I Became A Flashing Genius At The Magic Academy-Chapter 444

"It was a pouring evening, the kind of rain that seemed unending. Those who had stepped out in light clothing, expecting nothing more than a passing shower, now wore disgruntled expressions as they boarded the long-distance automatic carriage.

'My clothes are completely soaked.'

The carriage was traveling through the western part of the Aether Continent, passing by Lake Triman in Count Galeo’s territory. Few passengers typically boarded this route, and the quality of the automatic carriage reflected this. The seating consisted of nothing more than simple, linear benches arranged along both sides of the vehicle.

Outside the central continent’s major nations, security in these regions left much to be desired. Perhaps it was because the cultural and technological advancements of the central continent had yet to reach these outskirts, or perhaps there were other reasons entirely.

'What the hell? You bastard!'

Thud!

A loud commotion broke out inside the carriage, escalating into a fight. Three men were thrown out of the moving carriage onto the muddy roadside. Though they fell from a considerable speed, nobody seemed overly concerned.

'Go to hell, you bastards!'

The men who had been ejected shouted curses as they scrambled to their feet, apparently unharmed.

'Tsk, noisy.'

Darek, a mercenary, scowled as he glanced at the commotion’s instigator. She was a woman with striking red hair and sun-tanned skin, holding a liquor bottle tightly in one hand.

'A mage, huh? Showing off as usual.'

These days, mages were all the same. Just because they knew a few combat spells, they acted like they were above everyone else, treating mercenaries as if they were insignificant.

'Heh.'

The woman staggered back to what appeared to be her companions and collapsed into a seat, still clutching her bottle. Darek’s eyes narrowed as he observed her group.

'Well, what do we have here?'

Unlike the red-haired woman, her two companions had pale, flawless skin. They both wore hoods, making it hard to see their faces clearly, but one appeared to be a boy in his teens, while the other looked like a young noblewoman.

Darek nudged his sleeping companion beside him, rousing him with a jab to the ribs.

'Hmm?'

As his companion turned groggily to him, Darek brought a finger to his lips in a silencing gesture before motioning towards the trio with his eyes.

'Oh... Interesting.'

His companion's eyes gleamed with the same predatory intent.

'Prey.'

Judging by their clothing, the trio wasn’t from an affluent noble family, but nobility was nobility. They could ransom them for a decent price or sell them off if no one came to pay.

With security in Count Galeo’s territory deteriorating, travelers had become scarce, leaving Darek and his gang short on opportunities. Now, this was a windfall.

Darek strained to catch snippets of their hushed conversation. Their voices were too low to make out clearly, but he managed to discern their approximate ages.

'The boy is a teenager, the woman in her twenties. Perfect.'

Even without seeing their faces, their graceful movements and fine features hinted that they were attractive—highly marketable.

'The mage is the problem...'

Mages openly flaunting their abilities in these lawless territories fell into two categories: those confident in their strength and those so inexperienced they didn’t realize how mercenaries dealt with them.

'The latter, most likely.'

Though he wasn’t entirely certain, he judged the odds to be in his favor. The red-haired mage looked no older than her mid-to-late twenties, suggesting limited experience in the field. She probably had no idea how mercenaries like him handled such situations.

No elaborate plan was necessary. The carriage carried 17 passengers, and 14 of them were Darek’s allies. A mere exchange of glances was enough to synchronize their timing.

The peculiar hum of Darek’s gauntlet filled the air as he flexed his right hand.

Clunk!

As the carriage jolted over rough terrain, the passengers’ postures momentarily shifted. That was the moment.

Crash!

Darek lunged forward, his right arm extended, and grabbed the red-haired mage by her collar, yanking her through the wall of the carriage.

'Ugh?!'

She couldn’t even react before finding herself dragged outside, her body slamming against the ground.

Thud!

The mage struggled, kicking and pounding against the gauntlet choking her neck, but her efforts were futile.

'You see this?' Darek sneered, raising the gauntlet slightly. 'This is an item. With this, even a low-tier mage like you is no match for a mercenary like me.'

Assassinating mages wasn’t unheard of, even in the past. Nighttime attacks worked best, when mages typically let their guard down and neglected their protective shields.

But now, with the advent of magical items, mercenaries like Darek could strike even in broad daylight. These tools were powerful enough to neutralize the shields of a third-class mage.

As proof, the once-boastful woman now dangled helplessly in his grip, her shield shattered.

'Didn’t expect to be taken down by a mercenary, did you? Hah!'

“The least you could do is be grateful. You’re lucky your face is decent; otherwise, I’d have snapped your neck right here.”

Darek had no doubts. With their mage subdued, his companions would have already dealt with the young boy and the noblewoman.

It was such an obvious outcome that Darek didn’t even feel the need to check.

To him, it was as natural as water flowing downhill—a foregone conclusion.

With this confidence, he lifted the red-haired woman by her collar and turned around to show off his prize to his comrades.

“Ha, take a good look, you guys! This is wha—”

But then, something felt off.

“What exactly are you looking at?”

Darek froze.

“Ugh...”

“Kuhh...”

As his vision slowly registered the scene before him, he began to piece together what had happened.

The side of the carriage was completely shredded, its roof torn apart as if it were paper.

‘Did I do that?’

No. Even with the help of his enchanted gauntlet, he could only punch a hole, not tear the entire structure apart.

Which meant this devastation wasn’t his doing—or his comrades’.

The second thing he noticed was his comrades themselves. They were all sprawled on the ground, incapacitated.

And then there was the boy.

One of Darek’s strongest allies, armed with the second-most expensive magical equipment among them, was being mercilessly stomped on by that boy.

“Wha—”

Before Darek could process what he was seeing, the red-haired woman grabbed his gauntlet with one hand.

“What the—!”

A searing pain cut through his confusion as the gauntlet began to heat up.

“Aaaaaah!!”

Darek screamed, releasing the woman and tumbling to the ground in agony.

His gauntlet was melting. The enchanted metal, designed to withstand intense combat, was warping and fusing to his hand under an unbearable heat.

‘It’s melting... my hand...!’

Darek’s mind was consumed by the excruciating pain as his right hand was rendered useless, crushed and burned beyond recognition.

“Tsk, my raincoat got dirty.”

The red-haired woman, Finarette, brushed off her now-damaged coat with an irritated expression before tearing it off entirely and tossing it aside. She then walked over to the writhing Darek and silenced his screams with a firm kick to the head.

“How’d you pull that off?”

Finarette stared at the melted gauntlet in satisfaction. She knew she couldn’t generate that kind of heat with her own magic—it had to be something else.

Sure enough, it was Baek Yuseol’s handiwork.

“Remember what I said? Just apply a little fire magic to the ring finger of that gauntlet.”

“And what happens then?”

“You’ll see. It’ll be fun.”

Following his advice, Finarette had cast a simple Class-2 flame spell on the gauntlet’s ring finger, and the results were spectacular.

“That gauntlet is defective,” Baek Yuseol said casually.

“Defective?”

“Yup. Its core mechanism releases energy from the finger joints, [N O V E L I G H T] but if you heat the ring finger, the internal core gets overstimulated and rapidly overheats. I heard the manufacturer scrapped the entire line, but it looks like someone stole the rejects and sold them to mercenaries.”

Baek Yuseol kicked the melted gauntlet off Darek’s hand, inspecting it with mild curiosity.

“Hmm... Yep, the code matches the discontinued batch. I bet the dark mages stole these and pawned them off to these mercenaries when they found out about the flaw.”

“I see...”

“Anyway, we’ll have to arrest these guys later. They might lead us to a dark mage organization.”

“Why not now?”

“Because they’re still useful for now.”

Finarette shrugged, accepting his reasoning, but then asked, “So why’d you wait for them to attack? You could’ve stopped this before it even started.”

Baek Yuseol grinned, as if the answer were obvious.

“Isn’t it better to beat them up under the pretense of self-defense?”

“...Fair point.”

“And besides, I had questions to ask them. Cyclen, if you would?”

Cyclen removed her hood, revealing a strikingly beautiful yet icy expression. The fallen mercenaries paled in terror as she approached them.

“Mercenaries,” Cyclen said coldly, “answer my questions within three seconds. If you don’t...”

Crack!

“Aaaaagh!!”

“...Your fingers will start breaking.”

Without waiting for a question, Cyclen demonstrated her threat by snapping one of the mercenary’s fingers. Finarette winced at the gruesome sight, visibly unsettled.

“Got it?” Cyclen asked.

Crack!

“Please! Ask me anything! Just stop!”

Crack!

“Arrghh! Please, I’ll talk! Anything you want!”

In the end, the mercenary fainted after all ten of his fingers were bent backwards.

Baek Yuseol crossed his arms, silently giving Cyclen a disapproving look. She responded with a serene smile, her beauty almost distracting from her horrifying actions.

“It’s been a while since I’ve broken fingers,” she said cheerfully. “You know that satisfying feeling you get from popping bubble wrap? It’s like that.”

Cyclen crawled over to another mercenary, who was pinned down with a sword through his thigh. Helpless, the man could only tremble as her delicate hands reached for his.

“P-please...”

Crack!

“Aaaaagh!!”

“Let’s see... Five fingers, then we’ll talk.”

Snap! Snap! Snap!

That day, screams of terror echoed across Count Galeo’s territory. Rumors of ghostly wails spread, and fewer travelers dared to visit the region.

***

The simple yet effective torture method of finger-breaking had worked wonders on the street-level mercenaries. Thanks to this, Baek Yuseol was able to uncover some critical information.

“So, Scarlet is trapped in another dimension?”

“Yup. And to track her, even a witch hunter needs some preparation. Do you know where the dark mages’ Persona Gate technology originated?”

“Not really...”

“Well, a long time ago, there was a cult called the Church of the Lunar Eclipse that worshipped the Twelve Deities of the Gray Moon. Their doctrine was brutal, and their gray lunar magic was so uncontrollably powerful that they were banished on a global scale. But that doesn’t mean they’re completely gone.”

“A church worshipping the Lunar Eclipse...”

Churches of the Twelve Deities were not uncommon in the current era, so the idea of a Lunar Eclipse cult existing somewhere wasn’t far-fetched.

‘I vaguely remember hearing about this in the game...’

“Anyway, our next move is to locate a hidden Gray Moon Church in this area.”

The mercenaries had provided the key information. Technically, they weren’t aware of the Gray Moon Church’s existence but had spilled everything they knew after Baek Yuseol described its characteristics. They even began theorizing wildly, spinning stories in their desperation to be helpful.

Having broken all the mercenaries’ fingers, Cyclen stood up with a cheerful smile and a satisfied expression.

“All done! Shall we move on? Oh, it’s been so long since I’ve done this; I’d almost forgotten how addictive it is.”

“Y-yeah...”

“H-heh...”

Baek Yuseol and Finarette, looking visibly unsettled, subtly moved their hands behind their backs as if to hide them.

When Cyclen met their eyes, they both quickly shook their heads.

“Ahaha, don’t worry. I don’t break fingers unless they belong to bad people.”

“R-right, of course.”

“Yep. Those guys won’t be doing anything bad with their hands ever again. My magic’s imbued in the breaks, so they’ll barely be able to hold chopsticks later. Oh, and that mercenary Darek... Such a pity. His melted hand only had five fingers left to break.”

“Should we... have left him alone?”

“Nah, it’s fine. Because...”

At the edge of the forest, the view suddenly opened up, revealing a massive temple.

Constructed entirely from gray stone, the structure exuded an oppressive and gloomy aura, enhanced by the pouring rain.

“Looks like there are plenty of fingers to break over there,” Cyclen said with a bright, almost refreshing smile, as if she had just suggested going for a picnic. She strode forward confidently.

Boom! Crack!

A sudden flash of lightning illuminated her retreating figure.

Baek Yuseol and Finarette exchanged glances.

‘You go first.’

‘No, after you...’

Somehow, following behind Cyclen felt far more terrifying than any threat they had faced so far.

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