I Became the Genius Mage of the Martial Academy

‘Of all places to meet.’

Come to think of it, Namgung Bihwa was an intermediate student. I forced my stiffening lips into a smile and said.

“We meet again. I’ve been admitted as a junior student this time. Please take care of me.”

“What? You?! A junior student… Then you’re a high-ranking entrant?”

Namgung Bihwa said, glaring at me as if she couldn’t believe it.

The top student could access the intermediate library without any conditions, and high-ranking entrants could access it conditionally, so it seemed she had mistaken me for a high-ranking entrant.

‘She has no idea that I’m the top student.’

By now, some information about me should have been released among the intermediate students.

It seemed she wasn’t very up-to-date with rumors.

“Anyway, it was nice meeting you. I’ll be on my way then.”

I tried to slip past her, thinking it would be troublesome if I got involved. Just then, Namgung Bihwa grabbed me.

“Wait a moment.”

“…What is it?”

I cautiously turned my head, afraid of experiencing something like ‘You don’t deserve to be in the Martial Academy!’.

“That sword?”

Fortunately, her gaze was on the sword I had received from Jeongmuk before.

“What about it?”

“Isn’t that the Martial Study Sword?”

It seemed the name of this sword was the Martial Study Sword. I thought I had heard it somewhere, but it was so long ago that I couldn’t remember well.

“Well, I guess so.”

At my indifferent response, Namgung Bihwa’s eyes narrowed.

“Don’t tell me you stole it?”

“Would that be possible?”

When I asked back, Namgung Bihwa frowned as if she couldn’t understand.

“Then why do you have it?”

A sharp tone. It seemed her impression of me was not good because of the previous incident.

It was unfair, but since I had committed the deed, it couldn’t be helped. Having no choice, I obediently told the truth.

“I received it. Directly.”

At those words, her eyes widened in surprise for a moment.

“You received the Martial Study Sword from an instructor?!”

I nodded silently. Because something had come to mind from Namgung Bihwa’s reaction.

‘Come to think of it, there was a test to obtain the Martial Study Sword in the intermediate student exam.’

There were a few tests to become an advanced student even for intermediate students, and one of them was to be acknowledged in a duel with an instructor within a year and obtain the Martial Study Sword.

As I was silently recalling the related content, the opponent’s voice rose.

“Tell me in detail…!”

As Namgung Bihwa approached me and was about to say more, a heavy killing intent flew from all directions.

‘Oh, dear.’

I looked around and sighed. The piercing gazes of the students in the library were pouring in.

‘Getting scolded for being loud in the library is the same everywhere.’

I whispered to Namgung Bihwa, who was looking around with her mouth shut, as if flustered.

“It’s not good to be too loud in the library. I’ll be going first then.”

And so, I left the silent Namgung Bihwa and went to one side of the intermediate library. Then, a thought suddenly occurred to me, and my eyes shone.

‘Wait, then what happens to me?’

Was it an automatic pass? It meant I had already cleared one of the exams I would have to take in the future.

But to simply pass it off as good luck, something bothered me. There was no way Jeongmuk didn’t know the meaning of this sword.

‘This could get troublesome.’

I headed to a corner of the library, leaving behind the gazes that were faintly felt towards me. And there, I began to read the [Intermediate Formation Theory].

It certainly had a different aspect from the basic formation book that could be seen in the secret manual library on the first floor.

‘The mathematical approach is prominent.’

There was also a part like Minesweeper. It was an approach of ‘if there is an energy of 5 here and an energy of 1 there, then there is a trap here’.

As numbers and laws were involved in the yin-yang and five elements, the content became much more complex, but thanks to that, it became possible to create a more systematic and solid formation.

‘I see why the Heaven-Shattering Demon scattered the martial arts but didn’t just distribute the formation books.’

A skill that requires highly specialized manpower and an endless amount of huge funds.

A formation is a type of knowledge that consolidates the power of a group, not something that can be achieved by an individual’s effort alone.

It was a different kind of power from the Heaven-Shattering Demon’s idea of returning martial arts to everyone.

Of course, because of this, the Zhuge family had benefited from it in the past era of the Heaven-Shattering Demon.

‘Because their prestige and power had shrunk the least.’

If the foundation of the Zhuge family, which only had formation knowledge and brains, had been all revealed at that time, there would be no Zhuge Cheonwu, the scoundrel from the Five Great Families, by now.

‘I’m indebted in many ways.’

I thanked the Heaven-Shattering Demon inwardly and began to read the formation book again with an interested gaze.

* * *

“Hey, junior student.”

In the evening, after finishing my reading, I was about to leave the secret manual library and head to the dining hall when I suddenly heard someone calling me from behind.

What was there was a man looking down at me with his chin raised.

Seeing the clothes with a blue pattern, he seemed to be an intermediate student, so I used honorifics.

“What is it?”

“If a senior calls you, you should just answer politely, why are you asking for the reason first?”

He, with an irritated impression, crumpled his expression and then slowly approached me.

I made a dumbfounded expression at the sight of him approaching while raising his qi all over his body to create a sense of pressure.

“It seems you don’t know yet, but that sword is not something a junior student like you should be wearing.”

He said, pointing at the Martial Study Sword at my waist.

‘As expected, he was after this.’

Only then did I understand Jeongmuk’s intention. Giving me the Martial Study Sword was his own way of acknowledgment and a prank.

Because if I wore the Martial Study Sword, the intermediate students would have their eyes lit up and rush to take it away.

Of course, the top-ranking students didn’t need to aim for mine in an unseemly way and could receive acknowledgment from the instructors.

‘But not everyone has that much skill.’

The only ones who couldn’t get the Martial Study Sword were the students with ambiguous grades. Right now, I had become a good target for the lower-ranking intermediate students.

“Then what should I do?”

When I asked him back with a rather innocent tone, the opponent twisted the corner of his mouth. And then, as if he had been waiting, he beckoned with his palm.

“Leave it to me. I will take responsibility and deliver it to the instructor later.”

It was a trick with an obvious intention. I opened my eyes wide and answered.

“I see. But what should I do about this? There’s already someone I’ve promised to give it to.”

“What? Who in the world is it?”

Then, the guy’s expression crumpled for a moment. Seeing that, I sold out a student’s name.

“It’s Namgung Bihwa-nim.”

“What?”

The opponent, with a surprised face for a moment, froze and pointed a finger at me.

“Don’t be ridiculous! Why would she do that?”

“Well. Isn’t it for the same reason as you, senior? In fact, that’s what we were talking about in the secret manual library earlier.”

I finished my words, sneering at him inwardly.

‘For a martial artist to tremble just by hearing the opponent’s name, not their own sword.’

How would this guy have known that I had the Martial Study Sword? Of course, he must have found out when Namgung Bihwa was surprised and mentioned the Martial Study Sword in the secret manual library.

Since we had been talking quietly before that, he probably hadn’t heard the conversation we had before.

‘So if I mix in a plausible lie, he has no choice but to believe it.’

“Why of all people…! She already passed the exam.”

As I thought, the opponent showed a flustered reaction.

Namgung Bihwa was one of the top-ranking strong people among the intermediate students. He would never want to make an enemy of her.

“Then I’ll be going. Namgung Bihwa-nim is waiting for me up ahead.”

“What? This… damn it!”

At my words, the guy couldn’t bring himself to grab me and gave up. It was a truly pathetic sight.

Well, that’s probably why he had the idea of taking a weak junior’s sword to pass the exam.

‘It’s better to get through this without fighting as much as possible.’

Isn’t there a saying that the best military strategy is to make it so that there is no fight in the first place?

Of course, the fact that it was a lie bothered me, but since it was also slightly Namgung Bihwa’s fault, it seemed okay to pass the blame this much. And since that guy probably wouldn’t even be able to confront Namgung Bihwa.

As I was about to leave quickly like that, I heard a muttering voice from behind.

“No, if I take it now… right! I’ll deliver it myself. I was asked to.”

‘So he’s not just going to let it go.’

I had tried to deceive him moderately, but it didn’t go as planned. This was strictly the martial world. A world where the sword comes out first for the profit in front of you.

“From her yourself?”

“Right!”

To lie without even blinking an eye. And he had been measuring the distance between us for a while now. So that I couldn’t run away.

‘So he didn’t get promoted for nothing.’

No matter how low-ranking, he was a first-rate martial artist who had made it to the intermediate student level. It seemed he wasn’t completely brainless.

And on top of that, a despicable trick of even laying down insurance by saying he would deliver it to Namgung Bihwa himself later.

That effort, it wasn’t something I couldn’t acknowledge. If only it weren’t for this gangster-like behavior.

“So hand it over now!”

At the same time, the guy rushed towards me as if shot. I sighed inwardly at that.

‘I knew it.’

Soon, the guy who had entered his range grabbed the scabbard and then gripped the hilt of the sword.

A confident face. Soon, the opponent was about to forcefully extend the hand holding the sword.

Screech-

But in an instant, the opponent froze in an awkward posture. Soon, a look of bewilderment spread across the guy’s face.

“Wh-what?”

The sword wouldn’t come out. As if the sword had been welded to the scabbard.

At the same time, I kicked off the ground as if I had been waiting.

‘Of course it won’t come out. Why do you think I played along with you?’

While talking, I had put water into his scabbard with water creation magic.

It was difficult to inject because it was well-oiled, but I was able to do it thanks to dragging out the time in a defenseless state.

And on top of that, I used freezing magic to freeze the entire scabbard. From the entrance of the scabbard to the tip of the sword.

Ice stuck in a gap can stop even a tank. Considering the coefficient of friction, he wouldn’t even be able to draw that sword with ordinary muscle strength.

Soon, I, who had rushed at the guy, drew the Martial Study Sword.

“You drew first, senior.”

“I didn’t draw…?!”

Wham!

I hit his head with the back of the sword. As he was hit with a lump of iron, the guy flew into the air in a single blow.

‘I swung it with mana enhancement and even internal energy, so he won’t be able to get up for a while.’

I sheathed the Martial Study Sword, looking at the guy who had fallen after crashing. It was a relief that it had worked better than I thought.

No matter how low-ranking among the intermediate students, the opponent was at least a first-rate martial artist.

Originally, he would have been able to beat me even if he fought with his bare hands, but this time, it was a big factor that I had taken advantage of a moment of surprise.

He probably never thought his sword wouldn’t come out.

Moreover, he didn’t seem to have noticed, but I had made the ground under his feet slippery with Grease magic, so it would have been difficult for him to block even if he had tried to respond with fist arts in a hurry.

It was a strategy that even the chief instructor, Jeongmuk, had been caught off guard by at first, so there was no way a mere intermediate student could respond.

Flinch!

Just then, perhaps because I had seen the fallen opponent, [Arrogant Young Master] activated, and my mouth tingled.

I looked down at the guy with cold eyes and said in a low voice.

“You can’t even draw your own sword. Then you are far from worthy of having my sword.”

It was a line that made my face flush even as I said it. What in the world was this? I was renewing my lifelong dark history these days.

I tried my best to hide my dizzying feeling and turned my feet. It would be fine to leave that guy as he was.

‘He probably won’t even mention it, knowing how embarrassing it is to be beaten by a junior student.’

Just as I thought everything was over, I suddenly stopped my feet. I felt a certain presence from somewhere.

‘Don’t tell me…?’

With an ominous premonition, my head slowly turned to the side.

And at the terrible sight that unfolded, I couldn’t help but freeze my entire body.

Under the shady wall, Namgung Bihwa was standing there.

(End of Chapter)