Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 673

“…A messenger from the Senate?”

The Central Council Senate of the City Government.

A part of the city council, which is composed of two houses, and the highest authority standing at the pinnacle of the megacity, Balkan. [A megacity is a very large urban area, typically with a population of over 10 million.]

They are the observers whose will permeates every corner of the megacity, yet they do not rashly intervene anywhere.

Despite all the incidents, they had never tried to contact Lenok directly, and now they were saying they were here to deliver a message?

Lenok, who had been staring at the letter Armand had politely presented, chuckled.

“I thought they would try to make contact, but I didn’t expect them to send a message like this.”

“…….”

“Does the Central Council usually handle things like this?”

“Normally, we would officially send a letter to schedule an appointment or ask for acceptance, but…”

Armand replied with a nervous look.

“This was notified in the early hours of this morning, so no one was informed. Going through a broker was also not allowed.”

“So?”

“Furthermore, regarding special forces that could disrupt the order of the city…”

Armand, having said that, glanced at Lenok and finished his sentence.

“It is an unwritten rule not to follow protocol.”

“…….”

Was he saying that they don’t bother with official methods when dealing with superhumans like Lenok who have surpassed their limits?

If they were trying to match Lenok’s personality, who lives a thoroughly quiet life, this method might have been the right one.

“Do you know the contents of the message?”

“Only the purpose briefly… I do not know the specific details.”

Lenok nodded.

“Open it.”

“…Understood.”

Armand, who was struggling to keep his balance, slowly opened the letter and scanned through the contents.

“There is a time, place, and a seal that certifies it as a message from the Senate. According to custom, it is also possible to call for transportation to the meeting place through this letter.”

“Call for transportation?”

“If you wish, I can call for it right now. However, considering Master Ban’s reply, I did not bring any equipment or attendants, so it will take some time…”

“Okay.”

At the same time as Lenok stood up, the chair made of tree roots disappeared below the yard.

Lenok, who was standing in front of the fallen young man with his cane, nodded.

“I think I have a rough idea why you called me. Call it.”

They must know that Lenok handles most of his affairs through Jenny.

The reason they took the risk and tried to send a message directly to Lenok as soon as they identified his address.

That must be related to the traces Lenok left behind in the Machine City, Makina.

Although the handling of the matter was not to his liking, he needed to hear what they wanted to say.

Armand bowed his head, unable to hide his relief.

“Thank you for accepting the invitation.”

“How long will it take?”

“It will take about 10 minutes from the transfer area in District 17.”

Lenok, who had a map of Balkan in his head, chuckled.

“It’s enough to take 10 minutes even though it’s coming from almost the opposite side of the city… Well, okay.”

Lenok said that and turned around.

“Follow me. I’m going to clean the mansion in the remaining time.”

“…Would you like me to help?”

Armand’s answer was quite quick-witted, but Lenok nodded as if asking what he was talking about.

“A clone-type superhuman. And one with a fairly high reproduction rate.”

“T-Thank you.”

“You look perfectly suited for housework, including cleaning.”

“…….”

Armand, who was at a loss for words, quietly followed Lenok into the mansion.

A wizard’s mansion. Moreover, a den that had annihilated all the intruders in less than 5 minutes.

Armand, who had stepped into the hallway with a nervous look, stiffened on the spot as he confirmed the turbulent scenery of the hallway.

Krrrrrr…!!!

The entire mansion was surging as if it were alive, flipping and rotating the direction of the hallway and the structure of the ceiling.

A bizarre phenomenon of pushing out and melting away foreign substances that were not originally Lenok’s, and slowly discharging the byproducts to the outside.

“I’ll set the target designation. You can move now.”

Lenok lightly tapped Armand’s shoulder and walked forward.

Armand, unable to move rashly, asked with a cold sweat.

“W-What is this… Did you give the entire mansion a will of its own?”

“If you want to be precise, it’s closer to taking the bio-mechanism of a specific living thing and grafting it onto it.”

Lenok replied casually.

“If you were to divide the system, it’s originally a method closer to sorcery. It’s a method of patterning the motility data of the stomach and implementing it by combining it with magical power.”

“How is that even possible…”

Armand is a superhuman who uses superpowers, but as an aide, he has a wide range of knowledge about various techniques.

But even for him, he had never heard of magic that could turn an entire mansion into a living thing’s stomach.

Was the research result that it was not easy to guess the true nature of Lenok’s magic a lie?

‘The data itself was not the result I expected…’

Creation Magic [Aramatos’s Stomach].

A range magic that was implemented by grafting the stomach ecology of a creature called Aramatos onto the mansion environment.

However, Aramatos is not a creature that originally existed in this world, but one of the knowledge of the old world that was drawn from beyond the Ascension Gate. [The Ascension Gate is likely a portal or gateway to another dimension or time period.]

It was research data on the stomach ecosystem of a beast that lives in the swamp and digests even steel, which was implemented by combining it with creation magic.

At first, he thought it was useless knowledge, but when combined with creation magic, there were surprisingly many ways to apply it in a different direction from existing magic.

Armand, who had been hesitant, slowly divided his body into several clones and began to clean the mansion.

The sight of more than five clones busily moving around, cleaning the mansion and removing the corpses.

Just then, the corpse of the first killed demi-human was being dragged out by the fourth Armand.

“Who is this demi-human?”

Lenok asked.

“They are strangely silent, and on the contrary, their organization is quite sophisticated. It’s as if they were born with this kind of stealth mobility.”

“…….”

“I think it has something to do with you cutting their necks at once.”

“…To be precise, they are not demi-humans.”

Armand 4 answered with a small sigh.

“They are a minority tribe living near the outer cities, and they say they grow by sharing their minds with each other. They don’t use language at all unless they are communicating with outsiders.”

“A minority tribe, huh.”

“They are silent because they share their minds, and they are born in underground bedrock, so they are familiar with the shadows and are good at stealth. They are involved in organized theft crimes all over the continent, so the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is also having a headache.”

“I see…”

“To completely neutralize them, you have to cut off their heads, but it also affects the nearby tribes, so you have to deal with them at the same time.”

Armand 2, who was wiping the floor with a mop instead of Armand 4 who had dragged the corpse into the garden, said.

“However, in recent years, they have tended to move with employees, so we will try to investigate this incident separately.”

Only then did Lenok understand the situation and nod.

A minority tribe that shares minds on a tribal level.

Is that why they were so silent even as they were dying, since they were living by committing organized theft?

However, if they have to share their minds even when they don’t want to, they are more vulnerable to mental attacks.

He had guessed it from the point when the creation magic, Psycho Shocker, which he had thrown out of curiosity, worked, but it became clear when he heard Armand’s words.

“A congenital ability that is inherited on a tribal level… Is it a different kind from bloodline abilities?”

It was the first time for Lenok to see such an organized congenital ability, so he was disappointed that the situation had turned out this way.

If the situation hadn’t overlapped, he could have investigated how their mind-sharing worked.

After meeting Aoshu Spero, an 8-level psychometry user, Lenok felt the need to study the mental system in detail.

Woo-oong!!

In the meantime, the sky over the mansion suddenly darkened.

The moment Lenok inadvertently raised his gaze, Armand 1 confirmed the sign and nodded.

“It seems the transport has arrived. I will stay with the attendants and do some more cleaning of the mansion. Would you like to board first?”

* * *

Whooo-oong!!

A pitch-black airship from which not a single ray of light leaked.

Inside the airship were Lenok, leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed, and the Balkan Defense Force soldiers, watching him with a very nervous look.

“Sorry for the wait.”

In the meantime, Armand, who had finished cleaning up, boarded the airship at a fast pace.

“I have recovered all the corpses scattered in the mansion and cleaned up the traces neatly. However…”

“However?”

“It was difficult to enter the underground laboratory and the living space on the second floor, so I did not touch them separately.”

“…….”

In the first place, the fact that they had invaded Lenok’s mansion was due to the side effects of digging into the mass formula in the laboratory.

If it hadn’t been for the shock of the Ascended’s will rebelling and exploding, they wouldn’t have been allowed to enter the mansion beyond the barrier in the first place.

Now that the research was over, it was natural that it was impossible to enter other areas of the mansion for cleaning.

Rather, should he trust Armand’s attitude of honestly revealing and reporting that fact?

Armand, who had washed his face and come back, looking much cleaner, said.

“I have explained to the nearby residents that it was a joint training exercise of the Defense Force, so please consider it if there is a possibility of mentioning the incident later.”

“Understood.”

“Then let’s move right away. The Central Council Senate will be waiting for Master Ban.”

The sleek, streamlined body rises from its place without causing any wind or shock.

The airship flies into the sky of the megacity and passes leisurely over the buildings.

It was a sight that had rarely been seen in Balkan.

But more than that, what first caught Lenok’s eye was the fact that airships similar to the one Lenok was riding were floating all over the sky.

Air transportation in a megacity where flight is difficult due to the occasional magnetic storms in undeveloped areas.

And Lenok knew where the cause was.

“It seems that the anti-gravity engine has been fully commercialized.”

“Ah, Master Ban hasn’t heard the news yet.”

Armand explained, wiping the blood from his neck with a handkerchief.

“The related regulations and institutionalization for airships equipped with anti-gravity engines were completely completed a week ago. Companies that have received business licenses are releasing prototypes, so you will be able to see many of these airships soon.”

“…….”

It meant that another new means of transportation was being added to the congested megacity.

Of course, since Lenok himself had led the project to success, he had thought that it would happen someday, but.

Seeing the airships floating all over the city, his feelings were new again.

Confirming that Lenok was showing interest in the anti-gravity engine, Armand coughed slightly next to him and added an explanation.

“The designer of the anti-gravity engine, Evan Bailen, is truly a great genius. I think Master Ban has heard his name at least once.”

His attitude was quite different from the first time, when he seemed somewhat stiff. Was it because he had left the tense battlefield that he had opened up?

Maybe this was Armand’s true personality.

“He has only appeared in public once, but his presentation video at the expo is still being talked about for his unique atmosphere. Many researchers are trying to imitate not only the Bailen proof method of his first paper, but also his presentation style at investment briefings.”

“…….”

Whether Lenok reacted or not, Armand was talking to his heart’s content, as if he didn’t dislike it.

Rather, the soldiers who had been frozen stiff on both sides of Lenok were fidgeting at Armand’s words.

“However, Professor Bailen himself rarely engages in external activities, and the dean of Lavatenon University is completely protecting him, so it is difficult to contact him from our side. There are many companies and institutions that would readily decide to invest if he would just contact them.”

Judging by the way he was talking, he seemed to have a deep personal interest in this field.

“I sometimes have the opportunity to attend similar business investment briefings as a public official, and there are so many researchers trying to imitate Professor Bailen that I’m starting to get annoyed…”

“Ah, Aide Armand.”

“Hmm? What is it?”

The soldier who had urgently stopped Armand said in a trembling voice.

“I-Isn’t it better to go a little quietly… It’s the Adamantine Fortress.”

They were afraid of how Lenok might react if he felt displeased with Armand’s chatter.

Perhaps they had also heard about what Lenok had done in Makina under the name of Ban.

But Armand, on the contrary, seemed to regret the soldier’s restraint.

“Hmm… But the real fun story starts now.”

“…….”

No, now that he looked at it, he might just be a guy who likes to talk.

Lenok chuckled and nodded.

“Keep going.”

At that reaction, the soldier who had been trying to stop Armand quietly closed his mouth, and Armand started talking even more excitedly.

“You see, there is a rumor that Professor Bailen is not one person, but a think tank made up of several teams.”

“…What?”

“It’s just that they are all using the name Evan Bailen, but in fact, the research is not the product of one person, but of collective intelligence.”

Armand excitedly spoke without waiting for Lenok’s reaction.

“Professor Bailen is working in the Department of Elemental Studies after being noticed by Professor Aris Ritchelen, but even while working as an assistant professor, he hasn’t shown much of his research. Rather, he has been more often involved in giving lectures or getting caught up in strange incidents.”

“…….”

Did he get caught up in that many strange incidents at the university?

Well, he had even experienced a terrorist attack on the Department of Elemental Studies, so they were not ordinary incidents.

“Moreover, there are rumors that Professor Bailen’s identity itself was quite unclear before he received the guarantee of Professor Ritchelen… Some even say that he has not yet obtained a doctorate. He could get it anytime he wanted, but he hasn’t. He is a mysterious figure in many ways, despite his outstanding intellect.”

“…….”

Lenok, who had been silent, turned his gaze away casually and muttered.

“It seems you’ve done a lot of research.”

“In fact, Professor Bailen is one of the most promising candidates for the Central Council’s technical advisory committee.”

Armand lowered his voice and whispered.

“Council aides like me have also gone through the process of recruiting Professor Bailen, so I have heard a lot of information.”

“Is that so?”

“By any chance, has Master Ban ever met Professor Bailen…”

At Armand’s words, Lenok shook his head.

“If what you say is true, he is someone who doesn’t go out much in the first place. Apart from the issue of interest, wouldn’t he be a very cautious and thoughtful person?”

“Hmm, it seems that Master Ban also thinks highly of Professor Bailen.”

[…….]

He could feel the subtle gaze of the spirit from inside his pocket, but Lenok pretended not to notice.

In the meantime, Armand, who had coughed and raised his magical power, quietly blocked the surrounding noise.

“This is something I’m only telling Master Ban in secret…”

Armand, who quietly turned his gaze to the soldiers, muttered.

“In fact, the Central Council has already secured a member of the think tank Evan Bailen.”