Magic Academy's Genius Blinker - Chapter 256
Chapter 256
The Noble Soul (6)
***
Spirit Leafanel’s Garden.
Had it been in the early days of the semester when I first came here?
Back then, I barely had any understanding of Mana Leakage Syndrome.
Mana Leakage Syndrome… Thinking about it now, she was probably the one who helped me the most.
It wasn’t just that I came to understand the secret of my body—it was thanks to her that I overcame my terminal condition.
Sure, there were other methods besides Leafanel’s help… but honestly, I wasn’t sure if I could have succeeded before graduating from Stella. For that, I’m always grateful to her.
However, I never had the chance to express that gratitude. My meeting with her was brief, and even after she woke up, she continued slumbering, leaving us no opportunity for proper conversation.
As the distance between us grew, so did the emotional gap… Honestly, I had completely forgotten about her until now.
If I had to make an excuse, I was really busy. So busy that the word didn’t even begin to cover it. I spent my entire summer vacation racing around Aether nonstop. I even went on a time travel journey.
…Even so, Leafanel had just woken up and was in a very fragile and vulnerable state, so I should have paid more attention and visited her frequently.
After all, the story had diverged completely from the original game.
“The concentration of mana… is decreasing,” Flowerseorin said, and I nodded. Most ordinary people wouldn’t notice, but to those of us sensitive to mana, there was a subtle sense of something being wrong.
The path leading to Leafanel’s garden wasn’t a well-trodden one, being a treacherous terrain not designed for regular travel. It had been extremely difficult to navigate alone, but with Flowerseorin by my side, the burden was much lighter.
Srrrk…
Wherever she walked, even places without paths, a way appeared.
Leaves that obstructed our view parted on their own, and petals descended from the sky to create stepping stones.
Some might find the sight beautiful, mysterious, or even enchanting, but to be honest, I just found it convenient.
If only I had an ability like that… how easy things would be.
Before I knew it, we had arrived at our destination. Flowerseorin came to a stop, and the petals and branches that had gathered to assist her quietly withdrew.
“…I don’t like the feeling here.”
The entrance to the garden was entwined with the branches of the World Tree, invisible to most elves.
But with a wave of Flowerseorin’s hand, the vines parted, revealing an ancient, moss-covered stone. This was the entrance to the garden.
I stepped forward and pulled out the key that provided access to the garden.
“That’s…”
“I received it as a gift a while ago.”
“A gift? You were given a key…?”
“Yes.”
Technically, it wasn’t a lie. The key had been given to me as part of the Constellatio Project, after all.
Click!
[The door to Spirit Leafanel’s Garden is opening!]
As I placed the key on the stone, it shifted aside, revealing a soft white glow. Since Leafanel’s resting place was located slightly beyond the boundaries of our three-dimensional world, the space itself was slightly warped like this.
After exchanging a glance with Flowerseorin, I took a deep breath and stepped into the garden.
Woooong!!
The familiar sensation of space flipping passed quickly, and when I opened my eyes… I found myself inside a garden drenched in violet hues.
“Ugh!”
A wave of dizziness struck me, and I hurriedly reached into my subspace to pull out my mask. Modeled after a gas mask, this device filtered out not toxic gas, but turbid mana.
I had made it because my body was particularly vulnerable to mana with strong colors. I hadn’t expected to use it in Leafanel’s garden, of all places.
“This… can’t be…”
Flowerseorin, who followed me into the garden, gasped as she slowly surveyed the surroundings.
Originally, Leafanel’s garden had been a place filled with a green aura, beautiful and mysterious. But now, it was tainted by a powerful violet miasma.
Even with the mask on, it was difficult to breathe. I might need to ask Alterisha to upgrade its performance further.
“Are you alright?”
“Yes… somehow. But I should be asking you that.”
“Me?”
Flowerseorin’s face was pale.
Her lips were quivering, and her pupils trembled without stopping, a clear sign that she wasn’t in good shape.
Was it because of the dark mana’s contamination?
No, that couldn’t be it.
She was blessed by the World Tree, so there was no way she would be affected by such a small amount of dark mana.
No… Flowerseorin was in a state of panic because she couldn’t believe that such dark mana could exist in Leafanel’s garden.
Surprisingly, thanks to Red Spring March’s blessing, she almost didn’t show it on the surface, and I might not have noticed if I hadn’t been paying close attention.
“Calm down.”
“Ah…”
I held both of her hands firmly and spoke.
“We don’t know what’s happened inside yet.”
She bit her lip and looked at me with trembling eyes, then tightly shut them.
“Yes. Let’s go quickly.”
Even though the garden was tainted by dark mana, nothing had really changed about Leafanel’s garden.
I remember hunting plant-based monsters here before, but they were all like golems that Leafanel had created to protect herself, so they weren’t here now.
Ironically, it felt even more like a dungeon now, yet there wasn’t a single monster in sight. What a strange situation.
Cautiously, Flowerseorin and I walked for a long time until we reached the end of the garden, where a large stone wall blocked our path.
This hadn’t been here before… but judging by how familiar Flowerseorin seemed with it, it must have appeared after my last visit.
“This is… a barrier Leafanel puts up when she doesn’t want to let outsiders in.”
“A barrier?”
To me, it just looked like an ordinary rock.
Fortunately, it seemed Flowerseorin knew the password. She placed her hand on the barrier and recited an incantation.
Woooong!!
Red, blue, and yellow circular magic circles rippled through the air, and with a loud clanking sound, the stone wall began to slide aside with a rumbling noise.
And then, a breeze brushed against my cheek.
Moonlight poured down in a cascade.
It was still a beautiful sight.
In the sky, three moons—larger than the one on Earth—hung bright, and a silver-colored galaxy stretched across the heavens, filling the garden with its glow.
Beneath that moonlight, in the vast flower field, she was there.
Spirit Leafanel.
Once trapped in time, her heart stopped, but now, she had been given a new life.
Yet she remained, eyes closed, frozen in place.
She was in the same posture I remembered from last time. Kneeling with her hands clasped together as if in prayer, like a statue. Though she had appeared as a woman back then, her current form was that of a much younger girl, her expression twisted as if in sorrow.
“Leafanel…”
Once radiant with a cool, icy blue light, Leafanel was now stained in violet. Someone had clearly tainted her with dark mana.
Flowerseorin covered her mouth in distress, but I remained calm, calculating the situation.
‘Why?’
Why had Leafanel been stained with darkness?
As far as I knew… about a year from now, the ‘Dark Mage Holy War’ was supposed to take place.
At that time, Leafanel would be tainted by dark mana, but the cause of her corruption was never revealed.
Some players speculated that it was an attempt to brainwash Flowerseorin with dark mana, to use her as a pawn in the Dark Mage Holy War.
But the Dark Mage Holy War was still a long way off… and it was uncertain whether that event would even occur.
After all… the Dark Mage Holy War only happened in the storylines where Ma Yuseong fell to darkness.
“This… doesn’t make sense.”
“…What?”
Beside me, Flowerseorin shook her head, her lips parting to speak.
“It’s impossible to taint a spirit with darkness.”
“With this level of concentration… Leafanel might not have been able to endure it. She’s weakened, after all.”
“That’s not what I mean.”
“What?”
She spoke with a firm expression.
“Leafanel is a spirit. The moment she ascended as a spirit… she gained the qualification of a ‘Noble Soul’ that can never be corrupted by anything in this world.”
“Ah.”
For a brief moment, it felt like someone had struck me over the head with a hammer.
Why had I never questioned that before? A Noble Soul cannot be tainted by dark mana, and a spirit’s soul is always pure.
The obviousness of this simple truth had eluded me, because… in the original game, Leafanel’s corruption had been surprisingly common.
But I had never been told the reason.
I had merely played through the story because it existed, repeatedly heading into dungeons to fight Leafanel as the episodes required.
I had never even tried to think about what could have caused her corruption.
‘How did they manage to corrupt a Noble Soul? Was there really a villain with the power to do so?’
It was all a mystery.
“Sigh…”
I didn’t know the cause, nor the culprit.
I slowly approached Leafanel. She was still kneeling, eyes tightly shut, her hands clasped together over her chest. Her expression was one of deep fear, as though she had been terrified by something.
“I should have come sooner…”
She didn’t respond to my voice.
The small scream that had been ringing in my ears earlier was no longer audible.
What I had thought was just a hallucination turned out to be Leafanel’s cry for help.
‘Wait… Does that mean she was still conscious until at least a week ago?’
How could she have become so thoroughly corrupted in such a short time?
No matter how powerful the Dark Mage King might be, corrupting a spirit to this extent should have been impossible.
I hurriedly looked around.
The dark mana that stained everything in violet.
Now that I examined it more closely… there wasn’t even a trace of the green mana that Leafanel had originally possessed.
Only the violet mana remained. And that violet energy, which permeated the entire space… It blended so naturally with the environment that it seemed as if it had been there for centuries.
“Could this be…?”
Sensing that something was off, I was about to say something to Flowerseorin, when suddenly, she staggered and collapsed to her knees.
– Thud –
“What? Are you okay?”
I quickly supported her as she clutched her head in pain, a cold sweat dripping down her face.
“…Yes. I’m fine.”
“What happened…? Is the dark mana too much for you?”
“That’s not it… The World Tree keeps speaking to me…”
“What is it saying?”
Flowerseorin shook her head, then slowly parted her pink lips.
“That an unwanted guest has arrived… bearing the aura of the Tan Earth.”
“Tan Earth…?”
The unfamiliar yet somewhat familiar term left me momentarily dazed, but soon, my Bulbul Glasses automatically searched the term and displayed the information before my eyes.
In that instant, I felt a chill run down my spine.
‘Could it be…?’
There were only two beings in this world with such a distinct aura.
One of them never moved, leaving only one possible person.
‘Cheollibeun.’
It could only be that legendary dark mage.
End of Chapter.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
Ddaniel112
Some names are wrong