Academy’S Gumiho Is A Magical Genius [EN]: Chapter 396

Academy Gumiho is a Magical Genius – Episode 396

It Was You (1)

The flower garden stretched endlessly.

A single round table stood amidst the pure white roses.

Upon it were tea and an assortment of snacks.

The setup resembled a tea party.

“Looks like you’ve developed a luxurious hobby while I was away?”

“To call merely drinking tea ‘refined’ is a bit of an overstatement.”

“Not ‘refined,’ but ‘luxurious.’ No matter how meticulously you enjoy a tea party, you never quite project a ‘refined’ air.”

That feeling might be something only I can’t perceive.

There’s a high possibility of that.

Hair as white as freshly fallen snow and eyes like amethysts. A face so beautiful, it seemed a doll artisan had painstakingly sculpted every detail.

All of this combined to give Eve a mysterious aura.

“Wow, that’s a bit harsh.”

“Harsh? What am I supposed to do when that’s the impression you give?”

“What’s wrong with my impression?”

I sat down in the chair directly across from Eve and said,

“You have a smiling face.”

I pointed at Eve’s face.

A woman with an attractive, beaming smile.

The Eve I know is that kind of person.

It’s not just her image; she actually smiles a lot, and in many ways, she finds much to laugh about, so a noble and demure feeling doesn’t suit her well.

“Really? I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“Interpret it as you please.”

“Oh my, you’re complimenting me on being pretty, right? Thank you.”

“……Don’t put words in my mouth.”

“Hehe, is that so?”

Clink.

Eve sipped her tea, then placed the teacup back on the saucer.

The refreshing atmosphere of the tea party, filled with floral scents, seemed to freeze slightly as she set down her teacup. The atmosphere didn’t freeze because Eve’s inner thoughts manifested, nor because she was upset by my words.

‘It’s because the way I perceive things has changed.’

I quickly picked up my teacup and took a light sip as Eve placed hers on the saucer. A refreshing scent grazed my nose.

It seems like they used good tea leaves.

Gulp.

A subtly bitter scent spread as it went down my throat.

It’s one of the best teas I’ve ever had.

But there’s just one thing missing.

“Do you have sugar?”

“Sugar? Why, don’t tell me you’re going to put sugar in your black tea like a child?”

“So, do you have it? Or not?”

“Of course, I do. I prepared both sugar and milk, just in case.”

“I don’t need the milk. Just give me the sugar and a teaspoon.”

“Here you go.”

Eve stretched her hand out into the air.

As if an invisible butler had presented her with sugar.

Eve very naturally lowered her outstretched hand onto the table.

At that moment, a plate that hadn’t existed materialized on the table with a clinking sound.

On the small plate were a white container filled with sugar and a small teaspoon.

I looked back and forth between the plate with the sugar and teaspoon and Eve.

Eve looked at the amount of sugar and asked,

“Is that enough sugar?”

“It’s enough.”

Clatter!

I scooped a spoonful of sugar with the teaspoon and put it in the black tea.

With this amount and this fragrance, one spoonful should be enough.

“……Sigh.”

As I drank the black tea, a fragrant aroma and a subtly sweet taste lingered in my mouth. This is the perfect amount for black tea.

“……Very natural and obvious movements.”

After maintaining silence for a moment, I offered a compliment.

It wasn’t a compliment about the black tea.

It was a compliment about Eve’s movements.

Eve smiled slightly, seemingly embarrassed by the sincere compliment that didn’t feel like a joke.

“Well, of course.”

Whose inner world do you think this is?

I also smiled and opened my mouth at her confident appearance with her hand on her hip.

“I’m not talking about the inner world.”

“……Huh? You weren’t?”

“Of course not. My inner world is infinitely wider and more profound than yours, so why would I bother complimenting your inner world?”

This place with white roses spread out is Eve’s inner world.

A space narrower and weaker than my inner world.

There’s no way I would compliment this place.

“……Hmph. Then what are you complimenting?”

Eve mumbled, puffing out her cheeks.

She couldn’t puff them out like a hamster because her body was thin, but anyone passing by could easily tell that she was sulking.

‘Seriously, she never changes.’

Even at 7 years old, even at 10 years old, even at 15 years old, even at 20 years old.

‘You were always the same.’

Around the ages of 7 and 10, I thought she was mature, but since her personality didn’t change, after 15, rather than being mature, the tomboyish girl who was like an innocent prankster was always the same.

I smiled and said.

“Your magic. It was natural.”

“……You can see it?”

Eve’s expression hardened slightly.

The flower garden made of her inner world shook a little, but I didn’t care and enjoyed the black tea.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen this expression on this girl’s face.

Usually, it’s the kind of expression Eve makes when she confidently creates something, and I perfectly imitate it. An expression filled with emptiness.

“……Why can you see it?”

“If you ask me why I can see something that’s visible to the eye, how should I answer?”

“Um…… Just because you can see it?”

“Yeah, that’s exactly how I feel right now.”

The inner world moves according to that person’s heart.

When Eve took out the sugar from the air, my eyes recognized that the action was not simply an action derived from the inner world.

‘Magic was mixed in with the inner world.’

Everything that happens in the inner world happens according to the heart, according to thoughts.

This means that there’s no reason to use magic in the inner world.

Nevertheless, Eve very naturally mixed magic into her inner world and used it.

“It seems like using magic is much faster than thinking about doing it in your head, right?”

As soon as I said that, Eve’s expression completely froze.

It seems like I hit the nail right on the head.

‘Still, it’s amazing.’

If she uses it to that extent in the inner world, it means that magic is deeply engraved in her heart.

No archmage would be able to do what Eve does.

The extremely natural magical act that happened before my eyes could only be possible because she is Eve.

“I still have a long way to go.”

I was sure.

The vision for seeing magic was on the same line as Eve.

But what good is it if only the vision is the same?

There’s a world of difference in what we can do.

“Eve, you’ve really gone through a lot.”

I didn’t even say that I would catch up with her with harsh words.

I had been watching Eve’s efforts from the side until now, and because I knew how much of a genius she was when it came to magic, I admired and praised her.

“……You.”

Eve stared intently at that appearance.

She moved her mouth, carefully choosing her words.

“Just now, that…….”

Eve opened her mouth slightly, as if she was a little touched.

“Even if you praise me like that, which is unlike you, I won’t teach you my unique magic!”

She ruined the whole mood.

‘She really hasn’t changed since the old days.’

I grabbed my head as I looked at my friend who didn’t change at all.

This kind of girl is the only magician in my world.

A Magic City [a city entirely populated and run by mages].

The future of the world is really uncertain, uncertain.

“……It’s okay. I have something else I want to ask more than that.”

I glared at Eve with bitter eyes.

Did she think I was just here to laugh and chat with my friend over tea time in this urgent situation?

─Wasn’t that it? I thought so and kept my mouth shut.

No, you idiot.

The inner world is literally the world inside the heart.

The time here flows very slowly or doesn’t flow at all.

So I can talk to Eve without worry. Of course, that doesn’t mean I’m going to spend the whole day here talking.

We were just fighting until now.

If you stop fighting halfway, your concentration drops sharply.

I have to go back soon.

“Something you want to ask?”

Eve made a positive expression at my words.

Fortunately, it seems like I can get the information I want without difficulty.

“You can ask me anything you want. Ah, I won’t tell you even if you ask about my unique magic.”

Ah, I really don’t need that.

“I don’t even intend to ask about that. I wouldn’t be able to imitate it even if I asked.”

“Oh? You can’t even imitate it? The great Baek Seungwoo isn’t the type to give up so easily. Did you eat something wrong?”

All I’ve eaten right now is black tea.

“I drank black tea. A cup of black tea.”

“Did you only drink one cup of black tea all day today? Then the problem isn’t the black tea, but the fact that you drank tea on an empty stomach.”

Eve said, giggling.

I looked at her with a dumbfounded look.

“Don’t deliberately change the subject.”

I looked at Eve and composed myself.

“Actually, there are a lot of things I want to ask you.”

“Probably.”

“But I can’t ask everything. Because there are more than one or two questions I want to ask.”

“You know this kind of situation well now without me even saying it.”

I’m slowly getting used to this kind of situation.

I drank all the black tea in the teacup.

There’s no more tea on this table. There will only be conversation.

“Another cup of tea?”

Eve took out a teapot from the air.

“It’s okay. Why would I drink two cups of tea on an empty stomach?”

One cup is enough.

At those words, Eve cleared my teacup in the air, grumbling, ‘It’s not a tea party if it ends with one cup.’

I waited for her to finish clearing the teacup and spat out the question I had repeated in my head several times.

“Okay, now that you’re done cleaning up, you can ask if there’s anything you want to ask.”

“……Which one of the two is the system?”

“Two?”

“Don’t change the subject.”

Even though you obviously know.

“Adam and Eve.”

“…….”

“Which one of the two is the system?”

“……As expected.”

Eve said with a cold smile.

“I put in some effort to guide you to that world, so it was worth sending you there. But I didn’t think you’d find out that far already.”

“Tell me. Which one of the two is it.”

Just who is the system?

I seriously asked again.

“……Grounds.”

Eve twirled her long hair with her finger.

She didn’t make eye contact with me.

“Do you have grounds for putting those two on the candidate list?”

“Are you even asking that?”

“No, I’m just curious.”

At that moment, Eve’s eyes met mine.

If my eyes sparkled like red rubies, Eve’s eyes, which beautifully scattered light in all directions like amethyst, were.

They were absorbing light unusually today.

‘Dark.’

The pupils.

The eyes are very dark.

Eve’s jet-black eyes were a sight I had never seen before in my life.

But somehow, I felt like I knew the reason.

Eve was giving me the answer now.

The answer to the question.

Adam and Eve. She was personally telling me which one of the two was the system.

“Yeah, it was you.”

The changed eyes weren’t Eve’s.

Then whose eyes could they be?

There was no need to think deeply.

“Eve.”

Her black eyes contained countless colors.

Not only the purple color that was originally her eye color, but also all colors, including a clear blue like a clear sky and an ominous red.

The eyes that were dyed black after containing all the colors of this world.

She had been by my side from the beginning.

“You were the system.”