Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 237

‘Shall we move somewhere else for now?’

With those words, he snapped his fingers, and in an instant, shadows engulfed the two of them—

Only Myeong’s figure disappeared from the spot.

‘……’

As Lenox stared blankly at the remnants of the shadows, Myeong reappeared with a grumble.

‘Damn it… can’t you just go along with it? Your unnecessarily high magic resistance makes you so hard to control.’

Myeong had just tried to envelop Lenox with some kind of spell, and naturally, Lenox had resisted it.

For an ordinary mage, it would be impossible to resist Myeong’s will, but Lenox’s unusually high resistance had instantly nullified it.

‘This spell is a bit clumsy for me, so if you resist, it’s hard for me to use. I’m just trying to take us to a place that’s good for a conversation.’

‘……Okay.’

Lenox pondered for a moment before nodding.

If he really intended to kill or subdue him, he wouldn’t have chosen this moment.

The fact that he appeared at the Cartel’s executive board meeting and turned the tables was proof that Myeong was still strongly interested in Lenox.

Above all, considering the spell he had used back then, there was enough reason to hear him out.

As Lenox released his resistance, the shadows engulfed him again.

When the curtain lifted, what appeared before Lenox was a spacious lounge with a panoramic view of the city.

‘……’

An unnamed restaurant in a towering skyscraper.

Myeong casually pulled out a chair by the window and gestured for Lenox to join him.

‘Sit down. Let’s talk while we eat.’

‘This is…’

The table was already set with all sorts of food.

As Lenox sat across from him, Myeong immediately began to eat.

He mumbled while roughly cutting a steak and putting it in his mouth.

‘This is a place I often use to treat my honored guests. It’s a restaurant run by an acquaintance, and the view is nice. When you come here, even the most violent guys seem to calm down a bit.’

‘Is that what you think of me?’

‘You’re definitely a picky one.’

Instead of touching the food in front of him, Lenox stared at Myeong.

Their third meeting. But this was the first time he had looked at him closely like this.

His delinquent appearance still didn’t give off any particular aura, but Lenox clearly remembered how powerful and sublime the spell engraved on his body was.

More than just a high-level mage, he was a strongman capable of having a conversation at the same level as Oliviera Ron Maze.

Lenox decided to start by asking what he was most curious about.

A question that he could never move forward without asking.

‘Are you familiar with space-time magic?’

‘Why are you curious about that?’

‘Because I saw you… vaguely touching those concepts.’

At those words, Myeong stopped chewing his meat and grinned.

‘Come to think of it, you said you were asking for that type of magic as payment. I thought you were just asking for a difficult reward because you didn’t want to take freelance work, but it seems you’re actually quite interested in it.’

‘……’

‘Too bad, you’re wrong.’

Thud!

He put down the knife he was holding and picked up a fork with his other hand, starting to slurp up the pasta.

He seemed to have a surprisingly good appetite.

‘What I showed you was just the result of pushing my spells to their limits. As a result, I’m touching time and space a little bit, but I can’t say that I’m fundamentally manipulating them.’

He said that as he stabbed the fork he was holding into the shadow cast inside the bowl.

‘In the system of black magic that I’ve learned, there’s a way to combine spells by linking shadows to increase their power or to link two different spells.

I’ve refined that concept to the extreme and applied it to objects and living things as well. Like… this.’

Swoosh-

The tip of the fork that had gone into the bowl emerged from the shadow of the salt shaker in the middle of the table.

By designating the shadow positions of two spaces and temporarily linking them through black magic, he was creating a result close to teleportation.

‘It must be difficult to finely adjust the amount of magic power while considering the position and size of the shadows… and the influence of time must be significant as well.’

As Lenox muttered, Myeong nodded with a smile.

‘That’s right. After all, the size and area of shadows keep changing depending on the time the sunlight or light source shines on them, so it’s actually difficult to use unless you’re inside a building where there’s no sunlight.’

Myeong mumbled casually, but Lenox remembered that Myeong had used this magic on a street where people were walking.

For a mage of that caliber, calculating the amount of magic power to inject into the ever-changing shadows in real-time was not even a problem.

‘But despite these difficult conditions, if you consider its effectiveness, my magic is not much different from space-based magic.’

Myeong said that as he stared at Lenox.

‘What do you think is the reason for that?’

‘Is it because space-time magic is actually very inefficient?’

‘That’s right.’

Myeong grinned darkly.

‘That’s why I like talking to fellow mages. We understand each other.’

‘……’

Lenox had also guessed to some extent.

Even though he had traveled around for two years, handling all sorts of tasks, all he had obtained were a few space-related artifacts.

But by handling those artifacts, he could understand to some extent.

Considering items like the binding tools that consume enormous magic power along with a considerable warm-up time, and the Pure Land Mantra, he could understand the characteristics of space-based magic.

‘Space-based magic consumes enormous magic power as the space you manipulate increases. It’s like setting fire to an ocean of oil. It’s not about manipulating space by bending the laws, but directly manipulating space to bend the laws. It’s on a different level from just slightly touching space as part of black magic.’

‘So, the price for gaining control over space is that you consume magic power like water.’

‘Not only that, but even learning low-level spells requires a spatial understanding comparable to that of a military mage. Even if you get the chance to learn a rare magic, you’re likely to be held back by your own talent.’

‘……’

‘What do you think it would be like with time-based magic, where even proper information isn’t available?’

Lenox was silent.

Myeong looked at Lenox with an amused expression, while continuing to eat the food on the table without pause.

‘That’s why scholars and other old-fashioned mages have long since given up on space-time magic. After all, if you reach the point of refining your spells to the extreme and redefining their concepts, you’ll be able to interfere with those two great gaps as a result.’

Was that why other high-level mages didn’t seem so eager to find space-time magic?

‘Of course, if you can truly freely manipulate those two types of magic, even worrying about the inefficiency of the process would feel like a luxury… but it’s a matter of reality. For mages, abandoning the path they were walking to find magic that is impossible to obtain and difficult to learn would be no different from heresy.’

‘I see. But…’

For Lenox, who wasn’t bound by the shackles of the magic system, it was irrelevant.

More than just not being bound, he was creating his own system and establishing its laws himself.

But instead of saying those words out loud, Lenox swallowed them.

Myeong was unusually friendly to Lenox, but he was still a member of Pandemonium.

In terms of trust, this meeting itself was almost absurd.

‘Well, that’s enough of a lecture for my junior, let me get to the point.’

As he swept the empty plates aside, a waiter who had appeared from somewhere quickly began to clear the table.

In an instant, two cups of coffee appeared on the empty table, and Myeong leisurely looked down at the city while sipping his coffee.

‘Join Pandemonium.’

‘……’

Silence fell.

Even after throwing out such a shocking proposal, he was looking out the window as if nothing had happened.

Instead of answering, Lenox slowly turned his head and looked down at the cityscape.

It was a completely different scene from the desolate landscape he had faced in the battle with McQueen.

The heart of a bustling civilization.

A chaotic and complex, yet vivid cityscape that made him feel the reality of life all too clearly.

‘If you killed that foolish apostate, you’re qualified enough, and with my recommendation, a simple test or two will be enough. It won’t be too difficult to pass. The important thing is how much you actually know.’

Myeong turned his gaze to Lenox.

‘If you’ve already made up your mind, this kind of question and answer will be meaningless.’

‘That’s a bit unexpected.’

Lenox replied.

‘Are you saying that it’s okay if I refuse your offer here?’

‘Hahaha!! Of course. Did you think I was going to threaten you here?’

Myeong burst into laughter.

‘I know roughly what you’ve been doing in this city. There’s no way a meticulous guy like you would have followed me here without any preparation.’

‘……’

‘I don’t intend to cling to a junior like you. I don’t need a spineless guy who moves according to someone else’s will. Besides… we have too much to do.’

At those words, Lenox couldn’t help but hesitate.

The conversations Lenox had with countless people had helped him understand this world to some extent.

But the man sitting in front of him, calmly drinking coffee, was a being moving in a completely different direction from those he had met so far.

Was it wise to have a conversation with him on this topic?

He had seen and experienced many things, but Lenox never overestimated himself.

He was not a sage who had realized the truth of the world, nor a prophet who could foresee and perceive everything.

He was just a human being living in the present reality, like everyone else.

It was highly likely that he was mistaken in thinking he could continue a conversation on equal terms with this man who seemed to have transcended humanity.

If Lenox were to sympathize with Pandemonium’s ideology through his conversation with him.

And if that wasn’t the right answer.

Lenox honestly admitted that he was afraid.

‘I’m afraid that what I want isn’t the right answer.’

‘……’

‘I don’t even know if there’s a right answer to this question. I don’t even know if I’m qualified to answer this question.’

Myeong listened to Lenox’s words with his eyes closed.

‘It’s impossible to know how far the meaning of opening the sky reaches. Maybe you guys are looking at reality more accurately.’

Ascension and the opening of the heavens.

Which side was closer to the words of the Heavenly Eye, that the head of order had bitten its tail?

Lenox felt like he could now vaguely understand its meaning.

But it was not because he had finally gained true qualifications and reached the top to give an answer, but because he was an outsider who had come from a completely different world.

Was all of this planned from the beginning?

How far were the three sentences he had heard just before opening his eyes in this world connected?

There was still no clear answer.

That’s why Lenox decided not to push himself.

‘I don’t intend to cooperate with you right now. That’s all I can say.’

‘……Okay.’

Myeong smiled faintly and slowly stood up.

‘At least it’s clear that you’re not completely ignorant. That’s enough.’

In the spacious lounge where only the two of them were visible.

Myeong, who was walking towards the elevator at the end, turned his head towards Lenox.

‘But the others won’t be as kind as I am.’

‘……’

‘If the leader of Pandemonium needs you someday, will you be able to refuse that offer?’

Lenox didn’t answer. He just silently endured his gaze.

Myeong chuckled and turned his gaze to press the elevator button.

Looking at the numbers on the display panel going up, he mumbled.

‘The more you carry, the more you’re entangled, the harder it is to run away. No matter how strong your resolve is, it doesn’t always work out the way you want. Unless you…’

Have to cut everything off.

‘……’

With those unforgettable words left in Lenox’s mind, the conversation between the two ended.

Did Myeong really want to bring Lenox into Pandemonium? Or did he just want to have a conversation with him?

Lenox couldn’t figure out what kind of intention was hidden in the strange kindness mixed in his actions until the very end.

The monster, whose true intentions were hard to guess, disappeared into the elevator.

Only Lenox remained in the spacious lounge, looking up at the darkening sky.