Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 1171

KWA-BOOM!

With a thunderous explosion, a massive section of the magic tower’s wall crumbled and collapsed.

Superhumans, catching the falling debris in mid-air, shouted while clinging to the tower’s walls.

“Debris is falling! Watch your heads!”

“The tower’s barrier is down right now. You’ll die if you get hit!”

“S-sorry!”

Excavators, having dug deep into the ground around the tower, hurriedly moved about.

Behind them, more than a dozen trucks followed, piled high with mounds of earth.

“Move carefully. We need to reuse it when we rebuild the tower.”

“The Tower Lord said they’ll reinforce the materials by adding another layer of the barrier.”

“The foundation stones and bricks themselves are expensive catalyst stones. You don’t want to pay back your wages, do you?”

Laborers with shovels discussed their work areas and methods as they moved.

Mages, focused and drawing on their magic, transported steel bars and concrete blocks.

The excavators worked tirelessly, digging down to the basement, demolishing the rows of buildings and workshops.

Beside the half-collapsed passage of the magic tower, a chubby baby dragon sat, crying as if the world was ending.

[Bwaaaaaaah~]

Sitting with its belly exposed, it pounded the ground with its thick front paws, wailing pitifully.

Laborers passing by stared in bewilderment at the guardian spirit beast, tears streaming down its face.

“Seriously, why is it crying like that?”

“Just leave it. It’s been like that for days since the construction started.”

“I guess it thinks its home is being destroyed.”

“Is it a beaver or something? You’d think it built the place itself.”

[Krrraaah!!]

As if understanding the laborers’ words, the baby dragon roared with a grumpy expression.

The guardian spirit beast was about to cry again towards the collapsed underground space when Aris suddenly offered something from behind the baby dragon.

“Here, don’t cry and eat this.”

[Wha, wha-woong……!!]

The baby dragon hesitated, sniffing the package Aris offered, then its eyes widened and it snatched it into its mouth.

It stopped crying and busily devoured it, holding it with both hands.

As Aris watched with a pleased expression, Lenok, who had walked up from behind, wore a dumbfounded look.

“That’s something I’ve never seen before. Are you giving it a snack?”

“It’s a treat for spirit beasts developed at the Sinclair Magic Tower.”

Aris replied, slightly turning her gaze.

“Sinclair’s guardian spirit beast is so picky about food that the tower’s mages developed this snack while trying to figure out what to feed it. It seems this one likes it too.”

“It’s quite gluttonous, but also strangely picky. It seems to suit its taste.”

“It’s so pitiful crying like that. Shouldn’t we at least make a temporary place for it to stay?”

“It’s not so clueless that it doesn’t understand the situation.”

Lenok sighed and shook his head.

“As a guardian spirit beast, it knows the magic tower isn’t disappearing. But it keeps crying because it gets food when it does.”

“…It’s more cunning than I thought.”

[Ba, bow!!]

Feeling Aris’s gaze turn strangely cold, the baby dragon quickly lay on the ground, exposing its belly and acting cute.

[Aroong, aroorooong~]

“Okay, okay.”

“The foundation work is almost done where the tower used to be.”

As Aris’s expression softened and she stroked the baby dragon’s belly, Lenok looked around the construction site.

“If we cover the site where the tower was and widen the distance to change the structure… Aris?”

“No. It’s nothing.”

Aris, who had been petting the guardian spirit beast, had already approached Lenok and was smiling brightly.

“It’s just that, it’s the first time I’ve seen this side of your face properly.”

“……”

“It’s not that different than I thought. Do you create differences by altering your impression or atmosphere?”

“I’ve been practicing the art of disguise for quite a long time.”

Lenok gave a wry smile and turned his head.

“As you know, I’d appreciate it if you kept that part a secret.”

“Of course.”

Aris said with a bright smile.

“Who would believe that the developer of the anti-gravity engine and an 8th-level archmage are the same person?”

“……”

Just like when he talked about this with Ibelin, the topic of Lenok’s identity is still not something he’s used to.

That’s probably because Lenok has been so thorough in hiding his identity and alibi, maintaining his secrets.

But precisely because of that, Lenok felt that he needed to let go of these feelings a little.

The reason Lenok had been hiding his identity was because he thought it was too dangerous for his talents or secrets to be known by powerful transcendents.

But now, even if his secrets or identity were exposed, he had the power and means to overcome it.

It might be necessary for his future plans to loosen some of the restrictions he had placed on himself, things he couldn’t do to maintain his secrecy.

There was also that reason behind revealing Lenok’s secret to Aris Richelene and acknowledging it.

“I never dreamed that Lenok would take a professorship while I was gone.”

“Aris.”

“I’ve been thinking about it since I saw your thesis on the conversion of power and magic, but your theses on the anti-gravity engine and common magic are really amazing, you know?”

Aris said, walking around Lenok with a beaming smile.

“Even at the Sinclair Magic Tower, they tormented me for a while with Lenok’s theses. They kept asking if I could bring him over since I was close with Professor Bailon…”

“…So, what did you do?”

“Of course, I refused.”

Aris crossed her arms and turned her head away.

“Lenok is my researcher, after all. I won’t let him be taken by another magic tower or research institute.”

“I understand what you mean, but…”

Now that Aris has returned, there is both Lenok’s magic tower and a research institute under Bailon’s name in Balkan.

Even if Aris were to return to Lavatenon, could she really place Evan Bailon under her command?

In the end, no matter what, things could never be exactly the same as before.

Aris, as if she knew what Lenok was trying to say, quickly returned to a calm expression.

“I know. I was just saying it. It’s enough as long as I have a place where I can continue the research I was doing at the magic tower.”

“There’s a bit more I need to explain regarding that.”

Lenok turned his gaze.

“Currently, many of the research projects at the tower are being conducted in parallel with the Bailon Research Institute. Raphael, who is the head of the institute, has a peculiar personality, but he is an outstanding scholar in the field of theory.”

“……”

“I plan to support any research you do with the tower’s finances, but in terms of research facilities or schedules, you might have to share or collaborate with the institute… Why are you looking like that?”

“No, it’s just that I never expected to hear that name here.”

Aris, who had been looking at Lenok with a surprised expression, trailed off.

“Professor Raphael is very famous in the field of theoretical magic. I never imagined he would be working at Lenok’s research institute…”

“As far as I remember, he has a strange personality, but he’s not a bad person.”

Lenok smiled.

“He likes to ramble about the knowledge he has, so if you ask him something, he’ll explain it to you to the point of being annoying. Don’t worry.”

“…There are probably fewer than five people in academia who can talk about Professor Raphael like that.”

Aris muttered, looking up at Lenok with a strange expression.

“I’m starting to get a sense of what kind of mage Lenok was ‘over there’…”

“Even if you praise me like that, I don’t have anything to give you.”

“I’m not just making things up.”

Aris said, tilting her head with a smile.

“It just makes me think that you’re a person who has a lot in many ways. Talent and secrets, too.”

“……”

It wasn’t wrong, so Lenok chose to remain silent.

He had told Aris a lot, but there were still identities and secrets that Lenok hadn’t revealed.

But Aris didn’t seem to want to say anything more to Lenok, and she changed the subject, looking at the construction site.

“It’s a bit of a shame that the construction started as soon as I arrived at the magic tower. I wanted to familiarize myself with the tower’s facilities beforehand.”

“Once the construction is finished, even the people who used to work here won’t be able to recognize the original form, so it’ll be fine.”

“…I don’t know what you mean by ‘fine’.”

Aris, looking at Lenok in bewilderment, asked.

“Is the purpose of the construction to expand and add to the facilities? If you’re doing construction on this scale, it’ll take quite a while to complete.”

“It’s a remodeling.”

Lenok replied.

“I plan to remodel the magic tower into a facility that encompasses the entire 49th district under my jurisdiction.”

“Then it won’t be easy to maintain the tower’s shape at all, will it?”

“I never intended to maintain the tower’s shape from the beginning.”

Lenok muttered, looking at the laborers transporting materials.

“We need to increase the distance between the main facilities within the tower and make them movable in case of emergency… That’s how we can prepare for war.”

“…Huh? What do you mean…”

Lenok, passing by the bewildered Aris, slowly walked up the tower’s slope.

“Preparations to reduce meaningless damage. Experiments to gauge the tower’s power. But fundamentally, this is preparation for myself.”

“……”

“Not the shape of the tower, but whether I can maintain my jurisdiction as a concept independent of this world.”

He had been thinking about it ever since his conversation with the Commander in the Demon Realm.

Whether Lenok was truly qualified to create the fourth, which even the Godslayer had expressed doubts about.

Whether the preparation and ability to create a world truly existed within Lenok.

Preparations for Lenok’s own answer, which he had been pondering ever since his conversation with the Commander.

“If I say I’m looking for an answer to the ending, I can’t just not be able to create the method myself.”

The military parade of the legion that would soon begin. The great connection of the alliance and the final battle of the Lost Paradise.

There were still many things to worry about, and things were changing regardless of Lenok’s will.

But before starting all of that again, he needed to prepare now.

Many things he hadn’t been able to deal with during his journey from Kundara to Kabahim.

Time to organize and repair what Lenok had gained and lost.

The remodeling of the tower was just the beginning, and he would continue to be busy for a while.

Lenok, standing on a hill overlooking the construction site, cast a calm gaze.

“Through this magic tower, I intend to see if I can create something from nothing.”

* * *

He was walking through a space of countless overlapping eyelids blinking.

Like the compound eyes of an insect, they blinked slowly, turning to look this way with each step.

The ‘eyes,’ tens of thousands of them overlapping on the walls, blinked reflexively, without any will, simply turning their gaze.

But Raymond, precisely because of that, always feared them and avoided making eye contact.

The power of the phase domain that covered the space he resided in with those bizarre overlapping eyes.

Those inorganic [Mosaic] overlapping eyes seemed to symbolize what kind of being the owner of this space was.

“Raymond Olber, the highest-ranking member of the Tokerphuz Syndicate.”

Raymond, opening his reluctant mouth, slowly knelt and bowed his head.

“I, Aphelia’s former 4th seat of the Ability Awakening Front, greet you.”

=……

Raymond. The auction house manager who cleaned up the mess of Pandemonium, which had committed terrorism in Tokerphuz.

A powerful telekinetic who had directly traded with Lenok at the auction house, handing over the prisoner of the Grafting Technique and the corpses of the Eight Apostles.

But now, he was kneeling with an extremely stiff expression, bowing his head so deeply that he couldn’t even see in front of him.

Long ago, there were no such manners or formalities in the Front.

It was a humble beginning, where those who didn’t know how to control their innate abilities gathered to find a way to live.

But now, the Front had transformed into a massive force that worshiped and revered abilities, blindly obeying the rules of madness.

Believing that all kinds of innate abilities, including psychic powers, magic eyes, and bloodline abilities, were blessings given to humans.

‘Commanding’ them to process and train their given potential to the limit and reach transcendence.

The owner of the Front, who received all that loyalty and reverence, was sitting there.

The leader of the Ability Awakening Front, Aphelia Ionics Zaeldark.

A great connector (聯結者) [a term referring to a powerful psychic who can link minds] who was once called the strongest psychic on the continent.

A great hero who united the chaotic Front and achieved an impossible victory in the worst war on the continent.

A guide who taught lost innate ability users how to handle their abilities and showed them how to live.

And now, ‘something’ that had broken down, unable to handle the hand it had extended.

=Raymond.

Her will flowed into his mind, ignoring his voice, telepathy, and even the vibrations of a whip.

It ‘connected’ with the mental barrier and consciousness of Raymond Olber, a powerful psychic, as if it were nothing.

From beyond Raymond’s bowed head, she tilted her head, with thousands of wires connected to her head.

Her figure was not clearly visible, hidden by countless wires. But her will was clearer than ever.

A transcendent greeted him.

=It’s been a long■ time.

“Leader. Have you been well…”

=It’s been almost 8 years since you left the Front■■■. How have you been?

“……”

Aphelia’s voice, conveyed not through words but through sensation.

Even though she was suppressing her will to communicate with Raymond, her voice violently shook his mind.

Every time she conveyed her will, the broken and twisted mosaics mixed together, making a mess of Raymond’s brain.

Chzzzz…!!!

=The VIPs of Tokerphuz managed to send you to ■■. If they had intervened, ■ would have thought of moving.

The moment Aphelia’s will penetrated Raymond’s brain, the tens of thousands of overlapping eyes in the room blinked incessantly.

The [Mosaic], which was practically a symbol of Aphelia Ionics Zaeldark.

In this space-time dominated by her mental domain, even Raymond’s existence was just one piece of the mosaic.

If Aphelia had even the slightest intention, if she made even the slightest mistake.

Raymond’s will would also become no different from one of the mosaic overlapping eyes embedded there.

Raymond opened his mouth, recalling the fact he had rehearsed thousands of times before coming here.

“Now that there are no more psychics like me, the Front won’t be in danger.”

=That’s not■ true.

Aphelia replied, letting out a broken thought.

=Even at this moment, the central front is ■■■■. If Raymond joins, we can expect to reduce the death variable ■■.

“……”

=I can feel all their pain and hatred, ■■■.

Aphelia’s thought, which had been muttering blankly, suddenly became dry to the point of emptiness.

=I’m here to listen to their ■■■ until the very end.

“…I heard you called me because of the Tokerphuz incident.”

Raymond bowed his head even deeper with a stiff face.

“Although I have been away from the Front for a long time, I have come here after receiving a call I could not refuse. Please, tell me what you desire.”

=4 days ■ hours ago, there was a clash between the Blue Eye and the 6th Front.

The blinking speed of the mosaic overlapping eyes in various parts of the room increased slightly.

=There was an engagement in the process of securing the prisoner of Jillian Kabahim, an 8th-level observer.

“Jillian, you mean…”

Raymond also knew who Jillian was.

An 8th-level physical ability user and the last survivor of the Giant Soldier Corps.

At the same time, a noble who was a member of the Kabahim royal family and held the title of Grand Duke.

=According to ■■, Jillian Kabahim suddenly appeared on the central front and seemed to be rampaging to return to the royal capital.

“……”

=The situation escalated as the observers from the Blue Eye side joined the battle, and that’s how we learned about ■■.

Aphelia’s will became even more empty and dry.

=There’s a problem in the Kabahim royal capital■. Yes.

“……”

=Now that the Kundara Elders are showing tremendous power on the western front, the Front must also move■.

The overlapping eyes all around turned their gaze as if they were shining down on Raymond’s body.

Only the will that Aphelia was implanting echoed like a reverberation in Raymond’s head.

=You, who are a VIP of Tokerphuz, ■■■■, would know ■■ ■■■ ■■.

As if constantly whispering and pushing her will, as if setting a blind direction and goal.

Raymond knew what kind of emotion was contained in her will, which was being transmitted as if she were brainwashing him.

Hunger.

Aphelia was starving.

=The bloodline ability possessed by the Kabahim royal family. ■■■ ■■■ ■■ ■■■ An opportunity to secure this ability■■. ■■■?

“…Leader.”

Chzzzz-

Aphelia’s will, which was penetrating his brain, became so broken that it was impossible to understand.

‘Something’ that had changed so much that it could no longer maintain human values and ways of thinking.

Even though she was clearly conveying her will, there was a sense of incongruity that made him feel like he was breaking down along with her, rather than understanding it.

Raymond spoke, trying to maintain his composure.

“Kabahim is excluding the intervention of other countries and isolating the royal capital. What happened inside is-”

=Javelin is moving to attack the Four Thousand Demon Realm.

Aphelia said as if singing.

=Most of the high-ranking ability users of the Front are tied up in ■■■ and cannot move.

“……”

The tens of thousands of overlapping eyes turned to look at Raymond.

=Raymond. You, who have ties to Kabahim, have something to do■.

“Leader, I…”

=I will give you the 4th Front again. Go to the royal capital and open the way■.

Aphelia’s will echoed through the room with an emptiness that could not be greater.

=The Ability Awakening Front must be the one to possess the ■■■ of Kabahim■■■.

“……”

He knew from the beginning that he couldn’t refuse.

Perhaps he knew this would happen from the moment he returned here.

Because that was Raymond’s role as the 4th seat of the Ability Awakening Front.

“Even if we start a war with Kabahim right now, it will take time to capture the royal capital.”

Raymond said, suppressing his complicated feelings and raising his gaze.

“If you were to manifest before that, the entire northern front would be paralyzed. Please…”

=Don’t worry, Raymond■.

Aphelia replied with a gentle thought.

=Even without that, I’m already moving for the ■■■ of the military parade.

“…Huh?”

=There was a time when the legion requested our ■■■ as a pretext for a subjugation battle.

As Raymond paused, taken aback by the unexpected words, Aphelia’s thought became inorganic.

=The ability of the resurrector that the legion’s marshal possesses. I need to see if I can ■■■ it.

“Leader, no way…!!”

Beyond Raymond’s stunned gaze, a hollow smile settled on Aphelia’s face.

Her will, which had been breaking down, resonated with a clarity that was greater than ever for the first time.

=I need to meet Ethan Bajur in person.