I Became A Flashing Genius At The Magic Academy-Chapter 386
When you climb the tallest spire of the Baekryeong Plateau Fortress, you can see the entire city at a glance.
It was a landscape that felt unfamiliar.
The Baekryeong Plateau Fortress, which had always been cold and desolate in her view through Seolparam Dae-gong, now seemed vibrant with life and hope.
If such a lie could persist forever, wouldn’t that be fine?
“Huff!”
Cheonhwangjeong Palwol focused her gaze, and the world’s colors drained away, turning into black and white.
No matter how skilled a 9th-class mage was at imposing the Persona Gate upon reality, they couldn’t deceive the eyes of the Twelve Moons.
The truth of the world began to unfold before her eyes.
The man laughing happily while running his fish shop?
He was, in reality, a magic arsenal maintenance officer.
The young man picking flowers with a joyful expression?
He was actually a soldier standing guard at Outpost 19.
The man dancing in the streets with carefree delight?
He was the platoon leader of the rear support unit. And the old woman clapping along in front of him? She was the forward unit commander who repelled monsters on the frontlines.
"They’ve all been fighting so hard here," she thought.
But even if they had been struggling, was it truly better for them to forget all that and just laugh as if everything was fine? That could never be the case.
Each of them had a duty.
From the lowliest soldier to the commanding officers responsible for countless others, they all shared the mission of defending this fortress and ensuring the dreadful monsters of the north couldn’t descend upon the continent.
Though they appeared happy, none of them were truly happy.
Cheonhwangjeong Palwol could see it.
She could read their true emotions, all the terrifying feelings concealed beneath the surface.
Beneath the false pretense of happiness, their hearts were crying out in pain.
“It’s because of me,” she admitted.
Her careless words to a black mage, who lacked both emotions and attachments to the world, had trapped them all in this hell of fake happiness.
“I have to free them.”
With her yellow-tinged eyes glowing fiercely, she raised her hand, forming scissors with her index and middle fingers as she extended them toward the air.
She could see it.
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The “threads of the mind” controlling every person in this city like puppets.
The flow of energy constituting the Persona Gate.
“...I can cut it.”
Snip!
Like cutting with scissors, she brought her fingers together, and one of the pedestrians laughing in the street collapsed to their knees, disoriented.
“Ah, ah... What... what’s going on?”
The man clutched his face in confusion, unable to process the situation. But Cheonhwangjeong Palwol couldn’t spare him her attention. She had to free everyone in this hell.
Snip! Snip!
One by one, she began severing the threads manipulating their minds. Each time, people regained their senses and hurried to their rightful places.
Some sat dazed where they were, but others, who had already regained clarity, pulled them back to their roles as soldiers, guiding them to where they needed to be.
Snip! ...Ting!
In the midst of her work, Cheonhwangjeong Palwol noticed an unyielding thread and frowned.
“What is this...?”
A mysterious thread of soft pink light. It was unmistakably the power of Yeonhongchun Samwol.
“Ah.”
Looking up, she saw a high elf with fairy wings reflecting the light of the sky in shimmering pink hues.
They weren’t casting the magic recklessly but instead selectively shielding the minds of the crazed individuals who were laughing maniacally.
“...That’s right.”
If she freed everyone indiscriminately, it would all be for nothing in the end.
But now, she no longer had to worry.
The white haze she had long desired to suppress was firmly in the hands of Baek Yuseol and the Elf Queen, Ggotseorin. All she needed to do was focus on freeing the humans here.
Snip!
Of course, it wasn’t an easy task.
Cold sweat dripped down her face. Even though she lacked a physical body, the mental strain she was enduring was evident. Yet she persevered.
“I am one of the Twelve Moons who governs the mind.”
If she couldn’t handle this, she couldn’t call herself a Twelve Moon.
Realizing that cutting them one by one wouldn’t be enough, Cheonhwangjeong Palwol gathered her hands together, conjuring an enormous pair of scissors in her mind.
Though the weight of it was almost unbearable, she raised it high, and with a single cut...
Slice!
“Huh? Why am I here...?”
“Haha! Haha...? Wait! What’s going on? I was preparing for deployment, so why was I running a fruit shop...?”
“Sir! Why were you holding my arm like that?”
Hundreds, then thousands of minds were freed all at once. Cheonhwangjeong Palwol nearly collapsed on the spot, but someone supported her from behind.
Startled, she turned her head to see someone she cared for like her own child, though she had never borne one herself... Seolparam Dae-gong.
“...Cheonhwangjeong Palwol.”
“Oh, uh... You’re back, I see?”
“Yes, thanks to you.”
He smiled faintly, gazing at the now-transformed Baekryeong Plateau Fortress.
“I don’t know what happened, but you’ve saved us.”
“...Not entirely.”
She opened her mouth to explain the truth, the guilt of her role in this situation weighing heavily on her, but Seolparam shook his head.
“It’s alright,” he said.
“I like this view. And... though it was brief, the time when we could only laugh wasn’t entirely bad.”
“Th-that’s...”
“I’ve spent my whole life consumed by war. I learned the names of monsters before I knew my father’s name, and I mastered destructive magic before I could even read.”
His life had been one of relentless battle. He had wished for nothing more than to fight and die in the war, just as his father had.
“But...”
He looked out into the distance.
At the world covered in flowers where the Persona Gate had once loomed.
“Sometimes, a change like this... doesn’t seem so bad.”
Yet he smiled bitterly.
“When we return to how things were... this beautiful sight will disappear, won’t it?”
He already suspected the truth.
The vibrant world of flowers was a lie. Once Cheonhwangjeong Palwol restored reality, the barren, desolate landscape would return.
But she shook her head.
“No, you’re wrong.”
For once, she wore a confident smile.
“Whether they want it or not... the life blooming here will remain.”
Because Baek Yuseol had said so.
Even though the odds were only 17%, it was his words, not anyone else’s, that she chose to believe.
Cheonhwangjeong Palwol raised her hand again, wielding her unseen, colossal scissors, and severed the threads binding the humans like puppets.
Snap! Snap!
With so many threads cut, even the ones she hadn’t touched began to lose their strength and fall apart.
The magic controlling the minds of those within the Persona Gate began to collapse.
The immense energy used to sustain the control clashed with the gate’s barrier, and...
“Look at that...”
The world of flowers began to expand, replacing the cold, barren land with new life.
The boundary of the Persona Gate blurred, and for the first time, the outside world could be faintly seen through the black fog.
“This... this is a miracle!”
Seolparam Dae-gong wasn’t the only one who witnessed this miraculous sight. Soldiers of the Baekryeong Plateau Fortress, regaining their senses, began to notice her figure on the spire, glowing with a yellow aura.
“Look! The person standing with the commander up there!”
“Was it her who freed us?”
No, they were wrong.
Though she had worked hard, it wasn’t her who had found the decisive solution—it was Baek Yuseol.
She wanted to tell them this, but she had no strength left.
Snip!
With the final thread severed, Cheonhwangjeong Palwol collapsed.
“Haa... haa...”
“Cheonhwangjeong Palwol! Are you alright?”
Seolparam Dae-gong rushed to her side, but she couldn’t even muster a response, only weakly shaking her head.
Just then, she sensed someone watching. Forcing her head to lift, she saw Baek Yuseol standing atop another spire in the distance.
He nodded once, as if to say, “Well done,” and pointed somewhere far away.
“Ah...”
Finally, she understood.
“It’s over now.”
The Persona Gate she had inadvertently created was gone.
The black dimensional boundary separating truth from lies had completely disappeared.
What remained was a world bursting with the vibrant life and flowers of a warm spring day.
Truly, it was a miracle.
To plant life in a cold, barren world—was such a thing even possible?
Even the 9th-class black
mage Marancaltz, who had created the Persona Gate, couldn’t have achieved this.
For he had created a world of lies, incapable of being made real.
But Cheonhwangjeong Palwol’s abilities allowed her to do what no one else could.
One of the true powers of the Twelve Moons: to intervene in reality.
Baek Yuseol had helped her realize this hidden ability.
“This... miracle I created...”
She felt satisfied.
For the first time, she had accomplished something truly meaningful on her own.
If she were to die now, she would have no regrets.
But she couldn’t.
“...I will stand by Baek Yuseol.”
The Twelve Moons were divided into two factions: one aligned with Hoegongsiwol and the other with Baek Yuseol.
At first, she had sided with Hoegongsiwol out of pride, unwilling to align herself with humans. But she now saw the error of her ways.
He had only used her as a tool, just as in the past.
But Baek Yuseol was different.
He had helped her uncover her true abilities and viewed her as she truly was, beyond her title and power.
What human could treat a member of the Twelve Moons so casually?
She finally understood.
Why so many of the Twelve Moons had chosen to stand by Baek Yuseol.
“The end is near.”
Slowly, the Twelve Moons were leaving Hoegongsiwol’s side and gathering around Baek Yuseol.
Cheonhwangjeong Palwol thought to herself:
If the end truly comes one day, it won’t be the destruction Hoegongsiwol desires.
It will be the hope Baek Yuseol envisions.
And she was certain of it.
