I looked down from a high place, keeping a certain distance.

It’s a fight between the villagers and outside forces.

I’m seeing the villagers, especially the adults, for the first time, but the outside forces looked familiar.

Not their faces, but what they were wearing.

“…My children.”

“Ah, children? Are you married, Teacher?!”

“That’s not what I mean. They’re members of my mercenary group in this world.”

“Ah, I see.”

I glared at Lee Ji once.

He’s so naive.

He’s not mean or bad, but I don’t know how he’s going to survive in this harsh world.

As a teacher, I vowed to teach him these things later when I have time.

“Teacher. They’re wearing the same clothes as the people I killed.”

“Yes, they’re the same guys.”

Black clothes and a wolf emblem.

She and I know the outfit.

Didn’t we find out about the outfit through the note in the corpse field in front of the mountain cabin?

“The Black Wolf Mercenary Group.”

“Mercenary group? They look like a gang of thieves.”

“I told you before. My role in this world is their leader.”

“Ah…”

Lee Ji flinched at my words that my assigned role was their leader.

Why are you flinching?

Anyone would think I’m really their leader.

‘In the end, it’s a connection with the role arbitrarily assigned by the otherworld.’

It wasn’t a very important factor.

As long as the background of this world is Temil Village, the safety of the village is more important than the mercenaries I just met.

“Are there any guards or knights in the village?”

“Would there be anything like that in this small village?”

“Both of you, just stay still for a moment.”

「Yoma’s Eye」

The pupils, which were sparkling like rubies, were dyed amethyst, and I contemplated the world in monochrome.

Even in that, the flow of magic sparkled in blue. I could see the tangled group of mercenaries and the very few people stopping them.

People with black wolf emblems drawn on their clothes, weapons, and shields.

Among the people confronting them, a person wielding a spear caught my eye.

I can’t see well because my vision is monochrome, but judging from the unique curve, it was definitely a woman. It was definitely Seo Yerin.

And behind her, a giant wearing armor was matching her movements.

“Strong.”

I can tell just by looking at the magic and resentment coming into my 「Yoma’s Eye」.

He smoothly moves the armor as if he were handling his own body, giving magic to the muscles and blood vessels all over his body and strengthening them. Behind him, about 1,000 resentments were lined up as if cursing him.

It can be seen that the karma of killing he has is quite dark.

[You have encountered the main NPC [Non-Player Character] of the scenario, the Frontier Knight ‘Termia’.]

[He is a knight loyal to his lord. He is obsessed with the most important virtue of knightly spirit, loyalty, and acts without any doubt or hesitation in his master’s orders.

To put it nicely, he is loyal, and to put it badly, he is a stubborn person who lives without his own opinions or principles.

Termia, armed with a rune-engraved shield and excellent swordsmanship skills, is truly a living, breathing mobile fortress in Frontier.]

The first living NPCs I’ve seen since coming to this world.

And the NPC at the forefront of them was particularly noticeable compared to the others.

A man wearing medieval full body armor.

That alone is enough to catch the eye, but he seems to be closely related to the end of this world.

“…A main NPC.”

“Can you see it too, Teacher?”

“Yes, he may be the key to capturing the otherworld.”

As soon as I got there.

I began to look at the armored NPC in more detail.

Even if he was wearing full body armor, it was possible to infer the body shape inside the armor if you considered the gaps in the armor parts that shook or loosened due to the violent movements.

‘Let’s see, the height of the armor is 181.27㎝. The thickness of the helmet on his head is between 1 and 1.7㎝, and judging from the way the helmet shakes as if it doesn’t fit tightly, his actual height is between 178 and 179.‘

In addition, I carefully examined the body shape, the distance between the feet, the posture of wielding the sword, and the formulas connecting each technique.

The opponent’s specifications came out easier than I thought.

“I think I know.”

“Teacher, do you know who that person is? No, shouldn’t we help those people first? Yerin is there too.”

“Ask one question at a time.”

“Shouldn’t we help people?”

“What about Yerin…?”

“…I didn’t mean for you two to ask questions at the same time.”

I admired the children’s innocence and covered my head with my hands.

My head was complicated.

It’s not because of the kids.

It’s because the information that was becoming more and more concrete as I went around was mixed with something absurd, which suddenly increased the amount of things to think about.

‘It’s strange that there’s a knight in armor in this remote village, but what’s even stranger is the modifier attached to his name.’

Frontier.

It means a frontier, but it was easy to know that it was not used in that sense.

Is it the name of a village or city, or is it a person’s name?

‘Damn it, I feel like things are getting more and more twisted. What am I missing?’

The most likely thing that Frontier means is a region name.

However, it is difficult to be sure that it is a region because this is a village-level otherworld. No matter what the original history and geography of this land is, it should only exist in the size of a ‘village level’.

But if that knight came from an outer region called Frontier, what is this Temil Village?

‘There’s no information I can infer.’

I can’t help it.

In this case, the only way is to ask directly.

“Yerin is there. Go help the villagers.”

“Oh, really? But, aren’t you going to help, Teacher?”

“Don’t you remember what role I came here as?”

“Ah, that’s right. You were the supervisor.”

I urged the children to help the knight.

But I couldn’t do more than that.

My role is just to watch.

The choice is up to the students.

Fortunately, Seo Yerin was in their group, so Lee Ji and Isis gladly accepted and took out their weapons.

Isis had gloves and bracelets, so there was no need to bother with anything, and Lee Ji took out a small hand ax, a shield presumed to be a pair, and a double-edged ax from his backpack.

‘Wait a minute…?’

A shield and a double-edged ax?

How could that big thing be in his backpack?