Academy’S Gumiho Is A Magical Genius [EN]: Chapter 205

Masquerade (5)

Time slowly passed.

The clock was already pointing to 11 o’clock.

‘The host still isn’t showing.’

A lot had happened by 11 o’clock.

A student who accidentally drank alcohol staggered around, experiencing intoxication for the first time, before being taken away by the servants. It seemed they laid him down on a hastily prepared sofa for a while.

In a similar but opposite example, there was a man who, emboldened by alcohol, thought he was a lion. He was very brave and ignorant.

He was seen wooing women wearing masks.

But he was also seen yelling at men.

At first, these sights were amusing, but as time passed, they became unpleasant.

Eventually, the man was kicked out.

The sight of him being dragged out by the guards, who held both his shoulders, was quite funny.

“Could they have naturally blended in with the crowd? I didn’t sense anything like that.”

There were several old men wearing masks, but none of them were the person I remembered.

That meant they still hadn’t arrived.

At this rate, it would be 12 o’clock, and they wouldn’t have shown their face all day.

That was an act devoid of concept and dignity for the host of a masquerade.

‘Looking around right now, there are many people who aren’t properly enjoying the masquerade. Are they ignoring these people? This is the first time I’ve seen a banquet left to run so unattended.’

The identity of a masquerade comes from the masks.

These masks conceal me from others and create a situation where everyone is unknown to each other. Even if they are acquaintances, wearing a mask makes them a completely unfamiliar face, so in this masquerade, they become new connections.

However, this only holds true if everyone except oneself doesn’t know anyone else.

“There were several group guests.”

The Choi family was negligent in that aspect.

They seemed to have mistakenly thought that simply wearing masks and concealing everyone’s faces and identities would make it a masquerade.

Well, if it were a typical social gathering, it wouldn’t matter.

But if they wanted to create a masquerade in the true sense.

I can say definitively.

This masquerade has failed.

—Everyone is only talking to their own groups, or communicating with people they were already interacting with.

‘Well, it’s not easy to talk to complete strangers. The other person might be someone higher up than me, and I could unintentionally cause offense. So, if there’s someone I know at this event, I have no choice but to hang out with that person.’

It’s a chronic problem of masquerades.

Wearing a mask doesn’t hide everyone’s identity.

What if you offend someone and then find out they are higher up than you?

Even if everyone is equal at this masquerade.

It doesn’t mean they will be equal after this time is over.

‘So, if you’re going to host a masquerade, you should create a situation where everyone doesn’t know each other. And put effort into the aftercare.’

Only then can a masquerade in the true sense be established.

Whether they know that or not.

Creak—!

The huge central door swung open, and masks of an old tiger (老虎) [old tiger] and a young, strong tiger (猛虎) [fierce tiger] entered the ballroom.

Since no new guests had entered for the past hour.

Their identities were obvious.

Finally, the host had arrived.

“I apologize for being late. I had some business to attend to.”

A brief apology, and then the old tiger picked up a nearby glass of wine, with an expression that suggested he had nothing more to say.

The young tiger responded to this.

They raised their glasses together.

In response, the people attending the masquerade also raised their glasses.

The excited old tiger said.

“Now then! Let’s officially begin the masquerade.”

The appetizers were enjoyed enough.

Now it was time to enjoy the proper main course.

At the old tiger’s words, the young tiger directed the servants.

The food and tables in the center of the ballroom were moved back, revealing a large central plaza.

Since this was a formal occasion, no one spilled food on the floor.

The revealed plaza was a place for dancing.

Gentlemen and ladies, who couldn’t easily distinguish each other due to the masks, paired up and began to dance. The rhythmic dance was dazzling.

It wasn’t to my taste, but it was fun to watch.

I watched the scene intently, not joining their ranks.

* * *

As the music for the dance changed a couple of times, someone reached out to me.

A woman with a mask decorated with elegant European curves and a feather.

Wearing a black dress with a low-cut back and chest, she confidently revealed the beautiful curves of her body and said.

“Sir, would you care to dance with me?”

She was asking me to escort her.

If this were the Earth I lived on, I would have danced at least once for the sake of appearances. But here, I was a guy wearing a strange mask and exuding a strange aura.

It didn’t matter if I refused.

“I’m sorry, miss. I’m not really one for these kinds of masquerades.”

I refused as politely as possible.

There were no special feelings.

She was polite to me, so I was just being polite to her.

I pretended to kiss her left hand, making a ‘smack’ sound.

Since my mask completely covered my face except for my eyes, I couldn’t actually touch her hand with my lips.

So I replaced it with a gesture.

Perhaps she liked that more than I thought, as the woman blushed and returned to her original spot. There were other women wearing masks there, and I could hear quite a bit of noise.

It wasn’t my business, so I shifted my attention back to the ballroom.

The people dancing, the guests watching them, and the two tiger masks.

As I watched them in turn, the number of tigers had increased to three.

‘A cub? Ah, so that must be him.’

The mask of a young tiger.

His identity was clear.

“…Choi Jin-cheol.”

Choi Hyun-deok’s son, Choi Ju-seok’s grandson.

The prince of this family.

Choi Jin-cheol, one of the promising figures of the Seven Stars Academy, who metaphorically revealed his identity with the mask of a young tiger, said.

“On a wonderful day like today! I would like to commemorate the occasion by showing you all my collection. Hahaha!”

“…How presumptuous.”

It was clear that the servants were moving busily because they hadn’t discussed this beforehand. The two wearing the old tiger and young tiger masks also seemed displeased beyond their masks.

It was because Choi Jin-cheol had interrupted the dance.

Regardless, Choi Jin-cheol spoke in an excited tone.

“Bring it here quickly! The people are waiting!”

The sight of him getting angry and threatening the servants.

I felt like I roughly knew his personality.

Arrogant and shameless.

He was an impudent and conceited boy who looked down on people and had no sense of shame. Surely, only he stood tall in that boy’s world.

It was a sight that made me frown.

Clatter—!

The sound of wheels turning roughly grew closer.

As everyone heard the sound, Choi Jin-cheol continued speaking in a joyful tone. In his grasp, the servants were pushing a huge glass case with wheels on the floor.

The contents were covered with cloth, so they couldn’t be seen.

However, a strong wave of magical power was clearly felt beyond the cloth.

The eyes of the guests who had the ability to sense magical power turned to Choi Jin-cheol.

“Then, let’s reveal it!”

Choi Jin-cheol seemed to like the attention he was getting, as he removed the cloth with a voice that was as loud and bright as possible. There was no speech that exploited people’s expectations.

There was no political gain in revealing the contents of the glass case.

Only the desire to show off to others was clearly conveyed.

In some ways, it was an action befitting his age.

A childish, self-willed action.

He was truly immature.

“…Crazy.”

Of course, the contents revealed beyond the removed cloth were not very immature. It was indeed an item befitting the prince of the Choi family, famous for its wealth.

“Is that fur?”

“No, that’s a wolf’s hide.”

“But why is it black? Ah, is it because blood has hardened and turned black?”

“Your knowledge is lacking. The blood has hardened bright red under the hide. The fur of the hide is black because the creature was originally a black-furred wolf.”

A hide that looked like a shed skin.

At first glance, it looked like clothing, and depending on the perspective, it looked like a hide.

However, people with knowledge of equipment or clothing quickly noticed.

That black shed skin was a hide. A wolf’s hide, to be exact.

Upon closer inspection, traces of fur and claws could be seen.

“I hear it’s true that it’s a wolf’s hide.”

“I don’t know how old it is.”

“Why else would the fur have turned black?”

“I think it was originally black.”

An old black wolf’s hide.

The hide, which looked like a shed skin on the outside, didn’t seem to have any use.

The magical power emanating from the hide was great, but no other advantages were visible. Everyone thought so, but not me.

If I didn’t have the 「Mystic Eyes of Distortion」, I would have been the same as everyone else.

‘I can’t believe something that should be in Europe is here. It seems it was here at this point in time.’

—Do you know what it is?

‘I don’t know the details. All I know is fragmentary information.’

It would have been good if Baek Eun-ho was here.

The information about that hide came from information I heard from Baek Eun-ho.

“There are some who recognize this. That’s right, this is a wolf’s hide. To be exact, it is the molt of the King of Wolves.”

King of Wolves, the short phrase turned the gazes of even those who were uninterested toward the molt. Was that old hide really the King of Wolves’?

“T, that’s really the King of Wolves’ hide?”

“Yes, it’s a genuine article that has already been appraised.”

“Huh, I never thought I’d see the hide of a monster in my life. And to think it’s Robo’s.”

King of Wolves Robo.

It was the name of a monster that appeared in the city due to a dungeon break a long time ago. He was given a high rank of 3rd tier and soon plunged people into fear.

But soon, he was subjugated along with his wife by high-rankers [high-level adventurers].

That’s what history recorded.

The only people who remembered the true value of that hide were me and Baek Eun-ho.

—So, what’s the value of that hide?

‘That’s not a monster’s hide, it’s the molt of a werewolf.’

Now there are three of us, including Tamamo.

I explained to her in detail.

‘Robo is just a distorted legend. That hide is the molt of Robo, the lord of the werewolves.’

Over 1,000 years ago, before humans had seized power.

In the days when Gumiho [nine-tailed foxes] and foxes ran across the plains, and beastmen freely led their groups, it was a tribe that followed the moon along with races such as Gumiho and vampires.

The werewolf race, famous for its tremendous strength and leg strength.

They are the ancestors of Isabel’s family, Sirius.

Although their blood has thinned, racial characteristics such as tails and ears are not outwardly revealed like the Cheonho Baekga [Thousand-Fox Baek family].

“Isabel, what’s wrong with you?”

“I… I know that.”

“Your eyes look strange, Isabel. There are a lot of tears in your eyes!”

“Oh, really? Strangely, the moment I saw that, the tears wouldn’t stop….”

Isabel was instinctively feeling it.

A relic of a distant ancestor.

It was the molt of the lord, the highest-ranking member of the tribe.

In Isabel’s mind, the story of her ancestors flashed by like a panorama. A black wolf who showed kindness to humans, who were nothing more than food for vampires, toys for other races, or slaves, was betrayed.

The wolf lord lost his wife, who had beautiful white fur.

And soon, he lost his race.

But there was nothing he could do.

The fall of the demi-humans was a predetermined course.

The wolf lord, Robo, had no choice but to humbly accept his death.

There was nothing else he could do.

In that way, Isabel finished her instinctive communication with her ancestors.

After that, all that remained in her mind was an inexplicable sadness. The wolf lord’s memories naturally disappeared with the wind.

The hide was so old that even the grudges and memories within it had weathered away.

Isabel, who didn’t know why she was crying, headed to the bathroom.

To erase the tear marks.

“…I want it.”

I muttered as I watched her.

When else would I be able to get my hands on such a precious item?

Such things could not be easily obtained with money.

Just then.

Clink—!

The touch of the mask on my fingertips was that of a villain.

Stealing is a virtue of villains.

It was an essential virtue.

That molt is mine now.