Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 235

Answer (3)

Virgil surveyed his silent colleagues before speaking.

“I’ll talk to Van directly about the Chairman’s condition. Of course, he wouldn’t intentionally let any secrets slip… but if we don’t explain why she’s so agitated and engrossed in ‘research,’ he won’t understand the situation either.”

“Damn it… to be so swayed by a mere freelancer.”

Though Merilda grumbled, she didn’t contradict Virgil.

The three board members present were all veterans who had been with Oliviera since the Cartel’s inception.

They all knew why she, once at the peak of her abilities, had lost her power and fallen, and why she was now secluded, immersed in incomprehensible research.

McQueen had also been aware that the Chairman couldn’t act carelessly, which was why he dared to commit such blatant treason.

Kansoa spoke,

“It’s hard to predict how this city will change, so there’s no need to create more enemies unnecessarily. Instead, I hope he’ll use his authority as an outside director to help the Cartel’s hierarchy…”

“That depends on how we approach him from now on,” Virgil replied.

“I’ve gathered his personal information and public opinion from the Deep Web; take a look.”

He connected his phone to a terminal and sent the files to the others.

As they read the information, Virgil continued,

“He was already a top-tier mage when he appeared in this city and contacted Janice. Despite many attempts to dig into his past, no traces could be found. He’s thoroughly concealed himself, to the point where even his current residence is unknown, let alone his past.”

“…”

“Moreover, he has a reputation for being meticulous and thorough in his dealings… It’s safe to say he’s the type to reciprocate, at the very least.”

“He’s not like a mage, but more like a fixer who’s been in the game for decades.”

“I think everyone here knows what’s needed to keep Van’s mouth shut in this situation.”

Virgil nodded.

“Since we’re all here, let’s be honest. The Cartel is slowly sinking.”

“…”

“The Chairman’s decision to publicly announce McQueen’s betrayal, which would have been revealed eventually, was wise, but it won’t stop the organization from shaking. To navigate this successfully, we need active cooperation between subsidiaries. You all understand what that means, right?”

That meant the board members, who had been keeping each other in check while turning a blind eye, now needed to be more united than before.

The freedom they had each enjoyed for decades was coming to an end.

To fend off the other Three Heads and the rising competitors, and to maintain their current positions, they needed an implicit agreement from within.

Virgil leaned back in his chair, putting his feet up on the desk.

The nameplate on the wide, old tree stump clearly displayed the title of Vice Chairman.

“The old complacency and division are over. From now on, there will be… a lot to do.”

* * *

After a two-week break, Lenox leisurely returned to work.

His battle with McQueen had taken a considerable amount of time to shake off the side effects of the various drugs he had used to forcibly boost his condition during the Self-Resonance Domain deployment.

He wasn’t fully recovered, but Lenox never underestimated his fragile body.

His body was prone to problems whether he pushed it too hard or let it slack off.

If he rested for too long, he could even strain his back.

He wouldn’t let his guard down. Lenox had never trusted his body in the first place.

“You’re here?” Janice and Jordan greeted him at the pub’s bar, which had resumed normal operations after the conflict with the Cartel.

Despite going through a rough time during the incident, Jordan had safely returned and was shaking his shaker as usual.

Considering the nature of their business, it was a miracle.

If something had happened to him, who had a close bond with Janice, it would have been impossible to resolve the matter this way.

Lenox sat at the bar, holding his glass, and quietly looked around.

The pub was more crowded than usual, bustling with customers.

It was unnaturally prosperous.

“I heard the news that you were appointed as an outside director at the Cartel’s quarterly earnings announcement, Van,” Janice said, shrugging.

“Since you’ve been approved by the Three Heads, many people think this business will do well.”

“So they’ve come to make a good impression in advance?”

“More than that… it’s because we’ve proven that our business is self-sufficient enough that even big shots can’t touch it, so it’s become an even better meeting place for freelancers.”

“…”

“Well, of course, that’s not my analysis… that’s roughly the atmosphere on the Deep Web.”

“That’s strange…”

Lenox took a sip of his drink and slowly activated his magic, eavesdropping on the conversations around him.

As expected of people in this business, they were noisy with their drinks while their actual conversations were hard to hear, but that didn’t matter much to Lenox.

As Janice had said, there were significantly more people talking about business matters in secret at the pub.

Those who used to whisper secretly on the streets had made the pub their new meeting place.

Either way, it wasn’t a bad thing.

Except that Jordan’s hands, shaking the shaker, seemed particularly busy.

Jordan, making eye contact with Lenox, smiled faintly.

“…We might need a new bartender.”

“It’s fine for now. If things get too hectic, we can ask for help… I’m sure one of those guys will lend a hand.”

Jordan raised the hand holding the shaker behind him.

Lenox nodded, seeing Wayan sparring with someone in the empty lot behind the pub’s warehouse.

“Dray seems to have made a decision as well.”

Quite a few things had happened during the two weeks Lenox was away, and their businesses had begun to expand rapidly.

As soon as the Cartel’s matter was over, Dray Creamgal had decided to join Janice’s business with his subordinates.

It was difficult to provide satisfactory pay to the newly hired former special forces members with just the work they received from the Creamgal Office.

However, in a situation where it was also difficult to close the office and go under someone else, Dray decided to entrust his manpower to Lenox and Janice.

Perhaps he thought that Lenox’s power, comparable to the Cartel’s board members, and Janice’s management skills, which had quickly taken control of the underground supply chain, were sufficient.

Lenox hadn’t heard exactly what Dray was thinking when he sided with them, but he understood his feelings to some extent.

During the tension with the Cartel, Dray had often expressed satisfaction with working with Lenox whenever they went out into the city together.

The members’ salaries, difficult to cover with the office’s income alone, could also be tax-deductible as expenses under Lenox and Janice’s company.

“It would be a great help to have a man like that helping the business.”

“Plus, the people Dray brought, former special forces members, are very good at their jobs. There are also people with various specialties like driving, administration, and maintenance, so we won’t need to recruit new employees for a while.”

Of course, Dray hadn’t just come to them asking to be taken in without any calculations.

They were former soldiers familiar with the command system and had a strong sense of responsibility for their missions. They were also used to doing more than their share in their respective fields.

They were much more reliable than manpower recruited from the underground world, and if Dray mediated between them, it wouldn’t be difficult to manage them.

It was a move that would give wings to the business prospects, which had been positively evaluated even before the conflict with the Cartel.

Lenox listened to their stories for a while, then finished his drink and got up.

“Are you leaving already?”

“It’s not that… I thought it might be worth taking on a request since it’s been a while.”

“A request?”

Since he had established a company with Janice’s help, there was no reason for Lenox to focus on freelance work.

It was necessary to maintain his freelance status to secure routes to obtain rewards he wanted separately, such as space-time artifacts, but otherwise, there was no reason to seek out designated requests.

Instead of answering, Lenox picked up a thick photo book next to the bar, flipped through it, and pulled out a photo.

A wanted poster that brokers had prepared for bounty hunters.

Lenox smiled at the two people looking at him with bewildered expressions and headed outside.

“Let’s go back to our roots for a while.”

* * *

Things were different from the past when he had to track down fugitives using magic to trace bloodstains.

He scattered his magic widely at the last place the fugitive had disappeared and walked in the direction his senses picked up.

An underground fight club hidden discreetly beneath a shabby bakery.

Lenox, finding his two targets inside, drunk, immediately pulled out his revolver.

The opponent, blinking at the shadow cast on his face, opened his mouth wide as soon as he saw Lenox’s face.

“U, Uwaaaah!!”

Bang!

“Shit!!”

Bang!!

The job was over in an instant.

As he levitated the two men, foaming at the mouth with their eyes rolled back, with telekinesis, the noisy fight club instantly became quiet.

“It’s Van…”

“Damn it, it’s the first time I’ve seen him in person.”

“What business does the Cartel’s outside director have here? What did those idiots do?”

Lenox coldly looked around the center of the club, which had become silent.

Dray Creamgal had said that Lenox’s position would change once the Cartel’s matter was over.

He wasn’t wrong. Among those murmuring while looking at Lenox now, not a single one approached him to speak directly.

The people who used to approach Lenox with scouting offers were no longer visible.

A mage who had fought against the Cartel’s board members single-handedly and emerged victorious.

Everyone was guessing his value and standards.

They knew that an ordinary background wouldn’t be enough to make an offer to Lenox now.

The emotions mixed in people’s gazes were now clearly visible.

Jealousy and fear, wariness and admiration… and envy.

While Lenox was lost in thought, an old man with a protruding belly approached him, sweating profusely, and subtly bowed.

“I, it seems the guys playing in our club have disrespected the mage. I’ll make sure this never happens again, so please forgive us just this once…”

“…”

The old man pulled out a wad of bills from his pocket and handed it to Lenox.

Instead of accepting it, Lenox shook his head and sighed.

The old man’s shoulders twitched greatly.

“I, if the money is not enough… Ugh!”

Lenox tossed the two unconscious men to the old man, took out a cigarette, and said,

“Those two are being investigated by the police for civilian human trafficking.”

“Y, Yes?!”

“Take care of it and hand them over to the nearby bounty office.”

Lenox walked out of the club without any regrets and stared blankly at the sky.

In the past, he would have handed over each of these achievements directly to Janice, but now it didn’t mean much.

That wasn’t why he had come to find the fugitives in the first place.

“I had a hunch, but… this alone is enough to help with my judgment.”

The words that came out of Lenox’s mouth were not a coincidence.

He had made the excuse of going back to his roots, but Lenox had never forgotten who he was.

However, the reason he had moved to track down fugitives with a ridiculous reason was to find an opportunity to recover the turning point that Lenox had missed in this city.

Lenox’s eyes sank deeply as he sat on a nearby bench to rest.

‘I have succeeded in understanding and using the concept of mental imprinting itself. But…’

By advancing the point of view to the future, the turning points that could have existed are regarded as the past, and the possibilities of parallel worlds are observed and realized.

Lenox had obtained a miracle that even he wasn’t sure was possible, but there were more than one or two problems to solve to freely use this weapon.

Considering that it was only by cramming in massive costs, forced doping, geas [a magical compulsion] and triggers, and a magic core that he had obtained by chance that he was barely able to meet Lenox’s standards.

It would be extremely difficult to properly use the domain in battles against other powerful opponents, not just McQueen.

Moreover, although he had pursued different possibilities while considering anonymity, it would be meaningless if he couldn’t omit the process of deploying the kaleidoscope in the process of deploying the Self-Resonance Domain.

‘But even in this state, there are plenty of ways to refine my mental image.’

At that time, Lenox had joined the Torben Magic Tower, awakened his unique lightning-type magic, and won against McQueen with the domain [Eight-Linked Lightning Logic Dome (八連雷理穹)] that he had fully drawn with that mental image.

However, the reason why the Eight-Linked Lightning Logic Dome was able to exert such power was because of Lenox’s understanding and mastery of the lightning element.

The same was true even if he were to realize a different domain.

To draw out sufficient power from a parallel world that only existed as a possibility, that turning point and Lenox needed to be closely connected.

Lenox had opened up a new horizon of possibilities through his mental image, but that meant he needed to be accompanied by experience that matched it.

The reason he had looked back on the past today was also part of that.

Even if he excluded the domains he could observe in the realm of possibilities now, how much experience and connection would he need to develop a new domain?

To gauge that standard, Lenox had dragged his aching body and resumed his activities.

Little by little, but surely.

Lenox was already beginning to realize what the miracle he held in his hands was.