Academy’S Gumiho Is A Magical Genius [EN]: Chapter 116

Academy Gumiho is a Magical Genius – Episode 116

Academy Gumiho is a Magical Genius 116

To the City (1)

For me, life is a series of suffering.

Some say you have to overcome that suffering and endure, but those who say that clearly haven’t experienced the same level of pain as I have.

Therefore, I wished every day, several times a day, to become dust, to crumble, and to scatter.

But I had shackles.

I was never allowed to die.

A curse in the form of a will and sacrifice, forcing a continuous life of suffering, bound me.

That curse would forever, as long as I lived and did not die, force my life and direction, both now and in the future.

* * *

─So, what’s your next goal, contractor?

“I’m thinking of going to the city. There’s no need for me to stay here any longer.”

After making a contract that could never be betrayed, Seungwoo and Tamamo both had quite different attitudes towards each other.

Tamamo seemed to treat me more comfortably.

Seungwoo felt somehow colder and more rigid.

And that fact was definitely captured by Tamamo, who was bound by a deeper contract.

─Oh my, you seem a little colder to me. Is it just my imagination?

“Shut up.”

─You’ve really changed. Can’t you be as kind to me as you are to the little kids?

When Tamamo approaches, Seungwoo pushes her away.

Even if she doesn’t care and keeps pushing, he desperately pushes her away.

That was the current state of Tamamo and Baek Seungwoo.

This has become really annoying.

If I had known it would be like this, I wouldn’t have made a contract at all.

Seungwoo grabbed his head, feeling a headache creeping up.

“Hey… if you keep asking me questions like this, how are you going to learn later? It’s already over twenty because of such trivial questions.”

─Well, I’ve been thinking about it. I think it’s more efficient to constantly ask questions to satisfy my curiosity and thirst for knowledge than to ask just a few questions here and there.

“……Damn it.”

I hadn’t considered that method.

If you ask a few questions, you only have to pay the corresponding price, but if you ask infinitely, you can pay the infinite price accordingly.

There is no time limit in the contract anyway.

It doesn’t matter if the other party wants a large number of things as compensation.

Tamamo has properly hit the blind spot of the contract.

‘Tsk, I should have set a limit on the questions.’

─I can hear all your thoughts. You better answer obediently, okay?

Ugh, this is annoying.

I was getting annoyed, so I blankly looked up at the sky.

I was planning to leave tomorrow, and I had a lot to talk about with the village chief and the demon I had tied to the grave until then.

I prayed that it wouldn’t get any more annoying than this.

But my prayers were always meaningless.

“So, you’re saying you don’t know the cause either.”

“You’re saying you don’t know what happened to the land you’ve lived on your whole life, even after several years?”

The villagers rebuked the Frost Witch, Isis.

They sincerely thought that the Frost Witch was the cause of this cold snap that had lasted for years. So, when I asked in detail.

In the end, they didn’t know the cause.

‘Talking nonsense.’

Even if they can deceive the villagers and students with that tongue, they can’t deceive my eyes. Even after asking a few more questions, the reaction was similar.

“What a load of crap.”

I harshly criticized the adults of Temil Village, including the village chief.

Tuk, tuk, I pointed to the map with my hand.

“Can you still say that after looking at this map?”

This is the northern region, but it is not a perpetually cold land like the Antarctic or Arctic. No, even the Antarctic and Arctic have seasons when the weather warms up.

It’s just that it’s relatively less warm compared to other regions.

But here in the north, geographically not a permafrost, the cold snap hasn’t stopped for three years.

“This is not something an individual can do.”

To turn a chilly region into a permafrost where the cold doesn’t go away, you need a great mage.

Even a great mage specialized in climate.

It would be even better if they knew how to handle huge magic or sanctuaries related to cold waves and cold.

Or, you need about two great mages.

But the ‘witch’ in the mountain cabin above the mountain range did this alone?

What a joke.

“But… this is obviously….”

“Don’t talk nonsense. If you, the village chief, say that, most of the villagers will believe it, right?”

If the Frost Witch was that great, Isis wouldn’t have been able to take over that role.

A great mage who can submerge the north in a cold wave.

That’s not a role that a student can replace.

If that setting were true, she would have been one of the most important main NPCs [Non-Player Characters] in the inner world. Like the knight, Termia.

─You’re good at reading maps, aren’t you? It must be your first time seeing this map.

‘It’s nothing.’

─It’s not nothing. You’re putting together the terrain and climate well with a few old maps, not like the systematized maps of modern times.

‘It’s really nothing. In order to plan operations in a chaotic battlefield and infiltrate enemy lines, I just had to quickly adapt to maps that change in all sorts of ways throughout the year.’

After arguing with the village chief several times, I visited the graveyard.

Maybe it’s because I secretly came out last night and made him confess various information through torture. The demon’s condition was terrible.

But he’s still useful.

I had no intention of killing him.

A small, rat-like lump of magical power.

This, filled with the demon’s authority, definitely had a use in the inner world.

I need to seal it so no one can come.

─Will you help me? Can you do the sealing alone?

“Ugh, yes…! It’s harder than I thought, but it’s not impossible…!”

A simple sealing spell.

The principle is a simple technique that only gives the concept of being tightly bound with chains, but by weaving the intermediate [Earth Magic], which was memorized as a side branch while learning the elemental magic [Fire Magic], onto the seal, it has a robustness comparable to advanced magic.

And now I’m slowly trying to leave.

“Hoo… I’m all out of energy from just that.”

─That technique just now had a pretty unique shape, didn’t it?

“You must have seen it from behind me. It’s a magic that turns an underground cavity dug out of the earth into a solid, airtight room like a prison.”

─No, not that.

Tamamo’s finger touched the technique located at the end of the magic.

─This isn’t [Earth Magic], is it?

“……When did you learn elemental magic?”

─Hehe, I just learned it by watching you out of the corner of my eye. I’ve been reading a lot more magic books lately.

Maybe it’s because I thought that any more variables could happen. I started to become more and more immersed in reading and knowledge.

At least to prevent the situation of being caught off guard without knowing.

There’s nothing more futile and empty than that.

Tuk, tuk, as I tapped a few times to check the condition of the seal, the surrounding scenery came into view.

A cemetery that is not yet fully built.

The students told me to make it and left it alone.

“Grave. It would be better if I just made it myself.”

─Why? Don’t you trust them?

“It’s not really that.”

I pointed to the pile of corpses that had been piled up with my finger.

The condition of the corpses was clean.

Not only were they not decaying, but they looked the same as sleeping people.

Before the students buried them, they wiped and managed the corpses like a mortician.

“The kids are doing unnecessary things.”

─Do you think the chicks are not ready to become adults yet?

“Maybe it’s because they’re still young. Everyone is too kind.”

With such soft mindsets.

They cannot survive in the fierce society.

They will collapse without even reaching the end of the world.

I should teach them this time. PTSD [Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder] may be severe, but it is something that must be taught someday.

That this world is never kind to you.

That death can lean against each other’s necks at any time and fall in an instant.

* * *

While I was getting uncontrolled raw information by giving the children food or snacks, the students stayed in the village for a while and accepted their requests or commissions to build up their reputation.

It was only two days, but the friendly Leeji was already arm-in-arm with the village elders.

Except for Isis and me.

Gollis, a middle-aged man who was drunk day and night to maintain his body temperature in this cold, even started to regard him as a drinking buddy.

Of course, Leeji was a minor and couldn’t drink.

“S, S, Teacher… do you have any cold water?”

“……Just go eat the snow that’s all around you. If you eat it and swallow it, it’ll be similar to cold water, right?”

“Ah… I see. Thank you……”

“…….”

I watched Leeji waddling towards the snowfield.

That guy is out of his mind.

I warned him several times not to drink, but he ended up drinking after all.

Whether Gollis strongly recommended it or he drank it out of curiosity, he just drank until he was about to get completely drunk.

No, is he already drunk?

It’s certain that he’s burying himself in the snowfield to eat snow instead of cold water.

“What are you doing, Leeji?”

“W, water… I’m putting snow in my mouth and melting it to drink cold water.”

“I don’t know why you’re doing that, but eat my ice instead. You can easily melt the ice I made with my magic power.”

Isis made a small cup-shaped ice.

Leeji, who was in an intoxicated state, grabbed the handle of the cup without any hesitation.

He didn’t feel particularly cold.

It’s not because of frostbite or frozen hands.

It’s just that she made the ice cup not cold.

Ice magic that becomes more and more sophisticated.

It was indeed a growth rate worthy of an elite, but her growth rate was particularly noticeable even among the Seven Stars.

At this rate, I might be able to aim for a promising player next semester.

After all, about half of the promising players are just extras like her.

It wasn’t impossible.

“Okay, so everyone’s here, right?”

I looked around, looking at the people carrying their luggage.

The time was slowly coming for the east to dawn.

The seven people, including me, were eagerly waiting for the moment to go to Frontier.

I never thought I would waste two days in a place like this.

“In the end, we couldn’t find Isabel.”

“She’s probably in a place called Frontier. By the way, it would be bad if Isabel wasn’t there either.”

“Yeah, she’s the strongest and smartest among us.”

“It’s not for nothing that Isabel was given the position of head.”

A name I often used when I was fighting in formations.

Isabel’s existence, who perfectly played the role of head and commander and supplemented the firepower of the squad with large-scale magic, was a very important existence for her colleagues.

No one can replace her.

Well, even if I can somehow cover the magic with Isis’s [Freezing Magic], there are clear limitations compared to her.

Her ability to unite the students was truly genius. It didn’t take her much time to learn tactics and the attitude of a leader from me.

Still, since the person is not here, I brought a guide instead.

“Why do I have to be the guide?”

Termia’s empty cry, carrying all sorts of luggage on her back, including tents and drinking water. Of course, no one answered her empty cry.

After we each finished preparing, we waited for the time to depart for the city.

Soon, the morning sun rose.