Chapter 85
Chapter 85
Academy’s Gumiho is a Magic Genius – Chapter 85
After leaving the faculty office, I headed straight for the dormitory.
It was 5 a.m., just as dawn was about to break.
I had no intention of doing early shifts or overtime, so I'd slipped out like I was fleeing before Nam Hwa-yeon could hand me any work.
That woman was ruthless about stuff like that, even with her own students.
On the way to the dormitory.
There were more students around than I'd expected, so when I muttered to myself, Tamamo responded.
For reference, in exchange for her teaching me one spell a day for a monththirty types in total, free of chargeI had forgiven her sins.
At this point, she wasn't some nine-tailed fox anymore; she was more like a saint handing out blessings left and right. Even the giving tree wasn't this generous.
"There are more students than I thought."
Maybe because it's a school full of naive kids who don't know the real world. They're all so diligent.
"Even so, it's only a few hundred. The total student body here is 6,000."
Oh, right.
A month ago, nine of them died, leaving 5,991. Yeah.
Six... thousand? No wonder the grounds seem ridiculously vast. Is this country planning to train kids into an army or something?
"An army? Not wrong."
Chilseong Academy's founding principle was to protect civilians and rescue citizens from disasters. To that end, the most important things were individual power and collective authority.
Graduating students each became weapons in their own right, and the guilds and associations that took them in formed structures like armies.
That's why Chilseong students were also called cadets.
An army, got it. Now I see the purpose of this massive school. So an academy is like an officer training school. By the way, why are all the passing students staring at you?
"People have been showing a lot of interest in me lately."
Come to think of it, the stares had been especially intense since yesterday.
Why was that?
'Maybe because of what happened Saturday night hitting the news.'
It was the first news praising me since the academy attack.
An article that didn't match the Baek Seung-woo stained with scandals and bad rumors. People might've felt some pointless backlash.
*That guy's a jerk, so why's he pretending to be good?*
*He finally bought off the media with the Heavenly Fox Baek Family's massive wealth?*
They were probably glaring at me with thoughts like that.
"Hey, it's Seung-woo over there."
"Dude, don't call a TA just Seung-woo. If you don't wanna get chewed out, say TA Baek Seung-woo."
"Huh, but doesn't the TA look like he's glowing today?"
"He didn't before?"
"No, seriously, take a look."
But what was this?
It wasn't friendly looks, exactly.
I could feel something sticky about their gazes.
"He was always handsome, but..."
"He looks even prettier now somehow."
"Must've eaten something good over the weekend. He's getting even hotter. Life's so damn unfair."
"Whoa, was I really blind before? With a face like that, he needs some bad-boy charm to balance it out."
"Shut up with that crap."
The sticky stares I'd gotten in life had always come with murderous intent laced in madness.
But today, for the first time, I realized sticky didn't have to mean murderous. The students' gazes were clingy, but there was something refreshingly light about them.
"...Let's hurry to the infirmary."
Huh? Not heading to your usual place?
"I'll hide out there until the students thin out. It's close, and I was planning to stop by today anyway because of the pain all over my body."
I desperately avoided their eyes.
Even with my body patched up by all sorts of gear, I was panting by the time I shook off the students' stares.
I ignored Tamamo, who was giving me a thumbs-up and calling my breathing sexy, and ducked into the infirmary.
She claims she doesn't know foreign words, but somehow she picks up stuff like that.
"Huh, an injured student at this ungodly hour? Teacher's not quite ready yet."
"Teacher Chae-hwa, good morning. You look as lovely as ever. Oh, and."
"Ha... Baek Seung-woo, you again. No wonder it was noisy outside at this dawn hour. And your compliments don't make me happy at all, so cut the lip service."
"......"
The moment she told me to stop the lip service, I naturally shut my mouth.
At the same time, Nurse Teacher Yu Chae-hwa's eyes narrowed. Her expression turned subtly scary.
*This guy's actually stopping?*
That's what her face seemed to say.
'Feels less like a hunch.'
Had she mastered [Telepathy] or something?
Transmitting thoughts with just expressions wasn't easy, but she made it look effortless.
For some reason, I soothed the inexplicable trembling and unease in my arms. Whoa, scary.
This was nothing like facing demons.
"What's wrong with your body this time? You were already a wreck, but why'd you make it worse?"
"Haha, I pushed a bit hard on Saturday."
"That thing from the news and articles, huh. Seriously, take care of your body. A guy with crap natural healing like you shouldn't be rolling around so rough."
Yu Chae-hwa touched me over my clothes to gauge my condition roughly.
She first used [Advanced Heal] to reset and mend my broken or shattered bones. But since my bones were inherently weak, who knew when they'd snap again.
In her 17 years as a nurse, she'd never seen a body this frail and prone to breaking.
After doing what she could, she removed my gloves.
My palms and the backs of my handsleather torn ragged by flameswere exposed to the world. The air made them sting like hell.
"The burns on your hands... after prolonged exposure to magic and curses, there's nothing I can do. And these ringsyou're wearing way too many."
"...The rings?"
"Yeah, ditch them. Or pass them on to someone else."
Her sudden words made my face stiffen.
She wasn't the type to say things lightly. As the infirmary teacher treating students, she embodied responsibility itself.
Plus, her healing skills could rival Chilseong's top professors in pure treatment.
So I asked in all seriousness.
"If I have to ditch them... how many?"
I phrased it to imply I didn't want to lose any if possible, and she held up one hand.
"Five."
"...For real?"
"Oh, that's the minimum. I'd love to say seven, but you seem attached to them, so I went with the bare minimum."
*You didn't think your frail body could handle the full stat boosts from all those artifacts, did you?*
That's what she was asking.
......No words for that.
'I thought I'd found a workaround.'
Even borrowing the power of artifacts from beyond the gods was too much for me?
How could a body be this useless?
I sincerely lamented my flesh as I thanked her and left the infirmary.
Treatment and prescriptions were done, and the students visible outside had thinned out.
I trudged powerlessly toward the dormitory.
My whole body ached with fatigue, but faint stamina and vitality kept me moving.
'Even this faint stamina and vitality isn't fully mine.'
The boosted stats from rings, necklaces, earrings, and such responded to me. But it was poison.
On a whole different level from a double-edged sword.
A deadly toxin that would surely worsen my body further.
Not like the mild herbs I chewed casually.
"......Haaa."
Don't think about it now.
As long as I finished everything before these stat-boosting rings became shackles, it'd be fine. Yeah, that'd do it.
Self-consoling inwardly, I kept my composure and smile as I asked Tamamo behind me.
"What do you want for breakfast?"
Hmm, I don't know modern food well enough to say. No idea what's even available.
She said it like she genuinely had no clue.
"How about inari sushi?"
Ina...ri sushi? No idea what it is, but with inari in the name, it must be tasty. Sure, that sounds good.
"Got it. Ordering now."
I ordered inari sushi while getting my legs treated.
Expensive stuff.
Spending money on Tamamo, who'd done me dirty, felt wasteful for a second, but remembering how she'd devoured that inari udon the previous dawn... nothing greased the wheels with her like food.
Yeah, treat food as an investment.
With that mindset, I paid. Tamamo, who'd been staring holes through my phone screen, spoke up.
Come to think of it, I haven't seen you eat since Saturday evening. You only ordered enough inari sushi for me. Unlike me, where meals aren't essential, contractors need food to live, right?
"Eh? Skipping a day or two won't kill me."
A scrawny guy like you would die from skipping a day or two?
I was far from the body type that'd die from a day or two without food.
I didn't love eating anyway, and skipping it saved time for research or studyhuge time gains.
So I often substituted meals with pills containing a full day's nutrients. On days too hectic for even that, I'd skip those too, countless times.
"Nah, it's fine. Humans don't die that easily."
I've seen plenty starve to death. The ones who talk like you always end up sprawled on the roadside.
"I've seen plenty starve too."
People eating demons when supplies didn't come, or mushrooms from old barracks, sure.
Even one trying to eat a dead comrade's corpse.
Despite such shortages, some chose starvation to preserve human dignity.
'Maybe because I spent my teens in that environment. Starving feels more comfortable than eating.'
Meals felt awkward as a result.
Plus, pills prevented nutrient deficiencies and starvation.
That should be enough, right?
I genuinely thought so.
Food's so abundant now. Yet you shun fine dining.
"I'm not fussy about food, clothes, or shelter. Anything edible is fine, anything wearable works, anywhere for sleep is good."
Pretty extreme. Spartan and cynical at once. Life's but a flashdon't men dream of revelry with food, booze, and women?
"Don't talk like every man should aim for gluttony, lust, and excess."
I don't think I'm normal either.
But you're no slouch.
* * *
The room's awfully small... Compared to the last one, it's gotta be ten times tinier?
"I know. It's a dorm, so whatever."
Back at the TA dorm after nearly two days.
Strange sense of nostalgialike a student returning home after a year abroad. Probably because I'd been deep in my inner world for so long; perceived time and real time were warped.
All Tamamo's fault.
I'll grill her later and get payback.
Dorm, I get what that means now, but does it make sense for a home to have just one room?
"Why one? There's a bathroom."
Oh my, since when did bathrooms count as rooms? A bathroom's a bathroom, not a room.
Tamamo scanned the dorm room thoroughly, her eyes displeased.
Probably comparing it to the family head's quarters where she'd stayed before heading out at dawn.
Still, this dorm wasn't bad.
[Air Purification] and [Auto-Clean] magic enchanted.
Bed and chair had semi-permanent [Beginner Heal] for comfy sleep and rest. Other furniture was top-brand or enchanted too.
Low-tier compared to the Heavenly Fox Baek estate, sure.
But for convenience, better than her era.
"It's livable enough. My goal isn't lounging here anywaypull all-nighters researching, minimal sleep."
The studio crammed with books felt empty, but perfect for diving into magic tomes, study, and research overnight.
Bigger place wouldn't help, so I tried touting the studio dorm's perks.
But Tamamo wasn't listening closely.
Her now-solidified hand had grabbed an envelope buried amid papers and magic books.
Pink background covered in red hearts.
Like it held a love letter.
'Huh?'
A love letter?
Something clicked.
"...Ah."
Right, I'd gotten one of those.
Forgotten until now.
'Screwed.'
This moment.
I'd broken someone's heart, whoever it was.
What a piece of trash.