Academy’S Gumiho Is A Magical Genius [EN]: Chapter 315

Academy Gumiho is a Magic Genius – Episode 315

Academy Gumiho is a Magic Genius 315

Warmer Than Expected (5)

Ding!

A cheerful, mechanical sound.

Baek Hyeon-ah recognized the sound, but only from skimming Seung-woo’s memories.

She had never actually heard it herself.

Naturally.

That mechanical sound was the chime that signaled accessing the system [a user interface or menu in the story’s world].

As an entity derived from a skill, Baek Hyeon-ah wouldn’t have a status window. It was normal for her to never hear that sound directly.

[Verifying subject’s independence.]

[Accessing subject’s window…]

[No assigned window exists.]

There was no mistake.

It was the system’s voice.

Reaching that conclusion, Baek Hyeon-ah easily understood that the window the system was referring to was a status window.

If it was a window she didn’t have,

It was most likely a status window.

“……?”

That’s why Baek Hyeon-ah’s reaction was a beat late.

[Subject’s race is ‘Doppelganger.’]

[However, both sapience and independence, the two conditions for being a standard human, are met.]

[Granting you a status window!]

[Residual data detected in the heart! Implementing subject’s window based on this.]

Ding!

「Name: Baek Hyeon-ah」

「Age: 1」

「Race: Doppelganger」

「Title: ──」

「Rank: ──」

「Status Condition: Confusion」

「Dark Star(暗黑星)」

*Currently linked to ‘Baek Seung-woo’s’ downed window for some reason.

「HP: B+」 「Strength: A」

「Durability: A+」 「Agility: B- (A-)」

「Mana: B+」 「Sense: S」

*Currently linked to ‘Baek Seung-woo’s’ downed window for some reason.

*Agility increased by three stages due to wearing the ‘Faded Ring.’

「Star Cluster Tsunami (S)」, 「Murciélago (S)」, 「Doppelganger (S)」

*Currently linked to ‘Baek Seung-woo’s’ downed window for some reason.

The blue window floated before her eyes.

Its implications were enormous.

“It… acknowledged my existence?”

The world recognized a mere 「Doppelganger」 as an independent being, as a human.

She, who was not human, was recognized as human.

She might have been moved by that fact, but the situation was too urgent for Baek Hyeon-ah to purely rejoice.

After a moment of bewilderment, Baek Hyeon-ah composed herself to understand what had happened to her.

She read the contents of the window.

‘My body is definitely good.’

Her pure physical abilities were superior.

Mana and sense were lower than Seung-woo, who she was based on, but her physical abilities, including stamina and strength, were better.

This was because Baek Hyeon-ah, as a 「Doppelganger」, had imitated the Sword Saint Baek Seung-woo, not the fox Baek Seung-woo. She roughly knew the level, but seeing it in numbers was a new feeling.

But Baek Hyeon-ah had no time to be sentimental.

The ‘Status Condition: Confusion’ attached to Baek Hyeon-ah represented her feelings.

‘Baek Seung-woo’s window is down?’

The sentence at the end of every item—traits, stats, skills—caught Baek Hyeon-ah’s eye.

Connected to the system. Baek Hyeon-ah quickly checked the rankings.

The integrated ranking, based on martial prowess and achievements.

Seung-woo was definitely in the upper ranks among the hundreds of players in the ranking.

So it couldn’t be missed.

It couldn’t be missed, but.

Why?

‘Why? Why isn’t his name there?’

……Ah.

I see. It’s because he’s not in this ‘world’ right now.

Because he was an existence not in this world, the system was treating Seung-woo as a non-person.

He would return when he came back.

But until then, there would be quite a ripple.

Instinctively sensing this, Baek Hyeon-ah jumped up from her seat.

‘I have to get out of this house quickly!’

As Baek Hyeon-ah hurriedly packed her things, she thought.

Until now, Baek Hyeon-ah had never been registered in the system, but she knew what role it played.

For example, when a name suddenly disappeared from the rankings.

It was divided into two main cases.

The first was when their skills had declined due to aging or injury, and they no longer met the minimum criteria.

This was rare.

Because most of the people who suddenly disappeared from the rankings fell into the second case. This was especially true for people ranked as high as Baek Seung-woo.

So what was that second case?

‘All of his acquaintances will come looking to ask about him!’

Death.

Dead people don’t stay in the rankings.

Because Seung-woo’s name had suddenly disappeared from the rankings, many people would doubt Seung-woo’s survival.

Of course.

‘Who am I going to tell that he didn’t die and went out of the system’s jurisdiction?’

Baek Hyeon-ah knew very well that he hadn’t died.

But unlike her, other people had no way of knowing.

She couldn’t come forward and say it.

Baek Hyeon-ah was a thoroughly veiled existence.

The reason for her existence was to protect the children.

There was no reason to reveal herself.

‘If I reveal my identity, more problems will arise.’

An appearance that looked like Seung-woo turned into a woman.

Even twins couldn’t look this alike.

Everyone had their own unique aura, and when Baek Hyeon-ah imitated everything about Seung-woo, she even imitated that aura, so a knowledgeable wizard would easily discover that she was a 「Doppelganger」.

In the process, if she was unlucky, information about the children could be revealed.

A vampire closest to the purest bloodline and a dragon in the form of a human baby. The day their identities were revealed… she didn’t even want to think about the chaos that would ensue.

She should get out of this house quickly.

Click.

She reached her hand up.

She didn’t know how to use it until just now, but she learned the approximate operation method through the usage of skills transmitted through spiritual connection.

It was like not knowing much about cars, but knowing how to put the car key in and drive.

「Murciélago—Shadow World」

The shadows covered the house.

The black waves occupied everything from the first floor to the second floor. The sight was very fierce and violent, but nothing fell or broke.

The shadows only absorbed what was needed.

Starting with tools and toys for the children, and food, it quickly sucked up only items related to the children so that no one could feel their presence when they came to this house.

There was no need to busily move her hands and pack her things anymore.

Having packed all her things, Baek Hyeon-ah called the children.

Grab.

She grabbed their small hands.

“Kids. Dad is going on a business trip today. So we’re going to live in the villa from today. Okay?”

The period of living in the villa was.

Until Seung-woo returned.

“Villa……? Did we even have something like that at our house?”

“Of course. Your dad has everything prepared.”

Of course.

With his meticulous personality, Seung-woo was preparing for any unforeseen situation that might arise.

Several countermeasures in case something big happened to his safety, or in case he died. Baek Hyeon-ah, who was spiritually connected to Seung-woo, had memorized all of those countermeasures.

“Okay, let’s go quickly!”

“Huh? Can’t you give me time to pack my things?”

“Mom packed everything, so let’s go quickly! Baek-ah wants to go quickly too, right?”

“Ma!”

“Mom……?”

She was in so much pain until just now, and suddenly to the villa?

Erzebet wanted to say something, but the moment she saw Baek Hyeon-ah’s eyes, she sensed that something was going wrong.

‘The expression I used to have…….’

Before meeting Seung-woo.

In the days when life was difficult and painful, and she didn’t feel much hope in living, she felt that her face reflected in the rainwater on the floor through the moonlight and Baek Hyeon-ah’s expression were very similar.

It was an expression as if she was being chased by something.

“……Okay, Mom.”

Erzebet nodded without talking back.

She judged that it would be much better to be a good daughter than to say a word and satisfy her curiosity right now.

“Okay, good girl.”

With that, Baek Hyeon-ah left the house with the children.

She armed herself with the things Seung-woo made in preparation for any possible situation.

Hanging all kinds of weapons on her waist, she moved with five cloaks that disturbed the perception of others tightly wrapped around her.

It took a considerable amount of time to travel to the villa because it was a bit far.

But after arriving, she was able to relieve her worries.

Even Baek Eun-ho, who could be said to be Seung-woo’s closest aide, didn’t know about this villa.

There was no fear of being caught by anyone.

After laying the tired children on the bed, Baek Hyeon-ah went out to buy groceries, hoping that Seung-woo would return soon.

Of course, with five perception-hindering cloaks.

* * *

“……Huh?”

Nam Hwa-yeon, who had been immersed in research in the lab, looked at the ceiling.

While she was looking at the ceiling, the contents of the test tube she was experimenting with rotted in an instant.

The research results of the past two days were reduced to nothing in a moment of distraction.

Nam Hwa-yeon also knew that fact, but the contents of the test tube were no longer her concern.

“……Where did he go?”

Her disciple.

Baek Seung-woo’s presence had disappeared.

Even if it wasn’t felt inside the academy, Seung-woo wasn’t sensed in this world at all.

“He’s not dead…… Should I go look for him?”

A situation where her disciple suddenly disappeared.

Moreover, she, his master, didn’t even get a word.

It would be a big deal if he couldn’t contact her because he had no means to do so.

If he just disappeared without saying anything, it would be a big deal in another sense.

“I guess I should go look for him.”

Seung-woo had.

The duty to continue Nam Hwa-yeon’s progress, and to receive fear-mixed praise among wizards, being called a Demon King or a Witch like her.

To make him rise to the realm of incomprehensibility like herself someday.

To make him the only understander who could understand her.

That was the real reason Nam Hwa-yeon accepted Seung-woo as her disciple.

“Where…… Shall I go look for a disciple who ran away from the lab?”

The experiment was secondary. Nam Hwa-yeon first searched for Seung-woo’s last trace left in this world.

She searched a range that was hard to believe was being searched from a lab within the academy grounds, and realized that his last trace was in a nearby mountain.

Nam Hwa-yeon, who didn’t need to climb the mountain because of magic, snapped her fingers.

Snap─!

The surrounding scenery changed in an instant as her fingers collided.

There was no sign.

A high-dimensional magic that unfolded as naturally as breathing.

It was truly space movement that had reached its peak.

“Foot of the mountain? Not the summit or the dragon vein [a place where mystical energy is concentrated] where the mountain’s energy flows, he seems to have been in a strange place.”

Her disciple’s last footprint was cut off here.

It was a place with quite a few suspicious things.

A foot of the mountain where people rarely visit.

It was clear that there was no one other than Seung-woo, but the surrounding soil and tree roots were clearly lifted upwards by something.

It was like.

“A feeling of being pulled by gravity?”

Something felt strange even as she said it.

Gravity was a force that pulled from top to bottom.

Looking at these traces, gravity pulled a person who was standing still upwards.

Nam Hwa-yeon absorbed the surrounding mana [magical energy].

She analyzed the mana of all the wavelengths that occurred nearby from the absorbed mana.

She absorbed it just in case.

“If gravity was reversed, the mana in the atmosphere would be distorted in a unique form as a result, but there’s nothing like that.”

There were no useful results.

Still, it wasn’t like she didn’t have anything that came to mind right away.

She was someone who possessed and mastered a lot of knowledge.

She came up with various hypotheses, but there was no way to prove those hypotheses.

Those were hypotheses with such low possibilities.

Hmm…… If things have come to this.

“I didn’t really want to use these, but.”

She had no choice for the sake of her runaway disciple.

Nam Hwa-yeon endured the annoyance and focused her mana on her heart.

Woo-oong──!

Mana gathered in her heart and drew a circle.

The mana that started accelerating in that state continued to increase its purity and density. Some mana was lost in the process.

Even if only half of the lost mana was collected.

It would surpass the mana of an average A-class player.

That was how much mana it was.

But that wasn’t enough, so she accelerated it to replenish the insufficient mana.

This meant.

────!

The magic that Nam Hwa-yeon was trying to use was that huge.

What she was about to unfold was the past sight (過去視) [a magic to see the past] of reading the past of the area.

It wasn’t just an ordinary past sight.

If she wanted, she could pinpoint the past of one person and look at that person’s entire life.

An infinitely bizarre (怪異) magic.

This was why Nam Hwa-yeon was called by the ominous nickname of Demon King.

It was annoying to cast, but it didn’t take long.

The answer quickly appeared on her retina.

But.

“Huh……?”

She saw Seung-woo’s past that she didn’t expect at all.

A woman and children?

Was he married?

If it was during his delinquent days, she would have thought so, but it’s almost all recent.

There was even a record from this morning.

At that moment, Nam Hwa-yeon’s face, which had been expressionless all along, hardened for the first time.