Chapter 125
Chapter 125
Academy’s Gumiho is a Magic Genius – Chapter 125
It's an old memory.
...Lately, I've been recalling old memories quite often.
What is it? Have I become an old man who reminisces about his glorious past just because I'm getting on in years?
But I don't have any glorious periods in my past to speak of.
Anyway, the memory that came bubbling up took me back quite a ways... to a time when I was just a little older than the students. A very little.
'Of all things, why did it have to be this one.'
Lately, days like this have been coming more frequently.
Days when old memories, dreams I'd rather forget, come back to haunt me.
Ever since arriving in the back side of this world, the frequency has spiked to an unnatural degree.
At this rate, even an idiot would notice.
Someone is forcing their way into my memories and dreams.
I wanted to resist, but a helpless sensation swept over me, like sinking into the depths of the deep sea.
All I could do was surrender to it.
And so.
Another fragment from the distant past replayed in my mind.
...
My master always told me to smile.
Not that smiling brings good fortune or that I should grin through the pain to endure it.
Just smile.
She always liked it when I did.
Back then, I smiled purely out of joy, but looking back now at how her eyes would sometimes turn dangerous, I wonder if she didn't have a bit of a taste for that sort of thing.
Anyway, the reason I'm bringing this up is...
"Bro! This bastard's smiling!"
"Leave him be. He's probably lost his mind after a week of torture. No matter how ultimate a weapon he is for the war effort, he's still made of flesh and blood. Break him mentally and physically, and it's over."
"... "
Because I was in a situation where smiling was utterly impossible.
Sealed off on all sides.
For some reason, they'd done something to my body that kept my mana from gathering properly, and I couldn't even muster my will. My limbs were bound tight, and they were pounding me with knives and hammersit was to the point where my guts would spill out before any laughter could.
"I... have a question."
"B-Bro, he's talking! Even when we were about to smash his kneecaps with an axe, this guy didn't make a peep...!!"
"Shut up for a sec. Is that the important part right now? Him opening his mouth is what's crucial. So, what business does the Sword Saint have with lowly scum like us?"
Blood crusted thick on my lips, now stiff and hardened. Forcing them open, two men approached. Demihumans with inverted pupils and goat horns.
They came closer, knives and tongs dripping with gore.
The dark red blood smeared on the metal was all mine.
A normal person would have gone into shock from blood loss long ago, but I was still alive.
Not because I was armed with iron will and unbreakable spirit.
My body, honed to the absolute limit, simply refused to die.
"Pu... hack... dirt... how did trash like you manage to kidnap me...?"
"...You're asking that after a whole week in captivity?"
"He must be totally insane. Well, died right in front of him, after all. Can't blame him for losing it."
Yeomra.
The goddess of fire and sword.
Wherever she tread the battlefield, sulfur fires burned eternal, and the air reeked of death and charred flesh.
That acrid stench that stung the nose.
But it'd been a full week since that smell had left the battlefield.
"...She's gone."
Yes... so it wasn't a dream after all.
I'd tried reminiscing about memories with my master, forcing myself to stay lost in the past, but it seemed my time was up.
Even in this remote spot, a week was plenty long.
The gaping void in my heart from the loss, her final wordsthey were too immense for me to lose myself in pain or memories any longer.
Time to move.
Clank clank clank!
A body packed with muscle, forged through extreme training.
Even with my joints and bones shackled, I thrashed.
Clank clank! Clank clank clank!!
The chains crashed together, ringing out with massive metallic clangs.
Yet the chains neither broke nor fell away.
"Puhahaha! You think that'll get loose?!"
"Just to be safe, we attached blades to the chain ends and jammed them into your flesh. You think that's coming off easy? Even dissecting your corpse or slicing your meat afterward won't be simple."
Now that they mentioned it, I could see blades embedded all overjoints, palms, everywhere.
"I'm no Jesus... so why'd you crucify me like this? Ah, because of these."
"Figured it out now? You're not escaping!"
"You idiot! We even severed your tendons. Even if we let you go, you think you could run? No way in hell, hahaha!!!"
"Still... aren't I stronger than you lot?"
"Ha?! With your joints wrecked, left leg dangling like it's about to fall offyou dare...!!"
"Yeah?"
Crack!
My neck twisted lightly, bones snapping back into place with a crisp sound.
"For someone who claims that... your neck bones are awfully soft. Like cookies."
"S-Senior...?"
"This is the guy who nearly sawed my leg to necrosis with a saw? Ballsy. Even your bosses upstairs couldn't pull that off. Well... doesn't matter. The Holy Mother will just heal me right up."
Come to think of it, getting crucified like Jesus might not be so strange. My teacher's nickname is [Holy Mother], after all.
In a way, it fits perfectly.
"How the hell...? We hammered demonic energy into the chains and your body to block mana flow."
"Innate True Energy."
The heart, or the mind.
The vital force buried deepest, encompassing all energy at the core of life itself. Humanity's very existence, and at the same time its mightiest weaponinnate true energy. Just a speck of it.
A mote, used to manipulate the blades that had tormented me.
"Only enough to keep me from dying. Anyway, my turn now, right?"
Starting with the restraints, I slowly crushed their limbs, then drove knives, axes, hammers, nails into the brothers' flesh and guts.
Thus, the torture I'd endured for a week, I repaid in a tight seven hours.
No info gleaned from the torture.
No thrill of vengeance.
I simply returned what was given in silence, then recalled my master's words.
I, who had lost interest in everything, could only think of her words. Hers alone.
Come to think of it, she told me to smile.
"Heh, hehe, hi hi hi hi...!!"
Like this.
Is this it, Master?
Am I doing good?
"Pfft, hahaha!!!"
No matter how much I laughed and shouted, no answer came back.
So I surrendered to madness instead, but what returned was a silence deeper than no-mind, no-thought.
I'd rather die than keep living like this.
But that would insult.
Those who sacrificed for me.
My comrades.
Above all... it went against my master's dying wish: to fight to the end and seize victory.
In the end, to rise again, I crafted a mask.
Just in case. Piles of them, for every scenario, every person. As many masks as I could make, I donned them all.
An utterly repulsive sensation.
Not literally skinning my face, but the physiological disgust from acting as something that wasn't me was unavoidable.
Still.
I grinned.
Light reflected off the blood-smeared floor, faintly outlining my expression. Definitely more natural than before.
"Good. This'll let me smile properly."
A natural smile.
A perfect mask no one would see through.
Impressive quality for an on-the-spot creation.
And so, the boy not yet of age, mentally immature, learned to smile before he learned to cry.
To don a mask before spilling his emotions.
To endure without complaint before voicing his pain.
To kill enemiesbe they monsters or menwithout hesitation, before nurturing flowers or lives.
He learned, mastered, perfected.
Until he ripened fully.
Thus was born the ruthless schemer without blood or tears, the iron-blooded war god.
The Sword Saint who pondered only how to smile while killing foes, before blood could even spill from wounds.
The mightiest, maddest weapon history's wars ever forged.
Afterward, the mask would harden through adversity, sacrifice, endless wars into an unyielding iron one.
Baek Seung-woo.
Before I knew it, my name.
No longer the loving gift from my parents, but humanity's hope, its beacon. And its final resort.
And I merely smiled at the fact.
As the people's hope, the symbol of heroism, I needed no expression but a smile.
* * *
The fifth morning in this world.
Only two or three days left, but progress hadn't hit the bare minimum of 50%.
"This isn't some vacation homework."
I wouldn't leave it all to the last day, right?
Time was still technically there, but the worry crept in naturally.
And for good reason.
"Hey kids, hi~ What do you wanna eat?"
"W-Wait a sec, kids! I'm not your friend, I'm your big bro! Stop climbing all over me...!"
"Want me to do some ice tricks?"
Out on what was supposed to be a scouting trip, the students ran into some kids in a back alley and suddenly turned it into community service for midterms.
"Isn't service just for the performance eval?"
"They all look so happy. Isn't it fine?"
"Exactly! Make 'em happy, breakfast joy!"
"I don't like it."
I clutched my head at their antics.
It was nice they were kind and gentle in a way kids these days aren't, but they needed to prioritize.
Maybe they hadn't grasped the stakes of this midterm or the dangers tied to the back world.
They all had a soft side.
Maybe it stemmed from confidence that they'd hit 50% easily at this pace.
"...Teacher, is it okay...?"
"Fine... do whatever for a day."
At Seo Ye-rin's requestpractically my prized discipleI nodded despite myself. Not the worst thing.
Let 'em burn out once, and they won't suggest it again.
With time already short, splitting seconds for busier work, this was a good lesson in distractions.
The students cheered at my approval, helping the roadside kids in their own ways.
"Come on, kids. Hungry ones over here."
The starving children followed No Yu-ra and Seo Ye-rin's words.
Gaunt, skeletal kids.
Frontier had better infrastructure than Temil Village, residents with some means, yet these kids' nutrition was no better.
Isis drew eyes and interest with ice tricks. Lee Ji, looking their age despite her unique look, matched gazes to ease wariness.
We're not bad people, they appealed.
That look and she's 17? Huh... something's off, right?
"Even I think so."
Most looked around 14.
Lee Ji was the smallest, seeming the youngest despite being oldest.
Amazing.
Seong Yeon-hwa broke down their guards with her energy, already playing along.
Honestly.
I didn't get it.
'It's just a world that's already doomed.'
What was the point of helping these kids?
Self-satisfaction?
Superiority from aiding the less fortunate?
Too special a situation to call it pure goodwill.
Service here changed nothing.
This world ends soon.
Not an efficient choice.
If it were just me, I never would've picked something so foolish... or would I?
By that logic, teaching these students wasn't much different.
"...Lately, too many useless thoughts."
I cleared the distractions.
Needed some distance from the kids.
Step step.
Backing away, I took in the students and ragtag children at once.
Not a cheerful sight.
Their clothes and state told the tale.
No parents.
Or if they did, couldn't care for them. Vagrants, simply put.
Unlike modern times, this medieval world had no policies or aid for them. Just disdain.
So helpers in back alleys stood out. Like that example over there.
"Kids, you listening to sis?"
"Yeah! Apple again today, sis?"
"Nope! Today it's... bread and soup!"
Right, that side alley.
Students focused on service missed Isabel handing hard bread and lukewarm soup to some kids in a blind spot.
Too obvious to ignore.
"Wondered where she was. In the city after all."
Her outfit: school uniform layered with defensive spells, topped by a robe symbolic of medieval mages.
Come to think of it, this city had a mage tower.
Seemed Isabel got assigned as a mage tower mage. Suited her turf-spreading style.
But.
'Medieval fantasy mages are usually arrogant, right?'
Why's she so diligently feeding them?
Staring at her uncharacteristically caring for kids, one of Isabel's charges spotted me, tugged her sleeve, and pointed.
"Sis, that weird guy's staring hard over there."
"Weird guy? Where, which one?"
"Right there. Way~ over."
Finally, our eyes met.
"... "
"... "
"Sis...?"
Even face-to-face, she kept staring.
Like caught in something embarrassing.
Face flushing, she waved frantically.
"... "
"D-Don't look! Don't look at me with those warm eyes!!"
Even if it changed nothing, pointless service.
Plenty find meaning in the act itself, so she could've been proud.
But Isabel blushed.
What can I say.
Cuter than her first impression in all sorts of ways.