Academy's Gumiho is a Magic Genius – Chapter 6
A girl had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, aiming for my throat.
I wondered if she was an assassin, so I checked her outfit. She was wearing the academy-issued training uniformblack with accents of sky blue.
If my memory served right, that color scheme was for first-year freshmen.
'Was she training too?'
Sweat poured down the girl's face like rain.
Clear evidence of intense practice.
I had no idea who she was or what she'd been training, though.
Right now, I only had one option.
"H-Hold on... Could you move that spear away from my throat...?"
All I could do was plead for her to remove the spear pressing against my Adam's apple.
She didn't seem like someone I could handle on my own, and she'd move faster than I could cast a flame spell. In this situation, talking was my best bet.
Squeeze.
But the world doesn't always go your way.
I desperately realized that as the pressure on my throat only intensified after my plea.
"...What if I attack you instead?"
"W-Why would I attack... Ugh!"
"You just did. Attacked."
"What? I attacked...?"
Her speech was oddly halting.
Chilseong Academy was a world-class institution with plenty of international students. But this didn't feel like unfamiliarity with a foreign language.
It was short, deliberatelike she didn't want to drag out the conversation. Yet she packed the essentials, making it easy to understand.
'...I attacked? Oh, she must mean the fireball.'
The [Fireball] I'd conjured just to test out the spell I'd learned.
It was unfair from my perspective, but she could've seen it as an incoming attack. From the circumstances, it looked like she'd neutralized me thinking I was coming for her.
Time to clear up the misunderstanding, fast.
"I-It wasn't on purpose...!"
"...Then, an accident?"
"Y-Yeah! So please ease up on my throat. Can't... breathe...!"
"...Liar."
Squuuueeeze!
Contrary to my expectations, she pressed harder.
What on earth did she have against me?
"It's not a lie...! I-I was just testing a spell...!"
"...Testing a spell?"
"Y-Yeah! There's no way I could take you down with my skills anyway!"
I wanted to snap at her, but she held the power here. Best to play weak and slip away.
"L-Look at my arms. Does this scrawny body look like it could hurt you?!"
I thrust my right arm out for her to inspect.
The pressure on my throat tightened further at first, but then she glanced at my bony, twig-like arm and loosened her grip.
Her gaze swept over my entire frame.
Confusion crept onto her previously emotionless face.
"...How is a body this thin even possible."
"I-It's not that thin..."
"...I'll let you go. Now."
"..."
"Y-You're right... No way that frail body could hurt me."
My play-weak-and-escape plan worked.
So why did my heart ache like this?
'It's not that frail...'
Maybe because my current body felt so real, like actual flesh. It just felt unfair.
I wanted to say something, but she'd already stood and started swinging her spear.
Clearly, I was beneath her notice.
Even as I itched to speak up, she'd slipped into a flow state mid-swing.
Bother her now, and I'd suffer worse than a poked throat.
"Ugh, what a life."
I trudged out of the multi-user training room.
What a mess.
* * *
The same routine as always.
Even after enrolling at the academy, Seo Ye-rin's schedule hadn't changed.
She desperately honed her spearmanship and buried herself in studies. That was her entire day.
To avoid falling behind, she had no room for anything else.
'Even this fills my day to the brim.'
If only a day were longer than twenty-four hours.
She'd had that thought more days than not.
No matter how she sliced her time, it wasn't enough.
She cut rest, trimmed sleep for more training and studying, but ideal results eluded her.
Still, she had to keep at it steadily.
It was all she had.
"If only Grandpa had passed down the family secrets instead of this useless spear art..."
Whoooosh!
She swung her spear.
A massive gust echoed through the training room as her wooden practice spear gleamed.
Carved from wood, it traced a beautiful arc, flowing seamlessly into the next form.
Seo Family Spear Art.
Crafted by her grandfather.
It was undoubtedly profound martial arts, but it fell short for her.
If anything, mastering it only left her wanting more.
'...Too easy.'
Her grandfather was a genius martial artist.
Proof lay in the flawless perfection of his Seo Family Spear Art.
But no risk means no reward.
It prioritized completion over power and subtlety.
Seo Ye-rin found that regrettable.
If only it delved deeper. If it traded flaws for greater strength.
Above all, if she could learn more of his spear arts.
"I... know I can get stronger."
A blazing ambition burned in her chest.
Not some spark you could easily snuff out.
She wanted to grow strongerto match her grandfather, surpass him.
Yet he always said, "Handle your training and studies on your own," fanning her flames one day and dousing them the next.
That's why she entered Chilseong.
Chilseong Academy gathered geniuses her age from everywhere.
She thought it would feed her burning drive.
And she was half right.
It did draw elite peers from around the worldsome even ahead of her.
'...Not quite.'
But no real spark yet.
It had only been a month since enrollment, so that was natural.
She needed stimulation.
'Something thrilling, a flash of insight...'
It would be perfect.
Inspiration, guidanceanything.
She craved it desperately.
So she reached for a new field.
Healing studiesthe polar opposite of the wounding and defensive arts she'd trained in.
For her, treating wounds and curses was a fresh shock.
A whole new stimulus.
Originally just a rote subject for good grades, now she yearned to delve deeper.
She wanted to study healing more.
But no one to ask.
The healing professor hated questions, and her one friend knew nothing outside her major.
Library it was.
Seo Ye-rin bolted there the moment classes ended.
"...Good."
A smile bloomed as she pulled out a book and read.
It started as a quest for knowledge, but now she loved the quiet and the scent of pages.
Best of all: books offered boundless teachings.
Unlike professors hoarding signature techniques or a grandfather preaching self-reliance.
Some skimmed shallow, others deepthey opened new vistas.
But books don't always suffice.
"I need... guidance. My own skills aren't enough."
Reading had limits.
No matter the variety, it was just ink on paper.
Fragments of info.
No substitute for hands-on experience.
Especially for physical arts like spearmanship.
Impatience gnawed at her.
Her talent and intellect were exceptional.
Proven by top-five rankings in practical and written entrance exams.
Proof wasn't enough, though.
While she stagnated lately, most students seemed to soar with professor mentorship.
She still led for now, but who knew when she'd be overtaken? To soothe her inner anxiety, she'd swung her spear from dawn again today.
Effort was her best shot.
Whish!
She swung, chasing hazy memories of motions.
Her "divine spear" grandfather, who'd taught only basicsresented yet emulated from afar long ago. She struggled to recreate it.
She felt utterly pathetic.
Other students had family arts, mentors.
Never her.
She had brilliant talent instead. All the brighter, the harder to find someone to nurture it.
"...If only someoneanyonecould give me guidance, enlightenment."
I'd do anything for it.
That was her clearest, most fervent wish as student and warrior.
As she felt that inner yearning and revisited her grandfather's distant spear forms
Rumble rumble boom!
A quake and explosion rocked the training room.
Startled, she burst next door and caught the man behind it. Public space or not, no etiquetteshe planned a scolding.
But...
"...How is a body this thin even possible."
She couldn't hide her shock.
Her first time seeing such frailty.
His wrists were that slender.
Slender to an extreme.
Not even a middle-schooler nowadays.
'D-Did I... hurt him because of me?'
He was the frailest person she'd ever seen.
Annoyance turned to guilt.
The physical gap was that vast.
Bear versus kit fox.
She had no idea then.
What relationship she'd forge with that frail man later.
Guidance-craving her learning from someone weaker? A distant prospect for now.
* * *
A little time passed after that.
Once my breathing steadied, I left the training room and headed back to the dorm. Tossed my singed clothes in the trash, showered off sweat and soot.
In yesterday's suit, I headed straight to the lab.
7:45 a.m. Earlier than planned, but nothing better to do.
I figured I'd run errands like yesterday.
"Bored."
An hour passed with no one seeking me out.
Nobeing thoroughly ignored.
Was this ostracism?
Heard of it, never thought it'd hit me.
What a no-good day.