Magic Academy’s Genius Blinker

Chapter 210

Old Story (6)

It had been over a week since the expedition team, including Aiselle Morf and Flame, had been wandering the Karakorun Mountain Range.

Though the word ‘expedition’ sounded grand, in reality, it was more of a battle with oneself. Trekking through the unforgiving terrain, fighting monsters, enduring uncomfortable nights in the wilderness, and bravely pressing forward once more.

It was a journey one could only endure with immense physical and mental strength.

“Those kids… they don’t seem to tire.”

“No, they’re very tired. They’re enduring despite it.”

In that sense, it was only natural that the gaze of the expedition team members looking at Aiselle and Flame gradually changed.

At first, they thought of them as naïve students. However, as they realized their knack for skills that could assist the expedition team, they began to recognize their substantial presence.

When it was time to be serious, they were serious. When it was time to fight, they were a significant force. When it was time to rest, they chattered incessantly, lifting the mood and helping the expedition with various skills. In this expedition, their presence was never insignificant.

Flame mingled with various people, but Aiselle did not.

By now, her wariness had eased considerably, but having lived for nearly ten years with the stigma of being a traitor’s child, it was difficult to approach others easily.

Thus, after a day’s exploration ended, Aiselle would lie in a makeshift tent next to Flame and share her old stories only with her.

“What do you think of my father, Flame?”

She thought it was a difficult question.

She had never had a friend ask her about her father.

But then again, Aiselle wasn’t a typical friend. She wasn’t a typical girl, a typical student, or even a typical human.

She was… a very special being.

However, Flame, who had no intention of treating her specially, simply spoke her mind.

“I don’t know.”

“…Is that so?”

“Yeah. To be honest, I’ve never really heard about who your dad is. I spent my days in a rural orphanage, digging up potatoes to eat. What happens in other places isn’t my business.”

Both Flame and Aiselle shared their childhood experiences with each other.

“I had over ten siblings, and we were told to survive on just five potatoes for a meal. I wanted to grab the neck of that mad director and shake her, but I was only ten, so I couldn’t.”

Flame’s childhood lacked clothing and food.

“My father always told me, ‘Follow the path you believe is right.’ Now, I’m not sure what is right.”

Aiselle’s childhood was spent with her always dependable and respected father, Isaac Morf.

When they were alone, Aiselle often shared her stories, and Flame listened quietly.

Reflection.

A truly beautiful and mysterious word.

Even an ordinary human could travel through time with it.

Whenever Aiselle reflected, Flame said nothing. No, perhaps it was more accurate to say she couldn’t say anything.

“I don’t mind if we fail this expedition. I know it’s not easy. But one day, I will clear my father’s name.”

In Aiselle’s memories, Isaac Morf was a righteous and upright father. A great mage who stood firmly on the ground like a great pillar, guarding the world with his unwavering beliefs.

“Aiselle.”

Gently, Flame spoke.

“Yes, please go ahead.”

“If, perhaps, by some chance… if ever…”

Though hesitant, she was about to ask something, but… the timing might have been off.

BEEP-!

WEEEEE! WEEEEE!

The alarm of the barrier set outside the tent rang loudly, sending a wake-up signal.

“Everyone, wake up! Emergency situation!”

“What, what’s going on?”

Since it was their first time in such a situation, they hurriedly crawled out of the tent, flustered.

The other expedition members had already awakened, gathered, and equipped with their gear and staves. Though they weren’t soldiers, they were prepared enough to handle a battle at any moment.

Most of them were 4th-class mages, but they showed the seasoned demeanor of veterans, much more experienced than Flame and Aiselle of the same level.

“What’s the situation?”

The expedition leader asked with a stern expression, and the watchman, still flustered, stammered.

“Over there, over there… quickly! It’s better to see it with your own eyes than to explain!”

Following his words, the entire expedition team headed deep into the mountains without even dismantling their temporary camp.

‘What is this?’

A solid unease started from the heart, traveled through the veins, and settled in the brain.

“…Where’s Kaila?”

And one of those uneases was directly addressed by the expedition leader.

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“Oh? Come to think of it…”

Kaila.

The veteran adventurer who proposed bringing along the two clueless Stella students. She was trusted by the expedition leader and always participated in important decisions, yet she wasn’t present at such a crucial moment?

“Hey, where’s Kaila? What happened?”

The expedition leader asked, and the watchman replied with a deeply furrowed expression.

“She’s… missing.”

“…What?”

“She suddenly needed to use the restroom in the middle of the night and went into the forest. There was no reason to stop her.”

The watchmen were paired in twos.

Kaila was also on watch duty but went into the forest to use the restroom and never returned.

Even though Kaila acted like a brash man, her biological gender was still female. It was awkward to interrupt her while she was attending to her needs, so they didn’t search for her. However, after thirty minutes, they noticed something strange and entered the forest themselves.

And.

“…We found this place.”

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The location they finally reached was.

A gigantic.

…ruined city.

To be precise, it was a ruin.

T h i s w a s c o p ie d fr o m k i ng m t l. o rg
The ruins of a city that perished in ancient times.

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“How… how is this possible…!”

Even the veteran expedition leader was so taken aback that he could only gape, unable to speak. In this situation, anyone would be.

Except for one person.

Flame.

‘…We’ve finally arrived.’

The name of the ruined city laid out before her was ‘Karacornia.’ It was once a small kingdom that flourished long ago…

But one day, it suddenly vanished from the map overnight, becoming one of those myths.

That story was over 900 years old and was almost unrecorded in history, regarded merely as a legend.

“How can this be…?”

Many expedition teams had been sent here over the years. Including the expedition leader himself, most of those present had experience exploring the Karakorun Mountain Range multiple times, so that said it all.

Yet until now, they had never discovered such ruins.

“There’s more… that’s not the only strange thing.”

While walking slowly toward the city, one of the expedition members spoke.

“Look over there.”

He pointed to the sky.

There was a building in the process of collapsing.

It was an accurate description.

‘A building in the process of collapsing.’

While the building was collapsing… it had frozen, unmoving. There were several such instances.

It was like someone had captured the moment and painted it, creating a mysterious scene.

“That’s not all. If you look closely… the city isn’t aged at all.”

Normally, a city that perished long ago in modern times might be labeled as ‘ruins,’ but…

But that city was too new to be called ruins.

Though it was a bit worn and broken, it seemed more like a ruined place, not something ancient.

“But that flag is definitely Karacornia’s. I’ve read the legends several times, so I know!”

“I’m not saying it’s not Karacornia! That’s why it’s even stranger.”

“This is driving me crazy. Seriously.”

In normal circumstances, one might feel fear in this situation. But adventurers are different.

The expedition leader wiped his face with both hands. The emotion that filled his eyes was not fear.

Curiosity.

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And excitement.

He laughed, baring his teeth with a flushed face.

“I don’t know. I don’t know anything. How something like that can exist. Why this is happening. Really, I can’t know anything…”

Another expedition member picked up his next words.

“That’s why it’s even more exciting…”

The expedition leader turned and addressed the entire expedition.

“Coming all the way here, there’s no fool who’s going to run away with their tail between their legs, right?”

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No one raised their hand.

Instead, everyone stared at the expedition leader with an expression full of excitement, wondering when they would set off.

The expedition leader nodded in satisfaction and spoke.

“Normally, we’d return to base and organize a proper expedition… but we can’t do that because we have a missing person. How can we abandon a comrade’s affection and return? We need to find that crazy woman, don’t we?”

“Right!”

“Search every corner! Don’t miss even the body of an ant, everything!”

The expedition members split into teams and scattered. Aiselle and Flame… didn’t follow anyone.

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Originally, when such situations occurred, they acted in groups of three with Kaila, but she was missing now.

“What should we do?”

Aiselle asked with a tense expression. The disappearance of Kaila, whom they had relied on.

At first, she had felt wary, but it was thanks to Kaila’s help during the exploration that she could adapt here, and she couldn’t help but feel worried.

“We should go too.”

Flame said to Aiselle.

“We have the weapon of knowledge. Although we know nothing about this city… one thing we can be sure of is that the Divine Relic of Silver Age November exists there.”

“…That’s true.”

“Go where your instincts lead you. It’s not difficult. Since there’s no standard path, where you walk will become the path.”

Aiselle looked over the ruined city and nodded.

“Indeed, it’s better not to check the most suspicious place.”

Such places would be searched by the expedition leader and veteran adventurers.

“You won’t go to such obvious places, right?”

“Yes. Actually… since we arrived here, there’s a place that gives me a strong feeling.”

Aiselle looked at the city.

Karacornia showed a distinctly different appearance from modern cities, as if countless cubes were intertwined, with square shapes mixed everywhere.

Naturally, her view couldn’t reach far.

But among them, there was one particularly tall tower that stood out.

It was an ordinary, empty tower, but strangely enough, it didn’t attract much attention.

As if someone didn’t want anyone to look at it.

“…Really?”
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Flame faintly smiled. Having come this far, there was no stopping now.

No, ever since ‘Kaila’ had found them, it was inevitable that this moment would come.

“Then, shall we go? Let’s be the first to discover it!”

“Yes… of course.”

Aiselle stepped forward decisively, and Flame followed with a worried expression.

The search team of the Tower of the Full Moon, the Black Team, smoothly tracked down Melian’s whereabouts after Baek Yu-seol joined them.

Melian was not annihilated, and according to Haeseong Wol’s conjecture, his body and soul were likely bound somewhere. In line with this, Baek Yu-seol used a method to reverse trace the location of the ancient Carmenset dungeon, and it worked quite successfully.

“We found it.”

It was much faster than when Zeliel’s expedition team found the Ruins of Ancient Carmenset.

Each keyword Baek Yu-seol provided hit the core, and with the Black Team, arguably the world’s best search team, actively working on-site, it was only natural.

“This place is…”
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The location they arrived at wasn’t entirely unfamiliar. The ‘Forest of the Silent Labyrinth’ in the center of the Southern Haoya Plains.

The entrance was completely restricted for ordinary races, as stepping inside caused immediate disorientation, making it hard to find one’s way out.

Nowadays, advanced magical equipment allowed entry and exit, but there was no need to do so.

However, the tracker Baek Yu-seol developed pointed to the Forest of the Silent Labyrinth.

‘A moving ruin…’

When Zeliel completely cleared the Ruins of Ancient Carmenset and won the Soul Chess, the ruins vanished without a trace.

So they thought it had completely disappeared, but it had relocated to another place.

“I see. Judging by the wavelength, I understand. This dungeon isn’t restricted by spatial coordinates.”

The mages of the Black Team, understanding the mysterious situation magically, nodded.

“That’s right. The problem isn’t space; for Carmenset, time is the decisive keyword.”
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When Baek Yu-seol responded, the mages huddled together to ponder.

“Hmm, then does that mean Phillip’s spiral time particle theory is correct? I should go back and write a paper.”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Really? Why not?”

“According to the spiral time particle theory, the Ruins of Ancient Carmenset should have moved to a ‘different time,’ not a ‘different place.’ But since Zeliel cleared the ruins in less than two weeks, finding it here proves it didn’t break free from the temporal constraints.”

“Oh, I see. But couldn’t it have appeared twice in the present due to the randomness of time?”

“Let me explain the odds of a dungeon appearing consecutively in the present, considering thousands of years have passed since magic was born.”

“…That’s a horrifying probability of less than 0.000001%, isn’t it? My theory is flawed. I need to correct it.”

Zeliel watched Baek Yu-seol from behind, staring at his back in a daze. Not only did he freely command the Black Team, but he also discussed magic with them on equal terms.

And in most cases, Baek Yu-seol’s words were correct.

‘…Is he really a year younger than me?’

Zeliel had always considered herself a genius, but there was no comparison.

‘If I hadn’t led the Starcloud and had studied magic instead?’

No. It would still be insufficient.

Baek Yu-seol had expertise or knowledge beyond that of a professor in ‘every field’ of magic.

Even if Zeliel had studied magic, she would have excelled only in one subject at best.

The gap felt insurmountable. The more of a genius one was, the more distinctly they could feel that gap.

However, instead of feeling jealousy…

She felt relieved.

For now, that perfect boy was a reliable ally, doing his best to find her father.

“…Instead of staring over there, shouldn’t you focus?”

“Huh, what?”

When Haeseong Wol spoke from behind, Zeliel seemed flustered for the first time. It was so rare that Haeseong Wol was amazed and chuckled.

“You’ve been staring at that boy’s back intently. If you keep looking, you’ll put a hole in his back. Better focus now. In the Forest of the Silent Labyrinth, if you lose concentration even for a moment, you’ll completely lose your sense of direction.”

…Ah…

She hadn’t realized it at all.

She hadn’t even been aware of her actions. It was so unlike Zeliel that her face turned bright red.

Was it because she was embarrassed?

She wasn’t sure.

Perhaps even Zeliel herself…

Didn’t know.

‘Get a hold of yourself. I don’t have the right to be like this.’

She had built up countless sins and karma, yet she was distracted by something else.

It couldn’t be uglier.

After closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, when she opened them again, Zeliel’s gaze had completely changed.

‘I need to… be a little colder.’

If anyone who knew her heard those words, they might find it quite awkward.

Because she had never once been anything but cold throughout her life.

Currently, Zeliel was experiencing confusion due to strange emotions she couldn’t control.

End of Chapter