Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 1199

The endless ranks of tanks stretched to the horizon.

Armored vehicles and rockets. Fighter jets and warships each started their engines and idled.

Thump! Thump! Thump!!!

The soldiers stomped their feet, rhythmically slamming their rifles onto the ground.

The roar that echoed each time tens of thousands of troops moved together shook the very ground.

Waaaaaaaah!!!!

Kwaaa kwa kwa kwa!!!!

The 2nd Corps, standing at the deepest part of the Western Front, and the 4th Corps, coordinating the battlefields across the Central Front, led the way.

The 5th Corps, deployed for firepower battles across the continent, and the 6th Corps, responsible for the Southern Front, formed the two wings.

The 8th and 9th Corps, each overseeing the Northern and Western Fronts, respectively, fluttered their flags at the very rear.

Dead Rise, which started as a private military company in the Balkans and grew into the largest corps on the continent.

A vast military force that was overwhelming just to look at, beyond what the human eye could take in.

Now, as the parade showcasing the power of the corps dominating a section of the Central Front was in full swing,

Lenok was walking with Edan along a small side path behind the headquarters.

“Is that General Cheonram’s insignia? He was the most difficult warlord commander when we were expanding the Eastern Front.”

“……”

“The corps’ early flag is hanging there too. It’s something I made with my colleagues when we founded the PMC [Private Military Company]. It took a long time to complete because Songha was so bad at drawing.”

A serene silence, completely detached from the noisy parade.

The annex of the headquarters. A path that circled around the main building, leading from the garden where Lenok had encountered Edan.

Under the open view where the parade was clearly visible, objects unrelated to the surroundings were displayed.

“Gagameon’s helmet. He was one of the most powerful warriors in the Balkan civil war. We had to gather all the unit commanders from each front to face him.”

Edan walked with Lenok, taking in each of the objects he saw.

“We stalled for time with Cheondun’s help, and after Gileon cut off his head with his wings, we found out he had died standing a long time ago.”

“……”

“The commendation I received at the Battle of Illima. After all sorts of hardships, it was the only thing I received as compensation from that warlord. Armut barely stopped a furious Baragan from tearing it up.”

Equipment that someone had used. Insignias and phrases that were now forgotten. Souvenirs that recorded events from long ago.

Such objects, with no practical value, were displayed side by side in the garden around the headquarters.

Pieces of memory that the entire corps had gathered for Edan.

Edan was walking around the headquarters with Lenok, reminiscing about old memories.

“This is… a souvenir we brought back when we went on a business trip to Larabelly together.”

A tree branch with a blue, glowing fruit hanging from it.

A faint smile appeared on Edan’s lips, which had shown no emotion until now.

“We rested near the World Tree on the way back. Peisha threw a tantrum because she wanted to try the fruit. She tried to touch it secretly, without the druid’s permission, and had to run away.”

“……”

The memories from before Dead Rise even took the form of a corps flowed naturally from Edan’s mouth.

Clearly, they too had gone through countless events, gaining and losing things along the way.

Edan, reminiscing about old memories that Lenok didn’t know, and probably never would.

But Lenok didn’t say a word to Edan, silently watching him.

Knowing that even this moment of him recalling his memories was a necessary process.

Understanding that he needed time to answer Lenok’s questions.

“Every single one of them… are just fond memories. I suppose that’s only natural.”

Edan slowly turned around.

“After all, all these objects were left here to remember our beginnings.”

“……”

“Our beginnings were certainly very weak.”

Edan spoke in front of a long passage that ran through the center of the headquarters.

In front of the glass corridor where the view of the headquarters was clearly visible.

“The Balkan vigilantes. Bajur’s security detail… we didn’t even have a name. We just thought we’d work together with people who got along, and we could break up anytime.”

“……”

“Before we knew it, we were involved in many of the events that happened in that city.”

How much time had passed since the parade began?

Edan’s words were about memories from a long time ago.

Memories from before Dead Rise had a name and a form.

The beginning of the corps.

“It was only after the civil war that determined the hegemony of the Balkans broke out that we realized how outstanding we were.”

Edan raised his gaze.

“When we realized it, we had completely conquered the Balkans and become a corps.”

“……”

“After the project failed, I don’t remember much… or maybe it wasn’t worth remembering in the first place.”

Edan slowly turned and spoke in a faint voice, looking at the marching troops through the glass window.

“We must have won and taken everything. It wouldn’t have been difficult. And we wouldn’t have cared even after taking it. Because we could always take it back.”

“……”

“So, after losing everything, I’ve lived until now, looking at only one thing…”

Edan muttered, looking down at the corps passing by the headquarters.

“That’s why I can’t feel any emotion even at this sight.”

“…Is that so.”

Edan Bajur felt no interest in his own corps.

Even the dry impression he showed when he first appeared at the headquarters was not a pretense or deception, but a genuine reaction.

That’s why Lenok could finally ask Edan now.

“Then why did you come back?”

Lenok raised his gaze.

“Why did you come back to life after dying once, and stand before the corps like this?”

“……”

“Now that Kaise is dead and the project has failed, you are-”

Lenok, ignoring Edan’s silence and continuing to speak, stopped abruptly.

He revisited the emotions he had felt just before meeting Edan.

Recalling the worries he had thought about for a long time while waiting for this moment.

He changed the direction of the questions he had repeatedly asked himself.

“Who are you?”

“……”

“Are you really Edan Bajur himself?”

Edan stared at Lenok with a blank expression.

After staring at Lenok silently for a long time, Edan raised his hand and touched his neck.

Lenok’s expression turned sharp, and even his thoughts twisted eerily.

“I see.”

Edan smiled faintly.

“You’ve been chasing me for a very long time.”

“……”

“The ban was meant to prevent this from happening. But I couldn’t shake it all off.”

Edan slowly took his hand away and turned around.

“So, you came to find me because of the project, right?”

The identity of the Black Consumer Project.

The blood in his head seemed to stop for a moment when he heard those words.

He didn’t know how to react to Edan’s question, which he had brought up so easily.

Even though he had moved, thinking that he held all the secrets, that the last clue was with him.

He couldn’t even guess what he himself was thinking when he faced this moment.

Edan moved his feet, looking at Lenok.

“I’ll tell you if you want. It’s not difficult. My existence is already completely detached from the ban.”

“……”

“Judging by the looks of it, you seem to have already obtained the ‘center’. Then there’s no need to worry about the backlash.”

Edan turned his gaze towards the silent Lenok.

“If you want to hear about our failure, tell me. What do you want?”

“…I.”

The truth of the project that he had been chasing for a long time was before Lenok’s eyes.

He knew that the Black Consumer Project had reached the closest point to the destruction of this world.

He knew that the cult leader and the commander were involved in the plan that led to Kaise’s death.

He was convinced that the truth of the project was also related to himself, so he had been chasing it for so long.

The failure of the project and Kaise’s death that he had faced during his journey through Makina, Yorta, and Kundara.

The end that Kaise Bajur had met.

Lenok had already realized it the moment he faced his remains in the Gugeop [a place symbolizing life and death].

The existence that had beheaded Kaise. A person related to the project who could use that ending as they wished.

The only ones who could move freely in the Gugeop, which symbolized life and death, were the resurrected who had returned from death.

The reason he had attended the parade under a thousand identities was to ask Edan that fact at this very spot.

The truth he had been waiting for so long was right in front of him.

The pure inner workings of the project, unbound by the ban. The failure of Kaise Bajur that Lenok had been chasing for a long time.

The process, not the result.

Therefore, Lenok-

“…No.”

Lenok closed his eyes.

Lenok, who had hesitated for a long time, spoke.

He had to think about it for a very long time before he could say those words.

“I… didn’t come here to hear the truth about the project.”

“Then?”

“I came to confirm what I truly desire.”

Lenok’s answer denied the original purpose he had thought of while attending the parade.

Lenok, who slowly opened his eyes, answered.

“For a very long time… I’ve been overlapping Kaise and myself.”

“……”

“I knew that he wanted the same thing as me. I also knew that he was someone who could do that.”

Lenok said in a subdued voice.

“I was afraid, thinking that I might have been in Kaise’s place, that I might fail like that someday.”

Lenok, looking down at his own hand, muttered.

“That’s why I wanted to know so much. I wanted to feel at ease by knowing.”

“…You’re not now?”

“Because I’ve come to realize that the unknown… isn’t necessarily a negative thing.”

Lenok answered with his head bowed.

“Not knowing is a possibility. I’m here because I’ve placed more meaning on the process of learning than on knowing something.”

“……”

“I’ve finally found the answer because I’ve taken the possibility that I haven’t reached yet as my answer.”

Lenok’s trembling voice changed to a calm one.

As he gave his answer to Edan, his agitated heart calmed down and he found his center.

“The Black Consumer Project is just a result, not a process. The more I cling to that failure, the more I’ll end up limiting my own possibilities.”

“……”

“So, I’ll chase the project, but I won’t obsess over it. For me, who pursues the process, it’s just another result.”

Lenok muttered.

“It took me too long to admit that fact.”

The Black Consumer Project was a plan that scraped together all the failures of the world, focusing more on the ‘result’ than anything else.

It was the opposite of Lenok, who valued the process more than the result, and aimed for the moment of reaching it as the goal itself.

Because the project was closest to the destruction of the world, Lenok had been investigating the project and chasing after Kaise until now.

But now, just before confirming everything, Lenok was finally able to completely shake off that lingering attachment.

Lenok was not Kaise, and Lenok’s answer was different from Kaise’s answer.

He had wanted a path he had not taken, so he had been working until now to make the opportunity to choose itself the answer.

Lenok’s answer was not in the failure of the project, but beyond it.

“A seeker who took the process, not the result, as his answer…”

Lenok, who had made up his mind, stared at Edan with a calm expression, and Edan nodded.

Edan slowly tilted his head and whispered quietly in a faint voice.

“You were the most outstanding and wise among the mortals who were not bound by the ban. You’ve worked so hard for so long, yet you’re someone who can give up everything for what you believe in.”

“To put it bluntly, I just thought there was nothing more to learn from the failure of the Black Consumer Project.”

Lenok said in a cold voice.

His cold gaze swept over Edan’s neck.

“No matter how much I fail, break down, and become corrupted, I won’t fall to the level of being suspected of having cut off and attached a relative’s head.”

“……”

It was impossible to know whether Edan Bajur was Edan himself or another being.

He was not yet sure if he had truly cut off his head and attached it.

But no matter how Lenok failed and fell, he would not change like the failure of the project.

He would not choose to prolong his life by cutting off someone’s head and attaching it, or choose a method that would make him be suspected of doing so.

The moment he met Edan, he answered the confusion that had been constantly lingering in his heart throughout the parade.

Either way, Lenok realized at this spot that he would never become like Bajur.

“I see. But one thing is wrong.”

Edan turned his back with a blank expression, even after hearing Lenok’s firm answer.

“There is no absolute in this world. There is no person, heart, or answer that never changes. Isn’t that why you were chasing after the next thing that doesn’t exist?”

“That’s-”

“You believe that you will not change, but that is not a concept that you can stop or resist yourself. The moment you notice it, you’ve already changed, or maybe you were changed from the beginning.”

Edan, who had passed by Lenok, who was momentarily speechless, whispered.

As if he had been waiting for this moment to say these words to Lenok.

“Just like the cult leader and the commander did in this third world.”

“…Edan Bajur.”

This time, all emotion disappeared from Lenok’s face.

But Edan turned his back on Lenok and moved without hesitation.

“The only answer I can give is the same as it was before. The truth you were curious about, and the truth I was going to answer.”

“……”

“You don’t want the answer now, but I will answer it anyway.”

Edan, who had walked through the empty glass corridor, turned around at the end of the corridor.

A distance so far that it was impossible to guess with the eyes.

From the other side of the incomprehensible, so far apart that they could not see, touch, or understand each other.

“The Black Consumer Project is…”

Edan answered.

“It is a plan to ‘edit’ and ‘set’ human destiny as desired. It is the power to directly manage all the causes and effects given to humans, including aptitude, nature, and talent.”