Academy’S Gumiho Is A Magical Genius [EN]: Chapter 141

Academy Gumiho is a Magical Genius – Episode 141

Academy Gumiho is a Magical Genius 141

Aching Heart, Aching Body (1)

The mad surgery was over.

Seungwoo’s heart pounded, and he gasped for breath.

At the same time, the madness that had filled the sewer faded.

Rising above it was a strikingly sharp murderous intent.

Moreover, the atmosphere and disposition he exuded had changed drastically.

As promised, he had shed the mask of the madman.

Revealed beneath it was his most basic mask.

Under no circumstances would his true face be revealed.

Having etched new circuits into his body and created a means to assist his heart, Seungwoo didn’t even have time to cool the sweat flowing down his body. He retrieved equipment and weapons from his ring.

Bang!

“Oops, did I throw it too hard? I hope I didn’t damage her brain.”

While taking things out of the space within the ring, the body of “Andrealpha,” which was no different from a corpse, bothered him, so he tossed it to the floor. In the process, her head hit the floor hard.

It was pointless to talk to her, as she had already lost her reason, but still…

Click!

He put on a belt and strapped a sword over it.

The divine sword “Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi” [a legendary Japanese sword], which he had brought just in case, still had a small snake-shaped vengeful spirit glaring at Baek Seungwoo.

─Aren’t you scared of Orochi [a mythical eight-headed serpent]?

“Not at all. I have never lived with such a weak will as to be shaken by such a trivial thing since I was five years old.”

─By the way, your *mal-tu* [manner of speaking] has changed again.

“Didn’t you tell me to discard the previous mask? So I simply took it off.”

─I’m not just talking about your *mal-tu* [manner of speaking], but everything that influences the impression of you as a person.

His *mal-tu* [manner of speaking], tone, pitch, and atmosphere had all changed bleakly.

Before, even when he spoke stiffly, there was a gentle feeling.

Now, Seungwoo was overbearing and authoritarian.

─Hmm, it seems like you’ve changed it… Could you explain exactly what has changed?

“…How annoying.”

The annoyance was felt not only in his *mal-tu* [manner of speaking] but also in his expression.

However, as if he didn’t intend to refuse to answer, Seungwoo readily opened his mouth.

“It’s more appropriate to say I discarded it rather than changed it. This is the personality I set as standard.”

─So, should I see it as painting over it depending on the situation or need?

“Indeed, that’s accurate. The mask I’m wearing now is the most basic surface. It’s a state where I can erase the existing personality and paint over it as much as I want, depending on what I want.”

─According to your analogy, wouldn’t ‘bleaching’ be a more accurate expression than ‘discarding’?

It was pure curiosity.

The mask signifies Baek Seungwoo’s personality.

Since personality is formed through the life and experiences of an object, it seemed more appropriate to bleach it for repainting rather than discarding it.

“That’s a useless question. But there’s nothing I can’t answer. If it were a typical psychopath or a patient claiming to have multiple personalities, bleaching would be correct.”

In normal cases, Tamamo’s words are correct.

However, Seungwoo’s case is different.

“I claimed to have a mental illness due to acquired reasons. My heart was too dull and fragile to withstand the rough waves of the world. As a result, I started wearing masks, and now I don’t even remember what my real personality is.”

If there were difficulties in forming personality and character congenitally, there is no clear standard, so the expression ‘wearing a mask’ like Seungwoo is not correct.

A mask is only for covering the bare face.

It is completely different from someone who can take myriad forms with their bare face.

“This mask is just a basic form that I set to suit my social status and authority. It’s far from my original personality. In the first place, for me, who has lost the ego identity of ‘me,’ a mask has no other use than to be discarded.”

He can be any personality he wants.

But there is no ‘Baek Seungwoo’ there.

Therefore, for him, a mask, that is, personality, is just an object that can be discarded and created anew.

That’s why discarding is a more appropriate expression than bleaching.

─You’ve lived a truly tragic life.

“Didn’t you see that dream anyway?”

─Yeah, I saw it. But there were scenes that I couldn’t see properly because they were strangely cut off in the middle or turned black, right?

The mind of the tortured and fragmented Majin [a demon or evil spirit], “Andrealpha,” only unfolds the past through the medium of dreams. Further intervention was impossible.

As a result, the scenes reflected in the dream sometimes disappear in the middle, or the end is not finished.

Life does not have a distinction between the middle and the end like a novel or a movie.

That part is acceptable.

Seungwoo’s past felt like something more was hidden.

“Was that so? From my perspective, it’s in the first-person perspective, so I don’t know well.”

─Liar.

“What’s a lie?”

─Do you think I saw it from the same perspective as that horned woman? Hehe, have you already forgotten what kind of ghost I am?

A spirit bound to a ring.

And─.

─A ghost who covets the contractor’s back and follows him around.

“…A guardian spirit. Yes, I briefly forgot that you and I see at the same height.”

─Hehe, I’m glad you know now.

Tamamo’s figure, elegantly covering her mouth and laughing like a noblewoman, looks beautiful at first glance.

In Seungwoo’s eyes, who is devoid of romantic feelings, it only looks like an exaggerated gesture to tease him. In fact, that’s right.

─You actually realized it was a dream the moment you dreamed it, right?

“……”

─That’s why you skipped or hid scenes that you didn’t want to show or see in the middle. But you managed to realize it was a dream.

“I realized it as soon as I felt pleasure or pain. There’s nothing more strange than feeling emotions that have already been discarded.”

For Seungwoo, trivial emotions are not so important.

Everything except the mask to act them has long been organized.

However, the fact that he has organized his emotions does not mean that he cannot feel them, so he has controlled all the emotions he has felt while living until now.

At least he has lived like that since he was 20 years old.

But suddenly, a situation arose where he could not control his emotions.

What he had been controlling every day for several years was suddenly unleashed, so he quickly realized that this whole situation was a dream.

Thanks to that, it was possible to skip or hide nightmares as he pleased.

Even though “Andrealpha” was the reason for dreaming.

The dream that projected the past was clearly Seungwoo’s, so it was possible.

─I won’t ask you in detail about the parts you wanted to hide. I’m not such a heartless woman to pry into such things.

“……”

*I want to retort, ‘You?’, but I held back.*

*I know that bothering her will be annoying, so I only repeat trivial things in my mind.*

─Hehe……. Don’t even think about that.

It is almost impossible to hide one’s inner thoughts because each other’s hearts are connected by a red thread.

Seungwoo could read her thoughts and feelings a little, and Tamamo could also read his mind.

But Seungwoo was the one who proposed this contract, but she was the one who made good use of this contract.

─Um~ Are you really going to go up?

“Are you talking about going up above the sewer? Of course.”

Seungwoo, who has finished operating on his body into a body more suitable for fighting, is about to head to the battlefield after succeeding in a crazy act that no one in human history has ever attempted.

Like a bird with a homing instinct, his heart, trying to move his steps to hell, which resembles the world he has lived in, only evokes admiration.

─You might die.

“Well, I’ve been fighting for quite a long time, but I haven’t died.”

─Is it worth fighting up there?

“Worth fighting? Are you talking about justification? You wouldn’t be talking about justification even after seeing the Geumsu [a type of monster or beast] I crammed into my ring space. They crossed the line first.”

─I didn’t ask about such superficial reasons.

“Then what is it?”

He pointed to the top of the sewer with his finger.

Whether a fierce battle took place on the ground, dust settles in the sewer due to the great shaking effect.

─Do you know what kind of hell is unfolding up there right now? My five senses can fully feel it, so there’s no way you wouldn’t know that.

“Yes, I can roughly picture it.”

Dye your eyes purple.

There is no need to see the world made of black and white.

There is no value in using the divine power to look down on all things.

Seungwoo’s five senses could fully draw this much based on the information they received.

“It’s a one-sided massacre. The citizens are in conflict, the students are fighting back, but the guards and knights seem to have withdrawn from security.”

─Do you know how many people have died?

“8,166 people. 7 more people died in the meantime. Oh, 45 more people died because a large building collapsed.”

─That’s enough for the number of casualties. Can you also know why the knights are not intervening?

“Well… I can’t hear their voices because they are all guarding mansions far from the sewer, but in the circumstances, the viscount must be trying to abandon or kill the citizens. The knights are foolishly loyal to their lord even though they know it’s a bad move.”

─That’s terrible.

“Yes, it’s terrible.”

Tamamo was trying to suppress his movements with the number of dead people.

Thousands of casualties were a cute number from his point of view.

To Seungwoo, who has killed enough creatures to create mountains and engraved his name on the graves of hundreds of millions of people, that number is nothing.

─So, are you going?

“I don’t know what that question has to do with the question you just asked me.”

─Liar. You know it. You’re not going to answer until I ask you directly, right?

Okay, good.

Then I’ll ask you directly.

─It’s a body that just finished the procedure. Even though it was successful, your lifespan has been greatly reduced. If you overwork your unstable body, it may be further reduced.

“I know.”

─But why are you going?

“Because that’s my reason for existence.”

In order not to be swayed by personal feelings anymore.

In order not to shed tears of blood or despair, he controlled his emotions and had the iron-blooded mindset befitting the leader of a military state.

Even in the midst of that, he loved and was still trying to keep his promise with the woman he held in his heart.

“Live for the people.”

It was the last words of his teacher, who had dedicated his life to humanity.

And the words of the teacher who had a great influence on Seungwoo’s life.

“No matter what happens, don’t die.”

He vowed to keep this promise, hanging the rosary she gave him around his neck.

The promise with the Virgin Mary meant that even if it was to save people, he should not give up on himself.

These two promises conflicted, and Seungwoo lived a life in endless pain, unable to end his own life even if he wanted to.

It was heavier to break his promises with them than to be prepared to die. An oath that can never be broken.

But one thing.

There was only one trick.

That method of being able to rest comfortably even if he cares for people and does not give up on himself is…

“Save the world and die a glorious death. That is my goal in life and the reason for the existence of a human being named Baek Seungwoo.”

Eliminating the cause that threatens people and perishing with an opponent worthy of it.

He cannot commit suicide while turning a blind eye to his promises with them.

The only way he can go to eternal rest is only this.

That’s why Seungwoo willingly goes even though he knows that the place he’s going is hell. Before coming here, he ended the war before he could even find an opponent to do so.

Praying that he will meet an adversary worthy of it on this land.

Step by step.

Seungwoo headed for the exit of the sewer.

Ding!

And in that mindset.

[Confirming the existence of outsiders who should not be invaded due to the rapidly changing war situation.]

[Granting a new quest.]

The status window responded.

Only the system will know whether this is support or ulterior motive.