WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Surviving in the Magic Academy

Chapter 168

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168.

Since the evaluation was over, I needed to make puppets again. The trip back from the evaluation hall was the same as before. The chair I had been sitting on spread out, bound my body, then carried me across space.

I opened my eyes as I felt myself being released. Then I slowly looked around. The room looked the same as before. In the sealed room, I could feel magical power rippling little by little in a steady flow.

That magical power was rising from several magic circles laid out on the floor. Each one held a puppet inside it. They were restoring those bodies and training them to accept my magical power.

I stroked the jaw of the monkey puppet in my hand. It twisted awkwardly, trying to escape my touch. Then it glanced at me with a sullen look.

I let out a soft laugh at its rebellion. Was it because so much magical power had stirred through it during the evaluation? Its soul was showing the traits contained inside it a little more clearly now.

The disposition hidden in that broken soul had partly bloomed inside this new soul. This prickly air must have been the tendency that soul had carried. Of course, in its current state, that only made it cute.

I tapped the head of the puppet as it squirmed. This monkey puppet was a failure. It was not what I could call the life I was pursuing.

Still, the road to success was always built on countless failures like this. So all I had to do was use this failure as a foundation and go a little further.

I placed it on the workbench. It quickly climbed down my hand and settled comfortably there. Since I had received plenty of advice earlier, I needed to rebuild its body now.

There was a reason I had shown this one alone to the association heads. They had evaluated my puppet with complete coldness. Which points looked awkward, which parts failed to function properly, and so on.

Those were things I could not recognize with my lacking puppetry. I had intended to borrow their eyes and identify the problems built into my puppet. And that intention had succeeded very well.

After all, I had managed to extract at least some of that knowledge. Well, getting advice in such a discreet way could also be called a skill. If an opportunity came, should I not take it?

The association heads surely had not failed to notice that fact. Thinking of the sharp look Aronia had given me as they sent me out, I smiled bitterly. She must have figured out that I had pulled a small trick.

Even so, perhaps because she liked my puppet, she did not nitpick anything and simply let me go. That was quite unexpected. I had thought she would try to keep me in check at least a little.

From the start, there was no reason for this interim evaluation to exist. Professor On would be the one making the decision anyway. Even so, the reason this evaluation process had been created was obvious.

It was probably to keep Aronia in check. I had been able to confirm that intention, if only a little, at the evaluation just now. One of her association members had been eliminated, and things like that. Everyone was clearly trying to stop her from winning.

By contrast, there had not been much pressure aimed at me. Even Gaon, who had been the most hostile, had ultimately voted in favor. They had let me pass this smoothly not simply because my puppet was excellent.

They were probably trying to use me against Aronia. She must have known what they were thinking too. And yet, the fact that she let me pass so easily was practically an act of showing her confidence.

It was possible she thought the others could defeat me easily enough. Or maybe she simply did not see any value in playing dirty like that.

After thinking about it for a moment, I shrugged. Whatever secret struggles were going on between the association heads had nothing to do with me. That was their lofty league, far above me.

A few hundred years would have to pass before I could join their ranks. So there was no need to pay them any special attention. I just had to use whatever moves they made and pursue my own benefit.

This was the same. What I had to do now was very clear. They had passed me because they expected something from me. Then I needed to answer that expectation. That was also what I wanted.

I tapped the monkey puppet’s head and let magical power flow. That magical power began drawing a magic circle around its body. While layering circuits like that, I took a gem from my pocket.

The gem, giving off a brilliant red glow, was an object that held a woman’s soul. I could still only sense a faint presence from the soul inside it. I gently placed it beside the monkey puppet.

When it saw that, its eyes quietly sparkled. Then it carefully approached and hugged the gem. A faint affection seeped into that touch.

The soul inside that gem could be called its source. It seemed to recognize its own origin right away. That was almost like an instinctive sense.

It began to create a steady flow, little by little, with the soul inside. The soul inside the gem followed that flow. Within that flow, the magic circle also began to stir slightly.

Through the magic circle’s effect, I could feel the magical power flowing inside it gradually settle. I adjusted that flow and slowly formed the magic.

The area inside the magic circle slowly sank into darkness. A kind of domain had been created. I quietly checked the magic. As expected, there was nothing wrong.

This was magic that temporarily created a shadow world. It was something I had seen and learned in Professor Heisen’s tower. Since I used it every time I made a puppet, I had grown so familiar with it that I could draw it with my eyes closed.

The magic circle, which had gone through many corrections and variations, was creating a flow stable enough to last for a long time. I made this kind of shadow world because this place suited my puppets best.

The Fake Soul I breathed into a puppet was made by weaving that puppet’s shadow and my tree stem together. Shadows had very good compatibility with my puppets, enough that they had formed a tree made of shadows inside me.

At first, I had used them simply because they were efficient. But through steady research and understanding of myself, I had also learned why that compatibility existed.

A shadow was fundamentally an incomplete thing. Without its owner, it was a fragment that could not exist alone, and it was nothing more than a fake that copied the main body. My soul was the same in that it also carried such incompleteness.

My tree stem acted as the space that wove such shadows and souls together. Inside it, the incompleteness of me and the puppet mixed, and a new single thing was born. It could be called a kind of union.

That was the structure of my unique magic. I created a Fake Soul using my soul fragments as the base. The method I was using to make puppets this time was also somewhat similar to that structure.

“It will hurt a little, so bear with it.”

I whispered to the monkey puppet and placed a hand on its body. Since I had heard plenty of advice earlier, I needed to maintain this body accordingly.

I let magical power flow into it. Then I delicately adjusted its body. During that process, things I had not understood before, and parts I had handled vaguely, were neatly sorted out.

At the end of it, my tree stem, which I had planted earlier, took deep root in the completed body. It had wrapped around the entire body now.

The monkey puppet’s face looked slightly pained. That was only natural. In this process, the body and soul had been connected more deeply. It could not escape that connection by its own will.

This was similar to how I usually made puppets, but also different. Everything mixed inside this puppet came from different places. Not a single thing originated from the puppet itself.

The shadow used for it was not taken from the puppet. The shadow mixed inside it came from me. The woman’s soul mixed with it also had nothing to do with that body.

In that sense, this was like a kind of invasion. So naturally, the body rejected that soul. And the deeper they were connected like this, the stronger that rejection was bound to become.

I felt the monkey puppet’s body tremble slightly. The soul inside it was also shaking in that vibration, as though it might be thrown out at any moment.

But inside this shadow world, the body could not exert much strength. This was a region of incomplete things. The magical power held by this world forcibly bound that soul to the puppet’s body.

I slowly let magical power flow. Then I felt its soul. I could sense part of the soul flowing in from the gem it held in its arms connecting all the way to it.

Within that exchange, the Fake Soul I had made was mixing more and more with the woman’s soul. No, rather than mixing, it would be more accurate to call it consumption.

The woman’s soul, which had been nothing more than a small portion, was gradually absorbing the Fake Soul I had made. As if burning my tree stem rooted in the monkey puppet’s body, it continued to grow.

Within the body’s rejection, that process became even more violent. After confirming that, I quietly nodded.

If this puppet’s body had not been there, something like that would have been impossible. If I had not used the body’s rejection to force them together, the two souls would have separated at once.

Having them mix and transform within such fierce pressure was exactly the method I pursued. Feeling that internal pulse, I stroked my chin. Then I carefully removed the gem from its arms.

At that, the monkey puppet’s expression became a little more comfortable. I could not pour any more soul into that body. If I put in more, the puppet would clearly break.

I quietly clicked my tongue. It was still nowhere near the amount of soul I had in mind. As expected, this one alone seemed insufficient. I lightly tapped its head and completely sealed the magic circle.

Inside that world, the woman’s soul fragment would combine even further with my Fake Soul. Then it would melt into one. A kind of variation, different from the original soul, would be made.

This was different from how life was formed. The process of life being created could originally be called a kind of natural order. First, the union of bodies occurred, and within it, the exchange of minds happened.

During that process, the division of souls took place and fused into one. The three elements of two beings gathered together and created something new, and that was life.

This process was the result mages had discovered through many experiments. Because of that, people accepted it as the most common theory and the orthodox view.

The ways mages created new life were also based on this. Whether in the process of making chimeras, creating familiars, or raising magical beasts, they created life based on this theory.

But that theory could not be applied to the puppets we handled. Puppets had no life. No matter how plausibly they were made, their souls were ultimately nothing but fakes.

As Tiena had said, even if that body was newly created, it was ultimately only making an offshoot body of that puppet. Without the division of the soul, it could not be called new life.

In that sense, I tried changing my way of thinking. If the existing method was for the body to form the foundation first and the soul to be engraved into it, and if that made it impossible for puppets to have children, then could I not reverse it?

I could force the soul to divide, then make it unite. I would create the soul first, then prepare a body for it. I glanced at the magic circle. The monkey puppet could be called the result of that idea.

That was why I had forcibly given a soul to someone else’s puppet. That body was acting as a kind of mixer. It mixed the puppet’s soul through the pressure it created.

I quietly toyed with the gem. The soul inside it had fallen so far that it could no longer be called human. It was more incomplete and more torn than a puppet’s soul. That was why I could use it so freely like this.

I moved on and headed toward another puppet. I had chosen special puppets because I trusted their owners. Giving individuality to a puppet meant they cherished that puppet just as much.

And the more a puppet was like that, the stronger its power to push away a soul would surely be. Jugang’s puppet had been excellent in that sense. Even though it was the first attempt, it had endured well enough. Thanks to that, I had gained at least some feel for it.

The one I would use this time was a strange puppet that rippled like mist. I quietly brushed its body. I was a little curious to see how much soul this one could accept.

I carried it to the workbench. Then I placed a hand on my chest. My tree trembled and split off part of its body. After letting out a faint scream, it drooped its branches.

It spat out that piece along with a little blood. Perhaps because the tree had been split, I felt my magical power grow slightly hazy. But it could not be helped. This was a necessary sacrifice.

I had a feeling that I would make an even greater leap with this as the base. Smiling, I drew a magic circle. It was the shadow domain I had drawn for the monkey puppet earlier.

It slowly scattered darkness. Inside it, I cut off part of my shadow. Then I wove it together with the tree stem and formed a kind of Fake Soul.

Perhaps because I had used my own shadow, the way that soul was made was very natural. And through the unique magic engraved into the tree stem, that soul slowly seeped into the puppet’s body.

Under that magical power’s effect, the puppet slowly raised itself. Then, sensing my tree stem forcibly rooted inside it, it showed a fierce rejection response. At that, my tree stem began piercing through its body and emerging.

If I left it like this, it would clearly be thrown right back out. So I needed to balance things a little. I pushed the gem in my hand straight into the puppet.

Perhaps the soul dwelling inside it felt that it had entered the puppet’s body, because it let out a small scream. At that, the puppet’s body stopped for a moment. The Fake Soul dwelling inside it was also neutralized the same way.

The soul inside the gem slowly spread outward. Then, upon feeling my tree stem, it quickly began to erode it as if devouring it. I felt the range of that soul slowly widen.

The soul’s flow dug into the puppet’s body along the tree stem and along the Fake Soul dwelling inside it. Then it slowly began absorbing them.

At the end of that, the Fake Soul and the soul’s flow mixed until they could no longer be distinguished. The despair flowing inside it had lessened a little too. At that, the puppet showed another rejection response.

Because of that, the soul’s flow tried to return to the gem again, but the soul, already heavily mixed, could no longer dwell inside it. It could only remain bound to that body.

The body’s rejection gradually grew fiercer, and within it, the soul slowly transformed under the pressure. This was the method I was attempting. Using the body as a prison, I made the soul itself change.

I confirmed the process and nodded. The previous failure had helped quite a bit with this. I had been able to arrange the process more naturally. The amount of tree that went in had decreased a little too.

Of course, this could not be called a success either. The thing made like this was still lacking if I were to call it life. I examined it and lightly crossed my arms.

The world of magic was wide. In that sense, I was not the only one who had tried creating life starting from the soul like this. Across those countless years, many traces of similar failures could be found.

Even so, the reason I was making souls like this lay in my special nature. I tapped my chest. Beyond it, I felt soul fragments flowing.

Like this, I had a soul that was a kind of colony soul. It could be called the extreme of incompleteness.

Everything was bound to pursue perfection. Like how I had once been obsessed with Professor, and how mages were. In that sense, the soul inside this gem was the same.

It had fallen, collapsed, and shattered. In that sense, the Fake Soul I created, and the soul fragments flowing along my tree stem, could be called the best means of filling such an incomplete soul.

That was why the woman’s soul instinctively mixed with my Fake Soul like this. This could be called a kind of shortcut. A method possible because I had an incomplete soul like it.

Others could not use the same method as me. Their souls were perfect. Because their souls were perfect, they were unchanging. By contrast, these incomplete things held the possibility of changing easily.

Rather than magic, this was forcibly creating soul division by using the traits of my soul. And with such a simple method, I could only make puppets that had limits like this.

I quietly stroked my chin. Tiena wanted life between a puppet and a person. In that sense, the puppet I was making right now did not fulfill the conditions of the request.

This was mixing incomplete things together. It was an insufficient method for handling Professor On’s perfect soul. Then how would it become possible?

I shrugged. I had not gained a clear answer yet. If I could obtain it that easily, others would have discovered it far more easily.

Still, I could understand a little. If I kept pursuing this direction, I would one day be able to obtain that result. What I was making this time was also proof of that path of mine.

I looked down at the mist puppet. Its capacity seemed lower than Jugang’s, because it filled up quickly. I took the gem from its arms.

Now I needed to move on to the next one. Like that, I steadily gave souls to the puppets. And during that process, my method of granting souls gradually improved.

Based on the results I obtained from the previous puppet, I granted a soul more cleanly to the next puppet, and I could carry out the process even more delicately for the puppet after that. Through that process, the souls mixed into them gradually stabilized.

I lightly stroked the gem in my hand. Somehow, I felt a satisfied air from the soul dwelling inside it. At that, I smiled bitterly.

That was not just my imagination. I could feel that a kind of connection had formed between me and the soul inside it.

Because the soul inside had lost many flows to the puppets earlier, its size had shrunk considerably. And a soul that had shrunk like that was bound to fill its empty spaces again.

In the process of mixing souls into the puppets, the soul inside this gem had absorbed the soul fragments flowing along my tree stem. That had created this connection. Through that connection, a fierce desire to survive was blooming.

Feeling that, I quietly smacked my lips. This was unexpected. I had thought it had been completely bleached clean, but to think the soul would regain even a little awareness. Was it because it had mixed with my soul?

If it wanted to come back to life, I needed to grant that desire. I had received a lot of help in making these puppets, after all. So someday, I would need to return its soul to that body again.

Of course, not now. I put the gem into my pocket and let my will flow. At my will, the soul inside the gem felt reassured, then slowly fell asleep again.

I glanced at the floor. Perhaps sensing my gaze, my puppet that had been in the shape of liquid quickly changed its form. Now shaped like a clock, it told me how much time I had left.

Nearly six days had passed. The week had somehow gone by this quickly. There was not much time left now. So I needed to finish the puppets.

I looked at the puppets each sitting inside a magic circle, locked in a struggle against their bodies. The souls inside those puppets had all been formed through the same process.

But while they were similar, they all had different forms. That was because of the individual traits dwelling in those bodies. Since the bodies resisted in different ways, the shapes of the souls naturally had to become different as well.

And during that process of resistance, the individuality the bodies possessed had also mixed into the souls, if only a little. I headed toward the monkey puppet I had made first. Then I reached out toward it.

It slowly climbed onto my hand. After meeting its eyes, I filled my hand with magical power and stabbed it into its chest. My hand sank straight into its body.

It let out a small groan from the pain. I patted its body and slowly pulled my hand out. Then the monkey puppet’s body slowly collapsed.

It fell limp without moving. I looked at what I held in my hand. It was the tree stem I had used to form the Fake Soul. It could be called a kind of mana heart.

Since the magical power that had moved its body was gone, the puppet naturally had no choice but to stop. Its soul was the same. I could feel the soul dwelling inside it quietly settled within the tree stem.

That soul was now completely mixed. At this level, it would clearly be able to withstand what came next. So the body was no longer needed. I intended to make a puppet using only this soul.

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