Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 484

Pabababat!!!

Sparks erupted through the dark corridors.

The overloaded power facility was backflowing, causing explosions throughout the temple’s distribution panels.

Fires erupted everywhere, from the lights and floor heating to the wall power lines, throwing the already panicked priests into utter chaos.

“This is terrible, the temple’s internal facilities are completely paralyzed!!”

“How could this be… such sacrilegious chaos before the sacred ritual…!!”

“We need to fix this before the Archpriestess returns!!”

Of course, no priest would immediately report the problem in the temple to the Archpriestess and make her return.

If they reported the internal facility power issue to the highest authority in the branch, who would take responsibility, and who would be in charge of cleaning up the mess?

It’s not like reporting this to Archpriestess Nadri would fix the broken internal facilities of the temple right away.

In this situation where the power facility itself was damaged by backflow, the most reasonable option for the priests was to restore the temple while keeping it a secret from the Archpriestess until the service was over.

“The managing priests, go down to the underground power facility immediately and check the problem.”

“The priority is to resolve this quickly, no one will be held responsible!”

“Everything must be back in place before the ritual begins, hurry!!”

The priests, even stopping the work of moving the corpses used for the offering, began to rush around the temple.

Zaif, who had been watching all of this, turned to Lenok with a bewildered look.

“While plunging the temple into chaos, you also intentionally cut off contact with the plaza… Did you foresee this from the beginning?”

“What’s the point of saying that now?”

Lenok, dusting off the hand that had been holding the wires, replied indifferently.

“If trust isn’t guaranteed between us, it will be difficult to achieve any great cause together.”

“…I spoke rashly. Indeed, an Apostle of your caliber wouldn’t make a mistake due to a mere impulse.”

Lenok quickly found and exploited the weakness of plunging the temple into chaos, so that attention would not be focused on them.

At the same time, by shifting responsibility to anyone, he prevented this fact from reaching Archpriestess Nadri’s ears for the time being.

Even if other high-ranking transcendents noticed that there was a problem inside the temple, they would not be able to leave the plaza unless the Archpriestess moved herself.

Zaif quickly understood the results and purpose of Lenok’s actions in blowing up the distribution panel, and was slightly impressed by his brilliance.

However, Lenok slowly shook his head as he looked at Zaif.

“It’s not enough yet. What we have to do starts now.”

“What do you mean?”

“Didn’t I say earlier that the secret places inside the temple were all difficult to enter?”

Lenok smiled and slowly loosened his wrist as he looked around the corridor.

“There’s a way to rummage through the temple very legally, without arousing any suspicion from the other priests.”

* * *

Kwaaaah!!

The antique wooden door on one side of the corridor was smashed, and a large amount of water flowing out of it began to fill the corridor.

The priests were flustered by the water that was soaking their calves and rising rapidly.

“The sewer has burst, the valve can’t be controlled!”

“Where are the priests managing the facilities… what are they doing!”

“We’re trying to maintain it using spells, but the overload is spreading to other facilities!”

The power facility that Lenok had once destroyed was not easily repaired.

Since he had directly reversed the magic power to cause an overload, it would be difficult to even repair it using spells without first removing Lenok’s magic power.

Of course, since Lenok was not directly manipulating it, the magic power itself could be removed if time and effort were spent.

However, the internal structure of the power facility was complexly intertwined, and it would take a very long time to remove the magic power from all the wires.

In the meantime, the aftermath of the overloaded power facility would spread to other facilities based on it.

The sewer that burst at the end of the corridor turning into a huge flood was also the same principle.

While other priests were pointlessly pouring meaningless spells into the endlessly pouring sewage.

Bang!!

Lenok, who appeared by opening the opposite door, looked down at the priests coldly and said.

“Move.”

“Wh, who are you…?”

“Can’t you understand after I say it once?”

“A, Apostle Zaif…!!”

Zaif, who appeared from behind Lenok, glared at the priests with a blank face.

“I came back to the temple for a moment, and it’s a complete mess.”

“W, we are sorry…”

“If I tell the Archpriestess, she will be very pleased.”

The priests’ faces turned pale at Zaif’s words, casually mentioning Archpriestess Nadri.

“We are sorry. We will try our best to fix things before the ritual begins…”

“No, it’s fine. You’re not needed, all of you get out of here.”

Zaif muttered coldly and gestured towards Lenok.

“I’m with Apostle Martinez, who was specially invited for this ritual. This friend will solve the temple’s problems.”

“Yes? But how can he do what even the high-ranking priests of the temple can’t…?”

Trickle…!!

Before he could finish speaking, Lenok put his hand into the sewer and stopped the pouring water.

The priests’ eyes widened as only a stream of water the size of a finger flowed out of the water pipe that had been gushing out as if to swallow several people.

Lenok shook off his arm, which was soaked with water, and muttered the agreed-upon line.

“Is this all?”

“The work that a dozen managing priests couldn’t solve even when they were stuck in the underground sewer…”

“I told you.”

“We are sorry!!”

Zaif glared at the priests with cold eyes, and they shut their mouths and bowed their heads.

“I don’t like the poor management skills of the Far East Branch, but I’ll turn a blind eye to it since the ritual is near.”

Lenok looked at the tops of the priests’ heads and continued to speak very naturally.

Looking at the priests who were startled and raised their heads, he slightly lifted the hood he was wearing and smiled gently.

“Let’s keep the commotion that happened tonight a secret between us. Do you understand?”

“Apostle Martinez…!!”

An unprecedented situation where the Apostles, who had only been scolding them until just now, were gently letting the situation pass.

Perhaps because there were no priests who were not impressed by this small favor, they all called out Lenok and Zaif’s names in voices wet with tears.

Lenok looked at the priests and opened his mouth once more as if demanding something obvious.

“From now on, I will check and fix all the internal facilities of the temple that have problems, so that you can prepare.”

“Understood!!”

The priests, without even a hint of suspicion, reported the locations of the problematic facilities in detail.

Lenok, receiving the kind guidance of the priests who were freely telling him the structure of the temple’s facilities, began to roam around the Crystal Palace without hesitation.

“The distribution panel near the spire has exploded. Guide me.”

He freely entered the secret places where ordinary priests could not even set foot.

“Why is the water pipe near the underground vault like this? I’m going to fix it now, so don’t let anyone in.”

With the vault door wide open, he freely roamed among the offerings collected by the Order.

“You can’t open the office? Then is it okay for the Archpriestess’s room to be flooded when she returns?”

He also entered the Archpriestess’s empty office with his muddy feet.

It wasn’t just about fixing the facilities or rooms he visited.

Instead of repairing the places where Lenok had set foot, he would overload and break the other facilities connected nearby, repeating the process.

In other words, he was repeating the act of repairing one and breaking two, and was able to present a legitimate reason to look around all the facilities inside the temple.

In fact, some of the facilities that Lenok repaired were even more perfect than before, to the point that he was praised by the Apostles.

“The automatic control system of the water valve has been restored…!!”

“Apostle Martinez fixed what no one had been able to fix for decades!”

“The entrance recognition error of the incinerator has also been resolved, I heard that the spell circuit was so twisted that it couldn’t be solved at all…”

“Thank you, Apostle Martinez!!”

“There are more facilities with problems. If you don’t mind, I will guide you myself…!!”

An ironic situation where Lenok was repairing the facilities he had broken, and was instead receiving admiration and respect.

Fzzzt!!

“Wrong. There’s nothing here. Let’s break the nearby facilities again and move on to the next one.”

“…I can’t easily lift my face because of my incompetence.”

He rummaged through the Archpriestess’s desk shelves, dusted himself off, and got up from his seat.

In Zaif’s voice, who was watching Lenok, there was now even a faint sense of awe.

“I didn’t know you would solve things so perfectly under the guise of repairing the temple’s internal facilities. I apologize for doubting you for a moment.”

Zaif, who had watched how things had unfolded from beginning to end right next to him, knew well how absurd this situation was.

Every moment, from playing with the temple’s internal facilities to the priests’ psychology, and achieving his goals like flowing water, was surreal.

At this moment, Zaif felt like he wouldn’t doubt Lenok even if he told him to kill the priests right away.

“That’s not the problem, Apostle Zaif.”

Lenok replied, jingling a few artifacts he had taken from the vault.

“We’ve searched almost every place we thought of, but there’s an unusually lack of any trace.”

“…Does that mean the Archpriestess has hidden the secret that carefully?”

Zaif now didn’t even think that Lenok might have lied about the Archpriestess.

“The fact that there’s no trace is even more suspicious. Don’t you understand yet?”

Originally, Lenok’s plan was to break the temple’s internal facilities and weaken security, creating a situation that would make it easier to interfere with the selection ritual.

The statement that the Archpriestess was hiding a secret was just an excuse to convince Zaif.

However, after searching almost all the facilities in the temple like a rat, Lenok had to admit that he was catching a rat by walking backwards [doing something inefficiently].

“It’s unnatural that there’s nothing but officially circulated confidential documents within the Order, even after searching everything from the vault to the office. This might be a bigger deal than I thought…”

It is an inevitable result that an organization becomes shady in the process of operating.

Especially for the Guido Order, which spans the entire continent, it is unavoidable even if they are armed with a strong faith.

What about the Far East Branch, which is said to be responsible for the supply of each branch from outside the continent?

If they had searched this much, there should have been clues related to internal corruption, cover-ups, or collusion, but the fact that there was no sign of anything in the branch’s temple where the Apostle selection ritual was taking place.

The secret that the Order was hiding was much bigger than that, and it was impossible unless it was being hidden from a higher level than expected.

If even Lenok’s magic power sensing couldn’t find a clue, there was virtually nothing to do here.

The moment Lenok and Zaif, who had left the Archpriestess’s office, were walking quickly down the corridor.

“Apostle Zaif?”

A young man walking out from the opposite side suddenly called out Zaif’s name.

He had an impression that his body was unusually light. Judging by the fact that he called Zaif without hesitation, he must be a high-ranking priest within the Order.

As expected, Zaif also frowned slightly as if he was in trouble and answered.

“…Bishop Tritan.”

“I thought it was strange that you didn’t show up for the service, but what are you doing here?”

Tritan’s eyes shone sharply.

“I think you need to explain what all this commotion is about.”