I Became a Terminally Ill Magic Genius at the Academy

The tracking spell ended in front of the engine room. 

The hooded Crow member clicked her tongue in annoyance.

“Of all places, they had to hide in the engine room.”

Fighting in the engine room was risky. 

A misfired spell could damage the engine, causing the airship to crash. 

Their goal was to subdue everyone on the list, not to destroy the airship, so she had to be careful.

‘Hmm. To ignore the evacuation announcement and head to the engine room… They must have some plan in mind.’

Perhaps they were preparing an ambush. 

With a mixture of light interest and even lighter tension, she carefully prepared her magic. 

One spell was a shield, the other a Water Bomb;—a spell designed to subdue people without damaging the engine. 

The fact that she was managing two spells at once indicated that this hooded Crow member was no ordinary mage.

Fully prepared, she burst through the door into the engine room, ready to cast her shield or Water Bomb at any moment.

“Did you think I wouldn’t find you if you ran here?”

She chuckled, but the engine room remained eerily quiet. 

As she cautiously scanned her surroundings, she heard a faint rustling.

Ssh—

In an instant, she unleashed the prepared magic.

“Water Bomb.”

A small sphere of water formed in the air and shot forward, cutting through the space with a whoosh. 

Pffft!

The water bomb hit some machinery and splashed harmlessly. 

She hadn’t hit her target—the opponent had moved too quickly. 

However…

‘This is a closed space.’

There was only so much running they could do.

“How long do you think you can keep dodging like that? Water Arrow.”

She conjured several slender water arrows, narrow enough to avoid being blocked by the engine room’s structure. 

Just as she aimed toward the direction the figure had moved, ready to fire—

Click.

The lights in the engine room went out. 

In a windowless space like this, the sudden darkness devoured everything. 

Still, she wasn’t thrown off.

“Trying every trick in the book, huh? Light.”

She canceled the Water Arrow spell and instead cast a Light spell to illuminate the room.

And then—

Whoosh!

Something gleamed in the darkness, and she reflexively activated her shield.

Clang!

Something struck her barrier. 

Upon closer inspection, she saw a knife lodged halfway into her shield, its edge having pierced through.

“…..”

The knife had almost shattered her shield.

The knife was lodged so deeply into the shield that even the handle was trembling slightly from the force. 

Seeing this, the Crow member quickly turned off her Light spell and ducked behind a wall.

‘Damn it. If I hadn’t reacted to the reflection, I’d be dead.’

If she hadn’t caught the glint of light reflected off the blade, the knife would have hit her instead of her shield. 

The thought sent a shiver down her spine.

‘Light magic won’t work here.’

In the darkness, the light only made her an easy target. 

She had to wait patiently into hiding until her eyes adjusted to the dark. 

After a few moments…

‘I can see a bit better now.’

Once her vision had adapted somewhat, she blinked a few times and prepared her next spell with steady hands. 

Even though she could see more clearly, she knew she couldn’t afford to let her guard down. 

Her opponent hadn’t used magic but had thrown a knife instead, indicating they were skilled in stealth.

This was a new type of opponent for her.

‘Is their bodyguard also an assassin?’

Many people traveled with bodyguards, but how many traveled with assassins?

‘This guy must be seriously crazy.’

The hooded Crow member clicked her tongue in frustration. 

She raised her magic pen, her eyes wide open as she scanned the room cautiously. 

Now that both sides were on equal footing, the conditions were the same.

‘Whoever reacts first wins.’

Her strategy was simple: spot the opponent, cast the spell, and secure victory before they could respond. 

She was confident in this.

———

‘… That’s exactly what she’s thinking.’

By now, her eyes had adjusted, and she was fully prepared to fight in the dark.

 And that’s precisely what Yohan had intended.

In the end, battle comes down to one thing; if your opponent can’t react to your attack, you win. 

Yohan planned to exploit that.

Holding his magic pen, Yohan began to draw a spell circle in the air.

‘First, Stealth.’

The first property he added to the spell was stealth. 

If he cast the spell openly, it would lose much of its effectiveness. His opponent would have time to prepare.

But even a split-second advantage in concealing the spell would make it far more powerful.

‘Next, add Compression.’

Simply casting the spell quietly wasn’t enough. 

To maximize its impact, he added another property: compression. 

Compressing the spell’s energy and then releasing it would create a momentary explosion, greatly increasing its power. 

This was a basic principle of magic.

Yohan didn’t stop drawing. 

The final property he added to the spell was…

‘Reversal.’

As soon as Yohan finished drawing the spell circle, his heart began pounding erratically, accompanied by a sharp pain. 

Although he had become a 3-star mage after obtaining Bryan Hart’s magic pen, casting a spell using three layers of magic still caused aftereffects.

‘It’s definitely still too much for me.’

Yohan stared at the empty space in the center of the magic circle. 

In this situation, he couldn’t afford to create anything complex. 

Whatever he conjured needed to be as simple as possible—his heart wouldn’t be able to endure anything more.

‘The ink, white.’

The purest, brightest color.

As he infused mana into the magic pen, a droplet of white ink formed at the tip. 

Just one drop—but even that made Yohan’s heart beat even more wildly, pushing his body to its limit.

Yet, a faint smile appeared on Yohan’s lips.

‘This will do.’

He raised his pen and placed a single dot in the air.

Tap.

He marked a tiny white dot in the center of the magic circle. 

It was hardly a grand gesture, but the result it produced was overwhelming.

The white dot began to compress and shrunk down until it was almost invisible.

‘Now, Reversal.’

The white dot, which had been infinitely compressed, suddenly flew out. It was triggered by the ‘reversal’ element drawn by Yohan into the spell. 

Simultaneously, the movement of mana and the noise generated by the expansion were hidden by the ‘stealth’ element.

“Huh?”

By the time the Crow member noticed, it was too late.

Flash!

A blinding white light erupted.

———-

The Crow agent scrunched up her face in pain and quickly raised her hands to cover her eyes.

“This insane bastard….”

She had let her guard down.

She thought she had cleverly bought time for her eyes to adjust to the darkness, but her opponent had been waiting for that moment.

Just as her vision adapted to the darkness, an explosion of light and noise overwhelmed her.

Bzzzzzz—

A high-pitched ringing echoed in her ears.

But the real problem wasn’t the sound.

‘I can’t see…!’

For a mage, losing their sight was a fatal weakness.

For a mage to cast magic, they need to draw a magic circle. 

But how can one accurately draw a magic circle when they can’t see? 

Even if they managed to draw something, it was still a problem. 

If they couldn’t be sure where they were aiming, casting magic blindly could be disastrous. 

Why? 

Because they were in the engine room. 

One wrong move and the engine could be damaged, which was the last thing she wanted.

Naturally, she hesitated.

And Yohan didn’t miss that opportunity.

“Ariel, take her down.”

At Yohan’s command, Ariel sprang into action and launched herself at the Crow member. 

Thud.

She tackled the Crow to the ground, pinning her down with a knife pressed against her throat.

“Stay still if you want to live.”

“You filthy….”

The Crow agent cursed, but the fight was already over.

——-

The Crow agent struggled a few times, but soon realized that with her frail mage’s strength, there was no way she could throw off Ariel. 

Resigned, she stopped resisting.

Ariel spoke up.

“If you answer my questions quietly, I’ll spare your life.”

“… What do you want?”

The hooded Crow member sighed in defeat and asked the question.

Keeping the pressure on, Ariel posed her own question.

“How many people came with you?”

“Seventeen.”

“What about reinforcements?”

“There aren’t any.”

The Crow agent answered without much resistance, but Ariel pressed her knife harder against her throat.

“Ugh!”

The Crow let out a short groan as the knife threatened to draw blood. 

Even Yohan felt a cold chill from the intensity of the situation.

“Seventeen of you dared to attack a flight to the Academy? And I’m supposed to believe that?”

At the sight of the knife poised to spill blood, Yohan stepped forward.

“That’s enough, Ariel. Let her go.”

“Just stay put, Young Master. Does this look like a joke to you…?”

“I wouldn’t have come this far just to play games.”

When Yohan said that, Ariel hesitated for a moment and turned to look at him. 

Feeling her gaze on him, Yohan subtly clasped his trembling hands behind his back as he spoke again.

“There’s no need to press her that hard.”

“This isn’t just our problem. I know we need to capture her alive, but we also need to get information as quickly as possible. If we can save the passengers, we should. If not, then at least we need to get you to safety….”

Ariel spoke with a serious expression, and Yohan couldn’t help but be impressed by the fact that she only mentioned getting him to safety, not ‘us’ or ‘together.’

However, he swallowed his admiration and calmly responded.

“She’s not Crow.”

“… What?”

Yohan approached the woman pinned beneath Ariel. 

The supposed Crow member was disguised as one of them and remained motionless as Yohan bent down and reached for her plague doctor mask. 

The mask came off easily, revealing a blonde woman underneath.

But Johan didn’t stop there. 

He gently reached for the nape of her neck. 

The woman, who had been still while her mask was being removed, flinched and tried to resist when Yohan’s hand moved toward her neck. 

However, Ariel held her firmly, allowing Yohan to achieve his goal without difficulty.

“A pretty expensive necklace for someone pretending to be Crow, wouldn’t you say?”

“……”

The blonde woman silently glared at Yohan, keeping her lips tightly sealed. 

With a light touch, Yohan unhooked the necklace from her neck. 

Instantly, a surge of mana swept through her body, and her hair color began to change—from blonde to a dark violet hue, revealing her true appearance.

Yohan smiled as he looked at her.

“Hello, senior.”

He greeted her briefly.