Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 444

“……What?”\n\nAs Soryu turned, the tension that had been so taut just moments before snapped with absurd ease.\n\nBut even more bizarre was Soryu’s answer that he would kill Jebyeok, whom they had struggled to capture, without hesitation.\n\nErmong, flustered, hurried after Soryu as he walked towards Jebyeok.\n\n”Wait, wait, waaaait!! No, Soryu, after all this, isn’t it a waste to kill Barbaria? Like we said before, let’s take him to the professor!!”\n\n”No need. It’s more important to question Hylea about the details.”\n\nSoryu completely ignored Ermong and pulled a sharp ice blade from his sleeve.\n\nSwoosh!!\n\n”If she’s a mage who met the leader and entered Pandemonium, Hylea should have told me. I need to confirm if Victor’s words are true or not.”\n\n”No, there’s no rule that says…”\n\nWhat part of the conversation with Lenok had changed Soryu’s mind?\n\nPerhaps that part was deeply related to this unusual man’s secret.\n\nRegardless of the endless speculation, Soryu moved decisively, as if he had truly changed his mind in an instant.\n\nBefore Ermong could even finish his protest, Soryu, holding the blade in reverse, plunged it straight into Jebyeok’s neck.\n\nShhhhk!!\n\nA cold hand without a hint of hesitation.\n\nJebyeok seemed to have regained consciousness, but he couldn’t resist, his entire body bound by an unknown artifact.\n\nHe merely narrowed his eyes, as if in resignation, at the blade that was now right in front of him.\n\nJust as the ice blade was about to pierce the old man’s forehead…\n\n[I tried to clear away the chaos from a thousand miles away, but something ridiculous is happening.]\n\nA raspy voice, as if it had been unused for a long time, echoed from beyond the horizon.\n\nSuddenly, countless pieces of paper tore through the air, instantly blocking Jebyeok and deflecting the descending blade.\n\nShwa-shwa-shwa-shwa!!\n\n”……”\n\nNot only had they saved Jebyeok’s life, but the paper fragments quickly clung to the blade and rose up Soryu’s arm.\n\nSoryu and Lenok’s eyes narrowed as they saw the unknown characters densely inscribed on them.\n\nTalismans. Each one was a charm with immense power compressed within.\n\nThud!\n\nSoryu released the blade and stepped back, creating distance and raising his gaze.\n\n[Time is so fleeting. Barbaria, who coveted others’ possessions, is now about to have even what he has taken away?]\n\nA voice that seemed to hold a faint sneer. But unlike the tone, the wave of talismans that tore through the air solidified even more firmly, as if to protect Jebyeok.\n\n[I have a long way to go, but I cannot turn away from this old feud that catches my eye.]\n\nClink, clink…\n\nA faint sound, like a bell ringing in the distance, could be heard.\n\nA strange melody, seemingly meaningless yet strangely lingering in the ear, grew closer.\n\nThe moment they noticed, it was already near.\n\nA bizarre figure, covered in talismans as if he had made clothes out of paper, stood there.\n\nA strange mask, completely covered in talismans, hid his face, with a single blood-red eye painted on it.\n\nEach step he took made the talismans rustle against each other.\n\nThe talisman man, who had effortlessly stepped into the space between the four of them, stood quietly, surveying his surroundings.\n\n[I do not like meddling, but I will not leave any grudges behind.]\n\n”Damn it…”\n\nSoryu bit his lip and quietly stepped back.\n\nErmong also realized that the opponent was a person of extraordinary skill and began to draw up his magic with a wary gaze.\n\nLenok let out a hollow laugh as he recognized that the compressed aura flowing from the talisman-covered body had reached a level beyond the seven ranks.\n\nAn 8th-level transcendent.\n\nAnd not a mage, but a monster using a completely different talisman technique had appeared.\n\nWas it really a coincidence that such a powerful figure had appeared at this critical moment, just as they were about to kill Jebyeok?\n\nShwa-shwa-shwa-shwa!!\n\nClink, clink…!!\n\nBehind the man, a magnificent wall of paper, made from thousands of talismans, was erected, and the sound of small bells echoed incessantly from within.\n\nLenok understood what the talisman wall meant and narrowed his eyes.\n\n’He’s implemented a defensive formation, and then he’s maintaining and moving the formation using talismans as a medium… It’s like a fortress that moves on its own.’\n\nHe knew this more clearly because he had inherited similar knowledge through the Jintun’s barrier technique.\n\nThe defensive formation designed inside that wave of talismans was probably the man’s signature technique.\n\nIt was practically the same as preparing a fortress and carrying it around like his own home.\n\nRather than a magnetic field, it was a form of creating a space where time and space were distorted, like Oliviera’s laboratory, and transporting it.\n\nIn other words, it was the same as maintaining a battle-ready state at every moment, which meant he had the capacity and mental strength to handle it.\n\nLenok, who had quickly assessed the opponent’s capabilities, nodded.\n\n’I’m out.’\n\nTo gauge the odds of winning against a sorcerer of that level, Lenok would have to take off his mask and give it his all.\n\nWith the Tears of the Archangel in Lenok’s hands, he had no intention of fighting such a skilled person to help Soryu.\n\nJust as Lenok was about to create some distance, Soryu sighed and quickly finished his incantation.\n\nAt that moment, a faint spatial rift appeared between his wrists, and he grabbed something blue that emerged from within.\n\nA skull-shaped staff with a blue glow, completely different from the freezing ice blade that emitted cold air.\n\nAs Soryu held it in one hand and lightly swung it, the surrounding air began to distort strangely.\n\nZzzzzzt…!!\n\n”……”\n\nA completely different atmosphere than before. Lenok also realized that the staff was an unusual artifact and shook his head.\n\nHe knew that Soryu had been testing the waters during the process of hunting Jebyeok, but he never imagined that he hadn’t been using a high-grade artifact during the battle.\n\nConsidering the aftermath of the power flowing from the skull staff, it was undoubtedly a weapon of the spell-weapon class.\n\nAs he slammed the staff into the ground, the momentum of the talismans that had been trying to surround the three of them began to falter slightly.\n\nSoryu didn’t miss the opportunity and spoke to the man.\n\n”…Let’s stop. I have no intention of fighting you.”\n\n[Is that all you have to say after putting Jebyeok in this state?]\n\n”Who would dare compare you and Jebyeok on the same level and equate you?”\n\nDespite the man’s cold tone, Soryu didn’t lose his composure.\n\nIt was as if he was sure that the man would never be able to kill them in this place.\n\n”Not all beings who transcend the ranks are sages or madmen, are they?”\n\n[……]\n\n”Yannicus Barbaria is the same. He’s neither wise nor completely insane… Isn’t that why he couldn’t give up anything and ended up losing everything?”\n\nSoryu pointed at Jebyeok, who was trapped inside the talisman wall, with a cold sneer.\n\n”If you, Dreyfus, hadn’t appeared here, the day he would have been consumed by his own greed would have been today… What a shame.”\n\nThe corners of Soryu’s mouth were stretched into a sinister smile as he looked at the man called Dreyfus.\n\nA cruel nature that even Soryu himself didn’t seem to be aware of.\n\nWas it because his regret at not being able to kill Jebyeok in this place was mixed with his true feelings, revealing a glimpse of his inner self?\n\nThe talisman figure, who had been silent with his hands behind his back, spoke.\n\n[Such a sinister talent has emerged from the bloodline of Kabahim, it is extremely dangerous. That nature should have been dealt with before it walked under the banner of the Demon Realm.]\n\nIt seemed he was already aware that Soryu was a member of the Kabahim royal family.\n\nBut Soryu’s next words were so unexpected that even Lenok was slightly surprised.\n\n”That’s what I should be saying. Who would have known that a wandering hermit (匣仙) [a wandering immortal or sage] who has been wandering the vast Western Continent for decades would bow his head to a greenhorn lighthouse keeper?”\n\n’……!!’\n\nAt the unexpected name, Lenok’s expression hardened, and he felt as if the talisman man had turned his gaze.\n\nSoryu, not noticing the change, continued to speak.\n\n”The main force of the Azure Eye in the Western Continent… It seems that wildlings like you have started joining the Watchers one by one, and now you have a force comparable to the main force in the Eastern Continent.”\n\n[……]\n\n”I heard that a child with nothing but a bloodline is aiming for the central front. How long are you going to indulge in that immature idea?”\n\nSoryu’s words seemed to respect Dreyfus, whom he called a hermit, but also mercilessly belittled Lapis.\n\nBut what surprised Lenok was the fact that the 8th-level talisman sorcerer didn’t deny that he had bowed his head to Lapis.\n\nHe knew that there were Watchers that Lenok didn’t know about, but it was hard to believe that a monster of this caliber had actually joined the Azure Eye.\n\nA strange person who had wandered around the outskirts of the Western Continent, thousands of kilometers away from the Eastern Continent, for decades.\n\nHow on earth did they manage to win over such a monster, whom even Soryu faintly showed respect for, to join the Azure Eye?\n\nBut the hermit didn’t react much to Soryu’s mocking words.\n\nRather, as if he had calmed down after hearing those sharp words, he simply shook his head with a calm tone.\n\n[What’s the point of clinging to a meaningless position? That child knows very well that it’s not important.]\n\n”……”\n\n[This place where we stand is not ours, and the future time we are heading towards is not yet of this world.]\n\nAs the hermit muttered in a raspy voice, he waved his hand, and the talismans that had been constantly swaying behind him began to rise into the sky one by one.\n\nThey formed a giant sphere of talismans above the four of them, blocking the sky and casting a long shadow.\n\n[They are wandering because they don’t even have the qualifications. In a world full of fools who don’t even know if they’ve lost their way, there are few who can be a lighthouse.]\n\n”Is that so…”\n\nSoryu seemed to ponder those words for a moment, then shook his head.\n\n”There’s no point in talking anymore.”\n\nThere was no way that a transcendent like the hermit wouldn’t know that the paths of the Demon Realm and the Azure Eye were different.\n\nFrom the moment he chose to become a Watcher, even though he understood that, there was no way the two of them would ever see eye to eye.\n\nSoryu, who had been staring silently at the hermit, said.\n\n”I still remember you causing a commotion to save the royals who were about to be executed during the succession ceremony.”\n\n[……]\n\n”If we ever meet again, I’ll forget everything then.”\n\nSoryu said that and turned his back.\n\n”…No, are we just leaving like this? Shouldn’t we at least weakly assert our rights to the artifact that guy got his hands on?”\n\nErmong didn’t seem to like the idea of leaving the Tears of the Archangel with Lenok, but Soryu shook his head firmly.\n\n”This area below is under the jurisdiction of the Clown. We’ve already moved by ignoring the existing personnel, so it’ll be a problem if we take any longer.”\n\n”Hmm… It would be annoying to get into a fight with that crazy bastard.”\n\nSoryu ignored the black mage who was nodding and turned his gaze towards Lenok.\n\n”Victor. I’ll remember your name.”\n\n”……”\n\n”I’ll hear about the leader… after you safely retrieve the Tears of the Archangel and return.”\n\n”I’ll talk to Hylea separately too.”\n\nLenok, who had been standing with his arms crossed, replied.\n\n”Next time, ask for someone who can understand what I’m saying.”\n\nInstead of answering, Soryu quietly raised one corner of his mouth.\n\n”Ermong.”\n\n”Yes, sir.”\n\nAs Ermong made a sycophantic sound and raised his hand, the gem pillars of the erosion field that had been deployed in that place disappeared.\n\nCrack!!\n\nA spatial rift opened up in that place, creating a huge passage.\n\n”But I told you not to use this too often? I need to return this body to this friend later, but if the psyche is all worn out, I’ll be in trouble too.”\n\nErmong grumbled even after creating the passage himself. Soryu didn’t even pretend to listen and moved forward without hesitation.\n\nAs Soryu’s figure disappeared from the spot, Ermong shrugged and was about to step into the passage when…\n\n[You are a noble being from ancient times.]\n\nThe hermit, who had been silent, opened his mouth.\n\n[You seem to be a figure from at least hundreds of years ago, what is the reason you are still in this world?]\n\n”……”\n\nAlthough he was moving in the body of Zaun Odis, had he recognized that the contents were an ancient black mage?\n\nErmong, who had stopped in front of the passage, turned his gaze and grinned.\n\n”They say miracles don’t happen twice.”\n\n[……]\n\n”What awaits us in front of this is almost certainly a grand failure… But watching it from the side might not be so bad.”\n\n[Hmm……]\n\n”Actually, I was just putting on a show, and I’m being held by the leash by some crazy descendant. Hahaha!!”\n\nErmong’s figure, who had burst into laughter, also disappeared from sight.\n\nThe passage, which had been created as if space had been torn apart, immediately closed and vanished.\n\n”……”\n\nLenok was lost in thought for a moment, looking at the place where the two had disappeared.\n\nThe royal family of Kabahim and the body of Zaun Odis.\n\nWas it really a coincidence that Zaun had stolen a powerful artifact from the Kabahim royal palace before Ermong took over his body?\n\nConsidering that the Kabahim Knights had chased Zaun all the way to the Hanghasa Labyrinth, it didn’t seem like a coincidence that Soryu and Ermong were together now.\n\nPerhaps Zaun was able to steal the artifact because of Soryu’s help.\n\n’Should I have forced the situation?’\n\nIt seemed like he had several precious artifacts that had been stolen from the Kabahim royal palace, so maybe he could have taken some of them if he had accepted the challenge.\n\nLenok smacked his lips as he thought about the blue skull staff he had taken out at the end, but unfortunately, he didn’t have time to think about it for long.\n\n[……]\n\nThe hermit, with his hands behind his back, was staring intently at Lenok, who was left alone.\n\nOnly then did Lenok turn his gaze towards the talisman wall in front of him and sigh.\n\n”…Nothing ever goes smoothly.”\n\nHe had been wary of Soryu’s attitude of giving up the Tears of the Archangel and Jebyeok’s life, but he had put it aside.\n\nIt was just a plausible excuse, Soryu and Ermong had just used him as bait and ran away.