Magic Academy's Genius Blinker - Chapter 247

Chapter 247

The Witch (14)

***

The night sky tinged with dawn was closer to purple than pitch black, making it not as dark and frightening as one might think.

Under the purple sky, Kaen, looking at the huge glass shards rising from the center of Arcaneum floating in the air, spoke softly.

“It’s a success.”

Right after, the ‘fantasy world’ began to crack like a spider web, and then slowly started to scatter into fragments.

-Wow, that’s really amazing. Right, Hyeijin? If you’re an illusion mage, you’d know how incredible this idea is.

“…Don’t talk to me. I’m dying here.”

Hyeijin was sprawled on the rooftop of the building, struggling to catch her breath.

Next to her, Aiselle had also collapsed, almost unconscious from exhaustion, and seemed unable to even open her eyes properly due to mana depletion.

“But, well… it is amazing, isn’t it? You little ones.”

Aiselle was too tired to hear, and Flame couldn’t hear because she had jumped directly into the fantasy world, but Hyeijin let out a pure exclamation of admiration.

-You need to overlay your illusion on that barrier.

The girl named Flame had proposed a very unique idea.

It was something Hyeijin had never thought of, and even if she had, it would have been so close to impossible that she wouldn’t have even attempted it.

You can’t cast illusion magic on objects. Normally, one would think that and give up, but that girl chose a way to bypass the impossible.

-Use the Atrax Core.

-What? How do you know about that object…?

The Tower of the New Moon had a wide variety of artifacts, and secretly possessed many legendary items that were said to have been completely lost throughout history. The ‘Atrax Core’ was one of them.

In modern times, there were no mages who could use it, and its very existence was completely veiled in secrecy, making it difficult to even find a mage who knew about it. It was quite shocking to hear that word come out so familiarly from the mouth of a mere seventeen-year-old girl.

-There’s no time to explain. We’re going to use the Atrax Core to overlay mana onto reality.

-But if we do that…

-The mana in the air will all be contaminated. But don’t worry about that. The space we’re overlaying mana onto isn’t Arcaneum… it’s the illusion barrier.

At that moment, Hyeijin instantly grasped Flame’s intention.

Her illusion magic cannot be cast on objects.

However, the Atrax Core was a unique artifact that gave breath to reality, with the special ability to give objects will. It was a feature that was usually completely useless, but it worked a bit differently for Hyeijin.

-You’re thinking of casting an illusion on the illusion barrier itself and pulling it into reality…?

-That’s right.

She pondered, breaking out in a cold sweat. If she cast an illusion on that massive barrier, she might not just faint, but could even die.

But there was no need to worry about that.

-I’ll help you.

This time, Aiselle stepped forward and suddenly started drawing a magic circle on the ground.

There was no need to ask what she was doing. Hyeijin understood the moment she saw it.

A reconfiguration of illusion magic for Hyeijin. When a mage draws a magic circle, they take on the entire burden themselves.

All the lines, points, patterns, and runes that go into the magic circle.

However, Aiselle chose a rather unique method, trying to use ‘mana stones’ as the medium.

Of course, anyone can use mana stones as a medium. Mana stones are the most basic component when drawing installation-type magic circles.

All mechanical devices used in daily life.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that these mana stones are used in all conveniences, including fluorescent lights, fans, and air conditioners.

But that’s just a ‘battery-like’ method that supplies steady mana at low output, not at all suitable for practical magic that requires ‘generation’.

Such assistance not only doesn’t help even a little, but it could actually be a very dangerous idea that might cause the mana stone to break as soon as the magic is activated, putting the caster at risk.

That is, if you think about it normally.

-The buildings of Arcaneum are all designed to be planned.

Until she heard Aiselle’s calm words.

‘Could it be.’

Hyeijin immediately raised her head and looked up at the sky above Arcaneum.

Buildings rising at the same height at regular intervals. Some buildings were 50 floors, some 70 floors, some 79 floors.

They were all different heights, but… when expanded across the entire Arcaneum, they strictly adhered to the regularity of height in the form of a perfect ‘circle’.

-We’re going to use the buildings of Arcaneum to create a massive three-dimensional magic circle.

And so, back to the present.

Crash-!!!

As the illusion barrier crumbled with a roar, it properly proved that the collaboration of the two girls had finally been successful.

-Amazing… truly.

Even Metler, who rarely gives compliments, was impressed, and Kaen couldn’t hide his surprised eyes.

“Ugh…”

Hyeijin forcibly raised her body and leaned against the building’s railing.

“The witch… the witch…”

All this hard work was to find the witch. She tried to force herself to look down at the ground with a pale expression, but Kaen shook his head.

“It’s too late.”

The scene that met her eyes next.

Stab!!

Baek Yu-seol’s sword had pierced through the witch’s heart.

“…Ah.”

Watching the witch collapse powerlessly, Hyeijin let out a dejected sigh.

“Ugh~ My fate… Is this how it ends after all…”

After all this hardship, the witch ended up dying without even meeting her.

“It can’t be helped.”

-Yeah. Kaen’s right. The fact that he had to kill the witch… there must have been a good reason.

A moment later, Baek Yu-seol also collapsed with a pale complexion, seemingly exhausted, and Flame rushed to catch him.

Soon, the Arcaneum Guardian Magic Warriors began to enter through the broken barrier.

Watching this scene, Metler whistled.

-Whew~ This time was something incredible too. That’s… the corpse of a witch hunter?

“A witch hunter?”

-Ah, you can’t see it, Kaen. When witch hunters die, they leave traces of mana instead of a corpse.

Another witch hunter’s corpse.

“Was that also killed by the witch?”

-Well, who knows. Anyway, those witch hunter guys are harmful to the world, so it’s better they’re gone. Whether Baek Yu-seol killed them or the witch did. It doesn’t really matter, does it?

He’s not wrong.

Witches are harmful to the world.

But witch hunters who kill witches are even more harmful and dangerous.

The anecdote of a witch hunter who destroyed an entire kingdom’s capital just to catch one witch is still famous, and the hatred and anger towards them is no less than the ill feelings accumulated towards witches.

-It’s a shame Hyeijin couldn’t meet the witch, but anyway, we’ve confirmed that both the witch and the witch hunter are dead, so that’s that. Oh boy, the world’s going to be in an uproar for a while again. A witch who was thought to have disappeared suddenly appeared and attacked Arcaneum.

Regardless of Metler’s chatter, Kaen, who had been quietly watching the collapsed Baek Yu-seol, turned his head to look at the fallen Aiselle.

These two girls know too much. It’s dangerous. If it were the usual Kaen, and if these girls were ordinary people…

He might have chosen to kill them without hesitation.

But these girls are special.

Aside from the fact that the Tower Master and Metler directly instructed not to touch them… they were born with ‘destiny’.

“Let’s go back.”

“Uh, uhhh? Already? I’m so tired…”

Hyeijin grumbled, but Kaen, seemingly not paying any attention at all, disappeared with light steps through the air.

“Sigh, my fate. I’m having such a hard time because I met the wrong partner…”

She glanced regretfully at where Baek Yu-seol had fallen, then shook her head to clear her thoughts.

It’s a shame she couldn’t meet and talk with the witch directly… but still, just discovering that witches exist in the world is a big enough achievement.

‘Well, it’s all good.’

Hyeijin disappeared through the air with a grin, following after Kaen.

“Ugh…”

Now, only Aiselle remained there, completely exhausted and drained.

* * *

It was a dark, damp, but cozy space.

The space was filled with green fireflies, and through the open sky, a full moon larger than Earth’s greeted me.

A brilliant Milky Way that seemed to stretch to the end of the world and connect to another world beautifully illuminated the flower field.

The space, abundant with light and mystery, was full of gentleness and happiness, and in the midst of it… there was a woman.

-Come to me…

She beckoned to me.

The name of the woman, colder than moonlight and more sparkling than the Milky Way, was…

‘Leafanel.’

Huh?

As soon as I recognized her, suddenly the colors of the world reversed.

No.

To be precise, the world… turned black.

The withered flower field.

The dead sky.

The garden painted black.

And Leafanel, writhing in pain, wrapped in black energy.

-Come… to me…

Immediately, I snapped back to consciousness.

“Huh!”

Hurriedly feeling my chest and touching my head, I felt my hair warmed by the gentle sunlight.

Perhaps due to sitting up too quickly, my muscles cramped.

As I held my throbbing head and bowed it silently, the door opened with a clatter and a nurse entered.

“Oh, ah! You’re awake.”

Perhaps feeling guilty for not knocking, she made an apologetic expression and then headed somewhere, saying to wait a moment.

‘Was I in a hospital?’

For some reason, I find it difficult to think due to a headache right after waking up.

A feeling like there’s a hole punched through my chest.

Or a feeling of something being stuffed up uncomfortably.

‘Leafanel…’

Was her turning black in the dream just a simple dream, or is it something happening right now?

I became anxious.

‘Should I go right away…?’

As my heart raced, cold sweat broke out and my heart started pounding.

Clatter!

At that moment, the door opened again and someone entered. I thought it was the doctor, but the voice I heard was familiar.

“Commoner. You don’t look well.”

…It was Princess Hong Bi-yeon.

I raised my head and barely met her eyes, and Hong Bi-yeon, who usually had a sullen expression, slightly wrinkled her face.

“You… Did something happen?”

“No, nothing happened.”

“…Then that’s fine.”

Perhaps she bought it as a get-well gift. She placed a very mundane, inefficient, and common fruit basket on the desk and approached me.

“I heard you hunted a witch.”

“…I guess you could say that?”

In the end, I did win, so I suppose it counts as hunting.

If Flame hadn’t helped at the last moment, I would have been trapped in that hellish world forever, writhing in agony and endless despair…

“Commoner.”

“Huh? Oh.”

Hong Bi-yeon, who had been silently glaring at me, suddenly approached and abruptly grabbed my chin, lifting it.

Then, at a distance close enough to feel her breath, she stared into my eyes for a long time. Into those red eyes that still seemed… full of discontent.

My haggard appearance was reflected in them.

‘Ah…’

No matter how I just woke up, was my appearance always like that? Can that appearance be explained away with just a single word about waking up?

A moment later, Hong Bi-yeon released my chin and stepped back a few steps before speaking.

“You’ve done something quite remarkable this time too. I don’t know what you’ve been through, but shake it off quickly.”

Saying that, she left the hospital room, and I, left alone, stared blankly at the white-painted wall.

‘What happened, you ask?’

Nothing like that happened.

This time, no one died, and no one was injured. I was also able to survive without any wounds.

But somehow.

It feels like… my heart has been wounded.

I couldn’t understand why.

‘Because I witnessed despair?’

For the first time in my life, I experienced a pitch-black situation where I couldn’t see any way forward. Really, this had never happened before. So I lost hope, despaired, and was about to give up.

I was… just an ordinary person after all. One who couldn’t even use magic.

Negative emotions like depression, anxiety, and despair kept creeping up in a corner of my heart.

‘Did I really try to save the world?’

The moment such idle thoughts occurred.

Slap!

I slapped my own cheek.

This… was a habit.

During my school days on Earth.

When I lost everything and couldn’t even dream anymore.

I promised myself.

‘I’ll look at the world positively.’

At that time, I was already in a sufficiently desperate situation and there seemed to be no hope at all… but I thought that if even my thoughts turned negative, I really wouldn’t be able to do anything.

I straightened my mind, will, and thoughts to be firm and strong.

But what about now?

Hasn’t my mental strength become even more tattered than back then? Even with the blessing of Red Spring March…

‘…Wait.’

Hold on.

Come to think of it, something’s strange.

In an instant, both negative and positive emotions flew away.

As if they were injected emotions.

I rolled my thoughts as coldly as possible.

‘Why am I like this even with Red Spring March’s blessing?’

It was the same at the last moment of the battle with the witch. At the very end, I gave up, despaired, and was about to submit to the witch.

That was…

Is that really me?

I’ve never given up even when I didn’t have Red Spring March’s blessing.

Yes, it’s certainly an amazing blessing, but… I can proudly say that my own mental strength is already amazing.

I just added Red Spring March as another layer of armor on top of that.

‘What’s going on?’

This strange sensation of feeling empty and having my emotions constantly shaken.

I immediately opened my status window to check the skill window, but there was no problem with Red Spring March’s blessing.

Creeping…

Something tried to seep into my mind again, but I was able to block it by closing my eyes tightly and concentrating.

‘There’s a problem.’

I can be certain.

This isn’t a problem with me.

It’s a problem with Leafanel, Red Spring March, or Flowerseorin, who are connected to my mind.

This was also something that didn’t happen in the original episodes, but I could think calmly and rationally without panicking. I could sufficiently consider the possibilities and causes.

‘An ordinary person?’

I keep trying to put myself down as an ordinary person, but that’s wrong.

I was… the only player who saw the end of Aether World Online, so I could have some pride in being the most extraordinary among ordinary people.

‘I need to check it out myself.’

After the witch incident, they probably won’t say much even if I miss a few days of classes.

I immediately got up from the bed, changed into my Stella uniform, and left the hospital room.

If my intuition is bad, I just need to find out and solve it myself.

Thinking this, I flung open the door of the hospital room.

“..Huh?”

As soon as I opened the door, I made eye contact with someone standing there.

Arain, the Commander of the Stella Knights.

He glanced at me with cold eyes, but before that, I had one question.

“What are you… doing here…?”

If he came to visit, he should at least knock.

What on earth was he doing just standing there awkwardly?

Arain remained silent for a while before finally parting his lips.

“I was going to. I just couldn’t find the right timing.”

“…Ah. I see.”

He’s a peculiar person, anyway.

“Let’s have a little chat.”

As Arain said this and entered the hospital room, I had no choice but to return as well.

While I had urgent matters to attend to, it was also important to deal with the aftermath of the incident I had just experienced.

End of Chapter