Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 647

The entrance to the gloomy staircase leading down to the clock tower’s basement.

With their hands bound by thin strands of mana, the council members walked down the basement stairs in a line, like prisoners being escorted.

Langmuir, who had been silently observing Lenok from the back of the line, spoke up.

“The truck you were riding in… it was a cash transport vehicle belonging to the central bank near the inner city.”

“It’s an older model, but still used in this area. Did you sneak into the inner city using that?”

Lenok looked at Langmuir with amusement before answering.

“To receive and store slush funds [funds used for illicit purposes] in real-time, security is lax around the financial district.”

“…What?”

“If you pretend to be leaving to pick up cash, no one suspects a thing. I suppose we should thank the council members who work tirelessly for the city’s development.”

Even though they knew Lenok’s words were not meant kindly, no one dared to speak carelessly.

Every single detail of his plan was evidence that he had thoroughly prepared for this moment.

The artisan standing before them had known this moment would come.

“…So you even knew that the slush funds were received at the clock tower and then sent to the financial district using the transport vehicle.”

“Councilman Langmuir!!”

“How can you spread such baseless rumors so carelessly!!”

The other council members were startled and tried to deny it, but Langmuir ignored them and asked Lenok.

“What is your goal? What do you intend to do by taking us hostage?”

Before answering, Lenok stared up at the ceiling of the clock tower’s basement stairs they were walking on.

“I heard that this clock tower is one of the oldest buildings in Machina.”

“…”

“The building itself is far behind Machina’s technology, but it remains in the inner city due to its symbolism… Isn’t it ironic considering the reputation of the machine city?”

The other council members, having gone through all sorts of hardships to get where they were, did not show any agitation, but they couldn’t hide their tension.

After passing through the long, spiraling staircase and a gloomy corridor, they turned a thick lever to reveal the clock tower’s engine room.

Various pumps and pistons were moving incessantly in all directions, and the inside of the engine room was filled with a mixture of steam and heat.

“Hoo…”

The council members were sweating from the sudden change in environment, or waving their hands as if they were suffocating.

Langmuir ignored them and turned his gaze to Lenok, who was standing at the very back.

“As you said, it’s an old building, so the power efficiency is not good. It’s impossible to find anything here…”

Click!!

At that moment, Lenok suddenly closed the door to the engine room and locked it from the inside.

What did it mean that he was making sure no one, including himself, could leave the engine room?

“H-huh…!!”

The other council members turned pale and backed away from Lenok.

“You’re lying…!!”

“Damn it, why did we have to come to a place like this…!!”

Instead of responding to their shouts, Lenok raised the trumpet gun he was holding and aimed it at the council members.

Before they could react, his finger pulled the trigger, and the council members covered their ears with both hands and squeezed their eyes shut.

Thud!!

The pumps and pistons that had been busily moving inside the engine room stopped working all at once.

“…Huh?”

As the council members slowly took their hands away from their ears with bewildered expressions, Lenok spoke.

“47 large pumps. 80 medium-sized pistons. 693 lower insertion pipes and 3 steam exhaust devices from the Platoon Defense.”

Lenok, having lowered the hand holding the trumpet gun, began to walk around, looking at his surroundings.

“The output generated inside the engine room is excessively large to power just the clock tower. If the power was being supplied normally, it wouldn’t be strange if the internal facilities were overloaded and broken.”

“W-what?”

“Then, isn’t it possible that the energy generated in this engine room is being used for a different purpose than the clock tower?”

At that moment, the floor of the engine room where Lenok and the council members were standing shook violently and began to sink.

Thud, thud!!

“Ugh!!”

“We’re falling!”

“G-grab something…!!”

The council members staggered and desperately grabbed onto the handles that were scattered throughout the engine room.

The council members who had inadvertently grabbed the dusty handles had strange expressions on their faces.

“I see. The fact that handles were made in various places like this means…”

Clunk, clunk!!

The engine room, as if it had become an elevator, began to fall rapidly into the underground interior.

After a short while, it seemed to stop, but then it changed direction and sped along for a long time.

The engine room shook as if it was running on rails, and then it began to rise again.

“…Hmm?”

Some of the more perceptive council members tilted their heads, sensing something was off.

Clunk!!

As the engine room stopped, the door that Lenok had locked swung open.

The council members, hesitating, stepped outside and muttered in bewilderment at the sight before them.

“W-what is this…”

“Was such a hideous statue hidden in the clock tower?”

In the middle of a gloomy, half-excavated dirt mound, a huge statue of the Eight-Armed God was buried as if it was stuck in the dirt.

A demonic figure with two heads and eight arms.

All eight arms were entangled in unknown chains, and its ten eyes were tightly closed.

The statue appeared to be sleeping, half-buried in the dirt.

However, its presence was overwhelmingly powerful, even without exerting any force.

While the other council members hesitated and stepped back, facing the statue’s presence, Lenok approached and touched the statue’s arm.

‘The coordinates the doctor mentioned were here.’

Lenok’s eyes gleamed as he realized that the hardness and material of the arm were similar to what he remembered.

‘The statue of the Eight-Armed God used for the mid-term settlement [a periodic event where resources and information are exchanged]. This was the prototype.’

During his pursuit of Nasisa Solmer’s assassin, Lenok had encountered a replica similar to the statue the doctor had used.

He had obtained the Hammer of the Fire God from a Side Squad agent who was looking for the heart of the Dragon God, and extracted information about the manufacturing method of Armadelta alloy.

At that time, he had only used the statue’s power and escaped without knowing why the replica was there.

Only after learning that the doctor’s name was Artermeier could he fully understand the situation.

Artermeier, the designer of the Ascension Gate [a project to connect to another dimension].

The prototype created by him, who had been researching the old world for a long time in the machine city, to store information from the old world.

That was the identity of the statue that existed in this machine city, and its very origin.

The statue used for the mid-term settlement in Pandemonium was probably a completed version created by the doctor after he left Machina.

But the original statue was still kept in this machine city.

Moreover, in a secret space of the old clock tower where the Ex Machina council members themselves resided.

The hidden function of the engine room was activated because the clock tower’s spare output was being used to maintain this underground space.

Lenok had investigated the series of processes through the coordinates he had received from the doctor, and successfully found the statue.

The fact that he had brought the transport vehicle to the clock tower and taken the council members hostage was a means to get to the coordinates the doctor had told him.

Even though decades had passed since the name Artermeier had been completely forgotten, the statue left behind by the doctor was still here.

Lenok, who had been touching the chains that tightly bound the statue’s arms, spoke.

“It’s something that a Meister-level artisan made and put in place.”

“…What?”

“It seems that an equivalent level of authority is needed to release the built-in security system.”

Lenok lightly nodded towards the council members who were stepping back.

“Does that mean we need the authority of Ex Machina?”

“I can’t believe it. Such a monstrosity was hidden in the basement of the clock tower…”

Everyone understood why Lenok had brought them here as hostages, without him having to say it.

The council members hesitated with a shrunken look, and stood in front of the chains that bound the statue’s eight arms.

They inserted their tickets into the device embedded next to the sturdy chains, and requested the release of the security measures with the authority of Ex Machina.

As the system approved the authority, the chains binding the statue were released simultaneously.

Thud!!

The fallen chains stirred up dust and created a sandstorm that covered the council members’ heads.

“Cough, cough!!”

As the council members, instantly covered in dust, stepped back, Lenok nodded to them.

“Would you please go back to the engine room and wait?”

“Lyman… do you know what that statue is?”

Another council member asked with an uneasy expression.

Instead of answering, Lenok smiled faintly.

“This underground space is poorly developed, so the oxygen is very thin.”

“What does that…”

“If you don’t go back to the engine room, which is relatively well-ventilated, it might be difficult to last long.”

“…!!”

With just a few words, Lenok sent the council members back to the engine room on their own.

After all, the engine room’s moving function wouldn’t work unless Lenok went back, and the relatively well-ventilated engine room would be a suitable place to confine the council members.

This underground space was hidden so deep that it required descending hundreds of meters below the clock tower, making it a suitable place to hold the council members hostage.

All that was left was to use the statue located at the coordinates left by the doctor to achieve his goal.

“Mayah. Are you ready?”

“I’ve confirmed that the statue is real.”

Mayah, who had walked out from behind the statue as if it was nothing, replied.

“We could have started a long time ago if you hadn’t been going in and out of the engine room with the council members.”

“Artermeier did tell me the location of the hidden statue, but I heard that it’s been decades since he left Machina.”

Lenok calmly replied to Mayah’s words.

“There was a possibility that someone had recognized the statue’s existence and taken measures. In fact, didn’t one of the Meisters [master artisans] discover the statue and put the chains on it?”

Mayah’s eyes gleamed sharply as she immediately understood Lenok’s words.

“I see. You thought that if that many Ex Machina council members were gathered, you could easily break through any security barrier?”

“The Meister who put the chains on it did discover the statue, but they couldn’t find a way to take it out from inside the clock tower where the members of the Machine Head faction reside.”

Lenok said, looking at the chains scattered haphazardly around.

“So, they put chains that only those with the same authority could remove, and it seems they were planning to study the statue later.”

Considering that replicas of the statue were being used among the Side Squad agents, it was evidence that Lenok was not the only one who had discovered this prototype.

Perhaps some of the Machine Head council members that Lenok had just sent back to the engine room as hostages knew about the existence of this statue.

If he took the time to interrogate them and dig into their minds, it wouldn’t be difficult to find out the details, but…

“We don’t have time. Let’s investigate the Ex Machina’s actions related to the statue later.”

Lenok said, lightly tapping his wrist.

“I managed to copy the tickets of two of the council members while moving from the engine room. It’ll be blocked after one use, but we can get through the highest security barrier twice.”

If it hadn’t been for the route the doctor had told him, he wouldn’t have been able to seize the Machine Head council members so easily.

It wasn’t a situation where he could kill the council members or take them hostage, but Lenok hadn’t let them go so easily.

In the cramped environment of the engine room, he had managed to copy the tickets of the council members who had become careless in the unstable situation.

At the same time, he had planned to use the council members as a shield to overcome any security devices that might exist while pulling up the statue.

“You even managed to copy the tickets of the Ex Machina council members in the meantime… good.”

Mayah, who had been muttering with a blank face, nodded lightly.

“You have a much better sense than I thought. Let’s start right away.”

“The problem is, I don’t know what the statue is used for. You’ll have to take care of that from now on.”

Of course, Lenok knew what kind of device the statue was since he had participated in the mid-term settlement, but he subtly backed away here.

Since he wasn’t here as Victor, there was no reason to reveal that he knew about the doctor or the statue.

Mayah knew that Lenok was not an ordinary artisan, but she didn’t ask about his identity in detail.

That was probably not because she had no idea who Lyman’s real identity was, but rather because she had some idea.

‘Is she pretending not to know about the existence of the Adamantine [a powerful material], or does she think it doesn’t matter…’

Lenok’s eyes sank deeply as he watched Mayah’s back as she approached the statue.

Either way, it was clear that Lenok didn’t need to pretend to know about the statue’s abilities at this point.

Here, he had no choice but to follow Mayah’s judgment, who had received advice from the doctor.

Lenok thought so and gave Mayah a hint first, pretending not to know.

“If it’s a statue made by Artermeier himself, it’s highly likely to be a medium connected to the old world.”

“That’s right. If you’ve seen the other side of the door at the Mind Palace [a place where memories are stored], you’d know.”

Since he had returned from the other side of the door as Lyman, it would be strange if he couldn’t even guess this much.

Mayah also nodded naturally and climbed onto the palm of the statue.

“To be precise, it’s a storage device for trading and storing memories and information from the old world in the form of equivalent exchange.”

“…”

“The doctor had been planning this for a long time, but he only completed it properly after the plan was over.”

“The failure of the Ascension Gate project?”

Whoosh…!!

As Lenok openly mentioned that word, Mayah’s aura instantly turned sharp and eerie.

But Victor knew this fact, while Lyman didn’t. It was a problem that needed to be addressed, even if it meant adding some obvious acting.

Mayah, who had been looking down at Lenok with a cold gaze, slowly nodded.

“…Only after completely finishing one failure did the doctor return to the method he had originally thought of.”

“…”

“Only he knows what Artermeier was thinking in the end, why he abandoned his name, and why he threw away everything he had and left the city.”

Click!!

Mayah, who had taken out a short sword from her chest, smiled coldly.

“But it’s a lie that he didn’t leave any regrets. If that were the case, he wouldn’t have left the prototype of the statue hidden here intact.”

Mayah, who had climbed onto the palm of the statue without hesitation, slowly began to draw up her mana.

Lenok was secretly interested in watching what Mayah was doing from behind.

The principle of the statue’s ability, created by the doctor, was to offer information or relics from the old world and exchange them for equivalent information after measuring their value.

Lenok had also obtained the manufacturing method of Armadelta alloy using a replica of the statue.

From the moment the doctor told him the coordinates where this statue was hidden, it was the same as telling him to use it to obtain the necessary information.

So, it was true that he was curious about what Mayah would offer as a price to the statue at this point.

‘Mayah wasn’t very noticeable during the mid-term settlement. It seems she did achieve some results, but…’

During the mid-term settlement in the satellite city of Bayreuth, Mayah had only been satisfied with fulfilling her quota and didn’t seem very interested in the trade itself.

However, she wouldn’t hesitate to offer important information as a price in matters directly related to the machine city of Machina.

Lenok was secretly interested in what information Mayah would offer as a price to find a way to stop Hermes.

Lenok was waiting for Mayah, who had climbed onto the palm of the statue and was drawing up her mana, to open her mouth.

At that moment, Mayah lightly took a step forward and instantly walked up the statue’s arm.

“…Hmm?”

Before Lenok could say anything about the unexpected movement.

Swoosh!!

Mayah, wielding her gleaming short sword, immediately cut off the statue’s head.