Academy’S Gumiho Is A Magical Genius [EN]: Chapter 387

The Window (2)

The window had always been there.

The researchers at the Magic Tower, delving into the hidden corners of reality, uncovered an astonishing truth. A middle-aged man, bleary-eyed from days without sleep, exclaimed:

“This discovery will save us all!”

He held a small device in his hand.

The device periodically received a unique signal.

A woman watching him spoke, her expression incredulous.

“It’s not an invention, it’s a discovery.”

The window isn’t something we created.

It was something that existed in this world from the very beginning.

“Ha! Splitting hairs, are we? Arguing the semantics of ‘invention’ versus ‘discovery’? Regardless, we only grasped the concept of the window after building this device, so it’s a monumental invention!”

“Hey, Julia.”

“Yeah, what’s up?”

Julia, a researcher, watched their exchange while sipping her coffee.

The woman who had questioned the middle-aged man, Charles, cautiously addressed Julia.

“Do you even know how long that guy’s been awake?”

“‘Guy’? You mean Charles’s sleep schedule?”

“Ah, right.”

That’s right. His name was Charles.

He’d been so absorbed in his research that he’d lost all track of time, even forgetting the names of those closest to him.

It’s fortunate, though.

Because there’s a colleague here who is more attuned to time and names than we are.

Still—

“If your memory is also fading like ours, you can just rest without saying anything. Anyway, it seems like it’s okay to rest for a while…….”

“It’s been 4,297 days. That’s how long Charles has been conducting research without sleep.”

“……Ah.”

Your memory seems relatively intact.

“It’s because I don’t have much else I’m good at besides remembering things like this.”

Julia said candidly.

“Yuri, you’re smart, so you can do difficult calculations quickly. Charles… he seems a bit out of it because he hasn’t slept for too long and has been engrossed in invention, but his skills are exceptional.”

“What are you talking about? Julia, your role is important enough.”

“I know. It wouldn’t make sense for a project of this scale not to have a secretary.”

Records are important.

Especially in a research lab.

Even more so when you’re working on a project to create a god.

The progress of the experiment, as well as the minute details of the researchers’ every move, must be meticulously recorded to prevent any errors. This project cannot fail.

“Still, I sometimes think.”

Was there really a reason for me to be the secretary?

Anyone else could have done it.

“Are you perhaps feeling a sense of disillusionment with this job?”

Yuri looked at Julia with a searching expression.

Julia burst into laughter at that look.

“Haha! Disillusionment? What disillusionment? I have no way to make a living if I get fired from the Magic Tower, you know? I won’t quit this job, even if it’s just to survive.”

She can’t quit in the first place.

Create a god to save us?

It was a secret project that most people in the city, and even within the Magic Tower, didn’t know about.

If Julia, who knows about the project, quits her job for some reason, whether it’s due to disillusionment or something else, she will have to be silenced.

Because the dead tell no tales.

Ah, according to ancient books, it was said that in the days when numerous countries existed on the ‘Continent’ [a historical landmass], one could hear the words of the dead, but we probably don’t have anything like that anymore.

“Don’t worry. I will continue to record everything that happens in this lab.”

Looking back now, it seems like quitting my job at this time would have been a good choice.

After recording for many years, I realized one thing.

Sometimes, dying is easier.

* * *

The year… I’ve forgotten too.

It was because I had been holed up in the lab for too long, just conducting research.

We all lost our sense of time. Instead, we found out more valuable information.

Through our research so far, we have learned a lot through the window.

The detailed contents will be recorded by another researcher in a separate file.

Therefore, I will briefly record what we have discovered.

We have developed the technology to read the window.

Through this, we opened the window and saw the world outside the window.

The world beyond the window was shocking.

‘Windows’ exist throughout this universe, and countless things are recorded in the areas that the window reaches.

From individual names to great epics, the window recorded anything that could be recorded without distinction.

We confirmed that fact and were filled with hope.

The window was a distant concept that we could not do anything about.

It’s like the universe. Just as humans cannot master or manipulate the universe at will just by looking at it, the window was something that humans could not directly influence.

Instead, we could find hints.

As recorded earlier, the window is a distant and absolute concept.

What is recorded in the window remains in that window forever. Then, what if we apply that characteristic to ourselves?

If our names are recorded in the window.

Wouldn’t we be able to exist forever?

Wouldn’t we be able to live outside this damn narrow city?

Everyone thought so, and we proceeded with research based on this hypothesis.

It’s working. It seems like we can see hope.

……

Year. Undetermined (未定) [Japanese: Mitei – meaning “undetermined” or “unfixed”]

No. No.

We failed.

We succeeded in summoning the window and writing something to record it permanently.

The problem was what came next.

We had nothing to record.

We were wrong from the start.

Why do we call our city a city?

Is it because there are no other cities in this world?

Is it because we are the only ones who survived?

None of that is true. Our city had no name from the beginning.

Then what about the names?

Why did we forget the names?

We in this lab have forgotten our own names, as well as each other’s names.

We burned all the youth of our young days and conducted research together in this narrow space until our skin became wrinkled and we grew old and died.

It was a long relationship.

It was a relationship that everyone could call an inseparable friendship… but why?

Ah. Yes, I see.

It’s because of that window.

Everyone was indifferent to each other while researching that window.

A miracle that we barely discovered after hundreds of years and generations.

Everyone poured everything into research for that faint miracle, and the result was this mess. We failed. We ruined everything. We failed completely.

But…….

The person who reads this journal someday will at least be able to make a better judgment than I can. Surely they will.

* * *

“What are you reading again?”

“Research logs.”

“Didn’t you read it all down below?”

Two or more magical powers collided above the sky.

The ability to dye everything black attacked Eve, riding on magical power.

Eve dodged and emitted light.

A sacred radiance.

The black magic power that touched the light disappeared in front of the light as if it were a shadow.

After that, huge ice spikes were fired like missiles, aiming at Eve.

Luna, who was watching the scene, shook her head, unable to comprehend what she was seeing.

The overwhelming magical power output from both sides. The magic battle she just saw was not something she could dare to imitate.

Let’s just forget it.

It’s easier on the mind to forget.

Luna, looking around, sought someone to talk to. But that person seemed to be focused on something else.

Luna asked Seung-woo.

“I’ve read all the basic contents. It was written very meticulously, covering the who, what, where, when, and why of what happened underground.”

Thanks to that, it wasn’t difficult to memorize the whole thing.

Because the order of the research logs was correct. Memorizing and understanding it wasn’t very difficult. However, there was something I was curious about.

“But you know. Isn’t there something questionable?”

“What are you so curious about in this situation? I’m more curious about the magic battle unfolding above our heads.”

“Magic battle? Is there any reason to be curious? It’s just a battle between a student who has barely stepped into the realm of a great mage and a brat who can handle all the magic power in this world. It’s just a kids’ fight, so there’s nothing to be curious about.”

“……Excuse me?”

No, what is this person even saying?

“‘Just’? Did you say ‘just’? You fell because of that ‘just’!”

“I know what you meant, so stop emphasizing it.”

“Besides, if you can handle all the magic power in this world, you practically have infinite magic power. How can you win against that?”

“I also have almost infinite magic power.”

It’s not really infinite, but the efficiency of magic power required for magic is good, so it’s almost infinite.

“In your case, what’s the point of having infinite magic power?! Your body’s ability to support your subordinates is the problem!”

“That’s true.”

Seung-woo nodded.

It was a part that he had to admit.

“On the other hand, that woman doesn’t even look tired.”

“You can see that from this distance?”

“I can see it if I want to.”

Luna wiggled her ears and smiled.

“What do you think of my race?”

Elf. A race that evolved to have good eyesight throughout the race by climbing trees and hunting in the forest.

“Then, can you shoot an arrow at that woman, Eve, from this distance?”

“From this distance?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you crazy?”

“……?”

The abnormally high eyesight of the elves exists for hunting.

So, just in case, I asked if she could shoot an arrow up there, but suddenly a curse flew at me. Was this an action worthy of being cursed?

“I can’t hit something high in the sky, let alone in the forest. Sir, I have good eyesight, but I’m not strong.”

“Aren’t you thinking about the tension [draw strength of the bow]?”

“There’s a limit to that. Elves aren’t a race that conquers the world with a single bow. At best, they’re a race that only hunts in the forest with bows.”

Um, I see.

Well, if the elves were strong enough to hit Eve in that high place, the alliance would have killed the knights and saved the world long ago.

“Do you think bows are omnipotent tools? We also swing swords in wars.”

“……Okay.”

I didn’t say it, but.

There was actually a friend like that.

A friend who uses bows like omnipotent tools.

A god archer. He shot and killed dozens of monsters with one arrow, and when the arrows ran out, he swung the bow like a club and killed them all.

When he needed wood, he wielded the arrowhead like an axe and cut down trees.

And sometimes, when the arrows ran out, instead of swinging the bow like a club, he punched a monster to death, pulled out its bones, and hung them on the bowstring instead of arrows.

He was a friend who even made fire with frictional heat using the string hanging on the end of the bow.

─He died too, right?

Tamamo intervened while reminiscing about the old days.

‘That’s right. How did you know?’

─If it’s an old acquaintance in your reminiscence, the ending is always like that.

‘…….’

Seung-woo shut his mouth.

Except for Eve, most of the people who have appeared in the reminiscences so far have died.

It was so obvious that Tamamo could predict it.

I feel bad, but I have nothing to say because it’s not wrong.

‘……You bad guy.’

Why did you have to hit the nail on the head?