Magic Academy's Genius Blinker-Chapter 532: The Dark Mage King (1)

A week had passed since Baek Yu-Seol returned to Stella.

From the day of his return, he had been extremely busy without a moment’s rest, as his schedule was completely packed.

Having abruptly canceled his prior commitments to embark on a long journey to find Scarlet, he now had to make up for lost time.

Baek Yu-Seol, who had gained a certain level of social standing within the magical community, knew that disappearing without notice for so long had caused quite a stir in magical circles.

Fortunately, Elthman had stepped in to placate the mages who visited Stella. However, many institutions were still furious over his unauthorized absence.

Of course, when Baek Yu-Seol explained that he had spent a month searching for a missing student, most people apologized, saying they hadn’t known the circumstances.

But there were still those who prioritized their own interests over the disappearance of a mere student, and to them, his explanation held no weight.

’Honestly, I don’t need to work with those types of people anyway, so it doesn’t matter.’

This situation even presented an opportunity for Baek Yu-Seol to sever ties with those institutions that had only invited him for their profit. In the end, it might have been for the best.

Of course, external matters weren’t the only concern, Stella had its own share of responsibilities. The next set of finals was approaching, after all.

"Haa..." 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

During a rare moment of downtime, Baek Yu-Seol headed to the study hall to make use of the little free time he had.

The second-semester finals for second-years.

In the game, this was also a period where many incidents occurred.

For example, there was a storyline where Flame, whose stats had now reached near-overpowered levels, surpassed Ma Yu-Seong. In one scenario, Ma Yu-Seong lost to Flame and succumbed to darkness; in another, he descended into darkness for unrelated reasons.

’This was definitely a part where you had to pay a lot of attention to Ma Yu-Seong...’

Thud!

Baek Yu-Seol placed three heavy textbooks on a study hall desk.

These are ridiculously heavy. How do these kids even carry this stuff around and study?

Taking off his glasses, he glanced at the books. He wasn’t expecting to suddenly catch up to Stella’s geniuses by studying now, it was far too late for that.

He simply wanted to test his knowledge and abilities.

’Up until now, I couldn’t do anything without the help of these specs.’

But recently, he had found himself able to understand magic and recall stories or future events even without wearing the glasses.

Baek Yu-Seol had spent a long time pondering the reason for this.

The strange incident he had experienced in the Gray Temple—

The chilling, vivid memories of dying dozens of times just to defeat a single boss monster had left a deep impression on him.

’If every time I died in the game was actually the real Baek Yu-Seol dying...’

If that were the case, then the vast amount of data stored in the Sentient Spec might not just be an external source of information. It could instead be the accumulated knowledge and experiences of all the Baek Yu-Seols who had come before him.

To prove this theory, he needed to be able to perfectly comprehend the textbooks without using the glasses.

Since the Sentient Spec contained most of the world’s magical knowledge, even a genius like him should be able to easily understand the textbooks used by Stella’s students, who were barely in their teens.

With this in mind, Baek Yu-Seol sat quietly and stared intently at the textbook for about 10 minutes.

Sweat began to bead on his forehead.

"I don’t... understand any of this."

It was as if the book were written in a completely foreign language, it made no sense at all.

If the knowledge in the Sentient Spec truly belonged to him, he should have been able to read it effortlessly.

"Hmm."

Or perhaps there was some condition?

He suspected that there must be a specific method to recall the knowledge within the glasses, essentially the memories of the countless other Baek Yu-Seols.

After all, if there wasn’t such a mechanism, the idea of selectively accessing only the necessary information in certain situations wouldn’t make sense.

If the memories had truly returned, then all of them should have come flooding back at once.

’That could be dangerous...’

The ’other Baek Yu-Seols’ in alternate worlds must have experienced thousands, if not tens of thousands, of deaths. Whether the Baek Yu-Seol in reality could endure such experiences, even if he were to receive them, was uncertain.

Not just a single death, but tens of thousands of them, even with the mental protection provided by the blessing of Pink Spring Moon, it would be unbearable.

In other words, it seemed that some form of training was required. Training to retrieve and use the necessary knowledge when needed.

Someone might suggest simply using the Sentient Spec to access the information, but there was a vast difference between reading the glasses’ guidance messages and having knowledge emerge naturally in your mind and understanding it intuitively.

’Has my training workload increased?’

Since he hadn’t been training for a while, he needed to resume intense physical conditioning and mental discipline. And now, another layer of training had been added.

Suddenly, Baek Yu-Seol began questioning his swordsmanship training.

’Come to think of it... I was told to refrain from further developing my swordsmanship.’

Back when he was traversing the spatial distortion maze in the Church, Baek Yu-Seol had instinctively felt that he could slice through space itself.

He succeeded in cutting through space, but the consequences were severe, an enormous side effect he had never experienced before left him collapsed.

Another Baek Yu-Seol observed the aftermath and had advised him not to use that ability recklessly, saying that his’narrative power was insufficient.

But...

’I know too little to simply accept that advice.’

He had gained the ability to cut through space, but now he was being told not to use it.

That power would undoubtedly be incredibly useful in facing Fawn Prevernal Moon in the future.

He desperately wanted to test it himself, but if he collapsed again, it would further derail his already chaotic schedule. He couldn’t afford that.

"In that case..."

He thought it might be a good idea to seek advice from Scarlet, who had once fought and trained with the greatest swordsmen of the distant past.

With that thought, Baek Yu-Seol immediately sprang into action.

Since it was past 6 p.m. and most of the students were heading home, finding Scarlet wouldn’t be too difficult.

Though it was the finals period, and the study halls were packed, Scarlet wasn’t exactly the type to spend her time studying. She had most likely returned to the dormitory.

Baek Yu-Seol’s first destination was the first-year girls’ dormitory.

Of course, getting caught by the dormitory warden would result in a severe scolding, but Baek Yu-Seol had long since become skilled enough not to get caught by such measures.

Using the experience he had accumulated in real battles to sneak into the girls’ dormitory without the warden noticing might have been a bit embarrassing, but getting inside was, in any case, an effortless task.

"She’s not here?"

A first-year student timidly replied, "Uh, no! Scarlet always goes to the snack shop around this time."

"The snack shop, huh... Does she even have money?"

That thought came to him first, but then he remembered Scarlet’s past as someone who had wandered around society in her avatar form, even establishing a massive mage tower.

"Ah, right..."

As Baek Yu-Seol needlessly pondered Scarlet’s finances, the first-year female students who had answered his earlier questions cautiously spoke up again.

"By the way... is that rumor true?"

"What rumor?"

Since there were countless rumors about him, Baek Yu-Seol had recently started tuning them out entirely.

Being busy, he didn’t even know what people were saying about him lately.

"That you’re dating Scarlet from Class S..."

"...What?"

For a moment, Baek Yu-Seol wondered why such a rumor was even circulating. Then it hit him, he had been away for quite a while recently, all to bring Scarlet back.

’So rumors can spread from something like that. Teenagers really are fascinating.’

Of course, the problem wasn’t teenagers, it was Baek Yu-Seol’s own actions, though he seemed completely unaware of that.

"It’s not like that. It’s just..."

Baek Yu-Seol was about to say she was a close older sister but quickly corrected himself.

"A close younger sister, that’s all."

Since Scarlet was officially seventeen, it made sense to refer to her as a younger sibling.

"Hmm... is that really true?"

However, the previously shy female students suddenly narrowed their eyes suspiciously when Baek Yu-Seol denied the rumor. Their expressions clearly said, "We know the truth, so there’s no point lying."

Seeing those faces, Baek Yu-Seol felt exasperated.

"It’s seriously not true."

"Is that so? I guess it could be. Then again, I heard you denied it just as firmly when you were dating other seniors..."

"What nonsense is this?"

Since enrolling in Stella, Baek Yu-Seol had never been in a relationship. Sure, he had pretended to date Flame once, but as someone who had been single his entire life, he found this misunderstanding ridiculous.

"Anyway, since you’re here to meet Scarlet, we’ll get out of your way!"

"Oh, right! We’ve been holding you up for too long. Go on, hurry!"

With that, the younger students quickly cleared the area, leaving Baek Yu-Seol scratching the back of his head as he made his way to the snack shop.

By now, he was more tired of these rumors than shocked, and he didn’t even feel like explaining anymore.

’The end of the world is approaching, yet they’re so obsessed with dating rumors. How foolish.’

If people were as wise as Eisel or Scarlet, they wouldn’t pay such rumors any mind.

***

"Long time no see!"

Finding Scarlet wasn’t difficult.

Near the snack shop was a small park where students often gathered to eat food they’d purchased. Scarlet, unsurprisingly, was there, sitting at a table with her friends, enjoying some bread.

But why did the word ’long time’ from Scarlet’s mouth sound so ominous?

"A long time... really?"

Sure, he hadn’t seen her much since bringing her back a week ago, but did that really qualify as a long time?

"It has been a while."

"Y-yeah, I guess so."

However, Scarlet’s voice suddenly turned icy, and Baek Yu-Seol quickly agreed, sensing it was the safer choice.

"So, what do you want to say?"

In truth, he had come to ask about Ha Tae-Ryeong’s swordsmanship, but he found himself unable to bring it up.

His instincts - keenly attuned to the natural flow of the world - screamed that mentioning such a trivial reason might just irritate her.

It was comical, really. The ability to merge with nature and attune to the essence of all things, being used to decipher a woman’s mood. But considering that the woman in question was the Witch Queen, it could be called a practical application.

"I do have something to talk about..."

But maybe it’s better to bring up Ha Tae-Ryeong later.

So what should he talk about now?

The truth was, he didn’t really have anything to say.

It was like one of those situations where a senior in the military says, "Hey, rookie, tell us a funny story." And even though you’re usually full of jokes, in that moment, your mind goes blank.

That was exactly how Baek Yu-Seol felt.

Unable to come up with anything, he avoided Scarlet’s gaze. His eyes landed on the other students who had been chatting with her.

Their gazes met, and they immediately got the message. They hurriedly stood up from their seats.

"Oh! We didn’t realize we were in the way!"

"We’ll just step aside for a moment."

"Come on, let’s go quickly."

"Wait, hey, hold on a second!"

That hadn’t been his intention, but the students hurriedly moved to another spot, leaving him no choice but to say something now.

Desperate, Baek Yu-Seol decided to bring up the topic he’d overheard earlier.

"You’ve heard about that, haven’t you?"

"Hm? I don’t really know... about what?"

"...The rumor. You know, that rumor."

"Ohhh, that one. They say red scarves are trending for fall outfits, right?"

"Urgh."

Baek Yu-Seol felt a pang of familiarity with this situation.

It reminded him of something from his previous life.

There were some women in their twenties who, when in conversations with men, would intentionally pretend not to understand, deliberately steering the topic away from what the man was hinting at.

If he played into it and brought up the topic directly, he would instantly become the one on the defensive.

Reluctantly, Baek Yu-Seol decided to play the defensive role.

"There’s this rumor going around about you and me dating..."

"Oh, I know about that. What about it?"

"I mean, I was just worried it might be making things difficult for you..."

"Baek Yu-Seol."

Before he could stumble further through his awkward explanation, Scarlet cut him off, somehow having picked up on his hesitation like a hawk.

But her voice wasn’t cold.

In fact, it was the opposite.

"I don’t care about those kinds of rumors. You know that, right?"

"I do, but still..."

"So, is that why you haven’t been showing your face around lately? Because of those rumors?"

"Uh... yeah, I guess?"

That wasn’t entirely true, but since the conversation seemed to be tilting in his favor, Baek Yu-Seol quickly nodded.

Scarlet sighed, pressing her hand to her forehead before subtly turning her head toward something else.

’Huh?’

Baek Yu-Seol noticed the faint, familiar presence of mana in the air, almost like the crackling of fire.

He tried to turn his head to look, but Scarlet swiftly grabbed his cheek and stopped him.

"Where do you think you’re looking?"

"No, it’s nothing..."

"I told you, I don’t care. About the rumor, I mean."

"Really?"

"If anything, it feels nice. Dating, huh? I’ve never done that before."

"Not even once? Even though you’ve lived for a thousand years?"

"Think about it. I’ve been the Witch Queen ever since I was born. Who would dare try to date me? So, living a teenage life now and having rumors like this is... well, a kind of amusement for me. So you can act however you want. I’m enjoying all of it."

The Witch Queen, who had lived for a thousand years, was enjoying herself.

At her words, Baek Yu-Seol felt like he’d had a profound realization.

He was the one who had brought Scarlet back and forced her into life at Stella.

Wouldn’t it be cruel to just leave her alone like this?

If she found even a little joy in this situation, then perhaps even these ridiculous rumors had some great value.

"...Alright, I’ll go along with it."

When Baek Yu-Seol agreed, Scarlet beamed brightly and said, "So it’s settled then? Make sure to show up more often, okay?"

"Uh, yeah, got it..."

"Great! I’ve got some things to talk about with my friends, so I’ll be off now!"

With a cheerful expression, Scarlet walked off toward the other students who had fled to another table.

Baek Yu-Seol watched her retreating figure with a complicated expression.

’If Scarlet is satisfied...’

While lost in thought, he suddenly felt a fiery gaze from somewhere. Startled, he quickly turned his head to the source.

’Huh?’

Standing there was a girl, staring at him with an intensity so hot it was almost tangible.

It baffled him how he hadn’t noticed her presence until now.