Chapter 86
Chapter 86
Academy’s Gumiho is a Magic Genius – Chapter 86
After the academy raid incident.
Professor Nam Hwa-yeon handed me two letters.
One was little more than a rude challenge from my insolent little brother, while the other I'd completely forgotten about until now because I had zero interest in it.
Man, talk about something slipping your mind.
This was basically stomping all over the heart of someone who'd sent a love letter.
Love letters, huh? So pure and innocent. Back when I had a body, I got them until I was sick of it, but there's something special about a crumpled-up one handed over by a nervous, trembling virgin boy. It has a charm all its own, different from other confessions.
"Not interested in your tastes."
As I pulled a serious face, Tamamo barged in without a care.
With my head spinning, I shot back a half-hearted reply and thought to myself.
'Why the hell is someone sending a love letter in this day and age? If you have something to say, just text or talk face-to-face.'
Sure, twenty years ago, maybe.
But who sends a love letter covered in hearts these days?
The moment I dismissed the anachronistic letter, it hit me.
Oh, right.
She couldn't exactly text or confess in person.
'Not with the way everyone looks at me.'
Ex-fiance abuse and verbal assaults, assassination attempts, embezzlement, and all sorts of rumors swirling around me. Who'd boldly confess to someone like that?
Her friends might disown her over it.
And texting? Out of the question.
I only had four contacts saved.
Even those were just my two sistersmy only blood relativesand one HR rep from Nine-Tail Guild who'd texted after I took the team leader position.
Plus Professor Nam Hwa-yeon, my boss and now my mentor.
Feeling bewildered, I tore open the envelope.
Inside was elegant handwriting.
----
To my beloved TA Baek Seung-woo.
Hello, TA.
The night sky under the moonlight feels especially quiet tonight. Around this time of year, I hear seniors confess their feelings under that beautiful moonlight, regardless of gender.
They say the seniors do it face-to-face.
But I don't have the courage, so I'm writing this letter instead.
Even with the moon so pretty and flowers symbolizing spring falling away, Chilseong feels devoid of any life or confessions. It'll stay quiet for a while, yesterday and today and days to come.
There are 5,991 students left at the academy.
But with the nine students killed by monsters, it feels like they've stolen all sound from this place.
Everyone must be hurting.
If you're going to make a living as a Player, you know a day like this will come eventually.
But no one expected it to happen so soon.
We need to shake off this pain quickly, but everyone seems deeply wounded. Even second- and third-years with no connection to the incident are suffering, making me reflect even more on that tragedy a few days ago.
But cold as it sounds, I don't feel the grief as deeply as others.
Is it because I nearly died myself, only to be saved by you, TA? That memory is so vivid?
Or because being pushed to the brink of death gave me a colder view of it?
I don't even know myself.
What I do know is that my fear of deathor the deaths of my same-age classmatespales next to my feelings for you, TA.
To you, I'm probably just one of the many students you saved while fighting that day.
But to me, you were a hero.
They say babies are born even in war. I didn't get it as a kid.
But here I am, writing this letter right in the middle of it.
So, TA.
I respect, adore, long for, yearn for, admire, envy, esteem, revere, venerate, idolize, cherish, love you, I love you.
I hope that conveys my feelings.
Your student who loves you more than anyone in the world.
What the hell is this?
The moment I finished reading, it wasn't excitement over the love letter or guilt for the late reply that hit me.
It was fear. Pure, unadulterated fear.
Especially the erased parts in the middle.
The ink had been pressed so hard it hadn't fully erased, leaving traces.
Tamamo's voice trembled, as if infected by that fear.
This is a type of love letter even I've never gotten. Good for you. Someone likes you this much.
"Shut up."
I don't have the mental bandwidth for you right now. Be quiet.
I pulled myself together and reread the letter carefully.
The more I read, the more I chewed it over, the more an indescribable horror crept up. The love letter reeked of madness.
Who the hell wrote this?
"It didn't come by mail, so it has to be someone inside the academy. That handwriting rings a bell, though."
Everyone's handwriting is unique.
Of course, the differences are so subtle most people can't tell them apart.
And handwriting is just the shape of letters, so it's often useless for pinpointing suspects.
In detective shows, they catch the culprit by handwriting all the time.
That's only when there's one prime suspect.
With 6,000 academy students as suspects, it's no help at all. Or wait.
"Nine first-years died, and if you add guards, professors, shop owners, landlords"
Roughly ten thousand.
Odds of 1 in 10,000.
Even the prince searching for Cinderella with a glass slipper didn't have odds this bad. At least he had a major clue, and the slipper was ridiculously small, making it easier.
I'd have to compare this damn handwriting against ten thousand people directly.
And unlike the princewho knew it was a womanI couldn't rule out the writer being a guy. There's no line saying it's from a girl.
"Let's just not find out."
Screw manners or whatever.
I'm too scared to look.
Better to never know.
Yeah, that's it.
I didn't see this today.
* * *
I wanted to hole up in my dorm, but it was time to head to work.
To survive this jungle of an academy, I had to arrive before clock-in time. I sealed the love letter deep in my dorm and left.
For the record, Tamamo personally sealed it with seventy-three spells.
No archmage could break it without serious time and effort. It was a massive ritual.
Meaning she was scared shitless too.
I'd skipped breakfast, but food wasn't the priority now.
The tension and fear of not knowing when the letter's sender might show up. Heh this isn't officer training school. It's the Demon Realm.
"Shut up. I'm feeling the fear more acutely than you."
No matter how scared you think you are, it's not as bad as me.
Fighting Yuren on academy grounds, my body half-broken; getting launched by Dorudo at the auction house.
I felt pain, but never fear.
Hell, I've always had strong nerves. Barely any scary experiences in life.
'Five times since birth? No, not even eight?'
In my whole life, fewer than ten fingers' worth of true fear.
And even that was from dire situations: nearly losing a little sister before my eyes, witnessing an incomprehensible entity, facing total annihilation of my troops.
Only then did fear hit.
Who knows how many years it's been since fear shook me like this.
Sigh, don't go there.
To distract myself, I scattered my focus around. People's gazes prickled.
'Everyone heading to work or class? More people than earlier.'
There'd been a decent crowd even at dawn, but as 7 a.m. approached, they dragged their Monday-hating asses out.
And most were staring at me.
Ah, so this is how a zoo monkey feels.
Never gets better.
Still.
'Why are people staring like that?'
The looks from passersby were sticky.
To put it poetically.
Like boys and girls in love.
Girls, fine. But boys too? Look at the girls next to you.
This novel world has plenty of hotties.
Why me?
'These gazes I'll never get used to.'
I hate that itchy look.
Disgust, jealousy, disdain, hatred? I'm used to those.
But lovestruck stares from students? No way I'll adapt. Not my thing.
Hey, Contractor.
'What?'
If you don't want attention, at least wear a veil or mask. With that face, how could you not draw eyes?
"What?"
Not sure if you're playing dumb or truly oblivious. You're ridiculously handsome. My heart flutters just looking, and I've seen plenty of beauties. You know how hot that is?
With looks like that, you'd think he'd notice.
Guess not, or he'd cover up.
Tamamo said as much.
Hearing it, I tilted my head.
I know I'm decent-looking, but that much?
Doubting my own face frustrated Tamamo, who added.
Innate disposition. Like I had in life, you've been blessed with beauty that could topple nations.
"What?"
My eyes widened at her words.
Asking again like I hadn't heard, she repeated.
Even if the blood is diluted, same species, distant descendants. Beauty that topples nations, like mine.
"And before that."
Your beauty is an innate trait?
Yeah, from there.
Nation-toppling beauty.
Innate trait, or 'characteristic.'
Realizing the intersection hit me like a spark in my brain.
Taptaptap, I reached into the air, opened the Status Window, and manipulated it.
Nation-toppling Beauty()
Classification: Trait
Description: Possessor of charm that topples nations merely by existing. Even without awareness, your presence alone will sequentially dismantle any group you belong toa heavenly seductress's innate nature.
I remembered seeing this plain description before.
I stared holes through the Status Window, eyes darting.
My red pupils opened, tinged purple. Heavenly Eye descended, piercing hidden details.
[Demon Eye has opened.]
[With Demon Eye fully open, empowered by Ten-Li Eye's ability to see ten li away, you achieve .]
[ pierces the hidden details of trait Nation-toppling Beauty, illuminating them.]
[Trait Nation-toppling Beauty contains discarded sentences!]
[Outputting discarded sentences as messages.]
Nation-toppling Beauty()
[A nation is its people, so toppling a nation means toppling its people. Thus, Nation-toppling Beauty's charm grows stronger the closer the nation, region, or affiliation to the bearer.]
Two lines I couldn't read before.
It said discarded, but whatever.
Looks like only the description was scrapped.
The effect is clearly active.
"So that's it."
The closer the group, the stronger the allure.
Explains why I get these looks so much inside the academy.
Dorms to facilities.
All right here.
Hah. So your beauty's charm multiplies how many times over in close groups? Even without system blessings, your bare face alone could make girls clutch their hearts and collapse. Planning to give weak-hearted ones heart attacks?
"Who knows."
Could be.
As Tamamo said, I know my original face is handsome.
Had tomy face was used in military propaganda multiple times.
Couldn't not know.
It was made for that.
Once, my deputy said my body could scar but not my pretty facelest it tank female soldiers' moraleand assigned five or six healer mages just for it.
Result? Body full of scars and surgery marks, but face pristine. And now.
That amplified several times over?
"Lucky my reputation sucks. If rumors said I was handsome and nice, it could've been a real disaster in every sense."
Stalkers or fanatics might've appeared.
Ugh, horrifying just thinking.
What are you talking about? You already have one.
Tamamo's meaningful tone brought it back.
Something I didn't want to remember.
That letter.
"Oh, right."
There was that.
I'd tried self-hypnosis to forget, shoving it to memory's depths.
Futile. It resurfaced.
Ah, damn it all.