Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 171

“Fight properly!”

“Why should I?”

It’s been almost 100 seconds since Lenok started enjoying Weizen’s flamboyant fireworks display.

Lenok only needed to pretend to dodge his attacks and gather data on combat flight.

From the start, there was no need to hesitate in dodging magic that revealed its mana flow the moment it was cast.

Lenok lightly tilted the airship, shaking off the flames chasing him, and subtly turned his gaze to the other side of the night sky.

A young man was watching them from afar, not joining the fight even though Weizen was currently pushing him.

He was simply holding back because Weizen seemed to have the upper hand, but he could join in at any moment if the situation reversed.

There was a need to delicately adjust the situation.

“…Ugh!”

However, Weizen, after throwing a few fire spells, seemed to have realized something, and instead of blindly getting angry, he began to groan.

In fact, having come this far, he couldn’t just ignore Lenok, so it was reasonable to think that he had some hidden card.

“It’s an artifact…!!”

Of course, his conclusion was far from the truth.

“Besides Nicks’s emblem, you have an artifact that helps with flight! Haha! I can’t believe things are working out this well…!”

“…”

Weizen said that and immediately began to rush towards Lenok, leading his wingboat.

Apart from spouting completely wrong guesses, his actions themselves were relatively reasonable.

He realized that he couldn’t shoot down Lenok by just firing magic from afar, so he immediately began to move to close the distance and reduce his range of action.

That way of thinking was still worthy of a mage.

Weizen, having completely let go of the steering wheel, stepped onto the seat of the wingboat.

He quickly formed hand seals with both hands and instantly chanted a unique magic.

[Fire Net]

Whoosh!

The flames extending from both hands rapidly expanded, spreading a bright red net towards Lenok’s wingboat.

[Exploding Fireball]

Weizen, having secured two sides and narrowed the range of action, immediately chanted another spell, creating a huge fireball in the air.

It was quite large, easily twice the size of the wingboat Weizen was riding.

However, instead of heading towards the direction the fireball was coming from, Lenok turned the steering wheel of the wingboat towards the net.

Lenok’s wingboat, stopping right in front of the approaching net, maneuvered at a right angle, skillfully flipping its belly and stopping. At the same time, it slowly flipped the hull diagonally, skillfully slipping through the net.

Weizen’s eyes widened as if they would tear at the graceful movement, like an acrobatic flight.

“Th, th…!!”

[Combat flight algorithm calculation 88%.]

‘Davi is starting to control the wingboat on his own.’

That unbelievable movement just now was not Lenok’s doing, but entirely the result of borrowing the power of the cybernetic spirit.

It didn’t just stop at being good at flying, but continued to make judgments and calculations every moment, devising the most efficient evasion route.

After dodging the two fire spells that Weizen fired in succession, there was nothing more to see.

Lenok shook his head, looking at Weizen’s shocked expression.

“That’s not how you do it. You have such a good magic system, but you don’t even know how to handle it properly.”

“What nonsense are you spouting!!”

The characteristics of fire-type magic lie in its powerful firepower and explosive spatial control.

If Weizen had known how to properly handle those two properties, it wouldn’t have been strange if this sky had turned into a sea of fire before Lenok could even react.

But he was just desperately trying to hit Lenok in this wide space using a predetermined magic formation.

“Watch carefully. This is how you use the power of fire.”

“What…?”

Instead of answering, Lenok took out the cigarette he had in his mouth and threw it into the sky.

The embers at the end of the cigarette resonated strongly with the mana Lenok shot up, turning into a huge sphere of fire.

[Exploding Fireball]

At the same time, it burst like a balloon, and dozens of flames that flowed out began to float in the sky like will-o’-the-wisps.

[Red Phosphorus Bullet]

Whoosh!!

Even if you only properly observe a couple of unique fire-type magics, you can tell.

The magic of the Magic Tower is characterized by leaving the growth direction and necessary potential entirely in one magic, so that those with talent can inherit it and continue research for generations.

Of course, unless you are directly taught the core mana manipulation method, it is impossible for other mages to understand the flow, but for Lenok, it means nothing.

Moreover, the structure of fire-type unique magic, which emphasizes destructive power and range explosion, has parts that are similar to the electric-type, so it was not difficult to understand.

Lenok clenched his fist, watching the dozens of flames slowly falling around Weizen.

[Multiple Resonance]

At the same time, the flames that had flared up like will-o’-the-wisps resonated all at once from all directions and exploded, increasing their destructive power.

Boom boom boom!!

The dozens of explosions combined to form a new, huge spiral of fire.

The flames that had extended from the exploding fireball gathered again and flared up into a flame several times larger.

There was no way to avoid Lenok’s fire that instantly enveloped and burned the surroundings.

Weizen, trapped in the flames with his wingboat before he could do anything, let out a desperate scream.

Whoosh!!

“Aaaaaaah!!”

Lenok, having confirmed Weizen’s battered appearance in the center, wore a slightly surprised expression.

“It’s hot… It’s hot…!!”

Because he had captured and imitated the mana flow from a distance, the manipulation of the flames was a bit sloppy, but the firepower that contained Lenok’s mana was incomparable to Weizen’s.

However, Weizen was still alive, although he was covered in burns and couldn’t even speak properly because of the blisters.

The light emanating from the necklace around his neck was protecting Weizen.

‘He seems to have endured it with the effect of the artifact and his own fire resistance.’

He thought it wouldn’t be strange if he had turned to ashes in one blow, but the artifact’s ability seemed to be quite high.

There was no way such an idiot could have obtained such an item on his own, so it was likely an item bestowed by the Magic Tower.

While Lenok was lost in thought, Davi, who had been silent, opened his mouth.

[Combat flight calculation complete. Initiating autonomous flight.]

Has it already been two minutes?

“Good.”

Lenok, who had let go of the steering wheel and leisurely held his cigarette, smiled.

Now that it had come to this, it would be better to kill even that mage who still hadn’t stepped forward and erase all traces.

“I’ll make you spit out all the magic you know and die… Huh?”

At that moment, the young man who had been flying alongside Weizen without saying a word threw something.

It floated through the air at an absurd speed and instantly pierced Weizen’s neck, which was turned away.

“Guh, guh…!!”

Was the light emanating from the necklace only able to block magic?

Weizen, unable to react, foamed at the mouth and rolled his eyes, slamming his head into the steering wheel of the wingboat.

Lenok looked at the young man with a dumbfounded expression.

“…What is this supposed to be?”

“Isn’t it about time to clean things up?”

The young man calmly replied, despite Lenok’s fiercely radiating mana.

“Moreover, there’s no reason to deal with such a commoner for long.”

“You stabbed your comrade in the back and that’s all you have to say?”

“Comrade? How ridiculous. For you to say such a thing.”

The young man calmly steered his wingboat towards Weizen’s wingboat and spoke.

Even though the driver had fainted, the mana inherent in the wingboat still kept the small airship afloat.

And the young man naturally grabbed Weizen’s hair and lifted his face, as if he had known this from the beginning.

“Such narrow-mindedness, arrogance that makes him swing his surroundings as he pleases, and terrible judgment that doesn’t match his talent… It’s hard to believe he’s a mage from the Blaver Magic Tower. All of these are qualities that are not suitable for this place.”

“…”

“He’s someone I wouldn’t want to give even a penny of sympathy to for what we have to do from now on.”

Lenok remained silent before answering.

The young man was muttering as if he knew how Lenok had been thinking about Weizen all along, but there was a slightly different truth hidden behind those words.

It was as if he knew Lenok’s personality to some extent.

His thoughts were complicated, but the conclusion came quickly.

Lenok took the cigarette out of his mouth, exhaled smoke, and laughed with a dumbfounded expression.

“I see. So you’re the lighthouse keeper’s errand boy who came to greet me?”

“…”

This time, it was the young man’s turn to shut his mouth.

“You were waiting for me to come all the way from outside the autonomous territory. And you were following the mages who came to the autonomous territory, checking them yourself.”

Otherwise, there was no explanation for why he had appeared with Weizen from the beginning. And why he suddenly betrayed Weizen.

He had been following Weizen first because he was a mage of considerable skill, but he must have realized he was mistaken when he saw Lenok’s presence.

And he must have intervened with certainty after the aerial battle just now.

“You’re an interesting one.”

Lenok said.

“You must have already guessed when I took out the spirit for autonomous flight.”

The information the lighthouse keeper had about Lenok when they contacted each other in the academy’s plains was his identity, face, and the existence of a spirit named Davi.

If the young man was going around the autonomous territory to find Lenok under the lighthouse keeper’s orders, he would have known that Lenok had arrived here in disguise the moment he saw the spirit, but he didn’t intervene immediately and watched the situation from afar.

That was probably to judge how much capability Lenok could show against Weizen.

It goes without saying that Weizen’s personality was terrible, but even so, the unique fire-type magic he used and his judgment as a mage were considerable.

And that fact annoyed Lenok.

“So you didn’t intervene the moment you thought that, but rather you were testing me…”

The young man intervened the moment he saw Lenok dealing with Weizen with ease, or rather, the moment he realized that Lenok’s capabilities were greater than Weizen’s.

If Lenok had been weaker than Weizen, would the young man have knocked Weizen out the same way he did just now?

That assumption itself made Lenok feel unpleasant.

“I apologize if you felt offended.”

The young man bowed politely without saying anything else.

“What we are trying to do is much more dangerous than you think, and it is related to dark secrets. We thought it was necessary to have a proper examination when accepting a new outsider into the organization.”

“Well, you’re not wrong.”

Lenok said that, slowly erasing his smile.

“But that doesn’t seem to be your superior’s idea.”

“…”

If the lighthouse keeper wanted to verify Lenok’s qualifications, he wouldn’t have done it in such a haphazard way, sending only one subordinate.

After all, he was the only person who had directly heard the last words of the Heavenly Maiden Madrea Palsier.

No matter how ignorant and rude the lighthouse keeper was, there was no way he would treat the person who had spoken to her grandmother for the last time in this way.

In other words, his words were entirely his own decision.

The young man did not make excuses.

“…I’m sorry. I will guide you to him right away.”

He said that and immediately grabbed the head and chin of the unconscious Weizen.

It seemed he was planning to kill him instantly and drop the body down.

But Lenok shook his head at that action.

“No, don’t kill him, keep him alive. I’d prefer it if you guys kept him in your custody.”

“Yes?”

The young man blinked, not understanding Lenok’s words.

Wasn’t this moment, when Weizen tried to kill Lenok and steal Nicks’s emblem, the perfect time for Lenok to kill him and hide the traces?

But Lenok looked down at the unconscious Weizen’s face and smiled faintly.

“It’s a waste to easily kill a mage of this level. He’s a resource that can’t be found anywhere else. There might be a way to use him somehow.”

The moment Lenok met Weizen in the thick fog where no one’s gaze reached, he had already grasped how he could use his existence.

A talented mage who wields powerful magic. A rare, yet clearly identified, arrogant genius with a bad personality.

He was the perfect resource for Lenok to dump the blame on in this situation.

‘He might be helpful if things go wrong when raiding the drug lord’s vault.’

Lenok thought that and grinned.

The young man was just looking up at Lenok with a clearly intimidated expression.

* * *

The two of them bound the unconscious Weizen and loaded him onto the young man’s wingboat.

They didn’t forget to take out a dagger from his pocket and poke it into Weizen’s skin.

“That is…”

“Just in case.”

It was a dagger imbued with the curse formula he had learned from the battle with Irina.

Weizen was also a mage of a certain level, so he would have curse resistance, but if he was stabbed directly with a dagger, it would be enough to restrict his movements.

“Ugh…”

Perhaps the curse had worked even weakly, Weizen began to sweat profusely.

After completely subduing him with binding and a curse, Lenok began to rummage through Weizen’s belongings without hesitation.

“Let’s see… He has more than I thought. He seems to be very interested in artifacts, just like someone who coveted other people’s things.”

Most of them seemed to be artifacts that assisted the fire-type magic he used, but among them, there was an item that seemed reasonably useful.

A necklace with an impressive bright red ruby.

It seemed to be a formula tool shaped like a red eye embedded in an octagonal crystal, and even Lenok could see that it contained considerable mana.

Considering that it had blocked the fire magic Lenok had cast, it probably had decent performance.

The young man waited quietly by his side until Lenok had completely looted Weizen.

He didn’t seem to feel awkward about this situation.

“If you’re done, let’s depart. I’ll explain as we go.”

The situation was completely different from when they first met, but no one pointed out that fact.