Academy's Gumiho is a Magic Genius

Chapter 22: Decision [2]

"Why are you all here...?"

There wasn't just one unexpected person, but two.

And they were both students.

I wasn't a teaching assistant who helped with lectures, so I wasn't close to the students.

Yet, both of them were familiar faces.

"...Hi."

"Assistant! You're here. I've been looking for you since yesterday!"

They were lovely female students.

Perhaps it was because it was the season when flowers were blooming. They were incredibly beautiful girls, but that wasn't my concern.

The only thing I was curious about was why they had come looking for me.

"...Why did you come looking for me?"

I tilted my head slightly.

I was so embarrassed that my face turned red.

It wasn't because of a rational heartbeat. It was because of the guilt that tightened my chest and the shame that made me want to hide in a mouse hole.

The two girls looked at me and spoke.

'...I don't want to hear it.'

I didn't know what they were going to say, but I didn't want to hear it.

I wanted to cover my ears.

But my ears were open, and they spoke.

"Thank you for saving us!"

"...Th-Thank you."

Yeah, I didn't want to hear that.

I couldn't help but know who these two girls were.

After all, I had saved both of them.

The cheerful girl was Yura, whom I had saved when she was almost crushed by a monster. The quiet-talking girl was Seo Yerin, whose tone was now familiar and even welcoming.

"You were so cool back then! You were moving around with flames, and then whoosh, you moved, and the monster just collapsed!"

"...Yura, be quiet in front of the patient..."

"Oh, and I heard from Yerin. When you saved me last time, you saved Yerin first, right?"

Yura, with her bright demeanour, patted Seo Yerin's back.

"You should thank the assistant too!"

"I just did...?"

"Hey, you can't thank the assistant in informal speech."

"...But, but..."

"Yerin?"

As Seo Yerin, who lacked social skills, bowed her head, Yura asked in a questioning tone. Was she really not going to thank him?

Under that pressure, Seo Yerin barely opened her mouth.

Her mouth moved like a goldfish's, making Yura tilt her head.

That silent pressure pushed Seo Yerin's back. She struggled to speak, recalling if she had ever thanked someone in a formal speech before.

"Th-Thank... you..."

Seo Yerin's sincere gratitude.

Even though there was pressure, her gratitude wasn't diluted.

The genuine gratitude she conveyed only poisoned me further.

I bowed my head in shame and covered my face with my right hand.

I wasn't crying or in pain. I just had a numb expression.

'...I don't know what expression to make.'

I was familiar with corpses.

From the corpses of strangers to the corpses of a mother and daughter who had relied on each other in death.

Even the corpses of comrades who had overcome hardships together.

I had seen so many corpses that I had become numb to death, and I had personally recovered quite a few. Amidst all that, the deaths of nine students didn't move me much.

But this time was a bit different.

'While saving those kids, I killed innocent children.'

In economic terms, there's a word called "equivalent exchange."

It means exchanging two items of equal value.

And I had exchanged the lives of two groups of equal numbers.

That wasn't my original intention.

I wanted to save the nine students who were unjustly dying.

But in return, another nine innocent students, who had nothing to do with this episode, died. I saved nine innocent lives and sent another nine innocent lives to their deaths.

What kind of miserable death is this?

As I looked at the students' corpses, I felt it deeply.

No matter what I did, this world wouldn't change.

It was following the original development and scenario of this world.

That's a good thing. At least it means the world's ending is a happy one.

Of course, the people who would die along the way weighed on my mind.

But I didn't have the confidence to rise up again.

What if I stepped forward again and people died?

What if those people had nothing to do with the scenario? Could I endure that then?

As I was floundering in deep emotions, it was Yura who pulled me up.

"Assistant, are you okay?"

She grabbed my hand and knelt to meet my eye level.

I raised my head at her worried gaze. My haggard face was reflected in her clear eyes.

If even I felt this way, how must she feel, watching from right in front of me?

Yura looked anxious.

"A-Are you okay? No, no matter how I look at it, you don't seem okay! Let's go to the infirmary!"

"No, I'm really fine. Let go of my hand."

"...Really?"

"I'll be fine in a week, so there's no need to go to the infirmary."

I persuaded Yura with a soothing tone.

It was obvious that going to the infirmary now would only waste the health teacher's time. Even though I was on the verge of death, I would gradually recover as the elixir's effects spread.

In a week, the elixir's effects would permeate my entire body.

Since I didn't have the energy to explain all that, I just said I was fine. Yura let out a sigh of relief as if she believed me.

"Phew, that's a relief. But then, is it a mental issue?"

"...Maybe."

"Assistant. Could you look me straight in the eye?"

She sat on the bench beside me and stared at me intently.

Why does everyone sit next to me?

Did someone spread honey there?

Regardless, Yura seemed determined to make eye contact with me, even if she had to force it. She brought her hands to my face and turned my head.

My weak body couldn't withstand her strength.

As our eyes met, she smiled brightly.

Her face came into view. The moment I thought her eyes were pretty.

"...!"

"...You must have suffered a lot."

"...Uh, uh..."

In an instant, my mind flashed.

It felt like something had glimpsed a fragment of my emotions.

I blinked in confusion at the inexplicable discomfort, and Yura was right in front of me.

Really right in front.

A message appeared before my eyes.

Now that I think about it, I have received a main quest.

Why is this appearing now?

It's already been two days.

So why is it only being cleared now?

[Following the Main Quest 'Responsibility,' a new linked quest is being generated.]

[Main Quest: Decision]

[Description: Your actions were clumsy and unprepared. As a result, the protagonist awakened as planned, and unrelated students became sacrifices to the scenario.

Nevertheless, you have decided to continue down this path. What lies at the end of this decision is unknown to anyone.]

[Clear Conditions: 1. Intervene in a new episode in advance, 2. Exclude the protagonist's intervention.]

[Success Reward: 'Point Shop' unlocked, 'Trait Catalog' granted.]

[Failure: The protagonist will fully accept the original scenario.]

I see, now I understand why this message finally appeared.

It must be because of the linked quest that followed.

As I read the quest details, I felt the need to grow stronger as soon as possible.

I had deeply felt my own weakness.

I need to build up my strength before the next incident occurs. To do that, there's a place I need to visit first.

A place related to my eyes.

To get there, I bid farewell to Yura and Seo Yerin and left.

***

Seung-woo walked confidently somewhere.

Watching him, Yura's eyes widened.

How could his back look so cool?

She blushed and recalled an unforgettable memory.

That day she didn't want to think about.

The day the assistant saved her, she saw that back.

It was a broad and reliable back.

And with that back, he saved her from being crushed to death.

It truly became a memory she would never forget.

"...Yura, your personality... has changed."

"Huh? I don't think so."

"That's what's strange..."

Seo Yerin, standing right beside her, gave her a reproachful look.

She was bewildered by her friend's sudden change.

Unlike herself, who had almost no interpersonal relationships, Yura was always at the centre of people. They were complete opposites in personality.

But that's why they could become friends.

Because they were friends, she had often seen and couldn't help but know.

"You... weren't interested in guys before."

"Did I say that? I have a lot of boyfriends, you know?"

"Those are all just guy friends."

"So what?"

Sighing, Seo Yerin grabbed her head.

Unlike herself, who was unsociable, Yura had many friends regardless of gender. And she received confessions just as often.

It had only been a month since they enrolled.

The number of people who had confessed to Yura, who exuded the charm of a fresh girl, had already surpassed the number that could be counted on two hands.

Seo Yerin had seen over twelve male students confess to her just from being by her side.

Who knows how many more had confessed when she wasn't around?

"...You always kept your distance from guys."

"I didn't mean to..."

They say there's no such thing as friendship between men and women.

As the saying goes, the guys around Yura, though they called themselves friends, were all hoping to get closer to her.

Yura seemed to know this too, as she usually limited her contact with guys.

"Wow... Isn't it so cool?"

"...What is?"

"That back view. There's a beauty that even a patient gown can't hide."

Seo Yerin shook her head at her friend, who was making a foolish expression.

She's completely gone. How did her friend, who had little interest in guys, end up like this?

To be fair, his face was worth looking at.

She agreed on that much. But she didn't like his personality.

Well, their first meeting started with a misunderstanding, so it was natural.

Of course, she wasn't holding onto the past now.

No matter what, he was the benefactor who had saved her and her friend.

It was too much to treat him with the narrow-minded perspective she had before, given how grateful she was.

But seeing her friend's foolish expression, she didn't know how to react. With no conversational skills or sociability, she felt extremely frustrated.

While Seo Yerin was like this.

Yura was blankly staring at the path Seung-woo had walked, even though he was gone.

She clearly knew what her own emotions were.

Perhaps because she was born with the ability to glimpse others' emotions and senses. She didn't mistake her own emotions for others.

The warmth rising in her chest was certain.

"The trigger was definitely something trivial."

Their first meeting was in the classroom.

The man who appeared as an assistant in the famous Nam Hwa-yeon's lecture. His appearance, which captivated countless girls and women, was incredibly dangerous.

It was like the ideal appearance people imagined. He seemed to embody it.

But she didn't fall in love at first sight.

Though his appearance was the type to make one fall at first sight, at first, he was just a beautiful man.

Nearly a month had passed since then.

Enough time for the strong first impression to fade. Yura was in the process of slowly forgetting about Baek Seung-woo during that time.

The day she almost died.

In a desperate situation where she couldn't expect help from friends and couldn't overcome it with her own strength.

He saved her.

Just now, holding his hand, she realized.

He was weak. Extremely weak.

He was a frail person who was dragged around by her strength, which was below the grade average. Yet, despite being so weak, he had saved her.

Even in a situation where it was hard to catch his breath from exhaustion, he calmed her by stroking her head.

The situation was urgent, but looking back, it wasn't much.

Yet, why does thinking about that time make her chest feel warm?

The back that protected her. The flames that brightly illuminated the surroundings in a situation where cold death was tightening its grip.

Even now, closing her eyes brings it back.

A moment that was scary but joyful, cold but warm.

The flames of that day were still burning in the girl's chest, refusing to die out.

Even if it was a trivial trigger.

As is often the case with young students, first love comes without warning.

***

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