Academy’S Gumiho Is A Magical Genius [EN]: Chapter 258

The Man With Nothing to Lose (3)

Another dawn where I’m the only one awake.

I got out of the vehicle and walked towards the secluded ruins.

To others, it might have seemed suspicious, but I was the only person on the street anyway. Most people were asleep.

Those who weren’t asleep at this hour were probably working overtime, doing their best to stay awake with tired expressions.

In a situation where no one paid attention to me, I arrived at the ruins.

“Ruins, huh? It’s just a closed-down botanical garden.”

A flower garden or a regular garden.

There were many places that met this condition.

But there were fewer places that met all the conditions I wanted. Not many, that is.

‘It was in a much more pathetic place than I thought. Who treats a MacGuffin [a plot device or object of desire that drives the story] like this? Or is this intentional?’

All sorts of thoughts crossed my mind, but they weren’t important.

I cut off my thoughts and entered the ruins.

The door was firmly closed, but it wasn’t difficult to open.

Bang!

With a small explosion, only the door flew off perfectly.

As I stepped into the botanical garden inside the ruins, broken glass fragments scattered under my feet. The devices and glass windows installed for plants sensitive to temperature and humidity were shattered.

Since the fluorescent lights weren’t working, sight was meaningless in the dark botanical garden.

“There’s no reason to light a fire.”

The reason for lighting a fire in the dark is to maintain a constant body temperature, but the biggest reason is to secure visibility.

However, if you train the sense of sight, you can replace it with other senses.

Otherwise, how could blind people live in this world?

Thump, thump.

The botanical garden was larger and had more obstacles than I thought.

Thanks to that, it was difficult to walk, but it was perfectly quiet.

The breathing and heartbeats of sleeping children. A more desolate and gloomy atmosphere surrounded the botanical garden than the quiet night streets.

“Perfect.”

If there is no sound, weak humans go crazy.

But for someone who is already crazy, hearing nothing is an opportunity.

Sound is interaction.

We can tell who is behind us just by hearing each other’s voices, and we can infer dinner from the sound of stew boiling and rice steaming.

You can do all sorts of interactions with sound alone.

Conversely, not having sound doesn’t mean you can’t interact at all, but at that moment, there are no elements to interact with others.

You could have some time alone.

‘What did Eve say back then?’

I don’t know. It’s such an old memory that I can’t remember it.

It was already a worn-out memory.

I suspected that someone’s scheme might have made me forget that memory, but there was no use in having such doubts.

In the end, it’s a forgotten memory.

What is forgotten does not return.

A handful of sand scooped from the beach.

Putting that sand back on the beach doesn’t change the definition of the two, but picking up the sand you just put down doesn’t make the current sand the same as the sand from before.

‘Memories are like sand, and memories are like stones before they become sand.’

Memories don’t last long.

There is a clear limit to the capacity of a person’s brain, and even someone with exceptionally good memory like me can’t remember everything.

Memories wear out.

It’s like a stone, and no matter how hard and solid a memory is, it wears out with the wind and time, just like a stone.

However, just as sand remains at the end of abrasion.

At the end of a worn-out memory, there remains a reminiscence.

I recalled that reminiscence.

However, no matter how much I recalled the reminiscence, the memories that came to mind were no different from before. There was no information worth remembering.

Even if I retrace my memories, I don’t gain anything, but my heart was reliving the emotions of that time.

I continued walking through the botanical garden, retracing those reminiscences.

I didn’t walk straight towards somewhere as if possessed.

I just looked around and followed the botanical garden’s recommended route like a spectator.

‘It was a botanical garden like this back then too.’

Vague memories left in my reminiscences.

Clearly, the background in that memory seemed to be a botanical garden.

Well, it might not be. That’s how memories are.

I was momentarily deluded, but I didn’t stop walking.

After walking around the botanical garden once, I arrived at an open space.

It wasn’t an empty lot. I was still inside the botanical garden.

“The glass wall was completely broken. I can’t see it, but judging from the wide spread of soil on the floor, it seems like a place where big trees were planted.”

Since there is no light, I can’t know the answer.

As if affirming my thoughts, there were fallen trees all over the floor.

Some trees were safely uprooted, while others died in this place without light or water.

‘Did they sell the expensive and valuable trees and neglect the others?’

The smell and feel of rotten wood were felt everywhere.

There were no signs of bugs or ants in particular. Originally, rotten wood was the best shelter for them, but they cannot live here without light and water, just like the trees.

Even if they tried to live, they would have died long ago.

‘…The floor is a little strange.’

Various philosophical thoughts crossed my mind.

However, things with form are more impressive than metaphysical things.

The philosophy that came to mind was quickly buried by the strange sensation felt on the floor.

“…Is this it?”

The sensation felt from the floor was not a natural element such as metal or stone.

But if you ask if it’s the same material as the botanical garden corridor, that’s not it either.

It was hard, oval, pointed, and short.

Various sensations are felt beyond my shoes, but I have no idea what it is.

I can’t get a sense of it even if I press it with my foot and roll it around.

Every time, a different touch and sensation flashes through my mind.

I was convinced by the very strange feeling.

‘This is it.’

I don’t know what it is, but I grabbed it with my hand.

Clang!

What came into my hand with a unique sound was a key.

A key small enough to be easily wrapped in your hand.

It was so ordinary that you could easily miss it.

The touch was no different from an ordinary key, so I wondered what the identity of the touch I felt with my toes was.

But I didn’t get lost in thought.

It wasn’t time to get lost in thought yet.

This doesn’t end with finding the key. It ends when you hold this key in your arms and protect it safely.

In that sense.

“…I’m late. The guys who moved faster than me are finally arriving.”

Thump! Thump!

The existence of the demons breaking through the ceiling of the ruins was really uncomfortable.

I felt uncomfortable and annoyed rather than dangerous.

But… there are more guys coming in from the ceiling than I thought?

Nearly 100 of them.

You’re like bugs.

How many are you coming in droves?

* * *

The demons found me and threw themselves at me.

But strangely, they didn’t launch a wide-range attack.

This place is a botanical garden. If you are in an enclosed space, if you are prepared to die and attack with the intention of destroying the area, you may be able to inflict some damage, even if it is not fatal.

But no one attacked me like that.

Everyone is melee. They started fighting with only fists and magic.

But even that.

Clang!

“!!!!”

“…What are you doing?”

When the key shook in my chest pocket, they hesitated to throw a punch.

It looked like they were being careful because they were worried that it would break if they treated it carelessly.

‘These guys, could it be.’

I suspected that there was an intention hidden in the obvious movement.

But it didn’t seem like that.

“Are you being careful because if the key is damaged, the grand plan might be disrupted?”

“!!!!”

“But you know what? No matter how strong you are, as long as you have mercy in your hands.”

You can’t beat me, who has no mercy.

Whoosh!

A flame that appeared from nowhere struck one of the demons in the head.

The sudden light temporarily paralyzed the demons’ vision, and the flame that flew in that gap hit the demon’s head and exploded at the same time, scattering sparks and brain fluid everywhere.

The demons blankly watched the scene.

The demons’ faces gradually became invisible as the flames disappeared.

In the last moment, the demons’ faces seen through the flames looked the most stupid. An expression that said they never thought they would die from something like that.

You really have to ignore people to that extent.

“Are you guys showing off because you’re nobles right now?”

“I haven’t even shown my face yet, but how, how do you know that…?”

“How do I know? Thanks to the feel of my hands. Is it because the nobles are stiff in the waist? The feel of breaking their waists is excellent.”

Ha ha ha!

I laughed loudly and thought in my head.

It was impossible that all these demons were nobles.

In the first place, there are less than 100 of them, and it is too early for the Marquis and Duke to wake up. However, if a considerable proportion of barons, viscounts, and counts belonging to the remaining titles are mixed in here.

‘It won’t be easy to kill them like I just did.’

That method of suddenly creating a flame in a dark place to make them squint and piercing their heads. It’s obvious that it won’t work anymore.

Then what.

‘I have to take some losses to protect what I have to protect.’

I had something to lose.

It was the key.

The key is a MacGuffin. To be precise, it was a kind of stage device that quickly pulled the end of this novel.

Whether the ending of this world ends in comedy or tragedy, the moment you use this key, the door will open and the person who opens the handle will soon face the final boss.

I don’t remember who the final boss was.

Anyway, I remember it was such a device.

The reason why I can only explain it so vaguely is that the key was never used in Eve’s explanation and the novel she wrote.

Whether the enemy picks it up or the main character picks it up.

The key breaks in a fierce fight.

‘It’s said to be a key that opens the door to the final boss, but.’

In the end, the key is just a key.

It doesn’t last long in the fight between superhumans and breaks easily.

It’s not just them who have to adjust the level of their attacks because they’re worried that the key will break. It was the same for me.

So I exerted the maximum power I could while protecting the key as much as possible.

“The key won’t be deformed by this much heat, right?”

“!!!!”

I have something to lose.

In order to protect it, I needed a safe place to store what I was going to lose.

But I don’t have any space or gaps to store anything.

I didn’t have the luxury to force my way in and create space.

Then I would have to lose something to create an empty space.

“Life is originally a one-shot.”

[The embers of the 「Solar Plexus」 that had faded in your heart are beginning to burn brilliantly once again!]

[Warning! Excessive heat can damage your body!]

The health I had regained.

Let’s give that up and go all the way this time.