Magic Academy's Genius Blinker - Chapter 241

Chapter 241

The Witch (8)

***

Under the sky tinged with dawn light.

Hyeijin Macaron stood atop the tall building of Arcaneum, narrowing her eyes as she looked down at the night scenery.

This city was especially famous for its beautiful night view, as the neon signs that never turned off at night and the floating objects that roamed the sky like satellites continuously emitted light.

Those things, known to constantly illuminate Arcaneum to keep it from being dark, were officially called ‘Paharagal’s Gaze’ but in reality were magical tools created to observe everything happening in the city.

They observe the entire city 24 hours a day without a moment’s rest, but what meaning does that have?

When they can’t even detect the movements of a witch.

“Hmm… Commander. Seems like something interesting happened.”

At Hyeijin’s words, Kaen narrowed his field of vision. Currently, the Stella Knights were in control, and the detection team from the Stella Magical Investigation Unit had come out to temporarily control part of the area and investigate something.

Because of that, it was impossible for Hyeijin and Kaen to approach that place, but there was no need to do so anyway.

They already knew what had happened there.

“They’re using the Compass of Memories? That expensive thing…”

The Compass of Memories was a very rare artifact from ancient times, with only 7 in existence worldwide, that had the ability to recall events from the past like memories, but it had a very clear drawback.

That is, the usage fee was extremely expensive.

Even using it just once to recall a very brief moment cost as much as the monthly revenue of a decent country, so who would dare use it casually?

However, the institutions that possessed it were Stella Academy, the Adolevit Kingdom, the Scalven Empire, and the Tower of the Full Moon, and those with enormous wealth used the compass freely whenever they wanted, as if such a penalty was nothing.

Of course, even from the perspective of the Tower of the New Moon, which owned 2 of the remaining 3 compasses that were currently missing…

“They’re throwing money on the ground.”

It was quite a pathetic act.

“They get permission to use the Compass of Memories like that? That’s insane, really. Is Stella really Stella, or are they just stupid?”

“I don’t know about anything else, but the principal of Stella is not a stupid person. There must be a reason they gave permission to use it.”

“Eh~ They just seem like idiots to me?”

Kaen objected, but just the idea of trying to track the witch’s traces with the Compass of Memories already seemed quite pathetic in Hyeijin’s eyes.

However, just the fact that Baek Yu-seol was involved in that place was enough reason for them to stay and continue observing.

While the Stella Magical Investigation Team was investigating the scene, Baek Yu-seol took a step back and just watched, and it was impossible to know what he was thinking or plotting.

“By the way, who killed the witch hunter? It doesn’t seem likely that a witch actually killed them…”

Hyeijin had witnessed a witch hunter once, a very long time ago in her childhood. Having directly felt the overwhelming and terrifying power of that existence, she knew well.

A witch hunter cannot be killed by the power of ordinary witches and mages.

The witch hunters, who gained ferocious power in exchange for giving up their own existence, could be said to be at the very top of the magical food chain without exaggeration.

The fact that such a witch hunter was found dead… was quite an interesting incident even from the perspective of the Tower of the New Moon, so they intended to keep watching.

Above all.

“Baek Yu-seol, that little one seems to have some idea about the witch?”

In contrast to the Stella Knights desperately trying to track the witch’s whereabouts, Baek Yu-seol was just calmly observing the scene throughout.

For an ordinary student or mage it might be understandable, but given that it was Baek Yu-seol, it was natural to suspect he knew something.

“Should we tail Baek Yu-seol?”

Hyeijin’s thought of choosing the most efficient method to track the witch was certainly correct.

“…Let’s keep watching for a bit longer.”

After saying that, Kaen leapt down from the building and disappeared somewhere.

“Ugh… At least say something before you go, really.”

While Kaen, being of the Knight class, could move freely like that, Hyeijin was a pure magic Bishop, so to get down from the building she had to walk down the stairs step by step.

How much her thighs had ached when she climbed up to observe the scene. The thought of going back down made her head spin, but in any case, just the possibility of meeting the witch made the corners of Hyeijin’s mouth twitch.

***

The next day, morning.

“Hey hey. Did you hear? There was a murder at the Witch Restaurant last night.”

“I heard the restaurant owner died?”

“No. From what I heard, some black-robed dark mage appeared, and a waitress sister fought them evenly.”

“But someone really died, right? The Stella Magical Investigation Team has been occupying the scene since last night.”

Aiselle, who had arrived early to the classroom, heard strange rumors flowing among the students.

“Aiselle! Did you hear? Did you hear?”

“Yes… roughly.”

“What could it be?”

Her friend Marillen said excitedly.

“From what I heard, a legendary witch hunter appeared.”

“A witch… hunter?”

“Yeah yeah. According to eyewitness testimony, the mage who attacked the Witch Restaurant strangely had no arms or legs and looked like a ghost with glowing eyes, which is very similar to a witch hunter.”

“Come on. No way. There’s no way there could be a witch hunter when there aren’t even any witches…”

“Right? But don’t you think there might be something to it? Even if it’s just a legend, you never know? There were even cases of witch traces being sighted a few years ago.”

Aiselle hesitated and closed her mouth. Perhaps witches really do exist, as Marillen said.

By now… Baek Yu-seol is probably actually chasing after a witch.

‘What on earth is going on…’

She had heard the rumors.

That Baek Yu-seol went out somewhere with the Stella Knights yesterday.

And after that, the news that came was about an incident at the Witch Restaurant, so she couldn’t help but worry.

Suddenly, she felt self-loathing.

What was I doing last night?

Studying.

As always, it was studying.

While he was probably running around trying to solve some incident related to witches, I was obsessing over studying without knowing anything.

It’s pathetic beyond compare.

But… recklessly saying I’ll help would be a foolish thing to do too.

There’s nothing I can know about this situation, and even if I did know, how could I possibly deal with a witch?

Ding dong-dang-!

After class ended, she walked with heavy steps towards the S class.

On the way, hearing the news that “Did you hear? That Baek Yu-seol kid is absent from class today” made her mood drop even further.

“Ah, I said fuck off, you bastard. Just go away.”

As Aiselle was walking down the hallway, she turned her head when she heard a familiar voice. Several students glanced in that direction but pretended not to notice and hurriedly passed by.

‘Miss Flame…?’

And beside her was the beautiful blonde boy, Prince Jeremie Scalven.

“Ah, that… I’m sorry. I lacked consideration.”

Jeremie apologized awkwardly with a smile, but Flame’s anger didn’t seem to subside at all as she gritted her teeth.

“Who said you could add me as a participant? Ugh, this is so annoying. The procedure to cancel this is going to be a pain too.”

“Well… I heard you’ve been very interested in League of Spirit recently…”

“So you just shoved me in as a parachute candidate for a competition that’s first-come-first-served? Pushing aside other players who actually wanted to participate?”

“It’s not a parachute…”

“And when did I say I wanted to compete on the field myself? I said I enjoy watching the games, you blockhead.”

Listening quietly, Flame certainly had reason to be angry. Anyone would be heated if they suddenly woke up one day to find themselves registered as a competition participant while taking a nap at home.

“Sigh… How am I going to cancel this.”

Aiselle tried to slip past them inconspicuously. She didn’t want to get involved in the argument with Jeremie.

Prince Jeremie Scalven… Despite his kind-looking appearance, there was something very unsettling about him.

‘…Come to think of it, it’s probably too late to cancel now since registration is already closed.’

She suddenly felt worried, but figured Flame would find a way somehow and was about to quietly pass by when Flame spotted her and waved with an exaggerated gesture.

“Oh, Aiselle! I was just looking for you! Let’s go together!”

“Yes? Yes? Yes?”

Flame rushed over to Aiselle and put an arm around her shoulders, then started walking quickly.

“Hey hey, I don’t want to argue with that bastard anymore so let’s hurry and walk.”

“Ah, yes…!”

Glancing back, she saw Jeremie reaching out with a wistful expression, looking at them. His expression was so heartbreaking it made her chest ache, but Flame didn’t seem to care at all.

After walking quickly for a while to get far away, they finally stopped and caught their breath.

“Whew, that guy is really like a leech.”

“What on earth happened…”

“Well, as always, something infuriating.”

She didn’t seem to want to explain further. It seems she doesn’t want to recall the annoying incident.

Clunk!

Flame even pulled out an ion drink from a nearby vending machine, popped open the can coolly, and chugged it in one shot, then tossed it into the air and scored it into the trash can.

Then she plopped down on a nearby bench and patted the seat next to her.

“What are you doing? Are you busy? Do you have another class?”

“No… I have about 40 minutes left.”

“Then sit down for a bit. I have something I’ve been worrying about lately.”

“A worry…?”

To think that even Flame with her easygoing personality has something she’s agonizing over internally. Aiselle was quite curious, so she carefully sat down next to her, and Flame said with a serious expression:

“I’m debating whether to have cheese pork cutlet or rose pork cutlet for lunch.”

“This is a pretty serious issue, you know. If I carelessly order rose and it’s not good, I’ll just waste money and ruin my appetite, right? But if I order the cheese pork cutlet I always eat, that won’t happen, but it’s the same old taste so it lacks freshness. This is totally high risk, high return.”

Is it really appropriate to use the term “high risk, high return” in this situation?

“How about… trying the rose pork cutlet for something new?”

“No. Thinking about it again, I don’t think so.”

“…Then have the cheese pork cutlet.”

“I’m tired of that. I’ll just have regular pork cutlet.”

What am I supposed to do with this?

“This isn’t something I usually eat, so it’s fresh but the taste is guaranteed, right? Wow, I was pretty scientific today.”

“Yes…”

As she listened, Aiselle couldn’t help but laugh at how ridiculous it was, and Flame’s expression hardened as she said:

“I’m being serious.”

“I’m sure you are…”

“Shall we go then?”

“Huh? Where?”

“We decided, didn’t we? To go eat pork cutlet.”

“It’s still morning though…”

“What does that matter? We can have brunch.”

“Ah…”

“By the way, it means breakfast and lunch combined.”

“I know.”

Aiselle chuckled and nodded. Come to think of it, she hadn’t eaten a proper breakfast, and listening to Flame’s nonsense somehow made the knot in her chest loosen up.

10:18 AM.

At a time too late for breakfast and too early for lunch, Aiselle found herself eating an untimely pork cutlet at the school cafeteria, holding a knife in her hand. How long had it been since she’d eaten meat with a knife?

While she was cutting the pork cutlet with the knife, holding it in place with a fork in a formal manner, Flame across from her stabbed the pork cutlet with her fork, tore it in half, and bit into it whole.

Flame, who was eating the pork cutlet heartily as if dipping it in sauce was the proper way rather than pouring it on, suddenly opened her mouth:

“Want to go out tonight?”

“Huh?”

“To Arcaneum, I mean.”

“Ah… You mean go out for a walk?” Maybe she wanted to go eat dinner.

She thought that, but Flame seemed to have something a bit different in mind.

“Yeah. I’m curious what Baek Yu-seol is up to, and my body is itching for some action.”

“…Are you thinking of helping Baek Yu-seol?”

“Is that how it’ll turn out? Hmm, yeah~ I guess you could say that.”

“But we’re dealing with a witch. There’s nothing we can do…”

We have to think realistically.

No matter how much the world praises us as genius mages, the world they live in is completely different.

With these immature abilities, it’s obvious we’ll only get in the way rather than help.

“You think I’m crazy enough to try and fight a witch?”

“Then what exactly are you planning to…”

Flame’s lips twitched, but she closed her mouth.

As far as she knew, the Extermination Unit from the Tower of the New Moon should be in Arcaneum by now.

She planned to use them, but couldn’t just blurt out what was in her head.

“I can’t tell you now, but I’m sure it’ll be helpful. I’m certain.”

Aiselle stared intently into Flame’s eyes. It was a completely different look from her playful demeanor earlier.

She wasn’t quite sure what Flame was plotting or how she could be of help, but… she decided to trust her for now.

After all, they had become very close friends who shared quite a few secrets by now.

End of Chapter