Chapter 131
Chapter 131
Academy’s Gumiho is a Magic Genius – Chapter 131
After healing the girl named Mary, I headed straight for the waterway.
The waterway the boy had told me about had no entrance, but there were various devices nearby. Probably set up by those so-called revolutionaries.
Though they all seem to be dead now.
'...Not all of them.'
You can see that? It's barely visible even to me, and there's no way you spotted it with the naked eye without using any special sight. Just how sharp are your senses, anyway?
'This has nothing to do with observation skills. It's not my eyesI'm hearing the pulse.'
The heartbeat.
The jaw chewing through flesh and organs.
The throat trembling as it gulps down blood.
All of it rings out clear as day.
And it all leads to one conclusion.
'That thing from before... it's a demon, right?'
Oh, that weird guy who popped up out of nowhere yesterday? Hah, I can only make out its outline. Can't see details, but you somehow recognized it.
'I'm not entirely sure. But the stench I caught back then matches.'
The demonic aura emanating from demons and demonic beasts is so foul it numbs the nose. That's just my take, of course.
Others don't react as sensitively as I do.
But I'm hypersensitive to smells tainted by demonic energy, so I can pick up even the subtlest differences amid the reek.
Even if hundreds or thousands were slaughtered in a sealed waterway, thick with the stench of fresh blood and corpses.
"Urk, this is turning my stomach. I've seen piles of fallen villagers' bodies before, but a mountain of corpses this mutilated is a bit much."
"You're overreacting, Knight Commander."
"You mad fox. Do you even realize how many corpses we've seen in just fifteen minutes since entering this hidden waterway entrance!?"
"Don't get so worked up."
The deaths were tragic, sure.
But in the end, this was a world doomed to destruction.
When I entered the hidden world, I clearly heard the phrase "Regeneration of a Doomed World." I don't know where this world or universe belongs.
But the scene before me now...
And Termiya walking beside me... they're all just recreations of the original. Think of it like virtual reality for simplicity.
That's why the mass slaughter didn't faze me in the slightest.
"How can you say that? I've held my tongue so far, but as a knight, I can't forgive such callous talk about the villagers...!"
"2,834."
"...Huh?"
Leaving her sputtering in shock, I slowly recited the details of the bodies we'd passed so far.
Seems her observation skills weren't up to snuff for a knight commander.
"That's peanuts compared to a city's population of over a hundred thousand."
"You don't mean... you were counting them one by one this whole time?"
"Not really. I didn't set out to memorize them. Shocking stuff just sticks with me. Eighty-one kids under eighteen dead, the rest adultscalluses and scars on their hands and grips suggest mostly laborers."
How the hell does he know that?
Is he insane?
I kept walking without a word or glance at her dubious expression.
All my focus was on my nose, not my eyes.
A few thousand corpses? Not my problem.
"You seriously memorized every single one?"
"...Do you have to talk like that?"
"Quit stalling! Answer the question!"
"Yeah, I saw and memorized them all."
What an odd question.
I tilted my head, not seeing the issue, but even through her helmet, I could feel her shock in her eyes.
...Is that really so weird?
Doesn't seem like it to me.
'Remembering faces and features of corpses is basic basics.'
Whose basics are those, exactly?
'If your job is wielding a sword and living by it, it's a given.'
That's how I've always done it, and so has everyone around me.
So I shot back with a look that said, "Why are you even asking?"
Termiya's face grew even more complicated.
Even with the helmet, I could picture her expression. Tamamo didn't show it, but she seemed to think the same.
"Anyway, focus ahead now."
"We there already?"
"Not quite arrived... but heh, maybe I came looking for you all."
"Wh-what are you doing here...?"
That bitch from yesterday.
The demon in the bird mask approached with heavy steps.
She overlooked us from a throne of bones, as if ruling all she surveyed.
Makes my skin crawl.
"Don't tell me... all these corpses in the waterway are your doing?!"
"And if they are? I'm in a partnership with your master, you know."
"I'll take your head right here and explain to the viscount. Prepare yourself!"
"Hehe, is it your youth making you slow on the uptake? You didn't think I'd move freely in these lands without his permission, did you~?"
"!!!!"
Termiya's face twisted in horror.
Just as the horned bitch said.
Even in a waterway hidden from prying eyes, slaughtering thousands in a day would ripple through Frontier. Rumors would spread, security would tank.
And the one pulling it off so brazenly was in league with the viscount?
Odds were, the viscount was behind it.
Termiya wanted to cling to a sliver of hope, but the demon's words crushed that.
These dead were revolutionaries plotting rebellion under the guise of revolution, surebut they were still innocent city folk who hadn't committed any crimes yet. As a knight, protecting them was her duty... but now she didn't know what to do.
While Termiya floundered in confusion...
I stared up at the demon in disbelief.
This was the first time I'd seen her up close for so long.
I just gawked at her blankly.
Not because her demonic aura was extraordinary, and certainly not because she was beautiful.
Just...
"Andrealphus."
I felt like I knew the bitch.
The name floated up in my mind unbidden.
The moment I said it aloud...
Zzt!!
A flood of something crashed through my brain.
Normally, I'd brush off such a fleeting bit of info, but this clung stubbornly, circling my thoughts like it was forcing me to remember.
'Marquis of Beauty.'
A being with the dual forms of a resplendent peacock and a human, one who pursues knowledge and spreads it far and wide.
Her combat prowess ranks at the bottom among the seventy-two demon noblesbaron-level at bestbut during her time leading legions, the tome Strong Demon's Brew was inscribed with the moniker "Marquis of Beauty," granting her the rank of 'marquis' within the legions, passed down through generations.
In short, baron in might, but marquis in influence and stature. A woman obsessed with mathematics, physics, geometry, and astronomy, compelled across generations to disseminate such knowledge to ignorant humans and lead them to enlightenment.
She favors human sacrifices on mountains and, in exchange, bestows avian forms and powerssave for the peacockupon them, as the progenitor of birds.
"Why... do I know this? No, this isn't even from the novel, is it?"
My head spun.
Even amid the chaos, I pondered her origins.
Clues abounded.
The name and Strong Demon's Brewthe strongest hintshammered my mind.
'Andrealphus was originally one of Solomon's 72 demons, and Strong Demon's Brew is the sum of demonology. Recorded alongside the seals in the first book of the Lemegeton, Ars Goetia.'
Thoughts wouldn't settle.
Info tangled every which way, sketching out a massive map.
Only once the outline formed did the headache ease a bit.
'Let's sort this out... Ugh, my head's killing me. Who the hell planted this crap in my brain?'
It dulled, but didn't vanish.
Still, pain like this was bearable.
In the meantime, I listed out what I knew about her.
I was familiar with Andrealphus.
Thanks to my devout teacher, I'd studied demonology to fight them and read the Bible cover to cover multiple times.
Unlike her, though, even memorizing the whole thing left me too jaded by this damned reality to believe in any god.
I knew the kings from the Old Testament.
And their familiars.
"...What are you?"
Andrealphus stared in disbelief.
From the moment I spoke her name, her vibe had turned vicious.
What's the big deal about saying her name once?
"H-how dare a lowly beast utter my true name...?"
The day before, I'd spared her on sight just for being handsome.
And now she forgets her place.
The Marquis of Beauty, Andrealphus, spread her arms wide.
"How a wretch like you learned what you can't even speak... I'll rip through your mind and find out."
A massive wave of demonic energy shook the waterway.
Vast mana like a lake seeped into everything around.
Then the world stained crimson-black.
* * *
The world flipped.
Feeling space twist, the Marquis of Beauty clutched her stomach briefly before scanning her surroundings.
"Is this the fox's memory?"
Drabber than expected.
A barren plain.
Nothing but vast, desolate land and sky.
"...Tch, crash-landed again. That's why her power's useful but such a pain to wield."
Usually, entering another's memory brings a set scene first.
Some get sweet reminiscences, others painful pasts.
It's a technique that unfolds the deepest-etched memory, but since she's mimicking a 'kinsman's' power rather than her own, she often ends up in weird spots like this.
The original dives straight into the mind and heart.
Hers detours through the medium of "dreams," adding an extra step that breeds errors.
She walked through the desolate memoryscape.
Cloudless, harsh sun beating downshe unfurled a parasol. How long had she gone?
About twenty minutes in, the air ahead warped.
Like a 'door,' the distortion gripped the space around it.
'Hm? Did I open a door to his next dream from inside his head?'
She hadn't.
Intrigued by the door-shaped warp, the Marquis stepped toward itand realized the truth.
'There you are, handsome beast who knows what he shouldn't...!'
Beyond lay Baek Seung-woo.
Finally, the dream's master.
The Marquis hurried toward him.
That instant...
"Hey, Seung-woo. What're you doing?"
"...Knock before coming in, Eve."
"What're you talking about between us? We're not the type to need knocking. Right?"
Clunk!
Baek Seung-woo's body moved to match the gaze of the intruder who'd flung open the door.
But the motion felt terribly unnatural.
Same build, but muscles and joints seemed all wrong.
Even more unnatural, though...
"...What the? Him?"
Why no tail or fox ears?