Academy’S Gumiho Is A Magical Genius [EN]: Chapter 128

Academy Gumiho is a Magic Genius – Episode 128

Academy Gumiho is a Magic Genius 128

The Dead City (3)

As I called out, the boy hugged the child tightly and stepped back.

The boy’s legs trembled instinctively.

It wasn’t the trembling that came from being told by parents to be careful of other adults. It was a learned fear, reacting only after witnessing and experiencing the malice of adults firsthand.

Even though he looked like an elementary school student.

It was pathetic to see him trembling like a newborn deer at a single word from a stranger.

‘At least it’s fortunate that…’

Even while trembling, he wouldn’t let go of his sibling.

Usually, siblings of that age would be fighting.

Hugging his sibling instinctively, looking ready to run away at any moment, he was the ideal eldest son that many parents would want.

Even though he seemed to know the hardships and trials of the world, he was taking care of his sibling, who would be nothing more than a burden at that age, in this remote alley.

He’s no ordinary kid.

Unlike other children, his eyes were alive.

Maybe Isabel was talking about this kid.

First, let’s reduce the wariness towards me.

“Why are you so startled? I’m not a bad guy.”

A nice adult. I put on a kind expression.

Instead of changing masks abruptly, I slowly and naturally changed my expression to a kind one, so no one would notice.

An expression that most people would be more than fond of, even blushing.

However, the intuition of a child that age is usually sharp.

“Bad people usually say that.”

“Is that so?”

“And ‘mister’? Anyone can tell you’re an older brother, you liar.”

“…Liars are bad.”

“Right, Mary thinks so too, right?”

“…Yes.”

Well, just looking at my appearance, that’s true.

I may have a world-weary mindset, but my appearance and actual age are still young.

Without realizing it, I called myself ‘mister’.

“…But, oppa.”

“Mary, why did you call me?”

“Um… aren’t you an older sister, not an oppa [older brother/term of endearment used by younger girls to address older males]?”

“……”

“……”

Silence enveloped us.

Certainly, my face is pretty for a man, but not to the point of confusing my gender.

The boy, greatly embarrassed by my sudden stiff expression, lowered his head.

“I, I’m sorry! My sister was rude! Come on, Mary, apologize.”

“Apologize…? I’m sorry?”

“You don’t have to apologize…”

He apologizes right away, how nice.

But somewhat abruptly, the initiative in the conversation flowed to me.

I don’t know whether to be happy or not.

In that confusing moment, I thought this was my chance and opened my mouth.

If you want a direct answer and the truth, it’s better to state your demands from the start.

“If you feel sorry, won’t you take me to the place you belong to?”

“?!!”

“Why? Never mind if you don’t want to.”

“Ah, no. ‘We’ were short-handed anyway. It’s good to have more people, but I never thought I’d be doing the recruiting.”

Usually, older men and women do this kind of thing.

From that, I could infer that the revolutionary army the boy belonged to was a rather old group. Of course, I inferred but didn’t jump to conclusions.

It was possible that the boy just happened to be associating with older people.

“Then you’re not a bad person, right?”

“A bad person? Why?”

“That’s… ah, that’s…”

A bad person.

I was curious about who or what kind of person he was referring to, but the boy’s words were cut off and never continued.

He became a terrified child, just trembling.

And the person entering the boy’s field of vision was—.

“—Thermiya?”

Why is that woman here?

Wasn’t she with the Baron after coming to the Frontier?

“Th, at, uh… !”

The sudden appearance of the Knight Commander.

The word stretched from the boy’s lips without forming as he saw her. Leaving him like that, the girl in his arms grabbed her brother’s sleeve with her tiny hand and ran towards the other side.

“…Oppa, hurry.”

“Ah, uh, okay.”

“It’s okay, Oppa. And pretty Oppa over there.”

“Why are you calling me?”

The sight of the girl, who was quietly like a doll in the boy’s arms, speaking so clearly was quite unique, but that wasn’t my concern.

My concern was the words that would come out of her mouth.

That was the content.

“I’ll come in two hours.”

“Here?”

“Yes, I’ll give you the information then. Instead… make sure that woman doesn’t see us coming in.”

“…Okay, I understand.”

After hearing my answer, the girl nodded and left with her brother.

To prevent the siblings heading into the narrow alley from being seen by Thermiya, I headed towards her.

As I approached, Thermiya scanned my face once and clicked her tongue.

She must really hate me.

But what can I do, that’s what I have to do.

“Hey, Knight Commander.”

“…What is it, Fox Teacher.”

“Doesn’t it bother you to use such a strange tone?”

“Is that what you stopped me, who was on patrol, to ask?”

No, that’s not it.

“That’s not it. I had something else to ask, but your tone was bothering me.”

“What’s so bothering about this tone?”

“I remember the tone you used when you were cursing me, but it’s different from then, you’re pretending to be gentle.”

“P, pretending to be gentle…?! This noble tone was taught to me by the previous Commander… !”

“No wonder, it feels like an old man.”

“O, old man…!? This damn bastard! I’m Baron’s guest, you can’t touch me!”

“Why, are you going to swing your sword?”

“Indeed!”

Swish──!

The time it took for Thermiya’s sword to come out of its sheath and aim at my neck.

1. 7 seconds.

A time infinitely close to a moment for ordinary people.

「Foxfire」

Ting──!

For those who have built up their own subjectivity and realm in their respective fields, it is enough time to cope with anything.

The moment her sword aimed at my neck.

Sparks and embers flew from the sword.

“That was dangerous.”

“That fire again…? No, I remember what I saw then was definitely not such an ominous color…”

“Should we create some distance?”

“This is!!!”

Thump──!!

A small explosion occurred, creating distance between Thermiya and me.

The center of the explosion was between us. More precisely, it arose from a small mark secretly engraved on her sword at the moment of collision.

Of course, Thermiya, who didn’t notice that fact, couldn’t understand what kind of magic I had used.

“…What was that just now?”

“Magic.”

“Don’t talk nonsense. Do you think I’m the Knight Commander of this territory for nothing? I didn’t feel even a speck of magical power in that explosion just now.”

“Then maybe it’s sorcery or divine power.”

“Nonsense. Sorcery and divine power, already far from this land, are the share of forgotten gods. Mortals cannot possess them.”

“Then I guess I’m not an ordinary human.”

“What did you say…?”

Ordinary human.

That was a word very far from me.

My life was not ‘ordinary’ before or after possession, and now I have become not even ‘human’.

I’m just a fox demi-human close to human, but as the days go by, I only become aware of the fact that I’m breaking away from the ordinary human I dreamed of.

“What are you babbling about…”

However, even such grumbling only sounds like mockery to her ears. Well, in this world, there are several of my kind in the Great Southern Forest.

My feelings may be different.

In the meantime, the presence of the boy and girl has become quite distant.

The two presences on the ground are digging underground. That movement is still continuing, so this should be enough.

Then now.

“Shall we stop now?”

“…Didn’t you start it first?”

“Hey, but if you come to the slums armed with such a fierce sword and armor, I can’t help but become sharp. Right?”

A word seeking agreement without any particular logic.

In a normal situation, she would have rushed at me, asking what that had to do with it, but the eyes of the children living in the slums were all turned to her, who was making a fuss while holding a sword.

“…Tch, well… I guess so.”

She had no choice but to endure.

The Knight Commander is the head of the knights who protect the peace and defend the territory.

Even in front of the poor and children, her nobility and honor must be maintained to the end.

No matter how noisy and annoying the fox is, she shouldn’t suppress it to the point of harming the people around her, and she shouldn’t wield her power recklessly.

Her actions are directly connected to the honor of her master, the Baron.

“Yes, this isn’t a one- or two-day thing. I will kindly overlook it.”

“…But you know. That tone is strange no matter how many times I hear it.”

“Mind your own business. It’s my tone!”

“Still, I’m glad you gave in so easily. If you had refused.”

“If I had refused?”

There was a line I had thought of in preparation for such a case.

That is—

“—Refusal is refused.”

“…What?”

“If you had refused, I was going to refuse you again. It ended up being too late, though.”

A word shouted confidently.

A phrase I read in a book.

I thought with a lackluster reaction.

Um, was it too old of an expression?

Well, I’ve liked novels and comics since I was young, but it’s been quite a while since I’ve put them down. Most of the old and worn-out settings and lines were just lingering in my head.

Most of my old colleagues hated it.

I thought it couldn’t be helped by Thermiya’s reaction.

“…Refusal is refused. It’s more… no, it’s a somewhat cool phrase. I should write it down somewhere so I don’t forget it.”

Suddenly turning around, she took out a notebook from the gap in her armor and twirled a fountain pen, muttering in a small voice.

She probably thinks it’s not audible from her point of view.

It was so clear that I couldn’t bring myself to pat her on the back or say anything.

And what’s more important than that right now was something else.

‘Yeah, that line isn’t old.’

I was the youngest in the entire company, although I was mature, and I often spouted cool lines I learned from novels and comics.

My colleagues and people in the same position would often scold me.

─……Your Excellency, surely you haven’t been saying those lines in front of other people, have you?

─Of course not.

─Phew, I’m glad I was the first to hear it. You should quickly discard that line from your head…

─I’ve already told my sister.

─……Yes?

─Ah, you wouldn’t understand if I said sister. I mean . My swordsmanship teacher.

─Ha, haha… Still, she’s closer to you as family than as a master-disciple relationship, so that’s a relief…

─And Eve and Teacher. The Grim Reaper uncle from the 27th Division and the Jin family’s grandfather who’s obsessed with spears like a pervert, and um… Excluding those people, about 15 more people?

─……Damn it, you’ve ruined your reputation.

─Huh? I didn’t build a dull reputation that would be ruined by what I just said. If it was a reputation that could be ruined by that, it would have rotted away a long time ago.

─Even if you say those old lines over and over again, even a firmly built reputation will be ruined! Ah, it’s already ruined, isn’t it?

─Is that so?

─Please come to your senses, Your Excellency!

In particular, my adjutant’s reaction was severe.

She was a master of sword control who floated several swords in the air and freely wielded them on the battlefield. Her words were as sharp and cutting as her excellent swordsmanship skills.

She was so sharp that she was harsh even to me, her direct superior.

Well, that’s all she’s seen and grown up under me, so it’s my fault.

Still, it was a really cool line, so I tried saying it again now.

However, the same feeling as then was not felt anywhere in my heart.

The empty heart had no resonance, it was just quiet.

* * *

Day 7 of the midterm exams.

The last day.

In the afternoon, each group of students consisting of 6 people and one supervisor returned from the dungeon one by one and began to finish the midterm exams.

Among them were several promising students that various guilds were eyeing, and some were disqualified from the dungeon due to near-death injuries, resulting in a group score of 0.

But even in such situations, there were still those who could not clear the dungeon and could not come out.

That was the group in charge of Baek Seung-woo.

In this regard, everyone seemed to think it was natural.

There were only three promising students in his group, and the supervisor, Baek Seung-woo, was the one who had recently heated up the industry several times.

But the wall of the Reverse Side was too thick for a mere new teaching assistant, not even an S-class guild, to challenge recklessly.

But now, the management teams that oversee all the dungeons in the academy were thinking differently.

“Senior, this is strange, isn’t it?”

“What is? Are you talking about the progress rate written here? Wait, did they really progress 44.7% of the Reverse Side in just one week? If it reaches 50%, the clearing is practically over, but does that make sense?”

Whether it’s a week or a month.

The Reverse Side is a place that cannot be cleared unless you gradually step on it with a predetermined ending. But to achieve this much in just one week.

The head of the management team thought this situation was very unusual.

The junior who first discovered this also thought the same, so he was instantly convinced that he had called him.

“No, Senior, not that, this.”

The junior’s face was slightly pale.

With that face, the team leader felt uneasy in his heart and looked at the screen the junior was pointing at. In that screen.

“Exceeding capacity? Forced difficulty increase and safety device error? What is all this?!”

“How would I know what Senior doesn’t know.”

“You’re in charge of observation, so you should know! Hey, no, this is not the time to be doing this.”

“…Yes? Then what?”

“Hey, call all the kids downstairs right now. Call all the guys who are resting because their observation of their assigned area is over, because today is the last day of the midterm exams, and check the system logs.”

“…R, really?”

“Does it sound like I’m joking?! Bring them right now!!!”

“Yes! A, I understand!!”

The junior, hurrying away, soon came back with dozens of employees trailing behind him. They resumed their work with a shit-eating expression, but that expression soon turned to shock.

“Hey, why do you look so uneasy?”

“S, Senior…”

“Why are you calling me? If you called me, say something.”

“…A demon has invaded inside right now.”

“It invaded again after we were attacked before?”

After that, they realized that they could not end the midterm exams arbitrarily here or there.

There was a kind of firewall blocking the space connecting reality and the Reverse Side.

If they made a mistake, the students and Baek Seung-woo inside could be harmed, so support was difficult. Of course, that fact quickly rose to the lips of industry officials who had keen ears and quick feet.

[Chilseong Academy, allowing the invasion of demons again this time. All we can do is watch and cheer.]

[Top 5 academies in the world. Is this really right?]

Little by little, the demons’ claws and machinations were spreading.