Academy’S Gumiho Is A Magical Genius [EN]: Chapter 385

Academy Gumiho is a Magic Genius – Episode 385

Academy Gumiho is a Magic Genius 385

A Moment Without Memory (5)

“What kind of effect was that just now?”

Luna asked, perched atop a mountain of corpses.

“What effect? The magic being… off?”

“Yes, to be honest, it didn’t feel like the magic was dispelled normally. It felt like there was some kind of trick involved.”

It felt a bit fishy, to say the least.

I nodded in agreement with Luna’s words.

When treating the flame that soared into the sky as a single spell, it was too crude to even be called magic.

‘But it’s a different story when based on magical power itself.’

If magical power is likened to ingredients and magic to a finished dish, the magic I unleashed was like a roughly made sandwich, haphazardly thrown together with whatever ingredients were visible.

Just throwing in some vegetables and meat, a result that didn’t consider the harmony and proportion of the ingredients.

However, the ingredients themselves were top-notch.

‘My magical power is purer than anyone else’s in the world.’

Eve, Adam, my students, and even Nam Hwayeon.

My magical power, which had its efficiency and quality increased several levels by adopting the spiral method, was no longer at an approachable level. A skilled magician reversing and breaking down or using someone else’s magic?

It’s something that could definitely happen, in general.

But it shouldn’t happen to *me*.

‘The magical power itself is encrypted, so who can hack it before being hit by the magic? If that’s possible, it’s not a person but a calculating machine.’

If the opponent was a machine instead of a person, it would be understandable.

And the Eve I just saw was truly a machine.

“Look at the corpse you’re sitting on. The answer is there.”

“Corpse? This is just a doll. No heart, no organs.”

“A corpse before cremation doesn’t have a heart either.”

“Ah, right.”

“Anyway, that’s not the important thing.”

I stroked the dolls piled on the floor with my hand.

Soft skin. A texture similar to that of a human. The skin and wrinkles were all similar to those of a human, but the reason Luna reacted like that was because she didn’t feel any vitality beyond the surface.

Leaving aside life and death, they didn’t feel like people at all.

“Look closely.”

I flipped the head facing the floor.

Then Luna was startled.

“What is this… !”

Clear features.

A woman that everyone would consider beautiful.

In another sense, it was a doll-like appearance. But the reason Luna was surprised now was not because of her beautiful appearance.

“W-Why is this person here?!”

It was a familiar face.

A face that both Luna and I knew.

Well, we just saw her up close, and we fell from the sky because of this person, so we couldn’t forget her even if we wanted to.

“S-Surely not a replica?”

“It’s not wrong, but that’s not all there is to it.”

Luna’s reasoning was close to the answer, but slightly lacking.

The people piled up like mountains here. These people are replicas of someone.

Whose replicas could they be?

“Could it be… was that person also a replica?”

Luna, startled, looked up at the sky.

The eyesight of an elf, who roams the forest and captures prey, accurately stared at Eve’s face. It was very beautiful, but the face, similar to the heartless dolls under their feet, confused Luna.

“Then who on earth…? !”

“The approach was good, but wrong again.”

Since Luna was so confused, I pointed out where she was wrong.

“Ah, right? That person isn’t a replica either, right? I’ve never even heard of such elaborate replicas.”

“That’s right, but…”

“Yes?”

It’s not that that part is wrong.

And there’s one replica that’s just as elaborate in our house.

“…Wasn’t this it?”

“Don’t jump to conclusions. I didn’t say exactly what was wrong.”

“Then please tell me.”

“The ones under our feet and the ones above. They are all replicas.”

“Whose replicas are they anyway?”

“I wonder.”

A woman who resembles Eve.

I stroked the back of their necks with my hand.

White hair caught between my fingers. A familiar feeling. The Eve I know also had hair like this.

But the scent was different.

The Eve below. The Eve above.

Both types had no scent.

Not a faint scent, but no scent at all.

Colorless and odorless. All the Eves piled up like mountains and the Eves living and breathing in the sky looked like corpses to me.

The Eve in my memory is not like that.

The past flashes by like a slideshow.

─You have something sticky on your hair.

─Huh, where? Where’s the gum stuck?!?

─I didn’t say it was gum.

─If it’s something sticky on my head, it’s obviously gum! Hey! Can you please take the gum off my head for me?

─No. I don’t want to touch it.

─What about me with that on my head! Huh? Please take it off.

I didn’t want to touch the black thing on her hair.

─Touching slime with my hands is a bit…

─Ah! It was slime? I thought some bastard spat gum on my head.

─What crazy person in the world would spit gum on your head? Even the Commander is too scared to do that. What can you do to someone who disobeys orders and fires magic if things go wrong?

─Hey! I’m like a fairy!

─Fairy my ass. A fairy that’ll freeze to death.

─You don’t even pretend to listen to orders you don’t like, and you stab even higher-ups if they have ulterior motives! At least I don’t commit treason in a hierarchical society like you do.

─That guy deserved to die, so I killed him. And the Commander nodded and patted me on the shoulder, saying I did a good job.

─You don’t want to end up like the people who were hit by your sword, do you?

Well, it’s not a very normal memory.

Still, looking back, those were fun days.

─I wonder. It doesn’t seem like that’s what you think?

‘Shut up.’

Be quiet when I’m lost in nostalgia.

─Hearing the story, one disobeys orders and the other stabs superiors if things go wrong. And they’re both war heroes. Is that an army? It’s a ragtag group.

‘Ahem, if a superior does something worthy of death, they must be killed.’

─…Because you did that on the battlefield at a young age when you should have been learning education and common sense. That’s how you grew up.

Okay, I admit it.

Neither Eve nor I were normal people.

But what can you do when that’s the environment?

People with normal ways of thinking were all dead.

‘Only those who are willing to die for their goals remained.’

We were the mascots of such a group.

And later became the leaders.

‘There were so many things that happened.’

Especially Eve, unlike the people who left my side quickly, stayed with me for a long time. I had a lot of memories with her.

I pride myself on knowing Eve better than anyone else.

‘……Even Eve is the same as these people.’

Everywhere is full of things that look like Eve.

The ‘Eve’ I’m talking about now is the only Eve in the world.

‘Eve is also a replica.’

It was written in the journal.

The reason their world was collapsing was because there was no linchpin to become the center of the world. That’s why they were going to create the linchpin themselves.

They planned to create a god.

It was hundreds of years of research.

After generations of researchers, they finally caught a single stroke of luck.

It wasn’t the result of long-accumulated data.

A product born purely by chance.

It might sound bad to say that, but according to the journal, the researchers at the time didn’t seem to think so at all. They were rather happy.

Because a small hope had sprouted.

The researchers studied it for hundreds of years more.

The girl who was first born by chance. They repeatedly researched and researched to make her a god. In the process, many replicas were made.

“That’s this mountain.”

“So all the women here are… if they were replicated from the first product, what is the first product?”

“In the early days of research, the researchers thought that they had to create something from nothing to create a god.”

“A homunculus [an artificially created human being]?”

“That’s right.”

A replica of a homunculus.

That was the identity of this mountain.

The early contents of the research journal were about creating an ideal god.

The latter part of the journal was a record of the researchers trying to somehow grant the omniscience and omnipotence that a god should have.

“The Eves here were not given life.”

“It’s kind of sad. People aren’t born because they want to be born, but being born like this is a bit…”

“…I guess so.”

I felt strange.

I never imagined that I would find out about my friend’s birth in a place like this.

How could there be such a coincidence in the world?

As a result of desperately searching in the gap between dimensions, the world I arrived at happened to be related to my friend’s special birth.

There are countless worlds in this universe like stars in the sky.

And I set foot in the world where Eve was born out of all those worlds. What are the odds of this happening?

‘It’s 0, actually.’

0%.

That’s what it should have been originally.

But the fact that the 0% probability was realized meant that someone was manipulating the probability from behind.

‘Even this was your arrangement.’

Eve.

It was her doing.

Just looking at the fact that I and my students met in this world, I was convinced that falling into this world was not a coincidence.

Then what is your next arrangement?

My precious friend, Eve. By going back through Eve’s personality and preferences, I was going back to what Eve had arranged afterwards.

Shake, shake.

Someone shook my sleeve.

I turned my head in that direction.

“…Can you kill her?”

“What?”

“What were you doing, not listening? Can you kill her!”

Luna shook my sleeve and repeated the question several times.

I must have been lost in thought and didn’t hear her.

I asked again to confirm.

“Are you talking about Eve? Are you asking if I can kill Eve?”

“Yes, that woman. You said it was research to create a god. Seeing her get out like that, the research must have been completed…”

“No, that’s not it.”

“Yes? How can you be so sure?”

“Well…”

The Eve I know is much greater and stronger than that woman.

If it’s a god, it has to be perfect, but if there’s something superior to a god, can you call it a god?

At least I don’t think so.

It’s difficult to explain this in words, so I just said it vaguely.

“There’s a way to know somehow.”

“Ha, you’re so great.”

“Anyway, killing her is not a problem at all.”

“Then hurry… !”

“The problem is the process.”

Just now, when I reached her vicinity, I compared each other’s capabilities.

I can kill her anytime I want.

However, in return, I would have to give up this world.

No matter how confident I am in winning, the opponent is an artificially created god. There is no choice but to unleash a series of huge technologies and magic that people will inevitably be involved in.

“So let’s wait a little longer.”

“Who are you waiting for? Do you even have friends?”

Luna reacted as if she couldn’t understand my calm demeanor as I looked at the sky.