WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Surviving in the Magic Academy

Chapter 68

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Why was the Fog Heart trying to enter my body?

That had been my question all this time. Even though it knew it would not work, it kept trying to burrow into me. It was different from the other treasures.

The others had chased me only to devour me. Their movements were crude and simple, as if they were driven purely by instinct. If they had been able to use their heads even a little, I might have been caught long ago.

The Fog Heart was different. If all it wanted was to suck out my mind, it would already have tried to take everything from me inside the fog. But it had shown no sign of doing that.

Instead, it was protecting me from the others, just like now. That meant it did not see me only as prey, unlike the other treasures.

Because of that, I could more or less understand what it wanted.

Aside from Professor, I was the only person who could enter and leave this place. So it must have wanted to steal my body and get out.

“Is that true?”

The puppet asked, looking up at me. There was a faint excitement in its voice. It took a step toward me.

“Yes. So you do not need to try entering my body. I have another way to get you outside.”

I remembered Professor saying she would give me one treasure. This heart fit her words perfectly.

A treasure that could communicate with me like this and protect me too. It might be the most suitable one for me. I opened my mouth again.

“But is there a particular reason you want to go outside?”

At my question, the puppet slowly moved its feet. Then it began circling me as if taking a stroll. With those light steps, it looked around.

“Because if I stay here, I cannot grow stronger.”

The area was filled with silence. From far away, only the occasional tremor of a giant hand digging through the ground reached us.

In this place where no other sound could be heard, the puppet lightly kicked a small stone at its feet. It flew off somewhere and vanished.

“Shall I tell you a little about my past, Evron-ssi? To earn your trust. The old me was just a mass of fog. Without reason, I simply chased living things and sucked away everything they had. Then I met Irian-nim....”

It drew out the words as if searching through its memories. Lost in that memory, the puppet shuddered for a moment. Then it slowly continued.

“And so my whole body was torn apart by her, and I was fixed in the form of this heart. As that form came into being, a faint craving appeared. The thought that one day, I wanted to taste that.”

A slight blush spread across the puppet’s face. It slowly stroked its own body. Sticky fog leaked from its hand. It licked its lips and smiled.

“That craving grew and gave me intelligence, and that became my long-held dream. This body taking this form must be a reflection of that dream.”

“I see.”

I quietly nodded. Its desire to eat had made even its shape become the same. That was rather unsettling.

More importantly, Professor was probably listening to this from outside. Had she known it thought this way? A faint curiosity rose in me.

She probably had. But she likely had not cared much. After all, this heart must have been just one of her ordinary treasures.

“But until recently, I had half given up on leaving. The wall around this place was simply too sturdy. I lost so much hope that even my reason became very faint.”

The puppet brought its hands together and made a circle. It was the shape of the wall surrounding this land. I had gone all the way to the edge of the land and checked it several times myself. As it said, the wall was isolating this place.

“But when I tasted people’s memories little by little last time, my desire surged up again. This place is far too boring. I want to go outside and suck away living things again. Then I want to gather power that way and eat Irian-nim too. I am so curious about what she tastes like.”

It stroked its own face with hazy eyes. Intense hunger clung to that touch.

I gave a bitter smile. It had explained at length, but in the end, there was only one reason it wanted to go outside. It wanted to eat living things like before.

Yes, in the end, this was the same as the other treasures. It moved only to consume life. Since it had intelligence, it simply moved a little more efficiently than the others.

The puppet stopped walking and looked at me. Strong desire filled its gaze. It smiled brightly.

“If those words are true, then I will do my best to help you. Not only here, but outside as well.”

I nodded. It devoured living things? What did that matter? As long as it was not me, it was fine.

If anything, something with such a clear desire was easy to handle. The old mages of the university were people whose emotions I could not even properly grasp. I remembered Myra’s shy smile.

“You can trust me. Professor Irian said I could take out one treasure. If you help me, I will make sure to escort you outside.”

“Hehe, good.”

A wide smile bloomed on the puppet’s face. It was a clear smile that did not suit Professor’s face at all. It gently placed a hand on its chest and closed its eyes.

“So having hope was such a joyful thing. My heart is pounding even when I stay still.”

The puppet stood still like that for a moment, then quietly opened its eyes. Then it came over to me and gently hugged my arm.

“Then shall we go to where that friend is? It is close by.”

“Close by?”

I glanced around. Since we were at the top of a mountain, I could see the surroundings at a glance. But I could not see anything unusual.

At my reaction, the puppet covered its mouth and let out a small laugh. A very amused expression appeared on its face.

“Actually, we do not need to go looking for it. That friend has been following us all along. I was simply keeping us at a steady distance from it.”

As it said that, it raised a hand and pointed somewhere. My gaze naturally followed. But there was nothing there. Only sunken ground stretched out before us.

“Shall I clear the fog for a moment?”

After saying that, the puppet sucked the fog around us into its body. At the same time, the ground I had been looking at split open. As naturally as if it had always been meant to.

Inside was one enormous eye. The eye gave off a strange glow, as if it held stars within it. Then it looked at me.

The eye poured out deep magical power. It surged up like hooks and embedded itself into my body. Then that magical power began dragging my body away.

The key gave off light and blocked that power. In response, the eye began pouring out even more magical power.

Magical power cascaded down like a waterfall and began encroaching on the area around me. I broke into a cold sweat and endured it as best I could.

The key clearly blocked the eye’s invasion, but the slight shock produced in the process began striking me.

My mind gradually began to be contaminated by the star’s magical power, and my body trembled from the pain.

“This should be enough.”

The puppet spoke. At the same time, fog wrapped around us again. The eye’s magical power was blocked by that fog and vanished. I took a deep breath.

“Phew, so that is the eye?”

Bloody phlegm rose up my throat. I spat it out and asked. It had only been a very brief moment, yet it had done this to me. At the same time, I had learned its limit.

As long as I had the key, it could never eat me. It could only cause me a little pain like this. This much was nothing. I had already been through what Professor had done to me.

The eye continued pouring magical power over the fog. The Fog Heart responded by spewing out even stronger fog. The gathered fog gradually thickened until I could not see an inch ahead.

“Yes, quite a violent friend, is it not? Then shall we move?”

The puppet gently led me along. Guided by the puppet inside that fog, I moved my feet.

I did not know how much time had passed before the puppet cleared the fog. Then the surroundings came into view again. At some point, we had moved to a different place.

The eye was still tearing up the mountaintop where we had been with magical power. It seemed it had not managed to find where we had gone.

I gathered a little of the fog around us in my hand. To think it could fail to notice us leaving from right in front of it. I already knew this ability because it had helped me avoid the gazes of the other treasures until now, but I had not known it was this effective.

“That friend has what you might call intelligence too. That is why, unlike the others, it can think a little. It will chase us again soon. Even if it cannot find you, Evron-ssi, it will remember the faintness of my fog.”

“That is how it has been following us until now,” the puppet said. As I listened, I absentmindedly looked at the puppet.

Then I was startled by its appearance.

The puppet’s body was covered in countless small cracks. Fog faintly wavered between those gaps.

It looked so precarious that it might shatter at any moment. The puppet examined its own body and gave a small laugh.

“I look terrible.”

“Are you all right?”

I gently infused magical power into its body. The puppet did not stop me.

The cracks were not only on the outside of the puppet, but all throughout its inside as well. Even on the spine that formed its center.

It seemed the body could not handle the power of the fog. At least for now, it was slowly recovering, and those cracks were being filled.

Bitterness filled my chest. I had not known this body could not even withstand this brief use of power. If it had contained even a little more, it would definitely have broken.

I had felt it ever since the giant hand tore off the turtle’s shell, but the treasures here were far too strong. Far stronger than what I had felt in the lecture.

Maybe back then, their power had been restricted to match the level of the students. I unconsciously stroked that heavily cracked body.

The puppet I had completed was far too immature. The materials were lacking too, but my skill in making it was even more lacking. I could clearly see what I needed to improve from now on.

“Hehe, that tickles.”

The puppet said it with a laugh. I hurriedly pulled my hand back. I scratched my head with an awkward smile.

“I apologize. I felt sorry for you and did it without thinking.”

“It is all right. Anyway, that is the kind of friend it is. What shall we do?”

The puppet asked in a light tone. I had no choice but to sigh. I had found it for now, but how was I supposed to bring that thing to Professor?

Negotiation was impossible. As the puppet said, even if it had a little intelligence, the eye I had just seen held only intense greed toward me.

Far from trying to talk to it, I had to worry about getting eaten right away. Subduing it by force was impossible too.

I began thinking, searching for a method. In the middle of that, the puppet slowly leaned against me.

Then it quietly stroked my chest again with its finger. It met my eyes and gave a soft smile.

“I do have one method.”

“What method do you mean?”

“I can only use my original power when I have a body. This is only a puppet. This body is not alive, so it will only break, like it just did.”

I quietly nodded. It was as the puppet said. I had said I would borrow its power, but in this state, there would clearly be a limit, just like before.

“If I enter your body, I will be able to use much more power.”

The puppet placed its palm on my chest. My heartbeat passed through that palm.

At its words, I gave a bitter smile. So it had come back to this in the end. Seeing my face, the puppet shook its head.

“But you have kept saying no to that, so I thought of another way.”

The puppet slowly pulled away from me. Then it stroked down its own chest.

Under that light gesture, its body split open. I could not take my eyes off the strange sight.

A heart was beating inside the split. A white heart that breathed out fog.

The strange magical power coming from it flowed through the puppet’s body.

The puppet reached into its chest and pulled out the heart. After watching it beat for a moment, it filled it with magical power and tore it in half.

Then the magical power and fog inside it began faintly leaking out. Startled, I stared blankly at the sight.

“Here.”

The puppet held out the split half to me. I stared at that half of the heart. I could not understand what this meant.

“I will give you half of me, so please give me half of your heart as well. If we share each other’s lives, we will become connected through a kind of magic.”

The puppet said it with a smile. Holding the heart, it slowly approached me.

“If we are connected like this, Evron-ssi, you will be able to use at least a little of my power. This puppet body will also stabilize a little through a living heart. If the two of us join forces like that, we will be able to deal with that thing easily.”

I swallowed. I remembered the fog the puppet had released. That strange power that melted the mind and controlled the body. Was I going to be able to use that?

The puppet pushed the piece of heart in front of my chest. If I did not refuse now, it would definitely seep in.

The key probably would not block this either. Exchanging half of mine for half of this was a kind of equivalent exchange.

No, what I would receive was the greater part of the trade.

I reached out toward it. Power, huh. I gave a bitter smile.

Then I gently pushed away the puppet’s hand.

“No, it is fine.”

I said it while shaking my head.

It was an extremely powerful temptation, one that held exactly what I needed right now. But it could not hide the ominous feeling inside it.

How could I trust this?

It had dressed the matter up in all sorts of pleasant words, but in the end, it meant something similar to before. Since the key kept blocking it when it tried to eat me whole, this time it was saying it would eat only half of my heart.

The puppet’s claim that it would give me power was probably true. But my heart, torn in half like that, would slowly assimilate into the Fog Heart.

And my mind would melt inside the flow of that fog. The key would definitely be unable to block that process. After all, that would not be an attack from outside.

The puppet smiled brightly.

“Oh my, you did not fall for it?”

The puppet put the heart back together and inserted it into its chest again. Then it gently stroked the opened gap with its finger, and the split healed naturally.

“I remembered how I had been fooled by your words twice so far, Evron-ssi, so I tried making up a plausible story too.”

The puppet spoke lightly. I smiled bitterly. Was that supposed to have been a light prank? The puppet tilted its head.

“Then what should we do? Without a body, there is a limit to how much I can help you. I can only protect and hide you like this.”

Hide me. At those words, a thought flashed through my head.

That fog had hidden me so well that even the eye right in front of us could not find me. Then could I use that?

“Can you hide me like before in front of the others too?”

“Yes. If it is the other friends, that is actually easier. I only need to lightly distort the surroundings.”

The puppet gave a small nod. That was good. It meant I could freely try the possibility that had just occurred to me.

“I have thought of one method. If this succeeds, I will definitely keep my promise to send you outside.”

“All right, good.”

The puppet propped its chin on a finger and smiled.

“I am curious what kind of method it is.”

I explained the rough outline of my plan to it. I was not certain, but it was still worth trying. A look of enjoyment began appearing on the puppet’s face.

Time passed like that, and I stood on the plain. I could feel the puppet watching me from far away.

I quietly raised my magical power. My magical power spread into the surroundings and began flying far away.

Holding the key in my hand, I quietly closed my eyes. If it was too hard for us to fight it, then something else could fight for us.

Soon, the ground began vibrating in every direction. The vibrations gradually grew stronger, and along with them, I began sensing intense magical powers.

The treasures had definitely sensed my presence and were rushing toward me.

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