Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 264

Her figure, with a thin coat fluttering as she descended the ice stairs she had created, was so overwhelming that even Lenok was momentarily speechless.

On the shoulder of her casually worn coat, there was an epaulet with three overlapping gold circles.

It was a symbol of the Sinclair Magic Tower’s leadership, given only to ten decision-makers, including the Tower Lord.

After returning to the Sinclair Magic Tower, Aris had found a legitimate way to completely cut off the tower’s interference.

But more than that, what caught Lenok’s eye first was the extremely stable magical power emanating from her entire body.

It was a completely different aura from before, when she was wavering over her core imprint [a magician’s personal magical signature].

There was only one answer.

Lenok smiled as he looked at her.

“It didn’t go as well as I’d hoped. Should I congratulate you first?”

“That can wait.”

Aris smiled and pressed her finger against Lenok’s lips.

She smiled at such a close distance that Lenok unconsciously closed his mouth.

“Dealing with this monster is the priority right now.”

“……”

“For the situation to escalate this far without any action from the other professors or the administration… personally, it’s quite unpleasant.”

Aris’s face was smiling brightly as she said that, but her tone was chillingly cold.

Lenok, knowing that she had a rather strong personality despite her appearance, shrugged his shoulders.

“What are you two talking about?”

Mila muttered, watching the scene from the side, and Aris’s shoulder twitched.

She turned her back with a calm smile and readily extended her hand to Mila for a handshake.

“I’m late for introductions. I’m Aris Richelieu, a tenured professor at Lavatenon.”

“P-Professor…”

Mila, finally realizing who she was dealing with, bent her waist in half.

“Oh my, I’m sorry. Please take good care of my younger sibling.”

“Are you Priscilla’s older sister?”

“Yes, how did you…”

“I remember outstanding students like Sheila very well. You look just as bright, so I recognized you right away.”

“Professor…!!”

“……”

Lenok watched in bewilderment as Aris quickly won Mila over to her side.

Davi, who had been watching the whole situation from behind Lenok, muttered.

[She’s a scary person.]

“…Come to think of it, she was always like that.”

From the first time they met, she had always been flawless in her attitude and skills.

The fact that she had maintained the balance between the Magic Tower and the university until now was due to her flexible approach, which was comparable to her outstanding talent.

Now, she had even broken through her limits and negotiated with the Magic Tower on an equal footing, so what more could be said?

“She’s definitely the most suitable person to handle this situation. It wasn’t intentional… but it’s a relief that things worked out well.”

Lenok muttered, looking up at the huge ice pillar Aris had created.

A corpse created by a member of the Guido Order, a bishop-level priest no less, using a spell.

Before heading to the Eight Directions Fortress, he needed to examine its contents.

* * *

With the return of Aris Richelieu, the tenured professor of the Elemental Department, things were quickly resolved.

The other professors, who had arrived late, bowed their heads as soon as they saw her face, and the administrative staff, who had been ignoring their deal with Lenok, also hurried to move.

What did it mean that Aris, who had been summoned to the Sinclair Magic Tower, had returned with the symbol of the tower’s leadership?

If she didn’t have the achievements and skills that could not be ignored even by the Magic Tower, which valued tradition and history, she wouldn’t have been able to return to her teaching position.

Even if Aris didn’t say it directly, everyone knew.

“So, are you saying that you didn’t take any action until our students were exposed to this danger?”

“That’s not it…”

“I understand that one of the students in the Necromancy Department did something wrong. But it’s hard to accept that even if you couldn’t prevent this situation, your follow-up response was inadequate.”

“……”

“It would have been normal to intervene immediately when the situation escalated beyond the Necromancy Department’s research building. The fact that you didn’t means that you were intentionally trying to put the responsibility on my assistant professor, who showed a willingness to resolve the situation, isn’t it?”

The head of the administration could only bow his head at Aris’s sharp words.

“That’s a misunderstanding…”

“Well, it’s just my speculation, and it’s baseless.”

“……”

“But if the school continues to respond like this in the future, I think I’ll have to have an open conversation with the city council members.”

The head of the administration couldn’t say anything at Aris’s smiling face.

Even when Aris was at the level of a military rank, there wasn’t much the school could do for her.

The fact that she still held a professorship at this school was purely because of her active will.

There was virtually no way for the Lavatenon administration to control her, who could quit her teaching position at any time.

The fact that Lavatenon Magic University had considerable authority despite its short history was largely due to the volunteer work of prominent magicians like her.

Aris knew this well, so she directly named the head of the administration, who was trying to use the administrative staff as a shield, and notified him.

Finally, after securing a definite answer on the budget needed to repair and restore the damaged buildings in the Elemental and Necromancy Departments, she sighed in her empty office.

Lenok, who had been watching the whole process from the side, silently handed her a cup of coffee.

Aris naturally accepted it and chuckled.

“When I was at the Magic Tower, I always missed this place, but now that I’m back, it’s just full of annoying things.”

“You’ve been through a lot.”

“It’s a teaching position I chose myself, but there are too many calculating people at this school.”

“……”

“It’s a project directly under the city government and led by the city council, so it’s understandable in a way, but sometimes they’re worse than the elders of the Magic Tower.”

Lenok had nothing to say, so he shrugged his shoulders.

Among magicians, she might be the more unusual one.

Even though she had the talent to reach the level of a Saint [a very high-level magician] in about 20 years since she first encountered magic, it was rare to find someone who was as interested in nurturing future generations as she was in her own achievements.

At least the magicians Lenok had seen wanted to be a solitary magician rather than someone’s teacher or disciple.

The Tower Lord of the Blaver Magic Tower, who had deceived Geonis Verbane and turned him into a watchdog, also ultimately prioritized protecting the tower over the relationship between teacher and disciple.

Lenok hadn’t seen that many magicians, but it was needless to say that Aris Richelieu was special among them.

Or perhaps it was because she had such talent that she was able to maintain her innate goodness.

“Okay, let’s stop with the gloomy talk and tell me about you.”

A mischievous smile appeared on her face as she took a sip of her coffee.

“When I start teaching again, I’ll check how well you’ve taught in my absence.”

“Can I do as well as Aris?”

Lenok chuckled as he replied.

“I’m not very good at teaching. I’m not even good at learning, so I don’t know if the students have been keeping up properly.”

“Well, for someone like that, Priscilla seems to follow Lenok quite well?”

Aris said, her blue eyes quietly shining.

“And you seem to be well acquainted with her older sister.”

“…We only met while chasing the Guideo Order. Actually, that was the first time I met her.”

He tried to brush it off, but Aris’s eye for detail was definitely sharp.

Even if he didn’t say it out loud, she had noticed that Lenok was treating Mila relatively comfortably.

Since Evan and Lenok had lived with a certain distance from other people due to their status, perhaps Lenok’s attitude of treating Miral with familiarity had stood out.

As Lenok subtly avoided the conversation, the smile on Aris’s lips grew even deeper.

“Hmm…”

“……”

“Well, it’s good that things have been resolved.”

Aris said, naturally raising her magical power.

A warm breeze, rotating from her fingertips, gently swept through the office, and the dust that had accumulated slightly flew out the window.

Lenok was carefully watching Aris’s flow of magical power.

Aris, sensing Lenok’s blatant gaze, smiled and said.

“How is it? Does it seem like something has changed?”

“…What would I feel just by looking?”

Lenok said, subtly changing the subject, but he noticed that her magical manipulation had changed slightly in the meantime.

Her magical pattern, which had been intricately patterned, had become much more complex and stable, and the flow of magical power was very smooth.

Most noticeable were the two strands of wick set at the center of the flow each time she used her magical power.

They were so solid and clear that even Lenok had difficulty interfering with them, firmly supporting the flow of her magical power.

‘If you complete the hierarchy, it changes this much… interesting.’

Lenok had watched countless sorcerers and Saint-level magicians, but this was the first time he had witnessed all the changes before and after a magician completed their hierarchy.

It was the first time he was directly confirming how a magician who had reached the Saint level by completing their core imprint in the military rank grew and changed.

That was why Lenok, while pretending not to notice, couldn’t easily take his eyes off the flow of magical power that Aris was using.

If possible, it would have been nice to have witnessed the moment she reached that level… but he shouldn’t dwell on the past.

As if reading Lenok’s thoughts, Aris said.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t show you directly.”

“Huh?”

“To be honest, I wanted to complete my core imprint in front of Lenok. In a way, it was Lenok’s contribution that gave me the answer to the problem I was struggling with.”

Aris continued, shaking her coffee cup.

“But as I sat in the tower’s chamber and looked back on the time I spent in this city… I became sure of what I truly wanted.”

“……”

“People are so ironic. It’s only after they’ve let go of something, after they think they might really lose it, that they realize its value.”

Aris smiled bitterly.

“It’s embarrassing, but that’s how my time in this city was for me.”

Lenok also smiled awkwardly.

She had spoken vaguely, but Lenok knew exactly what time she was talking about.

Why she was telling Lenok, of all people, about the feelings she had seen and felt as she completed her hierarchy.

It wasn’t hard to guess what the landscape in her heart looked like.

But for Lenok and Ban, answering that question was difficult.

Aris and Lenok both knew that fact to the bone.

“If the opportunity arises… I hope to see that achievement someday.”

“Hmm, I won’t show it easily.”

She smiled and crossed her arms.

“So, when Lenok completes his hierarchy, let’s show each other together.”

“…Excuse me?”

“The scenery of the self-resonance domain is the core imprint closest to the person’s origin. It’s a bit embarrassing to show this alone.”

“But how can I be like Aris…”

“Don’t worry about that.”

It didn’t take long for Aris’s smile to become even deeper.

“The research we’ll be doing in the future will be of great help to Lenok’s achievements.”

Even after completing her hierarchy and becoming a great Saint-level magician admired by everyone in the city, what she desired did not change.

It was a paradox that she could see the end of her self-transformation because she clearly understood what she wanted and had imprinted the desired landscape in her heart.

Lenok also understood that feeling to some extent, so he chuckled instead of asking questions.

“Is it okay for you to teach me that much?”

It wasn’t an empty compliment.

The high-dimensional flow manipulation that Aris used.

For her, who handled various attributes, the water-based system using flow and freezing was proof that she was more than proficient in it.

In the process of studying the domain with Aris, it was inevitable that he would delve into and analyze her spells in detail.

“What do you take me for?”

But Aris smiled confidently even after hearing Lenok’s words.

“I haven’t trained so shallowly that my bottom will be revealed in just a few years.”

* * *

A week after Aris’s appearance had settled the commotion in Lavatenon.

“Is it mostly over?”

Lenok looked around the messy house and was lost in thought.

Contrary to what she had confidently said, Aris didn’t push him to work right away, saying that she needed him.

Instead, she had given him a long paid vacation, saying that he had worked hard in her absence.

That was why Lenok was able to quickly decide what he had to do without much hesitation.

Walter Martinez, the bishop of the Guideo Order and a missionary.

If he didn’t search the Eight Directions Fortress, where the man’s main body was located, now, it would be difficult to track down his traces.

If the Order really knew something about the magic of time, Lenok had no intention of missing this opportunity.

“The Eight Directions Fortress…”

The Eight Directions Fortress Sky Auction ticket that he had received from the agent in exchange for helping the Blaver Magic Tower.

With this, he would have enough justification to step into that closed society.

There was more than enough to do: the slow-time zone inside the fortress, the pursuit of Walter, and a visit to the auction house.

However, that was if he didn’t have to contact someone first to use this ticket.

“…I didn’t think I’d be contacting her first.”

After a long period of contemplation, Lenok finally picked up his phone.

On the green screen, the name Evelyn Marcia appeared above the number.