Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 545

The last name Lenox brought up when proposing research collaboration.

Was it that word that hammered the final nail into Kaise’s wavering judgment?

‘……!!!’

Kaise’s reaction, unable to hide his agitation as he stared intently at Lenox.

Just hearing that word seemed to make Kaise understand and accept the situation to some extent.

‘I see… You said you had a meeting with Olivier as well. So you’ve secured new development personnel in the meantime.’

Kaise muttered quietly to himself, then slowly nodded.

‘I didn’t think you’d be interested in this kind of research…’

He still wasn’t completely relaxed, but he seemed to have accepted and understood the situation to some degree.

The significance of the name ‘Alcaide’ was that heavy and crucial.

‘Knowing that name is proof that you’re not an outsider. Fine.’

Without hesitation, Kaise pulled something from his pocket and tossed it to Lenox.

Lenox immediately caught it and tried to step forward, but he dropped it due to its unexpected weight.

‘Huh?’

Clang!!

The object that fell with a hard metallic sound was a hex wrench as thick as Lenox’s forearm.

While Lenox stared blankly at the wrench, Kaise spoke in a blunt tone.

‘How can you help if you can’t even catch that?’

‘No, what is this…’

‘Stop with the nonsense and hurry up. Are you going to act like you’re doing me a favor after making the offer first?’

Kaise turned his back without another word.

His attitude was so natural that it was hard to believe he had just made a decision.

It was as if he had already accepted Lenox as a colleague in this research.

Was it his nature to not dwell on his decisions once he had made up his mind?

Kaise, who was also struggling with the wrench in his hand, climbed onto the giant egg-shaped machine and said,

‘We need to finish the adjustments and tighten all the screws by today. Be prepared to stay up all night.’

‘…….’

Helping with the research didn’t mean doing manual labor.

The situation was a bit different from what he had expected, but there wasn’t anything he couldn’t do if he had to.

Lenox sighed, picked up the wrench, and got to his feet.

* * *

The adjustment work began with Kaise Bajur, the deceased ruler of the underworld.

It was a collaboration between the creator of the Black Consumer Project and a mage who had gained transcendent talent.

The theme was a space-time study that couldn’t guarantee success even after meticulous thought experiments and discussions of high-dimensional magic theories.

However, the conversations that constantly flowed between the egg-shaped machines were mostly grumbling rather than an exchange of intellect.

‘So, if you don’t completely tighten this circuit and block the flow, you won’t be able to control the recoil.’

‘Eventually, the circuit lock will release, and the magic flow on the other side will activate.’

They were clearly working diligently and cooperating, but their conversations turned into arguments rather than an exchange of ideas.

It was mostly Kaise, not Lenox, who did the grumbling.

‘In that case, it’s better to release it from the start and minimize damage to the circuit.’

‘What’s the point of suppressing circuit damage if you can’t get the performance you want?’

‘What I’m saying is that the solution we’re looking for is wrong from the start.’

Lenox, with a blank expression, flicked the wrench as he responded to Kaise’s question.

‘Even if you think positively, touching the origin is suicide. Unless you want to blow up the power plant and die, you should look elsewhere.’

‘Damn it, I hate nothing more than opposition without an alternative. You know that?’

‘It seems you like baseless agreement.’

‘You little…’

Kaise sighed deeply and looked up at the thousands of shimmering magic circuits and inserted pipes.

Kaise’s face was covered in soot, ash, and all sorts of dust.

Lenox looked down at Kaise with a somewhat intrigued gaze.

‘…….’

Frankly, Lenox didn’t think the current situation was too bad.

Kaise’s understanding of space-time was truly immense, and Lenox was learning a lot just by arguing and exchanging theories with him.

All Lenox had to do was understand the design Kaise had already built and suggest different directions.

He could feel that his understanding of space and time manipulation was rapidly increasing just by doing that.

If it weren’t for the need to solve the exposure phenomenon and the space-time gap, he would have spent the night discussing the ideal magic theory that Kaise had in mind.

Kaise, staring intently at the magic flow with his dark, sparkling eyes, finally opened his mouth after a long time.

‘You’re very different from the guy I know.’

Lenox’s hand, which was struggling to turn the wrench, stopped.

‘What do you mean?’

‘It feels like I’m actually having a conversation with you.’

‘…….’

‘It feels like I’m properly grounded in this world. Do you know what I mean?’

Kaise said that and smiled as he grabbed and loosened a pipe filter.

‘I don’t even know what I’m saying. I’m just saying that’s how it feels.’

‘You must be half-mad from being so engrossed in the project.’

Lenox hesitated for a moment, then maintained a nonchalant response.

He sensed that Kaise was feeling comfortable and was about to open up because of that attitude.

But Kaise couldn’t laugh off that answer.

‘Yeah. Maybe I really am going crazy… I really think that sometimes.’

‘…….’

‘Maybe even you, who I’m talking to right now, are just a hallucination I’ve created. Maybe other people see me just muttering to myself like a madman?’

Kaise mumbled with a blank face.

‘I started this to change the world, but the closer I get to the end, the harder it is to remember the beginning… The closer I feel to the truth, the further I get from myself.’

He continued without waiting for Lenox’s answer.

‘Does the end really exist? Can we really reach something beyond the predetermined conclusion?’

‘Are you afraid that the project will end without any meaning?’

‘It would be a relief if it ended like that.’

Kaise’s smile turned cold.

‘But what if it gets worse? What if we’re the ones hastening the world’s destruction right here?’

‘…….’

‘I think there’s nothing worse than this, but the monsters swimming in the outer sea have always presented the worst that transcends humanity. What should I do if everything we’ve done is not preventing destruction but accelerating it?’

Kaise’s shoulders seemed to slump as he gripped the wrench.

‘I’m losing confidence… I can’t see or hear Alcaide’s advice, nor Olivier’s eyes. How can I tell this to my followers?’

‘…….’

The fact that he was confiding these worries to Lenox, whom he had never met before, proved how mentally cornered Kaise was at the time.

Even the trivial arguments they had while adjusting the equipment together felt like a brief respite for Kaise.

But Lenox understood why Kaise was acting so insecure.

The man standing next to him was one of the geniuses who had come closest to the secrets of the world in history.

That was why he was so anxious and mentally cornered.

He knew that he had reached a level where he could really touch the end of the world.

He also understood that if he made even a small mistake, the situation could become worse than it was now.

Kaise’s madness-like anxiety and impatience were proof that he was a brilliant and excellent project manager and creator.

‘The fact that you can doubt yourself as crazy means you’re not completely finished yet.’

Lenox picked up the wrench again and answered as he tightened the screw.

‘Then all you have to do is succeed in the plan before you go completely crazy. I don’t know why you’re wasting your energy so unnecessarily when there’s a simple solution.’

‘……Are you really saying that?’

Kaise’s hollow laugh.

Lenox knew it too. How irresponsible and thoughtless Lenox’s answer was.

But Kaise seemed to have regained his senses because of Lenox’s irresponsible answer.

He rubbed his soot-covered face with his bare hand, and then started grinning with an even blacker face.

‘Well, at least I know you’re not a hallucination. There’s no way a hallucination I created would say such nonsense.’

His dark eyes, smiling, were shining much more clearly than before.

‘…….’

‘Okay. Enough with the nonsense, let’s finish this quickly. At this rate, we can roughly finish it before Olivier returns.’

Instead of answering, Lenox stared silently at Kaise, who was moving busily below.

Kaise in his prime wasn’t the kind of person who often showed the overwhelming charisma or dignity that Lenox had imagined.

Rather, he was just a person who, like others, couldn’t be sure of the answers he had set, and hesitated and wavered.

As Kaise said, the adjustment of the machine would be finished soon.

The two of them were constantly arguing, but they were also steadily eliminating the problematic parts and adjusting the device.

Kaise’s space-time research results, which would be completed somewhat earlier than they would have in this timeline.

‘…….’

He wasn’t worried.

The events happening in this closed area were not what was happening in the real past.

He wasn’t flying to the past and meeting people from that era, but rather facing the distorted memories within this area’s timeline.

Even if Lenox directly intervened and changed a part of the past, there was no possibility of a time paradox.

That was why Lenox was trying to resolve this situation by cooperating with Kaise and quickly finishing the research, rather than interfering with it.

He thought that gaining Kaise’s trust by helping with the research was an efficient way to find out the secrets of the project and solve the space-time gap phenomenon.

But was there any meaning in this moment when he listened to Kaise’s worries and relieved his mind for a while?

Before this strange phenomenon in the closed area ended, would Lenox be able to hear the secrets and truths that Kaise wanted to tell him?

Why was the timeline from decades ago being reproduced in the closed area at this particular time?

Why was the exposure phenomenon caused by it becoming more intense?

Lenox had not yet properly understood or obtained any truth.

Helping Kaise complete his research now was just the first step in solving the series of problems that had occurred in this area.

‘I don’t know how much the others have noticed about this situation…’

Lenox had no choice but to do what he could.

‘It’s roughly finished.’

Whirring!!

Only after covering the steel plates that made up the surface of the giant egg and tightening the screws did Kaise step back with a satisfied look, wiping away sweat.

‘Still, it’s a relief that it finished much faster than I thought. With this, I can return to the front lines at least a week earlier.’

‘…….’

‘I don’t know what you were thinking when you helped with the research, but there aren’t many guys who properly understand this field in the first place… It was helpful.’

Kaise turned to Lenox, cleared his throat a few times, and then grinned.

‘I appreciate that. Is there any reward or compensation you want?’

‘Compensation…’

‘I may be holding a wrench and covered in soot right now, but I’m quite capable when I go outside.’

Kaise laughed heartily and said, wiping his face with the end of his sleeve.

‘I’m not famous or rich, but I can grant you one condition you want.’

‘…….’

‘Don’t hesitate to think about it. If you came after hearing the message from Alcaide, I hope you’ll continue to cooperate with the project.’

‘A reward, huh.’

Lenox delayed his answer, released the mount he was hanging from, and slowly descended to the ground.

Lenox, standing next to Kaise and quietly looking up at the machine, asked,

‘The tablet. Didn’t you break it earlier?’

‘I did.’

Kaise scratched his cheek awkwardly.

‘We’ll need a terminal to control the entire facility, but I don’t see any control equipment near the power room.’

‘Ah, were you thinking about that?’

Kaise nodded as if he finally understood Lenox’s lukewarm attitude.

‘You have good focus. It’s not easy to find a team member with this kind of ability. I’m getting more and more greedy…’

‘…….’

‘My friends and colleagues are good at fighting and breaking things, but they’re not very good at delving deep into the field of knowledge.’

Kaise said that and walked casually towards the broken tablet.

He placed his hand over the fragments of the tablet he had thrown and shattered, and muttered quietly.

‘I wish there were more trustworthy people among the project’s developers. I can’t trust the Council of Elders… Well, fine.’

Kaise grinned and turned his gaze to Lenox.

‘You were watching how my magic was flowing earlier, right? I’ll tell you the reason now.’

Purple magic surged over Kaise’s hand as he slowly raised his spirit.

The moment the magic, which was flowing backward against the body’s life activity, wrapped around and rose between the fragments of the tablet.

Charrrr!!

The tablet fragments, which were completely shattered and exposed their parts and internal structure, began to restore themselves as if time was rewinding.

While Lenox turned his gaze with a slightly surprised expression at the unexpected sight.

Kaise casually picked up the reassembled tablet in his hand and turned it on.

Buzz!!

‘I’m still not in bad condition. I haven’t used my magic for this purpose lately.’

‘…….’

‘I linked the device’s functions to this one tablet from the beginning. It also reduces the unnecessary risk of leaking secrets.’

Lenox quietly watched Kaise shaking the tablet with a smile.

The phenomenon of the tablet restoring itself as if time was rewinding.

He was sure that it was not a miracle that Kaise had created by chance.

The magic flowing backward against life activity. His attitude of not caring about breaking the tablet and continuing the work.

How he, who was close to being a boss of the underworld, came to be at the center of such a major project and research.

All those questions felt like they were being answered, even if just a little, by that one miracle.