Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 624

“……Are you saying that one of my apprentices secretly tampered with the furnace?”

Cybird’s expression hardened as if he had been struck by the words.

“All the guys gathered here are ones I personally picked out and raised. If you think about it, they’re like my own children.”

“……”

“If you can’t take responsibility for that statement today, you’ll have to apologize directly to my workshop’s apprentices. Do you understand?”

“I understand, so could you please stop the work for now and call your apprentices?”

Renok nodded.

“It would be faster to see everyone’s faces at once and come to a conclusion.”

At those words, Cybird immediately stopped the workshop’s operation and gathered the other artisans in front of Renok.

After asking for understanding from the bewildered customers, it was only natural that the artisans, who had been called out in the middle of their work, had unpleasant expressions.

The artisans, ranging in age from young to middle-aged, all looked at Renok with displeasure.

“So, you’re saying there’s a culprit among us?”

The oldest-looking artisan asked Renok sarcastically.

Several other younger artisans also looked at Renok, not hiding their displeasure.

“Now that I see it, you’re just a fool from the selection ceremony who recently got promoted to the upper workshop district.”

“Not only are you borrowing the name of Meister Nasisa Solmer, but now you’re trying to interfere with our master’s workshop?”

“It’s absurd. This workshop is everything to me, how can you suspect us…”

Despite the cold reactions coming from all around, Renok quietly raised his hand.

“First, could you please line up in front of me?”

“What?”

“I need to pay attention to distinguish the culprit. I want to compare them under the same conditions as much as possible.”

“……”

The artisans looked angry, but when Cybird, who was standing behind Renok, nodded, they had no choice but to shut their mouths and stand neatly.

Renok slowly walked in front of the artisans, closing his eyes and nodding slowly.

Cybird, as well as Mauzer, had a sullen expression at Renok’s appearance, who was walking with his eyes closed, not even looking closely at the artisans.

Renok, who had walked around twice with his eyes closed, opened his mouth.

“There’s no smell.”

“……What?”

The others blinked, not understanding the meaning of his words, and then Renok opened his eyes and nodded, turning his gaze.

“That’s it. I think that’s enough.”

“Okay, can we get an explanation now?”

“As you can see, the five furnaces located here in the workshop are separated in various places on the walls, but the flow of heat itself is shared through the workshop’s internal facilities.”

Renok said in the quiet workshop.

“The heat vents organically connected to the five furnaces circulate through the workshop’s ceiling, walls, and underground, adjusting and managing the heat.”

“That’s right.”

“The problem is that because there are too many furnaces, the structure of the passages that regulate the heat is too complex.”

As Renok said that, he put a pen on the paper near the workbench and began to draw naturally.

A bizarre shape, as if hundreds of spider webs were spreading out from the center of the huge workshop.

“In order to regulate the heat inside a given space, the vents were extended to as many places as possible, so the structure itself is intricately intertwined.”

“Hmm……”

Cybird, who had been glaring at the paper Renok had handed him with a frown, said.

“So, is this my workshop? You don’t seem to have much talent for drawing.”

“……”

It was impossible to express it clearly with Renok’s poor drawing skills, but it was unavoidable as it was a priority to make them understand the situation.

“That’s why it’s difficult to quantitatively measure the heat control values of each vent, and even if there are parts where the values jump, it’s difficult to observe and identify the problem.”

Renok said, tapping the furnace wall.

“The culprit probably knew the internal environment of these furnaces well, and even if there was something wrong with the furnace and the internal temperature rose little by little, it would be difficult to find the cause easily.”

“It’s only possible if you know the internal environment of the furnace well……”

Cybird frowned and muttered after Renok’s words, then shook his head.

“No, if one of my apprentices was intentionally trying to ruin my workshop, there would be much more effective ways to do it. There’s no reason to use such a bothersome method.”

It was an important issue that the quality of the items made in the workshop was being ruined by gradually raising the internal temperature of the furnace,

but there were many other ways to harm the sales or business of this huge workshop right away.

Moreover, if the culprit was an apprentice who lived with Cybird and knew the internal facilities of this workshop well, it would be much easier to damage other facilities than the furnace.

“In my workshop, these five furnaces are the most solid and frequently maintained core facilities. Even I can’t do it unless I forcibly overload the furnace using the system’s internal management authority, and even that would take more than three days.”

As if he had already concluded that Renok’s judgment was completely wrong, Cybird sat down opposite Renok and quickly began to explain.

“If the apprentices were the culprits, as you said, they would have tampered with the water supply or ventilation system, or even removed the foundation stone of the workshop, instead of touching the furnace.”

However, despite Cybird’s words, Renok readily nodded.

“That’s exactly what made it difficult to identify the cause of the problem.”

“What?”

“The culprit didn’t do this to ruin the workshop. They just thought that it didn’t matter if the workshop was damaged as long as it served their purpose. There’s a big difference between the two.”

“……”

“There was a reason for that person to touch the furnace, not other facilities in the workshop.”

Was he saying that it was not because of a grudge against Cybird or to ruin the workshop, but a secondary result of another purpose?

While the others were slowly pondering the meaning, Renok took something out of his pocket.

“The ultra-high temperature flames that can only be maintained in a workshop of this scale. Yet, the fact that the temperature is rising even higher, and that the cause itself has not been found anywhere else, what do you think that means?”

“Wait a minute. Touching the furnace is…!!”

Whoosh!!

Before the other artisans could stop him, Renok laughed as he suddenly threw something that looked like powder into the blazing furnace.

“That’s because the cause of the problem itself was inside the furnace.”

“How dare an outsider touch the flames of the furnace…!!”

A young apprentice, who had been shouting in an enraged tone, stood up and rushed towards Renok.

The artisan was striding towards Renok, reaching out his hand as if he was about to grab Renok by the collar and throw him down.

Everyone’s eyes widened for a moment at the sight, but Renok just looked at the young man with a nonchalant expression.

Just as Cybird was about to stop him at the young man’s fierce expression, which seemed like he would throw Renok into the furnace.

Whoosh!!

The young man passed by Renok without grabbing him.

“……?”

The way he had just shown hostility towards Renok felt like a lie, as he moved so naturally.

The moment the other apprentices opened their mouths slightly, not understanding the young man’s actions, the young man suddenly sped up and started running like crazy.

The apprentices realized that the direction was inside the flames of the furnace that Renok had just touched, and they jumped up from their seats.

“B-Boyan!!”

“You crazy bastard, where are you going!!”

“Stop him, that guy is trying to die…!!”

Before the other apprentices could stop the young man called Boyan, the flames that had sprung out of the furnace covered Boyan.

Flap, flap, flap!!

“Kuhak!!”

“H-hot, it’s hot…!!”

The other apprentices recoiled in horror and looked back at Cybird with a bewildered expression.

“Master, why is Boyan…!!”

“Wait.”

Cybird said, staring sharply at the inside of the furnace flames.

“It doesn’t seem to be over yet.”

At that moment, a middle-aged man with a thick beard carried the struggling young man out of the flames.

Whoosh!!!

“Hoo…!! You’re always so annoying.”

Mauzer, whose thick beard was singed by the fire, grumbled, and Boyan, who was held on his shoulder, struggled like crazy.

“L-let me go!!!”

“No.”

Mauzer replied, throwing Boyan, who he had been carrying, to the ground.

Thud!!

“Kuhak!!”

Boyan, who had collapsed from the impact, barely gasped for breath with his eyes wide open.

Boyan, who was clutching his stomach and trembling without being able to get up, seemed unable to withstand Mauzer’s strength, even though he had been training for a long time as an artisan in Cybird’s workshop.

“……”

Cybird quietly got up from his seat and silently looked at Boyan’s appearance.

Boyan’s appearance, who couldn’t even make proper eye contact, let alone look up at his master’s face.

Cybird looked at Boyan for a long time, then let out a trembling sigh and turned his head.

“……Now I know who touched the furnace and raised the temperature.”

His gaze was directed towards Renok, who was leaning against the furnace and standing silently.

“So, now explain why this happened.”

The other apprentices also realized what Renok had just done and held their breath silently.

Just by throwing something unknown into the furnace, Renok had succeeded in identifying the culprit he had been talking about.

He even predicted that the culprit would move because of his actions, and had Mauzer on standby to save Boyan.

It was something that would never be possible without understanding the whole situation and identifying the cause after only briefly looking around the workshop.

Just by repeating a few meaningless actions that they thought were nonsense, Renok had truly proven his words.

“I will. It seems like there’s some time left before I show you directly.”

Renok looked like he was thinking for a moment at Cybird’s words, then nodded and got up from his seat.

“From the moment I heard that the workshop’s temperature was rising, I didn’t think of any other cause other than the furnace. The only thing that could gradually raise the temperature of this huge workshop is that heat source.”

As he said that, Renok looked around the workshop.

“Looking at the current state of the workshop, there is one more furnace installed in each of the four walls, but only on the north side, two furnaces coexist on one wall.”

“That’s…”

“If they had intended to install more furnaces, they would have expanded the walls of the workshop or changed the structure from the beginning. This is evidence that there was a reason to add another furnace urgently due to some circumstances.”

Renok said.

“The reason why the workshop’s temperature gradually decreased when there were four furnaces, and is now gradually increasing when there are five. It would be strange if there wasn’t a secret hidden in that change.”

“……We were well aware of the change caused by the number of furnaces.”

Cybird replied.

“But even if we turned off one furnace and operated only four furnaces, the temperature inside the workshop didn’t go down at all. So we tried so hard to find the problem in other parts of the workshop, not the furnace…”

“As I said before, the number of furnaces is not the problem. The change in time that occurred between the four furnaces and the five furnaces. That difference was what was changing the temperature of the workshop.”

Renok said, reaching out his hand into the flames that were coming out of the furnace as if it was nothing.

“That’s because from the beginning, it was impossible to observe the cause of the rising internal temperature of the furnace by physical means.”

“W-wait a minute…!!”

“It’s about time it crawled out… It’s here.”

The moment Cybird reached out his hand in a flustered manner at Renok’s appearance of putting his hand into the flames with his bare hands.

Whoosh!!

Renok grabbed something from inside the flames and pulled it out.

Thud!!

The moment it was grabbed and pulled out of the furnace, a long body wriggled in Renok’s hand like a live fish.

Only then did the other artisans’ eyes widen as they finally saw the figure with their own eyes.

“T-that’s…!!!”

[Shhh, shshshshsh!!!]

A scaled lizard flicking its tongue and flapping its legs.

The scales that make up the lizard’s body are made of blazing flames, and a faint blue flame is burning at the end of its tail.

Rather than existing in a clearly defined form, it was an essence closer to a spirit and an attribute.

Cybird, who belatedly recognized the lizard’s identity, muttered unconsciously.

“……A spirit.”

“That’s right.”

Renok said, grabbing the lizard’s tail and lifting it up.

“A spirit born with the attribute of fire. It is said to be born in strong flames and grows by eating heat and flames.”

“……”

“Especially, it is said that spirits in the form of lizards have dull senses and a strong appetite, so they eat quite a lot of food while sitting in one place.”

“I see. So that’s what it was…”

Cybird muttered blankly, understanding the cause and motive of all this situation.

“Boyan had become a spirit mage.”

“Master…”

“Boyan probably got the spirit before the fifth furnace was built. But he wouldn’t have known how much food he would have to give to control a spirit with a strong appetite.”

Boyan looked at Cybird weakly, but Renok ignored Boyan’s gaze and continued.

“So, instead of abandoning this spirit that he had managed to get, he decided to raise it in the workshop’s furnace.”

The lizard, which had been flapping for a while after escaping the flames, was now limp, with its tongue sticking out, as if it had run out of energy.

“At first, it would have just been secretly hiding in the furnace and eating the heat little by little.”

Renok said, looking at the lizard’s appearance with interest.

“But as time passed and its size grew, the power that the spirit itself emitted began to increase, and the heat of the furnace also began to rise.”

“So that’s why the workshop’s temperature didn’t go down even after stopping one furnace…”

When the fire spirit was young, it would have only absorbed the surrounding heat, so the temperature of the furnace would have gradually decreased.

However, as the spirit gradually grew and gained power, and began to emit more heat than it had consumed, the temperature of the furnace began to rise in the opposite direction.

Even if one of the five furnaces was stopped, the workshop’s temperature would have continued to rise due to the spirit’s power alone.

The other artisans also seemed to understand Renok’s explanation immediately, and their lips twitched with agitation.

“No way…”

“How could you think that a spirit was the problem in this city?”

“From the beginning of the explanation, I thought that the number of furnaces was not the problem.”

Renok replied.

“If the temperature went down according to the time, and then only went up after that, I thought it was similar to that of a living creature, not a workshop…”

When he threw the limp spirit in front of Boyan, Boyan picked up the lizard’s body and hugged it dearly.

Renok smiled as he met Boyan’s hostile gaze.

“There aren’t many beings that can live in a furnace, and have to live in a furnace.”