Magic Academy’s Genius Blinker

Chapter 270

Memory (3)

***

The grand altar for the Morf Forest purification ritual is said to be located in the very forest where Duke Isaac Morf went berserk ten years ago.

‘Unnecessarily grandiose.’

To perform the purification ritual, one had to wear ceremonial robes. This special robe, which covered the entire body, was made in the Holy Federation and had exceptional protective power against dark mana due to its special enchantment.

Twelve ritualists, six barrier mages, two archmages, and three thought mages follow Hong Bi-yeon with solemn expressions.

The path leading to the grand altar was paved with white marble. The Holy Federation’s naive idea that anything painted white would be pure was quite laughable.

‘Blue is cleaner, you know.’

As someone who particularly liked blue, Hong Bi-yeon didn’t particularly care for the white robe with red stripes.

Red and white were her least favorite colors, after all.

‘By the way…’

Hong Bi-yeon glanced to the side.

Sa Yelan Orkan, also wearing ceremonial robes, was walking alongside her with a pale complexion.

‘What are you thinking?’

Her expression was always the same, like a doll’s. However, Hong Bi-yeon had become somewhat able to discern changes in her expression after frequently encountering Sa Yelan.

Sa Yelan Orkan was in a very bad mood right now.

Of course, there was no need to care about her mood, but the fact that she was so openly displaying low pressure in her expression meant that this situation itself was quite displeasing to her.

‘What does it matter.’

Since there was no point in paying attention to Sa Yelan, Hong Bi-yeon turned to Terrybun and said.

“High Priest, there’s one thing I’m curious about.”

Forcing herself to be polite made nausea rise to her throat.

“Yes, please speak, Princess.”

“I understand that I need to activate the royal family’s Flame Spirit Formation. But I don’t understand why. The Flame Spirit Formation is specialized for blocking rather than sealing.”

At that, Terrybun narrowed his eyes slightly and answered Hong Bi-yeon.

“Yes… That’s right. Princess, you are still missing one condition to perform the ritual.”

“…What do you mean by that?”

Stop.

As Terrybun halted his steps, the mages following behind also froze in place like statues.

Hong Bi-yeon tensed her body and slowly glared at them.

“Princess. To participate in the Morf Forest purification ritual, there is one condition. This is a matter decided by Her Majesty the Queen, and even the royal family is no exception.”

Saying that, Terrybun nodded, and two mages wearing white robes appeared from behind, carrying a large, thin wooden box.

At that moment, Sa Yelan’s expression noticeably hardened. Hong Bi-yeon could sense what was coming next, but she didn’t bother to voice it.

Click!

Terrybun opened the lid of the box and took out a scroll, unrolling it to show.

“It’s a ‘gag order’. Whatever you see, hear, or feel inside, Princess, you must never reveal it to the outside world.”

“…I see.”

This was an expected part.

She knew that all nobles participating in the Morf Forest purification ritual were forced to accept a gag order.

“Give it to me. I’ll do it myself.”

This gag order document was created with royal family magic. Therefore, if there were any hidden intentions inside, she would be able to quickly figure it out.

Hong Bi-yeon carefully reverse-engineered the gag order scroll.

‘Legacy of Adolevit.’

Undoubtedly Queen Hong Seriu’s magic.

Even Terrybun, who was once the chief mage, wouldn’t dare to manipulate royal family magic.

And, decisively…

‘Who would write this freely?’

She had practiced enough to modify the formulas of royal family magic circles in preparation for this moment. Although it was a scroll created by the 8th-class mage Hong Seriu, Hong Bi-yeon was able to slightly distort a tiny part of the magical formula four dimensions higher than herself with her monstrous brain.

Sensitive magic like a gag order would twist its essence the moment it was distorted even slightly.

She didn’t know what side effects might appear if such magic was applied to her body, but judging that direct bloodline magic wouldn’t cause fatal harm to herself, Hong Bi-yeon decided to make a bold move.

As she applied mana, the scroll burst into flames. A red magic circle soon formed in the air.

It immediately enveloped Hong Bi-yeon’s body and was absorbed, all within the span of just 1 second.

Even if a mere 4th-class novice mage had tried to manipulate something, it would have been impossible in such a short time, so Terrybun nodded with satisfaction.

However…

The chief mage didn’t know.

That Hong Bi-yeon had grasped the essence of the magic just by briefly scanning the scroll, reverse-engineered it, and nullified it by modifying the magic in that fleeting moment of just 1 second.

But perhaps the backlash was too great, as Hong Bi-yeon, unable to withstand the shock, staggered back.

“Princess, are you alright?”

“Yes…”

As Terrybun approached, seemingly intending to support her, Hong Bi-yeon quickly waved her hand. No matter how difficult it was, she had no intention of collapsing in front of that old man, nor of accepting his support.

A sense of vertigo as if the whole world was spinning and a feeling of powerlessness as if her legs would give out immediately dominated her entire body, but she endured with sheer willpower.

Truly superhuman mental strength.

“…Let’s go.”

Despite a backlash that would have caused an ordinary mage to faint from exhaustion long ago, Hong Bi-yeon forcibly dragged her body, drenched in cold sweat.

Seeing her like this, Sa Yelan seemed to notice something was amiss and opened her mouth.

“High Priest. The activation of the magic…”

“Yes, young lady.”

But then, looking at Hong Bi-yeon’s condition again, she shook her head.

“Never mind.”

“Hmm? I understand. By the way, Princess. The backlash from the gag order seems quite severe. This is unusual… If you’re not feeling well, we can postpone it for a while.”

“No. It’s fine to do it right now.”

Even if it seemed like she was forcing herself, there was no choice. She hated receiving sympathy from someone like Terrybun more than death itself.

Hoo…

She takes a deep breath.

Concentrate. Concentrate again.

‘Meditate.’

Mana began to seep into her body, gradually making her mind clear and clean. Meditating while walking is certainly not an easy task, but it’s possible for Hong Bi-yeon.

Repetitive learning, memorization.

What she’s most confident in.

The headache starts to fade away.

Her weakened leg muscles returned, and as the cold sweat evaporated due to the mana, her complexion returned, bringing color back to her cheeks.

She didn’t know.

Until she entered Stella Academy. She had no idea that meditation could be this good.

‘…How did I come to know this?’

In the thoughts of meditation, Hong Bi-yeon suddenly wandered through her memories.

Early summer vacation.

Flame and Aiselle.

When she set out on a journey with girls of different personalities, backgrounds, and attributes to uncover Baek Yu-seol’s past.

One night while camping in the forest.

While everyone was huddled together, staring blankly at the bonfire, she saw Aiselle sitting alone in a corner with her eyes closed, meditating, and asked.

Why she was doing such a thing.

At first, she thought it was foolish.

But after hearing the answer, she had no choice but to seriously reconsider her thoughts.

-Huh? Meditation? Oh, um… Baek Yu-seol told me to do this. I’ve been doing it since then.

That was when it started.

The reason Hong Bi-yeon unknowingly began to attempt meditation.

Despite not taking separate meditation classes, she secretly practiced alone in the dormitory, reading meditation textbooks separately, and as a result, she could feel the tremendous flood of mana amplifying within her body.

For someone born with mana as vast as the sea, adding meditation on top of that created truly infinite synergy.

By the time they arrived at the grand altar, she had managed to regain her senses, if not completely, then at least to a sufficient degree. Enough to use the Flame Spirit Formation.

Standing on the grand altar, Hong Bi-yeon took a deep breath at the center of the altar.

It’s basic to have at least one rehearsal of the ritual beforehand, but they didn’t even give Hong Bi-yeon that opportunity. Their intention to openly humiliate her was obvious, but… it didn’t matter.

She was confident she could be perfect from the start, without any practice.

‘…But, what is this?’

Standing on the grand altar, Hong Bi-yeon belatedly realized that this altar itself was shaped like one large box.

Around it, five layers of shading barriers were set up to contain something, with an additional large barrier placed on the outside.

‘Are they really trying to purify?’

The purification ritual began quietly, without any signal. High Priest Terrybun stood opposite Hong Bi-yeon, opened the book of laws, and began inscribing runes in the air one by one. The mages positioned at twelve points raised their arms high, lifting the magic circle into the air.

Matching that timing, Hong Bi-yeon began to twirl her staff.

“O flame.”

Whoosh!!

Flames rose, enveloping the altar.

The essence of pure, unrefined flame. Hong Bi-yeon flexibly waved her staff to control the flames.

“Protect thee.”

Soon, a red barrier spread out widely in the form of a huge dome.

Normally, shield magic is known to never be able to form curved shapes. However… in extremely rare cases, ultimate barriers developed to the extreme could break even such notions and form a perfect spherical shape.

The Flame Spirit Formation is one of the top ten barriers in the world.

Created by the ancestor Adolevit in the distant past, it cannot be replicated with modern magic, but… a talented direct descendant mage could recreate it.

“Oh ho…”

Including Terrybun, the purification mages looked at Hong Bi-yeon with slightly surprised eyes. Even for Adolevit, direct bloodline magic is not something that can be achieved at the mere age of seventeen, yet she unfolds it flawlessly right after receiving the gag order.

Even though they had deliberately set her up to fail.

Some noble mages turned their heads with uncomfortable expressions. They could have protected Princess Hong Si-hwa’s secret if Hong Bi-yeon had failed, but she succeeded against all odds.

In contrast, Terrybun looked at Hong Bi-yeon with pure curiosity in his eyes as a mage, not particularly concerned about this situation.

‘So, this is the true Adolevit.’

Terrybun looked at her with half-closed eyes.

He could clearly see something like a red soul flickering behind her.

‘Disgusting woman…’

Not knowing how he was looking at her, Hong Bi-yeon concentrated on the magic, sweating profusely.

It’s questionable.

‘What’s the reason for using even this great magic?’

What kind of ritual is this for?

Is it really to purify dark mana? If so, why is there a need to cast the ultimate barrier?

“Hah!”

Brushing aside countless worries, Hong Bi-yeon stomped her staff on the ground with a thud, and at that moment, the dome-shaped magic circle enveloped the altar and the ground began to split open.

‘Ugh?!’

For a moment, she almost lost her balance, but she managed not to falter.

Rumble…!!

And.

As the massive altar split in half, the sight inside was revealed.

“Ah…”

Hong Bi-yeon unknowingly let out a gasp, and Terrybun finally raised the corners of his mouth and spoke.

“Princess. What do you think?”

A chilling coldness wafted over.

Enduring that icy cold that seemed to freeze to the bone, Hong Bi-yeon stared with both eyes at something that had been sealed under the altar.

“This can’t be…”

Isaac Morf.

The very body of the man who was said to have gone berserk after becoming a dark mage 10 years ago, but was subdued by Hong Si-hwa Adolevit… was sealed under the altar.

As if he were still alive, emanating a frigid aura.

However, what surprised Hong Bi-yeon was not that. If a dark mage leaves this much energy even after death, it should undoubtedly be ‘dark mana’.

But this bone-chilling cold is… undoubtedly blue mana.

In other words, it meant that he had returned to being human after death.

“Why…”

“You ask why? I thought you might have such doubts.”

Terrybun took one step closer to Hong Bi-yeon and said.

“It’s for Princess Hong Si-hwa.”

“What…?”

“To protect the princess, we made this choice. Sealing and putting back to sleep Isaac Morf, who keeps trying to awaken every year.”

“Such a crazy thing…!”

“Crazy? It might be.”

The old man let out a shrill laugh.

“But what can we do? Whatever crazy things we’ve done, there’s nothing you can do about it, Princess. All you can do is… finish the sealing on behalf of the busy Princess Hong Si-hwa.”

Hong Bi-yeon hurriedly turned her head and met eyes with Sa Yelan Orkan.

A coldly frozen gaze.

Yes, she must have known from the beginning. The secret that had been sleeping here.

‘This is…’

Suddenly, everything became disgusting.

Nausea rose from within, but she barely managed to endure it.

But, but.

She just couldn’t bear it.

‘Is this what it means to be an Adolevit…?’

No matter how much of a political enemy she was, her sister, who shared blood with her, had done such a horrific thing… and the Queen of Adolevit had buried this fact in secrecy.

Unable to believe this fact, unable to endure it, Hong Bi-yeon couldn’t hold back the tears welling up.

“My, it seems the princess is quite shocked. Sa Yelan? Please escort the princess down…”

“No, no. I’m fine.”

Hong Bi-yeon bit her lip hard and glared at Terrybun with bloodshot eyes as she spoke.

“I will… proceed with the ritual to the end.”

“…Is that so?”

Terrybun looked at Hong Bi-yeon with cold eyes and then nodded to the mages.

“If that is truly the princess’s wish, I won’t stop you.”

Closing her eyes tightly, she cools her head.

‘Get a grip, it’s not over yet.’

Hong Bi-yeon held onto her resolve firmly, feeling the ‘Compass of Memory’ hidden in her bosom. Just knowing that Isaac Morf’s body was sleeping here wasn’t enough.

‘I’ll go back to the past… and uncover all the truth.’

End of Chapter