Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 1254

The 19th District of the great city of Balkan.

Among all the closed districts of Balkan, the deepest and most secretive interior.

What existed within was not a secret weapon hidden by the city council, nor a rare relic.

Within this closed district, eternally preserved, were the countless corpses of Kaise Bajur.

Whoooosh!!!

Beyond the transparent glass walls, the corpses of Kaise Bajur were laid out in countless numbers.

Kaise in his youth, as Lenox knew him. An elderly Kaise, lying with a wrinkled face.

Kaise from all time periods, including his boyhood, youth, middle age, and old age, were enshrined all the way to the far side of the laboratory.

“……”

Lenox silently watched the thousands of Kaise Bajurs lying all around.

Some corpses had their eyes peacefully closed, while others were contorted in pain. Some remains were not intact.

Some were torn apart in a gruesome manner, as if caught in an experiment, while others were neatly enshrined in shrouds.

Every form of death that could befall Kaise existed here.

“You seem more surprised than I thought.”

The Mayor, who had been walking beside Lenox, laughed.

“I suppose you didn’t expect that so many of the people you killed would remain like this?”

“……No.”

Lenox closed his eyes.

“I killed Kaise. I’ve confirmed his annihilation in all timelines, so there’s no chance of him returning.”

“……”

“What’s here are clones made using his genes… or perhaps a kind of vessel to contain his spirit.”

Lenox, casting a cold gaze down at the boy, asked,

“Kaise’s ‘replacements,’ prepared in anticipation of his absence. Was the 19th District a tomb where they were all gathered and enshrined?”

Lenox had obtained the Extreme Lightning Magic and completely confirmed Kaise’s annihilation in all timelines.

Kaise, knowing this, had accepted his annihilation while carrying out his choices to the very end.

Therefore, what remained here was not Kaise Bajur himself.

They were merely corpses wearing Kaise’s shell, devoid of souls and intellect.

But that was why Lenox could understand the meaning of the scene before him even more deeply.

“If you’ve watched Kaise’s regressions, you’d know.”

The Mayor nodded and said,

“After his memories began to become confused, Kaise prepared insurance in various ways.”

“……”

“Among them were not only measures to protect his mind and spirit, but also replacements that could take his place in case of emergency.”

The boy said indifferently, looking at the corpses enshrined all around.

“What exists here are replacements made using Kaise’s genes. It was a massive testing ground to measure the limits of the human called Kaise Bajur.”

“……”

“Which timeline’s Kaise Bajur possessed the greatest abilities. Which condition of Kaise could store the most memories. How much information could be injected into Kaise’s head without him going insane.”

The boy’s expression turned cold.

“Whether the meaning would disappear even if Kaise’s memories were divided and stored in other replacements. What is the range within which they could be treated as Kaise Bajur in the realms of spells and abilities.”

“……”

“Kaise did not hesitate to conduct human experiments during the project, but that was the same for both himself and others.”

The boy said with a blank face.

“The one he experimented on and offered the most was himself. Can you believe it if I say that what remains here is proof of that?”

“……”

“Can you understand why Jordan, who had been Kaise’s primary physician, eventually gave up all his duties?”

Jordan, who had been walking ahead without a word, suddenly stopped in his tracks, as if frozen.

With a pale face, he stared blankly at the replacements of Kaise existing in the 19th District.

“…Jordan.”

Lenox’s expression slightly clouded as he looked at Jordan’s back.

Why he was able to act as a guide for the 19th District.

Why he had never returned here even now.

Just by facing the scene that remained here, Lenox could understand as well.

The corpses that once had the face of the person Jordan served, but could never be him.

Only then did Lenox understand why Jordan was so skilled not only in medicine but also in autopsying corpses.

Jordan’s familiar autopsy of the wanted criminal Lenox had brought when he first started working as a freelancer.

Where Jordan’s experience, who had said he had done similar work to a coroner, came from.

The existence of the test subjects that Jordan, working as Kaise’s primary physician, had to autopsy himself.

Could Lenox empathize with the hardships Jordan had gone through since the project failed?

Could Lenox question why Jordan hadn’t told Jenny all these facts?

The truth about Kaise and Ethan. The deal they had made regarding Jenny.

If he thought that the scene here was too harsh to tell Jenny, who didn’t know about it.

Wasn’t that why Jordan had only returned here after everything was over?

“……”

In the end, even this was just speculation.

At the point where Jordan stood here, guided by emotions that even he couldn’t clearly define, words were unnecessary.

From the moment he guided Lenox here, Jordan had already—

“…Ban.”

Jordan said quietly in a voice that had gone hoarse.

“Come this way.”

“Jordan.”

“I haven’t… shown you everything yet.”

Jordan said with difficulty, gasping for breath.

Jordan’s face, looking at the corpses beyond the glass wall, had aged much more in a short time.

“Inside, there’s more. The remains of…”

“……”

Lenox silently followed Jordan without a word.

Past the laboratories where Kaise’s corpses were stored, further into the inner corridor.

Beyond the research rooms where the corpses were enshrined, a huge warehouse existed inside.

A bizarre scene filled with tanks containing hundreds of brains soaked in bodily fluids.

Only after standing in front of it did Lenox understand what Jordan was trying to say.

“All of these… were once Kaise Bajur.”

“……”

“You discarded the human bodies of the cloned Kaise and extracted only the brains, intending to use them as storage devices for memories?”

“I had to… show you…”

Jordan said in a voice that seemed about to fade away.

“You, who brought an end to his life… you deserve to see everything he left behind, and to take it…”

“……”

The sight of the grayish-white brains floating in small tanks filled with bodily fluids.

Below the tanks, there were connection devices like small connectors.

The moment Lenox channeled his magic and pressed the connector, a powerful image unfolded before his eyes.

Whoosh-!!!

A vast jungle with no end in sight. The stuffy, humid air felt heavy.

A strange voice flowed from Lenox’s mouth as he landed on a bizarre altar covered in vines.

[Found you, Baragan. You were here.]

[…Huh?]

The man, tied to the altar and bleeding profusely, glared irritably.

[Who are you to call my name so carelessly? Which tribe are you from?]

[A tribal chief who has formally inherited the secret sorcery. By lineage, I am said to be a fourth-generation disciple of the compiler.]

Lenox laughed.

[You possessed powerful sorcery talent but were defeated in tribal conflicts and met your end as a human sacrifice. Because it was an isolated area, there were hardly any butterfly effects in each regression [referring to changes in timelines].]

[…You. I don’t know what you’re talking about, but you know our tribe’s situation strangely well.]

Baragan looked up at Lenox and chuckled.

[Well, it seems you know enough, but don’t get involved and just get lost. Can’t you see what’s happened to my heart?]

[……]

As he said, Baragan’s chest, bound to the altar, was cut open, exposing his throbbing heart.

The bizarre sorcery characters engraved on his heart pulsed and glowed red as if they were alive.

The optimal form for offering a sacrifice to the god they believed in, according to the ancient traditions of the primitive tribe.

[Don’t look at me with that disgusting expression, you bastard. This was already decided a long time ago.]

Baragan smiled even as he bled profusely.

[I was born with a geas [a magical compulsion or oath], so what can I do? The reason I was chosen as the tribal chief was ultimately for this.]

For a sorcerer, a geas is a law strongly linked to the foundation of their spells.

Baragan’s tribe had a custom of engraving a geas for sacrifice on the most talented baby born each year.

It was an old tradition that had been passed down, preserved, and continuously adjusted and refined through offerings and rituals.

Baragan being offered as a sacrifice as an adult was also something that had been decided decades ago.

[There is a fate that is determined from birth and cannot be changed.]

Baragan smiled with his eyes growing dim.

[If you try to change it for no reason, it’s not me but other people who will get hurt. So, I have no resentment…]

[No.]

Swish!!

At that moment, the vines binding Baragan’s body to the altar were cut off and fell away.

[Huh?]

[Fate does not exist. Nothing is set in this world.]

Lenox reached out his hand, looking at Baragan’s face as he stared blankly at him.

[If such a thing exists, I will gladly change even that fate.]

[……]

[Baragan. Won’t you join me in saving the world?]

In his fading memories, Kaise grinned.

[I’ll show you that there’s a world much wider than this jungle.]

“…I see.”

Whoosh…!!!

Lenox, returning to reality, lifted his gaze with a hardened expression.

“What remains here are all… remnants of Kaise’s memories.”

The memory of the moment when Kaise and Baragan first met and became friends.

The memory of the moment when Kaise saved Baragan, who was supposed to disappear as a sacrifice.

The other memories of Kaise remaining in the other tanks would also contain similar moments.

The memories that Kaise cherished before everything became worn out and numb.

If he tried to use extreme methods because he didn’t want to lose their meaning. If even that extreme attempt was already broken.

If he eventually abandoned this massive testing ground because even that became meaningless.

Either way, it was a bitter and painful ending.

“If you’ve passed through the closed districts, you’d know about the magic particle collapse phenomenon.”

The Mayor, who was standing behind Lenox, said quietly.

“Kaise used several districts of Balkan as testbeds for his experiments, and left that phenomenon as evidence of his failures.”

“……”

“The result remained in the 19th District as well, and it served to support Kaise’s replacements so that they could function as replacements.”

“…Reverse magic.”

Bloodline abilities were cursed talents inherited through bloodlines.

However, the clones created through genetic manipulation could not have properly inherited Kaise’s talents.

They would have died in a curse where their blood and magic flowed in reverse from the moment they were born, let alone controlling their talents.

Therefore, to prevent his replacements from being swept away by the curse of reverse magic, Kaise had completely ‘collapsed’ the magic particles in the closed districts.

If there was no magic flowing in reverse within the replacements’ bodies, they would not be swept away by the power of reverse magic and die.

A lingering attachment that remained even after bringing an end to the project. This moment of clarifying the traces Kaise left behind.

Just as Lenox was silently reflecting on the circumstances of the closed district’s creation and the curse placed upon it.

Clunk!!!

At the same time as the heavy metallic sound echoed, the ground shook violently for a moment.

Jordan was standing in front of a control panel located at the very end of the room where the huge tanks containing brains were lined up.

Kugugugu…!!!

At the same time as he pulled the lever, the entire closed district violently trembled.

As Lenox watched, Jordan slowly turned around and said,

“Ban. Now that Kaise-nim has departed, all authority here has been passed on to me, his primary physician.”

“……”

“Now that Ormeon is observing, we can end all the lingering attachments that he left behind.”

Jordan offered a weak smile to the silent Lenox.

“Before facing the end, I was waiting for you because I needed to tell you all of this. You deserve to know.”

“…Jordan.”

“You will bring the end, Ban.”

Jordan stared at Lenox.

“Just like you did for Kaise-nim… bury everything that remains here, including me, in this place.”

“……”

“That would be the only role this old man, who couldn’t say anything to you, can fulfill.”

Only then did Lenox understand why Jordan had been waiting for him here.

Jordan hadn’t guided Lenox to explain the arrangements Kaise had left behind.

He wasn’t trying to make excuses or betray Lenox using hidden secrets.

He wanted atonement.

“A long time ago… I couldn’t refuse his request and ended up cooperating in creating this place.”

Jordan said, lifting his hazy gaze.

“I’ve always regretted that fact. But even if I went back to that time… I still wouldn’t have been able to refuse his request.”

“……”

“It’s just that I can finally take responsibility for the mistake I made a long time ago. Isn’t that enough?”

“…Bring the end.”

Lenox, who had been silent, moved towards Jordan.

“Understood. It’s not a difficult task.”

He had already decided the end for others several times.

While uncovering the project’s secrets, hadn’t he saved and killed people countless times?

As Jordan closed his eyes and slowly spread his arms, Lenox slowly raised his hand.

The moment Lenox placed his hand on Jordan’s shoulder, who had even forgotten to breathe, and began to draw up his magic power.

Crack!!

A flash of blue lightning sparked and instantly began to engulf Jordan’s body.

A transparently blue light embraced Jordan, giving the sensation of infusing him with energy.

Instead of sharp killing intent and a fierce voice, a faint warmth that even felt somewhat gentle.

Feeling that, Jordan slowly opened his eyes amidst the overflowing light.

“…Ban.”

“Return to Jenny and tell her everything that has happened so far.”

Lenox said, looking down at Jordan.

“You haven’t shown your face for several days since the subjugation battle ended, so she must be worried about you.”

“…That’s…”

“Jordan. I’m sorry, but it seems that deciding your end is not my job.”

Lenox smiled as he looked at Jordan, who was at a loss for words.

“Whether to be angry at what you did, to grieve, or to forgive, it’s all Jenny’s job.”

“……”

“Then, wouldn’t it be right for Jenny, not me, to choose that end?”

Whoooong!!!

He rotated his thoughts, leaving Jordan staring up at Lenox with a blank expression.

There was no need to hear an answer. Lenox had already made his choice.

Just like when he decided Maleon’s end in Kundara. One’s end doesn’t always have to be death or annihilation.

He would try to create something beyond destroying, breaking, and erasing.

If Kaise’s story had ended here, as Jordan said. If even the lingering attachments of the project could be washed away by the flow of time.

If Jordan had tried to meet his end here by guiding Lenox because he had twisted Kaise’s end.

Then, it would be okay for Lenox to twist Jordan’s fate as he wished.

Crack…!!

The moment the blue magic power flickered and sparked, Jordan’s body was engulfed in intense lightning and disappeared from the closed district.

At the same time as Lenox turned around after reverse-summoning Jordan to the district, the boy who had been watching from behind clapped softly.

“That’s an amazing spell ability. Did you transfer Jordan all the way to the 49th District, which is over hundreds of kilometers away?”

The boy tilted his head with a smiling expression.

“If all the project associates were like you, our end wouldn’t have been like this.”

“……”

“Well, it’s all in the past now. I don’t want Jordan to die here either.”

The mayor slowly moved, leaving Lenox who didn’t answer.

“Jordan was an outer disciple who inherited the medical skills of the Left Minister, Yoo Sung. Throughout the project, he always had to act as a link between Kaise and the Imperial Palace.”

“……”

“Can you imagine how many corpses of masters he had to dig up to create the [Forbidden Seal] that uses Kaise’s memories as a trigger?”

“The reason Jordan touched the corpses here… was to create the project’s forbidden seal.”

Lenox turned his gaze with a dark expression.

“That itself was something related to the Imperial Palace’s intervention.”

“Haven’t you ever thought it was strange?”

The boy asked with a smiling face.

“Why the forbidden seal placed on the project was so powerful. Why even the Ascended couldn’t defy it and had to keep the secret.”

“……”

“It’s simple. The base used to create the forbidden seal was the ‘privilege’ of the Imperial Family.”

The mayor said, walking through the debris collapsing from all sides.

“The way they once managed and commanded this world. Because that power was mixed into the forbidden seal, everyone couldn’t defy it.”

“The Imperial Family’s privilege…?”

The boy didn’t answer Lenox’s question.

He just stared at Lenox’s face with a smiling expression, then turned his body away.

“I was waiting to tell you this story today.”

“……”

“Why the Imperial Palace intervened in the project even while borrowing the power of the Imperial Family. Why they brought about their own destruction by exchanging the fates of Balkan and the Imperial Palace.”

The boy said faintly in a voice that couldn’t be read.

“Now that the project is over, we have to start the story from here to discuss the next step.”

“……”

Was this why he had been accompanying Lenox all this time, watching the end of the 19th District, just to leave these words?

The forbidden seal that had been experimented on and adjusted through Kaise’s corpse in the 19th District, using the Imperial Family’s ‘privilege’ as a base.

Was he waiting for Lenox to tell him how it was made and to inform him of the Imperial Palace’s intervention?

But-

“But even if I say this, you can’t just believe my story, right?”

The boy smiled.

“After all, in your eyes, I’m just one of the project associates who used Kaise.”

“……”

“So, I’ll be waiting. There was an Imperial Family member who came to this city to watch this war, right?”

Kugugugung…!!!

The scenery of the shaking 19th District laboratory.

The boy, who had been looking at Lenox from the end of the collapsing corridor, slowly turned around.

“It’ll be okay to talk again after you’ve fully recognized the Imperial Palace.”

Whoosh!!

Before the boy’s voice could even leave, his figure had disappeared from Lenox’s sight.

A void that didn’t even leave a trace, as if he had never existed in the same time as Lenox from the beginning.

“……”

Leaving the disappeared boy behind, he looked down at the scene that stretched to the end of the collapsing corridor.

Kaise’s corpses, lying dead throughout the laboratory as if asleep. Kaise’s dazzling memories remaining in the tanks.

However, Lenox no longer felt any emotion or regret while looking at this scene.

Because he had already completely finished Kaise’s end. Because he had sent away even the remaining attachments with Jenny.

Just like the mayor had said, he didn’t intend to keep the mourning or emotions for Kaise for long.

It was time to move forward again, not to stop and look back.

So, from now on-

Crack!!

At the same time as he drew up the blue lightning, the space-time of the closed district trembled.

The moment the causality of lightning fiercely rotated and flashed with transcendent will.

The lightning, as blue and transparent as the sky, was caught in Lenox’s hand and engulfed the laboratory.

* * *

“Ban! You’re back!!”

“…Mila.”

On the way back to the 49th District after finishing the work in the 19th District.

Lenox met Mila at the construction site where restoration work was being carried out and stopped walking.

Mila, who had rushed over, tried to hug Lenox tightly, but stopped a step late, regaining her senses.

She thought about what to do next with her eyes spinning, and then she lay flat on the spot.

“Ban…!! Thank you so much for saving my sister! I will never forget this favor!!”

“…It’s okay, get up. Anyone would think I was trying to kill Priscilla and then saved her.”

Lenox shook his head with a wry smile.

“I never intended to let the Tower associates die from the beginning. I told you that last time, didn’t I?”

“No, but… the plan and the actual situation are completely different.”

Mila scratched her head with an awkward expression as she stood up.

“Surviving after meeting the great sorcerer Baragan is entirely thanks to you. I’m always grateful.”

“Your sister. She’s smart and resourceful, so Jenny is very fond of her.”

Lenox patted Mila’s shoulder and turned his gaze.

“You don’t have to flatter me to get a good position in the Tower. Don’t worry.”

“Kehehehet, I like Jenny too, but it’s on a different level than getting on the Tower Lord’s good side.”

Mila rubbed her hands together like a fly next to Lenox, making a sly expression.

“You must be very tired, should I buy you some good elixirs or tonics? I can even steal the tuna sashimi that Felix secretly stashed away!”

“Why is the topic suddenly jumping in that direction?”

Lenox walked through the empty streets, having an unexpected chat with Mila.

Following Mila’s guidance, Lenox entered the temporary office where his Tower colleagues were staying and asked.

“Where’s Jenny?”

“She’s talking with Jordan.”

Mila shrugged her shoulders and glanced at him.

“Looking at the atmosphere, it seems like it’ll take a while, so it might be better to leave them alone for the time being.”

“I see…”

Mila was quick-witted, so she seemed to have a rough idea that the conversation between the two was heavy.

Since it was something that Lenox, who had watched everything in the 19th District, had decided himself, Jordan wouldn’t do it carelessly either.

However, it was also inevitable that the tasks that had to be handled with Jenny would be delayed for a while.

For now, should he prioritize checking on his colleagues’ conditions and seeing if they had any injuries?

The moment Lenox thought that and stepped into the office building, a noise like a machine gun firing echoed from right next to the hallway.

Da-da-da-da-dak!!!

At the sound of something being furiously pounded and emotions being released, Lenox glanced over.

“…Dylan?”

Dylan’s figure was visible through the crack in the hallway door.

Sitting cross-legged, he was pounding the laptop on his lap with both hands as if it would break.

His eyes, hidden behind the mask, were bloodshot, and he was puffing out his nose as if he was very angry.

He looked unusual, not just out of it, but slightly like an addict.

Lenox, who was already worried about the aftereffects of the subjugation battle, stopped walking.

“Is he okay?”

“…Ah, that?”

Mila made a gesture of cutting her own neck with a disgusted expression.

“He’s been acting like that since earlier, so just ignore him. He’s a common idiot.”

“What is he doing to be like that?”

“He’s not really doing anything, just… Ah, come to think of it, you don’t know yet, do you?”

Mila said, scratching her head.

“As the city government’s central network stabilized, access to the deep web became smooth. Because of that, traffic is pouring into the deep web from all over Balkan.”

“…The deep web?”

“Well, the deep web is originally a space created behind the central network, right? While the communication network was paralyzed, even access to the deep web-”

Before Mila could finish speaking, Davi in Lenox’s arms wiggled his tail wildly.

At the same time, he copied and pasted the website address Dylan was looking at directly in front of Lenox’s eyes.

“…I see.”

Lenox smiled wryly as he checked the title of the deep web post that Dylan was having a heated keyboard battle over.

Whether he should say it was as expected, or that it was more absurd than expected.

The title of the post was very blatant, as if it was intentionally trying to attract interest.

[Title: Analysis of the Fortress’s Behavior Patterns and Possibility of Capture Through the Subjugation Battle (Discussion Welcome)] + 437634