Chapter 120
Chapter 120
Academy’s Gumiho is a Magic Genius – Chapter 120
I pulled my clothes on tight and spoke as if nothing had happened.
"There, all dressed."
Isis looked stunned at my utterly nonchalant attitude.
"T-Teacher, aren't you embarrassed?"
"Not really? It wasn't like I was naked, and even if I had been, I wouldn't have been embarrassed."
There was no shame in exposing my bare skin.
Unless it ended up on the news and spread across the world, that is.
This was hardly something to be ashamed of.
As a kid, I'd gone through far more humiliating things several times over, so this felt like nothing.
Instead of embarrassment, though, I felt guilt.
"It's not so much embarrassment... more like, I worry I showed you something hideous."
"That scar from earlier?"
"Honestly, it's not the kind of thing that's okay to show other people."
"True enough."
A single knife scar could pass for a badge of honor rather than a blemish.
I'd seen plenty of people who viewed them that way.
But even among them, no one had scars as varied and densely packed as mine.
"Who'd be happy seeing a body covered in burns and cuts like that? Right?"
It was my body, but I'd totally understand if someone puked at the sight.
My stomach was strong, but a body riddled with wounds and scars was way more gruesome than anyone could imagine.
"With a body like this, I wonder if marriage is even possible."
"No need to worry about that."
Isis shot back straight at my joking tone.
"I told you before, Teacheryou're beautiful. Seeing those scars hasn't changed that at all."
"For real?"
"Yeah, for real."
She's got some unique tastes.
To find appeal in a body wrecked enough to make most people back away.
Maybe all that time studying by my side exposed her to too much "Charm" or "Nation-toppling Beauty."
Otherwise, there was no explaining her peculiar preferences.
Still, a compliment was a compliment.
"Thanks for saying that. I figured girls would definitely hate a body like this."
"Doesn't matter what anyone else says. To me, you really look beautiful."
Her sincerity made me smile without thinking.
"And from now on, call me Sis. That's what everyone else does."
"Okay, Sis. I'm grateful for the lip service, but how about some actual lessons? I promised to teach you survival skills for the past week, but I barely managed any proper classes."
"Really? Then could you teach me some advanced magic?"
"Advanced magic? You're barely handling intermediate, and you want advanced? What for?"
The moment I offered to teach, her response came flying.
Was that casual remark just now a setup for this?
Impressive. I almost fell for it completely.
"To get stronger, obviously."
"You know it's too soon for that, right? Have you ever seen me use advanced magic?"
"No."
"Think about why."
Isis shook her head.
Of course. If she knew, she wouldn't be asking me to teach her advanced spells.
"Normal advanced mages dive right in without a second thought, but that's about the dumbest thing you can do."
Beginner, basic, and intermediate magic could be mastered with effort alone, but advanced required talent and thorough preparation.
"Why?"
"Without prep, you'll botch the first step and everything unravels."
Mastering the intermediate spells that form the foundation was basic common sense before tackling advanced ones.
Like threading a needle with yarn in sewingmost mages think that's all it takes.
Sure, you could try right away if you wanted.
But...
"If you thread it wrong once, you have to account for how to fix it."
The prep needed before advanced magic was like having scissors to cut tangled yarn and rethread.
Unlike the metaphor, though, even that prep was brutally toughpractically heavy labor on its own. That's why, even with the ultimate teaching aid called the "Demon King," I didn't dare challenge advanced magic lightly.
"I'll teach you advanced spells after you've studied your specialty. Ask about something else today."
"Then what's Teacher's specialty?"
Specialty, huh.
Was she asking about magic schools or attributes?
"My specialty? If I had to pick, it'd be [Flame Magic]."
"Nothing else?"
With my "Solar Vein Blockage," flames were practically my constant companion.
But if we dug deeper...
"Hmm... [Word Spirit], [Enchantment Magic], and [Shamanism], I guess."
If we're talking depth of knowledge, elemental magic led by flame magic was the deepest.
Next came the ancestral shamanism I learned from Tamamo every day.
Word Spirit hadn't produced any real phenomena yet, but I handled its subfield of incantations to some degreenot perfectly, though.
For Enchantment Magic, I could only inscribe runes on clothes and gear.
I hadn't delved further.
I knew about other fields and schools thanks to the "Magic Saint" talent, but knowledge wasn't the same as mastery.
"Shamanism! Um, could I learn that too...?"
"Instead of advanced magic? That might be better. Not all shamanism is hard."
"Really? Could I... actually do it well?"
"No need to worry. You've got the aptitude."
"Really...? I have aptitude for shamanism?"
"The way you handle those gloves is proof."
Black frilly gloves fit for a bride.
Inside them lurked a grudge-fueled curse.
And curses were a form of shamanism.
If she could wield the frost-generating grudge of a fifth-month ghost, she definitely had talent for curses, even if other shamanism branches were beyond her.
Still, at this hour, I could only teach two spells due to time constraints.
And only easy ones at that.
I didn't know that many myself.
I taught her the simple "Telepathy Spell" and, for an ice mage, the basic-domain "Zone of North Wind and Snow."
The former's power depended on proficiency, but the latter I'd only studied theoreticallyyet she mastered it in under an hour, not even half a day.
Not embodied yet, but with time, she'd be battle-ready.
...This is what they call talent.
* * *
After lightly instructing Isis,
I sat alone by the campfire, adding the info from torture to the notes I'd compiled from the kids' testimonies about past events.
You're a member of that mercenary band, huh.
Haha... You just figured that out, Captain? Oh, wrong term. You're not the 'Captain,' after all.
When did you catch on?
From the start. The Captain wasn't as strong as you, and didn't have beast tails or ears. Pure human.
The demon named Yuma was sharper than expected.
She instantly realized I was 'Captain' but not the Captain,
and never once used the title until she was locked in that crypt below the grave.
No, she had no choice.
This diary. Know whose it is?
G-Give it back! That's my diary!!
Sniff sniff, the scent was so similar I suspected, but you survived inside my disciple's familiar remarkably well.
Disciple? Survived? Ha, haha... Don't bullshit me! Does this look alive to you?
No, being eroded by that foul demonic energy into something lower than a bug is too horrific to call life.
Scathing criticism.
From that, Yuma gleaned a bit of her opponent's nature.
You hate demons, huh?
Precisely, I loathe all lifeforms tainted by demonic energy, demons and demon-beasts alike.
Extreme hatred for demons.
It showed in his eyes and expression, revealing just how much he despised them. His pupils burned with madness.
To me, it looks less like hate and more like outright rejection.
Yuma probed that weakness.
No hope of survival anyway.
Her group was gone,
and the 'Captain' she loved no longer existed, so she went all out.
I didn't hold back on torture either, finally uncovering the ones behind her demonization and why the mercenaries attacked the village.
Urgh... Kill... me. Just kill...!
You can't die yet. Do one final verification, and I'll let your consciousness go.
Con... sciousness?
Yeah. Your body lives on, but your mind dieslike a vegetable, no more pain.
You... psycho...
Hardly news.
Even in a woman's body, if it was a demon, I tortured without mercy.
Applying anti-demon-beast wartime methods to the tough, resilient demon worked at firstshe held out decently.
Normal humans crossed death's threshold in a minute.
Guess quitting humanity made her tougher.
She fought valiantly, but ramping up slowly broke her mind like a shattered toy.
Broke.
...
Still, she gave solid intel.
Tap tap. I prodded near her heart.
A rune inscribed itself.
I still need your senses for now, so no death. But as payment for the info, I'll kill you clean when it's over.
Chilling promise.
But to Tamamo, a person from 1,000 years ago, it was nothing unusual. She agreed with his thinking and actions.
The only objection...
Isn't the torture method too brutal?
No human rights to violate. Just overwhelming pain to extract info.
I didn't even humiliate her.
Tamamo nodded, finding it reasonable, then turned away from the limp demon puppet.
* * *
A medieval backwater rare in the modern world.
The frontier town vividly displayed that cultureexactly what people pictured for medieval Europe.
Anyone seeing it should feel wonder,
but one woman felt nostalgia instead.
"Ah... Stepping on soil like my long-lost homeland again. I missed it so."
"Hm? I thought Your Grace the Duchess hailed from the warm southern lands without snow."
"Human, shut it for a bit. That one's still deluded into thinking she was a real medieval lord in life. Poke her and it'll get annoying."
Aha, Simon clapped.
He understood why the DuchessPeacockwas reacting that way.
"Your Grace the Duchess. Do you wish to enlighten this land's barbaric humans?"
Enlighten humanity.
Stimulating word choice, but nothing captured her intent better. Proving it, she turned to Simon and nodded vigorously.
"Mm! I'd love to share my knowledge with these primitives right now. Teach them the arts of deception and manipulation, Simon!"
"Just a moment longer, Your Grace the Marquise of Beauty."
"Marquise? Are you addressing me?"
"Of course. Who else marquise is here but you?"
She sat as a viscountess, yet he called her marquise.
Not flattery.
The Marquise of Beauty, with her large, lovely bird beak, was marquise only among nobles' hierarchy.
Back when nobles weren't sealed on a deserted island and treated humans like livestock, she played house atop them as "Marquise" alongside like-minded peers.
In short, viscountess among demons, marquise over humans.
Recalling that era,
she nodded contentedly at the "Marquise of Beauty" title.
Her peacock mask hid her face, so reading emotions was tricky,
but to Simon, she looked like she was smiling.
Very creepily.
"Heh... hehehe... keehihihi...!!!"
"She seems thrilled."
"Does that look thrilled to you?"
"Yes. She's revealing her true nature in joy. Probably fired up from granting power to that dying corpse yesterday."
Simon straightened his robes as he spoke.
True to his "Cultist of the Demon Church" moniker, he arranged the flowing religious cloth and stood before the two nobles, facing the high tower of the grand castle.
"No worries."
Clunk. The door opened.
The ornate door screamed luxury, broadcasting that some high-and-mighty lived beyond.
Luxury... Luxury's fine.
But luxury without the power to defend it was proof of weakness. Like advertising, "I'm richplease loot me."
"Wh-Who are you?!"
"No need for such hostility. We're here to assist Viscountess."
Fortunately, this world had someone who agreed with her enlightenment.
Rumble. The massive door slowly closed, soon filling with madness and screams.
And right after.
Puhaha!
Boisterous laughter utterly mismatched to the screams echoed everywhere, mixed among many voices.
Of course, no one left to hear it.
"The back world's end is destruction anyway."
Horrific or peaceful, death came equally to all.
So... the process could vary, right?
A hollow question.
No answer, naturally.
The mutter sank silently over Simon's gaze, hinting that silence was their future.