Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 730

[Lucifos Philion. Second Secretary of the Balkan Council of Elders. Former manager of the Blood Writing.] Blood-stained letters rapidly appeared on the pages of the Blood Writing. The message, written without any emotion or agitation, revealed the records of the human named Lucifos to the two of them without any embellishment. [Completed the Makina Archives 95th curriculum as the second-highest graduate. Took charge of recording and managing official documents in the early days of the Balkan establishment. Retired after 35 years of service.] “H-How can this be…!!” Ignoring Lucifos, who was trembling with barely concealed agitation, Lenox stared at the page with a blank expression. The reason Lenox ignored the explanation that information about the past managers of the Blood Writing was inaccessible and entered a command was because he had already received personal information about the managers when he had previously asked about Kaise’s body. Even if the information was officially inaccessible, the fact that Lenox’s blood, treated as an Ascendant [a being with unique magical abilities], could access unpermitted records was enough to shatter Lucifos’s confidence in handling the Blood Writing and to thoroughly dissect the basis of his knowledge. [Served as manager of the Blood Writing for 5 years. Later transferred the manager’s authority to Madeleine.] [The most frequently searched record during his tenure was about how to become a vampire.] “N-No!!” Lucifos rushed towards the notebook with a collapsing expression, but stopped, blocked by an invisible barrier. Lenox had deployed a shield right next to him, stopping his movement. Ignoring Lucifos, who was desperately pounding on the surface of the shield, Lenox checked the information written on the next page. [Attempted to commit cannibalism several times and periodically left related records.] “I see.” Only then did Lenox, realizing why Lucifos was so obsessed with the Blood Writing, smile. “You wanted to become a vampire, so you were looking for a way and left those records in the Blood Writing? That’s why you were so sensitive about this thing.” “……” The reason why he vaguely avoided answering while saying he knew about the project. His unusually obsessive attitude towards the Blood Writing. Lucifos was more interested in the Blood Writing that Lenox possessed than the project itself. Perhaps, during his time as the manager of the Blood Writing, he felt the limitations of his birth and was looking for a way. Therefore, it makes sense that he was convinced that Lenox, also a human, would not be able to handle the Blood Writing properly and tried to exert influence. “But I didn’t know you even sucked the blood of other humans and left records. Was a powerful figure with your kind of career so desperate that you had to cling to such hope?” Ryan Aiter, a blood mage working at Lenox’s company, did become a vampire, but it was only possible due to a combination of several coincidences. Generally, even if an ordinary human becomes a vampire, it is difficult to enjoy the same longevity and immortality as a true vampire. Lucifos must have known this, so he must have tried to become a vampire in a different way than what was known to the public. However, even at Lenox’s cynicism, Lucifos shook his head quietly, his shoulders trembling. “It’s my turn to ask questions. Please remove the barrier.” “I will.” At Lucifos’s words, who had given up on making excuses or answering, Lenox slowly removed the shield. Not all those involved in the project moved for noble duties or missions. Some of them must have participated in the project for extremely personal reasons, greed, or private motives. What Kaise did was not to gather those who shared the same beliefs as him, but to unite powerful individuals who could never be united under the pretext of an ending. It was not strange that the people involved after his death would split up like this and try to survive on their own. Lucifos, with his mouth firmly shut, suddenly wrote letters in blood on the Blood Writing. It was not an action to ask Lenox a question, but to ask the Blood Writing itself. Does that mean he couldn’t understand the Blood Writing’s answer right now? [Why did the Blood Lord allow an outsider to access information? According to the contract, this situation should have been anticipated and the authority should have been set in advance?] [……] However, the Blood Writing did not answer Lucifos’s question. A subtle reaction as if deliberately delaying the answer. Lucifos wrote another message without waiting for Lenox. [As a former manager, I have the right to hear an answer. Respond to the above question.] [It is recognized that the blood holder is the manager Lucifos Philion.] [Then why aren’t you answering?] No answer came back. It was as if it was not responding to Lucifos’s question. Lucifos’s expression momentarily turned blank as he quickly recalled his memories. “N-No way…” The first command Lenox had entered right before using the Blood Writing. [Zible. Leave out the unnecessary modifiers and only answer my questions.] The Blood Writing, Zible, was literally responding only to Lenox’s questions according to that command. The unbelievable reality that Lenox’s existence had a higher priority within the Blood Writing than Lucifos, who was the manager of the writing. Leaving Lucifos, who staggered back, Lenox said. “You made a mistake in entering the command. It will be difficult to have a conversation with this now.” Once a record is entered, it cannot be modified until the Blood Writing stops working. Even if Lucifos wrote a question in the Blood Writing, the Blood Writing would no longer respond. However, Lucifos, rather than being upset at Lenox’s words, looked at him with a hollow expression. “A mistake? There’s no way you would make a mistake at this point. Isn’t it that you wanted to end the conversation with this and not leave any room for further discussion?” “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” “From the moment you showed the Blood Writing, you wanted to secure ownership. You must have also been thinking about checking which side’s authority was higher.” “……” The possibility that the mage would make a mistake in entering a command and end the deal was extremely low. From the moment he entered the first command, he must have been planning to use Lucifos’s knowledge to find out how far the command would work. As a result, Lucifos ended up revealing that the author of the Blood Writing was the Blood Lord and that those involved in the project had a contract with him. After confirming that, Lenox rejected Lucifos’s question with the set command, forcibly ending the conversation at an early stage. “You judged that it wouldn’t be particularly beneficial to dig deeper here.” The Secretary-General’s aged eyes flashed. “You already have the confidence that you can do it yourself. Isn’t that right?” “Well… it’s true that I don’t intend to rely on it.” Lenox neither affirmed nor denied Lucifos’s words. Rather, he simply crossed his arms and met the old man’s intense gaze head-on. “The ability of the Blood Writing seems quite useful, but its limitations are also clear.” “What…?” “Because it is a recording device and a search tool, it can only show selective, one-sided information. Therefore, it can even distort the truth.” With those words, Lenox slowly approached Lucifos and spoke. Just by placing his hand on his shoulder without using any magic, the Secretary-General’s body stiffened. Lenox grabbed the old man’s shoulder and whispered quietly in his ear. “The project associate you met here. He wasn’t alive in the first place, was he?” “…!!!” “You said the purpose of the meeting was because of the murder of a project associate, but that alone cannot explain why other associates didn’t appear here.” Lenox said, looking at Lucifos’s trembling eyes. “It seems that the meeting in District 6 was a schedule to receive the body of the murdered associate.” The meeting between project associates in District 6 that the Blood Writing, Zible, had told him about. However, that information did not say that the associates who met were alive. The reason why only Lucifos appeared even though he was aware of Lenox’s presence. The reason why other associates did not appear even though the purpose of the meeting was to discuss the murder of the associate. Isn’t it because the other associate who met here was the murdered associate himself? An error that is easy to overlook if you don’t search with specific conditions. But that is because Zible is not really alive, but is closer to a search device. Lenox asked, leaving Lucifos, who could not answer. “The body of the murdered project associate. Is it here?” * * * A data room located deep inside District 6. A hidden room behind the underground refrigerated data storage room, which is strictly managed because it stores old documents. “From what I’ve learned so far, there doesn’t seem to be any close bond between the project associates.” Lenox said as he walked behind the Secretary-General. “There were many cases where they were hostile to each other, or even burning with hatred. You’re not close to the murdered associate either, are you?” “……” “But why did you personally step forward to recover the associate’s body?” “As you said, the project is completely over. We can’t even say that we’re standing in the same place anymore.” Lucifos answered weakly. “There are many cases where associates kill and antagonize each other. But the reason I recovered his body was…” Squeak…!! Lucifos muttered as he opened the door. “Because he was an existence that could never die.” “……” A dark gray coffin in the middle of a cramped secret room. What was placed under the coffin was not the body of an ordinary human. It was barely maintaining a human form, with rotting skin and exposed bone fragments in various places, making it grotesque. The body looked as if it had been brutally butchered by someone. However, instead of frowning at the appearance of the body, Lenox approached it and quietly examined its condition. “Rotting skin and crumbling bones… impressive features, but not the direct cause of death.” Instead of touching it directly, Lenox slightly opened his magic eye and quietly observed it. “He put a splint on his shin and filled the area below his collarbone with cotton. Evidence that he was aware of his condition and tried to look normal. It seems he has maintained his appearance for a long time.” Lenox looked down at the body and slowly tilted his head. A form close to a corpse. Yet, a life form capable of moving around with intelligence. The reason why Lucifos defined this person’s death as a special case and recovered the body. In Lenox’s memory, there was a word that referred to a similar state. “A ghoul. Isn’t that right?” Lenox asked without waiting for the Secretary-General’s answer. “The end of a necromancer or a military mage. Becoming a monster that is neither dead nor alive and seeks the flesh and blood of the living.” “……” During the mid-term settlement of Pandemonium, Lenox had faced ghouls that roamed around the satellite city of Bairutz. He was able to deal with them relatively easily using the Archangel’s Compassion, a top-tier relic of the Holy Spirit system, but the alien energy and the hunger that filled their eyes were not easily forgotten. But he never expected to encounter a ghoul’s corpse in the secret room of District 6, which stores old documents. Lenox muttered as he looked at the ghoul’s corpse, which had completely stopped moving. “I’ve heard that a soul can take root in a corpse buried in an area full of spiritual energy, but if he’s a project associate, that’s unlikely…” Lenox turned his gaze. “Did you decide to recover his body because a ghoul who shouldn’t have died, died?” “…That’s right.” Lucifos nodded with a stiff expression. “Grimelder was the one who should never have died among the associates. Everyone understood his importance. That’s why he was able to receive special treatment.” “…Grimelder?” The message that the Blood Writing, Zible, had given when explaining where Kaise’s body was hidden. [The location was selected with the cooperation of the Blood Lord, and the storage method was determined with the advice of Grimeider.] Is Grimeider, the person who was consulted to determine how to store the body, this ghoul? At Lenox’s words, Lucifos’s eyebrows twitched. “You know about Grimeider. Have you ever met him?” “I know that he gave advice on how to store Kaise’s body.” “……” “However, the fact that he’s a ghoul bothers me. Could it be that Kaise’s body is also in this way…” Lenox frowned and asked Lucifos, then stopped speaking when he saw his reaction. As soon as he heard Lenox’s words, Lucifos’s face had turned as pale as a corpse, and he was unable to even breathe. Lenox also sensed that it was a sign that a binding that threatened his life was about to be activated. Just this conversation was enough to trigger the binding and bring the Secretary-General to the brink of being restrained. It must be because the questions about Kaise’s death are the themes that run through the secrets of the project. “…Hmm.” After pondering, Lenox sighed and placed his hand on Lucifos’s shoulder. As he circulated his magic power and flowed it into the Secretary-General’s body, the old man’s stiff body slowly relaxed. “Huck…!! Cough!!” The Secretary-General staggered and leaned against the wall, breathing heavily. Lenox crossed his arms and looked at Lucifos. “I forcibly stimulated your nervous system to relax your muscles, so it will be difficult for you to stand properly.” “…!!” “It will be difficult to see a good outcome if you directly touch the binding, so let’s stop this story. Tell me more about Grimeider.” However, even as he said that, Lenox was thinking about how he was able to obtain this information. How was it decided to store Kaise’s body? How did Grimeider’s advice come into play in that process? Lenox obtained this information by searching the Blood Writing, Zible. But if Lucifos was about to be bound just by being aware of this fact, why was the Blood Writing able to tell Lenox this fact? ‘The Blood Writing said that it had disappeared decades ago and was recreated.’ If the process of being destroyed and recreated was a way to avoid the activation of the binding. If this information was given to Lenox, not for Lenox, but for another Ascendant. What if the author, the Blood Lord, recreated the Blood Writing to convey this fact to the Ascendants while avoiding the binding? “……” It was an interesting hypothesis, but it was a question that could not be answered right away. “Grimeider was the one who should never have died among us, but he was also the one who feared death more than anyone else.” Lucifos said, leaning weakly against the wall and holding onto his cane. “So he learned necromancy and accepted the karma of becoming a ghoul himself. The fact that he was killed like this…” A ghoul is already a monster on the border between life and death. What does it mean to kill an existence that has already passed the death of the flesh and only has a living soul? “It means that not Grimeider’s body, but his soul itself was destroyed.” “…That’s all I have to say. If you want, you can look at his body as much as you want.” Lucifos, who had risen weakly from his seat, shook his head and turned his back. After realizing that he had been pushed back in terms of authority over the Blood Writing, he seemed to have lost all motivation. “How Grimeider was killed and what happened to him is no longer my concern.” “Is it because you hold the position of Secretary-General?” “Yes… it was like that back then too.” Lucifos smiled weakly. “My job was to watch, record, and preserve.” “……” With those words, the Secretary-General staggered and left the secret room first. Was it because his remaining mission was to recover and preserve the records of the project that he left it here? The way of thinking of storing Grimeider’s body in District 6, which stores old documents, felt eerie at first glance, but Lenox knew that it was the alienation that was commonly seen among those involved in the project. “The death of a ghoul…” Where in this continent could one cleanly touch and destroy only the soul, leaving only the flesh behind? Lenox thought that far and took out a monocle from his pocket and placed it over one eye. An artifact that Mila had given him as a half-bribe, which could show the projection rate of magic power differently. When he looked at Grimeider’s body again through it, he could see the shape of a pattern on his neck that he had not seen before. It was small, about the size of a coin, but the intricacy of the pattern drawn inside was beyond imagination. Beautiful curves that looked like waves of wailing ghosts, compressed and rushing in dozens of layers. The shape of ancient letters that could not be identified, existing below the pattern. Lenox immediately picked up the Blood Writing and copied the letters into it. [There is one record of the interpretation. Would you like to view it?] By cutting off the deal with Lucifos early, there was still one chance left. In other words, this was the last time for the time being that he could find a clue through the Blood Writing. But that one search was enough. [The night walk is not over yet, and the path of the demon is long and arduous.] The moment the blood-stained letters appeared on the page, Lenox was able to immediately recognize who had killed Grimeider. [We have punished the sinners who mocked the cause, and we will display their end in the mortal world for all to see.] “The Military City…” The Military City of Yorta, which gathers all the spirits and curses of this world. Someone killed a project associate who had already failed there and stole his soul.