Academy’S Gumiho Is A Magical Genius [EN]: Chapter 154

Academy Gumiho is a Magical Genius – 154

Teacher (4)

“……”

Sometimes, when I close and open my eyes, I see nothing.

I can’t see, nor can I feel anything else.

“Mental world.”

It was because I had entered my own mind.

This was an act that even a devout Buddhist dedicated to asceticism and a Taoist yearning for transcendence in the mundane world could not disregard [referring to the profound nature of entering one’s own mind].

But for me, who could do such a thing as easily as eating, even unconsciously, it was nothing.

“Did you call me this time?”

A mind wearing away.

Reason going insane.

I, who can no longer be called a normal human, often waver like this.

And each time, I cast away the things that make me who I am, one by one.

A bottomless pit like a chasm of hell.

In the deep interior of a human, devoid of even a single ray of light, ‘I’ with the same face as mine was staring at me.

“It wasn’t you. Then who led me here?”

My life was like light.

More brilliant and sparkling than anyone else.

An idol revered by all.

The reverse side of a life lived like that inevitably needed a shadow.

This place is my shadow.

The shadow could only exist if there was light, and the light could only prove its radiance if the concept of shadow existed.

The two are an inseparable, unified community bound by fate.

However, the more the intensity of the light is increased, the fainter the shadow becomes.

“……”

“Yes, today it’s your turn to be sacrificed.”

That is to say.

In order to increase the light.

The sacrifice of the shadow is unavoidable.

This place is full of ‘me’.

Various elements that define me as a human being.

I thought I had cut them away enough while living.

I never dreamed that I would still have to wear myself down while living.

I stroked the ‘me’ with a blank expression and shed a tear.

My tear ducts were dry, and I had already cut away negative emotions, including sadness, so I had no pure tears left to shed. This was a tear of blood.

I am suffering internal injuries because I am forcibly cutting away the elements that make up the human being Baek Seung-woo.

Even so, I can’t stop stroking myself.

“……I’m sorry.”

Am I sorry?

Unfortunately, I cast away that feeling a long time ago.

Therefore, I could not answer the question of whether I was sorry to ‘me’.

I was just giving a disingenuous apology in the bottomless pit where there was nothing.

I was just blankly staring at the unseen future.

“But don’t worry.”

Swish!

With the sound of something being cut, the floor was soaked.

Although I can’t see it, the something that is clearly soaking the floor must be a vivid red color.

The hair grasped in my hand.

A headless head was proving it.

“The limits of this body are becoming increasingly clear, and the outline is becoming apparent.”

I’ll be following you soon too.

So don’t be too upset.

When I opened my closed eyes, the same desolate scenery as always was waiting for me.

I led my lightened body and emptied heart forward.

A figure so calm that it was hard to believe that he was the man who had just torn off someone’s neck with his own hands.

Trait, 「Bluff」.

For the expressionless man, self-disgust was a misguided emotion that had long been cut away.

Wearing a mask, I could do anything I wanted and act as if nothing had happened.

* * *

When I opened my eyes, a horribly ruined territory came into view.

A world as futile as the empty heart I had just seen.

A scene that was well suited to the expression of destruction.

“……Teacher, are you serious?”

Leeji, grabbing my sleeve, asked.

The school uniform, which had magical resistance and defensive power to defend against stray arrows, was torn quite badly.

I’ve been telling them that the role of ‘Guardian’ is to protect their comrades with their whole body, even at the cost of sacrifice.

Although the other children’s appearances are also miserable.

Leeji’s appearance was particularly severe.

“You’ve lost too much blood. Stop the bleeding quickly.”

“Teacher!”

“What’s wrong?”

“That’s not important right now! Can’t you see the people down there and the children here?!”

The school uniform was stained with blood.

Especially the pure white shirt, which seemed to be still getting soaked in blood.

Red blood was forming and dripping.

“I can see them. Since I can see them, take care of yourself first.”

“I’m fine! Right now, there are so many people down there in worse shape than me……!”

“’People’ in bad shape? Well…… do you see them as people?”

“……Yes?”

I see.

That’s why Leeji was bleeding so much that it was dangerous and was vehemently protesting to me.

I understand why the other children are standing behind Leeji and looking at me.

It was a difference in perspective.

“Te, Teacher, what do you mean by that?”

“Jiya, look at them. Do they look like people who look like us and think like us?”

“Well……. of course!”

“Really? They look no different from the dead to me?”

“!!!!!”

This place, which is the background of the reverse side world, is the echo of the past implemented as a dungeon.

It is nothing more than reminiscing about the world that has already been destroyed, the creatures that lived on it, and their lives.

“The wounds we get here are real. Because we have a clear substance, when we get hurt, we are left with pain and scars.”

“Bu, but that’s true for the other people here too……!”

“They are people who have already suffered irreversible wounds. No matter how hard we struggle, we can’t do anything about their scars.”

You can’t bring dead people back to life.

This is an absolute proposition.

At the same time, it is the truth.

I know because I’ve tried and experimented with every method.

“No matter how many people you save, it’s just a waste of time. The people on this land that you have connected with are just a recreation of a world that has already been destroyed. You can’t save them.”

“……Then where are the real people in this city? What about the small village beyond the mountains? What about the children?!”

“Stop it, calm down.”

“!!!!”

Leeji already knew the answer, but she shouted with an incredulous look.

The answer to this is.

Destruction (滅亡) [Metsubou, meaning annihilation or ruin in Japanese, emphasizing the totality of the destruction].

This one word is enough.

“Wh, what should I do……? I saw parents running for their children there. I saw parents dedicating themselves to their children even when stones were embedded in their legs and their flesh was torn.”

“Leeji?! Just calm down a little. Would you like to eat a chocolate bar that I packed as emergency food?”

“That’s not going to calm me down! Yerin! Quickly start healing with mental stability!”

“Ah…… okay.”

Leeji panicked at the resolute answer.

She seems to be confused by the gap between what she sees and reality.

Noh Yoora took out a chocolate bar from her pocket for Leeji, who was screaming with an expression of disbelief.

Chocolate was high in calories, making it perfect as emergency food, and it was food that could replenish the sugar needed during battle.

It wasn’t really necessary for a boy complaining of mental pain.

Rather, Sung Yeonhwa’s response, which appeared behind Noh Yoora, was more accurate.

She called Seo Yerin in clumsy Korean.

Then, Seo Yerin, holding a spear, raised her hand over Leeji’s head.

Whirr.

Yellow divinity rippled and poured over Leeji’s head.

The divinity perfectly implemented the intermediate healing that Seo Yerin had been planning.

No, in some ways, it was more perfect than that.

The meeting of divinity and healing brought about a synergistic effect that Seo Yerin had never imagined.

Leeji’s expression, covered in light, gradually regained stability.

Leeji was as if she had fallen into the sea.

She began to breathe roughly, as if she would suck up all the oxygen in the atmosphere.

Around him, other students surrounded him and worried.

“……Even if they are the material of a hero, it may be too much to ask of inexperienced children.”

I leisurely watched the farce.

The heroes of the distant future.

However, those who have not experienced trials and tribulations are nothing more than brats overflowing in the academy.

It wouldn’t be bad to knock them all out and take them with me.

If it’s for the mental health of those children, I have no choice.

‘Even if they resent me after waking up.’

Right now, the top priority is to leave this world.

I have no obligation to listen to the students’ words.

The moment I was about to use my hands a little.

Step by step.

Flat shoes made footsteps and moved.

At the end of that movement were children surrounded by golden divinity, hugging each other blankly.

Isabelle.

She was scanning the children’s faces one by one with a cold expression.

“You guys hurry up and run away. This light won’t protect you anymore.”

A magician who manipulates light, Isabelle.

Even if it is the shield of golden divinity that I have spread.

If the main medium that makes it up is light, it is in her palm.

She can’t do the crazy thing of grasping the structure of magic at a glance.

But it was not difficult to know what effect the magic or mystery had and how long it would last.

Ziiiiing.

And as if to prove those words in an instant, the shield of light melted into the air and disappeared. It was almost perfect timing.

This is the descendant of the wolves who follow the light.

The eldest daughter of the Sirius family.

“Th, thank you, Sister!”

“What thanks? Say hello to the person who saved you. Yes, you can say hello to the person who just put on that golden shield.”

Hehe.

When she with a cold face smiled, the little girl holding the doll followed those words.

Usually, she is like a haughty doll.

When she shows this smiling face, children who are particularly weak to visual elements have no choice but to fall in love easily.

So the girl looked at me.

The children behind her too.

They looked at me in turn.

They bowed to me.

““““Thank you for saving us!””””

“……”

“I, is it real……?”

“I didn’t expect it. He told us to just go, but he saved the children? Isn’t this too unfair?”

To pick a fight with something like this.

I swept my hair back with a look that I hadn’t expected this.

I desperately ignored the surprised students.

There was no way to deal with Isabelle’s expression, who had caught something.

She said to me.

“This is an order from the head of this group. If your role as a teacher is not a leader but a supervisor, then follow me without saying a word.”

A firm order without any compromise.

To put it nicely, it was Isabelle who boldly showed off the qualities of a resolute leader.

To put it badly, she was a tyrant who did not listen to reasonable, ideal, and practical opinions.

……If you say this much, I have no choice.

“Okay. Do as you please.”

“……Are you serious?”

“Wow, it worked!!”

“Instead, if the situation becomes urgent, I will throw you out of the reverse side world, even if it means breaking one of your arms and legs.”

A serious tone that didn’t feel like a joke at all.

The students, reminded that their teacher was a great man who could break their arms and legs if he didn’t like it, nodded silently.

They were just nodding.

That was the root of the problem.

It was too soft of a judgment.

At that time, I should have realized.

If I wanted to escape from this world.

I should have thrown the children out no matter what.

─────!!!!

The floor screams.

Kugugugung.

The vibration covered the basement.

If the underground above was not open, it was an earthquake of such power that it would not have been strange if they had died instantly from falling rocks.

‘No, this is not an earthquake. Yes, this was it.’

─Young master, do you know why this large-scale earthquake happened?! This scale is not common even in the archipelago where I was born and raised!

‘It’s not an earthquake. It’s just the heartbeat of a creature.’

An unread novel.

Fragments of vaguely remembered conversations.

The blurred puzzle finally found its place in the ambiguous gap between memories that seemed to come to mind but didn’t.

“……I finally remember.”

I remember when I see your face.

The sharp snake’s eyes and huge body were reminiscent of an Imugi [a large, mythical serpent in Korean folklore, often considered a proto-dragon].

“3rd Circle monster.”

“Wh, what did you say……?”

“The huge starlight soaring from the underground earlier, and today I’m seeing a lot of amazing sights.”

A 3rd Circle, a monster that can turn a large city into a sea of fire if the circumstances and conditions are right.

In the worst case, it is a guy who can cause damage equivalent to a national overthrow.

A body of black scales.

A giant snake whose body remains even after covering all the territory of a baron.

I knew that guy.

“「Jormungandr」.”

A name inspired by the snake that swallows the world [referencing the Norse mythological serpent].

Surprisingly, it had the same habits and abilities as the individual name attached to it.

‘Gluttony and molting, underwater breathing, venom and self-cannibalism.’

It has all the bizarre abilities.

A mythical sea snake that shares the same roots as all kinds of sea dragon myths around the world.

The identity is just a snake at best.

But its destructive power is worth acknowledging.

“I’m going crazy.”

I squeezed my eyes shut.

Trait 「Simgeomjiro」 is bound by strong restrictions.

Even if used, it boasts the worst fuel efficiency, requiring more stamina and mana than necessary.

But what about this.

What would happen if I just squeezed out all my stamina?

……What kind of result is bullshit.

I’m screwed.

These guys are all going to die.

“A guy like this is something that would come out in the mid-to-late part.”

Dead Baron.

Filthy demon.

What on earth are you guys trying to do on this land?