Academy’S Gumiho Is A Magical Genius [EN]: Chapter 408

Academy Gumiho is a Magic Genius – Episode 408 (End) (408/408)

Academy Gumiho is a Magic Genius Episode 408

Epilogue

A city with a towering Magic Tower.

The city was the smallest world, never able to escape destruction.

“It took me too long to accept that fact.”

Adam, freed from possession, walked through the ruined city.

It was as if no one had ever existed in the city from the beginning; not a single sign of life could be felt.

All the buildings were burned, and the Magic Tower had a gaping hole in the middle, on the verge of collapse.

It would probably fall by the end of the day.

“Adam, are you okay?”

Adam looked at the woman supporting him.

Eve. The breathtakingly beautiful woman was looking at Adam with worried eyes.

Adam smiled weakly.

“Not at all.”

Not okay at all.

He felt like he was about to die.

The side effects of the possession were so severe that they would claim his life by the end of the day.

However, unlike his body, his mind was lighter than ever.

Adam said to Eve, who had a worried expression.

“Let’s go back.”

“Where to?”

“To the Magic Tower.”

The place where you were born.

The place where countless Eve’s corpses gathered.

And the place where we met.

“Let’s go there.”

“Okay.”

Eve held Adam and floated into the air.

The two flew to the Magic Tower and landed on a relatively intact floor.

Basement floor 64. The place where countless Eve’s corpses gathered, and the place where they were disposed of. ‘The Void’.

The sacred darkness came into view.

The Void. The gap between worlds.

A space so vast that it was difficult to express with the term ‘outer space’.

Even the scholars of the Magic Tower who created the system could not perfectly define the Void.

Therefore, all they did was use it as a space to dispose of Eve’s corpses.

All Eves were incinerated beyond this space.

And all of Adam’s memories also disappeared beyond this space with Eve.

“Eve.”

“I’m listening.”

“I have one request.”

“What request?”

Eve looked up at Adam.

A naive appearance. Adam, unable to meet her eyes, closed his eyes.

He didn’t want to imagine what his reflection would look like in those eyes.

If he met her eyes, he would surely hesitate.

“I want you to… die with me.”

Adam had made countless requests to Eve until now.

He asked her to give him the code of the system and use the system to burn everything that bound them.

He asked her to draw the attention of the monstrous humans while attempting possession through a deal with his future self.

Besides that, he had made countless requests.

Everything was for himself and her.

‘Because I saw the confirmed destruction. I wanted to change it.’

He suddenly realized a memory a month ago.

Looking back now, it overlapped with the time when Chief Researcher Soo and Research Assistant Luna had just joined the Magic Tower.

In that memory, the Magic Tower barely completed the main AI after countless Eves had died.

However, contrary to expectations, Eve gave up on saving this world.

She made the same choice as the system.

The researchers at the Magic Tower lost their minds at the fact that there was no way, and madness spread like an epidemic. That was the end of the Magic Tower and the city.

‘Especially… my end looked more terrible than anything else.’

The collapse of the Magic Tower and the city.

That was the end for ordinary people living in this world.

It was never Adam’s end. Even while everyone else was dead, Adam survived.

Although it was a miserable sight to call it survival, he was clearly alive and breathing.

However, ‘that’ Adam had no future or hope.

In the end, he threw himself into the empty gap in the dimension.

It was more painful than anything else, but he did not die.

He lived for countless years without food or water.

‘I found out later.’

Adam’s talent was not just emitting lightning.

The talent of Wood and Earth.

That, too, was an overwhelming talent at an unparalleled level.

Those talents remodeled Adam’s body so that he could survive in the gap of dimensions without any nutrients.

Adam spent as much time wandering as Eve had died.

Eventually, he crash-landed on a planet.

In the process, his body was subjected to unbearable heat and pressure, but Adam survived.

He had become a body that would not die easily.

At first, he despaired, but soon Adam changed his focus.

‘If I don’t die easily, doesn’t that mean I have more time to reverse the choices of the past?’

That’s what Adam thought at the time.

He devoured countless planets outside the system’s domain, cultivated power befitting a disaster, and eventually dreamed of making a comeback by joining hands with disasters of equal status.

And the result was the current Adam.

Was he called the Sword Saint?

The chief researcher. The youngest Magic Tower Lord was apparently called that in his childhood.

He cut down countless disasters with a single sword, and eventually killed Adam as well.

As the Adam of this era who vividly watched all the scenes, it was a truly amazing achievement.

A human being defeated a disaster that had destroyed countless planets and worlds with a single tool. How could he not be in awe?

‘I couldn’t just see it in a good light.’

Adam died.

However, Adam in another dimension, or rather, another timeline, did not die.

However, he soon realized that in all timelines, he would be cut down by a man’s sword and turn into mere rust.

It was fate.

A fate that could never be escaped.

Adam, who desperately resisted the chain around his neck, eventually played his last card. That is to somehow bring the Sword Saint into this world and kill him before he dies.

‘But in the end, it failed.’

The ‘Adam’ of the current era was different from the Adam of the future.

He had not yet faced a painful life and a futile end.

‘……In the end, it means that this world cannot be saved.’

Adam looked down at the world on the verge of destruction.

No, it wasn’t on the verge of destruction; it was already destroyed.

The moment he readily accepted possession by Adam, he saw his hometown registered as the ‘Otherworld’.

Existing but never able to approach, hence the Otherworld.

The city was already such a place.

‘Maybe I won’t die here like in the original history. In the end, I’ll become like him.’

He who cannot accept the future and lives as a monster.

Adam had no intention of accepting such a life quietly.

‘If my future is going to flow in that way anyway.’

The me in the Otherworld can freely meet the end.

Adam looked at Eve.

While he was lost in thought, Eve seemed to have come to a conclusion.

“Okay.”

Adam closed his eyes.

Eve, who always listened to his requests.

But he hoped that she would refuse this request.

He hoped that she would refuse him and freely enjoy her remaining life.

Eve, connected to the system, could fly anywhere.

“Alright.”

The answer that came back was positive.

In fact, it was not the answer Adam wanted.

He secretly hoped she would live.

“It’s okay. I’m here.”

Eve pressed Adam’s cheeks with both hands and made him look around.

The bodies of failed Eves.

It was like looking at bodies with only their souls missing or state-of-the-art robots with their power turned off.

Why? Adam couldn’t take his eyes off the sight.

“……Thank you.”

The countless Eves who had died until now were vivid in Adam’s eyes.

Every time they died, their corpses disappeared beyond the Void.

And now the time was coming for Adam to die. Adam gently closed his eyes.

Eve did not grieve. Just like the ‘herself’ until now.

This time, it was just his turn.

Eve looked at him and gently hugged Adam.

Holding him in her arms, Eve stepped into the Void with her own feet.

* * *

The students left the Otherworld in order.

I left last.

─Why did you stop? Is there something there?

“……No.”

The two presences that remained in the city disappeared.

Adam and Eve. Both of them were fundamentally different from the people I knew, but I felt a little strange because the presences of the people I knew disappeared.

“Let’s go now.”

Home.

I stared at the Magic Tower and turned my head.

With the death of the two disasters, this world was cleared.

I moved my steps to the exit where the students had left. I suddenly felt a sense of incongruity in the sensation of moving my body.

‘Is it because the achievement of space magic has increased?’

Hmm, it doesn’t feel like that kind of incongruity.

Even as the view in front of me darkened and I felt like I was being sucked somewhere, I felt something strange. A somewhat familiar feeling.

It felt like I was feeling the same sensation I had felt until just now.

‘Could it be……!’

I reflexively turned my head.

Right then, my vision returned.

I had returned to the world where my home was.

─Why are you suddenly like that again? Did you see something strange?

Tamamo doesn’t seem to have felt anything.

Maybe she didn’t think much of it.

Because it was such a faint presence that I wouldn’t have felt it either if it wasn’t for the sense of incongruity I felt for a moment.

“It’s nothing.”

I was just surprised to feel the presences of the two people who had disappeared in an unexpected place.

I just smiled at the very peaceful presence and breathing.

“I just thought it would be nice to rest comfortably.”

Both me and them. I hoped to be a little more peaceful.

─Ah, me too. This time, it was really hell for a few months.

“You were just floating around behind me, what was so hard about that?”

─Hey. Can’t you think of anything else? Every time you fought, I was so worried that you would die, so I worked so hard to assist with the calculations!

Tamamo pointed her finger at me.

─If it wasn’t for me, you would have died already! Do you know that?!

“If you hadn’t helped me then, you would have died too.”

─Hey, I’m already dead, okay?

“For someone who’s dead, you’re acting more freely than I thought. Then, were you going to not eat fried tofu and disappear with me, soul and all?”

─Are you really going to come at me without giving up a single word now?

Tamamo laughed with a dumbfounded expression.

I couldn’t help but smile at that expression.

Now, we have become each other’s companions.

“Okay, I lost. I lost.”

I admitted defeat.

There were many things I wanted to say and many things I could say, but I didn’t have the confidence to deal with it if she got sulky after I said it.

─Hmph. You’re only admitting it now?

“I’ve always acknowledged your skills.”

However, saying it out loud is a bit…

─Is that the attitude of someone who acknowledges it?!

Tamamo said something.

Ugh, I don’t want to hear it. I walked down the street, covering my ears.

─Oh, you’re covering your ears, huh?

Of course, covering my ears didn’t mean I couldn’t hear it.

Tamamo’s words were more accurately expressed as speaking with her heart than uttering them with her voice. Well, Tamamo doesn’t have vocal cords.

Covering my ears doesn’t mean I can’t hear her voice.

Instead, I could stimulate her.

─Should I just sing until you go crazy?

I’ll sing even when you sleep, right?

Since you’re the only one who can hear my voice, it’s not a public nuisance.

Now that Luna is gone, I was the only one who could hear her words.

‘Did I touch the wrong nerve?’

I thought, but seeing Tamamo’s bright expression, I thought I touched the right nerve.

Unlike her venomous appearance and first impression, she was the type to be subtly unable to let go of people.

After Luna went her own way, Tamamo’s mood became much darker than I thought. Well, it wasn’t like she became extremely dark, but I felt relieved to see her bright appearance like this.

‘Yeah, you have to put down the burden in your heart like me.’

I wanted her to put down the burden like me.

If you’re dead, you should live a little lighter. Why are you putting a stone on your chest?

“You can sing, but do it moderately.”

And I didn’t bother to say it, but it wouldn’t bother me if you sang at night.

Because there are more days I don’t sleep than days I sleep in a month.

I smiled and answered.

* * *

After returning to this world, my time passed quickly.

Was it because I lived saving every minute and second?

The peaceful and tranquil life flowed out like sand slipping through my fingers.

Before I knew it, time had passed and a season of life had bloomed. Spring had arrived.

My students became sophomores, and Chilseong Academy received new students, and those young children became respectable seniors.

“I’m quitting as a professor.”

“You’re still an assistant in terms of status, right?”

“I’m quitting as an assistant too.”

I confidently submitted my resignation.

I researched like crazy to prevent the disaster that would come in the future, but now that I had eliminated that disaster in advance, there was no reason to stay at the academy.

“I’m giving up the position of head of the family. You and your sister decide who will take it.”

“Oh, Brother?”

“You suddenly come and say what you want and leave? Hey, where are you going? Don’t stand there?!”

I also quit the position of head of the Cheonho Baekga family.

When I first thought about this family, my goal was to become a Cheonho [a mythical nine-tailed fox] with ten tails, but in the end, I stopped at Gumiho [a mythical nine-tailed fox].

In fact, I was facing a wall right before becoming Cheonho.

If I were to make up my mind to transcend humanity, I would have easily become Cheonho.

However, I think I’m much better off now.

“So, how’s life these days?”

A white-haired woman asked me.

Eyes as beautiful as amethyst turned to me.

“Well, it’s just so-so. I have a lot of money and a lot of time. I’m just playing with the kids.”

“Your children. When are you going to show them to your parents?”

“……I don’t know. I really don’t know.”

I looked at Eve with troubled eyes.

From the moment I achieved great success in space magic and clearly recognized the system, I was able to go back and forth between my hometown and this world.

Thanks to that, if I make up my mind, I can show the children I have under my care to my parents, but, no, that should be easy.

“I don’t have many memories of talking to my parents, so wouldn’t they be surprised if I suddenly show them my children?”

I was a capable son, but never a filial son.

I was recognized for my talent at the age of 5 and left my parents’ side.

After that, I spent a long time on the battlefield.

Instead, I sent a lot of money. A lot of money, but that’s not what a filial son would do. At that moment when I was making a troubled expression.

Eve smiled softly.

“Are you worried?”

Did you know I would be?

“I sent the children to your parents in advance~”

Eve opened the space.

The sight of my parents and children together beyond the portal came into view.

“Hey, you……!”

When I showed a rarely excited appearance, Eve burst into laughter.

I was about to get angry, but when the children and my parents looked at me, I ended up laughing too. All I remember from that day was just laughing.

Of course, I properly solved everything I had accumulated with Eve with one punch. It was a really peaceful day.

The End

Author’s Note

Hello. This is Johar.

In fact, I never imagined that I would be writing these last words.

I still can’t believe that I’ve finished something.

In fact, this work had many ups and downs while preparing and writing it.

Because this work was my first work and my first step as an adult. I had a special affection for it.

However, as I developed the story, I gradually felt anxious.

Am I developing it properly?

I wondered if it would have been better if I had drawn a line and developed the story a little faster and more clearly.

Then, I took a completely different route from the planned idea, and as the story gradually dragged on, it became more and more twisted in my head.

I realized for the first time that creation is not easy.

That’s how I experienced a slump for the first time.

This work was my pride.

My first pride as an adult was the fact that I was a writer writing on Kakao Page. I was so proud of it, but at some point, it became a pain in the ass. I felt depressed whenever something didn’t go my way.

However, at the same time, I was able to discover myself enjoying writing. I liked everything I did.

I will continue to write.

I have personally experienced that a writer’s life is not easy, but there is no other way. Thanks to the slump, I realized once again that people are happiest when they do what they love.

I will come back with another work someday.

I don’t know if it will be much faster or much slower than I expected.

If you ever see my pen name somewhere, I will probably be much more grown than this work.

Please take care of me then.

Something is messy in the introduction and content, but I would appreciate it if you could think that I have put my heart into it as much as possible.

Thank you so much for reading the long text.

I always love you and thank you.