I Became A Flashing Genius At The Magic Academy - Chapter 386
The Genius of Blink in Front of the Magic School 388
65. Bing Baek Mountain (12)
Climbing to the highest spire of the Baek Ryeong Plateau Fortress, the entire landscape of the city comes into view at a glance.
It was a somewhat unfamiliar sight.
The Baek Ryeong Plateau Fortress, which I had always watched from a distance through Duke Seolparam, was cold and chilly, but this place seemed to throb with hope and life.
If this is a lie, would it be okay to be deceived forever?
“Gasp!”
As Cheon Hwang Jeongpal opened her eyes wide, the colors of the world were erased and dyed in black and white.
No matter how much a 9-class wizard had draped the Persona Gate over reality, even the eyes of Twelve Moons could not be deceived.
The true faces began to emerge one by one in her eyes.
The uncle happily smiling and selling fish over there.
His true identity is actually a soldier managing a magical weapon stockpile.
The young man enjoying himself while picking flowers.
His true identity is actually an ordinary soldier on guard at the 19th outpost.
The man joyfully dancing in the street was a squad leader of the rear support unit, and the elderly woman clapping in front of him was the commander of the advance unit repelling monsters at the front lines.
‘Everyone… has been fighting hard here.’
But is this reality, where one must simply smile while forgetting all those hardships, really happier? It certainly cannot be.
They all had a mission.
From the low-ranking soldiers to the commanders responsible for numerous troops, everyone was determined to defend this fortress so that the terrible monsters from the north could not descend onto the continent.
They looked happy, but none of them were truly happy at that moment.
Cheon Hwang Jeongpal could understand.
She could read all their genuine feelings, the terrible emotions contained within each of them.
Covered with the false emotion of happiness, their hearts were painfully crying out.
‘It’s my fault.’
In the nonsense of a black wizard who had no emotions and no attachments to the world, they were all trapped in a hell named false happiness.
‘I have to save them.’
She colored her gaze with yellow and extended her hand toward the air, forming the shape of scissors with her index and middle fingers.
I can see it.
The “threads of the mind” manipulating all the people in this city like puppets.
The form of some energy that makes up the Persona Gate.
“…I can cut it.”
Snip!
As she squeezed her index and middle fingers as if cutting with scissors, a passerby who had been joyfully laughing and chatting in the street collapsed to the ground and knelt.
“Ah, ah… what on earth…!”
He wandered around, bewildered, gripping his face with both hands, confused by the situation. But there was no time to mind him. She had to free all the humans in this place from hell.
Snip! Snip!
One by one, one by one.
As she began to cut the threads controlling their minds, those who returned to their senses started to hurriedly run to where they were supposed to be.
Some sat blankly in shock, but another person who had regained their senses lead them back to their original position as ‘soldiers.’
Snip! …Ting!
Cheon Hwang Jeongpal, who had been indiscriminately cutting, frowned upon discovering a thread that could not be severed.
“What is this…?”
A mysterious thread covered in light pink. It was undoubtedly the power of Yeon Heung Chun Samwol.
‘Ah.’
Turning her head, she saw a high elf with fairy wings against the sky reflecting a pink light onto the world.
It does not sh**t at just anyone. It protects only the minds of the crazed people laughing like lunatics.
…That’s right.’
If she were to liberate all the white mirages too, it would ultimately be for nothing.
But now, there was nothing to worry about.
The white mirages she so longed for would be firmly held by Baek Yu-seol and the Elf King Flower Lin, allowing her to freely liberate all the humans in this place.
Snip!
Of course, it was not an easy task.
Cold sweat dripped down her cheek. Despite lacking a physical body, it was clear how distressing it was for her mentally, but she endured.
‘I am the Twelve Moons who handle the mind.’
If she could not endure this much, she could not call herself Twelve Moons.
Judging that cutting one by one would not properly end this process, Cheon Hwang Jeongpal clasped her hands together, creating a giant pair of scissors in her mind.
It was painfully heavy just to lift, but with a single cut….
Swish!
“Uh? Why am I here…?”
“Haha! Haha…? Ah? Wait, what! I was supposed to be getting ready for deployment, why was I in a fruit shop…?”
“Uh? Squad Leader? Why are you crossing your arms?”
At the same time, hundreds and thousands of minds were released from control. Cheon Hwang Jeongpal nearly sat down immediately, but thanks to someone supporting her from behind, she managed to remain standing.
She quickly turned her head and saw the child she had thought of and cared for as if she had given birth, caught by Duke Seolparam.
“…Cheon Hwang Jeongpal.”
“Ah, um… I guess you’re back?”
“Yes. Thanks to you.”
He smiled faintly and looked around at the cheerful atmosphere transformed fortress of Baek Ryeong.
“I don’t know what happened, but you saved us.”
“…It’s not entirely true.”
The cause of this situation lay with her. She was twitching her lips in guilt, wanting to speak the truth, but Seolparam shook his head.
“It’s okay.”
“I really like this scenery right now. And… even though it was only for a moment, that time of only knowing laughter was not bad either.”
“W-well…”
“I’ve lived my entire life thinking only of war. I learned the name of the monsters before my father’s name, and I mastered monster-summoning magic before letters.”
Always amidst fierce battles, he wished for things to remain as they were.
He was afraid of change.
Like his father, he wished to d*e in the battlefield while fighting ordinarily.
“But still…”
He gazed far away.
The world, covered by the Persona Gate, had turned entirely into a flower garden.
“Sometimes, I think this kind of change might not be bad.”
He smiled bitterly while doing so.
“If we all go back… this beautiful scenery will disappear, right?”
He could guess that much.
This flourishing flower garden of life was a false world. If Cheon Hwang Jeongpal were to take back this world, it would return to its original bleak and chilly state.
But Cheon Hwang Jeongpal shook her head.
“No. You’re wrong.”
She rarely smiled with confidence.
“I don’t know if people will want it or not… but the life blooming here will be preserved.”
Because Baek Yu-seol said so. …Even though he said the probability was only 17%, it was his words and no one else’s, so her faith was sufficient.
Cheon Hwang Jeongpal once again raised her arms and cut the threads of the mind that had been tying the humans like puppets with invisible giant scissors.
Snip! Thud!
Perhaps because she had already cut so many threads, even the ones she had not touched began to lose strength and snapped.
The mind-controlling magic over the humans within the Persona Gate was slowly losing its power.
And the great energy used for mental control collided with the barrier of the Persona Gate…
“That’s…
The world blooming with flowers slowly expanded its realm, coloring the chilly land with another life with the energy that had been controlling the minds of humans.
Thus, the boundary of the Persona Gate, which had been gradually extending its range, became increasingly faint.
Just as Baek Yu-seol said, the boundary that had been completely black, making it impossible to see anything, started to gradually fade, and the outside world began to become visible even if faintly.
“This… this cannot be… to create such a miracle…!”
The one who witnessed this miraculous sight was not only Duke Seolparam. The soldiers of Baek Ryeong Fortress, who were looking around to find the person who had restored them, began to discover her one by one at the top of the spire, scattering yellow energy into the world.
“Look, there’s someone with the commander at the top of the spire!”
“Could that person be the one who returned us to normal…!”
No, that’s wrong.
Although I am currently working hard, the one who found the decisive way to return you is not me but Baek Yu-seol.
She wanted to say this, but Cheon Hwang Jeongpal had no strength left.
Snip!
The last thread.
Finally cutting all the threads of the mind, Cheon Hwang Jeongpal collapsed into her place.
“Haah, ha…”
“Cheon Hwang Jeongpal! Are you okay?!”
Duke Seolparam rushed to her, but she had no strength to answer. All she could do was gently shake her head with a pale face.
While she was being supported, she sensed a presence approaching from nearby and forced herself to lift her head.
On the top of another distant spire, Baek Yu-seol stood.
He looked towards this place, nodded once as a sign of approval, and pointed with his finger toward the distant spot.
“Ah…”
Only then did she understand.
‘Finally, it’s over.’
The Persona Gate, created by her mistakes, no longer exists.
The black dimensional boundary that had separated truth from falsehood in the world had completely disappeared.
What remained was the warm spring day’s cheerful life and the world bursting with flowers.
Indeed, a miracle bestowed by the gods.
Could it be possible to plant life in such a cold world?
Even the 9-class black mage Maran Kalts, who had created this Persona Gate, would find it impossible.
He had created this world with “lies,” thus he could not send it out to a true world.
However, Cheon Hwang Jeongpal possessed the power to make it possible.
One of the true abilities of Twelve Moons.
Interfering with reality.
Baek Yu-seol had awakened her true ability, which no one else had known until now.
‘I have created… a miracle…
I am satisfied.
For the first time.
I have felt such great accomplishment from achieving something remarkable through my own strength.
At this point, I truly felt like there would be no regrets even if I died, but that could not be.
…I will be a strength to Baek Yu-seol.’
The current Twelve Moons were divided into two, opposing each other.
Hoi Gong Siwol and Baek Yu-seol.
Each of the different Twelve Moons came together according to their intentions.
At first, she had sided with Hoi Gong Siwol out of pride, as she felt it was shameful to align with humans, but that was a wrong decision.
He sought nothing from her and merely used her as a tool, just like before.
The named Twelve Moons, Cheon Hwang Jeongpal.
He only needed that title.
But Baek Yu-seol was different.
He had made her realize her true powers and looked at her as she really was, not just by name and strength.
What human in the world would dare to treat Twelve Moons so openly?
She suddenly realized.
Why he, being human, was able to be with so many Twelve Moons.
‘The end is approaching.’
Gradually, the Twelve Moons began to leave Hoi Gong Siwol and converge towards Baek Yu-seol.
Cheon Hwang Jeongpal thought.
If, someday, truly.
If the end were to approach the world.
It would not be in the form of ‘destruction’ that Hoi Gong Siwol desired, but in the form of ‘hope’ that Baek Yu-seol wished for.
She… could feel certain of that.