Academy’S Gumiho Is A Magical Genius [EN]: Chapter 397

Academy Gumiho is a Magic Genius – Episode 397

Academy Gumiho is a Magic Genius Episode 397

It Was You (2)

“I’ve confirmed what I wanted to know most.”

I didn’t get an answer, perhaps due to some restriction, but I found out who the system is.

“Can I ask the next question?”

“Yeah, is that even worth calling a question?”

“That’s how questions are. Sometimes they’re lies, sometimes they’re evasions, sometimes they’re riddles, and sometimes there are restrictions.”

“So many possibilities.”

“That’s why I’m asking. I need to know which of those possibilities you fall into before I ask.”

“I guess I have to tell someone as suspicious as you that first.”

Eve spread her fingers wide.

What does that mean?

‘Does it mean five questions? Or five rounds of riddles? No, doesn’t seem like it.’

Just in case, I opened my mouth.

“Don’t tell me… there’s no limit to the questions?”

Usually, there are restrictions on these kinds of questions.

There were restrictions when I met Eve last time, so I doubt there wouldn’t be this time… but you never know.

“Ugh…”

Eve frowned, looking bored.

“I spread out five fingers, and you figured it out right away?”

Wow, so boring.

Eve grumbled and lowered her hand.

“I wanted to see you agonizing over choosing from five questions, then regretting wasting the second question, and then looking betrayed when I whispered that there were actually no limits!”

“…Geez.”

You wanted to see a lot.

But what to do? I didn’t show you any of it.

“If you wanted to see it that much, you should have just lied.”

“You would have known right away if I lied!”

“Yeah, I would.”

I can easily see through lies.

Even a spy who has undergone murderous training or someone skilled at deceiving themselves can’t escape my eyes.

“So I tried to be as indirect as possible… but I failed.”

“Five fingers were your indirect expression?”

Isn’t that a bit much?

I guessed it right, but I was just taking a shot in the dark.

I looked at the sulky Eve with a dumbfounded expression.

‘Yeah, she’s always been like this.’

From the old days until now, in her mid-20s.

Eve’s playfulness never seems to disappear.

Eve was this kind of person.

‘Even though she was born as an AI overseeing the system.’

Even after revealing that her origins weren’t normal, her unchanging playfulness clearly showed that she hadn’t changed.

‘You haven’t changed.’

I was the same.

I lived wielding a sword and committing murder from a young age.

The environment I was in wasn’t one where I could complain.

Becoming mature was more important than acting like a child.

Thanks to that, my beliefs quickly took root in my heart, and I could focus solely on honing my skills and growing without emotional instability.

‘I ended up wearing myself out.’

Because I matured too early, I ended up carrying too many people’s burdens on my shoulders. Too early. Too much. The result was what I am now.

A death of practicing and performing the greater good, like the people I loved.

I don’t want to be a martyr, nor do I want to do anything.

I just wanted to close my eyes and rest like them.

‘But I’ve changed now.’

Unlike Eve, who hasn’t changed since the old days, I changed only at this moment. You could even call it a late adolescence.

‘Drinking tea with you like this, putting my mind at ease, after so long.’

My heart became even more certain.

“Eve.”

“Why, want another cup of tea?”

“I… want to live a little longer.”

“…You need alcohol, not tea? Okay, I’ll get it right away.”

No…

“I said I want to live a little longer.”

“Ah, Seungwoo, I’m sorry. I’ve been so busy lately that I must be hallucinating from being drunk without even drinking or opening a bottle.”

Eve took out a bottle of wine from the air.

It was her favorite alcohol.

It was an incredibly expensive alcohol made with great care by artisans solely for Eve in this world. But Eve was drinking it like water, and the alcohol was sloshing in front of her eyes.

“Hey, you haven’t even opened the lid.”

It’s a completely new bottle.

The seal is perfect, what are you talking about getting drunk?

“Ah, then I must be drunk on the atmosphere.”

“Drunk on this atmosphere of enjoying a gentle breeze and warm sunlight while sipping black tea in a vast rose-filled garden?”

“I could be. Otherwise, how can you explain the hallucination I heard?”

That Baek Seungwoo.

That Baek Seungwoo, who was handling public affairs with dead eyes like a Yaksha [a fierce, often demonic, figure in Hindu and Buddhist mythology] who couldn’t die even after the war ended, is saying he wants to live, not die? Ha, there are things you just can’t hear.

“That’s not just a hallucination. I wouldn’t even hear that in a dream!”

Eve couldn’t even imagine it.

“Just in case you misheard, I’ll say it again. The current me wants to watch how other people live. I want to live as long as possible.”

She never imagined that Seungwoo would actually say those words.

“…What?”

Eve’s reaction was a beat late.

She was genuinely surprised.

She didn’t even imagine that I would say such a thing.

Actually, I think I would be the same.

The reason I’ve been diligently training and researching magic until now was to meet a meaningful end like my predecessors, so my will to live was so weak, but suddenly my attitude has changed.

I understand that kind of reaction.

But.

“Is, is there something wrong with my ears? Maybe it’s not the alcohol, but my ears?”

That reaction of pulling her ears hard is a bit much.

“…Hey.”

Enough, you.

I glared at Eve with a fierce look.

At the surprisingly intense gaze, she finally faced reality.

“Ah, I didn’t mishear.”

“Yeah, now you get it?”

“…I wish I had misheard.”

“What?”

I frowned.

Then Eve stood up and waved her hands, saying that wasn’t her intention.

“No, that’s not what I meant!”

What a playful and noisy one.

It’s fun to talk to Eve, but it would be better to end the conversation a little shorter now.

Because there are things I need to do after leaving this place.

I used this atmosphere to ask all the questions in my head. Eve seemed to read the atmosphere and answered only the essentials without any extra words.

As a result, I sensed that a curtain was approaching before my eyes.

Soon. The time to lower this curtain is near.

‘It’s the end.’

This is the end. In many ways.

The end of the conversation.

And the end of the journey.

The end I had been hoping for was approaching.

I raised my sword to meet that end.

“Can I break this mindscape?”

There was no exit in this mindscape world.

So the person who wants to leave has to make it themselves.

“Do you know how unreasonable that question is?”

“That breaking the mindscape turns you into a vegetable? We’re monsters, so we’ll be fine even if the mindscape is broken.”

I broke my mindscape with my own hands, and I’m fine.

At our level, our beliefs are so firm that even if the mindscape is broken, we won’t suffer a fatal blow. It’ll just sting a little.

“Then, how are you going to break my mindscape?”

“Of course, I have to cut it with a sword.”

My magic isn’t at that level yet.

Eve smiled slightly at those words.

“You’re going to cut my mindscape with a sword?”

“Yeah, there’s nothing I can’t cut. I cut my mindscape with a sword too.”

A sword flickering white appeared in my hand.

The Holy Sword.

A divine sword that emits its own starlight, even if there isn’t a single ray of starlight above the sky, and a sword of starlight. I gripped the Holy Sword tightly.

“Don’t worry too much. I can cut it cleanly with other swords, but with the Holy Sword, you won’t even know you’ve been cut. You should be able to recover in 10 seconds.”

“That’s not what I mean.”

“Then is there another meaning?”

“Of course, there is. Would I have talked to you without knowing that?”

Eve stretched her hand out towards the Holy Sword.

“Swords don’t work in my mindscape.”

“What are you talking about…?!”

“Look at this. Even though you, the owner of the Holy Sword, created it, the shape of the sword is already starting to shake.”

Buzz!

The white Holy Sword manifested in the mindscape was shaking wildly.

It was as if this world didn’t allow the manifestation of the Holy Sword.

This kind of thing wouldn’t happen in a normal mindscape, but the owner of this mindscape isn’t a normal ‘person.’

“…You.”

“You have a slightly disrespectful look in your eyes. Don’t tell me you’re thinking that the reason your sword is disappearing is because my mindscape isn’t a human mindscape?”

“…No.”

“Actually, you’re right.”

That’s why.

Eve whispered in my ear.

“My mindscape is strongly influenced by design. The only means allowed to me is magic. Other things can’t interfere with my world.”

“…Then how am I supposed to get out?”

Why, what, you want me to break your mindscape with my magic?

My magic? Break your mindscape?

No matter how I think about it, it doesn’t make sense.

“Why? You can just break it with magic and get out.”

“You naturally used magic when you took out the sugar and teapot.”

“Yeah, I did.”

“That means magic is deeply ingrained in your mindscape.”

“So what? What does it matter?”

What does it matter?

Of course, it matters to the current situation.

It matters a lot.

“Your mindscape is your magic. So, in order to escape from your mindscape, I have to break through your magic.”

It’s a condition that wouldn’t be a problem if I could use a sword.

The problem is that Eve’s magic, which is deeply ingrained in this mindscape, only wants magic in this mindscape, which is a big problem.

“I have to break through your magic, but how do I break through it?”

I lightly swung the Holy Sword in my hand.

Then a thin gap appeared in the space.

When I accurately recognized and cut the ‘surface’ of the space, a shockwave swept through.

Whooooooong─!

A huge storm swept past me and Eve, who were sitting at the table.

The unique thing was that the storm wasn’t rotating sideways, but up and down.

The fierce storm overturned the garden and turned the ground upside down.

The storm subsided only after tearing through an area the size of a huge city.

A sight that was hard to believe was caused by a person with a single sword.

Eve clicked her tongue at the sight.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. You’re so impatient.”

“What’s wrong with this much.”

“You’ve become much more human than before, but you’re still impatient. You still haven’t gotten rid of the habit of trying to solve everything with a sword?”

“That part has improved a lot.”

I wanted to use a sword, but I couldn’t, so my dependence on the sword had to decrease.

Still, the longing for the sword remained in my heart.

I want to hone my swordsmanship even more. I want to refine it.

It wasn’t a longing in that sense, but a mindset.

If I had just one sword. If I had just one sword, I could easily overcome the difficulties in front of me. That thought often lingered in my head.

The point isn’t the sword, but solving the problem.

The sword is the most powerful card I can handle.

I was confident that I could overcome any difficulty as long as I used it.

I had been forcibly sealed until recently, but this time I recovered so I could use the sword again.

“Even so, giving and taking away is a bit much.”

Why did you restore me if you were going to do this?