Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 265

The Eight Directions Fortress (1)

The potion production needed for the business was completed a month in advance, and all the preliminary work for time-consuming research was finished.

The number of ammunition he had was sufficient, and the amount of tobacco he had prepared was enough to last for more than half a month.

There was a considerable amount of work that had to be done in advance for this task, but once he made up his mind and invested the time, it wasn’t as burdensome as he had thought.

That was probably because all of Lenok’s attention was focused on the place he was about to arrive at.

Finally, after checking the operation of the artifacts and relics he always carried with him, and even calling out Dabi, who was huddled in the breaker box, the preparations were complete.

[Are we going to a place where electricity doesn’t work again?]

“…I can’t guarantee that we won’t.”

[Hmph.]

He understood, considering how much he had rampaged in Lavatenon not too long ago.

Listening to the electronic spirit’s complaints, he left the house and mingled among the people.

As he passed through the complex crowds and quiet streets, Lenok’s face and magic pattern changed rapidly, as if frames were being skipped.

It wasn’t just a simple switch from Lenok to Ban’s face.

Unlike the days when he lacked magic and composure, he now had ample preparation and resources.

As Ban’s reputation and attention grew, Lenok had also been making efforts to maintain his three identities.

He prepared more than 20 different faces and magic patterns, randomly selecting and changing their order to disguise and transform himself.

If Ban’s appearance always appeared in the place where Lenok’s face disappeared, it could arouse suspicion from someone meticulous.

Of course, all of this was made possible by the manipulation of a sophisticated magic pattern that even an 8th-level archmage could not notice.

If he hadn’t been careful, changing his face the moment he left the house, and slightly altering the order of disguises and the faces he used every two weeks, Lenok would not have been able to perfectly conceal his identity until now.

After going through about 18 disguises and magic patterns, Lenok finally appeared on the street with Ban’s face and headed straight to the meeting place.

“…”

He used to feel anxious just being exposed to such a bright downtown area, but a considerable amount of time had passed since then.

It had been over two years since he had drifted into this city.

It was enough time to feel accustomed to the constant flow of time.

There had been all sorts of ups and downs during his time in the megacity, but most of them were victories that Lenok had directly chosen and seized.

As a result, he had survived all the conflicts and violence and had come this far.

He hoped that this task would be the same, and he would do his best.

As he was lost in thought and walking blankly through the streets, he began to notice a refreshing scent nearby.

He wasn’t good at smelling or remembering scents, but the scent seemed quite familiar recently, and the moment Lenok tilted his head in confusion, someone who appeared next to him grabbed Lenok’s sleeve.

“After waiting this long, shouldn’t you have noticed?”

“…My apologies.”

Neat black hair that reached her shoulders and deep green eyes.

Even the slightly furrowed brow was charming.

Evelyn glanced around and immediately began to walk down the street, pulling Lenok along.

At the same time as Lenok naturally deployed an intangible barrier to block out listening ears, Evelyn opened her mouth.

“It’s the first time since then, isn’t it?”

“Is it?”

“How can you shamelessly contact me first after saying those things to me? Do you even have a conscience?”

Evelyn grumbled with a pouty expression.

“You should give me time to think, shouldn’t you? Huh?”

“Did you tell Lapis?”

The fierce battle against the White Lion Turan at the Blaver Magic Tower.

At the moment they parted after resolving the situation, Lenok confessed that he was the same person as Evan, who had cooperated with the Azure Eye.

As the activities of the Pandemonium intensified, the Azure Eye would also continue to move as a countermeasure.

In such a situation, it would not be easy to hide the overlapping activities of Ban and Evan from Evelyn.

Evelyn Marcia was an acquaintance Lenok had known since he started this work, and she was a responsible person who would lend a helping hand to even strangers.

Rather than worrying about hiding Ban and Evan’s dual identities from her, it would be more efficient to tell her the truth to some extent and ask for her cooperation.

The important thing was not to reveal all three of Lenok’s identities.

As long as it wasn’t revealed that Lenok, Ban, and Evan were the same person, he could change and hide his identity at any time.

“…No, I won’t.”

Evelyn replied with a slightly darkened complexion.

“The Azure Eye seems to be very busy as they have started to get involved in the central front. There’s no need to add to their worries.”

“I see.”

“Haa… I had a strange feeling when I heard the news. If he was a magician skilled enough to defeat the Drug King, I thought there was no way I wouldn’t know him, but I never imagined things would turn out like this.”

Lenok slightly averted his gaze at Evelyn’s sigh.

“I’m sorry. But shouldn’t you be more careful with your words?”

“To think you’re even working as an assistant professor for Aris Richelieu, does that mean all the things you’ve done so far were just a famous graduate student’s escapades?”

Evelyn shook her head and continued.

“I’ve seen many mages so far, but it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a mage as strange as you.”

“…”

He had fully expected to hear these complaints, so he had tried not to contact her for a while, but he had no choice.

Because of the information about the Guido Order members he had obtained in Lavatenon, he had to get Evelyn’s help after all.

After pouring out everything she wanted to say while walking down the street, Evelyn finally sighed and began to get to the point.

“You want to enter the Eight Directions Fortress?”

“…Yes.”

After returning to Balkan, he had tried not to pay much attention to it, but after encountering clues about the Guido Order several times, Lenok had no choice but to change his attitude.

The Pandemonium leader’s words that the Guido Order held clues about space-time magic.

In addition, the Order’s sudden missionary work in Balkan.

Even the fact that the bishop’s main body, which had turned the Necromancy Department upside down, was hiding in the Eight Directions Fortress.

Unless there was no way to approach the Eight Directions Fortress right now, there was no need to hesitate even if he had a way to enter.

Among the things he had received in exchange for helping Evelyn at the Blaver Magic Tower, there was a ticket to participate in the auction at the Eight Directions Fortress, wasn’t there?

It was only natural to get a direct explanation from Evelyn in order to use that item properly.

She sighed deeply and asked.

“What did the broker say?”

“He said he didn’t really recommend it.”

Of course, he had also revealed his destination to Jenny in advance.

He couldn’t leave without hiding the fact that he was visiting the most closed organization among the three leaders of the Balkan underworld.

Evelyn nodded immediately after hearing Lenok’s words.

“I feel the same way. It’s definitely not a good time.”

The Eight Directions Fortress outwardly reigned as one organization in the Balkan underworld, but if you look at its inner workings, it is a very different place from other organizations.

Even the underworld organizations that act like outlaws basically maintain a system to operate as an organization and establish order around a leader.

However, the Eight Directions Fortress was well known as a chaotic area where internal strife never ceased, as much as it was closed off to the outside.

This was probably because they maintained their identity as another city built within the city, rather than functioning as an organization.

“Since the death of the governor who represented the fortress two years ago, there has been constant internal strife in the fortress.”

Evelyn explained.

The deceased governor was said to have been quite moderate among the governors who had been passed down through generations, and he was good at suppressing internal dissatisfaction while actively communicating with the outside world.

After the governor’s sudden death in an accident, the fight to inherit the position had been continuing until now.

The fight, which originally started among the high-ranking officials, had spread to the residents inside the fortress, and it had been quite some time since the atmosphere of the fortress had turned ominous.

“The problem is that as the power struggle among the high-ranking officials has intensified, the number of people bringing in mercenaries from the outside has increased recently.”

“It’s a time when it’s easy to be mistaken for a mercenary in any way…”

Lenok stroked his chin and pondered.

It wasn’t difficult to disguise his identity, but after all, if he was an outsider entering the fortress at this time, he would be recognized as a mercenary regardless of his identity.

Evelyn said with her arms crossed.

“If you go into the fortress now and get noticed, it’s easy to get caught up in troublesome things. You don’t want that, do you?”

“…”

“…Do you?”

“Well…”

At that time, he had glimpsed Walter’s mind and remembered the place where his main body was located.

A classic high-rise building with a tiled roof. And a balcony that occupied a particularly large space.

If you combine the explanations he had heard from Jenny and Evelyn, it wasn’t difficult to guess what it meant that Walter had occupied such a place as an outsider.

There was a possibility that the Guido Order had intervened in the internal conflict of the Eight Directions Fortress.

“It’s impossible to judge without seeing it for myself.”

However, instead of telling Evelyn about this speculation, Lenok kept his mouth shut.

Not only could he not clearly tell her the reason why he was suddenly chasing the traces of the Order, but he also did not want the situation where the agent would intervene after noticing the existence of the Order.

“That’s why I’ve been preparing like this today.”

The place where Lenok and Evelyn stopped was a secluded back alley in Balkan.

At first glance, it looked like a messy construction site, but there was one scene that was clearly different from such a common street.

A huge concrete wall that soared as high as the sky.

Like the wall of a huge castle, the wall stretched wide to the left and right, so much so that the end could not be seen, and hundreds of people were lined up below the wall, waiting their turn.

Above the enormous wall, which seemed to be easily over ten meters high, all sorts of trees and bushes were overgrown, making it impossible to properly glimpse the scenery beyond.

Another city built within the city.

One of the two passages connecting the Eight Directions Fortress and the megacity.

“Haa…”

Evelyn sighed softly, but she didn’t say anything more to Lenok.

She also knew that Lenok would not easily change a decision he had made.

Instead, Evelyn brought up a completely different story.

“Do you know that the Azure Eye has been massively recruiting talent recently?”

“Roughly.”

“As Pandemonium has started operating everywhere, the number of people burning with fighting spirit against them has greatly increased. Among them, those with ability are trying to entrust themselves to Lapis, who is at odds with Pandemonium.”

“…”

“Lapis is too busy to pay attention right now, but considering the increased number of watchers, a summons will be issued sometime.”

It was a different movement from the situation he had heard from Grisha.

“Think carefully about what identity you will participate in the summons with. It seems that there are a lot of watchers who are curious about the identity of the mage who defeated the Drug King single-handedly.”

“I’ll be careful.”

Lenok chuckled and shook a piece of paper he had taken out of his pocket.

“So, wouldn’t you explain how to use this now?”

The ticket that Evelyn had paid as compensation for the last tower.

It was an admission ticket to the highest-level auction house inside the Eight Directions Fortress.

* * *

The goals that Lenok set when heading to the Eight Directions Fortress this time were exactly three.

To chase the bishop of the Guido Order.

To find traces of time magic inside the fortress.

And to participate in the top-level auction held under the leadership of the governor.

When he first received this ticket as compensation from Evelyn, he had requested it after hearing that time flowed slowly in the ruins inside the fortress.

There was no better reason to convince Evelyn than this.

“Here.”

“…”

“Why aren’t you taking it? I bought it nearby while we were waiting.”

Vegetable sticks in a transparent glass cup. They were made by cutting hard vegetables into long pieces that were easy to chew.

While Lenok was taking it with a reluctant face, Evelyn began to pick and eat the sticks with a happy face.

“I didn’t know there was a place that sold such high-quality snacks near here. I should visit often.”

“…I don’t know much about it, but usually, these things come with a dipping sauce, don’t they?”

When Lenok said this while holding up the glass cup, Evelyn naturally replied.

“Ah, of course, I asked them to leave it out. I’m eating this to take care of my health, so it would be a disaster if there was a strange sauce in it.”

“…”

Cucumber, carrot, tomato, celery. Paprika.

There were quite a few vegetables that were likely to be polarizing, but Lenok also brought the stick to his mouth without any particular complaints.

When he had first arrived in this city, there was a time when he had done all sorts of things to get nutrition even from his diet.

This kind of health food was familiar to Lenok as well.

Evelyn probably offered this without hesitation because she knew what Ban had been eating back then.

It was undeniable that he had quickly built a friendship with her in the process.

Evelyn, who had been looking up at Lenok eating the vegetables with a somewhat pleased expression, leaned against a nearby wall and said.

“The Eight Directions Fortress was built when eight families gathered and agreed to form an organization. If you look at the inside story, it’s quite complicated, but you can think of it as a kind of federation.”

Evelyn said, looking at the crowd that was steadily gathering and entering the fortress.

“The eight families who contributed to the creation of the fortress are granted privileges and benefits. It’s only natural that the election of the governor also takes place within these eight families.”

“I see.”

It was such an obvious background that Lenok had nothing to say.

It was a common occurrence for the founding members who contributed to the establishment of an organization to share all sorts of positions and privileges.

Occasionally, a leader who surpassed the power of the organization would appear, cut off the heads of the founding members, and establish a new order, but it seemed that such a person did not exist in the fortress.

“The problem is that only the eight families can participate in the top-level auction that takes place inside the fortress.”

Lenok frowned, immediately understanding the meaning of those words.

“…Wait, that means.”

“In order to enter the top-level auction in the fortress, you must basically participate as a representative of one of the eight families.”

“…”

Evelyn tilted her head slightly and said.

“The ticket you have, Ban, is a kind of invitation ticket issued directly by the Oryun family, one of the eight families. To be precise, it’s something they created to find their representative.”