Chapter 105
Chapter 105
Academy’s Gumiho is a Magic Genius – Chapter 105
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[Village-grade. Entered the Backside World 'Eternal Winter's Ruins, Temil.']
[Assigning a random job and identity based on your disposition and the world's situation.]
[Selecting your job...]
The status window popped up out of nowhere.
A barrage of messages scrolled across it.
I gazed at them hazily, as if submerged in the bathtub water.
[Your job is the Captain of the Black Wolf Mercenary Corps.]
[As Captain, your role is to lead your squad members and resolve the issues plaguing Temil Village on commission.]
And so, the ruined world began to regenerate.
Like an old video replaying, static noise and flickering screens overwhelmed my senses.
When my senses returned, the world before its destruction started playing out.
And we weren't mere spectatorswe became participants as individual entities within it.
[Total of 7 members. Connection to the Backside World confirmed for all personnel.]
[From now on, you are 'Baek Seung-woo,' Captain of the Black Wolf Mercenary Corps.]
[Do not forget that fact.]
The status window's phrasing felt like a warning.
I wondered if entering a Backside World always came with this, but I couldn't shake off the eerie unease.
What was this unpleasant sensation?
My mood soured, but there was nothing I could do about it right then.
All I could do was feel it.
[Then, we wish you the best of luck ahead.]
With that clichd farewell, the fleeting discomfort vanished as if I'd imagined it.
My senses sharpened crystal clear.
My vision was still fuzzy with noise, but the bite of snow on my skin and the howling wind grew louder, alerting me that the world around me had changed.
"So this is a Backside World."
A fragment of a destroyed realm.
True to the description, the raging blizzard made the word "ruin" spring to mind instantly.
That said, if this was a village-grade Backside World, there should be a village nearby.
"...A mountain range? Or a gorge?"
The blizzard obscured visibility in all directions.
Melting the snow with fire wouldn't cut it in this onslaught.
Deeming the naked eye useless, I tinged my pupils purple.
[Skill: 'Demon Eye' pierces through the mana inherent in all things.]
[Intertwined with [Heavenly Insight], it surveys everything in the vicinity!]
The bewitching demonic eye that pierced mana and spirits merged with flawless clairvoyance, letting me observe the mountain range I stood on as easily as if it were cupped in my hand.
It felt like a massive map unfurling in my mind.
Responding to my gaze, the system reacted.
[Mapping the terrain of the village-grade Backside World, 'Frozen Ruins, Temil'!]
['Map' completion... 7.9%... 14.6%...]
...
[Terrain of the entire mountain range committed to memory.]
[17.7% of the Backside World surveyed!]
A map-shaped icon appeared in the corner of the status window.
It had mapped and rendered into a proper map everything I'd taken in visually.
Having thus captured a corner of this world, I could objectively grasp my position.
A snow-covered mountain range.
I was right at its heart.
'Tricky terrain. Good thing this isn't one of those Backside Worlds where your gear gets swapped out.'
Some Backside Worlds replace your equipment or items with alternatives.
For instance, there's the famous tale of fancy, expensive weapons turning into balloons or throwing knives because the role assigned was that of a clown.
Fortunately, my outfit was unchanged.
The suit and coat woven from Arachne's Thread still enveloped me. So what had changed was...
"Where the hell did the kids go?"
I looked around.
I clearly remembered us all holding hands as we entered together.
But I had no idea where they'd gone.
Did they get assigned different jobs and scattered?
This level of blizzard was dangerous even for them.
'Gotta find them quick.'
My entry into this Backside World was solely as a temporary instructor and supervisor.
Objective assessments would be handled by drones and body cams, while on-site discretionary judgments fell to me.
Thus, I had a duty to locate and evaluate the students promptly.
Most of them had likely been assigned roles as villagers, given this was a limited "village-grade" world.
Having mapped the entire mountain range, I pinpointed the village's location.
And right then, I spotted a log cabin not far off.
"About 1.2 km? The mountain paths are rough, but I can get there fast."
I eyeballed the distance to the cabin and quickly figured the direction.
North from here.
That said, the blizzard would be a pain on the way.
Pyrokinesis
I first conjured flames in the air.
The blizzard-darkened sky.
I floated a few star-like flames above it, then shaped them into a giant umbrella using [Telekinesis].
Plop, plop.
The blizzard battered it, but the flaming umbrella burned brighter, melting the snow.
The snow melted into water droplets and vanished without a trace.
'Alright, time to go.'
I tweaked a few runes on the hovering umbrella and started climbing.
It glided along, keeping perfect pace with my steps.
Maintaining a proper distance, the bright, blazing umbrella served as both a shield against the fierce northern gale and a torch illuminating the snowblind visibility.
Crunch, crunch.
My dress shoes crunched through the snow on the mountainside path, and at the end...
blood.
More precisely, corpses were piled up in front of the cabinones that neither the map nor [Heavenly Insight] had detected.
Approaching the bodies, I placed a hand on each one.
Their hearts still held faint warmth.
"Died recently."
In this blizzard, the corpses weren't fully buried, and the lingering chest warmth confirmed they were freshly made.
Suspecting a wild beast or monster attack, I examined the wounds: blunt trauma from something heavy, punctures from long, thick objects.
Not wild animals.
Even monsters were unlikely.
No matter how intelligent the monster, the kills were too clean.
This was the mark of humans, who honed techniques without innate powers like other monsters.
"If it was people... who the hell did this?"
While analyzing the wounds and residual mana, I found a damp notebook clutched to one woman's chest.
Soaked by the freezing gale, some pages frozen, but still readable.
Let's see. The script's different, but I can make it out.
[ Year 2, Month 12. Our mercenary corps mobilized on the village's request. Honestly, I'm excited. A quaint village at the edge of ron Tier. Great views, they say. Once the job's done, maybe ask the Captain on a date?]
[12 Year 3 Month 14. The commission was to raid the cabin atop the mountains crossing village and city. The 'Frost Witch' living there is the culprit behind , apparently. Honestly, no clue. I'll just stick with the Captain.]
[12 Year 3 Month 15. Spent the day 'scouting' to stay close to the Captain, but this village feels off. Lacks human warmth, y'know? Not a great vibe. Guess date's off.]
[12 Year 3 Month 17. The Frost Witch is beyond what we imagined. She is ...... ......]
It looked like a diary, but snow had smeared and frozen many letters illegible.
Still, the content seemed portentoususeful as a clue.
The moment I tucked the diary away...
Whooooosh!!
A blast of frosty wind hit, and the cabin doorseemingly shut tightflung wide open.
The wind buffeted my whole body. I realized:
This frosty gale blew from inside the now-open cabin.
Clack, clack.
Mingling with the wind came the sound of footstepslikely a woman's.
Unswayed by the gale, they rang out proudly.
And their owner was...
"I don't care who dares come for my head this time... but interrupting my trial is unforgivable. Freeze to death."
"......"
"Eh? Huh...?"
"Figured the presence felt familiar."
The Frost Witch.
Even I, plagued by the yang-engorged Solar Vein Blockage, shrank from her chill.
Isis Uniron.
"T-Teacher... could you pretend you didn't hear that slip-up...?"
"Sure."
"Really...? Th-thank you."
Her cool, enigmatic image crumbled in an instant.
* * *
The day the first-years, professors, and TAs entered the dungeon.
Only the guides stood silent vigil. Aside from them, just periodic patrols by guards.
All were powerhouses ranked B to A.
With top 20% elites guarding, no repeat of the prior academy raid.
Though S-ranks were limited to the captain and a few, they were armed with ironclad duty to protect Chilseong.
"Hey, heard the news?"
"What news?"
Duty didn't stave off boredom.
The two guards on watch gripped their weapons, staring blankly at the sky as they chatted.
"Right before midterms started, a bunch of students collapsed clutching their hearts."
"Just nerves, probably. Kids barely seventeen facing a life-changing shotnormal to tremble."
"True. Big-name guilds showed up to observe this time."
Chilseong's midterms and finals were academy-evaluated, but not just for Chilseong eyes.
For fair assessment and bragging rights, they invited guild execs to watch live.
Observers scouted promising talents early; Chilseong touted its education to industry tieswin-win.
For students, unprecedented spotlight; fainting wasn't odd.
They ignored the mutterings of "Tails... tails..." amid it all.
Just killing time, after all.
Crack!
So their reaction was slow.
Heads twisted, the two guards crumpled lifelessly.
Thud!!!
Two grown men hitting pavement made a bigger noise than expected, but no reinforcements came.
"All cleared."
"Oh? Faster than I thought."
"Hahaha, can't keep the nobles waiting."
Every guard in the area lay with snapped necks.
At the center: two men and one woman.
More precisely, one human and two demons.
"But why not kill them? Just knocked outback in a month."
"Yes. With prior records, killing again risks the curtain lifting right when the homeowner arrivesa massive variable."
We'll slip by quietly.
The unspoken hung clear.
Indeed, upon entering the grounds, they'd sensed something colossal scanning all Chilseong.
Like the moon overhead, a giant eye hunting them through the barrier.
That moon tied to Simon's "homeowner," no doubt.
"Just dodge the Chairman's eye. Now, shall we head in?"
"Escorted by livestock, but gladly."
"Haha, honor beyond my station."
"Bullshit... goddamn crazies."
The man trailed them, visibly exasperated by the zealot and haughty princess.
Without Simon's personal invite, no way he'd be here with these two.
Lunatics.
No more group trips.
But then.
"Oh dear, double safety measures, it seems. One lock here, the other inside the dungeon."
"Didn't you say it'd be perfect to trample the sprouts en masse and devour their minds?"
"Indeed, but with midterms activating over a hundred dungeons, pinpointing it's near impossible."
"...Whose handiwork?"
"Who set the double locks? Let's seegiven the freakish mana efficiency, it's the [Demon King's] doing."
"Demon King? Who's this punk grabbing titles over us?"
Visibly irked, the man scowled.
Simon smiled back.
"Haha, she's no demonshe's a mage."
"Meaning"
"not 'King of Evil,' but 'King of Mages.'"
The masked woman cut in, parasol twirling.
He frowned at her; she spun it amusedly, grinning.
Visibly delighted.
"Trouble, though."
"Hey, human. What's the snag?"
"Plan's derailed from the start. No room for this variable in the schemecould botch the grand design."
Simon the cultist had planned thus:
Slaughter the unfinished students, torture their grudging souls post-mortem, drain their vital essence for the tribute needed.
Awake the nobles from slumber.
But with the uniform-linked safety mainframe under the Demon King, the plot fizzled before takeoff.
"Grand design means rousing our kin, right?"
"Yes, Lady Peacock Baroness."
Her mask hid expression, but her tone beamedgruesome or gleeful.
"For such a pivotal mission, you'd have contingencies for failure, no?"
"One, yes, but..."
"What is it?"
Simon didn't answer.
Instead, he pulled thick files listing students and supervisors by dungeon.
1,991 names.
At the bottom:
[Backside World (Village-grade) Conquest]
[Student Roster]
1. [Lee Ji]
2. [Seong Yeon-hwa]
3. [Isis Uniron]
4. [Isabel Sirius]
5. [Seo Ye-rin]
6. [No Yu-ra]
[Temporary Instructor & Supervisor]
[Baek Seung-woo]
The fox's name was there.
Perfect.
Simon found his backup swiftly.
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