WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Surviving in the Magic Academy

Chapter 70

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The workshop was filled with silence. Countless puppets and their parts were piled up here and there, making the stillness feel even deeper.

At the far end of the workshop, beneath a window spilling sunlight, a woman with a sulky look on her face was sipping tea. Her white hair caught the sunlight and shimmered.

I set a cake down in front of her. It was a dessert I had put quite a bit of care into making. I had done my best, hoping this would at least improve her mood a little.

“I prepared a soft, clean-tasting dessert that should go well with the tea you’re drinking. I added raspberries for a refreshing note. It should bring out the aroma of the tea even more.”

The woman snorted as she looked at it. Her hand, however, had already crept out with a fork and cut off a small piece of cake. When she put it in her mouth, a faint trace of satisfaction appeared on her face.

I poured more tea into the woman’s empty cup. She alternated between the cake and the tea, savoring the aroma. The more she did, the more her expression began to soften.

“I’m glad it seems to suit your taste.”

As I said that, I sat down at the table too. The woman glanced at me, then filled her face with displeasure again. I poured myself a cup of tea as well and smiled gently.

At least she had calmed down quite a bit now. Three hours ago, when she first opened her eyes, I had nearly died for real. Fog had closed around my throat in the blink of an eye.

I had expected some resistance since the adjustments were not finished yet, but I had not expected her to attack immediately without saying a single word.

Of course, she had every reason to. Her last memory was probably of me abandoning her and leaving.

Still, dealing with someone whose emotions showed this clearly put me strangely at ease. It reminded me of the people I had dealt with before. Miryeong, Myra, Hwaryeong, and so on. Every last one of them had been unbearably scheming.

She had a bit of craftiness too, but compared to the others, it was nothing. At any rate, the desire she held was expressed in a very pure way.

My efforts to improve her mood had continued until now. After serving her with the utmost sincerity, the face that had been radiating cold air at first had finally settled down a little.

It seemed we could at least talk now. I carefully spoke to her.

“Still, this is fortunate. You even received Professor’s permission, and now you can move around freely like this.”

“Yes, thanks to Irian-nim. Not you.”

She said it while glaring at me. Anger toward me still lingered strongly in her eyes. I needed to soften that. I thought quickly, then looked steadily at her.

“Would you believe me if I said this was my plan all along?”

“This was your plan? Abandoning me without blinking, then binding me to this body?”

Disbelief rose on her face. But there was a little curiosity mixed in as well. It seemed I had caught her interest.

“Yes. After all, I couldn’t control you. So I couldn’t be sure Professor would allow me to bring you out.”

“Mm. And?”

She said that while touching her teacup. I also took a sip of tea to wet my lips.

“But it was clear that Professor was watching us. So I shaped the story a little. In a way Professor would like. When Professor saw the ending, she felt very sorry for you. That was why she helped. She bound you to that body, placed you under my control, and allowed you to come outside like this.”

She stared at me. I smiled faintly and added,

“If I had told you in advance, Professor would have noticed too. That was why I had to leave you inside.”

A little suspicion lingered on that face, which looked exactly like Professor’s. Her expression suggested that something about my words felt off. But much of the anger in her eyes had melted away.

Yes, that was how things had gone. Of course, most of it was a lie.

If Professor had not forced me, I would never have even considered bringing that thing out.

As I drank my tea, I recalled what had happened back then. I had gone to Professor while carrying the eyeball I had taken from the treasure vault. Then I got beaten.

In truth, I had thought about many things inside the treasure vault. Namely, whether every situation was unfolding according to some predetermined flow.

The Fog Heart had just happened to be there, and it had just happened to be friendly to me. Then we had ended up cooperating. It all felt like a very convenient setup.

So why had things unfolded that way? It was probably Professor’s intention. After all, I had entered that place on Professor’s order. That was my rough guess.

Professor had been guiding me into choosing that thing. Then what was the reason? Most likely because it suited me, and because she thought it was an item she could conveniently hand over.

So I ran away. I did not want to move according to her intentions.

Of course, after watching the whole process, she said the Fog Heart was pitiful and forced me to choose it anyway. I grumbled plenty in front of her. I said it would be too much for me to handle.

The truth was, I had already sensed it would turn out this way. No matter what I did, I would end up obtaining that Fog Heart. Since she had decided it, I could not escape.

But the process mattered. If I had simply brought that thing out, Professor would not have paid any attention to what I said. It would have been my choice.

This, however, was something she had forced onto me, so part of the responsibility belonged to her too. Because of that, I could express my opinion, at least a little.

After getting hit by Professor several times, I eventually managed to get her help.

During that process, the Fog Heart inside the puppet completely assimilated with that body. I then tamed it with magical power as it was. It was delicate work, delicate enough to take an entire month.

That was how the woman before me was completed. She possessed such natural vitality that it was hard to believe she was a puppet. It was a harmony created through her blending with the Fog Heart.

Through the wood, I could feel an extremely strong connection to it. As long as the heart was trapped in that body, that thing could not cause me any harm.

Of course, the same applied to me. Its power was so strong that unless I poured in a tremendous amount of magical power, it was difficult to force orders on it. So I needed to maintain a good relationship.

“Then what should I call you? It feels a little awkward to keep calling you ‘you.’”

“Call me whatever you want, Evron-ssi.”

She leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. Her attitude said she did not care what I called her.

At that, I smiled. I had a name prepared in advance. It captured her traits very well.

“Then I’ll call you Ansim-ssi.”

“…No. I’ll decide, so let’s discuss it again later.”

The woman snapped her eyes open and spoke. Then she glared at me. The contempt and annoyance in her gaze left me feeling a little dejected. I had thought it was a good name.

“It contains the core of the Fog Heart, so Ansim….”

“Stop.”

She sprayed fog and covered my mouth. I quietly nodded. If she disliked it, there was nothing I could do.

No. 0 approached us. They showed me a clock, then pointed outside the window. When I looked outside, many students were gathering.

Lecture time was right around the corner. That was also why I had awakened her before her adjustments were fully complete.

I had to go inside too. If I went in without her, there was no telling what horrible thing the eyeball would do to me.

“Then shall we get going in a little while? It’s almost time for class.”

She nodded slightly. Then she slowly began drinking her tea. Quite some time passed before she set the cup down.

“Hmph. Let’s go.”

With a movement full of displeasure, she stood up. Then she quickly left the workshop.

No. 0 patted me. Receiving that comfort, I gave a bitter smile. How should I put it? It felt like I had gained another master. Since she had Professor’s face, it felt even more that way.

I slowly stood up. I had to hurry over and give them a lecture on the treasure. I followed after her.

After that, the lecture passed very comfortably.

Inside the fog released by the Fog Heart, I sold puppets. The magical beasts wandered through it and left. Small amounts of points began to gather in that comfort, without a trace of danger.

Of course, I did not make the fog too thick. I only arranged it so it felt like a kind of barrier. That way, the others would not recognize it as familiar.

The Fog Heart’s fog was something the other students had already experienced once. They might suspect something. There was no need to let them know I had obtained a treasure.

I had already learned that through the mirror bug. Excessive items drew excessive attention. It would be better for this woman to be recognized as just a slightly strong and slightly unusual puppet.

A strange sensation soaked my body, as if I were underwater. It was similar to what I had felt inside that thing’s body before.

This space had been made from the power extracted from the eyeball. Perhaps because of that, it had become far weaker than what I had experienced. Of course, even that was enough to deal with the students.

It seemed Professor had deliberately lowered the difficulty.

I had wondered if dealing with the treasures had been a little too easy all this time, and this was the reason. If it had its original power, that thing would have devoured the others in an instant.

Compared to when it had been in the vault, the thing now was downright cute. Of course, that did not mean I could deal with it.

The eyeball looked at me. I could feel strong hostility in that gaze. I quietly hid behind the puppet sitting beside me. Then I smiled softly at the eyeball.

It flew into a rage, but it could not attack us. It seemed wary of the Fog Heart.

The woman ignored it and gazed somewhere else. She pointed with her finger.

“I like that one.”

The woman said that. When I looked in the direction she was pointing, Cassian was moving through the wraiths. Every time that sword swung, the wraiths turned to ash and vanished.

The woman smacked her lips as she watched Cassian. Cassian, who had been in the middle of swinging the sword, shivered.

“I wonder if there’s any way I can have that body. It was so nice when I entered it last time.”

Cassian looked around, then turned toward us on the mountain. Even though the thin fog obscured the view, Cassian looked straight at us.

Cassian looked at the puppet beside me and blinked. The puppet waved at Cassian. Cassian waved back, then quickly moved away.

“What a shame.”

The puppet swallowed. I glanced at that puppet. The Fog Heart had settled into that body very successfully. If that body were destroyed, the heart itself would suffer serious damage too.

If it had not been bound like that, it would have attacked Cassian right away. And it would have stolen that body. That was also why I had put it in there. So it could not escape my control.

In truth, because of that, the eyeball had no need to pay attention to us at all. The Fog Heart was trapped in the puppet’s body, and its limits had become clear. If it poured out too much power, it would obviously break.

To raise its output, I needed to reinforce that body with better materials. And as the Fog Heart beside me, currently smacking its lips, had said, a human body would be even better.

Of course, that was not something I could do at the university. It would be nice if I could put in one more treasure, but there was no way Professor would allow it.

I stared blankly at the scene before me again. This lecture was also very successful. The other students slowly melted under the eyeball’s attacks.

Amazingly, there were a few who managed to withstand that power. They could not stand against the eyeball, but they were at least able to escape from it.

That was the result of the growth they had achieved over time. They did their best to obtain the treasure. Of course, since time ran out, they failed in the end.

And so the Treasure Hunt came to an end. It was the sixteenth lecture.

That meant there were four lectures left. As with this one, I would have to bring those treasures out myself.

I had barely managed to take out the eyeball by using other treasures. In the process, the Fog Heart had come out with it too.

I gave a bitter smile. Then what should I do next? I had no idea what kind of treasure Professor would tell me to take out.

A strong feeling came over me that I was going to suffer terribly.

And that worry became reality.

The first one was easy to bring out. I moved quickly in the gap before it woke up.

For the second, the treasure possessed clear reason, so I negotiated. In the end, I offered it suitable accommodations and secured its cooperation.

The problem began with the third. That treasure was extremely hostile. In the same way as the eyeball, I barely managed to bring it out after grinding down my whole body.

As for the fourth, I could not even consider touching it. I had no choice but to roll around inside the vault again and again until I escaped.

In the end, I failed to bring it out within the time limit and got beaten by Professor. The Fog Heart did too. I had quite a hard time soothing its mood afterward.

Somehow, those four lectures were carried out.

The Treasure Hunt course had come to an end.

It happened five years after I came to the university.

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