Magic Academy’s Genius Blinker

Chapter 266

The Noble Soul (16)

***

The garden of Spirit Leafanel was always filled with silence, with only her breath filling the space.

A forbidden area where the entrance of life is not permitted. She had spent many long years alone in this place.

Her own world.

A place where no one came, where no one could come, was rather chilly and desolate than cozy.

Leafanel remembered the moment just after she was born. It was a distinguishing feature that set her apart from other living beings.

“Well done, little tree.”

The first time she opened her eyes to welcome the world after her birth.

There was one person who welcomed her.

He was… a wizard in a pure white robe.

When Leafanel was very young, before she even became aware as a divine beast… she was simply a tree imbued with sacred energy.

The wizard, who existed in a distant ancient time, called out to Leafanel with a gentle voice.

However, no matter how much she tried to recall the memory, shadows obscured his face, and she could not see it clearly.

“…Who are you?”

Current Leafanel asked with difficulty, but the very act of trying to converse with the memory was inherently nonsensical.

Nevertheless, strangely enough.

He answered her.

“I am… a wandering adventurer. Recently, I have been called by the name of a wizard. It is truly a strange title.”

Leafanel’s heart sank. The wizard in the white robe looked up at the sky and twisted his lips into a smile.

“It is time to leave. I hope you can dream sweet dreams under the warm sunshine, little tree.”

After saying this, the wizard turned around and concealed his form, and the memory came to an end there.

The flow of memory did not stop there; it quickly fast-forwarded through Leafanel’s growth period.

It was a story from a very long time ago, or perhaps one could also say it was a recent memory.

The story of the day Leafanel became a spirit.

Unfortunately… by awakening as a spirit, the barrier had weakened, allowing a certain woman to slip through the gap.

She remembered.

“Oh my, what good luck~”

If she had been in perfect condition, it would have been an opponent she could easily subdue with the power of a divine beast.

However, the problem was that she encountered the process of completely shedding her physical body and purifying her spirit for her awakening as a spirit.

Leafanel could do nothing.

Without being able to resist at all, she helplessly had her heart taken away.

That…

The sense of loss.

No one would be able to understand.

Because she was born as a plant, Leafanel could not move even a single step in this garden, and occasionally listening to the stories of Ha Taeryeong and Flowerseorin was the only joy in her life.

She dreamed.

Someday, she would be able to move out into the world on her own legs. She longed to roam this vast and beautiful world and be free.

Ha Taeryeong would sometimes stop by when he was tired from his adventures and would share his grand adventure tales.

“Hey, look how amazing I am!”

Flowerseorin, although alone like Leafanel, would gather stories and events happening in the outside world and bring them back to tell like a fairy tale.

“Once upon a time, there lived a little princess. That princess…”

When they came to visit, Leafanel felt happy. The sensation of filling the empty space in her heart was so delightful.

But it was not enough.

Terribly insufficient.

This was… a longing for freedom.

She did not want to be satisfied just by hearing the stories.

She wanted to walk out into the world on her own two feet and face that sky directly. To make that happen…

There was only one way.

Awakening as a spirit with a noble soul.

For decades, for hundreds of years, she lived for a single purpose. Meditating repeatedly, she focused solely on the goal of becoming a spirit.

In that process, her physical body became increasingly younger, and to prevent her deteriorating mind, her mental age changed to that of a child, but she did not care.

As long as she could fly freely under the moonlit sky, it would be okay if she lost everything.

At that time, she didn’t know.

That truly, she would lose everything.

“This will be useful for me~”

After having her heart taken, hundreds of years passed again.

Her chest was empty, unable to harbor any energy, leaving her a mere shell with no ability to do anything.

However… it was still possible to think. Leafanel lived lonely for hundreds of years with the mental age of a child, constantly yearning.

A savior? A hero? A heart? A soul?

She did not wish for so much.

She only needed someone to soothe her loneliness… a companion to talk to.

“Poor child.”

A very long time passed.

When Leafanel’s consciousness returned to her again, she was able to meet Flowerseorin.

With a sad expression.

She might have been despairing in her helplessness, unable to do anything.

Leafanel shouted.

“Don’t go.

I am here.”

But Flowerseorin could not hear Leafanel’s voice.

“I will definitely save you…”

Flowerseorin left with a sad expression behind her, and visits became rare. When she last saw her, she felt as if her ‘blessing’ was thickening… perhaps that was why.

Young Leafanel did not understand well.

Another several decades passed.

Once even the sensation of loneliness had dulled, someone came to visit.

“This is the perfect place to train.”

It was Baek Yu-seol.

At that moment, after a really long time, Leafanel desperately called out to him…

“One million twenty-one! One million twenty-two!”

Yet he still did not hear her.

She did not understand why he shouted “one million twenty-one” when he had only done twenty-one push-ups.

He became completely absorbed in training, and the longer that time stretched, the more he became one with this space.

The energy of Leafanel, which had been dissipated over the long years due to her breath.

It began to engulf Baek Yu-seol. If he had been an ordinary wizard, it would have been impossible.

That was a very bad sign, but… it was fortune for Leafanel.

“What are you doing here? Can’t you hear my voice? Can you hear me? Are you ignoring me?”

“Ah! What the hell, that scared me!”

He heard my voice.

In that moment, despite having already lost her heart, Leafanel felt a sensation that her heart was trembling, or rather, about to burst.

Her heart swelled, and a thrilling… indescribable emotion surged through her entire body.

She felt a happiness greater than when she awakened as a spirit.

Leafanel instinctively knew.

That boy in front of her was kind. The scent of a similar soul wafted strongly from him.

“How much will you give me?”

“Huh?”

“Just kidding.”

…Of course, there was a rather mischievous side to that, but nevertheless, he granted her request.

A heart.

He brought a heart to her.

Although it was absurdly weak and much smaller than the one she originally had…

“Oh.”

Because of that, she was able to breathe again. She could open her eyes. She could speak.

And again, she could hold hope.

A tiny, fragile vessel had been created, granting her another opportunity to awaken as a spirit someday.

“…Thank you.”

Because Leafanel had very few interpersonal relationships, her expression of emotion was clumsy, but that simple word of thanks contained overwhelming feelings that could not be expressed by the inadequate human language system.

Indeed.

This is what hope is, Leafanel felt for the first time that day.

“Oh my, it’s been a while? It’s nice to see you again! Hmm?”

…Until that woman appeared again.

Leafanel sensed. The woman was trying to use the same method she had used on her hundreds of years ago.

Now, weakened and having lost all her strength, she could not resist her.

Desperately, Leafanel called out to Baek Yu-seol, but the thick mental barrier between them made even that impossible.

However, Leafanel was not so weak as to fall for the same trick again. Though she had lost all her strength and could do nothing, she was a wise spirit who had lived for hundreds of years.

“Uh, oh my?”

Leafanel chose to corrupt herself. The process of tainting her noble soul with her own hands was extremely painful, but she thought it would be better to do this than to lose everything once more.

As expected, to the self-corrupted Leafanel, she could do nothing, and the woman expressed her anger by grinding her teeth.

However, there was nothing the woman could do.

The fallen Leafanel rode on a level of dark magic even higher than the woman.

“Just you wait… I will return and surely swallow you whole.”

That statement sounded quite frightening.

Around this time, Leafanel could tell. The energy of the woman who had interfered with her heart had become so faint that it was barely recognizable.

She must have been defeated by someone.

Leafanel slowly opened her eyes.

A drop of tear resembling dew trickled down from her eyes.

She had not intended for this.

She had no idea that her impurity would taint the World Tree and cause it pain…

She had not known at all.

Because of her, the World Tree was still screaming, and Leafanel’s heart grew heavier.

“I have to go back…

If I remain like this, I will never see that boy again. I cannot continue to cause pain to the World Tree.

I have to return to the place where I originally was.

The powerful will engraved in Leafanel’s heart began to shine slowly.

Saaaaa……!!

The purple mist that had filled the garden began to gradually fade to green.

The speed was very slow, but it was undoubtedly a purification phenomenon.

If Baek Yu-seol had seen it, he would have said, “This is a complete human air purifier,” and if Aiselle had seen it, she would have described it as “This is a phenomenon of mana concentration and fragmentation decomposition. It is a very beautiful sight.”

Since Leafanel did not know the technical terms, she did not realize how magnificent her actions were.

A divine beast purifying dark magic and exchanging it for sacred energy…

Might this not be the most miraculous sight that has ever existed in the history of the magical realm?

“…Is this what a noble soul is?

To witness such a spectacle with my own eyes. I am truly fortunate.”

Suddenly!

At that moment, Leafanel was startled awake by a voice that echoed.

Somehow… a person had entered the garden.

No, to be precise.

It was a dark mage.

With disheveled hair and ragged clothes, he looked like a beggar, but he emanated a very thick aura of black magic.

“Hey, don’t be on guard. I have no interest in tormenting divine beasts. In fact, I prefer to take care of them. Although they all run away after sensing my energy.”

Cheollibeun, looking extremely tired, furrowed his brow and dropped something he had been carrying on his shoulder onto the ground with a thud.

“Cough…

It was her.

The one who took my heart.

The woman who had been torn and wrecked all over, unable to even stand properly, trembled all over, and Cheollibeun kicked her hard to roll her over before inserting his palm into her chest.

Thud!

“Cough, hack…!”

Cheollibeun, covering her mouth as she was about to vomit blood, wrinkled his face in annoyance as he pulled something from her chest.

It was… a large and beautiful pearl that could hardly be believed to have been inside a dark mage.

A pearl the size of a palm that emitted a rainbow-colored aurora from various angles when struck by sunlight.

“The heart of a spirit… This is my first time seeing it in person.”

Leafanel gazed at Cheollibeun with tranquil eyes.

“It is your heart. …If you are not angry upon seeing this, then I suppose it can be said that you are indeed a spirit.”

He cautiously approached Leafanel and placed the pearl at her feet.

“It has already become deeply stained with impurities. It has been so long that it can’t be helped.

What a shame. However, for a spirit like you, it should be easy to purify it and turn it back into your own.”

After saying this, Cheollibeun turned around and scooped up the woman again.

“…Why?”

When Leafanel asked with a curious voice, Cheollibeun briefly straightened up and turned back to meet her gaze.

“I didn’t originally intend to return it…”

His gaze was sharp, as if piercing through her soul.

Even as Leafanel faced that gaze directly, she did not blink even once.

“I can sense a strong aura of that boy from you. Was it Baek Yu-seol?”

When his name reached her ears, Leafanel’s expression changed for the first time.

“…It seems I must have misunderstood something.

It was a pointless fight. I truly almost regretted it.”

She had thought that Baek Yu-seol was behind the manipulation of Soya.

But only after having a direct confrontation and mixing their magic did she understand.

The extremely kind and pure enthusiasm emanating from him.

That was not a soul that an evildoer could possess.

“Baek Yu-seol… fought desperately for you. Even knowing that he could die.”

But he did not die.

At that moment, she respected his life.

Perhaps that was among the very few ‘correct choices’ Cheollibeun made throughout the countless choices he had made over hundreds of years.

“This heart belongs to Baek Yu-seol.”

Cheollibeun withdrew his sharp gaze from Leafanel and simply smiled lightly.

“You have a very good connection. Almost enviable.”

After saying that, Cheollibeun vanished from view.

Leafanel lowered her head and looked at her heart, which sparkled like a rainbow.

“Baek Yu-seol’s share…”

The pearl floated up and flew toward Leafanel, settling in her hands.

She held it dearly and tightly closed her eyes.

It felt as if someone’s warmth, which should not be felt, was transmitted to her here.

“And… my share…

Softly curved pink lips.

A blooming smile.

The wind blows.

It was an incredibly strong gale.

A gentle whirlwind arose in Leafanel’s chest, and a dizzying sensation that seemed to blow away her mind wrapped around her soul.

And so, she savored that emotion, holding her heart close.

For a long time, until the day darkened.

End of Chapter