Academy’S Gumiho Is A Magical Genius [EN]: Chapter 201

Academy Gumiho is a Magic Genius – Episode 201

Masquerade (1)

What to do about the final exams was something to think about later.

Today was Saturday. There was no reason to worry about work.

So, I took Erzebet to a house near the Academy.

Anyway, I had plenty of time today.

I bought her so much to eat on the way that Erzebet’s hands were full of bags.

And then she…

Thud!

Dropped the bags full of food from her hands.

The food inside didn’t spill onto the floor.

「Telekinesis」

An intangible force prevented the contents of the bags from spilling out.

I neatly placed the bags on the floor.

While I was organizing the bags, I heard Erzebet’s admiring voice.

“……Wow, it’s big.”

“Just don’t run around.”

“……Don’t worry. I don’t like running.”

Right, that’s why her ‘Agility’ growth is the slowest.

But even though she said she didn’t like running, she sprinted through the living room of the house.

It was fortunate that it wasn’t an apartment, but a large house where I lived alone.

If she had run at this speed in an apartment, the person living below would have come up with a kitchen knife, and I would have nodded in agreement.

That’s how much Erzebet couldn’t hide her excitement as she ran.

It was the first time I had seen her like that.

“She acts like someone her age at times like this.”

A girl running wildly through the living room.

It was reckless behavior for a 15-year-old, but considering her childhood wasn’t very lively, it felt good.

I don’t know if it’s a parent’s heart or a guardian’s heart.

Right now, I just wanted Erzebet to smile.

While she was running so hard in the living room.

Thud!

Her footsteps stopped.

In front of her was a huge egg in the corner of the living room.

It was the 「Egg of the End」 that I brought from the dungeon, no, the Otherworld, before.

“……What is this egg? Is it edible?”

“Does it look edible to you?”

“……No, it looks like I’ll die if I eat it.”

“It’s not ‘looks like,’ you’ll actually die.”

At least tens of millions of people.

It’s an egg containing a disaster that could destroy an entire world.

It’s not something that an ordinary human can consume or digest.

You could tell by touching the outer shell of the egg.

Even though the terrible thing inside hasn’t been born yet, it was screaming.

‘Well, you could eat it if you really wanted to, according to Erzebet.’

Even if you were to consume this.

A person with considerable status.

Would have to systematically classify the concepts embedded in the disaster within the egg and gradually dissolve them into the body to barely digest it.

Otherwise, who knows what form the consumed person, as well as the contents in their stomach, might transform into.

Therefore, eating this should never happen.

‘Before that, the question is whether you can break the eggshell in the first place.’

Thud, thud.

I put some force into knocking on the huge egg.

If it were a normal egg, the shell would have cracked, and the yolk and white would have been mixed together by the impact. But what came back was not the sound of the egg breaking, but a dull sound of something colliding with something stronger than steel.

Ordinary people can’t break this.

Even if you use an ability with penetrating power.

Because the shell is so thick and hard, no impact is transmitted inside. It was as if the world was protecting this egg as an inviolable object.

You couldn’t even scratch the shell with a sword, magic, or skills.

Maybe the crazy powerful flame I used in the dungeon could crack the shell.

But I wondered what I would gain from doing that.

‘I’ll just have to thoroughly educate and reform any nasty characters that are born, as originally planned.’

But then.

Erzebet said something completely unexpected.

“……Can I take care of this?”

“Take care of it? Someone who hasn’t even been born yet?”

“……Yes.”

“It’s fine, but be careful not to damage or affect the egg. If you mess up, a huge disaster could occur.”

“……Okay. I understand.”

Even if it’s an egg from which a disaster will be born.

Since my goal is to hatch and reform it, I thought it might need someone’s warmth.

Of course, this warmth could be replaced with expensive machines.

But something I heard somewhere caught my attention.

Eggs and fetuses don’t remember what happened before they were born, but they instinctively remember the warmth of that time. Moreover, in my parents’ generation, raising chicks in front of the school was used to promote self-formation and emotional education.

‘I don’t know how effective that will be. But if it helps, it can’t be worse than doing nothing.’

But she doesn’t think a chicken will hatch from that giant egg, does she?

Or mistake it for an ostrich egg.

‘Hmm… Even so, she wouldn’t mistake that for a bird’s egg, would she?’

The giant egg was touching the ceiling from the floor.

I bought this house to live in and to store that egg. There was a basement and a second floor, and I spent a lot of money to install magical devices throughout the house.

Magic that automatically cleans the dust from the floor, walls, and ceiling on a regular basis.

Magic that dynamically maintains the temperature and humidity of the house according to the user’s desired temperature, and so on. The latest technology was implemented with magic.

Among those things, there were efforts to raise the temperature around the egg higher than in other parts of the house.

And add a blackout function.

Until now, these magics had been taking care of the 「Egg of the End」.

But it would be better for it to be taken care of by a living person.

If all goes well, there might be prenatal education effects.

So, I entrusted the egg to Erzebet.

* * *

Less than a day after returning from the dungeon.

While watching Erzebet hug the egg and share her body temperature, I briefly entered Chilseong Academy.

Thanks to the house being located not far from the Academy, I walked around with the mindset of taking a walk.

The Academy’s internal grounds were very large, but always full of life thanks to the presence of students enjoying their youth.

“……It’s quiet.”

But today it was too quiet.

It was as if that day, the moment the monsters invaded the Academy, came to mind.

It was so quiet because there were no people then too.

At first, I thought many students had gone out because it was the weekend, but when I expanded my senses with magic, I found that most of the students were in the Academy now.

However.

“They’re all in the dorms or inside the buildings.”

I wondered if it was because the weather was getting hotter.

But it wasn’t summer yet.

The moderately pleasant and cool breeze was blowing pleasantly.

On a day like this, it would be perfect for students to walk along the streets or go on dates.

I wondered why they weren’t coming out.

“……Ah.”

It’s because of the exams.

I realized it because of the sound of pencils scratching that I heard when I expanded my hearing. They’re already preparing.

“Come to think of it, there are only 3 weeks left.”

Three weeks was not a long time.

The Academy was already influenced by the enthusiasm of the students preparing for the final exams, and it was filled with the sound of pencils scribbling.

Some students went to the library to study. Students going to the library to prepare for final exams.

It was so foreign that I doubted my eyes for a moment.

Until now, most of the big exams involved using the body.

But I guess it’s because there have been so many incidents and accidents.

Unusually, this year’s first semester final exams for all grades were written exams.

The only exams that involved vigorously moving the body were performance evaluations.

Even then, there were no midterms.

This was because Chilseong Academy, which had always been concerned about safety, had become even more pathologically obsessed with the safety of its students.

Well, this atmosphere won’t last long.

Once summer vacation is over, it will return to normal.

‘Because this world is originally like that.’

A world where families are lost due to the appearance of monsters.

A world where precious things are taken away by those who wield indiscriminate violence. At least, that’s what the world I knew was like.

‘The world I lived in was like that too. This place is actually safer.’

The environment in which one grows up.

Causes the perception of the world itself to be different.

For me, the invasion of external forces and death were not very heavy topics. They were common.

As a side note, there were countless elements here such as status windows, traits, skills, magic, and dungeons.

These made the player even stronger.

Thanks to that, the level of force has increased by several stages.

Not only the individual’s force.

Even the power of countries and organizations.

“Because the people of this world were generally stronger than the monsters, they were able to avoid losing land and minimize casualties.”

While there are worlds that have overcome the onslaught of monsters in that way.

There are also worlds that have only resisted for decades without overcoming it.

That is the world where I was born and raised, and also the world where the woman who wrote this novel’s worldview was born.

Our ethics were created based on that terrible world.

This world is a novel written by Eve, who grew up with those ethics.

Even if everyone is on high alert about the Academy invasion right now.

Everyone will regain stability once summer vacation is over.

Because Eve and I have been like that.

It was only natural that this world would unfold in that direction.

‘It would be different if it were a world without monsters or magic.’

Such an absurd world.

At least for me, it was a world like fantasy, so I couldn’t even imagine it. Absurd fantasies were not worth thinking about.

Look, a few months ago, a friend who studied at the same Academy died, and just a month ago, even in a place where a demon invaded, the students had long since regained stability.

They had already accepted death.

The students who are studying hard were proof of that.

“……I never thought I would see a scene of indifference to death again in my life.”

I thought I had put an end to the world where people die as lightly as dandelions blowing in the wind, and those perceptions.

So, I was sure that I would never have to see such a sight again.

I never thought I would see such a sight in a foreign land.

My heart was heavy with a very familiar sight.

In the end, I left the Academy and packed various foods and gifts to return home.

I didn’t want to be at the Academy any longer today.

I was tired from being back from the dungeon, and anyway, I wanted to go home quickly. So, I returned home with both hands full.

But there was something in front of the house.

I didn’t notice when I left.

When I returned home, something was piled up next to the door.

They were packages that had been piling up for a week.

Looking at the addresses, they were sent by Gu Yaja.

And at the top of the packages.

There was one thing that stood out.

A letter decorated with intense gold and red.

It wasn’t cheap. There were clear traces of melting wax to seal the letter and engraving something like a family crest.

I took out the letter and read it, and I understood.

This was an invitation.

“……An invitation to a banquet? Who dares to send it?”

The main content of the letter was an invitation to a banquet.

More precisely.

An invitation to a masquerade.