Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 335

Staring intently at Lenok, Stella slightly lowered her head and asked,

“…What are you talking about? I told you the director isn’t here right now.”

“The reason for chasing Dylan out was unnatural.”

“What?”

“What you said wasn’t something that required sending someone else away. I can only assume you sent Dylan out because you were worried he might give me some leeway.”

“……”

“The Antares I remember isn’t someone who acts without a reason. Surely, he didn’t create this mercenary group out of simple compassion.”

Lenok slowly tilted his head, looking at Stella, who had closed her mouth.

“That’s…”

“If that’s the case, then with Felix, who is in charge of one of the mercenary group’s main pillars, in a coma… wouldn’t he be here, even if late?”

A chilling silence flowed.

Stella, who had been staring intently into Lenok’s eyes, let out a deep sigh.

“Haa…”

Stella also knew.

Her attitude of sending Dylan away might be a clue that Lenok noticed something was off, but it couldn’t be decisive proof.

Nevertheless, the reason she didn’t try to play dumb any further was because she knew that such arguments were meaningless against a mage of Lenok’s caliber.

When a mage who had survived dozens of battles alone spoke those words, it was a given that they contained corresponding conviction and evidence.

Even if Lenok didn’t say it directly to her, he had already found his own reason why Antares was here right now.

Lenok nodded, confirming that Stella’s gaze had flickered towards the sickbed.

“I don’t want to fight. If you don’t intend to answer, I’ll look for him myself.”

“No, it’s fine.”

She said that and readily stood up.

“The director will understand by now. I don’t want to make an enemy of you here… Let’s just let it go.”

Stella, with her hand on the sickroom door, smiled faintly.

“Instead, you should also let go of what I was pretending not to know. Okay?”

“Sure. Shall we go then?”

As Lenok stood up first, Stella’s expression changed subtly.

“…You already knew where he was, didn’t you?”

To her sullen words, Lenok simply smiled instead of answering.

* * *

A dark night. The rooftop of the general hospital.

The garden, designed for patients who could move around, was impressive.

Moist raindrops slipped and fell between the blades of grass that grew here and there.

Amidst the quiet sound of rain. A wide terrace with a clear view of the rainy night streets.

At the edge of it, someone was sitting with their head bowed, getting rained on.

As soon as Stella came up to the rooftop, she took a step forward and opened her mouth.

“Antares. I brought him.”

“……”

“He’s a guest who came to see you. How long are you going to keep pushing it on me? I don’t want to make an enemy of this scary mage either.”

“…Sorry, Stella.”

A quiet voice flowed out from beyond the rain-soaked coat.

“I just had something I wanted to think about alone for a bit. I made you wait a long time.”

A tone that was so excessively subdued that it was impossible to even guess the emotion properly.

Even Lenok, who was listening, slightly twitched his eyebrows, but Stella shrugged it off.

“So, stop being so sentimental and come inside to talk. If you catch a cold in that state, you’ll be the laughingstock of the office for years.”

“No, let’s talk here.”

Antares smiled faintly and turned his head.

“Could you give us some space? It won’t take long.”

“……”

Stella’s lips twitched for a moment, but she only let out a small sigh and didn’t say anything.

She patted Lenok’s shoulder lightly and disappeared down the rooftop stairs.

Lenok watched her retreating figure before immediately moving his steps outside the terrace.

Without even turning to look at Lenok, who was standing behind him, Antares asked, not caring about the raindrops that were starting to fall on his coat.

“I heard you said you didn’t have much time. Is it the Northern Continent?”

“I didn’t say anything.”

Antares laughed at Lenok’s indifferent answer.

“If a mage like you has to move out of the city at a time like this, it must be a large-scale incident. Those who know will already have a rough idea.”

“…What exactly is going on there right now?”

“Oh, so you haven’t heard the full story yet?”

“……”

Lenok frowned slightly at Antares’s words, which naturally turned the topic in that direction.

Antares turned to look at Lenok and chuckled.

“Then it would be better to hear the story directly when you arrive. You’ll only get more impatient if you try to figure out the situation on your way.”

“Are you saying there’s no need to rush?”

“The incident that happened in the Northern Continent has already gone beyond the scope of what humans can handle.”

Antares said that and quietly looked down at the night streets spread out beneath his feet.

“It’s impossible to share the same perspective as transcendents who have deviated from humanity. If you want, you can only confirm the outcome yourself… But even meeting them won’t be easy.”

“Wait a minute, if you’re saying that…”

Lenok’s expression changed completely.

He immediately understood the context of what Antares was saying, and to what extent it reached.

A superhuman who had reached level 8, a monster that Antares referred to as a transcendent. If such a figure was involved in this incident, then almost certainly—.

But Antares shook his head while laughing at Lenok.

“Don’t be impatient. The person who called you probably thought there was no reason to move urgently, which is why they’re only asking for your help now.”

“……”

“But if you’re thinking of heading to the Northern Continent late at this point, I can guess who you’re lending your hand to. There aren’t many ways to move a Saint-level mage to the Northern Continent, which is thousands of kilometers away.”

Antares lifted his gaze from the ground to the sky above.

“The constellations will move greatly soon.”

“…You really know a lot.”

After a long silence, Lenok spoke those words again.

One meeting they had before they fully clashed with the Cartel.

Many things had happened since then, and a considerable amount of time had passed, but Antares hadn’t changed.

Everything Antares said still pierced deep into Lenok’s heart, and Lenok could only try to grasp fragments of truth from those words.

But Antares shook his head at Lenok’s words.

“I know a lot. But knowing and doing are completely different. Even while guessing how the end of this world will come… there aren’t many things I can do.”

“Are you saying you’re waiting for the right time?”

“No. At least in this world, omniscience and omnipotence are never equal.”

In the dark rain, the two men’s gazes met at the same time.

“At least that’s the conclusion I’ve come to.”

“……”

Omniscience and omnipotence.

That was something Lenok, who hadn’t even grasped a fragment of ascension, could never discuss.

But Antares seemed to have a vague understanding of that concept, at least.

“Stella said that you and your mercenary group traveled around the continent for a long time.”

Lenok, who had taken out a cigarette from his pocket, put the filter in his mouth and slightly lowered his head.

Chiiik!!

The cigarette quickly got wet in the rain, but even so, the spark that Lenok flicked easily clung to the cigarette and began to produce smoke.

“You said you would see all the mysteries of this world with your own eyes and come to an answer.”

“……”

“Antares. What you sought and desired wasn’t omnipotence, but a power closer to omniscience. Do you believe that there is a way to save this world through knowledge?”

“I didn’t have such a grand goal from the beginning. I still don’t.”

Antares answered.

“I just tried to find something I could do during the time I was given… Or, was it just something I believed was possible?”

“………”

Lenok, who had been looking down at the end of the burning cigarette, slowly raised his gaze.

Du-du-du-du!!

The heavy rain intensified.

The intensity of the raindrops hitting his coat also increased.

Looking up at the downpour that was falling on this murky sky for the first time in a long time, Lenok said,

“I was going to ask you about your intentions before heading to the Northern Continent. What you’ve been moving for until now, after leaving this city.”

“……”

“But what you just said seems to be the answer to that question.”

“It’s not difficult to tell you my purpose and reason. But… nothing will change if you find out now.”

“Because knowing and doing are different?”

“You’re like a mage. You learn too fast.”

Antares chuckled at Lenok’s indifferent words.

“Yes. To be precise, the process of awakening to what you don’t know is the journey to find the answer. Or, the time you spend pondering might be the answer itself.”

“You’re talking nonsense.”

“The moment you skip the process and confirm the result, the path to get there is already set. The moment you recognize and observe it, it becomes real.”

Antares turned his gaze.

“Changing a predetermined ending is not allowed even for transcendents. That’s why we attached a noble name to the act of defying fate and revered it.”

His two eyes shone clearly even in the rain.

“We call it ascension.”

“……”

“I glimpsed the future that my desired answer was painting, and I confirmed the ending. I don’t regret it… But I don’t think you have any reason to choose the same path as me.”

Antares smiled, looking at the silent Lenok.

“The potential you have is greater than what I had. You might be able to find a better answer than me.”

“You’re very confident.”

Lenok said in a heavy voice.

“How can you say that so definitively?”

“Because when you look back at the path you’ve already taken, you can see things you couldn’t see before.”

Antares answered as he slowly stood up.

“There are things you can only know after transcending the hierarchy. A sense of déjà vu that you can’t be sure of, but you vaguely perceive… Once you get this old, you tend to believe in superstitions.”

“……”

In the end, unless he reached level 8 and shared the same perspective as him, he couldn’t give a proper answer.

Antares had been talking around in circles for a long time, but Lenok understood that there was a reason for his cryptic words.

It was probably because he was concerned about the side effects or repercussions of the power of ‘omniscience’ that he was pursuing.

Is knowing power, or is not knowing a blessing?

Although he had glossed over it with some trivial words at the end, it was clear that Antares had come to some conclusion between those two contradictions.

“I think I’ve said everything I wanted to say. Could you go down first? I have something left to do here.”

Antares said that and gestured towards Lenok.

But instead of obediently following his words, Lenok turned his gaze towards Antares’s arm.

“It seems the blood hasn’t been completely washed away yet, has it?”

“……”

His left hand, slightly hidden from the gaze behind him.

Black, dead blood was thickly stuck to his palm, not washing away even in the rain.

There was no need to ask where those clots of blood had come from.

Antares chuckled and slowly turned his body around.

“Oh, dear. If you noticed from the beginning, you should have said something. I was just being sentimental in the rain for no reason.”

“Wouldn’t it be stranger to think I wouldn’t know by now?”

Lenok asked indifferently.

“Who was the opponent?”

Lenok clearly recognized how absurdly powerful an 8th-level Extreme Ability user was.

Even if they couldn’t directly understand and manipulate space, they were at the level of a superhuman who could wield space derived from their own power, interfering with spacetime as a result.

Lenok couldn’t even fathom how strong the body of a physical ability user who had transcended the hierarchy and truly broken the limits of their species was.

If Antares was still suffering from the aftereffects of the battle, it was unknown how strong an enemy he had faced.

But Antares simply shook his head at Lenok’s words.

“I did fight an 8th-level druid, but it’s not because of that. It’s been a while since I stopped getting injured in fights.”

“…What?”

It had been a while since he stopped getting injured in fights, was that something that could come out of a living, breathing human’s mouth so casually?

To have such monstrous power and a body, yet still have to try to hide his spitting up blood…

“Right. Since I don’t know how the situation will change in the future, it’s better to say this much.”

Antares’s eyes, which had turned, calmly sank.

“I confirmed my answer in advance and paid the price. I don’t have much time left. So… I’m going to do what I need to do before that.”