Chapter 140
Academy’s Gumiho is a Magic Genius – Chapter 140
That personality of yours... can't you do something about it?
Discarding one mask is no big deal. But there's something I can only do right now.
You're really going to go through with that idea? Your heart'll burst.
Just as she said, what I was about to do was an atrocity that demanded my heart as payment. In the worst case, my body would explode along with it.
Even in the best case, my heart would still burst.
But it would be replaced by a new organ in its place.
That was the best outcome of this foolhardy scheme I'd devised.
If I'm going to be called a retard before I even choose, isn't it less frustrating to choose to become one myself?
What kind of crazy talk is that?
Just something I said.
......Hurry up and fix that personality of yours.
I actually rather like this personality of mine.
She sees it differently, though.
Part of me thinks I could change it later, but since we've bound each other with a contract, I should accommodate her on minor conveniences like this.
Fine, then. I'll do what I need to quickly and change it after.
Hahaha....... So you're going to do it after all. Fine, do as you please. But you know that if you die, my soul bound to the ring dies right along with you, right?
Yeah.
Hehe, well, sometimes enjoying adventure in the face of crisis isn't so bad.
In the end, Tamamo, who'd given up, gave me her blessing.
Hearing that, I immediately raised my right hand over my heart.
Kuduk!!
I seized the heart inside my chest with mana.
Under the sudden intangible pressure, the steady beating of my heart began to slow bit by bit.
Thump, thump. As the pounding of my life source weakened, the color drained from my face, and my brain's processing slowed dramatically.
Proof that oxygen wasn't circulating properly through my body.
This was the perfect moment to perform the procedure on myself.
Kuwoook.
As I pressed down on my chest where my heart lay with my right hand,
a handprint formed deeply, and as the pressure intensified, my ribs began to strain.
Crack! Crack!!
The sound of something hard snapping and breaking.
My ribs at the center of that sound soon crumbled one after another.
They shattered into powder from the mana I'd injected near the heart through my right hand.
The moment I sensed the absence of the bones meant to protect my organs,
an alarm blared in my mind.
If I don't finish in 3 minutes, I won't die, but I might end up crippled.
Blood doesn't just carry oxygen throughout the body.
It transports mana too.
In my case, it's not just manait's also the yang energy that's the root cause of my Solar Vein Blockage. And it's not a small amount, either.
There are only a handful of people in the entire world with more mana than me.
Because of that, my blood vessels are twice as narrow as anyone else's.
With blood flow halted like this, screams echoed from every part of my body.
If I kept going like this, some part of me would necrotize.
No choice.
It's risky, but I'm already in deep, so I have to speed up.
Kuboom!
I condensed mana over the spot where I'd crushed my ribs.
It gathered so densely that even without opening my Demon Eye, I could see the mana flow with the naked eyesomething that should have been invisible.
The mana clumped and compressed into a mass larger and heavier than my heart.
Now, I'll carve off pieces bit by bit.
Like molding clay little by little.
I peeled off about ten percent from the massive mana clump and immediately formed a loop circulating between my heart and the dantian below my navel.
Pipeline's in place first.
The heart, most vital to circle-using mages.
The dantian below the navel, most vital to martial artists accumulating inner energy.
I'd connected the two with a loop.
First phase complete.
Next up: implanting the circles, legacy of ancient mages, into my body.
An intangible loop made of mana.
This loop rotated in a circle, facilitating intimate exchange of mana between the two organs. I trickled some mana along that flow.
Wooong.
My heart began to respond faintly.
The mana I'd sent along the circular loop started tracing its path, like riding a current.
I repeated the process several times.
Before long, the mana loop connecting heart and dantian began circulating based on a single massive concentric circle.
Tamamo, watching closest of all, couldn't hide her admiration.
As expected of the Sword Star... Wait, is it the Sword Star ()? You seem to know far more about star clusters and celestial bodies than I thought.
Like a beautiful night sky scene.
With my body as canvas, the shimmering mana concentric circle was breathtaking. Then, using that massive concentric circle as base, I compressed five smaller mana orbs into orbiting circles.
If the concentric circle is the concept of circles, then the orbiting stellar circles around it are the Five Qi.
With that, the procedure was done.
The condensed mass of mana replacing my ribs created new ones and supported my dying heart, gripped so tightly.
Fusing martial arts with magican utterly insane idea.
And its result was just as mad.
Unification of heart and dantian. Creation of a great heart.
With heart and dantian merged into one concentric circle,
from now on, each time I added concentric circles, my magical realm would deepen just as my circles increased and realm rose.
And the five stellar substitutes for my dantian would accumulate inner energy to bolster my body.
......All done.
You actually pulled it off.
Right after finishing the procedure,
I murmured casually, as if it were nothing.
Something welled up in my chest.
It wasn't the sense of accomplishment from completing the procedure safely, nor the emptiness of having somehow managed it.
In truth, I hadn't thought much about the procedure itself.
After all, what I'd just done was purely in the realm of theory and conjecture.
But you, wearing that mask of madness, had no reason to prove the theory.
If it's useful, take it.
No matter the cost.
Guess I'll die a few days earlier.
Even if it meant shortening my already short lifespan even further.
Roughly cut my lifespan in half?
Ugh. I vomited up the blood surging in my chest.
Before I could feel any sense of accomplishment, I spat blood and diagnosed my body.
Undeniably stronger than before.
But the internals were a shoddy job, disastrously so.
What's the point of a good engine
if the foundation itself is crumbling?
Maybe it's even shorter than I thought.
This wretched body's limits were clear.
I'd been close to death from the start.
And yet, for over a month, I hadn't eaten properly, and total sleep hadn't even exceeded 24 hours.
The result of abusing a body already dying:
the yang energy in my meridians stimulated, causing the Solar Vein Blockage to accelerate my body's breakdown.
And now, I'd just put the cherry on top of that madness.
Haa....... Do you know how much time you have left?
Around 4 months, give or take.
Precisely 115 days. Your soul's quality is so high, yet your flesh is this pathetic....... Heh, you should've rested more.
Only 115 days left.
No matter how terminal it was, for a young man in his early twenties, it was an excruciatingly brief moment.
That's not bad at all.
It didn't faze the madman much.
Life has clear limits precisely because it does.
Live long or short, if death is inevitable, what difference does 115 days make?
Life is unpredictableyou could die before then anyway, right?
That was the madman's way of thinking.
* * *
The Middle Ages were the age of knights.
As such, knights permeated deeply into people's lives.
They handled public order, served and protected the land's lord, and upheld the moral ideals of chivalry.
Because they championed courage, love, tolerance, fate, and honor, they earned people's respect.
And knights repaid that respect with the worth of their labor.
Thanks to knights who worked harder than anyone,
even the cold northern lands could forget the chill.
Even if magic's advances warded off bodily cold to some degree, it was their burning passion that warmed hearts.
It must have been that way.
Mom, what about our house...?
......Don't worry. A knight will surely show up and save us all. So can you look after your sibling until then?
Yeah......
The child left behind hugged the even smaller one.
The woman watching them with a smile shed tears even as she smiled, then ran toward the burning city center.
Even if her bare feet tore on the rough stone pavement, she had to fetch her husband.
But as with all lives in this world,
tragedy strikes equally for everyone.
Kigeegik!
The pillars of sturdy homes built from trees that withstood the north's harsh winters.
With the fire engulfing the city center, the supports for those wooden pillars vanished.
The blazing timber hurtled down
Boom!!!
onto the head of the frantically running woman.
Dust billowed from the massive impact.
The sight of blood pooling on the ground wasn't pleasant,
but if tragedy is equal for all, so too is hopeful comedy.
You! Lady in the black skirt down there!
Right beneath the massive fallen log,
a young boy's voice rang out.
His voice hadn't fully deepened yet, so for a moment the woman mistook it for her son's and looked up in shock.
A huge log had toppled over the fallen woman.
She'd have been crushed to death if not for someone intervening midway.
Yes, if not for the boy before her eyes.
Who are you...?
No time for chit-chat!!
Iji, the boy who'd blocked the falling log with his shield.
But the impact transmitted straight through his arms to his whole body.
Feeling blood dripping from his body from the shock, Iji yelled at the woman behind him.
Don't owe anyone debts!! Whether it's money or your life, fight for it with your own hands!!!
......Huh?
Quite the unique words for someone who'd just nearly died.
Ignoring her, Iji raised his shield and deflected the log to the side.
Boom!!!
Not even dropped from a great height,
yet the sheer weight made a thunderous noise just from falling beside them.
At that massive sound, the woman realized the aid she'd received and tried to give thanks,
but Iji had already thrown himself into the heart of the fire-ravaged city center.
......He looks just two years older than my son.
Deep in sentiment, she suddenly realized whom she'd left behind to find her husband.
My babies.
My treasures, born in pain.
Realizing she'd abandoned her young son and daughter in that place for a husband whose fate was unknown, she ran back the way she'd come.
There was no guarantee her children wouldn't suffer the accident she'd just barely escaped, so she ran until her soles tore and burst.
At the end of her gaze,
teeter.
Wooden debris slowly tilting down to engulf her children from behind. Seeing it, a thought flashed in her mind.
Ah, if only that boy appeared out of nowhere and saved us again.
It would be nice, but at the same time, other words surfaced.
Don't owe anyone debts!! Whether it's money or your life, fight for it with your own hands!!!
......Yeah.
They're my children.
Our children, born and raised with love by me and my husband.
Better to seize it with my own hands than cling to salvation that won't come.
Boom!!
The massive wooden debris swept behind the children.
Distracted by the blazing fires and collapsing houses, terrified, the brother and sister hugged each other tightly, soothing their frightened hearts with each other's warmth.
Thus, they couldn't react to the threat closing in from behind.
Fortunate or unfortunate?
M-Mom...?
Thank goodness...... My babies......
Thud. The woman's body collapsed.
Countless wooden shards pierced her back,
but her fallen face bore a radiant smile.
The source of that smile
was the joy and accomplishment of protecting what was precious with her own hands. That's why she could close her eyes smiling.
Such scenes unfolded frequently throughout the city.
There are people living for the moment.
Not saving for the future, but living day-to-day so their children won't starve.
To endure today, they pawn tomorrow's strength.
And they'll endure the next day the same way.
Someday far off, they'll depart in agony from illness.
Even knowing that future is certain,
there are those who sacrifice tomorrow for today.
We call them parents.