Chapter 144
Academy’s Gumiho is a Magic Genius – Chapter 144
What right do you have to wield my remains?
As I drew the demon blade from its sheath at my waist, the soul bound to the Heavenly Mass Cloud Sword spoke to me.
It was a sword forged from the tail of the great yokai, Yamata no Orochi.
It had to be that guy's soul.
Hey, not gonna answer? If you don't, I'll melt your hand off with poison, nice and slow!
The ancient texts describing it were filled with accounts suggesting it was a 1st or 2nd hierarchy demon beast, so I figured its soul would be equally grave or violent.
But its voice was thinner than expected.
It was violent, sure.
The tone was almost like a little girl's.
Ugh, never seen such a blockhead. No answer, no reaction. You can't actually hear me, can you? Your face hasn't twitched oncelooks like I'm right.
Scratch that.
No little girl here.
It was a rude lizard.
Are you really mute? Why aren't you talking?
Who knew there could be a sword this noisy in the world.
It was just a soul bound to the sword anyway.
Nothing more than a spirit tied to the demon blade made from its own flesh.
It would require considerable offerings, but if I performed an exorcism, I could send it off from this world.
Should I just get rid of it?
What I needed was a high-performance sword anyway.
Not a noisy lizard.
Just as I reached out my hand
I found myself hesitating deep down.
What's this? Even though it's a demon beast by nature, do I not want to kill something that's just a soul left behind?
If Orochi had committed direct or indirect atrocities against me, that'd be one thing.
But since its deadly poison from slaughtering auction escorts didn't work on me
The her bound to the demon blade was little more than a bit noisy.
Still, I wondered if forcibly exorcising her was justified.
This is tricky. Do I chalk it up to demonic corruption or not?
Yokai was an old Eastern term for demon beasts, especially in places like Japan.
Even the elderly still used "yokai" over "demon beast" sometimes.
That said, yokai still exuded demonic energy, so they triggered my instinctive revulsion too.
This one's ambiguous. So subtle.
Yamata no Orochi.
Commonly called Orochiits presence was too faint.
I could sense the demonic taint.
But it was less than half the demonic energy of the weakest F-rank demonkin.
Even demonic swords of the same category had more than this.
The eerie aura from its main body, the Heavenly Mass Cloud Sword, feels stronger. Maybe because it's a soul from a dead body?
This was awkward to kill.
I harbored indiscriminate killing intent toward anything tied to demons, but this was a first for something so borderline.
I could probably kill it if I wanted.
But it felt off.
Ha! I'm noisy? My clear voice is way better than some hack who can't even respond properly!
See? Can't even rebut that. Blockhead with nothing but poison resistance going for you~
Um you're not mad, right, Contractor?
Mad? As if something this trivial could make me mad.
As the little serpent kept slithering up, Tamamo read my mood and asked worriedly.
I'm not mad over something this small. If I got mad at this, I'd have exploded ages ago.
A mask with the bare minimum of human traits.
Unless it insulted my parents or mocked dead comrades, no anger stirrednot even a thought.
Just a bit noisy, that's all.
But the girl's shrill voice kept ringing in my ears, slowing my swings and responses to Termiya's movements.
Pathetic~ You pulled my sword on your own, and now you're lagging.
Isn't it because you're noisily interfering?
Hehe, so you're pathetic for getting disrupted by this much?
Should I kill it?
It's already dead anyway.
Exorcism would be the proper term, but suddenly I wanted to kill it.
If it was just noisy, fine. But constant interference means I can't focus on the sword.
I wanted to exorcise it right now or plug my ears.
But the former needed hefty offerings and rituals, and the latter wouldn't work since the soul communicated directly with my own.
No choice.
Not thrilled, but I'll have to subdue it.
Any way to shut it up quick in this pinch?
Don't worry.
I casually replied and closed my eyes for a moment.
Closing your eyes mid-battle was suicide, but this wouldn't take long.
Subjectively, anyway. Objectively, time ticked the same on the clock.
But time is subjectivethat's what made this technique work.
I snapped my eyes open to a vast plain.
In the pitch-black mental world devoid of anything, there were only three of us.
Me, Tamamo, and this little yokai.
* * *
Wh-what are you doing?
What else? Subduing you so you're not noisy anymore.
The world turned black.
The previous spot was night, not bright, but the city aflame provided massive light sources all around.
Here, no flames, no sun, no stars.
Just empty blackness.
And the three of us.
Ha! Space sorcery? Rare ability, sure, but you think this'll subdue me?!
Of course.
This wasn't some space ability.
And my method of subduing you was dead simple.
I'm confident.
W-wait what are you touching?! Hyaah!
Hold still. Hard to handle otherwise.
Tamamo stared at us in disbelief.
Unlike the chatter, I was lightly maintaining the sword.
Using condensed mana in my hand instead of oil to polish the blade.
Ehehehe Taking such good care of my remains I might just submit.
Visually, I looked like a master swordsmith meticulously polishing the blade.
But the sounds were pure maiden in ecstasy.
Tamamo lost her composure at that.
Curious about her contractor's reaction, she glanced over.
Ah, furrowed brow.
She was genuinely annoyed this time.
Next, the hilt.
W-wait! The bottom's sensitive, stripping the hilt cloth will!!
Just replacing the worn hilt cloth. And cleaning inside too.
Hya, uuuu! Ueee!!
Should I just exorcise you?
Who knew sword maintenance could be such potent mental warfare.
I'd handled my share of ego swordsnot a few.
Even mind-dominating demonic swords included, this demon blade took the cake.
The more I polished, the hazier my mind got.
Who knew there was a demon blade this perverted.
Pretend to fumble and smash it, melt the shards, forge a new sword?
It seriously tempted me.
But that'd erase the myth bound to the Heavenly Mass Cloud Sword. Even a master smith couldn't make it better than a quality sword, nothing more.
Hyaaaang!
Damn it.
I kept polishing with my hands.
But squeezed my eyes shut.
Any longer, and I'd suffer internal damage, shedding bloody tears.
Once maintenance wrapped up
The little snake let out excited breaths.
No more defianceshe'd fully submitted.
At the cost of my mental health.
Worth it.
M-Master I'll serve you as Master from now on.
Don't call me Master.
Okay? Then O-ra-ve-ni
My face slowly stiffened.
Call me Master after all.
But Oniichan said not to call you Master.
Didn't mean use weird terms.
Exorcise now?
Not too late.
I hurriedly gathered mana in my right hand.
Skill, Essence Absorption. It'd half-fulfill exorcism, if not fully.
Just as I thrust my right hand toward the snake
O-okay! I won't call you Oniichan anymore!!
Better if you obey when told.
Then Young Master. That's okay, right?!
Yeah, that's better.
I had no taste for "Oniichan" from a lizard thousands of years my senior.
Young Master wasn't great, but considering master-servant dynamic, it fitlet it slide.
What a farce.
Tamamo
Never thought I'd see such a sight.
Couldn't care less.
Her curiosity as a sorceress outweighed those two now.
This black space.
Familiar from memory, but Seung-woo deploying it solo was intriguing.
Not as sorceress or mage, but as a warrior's mental image.
A broken body unfolding a mental world like a martial artist.
No such warrior among those she knew.
Mental worlds were for lofty warriors.
Even they needed hours of focus and meditation to barely open onelike a door.
Her contractor did it lightly.
And a man with ~100 days left does it effortlessly. Hehe, gotta ask about this?
Unlike her intentional one before, this was different.
The [Reinterpretation] from the magic tome they read together couldn't match this mental world's polish.
Tamamo's sorceress curiosity flared; she slyly smiled, hand over mouth.
Stay time here inversely proportional to realitya blink.
How long could he maintain it?
Intriguing research material.
Know how to use a Japanese sword? Totally different form and pros/cons from normal ones.
What do you take me for?
Hehe Dunno, a pervert bullying a little snake?
While Tamamo watched
I was suddenly labeled a pervert.
No, she was the one making weird noises.
Why pin it on me?
You are a pervert, right?
Ridiculous.
Kidding, kidding. Lighten up?
If we weren't bound by contract, I'd have cut you down.
That's why I'm like this with you as my contractor?
Rude sword behavior.
Fine briefly, but couldn't let it run me forever.
Click.
I gripped the sword hard.
What now?
Orochi tilted her head as I suddenly gripped her sword.
The snake tilting its head was kinda cute.
But my nerves were already beyond the black mental realm.
Shiiiing.
I infused sword ki into the blade.
Not ordinary sword ki.
No intent, pure mana, or evil demonic energy.
Dragon-Slaying Technique.
Art to kill the unkillable dragon.
Dragons: absolute, illusory species.
Untouchable by mere humans.
Thus, a seemingly useless technique and energy.
Behold a demonstration.
But in the hands of one who could truly slay dragons, it changed everything.
The blade gleamed vicious purple.
In the void-black world, it sparkledthen struck down like digging deeper than a dragon swamp.
Dragon-Slaying Slash
Sword art to behead and kill dragons.
The mental swing pierced the black, reaching reality.
Kwagagang!!!
Something hard blocked the slash.
The mental world collapsed simultaneously.
Beyond it, Termiya blocked the sudden slash with her body, face full of confusion.
Sword heart?
Hehe.
Their eyes sparkled with intrigue watching the scene.
A mental slash affecting reality.
Impossible phenomenon.
But impossible feats made it Dragon-Slaying.
Unbelievable prowess.
Perhaps her contractor was an absolute being who shouldn't exist here without divine grace.
Tamamo and Orochi's eyes twinkled at the miracle from his frail body.